Corpus Hermeticum XIII
Introduction
“Corpus Hermeticum XIII” is a dialogue between a teacher—the mythical Hermes Trismegistus—and his disciple, Tat. In his discourse, Hermes presents a method by which a student of the Hermetic practice can experience a spiritual rebirth, becoming an immortal god, united with the All. In the Hermetic writings, “the All” (Greek: to pan), along with “the One” (Greek: to hen), are two ways to refer to a single immaterial and supracosmic God from which every being in the cosmos is derived. The divine is at once transcendent and immanent, since all things are identified with God, but only in so far as they pre-exist in him.[1] Spiritual rebirth entails becoming identified with God, and therefore becoming—like God—both All and One.
The process of rebirth occurs by withdrawing one’s attention from the senses of the body, which are in turn responsible for twelve “torments of matter”; they are all moral qualities, such as greed, anger, and lust. These torments are resisted using ten powers received from God, including liberality, which counteracts the torment of greed, and truth, which counteracts deceit.
Hermes describes the state of such a reborn person by sharing his experience of the post-rebirth state. As the dialogue progresses, Tat undergoes rebirth and describes his own experience of the transformative process. The rebirth is characterized by non-dualistic language: While material existence continues to exist around him unchanged, Tat no longer makes a distinction between himself and the other constituent parts of the cosmos. He describes a unified vision of reality in which there is no longer any opposition between self and other, between God and cosmos.[2] In his new state he describes himself as inhabiting a new, immortal body.
The rebirth is the culmination of a process that prioritizes the intellect (Greek: nous) over sensory experience. Hermes defines rebirth as “no longer picturing things in three bodily dimensions” (CH XIII, 13). Thus a dualistic opposition continues to exist between the initial mortal body and the new immortal body of the initiate. Truth cannot be perceived with the senses.
The experience is framed in soteriological terms. The Hermetic disciples must perfect themselves morally to undergo this experience, as it is the only means of “being saved” (CH XIII, 1). Tat confirms Hermes’ doctrine of rebirth by instantiating it; the treatise, by recording the experience, freezes it in time and provides it to future readers—a rhetorical move that forcefully affirms the truth of its doctrine, while also promising such an experience to future readers.
The identity of such future readers is not definitively known. The Hermetic texts were used by a religious community gathered in Egypt and may have been recited as part of their liturgical rites. Recent scholarship has argued that in CH XIII we have an idealized representation of a rebirth ritual performed by initiates.[3] More broadly, the Hermetica were written within a syncretic Graeco-Egyptian culture in Egypt during the first few centuries of the Common Era—for that reason, we find elements of traditional Egyptian symbolism and religion blended with Greek culture and philosophy.
In 1471, Marsilio Ficino published a Latin translation of the Corpus Hermeticum. That sparked a flurry of interest in the Hermetica throughout the early modern period, a time when scholars believed the texts represented pre-Platonic Greek thought, contemporary with the life of Moses. The influence of the Hermetic texts remained strong in the following centuries, despite Isaac Casaubon proving in 1614 that the texts were composed centuries later than previously believed. The symbolism of Hermetic rebirth was especially popular, the key source of which is CH XIII: It is present in the Crater Hermetis (1505) by the important Renaissance hermeticist, Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447–1500);[4] in Cornelius Agrippa’s important book on Renaissance magic, De occulta philosophia libri tres (1533);[5] and in Mary Anne Atwood’s A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery (1850), whose ideas about spiritual alchemy proved influential.[6] Of all the Hermetic treatises, CH XIII had a unique influence on Carl Jung, both in its theme of spiritual rebirth and in its depiction of the relationship between spiritual teacher and disciple.[7] Since the early 20th century there has been a renewed scholarly interest in the material, which has continued to increase over the decades.
Source
The selections below are translated from the Greek text of CH XIII, printed in A.D. Nock and A.-J. Festugière, Corpus Hermeticum: Tome II, Traites XIII–XVIII.
Hermes Trismegistus describes himself after his rebirth:
What shall I say, child? I have nothing to tell except this: seeing within myself a true vision created by God’s mercy, I have emerged from myself into an immortal body. I am no longer what I was before, but I was born in Nous. This matter cannot be taught, not even by means of this false element that enables us to see. Wherefore even my earlier composite form is of no concern to me. I no longer have color, touch, or measure; I am a stranger to them. Now you see me, child, with your eyes, yet gazing with bodily vision, you do not observe what I am. I can no longer be perceived with such eyes, child.[8]
While Tat listens to Hermes’ discourse, his transformation begins, and he experiences spiritual rebirth:
Father, you have thrown me into a great madness and a frenzy of mind. For I now cannot perceive myself.[9]
[…]
Father, because I have been made steadfast by God, I picture things not through the sight of my eyes but through the Noetic energy, by the powers. I am in heaven, in earth, in water, in air; I am in animals, in plants; in the womb, before the womb, after the womb, everywhere.[10]
Notes
[1] Stephen Gersh, Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism: The Latin Traditions, Publications in Medieval Studies 23 (University of Notre Dame Press, 1986), I, 345-8; Brian P. Copenhaver, Hermetica: The Greek Coprus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 1992), 216. The term “the All,” referring to the divine, had been used in Greek philosophical writings since the Presocratics (Walter Scott, Hermetica: The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings Which Contain Religious or Philosophic Teachings Ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, Vol. III (Clarendon Press, DATE), 9–11).
[2] See Zlatko Pleše, “Dualism in the Hermetic Writings,” Chôra: Revue d’études Anciennes et Médiévales 13 (2015): 261–278, for an interpretation of the Hermetic writings as demonstrating the tendency of resolving dualism into monism. For an overview of the scholarly debates about monism and dualism throughout the Hermetic writings, see Christian H. Bull, The Traditions of Hermes Trismegistus (Brill, 2018), 6–11.
[3] Bull, The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus, 244–315.
[4] Critical edition of the text: Claudio Moreschini, Dall'Asclepius Al Crater Hermetis: Studi Sull'Ermetismo Latino Tardo-Antico e Rinascimentale (Giardini, 1986), 221–65. See Wouter J. Hanegraaff, “Lodovico Lazzarelli and the Hermetic Christ: At the Sources of Renaissance Hermeticism,” in Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447–1500): The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents, ed. Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Ruud Bouthoorn, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 281 (Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005).
[5] Cornelius Agrippa, De occulta philosophia libri tres, ed. Perrone Compagni Vittoria, Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 48 (Brill, 1992). E.g., III: 36. See Wouter J. Hanegraaff, “A Suggestive Inquiry into Hermetic Rebirth: Nondual Noēsis and Bodily Fluids in Victorian England,” in Intentional Transformative Experiences: Theorizing Self-Cultivation in Religion and Esotericism, ed. Sarah Perez, et. al (De Gruyter, 2024), 152.
[6] [Mary Anne Atwood], A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery (Trelawney Saunders, 1850). See Hanegraaff, “A Suggestive Inquiry,” 173.
[7] Peter Kingsley, Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity (Catafalque Press, 2018), 581–82.
[8] CH XIII 3, translation by Matthew Andrews. Τί εἴπω, ὦ τέκνον; οὐκ ἔχω λέγειν, πλὴν τοῦτο· ὁρῶν † τι † ἐν ἐμοὶ ἄπλαστον θέαν γεγενημένην ἐξ ἐλέου θεοῦ, καὶ ἐμαυτὸν ἐξελήλυθα εἰς ἀθάνατον σῶμα, καί εἰμι νῦν οὐχ ὁ πρίν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐγεννήθην ἐν νῷ· τὸ πρᾶγμα τοῦτο οὐ διδάσκεται, οὐδὲ τῷ πλαστῷ τούτῳ στοιχείῳ, δι᾽ οὗ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν· διὸ καὶ ἠμέληταί μοι τὸ πρῶτον σύνθετον εἶδος· οὐκέτι κέχρῳσμαι καὶ ἁφὴν ἔχω καὶ μέτρον, ἀλλότριος δὲ τούτων εἰμί. νῦν ὁρᾷς με, ὦ τέκνον, ὀφθαλμοῖς, ὅ τι δέ <εἰμι οὐ> κατανοεῖς ἀτενίζων σώματι καὶ ὁράσει. οὐκ ὀφθαλμοῖς τούτοις θεωροῦμαι νῦν, ὦ τέκνον (Greek text from A.D. Nock and A.-J. Festugière’s edition, Corpus Hermeticum: Tome II, Traites XIII–XVIII, vol. 2 (Les Belles Lettres, 1954), 201–2).
[9] CH XIII 4, translation by Matthew Andrews. Εἰς μανίαν με οὐκ ὀλίγην καὶ οἴστρησιν φρενῶν ἐνέσεισας, ὦ πάτερ· ἐμαυτὸν γὰρ νῦν οὐχ ὁρῶ (Greek text from Nock and Festugière, Corpus Hermeticum, vol. 2, 202).
[10] CH XIII 11, translated by Matthew Andrews. Ἀκλινὴς γενόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, ὦ πάτερ, φαντάζομαι, οὐχ ὁράσει ὀφθαλμῶν ἀλλὰ τῇ διὰ δυνάμεων νοητικῇ ἐνεργείᾳ. ἐν οὐρανῷ εἰμι, ἐν γῇ, ἐν ὕδατι, ἐν ἀέρι· ἐν ζῴοις εἰμί, ἐν φυτοῖς· ἐν γαστρί, πρὸ γαστρός, μετὰ γαστέρα, πανταχοῦ (Greek text from Nock and Festugière, Corpus Hermeticum, vol. 2, 205).
Bibliography
Agrippa, Cornelius. De occulta philosophia libri tres. Edited by Perrone Compagni Vittoria. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 48. Leiden: Brill, 1992.
[Atwood, Mary Anne.] A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery. London: Trelawney Saunders, 1850.
Bull, Christian H. The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
Copenhaver, Brian P. Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Festugière, André-Jean. La révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste. 4 vols. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1944–1954.
Fowden, Garth. The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Reprinted: Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Gersh, Stephen. Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism: The Latin Tradition. Publications in Medieval Studies 23, vols.1–2. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986.
Grese, William C. Corpus Hermeticum XIII and Early Christian Literature. Leiden: Brill, 1979.
Hanegraaff, Wouter J. “Lodovico Lazzarelli and the Hermetic Christ: At the Sources of Renaissance Hermetism.” In Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447–1500): The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Ruud Bouthoorn. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 281. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005.
Hanegraaff, Wouter J. Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Hanegraaff, Wouter J. “A Suggestive Inquiry into Hermetic Rebirth: Nondual Noēsis and Bodily Fluids in Victorian England.” In Intentional Transformative Experiences: Theorizing Self-Cultivation in Religion and Esotericism, edited by Sarah Perez, Bastiaan van Rijn, and Jens Schlieter, 149–78. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024.
Van den Kerchove, Anna. La Voie d'Hermès: Pratiques rituelles et traités hermétiques. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
Kingsley, Peter. Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity. London: Catafalque Press, 2018.
Litwa, M. David. Hermetica II: The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Mahé, Jean-Pierre. Hermès en Haute-Égypte, 2 vols. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 1978–1982.
Moreschini, Claudio. Dall'Asclepius Al Crater Hermetis: Studi Sull'Ermetismo Latino Tardo-Antico e Rinascimentale. Pisa: Giardini, 1986.
Nock, Arthur D. and A.-J. Festugière. Hermès Trismégiste, 4 vols. Paris : Les Belles Lettres, 1945–1954.
Pleše, Zlatko. “Dualism in the Hermetic Writings.” Chôra, Revue d’études anciennes et médiévales 13 (2015): 261–78.
Reitzenstein, Richard. Poimandres: Studien zur griechisch-ägyptischen und frühchristlichen Literatur. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1904.
Salaman, Clement, Dorine Van Oyen, William D. Wharton, and Jean-Pierre Mahé. The Way of Hermes: New Translations of The Corpus Hermeticum and the Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1999; Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2000.
Scott, Walter. Hermetica: The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings Which Contain Religious or Philosophic Teachings Ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924–1936.
Tröger, Karl-Wolfgang. Mysterienglaube und Gnosis in Corpus Hermeticum XIII. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1971.
Yates, Frances A. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1964.
Zuntz, G. “On the Hymns in Corpus Hermeticum XIII.” Hermes 83, no. 1 (1955), 68–92.
Matthew Andrews
Matthew Andrews is a PhD Candidate in Classics at Princeton University. His interests lie in ancient Mediterranean religion, with a particular focus on magic during the Roman and Late Antique periods. For his dissertation, he examines the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri, exploring the role and status of magicians in Roman Egypt and their lived religious experience. He is a research assistant at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he contributes to the project “Transmission of Magical Knowledge,” dedicated to reediting, translating, and publishing the magical papyri. He received master’s degrees in Classics from both Princeton University and the University of Cambridge.
