The Eighth Reveals the Ninth

“The Eighth Reveals the Ninth” is a Hermetic text from the second to fourth century. The version we have is a Coptic translation of a Greek original (now lost). Scholars tend to place the original Sitz im Leben in Alexandria, Egypt, although a location further south along the Nile is also possible. Recent scholarship on the ancient Hermetic writings suggests that the visionary and ecstatic episodes depicted in them had a place in the ritual life of practitioners. In texts such as “The Eighth Reveals the Ninth,” the dialogue depicted between mythic figures most likely prefigured a ritual drama between a teacher and a disciple. The aim of the ritual dialogue would be the dramatic spiritual vision depicted in the source below.

The text is structured as a dialogue between Hermes and an unnamed student (alternately identified as “son” or “my child”). Hermes ritually activates the Nous in the student so that they can withdraw their attention from things of the sense, emotions, and (non-divine) thoughts. Hermes teaches the student to pray. In the practice of prayer, the child is able to empty the heart and mind of all things worldly. Conjoined together, the heart and mind become the organ of perception permitting ascent through the spheres to the “Ogdoad,” the eighth sphere beyond the seven visible planets. Hermes and the child ascend through the seven spheres and into the Ogdoad. Within the eighth sphere, they are granted a vision of Mind in the ninth sphere, or Ennead.

This text only resurfaced with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices in 1945. As such, it does not have centuries of impact like the Greek Hermetica included in the Corpus Hermeticum. Nevertheless, this Coptic text has had a significant impact on our understanding of the ancient Hermetic communities. Most importantly, this text has helped scholars reconstruct the visionary and ritual lives behind this community, putting to rest a longstanding assumption that the Hermetic tracts were merely philosophical. The Hermetica are deeply philosophical but provide a window to the ritual acts these communities would use to catalyze visionary ascents.

Source

NHC VI,6.57.28-58.17

Rejoice over this! For already from them the agency which is Light comes to us. For I see! I see depths which are ineffable. How can I say... I am Mind and I see another Mind which moves the soul. I see that which moves me from a pure forgetfulness (sleep). You give me power! I see myself! I desire to speak. There is a fear that restrains me. I have found the beginning of power which is above all powers, that which is without a beginning. I see a fountain bubbling up with life. I said, oh son, I am mind.

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