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This complete edition of the Corpus Hermeticum, which introduces in
eighteen chapters the religious and philosophical principles of
Hermetics, was translated by G. R. S. Mead. Hermetics is a
religious, philosophical, and esoteric practice based around the
beliefs and writings of the pagan priest Hermes Trismegistus.
Influential for its distinct beliefs and characteristics,
Hermeticism carried a profound influence over the Renaissance in
Europe. Many Christian believers paid it heed, with much art
depicting the Hermetic belief system appearing between the 14th and
17th centuries in particular. Notably, Hermetics claims to be a
descended version of the prisca theologia - a principle which
affirms there is but one, true theology in the world. This essence
of the divine is present in all religions, and was according to
legend given to mankind in distant antiquity. This belief,
discussed by Hermes Trismegistus, has led many scholars of
philosophy and religion to examine Hermetics in detail.
Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Gospel, translated by G.R.S. Mead. The
Gnostics were composed of a number of early Christian mystical
sects. Their teachers were persecuted and documents destroyed
because the Church desired a uniform set of beliefs to operate
under. Only now have we begun to better appreciate these early
Christian mystics. Pistis Sophia was the most important Gnostic
document until the discovery and publication of The Nag Hammadi
Library. This work remains an important milestone in Gnostic
research, on par with Nag Hammadi, and should be part of any
serious study. It is the story of how we, as spiritual beings, have
fallen into the world of physical creation. The soul is asleep
here, bogged down in physical surroundings, unaware of its true
nature. The purpose of this gospel is to awaken us, and aid in the
process of spiritual freedom.
George Robert Stow Mead (1863 1933) was for twenty-five years a
prominent member of the Theosophical Society and worked closely
with its founder, Helena Blavatsky. He was fascinated both by
eastern religions and by western esotericism, including gnosticism,
and published widely in these areas. Pistis Sophia, an important,
probably second-century, text preserved in a Coptic manuscript,
presents complex gnostic teachings in 'gospel' format, as having
been addressed by Jesus Christ to his disciples after the
resurrection. This translation, based on a Latin version published
in 1851, appeared in 1896 and was the first English version of a
major gnostic work. The book also includes passages from the Books
of the Saviour found in the same manuscript. Mead's introduction
discusses the origin of the texts and highlights their difficulty.
It also describes the upsurge of scholarly interest in Gnosticism
in the mid-nineteenth century and the mysterious history of the
manuscript itself.
2013 Reprint of 1906 Edition. Full facsimile of the original
edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Three
Volumes bound into one. Volume contents are: Vol. 1. Prolegomena.
-- Vol. 2. Sermons. -- Vol. 3. Excerpts and fragments This work
exemplifies all that is best in Mead's dedicated, scholarly, but
eminently readable studies of the spiritual roots of Christian
Gnosticism and, more generally, of personal religion in the
Greco-Roman world. His work encompassed much more than this; Mead
was equally at home with Sanskrit texts, Patristic literature,
Buddhist thought, and the problems of contemporary philosophy and
psychical research. He devoted his intellectual energy to the
complex interplay of Gnosticism, Hellenism, Judaism, and
Christianity. This three volume set presents his insights into the
formation of the Gnostic world-view and establishes him as an
outstanding translator of these Hermetic books, and as the first
modern scholar of Gnostic tradition.
Clement of Alexandria tells us that the whole of the religious
philosophy-that is, the wisdom, discipline and multifarious arts
and sciences-of the Egyptian priesthood was contained in the Books
of Hermes, that is of Thoth. These Books, he informs us further,
were classified under forty-two heads and divided into a number of
groups according to the various septs or divisions of the priests.
In describing a certain sacred ceremonial-a procession of priests
in their various orders-Clement tells us that it was headed by a
representative of the order of Singers, who were distinguished by
appropriate symbols of music, some of which were apparently carried
in the hands and others embroidered on the robes. These Singers had
to make themselves masters of, that is, learn by heart, two of the
divisions of the Books of Hermes, namely, those which contained
collections of Hymns in Honour of the Gods or God, and Encomia or
Hymns in Praise of the Kings.
Pistis Sophia is an important Gnostic text, possibly written as
early as the 2nd century. The five remaining copies, which scholars
place in the 5th or 6th centuries, relate the Gnostic teachings of
the transfigured Jesus to the assembled disciples (including his
mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Martha), when the risen Christ had
accomplished eleven years speaking with his disciples. In it the
complex structures and hierarchies of heaven familiar in Gnostic
teachings are revealed. The female divinity of gnosticism is
Sophia, a being with many aspects and names. She is sometimes
identified with the Holy Spirit itself but, according to her
various capacities, is also the Universal Mother, the Mother of the
Living or Resplendent Mother, the Power on High,
She-of-the-left-hand (as opposed to Christ, understood as her
husband and he of the Right Hand), as the Luxurious One, the Womb,
the Virgin, the Wife of the Male, the Revealer of Perfect
Mysteries, the Holy Dove of the Spirit, the Heavenly Mother, the
Wandering One, or Elena (that is, Selene, the Moon). She was
envisaged as the Psyche of the world and the female aspect of
Logos. The title Pistis Sophia is obscure, and is sometimes
translated Faith wisdom or Wisdom in faith or Faith in wisdom. A
more accurate translation taking into account its gnostic context,
is the faith of Sophia, as Sophia to the gnostics was a divine
syzygy of Christ, rather than simply a word meaning wisdom. In an
earlier, simpler version of a Sophia, in the Berlin Codex and also
found in a papyrus at Nag Hammadi, the transfigured Christ explains
Pistis in a rather obscure manner: Again, his disciples said: Tell
us clearly how they came down from the invisibilities, from the
immortal to the world that dies? The perfect Saviour said: Son of
Man consented with Sophia, his consort, and revealed a great
androgynous light. Its male name is designated 'Saviour, begetter
of all things'. Its female name is designated 'All-begettress
Sophia'. Some call her 'Pistis'. The best-known of the five
manuscripts of Pistis Sophia is bound with another Gnostic text
titled on the binding "Piste Sophiea Cotice." This "Askew Codex"
was purchased by the British Museum (now British Library) in 1795
from a Dr. Anthony Askew. Until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi
library in 1945, the Askew Codex was one of three codices that
contained almost all of the gnostic writings that had survived the
suppression of such literature both in East and West, the other two
codices being the Bruce Codex and the Berlin Codex. Aside from
these primary sources, everything written about Gnosticism before
the Nag Hammadi library became available is based on quotes,
characterizations, and caricatures in the writings of the enemies
of Gnosticism. The purpose of these heresiological writings were
polemical, presenting Gnostic teachings as absurd, bizarre, and
self-serving, and as an aberrant heresy from a proto-orthodox and
orthodox Christian standpoint. The text proclaims that Jesus
remained on earth after the resurrection for 11 years, and was able
in this time to teach his disciples up to the first (i.e. beginner)
level of the mystery. It starts with an allegory paralleling the
death and resurrection of Jesus, and describing the descent and
ascent of the soul. After that it proceeds to describe important
figures within the gnostic cosmology, and then finally lists 32
carnal desires to overcome before salvation is possible, overcoming
all 32 constituting salvation. Pistis Sophia includes quotes from
five of the Odes of Solomon, found in chapters between 58 and 71.
Pistis Sophia was the only known source for the actual wording of
any of the Odes until the discovery of a nearly-complete Syriac
text of the Odes in 1909. Because the first part of this text is
missing, Pistis Sophia is still the only source for Ode 1.
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