Speech of the Ogdoad and the Ennead

Hermes Trismegistus

Preamble

( SON ) My father, you promised me yesterday to lead my intellect into the Ogdoad and then to lead me myself into the Ennead. You said: it is the order of tradition.
( HERMES ) Yes, my child, that is indeed the order; but the promise was made according to the human condition. I told you this as soon as I began to make you this promise; I told you, if you remember, at every level.

Discussion on Spiritual Regeneration and the Race of the Elect

When I had received the Spirit thanks to the Power, I transmitted the energy to you: for, if the intellection depends on you, it is in me, so to speak, that the Power is conceived. Indeed, when I had conceived by the spring that flows within me, I begat him.
( SON ) My father, you explained everything to me well. However, I am disconcerted by this comment you made just now. You said in fact: “it is the Power that is in me”. He replied:
( HERMES ) I begat her as one begets children.
( SON ) My Father, do I have many brothers, if you count me among the descendants?
( HERMES ) Perfectly, my child, this good is counted by ……………...at all times. Therefore, my child, it is necessary for you to know your brothers and to honor them well, as is fitting, because they come from the same Father. Indeed, I have called each offspring, I have given it a name, since they are begotten as children.
( SON ) My father, do they also have their mothers?
( HERMES ) My child, they are spiritual mothers, because they are the energies which also make souls grow: this is why I say that they are immortal.
( SON ) Your word is true; it no longer lends itself to contradiction. O my father, begin the speech of the Ogdoad and the Ennead, and put me, too, among the number of my brothers.
( HERMES ) Let us pray, my child, the Father of All, with your brothers who are my Sons, that he may dispense the Spirit, and that I may speak.
( SON ) How do we pray, my father, in union with the descendants? I wish to obey, my father, but....
( HERMES ) ... My child. ....However this is neither a necessity nor a law] but it rests in it and ……… Now it is right that you remember the progress in wisdom which has been produced in you thanks to books. My child, compare yourself to the first age: like the little ones, you asked the most unreasonable, the most thoughtless questions.
( SON ) My father, the progress and prescience that have come to me now thanks to books have managed to surpass the deficiency that was in me at first.
( HERMES ) My child, when you understand through your understanding the reality of what you say, you will find your brothers praying with you, they who are my Sons.
( SON ) My father, my intelligence conceives nothing other than the beauty that has come to me thanks to books, that which you call beauty of the soul.
( HERMES) Edification took place in you by degrees. May intellection come to you and you will be instructed.
( SON ) I recognized through intelligence, my father, each of the descendants, more particularly the matter? ….. they]are in………....

Mystical Illumination

( HERMES ) My Son, .... with praise from those who have received the increase.
( SON ) My father, as for what you said, I will receive the power from you. Following what has been said, let us both pray, father.
( HERMES ) (reciting a sort of liturgical preface) My child, it is fitting that, with all our thoughts, with all our hearts and with all our souls, we pray to God, and ask him that the gift of the Ogdoad be extend to us, And let each of us receive thereby what is proper to him: It is up to you to grasp through intelligence, And to me to be able to express the discourse Thanks to the source that flows within me.

Prayer of invocation

( SON ) Let us pray, father. (Hermes and his Son, together) I invoke you, you who are He who dominates the kingdom of Power, He whose Word is born of light; and whose words are immortal, eternal, unalterable! He whose will generates manifested life, in every place; and whose nature gives form to the essence! It is from Him that the souls of Ogdoad and the angels move. For it is He whose Word extends towards each of those who exist; his Providence reaches everyone in the Place. He generates everyone, he who shared the Aeon between the Spirits. He created all things, He who is his own container and sustains all beings in his fullness!
Invisible God, to whom we address in silence, Whose image moves by governing itself And governs itself by moving! Mighty of Power, You who are greater than greatness, More glorious than glories! Zôxathazô, Zôzazôth, Lord, grant us wisdom from your Power reaching us, so that we may share with each other the contemplation of the Ogdoad and the Ennead.
Already we have reached the Hebdomad, for we are pious, governing ourselves in your Law, and your will we always fulfill. Indeed, we have walked in your way and we have left behind us malice, that we may bring about contemplation. Lord, grant us the truth in the image, grant us, through the Spirit, to see the form of the image which is without deficiency receive from us the reply of the Pleroma by our thanksgiving and acknowledge the Spirit who is in us.
For it is through You that the All was animated; for from You, the Unbegotten, came the Begotten. The generation of Him who begets Himself occurs through You, as the generation of all begotten beings. Receive from us the sacrifice of speech that we bring up to You with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength. Save what is within us, And give us immortal wisdom.

First vision

( HERMES ) Let us embrace each other, my child, with love. (As they kiss silently, Hermes has a vision.)
Rejoice in this! For already, coming from Them, the Power which is light reaches us!
( SON ) I see, yes, I see unspeakable depths!
( HERMES ) How would I put it to you, my child, start reaching out to places now! How would I tell you about the Whole? I am the Intellect and I see another Intellect who sets the soul in motion. I see Him who delights me in holy ecstasy. You give me power. I see myself. I want to talk. A fear holds me back. I have found the Principle of Power which is above all Powers and which itself has no principle. I see a vibrant source of life. I have said, oh my child, I am the Intellect. I contemplated! It is impossible for words to reveal this. Indeed, all Ogdoad, O my child, with the souls that are in it and the angels sing hymns in silence. But to me, the Intellect, they are intelligible to me.
( SON ) How do they sing?
( HERMES ) Here you are at the point where we can no longer speak to you.

Prayer to deified HERMES

( SON ) I am silent, O my Father. I want to sing you a hymn in silence.
( HERMES ) Sing it to me then, for I am the Intellect.
( SON ) Intellect is intelligible to me, Hermes, the one that cannot be interpreted, Because it withdraws into itself! But, I rejoice, O my Father, seeing that you smile, And the whole rejoices! Therefore, there is no creature Who can be deprived of your life. For you are the Lord of the citizens everywhere. Your providence is a safeguard. I invoke you, Father, Aeon of Aeons, Spirit, Divine Being, Who, moreover, pour rainwater on everyone in spirit! What do you tell me, O my Father, Hermes?
( HERMES ) Of this, I say nothing, O my child: it is right, in fact, before God, that we keep silent about what is hidden.
( SON ) O Trismegistus, do not allow my soul to be widowed from contemplation, Divine Being, for you have power over everything, as master of the whole place!
( HERMES ) Return to thanksgiving, O my child, and express all this in silence. Ask for what you want in silence.

Second vision

(The SON meditates for a few moments in silence) When he had finished giving thanks, he cried out:
( SON ) Father, Trismegistus, what shall I say? We have received this light and I see this same vision inside you! And I see the Ogdoad with the souls that are in her, and the angels sing their hymns to the Ennead and his Powers. And I see Him, equipped with all their Powers, and who creates in the Spirit!

Thanksgiving

( HERMES ) It is good that we are silent from now on. Don't rush to talk about the vision! From now on, it is appropriate to sing hymns to the Father, until the day of leaving this body.
( SON ) What you say there, O my Father, I want to say it too. I sing a hymn from the bottom of my heart.
( HERMES ) Since you have reached rest, give thanks, for you have found what you were looking for.
( SON ) But how must I, O my Father, give thanks, since my heart is full to overflowing?
( HERMES ) However, you must bring your thanksgiving up to God and then let it be in this imperishable book.
( SON ) I will bring up thanksgiving. From the bottom of my heart, To pray the end of the All And the Principle of the Principle, Of the quest of men, the immortal find, He who gives birth to Light and Truth, He who sows the Word, The love of life eternal! No hidden speech can speak of you, Lord! This is why my Intellect Wants to sing its hymns to you every day. I am the instrument of your Spirit, Intellect is your plectrum, And your advice plays a psalm on me. I see myself. I have received power from you, For your love has come to us.
( HERMES ) Well, oh my child!
( SON ) O grace! After this I give thanks By singing a hymn to you, For I was quickened by you, When you made me a wise man. I give you thanks, I invoke from the bottom of my heart your mysterious Name: You are He who is with the Spirit. I sing to you my hymn piously.

EPILOGUE
Memorial

( HERMES ) This book, O my child, write it for the Temple of Diospolis in hieroglyphic characters, dedicating it to the Ogdoad who reveals the Ennead.
( SON ) I will do it, O my Father, as you command me now. O my Father, the text of the book, will I write it on turquoise-colored steles?
( HERMES ) O my child, this book should be written on turquoise-colored steles in hieroglyphic characters, because it is the Intellect itself which has become their protector. Therefore, I order that this speech be engraved on stone and that you place it inside my court, under the supervision of eight guardians and the Nine of the Sun. Let the male guardians, on the right, have the faces of frogs and the females, on the left, have the faces of cats. Also place a milk stone below the turquoise-colored tables, which is quadrangular in shape and write the Name on the sapphire-colored stone table, in hieroglyphic characters. O my child, you will place this stone when I am in the constellation of Virgo, and the Sun, in the first half of the day, when fifteen degrees have passed me.
( SON ) O my Father, all the words you say, I will fulfill them with zeal.

Prophylactic imprecation

( HERMES ) Therefore write an imprecation on the book, so that the Name is not misused for evil purposes by those who read the book and that they do not fight against the works of Destiny either. Rather, let them submit to the Law of God, without having transgressed it in any way, but with purity they ask God for wisdom and gnosis. And whoever has not first been begotten by God, using the General Lessons and the Detailed Lessons, will not be able to read what is written in this book, although his conscience is pure as far as he is concerned, 'he does nothing ugly and in no way consents to it. However, traveling through each degree, he will enter the path of immortality and thus, he will arrive at the Intelligence of the Ogdoad which reveals the Ennead.
( SON ) This is what I will do, O my Father.
( HERMES ) Here is the formula: “I conjure whoever reads this holy book, By heaven and earth, and fire and water,
By the Seven Ousiarchs And the demiurgic Spirit that is in them, By the Unbegotten God, He who begets himself And the Begotten, May he respect what Hermes said! For as for those who respect this imprecation, God will join with them, As well as all the gods whom we have named. But those who disregard this imprecation, May the wrath of each of the above-named gods fall on the heads of each of them! » This is truly perfect, oh my child.