An experiential
reading of the Hermetic treatise Poimandres
- Based on a revised version of Lakoff´s spatialisation of
form hypothesis
Christian Svendsen,
An experiential reading of the Hermetic
treatise Poimandres This paper presents an
experiential approach to the Hermetic treatise Poimandres,
based on the image-schemas postulated by cognitive linguist George Lakoff to be common human. The grammatical and conceptual
ways of expressing the content of the image-schemas in Poimandres
unfold an experiential space of body orientation. Man, exemplified in an ego
later to be known as the spiritual guide Hermes, is composite in nature. Man
has the possibility through meditative practice to transcend the physical
world, and Destiny, if he enters the Spirit space, and becomes ennouV. With the help of
the teachings experienced in this Spirit space, he can ascend above the
creation, and re-enter the realm of spiritual creativity.
Purpose
of this paper:
This brief analysis of a
text from a Hellenistic textual corpus, is an
application of a method for comparative cultural analysis, based on a revised
version of Lakoff´s spatialisation
of form hypothesis. Using the image-schemas, that are supposed to be common
human, it is possible to compare analytic results directly between cultures and
different times, with a low degree of ethnocentric influence. Following the
principles in the revised version of the spatialisation
of form hypothesis, this analysis discusses how the different images schemas
are expressed grammatically, and conceptually.
The text written in italics concerns other Hermetic
writings, and is a supplement to the analysis. These scattered commentaries do
not, however, aspire to be relevant for the whole corpus of philosophical Hermetic
writings. The numbers in brackets refer to paragraphs of the text.
Introduction
to the Hermetic writings:
The Hermetic writings are
written in koine-Greek, the vernacular of the
Grammatical
image-schema-tags:
Grammatically the
image-schemas are expressed as follows in the Greek koine
of the Hermetic writings:
The container-image-schema
is expressed with peri, around/round, as preposition or in compounds, with
en, inside, as preposition, in compounds, in locative
datives and inpredicates. The up/down-image-schema is
expressed predominantly with katw, downwards, or anw, upwards, as
prepositions or in compounds, and uper, above. The
link-image-schema is expressed with kai, and, dia, by or through, ek, out of/from, in
datives meaning “to/for”, with declinations of ideoV, ones own, and
with predicates. The cycle-image-schema is expressed with peri, around/round, as
preposition and in compounds. The part/whole-image-schema is expressed with sun, part of/together
with, as preposition and in compounds and ek, out of/from as
preposition or in compounds or apo, from, as preposition and
in compounds. The path-image-schema is expressed ek...eiV,
from…to, apo...eiV, from
to, apo...proV, from…to, ex...proV,
out
from...towards, eiV, to/towards, proV, towards.
Splitting is expressed with apo, from, ek from/out of, as
prepositions and in compounds. The front/back-image schema is expressed in
compounds with anti, opposite, and pro, in front of.
Conceptual
aspects of the image-schemas:
Conceptually the image
schemas are expressed and clustered around the following focus-words:
The
container-image-schema:
The container-image-schema
defines the following spaces of special importance:1/
The structure of man, anJropoV (15), focusing
especially on the inner space of the spirit: inside your Spirit, being the
Spirit sw nw, ennouV (3, 18), 2/ the sensual world,
aisJesiV kosmoV (9, 17, 20) and 3/ the beautiful world, o kaloV
kosmoV (8).
Man, anJropoV, is a composite
being, having both part of the ideal not-created world and the created sensual
world. Immortal and full of power in Spirit, mortal and
suffering in the body, whose life is governed by astrological Destiny (15).
The Spirit is pure light,
and existed before the sensual world came into being. The light-word is the son
of god, or awareness of being, to en soi blepon kai akouon (6),
suneimi soi pantacou (1). The Spirit is a personal god: egw
NouV o soV JeoV (6). The Spirit Poimandres, who communicates
with Hermes, speaks, and have some kind of body. “Do not run away”, Hermes
exclaims mh ektrece (16). Though the Spirit Poimandres can talk, stare and nod (7, 32), It is without
fixed form, either immense (1), or changeable (4, 27). Concentration in the
Spirit can open up for visions, Ece nw sw osa JeleiV
maJein...panta moi hnoikto...kai ora Jean (3-4, 7, 8 ). But not all men have
Spirit (22). Life has become soul and light has become Spirit in man (17), and
as such man is an image of God (12, 17, 21 ). The body
is composed of matter, ulh, a form, eidoV, character hJoV, senses, aisJhseiV, and aggression
and desire, JumoV kai epiJumia (24).
The container-image-schema
is most explicitly used in the description of man in the tenth treatise: “The
spirit is in the word, the word is in the soul, and the soul is in the breath.
The breath passes through the veins and arteries and the blood and move the
living being, and carry it in somehow”. o nouV en
tw logw, o logoV en th yuch, h yuch en tw pneumati. To pneuma dihkon dia jlebwn
kai arthriwn kai aimatoV kinei to zwon kai wsper tropn tina bastazei (CH10.13). According
to Stobaios fragment 3, soul moves matter, being both
a general principle of moving matter, and distinct for each living being
according to the tenth treatise (CH10.7). All beings that move have a soul. The
home of the souls is the fixstars according to Stobaios fragment 23.14-18, where they sing hymns
(CH1.25-26, NHC 58.18). Connected to this belief is the belief in reincarnation
(CH2.17, CH10. 7-8, 19, 21, A12, 28, Stobaios
fragment 23.39, 42), though this belief is modified in CH10.19. Breath, pneuma, is the
manifestation of the movements of the soul, moving and carrying the body,
“…received from above through the intermission of the air…”(F
26.12). It seems to have been a part of the nature of matter (CH 3, F 19.5),
and through different kinds of breaths the body feels the material phenomenons. These breaths include breaths for the five
senses, sight, sound, smell, taste and tactility.
The sensual world, aisJesiV
kosmoV (9,
17, 20), the nature, jusiV (4, 5, 8), or world of
death, consists of elements stoiceia (5, 8), these elements
being air, fire, earth and water, ahr, pur, gh and udwr.
The
sensual world is surrounded by the seven heavenly spheres, whose dominion is
called Eimarmenh, Destiny (9, 25-26). The eight and ninth sphere are
the home of the souls (26). Here they sing hymns, while they wait for their
turn to ascend to God, beyond the ninth sphere (26).
The beautiful world, o
kaloV kosmoV (8), seems to be a kind of eternal space, beyond the ninth sphere. The
image of the demiourg as a smith or an alchemist working
at a forge is evoked (13), en to
demiourgh sjaira (13), and the sensual, created world seems to be kept
inside the sphere of fire in something that might be a crucible (13). The
beautiful world therefore seems to be that eternal world, where god and his demiurgical sons, trained in alchemy, do their experiments,
outside the world of change and suffering. Hermes saw this ideal world in a
vision of light and unbounded space (7).
The
up/down-image-schema and mass/count-image-schema:
The up/down-image-schema and
mass/count-image-schema are used as kinds of scale-image-schemas together with
light and darkness. They define a scale of belonging between the two poles, the
light, not-created, infinite and whole spiritual world with fire-nature, and
the heavy, created, partial and sensual world with humid nature.
The intellectual meditation
of Hermes, that leads to the vision of Poimandres,
raises him, metewriJeishV moi(1), while the body and the
senses are left in its state of heaviness, bebarhmenoi (1). The darkness
moves downward to the humid (4), while fire ascends (5). The elements are
parted in two groups, those moving down, earth and water (10, 11, 14), and
those moving up, air and fire (5). The man who recognizes his original
spiritual nature is ana-gnwrisaV eauton, recognizing (upwards)
himself, while Hermes in his final words ask God not to let him fall from his
new understanding, mh sjalhnai thV gnwsewV, as the entanglement of the
first man was downward movement (13, 14). The spiritual way is the ascending
way, anodoV (24, 25, 26), that separates the spiritual elements
from the body, and transcends the powers of Destiny. Another way to oppose the
spiritual activity from the sensual experience is through the
mass-count-image-schema. In the spiritual world there is only wholeness and
infinity (1, 4, 7, 8, 15, 24, 27), while the sensual world is marked by the
possibility for both growth and decline in numbers (18, 22, 25). The infinity
of the cyclic movements of the heavenly bodies seem to designate a kind of
mixture, on the one hand eternal through the cycle-movement, on the other
subject to change. The cycle-movement of the planets is within the creation,
parts of the partial world, because the circuits (periodoV) can be counted
(17).
The two kinds of eternity
may reflect Egyptian thoughts of nhh and djd, as Erik Iversen convincingly
has shown (Iversen:1984:17-18).
The
link-image-schema and part/whole-schema:
The link-image-schema define the following
important links:
Between Hermes and Poimandres: Egw
men jhsin, eimi o PoimandreV, o thV auJentias nouV oida o boulei, kai suneimi soi pantacou (2)
Between God, man and demiurge, as father, pater, and sons, uioi, and brothers, adeljou (13).
Between the holy word, God´s
will (boulh) and the act of creation, agioV ei,
o logw susthsamenoV ta onta (14, 18, 32).
Between life and light, and spirit and soul, ek zwhV
kai jwtoV egeneto eiV yuchn kai noun (17).
Between Poimandres and the dynamic powers, o
PoimandrhV...emigh taiV dunamesin (27).
Between soul, heart and
verbal prayers, dexai logikaV JusiaV agnaV apo yuchV kai kardiaV (31).
Between man, god and nature, expressed by the image of birth: God gave
birth to man, apekuhsen AnJropon (12), just like nature gave
birth to the seven first men, h jusiV apekusen epta anJropoiV, (16).
And between
physical body, death, shadow, humidity and darkness (6, 14, 19, 20).
The part/whole-image-schema is expressed most clearly in the bodies of
the living beings: All living beings on earth are parted in males and females
(18, 19), echoing Plato´s Symposion. When the human body
dissolves in death (or during meditation) the parts (merh
gignomenai) are freed from the links to each other: The form (to
eidoV)
returns to invisibility, the senses return to their nature as energies, and
desire and aggression return to speechless nature, alogon
jusin
(24).
The
cycle-image-schema:
The cycle-image-schema
defines the following cycles, round objects or events:
The creation of the demiurge
is made inside a sphere. (13) The emergence of life forms in the created
sensual world begins when the planets start to turn and move (11). The cyclic
movements of the planets govern the changes of life in the sensual world. Their
reign is called Heimarmene, destiny (9,11). The movements of the planets have gone through at
least one whole circuit. Hereafter fundamental changes happened through the
dissolution of a former androgyne state of all
beings, because God wanted the created beings to multiply, mirroring the Jewish
“Genesis” (17, 18). The importance of the sun and the day-cycle is emphasized
through the holy acts performed at sunset (29).
The
matching-image-schema:
The matching-image-schema
underscore the close relationship between man, god and demiurgical
powers.
Man is the image of god, the
father, thn tou
patroV eikona ecwn (12). Man is a creator like his brother (13, 14, 32), the Second Demiurgical Spirit of light and breath, whom god created
with the word (9, 13). Freed from all stains of sensuality and matter, man will
be like the powers above the planet spheres, omoiwJeiV
toiV sunousin (26). Like them he will listen to the hymns sounding from the eight or
nine sphere, one or two storeys up, and maybe merge with the powers, striding
forward in good order towards god (26).
The
attraction-image-schema:
The attraction-image-schema
is expressed in words, or variations of words describing different kinds of
love and desire, like eraw and eramai (4, 12, 13, 14,
18), jilew (14), epiJumia (16, 23, 24), poJoV (16, 18), agaph
(19,
22), storgh (22), orexiV (23) and JumoV (24, 28).
Attraction seems to be of visual and verbal nature. Verbs like eraw and jilew are used to
express attraction caused by visual input, both spiritual and sensual:
Hermes loves the spiritual
light (4), god loves his own form in man (12), the powers of creation loves demiurgical man (13), nature smiles of love to man, and
they become lovers (14). This kind of love is the reason for death (18). jilew is used to
describe man´s narcissistic love attracting him
to his own reflection in the humid sensual world. This attraction leads to his
fall into the sphere of creation, and his mixture with
matter (14). PoJoV is used to describe Hermes desire for more verbal
teaching (16, 18). EpiJumia and Agaph are used to express
visual as well as verbal attraction. EpiJumia is also used to
describe desire as a part of sensual human nature (23, 24). Agaph is used to
describe the love of the sensual body (19), and proper love behaviour towards
god, as expressed by the pure and good men (22).
There does not seem to be a
difference between agaph and erwV, as it is found in the
Christian Hellenistic literature.
The
merging-image-schema:
The merging-image-schema is
found when words as blending with, mix, mignumi, and union, enwsiV are used.
The elements earth and water
are blended, summemigmena. When man got entangled in
matter, he was mixed sexually with nature, h jusiV
labousa ton erwmenon...kai emighsan erwmenoi gar hsan (14, 16). The living beings
on earth are as such called “mixtures”, mixeiV (19). The
awareness-principle in man, to en soi belpon kai akouon, or word of the
lord, logoV kuriou, is united with the spirit-god-father (6). One of
the abilities of Poimandres is to merge and mix with
the powers, o PoimandrhV....emigh taiV dunamesin (27) as one of
several ways of changing form. This is also what happens with man when he is
freed from sensual nature, when he merges with the other powers (26).
The
splitting-image-schema:
The splitting-image-schema
is used, with verbs as dissolve luo, leave something,
kataleipw, freeing oneself from, apallasw, break rhgnumi and prepositions
as apo, are
involved alone or in compositions. The elements of spiritual and physical
nature split in a number of ways in order to further creation (4, 5, 16, 17).
A definitive act in the creation-process was the loosening of the tie
between male and female (18). Mankind can be split in two groups, those who
identify with the immortal part and the intellectual and creative activities,
and those who identify with the mortal part and the sensual experiences (20,
22, 23). A definitive act for the spiritual man is the
liberation from the dark light apallaghte tou skotenou jwtoV (28) and to
leave the destructive sensual world behind kataleiyanteV
thn jJoran (28). When spiritual man penetrates the ball-formed canopy around
creation, he breaks his way through, anarrhxaV to kutoV (14).
The
path-image-schema (source, path, goal):
The path-image-schema is
found when processes are described with verbs of moving. The most common apart
from the grammatical structures as from…to, ek...eiV
(10, 17, 19) are: Moving towards cwrw...eiV(13, 21, 23, 24, 32)
throwing, ballw (4) coming, ercomai
(24,
26) going, bainw (5, 30) and jumping,
phdaw
(5, 10) and words as beginning, arch (11, 17, 27) way, odoV
(22,
24, 28, 29) and goal, end teloV (4, 17, 26).
The sensual world was
created in several stages (8-9, 11-13, 18-19). The word of god jumps out from
the descending elements up towards the pure parts of creation (10). The cyclic
movement of the planet spheres begins in the unlimited and ends in infinity
(11). Man was transformed from being life and light to being Spirit and soul
(17). Demiurgical man enters the sphere of creation
(13). The man who has spiritual understanding, knows himself, and will move
towards himself (21). The one who has learned that he consists of life and
light will move towards life (21). In bad people the Spirit has moved away,
giving room for a revenging daemon (23). When the body is dissolved anger and
desire will move to speechless nature (24), as the senses, aisJeseiV, will return to
their sources (24). The spiritual beings residing in the eight and ninth heaven
precede towards god, the father, in order (26). The good spirit guards the ways
into the thoughts of pure men (22). The ascending spiritual way goes up through
the seven planet spheres, and further up to the goal (teloV), to know and to
merge with god (24-26). Hermes ends up becoming a guide on the spiritual way
(26). The bad people choose the way of death (29). Hermes makes a kind of
pledge of path in the final paragraph: dio
pisteuw kai marturw: eiV zwhn kai jwV cwrw (32).
The creation happens in two levels
first at the ideal level, then at the physical level
can also be observed in Stobaios fragment 23.4-49 and
23.50-53.
Apart from these
linguistically founded path-image-schemas four verbs mirror levels of a
teaching process: First hearing and seeing, then obtaining spiritual
understanding, and thereby reaching the goal of knowing, (1-2). Poimandres teach Hermes with a mixture of sound and vision
(4), and ask him then: Did you understand, nohsai, this vision, Jean? To this Hermes answer in future tense: I will know (gnwnai) (6). Poimandres tries: By this, you will know, outw
gnwJi,
that the one inside you who sees and hears is the word of god…Understand, noei, the light and
know (gnwrize)…(6). You have seen, eideV, the form of the
first principle in your spirit (en tw nw) (8). Hermes desires to
hear more, poJw akousai (16, 18), and is reminded
of the prerequisite of listening, silence (16). Poimandres
reproaches Hermes for not understanding: mh
pejrontikenai wn akousaV ouk ejhn soi noein (20), and follows up by
testing his understanding: Ei nohsaV eipe moi…(20). As the
answer is acceptable, he praises him: You understand well, enohsaV
orJwV,
and reminds Hermes of the proverb: He who understands
himself will return to himself: O nohsaV eauton eiV auton cwrei (21). Merging
with the choir of powers, dunameiV (26), above the planet
spheres, man will become god, Jewnhnai (26) together with others
who knows, toiV gnwsin eschkosi (26). After being taught by Poimandres, Hermes starts himself teaching. Mankind are
then divided in two groups, those who listen, akousanteV, who start on
the spiritual path, and those who loose their way sunodeusanteV
th planh, and sleep with ignorance, sugkoinwnhsanteV th agnoia (28).
The
sequential nature of the teaching process can also be followed in the eleventh
Hermetic treatise, with hearing,
akousai (CH11.1-2), followed by
seeing, JeasJai (CH11.6-7), followed by spiritual understanding, nohsaV (CH11.10,13,14,19,20) and finally knowing (CH11.21).
The path-image-schema describing the ascending spiritual way is also explicitly
used in the fourth, sixth and eleventh treatise (CH4.11, CH6.5-6, CH11.21). The use of silence as a spiritual method is also
emphasized in NHC 56.11-12, CH 7.2, CH10.6 and in Stobaios fragment 1.
Contact-image-schema:
The contact-image-schema is
expressed predominantly in terms of visual and verbal communication. Though
visions play an important role in the communication between Hermes and Poimandres, the understanding of the visions must take
place through speech, using verbs as lalwn, jhmi, legw and
kalew.
Mans communication with god
is also verbal, in offerings of words, logikaV
JusiaV,
hymns (30-31). The pure ones filled with the love to god show their love
through hymns, benedictions and sounds, eulogounteV
kai umnounteV (22), jwnh hdeia umnouswn (26). Verbal communication,
by word (logoV) or by will (boulh), performed by
God or one of his sons outside the created world, has performative
character (8, 9, 13, 14, 18, 31). The importance of
listening to the sound of god, which is silence, is underscored: siwph
jwnoumene (31).
As such the Hermetic
writings present a possible link between the tradition of The Holy Spirit and
the Jewish prophets, the psalms of David, Plato and his daemon, the song and
magic incantations of Egyptian priests, the magical incantations of the magical
papyri, the communication between Muhammed and
Gabriel, and the Chrisitian hymns and gospels. Hymns
sung on earth imitate the hymns of the souls in the fixstars
(NHC 58.18, A41) and contain magical vocal sounds (NHC 6.6.61) also known from
the magical papyri and known to have been sung by Egyptian priests in
Hellenistic times (Demetrius, Peri Ermhneias,71, see
Schenkeveld:1964).
The
experiential space of the Hermetic text “Poimandres”:
Man is caged inside his
physical body and the astrological destiny machine, Heimarmene.
He actually belongs outside this machine, as a manipulator and creator, and not
as manipulated and created. The experiential space therefore is centred in the
experiential space of the Spirit, ennouV. If man enters
this space, he will be taught by his personal god, the Spirit, and such a
teaching will enable him to ascend out and up, through the elements of the
machine, and eventually break out. The energy for this movement is the desire
to melt with the creative forces of God outside the machine, just as man
originally melted with the creation, because of narcissistic and deluding
desire. If man succeeds in this process, as Hermes does in Poimandres,
he can act in the world as if he was standing outside it, and help God in his
creation.
Sources:
CH = Corpus Hermeticum,
see Nock & Festugiere
A
=Asclepius, see Nock & Festugiere
F = Stobaios Fragmenta, see Nock
& Festugiere
NHC=
Nag Hammadi Codex VI, see Mahe
Ambrose, Elizabeth Ann, Sixteenth Century Philosophy 30,
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