The Unicus Magazine Blog – Robert Stanley – Who is Hermes? – 6 September 2012

Although I am 52 years old, only now am I beginning to carefully examine the truly amazing teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (thrice great or thrice born).

He was known as Hermes in Greece, as Thoth/Thoyth in Egypt, as Taaut in Phoenicia and as the god Mercury in Rome. He was known as a messenger or scribe of the gods that often carried a magic rod with twin snakes coiled around it called a caduceus which is not the symbol of the modern medical profession. That symbol is the rod of Asclepius (a Greek healer who was a student of Hermes).

Hermes is reported to have written more than 20,000 documents – most of which were destroyed or hidden. The most widely accepted works by Hermes are called Corpus Hermetica – which many historians claim played a pivotal role in the Renaissance of Medieval Europe.

Hermes most controversial, and contested, work is called The Emerald Tablets. His most well-known phrase is, “As above, so below.” However, in my opinion, I believe he was not just referring to the Heaven and Earth. He was also referring to an ancient, underground facility far below the Giza plain, in Egypt. In The Emerald Tablets, he calls this dwelling place of the gods The Halls of Amenti.

Archaeological discoveries over the past 100 years show conclusively that there are ancient caves systems (carved by flood water from the Nile) under Giza and there are modern, man-made tunnels that connect these caves and the pyramids. What really exists in the depths of the earth under Egypt (a.k.a. the land of Khem – Alchemy – Chemistry) remain a mystery. Conveniently, local legends warn of a deadly giant snake that lives in the caves guarding the way to the underworld: the Halls of Amenti.

Also found in The Emerald Tablets is an extremely-important description of the ancient conflict between light and dark, good and evil, on Earth:

Hark ye, O man, to the wisdom of magic.
Hark the knowledge of powers forgotten.
Long ago, in the days of the first man,
warfare began between darkness and light.

Man then, as now,
was filled with both darkness and light;
and while in some darkness Hell sway,
another light filled the soul.

Aye, age old in this warfare,
the eternal struggle between darkness and light.
Fiercely is it fought all through the ages,
using strange powers hidden to man.

Adepts have there been filled with the blackness,
struggling always against the light;
but others there are who, filled with brightness,
have ever conquered the darkness of night.
Where e’er ye may be in all ages and plane,
surely, ye shall know of the battle with night.

Long ages ago,
The SUNS of the Morning descending

found the world filled with night,
there in that past, begun the struggle,
the age old Battle of Darkness and Light.

Many in the time were so filled with darkness
that only feebly flamed the light from the night.

Some they were, masters of darkness, who sought
to fill all with their darkness:
Sought to draw others into their night.
Fiercely withstood they, the masters of brightness:
fiercely fought they from the darkness of night
Sought ever to tighten the fetters,
the chains that bind men to the darkness of night.
Used they always the dark magic,
brought into men by the power of darkness.
magic that enshrouded man’s soul with darkness.

Banded together as in order,
BROTHERS OF DARKNESS,
they through the ages,
antagonist they to the children of men.
Walked they always secret and hidden,
found, yet not found by the children of man.

Forever, they walked and worked in darkness,
hiding from the light in the darkness of night.
Silently, secretly use they their power,
enslaving and binding the soul of men.

Unseen they come, and unseen they go.
Man, in his ignorance calls THEM from below.

Dark is the way of the DARK BROTHERS travel,
dark of the darkness not of the night,
traveling o’er Earth
they walk through man’s dreams.
Power they have gained
from the darkness around them
to call other dwellers from out of their plane,
in ways that are dark and unseen by man.
Into man’s mind-space reach the DARK BROTHERS.

Around it, they close the veil of their night.
There through it’s lifetime
that soul dwells in bondage,
bound by the fetters of the VEIL of the night.
Mighty are they in the forbidden knowledge
forbidden because it is one with the night.

Hark ye, O man, and list to my warning:
be ye free from the bondage of night.
Surrender not your soul to the BROTHERS OF DARKNESS.
Keep thy face ever turned towards the Light.
Know ye not, O man, that your sorrow,
only has come through the Veil of the night.
Aye man, heed ye my warning:
strive ever upward,
turn your soul toward the LIGHT.
The BROTHERS OF DARKNESS seek for their brothers
those who traveled the pathway of LIGHT.
For well know they that those who have traveled
far towards the Sun in their pathway of LIGHT
have great and yet greater power
to bind with darkness the children of LIGHT.

List ye, O man, to he who comes to you.
But weigh in the balance if his words be of LIGHT.
For many there are who walk in DARK BRIGHTNESS
and yet are not the children of LIGHT.

Easy it is to follow their pathway,
easy to follow the path that they lead.
But yet O man, heed ye my warning:
Light comes only to him who strives.
Hard is the pathway that leads to the WISDOM,
hard is the pathway that leads to the LIGHT.
Many shall ye find, the stones in your pathway:
many the mountains to climb toward the LIGHT.

Yet know ye, O man, to him that o’ercometh,
free will he be of the pathway of Light.
For ye know, O man,
in the END light must conquer
and darkness and night be banished from Light.

Listen, O man, and heed ye this wisdom;
even as darkness, so is the LIGHT.

When darkness is banished and all Veils are rended,
out there shall flash from the darkness, the LIGHT.

Even as exist among men the DARK BROTHERS,
so there exists the BROTHERS OF LIGHT.
Antagonists they of the BROTHERS OF DARKNESS,
seeking to free men from the night.
Powers have they, mighty and potent.
Knowing the LAW, the planets obey.
Work they ever in harmony and order,
freeing the man-soul from its bondage of night.
Secret and hidden, walk they also.
Known not are they to the children of men.
Ever have THEY fought the DARK BROTHERS,
conquered and conquering time without end.
Yet always LIGHT shall in the end be master,
driving away the darkness of night.

Aye, man, know ye this knowing:
always beside thee walk the Children of Light.

Masters they of the SUN power,
ever unseen yet the guardians of men.
Open to all is their pathway,
open to he who will walk in the LIGHT.
Free are THEY of DARK AMENTI,
free of the HALLS, where LIFE reigns supreme.
SUNS are they and LORDS of the morning,
Children of Light to shine among men.
Like man are they and yet are unlike,
Never divided were they in the past.
ONE have they been in ONENESS eternal,
throughout all space since the beginning of time.
Up did they come in Oneness with the ALL ONE,
up from the first-space, formed and unformed.

They have given to man secrets
that shall guard and protect him from all harm.
He who would travel the path of the master,
free must he be from the bondage of night.
Conquer must he the formless and shapeless,
conquer must he the phantom of fear.
Knowing, must he gain of all of the secrets,
travel the pathway that leads through the darkness,
yet ever before him keep the light of his goal.
Great obstacles shall he meet in the pathway,
yet press on to the LIGHT of the SUN.

Hear ye, O Man, the SUN is the symbol
of the LIGHT that shines at the end of thy road.
Now to thee give I the secrets:
now to meet the dark power,
meet and conquer the fear from the night.
Only by knowing can ye conquer,
Only be knowing can ye have LIGHT.

Now I give unto thee the knowledge,
known to the MASTERS,
the knowing that conquers all the dark fears.
Use this, the wisdom I give thee.
MASTER thou shalt be of THE BROTHERS OF NIGHT.

When unto thee comes a feeling,
drawing thee nearer to the darker gate,
examine thine heart and find if the feeling
thou hast has come from within.
If thou shalt find the darkness thine own thoughts,
banish them forth from the place in thy mind.
Send through thy body a wave of vibration,
irregular first and regular second,
repeating time after time until free.
Start the WAVE FORCE in thy BRAIN CENTER.
Direct it in waves from thine head to thy foot.

But if thou findest thine heart is not darkened,
be sure that a force is directed to thee.
Only by knowing can thou overcome it.
Only by wisdom can thou hope to be free.
Knowledge brings wisdom and wisdom is power.
Attain and ye shall have power o’er all.

Seek ye first a place bound by darkness.
Place ye a circle around about thee.
Stand erect in the midst of the circle.
Use thou this formula, and you shalt be free.
Raise thou thine hands to the dark space above thee.
Close thou thine eyes and draw in the LIGHT.
Call to the SPIRIT OF LIGHT through the Space-Time,
using these words and thou shalt be free:
“Fill thou my body, O SPIRIT OF LIFE,
fill thou my body with SPIRIT OF LIGHT.
Come from the FLOWER
that shines through the darkness.
Come from the HALLS where the Seven Lords rule.
Name them by name, I, the Seven:
THREE, FOUR, FIVE,
and SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT–Nine.
By their names I call them to aid me,
free me and save me from the darkness of night:
UNTANAS, QUERTAS, CHIETAL,
and GOYANA, HUERTAL, SEMVETA–ARDAL.
By their names I implore thee,
free me from darkness
and fill me with LIGHT

Know ye, O man, that when ye have done this,
ye shall be free from the fetters that bind ye,
cast off the bondage of the brothers of night.
See ye not that the names have the power
to free by vibration the fetters that bind?
Use them at need to free thou thine brother
so that he, too, may come forth from the night.

Thou, O man, art thy brother’s helper.
Let him not lie in the bondage of night.

Now unto thee, give I my magic.
Take it and dwell on the pathway of LIGHT.

LIGHT unto thee, LIFE unto thee,
SUN may thou be on the cycle above.

However, Hermes also offered a solution to this situation when he wrote:

Now ye assemble, my children,
waiting to hear the Secret of Secrets
which shall give ye power to unfold the God-man,
give ye the way to Eternal life.

Plainly shall I speak of the Unveiled Mysteries.
No dark sayings shall I give unto thee.
Open thine ears now, my children.
Hear and obey the words that I give.

First I shall speak of the fetters of darkness
which bind ye in chains to the sphere of the Earth.

Darkness and light are both of one nature,
different only in seeming,
for each arose from the source of all.
Darkness is disorder.
Light is Order.
Darkness transmuted is light of the Light.
This, my children, is your purpose in being;
transmutation of darkness to light.

Hear ye now of the mystery of nature,
the relations of life to the Earth where it dwells.
Know ye, ye are threefold in nature,
physical, astral and mental in one.

Three are the qualities of each of the natures;
nine in all, as above, so below.

In the physical are these channels,
the blood which moves in a vortical [turbulent] motion,
reacting on the heart to continue its beating.
Magnetism which moves through the nerve paths,
carrier of energies to all cells and tissues.
Akasa [ether] which flows through channels,
subtle yet physical, completing the channels.

Each of the three attuned with each other,
each affecting the life of the body.
Form they the skeletal framework through
which the subtle ether flows.
In their mastery lies the Secret of Life in the body.
Relinquished only by will of the adept,
when his purpose in living is done.

Three are the natures of the Astral,
mediator is between above and below;
not of the physical, not of the Spiritual,
but able to move above and below.

Three are the natures of Mind,
carrier it of the Will of the Great One.
Arbitrator of Cause and Effect in thy life.
Thus is formed the threefold being,
directed from above by the power of four.

Above and beyond man’s threefold nature
lies the realm of the Spiritual Self.

Four is it in qualities,
shining in each of the planes of existence,
but thirteen in one,
the mystical number.
Based on the qualities of man are the Brothers:
each shall direct the unfoldment of being,
each shall channels be of the Great One.

On Earth, man is in bondage,
bound by space and time to the earth plane.
Encircling each planet, a wave of vibration,
binds him to his plane of unfoldment.
Yet within man is the Key to releasement,
within man may freedom be found.

When ye have released the self from the body,
rise to the outermost bounds of your earth-plane.
Speak ye the word Dor-E-Lil-La.

Then for a time your Light will be lifted,
free may ye pass the barriers of space.
For a time of half of the sun (six hours),
free may ye pass the barriers of earth-plane,
see and know those who are beyond thee.

Yea, to the highest worlds may ye pass.
See your own possible heights of unfoldment,
know all earthly futures of Soul.

Bound are ye in your body,
but by the power ye may be free.
This is the Secret whereby bondage
shall be replaced by freedom for thee.

Calm let thy mind be.
At rest be thy body:
Conscious only of freedom from flesh.
Center thy being on the goal of thy longing.
Think over and over that thou wouldst be free.
Think of this word La-Um-I-L-Ganoover
and over in thy mind let it sound.
Drift with the sound to the place of thy longing.
Free from the bondage of flesh by thy will.

Hear ye while I give the greatest of secrets:
how ye may enter the Halls of Amenti,
enter the place of the immortals as I did,
stand before the Lords in their places.

Lie ye down in rest of thy body.
Calm thy mind so no thought disturbs thee.
Pure must ye be in mind and in purpose,
else only failure will come unto thee.

Vision Amenti as I have told in my Tablets.
Long with fullness of heart to be there.
Stand before the Lords in thy mind’s eye.

Pronounce the words of power I give (mentally);
Mekut-El-Shab-El Hale-Sur-Ben-El-Zabrut Zin-Efrim-Quar-El.
Relax thy mind and thy body.
Then be sure your soul will be called.

Now give I the Key to Shambbalah,
the place where my Brothers live in the darkness:
Darkness but filled with Light of the Sun
Darkness of Earth, but Light of the Spirit,
guides for ye when my day is done.

Leave thou thy body as I have taught thee.
Pass to the barriers of the deep, hidden place.
Stand before the gates and their guardians.
Command thy entrance by these words:

I am the Light. In me is no darkness.
Free am I of the bondage of night.
Open thou the way of the Twelve and the One,
so I may pass to the realm of wisdom.

When they refuse thee, as surely they will,
command them to open by these words of power:
I am the Light. For me are no barriers.
Open, I command, by the Secret of Secrets
Edom-El-Ahim-Sabbert-Zur Adom.

Then if thy words have been Truth of the highest,
open for thee the barriers will fall.

Now, I leave thee, my children.
Down, yet up, to the Halls shall I go.
Win ye the way to me, my children.
Truly my brothers shall ye become.
Thus finish I my writings.
Keys let them be to those who come after.
But only to those who seek my wisdom,
for only for these am I the Key and the Way.

If we do not heed these sage teachings regarding the path to wisdom and the light, a dire Hermetic Prophecy describes our fate in great detail.