Corpus HermeticumHermeticismMystical / EsotericGreek and Latin Hermetic textual traditionShareCorpus Hermeticum 7G. R. S. Mead 1906 - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableG. R. S. Mead 1906LanguageEnglishEspañol‹Corpus Hermeticum 1Corpus Hermeticum 2Corpus Hermeticum 3Corpus Hermeticum 4Corpus Hermeticum 5Corpus Hermeticum 6Corpus Hermeticum 7Corpus Hermeticum 8Corpus Hermeticum 9Corpus Hermeticum 10Corpus Hermeticum 11Corpus Hermeticum 12Corpus Hermeticum 13Corpus Hermeticum 14Corpus Hermeticum 15Corpus Hermeticum 16Corpus Hermeticum 17Corpus Hermeticum 18›Corpus Hermeticum VII. (VIII.): The Greatest Ill Among Men is Ignorance of GodCorpus Hermeticum 7ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1WHITHER stumble ye, sots, who have sopped up the wine of ignorance unmixed, and can so far not carry it that ye already even spew it forth? Stay ye, be sober, gaze upwards with the [true] eyes of the heart! And if ye cannot all, yet ye at least who can! For that the ill of ignorance doth pour o'er all the earth and overwhelm the soul that's battened down within the body, preventing it from fetching port within Salvation's harbours. 2Be then not carried off by the fierce flood, but using the shore-current, ye who can, make for Salvation's port, and, harbouring there, seek ye for one to take you by the hand and lead you unto Gnosis' gates. Where shines clear Light, of every darkness clean; where not a single soul is drunk, but sober all they gaze with their hearts' eyes on Him who willeth to be seen. No ear can hear Him, nor can eye see Him, nor tongue speak of Him, but [only] mind and heart. But first thou must tear off from thee the cloak which thou dost wear,--the web of ignorance, the ground of bad, corruption's chain, the carapace of darkness, the living death, sensation's corpse, the tomb thou carriest with thee, the robber in thy house, who through the things he loveth, hateth thee, and through the things he hateth, bears thee malice. 3Such is the hateful cloak thou wearest,--that throttles thee [and holds thee] down to it, in order that thou may'st not gaze above, and, having seen the Beauty of the Truth, and Good that dwells therein, detest the bad of it; having found out the plot that it hath schemed against thee, by making void of sense those seeming things which men think senses. For that it hath with mass of matter blocked them up and crammed them full of loathsome lust, so that thou may'st not hear about the things that thou should'st hear, nor see the things that thou should'st see. ‹Previous chapterCorpus Hermeticum 6Next chapterCorpus Hermeticum 8›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public domain in the United States