Hermes Trismegistus, Hermes the thrice great, is a character known by many names throughout history. To the Egyptians he was known as “Thoth”. To the Jews, he was “Enoch”, to the Romans “Mercury”, and the Greeks as “Hermes”. As each of these names Hermes becomes appointed as the scribe and messenger for the Gods, haven wrote around 26,000 books from the information given to him. These books making breakthroughs in subjects such as medicine, chemistry, law, art, astrology, music, rhetoric, magic, philosophy, geography, mathematics, geometry, anatomy, and oratory.
Two of these books are of upmost importance, The Emerald Tablet and The Divine Pymander. The Emerald Tablet famous for its phrase “as above so is below”, is a book of alchemical formula said to contain the secret of the philosophers stone. The Divine Pymander, also known as The Shepherd of Men, is a collection of 17 writings containing many of the original hermetic concepts. The second of these is called The Vision. The Vision details how Hermes received his divine wisdom and it was after this wisdom was revealed to him he began his ministry to teach all those who would listen.
The Vision
The Vision contains an exposition of Hermetic cosmology and the secret sciences of the Egyptians regarding the culture and unfoldment of the human soul. It begins with Hermes meditating in a rocky and desolate place, gradually freeing his higher consciousness from his body similar to an astral projection. During this projection, Hermes is met by an awe inspiring figure, The Great Dragon. The Great Dragon spoke and asked Hermes why he was studying the World Mystery. Terrified Hermes prostrated before the dragon and asked it to reveal its identity. The Great Dragon replied, that it was Promandres, the Mind of the Universe, the Creative Intelligence, and the Absolute Emperor of all.
The Seven Governors
As Hermes and the Dragon spoke, Hermes learned of the Spiritual Word Reason and the union of Reason and the Mind which produces the mystery called Life. He learns of the Supreme Being, the Mind, and how it uses Reason to create another mind from it called The Workman, the Master Builder and the Maker of Things. As the Workman moved throughout the universe similar to that of a whirlwind, Reason also moved as a breath through space. The friction of its movement was called Fire, the Son of Striving. This friction led to the formation of the Seven Governors, the Spirits of the Planets whose orbits bound the world. The Seven Governors controlled the world by the mysterious power called Destiny, given to them by the fiery Workman.
As the Second Mind, The Workman, joined by Reason, stationed itself in the center of the universe and whirled the wheels of the Celestial Powers this left the elements without reason and from it the elements began to produce creatures without Reason. The air produced flying things, the waters produced creatures that could swim. The earth created beasts, dragons, and monsters. Then the Supreme Mind fashioned the Universal man in his own image, not an earthy Man but a heavenly Man dwelling in the Light of God.
Man, desiring to labor, made his home in the sphere of generation and observed the works of his brother, the Second Mind. Wanting to create and with His Fathers permission, the Seven Governors each gave Man a piece of their powers and their nature. Man then stooped down and peeped through the seven Harmonies and made himself to manifest to Nature stretched out below. Man then looked into the depths and smiled, looking at his shadow in the earth and mirror of the waters. Nature, then wrapped herself around the Man and created the composite earthly man.
The Earthly man
The earthly Man is a composite of the Sky Man, immortal and beautiful; and Nature, mortal and destructible. Thus suffering is the result of the Immortal Man falling in love with his shadow and giving up Reality to dwell in the darkness of illusion. Being immortal, Man has the powers of the Seven Governors, the Life, the Light, and Reason. While being mortal, man is under control of the rings of the Seven Governors – Fate or Destiny.
The story goes to to say that when the wise and philosophical Man dies, they renounce their senses as these are the enemies of their immortal souls. The Great Dragon, Poimandres, the Eternal Teacher, Thought, then said to Hermes, “I will not permit evil to control the bodies of those who love me, I will be a doorkeeper and shut out evil. To the wicked, I will not come, for such cannot understand the mysteries of the Mind, I am unwelcome. I leave them to the avenging demon that they are making in their own souls. The punishment of desire is the agony of unfulfillment”.
Return of Man to the Eighth Sphere
Hermes bowed his head in thankfulness to the Great Dragon who had taught him so much and begged to hear more concerning the ultimate of the human soul. So Poimandres resumed, “At death the material body of man returns to the elements from which is came, the invisible divine man ascends to the source of where he came, the Eighth Sphere”. In other words, evil passes to the dwelling place of the demon and Man’s senses, feelings, desires and bodily passions return to their source, the Seven Governors, whose nature in the lower man destroy but in the invisible spiritual man give life.
After the lower nature returned to its brutishness, the higher struggles again to return to its spiritual estate. It ascends the seven Rings upon which sit the Seven Govenors and returns to each their lower powers in the following
- First ring sits the Moon and to it is returned the ability to increse and diminish
- Upon the second is Mercury and to is is returned machinations deciet and craftiness
- The third ring sits Venus and to it is returned lust and passion
- Fourth sits the Sun and to it is returned ambitions
- Upon the fifth is Mars and to it is returned rashness and profaned boldness
- Sixth ring sits Jupiter and to it are returned the sense of accumulation and riches
- The last seventh ring sits Saturn, at the Gate of Chaos, and to it is returned falsehood and evil plotting
Finally after being naked with all the accumulations of the seven rings, the soul comes to the Eighth Sphere, namely the ring of the fixed stars. Here freed from all illusion, it dwells in the Light and sings praises to the Father in a voice that only the pure of spirit may understand. The Dragon then says that there is a Great mystery within the Eighth Sphere for the Milky Way is the seed ground of souls and from it they drop into the rings and to the Milky Way they climb the seven rung ladder and return from the wheels of Saturn.
Conclusion
In conclusion, The Vision tells us that Man descended from the Eighth Sphere, the ring of fixed stars, and descends through the Seven Rings and acquires the powers of the Seven Governors to aid us in our life and help us create in the unreasonable natural world. This story really resonated with us and when we designed this shirt we wanted to illustrate the pathway the soul takes from the fixed stars down to Earth. Each symbol is the symbol of that planet in descending order Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, and Earth. Each Ring is made and colored by editing photos of NASAs official photos for those planets. Resulting in a beautiful multicolored shirt that instantly catches your attention.
Purchase the “Hermes 7 Governors” tee in our Shirt Store
F.I.F.T.H. Dimension 