Corpus Hermeticum VII

[1] Where are you heading in your drunkenness, you people? Have you swallowed the doctrine of ignorance undiluted, vomiting it up already because you cannot hold it? Stop and sober yourselves up! Look up with the eyes of the heart - if not all of you, at least those of you who have the power. The vice of ignorance floods the whole earth and utterly destroys the soul shut up in the body, preventing it from anchoring in the havens of deliverance.

[2] Surely you will not sink in this great flood? Those of you who can will take the ebb and gain the haven of deliverance and anchor there. Then, seek a guide to take you by the hand and lead you to the portals of knowledge. There shines the light cleansed of darkness. There no one is drunk. All are sober and gaze with the heart toward one who wishes to be seen, who is neither heard nor spoken of, who is seen not with the eyes but with mind and heart. But first you must rip off the tunic that you wear, the garment of ignorance, the foundation of vice, the bonds of corruption, the dark cage, the living death, the sentient corpse, the portable tomb, the resident thief, the one who hates through what he loves and envies through what he hates. 

[3] Such is the odious tunic you have put on. It strangles you and drags you down with it so that you will not hate its viciousness, not look up and see the fair vision of truth and the good that lies within, not understand the plot that it has plotted against you when it made insensible the organs of sense, made them inapparent and unrecognized for what they are, blocked up with a great load of matter and jammed full of loathsome pleasure, so that you do not hear what you must hear nor observe what you must observe. 

Corpus Hermeticum IX

[4] "Few seeds come from god, but they are potent and beautiful and good - virtue, moderation and reverence. Reverence is knowledge of god, and one who has come to know god, filled with all good things, has thoughts that are divine and not like those of the multitude. This is why those who are in knowledge do not please the multitude, nor does the multitude please them. They appear to be mad, and they bring ridicule on themselves. They are hated and scorned, and perhaps they may even be murdered. As I have said, vice must dwell here below since this is its native land. The earth is its native land, not the cosmos, as some will blasphemously claim. The god fearing person, at least, will withstand all this because he is aware of knowledge, for all things are good to such a person, even things that others find evil. If they lay plots against him, he refers it all to knowledge, and he alone makes evil into good." 

Corpus Hermeticum X

[5] "Indeed, my child, would that we could. But we are still too weak now for this sight; we are not yet strong enough to open our mind's eyes and look on the incorruptible, incomprehensible beauty of that good. In the moment when you have nothing to say about it, you will see it, for the knowledge of it is divine silence and suppression of all the senses. [6] One who has understood it can understand nothing else, nor can he move his body in any way. He stays still, all bodily senses and motions forgotten. Having illuminated all his mind, this beauty kindles his whole soul and by means of body draws it upward, and beauty changes his whole person into essence. For when soul has looked on <the> beauty of the good, my child, it cannot be defied while in a human body."

This particular passage is referring to meditation and says that its purpose is to suppress the body and its senses so it's out of the way so you can be by yourself without it getting in the way. 

[8] "The vice of soul is ignorance. For the soul, when it is blind and discerns none of the things that are nor their nature nor the good, is shaken by the bodily passions, and the wretched thing becomes - in ignorance of itself - a slave to vile and monstrous bodies, bearing the body like a burden, not ruling but being ruled. This is the vice of soul. [9] The virtue of soul, by contrast, is knowledge; for one who knows is good and reverent and already divine." 

[15] "Envision the soul of a child, my son, which has not yet accepted its separation from itself; its body has not yet attained its full bulk, {of which it has only a little as yet}. How beautiful it is to look at, from every point of view, not yet sullied by the passions of the body, still depending closely from the soul of the cosmos. But when the body gets its bulk and drags the soul down to the body's grossness, the soul, having separated from itself, gives birth to forgetting, and it no longer shares in the beautiful and the good. The forgetting becomes vice." 

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Corpus Hermeticum XI 

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[2] "God makes eternity; eternity makes the cosmos; the cosmos makes time; time makes becoming. The essence (so to speak) of god is [the good, the beautiful, happiness,] wisdom; the essence of eternity is identity; of the cosmos, order; of time, change; of becoming, life and death. But the energy of god is mind and soul; the energy of eternity is permanence and immortality; of the cosmos, recurrence and counter-recurrence; of time, increase and decrease; of becoming, quality <and quantity>. Eternity, therefore, is in god, the cosmos in eternity, time in the cosmos, and becoming in time. And while eternity has stood still in god's presence, the cosmos moves in eternity, time passes in the cosmos, but becoming comes to be in time."

[3] "The source of all things is god; eternity is their essence; the cosmos is their matter. Eternity is the power of god, and the cosmos is eternity's work, but the cosmos has never come into being; it comes to be forever from eternity. Therefore, nothing in the cosmos will ever be corrupted (for eternity is incorruptible), nor will it pass away since eternity encloses the cosmos."

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Eternity is beyond time and space and so it contains everything inside of it. God is the container and not the contained. Think of it like the thoughts have to barrier but they are contained within the skull. Thoughts can move really fast but they are contained by a head that is not moving. The Universe has no barrier, but it is contained by the now, by the center and by rest.  

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[19] "Consider this for yourself: command your soul to travel to India, and it will be there faster than your command. Command it to cross over to the ocean, and again it will quickly be there, not as having passed from place to place but simply as being there. Command it even to fly up to heaven, and it will not lack wings. Nothing will hinder it, not the fire of the sun, nor the aether, nor the swirl nor the bodies of the other stars. Cutting through them all, it will fly to the utmost body. But if you wish to break through the universe itself and look upon the things outside (if, indeed, there is anything outside the cosmos), it is within your power."

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It took quite a few years to understand what this passage meant. It is saying that time, speed and distance don't exist on the higher, spiritual levels. There is only the now, no past or future, there is only rest, no movement and there is only the center, no distance. That is how the true self can travel to India faster than someone can even think about it. These concepts are explained in a lot of detail in Flying Saucer Philosophy and The Axis of the Universe.

Corpus Hermeticum XII

[2] "Where soul is there also is mind, just as there is soul where life is. But the soul in unreasoning animals is life devoid of mind. Mind is a benefactor of human souls; it works on them for good. In things without reason, mind assists the natural impulse arising from each, but it opposes this impulse in human souls. Every soul, as soon as it has come to be in the body, is depraved by pain and pleasure. For in a composite body pain and pleasure seethe like juices; once immersed in them, the soul drowns."

[4] But those human souls that do not have mind as a guide are affected in the same way as souls of animals without reason. When mind connives with them and gives way to longings, the rush of appetite drives such souls to the longings that lead to unreason and, like animals without reason, they never cease their irrational anger and irrational longing, and they have never had enough of evil. For angers and longings are irrational vices that exceed all limits. God has imposed the law upon these souls as a torment and a reproof."

Corpus Hermeticum XIII

[7] "May it not be so, my child. Draw it to you, and it will come. Wish it, and it happens. Leave the senses of the body idle, and the birth of divinity will begin. Cleanse yourself of the irrational torments of matter." 

[7] "This ignorance, my child, is the first torment; the second is grief; the third is incontinence; the fourth, lust; the fifth, injustice; the sixth, greed; the seventh, deceit; the eighth, envy; the ninth, treachery; the tenth, anger; the eleventh, recklessness; the twelfth, malice. These are twelve in number, but under them are many more besides, my child, and they use the prison of the body to torture the inward person with the sufferings of sense. Yet they withdraw (if not all at once) from one to whom god has shown mercy, and this is the basis of rebirth, the means and method. [8] From here on, my child, keep silence and say nothing; if you do so, you will not obstruct the mercy that comes to us from god. Henceforth, my child, rejoice; the powers of god purify you anew for articulation of the word." 

[11] "Since god has made me tranquil, father, I no longer picture things with the sight of my eyes but with the mental energy that comes through the powers. I am in heaven, in earth, in water, in air; I am in animals and in plants; in the womb, before the womb, before the womb, after the womb; everywhere.

This passage is about how someone who is more in touch with themselves is more tranquil, that's something that people who have been meditating for a long time feel. Also these people have much better insight because they have activated their third eyes so they have a much broader view of reality.

[13] "Father, I see the universe and I see myself in mind."

"This, my child, is rebirth: no longer picturing things in three bodily dimensions. . . . through this discourse on being born again that I have noted down for you alone to avoid casting it all before the mob but [to give it] to those who god himself wishes."

This passage is saying that the concept of rebirth, which is something that Christians talk about all the time, is about being born into the spirit. A lot of people think that the term, "born again", means converting to a religion and attending church for the rest of your life. That is going into further slavery in addition to being a slave to the flesh. When someone is born again, in the true spiritual sense, they have a much broader view of reality, not just what they see with their eyes and the limitations of their bodies or the 3D world, as this passage says, but with their 3rd eyes. The second part of this passages tells the initiate not to cast this knowledge to the ignorant or the mob, but to give it to those who have the understanding. There is a similar passage in Matthew 7:6, which says, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces." People have been persecuted for this kind of knowledge by the ignorant and that is why they have had to keep this knowledge to themselves and other people who have knowledge too. The elites and the ignorant, the sheeple, the mob etc, have tried to destroy this knowledge and persecute those who preach it. 

The following passages seem to be talking about the 3rd eye. 

[14] "Hold your tongue; do not give voice to the impossible! Else you will do wrong, and your mind's eye will be profaned. The sensible body of nature is far removed from essential generation. One can be dissolved, but the other is indissoluble; one is mortal, the other immortal. Do you not know that you have been born a god and a child of the one, as I, too, have?" 

[17] "Together let us praise him, raised high above the heavens, creator of all nature. He is the mind's eye. May he accept praise from my powers."

Corpus Hermeticum XIV

[7] You need not be on guard against the diversity of things that come to be, fearing to attach something low and inglorious to god. God's glory is one, that he makes all things, and this making is like the body of god. There is nothing evil or shameful about the maker himself; such conditions are immediate consequences of generation, like corrosion on bronze or dirt on the body. The bronzesmith did not make the corrosion; the parents did not make the dirt; nor did god make evil. But the persistence of generation makes evil bloom like a sore, which is why god has made change, to repurify generation. 

This passage is about the need for change from an old system to a new system because over time the system starts developing more and more problems and it starts to become more and more irrevelant. A system can start out being good at first but over generations it starts to degenerate to the point where changes need to be made for society to continue on. This is the the "order out of chaos" that Freemasons talk about. Society needs to be purified at the end of an age. There are many people who try to preserve the old system, but that is futile, especially if the old system has developed so many problems, has become so corrupt and has become so irrelevant. It's best to let it rot and to focus your time and energy on the new system instead.

Corpus Hermeticum XVI

[1] The very quality of the speech and the <sound> of Egyptian words have in themselves the energy of the objects they speak of. 

This passage is quite interesting because the Hermetica says that the sound of Egyptians had an energy of the object they speak of in them. The problem that we have is that while archaeologists can read Egyptian hieroglyphs they don't know what they sounded like when they were spoken. The ancient Greeks in Alexandria and the writers of the Corpus Hermeticum would have known what the ancient Egyptian language sounded like because they were in ancient Egypt and they were with the ancient Egyptians who spoke that language and practiced that religion. That is a priviledge that we don't have today so we can't hear this language for ourselves. 

Corpus Hermeticum XVIII

[1] If someone promises to bring harmony out of a piece of music played on many instruments, his effort will be laughable if during the performance discord among the instruments hinders his zeal. Since weak instruments are altogether unequal to the task, inevitably the spectators will jeer at the musician. Indeed, while this well-meaning person gives tirelessly of his art, <the hearer> finds fault with the weakness of the instruments. He who is truly a musician [ ] by nature, not only producing harmony in song but also providing the rhythm of the music appropriate to each instrument, this tireless musician is god, for it does not befit god to tire.

[2] If ever a performer wanted to excel in a musical contest, entering just after the trumpeters had likewise shown their skill, after the flautists had produced sweet music on their melodious instruments, after <others> had finished the singing of the song with reed-pipe and plectrum, no one would blame the musician's inspiration <if his instrument failed under the strain>, nor would they blame the almighty, to whom they would render due honor while finding fault with the defective instrument because, in fact, it created a hindrance to greater beauty by hindering the musician's rapport with the music and robbing the audience of sweet song. 

[3] With us it is the same. Let no spectator irreverently find fault with our kind for weakness that belongs to the body. Let it be known, however, that god is a tireless inspiration, who always and in the same way possesses the skill appropriate to him, whose blessings are uninterrupted, who continually enjoys the same kind attentions. [4] If even the craftsman Phidias used material that did not yield to his striving for consummate diversity . . . <and> our musician could only make the best of his ability, let us not put the blame on him but find fault with the weak string that [slackened the tension,] lowered the tone and muffled the rhythm of the lovely music. 

[14] There above, then, beings are not different from one another, nor does inconstancy exist there above. All think one thought, and all have the same foreknowledge; they have one mind, the father. One sense works in them, and the charm that brings them together is love, the same love that makes one harmony act in all things. 

Asclepius. 

[6] "Of all these kinds, the ensouled have roots reaching them from on high to below, but living things without soul branch from a root that grows from beneath to above. Some things are nourished on composite food, others on simple food. The types of food are two: one for the soul, the other for the body - the two substances of which living things consist. Soul feeds on the ever restless stirring of the world. Bodies grow on water and earth, foods of the lower world. The spirit that fills all mixes with everything and enlivens everything. 

[7] "Is consciousness not uniform in all people, Trismegistus?" 

"Not all have gained true understanding, Asclepius. They are deceived, pursuing, on rash impulse and without due consideration of reason, an image that begets malice in their minds and transforms the best of living things into a beastly nature with brutal habits.

[9] Some very small number of these humans, endowed with pure mind, have been allotted the honored duty of looking up to heaven. But those who lagged behind <at> a lower reach of understanding, under the body's bulk and because theirs is a mingled twofold nature, have been appointed to care for the elements and these lower objects. 

[11] Is it not the prize our parents had, the one we wish - in most faithful prayer - may be presented to us as well if it be agreeable to divine fidelity: the prize, that is, of discharge and release from worldly custody, of loosing the bonds of mortality so that god may restore us, pure and holy, to the nature of our higher part, to the divine?" 

[12] "Of course, but some find this incredible, others fictitious, others laughable perhaps. For in this bodily life the pleasure one takes from possessions is a delight, but this delight, as they say, is a noose round the soul's neck that keeps mankind tied to the part that makes him mortal, nor does the malice that begrudges immortality let him acknowledge the part of divinity in him.

[22] "The reverent are not many, in any case, no more than a few whose number in the world can be counted, whence it happens that evil remains in the many because they lack wisdom and knowledge of all the things that are. Scorn for the vices of the whole world - and a cure for those vices - comes from understanding the divine plan upon which all things have been based. But when ignorance and folly persist, all vices thrive and wound the soul with incurable disorders. Tainted and corrupted by them, the soul grows inflamed as if poisoned - except the souls of those who have the sovereign remedy of learning and understanding." 

[24] "Do you not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven or, to be more precise, that everything governed and moved in heaven came down to Egypt and was transferred there? If truth were told, our land is the temple of the whole world."