Diotimos Reading Desk

Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.

← ExitMagia Adamica

Reading language

Egypt, Greece and the Transmission of the Art

With some labour, I have now traced this science from humanity’s very Fall to its Redemption: a long, solitary pilgrimage along paths little frequented because of antiquity’s briars and difficulties, and in places overgrown with oblivion’s poppy.

I will not deny that among this wilderness’s shadows and ivy are birds of night, owls and bats of different plumage from our phoenix. I mean conjurers whose dark, devious affection for magic’s name led them to invent traditions more monstrous than their practices. I have purposely avoided these, lest they embitter my stream with wormwood and I lead the reader astray, through all these groves and solitudes, to Marah’s waters. My next stage must be the place from which I first came out with the Israelites: Egypt. If books fail me here, the stones will cry out. Magic was so enthroned in this place that she apparently wished to be buried here too. She hid so many monuments in this earth that, since dug up, they now prove she once stood above ground. I shall begin with Egyptian theology, to show how far they advanced under Nature’s light alone. Trismegistus is so orthodox and plain upon the Trinity’s mystery that Scripture itself does not surpass him. Since he is an individual author, however, who perhaps knew more than his order generally, I shall for now set his authority aside. Their universal doctrine, on which I find them all agreeing, is this.

Emepht, their name for the supreme God—and truly they mean the real one—properly signifies an intelligence or spirit converting everything into himself and himself into everything. Rightly understood, this is very sound theology and philosophy. They say Emepht produced an egg from his mouth, a tradition Kircher explains both imperfectly and erroneously. In producing this egg another deity appeared, whom they call Phtha. From certain other natures and substances enclosed in the egg, Phtha formed everything. To speak a little more openly, we shall describe their hieroglyph, in which they have elegantly, though obscurely, disclosed most of their mysteries. First they draw a circle, and within it a serpent, not coiled but stretched at full length across its diameter. Its head resembles a hawk’s, its tail is tied in a small knot, and a little below the head its wings are outspread. The circle denotes Emepht, or God the Father: infinite, without beginning or end. It also comprehends or contains the second deity, Phtha, and the egg or chaos from which everything was made. In Egyptian symbols the hawk signifies light and spirit. Its head, here joined to the serpent,

represents Phtha, or the second Person, who is the first light, as we explained in our Anthroposophia. He is said to form everything from the egg because in him, as in a mirror, are certain types or images—the Father’s distinct conceptions—according to which creatures are formed through the Spirit’s cooperation, namely the Holy Ghost. The figure’s lower part signifies matter or chaos, called Emepht’s egg. To help you know it, we shall teach you something uncommon. The serpent’s body tells you it is a fiery substance: a serpent is full of heat and fire, which led the Egyptians to consider it divine. This appears in its swift movement without feet or fins, rather like the pulse, for its impetuous hot spirit propels it like a squib. There is another analogy: so strong is its natural heat that the serpent renews its youth and casts its old skin. Matter is truly a serpent, renewing herself in a thousand ways and never dwelling perpetually in the same form. The wings show that this subject or chaos is volatile and, in its outward constitution, airy and watery. To teach you the hieroglyph’s most secret likeness: chaos is a certain creeping substance, moving like a

serpent “without feet.” Indeed, Moses calls it not water but [New translation of the Latin:] “water’s creeping”; [Vaughan’s English:] “the creeping of water, or a water that creeps.” Finally, the knot in its tail tells you that this matter has a very strong composition, with its elements firmly bound together. Philosophers know all these things through experience. Regarding the affinity between lower and higher things, and their hidden, active love, which consists in certain secret mixtures of heaven with matter, their opinion is this. The sun, they say, is king in the vital fire of everything below; the moon is queen in their secret water; the five lesser planets rule their pure air, and the fixed stars their central, substantial earth. According to their doctrine, these lower things are provinces or thrones where those higher things sit ruling and supreme. Plainly speaking, heaven itself was originally extracted from lower things, yet not so completely that no portion of the heavenly natures remained below. Those portions have the very same essence and substance as the separated stars and skies. Heaven here below differs from heaven above only in captivity; heaven above differs from this below only in freedom. One is imprisoned in matter; the other freed from matter’s grossness and impurities. But both possess

one and the same nature and therefore readily unite. Hence the higher descends to visit and comfort the lower in this sickly, infectious dwelling. I could say much more, but I am in haste; even at leisure, I could not reasonably be expected to tell you everything. I shall therefore leave these general principles to say something about Egyptian practice, proving they were adept philosophers. The first monument I read of for this purpose is that of Synesius, a most learned and perceptive man. In Memphis’s temple he found [New translation of the Greek:] “stone books”; [Vaughan’s English:] “books of stone”; and in those hard leaves these difficult instructions:

[New translation of the Greek:] Nature delights in nature. Nature conquers nature. Nature rules nature.

[Vaughan’s English:] One nature delights in another; one nature overcomes another; one nature overrules another. These short lessons, of no small consequence, are attributed to the great Ostanes. The second monument is the admirable, most magical one mentioned by Barachias Abenesi the Arabian: another stone erected near Memphis, with this profound inscription:

[New translation of the Greek:] Heaven above, heaven below; Stars above, stars below; All that is above, all this is below. Grasp these things and be fortunate.

[Vaughan’s English:] Heaven above, heaven beneath; Stars above, stars beneath; All that is above is also beneath; Understand this, and be happy.

Beneath this were drawn certain appropriate hieroglyphs, followed by this dedicatory inscription. I find it only in Coptic characters; since our type lacks that alphabet, I must give it to you in Greek.

[New translation of the Greek:] Isias the high priest set this up for the gods enthroned together in Egypt.

[Vaughan’s English:] Isias the high priest erected this to the resident gods in Egypt.

192.Marah’s bitter waters recall Exodus 15:23. Wormwood and poppy distinguish corruption from oblivion in Vaughan’s imagery of an endangered stream of knowledge.

193.The equation of Emepht and Phtha with Christian divine Persons is Vaughan’s theological interpretation of the Egyptian material. The edition preserves his scheme without presenting it as an unmediated account of ancient Egyptian belief.

194.The serpent is described verbally: circle, straight body, hawk’s head, wings and knotted tail. No separate illustration is printed at this point in the source.

195.The “types or images” in the second Person serve as patterns of created things. The mirror analogy explains how distinction in creatures can be related to a unified divine source.

196.Heat, skin-shedding, volatility and creeping movement are separate correspondences. Vaughan reads them together to identify properties of chaos, rather than making the animal merely a single interchangeable emblem.

197.“Central, hypostatical earth” is rendered “central, substantial earth.” Hypostatical describes a subsisting or substantial basis here; it is not a modern geological classification.

198.Captivity and liberty explain the relation of heaven below and above: they share a nature but differ in condition. This principle also prepares the later language of the Emerald Tablet.

199.The Greek adjective before “books” is difficult in the historical type and is transcribed conservatively from the contemporary 1656 comparison image. Vaughan’s immediate “books of stone” makes the general sense secure; the edition does not silently supply a different complete Greek wording.

200.The three Greek formulas distinguish delight, conquest and rule. Vaughan’s English interprets the repeated “nature” relationally as one nature acting upon another; the fresh translation leaves the repetition visible.

201.The fresh Greek translation and Vaughan’s separate English version are both retained. The fourth line begins with the misprinted ΛΑΥΤΑ (LAUTA); the printed errata directs ΤΑΥΤΑ (TAUTA), “these things”. The modern translation follows that correction while the historical source preserves the uncorrected form. The third letter is the old curved upsilon, distinct from the following tau. The final imperative joins understanding to happiness or good fortune.

202.The author explicitly says his available type cannot print the Coptic characters. The Greek is therefore already a mediated presentation within the historical edition. Its final verb is abbreviated; the fresh English expands the sense “set up.” The place-name’s printed case ending is irregular. “Enthroned together” preserves the first Greek word’s shared-throne sense, while Vaughan gives “resident.”