9 Hermes, From the Discourse to Tat

⟨TAT⟩ In your earlier general discourses you promised to explain the thirty-six decans to me. Now explain them and their activity.

⟨HERMES⟩ I withhold nothing, Tat; this would be the most authoritative and highest of all discourses. Understand it in this way. We spoke to you about the zodiacal circle, also called the sign-bearing circle, and about the five planets, the sun, the moon, and the circle of each of them.⁶⁵⁰

9 Hermes: Preparing the image

⟨TAT⟩ You did indeed, Trismegistus.

⟨HERMES⟩ I want you to understand the thirty-six decans in the same way, remembering those earlier matters so that the account of these too may be clear to you.

⟨TAT⟩ I remember, father.

⟨HERMES⟩ We said, my child, that there is a body enclosing everything. Picture for yourself a circular shape, for that is how the universe is formed.

⟨TAT⟩ I picture such a shape just as you describe it, father.⁶⁵¹

9 Hermes: The place of the decans

⟨HERMES⟩ Beneath the circle of this body are stationed the thirty-six decans, between the circle of the universe ⟨and⟩ the zodiacal circle. They mark off both circles and, as it were, hold up that zodiacal circle [define its bounds], ⟨while⟩ moving along with the wanderers; they equal the power of the universe’s motion ⟨and⟩, in alternation, that of the seven.⁶⁵²

9 Hermes: Regulating the circles

They hold back the encompassing body, for by itself it would reach an extreme in the speed of its motion; but they hasten the other seven circles, because these move more slowly than the circle of the universe. Accordingly, they must move, as must ⟨the circle⟩ of the universe.⁶⁵³

9 Hermes: Guardians of order

Let us therefore conceive of them as guardians stationed around the circle of the seven and ⟨of the⟩ universe, or rather around everything in the world, holding all things together and preserving the good order of them all.

⟨TAT⟩ That is how I understand it, father, from what you say.⁶⁵⁴

9 Hermes: Unimpeded motion

⟨HERMES⟩ Understand further, Tat, that they are unaffected by what happens to the other stars. They are not checked in their course and brought to a standstill, nor hindered and made to move backward; nor are they hidden by the sun’s light, as the other stars are. Free above them all, like vigilant guardians and overseers of the universe, they encircle the all through the course of night and day.⁶⁵⁵

9 Hermes: Their action upon human beings

⟨TAT⟩ Then do these too, father, exert an influence upon us?

⟨HERMES⟩ The greatest, my child. If they act upon those stars, how could they fail to act upon us too, both upon each individual and upon us collectively? Thus, my child, the effective agency in everything that happens on a general scale comes from these: for example, consider what I say, changes of kingdoms, uprisings of cities, famines, plagues, ebbings of the sea, earthquakes. None of these, my child, occurs apart from their activity.⁶⁵⁶

9 Hermes: Daemons as activities

Consider this also: if these govern those, and we in turn are subject to the seven, do you not see that some activity of theirs reaches us too, either from the decans themselves or through the seven?

⟨TAT⟩ ⟨Then⟩ what ⟨might⟩ their bodily form be, father?

⟨HERMES⟩ Most people call these daemons. For daemons are not a distinct kind, possessing different bodies made from some matter of their own, nor moved by soul as we are; they are activities of these thirty-six gods.⁶⁵⁷

9 Hermes: The tanas

Consider also this effect of theirs, Tat: they sow in the earth those called tanas, some saving, others utterly destructive.⁶⁵⁸

9 Hermes: Subordinate stars

Stars moving in heaven also generate subordinate workers for them, ⟨whom⟩ they have as servants and soldiers. These, mingled by those others, are carried aloft in the aether, filling its region so that no place above is empty of stars. They help order the universe, possessing an activity of their own, yet one subordinated to the activity of the thirty-six. From them come the destruction of other ensouled creatures in the various regions, and the multitude of creatures that ravage crops.⁶⁵⁹

9 Hermes: The Bear and the daily turning

Beneath these is the so-called Bear, at the middle of the zodiac, consisting of seven stars, with another Bear as its counterpart above its head. Its action is like that of an axle: it neither sets nor rises anywhere, but remains in the same place, turning about that same point and producing the ⟨revolution⟩ of the sign-bearing circle, which hands this whole universe from night to day ⟨and⟩ from day to night.⁶⁶⁰

9 Hermes: An unnamed company

After this comes another company of stars, which we have not thought worthy of names; but those who come after us will themselves give them names by imitation.⁶⁶¹

9 Hermes: Perishable lights below the moon

Below the moon are other stars, perishable and inactive, which cohere for a short time, exhaled from earth itself into the air above it. We see them dissolve. Their nature resembles that of the useless creatures on earth, which come into being for nothing other than merely to perish, such as flies, fleas, worms, and other similar kinds.⁶⁶²

9 Hermes: Nature’s by-products

For those creatures, Tat, are useful neither to us nor to the world. On the contrary, they cause distress and trouble, being by-products of nature and owing their generation to its surplus. In the same way, the stars exhaled from earth do not reach the upper region, since they cannot do so when rising from below. Having great weight and being drawn downward by their own matter, they quickly disperse and, once dissolved, fall back to earth, having done nothing ⟨else⟩ but disturb the air above it.⁶⁶³