The Prayer of Hermes Trismegistus
This prayer occurs in the Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus, the semi-divine authority to whom most of the Hermetic writings are ascribed by their anonymous authors. It is a hymm to the highest God who is without attributes. Hermes makes the vital philosophical point in the prayer that only suitable sacrifice to this supreme divinity is inner stillness. This is a profound mytical insight.
The Earliest version of the hymn occurs in an Egyptian collection of Christian prayers on a scroll of papyrus dating from the 3rd century. However Hermes was not a Christian. His sophisticated understanding of the essential nature of God and the universe makes much early Christian theology seem niave and simplistic by comparison. Not surprisingly, the early Christian fathers raided the Hermetic books for ideas that they could turn to their own purposes. The prayer is thought to have been originally written sometime during the 2nd century.
Prayer of Hermes Trismegistus
Face the south. Raise your hands wide in a gesture of supplication with your palms forward and gaze southward into infinity. Speak the first verse:
Holy is God, the Father of All.
Holy is God, the Will become Law.
Holy is God, the Lamp of Love.
Place you left hand over your heart-center and, with your right index finger, inscribe at heart level the Hebrew letter of Yod so that it floats upon the air in the south. Put your palms together in a gesture of prayer over your heart and contemplate the south for a few moments.
Turn to the west. Raise your arms in supplication to the west and look into the infinite distance. Speak the second verse:
Holy art Thou, the Word into Flesh.
Holy art Thou, the Shaper of Mountains.
Holy art Thou, by Nature no formed.
With your left hand over your heart-center, inscribe largely the Hebrew letter He in the west using your right index finger. Join your palms in prayer over your heart and contemplate the west.
Turn to the North. Raise your arms in supplication and look northward into infinity. Speak the third verse:
Holy art Thou, Power beyond knowing.
Holy art Thou, Worth beyond measure.
Holy art Thou, above all praises.
With your left hand upon your heart, inscribe largely with your right index finger the Hebrew letter Vau in the air to the north at heart level. Join your palms together in a gesture of prayer over your heart-center and contemplate the north.
Turn to the east. Raise your arms in supplication and look eastward into infinity. Speak the fourth verse:
Accept this sacrifice from a pure soul and a yearning heart. Ye Nameless! Ye Formless! I praise Thee with Silence.
With your left hand upon your heart, inscribe lagrely in the air to the east the Hebrew letter He using your right index finger. Join your palms in a gesture of prayer over your heart-center and contemplate the east for a few moments.
Then place your left hand upon your heart and raise your right index finger to your lips in a gesture of silence. Cross your hands and forearms upon your breast at the wrists with your fingers extended stiffly. Bow your head and try to still all movement within yourself, even your thoughts. Present this stillness, a sacrifice of the mind, to God.
Turn back to the south. Raise your arms heavenward with the palms up and fingers spread wide in a gesture of invocation. Look up into the infinite space above you. Speak the fifth verse:
Shed down Thy Light upon me; show down Thy Light to the dark corners of the Earth.
I Believe In Thee and bear They witness. I will walk with Thee into Fire.
Blessed art Thou, Lord of Creation, All in One and One in All.
With your left hand to your heart-center., inscribe upon the air over your head the Hebrew letter Shin using your right index finger. Place your palms together in a gesture of prayer over your heart and contemplate the heavens.
Raise your hands still joined to your forehead and press the second segments of your thumbs against the domed part of your skull, where it curves outward just below the hairline. Speak the word:
Amen.
Lower your joined hands to your face and touch the end segments of your index fingers to your lips. Speak the word:
Amen.
Lower your joined hands to the level of your heart-center. Press the base pars of your thumbs against your sternum. Speak the word:
Amen.
Allow your hands to fall to your sides, and spend a few moments visualising the five letters of the name that represents spirit incarnated into human flesh as the letters flame upon the air all around you.
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