The Divine
Following are some quotations on the notion of the Divine. I do not use the word “God” because it has become associated with Christianity and usually engenders an image of an old white dude with a beard. I do not use any specific name, even if it really isn’t a name (viz. Allah), because people associate it with a specific religion and again, personify the word. “The Divine,” however, seems impersonal enough, in English anyway, so that people will think of a concept rather than a super-human.
As in the other pages, these are not in any order.
“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 supression of all the senses. “
(Corpus Hermeticum X, p. 31)
“And god, who is energy and power, surrounds everything and permeates everything, and understanding of god is nothing difficult, my child.”
(Corpus Hermeticum, XII, p. 47)
“If matter is apart from god, my son, what sort of place would you allot to it? If it is not energized, do you suppose it anything other than a heap? But who energizes it if it is energized? We have said that the energies are parts of god. By whom, then, are all living things made alive? By whom are immortals made immortal? Things subject to change – by whom are they changed? Whether you say matter or body or essence, know that these are also energies of god and that materiality is the energy of matter, corporeality is the energy of bodies and essentiality is the energy of essence. And this is god, the all.”
(Corpus Hermeticum, XII, p. 48)
“The everlasting god, god eternal, neither can nor could have come to be — that which is, which was, which always will be. This is the nature of god, then, which is wholly from itself.”
(Asclepius, p. 75)
“He [the Divine] is unnameable since [there is no one prior to him] to give him a name.”
(The Apocryphon of John, 15)
“For he [the Divine] is immortal and eternal, having no birth; for everyone who has birth will perish. He is unbegotten, having no beginning, for everyone who has a beginning has an end. No one rules over him. He has no name; for whoever has a name is the creation of another. He is unnameable. He has no human form; for whoever has human form is the creation of another. He has his own semblance — not like the semblance we have received and seen, but a strange semblance that surpasses all things and is better than the totalities. It looks to every side and sees itself from itself. He is infinite; he is incomprehensible. He is every imperishable (and) has no likeness (to anything). He is unchanging good. He is faultless. He is unknowable, while he (nonetheless) knows himself. Hi is immeasurable. He is untraceable. He is perfect, having no defect. He is imperishably blessed. He is called ‘Father of the Universe.’”
(Eugnostos the Blessed)
