The Light of Hermes Trismegistus: New Translations of Seven Essential Hermetic Texts

Charles Stein is a poet and independent scholar with a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor's degree in ancient Greek from Columbia University. The author of several books of poetry, including From Mimir's Head, as well as literary works such as Persephone Unveiled and The Secret of the Black Chrysanthemum, he lives in Barrytown, New York. Preface Introduction The Text Itself Is the Secret Hermeticism Reconvened: A New Imagination of Intelligence Hermeneutics: The Further Life of the Text as Further Life of the God Mystical Union: Parmenides, Being, and a Divine Background to the Realm of the Gods Hodos Agnosia: The Way of Unknowing The Divine Background and Egypt Greece and Egypt A Pagan Theodicy? A God Is a Filter for Being Configuration The Incursive Moment One The Theogony of Hesiod Translated Text Commentary on the Theogony Making Gods, Making Worlds, Making Peoples, Making Poets The Middle Voice Self-Reference Primordial Xaos Genealogy, Logic, Chance The Titans Gender and the Gods Form upon Chaos Bardic Performance as Theophany More on the Divine Background Fate, Chance, Divination Intransitivity Atemporality and Eternity Two The Homeric Hymn to Hermes Translated Text Commentary on the Homeric Hymn to Hermes Hermes and Magic The Tortoise Lyre On the Practice of Conscious Listening Self-Reference in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes Further Notes on the Homeric Hymn to Hermes Three The Poem of Parmenides Translated Text Commentary on the Poem of Parmenides Parmenides as Mystic Everything That Seems Must Seem to Be (from Fragment 1) That Is (from Fragment 2) To Think IS (from Fragment 3) Indications (from Fragment 8) The One All NOW Resembling a well-rounded sphere (from Fragment 8) Four Egypt Eternal Egypt Egypt and Greece The Priest Is the God for Whom He Officiates The World as Inscription Thoth Our World as Counter Egypt The Continuum The Opening of Stone The Pyramid Five The Poimandres Translated Text Commentary on the Poimandres The Name Poimandres Initiation and Death Atemporal Essence and Inalienable Immediacy Go in Fear of the Reified Invariant Six The Chaldean Oracles Translated Text Commentary on the Chaldean Oracles The Configuration of Apparent Being in the Chaldean Oracles Telestics Theurgy The Double Womb of Hekate Flower of Mind A Certain Mind Thing: Poetics and Apophasis Hekate in Hesiod The Hounds of Hekate The Noetic Mandala: Synthemata and the Configuration of Correspondences Seven The Vision of Isis from the Metamorphoses of Apuleius Translated Text Commentary on The Vision of Isis Isis and Osiris Isis and the Moon Eros and Persephone Eight On Divine Virtue by Zosimos of Panopolis Translated Text Commentary on On Divine Virtue The Retroflection of Quality in Technical and Theoretical Hermetica The Dissociation of the Sensibility The Impossibility of Alchemy The Origin of Alchemy in Metallurgy The Emerald Tablet and the Language of Alchemy The Odyssey and Alchemy: Hermes and Odysseus Notes on the Greek Magical Papyri Magical Charge, Ritual Violence Language and Act Bibliography Index