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Antecedents for Jesus' Ideas Part II - The Our Father, Particularly "On Earth As It Is in Heaven"
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Steefen
7786 Posts
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September 12, 2016 - 9:43 pm

First Hermes Trismegistus
Then Jesus:

“As Above, So Below”
Becomes
“As It Is Done in Heaven, Thy Will Be Done on Earth.”
[Thy will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven. – “The Our Father Prayer” / Mt 6, Lk 11]

= = =

A phrase like ‘As above, so below’ is used by writers and astrologers alike to explain why and how the world works.

The name of Hermes Trismegistus (Greek for ‘Hermes the thrice-greatest’) is a blending of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth.

In Hellenistic Egypt, the name of the god Hermes was given as a substitute for the Greek name of Thoth. He was the Egyptian god of the moon and of wisdom and learning, usually represented as having the head and neck of an ibis. In the Greek mythology Hermes was the messenger of the Gods. Both these gods were associated with writing and magic and after time they became more and more the same and took each others symbolism as well.

Beside the wide range of Hermetic writings there are also hits on the ** you do not have permission to see this link ** or Emerald Tablet. Sources as early as 500 AD report on this tablet and what it says. Legend has it that the tabula was found in a cave by Apollonius in Egypt (near Alexandria ?) in the first century AD, inscribed on a plate of emerald, held by the corpse of Hermes Trismegistus.

In other legends (told by Albertus Magnus), Alexander the Great found it (in the third century BC).[2]
This green tablet, sometimes called the tablet of Hermes, could even be one of the earliest works in alchemy in the world. I don’t think it is still around, but apparently on the tablet there were thirteen lines. The second line holds the ‘As above so below’-axioma that everyone refers to. [8,9]

The words “As above so below”
Quoted here is the version by Isaac Newton from circa 1680.
1. Tis true without lying, certain & most true.
2. That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing.
3. And as all things have been & arose from one by the meditation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation.
4. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother,
5. The wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nurse.
6. The father of all perfection in the whole world is here.

7. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth.
7a. Separate thou the earth from the fire,
{Separate the planets from the fiery Sun, Our Father, would be my interpretation, for now. – Steefen}
the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry.

8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven & again it descends to the earth and receives the force of things superior & inferior.
9. By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world & thereby all obscurity shall fly from you.
10. Its force is above all force, for it vanquishes every subtle thing & penetrates every solid thing.
11a. So was the world created.
12. From this are & do come admirable adaptations where of the means (or process) is here in this.

13. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.

14. That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished & ended.

-RadiantWoman
** you do not have permission to see this link **

= = =

Many writers, including Lactantius, Cyprian of Carthage,[8]Augustine,[9] Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno, Campanella, Sir Thomas Browne, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, considered Hermes Trismegistus to be a wise pagan prophet who foresaw the coming of Christianity.[10][11] St. Thomas Aquinas reported that Trismegistus arrived at something akin to the doctrine of the Trinity.

An account of how Hermes Trismegistus received the name “Thrice Great” is derived from the The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, wherein it is stated that he knew the three parts of the wisdom of the whole universe.[13] The three parts of the wisdom are alchemy, astrology, and theurgy.

Theurgy (/ˈθiːɜːrdʒi/; from Greek θεουργία, Theourgia) describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or evoking the presence of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself.

– Wikipedia’s entries for Hermeticism and theurgy

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