A recent Eastern Orthodox critic has tried to argue that the Latter-day Saint understanding of theosis (“robust deification”) is similar to that one finds in the Hermetic tradition(!) However, if one reads such texts and the scholarship one will realize that this is false: such texts teach self-deification and other theological concepts alien to Latter-day Saint theology. Consider the following:
“CH 1: The
Poimandres of Hermes Thrice Great”:
21. “You have correctly understood with your higher consciousness, my
friend. What about the saying spoken by God: “the one who recognizes oneself
with the higher consciousness goes into the self”?
I reply: “Because the Father of the universe is composed of light and
life, and from him Humanity came.”
“It’s better to say that God the Father is light and life, and from him
came Humanity. So if you learn that he is from life and light and you as well,
you will proceed again into life.” Thus Poimandres spoke. “But tell me still
how I will proceed into life, my Consciousness?
For God says: ‘Let the human with higher consciousness self-recognize.’
(“CH 1: The Poimandres of Hermes Thrice Great,” in Hermetica, 2 vols.
[trans. M. Davis Litwa; Melbourne: Australia, Gnosis, 2015, 1:[19], EPUB
Version)
Litwa’s
commentary on the above:
The end goal of humanity is to realize the divine nature of humanity.
Hermetic deification is self-deification. It is a matter of self-recognition
(1.21). One recognizes one’s fundamental essence as life and light—which is
itself the activation of the higher essence. It is incredibly simple—almost too
simple. And though one can recognize one’s true self, that’s only the first
step in detaching from the false self—the darkness of matter, and the
fluctuations of negative emotions. (M. David Litwa, Hermetica, 2 vols. [Melbourne,
Australia: Gnosis, 2015], 1:[27], EPUB Version)
“CH 10: The
Key of Hermes Thrice Great”:
Closing Exhortation
22. So, my child, one should be thankful and ask God to obtain higher
consciousness in all its beauty so that our soul crosses into something
superior, not inferior. There is a communion of souls. The souls of gods and of
humans commune with each other, and human souls can commune with the souls of
non-rational animals. The superior animals care for the inferior: gods take
care of people, people take care of nonrational animals, and God takes care of
all, for he is superior to all, and all are under God.
So the cosmos is subordinate to God, humanity to the cosmos, non-reasoning
animals to humanity, but God is over all and surrounds all, and the energies of
God surround the world like rays. The energies of the cosmos are natural
forces, and the energies of humanity are technical skills and fields of
knowledge. Now the energies operate throughout the cosmos and on human beings
through the natural rays of the cosmos, while the natural forces operate
through the elements, and humans operate through technical disciplines and
fields of knowledge.
23. Now this is the government of the universe, dependent on the nature
of the one and pervading through the single higher consciousness. Nothing is
more divine and energizing than this, or more able to unite humans with gods
and gods with humans. This is the good spirit: a blessed soul, full of higher
consciousness, which is lacking in an unfortunate soul.”
“Again, what do you mean, father?”
“Do you suppose, my child, that every soul has higher consciousness as
its good? Our discourse is about consciousness, not its aforementioned servant,
(the soul), sent down by Justice.
24. For a soul without higher consciousness cannot say or accomplish
anything, for often the higher consciousness stands out from soul and in that
hour the soul neither sees nor hears, but is like a non-rational animal. So
great is the power of higher consciousness, though it cannot bear a sluggish
soul, but leaves such a soul behind [once it has been] attached to the body and
choked by it here below.
Such a soul, my child, has no higher consciousness, so one cannot even
call it human, for the human is a divine animal and not mixed with the other
animals on earth, but with the gods said to be in heaven above. But if it is
necessary to rashly speak the truth, humanity is actually above these (star
gods), or at least in every way equal (to them) in power.
25. None of the heavenly gods will come to earth, leaving the boundary
of heaven; but humanity rises up to heaven, measures it and knows the sorts of
things on high and below, and accurately learns about all other things,
and—what is best of all—humanity rises above without leaving earth. Such is the
greatness of humanity’s ability to keep stretching. And so, one must dare to
say that the human on earth is a dying god, and the god in heaven is a
deathless human. Accordingly, all things are governed by two beings: the cosmos
and humanity, and all things are subject to the one. (“CH 10: The Key of Hermes
Thrice Great,” in Hermetica, 2 vols. [trans. M. David Litwa; Melbourne,
Australia: Gnosis, 2015], 1:[188-90], EPUB Version)
“CH 11:
Higher Consciousness to Hermes”
God in All and As All
16. (The cosmos) contains all forms, not having the forms embedded,
but changes them in itself. So if the cosmos is omniform, what will its creator
be? For he can’t be without form—perish the thought! If then he is omniform, he
will be equal to the cosmos. If, alternatively, God has one form, in this
respect he will be inferior to the cosmos. So what then do we call him, so that
we don’t make a confused argument? No thought about God is impoverished. God
has a (single) form, and he shows it through all bodies.
17. Now do not wonder if God’s form is bodiless, for it is just like
the form of a (spoken) word. You can see mountains sticking out in paintings,
though they are smooth by nature and entirely flat.
Think about what I’m saying with your consciousness. It’s rather bold,
but all the more true: just as humanity cannot live without life, so also God
cannot be good if God does not create, for creation is, as it were, God’s life
and movement: to move and to enliven everything.
18. Some of what I say requires you to think hard. Apply your
consciousness to the kind of thing I say now. All things are in God, not as
though lying in a place, for place is a body and body is unmoved, and what lies
still has no motion.
In another sense, all things lie in (God’s) bodiless imagination.
Contemplate with your consciousness what surrounds all things and understand
that nothing confines what is bodiless, nor is it swifter or more powerful.
What is bodiless is unconfined, swifter, and more powerful than all.
19. Activate your higher consciousness on your own. Order your soul to
travel to India, and it will be there faster than your command. Order it to
cross the ocean, and again it will swiftly come to pass—not as crossing from
place to place—but because your soul is already there. Order your soul to fly
up into heaven and it will not need wings. In fact, nothing stands in its
way—not the Sun’s fire, not aether, not the cosmic sphere, and not the bodies
of the other stars. It will fly by them, cutting through all things, until (it
reaches) the furthest body. And if you want to break through the universe and
behold what’s outside it (if there is anything outside it), you can do it.
20. Observe how much power, how much speed you have! So you can do all
things, but God cannot? Therefore, think this way about God, as if he has all
thoughts in himself, along with the cosmos, himself, and the universe.
Unless you make yourself equal to God, you will not be able to
contemplate God in your consciousness. For like is understood by like. Grow
yourself to an immeasurable size, leap out of every body, go beyond all time,
become eternity, and the you will be conscious of God! Assume that nothing is
impossible for you. Consider yourself deathless and able to contemplate all
things—every skill, every science, every trait of every animal. Become higher
than all height and lower than all depth. Conceive every sensation of what is
made in yourself, the (feeling) of fire, of water, of dryness, of moisture, of
being everywhere at once: on earth, in the sea, in heaven, before your birth,
in the womb, as young, as old, as dead, as beyond death. Understand everything:
times places, things, qualities, quantities, and you can understand God.
But if you lock up your soul in your body and abase it and say, ‘I
understand nothing, I can do nothing, I fear the sea, I can’t rise to heaven, I
don’t know who I am, or who I will be’—what do you have to do with God? As a
lover of the body, you cannot grasp anything beautiful and good.
For the perfect vice is to be ignorant of God. The ability to know, to
will, and to hope is the straight path which leads through the Good, and it’s
easy. As you travel everywhere, (God) will be seen everywhere, where and when
you don’t expect: in waking, in sleeping, in sailing, in traveling, whether by
night, by day, in talking and in being silent. There is nothing which is not
(God).
22. Then you say, ‘God is invisible’? Use reverent language! Who is
more visible than God? God made everything for this purpose: so that you see
God through everything. This is the Goodness of God, this is his excellence,
that he appear through all. For nothing is invisible, not even bodiless things.
For the higher consciousness is seen by insight, and God is perceived in
creation.
Such and so much has been revealed to you, Thrice Great. Use your
consciousness to consider all other things in yourself, and you will not be
deceived. (“CH 11: Higher Consciousness to Hermes,” in Hermetica, 2
vols. [trans. M. David Litwa; Melbourne, Australia: Gnosis, 2015], 1:[164-66], EPUB
Version)
Commentary
on CH 10 and CH 11:
The excitement about soaring to heaven is most reminiscent of what we
find in CH 11:
|
CH 10.25 |
CH 11.20 |
|
“humanity rises up to heaven, measures it and knows the sorts of
things on high and below, and accurately learns about all other things, and—what
is best of all—humanity rises above without leaving earth.” |
“Go higher than every height and lower than every depth. Collect in
yourself all the sensations of what has been made . . . be everywhere at
once: on land, in the sea, in heaven.” |
In CH 10, deification is initially a form of daimonification, for the
nous is specifically said to become a daimon (§21; Litwa 2021: 45- 73,
115-132). Here again there is a connection with the Kore Kosmou, where the
souls are originally “sacred daimones” (SH 23.19). In flying up to heaven, we
are only rising to our natural station and to our original fiery or astral
platform. In this place and state, our fiery bodies fit our noetic identities
and “we,” no longer human, finally come home. (M. David Litwa, Hermetica,
2 vols. [Melbourne, Australia: Gnosis, 2015], 1:[194-95], EPUB Version)
