"Hermes, the Buddha and the Christ [have said]: 'I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD' (p.58).... Hermes was the first to proclaim Himself as 'the Light of the World' (p.104)" The Reappearance of the Christ
There are very few references to Hermes in the AAB's books. This is in itself surprising if in fact Hermes was the first to proclaim Himself as the Light of the World, a most significant revelation indeed. The subject of Light is extensively addressed in the AAB's book Glamour: A World Problem, but no reference is made to Hermes except for the brief but significant allusion made in the book Externalisation of the Hierarchy (p.39).
Mrs. (Dr.) Anna Kingsford's translations and compilations of the Hermetic Fragments are integral part of HPB's Secret Doctrine (SD, 1888 edition). "We hold to Hermes and his Wisdom in its universal character," HPB asserted in an argument against materialist scientists (SD I,p.279). "Hermes Trismegistus is the name of Hermes or Thoth in his human aspect, as a god he is far more than this," HPB stated in her Theosophical Glossary (1892 edition). However, the initial task of deciphering the real import of Hermetic Teachings, the religion of the Mind, was left to George Robert Stow Mead (GRSM).
The extant Greek Trismegistic literature that GRSM reviewed was comprised of: the Corpus Hermeticum (including the Poimandres), the Perfect Sermon or the Asclepius (an old Latin version), excerpts by the 5th century Pagan scholar John Stobaeus (including the Virgin of the World), references and fragments in the Church Fathers, and references and fragments in the Greek philosophers. The original literature was presumably lost in Alexandria.
The three-volume scholarly treatise, "Thrice Greatest Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis, being a translation of the extant sermons and fragments of the Trismegistic literature with prolegomena commentaries and notes" (TGH) by GRSM is a most comprehensive account of the Hermetic Teachings. GRSM's purpose in writing this treatise was "the scientific study of the Origins of the Christian Faith" and its relation to "the holy of holies of the Wisdom of Ancient Egypt." (TGH, Vol I)
GRSM reminds us that the Egyptians believed in the existence of a Celestial Egypt. "As the Hindus had a Heavenly Ganges and an earthly Ganges, so had the heavens a Celestial Nile, and Egypt a physical Nile, the life giver of the land. The yearly inundation was observed with great minuteness, and recorded with immense pains, the basis of its cycle being the Sothiac or Siriadic; Sirius (Seirios) being called in Greek transliteration Sothis and Seth. Sirius was the guardian star of Egypt." (TGH, Vol I)
Hermes was "the personification of the Mind of God, the Supreme Master of Wisdom. His religion was essentially the Religion of the Light. As Light was the Father of the Religion of Illumination (the Mysteries of the Light and of a divine Birth), so was Life, his consort, the Mother of the Religion of Joy." (TGH, Vol I)
"We have three epochs of tradition of the Egyptian mystery-cultus: (i) the first Thoth or Agathodaimon (Good Mind), the original tradition preserved in the sacred language and character of the Seriadic land, presumably the Egypt prior to the Atlantic flood; (ii) the second Thoth, the Thrice-greatest (Hermes Trismegistus), the mystery school after the period of the great inundation, whose records and doctrines were preserved not only in inscriptions but also in manuscripts still written in the sacred character, but in the Egyptian tongue as it was spoken after the people reoccupied the country; and (iii) Tat, the son of Hermes Trismegistus. Here we have the precise grading of the degrees: (i) The Shepherd of Men, or the Mind; (ii) Thrice-greatest (Hermes Trismegistus); (iii) Tat. This refers to the ever present distinction between pupil and master, and the Master of masters." (TGH, Vol I)
Hermes, according to GRSM's account, is Thoth, "the Logos in the highest meaning of the term and in the fullest sense of that mysterious name, the Creative Word. The Cosmic Logos is not the sensible cosmos, but the Mind thereof. This Logos is Life and Light. This Word or Logos is further symbolised among phenomena as the sun. The spiritual sun is the Divine Reason -the intelligible Model of the sun that moves in heaven" (TGH, Vol I)
"Hermes was considered to be the heart and tongue of Ra the Supreme. He is the Tongue of Ra, the Herald of the Will of Ra, and the Lord of Sacred Speech. He it is who utters the words whereby the Will of the Supreme is carried into effect; his words are the compelling orders of the Creative Will." (TGH, Vol I)
According to the Poimandres cosmogony, "Atum is really the Primal God; but the God-circle, his Body or Pleromas, consists of Eight different Forms of Ptah (Demiurge or Demiurgic Mind). Atum has emanated them; he is therefore 'he who creates himself'; but equally so has Ptah created Atum and himself. The most important Member of this universal Ptah-Being or Cosmic God is Ptah the Great, who is Heart and Tongue -the former as Horus, the latter as Thoth. Thoth (Mind and Word) proceeds into manifestation as Tongue or Word to accomplish the cosmic purpose. Thoth and Horus are inseparably united with Ptah. It was Ptah who carried out the commands concerning the creation of the universe issued by Thoth, the master architect. Ptah is the executive power of Thoth." (TGH, Vol I)
According to AAB's Treatise on Cosmic Fire (TCF), "The cosmic Logos of our system works through three major systems (of which ours is not one), utilising seven solar systems (of which ours is one), having myriads of sevenfold groups as the cells of His body (TCF, 353). Furthermore, that inscrutable Cosmic Parabraham, the "One About Whom Naught May Be Said," contains "seven Cosmic Logoi each containing seven Solar Logoi" (TCF, 344). Presumably, the Solar Logos to Whom our Planetary Logos belongs is part of the Cosmic Logos Who contributes the cosmic heart center to the One About Whom Naught May Be Said [OAWNMBS]. "The centre in the cosmic body of the ONE ABOUT WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID of which our solar Logos is the embodied force is the heart centre" (TCF, 511). This is one of the clues to the mystery of electricity, we are told.
It is possble that Sirius, although not one of the "three major systems" through which the OAWNMBS works right now, is ITS cosmic heart center. "Our [solar, JB] Logos Himself is on the cosmic astral plane (TCF 570)... The system of the Sirian Logos is on the cosmic mental plane (TCF 571)... Our [solar, JB] Logos forms part of the Consciousness of the Logos of Sirius. In His turn, the Sirian Logos forms one of the seven Grand Heavenly Men [Cosmic Logoi, JB], who are the centres in the body of ONE ABOUT WHOM NAUGHT MAY BE SAID" (TCF 572).
"[The Sun Sirius] is to our solar Logos what the Monad is to the spiritual man" (Rays & Initiations, p.413). Likewise, we are also told that "the consciousness of the cosmic mental plane is the logoic goal of attainment, and that the Sirian Logos is to our solar Logos what the human Ego is to the personality" (TCF 592).
Hermes (the first Thoth), as portrayed by GRSM, may very well represent the "Presence" or "Jewel in the Lotus" within the causal body of our solar Logos. The causal body of a solar Logos always lies in the cosmic mental plane (TCF 344), wherein resides, we are told, the Sirian Logos. Therefore, Hermes may be construed as the cosmic Christ principle to our solar system, the "heart of the Supreme", of which the Sun Sirius is the external symbol and manifestation.
The Sirian Logos also represents what the Monad is to the spiritual man. As the cosmic Monadic plane is the abode of the cosmic Logoi (TCF 344), we may conclude that Hermes, the Sirian Logos, is only temporarily focusing its energies in the causal body of our solar Logos, actually being the Monad or cosmic Logos to the spiritual solar Logos. "The microcosm reproduces the solar system in miniature... The parallel is exact" (TCF 261-2).
Hermes (the first Thoth), as portrayed by GRSM, also represent the Word or Logos, "the tongue of the Supreme." The Logos concept proposed by Philo and shared by Christianity ("In the Beginning was the Word") was most likely derived from the original Hermetic Teachings, according to GRSM. The postulate "that all that exists is based on sound or on the Word" is one of the "fundamental facts" of cosmogony (Letters Occult Meditation, p.51). The logoic Breath, Sound and Word are the cosmic architects of manifestation, the initial AUM (TCF 926-7), of which Hermes is the Creative Word. The Ptah of Hermeticism is related to the "seven syllabed Word" which precede the "logoic mantram of 35 stanzas", the "poem of forty-two verses" and the "logoic Book of Life" which "exists in forty-nine chapters" (TCF 929).
The order given in "Hermes, the Buddha and the Christ" (Reappearance of Christ, p.58) is illuminating. As the Buddha is related to the sign of Taurus and the Christ to the sign of Gemini, it seems plausible to postulate that Hermes is intimately related to the sign of Aries. The esoteric keynote of Aries is: "I come forth and from the plane of mind, I rule" (Esoteric Astrology, p.108), an appropriate keynote for the "religion of the Mind" and a key to deepen our understanding of the first stanza of the Great Invocation relating mind and light.
According to GRSM, "Hermes taught Isis the words which enabled her to revivify the dead body of Osiris, in such way that Osiris could beget a child by her... All of which refers microcosmically to the mystery of the resurrection from the dead, by the power of the Logos. Osiris must die before he can be raised, and beget a son (Horus), who is himself, by immaculate conception within his own spiritual nature" (TGH, Vol I). This may be the mystery reenacted each Easter season under the influence of Aries, wherein "the forces of restoration emanate from the Mind of God" (Reappearance of Christ, p.92). "The great mystery of Egypt was the second birth, the Birth of Horus, whose hieroglyph was the golden hawk, who flies nearest to the sun, and gazes upon it with unwinking eyes, a fit symbol for the newborn, the man-illuminate. In the Teaching of Egypt, around the radiant being, which in its regenerate life could assimilate itself to the glory of the Godhead, was formed the khaibit, or luminous atmosphere, consisting of ethereal envelopes, at once shading and diffusing its flaming lustre." (TGH, Vol I)
Foster Bailey states that "the Gayatri is one of the oldest mantric prayers humanity has ever had...The Gayatri is a prayer for more knowledge about our solar Logos" (Reflections, p.119-20). Maybe its meaning could be better understood in the Light of the Hermetic tradition.
The Gayatri
O Thou Who givest sustenance to the universe,
From Whom all things proceed,
To Whom all things return,
Unveil to us the face of the true Spiritual Sun
Hidden by a disc of golden Light
That we may know the Truth
And do our whole duty
As we journey to Thy sacred feet.