Wednesday, March 25, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Ficino — Corpus Hermeticum
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Texts
Book II — Sermo UniversalisFicino's Latin rendering of the second book of the Corpus Hermeticum — a philosophical dialogue between Hermes Trismegistus and Asclepius on the nature of God, motion, the void, and the two names that belong to God alone.Book III — Sermo SacerFicino's Latin rendering of the third book of the Corpus Hermeticum — a brief sacred cosmogony: from primordial darkness and chaos, holy light breaks forth, the heavens arrange in seven circles, living things are made, and humanity arises to contemplate the divine and renew.Book IV — Crater seu MonasFicino's Latin rendering of the fourth book of the Corpus Hermeticum — the Mixing Bowl and the Monad. God fills a great bowl with mind and sends a herald: whoever can immerse themselves and believe the bowl will carry their soul back to its source. Those who hear become perfect; those who do not remain slaves of sensation.Book IX — Quod in Solo Deo Pulchrum ac BonumFicino's Latin rendering of the ninth book of the Corpus Hermeticum — that the beautiful and the good exist in God alone, nowhere else. A discourse to Asclepius on sense and understanding, the mind's two sources of seed (God and demons), the world as instrument of divine will, and God as the treasury of all existence.Book V — Quod Deus LatesFicino's Latin rendering of the fifth book of the Corpus Hermeticum — God hidden yet most manifest. Hermes teaches Tatius to see God through the ordered stars, through the body's architecture, through the world's very structure. The tractate closes with an ecstatic hymn: God better than all names, present in all things, himself all things.Book VI — Quod in Solo Deo Bonum EstFicino's Latin rendering of the sixth book of the Corpus Hermeticum — the Good exists in God alone. In the world there is only the name of the good, not its nature. Passions, generation, and matter contaminate every earthly good. Only God is truly good; only piety joined to knowledge can lead there.Book VII — Quod Summum Malum EstFicino's Latin rendering of the seventh book of the Corpus Hermeticum — the greatest evil for men is the ignorance of God. A vivid homiletic cry: mortals drunk on ignorance are called to sober themselves, find the light unmixed with darkness, and strip away the body's garment.Book VIII — Nihil Eorum InteritFicino's Latin rendering of the eighth book of the Corpus Hermeticum — nothing of what exists perishes; what men call death is only transformation. Addressed to Tatius, the book argues from the immortality of the world-animal downward to the nature of man as a third living thing connecting heaven and earth.Book X — Clauis ad TatiumFicino's Latin rendering of the tenth book of the Corpus Hermeticum — The Key, to Tatius. A compendium of all that preceded: God, Father, and Good share the same nature and act; the soul's transformations through the realms of existence; the three-part constitution of mind, soul, and spirit; man as earthly god who ascends to heaven while remaining on earth.Book XI — Mens ad MercuriumFicino's Latin rendering of the eleventh book of the Corpus Hermeticum — Mind to Mercury. A systematic teaching on the five-fold chain from God to generation; the unity of the maker; God's work as life, beauty, and good; the soul meditation ascending through all space to become eternity; and God's visibility in all things.Book XII — De CommuniFicino's Latin rendering of the twelfth book of the Corpus Hermeticum — On the Common. Mind as God in humans; the good daemon's declaration that gods are immortal humans and men are mortal gods; soul's corruption by pleasure and pain; mind's healing struggle against the soul; fate and the soul's superiority over it; speech and mind as man's divine gifts; the good daemon's hierarchy from God to matter; the world as the great God; nothing dies — composites only dissolve; and the single worship: not to be evil.