The Sacred Discourse

The third book of Ficino's Pimander is the briefest tractate in the collection — a compressed sacred cosmogony, not a dialogue. Hermes speaks alone. From primordial darkness and water and a subtle intellectual spirit dwelling within divine power, a holy light breaks forth; the heavens arrange themselves in seven circles; the gods take their stations in the stars; and from the ordered cosmos, living things arise — culminating in humanity, made to contemplate the divine works, judge between good and evil, increase, and renew. The text ends with a statement that sounds almost paradoxical in its simplicity: divinity itself consists in yielding to nature.

This translation renders Book III from Ficino's Latin as preserved in the 1505 Lefèvre d'Étaples edition. The underlying text is designated Corpus Hermeticum III in modern scholarship.

The glory of all things is God. Divine — divine the nature. The principles of all things: God, Mind, Nature, Act, Necessity, End, and Renewal.

There was an infinite darkness in the deep. Above it, water; and a subtle intellectual spirit above that — within divine power, they lay in chaos. Then a holy splendour broke forth, and drew the elements down beneath the sand and the moist nature. And all the gods delighted in the seminal nature. When all things had been undistinguished, the gods rose up thereafter into an exalted region. The heavy things sank down beneath the moist sand. Divinity, and the things set in balance by it, borne on a fiery spirit, shone out as heaven in seven circles. The gods appeared in the forms of the stars, alongside their signs. The stars were counted according to those gods who inhabit them. The encompassing sphere, carried on its wider course by the airy circle, swept forward by the divine spirit. And each god, from his inward power, fulfilled the work assigned to him.

There arose living things: four-footed creatures, reptiles, the swimming and the flying alike. From seeding everywhere through seeds put forth — grass, herb, and the buds of flowers — each seed held within it the seed of regeneration.

The generation of humanity was given its portion: to bear witness to the divine works, to testify to nature, to rule over all things beneath heaven, to discern between good and evil, to multiply the race in number and propagation — every soul veiled beneath the shadow of the flesh — to look up at the discourse of the heavenly gods, to further the works of God and the advance of nature, to read the signs of the good, and to know the power of divinity. And a portion was given for judging between good and evil, and for discovering the varied arts of the good.

Life begins in them, and wisdom is born, by the portion of the gods' unceasing circuit. And they are resolved again into that in which broad monuments will stand — signs of the celestial workings upon earth, which those chosen ones shall renew in the renovation of the times: through the generation of grass, through the renewal of ensouled flesh, with the seeds of fruits and the works of nature and art worn away and made young again. Thus, through necessity and through renewal, through the circuit of the divine number of nature, through the total sympathy of the world, with nature flowering once more — for divinity itself consists in yielding to nature.

Colophon

Translated from Ficino's Latin Pimander as preserved in the 1505 Lefèvre d'Étaples edition: Contenta in hoc volumine. Pimander. Mercurij Trismegisti liber De sapientia et potestate dei. Asclepius. Eiusdem Mercurij liber De voluntate divina. Item Crater Hermetis a Lazarelo Septempedano (Rome, 1505). Digital text from the Internet Archive, identifier bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC, held by the National Central Library of Rome. Public Domain Mark 1.0.

This is Book III of Ficino's Pimander — the text Ficino designates Mercurii Sermo Sacer, corresponding to Corpus Hermeticum III in modern scholarship. The modern critical Greek edition (Nock and Festugière 1945) was not consulted; translation is derived independently from Ficino's Latin. G. R. S. Mead's 1905 English was consulted structurally after translation was complete; no passages were derived from it.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Mercurii Sermo Sacer — Liber III

Latin source text from Ficino's Pimander as preserved in the Lefèvre d'Étaples 1505 edition, accessed via the Internet Archive (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). Transcribed from the OCR text with corrections for long-s rendering (ſ → s), hyphenated line-breaks rejoined, and obvious OCR splits resolved.

Gloria omnium deus. Divinum, divina natura, principia universorum: deus, mens, natura, actus, necessitas, finis, et renovatio. Erat enim umbra infinita in abysso, aqua insuper et spiritus tenuis intellectualis, in divina potentia in chaos inerant. Floruit autem splendor sanctus, qui sub arena et humida natura elementa deduxit. Dique omnes seminale natura diligebant. Cumque indistincta fuissent: dei postmodo in excellam regionem migrarunt. Gravia sub arena humida resederunt. Divinitas libratisfque rebus, quae igneo spiritu vehebatur, emicuit caelum septem in circulos. Di in astrorum ideis, cum signis eorum conspiciebantur. Dinumeratae sunt stellae secundum eos qui inhabitant illas deos. Ambitus ampliore cursu suo, aereo circulo, conspirante divino spiritu vectus. Quisque deorum ex interna virtute ascripto sibi opus explevit. Nata sunt ergo viventia: quadrupedia, reptilia, aquatica simulatque, volatia. Satio ite omnis per semina pullulas: gramen, herbam, atque germina florum. Semen quodque regenerationis intrinsecus comprehendebat.

Generatio hominum ad divinorum operum congruonem, testimonioque naturae, ad imperandum omnibus quae caelo teguntur, ad bonorum discretionem, ad incrementum generis numero, propagine, omni anima velata carnis umbraculo: ad caelestium deorum discursum suspiciendum, ad opera dei et naturae progressus, ad bonorum signa, ad potentiae divinae cognitionem, portio quaedam tributa est ad bonorum malorumque iudicium ac bonorum varium artificium inveniendum. Incipit tamen in illis vivere, sapientiaque nasci, ad portionem continui cursus deorum circumeuntium. Resolvi praeterea in id in quo ampla extabunt monumenta, admonitione caelestium artificiorum super terra, his electis innovatione temporum, herbae generationeque carnis animatae (tabefactis seminibus fructuum opificisque naturae et artis) iuvenesce. Denique uti necessitate et renovatione deorum, cursuque circuli numerosi naturae divino, ac ipsa scilicet omnis conspiratione mundi, natura denuo florescente. Etenim ipsa divinitas: naturae damnum consistit.

Source Colophon

Latin source text drawn from Contenta in hoc volumine. Pimander. Mercurij Trismegisti liber De sapientia et potestate dei (Rome: Lefèvre d'Étaples, 1505), digitized by the National Central Library of Rome and made freely available on the Internet Archive (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). Public Domain Mark 1.0. OCR text corrected for long-s rendering (ſ → s) and standard Latin abbreviations expanded.

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