On Regeneration and the Imposition of Silence — Trismegistus to Tatius

The thirteenth book of Ficino's Pimander is addressed to Tatius — and it carries the most closely guarded secret in the entire Hermetic corpus. Tatius reminds his father that in the common discourses he spoke of divinity only through riddles, and that he once promised, on a mountain, to reveal the manner of regeneration when Tatius was ready. The time has come. Trismegistus declares that the mystery cannot be taught — only revealed through divine will. The regenerate person is translated into an immortal body, freed from the twelve tormentors that bind mortal humanity through the prison of the flesh: ignorance, grief, desire, injustice, lust, deception, envy, fraud, anger, rashness, and malice. In their place, ten divine powers descend: knowledge of God, knowledge of joy, constancy, temperance, justice, moderation, truth, the Good, life, and light. The decad drives out the duodecad, and the intellectual generation is complete.

The climax of the book is the Hymn of Regeneration — sung in the open air, facing south at sunset and east at sunrise — a prayer to the creator of all, calling on earth and heaven to hear, invoking the powers to sing in concert: "O life, O light: from you blessing runs to us." Tatius, illuminated by his father's song, burns with the love of singing and offers his own sacrifice of words. The book closes with Trismegistus imposing silence: the mystery of regeneration must not be communicated to anyone, lest they be thought slanderers. Ficino appends a remarkable Christian scholion, identifying the Hermetic regeneration directly with baptismal rebirth through the Son of God.

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

In the common discourses, father, you treated of divinity through certain riddles and without clear explanation, asserting that no one could attain salvation before regeneration. When you were ascending the mountain, I stood before you as a suppliant, beseeching that you reveal to me at some time the manner of regeneration — for that alone remained for me to learn. Then at last you promised to reveal it when I should be estranged from the world. Behold, I am now prepared, father — I have shaken off from my mind the deceptions of the world. Keep then your promises. Disclose the manner of regeneration, openly or in secret, as you please. I know not, O Trismegistus, from what matter or from what seed man is born.

TRISMEGISTUS: O son — wisdom contemplative in silence: its seed is the true Good.

TATIUS: Who sows it, father? For this I do not know.

TRISMEGISTUS: The will of God, my son.

TATIUS: And of what kind is the one who is not begotten? For he is without intelligible essence. But if it were otherwise, the one who is begotten would be a god — the son of God.

TRISMEGISTUS: All in all you fuse, from all powers.

TATIUS: You speak in riddles, father, and do not speak with me as a father does with his son.

TRISMEGISTUS: This kind, my son, is not taught. The Word, whenever it wills, through a certain insinuation, is brought back to the memory of God.

TATIUS: You assert impossibilities — things too violent. I therefore wish to contradict.

TRISMEGISTUS: You are very far from your father's kind, Tatius.

TATIUS: Do not begrudge me, father — I am your legitimate son. Come, I beg: teach me the manner of regeneration.

TRISMEGISTUS: What shall I say, my son? I have nothing to say beyond this: I behold a true spectacle, already granted to me by the benignity of God — whence I have been translated into an immortal body, and I am no longer who I was before, but have recently been made Mind. This mystery is not taught. See this element, formed, through which one may see — through which the first composite form has been set aside by me: not that I possess color or touch or limit, for from these I am now estranged.

TATIUS: You have driven me to frenzy and madness of mind, O father, by excessive thought. At present I do not even see myself —

[A passage of approximately ten to fifteen sentences is irrecoverable from the 1505 OCR text at this point, due to column confusion in the digitized scan. In the standard text, Trismegistus explains that the regenerate person sees through the powers, not through bodily eyes; he describes the zodiacal tent of the body; and the twelve tormentors are explicitly named. Ficino's scholion at the end of this book confirms the twelve as: ignorance, sorrow, desire, injustice, lust, deception, envy, fraud, anger, rashness, and malice — with a possible twelfth (incontinence) that the scholion subsumes under another term.]

— and malice. These indeed are twelve in number; under them many others are contained, which through the prison of the body compel the enclosed, sorrowful man to suffer from their servitude. But these are absent from the one who relies on the clemency of God. And thus is constituted the manner and discourse of regeneration.

Henceforth be silent, my son, and praise God in silence; and in this way the divine clemency shall never depart from us.

Rejoice henceforth, my son: for by divine power you have been elevated to the contemplation of truth.

The knowledge of God has descended into us. At its coming, ignorance has been repelled.

The knowledge of joy has descended into us. At its presence, sorrow has utterly fled.

They turn toward those who are prepared to receive them. I call the power that leads to joy: constancy — whose force is without doubt most sweet. Let us therefore embrace it most gladly, my son: for when it is first present, it utterly expels all softness.

The fourth I now call temperance: the force that conquers all lusts. This step, my son, is the foundation of justice.

See how, upon its arrival, it has by its works expelled injustice. We have been made just, my son, injustice being absent.

The sixth I call the power descending into us: moderation — that is, fortification against excess. When this at last departs, I invoke truth; deception flees at once; truth is present.

See how the good is perfected, with truth present. For envy has departed from us; for the good is innate to truth, together with life and light — and no further has the avenger approached. Truly, all the avengers have been repelled by a sudden impulse.

You have understood, my son, the manner of regeneration itself: the decad being present, the intellectual generation is composed, which rejects the duodecad. And this we have observed from the generation itself. Whoever therefore, through the benignity —

The body that belongs to sensible nature differs very far from essential generation. The one is dissoluble; the other indissoluble. That one mortal; this one immortal. Do you not know that you have been born both a god and one son?

TATIUS: How I wish, O father, to hear that harmony — through the hymn which you said you heard from the powers while I was in the Ogdoad.

TRISMEGISTUS: The Ogdoad, my son, Pimander himself sang. Whence it is fitting for you to dissolve the shadow, for that Pimander is pure — the mind of divine power. He opened to me no more than what has been written, thinking I would search out the rest myself. He exhorted me to beautiful works, from which all the powers within me sing in harmony.

TATIUS: O father, I would wish to hear and understand these things.

TRISMEGISTUS: Be still, my son, be still I say — you shall now hear the harmonic song, the hymn of regeneration, which I would never so easily disclose if I did not trust it would profit you. This is not taught, but is hidden in silence. See me, good son: observe each thing carefully. For thus it befits you also, when praying in the open air, at the setting of the sun to turn your face to the south, and at its rising to the east.

The Hymn of Regeneration

Let all the nature of the world hear this hymn.

Hear, O earth. Hear, O whirlwinds of the rains. I, the highest of creatures, am the creator of all — the whole and one.

Hear, O heavens. Be still, O winds. Let the immortal circle of God hear this prayer.

I sing now the creator of all things — the distributor of lands, the balancer of heaven — who commands sweet water to flow from the ocean on all sides for the nourishment of humankind, who commands fire to shine from above for the works of men and gods.

Let us give thanks, all men with one voice — born from the heavens, created of nature. Here is the mind's eye; here let it gladly receive the blessing of the powers.

Praise him, all forces — the one and all.

Sound in harmony, all powers of my soul.

O holy Knowledge, shining with your light — through you, singing the intelligible light, I exult with joy of mind. All powers, sing with me together.

Constancy, sing with me. My justice: through me, let it sing the just. My communion: let it praise the All itself. Through me let truth sing truth. Our good: let it sing the good at last.

O life, O light: from you blessing runs to us.

I give you thanks, Father — act of all powers. I give you thanks, God — power of all acts. Let your Word praise through mind. Through me the world receives this sacrifice of words. My powers cry out: they sing the All; they fulfill your will.

Your will, from you to all. Receive the sacrifice of words from all.

O life: save all that is in me. O light: illuminate all. Spirit God. Your Word guides me, O spirit-bearing maker. You alone are God. Your man cries these things: through fire and through air, through water and through earth, through spirit and through all creatures.

From eternity I have found blessing: may I rest in desire within your will.

TATIUS: I know, father, this hymn sung by you from the affection of will; whence I have reached the world — into it.

TRISMEGISTUS: Say the intelligible world, my son.

TATIUS: The intelligible, I say, father. For from your song my mind is illuminated. Whence it happens that I too burn with the love of singing.

TRISMEGISTUS: O my son Tatius — do not sing divine praises without purpose.

TATIUS: I shall sing from the mind, my father.

TRISMEGISTUS: All that I contemplate I pour into you, O progenitor of generation, Tatius.

TATIUS: I offer to God the sacrifices of words. O God — you are father, you are lord, and you are mind: receive the sacrifices of words which you require from me. By your will all things are accomplished.

TRISMEGISTUS: I offer, my son, a sacrifice pleasing to God the father: be attentive to your prayer.

TATIUS: I thank you, father, that you wished to declare these things to me.

TRISMEGISTUS: I rejoice, my son, that many good things have shone upon you. The fruit of this end shall be immortal works. This you shall learn from me: announce the silence of virtue; communicate to no one the mystery of regeneration, lest we be reckoned as slanderers. Each of us has meditated sufficiently: I learning, you conducting — from which you have known yourself and your father.

Ficino's Scholion: Of the same and secret mystery of regeneration — before which no one was made — whose author is the Son of God, man, by the one will of God. A mystery that is not taught, but is venerated with eyes in silence, and in silence by the holy.

You, O Christian, read the rest — and if by a new regeneration in God through the Son of God you have been reformed; having expelled ignorance, sorrow, desire, injustice, lust, deception, envy, fraud, anger, rashness, and malice — the twelve horrible avengers of darkness — and having attained the ten opposing powers by the piety of God, exult with your whole mind. Remember to give thanks to God your reformer with all the vigor of your mind; burn with his love entirely; made wholly spirit and reborn of spirit; sing the hymn of regeneration, retaining immaculate piety; wholly converted to God the parent and to his Son, the author of regeneration — having now from this time attained the divine fruit, or at least having been stirred by the benignity of your mind to think so piously.

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 XIII of Ficino's Pimander — the text Ficino designates De Generatione et Impositione Silentii (On Regeneration and the Imposition of Silence), addressed to Tatius, corresponding to Corpus Hermeticum XIII in modern scholarship. The 1505 OCR text contains a lacuna of approximately ten to fifteen sentences in the middle section (where the twelve tormentors are explicitly named), caused by column confusion in the digitized scan; this gap is noted in the translation. Ficino's twelve tormentors are confirmed by his scholion: ignorantia, tristitia, cupiditas, iniustitia, luxuria, deceptio, invidia, fraus, ira, temeritas, malitia — with a twelfth (likely incontinentia) subsumed. 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 1906 English was not consulted.

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

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Source Text: De Generatione et Impositione Silentii — Liber XIII

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. Source fetched from bytes 114,208–123,479 of the djvu.txt file. An OCR lacuna in the middle section (between "in praesentiarum me ipsum haud" and "vero malitia") is noted; the scan's column layout caused irrecoverable corruption at this point.

Mercurij ad Tatium filium suum: de generatione et impositione silentij. Tatius XIII.

In communibus pater sermonibus, per enigmata quaedam ac sine declaratione ullius adiunctionis de deitate tractasti, asserens ante regenerationem saluti fieri neminem. Equidem dum ascendebas in montem, supplex tibi tunc astiti obsecrans, ut mihi regenerationis rationem aliquando referares; id enim solum restabat tunc mihi discendum. Tunc demum spopondisti te revelaturum, cum a mundo forem alienatus. Ecce tam paratus sum pater; a mente mea mundi deceptiones excussi. Tu ergo serva promissa. Regenerationis modum vel palam vel clanculum ut subet edidere. Ignoro o Trismegiste: qua ex materia quoque semine natus fuerit homo. TRISME. O fili: contemplativa in silentio sapientia: semen eius verum bonum. TAT. Quonam serente pater? hoc enim ignoro. TRISME. Voluntate dei mi fili. TAT. Et qualis est qui non est genitus: expers enim intelligibilis essentiae. Quod si aliter se habeat: qui gignitur, deus erit dei filius. TRISME. Omne in omne conflas ex omnibus potestatibus. TAT. Enigmata fingis o pater; neque pro more cum filio loqueris. TRISME. Hoc genus o fili non eruditur. Verbum quotiens vult: sub insinuatione quadam in dei memoriam reducitur. TAT. Impossibilia infers: ac nimium violenta. Quapropter his cupio contradicere. TRISME. Admodum discrepas a paterno genere Tati. TAT. Ne invideas mihi pater: legitimus enim sum filius. Age precor: regenerationis modum me doce. TRISME. Quid dicam fili? Quod dicam praeter hoc non habeo quicquam: quod verum cerno spectaculum, ex dei benignitate mihi iam oblatum: unde in corpus sum immortale translatus, sumque non ille qui prius fueram, ac mens nuper effectus. Hoc mysterium non docetur. Vide hoc elemento formato per quod videre licet, per quod neglecta est a me prima composita species: non quod sim coloratus tactumque ac terminum habeam, ab iis enim in praesentiarum alienus sum. TAT. In furorem me insanumque mentis concitasti o pater nimia cogitatione; in praesentiarum me ipsum haud —

[OCR lacuna: approximately 10–15 sentences irrecoverable due to column corruption in the 1505 scan. The passage covers Trismegistus explaining that the regenerate sees through the powers, the zodiacal tent of the body, and the explicit naming of the twelve tormentors.]

— vero malitia. Hae quidem sunt numero duodecim. Sub his plures aliae continentur, quae per corporis carcerem inclusum tristem hominem servitibus pati cogunt. Absunt autem illae ab eo qui est dei fretus clementia. Atque ita constituta regenerationis modus ac sermo. Deinceps silete mi fili, deumque silendo laudato; eoque pacto divina clementia nunquam a nobis aberit. Gaude deinceps mi fili: nam potestate divina in contemplatione es veritatis elevatus. Descendit in nos cognitio dei. Hac accedente, repulsa est ignorantia. Descendit in nos cognitio gaudii. Hac praesente, tristitia penitus aufugit. In eum se vertunt qui ad eam parati sunt capiendam. Potestatem voco ad gaudium perducentem constantiam: cuius vis proculdubio suavissima est. Complectamur igitur eam libentissime fili: ea enim cum primum aderit, molliciem omnem prorsus expellet. Quartam vero nunc continentiam voco: vim universarum victricem cupiditatum. Gradus hic o fili iustitiae fundamentum existit. Adverte autem quo pacto advenientis operibus iniustitiam expulit. Iusti quidem effecti sumus, absente iniustitia fili. Sextam voco potestatem in nos descendentem: communitionem scilicet adversus excessum. Hac denique discedente, invoco veritatem; aufugit mox deceptio; veritas adest. Vide quo absolutum est bonum; veritate praesente. Livor enim discessit a nobis; veritatis enim innatum est bonum, cum vita simul et lumine; nec ultra ire vindex accessit. Verum ultrices omnes repentino quodam impetu reiectae sunt. Intellexisti fili regenerationis ipsius modum: denario praesente numero, intellectualis generatio composita est, quae duodenarium numerum reiicit. Idque ex ipsa generatione speculati sumus. Quicunque igitur propter benignitatem —

Sensibile naturae corpus ab essentiali generatione procul admodum discrepat. Unum quidem dissolubile; indissolubile alterum. Illud mortale; hoc immortale. An vero ignoras quod et deus et unus filius natus es? TAT. O quam vellem o pater: analogiam illam per hymnum quem dixisti audisse te a potestatibus dum ipse in octonario essem. TRISME. Octonarium o fili cecinit ipse Pimander. Unde te decet umbraculum solvere, purus enim ille Pimander, mens divinae potentiae. Non plura mihi quam scripta sint aperuit, existimans me reliqua iam scrutaturum. Hortatus me est ad decora officia, ex quo omnes quae in me vires sunt concinunt. TAT. O pater, audire haec et intelligere velim. TRISME. Quiesce fili, quiesce inquam; audies iam harmonicam cantilenam, regenerationis hymnum, quem nunquam sic facile propalarem, nisi tibi conducturum confiderem. Non docetur hoc; sed occulitur in silentio. Vide me fili bone: observa singula diligenter. Sic enim te quoque decet orantem subdivo, occidente sole ad austrum, oriente vero ad eurum, faciem vertere. Universa mundi natura hunc audiat hymnum. Audi terra, audite turbines imbrium. O summam creaturarum sum creatore omnium, totumque et unum. Audite coeli, quiescite venti; circulus immortalis dei orationem istam exaudiat. Cano iam creatorem omnium, terrarum distributorem, coelum equilibrantem, iubentem ex oceano aquam undique fluere dulcem ad hominum alimentum, iubentem ignem fulgere superne, ad actiones hominum atque deorum. Agamus si homines una voce gratias, manati coelos naturamque creati. Hic mentis est oculus; hic potentiarum benedictionem libenter excipiet. Omnes vires laudate ipsum unum et omne. Consonante voluptati meae omnes animi vires. Cognitio sancta: quae tuo lumine fulget. Per te lumen intelligibile cantans: gaudio mentis exulto. Omnes potentiae mecum una concinite. Constantia, canta mecum. Iustitia mea: per me iustum canat. Communio mea: totum ipsum laudet. Per me canat veritas veritatem. Bonum nostrum: bonum denique canat. O vita, o lux: a vobis in nos benedictio currit. Gratias habeo tibi pater, actus omnium potestatum. Gratias ago tibi deus, omnium potestas actuum. Verbum tuum per mentem laudet. Per me mundus verborum recipit sacrificium hoc. Meae vires clamant: totum cantant, voluntatem tuam perficiunt. Tua voluntas abs te in totum. Sacrificium verborum ab omnibus excipe. O vita: totum quod est in me salva. O lux: totum illumina. Spiritus deus. Verbum tuum me regit, spiritifer opifex. Tu solus es deus. Homo tuus haec clamat: per ignem perque aerem, per aquam perque terram, per spiritum perque creata. Ab aeternitate benedictionem inveni: quam desiderio in voluntate tua quiescam. TAT. Novi pater hunc hymnum abs te ex voluntatis affectu cantatum; unde mundum attigi in eum. TRISME. Intelligibilem dic mundum fili. TAT. Intelligibilem dico pater. Ex tua siquidem cantilena illustrata mihi mens est. Quo fit ut ipsi quoque ardeam amore canendi. TRISME. O fili mi Tati: ne sine proposito laudes cantato divinas. TAT. Ex mente cantabo mi pater. TRISME. Omne quod speculor infundo tibi; generationis progenitor Tati. TAT. Deo verborum offero sacrificia. O deus, tu pater, tu dominus, tuque mens: accipe sacrificia verborum quae requiris a me. Te volente perficiuntur omnia. TRISME. Offero fili hostiam patri deo gratam: orationique tuae intentus esto. TAT. Gratias habeo tibi pater, quod ista mihi praedicare voluisti. TRISME. Gaudeo fili quod tibi bona quam plurima luxerint. Fructu suae fine futura immortalia opera. Id a me disces: silentium virtutis annuncia; nulli communicans regenerationis mysterium, ne tanquam calumniatores quidam reputemur. Etenim uterque nostrum ad sufficientiam meditatus est: ego quidem discens, tu vero conducens, ex quo te ipsum patremque novisti.

[Scholion] Eiusdem ac arcano regenerationis mysterio: ante quam factus fiebat nemo, cuius regenerationis auctor est dei filius homo, unius voluntate dei. Mysterium quod non docetur, sed oculis in silentio, et in silentio a sanctis veneratur. Tu Christiane cetera legito, et si nova regeneratione in deo per dei filium es reformatus; depulsis ignorantia, tristitia, cupiditate, iniustitia, luxuria, deceptione, invidia, fraude, ira, temeritate, malicia, horribilibus duodecim tenebrarum ultricibus; decem oppositis dei pietate assequutis potestatibus, tota mente exulta. Deo reformatori toto mentis vigore gratias agere memento; totus eius amore flagra; totus spiritus factus et a spiritu regenitus; pietatis hymnum concinere regenerationis, immaculatus pietate retine; totus in deum parentem et regenerationis autorem eius filium conversus; nunc ex hoc tempore divino fructu consecutus, vel saltem ad tam pie cogitandum mentis tuae benignitate excitatus.

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. An OCR lacuna of approximately 10–15 sentences occurs in the middle section due to column corruption in the digitized scan; this gap is clearly marked above.

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