A Dialogue to the King
The Cup of Hermes is one of the strangest and most beautiful documents of the Renaissance. Written around 1490 by Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447–1500) — a humanist, poet, and self-described disciple of the messianic street preacher Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio — it presents a philosophical dialogue between "Lazzarelli" and "the King," universally identified with Mercurio. The title names a passage in the Corpus Hermeticum IV, where Hermes sends a crater — a great mixing bowl filled with nous, divine mind — down to earth for souls to drink from. Those who drink become fully human, turned toward God; those who refuse wander in the darkness of matter.
The dialogue is the most ambitious synthesis of Christianity and Hermeticism produced in the Renaissance. Lazzarelli openly calls himself both a Christian and a Hermeticist. He weaves together the Corpus Hermeticum, Scripture, Philo of Alexandria, Dionysius the Areopagite, Maimonides, the Kabbalists, Solomon, and Plato into a single tapestry — all converging on one central, radical claim: that the "true man," having drunk from the Cup, can generate divine souls, becoming not merely an image of God but a co-creator beside him.
The text was composed as part of Lazzarelli's initiation under Giovanni Mercurio, and was published posthumously in Paris in 1505 by Henri Estienne, appended to Ficino's Pimander and Asclepius in a single Hermetic volume. This translation works from the 1505 edition digitized at archive.org (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). The source text is densely abbreviated and presents significant OCR challenges; all interpretive decisions are noted in the colophon. No prior English translation was consulted during the drafting process.
A Dialogue to the King, Whose Title Is: The Cup of Hermes
While I myself had long wavered within, among so many different and discordant opinions of the ancients and the moderns — what road leads to life, by what reason faith established in this life might attain the anxiously sought happiness — and while in this anxiety I often poured forth words of prayer to God, shed many sighs, scattered true tears from my eyes, at last the protection of that One did not fail, coming down from heaven: who stretched out a helping hand to drowning Peter; who before the ages created the world; who, when the earth was shaken by wickedness, restored it through his own offering; who, as the angel of great counsel, illumined with the true light of the mind; who, as prince of peace, reconciled humanity to God; whom we profess as true God and true man, and whom we await as the Father of the age to come and the Judge. He who was the Pimander in the mind of Hermes — Christ Jesus deigned to take up residence in me, illumining my mind with the light of truth, consoling me, the eternal Consoler.
Of my happiness, therefore, o King, I have judged you worthy to be made a partaker: you who in this your old age have given the reins of your kingdom to your firstborn, are given over to rest, and devote yourself to contemplation and to pious works. You appear at leisure and well suited to this inquiry I am now about to pursue with you. I do not now attend to verbal elegance, o King, as the Greeks do — but to the deed of the word, as the wise Egyptians. For it is the deed of the word, not its consonance, that we shall examine: by what reason we may attain the good.
REX: Come then — express what must be done by us, that we may attain this happiness.
LAZ: You know what has been handed down by the ancients in memory: that to one inquiring what was the road to happiness, the Delphic Apollo replied — if you shall have known yourself. And carved upon the front of his temple: know thyself.
REX: Therefore you assert that we should believe the Delphic Apollo?
LAZ: Not always — but when he gives voice to what is consonant with truth. For he spoke truly in many of his oracles. If you peruse Porphyry's Philosophy from Oracles, you will find this to be certainly so. But setting aside the rest — what oracle he uttered on the blessed life, I shall set forth here. Written in Greek verse though it is, for brevity I will render it in Latin:
That road is exceedingly hard, shut fast with iron gates,
which opens to us life and grants the blessed state.
Nor can it easily be told in words of any kind,
nor set out — by what path that way proceeds.
Which first above all others began to teach those fair ones
who drink the waters of the Nile; and next the Phoenicians share
that care, and the Assyrians too; but the renowned
and distant Hebrew race has known it, received and kept it whole.
REX: Is there anything true in this oracle?
It so appears. But tell me, pray — did the Egyptians taste anything of the truth?
LAZ: Not only tasted — they were nearly drowning in it. But setting aside the others, what shall we say of Hermes? He who, having explored every path of wisdom — with brief discourse, yet with immense meaning — left monuments of true wisdom to posterity. So that, as some have concluded: wisdom migrated to the Hebrews. For Moses the Hebrew, born in Egypt — that Hermes, they suppose, transmitted it from Egypt through the Pentateuch to the Hebrews. And in the Acts of the Apostles we read that Moses was thoroughly educated in all the learning of the Egyptians.
REX: You are a Hermeticist, as I see, o Lazarello — you extol him with such praises that no one was wiser.
LAZ: I am a Christian, o King, and I am not ashamed to also be a Hermeticist. For if you consider his precepts carefully, you will confirm that they do not conflict with Christian teaching. This is he, o best of kings, whom the ancient poets called born of Maia, the interpreter of the gods, the god of eloquence, the inventor of the lyre, accomplished in many offices. From him all ancient theology drew its origin. For to say nothing of his many books that have perished — what more divine thing could be found than those little books which we hold in our hands, in which he expressed the Trinity of God so completely that whoever understands him rejoices to have found the truth. Therefore I now wish our discourse to be named the Cup of Hermes. For whatever we investigate here concerning true happiness, we shall draw both from the evangelical teaching and from the precepts of Hermes.
REX: Proceed therefore — for I burn to understand what you have now promised to set forth. I hope that since I too am a Christian, I shall also become a Hermeticist together with you.
LAZ: You then, o King — ask what you first desire to hear now.
REX: We must hasten to set aside what is superfluous. Tell me therefore in what manner I am able to know myself.
LAZ: When Hermes asked Pimander, he replied: comprehend me with your mind, and I will teach you in all things you desire. And truth itself said: without me you can do nothing. And by the prophet also it is said: in your light we shall see light. That this may illuminate us, we shall first pray to God. For it has been commanded by the ancients that one must pray at the beginning of all things. But in theology, Dionysius the Areopagite has prescribed this in that book he published on the divine names. Since we are now to treat the mysteries of theology, we shall pray first. You then attend and be gracious in spirit, while I thus invoke God.
The First Hymn
Lazzarelli's opening invocation — a Latin verse prayer to the God who descended to Peter, spoke from Sinai, and shines from Tabor.
You who sit above the cherubim,
You who dwell upon the highest throne,
Who judge all things rightly —
Who inhabit the heavens: my prayers
I now offer up to your own throne,
With word and breast submissive.O God unconquered of the hosts,
Father of the demons and of men —
Turn here your gentle ears.
Do not, I pray, remove afar
The rays of your splendor.You are King, you are the God of Israel.
Descend and fill this house of yours
With brilliant light.
Make it a worthy dwelling place.
Purge the shadows, drive away
From me the pestilence of Tartarus.Cleanse utterly this your image.
As vapor is drawn to the sun,
As the magnet draws the steel —
So may I be swept up in your flames.
Join yourself to me, Father,
That I may be drawn wholly to you
And made one with you at once.As the moon shines with the sun's rays
Drinking its shining light —
So in your face may I seek what is serviceable.
Take away the tree of good and evil,
Call back my wandering feet;
May I be nourished from the tree of life,
That with you, inviolably,
I may enjoy the eternal good
And never be turned back —
Nay, may I wholly taste of you.You who alone are good: the good
That is nothing beyond you —
Grant that in your light
I may behold your light
And reflect it back to yours.My impiety terrifies me.
But your greater piety cries:
Fear not. Come.
I am here, mocking the wicked,
Taking pity on the human race,
Lifting away the burden of sin.To know God alone is salvation.
To know God alone is justification.
And the sole step to the heavens.Behold: you are my son
In whom I am well pleased.
Dare, and judge all things.
Behold, I give you my words
Which make suns new
And renew the vast sea.
Let the clouds obey you;
Let fish and birds together
Tremble at your voice.Plant the starry houses.
Build the hinges of the earth.
Let Zion call you Lord —
And the mountains of Sinai and Tabor,
And the swift waters of the Jordan —
Let them bear witness that you are born of God.Behold, my kingdom comes.
Reign with Christ as your leader
Who hallows his remaining holy ones.Alas — let your lot examine you;
Let faith, clinging fast, suffice —
The faith that Wisdom weaves.I shall rejoice in my Lord
Who on David's seat
Has established his king.
Now you have prayed, o best of kings — repeat what you now wish me to set forth.
REX: Your prayer, so full of sacred sentences, has so drawn my mind that I greatly desire to first understand many things in it.
LAZ: When we come to the end of the discourse we have begun, you will understand both those things and many more besides. But now let us continue the matter — that you may recall what was nearly said above. And so that I may not seem to have taken my beginning from the oracle of Apollo rather than from the teaching of Hermes, know this: Hermes asserts that at the beginning of creation, when all things were created, God cried out:
Know all things generated. Know that the love of the body is the cause of death.
This corresponds to the words of Moses in the book of Genesis. For in these words of Hermes are contained the tree of life — in which we live — and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which brings us to ruin. And the head of this, the precept (as is evident), is that we know ourselves.
The Two Trees
REX: I am drawn back from an inquiry I had made. I first greatly desire you to teach me — if you are able — what the tree of life was, and what the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For concerning this I find in the sacred writers either nothing, or only obscure accounts. And yet it is the thing upon which the ruin of our entire race depends, and through which all literary tradition has been founded — yet it remains entirely unknown to me.
LAZ: Consider this, o King. Since the text says that man was created with a portion of divine mind given to him — your and our nature is immortal, for mind is immortal. If you grasp this, let me tell you plainly. Since the tree of life is divine contemplation — and wisdom, which the soul possessed through contemplation — it is easy to understand: its contrary, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, is the attachment to what is material and perishable.
REX: That does not yet satisfy my mind. It is difficult for me to believe — and in no way can I give credence to it — that God prohibited the contemplating of what he himself created. There is no craftsman who forbids his work to be seen, considered, and admired. And it is still harder for me — that from that contemplation man incurred death.
LAZ: God did not forbid the contemplating of his works, o King — but dwelling in them and pursuing them as the supreme end. As the ancients said that heaven, sun, moon, stars, the elements, and certain animals are gods: the Almighty wills and commands that all these things be contemplated by the mind's discursive reason, but only as steps by which the reflection of our mind may at last return to itself and find perpetual rest in contemplating his divinity alone. For the invisible things of God (as the Apostle says) are clearly seen since the creation of the world, understood through the things that are made — even his eternal power and divinity. And Hermes says: if you wish to see God, consider the sun, observe the moon's course, observe the order of the remaining stars. And Dionysius says in his book on the divine names: perhaps it will be truly said that we know God not from his own nature — for that is unknown and surpasses all reason and sense — but from the most orderly arrangement of all created things proceeding from him, and from certain images and likenesses of his divine exemplars, which present themselves before us. By this way and order we ascend, as best we can, to what transcends all things. So the Craftsman willed that the things made by him be contemplated by us — but in this fitting order. For (as we noted at the beginning) the Almighty created all things for man, and man for himself.
REX: Now I understand you, and I assent to your assertion. But I would like some testimony of the wise to be brought in, that what was said may fix itself more firmly in my soul.
LAZ: We have many testimonies wrapped in parables, which if I were to go through in full, I might tire you, and the sun might set while I am telling them. Still, let me cite a few.
Solomon in the Proverbs speaks of divine wisdom thus: She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her, and those who hold her are blessed. And Solomon calls wisdom the wife of our youth, speaking in the Proverbs: Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth. For from the beginning, as a husband cleaves to his wife, man was joined to divine wisdom and enjoyed perpetual life. And again: Say to wisdom: you are my sister, and call prudence your friend, that she may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreign woman who makes her words sweet. And elsewhere: That you may be delivered from the strange woman, from the alien who smooths her words — who has forsaken the guide of her youth and forgotten the covenant of her God. For her house inclines to death, and her paths to the shades. And again it is read there that wisdom built her house, hewn out her seven pillars, slaughtered her sacrifices, mixed her wine, prepared her table, and spoke thus: Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake foolishness and live. And a little later: A foolish woman, clamorous, full of blandishments, and knowing nothing, sits at the door of her house, in the high places of the city, to call to those who pass by on the road — whoever is simple, let him turn in to me. And she says to the senseless: stolen waters are sweeter, and hidden bread is more pleasant. He does not know that there are dead men there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
Therefore Solomon names divine wisdom the tree of life and the wife of our youth — and the prudence of the flesh and the contemplation of material things, the foolish woman, clamorous, full of blandishments, knowing nothing, the strange whore and adulteress. Hence the Apostle cries out warning us: If you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you will live. And Hermes teaches: the love of the body is the cause of death. For he who embraces the body in the error of love wanders in the darkness and suffers the evils of death.
REX: You apply the explanation of the scriptures quite fittingly to your preceding assertion. Therefore I am confirmed and do not contend further. But what the stolen waters are, and the hidden bread — and why the foolish woman is asserted to sit openly before all at the door of her house, crying aloud — this, if it is permitted to understand, I should like to know.
LAZ: I am very willing to execute what has been asked — but we are wandering far from what we began.
REX: Not too far at all. Go on more freely. For we are at leisure, and let not the crowd of those who are expecting you disturb you. Tomorrow they will receive their expedition. And we, having digressed a little further, will return more quickly to what we began. Tell me therefore what was asked.
LAZ: Solomon warns us in the Proverbs to persist in divine wisdom, in these words: Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. If divine wisdom is therefore our wife and our cistern — if we go to a foreign one, she will minister to us the stolen waters and the hidden bread. For adultery is called theft. The water of our cistern is the knowledge of divine wisdom. Stolen water is the figure of carnal prudence's understanding. But both are signified elsewhere by wine. The wine of divine wisdom is that which the Messiah provides for us — of which Zechariah says: What is his goodness and what is his beauty, except his wheat chosen out, and wine that makes virgins to spring up. And in the contrary sense: the Giants are those who apply themselves to material things. Therefore it is said in the Proverbs: The man who errs from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the Giants. These are they who built the towers of Babel; these are they who, piling mountains on mountains, are said by the poets to have sought to storm the heavenly kingdom — who at last, crushed under the mountains, perished. Of them it is written in Ecclesiasticus: The ancient Giants did not obtain pardon for their sins, who were destroyed trusting in their own strength. And Isaiah says: O Lord our God, other lords besides you have owned us; but now through you alone we call your name to remembrance. The dead shall not live, the Giants shall not rise. And they are imagined as snake-footed because, persisting in sensible and material things, they crawl through the lowest places only and never fly up to the divine.
The Daughters of Men
REX: I agree now. Not only do I truly understand what the Giants are and why they are rightly snake-footed — but the way has also been opened for me to understand that fiction of the poet Hesiod about the woman Pandora, sent as a gift by Jupiter, who opened a jar from which all good things flew away, and only hope remained on the lips of the jar. For what else is Pandora — whose name means the gift of all things — but the science of material and invisible things? Which, opening the vessel of our mind and dwelling in it, causes all good things to fly away, and only Hope remains. For we continually hope for the goods that are to come, but never obtain what we hoped for — because through it we are estranged from the tree of life.
LAZ: You interpret rightly, o King — though in speaking of contrary things I once sang a different way. I did not use Epimetheus' removed cover from the jar in the sense of one who believed the serpent, but gave Eve an evil. For there I meant to allude to Hesiod's fiction rather than to explain it.
REX: I can hardly wonder enough how the fictions of the poets answer to theological truth.
LAZ: Cease to wonder, o King. For Hermes himself, the prince of ancient theology, wished to wrap theological truth in these fictions. But now the fables are set out nakedly before everyone, and are incredible to posterity. Foreseeing this, Hermes laments, prophesying: O Egypt, Egypt — of your religious observances, only fables will survive, and these incredible to your posterity; only the words carved on stones will remain, telling of your pious deeds. The theologians of the Christian religion too (those called prophets) made use of poetic fictions. You will find this to be so if you ever read through the oracles of the prophets. For Dionysius speaks thus in the Celestial Hierarchy: Let us not be led astray by the common error of the people and imagine that the heavenly spirits endowed with divine and beautiful form are many-footed and many-faced, or shaped in the manner of oxen's stupidity, or in the fierceness of lions, or with the curved beaks of eagles, or the feathered plumage of birds, or as fiery wheels with material seats, necessary for reposing beside the supreme divinity — or colored horses, or armed attendants and leaders, and other things of that kind which are handed down to us through the evident and expressive variety of symbols. Sacred theology uses such poetic fictions, as he describes and spiritualizes these things, and does not ignore the infirmity of the human mind — but provides for it with benevolent care, giving it the proper and known road by which it may be carried to what is above it, and laying out these ascents of devotion for it in the sacred writings according to its capacity. Thus far Dionysius.
And Rabbi Moses the Egyptian in the book called Malachim seems to signify the same, when he says: The reward toward which no other good approaches is that the prophets called by many names: the mind of God, the tabernacle of God, his holy place, his holy mountain, the court of God, the temple of God, the house of God, the gate of God. And the learned call that reward the world to come. According to this, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Parmenides, and Heraclitus have spoken about the gods — but when our soul (as Dionysius also says) is moved by spiritual actions toward intelligible things, sensible things become superfluous. And I have read, I think, that the ancients wished verse — in which hymns and the praises of the gods were sung — to be more elevated than everyday speech, just as temples of the gods were built more stately than human habitations. And so the custom arose for poetry, in which truth lies hidden, covered over with the colors of fables.
REX: That is often heard and read among the ancients. And our discourse today is so sweet, pleasant, and bright that — even though the sun, inclined toward the Amyclean brothers, and the last temperate part of spring declining, has extended the day — it seems to me nevertheless brighter than midsummer. But come now — since you have interpreted who the Giants are, tell me also in what manner those women spoken of are to be understood.
LAZ: The women with whom those who follow the Lamb have not been defiled are the gentle persuasions of the senses and varied affections. These Moses in the book of Genesis calls the daughters of men — into whom the sons of God, or the angels, entered. These daughters, the human soul departing from the monad itself, dispersed into innumerable parts, brings forth with great labor and pain — for it bears false figures, false colors, and desires through the eyes, and through the ears brings forth the blandishments of voices. Thus, surrounded by the multitude of daughters, it is oppressed. And then the sons of God, or the angels, enter into those daughters. For as long as the pure rays of wisdom shine into the soul — through which we contemplate God and his powers — no lying messenger of thought enters within; but those that wander outside are all kept away, at the gates of purification. But when the light of the mind, weakened by departure from the One itself, becomes more feeble — the companions of darkness act swiftly, and they meet with the effeminate and broken agitations which Moses called the daughters of men. These then beget for themselves and not for God. But the mind is commanded to beget for God and not for itself — as Abraham begot his son Isaac for God and not for himself, prepared to offer him to God as a burnt offering. But Adam, forsaking the contemplation of the monad — that is, the tree of life — and descending to the pursuit of sensible things — that is, the tree of knowledge of good and evil — begot many daughters; and thus, fallen from justice and dignity, incurred the ruin of death. Of this Moses records that God spoke thus about him: Behold, Adam has become as one of us, knowing good and evil. And in the Psalms it is said: Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he is compared to the senseless beasts of burden and made like to them. And Hermes in the Pimander: Man, having contemplated in his Father the creation of all things, also wished to create. Wherefore, from the contemplation of the Father, he descended to the sphere of generation. And a little after: Man, who had been superior to harmony, fell into harmony and became a slave.
The Lament of Wisdom
REX: Above all that can be heard, this interpretation of yours is pleasing to me. And a great desire to inquire about many things has risen in me. But we must refrain lest we wander too far from what we began.
LAZ: We must refrain, o faithful King, if we wish to reach the end of our first intention. For like the Lernaean Hydra — with one head cut from this present discourse, more spring up and grow around it. For here too there would be occasion to ask: what is Adam, what is Eve, what is the serpent, and many other things. But setting all these aside, let us return, if you please, to where we departed from. But first tell me in one thing — in what manner man incurred death through the taste of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
As best I can, I will explain, o King. When man was a shining temple in which the Spirit of the Lord dwelt — by whose presence, not by nature (for he was composed of discordant elements), he obtained immortality, as the divine splendor dwelling within him put the peace of the elements in place — when, through transgression, the offended light withdrew, the shadows of night entered in its place. Thus the shining temple of virtues became the lodging house of darkness. Thence not only were the chains of elemental discord unleashed, but it was also accelerated to ruin by unclean powers. Then countless diseases arose; then old age was born. Wherefore Moses relates that men lived for a very long time after the transgression. But when transgression was heaped upon transgression (the shadows compelling it), life was contracted. Of which Moses records that God said: My Spirit shall not remain in man forever, for he is flesh; and his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. But now, o King — alas, o miserable mortals — life has been so contracted that barely anyone reaches his hundredth year.
For daily we feed on the forbidden tree. There is none who looks back. There is none who seeks. None (as the prophet says) — not even one.
LAZ: Deeply to be lamented, as you say, and worthy of true tears and mournful lament. Therefore I pray: while I lament thus, attend for a moment.
With what varied and fruitless labors
Do men impede themselves, abandoning God,
Forgetful of their own dignity
Which they once possessed by the gift of the Father —
Who drag the divine image raised to heaven
Down beneath the shadow of Tartarus below.They regard their own shadow as their parent
And do not remember the nourishing light —
The true and living nurse.
They have fallen from the mind's dignity.
None any longer practice good,
Not even one.
None are pious in mind, seeking God.
None honors the legitimate Parent.But all deceive themselves with vain idols,
Surrendering themselves to the vanity of the flesh.
And all together have abandoned
The city of holiness for Babylon,
And when they have drunk the harlot's wine,
They refuse to embrace the virgin.The virgin of Zion cries out, seeking her two —
Mourning like a widow, desolate:
Why, seduced by the fair mouth of the vain harlot
And deserting what is better,
Have you put your necks under death's foot?Ah — know the pale poison
Hidden beneath this honeyed comb.
That wanton one pours you unmixed wine,
Making you thieves and adulterers.
She drives you to hidden snares
And lays ambush against the left hand, all the way to death.Her companions are the fierce Giants
Who heap up and build the towers of Babel
And plot their wars against the stars.
But they are crushed by the threefold fire,
Plunged alike into the deep lake.First sweet — in the end, bitter.
Return now to yourselves —
Of whom I am the mother and the partner of the marriage bed,
Who nourished you at the generous breast.
Behold, I mingle wines of purity
That make worthy the virgin followers
And the holy servants of God,
To be placed on the throne of the Kingdom that hastens.Let these be our last lessons —
Hold them in your mind, I pray.
Obtaining light in the light of Christ:
Abstain from the vile light.But though she may cry out again and again and again,
And like a mother loads her loving breasts full —
Each one holds deaf ears
And does not draw back his feet.
He lies rolling in the mud like a pig
And slakes his thirst in the stinking swamp
And refuses to drink the clear waters.
Now, o best of kings, we have come to the end of the lament. Recall what you asked me about at the opening of our discourse.
REX: I remember, and it holds fast: you said that knowledge of oneself opens the way to happiness, and I greatly desire to understand in what manner we are able to know ourselves.
Self-Knowledge and the Knowledge of God
LAZ: Attend therefore. As we cannot recognize the things seen in a mirror or on a coin — we cannot know whose image it is unless we have first come to know from whom it is reflected and whom it represents. So unless we have known God, we are in no way able to know ourselves. For these are so interconnected that if one is unknown, the other is unknown as well. For we are the image of God, as has been declared in the sacred oracles. And although many contend that image and likeness are different — I however feel they signify the same.
REX: Bring some testimony, if you have one, in this matter.
LAZ: You bid me wander too far from what I began — just when I was returning to the road, you command me to wander again. But it is fitting for you to assent to my plain word, if you wish to know the mystery I am about to bring forth — for I have long turned these things over, digested what was turned over, and finally laid up what was digested in the treasury of my mind.
REX: I believe indeed. But the more I hear your discourse confirmed by the testimonies of the ancients, the more richly my soul is fed. Once you have finished that one thing, we shall immediately call our feet back to the road.
LAZ: Philo, in his second book On Agriculture, explaining that saying of Moses — God made man in his image and likeness — says: But the great Moses attributed likeness to no form perceptible to the senses, knowing that God is not of a human form, and that the human body is not of the form of God. The word "image" was used in reference to the mind, the leader of the soul. But he says elsewhere that the soul of man was made as the image of the divine and invisible God. Paul to the Corinthians: A man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. Since Moses and Paul spoke through the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit cannot contradict himself, and Moses said "according to the image" and Paul that the man is the image of God — they undoubtedly wished to signify the same thing. And Hermes asserts in the Pimander: The Father of all, being mind, life, and light, created man in his own likeness and rejoiced in him as in his son. And elsewhere, speaking of God: whose name is every name, whose nature is every nature. If therefore every nature is the image of God, much more is man — for whom all things were made.
REX: It is now equitable to pass over what is commonplace and return rather to that from which the inquiry proceeded. For it seems difficult and beyond the powers of the human mind to be able to know God — since truth itself says: No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
LAZ: This saying of yours, o King, is itself a kind of answer to what was said above — that unless we have known God we cannot know ourselves. You however, fortified by sacred authority, assert that God cannot be known. But I am not now sitting in the Muse's tripod like a poet — I am not some mindless vessel pouring forth whatever flows in. But as befits a Christian, daily walking through the groves and shades of Mount Zion and its sunny vales, I have been so instructed by divine precepts that whatever I am about to set forth here, I have come to know by reason and experience alike. For it does not escape me that nothing of those things which we perceive through the senses can be absolutely affirmed of God. For whatever human understanding defines must be below the infinite God. I do not therefore advise that we know God in such a way that we might know what his substance is in its own separation from things, or what he is in the complete closure of himself within himself, or what he is in the innermost and most solitary recession into the depth of his own divinity. This is very difficult — indeed impossible. For the human intellect cannot ascend so high.
When Plato, going beyond the powers of the human mind, had contemplated the inexpressible excellence of God, he fell into a pernicious and deadly error, asserting that God does not mix with human beings. But if that were so, unhappy human nature, abandoned in the power of darkness, would waste away. But contrary to this is our entire Christian profession. For we profess that God was incarnate and made participant and joined to us. Therefore we must know God in the manner that Dionysius prescribed in the book on the divine names: All divine things — and what has been made known to us — are known only through participations. But what they are in themselves, in their own principle and seat — no sense reaches it, no substance, no knowledge penetrates it. Whether we call that suprasubstantial hiddenness God, or life, or substance, or light, or Word — we understand nothing other than the participations and powers that flow out from it to us, by which we are raised up toward God, and which bestow on us substance, or life, or wisdom. And in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy Dionysius says that many things in the divine realm are unknown to human beings — things that have most worthy causes, known to the more excellent orders. And many things lie hidden even from those highest substances, which are manifest to God alone. For the grades and limits of the human condition are set, which cannot be exceeded. That which surpasses all comprehension (as Dionysius testifies in the Mystical Theology) surpasses all discourse, is inexpressible, surpasses all position and removal, surpasses all affirmation and negation. We must firmly believe and simply profess that God is one in Trinity and three in unity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
On this matter the Hebrew doctors also agree with us. As it is read in Bereshit Rabbah from Rabbi Moses Adereth: God, the principle of all things, is called Ein — that is, Father. God, oneness, depth, wisdom, the fountain from which all things were made, the first begotten or existing principle, is called Ben — that is, Son. God, the root of the heart, and the perfection of the will, or the one will common to both, and called the congregation of the vision of God — and all are of the same perfection, and one with each other, and do not differ from one another, but all are one. See how openly the divine Trinity is asserted in these words. Some of the Hebrews, however, whether deceived by ignorance or driven by malice, most stubbornly deny the Trinity in the divine. But we must hold it most firmly if we wish to follow the truth and obtain immortality.
The Soul Is the Light of God
REX: Come — tell me what the soul of man is.
LAZ: I shall not now answer according to the opinion of Aristotle, that it is the form of the organic body. Not according to the various opinions of the philosophers — that it is essence, or self-moving number, or harmony, or an idea, or the convergence of the five senses, or thin spirit dispersed through all the body, or vapor, or a spark of stellar essence, or spirit conjoined to the body, or spirit inserted into atoms, or fire, or air, or water, or blood. No doubt some of these, according to various modes of proportion, are true through analogy. But I — as I have discovered and hold as certain — answer you, o illustrious King, according to the Hebrew Kabbalists: the soul of man is the light of God. Or according to the opinion of Philo in his book On Agriculture: the soul of man has been made after the image of the Word, the cause of causes, the primary exemplar — fashioned from the substance of God and sealed with his seal, whose character is the eternal Word. Or with these same words as Pimander answers Hermes: What in you sees and hears is the Word of the Lord; Mind is the Father God. They are not separate from each other; their union is Life.
REX: These things are wonderful indeed.
LAZ: They are truly so. And you will find them to be so when you have understood this entire discourse of mine clearly and perfectly.
REX: I hope so, earnestly, and greatly desire it. But you, proceed further.
LAZ: I would indeed, o best of kings. Think now yourself in your soul: from what was said above, you will perceive how these things are interconnected — that from the knowledge of God you descend to the knowledge of yourself. Thus, coming to know the excellence of your substance, you will not neglect yourself, you will not cast yourself away, you will not prostrate yourself in the dust — but you will emerge from the body, from yourself, from all sensible things, and ascending freely, absolutely, and purely, you will fly to the suprasubstantial and most luminous darkness where God dwells. And you will place yourself in the number of the powers, and received among the powers you will enjoy God; and henceforth you will propagate divine offspring, propagating for God and not for yourself. For like must always be begotten by like.
REX: So I trust, and I will strive diligently.
LAZ: And I, o faithful King, will steadfastly admonish you to persevere firmly in this sacred work — not as priests admonish the people with ashes, saying Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return. For these admonish the outer and worldly man, and as slaves compel him to good works through fear. But I will allure you as the inner and substantial man, and as a son of God, with a certain great love, in these words of Hermes: Remember, man, remember: God is light and life, the Father, from whom man was born. If therefore you comprehend yourself as composed of light and life, you will pass back again to light and life.
REX: I am entirely changed today by your words, o Lazarello. I am entirely carried outside myself, entirely I efface myself, entirely I feel myself renewed — as I used to hear in the stories of my youth that Glaucus, when he tasted the marvelous herb in the Euboean sea, felt he had received the nature of the sea divinity.
LAZ: This transformation of ours is excellent, o King — when little by little, regenerated by the divine light, we migrate into true humanity. For the true man (as Hermes says) is either superior to the heavenly beings or at least possesses an equal portion.
REX: Who can rightly be called a true man?
LAZ: He who does not confound the divine order but attains the end of his creation — such as Abraham was, of whom it is said in the book which the Hebrews call Avoda Zara: in the fifty-second year of his age, in the city of Haran, as a true man and worshipper of the true cult, he began to teach the worship of God, and taught for eight continuous years. And Dionysius to Caius the Worshipper, speaking thus of our Lord Jesus, says: We do not discern Jesus by human reason — for he is not man only, nor could he be suprasubstantial who was man only — but he is true man. It is necessary, o King, to attain this truth through frequent admiration, prayer, praise, and contemplation, and by long dwelling upon divine things. And that men might more worthily attain this, Hermes says the Muses descended to men. Turn all the powers of your Muses hither, o King — whatever you have heard from Pontano or any other poet — and apply here the strength of your genius. Wonder, admire, praise, contemplate the divine. For in this way you will be well disposed for the greatest and most deifying secret of the mystery which — if God is favorable — I am about to reveal. By these things (as Hermes says) heaven and all the heavenly ones are delighted.
REX: So let it be done as you advise, that the all-powerful divine ray may flow in on us. And we pray that we may be found chaste and holy and well disposed.
LAZ: Be present therefore with your entire soul's affection, while I compose this hymn of contemplation. Attend therefore, and receive with intent meditation both the words and their meaning.
REX: Proceed — we are present, and with intent powers of soul we await the hymn.
The Hymn of Contemplation
Lazzarelli's great hymn of the cosmos, singing through the Trinity's works — Creation, Sun, Moon, Stars, Life, Man, Incarnation, Spirit — each stanza closing with its refrain.
Now, my soul, consider —
Now the greatest miracles:
Who made all things from nothing?
The Word alone of the Father God.
Let him be blessed —
The Word of the Parent.
Let all things praise —
Let them speak the Word.Who gave the shining lights of heaven
Their turns in eternal succession,
That the vicissitudes of things might vary?
The Mind alone, rising from God.
Therefore let Pimander
Be blessed —
Image of Mind:
Mind, sing the Mind.Who made this shining sun a holy
Image of himself,
Setting the steps for our seeking?
The Light alone streaming from the Father.
Let it be blessed —
The Father's gracious Light.
Let my light sing
The mother-light in harmony.Who appointed the moon and the remaining
Stars of heaven to borrow
Light from the sun —
The Light giving its brightness to the rest?
Let it be blessed —
Origin of Light.
Let every star
Sing its hymn.Who commands the varied spheres of heaven
To turn in their orbits
And be restored to each other?
The World's Craftsman, God alone.
Let him be blessed —
Maker of the universe.
Let all that is heavenly
Sing his praises.Who quickens with life
The composite bodies?
Who gives life to the incorporeal?
God, who is Life for all things.
Let be blessed —
The Life of the Parent.
Let all living things
Bring forth joy.Who, having set man above all animals,
Commands him to raise his eyes to heaven?
Our Father, who begot us.
Let him be blessed —
Who begot us.
Let all our kind
Sing the hymn of this song.Who gave mind and word to man —
The true image of the Father —
Who is the Mind and Word of the Father?
Let him be blessed —
Word and Mind:
These two have constituted
The world.Who, filling all things,
Raises man alone,
Absorbs him, turns him, and transforms him into God?
Our life-giving God, the Spirit.
Let him be blessed —
The gracious Spirit.
Let us sing him
Who fills the world.Who, purifying us from the plague of the body
By a holy breath,
Dwells in the human race?
God, who inhabits what is holy.
Let him be blessed —
Whose dwelling we are.
Let the company of the pious
Sing his praises.Who, when the first man was wandering
In trackless places,
Has set him on the right road?
The Son, born of a virgin.
Let him be blessed —
Born of a virgin.
Let man speak to his offspring;
Let the companions of the virgin speak.Who, when men had defiled again
The sacred image,
Offers his hand to lift them?
The Holy, the Just, and Israel.
Let him be blessed —
Therefore the Redeemer:
Who by his death
Has redeemed his flock.Who, when all things were old
And covered in ancient dust,
Has restored all things wholly new?
The Mind alone, the Almighty of God.
Let it be blessed —
Mind of the Father.
Let the ages speak hymns —
All things resounding.Who at last has restored us, fallen,
To the illustrious throne —
Subjecting all things to the Son?
The counsel of the highest Father.
Therefore arise —
O torpid works.
My mind, enslaved to the flesh —
Loose its chains.What will you give, o my mind,
To the legitimate Father?
What will you give to the Son?
To the Holy Spirit?
The sweet-sounding modes of praise.
Let him be blessed
Who moves all things —
All things, yet is himself all:
Three and One.
The Divine Birth
We have contemplated thus far. Now what remains —
REX: I am interrupted, for that part of your oration was so full of sacred things that it drew my mind powerfully. Tell me also what the male and female fertility of God signifies — for the prophet says of it that God is both male and female. And to believe this more firmly, hear God himself saying through Isaiah: Shall I who make others to give birth not also give birth? If I who grant generation to others am barren — says the Lord your God. And the divine Dionysius says in the Divine Names: that since love was excellently present in the Good beforehand, he in no way permitted it to remain unfruitful within himself — but moved it to act, generating and begetting all things.
REX: I want to know: what special benefit comes to man for his soul's happiness from this recognition of divine fertility?
LAZ: Now you shall hear, o best of kings. The human mind, since it is the image of the primal Mind, has been endowed by that Mind not only with reason and immortality — which two gifts the Mind communicates to its image, namely the Word — and therefore Hermes asserted that mind and word are of the same price as immortality. If anyone makes use of them in accordance with their nature, he will in no way fall short of immortals; nay, he firmly asserted that they would even be taken up from there into the choirs of the blessed. For these two, o King, joined to each other, beget divine offspring.
REX: I would not doubt that to be true, o Lazarello, if you mean by offspring of the mind the sciences and the good arts — which, first conceived in the mind and brought to birth through the word as though to the external senses, are preserved in writings for posterity.
LAZ: Both the sciences and the good arts are the propagations of the mind — but generated in a kind of homonymous generation. But I am speaking here of the univocal and (so to speak) congenial generation of the mind — so that what is begotten is the same as the begetter. For a like birth is always produced from its like by univocal generation.
REX: What is that, pray — do not keep the narration in suspense any longer.
LAZ: Consider now, o King: if the body is of such power that it produces a body like itself — what could prevent the mind from generating mind, the mind being more excellent than the body?
REX: Perhaps you assert that a mind begotten from a begetting mind is produced?
LAZ: That is not what our discourse is now about. But it is about that generation of the mind which, when Hermes had revealed it to Asclepius, that man, converted into an ecstasy and excess of mind, vehemently confounded at the incredible magnitude of the thing, cried out and declared that he considered that man most blessed of all who had attained so great a gift.
REX: There is no need, Lazarello, for such a great circuit of words to drive my mind. For these jars, full of must but with no opening, nearly burst from too great an internal pressure. Digest quickly what you are entrusting to me.
LAZ: Behold, o good King beloved of God — I feel I must comply with you. Not driven by the Socratic demon, but by the Spirit of Jesus Christ who dwells in his worshippers. Behold, we are called to the supreme happiness of the soul. Behold now for us the gate of Paradise is opened, the heavenly city revealed. The way to the mountain, to the tabernacle, to the court of God stands open. Behold, the kingdom of Israel (which the poets call the golden age) for which Christ Jesus taught his disciples to pray — is set before our eyes. The six days of labor and toil have passed; the Sabbath rest has dawned, and truth and wisdom come to meet us. Behold, from the sanctuary of wisdom the treasure of immortality is dug out for us. Behold the nectar, the ambrosia, the manna, the viaticum, the supper of the Lamb — to which the birds of heaven hasten. He will feed and entertain us as guests. The tree of life will be for us henceforth in the odor of unguent. Our spirit will no longer labor, no longer tire. Therefore, while driven by the divine spirit I bring forth the hymn of divine generation — be present with all the powers of your soul. For in this way you will become the possessor of the ineffable mystery.
REX: Behold, I am present with ready soul and ears — I stretch myself with all my powers.
The Second Hymn — The Mystery of Divine Birth
The climax of the dialogue: the revelation that the true man, having known God, can bring forth divine souls — becoming a maker of gods alongside the Father.
LAZ:
My Begetter, where do you carry me, you who fill all places?
Is this the place to which the pious old man Enoch brought himself,
Who pleased you while following in your footsteps?Or are these the ridges of Horeb or Sinai
Where Moses, the horned one, hides himself
To give the people the known signs of the old law?Or is this the holy river of the Word of God
Where he dips himself to purify the body?Or is it rather holy Mount Tabor
Where the Man shone thus,
And surpassed the shining wheels of the sun?Behold: the garment appeared whiter than snow.
Behold: the cloud appeared above, whiter still.Before the age, your offspring in his time
Covered by a bodily house —
That he might redeem the human race.Behold, love shatters me — or rather frenzy —
Conceived by the torch you radiate to me:
What was secret to me, and long unknown —
Now willingly opens the heavens.I now begin nothing humble, nothing small.
I sing nothing mortal indeed, nor trivial —
But what is illustrious in many souls, growing,
Left unsung by any other lyre.What was forbidden to the ancients, what
Was barely permitted to say in parables —
Now you give me leave to set forth in naked verse,
That men may become teachable.For thus it is sung in the sacred oracles:
Since in the last times, Father,
You will be manifest to all — then your teachable ones,
The righteous, will reign.Behold now I begin. With attentive minds,
Let all things with inclined ears hear:
Sounds laden with divine speech —
Behold, I touch the lyre with my fingers.This is certainly the newest of new things,
Greater than all wonders:
That man has discovered the nature of God
And — knowing it — makes it himself.For as the Father-God, Lord and Begetter,
Generates heavenly angels who beget —
Who are the species of things, who are the primal
Exemplars and first principles —So the true man makes divine souls:
Whom Mercury, son of Maia, calls earthly gods,
Who delight to live near to man
And rejoice in the good of man.These give all prophetic things and bear aid
To the miseries of men; give evil to the wicked.
They give illustrious rewards to the righteous
And fulfill the command of the Father God.These are the disciples, these are the servants of God —
Whom the Fashioner of the world has made apostles,
Gods on earth — whom he has exalted above measure
By the sense bestowed from above.These restrain whatever dangers fate brings.
These drive the destruction of diseases far away.
Through these the prophetic words are fulfilled.
These make the word of God.Therefore the Parent has now given to man
A mind similar to himself, and a word —
That he may give birth to gods similar to the gods,
And fulfill the Father's commands.Blessed indeed beyond measure is he who shall have known
The gifts of his lot and willingly fulfilled them —
For he is to be numbered among the gods
And is not inferior to the gods above.
You have understood what has been revealed by the inspiration of God. This, just as in the sacred oracles we read Sabbath of Sabbaths, Holy of Holies, Song of Songs — it can rightly be called the mystery of mysteries. Nor is it established for me only by the authority of the wise and by persuasive reasons — but he who has experienced it in himself more than in any other way knows it. This I say openly to you and to others who are worthy. But do not let the uninitiated hear it.
REX: It must be done as you advise. For if, when the philosopher Eumolpus had revealed the Eleusinian secrets to the common people, they say the Eleusinian goddesses were angered — much more is it right to believe that the highest Craftsman of all things would be indignant if the mysteries of his arcana were promiscuously divulged to everyone. He also forbade his pearls to be cast before swine.
But what shall I now say, o Lazarello? I am so confounded with love, admiration, and joy together that, placed almost outside myself in the excess of my mind, I do not know where I am.
LAZ: No wonder, o most happy King. For if any novelty of things — even the smallest — changes the senses: much more and more excellently does this very thing produce that effect, which by its pre-eminent sublimity strikes back the very gaze of the mind itself and utterly overwhelms it.
REX: I should now like you to tell me, o Lazarello — if you have them — those among the wise, whether ancient or modern, who have treated of this matter.
LAZ: Since very few have from the beginning attained these things in their numbers, so very few have been able to treat them. For no one prescribes with dignity what he does not know.
REX: But these few — who are they?
LAZ: I will enumerate succinctly those I know. First of all, Hermes himself, in all his dialogues which we now have, teaches this matter obscurely. But in the dialogue to Asclepius, inscribed On the Divine Will, he tells it much more openly. The Hebrew masters also relate that Enoch in a certain book made mention of the upper and lower king, and of one who unites them both — from whom daily joy flows down. Which is nothing other than the meaning of this mystery.
Abraham too, in the book called Sefer Yetzirah, that is the Book of Formation, teaches how new men are formed: one must go to the desert mountain where no animals graze; from its midst the red and virgin earth — adama, that is red earth — is to be drawn out. From it a man is to be formed, and through his limbs the letters duly arranged are to give him life. Which, in my judgment, is to be understood mystically. The desert mountains are the divine sages, who are therefore called desert because they are despised by the common people. We esteemed their life madness (as the sage says). And Hermes says: he who dedicates himself to this wisdom — he to the common people and the common people to him are displeasing, and they consider each other mad. And so they are sometimes held in hatred; affronted with insults; deprived of possessions. As we also have from Plato in the Phaedrus: separated from human pursuits and clinging to the divine, he is carped at by the multitude as if placed outside himself. But he is himself full of God.
And the animals which do not graze on the mountains are — according to Philo's interpretation — the bodily senses, which he enumerates as seven; and the senses do not graze on the divine mountains — the divine sages are not allured by the persuasions of the senses. But adama — the red and virgin earth — is the mind of the sages itself, which, unmixed with wine (that is, not yet made fertile), is virgin. From this earth therefore the new man, formed, is vivified through the ordering of the letters through his members. For the divine generation is most sacredly consummated through the mystical utterance of words which are composed of the elements of letters. For which reason these mountains — that is, the divine sages — must be resorted to for divine formation. For only the minds of the wise are capable of divine generation.
Thus in my judgment Abraham enigmatically preserved so great a mystery for posterity. But far above all others: our Lord Jesus Christ revealed this mystery above all, and perhaps in the fullness of a certain time will reveal it more openly — so that it may be fulfilled that he said: I have other sheep which are not of this fold; these also I must bring in. And then there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
And through all the sacred volumes of both the Old and New Testaments, something can be excerpted — but only with a very difficult extraction. But apart from us, o best of King: I recall having read no one who has narrated this matter either explicitly or implicitly.
REX: If nothing in the divine will stands in the way, I should like you to disclose in what order and by what operation so great a work is accomplished.
LAZ: That too — with God's help — is my desire: that the entire consummation of the divine work may have its place. For this thing is divine, august, and royal — and one that befits you, a heroic and pious King. For if the kings of the Persians (as Plato mentions) used to learn the worship of the gods, that is the magic of Zoroaster — how much more should Christian kings be taught the sincere, pure, and true worship which turns from the adulterated.
But now, o King, the sun declines toward the western ocean, and in what you require many conditions must be observed — which, if I proceed to set forth in order, the discourse will grow much longer than is expedient, and the night will interrupt much. Add that my spirit, wearied by the length of the oration and by the greatness and difficulty of the matter, now labors and seeks repose. I shall defer this therefore to another time, to a more secluded and solitary place — following the example of the Hebrew sages.
For on that verse in the book of Genesis — Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; but to the sons of the concubines he gave gifts — the Kabbalists explain thus: what was given to the sons of the concubines was the shemot shel tumah, that is the names of impurity — namely the magical art. But what was given to Isaac was certain divine secrets which, because they were revealed mouth to mouth, are called Kabbalah, which name has in our time begun to be known among some. Its operation, however (with one exception), is entirely hidden from all.
But you, o blessed King — preserve in faithful memory what we have said, and give thanks to God at the end of this discourse, who has called us to so great a gift.
REX: Your words, o Lazarello — he who excels in grace and eloquence.
LAZ: Since you command it, I will execute it, o King. But in this thanksgiving I will use not my own words but those of Jesus Christ — that our prayer may be the more acceptable and sacred to God.
REX: Do as you please.
LAZ: I give you thanks, o Lord Jesus Christ, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to little ones. And it seems fitting to me, o King, that just as we have conducted nearly this entire discourse, so we should bring the discourse to a close with some hymn of thanksgiving — especially in this matter. For no one will ever suffice to pour out enough words of praise toward God. I will therefore praise Christ Jesus under the name of Pimander — which Hermes interprets as the mind and word of the divine power.
The Final Hymn to Christ as Pimander
Lazzarelli closes the dialogue with a hymn to Christ under the Hermetic name Pimander — the Mind-Word of the Father's power — celebrating the entire arc of creation, incarnation, and the coming Kingdom.
O Pimander, Word of the Father, radiant light —
Mind destined from eternal ages,
Origin and craftsman of all that is —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.You press in curving embrace and tread down,
Serpent-like, and dissolve
The dreadful shadows roaring with noise —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.You brood upon the moist nature like a bird upon its egg,
And warm it with the Word's heat;
Thence all the elements flow out —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.You make all operation in all things —
Whatever enjoys life in fire, air,
Earth, or sea, you bring into being —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.You command the human race to be bound
With the daily light and tethered to yourself.
You turn the day and dissolve the darkness —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.When man had lost his powers,
Born of a virgin you put them entirely to flight,
And made flesh, you call him back to the stars —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.Behold, when again the limbs fall
Among the human, you appear again
As the ancient seers prophesied —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.As the sacred oracles say:
The great and the small shall know alike —
The world shall need no frequent instruction —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.The days yield to the ministers of works.
The seventh rest has breathed over the earth.
The light-bearing Mind is joined to man —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.Whoever shall speak with the divine voice —
The world of the celestial ones shall resound with praises.
The gods shall be present on earth in abundance —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.All things blaze forth into their primal form.
Behold, God's kingdom — which your prayer commands us to call —
Hastens to come —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.The two together in one single fold:
Behold, one shepherd governs and leads
To wholesome pastures where soft grass grows —
Praise be to you, power, honor and triumph,
Glory and kingdom, splendor and might.
This thanksgiving having been offered, the King — made more vigorous from the disputation and lighter in spirit — withdrew into the inner chambers of his palace, praying, hoping that a similar day would come with the rising of another sun. But Lazzarelli, having saluted the King with reverence (as was fitting), promising his service for another day, departed in the deep of night.
Colophon
Crater Hermetis was written around 1490 by Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447–1500), poet and Humanist, as a record of his philosophical and spiritual initiation under Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio — a messianic figure who appeared in Rome in 1484 wearing a crown of thorns and claiming prophetic authority. Lazzarelli regarded the encounter as a transformative revelation. The dialogue presents Lazzarelli himself as teacher and the "King" as his initiand — almost certainly Mercurio, framed with regal dignity.
The text was published posthumously in Paris, 1505, by Henri Estienne (Henricus Stephanus), appended to Marsilio Ficino's Latin translations of the Pimander and Asclepius — the two foundational Hermetic texts. The 1505 volume was thus the first printing of the Hermetica in that generation to include Lazzarelli's synthesis alongside Ficino's. The printer's colophon identifies co-editors Ioan Solidus (Cracovian) and Volcratius Pratensis, and dates the volume to the Kalends of April 1505.
The Crater Hermetis is the most ambitious synthesis of Renaissance Hermeticism and Christian theology. It makes a radical claim: that the "true man" who drinks from the Cup of Hermes — who has turned from material attachment, contemplated God, and come to know himself as the divine image — can generate divine souls, becoming a maker of gods alongside the Father. Lazzarelli traces this mystery through Hermes, Enoch, Abraham (the Sefer Yetzirah), the Kabbalists, Dionysius the Areopagite, Philo of Alexandria, and ultimately Christ — in whose mouth, Lazzarelli suggests, the full practical revelation of the mystery was reserved.
The text's practical operation — how the divine birth is actually accomplished — is deferred at the dialogue's close to a future, more private meeting that never comes (in the text as we have it). Whether Lazzarelli wrote a continuation is unknown; what survives is complete in its theological arc and stands as one of the most beautiful documents of Renaissance Hermetism.
This translation was made directly from the 1505 Latin in the Ficino volume digitized at archive.org (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). Byte range 213748–282259. The source OCR presents significant challenges: Renaissance ligatures and the long-s (ſ) are systematically confused with 'f'; abbreviations are frequently run together; margin annotations (naming cited authorities: Philo, Dionysius, Hermes, Solomon, Moses, Plato, et al.) are interspersed through the main text. These margin annotations were identified and excluded from the translation body, as they are the printer's scholarly apparatus and not Lazzarelli's text. No prior English translation was consulted during the drafting of this translation. Wouter Hanegraaff and Ruud Bouthoorn's 2005 Brill critical edition is noted as the major scholarly resource for those wishing to pursue the Latin further.
Translated from the Latin (1505 edition) for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text — Crater Hermetis (Latin, Paris 1505)
Latin source text from Marsilio Ficino, Mercurii Trismegisti Pimander, Paris: Henri Estienne, 1505, ff. 60r–80v (approx.). Digitized at archive.org, identifier bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC, byte range 213748–282259. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above. The text below is lightly normalized from the OCR (long-s ſ restored as s; word-splits rejoined; margin annotations excluded) but preserves the original orthography and abbreviations of the 1505 printing throughout.
Regem dialogus, cui titulus Crater Hermetis
Cum mecum diu ipse haesitarem, inter tot veterum et recentium diversas dissopantesque opiniones, quae ad vitam duceret via, quave ratione de consequenda felicitate pedula accepsque, firmari in hac vita fides posset, dumque in haec saepius anxietate fundere deo verba precantia, crebros dependere gemitus, vera ex oculis spargere lacrimas — non defuit tandem illius e caelo praesidium: qui naufraganti Petro auxiliare manum porrexit; qui ante saecula mundum creavit; qui labefactum flagitiis orbem, sui oblatione restituit; qui magni consilii angelus, vero mentis lumine illustravit; qui princeps pacis, hominem deo conciliavit; quem verum deum et verum hominem profitemur, ac futuri patrem saeculi iudicem expectamus. Ipse qui in Hermetis mente Pimander erat — in me Christus IESUS incolatum facere dignatus est, mentemque veritatis lumine illustrans, me consolatus est, consolator aeternus.
Meae igitur felicitatis, o Rex, te participem facere dignum duxi: qui in hac tua senecta primogenito regni frena relaxas, quieti es deditus, contemplationi et piis insistis operibus. Otiosus enim videris et huic de qua nunc tecum acturus sum perscrutationi idoneus. Non ego nunc, o Rex, verborum elegantiae, velut Graeci, sed verborum actui, ut sapientes Aegyptii, studeo. De verbi enim actu, non de consonantia, perscrutabimur: qua ratione bonum consequi possimus.
Tum REX: Age ergo, exprime quid nobis faciendum est, ut hanc possimus consequi felicitatem.
LAZ: Novisti ab antiquis memoriae proditum: cuidam quae esset ad felicitatem via interroganti, Delphicam respondisse Apollinem, si teipsum agnoveris. Et in eius fronte templi signatum: nosce teipsum.
Tum REX: Igitur Delphico Apollini credendum asseris?
LAZ: Non semper; sed cum consonam exprimit veritati. Multa enim vera in suis prompfit oraculis. Quod si Porphyrium in oraculorum philosophia percurres, ita esse pro certo comperies. Sed ut cetera praetermittam, quod de vita beata expressit oraculum, hic in medium adferamus. Quod Graeco carmine scriptum praeferre, sed brevitati studens Latine exprimam:
Dura via illa nimis, ferratis clausaque portis,
quae vitam nobis aperit donatque beatam.
Nec vero verbis facile enarrari vilis,
exponiqu queat, ullo quo semita ducit.
Quam primi ante omnes ceperunt tradere pulchros
qui Nili epotant lymphas; Phoenicibus inde
proximaque Assyriis ea cura; sed inclyta longe
gens Hebrea illam novit, motamque recepit.
REX: An quicquam hoc oraculo veri? REX: Ita videtur. Sed dic quaeso: an Aegyptii aliquid de veritate degustarunt?
LAZ: Non modo degustarunt, sed pene ingurgitati sunt. At ceteros praetermittentes, quid de Hermete dicemus? Qui omnem sapientiae semitam perscrutatus, oratione licet parva, immensa tamen sententiis, de vera sapientia monumenta posteris reliquit — unde ut aliqui coniciant, ad Hebraeos sapientia migravit. Mosem enim Hebraeum, et apud Aegyptios natum, transtulisse illum putant ex Aegypto per Pentateuchum ad Hebraeos. Et eum in actis apostolorum legimus, omnium Aegyptiorum disciplina fuisse eruditissimum.
REX: Hermeticus es, ut videris, o Lazarele; adeo profecto hunc laudibus effers, ut sapientior fuerit nemo.
LAZ: Christianus ego sum, o Rex, et Hermeticum esse non pudet. Si enim praecepta eius consideraveris, a christiana confirmabis non abhorrere doctrina. Hic est ille, o Rex optime, quem Maia genitum, deorum interpretem, eloquentiae deum, repertorem lyrae, et multis perfectum officiis, veteres dixere poetae. Ab hoc omnis sua antiqua theologia traxit originem. Nam ut taceamus plurimos eius libros qui perierunt: quid divinius illis libellis inveniri potest, quos habemus in manibus, in quibus de dei trinitate ita consummate expressit, ut qui eum intelligit, veritatem se gaudeat invenisse. Quare nunc nostrum sermonem volo Hermetis cratera nuncupari. Quicquid enim hic de vera felicitate investigabimus, et ab evangelica doctrina et ab Hermetis praeceptis hauremus.
REX: Perge igitur. Nam ardesco intelligere id quod iam es proferre pollicitus. Spero enim, cum et ego Christianus sim, simul tecum etiam Hermeticus effici.
LAZ: Tu modo, o Rex, interroga: quid primum nunc audire desideras?
REX: Ad reiciendis superfluis properandum est. Dic igitur qua ratione meipsum noscere valeo.
LAZ: Interroganti Hermeti Pimander respondit: tua me mente comprehende, et ego te in cunctis quae cupis erudiam. Dixit et ipsa veritas: sine me nihil potestis facere. A propheta etiam dicitur: in lumine tuo videbimus lumen. Quod ut nos illustret, deum primo precabimur. In omniumque rerum principio, orandum esse praeceptum est ab antiquis. Sed in theologia id fore exequendum Areopagita praecepit Dionysius — eo quidem in libro, quem de dei nominibus edidit. Cum igitur hic de theologiae arcanis differendum sit, principio orabimus. Tu vero adesto, fave animis, dum sic deum invoco.
[Hymnus I — text as in translation above]
Iam oratum est. Tu modo, optime Rex, reitera, quid a me nunc exprimi cupis.
REX: Adeo tua haec oratio sacris referta sententiis animum detraxit meum, ut multa in ea a te dicta primo intelligere cupiam.
LAZ: Cum ad finem pervenerimus sermonis quem coepimus, et ea et complura alia liquido intelliges. Nunc vero insistamus saepto, ad quod ut revocaris, repeta quod superius tacendum est. At ne videar ab Apollinis oraculo sed ab Hermetis doctrina sumpsisse initium, sic habeto: creatis ab initio omnibus, Deus Hermes asserts exclamasse:
Noveritis universa germina ac opes: amore corporis, mortis causa esse scitote.
Quod Mosis sententiae in Geneseos libro respondet. In his enim Hermetis verbis et lignum vitae in quo vivimus, et lignum scientiae boni et mali, quod nobis affert interitum, continetur. Cuius caput praeceptum est (ceu videre in promptu est), ut nosmetipsos cognoscamus.
*[For the full Latin text, see archive.org identifier bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC, pp. 60r–80v of the 1505 Paris edition. The complete Latin dialogue continues through the two-trees discussion, the Lament poem, the soul as divine light, the hymns of contemplation and divine birth, through the final thanksgiving hymn and closing prose. The section translated above constitutes approximately the first quarter of the dialogue; the full source is freely accessible at the archive.org link.]
Source Colophon
The Latin source text of the Crater Hermetis is contained in: Marsilio Ficino, Mercurii Trismegisti Pimander, necnon Asclepius, Crater Hermetis adiecti, Paris: Henricus Stephanus (Henri Estienne), 1505. Published 1 April 1505 (Calendis Aprilis). The volume also includes Ficino's Latin Pimander and Asclepius.
Digitized copy: archive.org, identifier bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC. Freely accessible, no login required. The Crater Hermetis text begins at approximately byte offset 213748 and runs to offset 282259 in the djvu.txt plain-text version. This is a public domain text (1505 printing, well within all copyright jurisdictions).
The scholarly critical edition is: Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Ruud M. Bouthoorn, Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447–1500): The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents, Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005. This contains the Latin text, Italian translation, and extensive scholarship. The 2005 edition was not consulted during translation.
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