The Hermetica…The Creation of Humankind

The Hermetica…The  Creation of Humankind

God created humankind because he wanted there to be a creature capable of appreciating the great beauty of his Cosmos. He asks each of the gods who administer the Cosmos to provide something to benefit humanity. The sun gives joy. The moon gives sleep. Saturn offers the limits of necessity and the balancing force of justice. Jupiter gives peace and Mars gives struggle. Venus offers love and Mercury wisdom.

When God hears what the gods will offer, he thinks humankind into existence. At first humanity is just a thought – a soul. It is unable to tend and look after the Earth as God wishes, so God gives each human a mortal body within which to house the immortal soul. To do this he first creates Nature. She is like a beautiful woman, and God makes her mistress of the world. She produces the seeds of natural life. Seeing in the human soul an image of God, Nature falls in love and merges with her beloved. This is the blending of body and soul which produces each one of us. Hence all human beings have a dual nature, being a combination of an immortal soul and a mortal body. We honor both sides of our nature when we serve God by administering the natural world for him.

Finally God gives humankind a last great gift - the ability to reproduce. more than this, he makes the process a holy loving sacrament which reflects the marriage of matter and spirit that creates the Cosmos. The sacred bond of love unites man and woman together, so that they may share their essential qualities with each other.

The Hermetica,
Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy