Their supposed author, a mythical figure named Hermes Trismegistus, was thought to be a contemporary of Moses. The Hermetic philosophy was regarded as an ancient theology, parallel to the revealed wisdom of the Bible, supporting Biblical revelation and culminating in the Platonic philosophical tradition. This new translation is the only English version based on reliable texts, and Professor Copenhaver's introduction and notes make this accessible and up-to-date edition an indispensable resource to scholars.

    This Renaissance era craft is nonetheless based upon philosophical materials from far older times, namely the third or fourth century AD, from which the primordial material came. Credited to Hermes Trismegistus, the Divine Pymander (sometimes spelled "Poemander") touches upon astronomy, science, nature, and a great deal of theological material. It is presented in the form of discourse; a format which will be familiar to anyone also familiar with Plato's "Republic" and some similar philosophical works of antiquity. Through his discourse with several individuals, Trismegistus attempts to draw upon the overarching philosophy "as above, so below." Thus then, this work describes the very process and ideation behind all of existence, the purpose of life, and the nature of good and evil, all through its treatises upon various topics.

    

    

    Triggered by a moment of insight thirty years earlier, this theory explains how harmonics combine to form coherent geometrical patterns that our auditory system recognizes as simple shapes.Based on a personal journey through 2,500 years of occluded music history, the author finds new evidence to suggest that ancient civilizations once possessed an advanced harmonic science that integrated perception, physiology and acoustics. Banned for hundreds of years by anti-pagan religious doctrine, only remnants of this ancient knowledge have survived in mythological allegory, esoteric symbolisms and the secret fraternaties. It is from these clues that the mystery of music perception begins to unravel.Using a spectral analysis of harmonic interference over an octave, the author shows how reflective patterns on vibrated surfaces can be found in the growth patterns of the human anatomy, particularly our ears and brain. From this simple correspondence, perception of music is then explained as the natural process of anticipating and matching harmonic interference patterns against identical structures in our auditory system. When represented visually, music becomes organic geometries floating inside a harmonically structured space - exactly as our ears and brain understand it.But this is only the beginning. The author goes much further to show how everything in nature can be described as crystallized harmonics. Drawing on the latest scientific research and cutting-edge theories in the fields of genetics, quantum physics and cosmology, a unified harmonic matrix is proposed for the study of coherence on both a micro and macro scale. Out of this emerges a grand scientific musical theory that reintegrates ancient knowledge systems with quantum physics to tackle the deeper mysteries neither can answer alone.

    

    Blackden was in the Golden Dawn and this translation emphasizes the initiatory character of the Ceremony of the Dead.