G. R. S. Mead

The Gnostics were part of early Christianity and were composed of a number of mystical sects. This was one of their gospels. Virtually all Gnostic teachers were persecuted and their documents destroyed because the Church needed a uniform set of beliefs to operate under. Only now have we begun to better understand these early Christian mystics. This work remains an important milestone in Gnostic research, on par with Nag Hammadi, and should be part of any serious study. It tells the story of how we, as spiritual beings, have fallen into the world of physical creation. The soul is asleep here, bogged down in physical surroundings, unaware of our true nature. The purpose of Pistis Sophia is to awaken us, and to aid in the process of spiritual freedom.

A Gnostic Gospel

Pistis Sophia

Hermes Trismegistus

The fifteen tractates of the Corpus Hermeticum, along with the Perfect Sermon or Asclepius, are the foundation documents of the Hermetic tradition. Written by unknown authors in Egypt sometime before the end of the third century C.E., they were part of a once substantial literature attributed to the mythic figure of Hermes Trismegistus, a Hellenistic fusion of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.



The treatises we now call the Corpus Hermeticum were collected into a single volume in Byzantine times, and a copy of this volume survived to come into the hands of Lorenzo de Medici's agents in the fifteenth century.



The treatises divide up into several groups. The first (CH I), the "Poemandres", is the account of a revelation given to Hermes Trismegistus by the being Poemandres or "Man-Shepherd", an expression of the universal Mind. The next eight (CH II-IX), the "General Sermons", are short dialogues or lectures discussing various basic points of Hermetic philosophy. There follows the "Key" (CH X), a summary of the General Sermons, and after this a set of four tractates - "Mind unto Hermes", "About the Common Mind", "The Secret Sermon on the Mountain", and the "Letter of Hermes to Asclepius" (CH XI-XIV) - touching on the more mystical aspects of Hermeticism. The collection is rounded off by the "Definitions of Asclepius unto King Ammon" (CH XV), which may be composed of three fragments of longer works.



Initiation Into Hermetics, The Hermetica Of Hermes Trismegistus

The Corpus Hermeticum

This hymn or poem is an important Gnostic text and should be essential reading for anyone interested in early mystical literature. Also known as "The Hymn of the Pearl", it is an allegorical tale. Instead of an outer journey, as it first seems, it is interpreted here as a deeper, inner one. It contains a message that can be quite profound, depending on the reader's level of spiritual understanding. This book works on the inner psyche, creating an interactive balance, in some cases, between the upper (hidden) and lower (physical) worlds. That was the aim of many Gnostic stories, poems and parables. With that in mind, this book has much to offer.

The Hymn Of The Robe Of Glory

Pistis Sophia Revised

This important historical document chronicles the teachings of Jesus, who explains life's mysteries to his disciples and Mary Magdalene. Their discussions take place after Christ's resurrection and include accounts of his ascension.

The Gnostic Tradition of Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and His Disciples

These writings are attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, an ancient Egyptian sage, the founder of all arts and sciences, both mundane and spiritual. Rather than being an actual person, Hermes is the Egyptian personification of the "Gnostic Revealer." Hymns of Hermes examines Hermetic ecstatic hymns, which are songs of a poetic nature used to describe the Gnosis of Hermetic attainment--the ecstatic personal experience of the divine.

The Hymns Of Hermes

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published. Hence any marks or annotations seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.

Echoes from the Gnosis (Volume I)

8 They girt me with Adamant [also] That hath power to cut even iron. 9 My Glorious Robe they took off me Which in their love they had wrought me, 10 And my Purple Mantle [also] Which was woven to match with my stature. 11 And with me They [then] made a compact; In my heart wrote it, not to forget it:

The Hymn of the Robe of Glory, The Hymns of Hermes

These marvelous narratives may seem vastly fantastic to the modern mind, but to every shade of Christianity in those days, they were entirely credible.-from The Hymn of JesusLost words of Jesus? One of the greatest thinkers on the origins of Christianity and a renowned expert on Gnostic and Hermetic literature presents, in this snug volume first published in 1907, the lost teachings of Jesus. Not found in the canonical Gospels and, indeed, frequently dismissed as blasphemous or heretical or "reworked" by later editors to comply with perceived tradition, this beautiful hymn is not just of interest to Christian mystics but to anyone who values wise words well spoken.Also available from Cosimo Classics: Mead's The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition and Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?British scholar and philosopher GEORGE ROBERT STOW MEAD (1863-1933) was educated at Cambridge University. He served as editor of The Theosophical Society's Theosophical Review, and later formed The Quest Society and edited its journal, The Quest Review. He is also the author of Notes on Nirvana (1893) and an 1896 translation of The Upanishads.

The Hymn of Jesus

Hermes Trisgemistus (thrice greatest), is the legendary teacher at the core of the Hermeticism, which forms the underlying principles of many religions and esoteric disciplines. This text, written by a renowned gnostic scholar, presents pieces from the tradition, with commentaries and notes.

Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis

Thrice Greatest Hermes

Simon Magus was originally a Christian and disciple of John the Baptist, but broke off and formed the first Christian heresy, called Simonianism. After learning magical medicine in Alexandria he was considered to have many magical skills. To this day, a skilled magician is called a "magus." He also studied Greek philosophers, especially Heraclitus, and became the first Christian to attempt to bridge Greek philosophy and Christianity. If a mixture ever occurred Church leaders feared they would become weaker over time and not survive. According to Mead, this was Simon's great heresy -- not his magic. This interesting book shows Simon Magus to have been a brilliant man who was breaking new ground, both philosophically and spiritually.

His Philosophy and Teachings

Simon Magus

This is the first volume of three of G.R.S. Mead's comprehensive survey of the literature attributed to the legendary Egyptian sage, Hermes Trismegistus. Chapters include: The Remains of the Trismegistic Literature; The History of the Evolution of Opinion; Thoth the Master of Wisdom; The Popular Theurgic Hermes-Cult in the Greek Magic Papyri; The Main Source of the Trismegistic Literature According to Manetho, High Priest of Egypt; An Egyptian Prototype of the Main Features of the Poemandres’ Cosmogony; The Myth of Man in the Mysteries; Philo of Alexandria and the Hellenistic Theology; Plutarch: Concerning the Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, and more.

Thrice Greatest Hermes, Volume 1

Everybody in Christendom has heard of Simon, the magician, and how Peter, the apostle, rebuked him, as told in the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles. Many also have heard the legend of how at Rome this wicked sorcerer endeavoured to fly by aid of the demons, and how Peter caused him to fall headlong and thus miserably perish. And so most think that there is an end of the matter, and either cast their mite of pity or contempt at the memory of Simon, or laugh at the whole matter as the invention of superstition or the imagination of religious fanaticism, according as their respective beliefs may be in orthodoxy or materialism. This for the general. Students of theology and church history, on the other hand, have had a more difficult task set them in comparing and arranging the materials they have at their disposal, as found in the patristic writings and legendary records; and various theories have been put forward, not the least astonishing being the supposition that Simon was an alias for Paul, and that the Simon and Peter in the accounts of the fathers and in the narrative of the legends were simply concrete symbols to represent the two sides of the Pauline and Petrine controversies.

A Gnostic Glimpse Into Hell

The Vision of Aridaeus

What... is the use, in the resurrection, of a body of flesh, blood, sinews, and bones, of limbs and organs for functions of the flesh, such as eating and drinking, excretion and procreation? Are we to continue to do all these things for eternity?-from "The Resurrection-Body"The concept that the physical body is but a manifestation of a more numinous expression of the soul sounds very Eastern to modern ears, but in fact it was one of the foundations of Christianity that the tradition abandoned long ago. In this short but profound study, first published in 1919, one of the greatest thinkers on the origins of Christianity and a renowned expert on Gnostic and Hermetic literature reconnects us with an ancient belief in the divine within us all that is, surprisingly, powerfully reflected in modern ideas about psychology and biology. No mystic himself, Mead instead finds a middle ground between superstitions of old and the oddities of advanced scientific thinking.Also available from Cosimo Classics: Mead's The Hymn of Jesus and Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?British scholar and philosopher GEORGE ROBERT STOW MEAD (1863-1933) was educated at Cambridge University. He served as editor of The Theosophical Society's Theosophical Review, and later formed The Quest Society and edited its journal, The Quest Review. He is also the author of Notes on Nirvana (1893) and an 1896 translation of The Upanishads.

The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition

This is the edition including all three books. The so-called Hermetic writings have been known to Christian writers for many centuries. The early church Fathers (Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria) quote them in defense of Christianity. Stobaeus collected fragments of them. The Humanists knew and valued them. They were studied in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in modern times have again been diligently examined by many scholars. G. R. S. Mead has issued a translation of the whole body of extant literature, with extended prolegomena, commentary, etc. There is a wide difference of opinion as to the date at which this literature was produced. Mead believes that some of the extant portions of it are at least as early as the earliest Christian writings, while von Christ assigns them to the third Christian century, and thinks that they show the influence of neo-Platonism. To affirm that they influenced New Testament usage would be hazardous, but they perhaps throw some light on the direction in which thought was moving in New Testament times.

Thrice-Greatest Hermes

This translation (taken From 'Thrice Greatest Hermes: Studies In Hellenistic Theosophy And Gnosis, Volume 2'), includes the Pœmandres and some addresses of Hermes to disciples Tat, Ammon and Asclepius, which are said to have originated in the school of Ammonius Saccas, a Greek philosopher from Alexandria.

This is the extended and annotated edition including * an extensive annotation of almost 10.000 words about the history and basics of Gnosticism, written by Wilhelm Bousset The so-called Hermetic writings have been known to Christian writers for many centuries. The early church Fathers (Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria) quote them in defense of Christianity. Stobaeus collected fragments of them. The Humanists knew and valued them. They were studied in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in modern times have again been diligently examined by many scholars. Contents: I. Poemandres, the Shepherd of Men II. To Asclepius III. The Sacred Sermon IV. The Cup or Monad V. Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest VI. In God Alone Is Good And Elsewhere Nowhere VII. The Greatest Ill Among Men is Ignorance of God VIII. That No One of Existing Things doth Perish, but Men in Error Speak of Their Changes as Destructions and as Deaths IX. On Thought and Sense X. The Key XI. Mind Unto Hermes XII. About The Common Mind XIII. The Secret Sermon on the Mountain

The Corpus Hermeticum (Annotated Edition)

The writing of the present work has been a congenial task to Mr. Mead, and he has brought to bear lovingly and zealously upon the portraiture of the figure of Christ and of early Christianity, all the knowledge which a deep study of Oriental religions from their emotional side could furnish.The outset that there is very little of what is commonly regarded as the Theosophic method apparent in the work, which is the product of a scholarly though withal very devotional spirit. Mr. Mead's aim has been to enable the reader to obtain a glimpse of a world of which he has never heard at school, and of which no word is ever breathed from the pulpit; to take him away from the pictures which the rationalists and the apologists have presented, and to enable him to obtain an unimpeded view of that wonderful panorama of religious strife which the first two centuries of our era presented. He will here see a religious world of immense activity, a vast upheaval of thought and a strenuousness of religious endeavor to which the history of the Western world gives no parallel. Thousands of schools and communities on every hand, striving and contending, a vast freedom of thought, a mighty effort to live the religious life. Here he finds innumerable points of contact with other' religions; he moves in an atmosphere of freedom of which he has previously had no experience in Christian tradition. Who are all these people—not fishermen and slaves and the poor and destitute, though those are striving too—but these men of learning and ascetic life, saints and sages as much as many others to whom the name has been given with far less reason ?

G. R. S. Mead

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