---

The Virgin of the World

By Hermes Mercurius Trismagistus tr. A. Kingsford, E Maitland

---

Various Hermetic Fragments – Part VII

SEVEN Planets revolve in the ways of Olympos, and by them Eternity is measured:--The Moon which illumines the night, the gloomy Kronos, the gentle Sun, the Paphian Goddess, protectress of marriage, the valiant Ares, the fruitful Hermes, and Zeus the principle of birth and the fount of nature. These, likewise, have received the human race in heritage; and there are, within us, the Moon, Zeus, Ares, Aphrodite, Kronos, Phoebus, Hermes. Moreover, we draw from the etherial fluid our tears, our laughter, our wrath, our speech, our generation, our sleep, our desire. Tears are of Kronos, generation of Zeus, speech of Hermes, valour of Ares, sleep of Artemis, desire of Kytheræa (Aphrodite), laughter of Apollo, for he it is who pours joy upon human thought and on the infinite world.

This fragment, cited by Stobæus, is in verse, and Heeren supposes it to be part of an Orphic hymn. It is thoroughly Hermetic, and its recognition of Man as the epitome and reflex of the universe is entirely in accord also with Kabbalistic teaching.--A.K.]