Corpus Hermeticum on the Mountain of Revelation Explained
- Dec 21, 2025
- 4 min read
Tractate III — The Sacred Discourse
Hermes on the Mountain of Revelation
The third Tractate leaves the vast cosmic sweep of the General Sermon
and brings us somewhere far more intimate:
a mountain,
a teacher,
a student,
and a moment of unveiling.
If Tractate I is the encounter with the Divine Mind,
and Tractate II is the architecture of the living cosmos,
Tractate III is the beginning of transmission,
where Hermes begins to teach what he has received.
This is not a sermon of abstraction.
It is a discourse spoken from one awakened mind to another,
on the threshold where human understanding
meets divine illumination.
The Mountain as Symbol
Hermes brings Tat, his student, to a place of elevation.
Mountains in Hermetic language signify:
the rising above habitual perception
the thinning of the veil between worlds
the stillness required for insight
the vantage point from which patterns reveal themselves
To ascend the mountain is not a geographical act. It is a shift of consciousness.
Tat is not invited here as a passive listener. He is asked to stand in a place where the mind becomes capable of receiving what ordinary awareness cannot grasp.
What Hermes Reveals to Tat
At the summit, Hermes offers a teaching that is both direct and layered:
The divine is everywhere and in everything.
Humans suffer not from fate but from ignorance.
The senses pull us outward and fragment the mind.
The inner eye, when opened, reveals unity beneath appearance.
The divine is not distant; it is the essence of all life.
To know the divine, one must become like the divine, inwardly still, luminous, unbound.
Hermes tells Tat:
“You see the world as many,
but it is one.
You see yourself as limited, but you are made of the same substance that moves the heavens.
You think you are trapped, but the door is inside you.”
This discourse is not a lecture. It is medicine for the divided mind.
The Nature of the Divine
Hermes describes the divine not as a figure, not as a being among beings, but as:
the Life behind all life
the Mind behind all minds
the root of motion and stillness
the cause that is also the substance
the presence that is too near to be seen
Tat struggles to understand. Hermes does not shame him.
He guides him gently toward a new posture of consciousness:
“Stop seeking the divine as something separate. Recognize it as the very light by which you look.”
The Divine as Father and Life
Hermes uses two archetypal metaphors:
The Father, origin, source, intention.
Life, motion, manifestation, expression.
Hermetic thought weaves these not as opposites but as partners. The source and the expression are one continuous being.
Every breath you take, every thought that rises, every impulse toward truth, is the divine speaking itself through you.
Tat is asked to see not only the cosmos as living, but his own mind as a doorway
through which that Life moves.
The Transformation of Perception
Much of this Tractate concerns how to see.
Hermes teaches Tat that the material world is not an obstacle to spirit, but spirit in its outermost form.
Matter is not dead. Body is not fallen. Form is not the enemy.
The problem is not the world. The problem is forgetfulness.
To awaken is to see spirit shining through everything, including oneself.
This is the shift the discourse attempts to catalyze: to move Tat from intellectual agreement to lived recognition.
The Purpose of the Sacred Discourse
This Tractate teaches the Hermetic student:
how to listen with the inner ear
how to perceive unity beneath diversity
how to hold the divine as both transcendent and immanent
how to recognize ignorance as a veil, not a flaw
how to follow the path of remembrance
Hermes is not trying to overwhelm Tat. He is trying to awaken the part of him that already knows.
The teaching is not new. The recognition is.
What This Means for You
This Tractate invites you into a deeper style of consciousness.
You do not need to become divine. You need only remove what obscures what is already true.
You do not need to force awakening. You need only turn toward the light that has been illuminating you all along.
The mountain is a metaphor for the moment you rise above your habitual perception
and allow yourself to see from a different elevation.
This discourse is not asking you to believe. It is asking you to remember.
IFS Integration
Turning Inward Through Tractate III
Let Hermes’ mountain teaching meet your inner world.
Reflection Questions
Choose one or explore all.
What part of you feels too “small” to believe it contains divine light?
What part resists the idea that unity underlies everything?
What part feels relief hearing that ignorance is a veil, not a flaw?
What part is longing to ascend the inner mountain?
Stay close to whatever answers. Do not push for meaning. Let the response unfold.
Optional Deep Dive
IFS Practices for Inner Recognition
IFS Journal Prompt
Write from the voice of a part that struggles with the idea of divine nearness.
Let it speak freely about:
what feels distant
what feels unreachable
what it fears about awakening
what it longs to believe
Do not argue with it. Just receive its truth.
Parts-Art Exercise
Draw two images:
one showing how your system feels when it identifies only with the senses
one showing how your system feels when it remembers inner light
Let abstraction guide you. Lines, spacing, texture, and color can reveal layers words cannot.
Somatic IFS Practice
Close your eyes.
Place one hand behind your heart, as if supporting it from the back.
Breathe slowly.
Whisper inward:
“Let me rise to the place where I can see clearly.”
Notice:
the shift in your breath
the places your body leans toward the prayer
the places that hesitate or pull away
You are not forcing yourself up the mountain. You are letting your deeper mind show you the view
that is already yours.
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