Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3 · 12 of 46

Excerpt XII. Of Providence and Fate

EXCERPT XII.

OF PROVIDENCE AND FATE

(Title from Patrizzi (p. 38); followed by: “From the [Sermons] to Ammon.”

Text: Stob., Phys., v. 20, under heading: “Of Hermes from the [Sermons] to Ammon”; G. p. 70; M. i. 48, 49; W. i. 82.

Ménard, Livre IV., No. ii. of “Fragments of the Books of Hermes to Ammon,” p. 258.)

All things are born by Nature and by Fate, and there is not a [single] space bereft of Providence.

Insight

Now what supporteth the whole World, is Providence; what holdeth it together and encircleth it about, is Necessity; what drives all on and drives them round, is Fate. Excerpt XII is a compact statement of the same Hermetic triad as Excerpt X, but here in a single descending image. Providence is the sustaining cause from above; Necessity is the encircling cause around; Fate is the driving cause within. The three are not in conflict but layered. Each level of the cosmos is held by the level above and propels the level below. This is the ancient ordering principle that becomes the medieval Great Chain of Being and the early modern concept of natural law — every event linked upward and downward in a hierarchy of causes.Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being, ch 2; on Hermetic causal layers: Festugière, La révélation, III.197-218.

Now Providence is the Self-perfect Reason.

And of this [Reason] there are two spontaneous powers,—Necessity and Fate.

And Fate doth minister to Providence and to Necessity; while unto Fate the Stars do minister.

For Fate no one is able to escape, nor keep himself from their shrewd scrutiny.

For that the Stars are instruments of Fate; it is at its behest that they effect all things for nature and for men.

Footnotes

60:1 αὐτοτελὴς λόγος,—complete in itself.

60:2 That is, the Seven Spheres.

60:3 Sc. of the Stars.

60:4 δεινότητος.

60:5 With this extract compare Exx. x., xi., xiii.