snip: In regard to universal law, he said: “As above, so below.” That is, no matter how many dimensions or spheres of reality there may turn out to be, there is only One Law that governs them all. For there is finally only One universe, one world system, a single Unity which at the same time lawfully manifests a virtual riot of diversity at all scales.
Spirited: Man has always lived by revelation and Hermes Trismegistus was no exception. In contemporary terms, Trismegistus was an “astral plane traveler.” During one of his “out of body” experiences he encountered a great Red Dragon that later appeared to him as a beautiful spirit of light.
It was the Dragon who revealed to Hermes the “occult secret” (wisdom teaching) of “as above so below,” meaning that only the natural dimension exists and everything is therefore a part of nature (or the cosmos, matter + energy, the Force, etc). This is the doctrine of Monism.
The god of occult philosophy has many guises, but in this case God is an incomplete, inept, impersonal deity who requires man to “complete him,” that is, restore him to his pre-temporal wholeness. Man is therefore a part of the process of salvation. God is saved by man in other words.
This is the specific teaching of Hegel. Marx stripped Hegel’s dialectic of its’ spiritual aspect to make it a secularized version: material dialectics.
A fine example of Monistic reasoning is in the writings of Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), a German mystic. Eckhart writes:
“God’s divinity comes of my humility.” There follows a lengthy, wild, rambling explanation of why this is the case. In conclusion, Eckhart writes: “Therefore, if God is to exercise his divine property by his gifts, he may well need my humility; for apart from humility he can give nothing...That is why it is true that by my humility I give divinity to God.”
Monism is like a coin. One side is evolutionary materialism and the other is evolutionary pantheistic vitalism. At bottom, both deliver the same message: “Ye can be as God.” This means that Hermes “One Law” is the law of god-men spiritually energized by the Dragon.
In reviewing my response I saw that I had neglected to say that Monism always, without exception, erases the Creator-creature distinction, a fundamental teaching of all occult systems, including those disguised behind secular terminology.
The spirit of Monism teaches: Man is a god in the making. Out of One (matter + energy, the Force, Christ Consciousness, etc) has proceeded the diverse many, and back into One (annihilation for materialists for example) are the many traveling.
Certainly I'm not a Hermes groupie! I had enuf of "occult" stuff with Alice Bailey's Arcane School — from which I departed in the mid-'80s.
But I do like the ring of "As above, so below."
Thank you so much for illuminating Hermes Trismegistus and Meister Eckhardt!