REVISIONS TO MY DISSERTATION ON THE EIGHTH AND THE NINTH

Lewis Keizer, Ph.D.

In the thirty-three years since I submitted my dissertation on the Hermetic

Initiation Tractate of Nag Hammadi Codex VI and published an abridged version
for more general readers, I have made two important discoveries. Since I have
recently made the dissertation available online, I am including the following
revisions.

1. It is now possible to find a likely date for the historical initiation

represented in the document.

At the conclusion of the initiation, the Father gives the Initiate the following
directions about recording the discourse by carving it on stone in the place
sacred to Hermes:

“O’ my Son, you shall perform this while I am in Virgo and the Sun is in Aries the
distance of a day. Fifteen degrees has bypassed me.”

I had surmised that the Father would be represented by the planet Mercury
(Hermes), which as an inner planet never elongates more than an apparent 28
degrees from the Sun, thus could not appear in Virgo while the Sun was in Aries.
But according to ancient Hellenistic astrology, the Sun would be exalted in the
first decan of Aries, and Mercury (Hermes) in the 15th degree of Virgo as
specified in the directions given by the Father.

Astronomically impossible horoscopes with all planets in their exaltations are

found in at least one Egyptian temple and several Hindu temples representing
the birth charts of gods and avatars, i.e., those who had overcome Heimarmene
or the “powers and principalities” that rule ordinary incarnate life on Earth. Thus I
had concluded that this astrological mandate from the Father represented a
spiritual, not astronomical, condition. It was the astrological divine birth-chart for
a newly-initiated Hermes or Hermetic adept.

After considerably more study of Hellenistic astrology, which was sidereal and
based on the observable position of luminaries against the background of the
Zodiacal stars (as opposed to modern Western tropical astrology), I have come
to a different and more solid conclusion.

I enlisted the aid of Andrew Foss, who has written Shri Jyoti Star, one of the two
best researched Vedic astrology software programs available today. Why Vedic
astrology (Jyotish)? Because it preserves all the principles of what we know as
Hellenistic astrology which, with Vedic astrology, was derived from ancient
Zoroastrian priestly astrology.
Hellenistic astrology ceased to be practiced by the time of Ptolemy, from whose
principles modern Western tropical astrology are derived, based on a false or
non-sidereal sky almost a whole zodiacal sign removed from observational
astronomy due to precession of the equinoxes over the past two-thousand years.
In other words, when a Vedic astrology tells you the Sun is in the first degree of
Aries, it really is. When Western astrology tells you it is in the first degree of
Aries, it is actually in the eighth degree of Pisces.

Andrew suggested that the Father (Guru), though reflecting the wisdom of
Hermes, would without any question be represented astrologically by the planet
Jupiter in Vedic, and therefore Hellenistic, astrology. Of course! In Jyotish, the
Father and the Teacher are always represented by Jupiter. When the Hermetic
Father says “when I am in Virgo…fifteen degrees,” he means to designate that
date when Jupiter occupies the fifteenth degree of Virgo. Furthermore, the Sun is
in the first degree of Aries (Doug Parrot’s translation “in the first half of the day”
ignores the astrological technical term moira). This would be the exact day of the
Vernal Equinox—a sacred time associated with initiation in many spiritual
traditions.

With that realization, we now have a way to find an historical date associated
with the initiation represented in Tractate 6 of Codex VI. The latest period
suggested by the content and paleography of the manuscript is third-fourth
century C.E. Andrew used his software to find the few times that Jupiter was in
the fifteenth degree of Virgo while the Sun was in the first degree of Virgo (Vernal
Equinox). Here are the results:

Year Position of Jupiter When Sun is First Degree of Aries

26 C.E. Exact configuration:
Jupiter in fifteenth degree of Virgo while Sun was in first degree of
Aries (March 21)
107 C.E. Jupiter in fourteenth degree
190 C.E. Even less accurate
202 C.E. No
285 C.E. No

This implies that the historical Hermetic initiation referenced in the Tractate
occurred in the year 26 C.E. contemporary with the life of Jesus. If this is true—
and it seems to be—then scholars need to take a hard look at possible historical
interaction of Messianic Judaism and the Mysteries of Hermes Trismegistos,
especially since there were major Jewish communities in Alexandria and
elsewhere in Egypt.

As I have indicated in my Seminars on Yeshua, The Gospel of Mary and

Magdalenic Gnosis, and The Initiatic Mysteries of Classical Antiquity, there is
evidence that Jesus used an initiatic form not unlike that of the Tractate in his all-
night one-to-one transmission of the “Mysteries of the Malkuth of Heaven” (i.e.,
Secret Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Mary, and in lesser mysteries such as the so-
called Transfiguration event in three-on-one format). The Poimandres and other
discourses from the Platonized Corpus Hermeticum seem to be rooted in very
early Hermetic cultus contemporary with the origins of Christianity. Indeed, the
early Christian “Shepherd” (Poimen) of Hermas and the Hermetic “Shepherd of
Men” (Poimandres) may share more than merely linguistic characteristics.

2. The Hymn to the Ogdoad that opens the Nous to spiritual vision.

Over the years since writing my dissertation I have come to understand the
ramifications of the wordless vowels shown in the Hermetic Hymn to the Ogdoad.
In English vowels addressed to Zozathazo by the Father (beginning and ending)
then repeated by the Son without the same address in his prayer. Here I
represent Greek omega or long o as O, omicron or short o as U and vocalized
“uh,” upsilon as Y and vocalized “oo,” Greek alpha as A and vocalized “ah,”
epsilon as E and vocalized “eh,” and eta as I and vocalized “ee.”

Hermetic Hymn to the Ogdoad

A OO EE OOO III OOOO II OOOOOO UUUUU OOOOOO YYYYYY

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

What does this mean? The vowels are the Seven Powerful Vowels known in
magical texts as the Ephesia Grammata. One has been omitted from this
manuscript for magical reasons. By intoning these vowels in a certain sequence
and for specific lengths of time (represented by the number of times the same
vowel is written), harmonic overtones are created, as found in various shamanic
traditions. To create and hear these overtones requires guidance and practice. It
is the Pythagorean overtones or harmonics that attune the Initiate to the Ogdoad.

For a complete understanding of the vocal technique and its effects on chakra
attunement for deepening meditation, see my Wisdom Seminar entitled The
Shamanic Art of Harmonic Intoning and Mantric Chant: Introduction to Vocal
Technique.

The wordless Hymn to the Ogdoad seems to have been an initiatic technique
practiced in the Mysteries of Hermes Trismegistos for achieving higher psychic
contact and vision with the eyes closed. The sequence was probably repeated
slowly on a given tone over an over, like a mantra.