Tat is quite surprised about this information: he never realized
that he had ‘tormentors’ inside himself . . .Well, that very ignorance,
Hermes explains, is the fi rst tormentor; the others are grief, incontinence,
lust, injustice, greed, deceit, envy, treachery, anger, recklessness, and malice.
“Under” these twelve are many more, and ‘they use the prison of the
body to torture the inward person with the suff erings of sense’.
Hermes now instructs Tat to keep silent and say nothing, because this is
necessary in order not to obstruct the healing power63 that will come from
God. He then begins to systematically purify Tat from his “tormentors”, by
summoning ten divine powers in succession, which drive out the twelve.64
We are certainly justifi ed in thinking of the “tormentors” as demonic entities
that had been possessing Tat’s body without him being aware of it: in
fact, at the end of the healing process, Hermes observes that ‘vanquished,
they have fl own away in a fl apping of wings’.65
In CH XIII 12, Hermes gives some explanation about the relation between the twelve
“tormentors”, linked to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the decad, which “engenders
soul”. Th e fi rst seven powers of the decad (knowledge, joy, continence, perseverance, justice,
liberality, truth) are the direct opposites of the fi rst seven tormentors; the last fi ve
tormentors do not have opposites of their own, but are collectively opposed by the triad of
good, life and light.
In CH XIII 12, Hermes gives some explanation about the relation between the twelve
“tormentors”, linked to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the decad, which “engenders
soul”. Th e fi rst seven powers of the decad (knowledge, joy, continence, perseverance, justice,
liberality, truth) are the direct opposites of the fi rst seven tormentors; the last fi ve
tormentors do not have opposites of their own, but are collectively opposed by the triad of
good, life and light.
Make yourself grow to immeasurable immensity, outleap all body, outstrip all
time, become eternity and you will understand God. Having conceived that
nothing is impossible to you, consider yourself immortal and able to understand
everything, all art, all learning, the temper of every living thing. Go
higher than every height and lower than every depth. Collect in yourself all
the sensations of what has been made, of fi re and water, dry and wet; be everywhere
at once, on land, in the sea, in heaven; be not yet born, be in the womb,
be young, old, dead, beyond death. And when you have understood all these
at once—times, places, things, qualities, quantities—then you can understand
God.66
haanegraaf altered states of knowledge
Qilin Egostasie 