Egyptian Oedipus, Volume 3

...earlier, he will clearly fan those little sparks of knowledge that we perceive in human minds. From this source, all the arts and sciences have flourished, by which the mind—struggling bravely against the burden of the body and that treacherous scarcity of material things—has ensured that the light of genius grows in the most noble studies. Eventually, it strives toward the form of a more transformed knowledge, reaching it not by gentle slopes, but through the various windings of difficulties. Among all mortals, however, it has been proved throughout my work The Pamphilian Obelisk that no one was stronger in this competitive goal of letters than Hermes Trismegistus. Indeed, nothing was so important to him as to restore Wisdom—passed down by the world's earliest Patriarchs and by far the most excellent of all things that could be desired in human affairs. To prevent it from being contaminated by common minds, he wrapped it in the coverings of hieroglyphic figures in such a way that he might open the "marrow" of his wisdom only to those whom he himself judged worthy and fit. To the rest, placed outside the barriers of the Priestly order he established, only the "bark" Kircher uses the metaphor of the "bark" or "rind" of a fruit to describe the superficial, literal meaning that the uninitiated see, while the "marrow" represents the hidden, spiritual truth. was left.

Hieroglyphic doctrine was communicated by Trismegistus to the Priests alone.

For when he contemplated this world, joined together from such a great variety of things like a stage decorated with the most refined images, he rightly thought that the likenesses of created things of this sort should be pronounced the symbols of God original Greek: "τὰ Θεοῦ σύμβολα". These are the very things God impressed upon us through so many visible forms of Himself—so many letters illuminated by the great radiance of divinity, with which that Power of the Eternal Mind might sign His own name.

The origin of Hieroglyphic doctrine.

And from here, the first elementary principles original Greek: "στοιχειώσεις" (stoicheioseis), referring to the basic components or "alphabet" of a system. of hieroglyphics emerged. Sketched out by the first Patriarchs—Adam, Enoch, Noah, and Ham—and perfected in every detail by Hermes, they rose into a more noble form through the stupendous architecture of the Hieroglyphs. This system was thereafter held in such high renown among the Egyptians that even the sacred text itself affirms that Moses did not disdain this teaching; it says that Moses was endowed with all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Philo, in his book on the life of Moses (whose words I have cited elsewhere), says this was nothing other than the occult Philosophy, written in what they call hieroglyphic letters:

Moses was instructed in hieroglyphic doctrine. Philo.

"The philosophy expressed through symbols, which he displays in the so-called letters, and through the use of animals, which they even honor with the dignity of Gods;" original Greek: "Τὴν διὰ συμβόλων φιλοσοφίαν ἥν ἐν τοῖς λεγομένοις γράμμασιν ἐπιδείκνυται, καὶ διὰ τῆς ζώων ἀποδοχῆς, ἃ καὶ Θεῶν τιμῆς γεράρουσι;"

that is, by the marks of animals which they themselves worship as Divinities. So it is clear from this chapter alone how ancient that wisdom is, which had Moses himself as a student.

Hermes Trismegistus is the Author of hieroglyphic doctrine. Plato. Philo of Byblos.

That Hermes was truly the Author of this literature is taught by Plato himself in the Phaedrus, where he calls him Thautus or Thoth. Also, Philo of Byblos—who translated the history of Sanchuniathon (a very ancient author contemporary with Moses) into Greek—openly teaches that Tautus, or Hermes Trismegistus, was the first Teacher of symbolic literature. All these things have been proven at great length in the second book of The Pamphilian Obelisk, to which I refer the reader so that I am not forced to repeat the same things so many times. Therefore, since the hieroglyphic doctrine and its Author flourished long before the time of Moses, that author could certainly be no other than Mercury Trismegistus (whom the Arabs call Idris original Arabic: "إدريس"), the Priest, Philosopher, and greatest King of Egypt. It has been more than sufficiently demonstrated in this entire Work that he flourished in the time of Abraham, while Misraim, the first Pharaoh, held power in Egypt. This is confirmed by Iamblichus in the first chapter of On the Mysteries, where he mentions that Pythagoras, Plato, Eudoxus, and the other [scholars] of Greece...