IAMBLICHUS

ON THE MYSTERIES.

Egyptian writers, believing that all things were discovered by Mercury original: "Mercurio." In this context, Mercury refers to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Hellenistic figure equated with the Egyptian god Thoth, the patron of writing and magic., used to inscribe their books with the name of Mercury. Mercury presides over wisdom and eloquence. Pythagoras, Plato, Democritus, Eudoxus, and many others went to the Egyptian priests. The teachings of this book are of the Assyrians and the Egyptians, and are taken from the columns of Mercury The "Columns of Hermes" were legendary pillars upon which ancient wisdom was said to be inscribed to survive the Great Flood.. Pythagoras and Plato learned philosophy from the columns of Mercury in Egypt. The columns of Mercury are full of doctrines. Before any use of reason, there is a naturally implanted notion of the gods; indeed, there is a certain "touch" of divinity that is better than mere knowledge, from which the natural appetite for the Good, as well as reasoning and judgment, are incited. The essential knowledge of things divine is perpetual to the soul, and in truth, this is not the [ordinary] knowledge by which we enjoy God. For in knowledge there is a sense of "otherness" In Neoplatonism, "otherness" (alteritas) refers to the separation between the one who knows and the object being known; Iamblichus argues that our connection to the divine is more direct than a subject-object relationship., but a certain contact...