The following is my creative re-telling of the Hermetic cosmological story called The Divine Pymander. This tale of creation was inspired by a book in The Corpus Hermeticum. This sacred text originated in the academies of Alexandria, Egypt (0-300 CE) and were attributed to the ancient Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus (Thrice Greatest.) I’ve heavily adapted this tale into the language of Modern Witchcraft, and for an oral telling appropriate for children.
Pymander the Rainbow Dragon: A Child’s Hermetic Witchcraft Tale of Creation
Long ago, in the lands known as Egypt, there lived a fellow named Hermes Trismagistus (pronunciation). Hermes had so many questions. Legends tell us that one day he went wandering alone through a rocky and desolate wilderness. He sat down to meditate and pray for answers. Hermes meditated so deeply, that eventually his imagination took flight like a bird and soared beyond his body.
In his mind’s eye, Hermes saw a Great Dragon. The Dragon was awesome, with wings stretching across the sky.
The Great Dragon says, “Hello, Hermes! I am Pymander!”
The sudden appearance of a talking dragon frightened Hermes at first! But then he took a deep breath, and peered straight into the dragon’s glowing eyes! That’s when Hermes felt a happy feeling, like finding an old friend. Pymander winked with a chuckle, and Hermes wasn’t frightened anymore.
Hermes asked, “Pymander, How do you know my name?”
He answered, “I am the Divine Spirit, the Creative Source of the whole Universe! Your spirit is part of my Spirit. When you pray for answers and find them, dear Hermes, it is our shared divinity within you that answers in return.”
Hermes knelt and asked “Pymander, please teach me the nature of the Universe, and my purpose within it.” Pymander was pleased by his curiosity and respectfulness. “I will show you how the Universe was made,” he said. “Dream with me, and we’ll take a journey together… back before the beginning…”
A Vision of Creation
Pymander’s form then changed. Where the Great Dragon had stood, there was now a being of glorious, radiant light. The Spirit of the Dragon became a rainbow spectrum of all colors.
Hermes watched as Pymander’s light expanded endlessly. Then, all around them swirled a dark watery substance, as the first matter came into form. The great darkness expanded, swirling to enfold the Light completely, becoming the nurturing womb of creation. All was cloaked in a mysterious darkness.
Then Hermes heard Pymander’s voice sing out. “Reason!” he sang. This Holy Word of Creation rang like a chorus in infinite harmonies. From this “One Song” of Reason, the UNI-verse was born.
Hermes saw a pillar of Light emerge from the dark womb. Air and Fire rose up, parting from the Water and Earth of the Darkness below. As though it pained them to be parted, Hermes heard a cry from the Light and a mournful echo from the Darkness.
Hermes watched, as Water and Earth settled downward with the darkness, and the Underworld flowed into form. Through Earth, the Divine Substance of the Universe started spinning around and around in a dance to the music of Reason. Through Water, Divine Love overflowed like an ocean of feeling, filling every crack and crevice of the Universe, seeking reunion with the Light.
Hermes kept watching as the light rose higher, and the Heavens took form. Through Air, the Divine Mind began to dream a beautiful dream of returning. Through Fire, Divine Will was excited to leap into action and work to make that dream of returning come true!
Both the Light and the Darkness yearned for reunion. Divine Mind was creative and Divine Will was passionate. So, together they planned their journey back. They called it the Path of Return. Then they got to work!
Divine Mind designed a huge cosmic machine to guide their path of return, so big they could read its map across the heavens. They called the machine the Celestial Spheres. For each sphere, they created a god or goddess, and tasked them to be rulers of their sphere. So, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, all were set upon their orbits, so they could guide all destiny on earth. Cycles of all life and death, growth and decline, love and loss, began dancing to the Song of Reason, directed by the celestial spheres.
Father Sky and Mother Nature
The Light of Divine Mind and Divine Will merged like laser beam, to shine down through the celestial spheres. Father Sky was cast into form, now guided by their destiny. He showed his radiant light to mother nature, beaming down like the rising sun through the clear blue sky.
“I remember your light,” Mother Nature rumbled through her earth.
“I remember your darkness,” whispered Father Sky through his winds.
They remembered themselves from the way her waters reflected his light, and from the shadow he cast upon her earth. They fell in love. Father sky asked to dwell with Mother Nature in the middle world, and she welcomed him to join her.
With the speed of thought, Father Sky descended from Above. Below, Mother Nature enfolded him in her embrace. At last, they reunited to become one being again, whole and complete within themself. They became The Great God/dess, the Two Who Move as One, from whom all blessedness flows.
They sang the song of Reason and it rippled across their horizon, weaving between them a bridge called the Middleworld. Particles swirled into atoms, which swirled into planets and stars, which joined the dance as solar systems and galaxies. [4] From Fire they sparked our sun and from Air they breathed the sky, filling it with winged creatures. From Earth they sculpted the moon and mountains into form. Forests grew and filled with four-footed animals, wild and tame. From Water, rivers and oceans flowed, and filled with swimming creatures. To all the new beings of plant, stone and bone, they gave Fire’s spark of Divine purpose.
Hermes stopped Pymander and asked, “This middleworld is a beautiful paradise, but where are the human beings like me?”
“I’m just getting to that part! chided Pymander.
A Rainbow of Humans
Hermes watched, as Father Sky’s love shone through Mother Nature like a crystalline prism. Their love beamed throughout the earth, splitting into a spectrum of all colors. From this rainbow, the first humans sprang into colorful being. These divine children of the God/dess were all colors, all shapes and sizes, each with the power of a celestial sphere. Like superheros, they each had unique strengths to share, and lessons to learn. Each human child of the Great God/dess inherited their parent’s five-fold nature, containing all 5 elements. They had both a mortal body and an immortal spirit.
The Spirit of the God/dess sparked within the imagination of their Human children, and said “Remember that we are one family, united through our Divine Love. This material separateness is just an illusion so we can challenge and enjoy each other. Together we create our human lives by dreaming within Divine Mind. Live a full life of purpose, have fun, learn everything you can, and explore your diversity so that you may come to know all things. Help each other as we journey along our Path of Return. After we’ve learned everything this world can teach, we’ll return back to our Oneness. Remember that all forms of love and pleasure are like worship to us. Do as you will. Just don’t do any intentional harm.”
The vision faded, and Hermes found himself once more in the wilderness with Pymander the Dragon. He says, “What have you learned from this vision, Hermes?”
Hermes answers, “Well, it looked to me that all of Nature is one big family taking a sacred journey back together. And my purpose is to love people and learn things.”
“Yes!” Pymander laughed. “And to grow up into a wiser person through each lifetime, so you can help others along their paths, too. Don’t worry, you have as many lifetimes as you need to figure it all out. All began in Divine Love, and all returns through Divine Love. Love will reveal the mysteries, and welcome you home at the end of the Path. Until then, if you have a question, seek the answers in Nature, and follow your stars. They’ll guide your path home. Just keep dreaming with that Divine Mind of yours, and we’re right there with you. We’ll help you find your way.”
Pymander turned as if to go, then says “Hermes, will you please teach these mysteries to others?
“I will,” said Hermes. And with that promise, Pymander was gone like the setting of the sun. For a long while, Hermes looked up to the night sky and pondered what he’d learned. He watched the moon rising and the wandering stars drawing patterns across the night sky. He wondered if the vision Pymander showed him was “true.” Could these stars really help guide his destiny?
Then he remembered he had a Divine Mind, just like Pymander! So, he thought the funniest thought he could think of, then listened very carefully… Deep inside himself, he felt Pymander’s familiar chuckle, which made him happy, and that was true-ish enough for him.
The End
The Moral of this Story
This Hermetic story is poetry, never meant to be taken literally. However, it does speak to the Is-ness of human hopes and dreams that, deep down, when we ask the question: What is all this hokey pokey all about? We just know the answer should be love. We just know that the purpose of living should be reunion, and experiencing material life to the fullest.
This mythology is important for a nature-based religion of Modern Witchcraft for several reasons:
- It establishes a Panentheist paradigm, with Divinity being both immanent within nature, and also having a transcendent consciousness which may be appealed to individually.
- Describes how human beings are fundamentally interconnected, thinking within the Divine Mind, having a divine spirit, and created from loving union, and are therefore benevolent in their nature.
- Makes sacred the full spectrum of human diversity, and the wholeness of mental gender within all beings.
- Introduces the five elements of nature as the substance, emotion, free-will, intelligence, and Spirit of Divinity within all humans.
- Establishes our existence within Divine Love, for the purpose of reunion, and the pursuit of learning through diverse experiences.
~Heron Michelle
Resources:
My resources for this Pymander Story came from translations of The Corpus Hermeticum found in the following books:
Hall, Manly P. The Secret Teachings of all Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, 50th Anniv. Ed. Los Angeles, California: The Philosophical Research Society, Inc, 1977.
Salaman, Van Oyen, Wharton, Mahe. The Way of Hermes: New Translations of the Corpus Hermeticum and the Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2000.
For more information on the Thealogy of Hermetic Witchcraft, and the magickal practice based upon this vision of the Great God/dess in cooperation, check out my new book, “Elemental Witchcraft: A Guide to Living a Magickal Life through the Elements.” Llewellyn, 2021. You can purchase it signed directly from my shop, The Sojourner Whole Earth Provisions.
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