The Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus #4

 

 

SECTION II.

MY SON, before all things I admonish thee to fear God, in whom is the strength of thy undertaking, and the bond of whatsoever thou meditatest to unloose; whatsoever thou hearest, consider it rationally. For I hold thee not to be a fool. Lay hold, therefore, of my instructions and meditate upon them, and so let thy heart be fitted also to conceive, as if thou wast thyself the author of that which I now teach. If thou appliest cold to any nature that is hot, it will not hurt it; in like manner, he who is rational shuts himself within from the threshold of ignorance; lest supinely he should be deceived.
Take the flying bird and drown it flying and divide and separate it from its pollutions, which yet hold it in death; draw it forth, and repel it from itself, that it may live and answer thee; not by flying away into the regions above but by truly forbearing to fly. For if thou shalt deliver it out of its prison, after this thou shalt govern it according to Reason. and according to the days that I shall teach thee; then will it become a companion up to thee, and by it thou wilt become to be an honoured lord.
Extract from the racy its shadow, and from the light its obscurity, by which the clouds hang over it and keep away the light; by means of its construction, also, and fiery redness, it is burned
Take, my Son, this redness, corrupted with the water, which is as a live coal holding the fire, which if thou shalt withdraw so often until the redness is made pure, then it will associate with thee, by whom it was cherished, and in whom it rests.

"Take the flying bird " (or Soul), says Hermes, "and drown it flying" (birth in body), " separate it from its redness which holds it in death" (sense), " draw it forth that it may live, not by flying away to the region above " (death), "but by forbearing to fly" (returning to body). "If thou shalt deliver it out of its prison" (body) "thou shalt afterwards govern it according to reason, and it will become a companion to thee."

Theosophical siftings, Volume 5  By Theosophical Publishing Society (London, England)

THE SNOW-SHOWER.
Stand here by ray ride, and turn, I pray,

On the lake below thy gentle eyes;
The clouds hang over it heavy and gray,

And dark and silent the water lies;
And out of that frozen mist the snow
In wavering flakes begin to How:

Flake after Hake,
They Gink in the dark and silent lake.

 by BUY ANT 
Harper's magazine, Volume 10  By Making of America Project