Sword and cross ‘The Spirit, the Father of all creatures, who is life and light, brought forth a man alike unto him, whom he began to love as his own child. For man, being the likeness of his father, was very beautiful; God loved in truth his own figure and gave him charge of all his works.’
Hermes Trismegistos, Pymander, verse 32
T
he Spirit, the Father, the Creator gives man charge of all his works. As evidenced by the following verse, this divine gift includes in any case the urge as well as the ability to create. Verse 33 reads: ‘However, when man observed the creation the Demiurge had formed in the fire, he wished to bring forth a piece of work himself and this the Father granted him. As he entered the field of creation of the Demiurge, in which he was to have a free hand, he observed the works of his brother.The Rectors began to love him and each of them let him share in his own rank in the hierarchy of the spheres.’ The Demiurge, who is mentioned in this verse, had been created by the Spirit, the Father, before man, and in this sense, he is the ‘brother’ of man. The Demiurge is
the creator of the sensory world and he has appointed seven Rectors to govern this world. After entering the demiurgic field of creation, our world, Man as created by God has become entangled in the world created by the Demiurge. What was meant as a workplace for man has unintentionally become his place of residence. The result of the entanglement of the original man with the world of space and time, Hermes summarizes in verse 38 in the often quoted statement: ‘That is why, of all the creatures in nature, only man is dual, namely, mortal as to the body and immortal as to the essential Man.’ The ability to create and the urge to create is inbred in this dual creature, moreover, man has surrounded himself with an abundance and a variety of
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‘Das Creuz zum besten wende’ (Use the cross for the best). Commemorative coin on the occasion of the inauguration of a lodge of the Rosycross in the eighteenth century.
