Hermes gathered his disciples for the last time. He was old now, his beard white, his eyes still burning with inner light. "I have taught you much," he said. "But today I will give you the perfect sermon — not because it contains all truth, but because it completes what I can give. After this, you must become your own teachers."
"The highest knowledge," Hermes began, "is knowledge of the Good. And the Good is God. Not God as an idea or a name, but God as living reality — the source, sustainer, and goal of all that exists."
"God is not mind, but the cause of mind.
Not spirit, but the source of spirit.
Not light, but the power that makes light shine.
Whatever you say about God, you say too little.
Whatever you think about God, you think too small.
God is the Good beyond all goods."
"Can we then know God at all?" asked Asclepius. "Or must we remain forever in ignorance?"
"We know God by becoming like God," said Hermes. "Not through concepts but through transformation. The eye cannot see itself, yet it sees all things. So the soul cannot grasp God as an object, yet when purified, it participates in divine life."
"To know God, become godlike.
To become godlike, purify yourself.
To purify yourself, die to what is false.
When all that is not God falls away,
What remains is God's presence —
Not as knowledge but as being."
Hermes spoke then of worship. "The perfect worship is not ritual, though rituals have their place. It is not prayer, though prayer can help. The perfect worship is becoming what you worship. When you live as God lives — in love, in creativity, in ceaseless giving — you worship more truly than any priest in any temple."
"And what of evil?" asked another disciple. "If God is all Good, whence comes evil?"
"Evil is privation," Hermes replied. "As darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of Good. It has no substance of its own. It is the void left when beings turn from their source. This is why evil cannot ultimately triumph — it is nothing, trying to be something. Return to the Good, and evil dissolves like shadows at sunrise."
As the sun began to set, Hermes concluded: "I have given you what I can. The rest is your journey. Remember: you are sparks of the divine fire. Your home is in the Light. Everything you do that increases light brings you closer to home. Everything you do that increases darkness delays your return. Choose wisely. Live well. The Good awaits you."
Teaching 29
The highest knowledge is knowledge of the Good. You cannot grasp God as an object, only participate in divine life through transformation. The perfect worship is becoming what you worship. Evil is privation — absence, not substance. Return to the Good, and shadows dissolve.