DeConick A.D

85
SUPERPOWERS AND MONSTERS
as a literal road through the stars to an exit at the top of the universe.
The initiate is promised that he or she will be shown vistas of the solid
earth, the fluid sea, the streaming rivers, the pliant air, and the coursing
stars as the heavens rotate at amazing speed (Corpus Hermeticum V.5).
The initiate is encouraged: “Let us seize the beginning and travel with all
speed, for the path is very crooked that leaves behind familiar things of the
present, to return to primordial things of old” (IV.8–9).
During the journey, the soul of the initiate gains strength to shed the
material body. The soul flies up to heaven, where nothing can hinder
it—not the sun’s fire, nor the ether, nor the whirling planets, nor the
stars. The soul cuts through them all. Then, at the top of the universe,
the human mind breaks forth from the soul and is propelled through
the universe’s domed perimeter to gaze upon the things outside the cosmos
(XI.19).
This fantastic quest begins with ritual immersion in a vat of water that
represents cosmic Mind. Through immersion in the waters of Mind, it was
believed, the initiate’s individual mind begins its process of repatriation
within the whole (IV.1–4). This baptism works like a vita-ray treatment,
creating a supermind within the initiate. It renews the human mind’s ability
to comprehend all things, whether on earth, in heaven, or beyond
heaven (IV.5). This enables the initiate’s mind to access its power, a power
so great that it reframes the person as God.
The initiate is taught the importance of awakening the human mind
with this water treatment, because “like is only understood by like.” Only
what is God can understand God, the Hermetics believed. “Make yourself
grow to immeasurable immensity, outleap all body, outstrip all time,
become eternity and you will understand God,” the initiate is taught.
“Having conceived that nothing is impossible to you, consider yourself
immortal and able to understand everything . . . Collect within yourself all
the sensations of creation . . . Be everywhere at once . . . Be not yet born,
be in the womb, be young, old, dead, beyond death” (XI.20).
This transcendent, mystical moment outside of time is achieved
through guided ascent through the celestial realms, the closest analogue
of which may be the shamanic soul flight. Through controlled ecstatic
experiences, the initiate progressively sheds at each planet the cosmic accoutrements
that birth has wrapped around it, trappings that imprison the
human mind within the material realm—things such as growth and aging,