THE DOCTRINE OF SPIRITUAL REBIRTH

In many ancient traditions, becoming spiritually enlightened was compared to a process of spiritual rebirth. For this reason, the Vedic seers (rishis) were often called twice-born seers (dvija-rishis): First, they were born as ordinary human beings in this physical world, and then they were reborn as enlightened seers in the metaphysical world—the world of pure knowledge.

This doctrine can also be found in the Hermetic texts in which an entire chapter (Libvells XIII) is devoted to the subject of spiritual rebirth. The doctrine is presented in the form of a discourse between the immortal sage Hermes and his mortal son Tat.

First, Tat declares that, as his father has advised him, he has become alienated from the world and is now fit to receive the doctrine. This means that he has become egoless, that he has died to this world. Yet when Tat asks his father to explain the mysterious doctrine of spiritual rebirth, Hermes replies:

What can I say, my son? This thing cannot be taught, and it is not possible for you to see it with your organs of sight, which are fashioned out of material elements. I can tell you nothing but this—I see that by God’s mercy there has come to be in me a form which is not fashioned out of matter, and I have passed forth out of myself, and entered into an immortal body. I am not now the man that I was; I have been born again in Mind (nous), and the bodily shape which was mine before has been put away from me... To such eyes as yours, my son, I am not now visible.³

In response, Tat cries out in astonishment, for he can see his father clearly standing before him in a physical body, the same as always. Hermes goes on to explain that the immortal body is not composed of matter and cannot be seen by the physical eyes. It is an imperishable body of Logos that can be apprehended by itself alone.

The text then tells us that Tat undergoes the process of spiritual rebirth, after which he proclaims: “Father, God has made me a new being, and I perceive things now, not with bodily eyesight, but by the working of Mind (nous).... Now that I see in Mind, I see myself to be the All. I am in heaven and earth, in water and air; I am in beasts and plants; I am a babe in the womb, and one that has not yet been conceived, and one that has been born. I am present everywhere.”⁴

To this Hermes replies: “Now, my son, you know what the Rebirth is.” The Hermetic doctrine, as we have seen, suggests that spiritual rebirth has nothing to do with faith or belief. It represents a profound transformation in consciousness, wherein the soul ceases to be identified with the mortal physical body and instead becomes identified with the immortal body of Logos—the body of pure knowledge inherent within the field of pure consciousness.

Because the Logos represents the all-pervading source of everything that exists, the reborn soul sees itself as present everywhere, in everything. It is no longer limited by the physical organs of sense, for it has developed the ability to see in Mind.