A Letter to Those Who Seek Beyond the Veil of Appearance
Written by a Hermetic practitioner who has spent years contemplating the nature of reality through the lens of ancient wisdom
When most people speak of time, they do so as though it were some great river flowing through them and around them — swift, relentless, indifferent. They say “time flies,” that “time heals,” or that “time is relative.” But those who have gazed into the mirror of Hermes Trismegistus know something far more subtle: time does not exist at all.
The Prima Vera teaches us this clearly enough in its opening words, when it declares that what is above is as what is below. This “as” — this simple word — carries the weight of an entire metaphysics within it. Above lies the timeless realm of pure being; below lies our world of becoming. Between them stands the Hermetic sage, holding a mirror between earth and heaven, seeing that which seems to change but never truly changes at all.
The Illusion of Motion
What we call “motion” — those phenomena we observe in both nature and ourselves — is merely appearance layered upon essence. The ancient Hermes understood this when he said, That which is above is as what is below. But notice how carefully the teaching unfolds: Above and Below are not two separate worlds; they are one world perceived through different modes of consciousness. And between them stands Hermes himself, holding his mirror aloft, catching reflections from both realms in a single glance.
When you watch the sun rise over the mountains or feel your own pulse quicken during meditation, what you’re witnessing is not time passing but being revealing itself differently according to your level of awareness. The sun doesn’t truly “rise” — it merely appears to do so from our earthly vantage point. Your heartbeat isn’t moving through minutes; it’s expressing the eternal rhythm of existence at a particular frequency.
Why Time Isn’t Real: What Hermes Knew About All Being One
The great Hermetic truth is this: all being exists eternally, simultaneously. Every moment — your birth, your death, every instant between — exists together in the infinite present. When you close your eyes and feel yourself dissolving into silence, you’re not moving backward through time; you’re lifting your awareness from the realm of becoming into the realm of being where all things already are.
Hermes understood this when he spoke those words recorded in the Prima Vera: “That which is above is as what is below.” Above lies eternity itself — vast, still, complete. Below lies our world of flux and motion, the illusion of time passing slowly while everything else remains unchanged. Between them stands Hermes himself, holding his mirror aloft.
The Hermetic Path
To walk the path of Hermes is to learn this: you are not moving through time; rather, you’re learning to see how time moves within you. When a student closes her eyes and feels herself dissolving into silence — truly dissolving, until even the self she thought was real seems as though it might dissolve too — then she stands where Hermes once stood, gazing upon the same stillness that has existed since before creation.
The Mirror Between Worlds
The mirror holds a particular significance in Hermetic practice because mirrors reflect not only what is present before them but also hint at what lies beyond appearance. When you gaze into one, you see yourself — yet something more subtle seems to emerge from behind your own features, as though there’s another presence looking back through the glass. This “other” is the Hermes within each of us, waiting patiently for us to recognize it.
The mirror itself becomes a kind of axis between realms: what appears above (eternity) and what appears below (the world of becoming). And when you lift your gaze toward heaven — literally or metaphorically — you’re not reaching upward but rather lifting yourself into the same stillness that Hermes knew.
Living in Eternity
So ask yourself this question, gently: if time is only apparent, then where do I live? Do I live in minutes and years, or do I live within eternity itself? When I close my eyes and feel myself dissolving into silence — truly dissolving until even the self I thought was real seems to dissolve too — am I moving backward through time, or am I lifting awareness from realm of becoming into realm of being where all things already are?
The answer is both: yes. The world moves; yet nothing truly does. All beings exist simultaneously in the eternal present. What we call “time” is merely our consciousness perceiving itself differently according to its level of awareness. And when you close your eyes and feel yourself dissolving into silence — truly dissolving until even the self you thought was real seems as though it might dissolve too — then you’re witnessing something far more ancient than any calendar or clock, a stillness so vast that it has existed since before creation.
Invitation to the Seeker
If you’ve read this far without feeling anything deeper stirring within you — if your attention hasn’t been drawn toward silence itself, toward stillness — perhaps you should sit quietly for a moment longer and listen carefully. The Hermes in you is speaking now, through these words, inviting you into that same awareness where all things exist simultaneously in the eternal present.
For Hermes knew something remarkable: that we are not moving through time but rather learning to see how time moves within us — how it rises like breath from our own being and settles again as if nothing had changed at all.
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