# Parmenides vs Heraclitus, And The Hermetic Answer ## Parmenides A is A. Not-A is Not-A. A can't be Not-A. Not-A can't be A. All changes are illusions. Since a change means A becoming Not-A. Therefore everything is identical. The One! The Heaven. ## Heraclitus > No man ever steps in the same river twice. > > Heraclitus Let's say, a man stepped in a river. If the man steps in the river again, that means a new man steps in a new river. The man at different times are different men. The river at different times are different rivers. For every A, A becomes Not-A. Everything changes. Therefore all identities are illusions. And the Logos governs that. The Earth. ## Plato's Synthesis There are form and matter. Matter is mimic of forms. A form does not change. But matter does. Therefore the world of forms is perfect. But the world of matter is imperfect. For example, the color "red" does not change. It is a form. But an implementation of "red" in the material world changes. For example, an apple. It is matter. Therefore the color "red" is perfect. But an implementation of "red" in the material world is imperfect. ## Gnostic Response The imperfect or evil god Demiurge has made the broken material world. The world of matter. The material world is a prison. Therefore we should go back to the perfect world of forms which is close to the divine Monad. And we need the knowledge to do that. Gnosis. ## Hermetic Answer In early days, it was similar to Gnosticism. In Corpus Hermeticum, it stresses out that the good is in god alone and thus nothing in the material world is good. It also stresses that it is very important to dismiss senses for the divinity. The material world is quite illusionary. And that seems to continue to the Renaissance. For example, Rose Cross = Rose + Cross Human = Soul + Body A human is a rose trapped by a cross. However, by the magical mantra "As above, so below" on the Emerald Tablet, it somewhat changes. The mantra means the correspondence between the macrocosmos and the microcosmos. The correspondence between the spiritual, mental, physical worlds. And the most importantly, the correspondence between the Heaven and the Earth. The same principles govern the Heaven and the Earth. Sun and Moon. Alchemy and Astrology. Theory and Practice. Although those fields are still fundamentally different. I mean, theory deals with the world of Parmenides. Practice deals with the world of Heraclitus. Those should meet. Therefore the same underlying principles govern them in the end. And by using the principles, one can achieve Magnum Opus. Making the Philosopher's Stone. Eternity in the material world. But that doesn't mean that the material world suddenly became good. It is Gnosis. The material world is still imperfect. But that Gnosis is how we can escape from it and become the one with the Monad. Henosis. Long story short, the same principles govern the world of Parmenides and the world of Heraclitus. It makes the totality. Abraxas if I use a Gnostic word. And that's how we can be saved.