Three dimensions of a text
Good old Socrates did not like writing because he thought that once you write something it would stay that way forever. He preferred oral dialogues, as they are never set and always changable.
Origen (185－254) thought differently. Like a human, a text, according to Origen, consists of a body, a psyche and a spirit. The mystic has to master the body of the text before he could progress to its psyche, and only then he might understand its spirit, but for that you need to spend years of dedication in hard studies and deep meditations.
I think that Origen was absolutelly right, at least in terms of good books. For example, Franz Bardon wrote that he was no professional writer, but was convinced that his books would not be collecting dust on book-shelves. Hermetic books are open, and they are ever-changing, because the more you progress, the more you understand of their souls and spirits. However, the beginner who only can read the texts’ bodies, really cannot understand much.
Certainly, the same applies to all good texts, not only to the hermetic ones.
Image: Origen.
