Codex Hermeticus

In the midst of a world full of omen and sign, impell’d by the seeing gift,
On auspice and portent reflecting, in part I conjecture their drift;

I catch faint words of the language which the world speaks far and wide
And the soul withdrawn in the depths of man from the birth of each man has cried.

I know that a sense is beyond the sense of the manifest Voice and Word,
That the tones in the chant which we strain to seize are the tones that are scarcely heard;

When life pulsating with secret things has many too deep to speak,
And that which evades, with a quailing heart, we feel is the sense we seek:

Scant were the skill to discern a few where the countless symbols crowd,
To render the easiest reading, catch the cry that is trite and loud.

- A.E. Waite, cited in Some Deeper Aspects of Masonic Symbolism, pp. 8-9.

July’s Codex Issue includes a fascinating dive by José Bouman into an extremely rare 1624 first edition of Jakob Böhme’s Weg zu Christo. It also features the first of a two-part series by Corey exploring A.E. Waite’s insights into the deeper symbolism of Freemasonry, alongside the gripping second installment of Dr. José Leitão’s investigation into a mysterious Faust grimoire.