Request for a Dream from Hermes-Thoth (PGM VII.664-85)

The following dream-request rite (ὀνειραιτητόν) represents one of the most popular forms of divination in the PGM.

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Translation:

Request for a dream revelation: After taking a linen strip, onto which you write the question in myrrh ink, wrap it around an olive branch and place it near your head, under the left side of your head. Then, remaining pure, go to sleep on a mat of rushes on the ground, speaking the formula seven times in front of a lamp.


“O Hermes, ruler of all, you who are in the heart, O cycle of the moon,
circular and square, O founder of the words of language,
O pleader of the cause of justice, mantle-wearing and gold-sandaled,
you who turn the aethereal course below the depths of the earth,
O charioteer of the sun and wind, you who delight with lamps of the immortals
those below the depths of earth, mortals who have completed life.
You are called the fatal thread of the Moirai and the divine Dream,
you who send forth oracular responses by day and by night.
You heal the sufferings of all mortals with your treatments.
Hither, O blessed one, O mighty son of the mind-perfecting goddess,
by your own form and gracious mind: establish a sign for an uncorrupted
youth, and send him your true means of divination.

“Oiosenmigadōn, Orthō, Baubō, Nioēre, Kodēreth, Dosēre, Sure, Suroe, Sankistē, Dōdekakistē, Akrourobore, Kodēre, Rinōton, Koumetana, Roubitha, Noumila, Perpherou, Harouōrēr, Arouēr.”

Say this seven times and add the usual things, as many as you want.