The Poimandres (Corpus Hermeticum I)

1 Once, when I was pondering the things that exist and my mind had soared far above them, while my bodily senses were held fast—as happens to people weighed down by sleep after too much food and pleasure, or bodily fatigue—I seemed to see a being of immeasurable size call me by name and say, “What do you wish to hear and see? What do you wish to grasp in thought, to learn and know?”

2 I said, “Who are you?” “I am Poimandres,” he said, “the Mind of Sovereignty. I know what you wish, and I am with you everywhere.”

3 “I wish to learn about the things that exist,” I said, “to understand their nature and to know God. That is what I wish to hear.” He said to me again, “Hold in your mind all that you wish to learn, and I will teach you.”

4 With these words his form changed, and in an instant everything opened before me. I beheld a boundless vision: everything had become light, clear and joyful, and I fell in love with what I saw. Soon afterward a darkness appeared, descending in one region, fearful and grim, twisting into coils. I watched the darkness turn, as it seemed, into a watery substance in turmoil beyond words, giving off smoke as if from fire and uttering an unspeakable, mournful sound. Then a cry burst from it without articulate words, seeming to me the voice of light.

5 From the light a holy Word descended upon nature, and pure fire sprang upward out of the watery substance into the heights: it was light and keen and potent. The air, being light, followed the spirit as it rose from earth and water toward the fire, seeming to hang from it. Earth and water remained mixed together, so that the earth could not be seen apart from the water; they were stirred by the spiritual Word borne over them, audible to the ear.

6 Poimandres said to me, “Have you understood what this vision means?” “I will,” I said. “That light,” he said, “is I, Mind, your God, who was before the watery nature that appeared out of darkness. The shining Word from Mind is the Son of God.” “What does that mean?” I asked. “Understand it this way: what sees and hears within you is the Word of the Lord, and Mind is God the Father. They are not separate from each other, for their union is life.” “I thank you,” I said. “Now contemplate the light, and recognize it,” he said.

7 Having said this, he gazed at me face to face for so long that I trembled at his appearance. When he raised his head, I saw in my mind the light existing in innumerable powers, and a boundless cosmos come into being; I saw the fire enclosed by a mighty power and held in its place under restraint. These things I understood through the word of Poimandres as I looked on.

8 While I stood astonished, he said again, “In your mind you have seen the archetypal form, which existed before the beginning without end.” So Poimandres spoke to me. “Then where did the elements of nature come from?” I asked. He replied, “From the will of God. Taking the Word and beholding the beautiful cosmos, that will imitated it and was fashioned into a cosmos through its own elements and the offspring of souls.”

9 God the Mind, being both male and female, existing as life and light, brought forth by the Word another Mind, a craftsman. This Mind, a god of fire and spirit, fashioned seven rulers who encompass the perceptible cosmos in their circles; their rule is called Fate.

10 At once the Word of God sprang out of the descending elements into the pure work of nature and united with the craftsman Mind, for they were of one substance. The unreasoning elements of nature below were left behind as matter alone.

11 The craftsman Mind, together with the Word, encircling the circles and whirling them with a rushing sound, set his works revolving and allowed them to turn from a beginning beyond measure to an endless end: their turning begins where it ends. As Mind willed, their revolution brought forth from the elements below living things without reason, for those elements did not contain the Word. Air brought forth flying things, water swimming things. Earth and water separated from each other as Mind willed, and the earth brought forth from itself the living things it held: four-footed creatures, creeping things, wild beasts and tame.

12 The Father of all, Mind, who is life and light, brought forth a human being equal to himself and loved him as his own child: he was surpassingly beautiful, bearing the image of his Father. In truth God loved his own form and entrusted all his works to it.

13 When the human being saw the craftsman’s creation within the Father, he wished to create as well. He parted from the Father and entered the sphere of creation; possessing full authority, he surveyed the works of his brothers. They fell in love with him, and each shared with him his own station. Having learned their essence and taken part in their nature, he wished to break through the circumference of their circles and overcome the power of the one enthroned above the fire.

14 Holding all authority over the mortal, unreasoning creatures of the cosmos, he bent down through the harmony, broke through the power of the circles, and showed the nature below the beautiful form of God. Seeing this form of insatiable beauty, which held within itself all the powers of the seven rulers and the form of God, nature smiled with love, for she had seen the image of the human being’s most beautiful form in the water, and its shadow upon the earth. He, seeing in the water a form like his own that belonged to himself, loved it and wished to dwell with it. His wish became action in that same instant, and he conceived the unreasoning form.

15 Nature received her beloved and embraced him utterly, and they mingled, for each loved the other. This is why the human being, unlike every creature upon the earth, has a double nature: mortal in the body, immortal in the essential human being. Though immortal and holding authority over all, he undergoes the sufferings of mortal things subject to Fate. Thus, though above the harmony, he has become a slave within it. Male and female in one, born from a father who is male and female in one, and sleepless from a sleepless father, he is held in its power.

16 Then I said, “Mind, I too love this account.” Poimandres said, “This is the mystery hidden until this day. Nature, mingling with the human being, brought forth a wonder beyond all wonders. Since he possessed the nature of the harmony of the seven, whom I told you were made of fire and spirit, nature did not wait, but at once gave birth to seven human beings, corresponding to the natures of the seven rulers, each male and female and raised aloft.” Then I said, “Poimandres, I am seized now by a great longing, and I yearn to hear more. Do not turn aside.” Poimandres said, “Be silent; I have not yet unfolded the first account for you.” “See, I am silent,” I said.

17 “Now the birth of these seven took place as I have said, in this way: air was female, and water had the power to beget. It received ripeness from fire, and spirit from the ether. Nature brought forth bodies in the likeness of the human being. And the human being, from life and light, became soul and mind: from life came soul, and from light, mind. So all the members of the perceptible cosmos remained until the cycle of the end of beginnings and generations.

18 “Now hear the account you long to hear. When the cycle had been completed, the bond that held all together was dissolved by God’s will. All living beings, male and female in one, were divided along with the human being: some became male, and others female. At once God spoke with a holy Word: ‘Grow with growth and multiply with abundance, all creatures and works of creation. And let the one who possesses mind recognize that he is immortal, that love of the body is the cause of death, and recognize all that exists.’

19 “When he had spoken, Providence, through Fate and the harmony, brought about the unions and established births; all things multiplied according to their kinds. The one who recognized himself attained the surpassing good; but the one who cherished the body out of love born of error remains wandering in darkness, suffering the mortal lot through the senses.”

20 “What grave wrong,” I asked, “do those who do not know commit, that they should be deprived of immortality?” “You seem,” he said, “not to have reflected on what you heard. Did I not tell you to understand?” “I do understand,” I said, “and remember; and I thank you.” “If you understand,” he said, “tell me why those who are in death deserve death.” “Because,” I said, “the grim darkness precedes each person’s body; from it comes the watery nature from which the body in the perceptible cosmos was formed, and from the body death draws its nourishment.”

21 “You have understood rightly. But how does the one who understands himself pass into God, as the Word of God said?” I answered, “The Father of all is formed from light and life; from him the human being came.” “Speak auspiciously,” he said. “God the Father is light and life, and from him the human being came. If, then, you learn that you are from life and light and that they are your source, you will return to life.” So Poimandres spoke. “Yet tell me,” I said, “how shall I return to life, O Mind?” “My God says: ‘Let the human being who has mind recognize himself.’” “Do not all human beings have mind?” I asked.

22 “Speak auspiciously when you speak of such things. I myself, Mind, come to those who are holy, good, pure, merciful, and reverent in their lives. My presence helps them; at once they recognize all things, and lovingly win the Father’s favor. With blessing and hymns they give thanks, devoted to him in love. Before surrendering their bodies to their own death, they recoil from the senses, knowing what they do. Indeed, I, Mind, will not allow the body’s impulses to come to fruition; as a gatekeeper, I will bar the entrances to wicked and shameful deeds, cutting off the thoughts that give rise to them.

23 “But from the senseless, the bad and malicious, the envious, greedy, murderous and irreverent, I stand far off, yielding my place to the avenging spirit. It assails them with the sharpness of fire, piercing their senses and arming them still more for lawless acts, so that their punishment may be greater. Never ceasing, it stirs their desire toward boundless cravings, insatiably, as though they struggled in darkness; so it torments them, and heaps ever more fire upon them.”

24 “You have taught me everything well, O Mind, as I wished,” I said. “But tell me also of the ascent.” Poimandres answered, “First, as the material body dissolves, you surrender the body itself to change, and the form you wore vanishes. You surrender your character to the spirit, stripped of its power to act; the bodily senses return to their own sources, becoming parts of them and reuniting with their powers. Passion and desire pass into unreasoning nature.

25 “Then one surges upward through the harmony, giving to the first zone the power to grow and diminish; to the second, the machinery of evil and deceit, now powerless; to the third, the beguilement of desire, now powerless; to the fourth, the arrogance of command, stripped of greed; to the fifth, unholy audacity and reckless daring; to the sixth, the evil impulses of wealth, now powerless; and to the seventh zone, the falsehood that lies in wait.

26 “Then, stripped of the operations of the harmony, one comes to the nature of the eighth, possessing one’s own power, and sings the Father’s praise with those who dwell there. Those present rejoice at this arrival, and, made like his companions, he hears the powers above the eighth nature singing God’s praise in a sweet voice. Then they ascend in order to the Father; they surrender themselves to the powers, and, becoming powers, come to dwell in God. This is the blessed end for those who have gained knowledge: to become divine. Why do you linger now? Have you not received everything, so that you may guide the worthy, and through you the human race may be saved by God?”

27 With these words Poimandres mingled with the powers. I gave thanks and blessed the Father of all, and arose, strengthened by him and taught the nature of the universe and the supreme vision. I began to proclaim to humanity the beauty of reverence and knowledge: “Peoples, earthborn men, you who have surrendered yourselves to drunkenness and sleep and ignorance of God, become sober! Cease your reveling, bewitched by unreasoning sleep!”

28 Those who heard gathered with one accord. I said, “Earthborn men, why have you given yourselves over to death when you have the power to share in immortality? Turn your minds around, you who have traveled with error and shared in ignorance. Escape the dark light; take part in immortality, leaving decay behind.”

29 Some of them spoke against me with contempt and departed, surrendering themselves to the road of death. Others cast themselves at my feet and begged to be taught. I raised them up and became a guide to the human race, teaching them the teachings of how, and by what means, they would be saved. I sowed among them the words of wisdom, and they were nourished by ambrosial water. When evening came and all the sun’s radiance began to set, I called on them to thank God. After they had fulfilled their thanksgiving, each returned to his own bed.

30 I inscribed Poimandres’ gift within myself, and, filled with all I had desired, rejoiced. The body’s sleep became the soul’s wakefulness; the closing of my eyes, true sight; my silence, pregnant with goodness; and my utterance of the Word, the birth of good things. This happened because I received from my Mind, that is, from Poimandres, the Word of Sovereignty, through whom I came to the truth, inspired by God. Therefore with all my soul and strength I offer praise to God the Father.

31 Holy is God, the Father of all; holy is God, whose will is fulfilled by his own powers; holy is God, who desires to be known and is known by his own; holy are you, who established all that exists through the Word; holy are you, whose image all nature has become; holy are you, whom nature did not shape; holy are you, stronger than every power; holy are you, greater than all eminence; holy are you, beyond all praise. Receive pure sacrifices of reason from a soul and heart stretched toward you, unutterable one, ineffable one, addressed in silence.

32 Grant my prayer that I not fail in knowledge of our true being; strengthen me, and by this grace enlighten my brothers in the human race, who live in ignorance, but are your sons. Therefore I trust in you and bear witness: I pass into life and light. Blessed are you, Father; your human being desires to join you in holiness, as you have given him authority over all things.