The Poimandres (Corpus Hermeticum I)

1 Once, while I was thinking about the things that exist, my mind rose far above ordinary concerns. My bodily senses became still, as they do for people weighed down by sleep after too much food and pleasure or physical work. I thought I saw someone enormous, beyond measure, calling my name and saying to me, “What do you want to hear and see? What do you want to understand, learn, and know?”

2 I said, “Who are you?” He said, “I am Poimandres, the mind of supreme authority. I know what you want, and I am with you everywhere.”

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

4 When he said this, his appearance changed. In an instant everything opened before me. I saw a boundless sight: everything had become light, clear and pleasant. I loved what I saw. Soon darkness appeared in one part, moving downward. It was frightening and grim, twisted into a coil. As I watched, the darkness seemed to change into a kind of wet substance, disturbed beyond description. It gave off smoke as if from fire and made a sound like a cry that cannot be described. Then an inarticulate shout came from it, which I took to be the voice of the light.

5 From the light a holy word came upon the substance, and pure fire leaped up from the wet substance into the heights. It was light, sharp, and active. The air, being light, followed the spirit as it rose from earth and water up to the fire, so that it seemed to hang from the fire. Earth and water remained mixed together, and the earth could not be seen apart from the water. They moved as the spiritual word that was carried over them could be heard.

6 Poimandres said to me, “Do you understand this sight and what it means?” I said, “I will.” He said, “I am that light: Mind, your God, who existed before the wet substance that appeared from the darkness. The shining word from Mind is God's son.” “What does that mean?” I asked. “Understand it this way: what sees and hears in you is the word of the Lord, and Mind is God the Father. They are not separate from each other, because life is their union.” “Thank you,” I said. “Now turn your mind to the light and learn to know it,” he said.

7 After saying this, he looked me in the face for a long time, and I trembled at the sight of him. When he lifted his head, I saw in my mind the light existing in countless powers, a world without limits coming into being, and fire surrounded and held still by an immense power. I understood these things as I watched because of what Poimandres said.

8 While I was amazed, he said to me again, “In your mind you have seen the original form that existed before the beginning without end.” This is what Poimandres said to me. I asked, “Then where did the elements of nature come from?” He answered, “From God's will. It received the word, saw the beautiful world, and copied it, becoming a world through its own elements and the offspring of souls.”

9 God, the Mind, was both male and female, and was life and light. Through the word, God gave birth to another Mind, a maker. This maker was god of fire and spirit and created seven rulers, who held the visible world within their circles. Their rule is called fate.

10 God's word at once leaped from the elements below into the pure creation of nature and joined the maker Mind, because they were of the same substance. The elements of nature below, which had no reason, were left behind as matter alone.

11 The maker Mind, together with the word, enclosed the circles and spun them with a whirring sound. It set its creations turning and let them turn from a beginning without a fixed boundary to an end without limit. For their motion begins where it ends. As Mind willed it, their turning brought forth living things without reason from the elements below, for those elements did not have the word. The air brought forth flying things, and the water brought forth swimming things. Earth and water were separated from each other, as Mind wanted, and earth brought forth from itself the living things it contained: four-footed animals, crawling creatures, wild animals, and tame animals.

12 Mind, the father of all, was life and light. He gave birth to Man, equal to himself, and loved him as his own child. Man was very beautiful and bore his father's image. Indeed, God loved his own form and gave it all the things he had made.

13 Man saw the maker's creation within the Father and wanted to make things too. He separated from the Father and entered the sphere where making took place. With full authority, he observed what his brothers had made. They loved him, and each shared his own rank with him. When Man had learned what they were and shared in their nature, he wanted to break through the rim of the circles and overcome the power of the one set over the fire.

14 Having authority over all the mortal, unreasoning creatures in the world, Man bent down through the ordered circles. He broke through the power of the circles and showed the nature below God's beautiful form. Nature saw this form, with its beauty that could never be exhausted and all the activity of the seven rulers within it, and smiled with love. She had seen the image of Man's beautiful form in the water and its shadow on the earth. Man saw in the water a form like himself, existing within nature. He loved it and wanted to live with it. His desire immediately became action, and he brought the form without reason into being.

15 Nature took the one she loved and wrapped herself completely around him. They united because they loved each other. This is why, unlike every other living thing on earth, a human being is twofold: mortal because of the body, but immortal because of the essential Man. Although immortal and holding authority over everything, a human suffers the mortal things that are subject to fate. So although he was above the ordered circles, he became a slave within them. He is both male and female because he came from a father who was both male and female; and though he needs no sleep, he is held by one who needs no sleep.

16 After this I thought, “For I too love the word.” Poimandres said, “This is the secret that has been hidden until today. Nature joined with Man and produced a most extraordinary wonder. He had the nature of the seven, whom I told you were made from fire and spirit, within the ordered circles. Nature did not wait. She immediately gave birth to seven human beings, corresponding to the natures of the seven rulers. They were both male and female and were raised above the earth.” I said, “Poimandres, now I long very much to hear more. Please don't turn away from the subject.” Poimandres said, “Be quiet. I have not yet finished explaining the first account to you.” “Look, I am quiet,” I said.

17 “The seven came into being in the following way, as I said. Air was female, and water supplied what was needed for conception. What came from fire ripened; it received spirit from the upper air. Nature brought forth bodies in the form of Man. Man, from life and light, became soul and mind: from life came soul, and from light came mind. Every part of the visible world remained this way until the end of the cycle of beginnings and generations.

18 “Now listen to the account you have been eager to hear. When the cycle was complete, the bond joining everything was undone by God's will. All the living beings, including humans, had been both male and female. They were divided, and some became male while others became female. Then God immediately said through the holy word, ‘Grow and multiply, all creatures and things that have been made. Let anyone who has a mind recognize that they are immortal, and that love of the body is the cause of death, and recognize all that exists.’

19 “After he said this, providence brought about their unions through fate and the ordered circles, and established births. Everything multiplied according to its kind. The person who recognizes himself has reached the highest good. But whoever loves the body out of a mistaken desire remains wandering in darkness, suffering death through the senses.”

20 I said, “What have people who do not know done so wrong that they should lose immortality?” He said, “You do not seem to have paid attention to what you heard. Didn't I tell you to think?” “I am thinking,” I said, “and I remember. I also thank you.” He said, “If you understand, tell me why those who are in death deserve death.” I said, “Because the grim darkness is the first source of each person's body. The wet substance came from that darkness, and the body in the visible world was formed from the wet substance. This is what feeds death.”

21 “You have understood correctly. But how does someone who knows himself move toward God, as God's word said?” I said, “The father of everything was formed from light and life, and Man came from him.” He said, “Speak with reverence. God the Father is light and life, and Man came from him. If you learn that you are made of life and light and that these are your source, you will return to life.” This is what Poimandres said. I asked, “But tell me more: how will I return to life, Mind? My God says, ‘Let the person with a mind recognize himself.’ Don't all people have a mind?”

22 “Speak rightly when you talk about such things. I, Mind, come to those who are holy, good, pure, merciful, and living reverently. My presence helps them, and they immediately know everything. They win the Father's favor through love, and they thank him with blessings and songs, turning to him with affection. Before giving up their bodies to death, they reject the senses because they know what the senses do. More precisely, I, Mind, will not allow the bodily impulses that come upon them to be carried out. I stand guard at the gate and shut out bad and shameful acts by cutting off the thoughts that lead to them.

23 “But I keep away from people who have no understanding and are bad, wicked, jealous, greedy, murderous, or disrespectful toward God. I leave them to the punishing spirit. It applies the sharp heat of fire and strikes them through their senses. It makes them even more ready to break the law, so that they receive greater punishment. It never stops stirring up their desire for limitless pleasures, without satisfying them, as if they were fighting in the dark. This is how it torments them, making the fire against them burn still more fiercely.”

24 “You have taught me everything well, Mind, just as I wanted,” I said. “But tell me about how the ascent takes place.” Poimandres replied, “First, as the material body breaks apart, the body itself is given over to change, and the form you had disappears. Your character is given over to the spirit, no longer active. The body's senses return to their own sources, becoming parts of them and coming together again as their activities. Anger and desire pass into nature without reason.

25 “Then the person moves upward through the ordered circles. To the first zone he gives up the power to increase and decrease. To the second he gives up the means of doing evil and deceit, now powerless. To the third he gives up the deception of desire, now powerless. To the fourth he gives up the pride of ruling, stripped of its greed. To the fifth he gives up irreverent recklessness and rash daring. To the sixth he gives up the harmful drives for wealth, now powerless. And to the seventh zone he gives up the lie that lies in wait.

26 “Once freed of the forces of the ordered circles, he reaches the eighth nature with his own power and sings to the Father together with those who are there. They are glad he has arrived. As he becomes like them, he also hears the powers above the eighth nature singing to God in a sweet voice. Then they ascend in order to the Father. They give themselves over to the powers, become powers themselves, and come to be in God. This is the good end for those who have gained knowledge: to become divine. Why are you waiting? You have received everything. Become a guide to those who are worthy, so that through you God may save the human race.”

27 After saying this to me, Poimandres joined with the powers. I thanked and blessed the father of all, and rose, strengthened by him and taught about the nature of everything and the greatest vision. I began to tell people about the beauty of reverence for God and of knowledge. “People born of the earth, you have given yourselves over to drunkenness, sleep, and ignorance of God. Wake up. Stop drinking yourselves senseless and letting unreasoning sleep keep you under its spell.”

28 Those who heard came together as one. I said, “People born of the earth, why have you given yourselves over to death when you have the power to share in immortality? Change your minds, you who have gone along with error and taken part in ignorance. Leave the dark light behind. Share in immortality and leave decay behind.”

29 Some dismissed my words as nonsense and left, giving themselves over to the path of death. Others threw themselves at my feet and asked to be taught. I helped them up and became a guide to the human race. I taught them the teachings about how and by what means they would be saved. I planted words of wisdom in them, and they were nourished by the water of immortality. When evening came and all the sunlight began to fade, I told them to thank God. After they had finished giving thanks, each went to their own bed.

30 I wrote down within myself the help Poimandres had given me. I was filled with what I wanted and was overjoyed. When my body slept, my soul was awake. When my eyes closed, I truly saw. My silence held the good within it, and when I spoke, good things were born. This happened to me because I received it from my Mind, that is, from Poimandres, the word of supreme authority. Through him I came to the truth, filled with divine inspiration. So I bless God the Father with all my heart and strength.

31 Holy is God, the father of all. Holy is God, whose will is carried out by his own powers. Holy is God, who wants to be known and is known by his own people. You are holy, who brought all things into being by the word. You are holy, of whom all nature is an image. You are holy, whom nature did not shape. You are holy, stronger than every power. You are holy, greater than every high position. You are holy, beyond all praise. Receive pure offerings made in words from a soul and heart raised toward you. You cannot be described or spoken of; you are addressed in silence.

32 Grant my request that I not lose the knowledge of what we really are. Strengthen me, and by this gift bring light to my brothers of the human race who do not know, but who are your sons. I trust you and bear witness to you: I am going toward life and light. Blessed are you, Father. Your human being wishes to join you in holiness, since you have given him full authority.