Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres
§ About this work
The collection opens with the narrator's vision of the Being Man-Shepherd (Poimandres), Mind of all-masterhood, who reveals the Light, the making of Man, the ascent through the Harmony to the Eighth, and sends the narrator to preach Gnosis. In the Serapeum, Hermes leads Asclepius to establish that the bodiless space containing all motion is God, Cause named Good and Father. The Sacred Sermon narrates cosmogony from Chaos, Darkness, and Water to men born for gnosis. Hermes then addresses Tat across several discourses: the Epistles, where Mind is set as a prize in a Cup; a discourse on the Unmanifest God who is all names and no name; the All-Father, locating Good in God alone; the Seven Powers, rebuking ignorance; and the Eight Sphere, denying true death. The Decalogue treats sense and thought and Cosmos as God's Son; the Sermon on the Mount describes souls' transformations and Gnosis as the Way Up. In the Hymn, Mind instructs Thrice-greatest Hermes on God, Aeon, Cosmos, Time, and Becoming; the Prayer teaches Mind as pilot against passion and Fate; the Discourse to Tat unfolds Rebirth, the twelve Tormentors driven out by ten Powers, and the Secret Hymnody. Hermes writes to Asclepius (to Ammon) on the One Maker who sows Immortality, Change, Life, and Motion. In the Definitions, Asclepius addresses King Ammon on God as All and One, the Sun as Demiurge, and Heimarmenē; a fragmentary discourse treats bodiless things in bodies and reflexions, the King postponing converse. The Encomium of Kings closes with musician analogies, ascending to God then descending to praise Kings, where Love works the harmony.
While the narrator's mind meditates and his senses are held back, a vast Being calls his name and asks what he wishes to learn. Asked who he is, the Being names himself Man-Shepherd (Poimandres), Mind of all-masterhood. The narrator asks to learn the things that are and to know God. Poimandres' aspect changes; all becomes Light, then Darkness appears like a snake, turning to Moist Nature with smoke and a Voice of Fire. A Holy Word descends; Fire leaps up, Air follows, Earth-and-Water stay mingled. Poimandres explains he is the Light, Mind, Father-God, and the Light-Word is Son of God. The narrator beholds the Archetypal Form. Poimandres describes God-Mind, male-female, bringing forth a Formative Mind who makes Seven Rulers, called Fate; Nature brings forth reason-less lives. All-Father Mind brings forth Man, falls in love with him; Man breaks through the spheres, shows God's form to Nature, who loves him, and they intermingle, making man twofold—mortal and immortal. Poimandres reveals that Nature bore seven men, then bids silence. God commands creatures to increase and multiply. He who knows himself reaches the Good; he who loves the body stays in Darkness. Poimandres explains death's origin, and that Mind aids the holy but yields the wicked to the Avenging Daimon. He describes the ascent through the Harmony, surrendering energies at each zone, reaching the Eighth and becoming one with God, and urges the narrator to guide the mortal race. Poimandres mingles with the Powers; the narrator preaches to earth-born folk, teaches those who entreat him, gives Deathless Water, and closes with a hymn to God and a prayer for Gnosis.
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