Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres · 3 of 6 · tr. G.R.S. Mead
Section 1c
And when she saw that Form of beauty which can never satiate, and him who [now] possessed within himself each single energy of [all seven] Rulers as well as God's own Form, she smiled with love; for 'twas as though she'd seen the image of Man's fairest form upon her Water, his shadow on her Earth.
He in turn beholding the form like to himself, existing in her, in her Water, loved it and willed to live in it; and with the will came act, and [so] he vivified the form devoid of reason.
And Nature took the object of her love and wound herself completely around him, and they were intermingled, for they were lovers.
15.
And this is why beyond all creatures on the earth man is twofold; mortal because of body, but because of the essential man immortal.
Though deathless and possessed of sway o'er all, yet doth he suffer as a mortal doth, subject to Fate.
Thus though above the Harmony, within the Harmony he hath become a slave.
Though male-female, as from a Father male-female, and though he's sleepless from a sleepless [Sire], yet is he overcome [by sleep].
16.
Thereon [I say: Teach on], O Mind of me, for I myself as well am amorous of the Word (Logos).
The Shepherd said: This is the mystery kept hid until this day.
Nature embraced by Man brought forth a wonder, oh so wonderful.
For as he had the nature of the Concord of the Seven, who, as I said to thee, [were made] of Fire and Spirit - Nature delayed not, but immediately brought forth seven "men", in correspondence with the natures of the Seven, male-female and moving in the air.
Thereon [I said]: O Shepherd, ..., for now I'm filled with great desire and long to hear; do not run off.
The Shepherd said: Keep silence, for not as yet have I unrolled for thee the first discourse (logoi).
Lo!
I am still, I said.
17.
In such wise than, as I have said, the generation of these seven came to pass.
Earth was as woman, her Water filled with longing; ripeness she took from Fire, spirit from Aether.
Nature thus brought forth frames to suit the form of Man.
And Man from Light and Life changed into soul and mind - from Life to soul, from Light to mind.
And thus continued all the sense-world's parts until the period of their end and new beginnings.
18.
Now listen to the rest of the discourse (Logos) which thou dost long to hear.
The period being ended, the bond that bound them all was loosened by God's Will.
For all the animals being male-female, at the same time with Man were loosed apart; some became partly male, some in like fashion [partly] female.
And straightway God spake by His Holy Word (Logos): "Increase ye in increasing, and multiply in multitude, ye creatures and creations all; and man that hath Mind in him, let him learn to know that he himself is deathless, and that the cause of death is love, though Love is all." 19.
When He said this, His Forethought did by means of Fate and Harmony effect their couplings and their generations founded.
And so all things were multiplied according to their kind.
And he who thus hath learned to know himself, hath reached that Good which doth transcend abundance; but he who through a love that leads astray, expends his love upon his body - he stays in Darkness wandering, and suffering through his senses things of Death.
20.
What is the so great fault, said I, the ignorant commit, that they should be deprived of deathlessness?
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
[auto] The text describes a downward movement from the authority figure through the Harmony to Nature.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
[auto] Man is described as possessing within himself each single energy of the Seven Rulers, mirroring the cosmic structure.