R G - The Corpus Hermeticum

Noteson the text: This is the most famous of the Hermetic documents, arevelation account describing a vision of the creation of theuniverse and the nature and fate of humanity. Authors from theRenaissance onward have been struck by the way in which its creationmyth seems partly inspired by Genesis, partly reacting against it.The Fall has here become the descent of the Primal Man through thespheres of the planets to the world of Nature, a descent caused notby disobedience but by love, and done with the blessing of God.
Theseven rulers of fate discussed in sections 9, 14 and 25 are thearchons of the seven planets, which also appear in Plato's Timaeusand in a number of the ancient writings usually lumped together as"Gnostic". Their role here is an oddly ambivalent one,powers of Harmony who are nonetheless the sources of humanity'stendencies to evil.
1.It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things thatare, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my bodybeing held back - just as men who are weighed down with sleep after afill of food, or from fatigue of body.
Methoughta Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my nameand saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mindto learn and know?
2.And I do say: Who art thou?
Hesaith: I am Man-Shepherd ( Poemandres ),Mind of all-masterhood; I know what thou desirest and I am with theeeverywhere.
3.[And] I reply: I long to learn the things that are, and comprehendtheir nature, and know God. This is, I said, what I desire to hear.
Heanswered back to me: Hold in thy mind all thou wouldst know, and Iwill teach thee.
4.Even with these words His aspect changed, and straightway, in thetwinkling of an eye, all things were opened to me, and I see a Visionlimitless, all things turned into Light - sweet, joyous [Light]. AndI became transported as I gazed.
Butin a little while Darkness came settling down on part [of it],awesome and gloomy, coiling in sinuous folds, so that methought itlike unto a snake.
Andthen the Darkness changed into some sort of a Moist Nature, tossedabout beyond all power of words, belching out smoke as from a fire,and groaning forth a wailing sound that beggars all description.
[And]after that an outcry inarticulate came forth from it, as though itwere a Voice of Fire.
5.[Thereon] out of the Light [...] a Holy Word (Logos) descended onthat Nature. And upwards to the height from the Moist Nature leapedforth pure Fire; light was it, swift and active too.
TheAir, too, being light, followed after the Fire; from out of theEarth-and-Water rising up to Fire so that it seemed to hangtherefrom.
ButEarth-and-Water stayed so mingled with each other, that Earth fromWater no one could discern. Yet were they moved to hear by reason ofthe Spirit-Word (Logos) pervading them.
6.Then saith to me Man-Shepherd: Didst understand this Vision what itmeans?
Nay;that shall I know, said I.
ThatLight, He said, am I, thy God, Mind, prior to Moist Nature whichappeared from Darkness; the Light-Word (Logos) [that appeared] fromMind is Son of God.
Whatthen? - say I.
Knowthat what sees in thee and hears is the Lord's Word (Logos); but Mindis Father-God. Not separate are they the one from other; just intheir union [rather] is it Life consists.
Thanksbe to Thee, I said.
So,understand the Light [He answered], and make friends with it.
7.And speaking thus He gazed for long into my eyes, so that I trembledat the look of him.
Butwhen He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powersno man could number, and Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that theFire was compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now]subdued had come unto a stand.
Andwhen I saw these things I understood by reason of Man-Shepherd's Word(Logos).
8.But as I was in great astonishment, He saith to me again: Thou didstbehold in Mind the Archetypal Form whose being is before beginningwithout end. Thus spake to me Man-Shepherd.
AndI say: Whence then have Nature's elements their being?
Tothis He answer gives: From Will of God. [Nature] received the Word(Logos), and gazing upon the Cosmos Beautiful did copy it, makingherself into a cosmos, by means of her own elements and by the birthsof souls.
9.And God-the-Mind, being male and female both, as Light and Lifesubsisting, brought forth another Mind to give things form, who, Godas he was of Fire and Spirit, formed Seven Rulers who enclose thecosmos that the sense perceives. Men call their ruling Fate.
10.Straightway from out the downward elements God's Reason (Logos)leaped up to Nature's pure formation, and was at-oned with theFormative Mind; for it was co-essential with it. And Nature'sdownward elements were thus left reason-less, so as to be purematter.
11.Then the Formative Mind ([at-oned] with Reason), he who surrounds thespheres and spins them with his whorl, set turning his formations,and let them turn from a beginning boundless unto an endless end. Forthat the circulation of these [spheres] begins where it doth end, asMind doth will.
Andfrom the downward elements Nature brought forth lives reason-less;for He did not extend the Reason (Logos) [to them]. The Air broughtforth things winged; the Water things that swim, and Earth-and-Waterone from another parted, as Mind willed. And from her bosom Earthproduced what lives she had, four-footed things and reptiles, beastswild and tame.
12.But All-Father Mind, being Life and Light, did bring forth Manco-equal to Himself, with whom He fell in love, as being His ownchild; for he was beautiful beyond compare, the Image of his Sire. Invery truth, God fell in love with his own Form; and on him did bestowall of His own formations.
13.And when he gazed upon what the Enformer had created in the Father,[Man] too wished to enform; and [so] assent was given him by theFather.
Changinghis state to the formative sphere, in that he was to have his wholeauthority, he gazed upon his Brother's creatures. They fell in lovewith him, and gave him each a share of his own ordering.
Andafter that he had well learned their essence and had become a sharerin their nature, he had a mind to break right through the Boundary oftheir spheres, and to subdue the might of that which pressed upon theFire.
14.So he who hath the whole authority over [all] the mortals in thecosmos and over its lives irrational, bent his face downwards throughthe Harmony, breaking right through its strength, and showed todownward Nature God's fair form.
Andwhen 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 it was asthough she hadd seen the image of Man's fairest form upon her Water,his shadow on her Earth.
Hein turn beholding the form like to himself, existing in her, in herWater, loved it and willed to live in it; and with the will came act,and [so] he vivified the form devoid of reason.
AndNature took the object of her love and wound herself completelyaround 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.
Thoughdeathless and possessed of sway over all, yet doth he suffer as amortal doth, subject to Fate.
Thusthough above the Harmony, within the Harmony he hath become a slave.Though male-female, as from a Father male-female, and though he issleepless from a sleepless [Sire], yet is he overcome [by sleep].