The Hermetica 💋

of Hermes Trismegistus: Poimandres

[1] Once, when thought came to me of the things that are and my thinking soared high and my bodily senses were restrained, like someone heavy with sleep from too much eating or toil of the body, an enormous being completely unbounded in size seemed to appear to me and call my name and say to me: "What do you want to hear and see; what do you want to learn and know from your understanding?"

[2] "Who are you?" I asked.

"I am Poimandres," he said, "mind of sovereignty; I know what you want, and I am with you everywhere."

[3] I said, "I wish to learn about the things that are, to understand their nature and to know god. How much I want to hear!" I said.

Then he said to me: "Keep in mind all that you wish to learn, and I will teach you."

[4] Saying this, he changed his appearance, and in an instant everything was immediately opened to me. I saw an endless vision in which everything became light - clear and joyful - and in seeing the vision I came to love it. After a little while, darkness arose separately and descended - fearful and gloomy - coiling sinuously so that it looked to me like a snake. Then the darkness changed into something of a watery nature, indescribably agitated and smoking like a fire; it produced an unspeakable wailing roar. Then an inarticulate cry like the voice of fire came forth from it. [5] But from the light...a holy word mounted upon the nature, and untempered fire lept up from the watery nature to the height above. The fire was nimble and piercing and active as well, and because the air was light it followed after spirit and rose up to the fire away from earth and water so that it seemed suspended from the fire. Earth and water stayed behind, mixed with one another, so that earth could not be distinguished from water, but they were stirred to hear by the spiritual word that moved upon them.

[6] Poimandres said to me, "Have you understood what this vision means?"

"I shall come to know," said I.

"I am the light you saw, mind, your god," he said, "who existed before the watery nature that appeared out of darkness. The light giving word who comes from mind is the son of god."

"Go on," I said.

"This is what you must know: that in you which sees and hears is the word of the lord, but your mind is god the father; they are not divided from one another for their union is life."

"Thank you," I said.

"Understand the light, then, and recognize it." [7] After he said this, he looked me in the face for such a long time that I trembled at his appearance. But when he raised his head, I saw in my mind the light of powers beyond number and a boundless cosmos that had come to be. The fire, encompassed by great power and subdued, kept its place fixed. In the vision I had because of the discourse of Poimandres, these were my thoughts. [8] Since I was terrified, out of my wits, he spoke to me again. "In your mind you have seen the archetypal form, the preprinciple that exists before a beginning without end." This was what Poimandres said to me.

"The elements of nature - whence have they arisen?" I asked.

And he answered: "From the counsel of god which, having taken in the word and having seen the beautiful cosmos, imitated it, having become a cosmos through its own elements and its progeny of souls. [9] The mind who is god, being androgyne and existing as life and light, by speaking gave birth to a second mind, a craftsman, who, as god of fire and spirit, crafted seven governors; they encompass the sensible world in circles, and their government is called fate."

[10] "From the elements [ that weigh downwards, the word of god lept straight up to the pure craftwork of nature and united with the craftsman-mind (for the word was of the same substance). The weighty elements of nature were left behind, bereft of reason, so as to be mere matter. [11] The craftsman-mind, together with the word, encompassing the circles and whirling them about with a rush, turned his craftworks about, letting them turn from an endless beginning to a limitless end, for it starts where it stops. Revolving as mind wished them to, the circles brought forth from the weighty elements living things without reason (for they no longer kept the word with them); and the air brought forth winged things; the water things that swim. Earth and water had been separated from one another as mind wished, and earth brought forth from herself the living things that she held within, four-footed beasts crawling things, wild animals and tame."

[12] "Mind, the father of all, who is life and light, gave birth to a man like himself whom he loved as his own child. The man was most fair: he had the father's image; and god, who was really in love with his own form, bestowed on him all his craftworks. [13] And after the man had observed what the craftsman had created with the father's help, he also wished to make some craftwork, and the father agreed to this. Entering the craftsman's sphere, where he was to have all authority, the man observed his brother's craftworks; the governors loved the man, and each gave a share of his own order. Learning well their essence and sharing in their nature, the man wished to break through the circumference of the circles to observe the rule of the one given power over the fire."

[14] "Having all authority over the cosmos of mortals and unreasoning animals, the man broke through the vault and stooped to look through the cosmic framework, thus displaying to lower nature the fair form of god. Nature smiled for love when she saw him whose fairness brings no surfeit and who holds in himself all the energy of the governors and the form of god, for in the water she saw the shape of the man's fairest form and upon the earth its shadow. When the man saw in the water the form like himself as it was in nature, he loved it and wished to inhabit it; wish and action came in the same moment, and he inhabited the unreasoning form. Nature took hold of her beloved, hugged him all about and embraced him, for they were lovers."

[15] "Because of this, unlike any other living thing on earth, mankind is twofold - in the body mortal but immortal in the essential man. Even though he is immortal and has authority over all things, mankind is affected by mortality because he is subject to fate; thus, although man is above the cosmic framework, he became a slave within it. He is androgyne because he comes from an androgyne father, and he never sleeps because he comes from one who is sleepless. masters."

[16] And after this: "..., o my mind. I love the word also."

Poimandres said: "This is the mystery that has been kept hidden until this very day. When nature made love with the man, she bore a wonder most wondrous.In him he had the nature of the cosmic framework of the seven, who are made of fire and spirit, as I told you, and without delay nature at once gave birth to seven men, androgyne and exalted, whose natures were like those of the seven governors."

And after this: "O Poimandres, now I have come into a great longing, and I yearn to hear; so do not digress."

And Poimandres said, "Be silent; I have not yet unfolded to you the first discourse."

"As you see, I am silent," said I.

[17] "As I said, then, the birth of the seven was as follows. Earth was the female. Water did the fertilizing. Fire was the maturing force. Nature took spirit from the ether and brought forth bodies in the shape of the man. From life and light the man became soul and mind; from life came soul, from light came mind, and all things in the cosmos of the senses remained thus until a cycle ended and kinds of things began to be."

[18] "Hear the rest, the word you yearn to hear. When the cycle was completed, the bond among all things was sundered by the counsel of god. All living things, which had been androgyne, were sundered into two parts - humans along with them - and part of them became male, part likewise female. But god immediately spoke a holy speech: 'Increase in increasing and multiply in multitude, all you creatures and craftworks, and let him who is mindful recognize that he is immortal, that desire is the cause of death, and let him recognize all that exists.'"

[19] "After god said this, providence, through fate and through the cosmic framework, caused acts of intercourse and set in train acts of birth; and all things were multiplied according to kind. The one who recognized himself attained the chosen good, but the one who loved the body that came from the error of desire goes on in darkness, errant, suffering sensibly the effects of death."

[20] "Those who lack knowledge, what great wrong have they done," I asked, "that they should be deprived of immortality?"

"You behave like a person who has not given thought to what he has heard. Did I not tell you to think?"

"I am thinking; I remember; and I am grateful as well."

"If you have understood, tell me: why do they deserve death who are in death?"

"Because what first gives rise to each person's body is the hateful darkness, from which comes the watery nature, from which the body was constituted in the sensible cosmos, from which death drinks."

[21] "Truly you have understood. But why is it that 'he who has understood himself advances toward god,' as god's discourse has it?"

"Because," I said, "the father of all things was constituted of light and life, and from him the man came to be."

"You say your speech well. Life and light are god and father, from whom the man came to be. So if you learn that you are from light and life and that you happen to come from them, you shall advance to life once again." This is what Poimandres said.

"But tell me again," I asked, "how shall I advance to life, O my mind? For god says, 'Let the person who is mindful recognize himself' All people have mind, do they not?"

"Hold your tongue, fellow. Enough talk. I myself, the mind, am present to the blessed and good and pure and merciful - to the reverent - and my presence becomes a help; they quickly recognize everything, and they propitiate the father lovingly and give thanks, praising and singing hymns affectionately and in the order appropriate to him. Before giving up the body to its proper death, they loathe the senses for they see their effects. Or rather I, the mind, will not permit the effects of the body to strike and work their results on them. As gatekeeper, I will refuse entry to the evil and shameful effects, cutting off the anxieties that come from them. [23] But from these I remain distant - the thoughtless and evil and wicked and envious and greedy and violent and irreverent - giving way to the avenging demon who {wounds the evil person}, assailing him sensibly with the piercing fire and thus arming him the better for lawless deeds so that greater vengeance may befall him. Such a person does not cease longing after insatiable appetites, struggling in the darkness without satisfaction {This} tortures him and makes the fire grow upon him all the more."

[24] "You have taught me all things well, o mind, just as I wanted. But tell me again about the way up; tell me how it happens."

To this Poimandres said: "First, in releasing the material body you give the body itself over to alteration, and the form that you used to have vanishes. To the demon you give over your temperament, now inactive. The body's senses rise up and flow back to their particular sources, becoming separate parts and mingling again with the energies. And feeling and longing go on toward irrational nature. [25] Thence the human being rushes up through the cosmic framework, at the first zone surrendering the energy of increase and decrease; at the second evil machination, a device now inactive; at the third the illusion of longing, now inactive; at the fourth the ruler's arrogance, now freed of excess; at the fifth unholy presumption and daring recklessness; at the sixth the evil impulses that come from wealth, now inactive; and at the seventh zone the deceit that lies in ambush. [26] And then, stripped of the effects of the cosmic framework, the human enters the region of the ogdoad; he has his own proper power, and along with the blessed he hymns the father. Those present there rejoice together in his presence, and, having become like his companions, he also hears certain powers that exist beyond the ogdoadic region and hymn god with sweet voice. They rise up to the father in order and surrender themselves to the powers, and, having become powers, they enter into god. This is the final good for those who have received knowledge: to be made god. Why do you still delay? Having learned all this, should you not become guide to the worthy so that through you the human race might be saved by god?"

[27] As he was saying this to me, Poimandres joined with the powers. Then he sent me fort, empowered and instructed on the nature of the universe and on the supreme vision, after I had given thanks to the father of all and praised him. And I began proclaiming to mankind the beauty of reverence and knowledge: "People, earthborn men, you who have surrendered yourselves to drunkenness and sleep and ignorance of god, make yourselves sober and end your drunken sickness, for you are bewitched in unreasoning sleep."

[28] When they heard, they gathered round with one accord. And I said, "Why have you surrendered yourselves to death, earthborn men, since you have the right to share in immortality? You who have journeyed with error, who have partnered with ignorance, think again: escape the shadowy light; leave corruption behind and take a share in immortality."

[29] Some of them, who had surrendered themselves to the way of death, resumed their mocking and withdrew, while those who desired to be taught cast themselves at my feet. Having made them rise, I became guide to my race, teaching them the words - and I sowed the words of wisdom among them, and they were nourished from the ambrosial water. When evening came and the sun's light began to disappear entirely, I commanded them to give thanks to god, and when each completed the thanksgiving, he turned to his own bed.

[30] Within myself I recorded the kindness of Poimandres, and I was deeply happy because I was filled with what I wished, for the sleep of my body became sobriety of soul, the closing of my eyes became true vision, my silence became pregnant with good, and the birthing of the word became a progeny of goods. This happened to me because I was receptive of mind - of Poimandres, that is, the word of sovereignty. I have arrived, inspired with the divine breath of truth. Therefore, I give praise to god the father from my soul and with all my might:

[31] Holy is god, the father of all;

Holy is god, whose counsel is done by his own powers;

Holy is god, who wishes to be known and is known by his own people;

Holy are you, who by the word have constituted all things that are;

Holy are you, from whom all nature was born as image;

Holy are you, of whom nature has not made a like figure;

Holy are you, who are stronger than every power;

Holy are you, who surpass every excellence;

Holy are you, mightier than praises.

[31] You whom we address in silence, the unspeakable, the unsayable, accept pure speech offerings from a heart and soul that reach up to you. [32] Grant my request no to fail in the knowledge that befits our essence; give me power; and with this fight I shall enlighten those who are in ignorance, brothers of my race, but your sons. Thus I believe and I bear witness; I advance to life and light. Blessed are you, father. He who is your man wishes to join you in the work of sanctification since you have provided him all authority.

Corpus Hermeticum II

[1] "Is it not true, Asclepius, that everything moved is moved in something and by something?"

"Certainly."

"But isn't it necessary for that in which something is moved to be larger than the moved?"

"Stronger indeed."

"And that in which something is moved must necessarily have a nature contrary to that of the moved?"

"Yes, entirely so."

[2] "This cosmos is large, then, and no body is larger?"

"Agreed."

"And is it densely packed? For it has been filled with many other large bodies or, rather, with all the bodies that exist."

"So it is."

"But is the cosmos a body?"

"A body, yes."

"And a moved body?"

[3] "Certainly."

"The place in which it moves, then, how large must it be, and what is its nature? Is it not larger by far so as to sustain continuity of motion and not hold back its movement lest the moved be crowded and confined?"

"It must be something truly enormous, Trismegistus."

[4] "What is its nature? It will be of a contrary nature, Asclepius, no? But the nature contrary to body is the incorporeal."

"Agreed."

"Place is incorporeal, then, but the incorporeal is either divine or else it is god. (By 'divine' I mean here the unbegotten, not the begotten.) [5] If it is divine, it is something essential; but if it is god, it comes to be even without essence. Otherwise, it is something intelligible, and this is why: for us, god is the foremost intelligible entity, but not so for god himself; what is intelligible falls within the awareness of one who thinks of it; thus, for himself god is not intelligible because his is not something distinct from the object of his thought, i.e., so as to be an object of thought for himself. [6] For us, however, he is something distinct; hence, he is an object of thought for us. But if place is intelligible, it is intelligible not as god but as place, and if it were intelligible as god, it would be regarded so not as place but as energy capable of containing. Yet everything moved is moved not in something moved but in something at rest. And the mover is also at rest, unable to be moved conjointly.

"How then, O Trismegistus, are the things of this world moved conjointly with their movers? You have said that the planetary spheres are moved by the spheres of the fixed"

"This motion, Asclepius, is not conjoint but opposed, for the spheres are not moved in the same way; they moved contrary to one another, and the contrariety keeps the motion balanced through opposition. [7] Resistance is the stilling of motion. Since the planetary spheres are moved contrarily to the fixed {by a contrary encounter with them, they are moved because of their balance in relation to the contrariety itself}. It cannot be otherwise. For example: those bears that you see neither setting nor rising but turning about the same point, do you think they are moved or at rest?"

"They are moved, Trismegistus."

"What sort of motion, Asclepius?"

"Motion revolving about the same points."

"Revolution is the same thing as motion about the same point that is held in place by immobility. Going around it prevents going beyond it, but when the going beyond is prevented, there is resistance to the going around, and thus the contrary motion remains constant, stabilized by the contrariety. [8] I will give you an example here on earth, one that your eyes can see: as they swim, observe mortal living things, those like a human, I mean; when the water rushes by, the resistance of feet and hands becomes an immobility so that the person is not swept downstream with the water."

"A clear example, Trismegistus."

"Thus, all motion is moved in immobility and by immobility. And it happens that the motion of the cosmos and of every living thing made of matter is produced not by things outside the body but by those within it acting upon the outside, by intelligible entities, either soul or spirit or something else incorporeal. For body does not move ensouled body, nor does it move any body at all, not even the soulless."

[9] "How do you mean this, Trismegistus? Are they not bodies that move sticks and stones and all the other soulless things?"

"By no means, Asclepius. Not the body itself but what is within the body that moves the soulless thing is what moves them both, the body that bears as well as the body that is borne. Hence, the soulless will not move the soulless, and so you see how the soul is overloaded when it bears two bodies by itself. And so it is clear that things moved are moved in something and by something."

[10] "Must things that are moved be moved in emptiness, Trismegistus?"

"Hold your tongue, Asclepius! Not one of the things that are is empty - by reason of their substantiality. For a being could not be a being if it were not full of substance. The subsistent can never become empty."

"Are not some things empty, Trismegistus, such as a pail or a pot or a vat or other such things?"

"Ah, what a great mistake, Asclepius! Would you consider 'empty' the things that are entirely and completely full?

[11] "What do you mean, Trismegistus?"

"Air is a body, no?"

"Yes, it is a body."

"But does not this body pervade everything that exists and fill them all by pervading them? And a body is a mixture constituted of the four elements, is it not? So all those things that you call 'empty' are full of air. But if they are full of air, they are also full of the four bodies, and so it turns out that a contrary account comes to light: that the things you call 'full' are all empty of air since they are crowded with these other bodies and have no place to take in the air. Therefore, the things you call 'empty' must be named 'hollow' rather than 'empty,' for in their substance they are full of air and spirit."

[12] "Your reasoning is irrefutable, Trismegistus. So what have we said of the place in which the universe is moved?"

"That it is incorporeal, Asclepius."

"What is the incorporeal, then?"

"Mind as a whole wholly enclosing itself, free of all body, unerring, unaffected, untouched, at rest in itself capable of containing all things and preserving all that exists, and its rays (as it were) are the good, the truth, the archetype of spirit, the archetype of soul."

"What, then, is god?"

"God is what does not subsist as any of these since he is the cause of their being, for all of them and for each and every one of them that exists. [13] And he has left nothing else remaining that is not-being, for all things are those that come to be from things that are, not from those that are not. Things that are not do not have a nature that enables them to come to be; their nature is such that they cannot come to be anything. Things that are, on the other hand, do not have a nature that prevents them from ever existing." [14] {(What do you mean by what never exist?)}

"God is not mind, but he is the cause of mind's being; he is not spirit, but the cause of spirit's being; and he is not light, but the cause of light's being. Hence, one must show god reverence with those two name assigned to him alone and to no other. Except god alone, none of the other beings called gods nor any human nor any demon can be good, in any degree. That good is he alone, and none other. All others are incapable of containing the nature of the good because they are body and soul and have no place that can contain the good.

[15] For the magnitude of the good is as great as the substance of all beings, corporeal and incorporeal, sensible and intelligible. This is the good; this is god. You should not say that anything else is good or you will speak profanely, nor should you ever call god anything but 'the good' since this too would be profane. [16] All use the word 'good' in speaking, of course, but not all understand what it can mean. For this reason, god is not understood by all. In their ignorance, they apply the name 'good' to the gods and to certain humans even though these beings are never able to be good or to become so. The good is what is inalienable and inseparable from god, since it is god himself. All other immortal gods are given the name 'good' as an honor, but god is the good by nature, not because of honor. God has one nature - the good. In god and the good together there is but one kind, from which come all other kinds. The good is what gives everything and receives nothing; god gives everything and receives nothing; therefore, god is the good, and the good is god."

[17] "God's other name is 'father' because he is capable of making all things. Making is characteristic of a father. Prudent people therefore regard the making of children as a duty in life to be taken most seriously and greatly revered, and should any human being pass away childless, they see it as the worst misfortune and irreverence. After death such a person suffers retribution from demons. This is his punishment: the soul of the childless one is sentenced to a body that has neither a man's nature nor a woman's - a thing accursed under the sun. Most assuredly then, Asclepius, you should never congratulate a childless person. On the contrary show pity for his calamity, knowing what punishment awaits him."

"This is the content and the extent of what should be told to you, Asclepius, by way of introduction to the nature of all things."

Corpus Hermeticum III

A sacred discourse of Hermes

[1] God is the glory of all things, as also are the divine and the divine nature. God, as well as mind and nature and matter, is the beginning of all things that are since he is wisdom meant to show them forth. The divine is also a beginning, and it is nature and energy and necessity and completion and renewal.

In the deep there was boundless darkness and water and fine intelligent spirit, all existing by divine power in chaos. Then a holy light was sent forth, and elements solidified [ ] out of liquid essence. And all the gods {divide the parts} of germinal nature. [2] While all was unlimited and unformed, light elements were set apart to the heights and the heavy were grounded in the moist sand, the whole of them delimited by fire and raised aloft, to be carried by spirit. The heavens appeared in seven circles, the gods became visible in the shapes of the stars and all their constellations, and the arrangement of this lighter substance corresponded to the gods contained in it. The periphery rotated in the air, carried in a circular course by divine spirit.

[3] Through his own power, each god sent forth what was assigned to him. And the beasts came to be-four-footed, crawling, water-dwelling, winged - and every germinating seed and grass and every flowering plant: {within them they had the seed of rebirth. The gods sowed} the generations of humans to know the works of god; to be a working witness to nature; to increase the number of mankind; to master all things under heaven; to discern the things that are good; to increase by increasing and multiply by multiplying. And through the wonder-working course of the cycling gods they created every soul incarnate to contemplate heaven, the course of the heavenly gods, the works of god and the working of nature; to examine things that are good; to know divine power; to know the whirling changes of fair and foul; and to discover every means of working skillfully with things that are good.

[4] For them this is the beginning of the virtuous life and of wise thinking as far as the course of the cycling gods destines it, and it is also the beginning of their release to what will remain of them after they have left great monuments on earth in works of industry. {In the fame of seasons they will become dim, and, from every birth of ensouled flesh, from sowing of crops and from every work of industry,} what is diminished will be renewed by necessity and by the renewal that comes from the gods and by the course of nature's measured cycle.

For the divine is the entire combination of cosmic influence renewed by nature, and nature has been established in the divine.

Corpus Hermeticum IV

A discourse of Hermes to Tat: The mixing bowl or the monad

[1] "Since the craftsman made the whole cosmos by reasoned speech, not by hand, you should conceive of him as present, as always existing, as having made all things, as the one and only and as having crafted by his own will the things that are. For this is his body, neither tangible nor visible nor measurable nor dimensional nor like any other body; it is not fire nor water nor air nor spirit, yet all things come from it. Because he is good, it was not for himself alone that he wished to make this offering and to adorn the earth; [2] so he sent the man below, an adornment of the divine body, mortal life from life immortal. And if the cosmos prevailed over living things as something ever-living, the man prevailed even over the cosmos through reason and mind. The man became a spectator of god's work. He looked at it in astonishment and recognized its maker. [3] God shared reason among all people, O Tat, but not mind, though he begrudged it to none. Grudging envy comes not from on high; it forms below in the souls of people who do not possess mind."

"For what reason, then, did god not share mind with all of them, my father?"

"He wanted it put between souls, my child, as a prize for them to contest."

[4] "And where did he put it?"

"He filled a great mixing bowl with it and sent it below, appointing a herald whom he commanded to make the following proclamation to human hearts: 'Immerse yourself in the mixing bowl if your heart has the strength, if it believes you will rise up again to the one who sent the mixing bowl below, if it recognizes the purpose of your coming to be."

"All those who heeded the proclamation and immersed themselves in mind participated in knowledge and became perfect people because they received mind. But those who missed the point of the proclamation are people of reason because they did not receive the gift of>mind as well and do not know the purpose or the agents of their coming to be. [5] These people have sensations much like those of unreasoning animals, and, since their temperament is willful and angry, they feel no awe of things that deserve to be admired; they divert their attention to the pleasures and appetites of their bodies; and they believe that mankind came to be for such purposes. But those who participate in the gift that comes from god, O Tat, are immortal rather than mortal if one compares their deeds, for in a mind of their own they have comprehended all things on earth, things in heaven and even what lies beyond heaven. Having raised themselves so far, they have seen the good and, having seen it, they have come to regard the wasting of time here below as a calamity. They have scorned every corporeal and incorporeal thing, and they hasten toward the one and only. [6] This, Tat, is the way to learn about mind, to {resolve perplexities in divinity and to understand god. For the mixing bowl is divine."

"I too wish to be immersed, my father"

"Unless you first hate your body, my child, you cannot love yourself, but when you have loved yourself, you will possess mind, and if you have mind, you will also have a share in the way to learn."

"What do you mean by this, father?"

"My child, it is impossible to be engaged in both realms, the mortal and the divine. Since there are two kinds of entities, corporeal and incorporeal, corresponding to mortal and divine, one is left to choose one or the other, if choice is desired. One cannot {have both together when one is left to choose}, but lessening the one reveals the activity of the other."

[7] "Choosing the stronger, then , not only has splendid consequences for the one who chooses - in that it makes the human into a god - but it also shows reverence toward god. On the other hand, choosing the lesser has been mankind's destruction, though it was no offence to god, with this single reservation: just as processions passing by in public cannot achiever anything of themselves, though they can be a hindrance to others, in the same way these people are only parading through the cosmos, led astray by pleasures of the body."

[8] "Since this is so, Tat, what proceeds from god has been and will be available to us. May what comes from us be suited to it and not deficient. And the evils for which we are responsible, who choose them instead of good things, are no responsibility of god's. Do you see how many bodies we must pass through, my child, how many troops of demons, cosmic connections and stellar circuits in order to hasten toward the one and only? For the good is untraversable, infinite and unending; it is also without beginning, but to us it seems to have a beginning - our knowledge of it. [9] Thus, knowledge is not a beginning of the good, but it furnishes us the beginning of the good that will be known. So let us seize this beginning and travel with all speed, for the path is very crooked that leaves familiar things of the present to return to primordial things of old. Visible things delight us, but the invisible cause mistrust. Bad things are the more open to sight, but the good is invisible to what can be seen. For the good has neither shape nor outline. This is why it is like itself but unlike all others, for the bodiless cannot be visible to body. [10] This is the difference between like and unlike and the deficiency in the unlike with respect to the like."

"The monad, because it is the beginning and root of all things, is in them all as root and beginning. Without a beginning there is nothing, and a beginning comes from nothing except itself if it is the beginning of other things. Because it is a beginning, then, the monad contains every number, is contained by none, and generates every number without being generated by any other number. [11] But everything generated is imperfect and divisible, subject to increase and decrease. None of this happens to what is perfect. And what can be increased takes its increase from the monad, but it is defeated by its own weakness, no longer able to make room for the monad."

"Such then, Tat, is god's image, as best I have been able to sketch it for you. If your vision of it is sharp and you understand it with the eyes of your heart, believe me, child, you shall discover the road that leads above or, rather, the image itself will show you the way. For the vision of it has a special property. It takes hold of those who have had the vision and draws them up, just as the magnet stone draws iron, so they say."

Corpus Hermeticum V

A discourse of Hermes to Tat, his son: That god is invisible and entirely visible

[1] This discourse I shall also deliver to you in full, O Tat, lest you go uninitiated in the mysteries of the god who is greater than any name. You must understand how something that seems invisible to the multitude will become entirely visible to you. Actually, if it were not invisible, it would not always be. Everything seen has been begotten because at some point it came to be seen. But the invisible always is, and, because it always is, it does not need to come to be seen. Also, while remaining invisible because it always is, it makes all other things visible. The very entity that makes visibility does not make itself visible; what begets is not itself begotten; what presents images of everythings not present to the imagination. For there is imagination only of things begotten. Coming to be is nothing but imagination. [2] Clearly, the one who alone is unbegotten is also unimagined and invisible, but in presenting images of all things he is seen through all of them and in all of them; he is seen especially by those whom he wished to see him.

You then, Tat, my child, pray first to the lord, the father, the only, who is not one but from whom the on comes; ask him te grace to enable you to understand so great a god, to permit even one ray of his to illuminate your thinking. Only understanding, because it, too, is invisible, sees the invisible, and if you have the strength, Tat, your mind's eye will see it. For the lord, who is ungrudging, is seen through the entire cosmos. Can you see understanding and hold it in your hands? Can you have a vision of the image of god? If what is in you is also invisible to you, how will god reveal his inner self to you through the eyes?

[3] If you want to see god, consider the sun, consider the circuit of the moon, consider the order of the stars. Who keeps this order? (For every order is bounded in number and in place.) The sun, the greatest god of those in heaven, to whom all heavenly gods submit as to a king and ruler, this sun so very great, larger than earth and sea, allows stars smaller than him to circle above him. To whom does he defer, my child? Whom does he fear? Does not each of these stars in heaven make the same circuit or a similar one? Who determined the direction and the size of the circuit for each of them?

[4] Who owns this instrument, this bear, the one that turns around itself and carries the whole cosmos with it? Who set limits to the sea? Who settled the earth in place? There is someone, Tat, who is maker and master of all this. Without someone to make them, neither place nor number nor measure could have been maintained. Everything that is an order has been made; only something placeless and measureless can be not made. But even this does not lack a master, my child. Even if the unordered is deficient {-deficient, that is, in that it does not retain the character of order-} it is still subject to a master who has not yet imposed order on it.

[5] Would that you could grow wings and fly up into the air, lifted between earth and heaven to see the solid earth, the fluid sea, the streaming rivers, the pliant air, the piercing fire, the coursing stars, and heaven speeding on its axis about the same points. Oh, this is a most happy sight to see, my child, to have a vision of all these in a single instant, to see the motionless set in motion and the invisible made visible through the things that it makes! This is the order of the cosmos, and this is the cosmos of order.

[6] If you wish also to see the vision through mortal things on earth and in the deep, my child, consider how the human being is crafted in the womb, examine the skill of the craftwork carefully, and learn who it is that crafts this beautiful, godlike image of mankind. Who traced the line round the eyes? Who pierced the holes for nostrils and ears? Who opened up the mouth? Who stretched out the sinews and tied them down? Who made channels for the veins? Who hardened the bones? Who drew skin over the flesh? Who parted the fingers? Who flattened the bottoms of the feet? Who cut passages for the pores? Who stretched out the spleen? Who made the heart in the form of a pyramid? Who joined the {ribs} together? Who flattened the liver? Who hollowed out the lungs? Who made the belly spacious? Who set the most honored parts in relief to make them visible but hid the shameful parts away?

[7] See how many skills have been applied to the same, single material, how many labors within the compass of a single work, all of them exquisite things, all finely measured, yet all different. Who made them all? What sort of mother or what sort of father if not the invisible god, who crafted them all by his own will? [8] No one claims that a statue or a picture has been produced unless there is a sculptor or a painter. Has this craftwork been produced without a craftsman, then? Oh, how full of blindness, how full of irreverence, how full of ignorance! Tat, my child, never deprive the craftworks of their craftsman.... Or rather, he is stronger even {than a name used of god,} so great is the father of all. Surely it is he alone whose work it is to be a father.

[9] If you force me to say something still more daring, it is his essence to be pregnant with all things and to make them. As it is impossible for anything to be produced without a maker, so also is it impossible for this maker [not] to exist always unless he is always making everything in heaven, in the air, on earth, in the deep, in every part of the cosmos, in every part of the universe, in what is and in what is not. For there is nothing in all the cosmos that he is not. He is himself the things that are and those that are not. Those that are he has made visible; those that are not he holds within him. [10] This is the god who is greater than any name; this is the god invisible and entirely visible. This god who is evident to the eyes may be seen in the mind. He is bodiless and many-bodied; or, rather, he is all-bodied. There is nothing that he is not, for he also is all that is, and this is why he has all names, because they are of one father, and this is why he has no name, because he is father of them all.

Who may praise you, then, acting on your behalf or according to your purpose? And where shall I look to praise you - above, below, within, without? For there is no direction about you nor place nor any other being. All is within you; all comes from you. You give everything and take nothing. For you have it all, and there is nothing that you do not have.

[11] When shall I sing a hymn to you? One cannot detect in you time or season. For what shall I sing the hymn - for what you have made or what you have not made, for what you have made visible or what you have kept hidden? And wherefore shall I sing the hymn to you - for being something that is part of me, or has a special property, or is something apart? For you are whatever I am; you are whatever I make; you are whatever I say. You are everything, and there is nothing else; what is not, you are as well. You are all that has come to be; you are what has not come to be; you are the mind who understands, the father who makes his craftwork, the god who acts, and the good who makes all things.