<This is the most famous of the Hermetic documents, a revelation account
describing a vision of the creation of the universe and the nature and fate
of humanity. Authors from the Renaissance onward have been struck by the way
in which its creation myth seems partly inspired by Genesis, partly
reacting against it. The Fall has here become the descent of the Primal Man
through the spheres of the planets to the world of Nature, a descent caused
not by disobedience but by love, and done with the blessing of God.
<The seven rulers of fate discussed in sections 9, 14 and 25 are the archons
of the seven planets, which also appear in Plato's Timaeus and 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's tendencies to evil. - JMG>
1.
It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my
thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back
- just as men who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from
fatigue of body.
Methought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my
name and saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mind
to learn and know?
2.
And I do say: Who art thou?
He
saith: I am Man-Shepherd (Poemandres), Mind of all-masterhood; I know what
thou desirest and I'm with thee everywhere.
3.
[And] I reply: I long to learn the things that are, and comprehend their
nature, and know God. This is, I said, what I desire to hear.
He
answered back to me: Hold in thy mind all thou wouldst know, and I will
teach thee.
4.
E'en with these words His aspect changed, and straightway, in the twinkling
of an eye, all things were opened to me, and I see a Vision limitless, all
things turned into Light - sweet, joyous [Light]. And I became transported
as I gazed.
But
in a little while Darkness came settling down on part [of it], awesome and
gloomy, coiling in sinuous folds, so that methought it like unto a snake.
And
then the Darkness changed into some sort of a Moist Nature, tossed about
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 it
were a Voice of Fire.
5.
[Thereon] out of the Light [...] a Holy Word (Logos) descended on that
Nature. And upwards to the height from the Moist Nature leaped forth pure
Fire; light was it, swift and active too.
The
Air, too, being light, followed after the Fire; from out of the
Earth-and-Water rising up to Fire so that it seemed to hang therefrom.
But
Earth-and-Water stayed so mingled with each other, that Earth from Water no
one could discern. Yet were they moved to hear by reason of the Spirit-Word
(Logos) pervading them.
6.
Then saith to me Man-Shepherd: Didst understand this Vision what it means?
Nay; that shall I know, said I.
That Light, He said, am I, thy God, Mind, prior to Moist Nature which
appeared from Darkness; the Light-Word (Logos) [that appeared] from Mind is
Son of God.
What then? - say I.
Know that what sees in thee and hears is the Lord's Word (Logos); but Mind
is Father-God. Not separate are they the one from other; just in their union
[rather] is it Life consists.
Thanks be 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 trembled at the
look of him.
But
when He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powers no man
could number, and Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that the Fire was
compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now] subdued had come
unto a stand.
And
when 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 didst behold
in Mind the Archetypal Form whose being is before beginning without end.
Thus spake to me Man-Shepherd.
And
I say: Whence then have Nature's elements their being?
To
this He answer gives: From Will of God. [Nature] received the Word (Logos),
and gazing upon the Cosmos Beautiful did copy it, making herself into a
cosmos, by means of her own elements and by the births of souls.
9.
And God-the-Mind, being male and female both, as Light and Life subsisting,
brought forth another Mind to give things form, who, God as he was of Fire
and Spirit, formed Seven Rulers who enclose the cosmos 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 the Formative Mind; for it was
co-essential with it. And Nature's downward elements were thus left
reason-less, so as to be pure matter.
11.
Then the Formative Mind ([at-oned] with Reason), he who surrounds the
spheres and spins them with his whorl, set turning his formations, and let
them turn from a beginning boundless unto an endless end. For that the
circulation of these [spheres] begins where it doth end, as Mind doth will.
And
from the downward elements Nature brought forth lives reason-less; for He
did not extend the Reason (Logos) [to them]. The Air brought forth things
winged; the Water things that swim, and Earth-and-Water one from another
parted, as Mind willed. And from her bosom Earth produced what lives she
had, four-footed things and reptiles, beasts wild and tame.
12.
But All-Father Mind, being Life and Light, did bring forth Man co-equal to
Himself, with whom He fell in love, as being His own child; for he was
beautiful beyond compare, the Image of his Sire. In very truth, God fell in
love with his own Form; and on him did bestow all 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 the Father.
Changing his state to the formative sphere, in that he was to have his whole
authority, he gazed upon his Brother's creatures. They fell in love with
him, and gave him each a share of his own ordering.
And
after that he had well learned their essence and had become a sharer in
their nature, he had a mind to break right through the Boundary of their
spheres, and to subdue the might of that which pressed upon the Fire.
14.
So he who hath the whole authority o'er [all] the mortals in the cosmos and
o'er its lives irrational, bent his face downwards through the Harmony,
breaking right through its strength, and showed to downward Nature God's
fair form.
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?
Thou seem'st, He said, O thou, not to have given heed to what thou heardest.
Did I not bid thee think?
Yea
do I think, and I remember, and therefore give Thee thanks.
If
thou didst think [thereon], [said He], tell me: Why do they merit death who
are in Death?
It
is because the gloomy Darkness is the root and base of the material frame;
from it came the Moist Nature; from this the body in the sense-world was
composed; and from this [body] Death doth the Water drain.
21.
Right was thy thought, O thou! But how doth "he who knows himself, go unto
Him", as God's Word (Logos) hath declared?
And
I reply: the Father of the universals doth consist of Light and Life, from
Him Man was born.
Thou sayest well, [thus] speaking. Light and Life is Father-God, and from
Him Man was born.
If
then thou learnest that thou art thyself of Life and Light, and that thou [happen'st]
to be out of them, thou shalt return again to Life. Thus did Man-Shepherd
speak.
But
tell me further, Mind of me, I cried, how shall I come to Life again...for
God doth say: "The man who hath Mind in him, let him learn to know that he
himself [is deathless]."
22.
Have not all men then Mind?
Thou sayest well, O thou, thus speaking. I, Mind, myself am present with
holy men and good, the pure and merciful, men who live piously.
[To
such] my presence doth become an aid, and straightway they gain gnosis of
all things, and win the Father's love by their pure lives, and give Him
thanks, invoking on Him blessings, and chanting hymns, intent on Him with
ardent love.
And
ere they give up the body unto its proper death, they turn them with disgust
from its sensations, from knowledge of what things they operate. Nay, it is
I, the Mind, that will not let the operations which befall the body, work to
their [natural] end. For being door-keeper I'll close up [all] the
entrances, and cut the mental actions off which base and evil energies
induce.
23.
But to the Mind-less ones, the wicked and depraved, the envious and
covetous, and those who mured do and love impiety, I am far off, yielding my
place to the Avenging Daimon, who sharpening the fire, tormenteth him and
addeth fire to fire upon him, and rusheth upon him through his senses, thus
rendering him readier for transgressions of the law, so that he meets with
greater torment; nor doth he ever cease to have desire for appetites
inordinate, insatiately striving in the dark.
24.
Well hast thou taught me all, as I desired, O Mind. And now, pray, tell me
further of the nature of the Way Above as now it is [for me].
To
this Man-Shepherd said: When the material body is to be dissolved, first
thou surrenderest the body by itself unto the work of change, and thus the
form thou hadst doth vanish, and thou surrenderest thy way of life, void of
its energy, unto the Daimon. The body's senses next pass back into their
sources, becoming separate, and resurrect as energies; and passion and
desire withdraw unto that nature which is void of reason.
25.
And thus it is that man doth speed his way thereafter upwards through the
Harmony.
To
the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second
[zone], Device of Evils [now] de-energized; unto the third, the Guile of the
Desires de-energized; unto the fourth, his Domineering Arrogance, [also]
de-energized; unto the fifth, unholy Daring and the Rashness of Audacity,
de-energized; unto the sixth, Striving for Wealth by evil means, deprived of
its aggrandizement; and to the seventh zone, Ensnaring Falsehood,
de-energized.
26.
And then, with all the energisings of the harmony stript from him, clothed
in his proper Power, he cometh to that Nature which belongs unto the Eighth,
and there with those-that-are hymneth the Father.
They who are there welcome his coming there with joy; and he, made like to
them that sojourn there, doth further hear the Powers who are above the
Nature that belongs unto the Eighth, singing their songs of praise to God in
language of their own.
And
then they, in a band, go to the Father home; of their own selves they make
surrender of themselves to Powers, and [thus] becoming Powers they are in
God. This the good end for those who have gained Gnosis - to be made one
with God.
Why
shouldst thou then delay? Must it not be, since thou hast all received, that
thou shouldst to the worthy point the way, in order that through thee the
race of mortal kind may by [thy] God be saved?
27.
This when He'd said, Man-Shepherd mingled with the Powers.
But
I, with thanks and belssings unto the Father of the universal [Powers], was
freed, full of the power he had poured into me, and full of what He'd taught
me of the nature of the All and of the loftiest Vision.
And
I began to preach unto men the Beauty of Devotion and of Gnosis:
O
ye people, earth-born folk, ye who have given yourselves to drunkenness and
sleep and ignorance of God, be sober now, cease from your surfeit, cease to
be glamoured by irrational sleep!
28.
And when they heard, they came with one accord. Whereon I say:
Ye
earth-born folk, why have ye given yourselves up to Death, while yet ye have
the power of sharing Deathlessness? Repent, O ye, who walk with Error arm in
arm and make of Ignorance the sharer of your board; get ye out from the
light of Darkness, and take your part in Deathlessness, forsake Destruction!
29.
And some of them with jests upon their lips departed [from me], abandoning
themselves unto the Way of Death; others entreated to be taught, casting
themselves before my feet.
But
I made them arise, and I became a leader of the Race towards home, teaching
the words (logoi), how and in what way they shall be saved. I sowed in them
the words (logoi) of wisdom; of Deathless Water were they given to drink.
And
when even was come and all sun's beams began to set, I bade them all give
thanks to God. And when they had brought to an end the giving of their
thanks, each man returned to his own resting place.
30.
But I recorded in my heart Man-Shepherd's benefaction, and with my every
hope fulfilled more than rejoiced. For body's sleep became the soul's
awakening, and closing of the eyes - true vision, pregnant with Good my
silence, and the utterance of my word (logos) begetting of good things.
All
this befell me from my Mind, that is Man-Shepherd, Word (Logos) of all
masterhood, by whom being God-inspired I came unto the Plain of Truth.
Wherefore with all my soul and strength thanksgiving give I unto Father-God.
31.
Holy art Thou, O God, the universals' Father.
Holy art Thou, O God, whose Will perfects itself by means of its own Powers.
Holy art Thou, O God, who willeth to be known and art known by Thine own.
Holy art Thou,who didst by Word (Logos) make to consist the things that are.
Holy art Thou, of whom All-nature hath been made an image.
Holy art Thou, whose Form Nature hath never made.
Holy art Thou, more powerful than all power.
Holy art Thou, transcending all pre-eminence.
Holy Thou art, Thou better than all praise.
Accept my reason's offerings pure, from soul and heart for aye stretched up
to Thee, O Thou unutterable, unspeakable, Whose Name naught but the Silence
can express.
32.
Give ear to me who pray that I may ne'er of Gnosis fail, [Gnosis] which is
our common being's nature; and fill me with Thy Power, and with this Grace
[of Thine], that I may give the Light to those in ignorance of the Race, my
Brethren, and Thy Sons.
For
this cause I believe, and I bear witness; I go to Life and Light. Blessed
art Thou, O Father. Thy Man would holy be as Thou art holy, e'en as Thou
gave him Thy full authority [to be].