Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. II (the Corpus Hermeticum) — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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He in his 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,1 and [so] he vivified the form devoid of reason.
And Nature took the object of her love and wound herself completely round 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,2 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],3 0 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.
, energy, and realization.
2 That is " a-sexual " but having the potentiality of both sexes.
3 For the various suggestions for filling up this lacuna, see R. in loc. ; and for that of Keil, see R. 367.
4 Sc. as well as Nature.
Nature embraced by Man brought forth a wonder, oh so wonderful. For as he had the nature of the Concord 1 of the Seven, who, as I said to thee, [were made] of Fire and Spirit 2 — Nature delayed not, but immediately brought forth seven " men," in correspondence with the natures of the Seven, male-female and moving in the air.3
Thereon [I said]: 0 Shepherd, . . . 4 ; for now I'm filled with great desire and long to hear ; do not run off.6
The Shepherd said : Keep silence, for not as yet have I unrolled for thee the first discourse (logos).
Lo ! I am still, I said.
17. In such wise then, as I have said, the J generation of these seven came to pass. Earth was as woman, her Water filled with longing ; ripeness she took from Fire, spirit from Miher. Nature thus brought forth frames to suit the form of Man.
And Man from Life and Light changed into soul and mind, — from Life to soul, from Light to mind.
And thus continued all the sense-world's
1 Harmony. 2 gee g 9
3 fj.(rapfftovs. A term that must have a more definite meaning than the vague "sublime" by which it is generally translated.
4 For Keil's completion of the lacuna, see R. 368.
5 /j.^1 enrptxe, perhaps meaning diverge from the subject, or go too fast ; lit., it means " do not run away."
parts1 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,2 though Love is all." 3
19. When He said this, His Forethought4 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, —
1 That is, the parts of what Hermes elsewhere calls the " cosmic man."
2 Of. C. H., xvi. 16. 3 Omitting the rA before fora.
, that is Nature as Sophia or Providence or Will.
he stays in Darkness wandering,1 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, 0 thou, not to have given heed to what thou heardest. Did not I 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 2 came the Moist Nature ; from this 3 the body in the sense-world was composed ; and from this [body] Death doth the Water drain.