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\begin{document}

\begin{titlingpage}
  \thispagestyle{empty}
  \fontfamily{pbk}\selectfont
  \centering
  \vspace*{2\baselineskip}
  {\Huge The Corpus Hermeticum} \\[4em]
  {\large\emph{--- Translation and Commentary by ---}} \\[2em]
  {\LARGE G. R. S. Mead} \par
  \vspace*{5\baselineskip}
  \vspace*{5\baselineskip}
  \vspace*{5\baselineskip}
  {\Large The Theosophical Publishing Society}\\[1em]
  {\Large\scshape 1906}\par
  \vspace*{2\baselineskip}
\end{titlingpage}

\chapter{Pœmandres, The Shepherd of Men}

1. It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that
are\footnote{περὶ τῶν ὄντων.}, 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\footnote{Ποιμάνδρης.}, Mind of
all-masterhood\footnote{ὁ τῆς αὐθεντίας νοῦς. The αὐθεντία was the
  \emph{summa potestas} of all things; see R. 8, n. 1; and § 30
  below. Cf. also C. H., xiii. (xiv.) 15.}; I know what thou desirest
and I am 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. Even with these words His aspect changed,\footnote{ἠλλάγη τῇ ἰδέᾳ.}
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 [\dots] 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 over [all] the mortals in the
cosmos and over 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 it was as
though she hadd 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 over 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
is 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, \dots, for now I am 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):

\begin{quote}
  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.
\end{quote}

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 seemest, 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 [happenest] 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 \dots 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 will 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 had said, Man-Shepherd mingled with the Powers.

But I, with thanks and blessings unto the Father of the universal
[Powers], was freed, full of the power he had poured into me, and full
of what He had 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 never 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, even as Thou gave him Thy full authority [to be].

\chapter{To Asclepius}

1. \emph{Hermes}: All that is moved, Asclepius, is it not moved
\emph{in} something and \emph{by} something?

Asclepius: Assuredly.

\emph{H}: And must not that in which it's moved be greater than the moved?

\emph{A}: It must.

\emph{H}: Mover, again, has greater power than moved?

\emph{A}: It has, of course.

\emph{H}: The nature, furthermore, of that in which it's moved must be quite
other from the nature of the moved?

\emph{A}: It must completely.

2. \emph{H}: Is not, again, this cosmos vast, [so vast] that than it there
exists no body greater?

\emph{A}: Assuredly.

\emph{H}: And massive, too, for it is crammed with multitudes of other mighty
frames, nay, rather all the other bodies that there are?

\emph{A}: It is.

\emph{H}: And yet the cosmos is a body?

\emph{A}: It is a body.

\emph{H}: And one that's moved?

3. \emph{A}: Assuredly.

\emph{H}: Of what size, then, must be the space in which it's moved, and of
what kind [must be] the nature [of that space]? Must it not be far
vaster [than the cosmos], in order that it may be able to find room
for its continued course, so that the moved may not be cramped for
want of room and lose its motion?

\emph{A}: Something, Thrice-greatest one, it needs must be, immensely vast.

4. \emph{H}: And of what nature? Must it not be, Asclepius, of just the
contrary? And is not contrary to body bodiless?

\emph{A}: Agreed.

\emph{H}: Space, then, is bodiless. But bodiless must either be some godlike
thing or God [Himself]. And by ``some godlike thing'' I mean no more the
generable [i.e., that which is generated] but the ingenerable.

5. If, then, space be some godlike thing, it is substantial; but if
'tis God [Himself], it transcends substance. But it is to be thought
of otherwise [than God], and in this way.

God is first ``thinkable'' <or ``intelligible''> for us, not for Himself,
for that the thing that's thought doth fall beneath the thinker's
sense. God then cannot be ``thinkable'' unto Himself, in that He's
thought of by Himself as being nothing else but what He thinks. But he
is ``something else'' for us, and so He's thought of by us.

6. If space is, therefore, to be thought, [it should] not, [then, be
thought as] God, but space. If God is also to be thought, [He should]
not [be conceived] as space, but as energy that can contain [all
space].

Further, all that is moved is moved not in the moved but in the
stable. And that which moves [another] is of course stationary, for
'tis impossible that it should move with it.

\emph{A}: How is it, then, that things down here, Thrice-greatest one, are
moved with those that are [already] moved? For thou hast said the
errant spheres were moved by the inerrant one.

\emph{H}: This is not, O Asclepius, a moving with, but one against; they are
not moved with one another, but one against the other. It is this
contrariety which turneth the resistance of their motion into
rest. For that resistance is the rest of motion.

7. Hence, too, the errant spheres, being moved contrarily to the
inerrant one, are moved by one another by mutual contrariety, [and
also] by the spable one through contrariety itself. And this can
otherwise not be.

The Bears up there <i.e., Ursa Major and Minor>, which neither set nor
rise, think'st thou they rest or move?

\emph{A}: They move, Thrice-greatest one.

\emph{H}: And what their motion, my Asclepius?

\emph{A}: Motion that turns for ever round the same.

\emph{H}: But revolution---motion around same---is fixed by rest. For
``round-the-same'' doth stop ``beyond-same''. ``Beyond-same'' then, being
stopped, if it be steadied in ``round-same''---the contrary stands firm,
being rendered ever stable by its contrariety.

8. Of this I'll give thee here on earth an instance, which the eye can
see. Regard the animals down here---a man, for instance, swimming! The
water moves, yet the resistance of his hands and feet give him
stability, so that he is not borne along with it, nor sunk thereby.

\emph{A}: Thou hast, Thrice-greatest one, adduced a most clear instance.

\emph{H}: All motion, then, is caused in station and by station.

The motion, therefore, of the cosmos (and of every other hylic <i.e.,
material> animal) will not be caused by things exterior to the cosmos,
but by things interior [outward] to the exterior---such [things] as
soul, or spirit, or some such other thing incorporeal.

'Tis not the body that doth move the living thing in it; nay, not even
the whole [body of the universe a lesser] body e'en though there be no
life in it.

9. \emph{A}: What meanest thou by this, Thrice-greatest one? Is it not
bodies, then, that move the stock and stone and all the other things
inanimate?

\emph{H}: By no means, O Asclepius. The something-in-the-body, the
that-which-moves the thing inanimate, this surely's not a body, for
that it moves the two of them---both body of the lifter and the
lifted? So that a thing that's lifeless will not move a lifeless
thing. That which doth move [another thing] is animate, in that it is
the mover.

Thou seest, then, how heavy laden is the soul, for it alone doth lift
two bodies. That things, moreover, moved are moved in something as
well as moved by something is clear.

10. \emph{A}: Yea, O Thrice-greatest one, things moved must needs be moved in
something void.

\emph{H}: Thou sayest well, O [my] Asclepius! For naught of things that are
is void. Alone the ``is-not'' is void [and] stranger to subsistence. For
that which is subsistent can never change to void.

\emph{A}: Are there, then, O Thrice-greatest one, no such things as an empty
cask, for instance, and an empty jar, a cup and vat, and other things
like unto them?

\emph{H}: Alack, Asclepius, for thy far-wandering from the truth! Think'st
thou that things most full and most replete are void?

11. \emph{A}: How meanest thou, Thrice-greatest one?

\emph{H}: Is not air body?

\emph{A}: It is.

\emph{H}: And doth this body not pervade all things, and so, pervading, fill
them? And ``body''; doth body not consist from blending of the ``four''
<elements>? Full, then, of air are all thou callest void; and if of
air, then of the ``four''.

Further, of this the converse follows, that all thou callest full are
void---of air; for that they have their space filled out with other
bodies, and, therefore, are not able to receive the air
therein. These, then, which thou dost say are void, they should be
hollow named, not void; for they not only are, but they are full of
air and spirit.

12. \emph{A}: Thy argument (logos), Thrice-greatest one, is not to be
gainsaid; air is a body. Further, it is this body which doth pervade
all things, and so, pervading, fill them. What are we, then, to call
that space in which the all doth move?

\emph{H}: The bodiless, Asclepius.

\emph{A}: What, then, is Bodiless?

\emph{H}: 'Tis Mind and Reason (logos), whole out of whole, all
self-embracing, free from all body, from all error free, unsensible to
body and untouchable, self stayed in self, containing all, preserving
those that are, whose rays, to use a likeness, are Good, Truth, Light
beyond light, the Archetype of soul.

\emph{A}: What, then, is God?

13. \emph{H}: Not any one of these is He; for He it is that causeth them to
be, both all and each and every thing of all that are. Nor hath He
left a thing beside that is-not; but they are all from things-that-are
and not from things-that-are-not. For that the things-that-are-not
have naturally no power of being anything, but naturally have the
power of the inability-to-be. And, conversely, the things-that-are
have not the nature of some time not-being.

14. \emph{A}: What say'st thou ever, then, God is?

\emph{H}: God, therefore, is not Mind, but Cause that the Mind is; God is not
Spirit, but Cause that Spirit is; God is not Light, but Cause that the
Light is. Hence one should honor God with these two names [the Good
and Father]---names which pertain to Him alone and no one else.

For no one of the other so-called gods, no one of men, or daimones,
can be in any measure Good, but God alone; and He is Good alone and
nothing else. The rest of things are separable all from the Good's
nature; for [all the rest] are soul and body, which have no place that
can contain the Good.

15. For that as mighty is the Greatness of the Good as is the Being of
all things that are---both bodies and things bodiless, things sensible
and intelligible things. Call thou not, therefore, aught else Good,
for thou would'st imious be; nor anything at all at any time call God
but Good alone, for so thou would'st again be impious.

16. Though, then, the Good is spoken of by all, it is not understood
by all, what thing it is. Not only, then, is God not understood by
all, but both unto the gods and some of the men they out of ignorance
do give the name of Good, though they can never either be or become
Good. For they are very different from God, while Good can never be
distinguished from Him, for that God is the same as Good.

The rest of the immortal ones are nonetheless honored with the name of
God, and spoken of as gods; but God is Good not out of courtesy but
out of nature. For that God's nature and the Good is one; one os the
kind of both, from which all other kinds [proceed].

The Good is he who gives all things and naught receives. God, then,
doth give all things and receive naught. God, then, is Good, and Good
is God.

17. The other name of God is Father, again because He is the
that-which-maketh-all. The part of father is to make.

Wherefore child-making is a very great and a most pious thing in life
for them who think aright, and to leave life on earth without a child
a very great misfortune and impiety; and he who hath no child is
punished by the daimones after death.

And this is the punishment: that that man's soul who hath no child,
shall be condemned unto a body with neither man's nor woman's nature,
a thing accursed beneath the sun.

Wherefore, Asclepius, let not your sympathies be with the man who hath
no child, but rather pity his mishap, knowing what punishment abides
for him.

Let all that has been said then, be to thee, Asclepius, an
introduction to the gnosis of the nature of all things.

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