HERMETIC LITERATURE 503
Poimandres serves as a rather severe mentor to the speaker in the dialogue,
explaining, reproaching, ordering redemption. We soon understand that
Poimandres is the nous, the highest godhead. The creations or divine emana-
tions of the father of all are the logos, the mind-demiurge (who in turn creates
the planetary system and the physical world in which people are trapped), and
anthropos (human being). The human appears in god's image, since it is an
androgynous generative principle and contains a divine soul, a spark of light.
In Poimandres we have perhaps the earliest full and detailed instructions in
the mystical experience of darkness and purification from matter, ascent to the
light, and entry into a oneness with god; this map of spiritual ecstasy was to be
imitated, or reproduced in other forms, in innumerable works thereafter.
POIMANDRES
2
POIMANDRES APPEARS
Once when I began to think about the things that are, and my thoughts soared
exceedingly high, and my bodily senses were held down by sleep like people
weighed down by overeating and weariness, I thought I saw a being of vast and
boundless magnitude coming toward me, who called me by name, and said,
"What do you wish to hear and see, to learn and know?"
"Who are you?" I said.
"I am Poimandres," he said, "the mind^3 of absolute power. I know what you
want and I am with you everywhere."
"I want to learn about the things that are, their nature, and to know god,"
I replied. "How I want to hear!"
He said, "Keep in mind what you wish to learn and I will teach you."
THE VISION OF CREATION
With these words he changed his form, and in a flash everything opened be-
fore me and I saw an unbounded vista. All was light, a soothing and happy
light. And as I gazed I was entranced. But soon a stark and terrifying darkness
descended gradually like a coiled snake, and I saw the darkness turn into a
- Poimandres: translated from the Greek by Willis Barnstone.
- Nous.