“I, the Nous, come to the holy” — Mind as doorkeeper
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Εὐφήμει, ὦ οὗτος, τοιαῦτα λαλῶν. παραγίνομαι αὐτὸς ἐγὼ ὁ νοῦς τοῖς ὁσίοις καὶ ἀγαθοῖς καὶ καθαροῖς καὶ ἐλεήμοσι, τοῖς εὐσεβῶς βιοῦσι. καὶ ἡ παρουσία μου γίνεται βοήθεια, καὶ εὐθὺς τὰ πάντα γνωρίζουσι καὶ τὸν πατέρα ἱλάσκονται ἀγαπητικῶς, καὶ εὐχαριστοῦσιν εὐλογοῦντες καὶ ὑμνοῦσι τεταγμένοι πρὸς αὐτὸν τῇ στοργῇ· καὶ πρὸ τοῦ παραδοῦναι τὸ σῶμα ἰδίῳ θανάτῳ μυσάττονται τὰς αἰσθήσεις εἰδότες αὐτῶν τὰ ἐνεργήματα· μᾶλλον δὲ οὐκ ἐάσω αὐτὸς ὁ νοῦς τὰ προσπίπτοντα ἐνεργήματα τοῦ σώματος ἐκτελεσθῆναι· πυλωρὸς γὰρ ὢν ἀποκλείσω τὰς εἰσόδους τῶν κακῶν καὶ αἰσχρῶν ἐνεργημάτων τὰς ἐνθυμήσεις ἐκκόπτων.
Speak reverently, O you, saying such things! I myself, the Nous, am present to the holy and good and pure and merciful, to those who live piously; and my presence becomes a help, and at once they know all things and propitiate the Father lovingly, giving thanks, blessing and hymning him, ranged toward him in affection. And before handing the body over to its own death, they loathe the senses, knowing their workings — nay rather, I myself, the Nous, will not allow the assailing workings of the body to be accomplished; for being a doorkeeper I will shut the entrances of the evil and shameful workings, cutting off their designs.
Poimandres answers Hermes's question — no, not all have Mind. The Nous comes only to the holy, good, pure, and merciful, and its presence is a help: they know all things, worship the Father in affection, and loathe the senses before death. More than that, the Nous acts as a doorkeeper (πυλωρός), shutting the gates against the body's evil and shameful workings and cutting off their designs at the root.
Hermes's hopeful question — surely all have Mind? — is answered with a flat no, and the list of who receives the Nous is moral, not intellectual: the holy, good, pure, merciful, those who live piously. Mind is earned by a life, not an IQ. And its coming is called βοήθεια, a rescuer's help — salvation language: the presence of Nous saves.
What the saved do, the interlinear can keep precise. They worship the Father not in fear but ἐν στοργῇ — in the settled affection a child has for a parent, the rarest-named of the Greek loves. And the Nous is no passive gift but an active guard: πυλωρὸς ὢν, 'being a doorkeeper,' it shuts the gates of the senses against the body's evil workings and cuts off their very designs (ἐνθυμήσεις) — killing the impulse in thought before it can act. Against McKenna's worry about predestination, the picture is dynamic: the mind-bearer is defended, moment by moment, by the Mind he has let in.
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