“Teach me the beings, their nature, and God”
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Φημὶ ἐγώ, Μαθεῖν θέλω τὰ ὄντα καὶ νοῆσαι τὴν τούτων φύσιν, καὶ γνῶναι τὸν θεόν. τοῦτ’ ἔφην, ἀκοῦσαι βούλομαι. Φησὶν ἐμοὶ πάλιν, Ἔχε νῷ σῷ ὅσα θέλεις μαθεῖν, κἀγώ σε διδάξω.
I said: I wish to learn the things that are, and to grasp their nature, and to know God — this, I said, is what I wish to hear. He says to me again: Hold in your mind whatever you wish to learn, and I will teach you.
Hermes states what he seeks: to learn the things that are, to grasp their nature, and to know God. Poimandres tells him to hold in his mind whatever he wishes to learn, and he will teach him. The frame is set for the vision that follows.
Hermes's request is a small map of Hermetic knowledge: the beings (τὰ ὄντα), their φύσις, and, at the summit, God. The three are not separate subjects but one ascent — to understand what things are, in their coming-to-be, is already to be climbing toward their source.
Poimandres's instruction is quietly telling. He does not say 'listen'; he says 'hold it in your mind' — ἔχε νῷ σῷ. The teaching will come as an inner seeing, and the student's part is to keep the question steady in the νοῦς so that Mind can meet mind. What follows in I.4 is not a lecture but a vision that answers all three requests at once.
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