Breathe with the speaker — why the mind needs the soul as a wrapper and the breath as servant
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Hermes — Συννοεῖν δεῖ, ὦ τέκνον, τὸν ἀκούοντα τῷ λέγοντι, καὶ συμπνέειν καὶ ὀξυτέραν ἔχειν τὴν ἀκοὴν τῆς τοῦ λέγοντος φωνῆς· ἡ σύνθεσις τῶν ἐνδυμάτων τούτων, ὦ τέκνον, ἐν σώματι γηίνῳ γίνεται· ἀδύνατον γὰρ τὸν νοῦν ἐν γηίνῳ σώματι γυμνὸν αὐτὸν καθ' ἑαυτὸν ἑδράσαι· οὔτε γὰρ τὸ γήινον σῶμα δυνατόν ἐστι τὴν τηλικαύτην ἀθανασίαν ἐνεγκεῖν, οὔτε τὴν τοσαύτην ἀρετὴν ἀνασχέσθαι συγχρωτιζόμενον αὐτῇ παθητὸν σῶμα· ἔλαβεν οὖν ὥσπερ περιβόλαιον τὴν ψυχήν, ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ καὶ αὐτὴ θεία τις οὖσα καθάπερ ὑπηρέτῃ τῷ πνεύματι χρῆται· τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα τὸ ζῷον διοικεῖ.
One must think along with the speaker, O child, and breathe with him, and have a hearing keener than the speaker's voice. The composition of these garments, O child, happens in an earthy body; for it is impossible for the mind to be established naked and by itself in an earthy body — for neither is the earthy body able to bear so great an immortality, nor can a passible body endure so great an excellence in close contact with it. So it took the soul as a wrapper, and the soul, being itself something divine, uses the breath as a servant; and the breath governs the living being.
One must think along with the speaker, child, and breathe with him, and have a hearing keener than the speaker's voice. The composition of these garments happens in an earthy body; for it is impossible for the mind to be established naked and by itself in an earthy body — neither can the earthy body bear so great an immortality, nor can a passible body endure so great an excellence in close contact with it. So the mind took the soul as a wrapper, and the soul, being itself something divine, uses the breath as a servant; and the breath governs the living being.
Hermes answers Tat's objection, but first he stops to name the condition of understanding it: 'one must think along with the speaker (συννοεῖν… τὸν ἀκούοντα τῷ λέγοντι), and breathe with him (συμπνέειν), and have a hearing keener than the speaker's voice.' It is a small manifesto of Hermetic pedagogy — the pupil must out-run the words, catch the sense before the sentence lands, breathe in time with the teacher. Gnosis cannot be received passively; it is a shared respiration. (This is why, in §9, chasing God through 'much hearing' was shadow-boxing: hearing must become συμπνοια, con-spiration.)
Then the answer. The garments are nested not by contradiction but by necessity, and the necessity is the weakness of earthy flesh. 'It is impossible for the mind to be established naked and by itself in an earthy body (γυμνὸν… καθ' ἑαυτὸν ἑδράσαι)' — bare mind and earth cannot touch. 'Neither can the earthy body bear so great an immortality (τηλικαύτην ἀθανασίαν ἐνεγκεῖν), nor can a passible body endure so great an excellence in close contact with it (συγχρωτιζόμενον αὐτῇ).' The mind's immortality and virtue would simply destroy the flesh at direct contact — like the fire of §18 that earth cannot bear. So a graded insulation is built: 'it took the soul as a wrapper (ὥσπερ περιβόλαιον τὴν ψυχήν),' and the soul, 'being itself something divine (θεία τις οὖσα),' uses the breath 'as a servant (ὑπηρέτῃ),' and the breath in turn 'governs the living being.' The whole apparatus of the self is a descending series of buffers, each subtler layer letting the divine reach the body without incinerating it. The soul is not a prison here but a cushion — the mercy that lets mind and matter coexist at all.
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