Ignorance is the soul's vice — blind, flung among the passions, enslaved to the body
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Hermes — καὶ αὕτη ψυχῆς ἡ τελειοτάτη δόξα· ψυχὴ δὲ εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἐλθοῦσα ἐὰν κακὴ μείνῃ, οὔτε γεύεται ἀθανασίας οὔτε τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ μεταλαμβάνει, παλίσσυτος δὲ τὴν ὁδὸν ὑποστρέφει τὴν εἰς τὰ ἑρπετά, καὶ αὕτη καταδίκη ψυχῆς κακῆς. κακία δὲ ψυχῆς ἀγνωσία. ψυχὴ γάρ, μηδὲν ἐπιγνοῦσα τῶν ὄντων μηδὲ τὴν τούτων φύσιν, μηδὲ τὸ ἀγαθόν, τυφλώττουσα δέ, ἐντινάσσει τοῖς πάθεσι τοῖς σωματικοῖς, καὶ ἡ κακοδαίμων, ἀγνοήσασα ἑαυτήν, δουλεύει σώμασιν ἀλλοκότοις καὶ μοχθηροῖς, ὥσπερ φορτίον βαστάζουσα τὸ σῶμα, καὶ οὐκ ἄρχουσα ἀλλ' ἀρχομένη. αὕτη κακία ψυχῆς.
And this is a soul's most perfect glory. But a soul, having come into humans, if it remains evil, neither tastes immortality nor partakes of the Good, but rushing back it retraces the road — the one down into the reptiles — and this is the condemnation of an evil soul. And the vice of the soul is ignorance: for a soul recognizing nothing of the things that are, nor their nature, nor the Good, but being blind, is flung about among the bodily passions; and the wretched thing, not knowing itself, is enslaved to bodies monstrous and base, carrying the body like a burden — not ruling but being ruled. This is the vice of the soul.
And this — the ascent to the gods — is a soul's most perfect glory. But a soul that has come into humans, if it remains evil, neither tastes immortality nor partakes of the Good; rushing back, it retraces the road down into the reptiles, and this is the condemnation of an evil soul. The vice of the soul is ignorance: a soul that has recognized nothing of the things that are, nor their nature, nor the Good, but is blind, is flung about among the bodily passions; and the wretched thing, not knowing itself, is enslaved to monstrous and base bodies, carrying the body like a burden, not ruling but ruled. This is the vice of the soul.
The ladder runs both ways. The upward climb to the star-gods is 'a soul's most perfect glory (ἡ τελειοτάτη δόξα)'; but a soul that 'remains evil (κακὴ μείνῃ)' in the human state forfeits it — 'neither tastes immortality nor partakes of the Good' — and, 'rushing back (παλίσσυτος),' retraces its steps down into the reptiles. The Greek is unsparing: this descent 'is the condemnation of an evil soul (καταδίκη ψυχῆς κακῆς).' Yet notice there is no judge, no sentence pronounced from outside. The soul condemns itself by what it has become; the downward road is simply the shape ignorance takes.
For the treatise's diagnosis is intellectual, not moral in the ordinary sense: 'the vice of the soul is ignorance (κακία… ψυχῆς ἀγνωσία).' Evil is not first a matter of bad willing but of not-knowing — 'recognizing nothing of the things that are, nor their nature, nor the Good.' From that blindness everything else follows: the soul, 'being blind (τυφλώττουσα), is flung about among the bodily passions (ἐντινάσσει τοῖς πάθεσι τοῖς σωματικοῖς),' and — the key phrase — 'not knowing itself (ἀγνοήσασα ἑαυτήν),' it is enslaved. The Delphic 'know thyself' returns here as the hinge of salvation and ruin: to fail to know oneself is to become a slave, 'carrying the body like a burden (ὥσπερ φορτίον βαστάζουσα τὸ σῶμα), not ruling but ruled (οὐκ ἄρχουσα ἀλλ' ἀρχομένη).' The reversal of the natural order — soul serving body instead of governing it — is the whole content of vice. Where CH VII made the body an enemy, 'The Key' makes ignorance the real captor, and the body only its instrument.
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