The great mixing-bowl — baptize yourself in Mind
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Tat — Καὶ ποῦ αὐτὸν ἱδρύσατο;
Hermes — Κρατῆρα μέγαν πληρώσας τούτου κατέπεμψε, δοὺς κήρυκα, καὶ ἐκέλευσεν αὐτῷ κηρύξαι ταῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων καρδίαις τάδε· βάπτισον σεαυτὴν ἡ δυναμένη εἰς τοῦτον τὸν κρατῆρα, ἡ πιστεύουσα ὅτι ἀνελεύσῃ πρὸς τὸν καταπέμψαντα τὸν κρατῆρα, ἡ γνωρίζουσα ἐπὶ τί γέγονας. ὅσοι μὲν οὖν συνῆκαν τοῦ κηρύγματος καὶ ἐβαπτίσαντο τοῦ νοός, οὗτοι μετέσχον τῆς γνώσεως καὶ τέλειοι ἐγένοντο ἄνθρωποι, τὸν νοῦν δεξάμενοι· ὅσοι δὲ ἥμαρτον τοῦ κηρύγματος, οὗτοι μὲν οἱ λογικοί, τὸν νοῦν μὴ προσειληφότες, ἀγνοοῦντες ἐπὶ τί γεγόνασιν καὶ ὑπὸ τίνων,
— And where did he establish it? — Having filled a great mixing-bowl with it, he sent it down, giving it a herald, and commanded him to proclaim to the hearts of men these things: Baptize yourself into this mixing-bowl, you who are able; you who believe that you will ascend to the one who sent the bowl down; you who know for what you were born. As many, then, as understood the proclamation and baptized themselves in Mind, these partook of knowledge and became perfect men, having received Mind. But as many as missed the proclamation, these are the merely rational — not having received Mind besides, ignorant of what they were born for and by whom.
— And where did he establish Mind? — Having filled a great mixing-bowl with it, God sent it down, giving it a herald, and commanded him to proclaim to the hearts of men: Baptize yourself into this mixing-bowl, you who are able; you who believe that you will ascend to the one who sent the bowl down; you who know for what you were born. As many, then, as understood the proclamation and baptized themselves in Mind, these partook of knowledge and became perfect men, having received Mind. But as many as missed the proclamation, these are the merely rational — not having received Mind besides, ignorant of what they were born for and by whom.
This is the passage that gives the treatise its name and Hermetism one of its greatest images. Tat asks where God 'established' Mind, and the answer is a myth: God 'filled a great mixing-bowl (κρατῆρα μέγαν πληρώσας)' with Nous and sent it down among mankind with a herald crying an invitation. The κρατήρ is the wine-bowl of the Greek symposium, from which cups are drawn and shared — so to receive Mind is to drink from a common bowl of the divine. The reveal layer keeps κρατήρ and βαπτίζω visible because the whole scene lives in these two words.
The herald's cry is the heart of it: 'Baptize yourself into this mixing-bowl (βάπτισον σεαυτὴν εἰς τοῦτον τὸν κρατῆρα).' The command is in the middle voice — baptize *yourself* — a self-immersion, not a rite done to you; and it is addressed to the feminine soul (σεαυτήν), 'you who are able,' 'you who believe,' 'you who know for what you were born.' Belief, capacity, and self-knowledge are the conditions of the plunge. The parallel to Christian baptism is unmistakable and was noticed early — yet here baptism is into Mind rather than water, an immersion of the intellect in the divine. The outcome divides humanity in two: those who 'understood the proclamation and baptized themselves in Mind' became 'perfect men (τέλειοι ἄνθρωποι),' partakers of gnosis; those who 'missed (ἥμαρτον)' it — the ordinary verb also means 'to sin' — remain 'the merely rational (οἱ λογικοί),' possessing logos but not nous, 'ignorant of what they were born for and by whom.' The distinction of III.3 (mankind made to know) becomes here a summons and a sorting: reason is given, but Mind must be drunk.
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