You are all I am, make, and say — Mind, Father, God, Good; and the ladder to God
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Hermes — πότε δὲ σὲ ὑμνήσω; οὔτε γὰρ ὥραν σοῦ οὔτε χρόνον καταλαβεῖν δυνατόν. ὑπὲρ τίνος δὲ καὶ ὑμνήσω; ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐποίησας, ἢ ὑπὲρ ὧν οὐκ ἐποίησας; ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐφανέρωσας, ἢ ὑπὲρ ὧν ἔκρυψας; διὰ τί δὲ καὶ ὑμνήσω σέ; ὡς ἐμαυτοῦ ὤν, ὡς ἔχων τι ἴδιον, ὡς ἄλλος ὤν; σὺ γὰρ εἶ ὃ εἂν ὦ, σὺ εἶ ὃ ἂν ποιῶ, σὺ εἶ ὃ ἂν λέγω. σὺ γὰρ πάντα εἶ καὶ ἄλλο οὐδὲν ἔστιν· ὃ μὴ ἔστι, σὺ εἶ. σὺ πᾶν τὸ γενόμενον, σὺ τὸ μὴ γενόμενον, νοῦς μέν, νοούμενος, πατὴρ δέ, δημιουργῶν, θεὸς δέ, ἐνεργῶν, ἀγαθὸς δέ, καὶ πάντα ποιῶν. ὕλης μὲν γὰρ τὸ λεπτομερέστερον ἀήρ, ἀέρος δὲ ψυχή, ψυχῆς δὲ νοῦς, νοῦ δὲ ὁ θεός.
When shall I hymn you? — for neither your hour nor your time can be grasped. And for what shall I hymn you: for what you made, or for what you did not make? for what you revealed, or for what you hid? And why should I hymn you — as being my own, as having something of my own, as being another? For you are whatever I am, you are whatever I make, you are whatever I say. For you are all, and nothing else is; what is not, you are. You are all that has come to be, and that which has not come to be — Mind, being thought; Father, creating; God, working; Good, and making all. For the finer part of matter is air, of air soul, of soul mind, of mind God.
When shall I hymn you? Hermes ends — for neither your hour nor your time can be grasped. And for what shall I hymn you: for what you made, or for what you did not make? for what you revealed, or for what you hid? And why should I hymn you — as being my own, as having something of my own, as being another? For you are whatever I am, you are whatever I make, you are whatever I say. You are all, and nothing else is; what is not, you are. You are all that has come to be, and that which has not come to be: Mind, being thought; Father, creating; God, working; Good, and making all. For the finer part of matter is air, of air soul, of soul mind, of mind God.
The Corpus's fifth book ends in a hymn that dissolves the very possibility of hymning — a mystic's aporia. Hermes cannot find a when ('neither your hour nor your time can be grasped'), a what ('for what you made, or did not make? revealed, or hid?'), or a why ('as being my own… as being another?'). Every handle prayer might grasp slips, because the worshipper is not outside the One he would praise. The interlinear keeps the second-person σύ ringing through the climax, where the aporia resolves into identification: 'you are whatever I am, whatever I make, whatever I say (σὺ… εἶ ὃ ἐὰν ὦ… ὃ ἂν ποιῶ… ὃ ἂν λέγω).' There is no standpoint from which to bless God, because the one blessing is already wholly within and from him.
Then the treatise gathers its whole theology into a single acclamation, four names each married to an activity — the interlinear sets them out as the Greek does, participle by participle: 'Mind, being thought (νοῦς… νοούμενος); Father, creating (πατὴρ… δημιουργῶν); God, working (θεὸς… ἐνεργῶν); Good, and making all (ἀγαθός… πάντα ποιῶν).' God is not a static essence but four names in act at once. And the book closes on the famous ladder of being, a rising scale of rarefaction that will echo through Neoplatonism and alchemy: 'the finer part of matter is air, of air soul, of soul mind, of mind God (ὕλης… τὸ λεπτομερέστερον ἀήρ, ἀέρος δὲ ψυχή, ψυχῆς δὲ νοῦς, νοῦ δὲ ὁ θεός).' Matter → air → soul → mind → God: creation is a graded ascent of subtlety, and at the top of the ladder, past even mind, stands the unseen-yet-manifest God the whole treatise has been climbing toward. It is the perfect close to 'that God, though unseen, is most manifest' — the God found not by looking out or up, but by ascending inward through the self to its finest point, where mind gives way to God.
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