Pray for a single ray — for thought alone sees the unseen God
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Hermes — ὁ δὲ εἷς ἀγέννητος δηλονότι καὶ ἀφαντασίαστος καὶ ἀφανής, τὰ δὲ πάντα φαντασιῶν διὰ πάντων φαίνεται, καὶ ἐν πᾶσι, καὶ μάλιστα οἷς ἂν αὐτὸς βουληθῇ φανῆναι. σὺ οὖν, ὦ τέκνον Τάτ, εὖξαι πρῶτον τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ πατρὶ καὶ μόνῳ καὶ οὐχ ἑνί, ἀλλ' ἀφ' οὗ ὁ εἷς, ἵλεω τυχεῖν, ἵνα δυνηθῇς τὸν τηλικοῦτον θεὸν νοῆσαι, καὶ ἀκτῖνά σοι κἂν μίαν αὐτοῦ τῇ σῇ διανοίᾳ ἐκλάμψαι. νόησις γὰρ μόνη ὁρᾷ τὸ ἀφανές, ὡς καὶ αὐτὴ ἀφανὴς οὖσα. εἰ δύνασαι, τοῖς τοῦ νοῦ ὀφθαλμοῖς φανήσεται, ὦ Τάτ· ἄφθονος γὰρ ὁ κύριος φαίνεται διὰ παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου. νόησιν ἰδεῖν καὶ λαβέσθαι αὐταῖς ταῖς χερσὶ δύνασαι καὶ τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ θεοῦ θεάσασθαι; εἰ δὲ καὶ τὸ ἐν σοὶ ἀφανές ἐστί σοι, πῶς ἑαυτὸν ἐν σαυτῷ διὰ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν σοι φανήσεται;
But the One is unbegotten, clearly, and beyond appearance and unseen; while through all appearances he appears in all things, and especially in whomever he himself wishes to appear. You then, O child Tat, pray first to the Lord and Father — the alone, and not the one, but him from whom the One comes — to obtain him gracious, that you may be able to conceive so great a God, and that even one ray of him may shine forth in your understanding. For thought alone sees the unseen, being itself unseen. If you are able, he will appear to the mind's eyes, O Tat; for ungrudgingly the Lord appears through all the cosmos. Can you see thought and grasp it with your very hands, and behold the image of God? But if even what is unseen in you is unseen to you, how will he appear to you, through the eyes, within yourself?
But the One is unbegotten, clearly, and beyond appearance and unseen; while through all appearances he appears in all things, and especially in whomever he himself wishes to appear. You then, O child Tat, pray first to the Lord and Father — the alone, and not the one, but him from whom the One comes — to obtain him gracious, that you may be able to conceive so great a God, and that even one ray of him may shine forth in your understanding. For thought alone sees the unseen, being itself unseen. If you are able, he will appear to the mind's eyes, O Tat; for ungrudgingly the Lord appears through all the cosmos. Can you see thought and grasp it with your very hands, and behold the image of God? But if even what is unseen in you is unseen to you, how will he appear to you, through the eyes, within yourself?
Having proved God unseen because eternal, Hermes now completes the paradox: the unseen God is seen everywhere. 'Through all appearances he appears in all things (διὰ πάντων φαίνεται, καὶ ἐν πᾶσι),' and above all in those he chooses. Invisibility and total manifestation are the same fact viewed from two sides — God has no appearance of his own precisely because every appearance is his showing.
The practical turn is prayer. Before one can conceive 'so great a God (τὸν τηλικοῦτον θεόν),' one must 'pray first (εὖξαι πρῶτον)' to obtain him gracious, asking that 'even one ray of him shine forth in your understanding (ἀκτῖνα… ἐκλάμψαι).' The interlinear keeps ἀκτίς and ἐκλάμπω because CH V's mysticism is a mysticism of light — a single beam of God breaking into the mind is enough. And the organ of that vision is named exactly: 'thought alone sees the unseen, being itself unseen (νόησις… μόνη ὁρᾷ τὸ ἀφανές, ὡς καὶ αὐτὴ ἀφανὴς οὖσα).' Like is known by like; only the invisible faculty can perceive the invisible God, 'with the mind's eyes (τοῖς τοῦ νοῦ ὀφθαλμοῖς),' the same 'eyes of the heart' that closed CH IV.
Hermes drives it home with two arguments from within. First, ungrudging generosity: 'the Lord appears through all the cosmos (διὰ παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου),' withholding himself from none. Then a sharp challenge: you cannot see or handle your own thought, yet you do not doubt it is real — so why demand that God be visible? And the closing thrust folds the whole treatise inward: 'if even what is unseen in you is unseen to you, how will he appear to you through the eyes?' The self already contains an invisible that is undeniably real; the God who is unseen for the same reason is to be met not with the eyes of the body but with the seeing that thought itself is.
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