Seek a guide to the doors of knowledge — and first tear off the tunic you wear
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μὴ συγκατενεχθῆτε τοιγαροῦν τῷ πολλῷ ῥεύματι, ἀναρροίᾳ δὲ χρησάμενοι, οἱ δυνάμενοι λαβέσθαι τοῦ τῆς σωτηρίας λιμένος, ἐνορμισάμενοι τούτῳ, ζητήσατε χειραγωγὸν τὸν ὁδηγήσοντα ὑμᾶς ἐπὶ τὰς τῆς γνώσεως θύρας, ὅπου ἐστὶ τὸ λαμπρὸν φῶς, τὸ καθαρὸν σκότους, ὅπου οὐδὲ εἷς μεθύει, ἀλλὰ πάντες νήφουσιν, ἀφορῶντες τῇ καρδίᾳ εἰς τὸν ὁραθῆναι θέλοντα· οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἀκουστός, οὐδὲ λεκτός, οὐδὲ ὁρατὸς ὀφθαλμοῖς, ἀλλὰ νῷ καὶ καρδίᾳ. πρῶτον δὲ δεῖ σε περιρρήξασθαι ὃν φορεῖς χιτῶνα, τὸ τῆς ἀγνωσίας ὕφασμα, τὸ τῆς κακίας στήριγμα, τὸν τῆς φθορᾶς δεσμόν, τὸν σκοτεινὸν περίβολον, τὸν ζῶντα θάνατον, τὸν αἰσθητὸν νεκρόν, τὸν περιφόρητον τάφον, τὸν ἔνοικον λῃστήν, τὸν δι' ὧν φιλεῖ μισοῦντα καὶ δι' ὧν μισεῖ φθονοῦντα.
Do not, therefore, be swept down by the great current, but using a counter-current, those who are able to lay hold of salvation's harbour, and anchoring in it, seek a guide who will lead you to the doors of knowledge, where is the bright light pure of darkness, where not even one is drunk, but all are sober, gazing with the heart toward the One who wills to be seen — for he is not audible, nor speakable, nor visible to the eyes, but to mind and heart. But first you must tear off the tunic you wear: the web of ignorance, the prop of vice, the bond of corruption, the dark enclosure, the living death, the sentient corpse, the portable tomb, the indwelling robber — which through what it loves hates you, and through what it hates envies you.
Do not be swept down by the great current; use the counter-current. Those able to reach salvation's harbour, once anchored, must seek a guide who will lead them to the doors of knowledge, where the bright light stands pure of darkness, where no one is drunk but all are sober, gazing with the heart toward the One who wills to be seen — who is neither audible nor speakable nor visible to the eyes, but only to mind and heart. But first the seeker must tear off the tunic he wears: the web of ignorance, prop of vice, bond of corruption, dark enclosure, living death, sentient corpse, portable tomb, indwelling robber — the enemy that hates through what it loves and envies through what it hates.
The middle section turns the seascape into a doctrine of salvation with two moves. First, the ῥεῦμα, the 'great current': the mass of humanity is 'swept down (συγκατενεχθῆτε)' by it, and the only escape is 'a counter-current (ἀναρροίᾳ)' — a swimming-against, a deliberate reversal of the soul's drift. Those with strength reach 'salvation's harbour (τοῦ τῆς σωτηρίας λιμένος)' and drop anchor. And then the crucial admission that Hermetism shares with every mystery religion and with the Gospels: you cannot arrive alone. 'Seek a guide (ζητήσατε χειραγωγόν),' literally one who leads you by the hand as you would lead the blind, 'who will lead you to the doors of knowledge (ἐπὶ τὰς τῆς γνώσεως θύρας).' Behind those doors is 'the bright light pure of darkness (τὸ λαμπρὸν φῶς, τὸ καθαρὸν σκότους)' — the light-and-darkness language of CH I returning — 'where no one is drunk but all are sober.' And the God there is defined only by negation: 'not audible, nor speakable, nor visible to the eyes, but to mind and heart (νῷ καὶ καρδίᾳ)' — apophatic theology in one breath, the same via negativa that Plato's Parmenides and later Christian mystics will build cathedrals on.
Then the sermon's most famous passage: the catalogue of the body. Before the doors, 'you must first tear off (περιρρήξασθαι) the tunic you wear.' What follows is nine appositions for that one χιτών, each a small horror: 'the web of ignorance (τὸ τῆς ἀγνωσίας ὕφασμα),' 'the prop of vice,' 'the bond of corruption,' 'the dark enclosure,' and then the four that flare into paradox — 'the living death (τὸν ζῶντα θάνατον), the sentient corpse (τὸν αἰσθητὸν νεκρόν), the portable tomb (τὸν περιφόρητον τάφον), the indwelling robber (τὸν ἔνοικον λῃστήν).' 'Portable tomb' is the old Orphic-Platonic pun σῶμα/σῆμα — the body is a grave you carry — pushed to its limit. The body is not merely a hindrance but an enemy with a will: it 'through what it loves hates you, and through what it hates envies you (δι' ὧν φιλεῖ μισοῦντα καὶ δι' ὧν μισεῖ φθονοῦντα)' — a chiasmus so tight it can barely be Englished, meaning that even the body's pleasures are traps and even its aversions are grudges. This is the darkest anthropology in the Hermetica, and the reason the treatise had to open by shouting.
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