The cosmos, God's instrument — a farmer of life, place and craftsman of life
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Hermes — Ἐπάνειμι πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸν αἰσθήσεως λόγον. ἀνθρώπινον οὖν τὸ κοινωνῆσαι ἀνθρώπῳ αἴσθησιν νοήσει. οὐ πᾶς δὲ ἄνθρωπος, ὡς προείπον, ἀπολαύει τῆς νοήσεως, ἀλλ᾽ ὁ μὲν ὑλικὸς ὁ δὲ οὐσιώδης. ὁ μὲν γὰρ μετά κακίας ὑλικός, ὡς ἔφην, ἀπὸ τῶν δαιμόνων τὸ σπέρμα τῆς νοήσεως ἴσχει· οἱ δὲ μετὰ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ οὐσιωδῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ σωζόμενοι. ὁ μὲν γὰρ θεὸς πάντων δημιουργός· δημιουργῶν πάντα ποιεῖ μὲν ἑαυτῷ ὅμοια· ταῦτα δ᾽ ἀγαθὰ γενόμενα ἐν τῇ χρήσει τῆς ἐνεργείας ἄφορα· ἡ γὰρ κοσμικὴ φορὰ τρίβουσα τὰς γενέσεις ποιὰς ποιεῖ, τὰς μὲν ῥυπαίνουσα τῇ κακίᾳ, τὰς δὲ καθαίρουσα τῷ ἀγαθῷ. καὶ γὰρ ὁ κόσμος, ὦ Ἀσκληπιέ, αἴσθησιν ἰδίαν καὶ νόησιν ἔχει, οὐχ ὁμοίαν τῇ ἀνθρωπείᾳ, οὐδὲ ὡς ποικίλην, ἀλλ' ὡς κρείττω καὶ ἁπλουστέραν. ἡ γὰρ αἴσθησις καὶ νόησις τοῦ κόσμου μία ἐστὶ τῷ πάντα ποιεῖν καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὴν ἀποποιεῖν, ὄργανον τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ βουλήσεως, καὶ οὕτως ὀργανοποιηθέν, ἵνα πάντα παρ᾽ ἑαυτῷ ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ λαβὼν τὰ σπέρματα φυλάττων ἐν ἑαυτῷ, πάντα ποιῇ ἐνεργῶς καὶ διαλύων πάντα ἀνανεοῖ· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο λυθέντα, ὥσπερ ἀγαθὸς ζωῆς γεωργός, τῇ μεταβολῇ ἀνανέωσιν αὐτοῖς φυομένοις παρέχει. οὐκ ἔστιν ὃ μὴ ζωογονεῖ. φερόμενος δὲ πάντα ζωοποιεῖ, καὶ ὁμοῦ τόπος ἐστὶ καὶ δημιουργὸς ζωῆς.
I return again to the discourse on sense-perception. It is a human thing, then, to join sense-perception with intellection for man. But not every man, as I said before, partakes of intellection, but the one is material, the other essential. For the material man, with vice, as I said, has the seed of intellection from the daemons; but the others, with the good, are being saved essentially by God. For God is the craftsman of all; and fashioning, he makes all things like himself; and these, having become good, are barren in the mere use of their activity. For the cosmic movement, grinding the becomings, makes them qualitative, defiling some with vice, purifying others with the good. For indeed the cosmos, O Asclepius, has a sense-perception and intellection of its own, not like the human one, nor as manifold, but as greater and simpler. For the sense and thought of the cosmos are one, in making all things and unmaking them into itself, an instrument of God's will, and so fashioned as an instrument, so that, having received the seeds from God beside itself and keeping them in itself, it may make all things actively, and, dissolving all, it renews them. And because of this, to the dissolved things — just as a good farmer of life — by the change it provides renewal to them as they grow again. There is nothing which it does not bring to life. And being borne along, it makes all things alive, and is at once the place and the craftsman of life.
Hermes returns to the discourse on perception. To join sense with intellection is a human thing; but not every man partakes of intellection — the material man draws the seed of thought from the daemons, the essential man is saved essentially by God. For God is the craftsman of all, and fashioning, he makes all things like himself; but these, though good, are barren in the mere use of their activity — it is the cosmic movement, grinding the becomings, that makes them qualitative, defiling some with vice, purifying others with the good. For the cosmos too, Asclepius, has a sense-perception and intellection of its own, unlike man's, not manifold but greater and simpler: the cosmos's sense and thought are one, consisting in making all things and unmaking them back into itself — the instrument of God's will, so fashioned that, receiving the seeds from God and keeping them in itself, it may make all things actively and, dissolving all, renew them. Like a good farmer of life, by change it gives renewal to the dissolved things as they grow again. There is nothing it does not bring to life; borne along, it makes all things alive, and is at once the place and the craftsman of life.
Hermes picks the thread back up — 'I return again to the discourse on sense-perception' — and applies §§2-3's doctrine of the two seeds to two kinds of human being. 'Not every man partakes of intellection': the material man (ὑλικός) 'has the seed of thought from the daemons,' the essential man (οὐσιώδης) is 'saved essentially by God (οὐσιωδῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ σωζόμενοι).' The word σῴζω, 'saved,' arrives quietly and decisively: gnosis is salvation, and salvation runs along the same seed-line that decided good and evil thoughts.
Then the treatise lifts its eyes from man to the cosmos, and the move is characteristic Hermetism: what is true small is true large. God is 'the craftsman of all (πάντων δημιουργός),' and 'fashioning, he makes all things like himself.' But there is a subtle qualification — the things God makes, though good, are 'barren (ἄφορα) in the mere use of their activity.' Goodness at rest bears no fruit; it takes the world's motion to make it fertile. 'The cosmic movement (κοσμικὴ φορά), grinding the becomings, makes them qualitative' — τρίβουσα, the friction of the turning world — 'defiling some with vice, purifying others with the good.' The same churn both stains and cleanses; generation is the mill where quality is ground into things.
And the cosmos is not a mere machine but a knower: 'it has a sense-perception and intellection of its own,' but not our kind — 'not manifold, but greater and simpler (κρείττω καὶ ἁπλουστέραν).' Where man's knowing is scattered across many senses, the cosmos's is one act, and that act is creation itself: 'making all things and unmaking them back into itself (εἰς ἑαυτὴν ἀποποιεῖν).' It is 'the instrument of God's will (ὄργανον τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ βουλήσεως),' fashioned to hold the seeds it receives from God and to work them. The passage ends in a sustained hymn to life, the word piling on itself: the cosmos is 'like a good farmer of life (ἀγαθὸς ζωῆς γεωργός),' giving renewal to what dissolves 'as it grows again'; 'there is nothing it does not bring to life (ζωογονεῖ)'; borne along it 'makes all things alive (ζωοποιεῖ),' and is 'at once the place and the craftsman of life (τόπος… καὶ δημιουργὸς ζωῆς).' The two verbs ζωογονέω and ζωοποιέω are the Septuagint's and the Gospel's own words for God's life-giving; the Hermetist lends them to the world, making the cosmos the great field in which God's life is endlessly sown, dissolved, and raised again.
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