HERMES TRISMEGISTUS

I the speaker is Hermes. The genesis of these seven referring to the seven administrators of the spheres mentioned in the previous text occurred, then, in this manner. The earth was female, and the water was generative. The fire came from the ripe or "perfected"; from the ether it received the spirit. And nature brought forth bodies according to the form of the human. The human was made from life and light into soul and mind; from life, the soul, and from light, the mind. And all things in the sensible world remained this way until the end of the period. Listen, then, to the discourse you desire to hear. When the period was completed, the bond of all things was loosed by the will of God. For all living creatures, being male-female, were dissolved along with the human, and they became, on the one hand, male, and on the other, female likewise. And God immediately said with a holy word, "Increase in increase, and multiply in multitude, all things created and fashioned." And let the mindful recognize himself as being immortal, and let him recognize that Eros Love/Desire is the cause of death, and recognize all that exists. When he said this, Providence, through Heimarmene Fate/Destiny and harmony, brought about the minglings and established the births. And all things multiplied according to their kind. And he who has recognized himself has come into the overflowing good; but he who has loved the body, which comes from the error of desire, this one remains wandering in the darkness, suffering in the senses the things of death. "Why," I said, "do those who are ignorant sin so greatly, that they should be deprived of immortality?" "You seem, my son, not to have heeded..."