After these things, I said, you are my mind, and I am in love with reason.

Then said Poèmander, This is the mystery that to this day is hidden and kept secret; for nature being mingled with man, brought forth a wonder most great; for he/man having the nature of the harmony of the seven, from him who I told you, the fire, and the spirit, nature, continued not, but forthwith brought forth seven men, all hermaphrodites, and sublime, or on high, according to the natures of the seven governors.

for nature being mingled with man, brought forth a wonder most great; for he/man having the nature of the harmony of the seven, from him who I told you, the fire, and the spirit, nature, continued not, but forthwith brought forth seven men, all hermaphrodites, and sublime, or on high, according to the natures of the seven governors.

And after these things, Oh Poèmander, I said, I am now coming into a great desire and longing to hear, and to listen; do not digress or leave.

But he said, KEEP SILENCE, for I have not yet finished the first speech.

I said, behold, I am silent.

The generation therefore of these seven was after this manner:
The air being feminine and the water desirous of copulation, took from the fire its ripeness, and from the ethereal spirit, and so nature produced bodies after the species and shape of men.

And man was made of life and light, into soul and mind;
of life the Soul, and of light the Mind.

And so all the members of the sensible world, continued unto the period of the end, bearing rule and generating.

Hear now the rest of that speech you so much desire to hear.

When that period was fulfilled, the bond of all things was loosened and untied by the will of God; for all living creatures of being are hermaphrodites, or male and female twain, were loosened and untied together with man;

and so the males were apart by themselves
and the females likewise.

And straightway God said to the holy word:
increase in increasing and multiplying in multitude all you my creatures and creations. And let him that is imbued with a mind, know himself to be immortal; and that the cause of death is the love of the body, and let him learn all things that are.

When he had thus said, Providence by fate of harmony, made the mixtures and established the generations, and all things were multiplied according to their kind. And he that knew himself, came at length to the possessed of every substantial good.

But he that through the error of vanity loved the body, continues wandering in darkness, sensible, suffering the things of Death.

I said, but why do they that are ignorant, sin so much, that they should therefore be deprived of immortality?

He replied, You seem not to have understood what you have heard.

I said, I seem so to you; but I both understand and remember them.

He said, I am glad for your sake if thou understood them.

I replied, Tell me why are they worthy of death, that are in Death?

He replied, Because there goes a sad and dismal darkness before its body; of which darkness is the moist nature, of which moist nature the body consists in the sensible world, from where death is derived.

Do you understand?

I replied, But why, or how does he that understands, go or pass into God?

He replied, That which the word of God said, say I:
Because the father of all things consists of life and light whereof man is made.

I replied, You reply very well.

He said, God and the father is light and life of which man is made. If therefore you learn and believe yourself to be of the life and light, you will again pass into life.

I replied, But yet tell me more, Oh my mind, how I shall go into Life.

He replied, God says:
let man, imbued with a mind, take heed, consider, and know himself well.

I asked, Have not all men a mind?

Poèmandres then said:

Take heed what you say.

for I the mind come unto men that are holy and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and religiously; and my presence is a help unto them. And forthwith they know all things, and lovingly they supplicate and propitiate the father; and blessing him, they give him thanks, and sing hymns unto him, being ordered and directed by filial affection and natural love. And before they give up their bodies to the death of them, they hate their senses, knowing their works and operations.

Rather I that am the mind itself, will not suffer the operations or works, which happen or belong to the body, to be finished and brought to perfection in them; but being the porter or doorkeeper, I will shut up the entrances of evil, and cut off the thoughtful desires of filthy works.