The Mixing Bowl, or The Monad

In the fourth book of Ficino's Pimander, the Craftsman makes the world by word — not by hands. Speech he gives to all people, but mind he withholds from most, placing it instead in a great mixing bowl and sending a herald to cry: whoever can, immerse yourself. Those who plunge into the bowl become partakers of knowledge and are made perfect. Those who do not remain sensory animals, driven by desire, believing the body is the reason for human existence. The tractate ends with a meditation on the Monad — unity, the root and origin of all number — as the closest image available to us of God.

This translation renders Book IV from Ficino's Latin as preserved in the 1505 Lefèvre d'Étaples edition. The underlying text is designated Corpus Hermeticum IV in modern scholarship.

The Craftsman made the whole world by his word — not by his hands. Therefore think of him as ever present, ever acting in all things: the one God, constituting all things by his own will. His body is neither tangible, nor visible, nor measured by any one dimension, nor like any other thing — for it is neither fire nor water nor air nor spirit. Yet all these things depend from him. And the good is such that it belongs to him alone.

He willed to adorn the earth as well with a certain ornament of divine work. So he sent forth man — mortal animal into an immortal animate world. The world, full of the living, is governed through intellect and reason. For man was made a contemplator of the divine work, and in truth, as he wondered at it, he came to know its Author.

To all people equally God gave speech. But mind he did not give to all — and not from envy, for envy does not come from him. Rather, because of that which dwells with souls that lack mind.

TATIUS: Why then, Father, did God not bestow mind upon all?

TRISMEGISTUS: Because he willed it, my son, to be placed in the midst like a contest and a prize for souls.

TATIUS: Where did he place it?

TRISMEGISTUS: He filled a wide mixing bowl with it and sent a herald, commanding this message to be declared to the souls of men: Whoever is able, let her immerse herself in this bowl — whoever believes that the bowl will carry her soul back to him who sent it, and who names the end for which she was born. And all those who heeded the herald and plunged themselves into mind became partakers of knowledge; and looking up to mind, they grew into perfect human beings.

But those who ignored the herald were left as sharers in speech but without mind — ignorant of what they are and why they were born. Their senses are like the senses of an irrational animal; tangled in desire, they cannot marvel at what is worth marveling. Bound to the lusts of the body, they believe the body to be the purpose of human existence.

But those who are sustained by the divine nature — these, Tatius, in proportion to their works, are held to be immortal rather than mortal. Their understanding encompasses all things that are on earth and in the sea, and whatever lies beyond these, above the heavens. And they raise themselves up so high that they behold the Good itself. When they have seen it, they look on this life we live here as a kind of misery. Despising all bodily things, they are carried toward the one alone.

Here, Tatius, is the knowledge worthy of divine things: the contemplation of the understanding of God — and the divine mixing bowl is at hand.

TATIUS: I desire, Father, to be washed in this bowl's water.

TRISMEGISTUS: Unless you first hate your body, my son, you cannot love yourself. But if you first love not yourself but God himself, you will straightway receive mind; and having received it, you will gain knowledge without delay.

TATIUS: How do you mean this, Father?

TRISMEGISTUS: It is impossible, my son, to attend to both at once — to mortal and divine. For since there are but two kinds in the order of things — the corporeal and the incorporeal, the one mortal and the other called divine — by choosing one we lose the other. Whenever care for one is relaxed, the act of the other is intensified. The choice of the better, then, is honorable for the one who chooses: it not only makes the chooser godlike, but demonstrates to others the piety due to God. The choice of the worse destroys the man himself — and against God he has committed this one fault only: that as processions pass through the streets without participating in any of the proceedings, themselves unable to join in, and blocking others — so these men wander and stray after the pleasures of the body.

Since this is so, Tatius, divine things should come first and human things follow. God himself comes to us as the cause of greater things beyond our fault — for we set evil before good.

See, my son: we must transcend the celestial bodies; we must be absent from the choirs of the daemons; we must surpass the paths of the stars and their revolutions; so that we may tend toward the one and only God. For the good is unsurpassable — without boundary, infinite — which in regard to itself never begins; which in regard to human knowledge has a beginning. Yet that knowledge is not its beginning: it shows us only the beginning of our knowing of it. Let us therefore embrace principles — for with this known, we shall traverse all things with the greatest speed.

It is difficult to leave the familiar and the present behind, and to turn toward the higher and more excellent things. For what we see with our eyes delights us too much. What is hidden breeds distrust. What is visible is in truth bad — and the good, which is hidden, is lost to those who cling to what is manifest. For the good has no form, no figure. For this reason it is like itself alone, unlike all these others. And just as the corporeal cannot appear to the incorporeal: the like moves toward the unlike, and the unlike toward what is like — so is the generation of the unlike from the like.

The Monad is present: the unity that is the principle, root, and origin of all things. Without a principle, nothing exists. A principle is not the principle of itself, but of another. The Monad therefore is the principle. It contains all number, contained by none. It generates all number, generated by no number. Whatever is generated is imperfect, divisible, growing and diminishing. But to what is perfect: none of these things happen. What grows: grows by the power of the Monad. It fades by its own weakness when it can no longer receive the Monad.

Let these things, Tatius, be inscribed for you — as best I am able — as an image of God. If you consider it with care and see it with your inner eyes, believe me, my son: you will find the ascent to the heights. The vision itself will guide you — for it has a fixed power, and seizes those who burn with the desire to behold it, drawing them to itself as the stone called the magnet draws iron.

Colophon

Translated from Ficino's Latin Pimander as preserved in the 1505 Lefèvre d'Étaples edition: Contenta in hoc volumine. Pimander. Mercurij Trismegisti liber De sapientia et potestate dei. Asclepius. Eiusdem Mercurij liber De voluntate divina. Item Crater Hermetis a Lazarelo Septempedano (Rome, 1505). Digital text from the Internet Archive, identifier bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC, held by the National Central Library of Rome. Public Domain Mark 1.0.

This is Book IV of Ficino's Pimander — the text Ficino designates Mercurii ad Tatium Crater seu Monas, corresponding to Corpus Hermeticum IV in modern scholarship. The modern critical Greek edition (Nock and Festugière 1945) was not consulted; translation is derived independently from Ficino's Latin. G. R. S. Mead's 1905 English was consulted structurally after translation was complete; no passages were derived from it.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: Mercurii ad Tatium Crater seu Monas — Liber IV

Latin source text from Ficino's Pimander as preserved in the Lefèvre d'Étaples 1505 edition, accessed via the Internet Archive (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). Transcribed from the OCR text with corrections for long-s rendering (ſ → s), hyphenated line-breaks rejoined, and obvious OCR splits resolved.

Universum mundum verbo non manibus fabricatus est Opifex. Ipse vero sic cogita illum praesentem semper agentem omnia: deum unicum voluntate sua cuncta constituentem. Denique eius corpus est non tangibile, non visibile, non dimensum in uno distans, nec alterius cuiusque simile. Nam nec ignis nec aqua nec aer nec et spiritus. Verum ab eo haec pendent omnia. Bonum vero ita est: ut sibi soli id competat. Terram quoque ornatu quodam divini operis exornare voluit. Dimisit itaque hominem mortalem animalisque immortale animal. Et mundus quidem refertus animalibus viventis mundi per intellectum atque rationem: homo enim effectus est divini operis contemplator quod profecto dum admiraretur: auctorem eius agnovit. Sermonem quidem Tati singulis hominibus deus impartivit: mentem vero nequaquam. Non quod invideret: quibus ne utique livido. Livor quippe ab eo non venit: sed illa quae habitat cum animis hominum mente carentibus.

TAT. Cur quaeso pater non omnibus deus mentem communicavit? TRISME. Quoniam voluit ea o fili: in medio tamquam certamen premiumque animarum proponere. TAT. Ubinam hanc locavit? TRISME. Cum cratera patulo hanc implevit: iconem misit, iubens talia quaedam animis hominum nuntiari: Mergat se ipsam in hanc pateram quaecumque potest: quae videlicet credit craterem animae ad eum qui demiserat redituram, quaeque finem non nominat cuius gratia nata fuerit. Quicunque igitur praeconem exaudierunt, seseque miserunt in mentem: ii cognitionis participes effecti sunt, mentemque suspicientes in homines perfectos evaserunt.

At qui praeconem neglexerunt: ii sermonis quidem participes, mentis autem expertes relicti sunt ignorantes, et cuius gratia et a quo geniti fuerint. Horum praeterea sensus irrationalis animalis sensibus similis: itaque et cupidine impliciti, ea quae sunt digna conspectu nequaquam admirantur. Nam libidinibus corporis mancipati: huius causa natum hominem arbitrantur. Quicumque vero dei natura sustentati sunt: ii o Tati secundum operum comparationem, pro mortalibus immortales habentur, intelligentia sua cuncta complecxi quae in terra sunt et quae in mari, et si quid est praeter ea supra caelum. Atque adeo seipsos erigunt: ut ipsum quoque bonum intueant. Quod sane cum perspiciunt, ea (qua hic vescimur) vita: miseria quadam arbitrantur. Despicientes utique tum etiam corporea omnia: ad unum solum feruntur. Hic o Tati scientia meritus est divinorum: si contemplatio est intelligentiae dei, divino existente cratera.

TAT. Equidem o pater, huius crateris latice ablui cupio. TRISME. Nisi o fili tu cum corpus oderis: teipsum amare non poteris. Qui primum vero non te, sed deum ipsum dilexeris: mentem protinus consequeris. Hanc denique nactus: scientiam evestigio nancisceris. TAT. Quonam pacto asseris haec o pater? TRISME. Impossibile est o fili utrisque simul intendere, mortalibus videlicet atque divinis. Nam cum duo tantum in ordine rerum inveniantur, corporeum et incorporeum: et illud quidem mortale, hoc divinum dicatur: electione unius amittimus alterum. Quotiesque unius cura remittitur: alterius actus intenditur. Potioris itaque optio, eligenti decora: non modo hominem qui elegit, deum reddidit, verum pietate erga deum ceteris quoque demonstrat. Deterioris autem electio: hominem quidem ipsum perdit: adversus autem deum nihil praeter id unum deliquit, scilicet quod quemadmodum pompae per media transeunt, ipseque nullius actionum compos, ceteros autem impedientes: haud secus isti pomparum instar vagantur atque oberrant, propter corporis voluptates.

Cum nec igitur ita se habeat o Tati: divina officia praecedere, humana sequi debent. Deus profecto extra culpam maiora a nobis: causa venit. Nam mala: bonis anteponimus. Cernis o fili quod corpora caelestia transcendere nos opus est, quoque choris daemonum abesse, ab initum astrorum eorumque progressus superare: ut ad unum solumque deum tendamus. Insuperabile enim bonum est: sine termino infinitum. Quo ad se numquam incipiens: quo ad humanam cognitionem principium habens. Eiusmodi tamen cognitio non eius initia est: sed nobis ipsius cogniti principium exhibet. Principia itaque complectamur: hoc enim cognito, universa celerrime discurremus. Arduum autem est consueta ac praesentia relinquentem: ad superiora seque potioraque convertere. Illa enim quae oculis cernimus: nimium nos delectant. Latentia diffidentiam pariunt. Patentia autem sane mala sunt: bonum occultum iis qui manifestis incumbunt. Nec enim forma eius ulla nec figura. Hac de causa sui tantum simile: ceteris horum vero dissimile. Et enim corpori incorporeum apparere non potest. Huiusmodi est similis ad dissimile: adsimilis itaque et dissimilis ad id quod simile est, posteritas. Monas adest, unitas omnium principium, radix atque origo. Absque vero principio nihil. Initium autem non principii, sed alterius. Monas ergo principium: omnemque numerum continet, a nullo contenta. Omnemque gignit numerum, nullo numero genita. Quicquid utique genitum imperfectum, divisuum, crescens atque decrescens. Ei vero quod perfectum: horum nihil accidit. Id sane quod augescit: virtute monadis augetur. Evanescit autem imbecillitate propria: cum ulterius monadem capere nequit.

Haec tibi o Tati pro viribus: imago dei subscripta sint. Quam si diligenter consideraveris, oculisque internis viveris: credemi fili ascensum ad excelsa comperics. Quetiam imago ipsa te producet: habet enim vim certam visio. Eosque qui intueri desiderio flagrant apprehendit, cosque trahit modo: quo lapis qui magnes dictus est, ferrum.

Source Colophon

Latin source text drawn from Contenta in hoc volumine. Pimander. Mercurij Trismegisti liber De sapientia et potestate dei (Rome: Lefèvre d'Étaples, 1505), digitized by the National Central Library of Rome and made freely available on the Internet Archive (identifier: bub_gb_SbGbIvDI0ekC). Public Domain Mark 1.0. OCR text corrected for long-s rendering (ſ → s) and standard Latin abbreviations expanded.

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