A separate section in Wikipedia: “Poimandres (Shepherd of Men)” — the title of the first of fourteen treatises comprising the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of texts attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. In the text, the word “Poimandres” refers to the Divine Mind that speaks with Hermes Trismegistus.
For a long time, the texts of Hermes Trismegistus were associated with occultism.
The 14 Hermetic treatises, under the collective title Poimandres, were translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), who published the translation in 1471. The Greek text (together with Ficino’s translation) was first printed by Adrien Turnèbe (1512–1565) in Paris in 1554. A German translation by Tiedemann appeared in 1781.
Among the characters in the Hermetic treatises are Hermes Trismegistus, Asclepius, Horus (son of Isis), Agathodaimon, Poimandres, and Tat.
In the treatise Poimandres, God is defined as Mind (Nous), in the form of light, opposed to the moist nature that arises from darkness. Mind begets from itself the Logos (Logos), as light from light. Mind is God the Father; the Logos is the Son of God.
“Whence,” asks Hermes Trismegistus, “have the elements of nature come?” Poimandres replies: “From the will of God, who, having taken His Logos and contemplating in it order and beauty, created the world according to this prototype.” And further: “Mind — God, both male and female — life and light, through the Logos gives birth to yet another creative mind, the deity of fire and spirit, which in turn produces seven ministering spirits that encompass the sensory world with their circles and govern it through what is called fate.”
However, it is highly likely that the texts were later supplemented and edited by Christian ideologues. This is suggested by the presence of anachronistic concepts such as “God,” “Son of God,” and similar terms — concepts that would not have existed at the time the text originally appeared, since Christianity was unknown then. As a result, identifying the original dialogues with certainty is quite difficult.”
I just want to quickly show a selection of illustrations from various books. Some of these illustrations may have been made with mistakes; others might truly contain hidden meanings and secrets encrypted by an alchemist who actually found the Philosopher’s Stone. But what I want you to do is simply