The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gnosis of the Light, by F. Lamplugh

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Title: The Gnosis of the Light

Author: F. Lamplugh

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[Frontispiece: THE GNOSTIC CROSS (Codex Brucianus)]





THE GNOSIS OF THE LIGHT


  A Translation of the Untitled Apocalypse
  contained in the Codex Brucianus
  with Introduction and Notes




BY

Rev. F. LAMPLUGH, B.A. (Cantab.)




London

John M. Watkins

21 Cecil Court, Charing Cross Road, W.C.2

1918




I have loved you, and have longed to give you Life.

Blessed is he who crucifieth the World and hath not suffered the World
to crucify him.

Blessed is the man who knoweth these things, who hath brought Heaven
down upon Earth and hath taken Earth and hath lifted it up unto Heaven,
and hath so wrought that the Midst is a Nothing.

              _The Book of the Gnoses of the
                Invisible God._




CONTENTS

Introduction

The Gnosis of the Light

Notes




INTRODUCTION

This translation of the ancient Gnostic work, called by Schmidt, the
_Untitled Apocalypse_, is based chiefly on Amelineau's French version
of the superior MS. of the Codex Brucianus, now in the Bodleian
Library, Oxford.  In making the rendering I have studied the context
carefully, and have not neglected the Greek words interspersed with the
Coptic; also I have availed myself of Mr Mead's translation of certain
important passages from Schmidt's edition, for purposes of comparison.
Anything that I have added to bring out the meaning of the Gnostic
author now and again, I have enclosed in brackets.  Such suggestions
have always arisen from the text.  I fancy my English version will be
found to give a reasonably accurate idea of the contents of one of the
most abstruse symbolical works in the world.  The notes that I have
added are not intended to be final or exhaustive, but to give the
general reader some guidance towards understanding the intensely
interesting topics with which the powerful mind of the ancient mystical
writer was preoccupied.  I have endeavoured to show myself a
sympathetic "Hierophant" or expounder of some of the mysteries, not
without study of the Gnosis, both of the Christianised and purely
Hellenistic type, for the key to the understanding of symbolism is only
given into the hands of sympathy.

The Codex Brucianus was brought to England from Upper Egypt, by the
famous traveller Bruce, in 1769, and bequeathed by him to the care of
the Bodleian Library, Oxford.  It contains several Gnostic works
translated into the Upper Egyptian dialect from the Greek, and probably
is as old as the sixth century A.D.  The Greek originals were of course
much older, that is to say, the MSS. to which the codex ultimately goes
back were much older.  We are only concerned with one of them here, the
so-called _Untitled Apocalypse_, which is markedly distinct from the
others in character and style.  Schmidt dates it well in the second
century A.D., and with this estimate I am inclined to agree.  It shows,
as I have endeavoured to make clear in the notes, marked affinities in
some respects to the _Gospel of Mary_ (Codex Akhmim), which we know to
have been in existence before 180 A.D., and its philosophical basis is
the Platonism of Alexandria.  If it is by one writer, I think it may be
dated from 160 or 170 A.D.-200 A.D., and belongs to the period of
Basilides and Valentinus.

Before venturing upon any discussion of the authorship and contents of
our document, it would be as well to say a few words as to the meaning
of that much misunderstood technical term "Gnosis" in Hellenistic and
early Christian theology.  For a fuller exposition I would refer the
reader to the admirable essay upon the subject by Mr G. R. S. Mead in
his volume _Quests Old and New_.  Gnosis was not "philosophy" in the
generally accepted sense of the term, or even religio-philosophy.  "It
was immediate knowledge of God's mysteries received from direct
intercourse with the Deity--mysteries which must remain hidden from the
natural man, a knowledge at the same time which exercises decided
reaction on our relationship to God and also on our nature or
disposition" (Reitzenstein).  It was the power or gift of receiving and
understanding revelation, which finally culminated in the direct
unveiled vision of God and the transformation of the whole man into
spiritual being by contact with Him.  The ground of the idea of Gnosis
does not seem to be very different from that of the later "Mystical
Theology," "which originally meant the direct, secret, and
incommunicable knowledge of God received in contemplation" (Dom John
Chapman).  The revelation sought for was not so much a dogmatic
revelation as a revelation of the processes of "transmutation" of
Rebirth, of Apotheosis or "Deification."  Its aim was dynamic rather
than static.  But while the followers of the Gnosis, both Christian and
Hellenistic, would have agreed that the direct knowledge of God is
incommunicable to others, they undoubtedly seem to have held that there
were what may be described as intermediate or preparatory processes or
energisings which could be communicated: (1) by initiation into a holy
community; (2) by a duly qualified master; (3) under the veils of
symbols and sacraments.

The Gnostic movement began long before the Christian era (what its
original historical impulse was we do not know), and only one aspect of
it, and that from a strictly limited point of view, has been treated by
ecclesiastical historians.  Recent investigations have challenged the
traditional outlook and the traditional conclusions and the traditional
"facts."  With some to-day, and with many more to-morrow, the burning
question is, or will be--not how did a peculiarly silly and licentious
heresy rise within the Church--but how did the Church rise out of the
great Gnostic movement, and how did the dynamic ideas of the Gnosis
become crystallised into Dogmas?  I do not indicate a solution; I do
not express an opinion.  I call attention to a fact in the world of
scholarship that will not be without its decided reaction upon the
plain man.  But the study of the ancient Gnosis, and indeed of
mysticism generally, has left another suggestion that seems laden with
limitless possibilities.  Let us first go back to what I said as to the
communication of certain "processes," "leavenings," or "energisings"
under a sacramental veil.  These processes were held to modify the
nature of the person who submitted to them in a peculiar manner that
was likened to the impress or "character" of a seal upon wax.  These
seals or "characters" could not only be acquired through formal rites
and by the laying on of the hands of a master, but also, I am disposed
to believe, by a certain mode of study--I am developing the Gnostic
theory, not stating one of my own--namely, that of a highly symbolic
literature.  The objection of the Gnostic to a plain statement of facts
would probably be somewhat as follows: "What you say is very good and
true as far as it goes, but it is 'Pistis,' not Gnosis; Faith, not
Knowledge.  You desire to be a changed man.  Pistis will change you to
a certain extent.  I have nothing to say against it, but it will not
change you in the radical way that Gnosis does."  If you went on to
argue that your statement was reasonable and received admirable support
from logic and philosophy, he would probably reply: "Philosophy of the
kind you mention is excellent, and forms a basis for Gnosis which is
not contrary to reason, though it is above it.  Gnosis is a rebirth by
which you become a god, and then you will have no need to find out
things by talking and discursive reasoning, for everything will be
within yourself and you will know all things in a vital way, by an act
of simple intuition in the end.  'The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the
Spirit.'  If you tie yourself down to logic, you will not know the real
things, the 'Things that are,' by getting inside them.  Your knowledge
will be external, superficial.  Gnosis, you may be surprised to learn,
is not just 'knowing,' it is light _and_ 'life,' living and being as
well.  This must not be taken as an attacking reason; if you join our
school you will have a stiff course of Plato.  You ought to know the
'Things that are' from the ordinary point of view, from outside, before
you approach them with the idea of getting inside them, and so raising
them up within yourself as far-shining lives.  Afterwards you will
study in a new manner that will seem madness to the common-sensed; and
a Divine Madness indeed it is, for it will lead you to the secret of
the Cross."

Hence the disciple was confronted in due time with a document that
would not yield its secrets to dialectic, a kind of ritual in words
that initiated his intuition into self-knowledge.  Intense devotion was
needed, imagination, and will-power.  The Gnosis came gradually,
perhaps after the manuscript had been laid aside; it was the effort
towards a sympathetic understanding that mattered, that was rewarded
with life and light from God.  The mere success of the logical mind in
unravelling a puzzle was as nothing, for the readings of these
monstrous, many-faceted stars of symbolism were infinite.  That the
intuition should enter into self awareness as into a sacred place of
the mysteries--that was a process of the Gnosis.

Now this strange way of teaching, which was really a "Cloud of
Unknowing," was the real basis and point, as it were, of the
Alexandrine method of interpreting Scripture.  Think of Philo and what
he says of the teaching of his Gnostic Therapeuts.  Think of Clement,
and of Origen with his "Eternal Gospel."  This quickening of the
intuition into knowledge of itself and God, through allegory and symbol
based on philosophy, was the Everlasting Gospel.

So Gnostic documents were not merely intended to puzzle the outsider,
but the insider as well.  This fact will enable us to appreciate better
Basilides' famous remark about the one or two only who could understand
his system.  His frame of mind was a little like that of a university
examiner after setting a paper.  We need not think that these people
were altogether destitute of humour.  It would be a gross exaggeration,
of course, to say that all the Gnostic systems described in Irenaeus
and Hippolytus might have been devised by the same man, but it would be
a useful exaggeration, illustrating the extreme anti-literalist point
of view.  Our knowledge of the schools rests for the most part on
reports made upon documents such as these, the purport of which was
entirely missed by those that made them.  They treated Gnosis as if it
were another kind of "Pistis," or another system of philosophy.  One
doubts very much the correctness of the traditional classification of
schools, which was made by people who were not in very close touch with
them.  One doubts if there was much hostility between these schools,
however much their symbolism may appear to differ on the surface.

What was the result of these processes "initiated" or "started" by
sacramental rites, by symbolism, by masters of Gnosis?  Was the result
something purely "subjective" at best?  The answer of the Masters of
the Gnosis to this question, which is characteristic of the modern mind
and expresses the doubt which is gnawing at the heart of much modern
religious life, would have been "No.  There are certain physical
changes as well.  The body is spiritualised."  They might possibly have
added, "It is assumed, in part at least, by the Body of Stars[1] which
has been awakened within it.  This is the Body by means of which Union
with God takes place, and then still more wonderful changes happen.  We
can awaken the Body of Stars or Rays, but to unite it with Himself,
that depends upon the Will of God above, but all is a mystery of Grace."

This awakening of the Body of Stars, this assumption, or partial
assumption, by immortality of the inner flesh, is the interesting
possibility to which I referred earlier.  Let me here quote two
Catholic writers.  Says Doellinger (_First Age_, p. 235, quoting Rom.
vii. 22, 1 Cor. vi. 14, Eph. iii. 16 and 30, in support), "Saint Paul
not only divides man into body and spirit, but distinguishes in the
bodily nature, the gross, visible, bodily frame and a hidden, inner
'spiritual' body not subject to limits of space or cognisable by the
senses; this last, which shall hereafter be raised, is alone fit for
and capable of organic union with the glorified body of Christ, of
substantial incorporation with it."  Dom John Chapman, O.S.B., in his
excellent article on "Catholic Mysticism" in Hastings' _Encyclopaedia
of Religion and Ethics_, vol. ix., writes: "It is not to be denied that
this psycho-physical side demands scientific investigation.  It seems
certain that St John of the Cross is justified in his view that the
body is somehow 'spiritualised' by contemplation.  Such facts as the
power of saints over the animal world and the power of reading
thoughts, _e.g._, are proved beyond cavil."

Here, then, we have a consistent tradition held by many schools, and I
think that it is by investigation along the lines suggested by Dom John
Chapman that there is the greatest chance of arriving at some proof of
immortality that will satisfy the scientific mind.  For the claim of
mystics is that here and now it is possible to participate consciously
in that which is immortal, and the "spiritualising" of the body is an
outward sign of the substantiality of that claim, the standard set up
upon a hill to testify that the human consciousness is not planetary
merely, not "hylic," nor "psychic," but has its root in the wisdom that
issues from an inconceivable Abyss of Life and Light.

I believe that the original source of the document I have translated
belonged to an Egyptian community or school of contemplation whose name
has been forgotten in the night of time; that it was connected with the
preparation of a candidate for the Baptism of Light.  What form this
rite really took it is impossible to say, but that it had outward signs
of some kind is extremely probable.  We have an old Gnostic ritual
preserved in the compilation generally known as the "Acts of John."
Perhaps this may give us some idea of the sort of ceremony that was
worked.  I fancy there was an Eucharistic side, and that the Baptism of
Light was connected with the mystic crucifixion alluded to so often in
the notes.  Possibly in the midst of the sacred dance, at the breaking
of the Bread, there was a certain laying on of hands by an adept
Master, one who had himself attained to the autoptic vision, and then
the candidate was left alone to immerse himself in the Dark Ray of the
Divine Mind.

I think also that the original MS. was based upon the work of one
Master, whose name, like that of the order to which he belonged, is
lost in the night of time, but that it also contains amplifications and
additions by at least one later hand.  It will thus represent the mind
of a grade of teaching, and possibly contains material dating back to
the period of the Therapeutae that Philo knew.  In other words, the
community may have been an old one before it was Christianised.  In any
case, it remains the record of a stupendous spiritual adventure, the
attempt to produce a race of Divinised men, that is not without the
splendour of tragedy, for at some time, like the Holy Cup of Legend,
the presence of Masterhood departed, and the external house fell into
ruin and its place knew it no more.  Perhaps, in the desire to
propagate, it admitted unworthy candidates; perhaps it turned to the
by-ways of magic in an attempt to arrest the external course of nature
and to defy necessity; perhaps there came a day when none could
understand the inner meaning of the high and far-shining mysteries, and
so amidst party strife the building word was lost.  Many a man, no
doubt, who called himself a "Gnostic" was but a sorry rogue; many
another was but a student of the letter, not of the life; many another
was but a spiritual swashbuckler, pompous in his demeanour and cryptic
in his utterance; some, led by an abhorrent fantasy, may have wandered
along the path that goes to the Venus-berg and have striven to lisp a
formula that would transform the earth into Gehenna rather than into
Heaven.  But, beside this mass of imposture, of folly, of elegant
idleness and of corruption, the _a rebours_ of a spiritual outpouring,
there was a real mysticism that could present the Authentic Spectacle
and could utter comfortable words in tongues not of this world utterly.
There was a Gnosis that strove to give the Peace of God to those within
and to those without, because in Peace all things were made, that
yearned to bring forth children, quickened fiery souls, aeons, gods, in
bodies of light for the love of God; that saw in all things Grace, the
Sponsa Dei, the Mother most pure and immaculate.  "No creature was ever
wronged of Thee," no spark ever quenched, no hope defrauded and hurled
eternally from the sky with shattered wings by Thee.  Such is the fair
Faith that chanted its prayer beneath a heaven set with such strange
galaxies, and whispers to us now through the disremembered symbols of a
forgotten book.

It is pleasant, in these days of strife, to be able to quote Dr
Schmidt's appreciation of the _Untitled Apocalypse_ with a cordial
agreement:

"What a different world, on the contrary, meets us in our thirty-one
leaves!  We find ourselves in the pure spheres of the highest Pleroma;
we see, step by step, this world, so rich in heavenly beings, coming
into existence before our eyes; each individual space with all its
inmates is minutely described, so that we can form for ourselves a
living picture of the glory and splendour of this Gnostic heaven.  The
speculations are not so confused and fantastic as those of the Pistis
Sophia and our two Books of Jeu....  The author is imbued with the
Greek spirit, equipped with a full knowledge of Greek philosophy, full
of the doctrine of the Platonic ideas, an adherent of Plato's view of
the origin of evil--that is to say, Hyle....  We possess in these
leaves a magnificently conceived work by an old Gnostic philosopher,
and we stand astonished, marvelling at the boldness of the
speculations, dazzled by the richness of the thought, touched by the
depth of soul of the author.  This is not, like the Pistis Sophia, the
product of declining Gnosticism, but dates from a period when Gnostic
genius, like a mighty eagle, left the world behind it and soared in
wide and ever wider circles towards pure light, towards pure knowledge,
in which it lost itself in ecstasy.

"In one word, we possess in this Gnostic work, as regards age and
contents, a work of the very highest importance, which takes us into a
period of Gnosticism, and therefore of Christianity, of which very
little knowledge has been handed down to us."

Finally, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the scholarship of Mr
G. R. S. Mead, whose labours in the field of Hellenistic Theology have
to my mind received insufficient recognition, and whose admirable
translations I have often used in the notes.



[1] Not to be confused with the "astral body" of modern theosophy.




The Gnosis of the Light

[1]This is the Father of all Fathers, the God of all ... Gods, Lord of
all Lords, Sonship of all Sons, Saviour of all Saviours, Invisible of
all Invisibles, Infinity of all Infinities, Uncontainable of all
Uncontainables, Beyond-the-Deep of all Beyond-the-Deeps, Space of all
Spaces.  This is the Spiritual Mind which existed before all Spiritual
Minds, the Holy Place comprehending all Holy Places, the Good
comprehending all Goods.  This is the Seed of all good things.  It is
He who has brought them all forth, this Autophues or Being who has
produced Himself, who existed before all the beings of the Pleroma
which He Himself has brought forth, Who is in all time.  This is that
Ingenerable and Eternal One who has no name and who has all names; who
was the first to know those of the Universe, who has looked upon those
of the Universe, who has heard those of the Universe.  He is mightier
than all might, upon whose incomprehensible Face no one is able to
gaze.  Beyond all mind does He exist in His own Form, Solitary and
Unknowable.  The Universal Mystery is He, the Universal Wisdom, of all
things the Beginning.  In Him are all Lights, all Life, and all Repose.
He is the Beatitude of which all in the Universe are in need, for that
they might receive Him they are.  All beings of the Universe does He
behold within Himself, that One Uncontainable, who parts those of the
Universe and receives them all into Himself.  Without Him is nothing,
for all the worlds exist in Him, and He is the boundary of them all.
All of them has He enclosed, for in Him is all.  No Space is there
without Him, nor any Intelligence; for without that Only One there
exists nothing.  The Eternities (aeons) contemplate His
incomprehensibility which is within them all, but understand it not.
They wonder at it because He limits them all.  They strive towards the
City in which is their Image.  In this City (1) it is that they move
and live [and have their true being]; for it is the House of the
Father, the Robe of the Son, and the Power of the Mother, the Image of
the Pleroma.  He is the First Father of all things, the First Eternal,
the King of those that None can Touch; He in whom all things lose
themselves, He who has given all things form within Himself; the Space
which has grown from Itself, He who is born of Himself, the Abyss of
all being, the Great and True One who is in the Deep; He in whom the
Fullnesses (Pleromata) did come, and even they are silent before Him.
They have not named Him, because Unnamable and beyond thought is He,
that First Fount whose Eternity stretches through all Spaces, that
First Tone (2) whereby all things hearken and understand.  He it is
whose limbs make a myriad, myriad Powers, and every Power is a being in
itself.

The Second Space is that which is called Creator, Father, Word, Source,
Mind, Man, Eternal, Infinite.  He is the Pillar, the Overseer, the
Father of all.  He it is upon whose Head the aeons form a crown, darting
forth their rays.  The Fullness of His Countenance is unknown to the
external worlds who seek His Face, for evermore yearning to know It;
for unto them His Word has run forth and to behold It is their desire.
The Light of His Eyes pierces to the spaces of the external Pleroma and
the Word goes forth from His Mouth to those who dwell in Heaven and to
those who dwell beneath it.  The hairs of His Head are the number of
the Hidden Worlds, and the Features of His Face are the type of the
Eternities; the hairs of His Beard are the number of the External
Worlds.  The stretching out of His Hands is the manifestation of the
Cross (3).  The strain of the Cross is the Ennead, the Ninefold Being.
He who springs up [? or is nailed] to the right and to the left of the
Cross is the Man whom no man can comprehend.  He is the Father, the
Fount whence Silence wells, He for whom the Quest is everywhere.  The
Father is He from whom went forth the Monad and the Spark of Light, and
before this all the Worlds were dark nothings.  For it is that Spark of
Light which has placed all things in the rays of Its Splendour, so they
have received Knowledge [Gnosis], Life, Hope, Peace, Faith, Love and
Resurrection, the Second Birth and the Seal.  Now these things are the
Ennead, the Ninefold Being, which has come forth from the Father
without beginning, who alone has been His own Father and His own
Mother, whose Pleroma surrounds the twelve (4) Deeps.

The First Deep is the Universal Fount, from whom all fountains have
gone forth.

The Second Deep is the Universal Wisdom, from whom all wisdoms have
gone forth.

The Third Deep is the Universal Mystery, from whom all mysteries have
gone forth.

The Fourth Deep is the Universal Gnosis, from whom all Gnoses have gone
forth.

The Fifth Deep is the Universal Purity, from whom all purity has gone
forth.

The Sixth Deep is the Silence that contains all silences.

The Seventh Deep is the Universal Super-essential Essence, from whom
all essences have gone forth.

The Eighth Deep is the Forefather from whom and by whom all forefathers
exist.

The Ninth Deep is the All-Father, Self-Father, in whom is the
All-Paternity of those who are Self-Fathers of the all.

The Tenth Deep is the All-Power, from whom all powers have gone forth.

The Eleventh Deep is that in which there is the First Invisible, from
whom have gone forth all invisibles.

The Twelfth Deep is the Truth, from whence all truths have sped forth.

Now the Truth (5) which envelops all things is the Image of the Father,
the End of all things.  She is the Mother of all Eternities, who
surrounds all Deeps, the Monad beyond knowledge who cannot be known,
without seal-mark and having all seal-marks within, blessed for ever
and ever.  To the Father Ineffable, Inconceivable, Unthinkable,
Unchangeable, all things have been made like in their being.  They
rejoiced and have been filled with life-giving powers.  They engendered
myriads and myriads and myriads of aeons, and in Joy, because they
rejoiced with the Father (6).

These are the worlds from which the Cross upsprang, and from their
incorporeal limbs the Man has come forth.  It is the Father and Fount
of all being who has produced the limbs.

Now from the Father are all names (7), whether Ineffable One, or
Incorruptible One, or Invisible One, or Simple One, or Solitary One, or
Powerful One, or Triple-powered One, or the names that in Silence alone
are named.  In the Father are they all, and He it is whom the Outer
Worlds behold [as men behold] the starry sky at night.  Even as men [so
gazing into the night] desire to see the Sun, so do the Outer Worlds
desire to see Him because of the very Invisibility which surrounds Him.
He it is who to the aeons gives life perpetually, and by His Word hath
the Indivisible ... the Monad in order to know it.  For it is by His
Word that the Holy Pleroma exists.  This is the Father, the Second
Creator, by the breath of whose Mouth Providence (Pronoia) has been in
travail of those who were not, and it is by His Will that they are....
This is the Father, Ineffable, Unspeakable, Beyond Knowledge,
Invisible, Immeasurable, Infinite.  He has produced those that are in
Him within Himself.  The Thought of His Greatness has He brought forth
from non-being that He might make them to be.  Incomprehensible is He
in His limbs.  A Space has He made for His limbs that they might dwell
in Him and know Him for their Sire.  From His First Thought (8) has He
made them come forth, and she has become a Space for them and given
them being....

In this wise has He created the Temple of the Pleroma.  At the four
gates of the [Temple of] the Pleroma are four Monads, a Monad at each
gate, and six Supporters at each gate, in all four and twenty
Supporters, and four and twenty myriads of powers at each gate, nine
Enneads at each gate, ten Decads at each gate, twelve Dodecads at each
gate, and five Pentads of Powers at each gate.  At each gate there is
an Overseer of triple aspect having countenances Ingenerable, True, and
Ineffable.  Of these faces one gazes upon the external aeons without the
gate; another beholds Setheus, and the third looks upward to the
Sonship contained in every Monad.  There it is that Aphredon is
discovered with his twelve Holy Ones and the Forefather, and in that
Space abides also Adam, the Man of the Light, with his three hundred
aeons.  There also is the Perfect Mind.  All these surround a Basket (9)
that knows no death.  The Ineffable face of the Overseer, who is the
Warden of the Holy Place, gazes into the Holy of Holies upon the
Boundless One.  Now this Warden has faces twain.  One is disclosed from
the side of the Deep, the other from the side of the Overseer called
the Child (or Servant).  For there is a Deep [within the Holy of
Holies] which is named "Light" (10), or "He who gives the Light," and
in this Abyss there is concealed an Alone-begotten Son.  He it is who
manifests the Three Powers, who is mighty amongst all Powers.

This (? the Holy of Holies) is the Indivisible One, [the atom--Body or
Church] that can never be divided, in whom the All is discovered,
because all powers are hers.

He who is the Triple Power has three faces, an Aphredonian face that is
called Aphredon Pexos, in which is found a latent Only-begotten One.

When the (?) Idea comes out of the Deep, Aphredon takes the Thought to
conduct her to the Alone-begotten of Alone-begottens, to lead her to
the Child, so that she may be brought to the Space of the Triple Power
for self-perfecting, and be escorted in the Space of the Five
Ingenerables.

There is also another Space called the Deep, where there are three
Paternities.  In the first thereof is Kalupto, the Hidden God.  In the
Second Paternity there are Five Trees, and in the midst of them an
altar.  An Alone-begotten Word stands upon the altar, having the twelve
countenances of the Mind of all things, and before him are the prayers
of all beings placed.  The Universe rejoices over him because he has
manifested himself.  He it is that the Invisible World has struggled to
know, and it is on his account that the Man has appeared.  In the Third
Paternity is Silence and the Fount which twelve Anointed Ones
contemplate, beholding themselves therein.  In him are also found Love
and the Universal Mind and furthermore the Universal Mother from whom
has gone forth that Ennead whose names are Protia, Pantia, Pangenia,
Loxophania, Loxogenia, Loxokrateia, Loia, and Iouel.  She is the First
Beyond Knowledge, the Mother of the Ennead, who completes a Decad, come
forth from the Monad of the Unknowable.

Following there is another Space, more stretched out, where is hidden a
great treasure which the Universe surrounds.  [This Space] is the
Immeasurable Deep where is an altar whereon three Powers are gathered:
a Solitary being, an Unknowable being, and an Infinite being, in the
midst of whom is revealed a Sonship called the Anointed Glorifier.
This is he who glorifies everyone and impresses upon him the seal of
the Father, who brings everybody into the eternity of the First Father
who is the One, He for whose sake all is and without whom nothing is.
Now this Anointed One has twelve faces, visages Unbounded,
Uncontainable, Ineffable, Simple, Imperishable, Solitary, Unknowable,
Invincible, Thrice-powerful, Unshakable, Ingenerable, and Pure.  These
Spaces, where are these twelve founts, named Founts of Reasons, full of
eternal life, are called Deeps as well as the Twelve Countenances,
because they have received in them all Spaces of Paternity on behalf of
the Pleromata and the Fruit which the Pleroma emanated, who is Christ
who has received the Pleroma in Himself.

Beyond all these Spaces comes the Deep of Setheus.  This he who is in
them all and is surrounded by twelve Paternities, even in the midst of
these is he.  Each Paternity has three faces.  The first of them is an
Indivisible One, and three faces has he, Infinite, Invisible, and
Ineffable faces.  The Second Father has Uncontainable, Unshakable, and
Incorruptible faces.  The Third Father has faces Beyond Knowledge,
Imperishable, and Aphredonian.  The Fourth Father has a countenance of
Silence, a face of Founts, and a visage Impalpable.  The Fifth Father
has Solitary, Omnipotent, and Ingenerable faces.  The Sixth Father has
the face of an All-Father, the face of a Self-Father, and the face of a
Forefather.  The Seventh Father has countenances of Universal Mystery,
of Universal Wisdom and Universal Origin.  Visages has the Eighth
Father of Light, Repose, and Resurrection.  The Ninth Father has faces
Knowable, First Visible, and...  The Tenth Father has Triple-fleshed,
Adamic, and Pure faces.  The Eleventh Father has faces Triple-powered,
Perfect, and Sparkling.  The Twelfth Father has a face of Truth, a face
of Fore-thought, and a face of After-thought.  These are the twelve
Paternities which encircle Setheus.  [Their faces] make in all a
[mystic] number thirty-six.  These are they from whom those of the
exterior have received a seal-mark, that is why they glorify them for
evermore (11).

In that Space there are yet twelve other paternities who encircle the
head [of Setheus] and support a crown there.  They dart out rays upon
the surrounding worlds by the Grace of the Alone-begotten Word,
concealed in him, He that is sought for.

[_The passage enclosed within brackets has been so mutilated by the
Coptic scribe that what follows is of the nature of a paraphrase rather
than of a translation_:--(As to the mysteries of the Word that are so
much beyond us, it is not possible to describe them otherwise than as
follows.  Not possible for us, that is.  It is impossible to describe
Him as He really is with a tongue of flesh.  There are glories too
exalted for descriptions moved by thought and for intuition that comes
through symbols, except one finds a master who is a kinsman of the
deathless race yonder.  From such an one can be learned something of
the Spaces from whence he came; for he finds the root of all things.
The mighty powers of the great aeons of the Power that was in Marsanes
have said in adoration, "Who is he who hath seen aught in the presence
of His Face?"  That is because thus does He manifest Himself [? the
Alone to the Alone], Nicotheos has spoken of Him [the Alone-begotten]
and seen Him, for he is one of these.  He [Nicotheos] said, "The Father
exists exalted above all the perfect."  Nicotheos has revealed the
Invisible and the perfect Triple-power.  All perfect men have seen Him,
they have declared Him and have given Him glory with their own lips)
(12).] That is the Alone-begotten Word hidden in Setheus, He who is
called the Dark Ray (13), for it is the excess of His light alone that
is darkness.  Setheus reigns by Him.

The Alone-begotten holds in His right hand twelve Paternities, the
types of the twelve Apostles (14), while in His left hand are thirty
Powers.  Each of them emanates twelve two-faced aeons after the type of
Setheus.  One of these faces beholds the Deep which is in the Interior
[of the Temple of the Pleroma]; the other looks without upon the
Triple-Power.  Each of the Paternities in His right hand emanates three
hundred and sixty-five powers, according to the word that David spake,
saying, "I will cherish the crown of the year in Thy Righteousness."
For all these Powers encircle the Alone-begotten Son as a crown,
illuminating the aeons with the light of the Alone-begotten, as it is
written, "In Thy light shall we see light." And the Alone-begotten is
lifted up upon [the powers], as again it is written, "The Chariot of
God is a myriad of multiplications"; and again, "There are millions of
beings who rejoice; the Lord is in them" (15).

This is He who dwells in the Monad in Setheus, which comes from the
place concerning which one does not ask, "Where is it?"  She comes from
Him who is before these Fullnesses.  From the One and Only, even from
Him has come forth the Monad, as a ship laden with all good things, or
as a full field planted with every manner of tree, or as a city filled
with men of every race and with all the statues of the king.  Thus it
is with the Monad where the Whole is found.

Upon her head twelve Monads form a crown; each has emanated another
twelve.  Ten Decads encircle her neck, nine Enneads are about her
heart, and seven Hebdomads are under her feet, and each has emanated a
Hebdomad.  The firmament which surrounds her is like a tower with
twelve gates, and at every gate are twelve myriads of powers;
archangels are they called, or angels.  This is the metropolis of the
Alone-begotten Son (16).

Now it is of the Alone-begotten that Phosilampes (17) has said, "Before
all things is He."  He it is who has come forth from the Infinite; He
who has engendered Himself there and has no seal nor form and has given
birth to Himself.  This is He who is come forth from the Ineffable One,
the Immeasurable One, who truly is, and in whom is found all that truly
is, who is the Father Incomprehensible.  He is in His Alone-begotten
Son, while the All reposes in the Ineffable and Unspeakable King, whom
none can move and whose Divinity no one can declare, whose kingdom is
not of this world.  Meditating upon Him, Phosilampes has said, "Through
Him is That-which-really-is and That-which-really-is-not, through which
the Hidden-which-really-is and the Manifest-which-really-is-not exists."

He is the true Alone-begotten God, and all the Fullnesses (Pleromata)
know that it is by Him that they have become gods and that they have
become rulers in this name--God.  This is He of whom John has said, "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was in God and the Word was
God, and without Him was not anything made.  That which was made in Him
was Life."

The Alone-begotten is found in the Monad, dwelling in her as in a city,
and the Monad is in Setheus as a concept, and Setheus dwells in the
Temple as King and as God.  He is the Word creative, who has commanded
the Fullnesses to labour; the Creative Mind after the order of God the
Father, whom all creation worships as God and Lord, to whom all is
subjected.

The Fullnesses wonder at Him [Setheus] because of His beauty and grace.
Around His head those of the Inner Spaces of the Universe form a crown;
those of the external spaces are beneath His feet, while those of the
middle spaces encircle Him, all praising Him and saying, "Holy, Holy,
Holy, AAA, HHH, EEE, III, OOO, YYY, +OOO+"--that is to say, "Thou art
the Living One of Living Ones, Holy of Holies, Being of Beings, Father
of Fathers, God of Gods, Lord of Lords, Space of Spaces" (18).  They
praise Him, saying, "Thou art the House and the Dweller in the House."
They praise Him, saying unto the Son concealed in Him, "Thou art: Thou
art, O Alone-begotten, Light and Life and Grace."

When Setheus sent the Light-Spark from the Indivisible [Body], it
burned and gave light to all the Space of the Temple of the Pleromata.
And they, beholding the light of the Spark, rejoiced and uttered
myriads and myriads of praises in honour of Setheus and of the
Light-Spark which was manifested, seeing that in it were all their
images, and they fashioned the Spark among themselves as a Man
light-giving and true.  They named Him "Pantomorphos," and Pure, and
Unshakable, and all the eternities also called him "All-powered."  He
is the Servant of the AEons and serves the Fullnesses (19).  And the
Father sealed the Man His Son in their interior so that they might know
Him interiorly, and the Word moved them to contemplate the Invisible
One beyond knowledge, and they gave glory to this One and Only One, to
the Concept which is in Him and to the Intelligible Word, praising
these Three who are One, because by Him have they been made essential
beings.  The Father took their total image and made of it a City or a
Man and figured in Him all those of the Pleroma, that is to say, all
the powers.  Each one of them knew his image in the City, for everyone
of the myriads of glories found himself in the Man or City of the
Father which is in the Pleroma.  The Father took His radiant glory and
made thereof an outer vesture for the Man....

He created in Him the type of the Temple of the Pleroma.  He made His
shoulders, which came out one from the other, after the type of those
hundred myriads of powers, less four myriads.  He created His fingers
and toes like the two Decads, the hidden Decad and the manifest Decad.
He created His organ like the Monad concealed in Setheus.  He created
the great reins like Setheus.  He made His breast like the Interior of
the Temple and His feet after the type of the Solitary and Unknowable
Ones who serve the Pleroma, rejoicing with those that rejoice.  He made
His limbs after the type of the Deep which encloses three hundred and
sixty-five Paternities after the type of the Paternities.  He fashioned
His hair after the type of the Worlds of the Pleroma and filled Him
with wisdom like the Universal Wisdom, and filled Him with interior
mystery like Setheus and with exterior mystery like the Indivisible
[Body].  Incomprehensible created He Him like the Incomprehensible One,
who is in every Space, unique in the Pleroma.  His sides created He
after the type of the Four Gates and His two thighs after the type of
the Myriarchs who are to the right and left, and His members after the
type of those who go forth and those who enter.  He created companions
surrounding Him after the type of concealed mysteries....

[This was the Man or City that the Pleromata beheld in the Light-Spark
and saw their likenesses therein.  They fashioned the Man called
Pantomorphos in His likeness, or clothed the Light-Spark in the
Star-body.]

The Indivisible Point sent the Light-Spark without the Pleroma, and
[He] descended [as] the Triple-Power into the Spaces of Autogenes, the
Self-generated One, and [these Spaces] beheld the grace of the
Eternities of Light which had been given unto them, and they rejoiced
because that-which-is had come among them.

Then they opened the firmaments and the Light descended below to the
lower regions and to those who were without form, having no [true]
likeness.  It was thus that they got the likeness of the Light for
themselves.  Some rejoiced because the Light had come to them, and that
they had been made rich thereby.  Others mourned because they were made
poor and that which [they thought] they had was taken away from them.
Thus came He, who went forth full of grace, and was taken captive with
a captivity (20).  A light of glory was given to the aeons who had
received the Spark, and guardian spirits were sent to them who are
Gamanel, Etrempsouchos, and Agramas, and those who are with them.  They
bring help to those who have believed in the Spark of Light.

Now in the Space of the Indivisible Atom are twelve Founts, above which
are the twelve Paternities who surround the Indivisible [Queen] like
Deeps or like Skies and make for Her a crown in which is every kind of
life: all modes of Triple-powered life, of Uncontainable life, of
Infinite life, of Ineffable life, of Silent life, of Unknown life, of
Solitary life, of Unshakable life, of First-manifested life, of
Self-born life, of True life.  All is therein.  Every species is in it,
all Gnoses and every power which has received the Light, yea, all Mind
manifests itself therein.  This is the Crown which the Father of the
Universe has placed upon the Indivisible [Queen] with three hundred and
sixty-five kinds in it, brilliant and filling the Universe with an
incorruptible and unfailing light.  This is the Crown which crowns all
dominion, the Crown that the Deathless pray for, and by it and in it
they will become Invisible Ones [in the world beyond manifestation] on
the Day of Joy, who by the Will of the Inscrutable One have from the
first been manifested, that is to say, Protia, Pantia, Pangenia, and
their company.  Then shall all the Invisible Eternities receive from
Him their crown, so that they may cast themselves among the Invisibles,
who shall receive there their crown in the Crown of the Indivisible
[Queen], and the Universe shall receive its perfection of incorruption.
Because of this it is that those who have taken bodies pray, desiring
to abandon the body that they may receive the crown laid up for them in
the Incorruptible Eternity.

This is the Indivisible [Queen and Mother], the first aeon of all, who
has been given all good things by Him who is above all good things, and
she has been given the Immeasurable Deep, wherein are found innumerable
Paternities, whereof is the Ennead without seal-mark and having in her
the seal-marks of all creatures, and by whom the Ennead emanates twelve
Enneads.  She [the Indivisible Mother it is] who has in the midst a
Space called "The Land productive of Gods," or "The Land which gives
birth to the Gods" (21).  This is the land of which it has been said,
"He who ploughs his soil shall be satisfied with bread and he shall
make large his threshing floor," and also, "The Master of the Field,
when they shall plough it, shall possess all good things."  And all
those Powers which are in this land which brought forth the God have
received the Crown.  That is why they know, because of the Crown upon
their heads, if the Inheritors of the Kingdom of Light have [? in
truth] been born from the Indivisible Body or not: that is, from Her
who is the Universal Mother (22).  She has within Her seven Wisdoms,
nine Enneads, ten Decads, and in the midst a great Basket is revealed.
A mighty Invisible [Hierarch] stands above it with a mighty Ingenerable
[Hierarch] and a mighty Unbounded [Hierarch], each one
triple-countenanced, and the prayer, the blessing, and the hymn of
creatures are given place in this Basket which is in the midst of the
Universal Mother, in the midst of the seven Wisdoms, in the midst of
the nine Enneads, and in the midst of the ten Decads.  For all these
[creatures] stand upright in the Basket, made perfect by the Fruit of
the AEons, He who has been ordained for them by the Alone-begotten
concealed in the Indivisible [Atom].  He [the Fruit of the AEons] has a
Fount before Him surrounded by twelve Holy Ones, each one wearing a
Crown on his head and having twelve powers, who surround Him within,
praising the Alone-begotten king and crying, "It is because of Thee
that we ray forth glory, and it is by Thee that we behold the Father of
the Universe, AAA, +OOO+ (23), and the Mother of all the good, She who
is hidden in every space"--that is to say, the contriving thought
(Epinoia) of all the Eternities, the conceiving thought of all gods and
of all lords--"She is the Gnosis of all the Unseen beings, and Thy
Image is the Mother of all the Boundless Ones, the Power of all the
Infinites."

Praising the Alone-begotten, they cry, "It is because of Thy Image (24)
that we have seen Thee, that we have run to Thee, that we have clung to
Thee, that we have received the Incorruptible Crown which is known
through Her.  Glory be to Thee, O Alone-begotten, for ever and ever."

Then together do they all say Amen.

For [? Jesus, the Fruit of the AEons] became a Body of Light, He crossed
the AEons of the Indivisible [Body] until He came to the Alone-begotten
who is in the Monad and who dwells in Peace and Solitude.  He received
the Grace of the Alone-begotten--that is to say, His Christhood or His
Perfecting.  Also He received the Eternal Crown.  He is the Father of
all Light-Sparks, the chief of all Immortal bodies, and this is He for
whose sake resurrection is given to the body (25).

But besides the Indivisible Queen and besides her Ennead without
seal-mark, in which is found all seal-marks, there are three other
Enneads, of which each emanates nine Enneads.  In the first of these is
revealed a Basket round which three Fathers are gathered: an Infinite
Father, an Ineffable Father, and an Uncontainable Father.  In the
middle of the second Ennead is a Basket, and three Fathers are there:
an Invisible Father, an Ingenerable Father, and an Unshakable Father.
In the third Ennead is also revealed a Basket which encloses three
Paternities: a Solitary Father, an Unknown Father, and a Triple-Powered
Father.  It is through these that the Universe has known God.  They ran
towards Him and have engendered an innumerable multitude of aeons, and
in each Ennead they offered myriads and myriads of praises.

In each of these Enneads there is a Monad, and in each Monad a Space
called "Incorruptible": that is to say, "Holy ground."  There is a
Fount in the ground of each of these Monads, and myriads and myriads of
Powers who have received on their heads a crown of the Crown of the
Triple-Power.  In the middle of these Enneads and of these Monads is an
immeasurable Deep towards which all the Universe looks, those that are
internal as well as those that are external, having above it twelve
Paternities, each surrounded by thirty Powers.

The First Paternity is a face of the Infinite One, and thirty infinite
powers surround him.

The Second paternity is a face of the Invisible One and thirty
invisible powers surround him.

The Third paternity is a face of the Uncontainable One, and thirty
uncontainable powers surround him.

The Fourth paternity is a face of the Invincible One and thirty
invincible powers surround him.

The Fifth Paternity is a face of the All-powerful One and thirty
1ll-powerful powers surround him.

The Sixth paternity is a face of the All-Wise One and thirty all-wise
powers surround him.

The Seventh paternity is a face of the Unknown One and thirty unknown
powers surround him.

The Eighth paternity is a face of the Solitary One and thirty solitary
powers surround him.

The Ninth paternity is a face of the Ingenerable One, and thirty
ingenerable powers surround him.

The Tenth paternity is a face of the Unshakable One and thirty
unshakable powers surround him.

The Eleventh Paternity is a face of the Universal Mystery, and thirty
universal mysteries surround him.

The Twelfth Paternity is a face of the Triple-Powered One, and thirty
triple-powers surround him.

And in the midst of the Immeasurable Deep there are five Powers which
are called by these ineffable names:

The first is called Love, and from her comes all love.

The second is called Hope, and it is by her that we hope in the
Alone-begotten, the Son of God.

The third is called Faith, and it is by her that we believe the
mysteries of the Ineffable One.

The fourth is called Gnosis, and it is by her that we know the First
Father, Him because of whom we live that we may know Him.  [Gnosis] the
Mystery of Silence, who spake before all things, that which is hidden,
the First Monad, for whom the Universe became being.  It is upon the
head of this Mystery that the three hundred and sixty-five substances
form a crown like the hair of human kind, and the Temple of the Pleroma
is as a stairway beneath her feet.  This is the Gate of God (26).

The fifth is called Peace, and it is by her that we give Peace to all,
to those within and to those without, for it is in her that all things
have been created.

This is that Abyss Immeasurable in which is found three hundred and
sixty-five Paternities, thanks to whom they have devised the year.

This is the Abyss which surrounds the Temple of the Pleroma, where is
revealed the Triple-Power with his branches and his trees, and
Mousanios and those which belong to him.  There also is Aphredon and
his twelve Holy Ones, and a Basket is in the midst of them.  They come
to carry in it the praises, the hymns, the prayers and supplications of
the Mother of the Universe, the Mother of the (manifested?) worlds who
is called Phanerios (27), and to give them a form, thanks to the twelve
Holy Ones.  They send them into the Pleroma of Setheus, by which act
they call to mind those of the external world in which there is matter.

This is the Deep where the Triple-Power rayed out the splendours of His
glory, after He had been to the Indivisible Mother and had received the
Grace of the One Beyond Knowledge, by which He had gotten such a
Sonship that the Fullnesses were not able to stand upright before Him
because of the excess of His light and brilliancy thereof.  The whole
Pleroma was troubled, the Abyss and all it contained was moved, and the
[aeons] fled to the world of the Mother [Phanerios], and the Mystery
ordained that the veils of the aeons should be drawn until the Overseer
had established them once more.  And the Overseer established the aeons
once more, as it is written, "He has established the Earth, and it
shall not be moved," and again, "The Earth has been dissolved and all
that therein is" (28).

Then the Triple-Power went forth: the Son was concealed in him, and the
crown of confirmation was upon his head, making myriads and myriads of
glories.  They cried, "Make straight the way of the Lord and receive
the grace of God: every aeon which is empty shall be filled with the
grace of the Alone-begotten Son."

The Father holy and all-perfect stood above the Deep Immeasurable.  It
is in Him that all perfection is found, and in His fullness have we
received grace.  Then the world was established; it ceased to shake;
the Father fashioned it so that it might nevermore be shaken, and the
aeon of the Mother remained full of those that were in it until the
ordering came from the Mystery concealed in the First Father, He from
whence came the Mystery; when His Son re-established the Universe once
more in His Gnosis, that which re-enforms the Universe.

Then Setheus sent the Logos Demiourgos, having with him a multitude of
Powers, wearing the crowns on their heads; and their crowns darted
forth rays.  The brilliancy of their bodies is as the life of the Space
into which they are come; the word that comes out of their mouths is
life AEonian, and the light that comes from their eyes is a rest for
them; the movement of their hands is their flight to the place from
whence they have come, and their gazing on their own faces is Gnosis of
their interior nature; their going towards them is their return once
more within; the stretching forth of their hands establishes them; the
hearing of their ears is the intuition in their hearts; the union of
their limbs is the regathering of the dispersal of Israel; their
self-understanding is their contemplation of the Logos; the writing
upon their fingers is the number which has gone forth, even as it is
written, "He counteth the number of the Stars and calleth them all by
their names."

And the whole union was made by the Logos Demiourgos with those who had
come out of the turmoil that had been: altogether they became one and
the same body, as it has been written, "They have all become one and
the same body in this One and Only One."  Then this Logos Demiourgos
became a mighty God, Lord, Saviour, Christ, King, the Good, Father,
Mother.  This is He whose work was good: He was glorified and became
Father to those that believed: He became Law in Aphredonia and mighty.

Then went forth Pandelos [All-manifest]; she had a crown on her head,
and she placed it upon them who had believed (29).

The Power of the AEons [? the Indivisible Queen, the Mother within the
Pleroma] ordered the Hierarchy of the World of the Virgin Mother
[Phaneia, the Mother without the Pleroma, she who brings into
manifestation] according to the Order of the Inner Space.  She placed
in it the Light-Spark after the pattern of the Monad and placed therein
the concealment which surrounds Him.  She ordained the Propator after
the Order of the Indivisible Body and the twelve Holy Ones which
surround it, having crowns on their heads and seals of glory in their
right hands, after the type found in the Indivisible Point.  In the
midst of these is Love; a face of the Triple-Power is in the Fount, and
there is a Basket which twelve Paternities surround, in whom a Sonship
is concealed.

She ordained the Autopator according to the order of the Ennead without
seal-mark and gave him authority over all that is only self-fathered,
and gave him a crown of all-glory and love, and Peace, Truth, and
myriads of powers, so that he might gather together those who had been
dispersed by the troubling which had taken place when the [Light Spark]
went forth with joy.  As for the Prince of the Universe, he who has the
triple-power to make alive and to destroy, she ordained the Son
Protogennetor after the order of the Triple-Power.  She gave him a
ninefold Ennead and five tenfold Decads, and that he might have power
to accomplish the warfare imposed upon him, she gave him the
first-fruits of the Sonship concealed in her that he might be able to
become a Triple-Power.  He received the Vow of the Sonship because the
Universe (30) had been sold [? into slavery], and took upon him the
warfare entrusted to him and made arise all that was pure in matter.  A
world made he, an aeon, a town; the world which is called
"Incorruptibility" and "Jerusalem."  It is also called "The New Earth,"
and "Self-Perfect," and "Without King."  This earth is an earth that
brings forth gods, a life-giving earth indeed.  This is the earth that
the Mother (? Phaneia) asked to have established.  That is why she (?
the Mother Above) has placed orders or hierarchy in this earth and has
placed in it Providence and Love.  This is the earth of which it has
been written, "The earth which drank the rain a multitude of times":
that is to say, which has multiplied the light in her multitudes and
multitudes of times, since the (light) went forth until its return;
that is to say, it is that from which the Man is named "Sensible."  He
is fashioned, He has been created according to the type of this earth,
He who has been saved from His Self dispersion by the Protogennetor
(31).  Because of that, the Father of all those of the Universe, He who
has no [bridal] bed has sent [Him,? the Man] a crown bearing the names
of all those of the Universe, whether Infinite or Ineffable, or
Uncontainable, or Incorruptible, or Unknown, or Solitary, or
All-powerful, or Indivisible.  This is the crown of which it is
written, "They gave it unto Solomon on the day of his exultation of
heart."

The First Monad sent Him [the Man] an ineffable vesture which is all
Light, all Life, all Love, all Hope, all Faith, all Wisdom, all Gnosis,
all Truth, all Peace, all Witness, all Universal Mother, all Universal
Mystery, all Fount, all Universal Perfection, all Invisible, all
Unknown, all Infinite, all Ineffable, all Abyss, all Uncontainable, all
Fullness, all Silence, all Unshakable, all Unengendered, all Universal
Solitary, all Monad, all Ennead, all Dodecad, all Ogdoad, all Decad,
all Hebdomad, all Hexad, all Pentad, all Tetrad, all Triad, all Dyad,
all Monad.  The whole Universe is in it, and the Universe has found
itself therein and knows itself therein (29).  It gave light to all in
its ineffable light, and it was given myriads and myriads of powers, so
that the Universe might be established once and for all.  It gathered
together its skirts and gave them the form of a veil which surrounded
it [the Universe] on every side.  It poured itself over all things,
raised them up and divided them according to the Hierarchies, according
to the orders, and according to Providence.  Then that-which-was
separated itself from that-which-was-not, and that-which-was-not was
the evil manifested in matter; and the Robe of Power severed
that-which-was from that-which-was-not.  That-which-was it called
AEonian, and that-which-was-not it called Hyle (matter).  It separated
by the Midst that-which-was from that-which-was-not, and placed veils
between these twain.  It placed purifying powers, so that they might
purge them and make them clean.  It gave in this manner an order to
that-which-is and made of the Mother the chief.  It gave it ten aeons,
and each aeon has a myriad powers; there is also a Monad and an Ennead
in each aeon.

The [Robe of Power] placed in her [? Phaneia] an Universal Motherhood
and therewith a Power that had hitherto been concealed therein, so that
none knew thereof.  [? The Robe] placed a great Basket, above which
stand three Powers, an Ingenerable One, an Unshakable One, and the
Great Pure One.  It gave to [? the world order] the twelve other Powers
who have received the crown and who surround it.  It gave it also the
Seven Stratelatai (32), who have the seal of the All-completing
[Panteleios], and have on their heads crowns in which there are twelve
stones of Adamant, which come from Adam, the Man of Light.

[The Robe of Power] established the Propator in all the aeons of the
Mother of [the Manifestation] of all things, and gave him the full
power of Paternity, and Powers to obey him as Father and as First
Father of all that exists.  It placed upon his head a crown of twelve
kinds; it gave him a Power which is Triple-powered and All-powered; it
gave him Sonship and myriads and myriads of Glories.  It turned the
Pleroma towards him and gave him power to make live and to destroy.  It
gave him a power of the aeon so that he might manifest it, with the
myriads and myriads of out-rayed Glories, like the other aeons that were
with him.  The Power which has been given to the Propator is called
Protophanes, because he is the first to be manifested, and Agennetos,
because no one has engendered him.  Also Ineffable and "Without Name"
is he called, and also Autogenes and Autotheletos, because he has
manifested himself by his own will.  Yet again is he named
Autoloxastos, for he manifested himself with the Glories that were his.
Yet again is he termed Invisible, for he is hidden and none can see him.

Now [the Robe of Power] gave unto the Propator another Power, that
which since the beginning has caused the Light-Spark to appear in this
Space, and who is named with names Holy and All-perfecting.  Who is
Protia, that is to say, the First, and is also called Pantia--she who
is found in all--and Pangenia--she who has brought forth all in the
world--and Loxogenia--she who has brought Glory to birth--and
Loxophania--Manifester of Glory--and Loxokrateia--she who has dominion
over Glory--and Arsenogenia--she who brings forth males--and Loia--of
which the interpretation is God with us--and Jouel--of which the
interpretation is God for ever--she it is who has ordained that these
Powers should appear whose name is called Phaneia, of which the
translation is Manifestation.  The angel who has appeared with them is
he whom the Glories name Loxogenes and Loxophanes, of which the
interpretation is "He who engenders Glory" and "He who manifests
Glory," for he is one of those Glories who stand about that mighty
power called Loxokrator, because in his manifestation he has had
dominion over the great Glories.

Such are the Powers that were given to the Propator when he was placed
in the aeon of the Mother, and myriads and myriads of Glories, Angels,
Archangels, and Liturgies were bestowed upon him, so that they might
serve him, those of matter.  They gave him power over everything.  He
made for himself a mighty aeon and placed therein a mighty Pleroma and a
great temple and all the Powers that he had taken and placed within
himself, and he rejoiced with them, bringing forth his creatures again
according to the commandment of the Father hidden in the Silence, Who
had sent him these riches; and the Crown of Fatherhood was given to him
because he had been made the Father of all those who came after him.
Then he cried out and said, "My children, with whom I travail again
until Christ be formed in you"; and again he cried, "Yea, I would set
beside a holy virgin an only husband, Christ."

But when he had seen the Grace that the Father in secret had given unto
him (that is Himself a Propator), he wished to turn the Universe to the
Father in secret, for it is His will that the Universe should turn to
Him.  And when the Mother saw all the grandeurs which had been given
unto her Propator, she rejoiced greatly, she exulted; that is why she
said, "My heart has rejoiced and my tongue has been in exultation."
Then she cried to the Power Infinite who stands hard by the aeon of the
Father, that mighty Power of Glory that the Glories call Trigenielos
(33), that is to say, Three Engendered, and who is named also Trigenes
and also Harmes.  She prayed also unto Him who is concealed in every
Space that He would send him the Mother of Him who has withdrawn
Himself.  The Father in secret sent him the Mystery who reclothes all
the aeons like the Glories who form the Crown Panteles, that is to say,
of Perfection, so that he [the Propator] might place the Crown upon the
head of the Indivisible [Body] hidden within her, Incorruptible and
Unengendered.  With [her He sent] the mighty Power which is in her
company, she who is called Arsenogenia, who replenishes all the aeons of
Glory.  Thus from him shall the Universe receive the Crown.

Then she established the Autopator Father and AEonian One; and gave unto
him the aeon of the Concealed One in which are found all things, such as
species, faces, images, forms, questions, dissemblances, and changes,
that which counts and that which is counted, that which thinks and that
which is thought.  She made a vesture thereof over all which is in him,
so that he might give to him who asked him.  She gave unto him ten
Powers, and nine Enneads, five AEons, and she gave unto him Light; and
that gave him power over all secret things, so that he might show mercy
to those who had fought, who had towards the aeon fled from matter,
leaving it behind them.  They have fled to the aeon of the Autopator;
they have made their own the promise which has been promised by Him who
said, "He who forsakes father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children,
and riches, and takes up his cross and follows Me, shall receive the
promises that I have promised unto him, and I will give unto them the
Mystery of the Father in Secret, because they have loved that which was
truly theirs and have fled from him who pursues them with injustice."
And he [Autopator] gave them Glory, Joy, Exaltation, Jubilation, Peace,
Hope, Faith, Love, and the Truth which changes not.  This is the Ennead
with which he rewarded those that fled from matter; they became happy,
they became perfect, they knew God and the Truth, they comprehended the
Mystery which works in the Man; for what cause He has revealed Himself,
that they might see Him, for He is in truth Invisible; and for their
sakes He has revealed in words His Logos, so that they might know Him
and become gods and perfect.

When the Mother established the Protogennetor as her son, she gave unto
him the Power of the Sonship; she gave unto him armies of Angels and
Archangels; she gave unto him twelve Powers who served him; she gave
unto him a robe to consummate all things in him, for in it is revealed
every kind of body: the body of fire, the body of water, the body of
air [? spirit], the body of earth, the body of wind, the body angelic,
the body archangelic, the body of Powers, the body of Dominions, the
body of Gods, the body of Lords--in a word, every kind of body, so that
nothing might hinder him from mounting into the heights or descending
into the depths of Noun.  This is the Protogennetor to whom those of
the internal and external Spaces have promised all things that please
him, and it is he who separates all matter; for he brooded over it like
a bird who stretches her wings over her eggs.  Even thus did the
Protogennetor unto matter, and made myriads and myriads of species and
kinds come forth.  When Matter was warmed she produced the multitudes
of Powers that were in her, and he separated them into species and
kinds.  He gave them a law to love one another, to honour God and to
praise Him, and to seek for Him, who He is and what He is, and to
wonder at the place from whence they had come forth, so narrow and so
sad, and not to return thither again, but to follow him who had given
them a law and made them come out of the darkness; of Matter, their
Mother.  He had said to them, "Let there be light."  For they did not
know if there were such a thing as light or not.  Then he gave them the
command not to hurt one another, and left them to go to the Space of
the Mother of the Universe beside the Propator and the Autopator, so
that together they might draw up those who had come forth from matter.

Then the Mother of the Universe (34), the Propator, the Autopator, the
Protogennetor, and the Powers of the aeon of the Mother sang a great
hymn to the One and Only God, praising Him and saying:

"Thou alone art Boundless, Thou only art the Deep, Thou only art the
Incomprehensible One, for Thou art He whom all beings seek and [without
Thy grace] find Thee not, for none can know Thee against Thy will, and
none can praise Thee against Thy will.  For Thy will only is a Space
for Thee, for nothing can contain Thee who art the Space for all.  Thee
I pray that Thou mayest give an holy ordering to those of the World,
that Thou mayest dispose my offspring according to Thy will.  Grieve
not my offspring, for never has anything been grieved by Thee; yet no
one knows Thy Counsel.  Of Thee all beings of the Inner and the Outer
Worlds have need, Thou only Incomprehensible, Thou only beyond All
vision, beyond All mind.  Thou only hast given character to all
creatures and hast manifested them in Thyself.  Of that which is not
yet manifested art Thou the Creator, and Thou alone dost know these
things, for we know them not [of ourselves].  Thou alone revealest them
unto us [through Symbols and Images], so that we may supplicate Thee on
their behalf, so that Thou mayest make them manifest, and we may know
them [as they are in themselves apart from all Symbols] by Thy Grace
alone.  Thou alone hast raised up the Secret Worlds to Thyself, so that
they might know Thee, for Thou hast given unto them the boon of knowing
Thee, for Thou hast given birth unto them from Thy Incorporeal Body and
hast taught them that from Thy Self-productive Mind Thou hast the Man
brought forth in Contemplation and in a perfect Concept, yea, even the
Man brought forth by Mind to whom Contemplation has given a form.  Thou
it is who hast bestowed all good things upon the Man, and He weareth
them like vestures.  He putteth them on like garments and wrappeth
Himself with Creation as with a robe (35).  This Man is He whom all the
Universe yearneth to know, for Thou alone it is who hast ordained unto
the Man to manifest Himself, so that in Him Thou mightest be known and
that all might learn that it is Thou who hast brought Him forth and
that Thou art manifested according to Thy Will.

"Thee do I invoke, and I pray Thee, O Father of all Fatherhood, Lord of
all Lords, to give an holy ordering unto my kinds and to my offspring,
that I may rejoice in Thy Name and in Thy goodness, O Thou Sole King, O
Thou who changest not.  Bestow upon me from Thy goodness, and I will
make known unto my children that Thou art their Saviour" (36).

When the Mother had finished praying to the Boundless One Beyond
Knowledge, who fills the whole Universe and gives life unto all, He
heard her and those with her, for all of them were His own, and He sent
unto her a Power who came forth from the Man whom they desired to
behold.

From Being Unbounded came forth the Infinite Spark of Light, at whom
all the aeons wondered, asking themselves where He had been concealed
before manifesting Himself from the Infinite Father, He from whom the
Universe was manifested and who was latent therein.  The Powers of the
Secret Worlds followed Him when they were manifested and came into the
Temple of the Pleroma.  He hid Himself amidst the Powers who came forth
from the Father in Secret (37).  He made a world and bore it into the
Temple.  Then the Powers of the Pleroma beheld Him and loved Him and
praised Him in hymns ineffable, unspeakable to tongues of mortal flesh,
and good to dream of in the heart of man.  He received their hymn and
made a veil surrounding their world like a wall; then went He to the
borders of the Universal Mother [without] and stood above the Universal
AEon (38).  The Universe was moved at the presence of the Lord of the
whole Earth; the AEon was troubled and in suspense because it had seen
that which it knew not.  The King of Glory was seated, He divided
matter into two halves and into two parts (39).  He fixed the borders
of each part and taught them that they came from One Father and from
One Mother.  To those who ran unto Him and adored Him He gave the place
at the right hand, and gave them Life for ever and ever and
Immortality.  He named the place on the right "The Land of Life," and
the place on the left "The Land of Death"; He named the Earth on the
right "The Earth of Light," and the Earth on the left "The Earth of
Darkness"; He named the Earth on the right "The Earth of Repose," and
the Earth on the left "The Earth of Sorrow."  He placed boundaries
between them and veils, so that they might not see each other; He gave
many Glories to those who had adored Him and gave them dominion over
those who had resisted and opposed Him.  He extended the World of the
Right into many places and placed them [who followed Him] in each
hierarchy, in each aeon, in each world, in each heaven, in each
firmament, in many heavens, in each region, in each space, in each
receptacle.  He gave them [who had followed Him] laws and delivered
unto them commandments, saying, "Keep My sayings and I will give unto
you eternal life; I will send Powers unto you, yea, I will strengthen
you with mighty spirits, and will give unto you the dominion of your
desire: no one shall hinder your will, and you shall bring forth aeons,
worlds, and heavens.  When the intellectual spirits come to dwell in
you then shall ye become gods, then shall ye know that ye came forth
from God, and then shall ye behold Him within yourselves, in your
eternities shall He dwell."

These words spake the Lord of the Universe unto them; then He withdrew
Himself from them and hid Himself from them.  And those who had been
the births of matter rejoiced that their thought had been accomplished;
they rejoiced because they had come forth from the narrow and the sad.
They prayed unto the Hidden Mystery, saying, "Give us power to create
aeons and worlds according to the word which Thou hast sworn unto Thy
servants, for Thou alone art He who changest not, Thou alone art the
Infinite and Boundless One, Thou only art unengendered, born of
Thyself, Self-Father, Thou only art Unmoved and Unknowable, Thou only
Silence art and Love and Fount of the Universe, Thou only art
immaterial and hast no stain, ineffable in Thy generation and
inconceivable in Thy manifestation.  Hear us, then, O Father
Incorruptible, Father Immortal, God of Hidden Beings, sole Light and
Life, Alone beyond Vision, only Unspeakable, only Unstainable, only
[Foundation] stone of Adamant (40), sole Primal Being, for before Thee
nothing was.  Hearken unto this prayer which we make unto Him who is
concealed in every place.  Hear us, send unto us incorporeal spirits
that they may dwell with us and teach us that which Thou hast promised
unto us; that they may dwell in us and that we may become bodies for
them, for it is Thy will that it should thus be.  So may it be.  Give
law unto our work and strengthen it according to Thy will and according
to the order of the hidden aeons; dispose us according to Thy will, for
we are Thine" (41).

And He heard them and sent unto them discerning Powers which knew the
order of those who are hidden.  He established the Hierarchy like the
Hierarchies above and according to the concealed order.  They began
from the base to the summit, so that the building might unite them to
their companions.  He created the aerial earth as a place of habitation
for those who had come forth, so that they might dwell therein until
the strengthening of those who are below them; then created He the true
habitation in the interior of that, the place of repentance in the
interior of that, the antitype of Aerodios; then the place of
repentance in the interior of that, the antitype of Autogenes: in this
place they baptise themselves in the name of Autogenes, who is God over
them, and there are Powers placed in this place over the Fount of the
Waters of Life which they make go forth.  These are the names of the
Powers who are over the Waters of Life: Michar and Micheu; and they
baptise in the name of Barpharanges.  In the interior of these Spaces
are the aeons of Sophia; in the interior of these Spaces is the True
Truth, and Pistis Sophia is found there and also the pre-existent Jesus
the Living, Aerodios and his twelve aeons.  There are placed in this
space Sellao, Eleinos, Zogenetheles, Selmelche, and the Autogenes of
the aeons.  There are placed in him four lights: Eleltheth, Daueithe,
Oroiael ... (42).  He saith (43):

O Alone-begotten of Light, I praise Thee.

O Light unengendered, I praise Thee.

O Light self-begotten, I praise Thee.

O Forefather of Light, more excellent than every Forefather, I praise
Thee.

O Light Invisible, who art before all those beyond vision, I praise
Thee.

O Thought of Light surpassing all Thought, I praise Thee.

O God of Light above all gods, I praise thee.

O Gnosis of Light passing all knowledge, I praise Thee.

O Unknowable One of Light, who art beyond all that is unknown, I praise
Thee.

O Hermit of the Light, who art above all solitaries, I praise Thee.

O All-mighty of the Light, more excellent than the all-powered ones, I
praise Thee.

O Thou Thrice-mighty of the Light, greater than them of Triple-might, I
praise Thee.

O Light that none can separate, for Thou dividest all light, I praise
Thee.

O Thou Pure Light, surpassing all purity, I praise Thee.

O Thou who hast begotten [Thyself] in the absence of all generation,
Whom none has engendered, I praise Thee.

O Fount of the Universality of AEons, I praise Thee.

O True Self-born of Light, who art before all those self-born, I praise
Thee.

O Thou True Unmoved One of Light, who by Thy Will movest all things, I
praise Thee.

O Silence of all things, Silence of Light, I praise Thee.

O Saviour of all things, Saviour of Light, I praise Thee.

O Thou Unconquerable One of Light, I praise Thee.

O Thou Sole Space of all the places of the Universe, I praise Thee.

O Thou Only Universal Mystery, I praise thee.

O Thou Only All-perfect Light, I praise Thee.

O Thou Only Wise One and Sole Wisdom, I praise Thee.

O Thou Only Intangible, I praise Thee.

O Thou True Goodness, who hast made appear all good things, I praise
Thee.

O Thou True Light, who hast made all lights to shine, I praise Thee.

O Thou who sustainest all light and givest life to every soul, I praise
Thee.

O Thou Repose of them [? who seek repose], I praise Thee.

O Thou [Father] of all Paternity from the beginning unto this day, I
praise Thee.

They [? Thy children] search for Thee because Thou art their [Father].
Hear the prayer of [Thy children], for [Thou art He who is hidden] in
every place, He who is the [Desire] of all hearts.



[1] The title and the opening part of the work are lost.




NOTES

(1) The centre of the Universe, which is everywhere and nowhere; the
ideal unity in diversity, from which all things flow out and into which
all things return.  Just as Jerusalem was held to be the centre of the
earth, so was this "City" held to be the hidden centre of the Universe;
hence it is often named "Jerusalem Above, who is the Mother of us all."
It is the principle at once of universality and individuality, the real
"ground" or centre of the soul.  It is called the "House of the Father"
because it is the abiding place of the Presence; the "Robe of the Son"
because it is His Body of Manifestation (_cp._ 2 Clem. xiv.); the
"Power of the Mother" because it is the "Energy" by which man is reborn
into Divine consciousness; and the "Image or Archetype of the Pleroma"
(the World of Eternal Ideas in their "Fullness"), because it is the
Wisdom which is the basis of all consciousness.

(2) This term rather suggests the use of a vibratory formula to induce
certain interior states as a practice of the School to which the Greek
MS. belonged.  Perhaps this may have been IAO, the meaning of which is
given elsewhere as "I, because the All (or Pleroma) hath gone forth.
A, because it will turn itself back again.  O, because the consummation
of all consummations will take place."  This may be taken to mean
exoterically, "I, the Incarnation of Jesus, Who is the Pleroma.  A, the
Crucifixion.  O, the Ascension."  Taken esoterically, it may mean, "I,
the Soul, has come forth from God into generation.  A, it is started or
"Initiated" on its return journey through the Life of the Cross.  O,
there is union with God in the Eternity of Eternities as the
consummation of all things" (_cp._ note 18).  The work we are studying
might almost be considered an exposition of this formula, though I do
not suggest that it literally is so.  We begin by reading it from right
to left, beginning with the God "beyond Name," that is He whose being
cannot be expressed by any name, O.  We pass to the Logos, the Divine
Mind, He who can be named, and His Pleroma, A, from which is "started"
the Visible World by the going forth of the "Light-Spark" or "Man," I.
After this we read from left to right, but this is the expounding of
the mystical life, the "return," under a veil of symbolism.  IAO is the
great Name of God in three vowels, derived historically, no doubt, from
the Great Name in Judaism, and is the counterpart of the Indian AUM.
Probably, like this latter, it was pronounced in three ways: (1)
audibly; (2) inaudibly to others, but with the lips; (3) mentally.  It
was a formula of a sacramental kind by which the life of the disciple
was mystically identified with the Life of the Master, so that the
knowledge of the real nature of the soul is given or restored by God.
During its use the mind was, of course, concentrated on its inner
meanings.  Various aspects of mystical truth could be expressed by its
permutations; IAO, OAI, AOI, etc.

(3) _Cp._ Odes of Solomon, 27: "I stretched out my hands and worshipped
the Lord, for the extension of my hands is His sign, and my expansion
is the Upright Tree [or Pillar]."

The Cross of Calvary was taken, by the Gnostics, to be the outward and
visible sign of a concealed or Cosmic Cross, another aspect of the
"City" or Monad, upon which the Logos or Light-Spark, as the "Son of
Man," or the "Man," was crucified perpetually in an ineffable manner,
thus communicating His Life and Light to the Universe.  The substance
or "strain" of this Cross is symbolised here by the Ennead or Ninefold
Being, the members of which, Knowledge, Life, Hope, etc., are each in
themselves Ideal Beings, Eternities, or Gods.  Yet these Nine, a number
typical of Initiation, are also one, as the Master and the Cross are
also one.  The Mystery is that of an Unbloody Sacrifice once and
perpetually offered and also of Divine Espousal.  [See further the
"Hymn of Jesus" and the "Gnostic Crucifixion" texts and commentaries by
G. R. S. Mead, who renders the passage in the text by "The Source of
the Cross is the Man whom no man can comprehend."]

(4) "Twelve" seems to symbolise the Powers creative of all kinds of
life in their totality, the creative imagination or raying forth power.

(5) "Truth" is another name for the Bride of the Logos, His "Great
Surround" or Body.  It is the Divine Concept or Conceiving Thought of
the Cosmos and its processes, and hence it is also the seal of
perfection or Body of Glory, the Life with which the Risen and Ascended
Master is clad.  While conferring character on all things, it is
entirely transcendent, modeless, and "un-walled."  Through it God is
immanent in the Universe, hence it is also called "Mother."  This is
what the symbolism seems to imply.

(6) This implies the doctrine of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm, of
the Universe and of the individual soul as a perfect compendium
thereof.  All the great cosmic processes are to be found within the
soul.

(7) A "name" was held to be that which manifests the innermost essence
of a thing.  Hence it symbolised the spiritual body or ideal vehicle of
manifestation, the life clothing.  The bestowal of a new name is
therefore the sacramental sign of the gift of a new body or mode of
life.  The real and ineffable Name of God is the Concept or Conceiving
Thought referred to in note 5.  But this is the Name "Mother" or
"Bride" of the Logos, Providence.  To "name" was a sacramental way of
invoking a presence or "spiritual vehicle."

(8) _Cp._ Codex Akhmim: "Of Him it is said, He thinketh His Image alone
and beholdeth it in the Water of Pure Light which surroundeth Him.  And
His Thought energised and revealed herself, and stood before Him in the
Light-Spark--which is the Power which existed before the All--which is
the perfect Forethought of the All--the Barbelo, the AEon perfect in
glory--glorifying Him, because she hath manifested herself in Him and
thinketh Him (_i.e._ gives Him birth).  She is the first Thought, His
Image."  Barbelo seems to mean "In the Four is God": in other words, it
is the personified Tetragrammaton or Great Name commonly rendered by
Jehovah.

(9) Kanoun.  This is a flat, broad basket, originally made of rush or
cane, but often manufactured in precious metals in later times.  It was
used in the sacrificial rites of the gods and was hence classed among
sacred things (_v._ "Basket" in Hastings' _Ency. of Rel. and Ethics_).
What it signifies exactly I am unable to say.  Possibly the rites of
the school, if we only knew them, would throw some light upon the
question.  The offerings of bread and wine at the Eucharist may have
been made in the Kanoun.  Sometimes in the MS. it seems to be connected
with prayer.

(10) The Temple of the Pleromata or Fullnesses seems to be pictured as
being in the manner of that in Jerusalem.  The AEons of the Inner Space
correspond to the Holy of Holies, the AEons of the Middle Space to the
Holy Place, and the AEons of the Outer Space to the Court.  The various
AEons and their powers now described seem to be those of the Inner
Space.  "AEon" and "Space" are practically equivalent terms, only AEon is
on the Mind or Spiritual side of things, Space or Extension (Topos) is
on the Life or Body side of things.  "Space" is purely the space of
mind.  It is a Spiritual Body with many members, each of which is a
god, having his own individual consciousness and being, and yet
partaking perfectly and wholly of a common consciousness or life.  Each
AEon is a mighty Hierarchy in himself, and his "topos" is a Church or
Holy Assembly.  The ideal union of these Spaces is in the Monad or
Indivisible Point, which is therefore the Church of Churches, the Body
of the Man whom no man can comprehend.

(11) Setheus and the twelve three-faced Paternities seem to be the
paradigms, or heavenly patterns, of the Sun, the signs of the Zodiac,
and the thirty-six Decans.  He is the Invisible Sun of Righteousness
behind the visible flame which measures time.  In other words, he is
the symbol of the AEon of AEons, the AEon _par excellence_.  What time is
to the ordinary mundane mind that Setheus is to the Alone-begotten and
the Monad, whose ineffable union he encompasses.  For he is the
manifested Sun of Eternity, (sun symbol). The Monad is the Indivisible
Point within the circle or sphere, and the Light-Spark or Logos is
within the Point, while Setheus himself is, strictly speaking, the
circle or sphere, the well-known symbol of Eternity.  All the aeons are
found in the "topos" of Setheus, as their divinity is not innate, but
comes from conscious participation, hence the name aeon.  I suggest the
name "Setheus" is formed from that of the god Seth, who was a solar
deity in some Egyptian traditions.  No doubt the differentiation of the
name is intentional.

The twelve Paternities about the head are referable to the rays, to the
creative powers, the "Divine Imaginings" of the Mystic Sun in their
totality.

(12) Schmidt thinks that the name "Nicotheos"--"the Victor God"--is a
title of Christ, and that a quotation is given from some lost
Apocalypse, called, perhaps, "The Apocalypse of Nicotheos."  The whole
passage seems to be a definite appeal to the experiences of attained
mystics concerning the Dark Ray.  The "Perfect" was a technical name,
applied to those whose initiation or start had been consummated or
perfected.  Having been regenerated, they were "gods" or "aeons,"
conscious of their kinship with the Pleromata.  Each was now a
hierarchy in himself, a race, as it were.  The passage is probably by a
later hand.

(13) _Cp._ Pseudo Dionysius Myst. Theol.:

"The super-unknown, the super-luminous and loftiest height wherein the
simple and absolute and unchangeable mysteries are cloaked in the
super-lucent darkness of hidden mystic silence, which super-shines most
super-brightly in the blackest night, and in the altogether intangible
and unseen, superfills the eyeless understanding with super-beautiful
brightnesses.  And thou, dear Timothy, in thy intent and practice of
the mystical contemplations, leave behind both thy senses and thy
intellectual operations, and all things known by sense and intellect,
and set thyself, as far as may be, to unite thyself in unknowing with
Him who is above all being and knowledge; for by being purely free and
absolute, out of self and all things, thou shalt be led up to the _Ray
of the Divine Darkness_, stripped and loosed of all."

The above version is by Dom John Chapman, O.S.B., who says that this
passage was "cited throughout the Middle Ages as the _locus classicus_
for method of contemplation."  This is, except for our text, the
earliest mention of the "Dark Ray" in literature.  Evidently Pseudo
Dionysius did not invent the term himself, but followed a much older
Christian tradition.  This fact is important for the history of
Christian mysticism.

(14) This seems to imply a doctrine of pre-existence.  Perhaps the
passage is related to John 17:16: "They are not of the world, even as I
am not of the world....  As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so
sent I them into the world."

(15) _Cp._ Psalm 68:17 (R.V.): "The chariots of God are twenty
thousand, even thousands upon thousands.  The Lord is among them, as in
Sinai, in the sanctuary."

(16) Further descriptions of this, "the oldest of the AEons," are given
later on.  From these it will be gathered that the crown is the Crown
of Life, and that the twelve gates are also twelve deeps or firmaments,
over each of which a Paternity presides.  She is called the Indivisible
One, either "Point," "Atom," or perhaps even "Body" or "Raiment."  As
she is both the Spouse and Mother of the Light-Spark within the AEon, I
have generally called her the Indivisible Queen.

(17) Mr Mead suggests that Phosilampes may be a mystery name of
Basilides.  Has a commentary on the Gospel of St John been used here,
or a commentary on the prologue by Basilides [containing perhaps the
teachings of the alleged instructor of Basilides, Glaucias, whose name,
rather suggesting the "shining one," may equal "Phosilampes"], which
interpreted "In the beginning" as meaning "In the First Concept or in
the Monad was the Word"?

(18) This repetition of the Seven Vowels gives the following meanings
to them:--AAA = Living of Living Ones, HHH = Holy of Holy Ones, EEE =
Being of Beings, III = Father of Fatherhoods, OOO = God of Gods,
YYY=Lord of Lords, +OOO+ = Space of Spaces or AEon of AEons.  The High
and Holy One, together with His Bride and Mother, the "Universal Church
or First Concept," are one in and with the Eternity that they inhabit.
Hence "Thou art the House and the Dweller in the House."  Time (AEon)
and Space (Topos) are here one, or different aspects of the same mode
of being.

(19) _Cp._ "The Mind unto Hermes," 16: "The Cosmos is all-formed
[Pantomorphos]--not having forms external to itself, but changing them,
itself within itself"; also the "Perfect Sermon," xix. 3: "The
thirty-six, who have the name of Horoscopes, are in the self-same space
as the fixed stars; of these the essence chief or Prince is he whom
they call Pantomorph and Omniform, who fashioneth the various forms for
various species."  The Pantomorphic Body is the Augoeides or
Astroeides, the ray-like or star-like glory (not to be confused with
the "astral body" of modern theosophy).  _Cp._ Origen, Ep. 38 ad
Pammach: "Another body, a spiritual and aetherial one, is promised us:
a body that is not subject to physical touch, nor seen by physical
eyes, nor burdened with weight, and which shall be metamorphosed
according to the variety of regions in which it shall be....  In that
spiritual body the whole of us will see, the whole hear, the whole
serve as hands, the whole as feet."  The Star-body is the body of
Resurrection and Ascension.  _Cp._ Mark 16:12: "He was manifested in
_another form_ unto two of them."  Also it was the body of "the
universal" descent, that which transmitted the AEons from the Pleroma or
Ideal World to the Sensible World, hence it was considered to be
"scattered" or in a state of latency, or of mystical death in normal
man.  To awaken it, to gather it together, or to "raise it from the
dead," was one of the first objects of the mystics, who followed the
way of the Gnosis.  Its partial resurgence was the first great step in
the processes of the Apotheosis.  It was the possession of this body,
in some degree, which distinguished a man as "spiritual" from the
psychic and "hylic" men.  The Astroeides included the "natural" body in
its consummation, under a great transmutation, for it was the "Wisdom"
at the basis of material nature.

I have transferred the account of the "City of the Man" from where it
stands, at the end of the MS., to this place, as it seems more
intelligible here, and the exact order has been obscured by the
confusion of the leaves.

(20) _Cp._ "Poemandres," 15: "He [the Man], beholding the form like to
himself existing in her, in her water, loved it and willed to live in
it: and with the will came act, and so he vivified the form devoid of
reason.  And Nature took the object of her love and wound herself
completely round him, and they were intermingled, for they were
lovers....  Thus, though above the Harmony (or Fate sphere), within the
Harmony he [The Man] hath become a slave, ... and though he is
sleepless from a sleepless Sire, yet is he overcome by sleep."

This is the Mystery of the concealment of God in Nature, a mystery that
was sometimes presented under the symbol of a self-scattering,
sometimes under the symbol of a magical sleep, or mystic death.

(21) "The Earth that brought forth the God" is the "ground of the
individual soul," and is also the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Universe,
the Hidden Sanctuary where the "Man" is raised from mystical death or
is reborn.  No doubt the symbolism is drawn from Egyptian sources.

(22) This passage might be paraphrased, "Those who have received Life
and Light in the Concealed Sanctuary of the Soul know, through this
Crown of Perfection, that the Inheritors of the Kingdom of Light are
indeed reborn from the Indivisible Body, who is the Mother of us all.

(23) AAA +OOO+ = The Living Space of Spaces, AEon of AEons.  See note 18
and _cp._ Rev. 1:8, 17-18: "I am Alpha and Omega ... the First and the
Last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and, behold, I am alive unto
the aeon of aeons."

(24) The Body of Christ, which in its transcendental aspect is also His
Bride and Mother.  _Cp._ 2 Clem. xiv.: "I do not suppose that you know
not that the living Church is the body of Christ; for the scripture
saith, 'God made Man, male and female; the male is Christ, the female
the Church; and the books and the Apostles belong not to the Church
that now is, but to the Church which is from above.  For it is
spiritual, as is our Jesus, but is manifested in these last days to
save us.  But the Church, being spiritual, is manifested in the flesh
of Christ....  Great is the Life and Immortality which this flesh can
partake of--that is, of the Holy Spirit which is joined to it--nor can
any declare or utter what the Lord has prepared for His chosen.'"

(25) This extremely interesting and important passage is also one of
great difficulty, for it is full of technical terms and allusions which
would need a small treatise to elucidate properly.  For example, it
seems to imply the doctrine of two Logoi that Clement of Alexandria was
accused of teaching, and which is found in certain Hellenistic
writings.  The "Body of Light" is the Astroeides in which the "Adept"
can cross the "Fate-Sphere," the "Midst," the regions of consciousness
where mechanical cause and effect prevail and contact the Pleroma, or
Universe of Divine Freedom and Fullness.  "Charis" or "Grace" is the
name of the Bride or Body of the Logos, and the use of it here
symbolises a "raiment" or "Body" still more exalted than the
Astroeides.  It is the Body beyond the Stars, the Monadic Robe or "Robe
of Glory," into which the "Star-like Body" was transformed at the
Horos, Limit or Boundary of the Worlds of Difference and of Sameness.
What kind of Peace was that in which the Alone-begotten dwelt in the
Monad?  A Peace most truly given to those within and those without, for
in it all things were created.  To realise what is meant we must
remember that "Charis" and "Resurrection" were names of "Staurus," the
Pillar that made with Horos the Great Cross referred to more than once.
"Peace," then, was the state of the Logos in Mystic crucifixion, the
Peace of God which established, reconciled, justified all things.
Hence it can be inferred what transformation the Star Body had to
undergo to become the Robe of Glory.  The Cross and the Master were
one.  The Cross of Calvary was to the Gnostic Teacher the outer and
efficacious sign of this Mystery or Sacrament.  So also the Pentecostal
outpouring recorded in Acts was the outward sign, or sacramental token,
of the assumption by the Master of the Robe of Glory, the vesture of
the Monad or Transcendental and Universal Church, which could not be
assumed here.  From thenceforth the band of disciples became a Church,
the Mystic Body of Christ, the outward sign of concealed mysteries; and
it will be seen in what manner Jesus was the Father of all Light-Sparks
and gave resurrection to the body.  Such was the teaching of the
Gnosis.  To make the matter clear to readers interested in mysticism,
but unfamiliar with Hellenistic technical terms, it may be said that
the "Bodies" so often referred to may be taken as standing for what may
be called the Life side of various stages of mystical consciousness, as
"Light" stands for the Mind side; but Life and Light are one.

(26) "The Gate of God."  _Cp._ the Naasene Document in Hippolytus:
"This Mystery is the Gate of Heaven, and this is the House of God,
where the Good God dwells alone; into which no impure man shall come,
no psychic, nor fleshly man, ... but it is kept under watch for the
Spiritual alone--where, when they come, they must cast away their
garments, and all become bridegrooms, obtaining their true manhood
through the Virginal Spirit.  For this is the Virgin big with child,
conceiving and bearing a Son--not psychic, not fleshly, but a blessed
AEon of AEons."

"Gnosis," then, was the Mystery of Regeneration or Rebirth from above.
It will be observed that the text shows no hostility to "Faith."  This
is an indication of early date.  "Mystery" is often, though not always,
the equivalent to "Sacrament."

(27) There is then another "Universal Mother," Phanerios or Phaneia
("Wisdom without the Pleroma").  In the last resort the two Mothers are
one.  Phaneia is the Mother of the manifested world in which there is
matter, but she does not seem to be in exile, as in the Sophia Myth.
Like Isis in the Osiris legend, she seems to have gone forth to gather
together the self-scattered limbs of the Man and to redeem Him from
captivity through the efforts of the great hierarchs that are given to
her.

(28) The pre-existence of the soul is taught, also the loss of the
memory of its true nature owing to its fall into "Matter" [Hyle].  But
this fall is not regarded as either a sin or a mistake, but as a
needful step in the mystery of Rebirth or "Re-ordering."  The Overseer
is the "Mind of all Masterhood," the Logos, the Second Father of all.

It is tempting to connect the Triple-Power with the Triple-Bodied Man
of the Naasene Document and see in him the symbol of a simple Universal
Consciousness "polarised" into the three states of Spiritual, Psychic,
and Material.

(29) This Vision of the Advent of the Creative Word seems to be in part
a summary and anticipation of things described otherwise later in the
MS.  After it the writer (or writers) goes back and describes the
"Re-ordering" from the time that "the veils of the aeons were drawn"
from various points of view.  Various Cosmic processes are delineated
symbolically, and their simultaneous working is not excluded.

(30) The Universal Man had fallen into bondage in the Fate-Sphere.

(31) I think that what we are to understand is, that the Man is raised
from His state of Mystical Death or Self-dispersion by the
Protogennetor (Son, First Parent), crowned with the Lights of Wisdom by
the Hidden Father "Who has no consort," and robed with cosmic life by
the Mother.  Compare what has already been said about the Robe of Glory
and the outward signs of its descent at Pentecost.  The work of the
Mantle would seem to symbolise the re-ordering work of the Church, the
"New Creation," the new impulse on its mystical side.  Is
Protogennetor, then, a cryptic title of Christ?  In a sense I think it
is, but there are other issues which are better discussed at a later
point.

The Title "Without King" recalls the Naasene Document and its "One is
the Race without a King which is born Above."

(32) The Seven Stratelatai, leaders or generals, are perhaps the seven
Planets.

(33) _Cp._ the Akhmim Codex: "She (Barbelo) is the First Thought, his
Image, she becometh the First Man; that is the Virginal Spirit, she of
the triple Manhood, the triple-powered one, the triple-named,
triple-born, the aeon which ages not, the Man-woman."

34.  Who are the Mother and the three great hierarchs?  It is tempting
to connect the three with the three traditional paths of Purgation,
Illumination and Union, Water, Fire and Spirit.  The Propator, who
desires to turn the World to God, and who is, through the descent of a
particular power, the Father-Mother of the Spiritual Life to come, may
symbolise the process of Purgation and the Baptism of Water; the
Autopator, who utters the promises of Christ and who has the power of
an Ennead of initiation, may typify the Illuminative Life and the
Baptism of Fire; while the Protogennetor, robed in cosmic
consciousness, so that he can walk even the waters of the Primal Deep
(Noun), who draws forth finally from the material life, may represent
the inception of the Life of Union and the Baptism of the Spirit.  All
this may be true, but, if I mistake not, there is more behind the veil
of symbolism, and it is continual allusions to this _more_, plain
enough to the person for whom it was intended, that renders the MS. so
peculiarly difficult.  Who is Phaneia, the Mother without the Pleroma,
who owes her position to the descent of the Royal Robe?  She stands for
nature in what may be called its sacramental aspect, and she also
stands for the Churches, if I mistake not, and more particularly for
the community or order to which the writer or writers belonged.  This
implies a certain claim to a high mystical self-knowledge on the part
of that community.  Again, the title "Son Protogennetor" is most
significant.  He that bore it must be the Son of the Sacred House, the
"Son of the Doctrine," and the First Parent, or Father in God, of those
to come after.  He invites comparison not only with the Saviour of the
Gospels, but also with figures that appear in the myths of the mystery
cults: with Horos, the son of Isis, with Hermes the Thrice-Great, with
the "Eagle" or "Father" whose title represented the highest grade of
the Mithriaca.  I suggest that he may represent the ideal candidate in
the mystery of initiation--that is to say, he who, by entering into
himself, has attained to the "unio mystica," has raised up the "Man"
within himself, has been "reborn" as a god in Divine consciousness, and
so is qualified to hand on the vital processes of the Gnosis to others,
becoming thereby their spiritual parent.  So he is called Son
Protogennetor.  He is Christ in the sense that Galahad of the "Quest,"
and Parsifal of Wagner's great drama are Christ.  The theory of
initiation as conceived in the early mystical communities seems, in
part at any rate, to rest upon the proposition that he who has himself
attained to Union with God is able to "start," to "initiate," in
suitable persons, and under certain conditions, those processes which,
under Providence, result in a like consummation.  Thus we appear to
have a claim in the MS. to a transmitted "Mastership" in the ranks of
the order going back to Jesus Himself: "For whose sake resurrection is
given to the body.  He is the Father of all Light-Sparks," The Propator
and Autopator would seem to represent different aspects of this claim.
"Gnosis" was not the possession of a body of secret Doctrine in the
sense of having a number of formal propositions containing occult
information, but a vital knowledge of the processes of "Regeneration"
or "Apotheosis."

Then, again, we have the idea of a "Divine Mind" or "Logos" manifesting
Himself through a Body of Universal Consciousness, represented
sacramentally (that is to say effectually) in the "physical world" by
the bodies of a body of believers.  The rites of this body symbolised,
again "effectually," the modes and activities of the Body of Universal
Consciousness of which it was the outward sign, just as its doctrines
reflected on the plane of mentation and discourse the workings of the
Divine Mind, which are above mentation and discourse, though not
contrary to it.  The acceptance of these ideas seems to have
constituted "Pistis"--"the Faith by which we believe in the Mysteries
of the Man"--a mode of the Divine Energy which resulted in good works.
"Gnosis" was the knowledge of the processes by which these ideas passed
from the life of formal belief and intellectual assent into the life of
realised consciousness.  The "Hylics," men in Hyle or "Matter," were
"the children of this world," so absorbed in the life of the senses
five that they lived like "brute beasts without understanding."  [Hyle
as a technical term was not always understood too literally by the
Gnostics and Platonists (see various passages in Codex Bruce), but
derived its importance as the symbol of a certain state of
consciousness.]  "Psychics" were those whose consciousness was
sufficiently aroused to accept a formal belief in viewless Divine
Energies and to order their social conduct on the basis of that belief.
The "Spiritual," the "Perfect," those perfected in Gnosis, that is,
were those that were actually conscious of participating in a Mind in
common and in a Body of transcendental energy in common.  This Mind
(Logos), Light-Spark, and Body (Monad) constituted a sole Being, Man,
or the Son of Man, neither male nor female, and yet both, who enveloped
all things, even those of Hyle (_v._ the Naasene Document) in His
Infinite Perfections, who manifested all things, who was concealed in
all things and who was above all things.  An ideal Church or Community
of "Spiritual" men, conscious of the whole Man in each of its members,
could focus within itself, without any robbery, all the energies of the
Universe, and by concentrating and applying them in a certain manner
could give birth to the whole order within the consciousness of the
called and chosen candidate, who thus became a "Self-Knowing,"
"Self-Fathered," "Fore-Fathered" god, a "Race without a King in the
name God."  His substance was "enformed" by the Sacraments of the
Manifested Order (Phaneia), and the substance thus "enformed" was
finally "assumed," "translated," "transformed," what you will, in a
mode utterly beyond all symbol and image by the "descent" of the Divine
"Grace," "First Concept," "Ennead and Monad Without Seal-Mark,"
"Barbelo" (again what you will), and given final "Re-birth in the Light
of the Mind."  To form an Ideal community of this kind, a community of
gods in God, by a series of grades or steps, places of "Repentance" or
"change" slowly taken, was, I believe, the purpose of those responsible
for the original of the present MS.  "They began from the base upwards
that the building might unite them to their companions"--souls that in
aeonian bliss beheld the Face of God unveiled.  Into this building plan
the Neophyte was initiated to give thereto his soul and body as a
willing oblation and sacrifice.  It seems a reasonable suggestion to
offer that this document consists of a series of meditations and
spiritual exercises given to the candidate before one of the inner
"initiations" or sacramental "starts" that was consummated beyond the
veil of signs and symbols.  For such an end not only Faith, not only a
reasonable Foundation in an accepted philosophy, that of Plato, but an
Imagination intensified into intuition was needed.  Hence these strange
hieroglyphs on the expressed veil.  The Child of Fire must behold
rising within himself from the Immeasurable Abyss of Godhead the
five-rayed morning star of Love, Faith, Hope, Gnosis, and Peace, the
herald of the Perfect Dawn of a New Birth.

Possibly "Propator," "Autopator" and "Protogennetor" may also have been
the official designations of hierophants in the sacramental side of
some "Mystery" consummated in solitude, from which the candidate
returned an "Epopt."

(35) _Cp._ Ps. 104:1, 2: "Thou art clothed with honour and majesty: who
coverest thyself with light as with a garment."

(36) This hymn or prayer seems to be an invocation to the "Dark Ray" on
behalf of the candidate (and also for the building up of the "Ideal
Order").  The consummation, beyond all signs and images, is in the
hands of God alone.  A "start" may be effected by duly qualified
hierophants under certain conditions, but the crown "Pantelos" is given
by the "Father of all Fatherhood" alone.

(37) This looks as if in this system the Fruit of the Pleroma was also
the Father of the Fullnesses.  The phrase "He made a world and bore it
into the Temple" seems to mean that He assumed a body of manifestation.

(38) The veil which surrounded the Pleroma or World of Divine Ideas was
called "Stauros" (Cross) and Horos (Boundary).  _Cp._ Hippolytus (vi.
3):

"Now it is called 'Boundary' because it bounds off the Deficiency from
the Fullness [so as to make it] exterior to it.  It is called Partaker
because it partakes of the Deficiency as well; and it is called 'Cross'
because it hath been fixed immovably and unchangeably, so that nothing
of the Deficiency should be able to approach the aeons within the
Fullness."

See also the "Gnostic Crucifixion," 9, 10, 11 (Acts of John): "[The
Cross] is the defining (or delimitation) of all things, both the firm
necessity of things fixed from things unstable, and the harmony of
wisdom.  And as it is Wisdom in Harmony, there are those on the Right
and those on the Left--powers, authorities, principalities and daemons,
energies, threats, powers of wrath, slanderings--and the Lower Root
from which hath come forth the things in genesis.  This, then, is the
Cross which by the Word hath been the means of 'Cross-beaming' all
things--at the same time separating off the things that proceed from
genesis and those below from those above, and also compacting them all
into one."

The "Mantle" in which the Man is clad and which severs and orders all
things is evidently another aspect of the same idea.

The use of the term "veil" is suggestive, as the term is so often
employed in Hellenistic Mysticism in connection with "Initiation."
Finally, it is just worth noting that it is possible that what Origen
has to say about the self-limitation of God is influenced by the
tradition concerning the Horos or "Boundary."

(39) This is undoubtedly a reference to the Mystical Crucifixion so
often mentioned in previous notes.  It is the Master Symbol of the
Unitive State, of the reconciliation and union of God and Man, and of
the participation of the individual in the Universal.  Its presence at
this point of the text is most suggestive.  The candidate, "the Birth
of Matter," stands, mystically at any rate, before the Veil at the Foot
of the Cross.  To pass the Veil and to enter into the Fullness means
being united with the Master in His Passion and Crucifixion.

The Cross is evidently a Tau, and I suggest that the frontispiece may
represent this Mystery, the Crucifixion of the AEon, O, upon Staurus,
the Cross and the Master being One, A+O+ and A+O+.  The meaning of XMI
is unknown.  It has been suggested that it is (with EIC +THEOS+) a
symbol of the Trinity in Unity, or a veil of the Divine Name.

(40) The terms I have translated as "Sole Unstainable," "Sole
[Foundation]-stone of Adamant" are "Amiantos," "Adamantos."  Besides
meaning "unstainable," Amiantos was the name of a pale green stone.
Readers interested in the legend of the Graal will recall that the
Graal is represented as a green stone in the "Parzival" of Von
Eschenbach.  "Adamantos" is "diamond."  Here and in the account of the
Monad as the Metropolis of Monogenes, "filled with men of every race
and with all the statues of the king," there is a curious parallel to
be found to a happening in the life of Saint Theresa.  "Being once in
prayer," she says, "the Diamond was represented to me like a flash;
although I saw nothing formed, still, it was a representation with all
clearness how all things are seen in God, and how all are contained in
Him....  Let us say that the Divinity is like a very lustrous Diamond,
larger than all the world, or like a mirror--and all that we do is seen
in this Diamond, it being so fashioned that it includes everything
within itself, because there is nothing but what is contained in this
magnitude."

I have ventured to insert [Foundation] because I think that there is a
punning allusion to "Adamas."  _Cp._ Naasene Document: "The 'rock'
means Adamas.  This is the corner-stone ... which I insert in the
foundation of Zion.  By this he means allegorically the plasm of man.
For Adamas, who is inserted in the inner Man, and the foundations of
Zion are ... the wall and palisade (_sc._ Horos) in which is the inner
Man."

(41) The prayer seems to be for the transmutation of the members of the
order by mystical marriages with their archetypal "selves," that the
mysteries of the Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and of the
Descent of the Paraclete may be realised after a certain manner.

(42) Compare this passage with what has already been said concerning an
attempt to form an Ideal Order.  "A place of Metanoia" implies here a
radical change of the whole being rather than "repentance" as
ordinarily understood.  The "topos" of Autogenes, the Self-begotten,
was the first station of the journey of the Light-Spark without the
Pleroma, and is the last station of the return within.

The extant "Gospel of Mary" (Codex Akhmim), which was "reviewed" by
Irenaeus, and was therefore composed before 180 A.D., states that from
the Light of the Christ and the Incorruptible proceed forth four great
Lights to surround Autogenes.  Their names are Harmozel, Oroiael,
Daveithi, and Eleleth.  Irenaeus says, "Charis [Grace] was conjoined
with the great and first Luminary, and this they will have to be the
Saviour and call him Harmogen"--the Harmes-begotten.  The name "Harmes"
appears in the present MS., and is evidently a name for Barbelo.  These
things are important for the date of the Greek original.  The allusions
to Pistis-Sophia are probably interpolated; there seems to be no room
for her adventures in the scheme of the text.  But what are we to make
of the mysterious "Baptism in the name of Barpharanges"?  Does
"Barpharanges" (the meaning of which no one seems to know) simply =
Harmogenes = the begotten from Barbelo, "the Virginal Spirit," the
Image seen in the "pure water of Light"?  If so, then we have in all
probability an allusion to the Gnostic Baptism with the Holy Spirit or
Light.  "Harmogenes" will be the Child of the Mystical Marriage with
the Virginal Spirit by which the "Spiritual" recover their true
manhood, a "blessed aeon of aeons": that is to say, that the Epopt
himself is mystically "Autogenes," the "Self-begotten," having been
reborn a god in God.

The rest of the text is missing.

43.  This Hymn to the Light seems to stand in some close connection
with the text we have been discussing.  If what has been suggested
concerning the contents of the Greek original should prove correct,
both the nature and position of the Hymn become plain.  It consists of
various acts of the will not altogether unlike some of those prescribed
in certain Catholic manuals for those in the Unitive way.  It is the
form of Prayer given by the "Director" or "Master" to his disciple, to
be used together with the MS. as part of his preparation for, what I
believe to be, the "Baptism of Light."  A large part of the Hymn seems
to be missing owing to the state of the MS., and the order is uncertain.





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