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Chaldean Oracles

The World and Nature.
Neoplatonic trans. William Wynn Westcott • c. c. 2nd century CE
107
For the paternal Self-begotten Mind, understanding His works sowed in all, the fiery bonds of love, that all things might continue loving for an infinite time. That the connected series of things might intellectually remain in the Light of the Father; that the elements of the World might continue their course in mutual attraction.
108
The Maker of all things, self-operating, framed the World. And there was a certain Mass of Fire: all these things Self-Operating He produced, that the Body of the Universe might be conformed, that the World might be manifest, and not appear membranous.
109
For He assimilateth the images to himself, casting them around his own form.
110
For they are an imitation of his Mind, but that which is fabricated hath something of Body.
111
There is a Venerable Name, with a sleepless revolution, leaping forth into the worlds, through the rapid tones of the Father.
112
The Ethers of the Elements therefore are there.
113
The Oracles assert that the types of Characters, and of other Divine visions appear in the Ether (or Astral Light).
114
In this the things without figure are figured.
115
The Ineffable and Effable impressions of the World.
116
The Light hating World, and the winding currents by which many are drawn down.
117
He maketh the whole World of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth, and of the all-nourishing Ether.
118
Placing Earth in the middle, but Water below the Earth, and Air above both these.
119
He fixed a vast multitude of un-wandering Stars, not by a strain laborious and hurtful, but with stability void of movement, forcing Fire forward into Fire.
120
The Father congregated the Seven Firmaments of the Kosmos, circumscribing the Heavens with convex form.
121
He constituted a Septenary of wandering Existences (the Planetary globes).
122
Suspending their disorder in Well-disposed Zones.
123
He made them six in number, and for the Seventh He cast into the midst thereof the Fiery Sun.
124
The Centre from which all (lines) which way soever are equal.
125
And that the Swift Sun doth pass as ever around a Centre.
126
Eagerly urging itself towards that Centre of resounding Light.
127
The Vast Sun, and the Brilliant Moon.
128
As rays of Light his locks flow forth, ending in acute points.
129
And of the Solar Circles, and of the Lunar, clashings, and of the Aërial Recesses; the Melody of Ether, and of the Sun, and of the phases of the Moon, and of the Air.
130
The most mystic of discourses informs us that His wholeness is in the Supra-mundane Orders for there a Solar World and Boundless Light subsist, as the Oracles of the Chaldæans affirm.
131
The Sun more true measureth all things by time, being itself the time of time, according to the Oracle of the Gods concerning it.
132
The Disk (of the Sun) is borne in the Starless realm above the Inerratic Sphere; and hence he is not in the midst of the Planets; but of the Three Worlds, according to the telestic Hypothesis.
133
The Sun is a Fire, the Channel of Fire, and the dispenser of Fire.
134
Hence Kronos, The Sun as Assessor beholds the true pole.
135
The Ethereal Course, and the vast motion of the Moon, and the Aërial fluxes.
136
O Ether, Sun, and Spirit of the Moon, ye are the chiefs of the Air.
137
And the wide Air, and the Lunar Course, and the Pole of the Sun.
138
For the Goddess bringeth forth the Vast Sun, and the lucent Moon.
139
She collecteth it, receiving the Melody of Ether, and of the Sun, and of the Moon, and of whatsoever things are contained in the Air.
140
Unwearied Nature ruleth over the Worlds and works, that the Heavens drawing downward might run an eternal course, and that the other periods of the Sun, Moon, Seasons, Night and Day; might be accomplished.
141
And above the shoulders of that Great Goddess, is Nature in her vastness exalted.
142
The most celebrated of the Babylonians, together with Ostanes and Zoroaster, very properly call the starry Spheres "Herds"; whether because these alone among corporeal magnitudes, are perfectly carried about around a Centre, or in conformity to the Oracles, because they are considered by them as in a certain respect the bonds and collectors of physical reasons, which they likewise call in their sacred discourse "Herds" (agelous) and by the insertion of a gamma (aggelous) Angels. Wherefore the Stars which preside over each of these herds are considered to be Deities or Dæmons, similar to the Angels, and are called Archangels; and they are seven in number.
143
Zoroaster calls the congruities of material forms to the ideals of the Soul of the World -- Divine Allurements.