(30) And in periods of seven days the moon undergoes its changes. In the first week she becomes half moon; in the second, full moon; and in the third, in her wane, again half moon; and in the fourth she disappears. Further, as Seleucus the mathematician lays down, she has seven phases. First, from being invisible she becomes crescent-shaped, then half moon, then gibbous and full; and in her wane again gibbous, and in like manner half moon and crescent-shaped.

(6) For there will be those who will assuredly make observations of the moon — now (it) disturbeth the seasons and cometh in from year to year ten days too soon.*

(3) Now the number 300 is, 3 by 100. Ten is allowed to be the perfect number. And 8 is the first cube, which is equality in all the dimensions - length, breadth; depth. "The days of men shall be," it is said, "120 (rk) years." And the sum is made up of the numbers from r to 15 added together. And the moon at 15 days is full.

(138) For the Goddess bringeth forth the Vast Sun, and the lucent Moon.

(1) Jesus answered and said unto Mary: "A day of the Light is a thousand years in the world, so that thirty-six-myriads of years and a half-myriad of years of the world are a single year of the Light. "I shall, therefore, pass a thousand years of the Light being king in the midst of the last Helper, and being king over all the emanations of the Light and over the whole number of the perfect souls who have received the mysteries of the Light.

(23) And the days will begin to grow many and increase amongst those children of men, Till their days draw nigh to one thousand years, And to a greater number of years than (before) was the number of the days.

(6) For this reason the years will come upon them when they will disturb (the order), ' A lunar year consists of 354 days. Our author wages a polemic against the use of the moon for determining the seasons and feasts. But a lunar year was accepted by the Pharisees. and make an abominable (day) the day of testimony, and an unclean day a feast day, and they will con- found all the days, the holy with the unclean, and the unclean day with the holy; for they will go wrong as to the months and sabbaths and feasts and jubilees.

(16) Thou completest the hours of the Night, according as thou hast measured them out. And when thou hast completed them according to thy rule, day dawneth

(1) It came to pass then, when that light-power had come down over Jesus, that it gradually surrounded him entirely. Then Jesus ascended or soared into the height, shining most exceedingly in an immeasurable light. And the disciples gazed after him and none of them spake, until he had reached unto heaven; but they all kept in deep silence. This then came to pass on the fifteenth day of the moon, on the day on which it is full in the month Tybi.

(5) When they tell us that a certain cold star is more benevolent to us in proportion as it is further away, they clearly make its harmful influence depend upon the coldness of its nature; and yet it ought to be beneficent to us when it is in the opposed Zodiacal figures.

When the cold planet, we are told, is in opposition to the cold, both become meanacing: but the natural effect would be a compromise.

And we are asked to believe that one of them is happy by day and grows kindly under the warmth, while another, of a fiery nature, is most cheerful by night- as if it were not always day to them, light to them, and as if the first one could be darkened by night at that great distance above the earth's shadow.

Then there is the notion that the moon, in conjunction with a certain star, is softened at her full but is malignant in the same conjunction when her light has waned; yet, if anything of this order could be admitted, the very opposite would be the case. For when she is full to us she must be dark on the further hemisphere, that is to that star which stands above her; and when dark to us she is full to that other star, upon which only then, on the contrary, does she look with her light. To the moon itself, in fact, it can make no difference in what aspect she stands, for she is always lit on the upper or on the under half: to the other star, the warmth from the moon, of which they speak, might make a difference; but that warmth would reach it precisely when the moon is without light to us; at its darkest to us it is full to that other, and therefore beneficent. The darkness of the moon to us is of moment to the earth, but brings no trouble to the planet above. That planet, it is alleged, can give no help on account of its remoteness and therefore seems less well disposed; but the moon at its full suffices to the lower realm so that the distance of the other is of no importance. When the moon, though dark to us, is in aspect with the Fiery Star she is held to be favourable: the reason alleged is that the force of Mars is all-sufficient since it contains more fire than it needs.

The truth is that while the material emanations from the living beings of the heavenly system are of various degrees of warmth- planet differing from planet in this respect- no cold comes from them: the nature of the space in which they have their being is voucher for that.

The star known as Jupiter includes a due measure of fire , in this resembling the Morning-star and therefore seeming to be in alliance with it. In aspect with what is known as the Fiery Star, Jupiter is beneficent by virtue of the mixing of influences: in aspect with Saturn unfriendly by dint of distance. Mercury, it would seem, is indifferent whatever stars it be in aspect with; for it adopts any and every character.

But all the stars are serviceable to the Universe, and therefore can stand to each other only as the service of the Universe demands, in a harmony like that observed in the members of any one animal form. They exist essentially for the purpose of the Universe, just as the gall exists for the purposes of the body as a whole not less than for its own immediate function: it is to be the inciter of the animal spirits but without allowing the entire organism and its own especial region to run riot. Some such balance of function was indispensable in the All- bitter with sweet. There must be differentiation- eyes and so forth- but all the members will be in sympathy with the entire animal frame to which they belong. Only so can there be a unity and a total harmony.

And in such a total, analogy will make every part a Sign.

(2) And it came to pass then, on the fifteenth day of the moon in the month Tybi, which is the day on which the moon is full, on that day then, when the sun had come forth in his going, that there came forth behind him a great light-power shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure to the light conjoined with it. For it came out of the Light of lights, and it came out of the last mystery, which is the four-and-twentieth mystery, from within without,--those which are in the orders of the second space of the First Mystery. And that light-power came down over Jesus and surrounded him entirely, while he was seated removed from his disciples, and he had shone most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light which was on him.

(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.

(21) Leaf 9. In the upper left it is written that without the light of the Moon the Sun does not heat the earth and that into the Moon the Sun emits its fruits. In the upper right the true herb of the philosophers is described, and it is declared that whoever believes in and it shall be [spiritually] rich. The panel concludes thus: "Understand thoroughly what it is that the man has in either hand if you wish to be enlightened." The text to the left above the sun reads: "Entirely without the Sun and Moon, make dye; dissolve, congeal, and like produces for itself like." The words to the right of the man holding the Philosopher's herb declare sublimation to be the beginning, the middle and the end of the Great Work. The last sentence reads: "Out of the Sun and Moon make a thing of equal parts, and by their union, God willing, let the Philosopher's Stone be made."

(146) Secondly, it is also therefore counted for a human day, because, doubtless, the earth instantly began its revolution and did turn round about once in such a period of time, while God was separating, and so till he had separated, the light from the darkness; and thus it [the earth] performed and finished its course the first time.

(41) But when the light is generated, then it enlighteneth all the seven qualifying or fountain spirits, so that all seven are [become] understanding, and all seven do give their will to the birth of the light.

(4) The reappearance of the moon, and the creation of the month

(20) For the motion of the sun from solstice to solstice is completed in six months - in the course of which, at one time the leaves fall, and at another plants bud and seeds come to maturity. And they say that the embryo is perfected exactly in the sixth month, that is, in one hundred and eighty days in addition to the two and a half, as Polybus the physician relates in his book On the Eighth Month, and Aristotle the philosopher in his book On Nature. Hence the Pythagoreans, as I think, reckon six the perfect number, from the creation of the world, according to the prophet, and call it Meseuthys and Marriage, from its being the middle of the even numbers, that is, of ten and two. For it is manifestly at an equal distance from both.

(5) But when, on the first day, the light somewhat brake forth again, through the Word or Heart of God in the root of the nature of the body of this world, as a choosing or appropriating of the day, or as a beginning of the mobility of life, then the severe and astringent birth or geniture again obtained a glimpse or rising up of the life in the birth or geniture.

(75) But the light presseth in very gently after, and formeth the birth, which birth, through the terror or crack of the fire-flash, has gotten its [the birth's] compacted body. Of the Growths or Vegetables of the Earth.

(5) For there are a hundred and eighty apertures (rôgîn) in the east, and a hundred and eighty in the west, through Albûrz; and the sun, every day, comes in through an aperture, and goes out through an aperture; and the whole connection and motion of the moon and constellations and planets is with it: every day it always illumines (or warms) three regions (kêshvar) and a half, as is evident to the eyesight.