(8) O Keeper of the Portal, let the path be made for me, for I am as one of you. Let me come forth by day, and walk upon my own legs. Let me have the feet of the Glorified

(10) Thou art a duck, and flourishest on land and water, And dost not, like a domestic fowl, dig up the house. Thou art a king of "the sons of Adam honored by God," l And settest foot alike on sea and land; For impress on thy mind, "We have carried them by sea," Before the words, "We have carried them by land." The angels go not on dry land, And the animals know nothing of the sea; Thou in body art an animal, in thy soul an angel;

(22) When you pluck up your foot you escape from the mire, When you obtain salvation at God's hands, O wanderer, You are free from the mire, and go your way. When the suckling is weaned from its nurse, You are bound to the bosom of earth like seeds, Eat the words of wisdom, for veiled light When you have accepted the light, O beloved, When you behold what is veiled without a veil, Like a star you will walk upon the heavens; Nay, though not in heaven, you will walk on high.

(33) Thus thou comest galloping with thy prancing Horse, and thou ridest before the Gate of Heaven, and desirest Abstinence, and in thy Shape thou art a Wolf. What shall St. Peter say to it? Dost thou suppose that he will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven? O! no; he has none for Wolves; he has but one for himself, he had never any to spare for others.

(11) The desires of all of you have been granted by God; Arise, walk without pain or affliction, Acknowledge the mercy and beneficence of God!" Then all, as camels whose feet are shackled, When you loose their feet in the road, Straightway rush in joy and delight to the halting-place, How many afflictions caused by thyself to thyself Hast thou escaped through these princes of the faith? How long that lameness of thine was thy steed! How seldom was thy soul void of sorrow and grief!

(45) Do not tire of knocking on the door of reason, and do not cease walking in the way of Christ. Walk in it so that you may receive rest from your labors. If you walk in another way, there will be no profit in it. For also those who walk in the broad way will go down at their end to the perdition of the mire. For the Underworld is open wide for the soul, and the place of perdition is broad. Accept Christ, the narrow way. For he is oppressed and bears affliction for your sin.

(54) Knock on yourself as upon a door, and walk upon yourself as on a straight road. For if you walk on the road, it is impossible for you to go astray. And if you knock with this one (Wisdom), you knock on hidden treasures.

(2) Hail to you, ye Lords of pure things, ye whose abodes are hidden

(2) "O great power! O name that has come to be in the world! O Allogenes, behold your Blessedness, how silently it abides, by which you know your proper self, and, seeking yourself, ascend to the Vitality that you will see moving.

(10) The great god speaks to thee: Let him be brought here for all that will happen. The hawk rejoices in thee, the cackler cackles to thee, Rā opens to thee the doors of the sky. Seb opens for thee the earth

(72) O how have all the Prophets written of thee, and yet thou knowest not thyself; thou ridest so upon thy fat pampered Beast, and that Riding pleases thee so well, that thou wilt rather go to the Devil into the Abyss of Hell, than that thou wilt light off thy Beast. What shall become of thee then, thou blind Babel? Do but light off from thy great ugly Beast, [which indeed is] thy Might, Pomp, State, and Pride. Behold! thy Bridegroom comes, and reaches forth his Hand to thee, and would lead thee out of Babel.

(2) Be ye then not carried off by the fierce flood, but using the shore-current , ye who can, make for Salvation's port, and, harboring there, seek ye for one to take you by the hand and lead you unto Gnosis' gates. Where shines clear Light, of every darkness clean; where not a single soul is drunk, but sober all they gaze with their hearts' eyes on Him who willeth to be seen. No ear can hear Him, nor can eye see Him, nor tongue speak of Him, but [only] mind and heart. But first thou must tear off from thee the cloak which thou dost wear - the web of ignorance, the ground of bad, corruption's chain, the carapace of darkness, the living death, sensation's corpse, the tomb thou carriest with thee, the robber in thy house, who through the things he loveth, hateth thee, and through the things he hateth, bears thee malice.

(8) And now, my son, be still and solemn silence keep! Thus shall the mercy that flows on us from God not cease. Henceforth rejoice, O son, for by the Powers of God thou art being purified for the articulation of the Reason (Logos). Gnosis of God hath come to us, and when this comes, my son, Not-knowing is cast out. Gnosis of Joy hath come to us, and on its coming, son, Sorrow will flee away to them who give it room. The Power that follows Joy do I invoke, thy Self-control. O Power most sweet! Let us most gladly bid it welcome, son! How with its coming doth it chase Intemperance away!

(8) But what must we do? How lies the path? How come to vision of the inaccessible Beauty, dwelling as if in consecrated precincts, apart from the common ways where all may see, even the profane?

He that has the strength, let him arise and withdraw into himself, foregoing all that is known by the eyes, turning away for ever from the material beauty that once made his joy. When he perceives those shapes of grace that show in body, let him not pursue: he must know them for copies, vestiges, shadows, and hasten away towards That they tell of. For if anyone follow what is like a beautiful shape playing over water- is there not a myth telling in symbol of such a dupe, how he sank into the depths of the current and was swept away to nothingness? So too, one that is held by material beauty and will not break free shall be precipitated, not in body but in Soul, down to the dark depths loathed of the Intellective-Being, where, blind even in the Lower-World, he shall have commerce only with shadows, there as here.

"Let us flee then to the beloved Fatherland": this is the soundest counsel. But what is this flight? How are we to gain the open sea? For Odysseus is surely a parable to us when he commands the flight from the sorceries of Circe or Calypso- not content to linger for all the pleasure offered to his eyes and all the delight of sense filling his days.

The Fatherland to us is There whence we have come, and There is The Father.

What then is our course, what the manner of our flight? This is not a journey for the feet; the feet bring us only from land to land; nor need you think of coach or ship to carry you away; all this order of things you must set aside and refuse to see: you must close the eyes and call instead upon another vision which is to be waked within you, a vision, the birth-right of all, which few turn to use.

(8) O, thou child of man! open the eyes of thy spirit, for I will here shew thee the right and real proper gate of the Deity, as indeed that very one only God will have it.