(61) As the powers of all the stars rule in the air, so also in God; But with its operation every power in God sheweth itself severally and distinctly.

(307) 482 To say: A Heliopolitan is in N., O god; a Heliopolitan as thou (art) is in N. O god; 482 a Heliopolitan is in N., O R`; a Heliopolitan as thou (art) is in N. O R`. 482 The mother of N. is a Heliopolitan; the father of N. is a Heliopolitan. 483 N. himself is a Heliopolitan, who was born in Heliopolis, 483 when R` ruled the Two Enneads, (when) Nefertem ruled men, 483 (as) one without an equal, the heir of his father Geb. 484 Any god who puts out his arm (menacingly), 484 when the face of N. turns to thee to adore thee, 484 (and) when N. calls to thee on behalf of his person, O god, on behalf of his nose, O god, 484 he shall have no bread, he shall have no cake among his brothers, the gods; 485 he shall send no message, he shall not cover in heat among his brothers, the gods; 485 the double doors of the mkt.t-boat shall not be opened for him, the double doors of the m`nd.t-boat shall not be opened for him; 485 his speech shall not be judged as (that of one) in his city; the double doors of the destroyer ("Hell") shall not be open (again) for him. 486 N. comes to thee. 486 N. is the wild-bull of the highlands, the bull with the large head, which comes from Heliopolis. 486 N., wild-bull of the highlands, comes to thee. 486 Henceforth N. is he who has given birth to thee and who gives birth to thee.

(4) "And the five great rulers of the great Fate of the æons and the ruler of the disk of the sun and the ruler of the disk of the moon inbreathe within into that soul, and there cometh forth out of them a portion out of my power which the last Helper hath cast into the Mixture. And the portion of that power remaineth within in the soul, unloosed and existing on its own authority for the economy unto which it hath been inset, to give sense unto the soul, in order that it may seek after the works of the Light of the Height always. "And that power is like the species of the soul in every form and resembleth it. It cannot be outside the soul, but remaineth inside it, as I have commanded it from the beginning. When I willed to cast it into the first Commandment, I gave it commandment to remain outside [? inside] the souls for the economy of the First Mystery.

(42) It follows that, for the purposes which have induced this discussion, the stars have no need of memory or of any sense of petitions addressed to them; they give no such voluntary attention to prayers as some have thought: it is sufficient that, in virtue simply of the nature of parts and of parts within a whole, something proceeds from them whether in answer to prayer or without prayer. We have the analogy of many powers- as in some one living organism- which, independently of plan or as the result of applied method, act without any collaboration of the will: one member or function is helped or hurt by another in the mere play of natural forces; and the art of doctor or magic healer will compel some one centre to purvey something of its own power to another centre. just so the All: it purveys spontaneously, but it purveys also under spell; some entity is concerned for a member situated within itself and summons the All which, then, pours in its gift; it gives to its own part by the natural law we have cited since the petitioner is no alien to it. Even though the suppliant be a sinner, the answering need not shock us; sinners draw from the brooks; and the giver does not know of the gift but simply gives- though we must remember that all is one woof and the giving is always consonant with the order of the universe. There is, therefore, no necessity by ineluctable law that one who has helped himself to what lies open to all should receive his deserts then and there.

In sum, we must hold that the All cannot be affected; its leading principle remains for ever immune whatsoever happens to its members; the affection is really present to them, but since nothing existent can be at strife with the total of existence, no such affection conflicts with its impassivity.

Thus the stars, in so far as they are parts, can be affected and yet are immune on various counts; their will, like that of the All, is untouched, just as their bodies and their characteristic natures are beyond all reach of harm; if they give by means of their souls, their souls lose nothing; their bodies remain unchanged or, if there is ebb or inflow, it is of something going unfelt and coming unawares.

(82) And he has power over night and day in the heaven to cause the light to give light to men--sun, moon, and stars, and all the powers of the heaven which revolve in their circular chariots.

(9) As I said before, all the powers or virtues are in God the Father, and no man with his sense and thoughts can reach to apprehend it. But in the stars and the elements, as also by all the creatures in the whole creation of this world, a man may clearly know it.

(1) BUT since the theologians sing the Divine truth fulness and super-wise wisdom, both as power and as justice, and designate It preservation and redemption, come then, let us unfold these Divine Names also, as best we can. Now, that the Godhead is pre-eminent above, and surpasses every power, howsoever being and conceived, I do not suppose any of those nourished in the Divine Oracles does not know. For on many occasions the Word of God attributes the Lordship to It, even when distinguishing It from the supercelestial powers themselves. How then do the theologians sing it also as a Power, which is pre-eminent above every power? or how ought we to understand the name of power as applied to It?

(2) "For this cause have I chosen you verily from the beginning through the First Mystery. Rejoice then and exult, for when I set out for the world, I brought from the beginning with me twelve powers, as I have told you from the beginning, which I have taken from the twelve saviours of the Treasury of the Light, according to the command of the First Mystery. These then I cast into the womb of your mothers, when I came into the world, that is those which are in your bodies to-day. For these powers have been given unto you before the whole world, because ye are they who will save the whole world, and that ye may be able to endure the threat of the rulers of the world and the pains of the world and its dangers and all its persecutions, which the rulers of the height will bring upon you. For many times have I said unto you that I have brought the power in you out of the twelve saviours who are in the Treasury of the Light. For which cause I have said unto you indeed from the beginning that ye are not of the world. I also am not of it. For all men who are in the world have gotten their souls out of [the power of] the rulers of the æons. But the power which is in you is from me; your souls belong to the height. I have brought twelve powers of the twelve saviours of the Treasury of the Light, taking them out of the portion of my power which I did first receive. And when I had set forth for the world, I came into the midst of the rulers of the sphere and had the form of Gabriēl the angel of the æons; and the rulers of the æons did not know me, but they thought that I was the angel Gabriēl.

(1) And then again, O my son Messos, the all-glorious one, Youel spoke to me; she appeared [to] me and said: "No one is able to hear these things except the great powers alone. O Allogenes, you have been vested with a great power, that with which the Father of the All vested you before you came to this place, so that

(3) The distribution, then, of boundless power, from Almighty God, passes to all beings, and there is no single being which is utterly deprived of the possession of some power; but it has either intellectual, or rational, or sensible, or vital, or essential power; yea even, if one may say so, self-existent being has power to be from the superessential Power.

(91) Again let the Thracian Orpheus sing to us: "His right hand all around to ocean's bound He stretches; and beneath His feet is earth."

(1) I was sent out from the power and have come to you who study me and am found by you who seek me. Look at me, you who study me, and you who hear, hear me. You waiting for me, take me into yourselves. Don't banish me from your vision. Don't let hatred enter your voice against me or let anger enter your hearing. In no place, in no time, be unknowing of me. Be alert. Don't be ignorant of me.

(1) I heard a voice saying to me, "Shem, since you are from an unmixed power and you are the first being upon the earth, hear and understand what I shall say to you first concerning the great powers who were in existence in the beginning before I appeared. There was light and darkness, and there was spirit between them. Since your root fell into forgetfulness—that which was the unconceived spirit—I reveal to you the truth about the powers. The light was thought, full of attentiveness and reason; they were united into one form. And the darkness was wind in waters. He possessed the mind wrapped in chaotic fire. And the spirit between them was a gentle, humble light. These are the three roots. They reigned each in themselves, alone. And they covered each other, each one with its power.

(1) Let us, therefore, now discuss another species of doubts, the cause of which is occult, and which, as you say, is accompanied with “ violent threats .” But it is variously divided about the multitude of threats. “ For it threatens either to burst the heavens, or to unfold the secrets of Isis, or to point out the arcanum in the adytum, or to stop Baris, or to scatter the members of Osiris to Typhon, or to do something else of the like kind. ” Men do not, however, as you think, threaten by such words as these the sun or the moon, or any of the celestial Gods; for if they did, more dire absurdities would ensue than those which you lament. But, as we before observed, there is a certain genus of powers in the world which is partible, inconsiderate, and most irrational, and which receives reason from another, and is obedient to it; neither itself employing a proper intelligence, nor distinguishing what is true and false, or what is possible or impossible. A genus, therefore, of this kind, when threatenings are extended, is immediately coexcited and astonished, because, as it appears to me, it is naturally adapted to be led by representations, and to allure other things, through an astounded and unstable phantasy.

(1) Come, then, let us at last, if you please, rest our mental vision from the strain of lofty contemplation, befitting Angels, and descend to the divided and manifold breadth of the many-shaped variety of the Angelic forms, and then return analytically from the same, as from images, to the simplicity of the Heavenly Minds. But let this first be made plain to you, that the explanations of the sacredly depicted likenesses represent the same ranks of the Heavenly Beings as sometimes ruling, and, at other times, as being ruled; and the last, ruling, and the first, being ruled; and the same, as has been said, having first, and middle, and last powers --without introducing anything absurd into the description, according to the following method of explanation. For if indeed we were to say that some are ruled by those above them, and then that they rule the same, and that those above, whilst ruling those below, are ruled by those same who are being ruled, the thing would manifestly be absurd, and mixed with all sorts of confusion. But if we say that the same rule and are ruled, but no longer the self-same, or from the self-same, but that each same is ruled by those before, and rules those below, one might say appropriately that the Divinely pictured presentations in the Oracles may sometimes attribute, properly and truly, the very same, both to first, and middle, and last powers. Now the straining elevation to things above, and their being drawn unswervingly around each other, as being guardians of their own proper powers, and that they participate in the providential faculty to provide for those below them by mutual communication, befit truly all the Heavenly Beings, although some, pre-eminently and wholly, as we have often said, and others partially and subordinately.

(1) [Asclepius] What part of the economy, Thrice-greatest one, does the Heimarmenē, or Fate, then occupy? For do not the celestial Gods rule over generals ; the terrene occupy particulars?

[Trismegistus] That which we call Heimarmenē, Asclepius, is the necessity of all things that are born, bound ever to themselves with interlinked enchainments. This, then, is either the effector of all things, or it is highest God, or what is made the second God by God Himself,—or else the discipline of all things both in heaven and on earth, established by the laws of the Divine.

(2) Beyond the Heaven starless Space doth stretch, stranger to every thing possessed of body. The Dispensator who’s between the Heaven and Earth, is Ruler of the Space which we call Zeus [Above]. The Earth and Sea is ruled by Zeus Below ; he is the Nourisher of mortal lives, and of fruit-bearing [trees]. It is by reason of the powers of all of these that fruits, and trees, and earth, grow green. The powers and energies of [all] the other [Gods] will be distributed through all the things that are.

(35) From whence the affections or insinuations exist; for the power of Venus makes fierce Mars or the fire-crack mild, and mitigateth it, and makes Jupiter humble, else the power of Jupiter would break through the hard chamber, Saturn; and in men and beasts would break through the skull or brainpan; and so the sensibility would transmute itself into high-mindedness above the birthright, or right, law or order of the geniture of the Deity, in the manner and way of the proud devil. Of the Planet Mercurius.

(80) Just in such a manner is the operation or power of a Cherubim or throne angel, which works or operateth in all his angels, as the Son and Holy Ghost operate in all the powers of the Father; or as the sun operateth in all the powers of the stars [planets].

(18) The whole establishment of matter is divided into three. The strong powers which the spiritual Logos brought forth from fantasy and arrogance, he established in the first spiritual rank. Then those (powers) which these produced by their lust for power, he set in the middle area, since they are powers of ambition, so that they might exercise dominion and give commands with compulsion and force to the establishment which is beneath them. Those which came into being through envy and jealousy, and all the other offspring from dispositions of this sort, he set in a servile order controlling the extremities, commanding all those which exist and all (the realm of) generation, from whom come rapidly destroying illnesses, who eagerly desire begetting, who are something in the place where they are from and to which they will return. And therefore, he appointed over them authoritative powers, acting continuously on matter, in order that the offspring of those which exist might also exist continuously. For this is their glory.