(1) [Asclepius] And of what nature, O Thrice-greatest one, may be the quality of those who are considered terrene Gods?

[Trismegistus] It doth consist, Asclepius, of plants, and stones, and spices, which contain the nature of [their own] divinity. And for this cause they are delighted with repeated sacrifice, with hymns, and lauds, and sweetest sounds, tuned to the key of Heaven’s harmonious song.

(1) Here, then is the beginning of when it was decided to make man, and when what must enter into the flesh of man was sought. And the Forefathers, the Creators and Makers, who were called Tepeu and Gucumatz said: "The time of dawn has come, let the work be finished, and let those who are to nourish and sustain us appear, the noble sons, the civilized vassals; let man appear, humanity, on the face of the earth." Thus they spoke.

(44) Timaeus: and proceed accordingly, in the exposition now to be given. The divine revolutions, which are two, they bound within a sphere-shaped body, in imitation of the spherical form of the All, which body we now call the “head,” it being the most divine part and reigning over all the parts within us. To it the gods delivered over the whole of the body they had assembled to be its servant, having formed the notion that it should partake in all the motions which were to be.

(36) Timaeus: and uniting them center to center He made them fit together. And the Soul, being woven throughout the Heaven every way from the center to the extremity, and enveloping it in a circle from without, and herself revolving within herself, began a divine beginning of unceasing and intelligent life lasting throughout all time. And whereas the body of the Heaven is visible, the Soul is herself invisible but partakes in reasoning and in harmony,

(11) Thou art the first of gods, the ancient Soul; Thou art the supreme Resting-place of the universe; Thou art the Knower and That which is to be known and the Ultimate Goal. And by Thee is the world pervaded, Ο Thou of infinite form.

(77) Timaeus: and using its own native motion, it is not endowed by its original constitution with a natural capacity for discerning or reflecting upon any of its own experiences. Wherefore it lives indeed and is not other than a living creature, but it remains stationary and rooted down owing to its being deprived of the power of self-movement. And when our Superiors had generated all these kinds as nutriment for us inferior beings, they channelled out our body itself, like as if they were cutting channels in gardens, to the end that it might be irrigated as it were by an inflowing stream. And firstly, beneath the junction

(90) Timaeus: wherefore care must be taken that they have their motions relatively to one another in due proportion. And as regards the most lordly kind of our soul, we must conceive of it in this wise: we declare that God has given to each of us, as his daemon, that kind of soul which is housed in the top of our body and which raises us—seeing that we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant up from earth towards our kindred in the heaven. And herein we speak most truly; for it is by suspending our head and root from that region whence the substance of our soul first came that the Divine Power

(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.

(15) But its Body (which is the true Image of God, which God created) stands before the clear Deity, and is in and out of the holy pure Element; and the Limbus of the Element (out of which the Essences generate) is the Paradise, an Habitation of God the Holy Trinity. Thus was Man an Image and Similitude before God, wherein God dwells, in which (through his eternal Wisdom) he would manifest his Wonders.

(42) Timaeus: and earth and air, a mass tumultuous and irrational, returns again to the semblance of his first and best state. When He had fully declared unto them all these ordinances, to the end that He might be blameless in respect of the future wickedness of any one of them, He proceeded to sow them, some in the Earth, some in the Moon , others in the rest of the organs of Time. Following upon this sowing, He delivered over to the young gods the task of molding mortal bodies, and of framing and controlling all the rest of the human soul which it was still necessary to add, together with all that belonged thereto,

(4) (And they cry aloud to Thee, O Mazda! I speaking with them, and in their name): Where is the (promised ) lord of our thrift (the embodied law, saving us from the most dreaded dangers that we fear , the thrift-lord) of (our) ready zeal? Where does he stand to (show us) mercy? Whither are (Thy) Righteousness and the Bountiful Âramaiti (our Piety) approaching? From what direction comes Thy Best Mind (to inspire and to guide)? And whence (again), O Great Creator! Thy Sovereign Power (to be our ruler and defence )?

(41) And the holy [pure] Element of the Heaven, which incloses the Deity, that was the Limbus (or the masculine Seed) to this Creature; and the holy Spirit, with the holy Fiat, in the Virgin of the divine Wisdom, was the Master-builder, and the first Beginner; and every Regimen built its own (in its own Center) therein.

(70) Timaeus: at the navel, fashioning as it were a manger in all this region for the feeding of the body; and there they tied up this part of the Soul, as though it were a creature which, though savage, they must necessarily keep joined to the rest and feed, if the mortal stock were to exist at all. In order, then, that this part, feeding thus at its manger and housed as far away as possible from the counselling part, and creating the least possible turmoil and din, should allow the Supreme part to take counsel in peace

(125) Now as all angels are bound to the king, so is the king also bound to God his Creator, as body and soul; the body signifieth God; and the soul signifieth the angelical king, who is in the body of God, and is become a creature in the body of God, and abideth eternally in the body of God, as the soul does in its nest. And therefore also has God so highly glorified him, as his own propriety, or as the soul is glorified in the body.

(10) Do ye, O Ahura and thou, O Righteousness! grant gladness unto these (our disciples), and the sovereign Kingdom (of the Deity) such as (is established) in (His) Good Mind by which one bestows upon them the peaceful amenities of home and quiet happiness (as against the fearful ravages which they suffer ), for of these, O Great Creator! I ever thought Thee first possessor !

(19) Thus, my very precious Mind, apprehend it right. This same Throne was made in Time (when the Time of his Covenant was revealed) an angelical Principality in the Mercy of God, in the holy pure Element, in the sacred Ternary, that is, in the holy Earth, wherein the Deity is substantially known; so that the whole Mercy of God (which is unmeasurable, and every where in the sacred Ternary; which is likewise so great in the holy Element, that it comprises Heaven and this World) became a Man; that is, a substantial Similitude of the Spirit of the Trinity, in which Likeness the Trinity dwells with complete fullness; and in this great angelical Throne and Principality stood in the Beginning, and from Eternity the Aspect in the infinite Multiplicity proceeding from all the Essences in the Limbus of the Father, and became truly illustrate [or manifest] in the Time of the Promise.

(2) But the soul which verges downward draws along with it the signs of bonds and punishments, is heavy with material spirits, is detained by the anomalous tumults of matter, and exhibits before itself, genesiurgic presiding dæmons. And, in short, all these genera exhibit their proper orders; viz. the aerial genera exhibit aerial fire; the terrestrial a terrestrial and blacker fire; and the celestial a more splendid fire. But in these three boundaries all the genera are distributed according to a triple order of beginning, middle, and end. And the Gods, indeed, exhibit the supreme and most pure causes of this triple order. But the genera of angels depend on those of archangels. The genera of dæmons appear to be subservient to those of angels; and in a similar manner to these, the genera of heroes are ministrant. They are not, however, subservient to angels in the same way as dæmons. Again, the genera of archons, whether they preside over the world or over matter, exhibit the order which is adapted to them. But all the genera of souls present themselves to the view as the last of more excellent natures. Hence, also, they exhibit places in conjunction with themselves; souls of the first rank primary, but those of the second rank secondary, places, and the rest conformably to their arrangement, in each of these three genera.

(5) And one immortal chief acts in the government of each of them; as it says, that Pêshyôtanû son of Vistâsp, whom they call Kîtrô-maînô, is in the country of Kangdez; Aghrêrad son of Pashang is in the land of Saukavastân, and they call him Gôpatshah; Parsadgâ Hvembya is in the plain of Pêsyânsaî, and he is Hvembya for this reason, because they brought him up in a hvemb ('jar') for fear of Khashm ('Wrath'); [Asâm-i Yamâhust is in the place which they call the River Nâîvtâk]; the tree opposed to harm is in Aîrân-vêg; Urvatad-nar son of Zaratûst is in the enclosure formed by Yim.

(102) We must continue in this Throne [which is ours.] What are the other Thrones to me, where the Principalities of Angels are? They are indeed our Friends, and faithful Helps in the Service of God; we must look upon our own Throne wherein we were created and made Creatures, and upon our Prince in that Throne, upon God. The first Purpose of God when he created us, and beheld us in the eternal Band, that must stand.

(52) Timaeus: which admits not of destruction, and provides room for all things that have birth, itself being apprehensible by a kind of bastard reasoning by the aid of non-sensation, barely an object of belief; for when we regard this we dimly dream and affirm that it is somehow necessary that all that exists should exist in some spot and occupying some place , and that that which is neither on earth nor anywhere in the Heaven is nothing. So because of all these and other kindred notions, we are unable also on waking up to distinguish clearly the unsleeping and truly subsisting substance, owing to our dreamy condition,