(2) Invoking then Jesus, the Paternal Light, the Real, the True, "which lighteth every man coming into the world," "through Whom we have access to the Father," Source of Light, let us aspire, as far as is attainable, to the illuminations handed down by our fathers in the most sacred Oracles, and let us gaze, as we may, upon the Hierarchies of the Heavenly Minds manifested by them symbolically for our instruction. And when we have received, with immaterial and unflinching mental eyes, the gift of Light, primal and super-primal, of the supremely Divine Father, which manifests to us the most blessed Hierarchies of the Angels in types and symbols, let us then, from it, be elevated to its simple splendour. For it never loses its own unique inwardness, but multiplied and going forth, as becomes its goodness, for an elevating and unifying blending of the objects of its care, remains firmly and solitarily centred within itself in its unmoved sameness; and raises, according to their capacity, those who lawfully aspire to it, and makes them one, after the example of its own unifying Oneness. For it is not possible that the supremely Divine Ray should otherwise illuminate us, except so far as it is enveloped, for the purpose of instruction, in variegated sacred veils, and arranged naturally and appropriately, for such as we are, by paternal forethought.

(71) Father begotten Light, which alone hath gathered from the strength of the Father the Flower of mind, and hath the power of understanding the Paternal mind, and doth instil into all Fountains and Principles the power of understanding and the function of ceaseless revolution.

(13) Thus it may very plainly be understood, that the Light of God is a Cause of all Things, and you may hereby understand all the three Principles: For if the Power, Virtue, and Light of God were not, then there would be also no attractive Longing in the dark Eternity, and also the sour Desire (which is the Mother of the Eternity) would be nothing at all; and it may be understood, that the divine Virtue shines in every Thing, and yet it is not the Thing itself, but the Spirit of God in the second Principle; and yet the Thing is his Ray, [Glance or Luster,] which thus proceeds from the longing, or attracting Will. But now the Heart of God is in the Father, [in] the first Will, and the Father is the first Desiring or Longing after the Son, and the Son is the Virtue and Light of the Father, from whence the eternal Nature becomes always longing; and so from the Heart of God, in the eternal dark Matrix, [it] generates the third Principle. For so God is manifest, but otherwise the Deity would remain hidden eternally.

(72) For he is light from the power of God, and he is an emanation of the pure glory of the Almighty. He is the spotless mirror of the working of God, and he is the image of his goodness. For he is also the light of the Eternal Light. He is the eye which looks at the invisible Father, always serving and forming by the Father's will. He alone was begotten by the Father's good pleasure. For he is an incomprehensible Word, and he is Wisdom and Life. He gives life to, and nourishes, all living things and powers. Just as the soul gives life to all the members, he rules all with power and gives life to them. For he is the beginning and the end of everyone, watching over all and encompassing them. He is troubled on behalf of everyone, and he rejoices and also mourns. On the one hand, he mourns for those who have gotten as their lot the place of punishment; on the other, he is troubled about every one whom he arduously brings to instruction. But he rejoices over everyone who is in purity.

(6) The one whom he raised up as a light for those who came from himself, the one from whom they take their name, he is the Son, who is full, complete and faultless. He brought him forth mingled with what came forth from him [...] partaking of the [...] the Totality, in accordance with [...] by which each one can receive him for himself, though such was not his greatness before he was received by it. Rather, he exists by himself. As for the parts in which he exists in his own manner and form and greatness, it is possible for to see him and speak about that which they know of him, since they wear him while he wears them, because it is possible for them to comprehend him. He, however, is as he is, incomparable. In order that the Father might receive honor from each one and reveal himself, even in his ineffability, hidden, and invisible, they marvel at him mentally. Therefore, the greatness of his loftiness consists in the fact that they speak about him and see him. He becomes manifest, so that he may be hymned because of the abundance of his sweetness, with the grace of . And just as the admirations of the silences are eternal generations and they are mental offspring, so too the dispositions of the word are spiritual emanations. Both of them admirations and dispositions, since they belong to a word, are seeds and thoughts of his offspring, and roots which live forever, appearing to be offspring which have come forth from themselves, being minds and spiritual offspring to the glory of the Father.

(38) Behold now, the Mind is in the Darkness, and it conceives its Will to the Light, to generate it; or else there would be no Will, nor yet any Birth: This Mind stands in Anguish, and in the Will conceives the Virtue; and the Virtue fulfils, [satisfies or impregnates] the Mind. Thus the Kingdom of God consists in the Virtue [or in Power,] which is God the Father, and the Light makes the Virtue longing to [be] the Will, that is, God the Son, for in the Virtue the Light is continually generated from Eternity, and in the Light, out of the Virtue, goes the Holy Ghost forth, which generates again in the dark Mind the Will of the eternal Essence.

(66) Thus it is with those Angels that continued in the Kingdom of Heaven in the true Paradise, they stand in the first Principle in the indissoluble Band, and their Food is the divine Power, in their Imagination (or Imagining) [in their Thoughts and Mind] is the Will of the Holy Trinity in the Deity; the Confirmation [or Establishing] of their Life, Will, and Doings, is the Power of the Holy Ghost; whatsoever that does in the generating of Paradise, the Angels rejoice at, and they sing the joyful Songs of Paradise, concerning the pleasant saving Fruit, and eternal Birth. All they do is an Increasing of the heavenly Joy, and a Delight and Pleasure to the Heart of God, a holy Sport in Paradise, a [satisfying of the Desire or] Will of the eternal Father; to this End their God created them, that he might be manifested, and rejoice in his Creatures, and the Creatures in him, so that there might be an eternal Sport of Love, in the Center of the Multiplying (or eternal Nature) in the indissoluble eternal Band.

(19) Thy Reason (Logos) sings through me Thy praises. Take back through me the All into [Thy] Reason - [my] reasonable oblation! Thus cry the Powers in me. They sing Thy praise, Thou All; they do Thy Will. From Thee Thy Will; to Thee the All. Receive from all their reasonable oblation. The All that is in us, O Life, preserve; O Light illumine it; O God in-spirit it. It it Thy Mind that plays the shepherd to Thy Word, O Thou Creator, Bestower of the Spirit [upon all].

(1) "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights." Further also, every procession of illuminating light, proceeding from the Father, whilst visiting us as a gift of goodness, restores us again gradually as an unifying power, and turns us to the oneness of our conducting Father, and to a deifying simplicity. For all things are from Him, and to Him, as said the Sacred Word.

(13) This [Image] is not the Heart of God, but it reaches into the Heart of God, and it receives Virtue, Light and Joy from the Heart and Light of God. For it is in the eternal Will of the Father, out of which he [the Father] continually generates his Heart and Word from Eternity; and ehis Essences, which, in the Element of his Body, viz. [in the Element] of Ignorance in the eternal Wonders of God now breathed into him, they (in respect of the high triumphing Light, out of the Heart and Light of God) were Paradise; his Meat and Drink was Paradise, out of the Element, in his Will; whereby then he drew the Virtue of the eternal Wonders of God into him, and generated the Noise [Voice] Sound, or the eternal Hymn of the eternal Wonders of God, out of himself before the Will; and all this stood before the chaste, high, noble, and blessed Virgin, the divine Wisdom, in a pleasant Sport, and was the right Paradise.

(5) But we have spoken of these things in our Symbolical Theology. Let us now then celebrate the spiritual Name of Light, under Which we contemplate the Good, and declare that He, the Good, is called spiritual Light, on the ground that He fills every supercelestial mind with spiritual light, and expels all ignorance and error from all souls in which they may be, and imparts to them all sacred light, and cleanses their mental vision from the mist which envelops them, from ignorance, and stirs up and unfolds those enclosed by the great weight of darkness, and imparts, at first, a measured radiance; then, whilst they taste, as it were, the light, and desire it more, more fully gives Itself, and more abundantly enlightens them, because "they have loved much," and ever elevates them to things in advance, as befits the analogy of each for aspiration.

(33) Thus, then, the benefit that comes from God to men becomes known - angels at the same time lending encouragement. For by angels, whether seen or not, the divine power bestows good things. Such was the mode adopted in the advent of the Lord. And sometimes also the power "breathes" in men's thoughts and reasonings, and "puts in" their hearts "strength" and a keener perception, and furnishes "prowess" and "boldness of alacrity" both for researches and deeds.

(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!

(45) Seeing then that the Shriek of the Joy in the Virtue of God (which breaks the Doors of the deep Darkness) thus springs up in the Heart, and flies with its Glimpse [or Sparkling] into the Head, then the Virtue of the Joy sets itself above, as being the strongest, and the Flash [or Glance] beneath, as being the weakest; and so when the Flash [or Glance] comes into the Head into its Seat, then it makes itself two open Gates. For it has broken the Doors of the deep Darkness, and therefore it continues no more in the Darkness, but it must be free as a victorious Prince [or Conqueror,] and will not be held captive. And this signifies to us the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, who is now free, and will not be held [therein,] which in its due Place shall be very deeply described. And those Gates which the Glance holds open, they are the Eyes, and the Spirit of Joy is their Root, which [Spirit] springs up at first in the Kindling of the Life.

(19) And the Light of the Sun is as it were a God in the Nature of this World, and by its Virtue [and Influence] it continually kindles the Stars [or Constellations] whereby the Stars [or Constellations] (which are of a very terrible and anguishing Essence) continually exult in Triumph very joyfully. For it [the Sun] is an Essence like the Light of God, which kindles and enlightens the dark Mind of the Father, from whence, by the Light, there arises the divine Joy in the Father.

(20) If you will meditate on God, take before you the eternal Darkness, which is without God; for God dwells in himself, and the Darkness cannot in its own Power comprehend him; which Darkness has a great [Desire of] longing after the Light, caused by the Light's beholding itself in the Darkness, and shining in it. And in this Longing or Desiring, you find the Source, and the Source takes hold of the Power or Virtue of the Light, and the Longing makes the Virtue material, and the material Virtue is the Inclosure to God, or the Heaven; for in the Virtue stands the Paradise, wherein the Spirit which proceeds from the Father and the Son works. All this is incomprehensible to the Creation, but not impossible to be found in the Mind; for Paradise stands open in the Mind of a holy Soul.

(57) Now you may well perceive that the Birth of the Sun takes its Original in the Fire, and attains his Personality and Name in the Kindling of the soft, white, and clear Light, which is Himself; and Himself makes the pleasant Smell, Taste, and Satisfaction [or Reconciliation and Well-pleasing] in the Father, and is rightly the Father's Heart, and another Person; for he opens and produces the second Principle in the Father; and his own Essence is the Power or Virtue and the Light; and therefore his is rightly called the Power or Virtue of the Father.

(21) Thus you [may] see how God created all Things out of Nothing, but only out of Himself; and yet the i Out-Birth is not from his Essence, [or Substance,] but it has its Original from the Darkness. The Source of the Darkness is the first Principle, and the Virtue [or Power] of the Light is the second Principle, and the Out-Birth, [generated] out of the Darkness by the Virtue of the Light, is the third Principle; and that is not called God: God is only the Light, and the Virtue of the Light, and that which goes forth out of the Light is the Holy Ghost.

Now, this father is the One who beholds himself in the light surrounding him, which is the spring of living water, and provides all the realms. He reflects on his image everywhere, sees it in the spring of the spirit, and becomes enamored of his luminous water, for his image is in the spring of pure luminous water surrounding him. The father’s thought became a reality, and she who appeared in the presence of the father in shining light came forth. She is the first power who preceded everything and came forth from the father’s mind as the forethought of all. Her light shines like the father’s light; she, the perfect power, is the image of the perfect and invisible virgin spirit. She, the first power, the glory of Barbelo, the perfect glory among the realms, the glory of revelation, she glorified and praised the virgin spirit, for because of the spirit she had come forth. She is the first thought, the image of the spirit. She became the universal womb, for she precedes everything, the mother-father, the first human, the holy spirit, the triple male, the triple power, the androgynous one with three names, the eternal realm among the invisible beings, the first to come forth. Barbelo asked the invisible virgin spirit to give her foreknowledge, and the spirit consented. When the spirit consented, foreknowledge appeared and stood by forethought. This is the one who came from the thought of the invisible virgin spirit. Foreknowledge glorified the spirit and the spirit’s perfect power, Barbelo, for because of her, foreknowledge had come into being. She asked again to be given incorruptibility, and the spirit consented. When the spirit consented, incorruptibility appeared and stood by thought and foreknowledge. Incorruptibility glorified the invisible one and Barbelo. Because of her they had come into being. Barbelo asked to be given life eternal, and the invisible spirit consented. When the spirit consented, life eternal appeared, and they stood together and glorified the invisible spirit and Barbelo. Because of her they had come into being. She asked again to be given truth, and the invisible spirit consented. Truth appeared, and they stood together and glorified the good invisible spirit and its Barbelo. Because of her they had come into being. This is the father’s realm of five. It is: the first human, the image of the invisible spirit, that is, forethought, which is Barbelo, and thought, along with foreknowledge, incorruptibility, life eternal, truth. This is the androgynous realm of five, which is the realm of ten, which is the father.

(33) Now in this pleasant Source, the moving Spirit (which in the Original, in the Kindling, was the bitter aching Spirit) springs forth very joyfully without removing, and it is the Holy Ghost; and the sweet Source [or Fountain,] which is generated in the Center from the Light, is the Word or Heart of God; and in this Joy is the Paradise, and the Birth is the eternal Trinity: In this you must dwell, if you will be in Paradise; and the same must be born [or generated] in you, if you will be the Child of God, and your Soul must be in it, or else you cannot enjoy nor see the Kingdom of God.