(1) Upon the margin of a lofty bank Which great rocks broken in a circle made, We came upon a still more cruel throng; And there, by reason of the horrible Excess of stench the deep abyss throws out, We drew ourselves aside behind the cover Of a great tomb, whereon I saw a writing, Which said: "Pope Anastasius I hold, Whom out of the right way Photinus drew." "Slow it behoveth our descent to be, So that the sense be first a little used To the sad blast, and then we shall not heed it." The Master thus; and unto him I said, "Some compensation find, that the time pass not Idly;" and he: "Thou seest I think of that. My son, upon the inside of these rocks," Began he then to say, "are three small circles, From grade to grade, like those which thou art leaving. They all are full of spirits maledict; But that hereafter sight alone suffice thee, Hear how and wherefore they are in constraint. Of every malice that wins hate in Heaven, Injury is the end; and all such end Either by force or fraud afflicteth others.

(2) The whole greatness of the fatherhood of the spirit was at rest in its places. And I was with him, since I have a thought of a single emanation from the eternal ones and the unknowable ones, undefiled and immeasurable. I placed the small thought in the world, having disturbed them and frightened the whole multitude of the angels and their ruler. And I was visiting them all with fire and flame because of my thought. And everything pertaining to them was brought about because of me. And there came about a disturbance and a fight around the seraphim and cherubim, since their glory will fade, and there was confusion around Adonaios on both sides and around their dwelling, up to the world ruler and the one who said, "Let us seize him." Others again said, "The plan will certainly not materialize." For Adonaios knows me because of hope. And I was in the mouths of lions. And as for the plan that they devised about me to release their error and their senselessness, I did not succumb to them as they had planned. And I was not afflicted at all. Those who were there punished me, yet I did not die in reality but in appearance, in order that I not be put to shame by them because these are my kinsfolk. I removed the shame from me, and I did not become fainthearted in the face of what happened to me at their hands. I was about to succumb to fear, and I suffered merely according to their sight and thought so that no word might ever be found to speak about them. For my death, which they think happened, happened to them in their error and blindness, since they nailed their man unto their death. Their thoughts did not see me, for they were deaf and blind. But in doing these things, they condemn themselves. Yes, they saw me; they punished me. It was another, their father, who drank the gall and the vinegar; it was not I. They struck me with the reed; it was another, Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder. It was another upon whom they placed the crown of thorns. But I was rejoicing in the height over all the wealth of the rulers and the offspring of their error, of their empty glory. And I was laughing at their ignorance.

(19) Thence Theognis writes: "For from the good you will learn good things; But if you mix with the bad, you will destroy any mind you may have." And when, again, it is said in the ode, "For He hath triumphed gloriously: the home and his rider hath He cast into the sea;" the manylimbed and brutal affection, lust, with the rider mounted, who gives the reins to pleasures, "He has cast into the sea," throwing them away into the disorders of the world. Thus also Plato, in his book On the Soul, says that the charioteer and the horse that ran off - the irrational part, which is divided in two, into anger and concupiscence - fall down; and so the myth intimates that it was through the licentiousness of the steeds that Phaethon was thrown out. Also in the case of Joseph: the brothers having envied this young man, who by his knowledge was possessed of uncommon foresight, stripped off the coat of many colours, and took and threw him into a pit (the pit was empty, it had no water), rejecting the good man's varied knowledge, springing from his love of instruction; or, in the exercise of the bare faith, which is according to the law, they threw him into the pit empty of water, selling him into Egypt, which was destitute of the divine word. And the pit was destitute of knowledge; into which being thrown and stript of his knowledge, he that had become unconsciously wise, stript of knowledge, seemed like his brethren. Otherwise interpreted, the coat of many colours is lust, which takes its way into a yawning pit. "And if one open up or hew out a pit," it is said, "and do not cover it, and there fall in there a calf or ass, the owner of the pit shall pay the price in money, and give it to his neighbour; and the dead body shall be his. Here add that prophecy: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not understood Me." In order, then, that none of those, who have fallen in with the knowledge taught by thee, may become incapable of holding the truth, and disobey and fall away, it is said, Be thou sure in the treatment of the word, and shut up the living spring in the depth from those who approach irrationally, but reach drink to those that thirst for truth. Conceal it, then, from those who are unfit to receive the depth of knowledge, and so cover the pit. The owner of the pit, then, the Gnostic, shall himself be punished, incurring the blame of the others stumbling, and of being overwhelmed by the greatness of the word, he himself being of small capacity; or transferring the worker into the region of speculation, and on that account dislodging him from off-hand faith. "And will pay money," rendering a reckoning, and submitting his accounts to the "omnipotent Will."

(28) Saviors unnumbered have died for the sins of man and by the hands of man, and through their deaths have interceded in heaven for the souls of their executioners. The martyrdom of the God-Man and the redemption of the world through His blood has been an essential tenet of many great religions. Nearly all these stories can be traced to sun worship, for the glorious orb of day is the Savior who dies annually for every creature within his universe, but year after year rises again victorious from the tomb of winter. Without doubt the doctrine of the crucifixion is based upon the secret traditions of the Ancient Wisdom; it is a constant reminder that the divine nature of man is perpetually crucified upon the animal organism. Certain of the pagan Mysteries included in the ceremony of initiation the crucifixion of the candidate upon a cross, or the laying of his body upon a cruciform altar. It has been claimed that Apollonius of Tyana (the Antichrist) was initiated into the Arcanum of Egypt in the Great Pyramid, where he hung upon a cross until unconscious and was then laid in the tomb (the coffer) for three days. While his body was unconscious, his soul was thought to pass into the realms of the immortals (the place of death) After it had vanquished death (by recognizing that life is eternal) it returned again to the body, which then rose from the coffer, after which he was hailed as a brother by the priests, who believed that he had returned from the land of the dead. This concept was, in substance, the teaching of the Mysteries.

(60) Then came the Spirit of this World with its rough Garment, with Heat and Cold, and pressed upon them, as upon naked People, and so struck the Image of God half dead, (with their Fierceness, Anguish, and Doubt, with their Quality [or Property] of hot and cold,) and let it lie in Pain, Anguish, and Doubt. And here Man went from Jerusalem (out of the Paradise) to Jericho, into the House of Murderers, who stript him of his paradisical Garment, and robbed him, and struck him (with their Poison, Torment, Plague, and Sickness, from their Infection) half dead, and so left him and went their Way, as the second Adam said in the Gospel, in a Similitude [or Parable.]

(17) Therefore must Christ in his Temptation overcome the Kingdom of the Anger, and this external Birth; and by his Entrance into Death, he broke the Head of the Serpent, viz. the Devil, and all Devils, and took them captive. Thou must understand it thus; That the inward Element (which comprises the whole Body of this World) became Christ's eternal Body; for the whole Deity, in the Word and the Heart of God, entered thereinto, and espoused itself to remain therein to all Eternity; and this same Deity became a Creature, even such a Creature as can be everywhere, as the Deity itself; and this same Creature has captivated all Devils in the Kingdom of this World. And all Men who with their Mind draw near to this Christ, and desire him in right Earnest, they are drawn by the Spirit of the Father, (viz. of the clear and pure Deity) into the Humanity of Christ, that is, into the pure Element before the Trinity. And if they continue steadfast, and do not again depart from God into the Desire of the Devil, then the precious Pearl, viz. the Light of God, is sown in their Soul, which [Light] attracts to itself the precious Body of Jesus Christ, with Paradise, and the Kingdom of Heaven. And thus the right new man (Christus) grows on the Soul in the heavenly Virgin of God's Wisdom, in the Holy Ternary, in the Kingdom of Heaven. And thus such a Man is according to the new Man in Heaven in the Body of Jesus Christ, and as to the old earthly Man, which hangs unto the holy [Man,] he is in this World in the House of Sin, and the Deity actuates the new Humanity, and the Spirit of this World the old, until he puts him off in Death; for he is a Man in Heaven, born in the Mercy of God in the Body of Jesus Christ.

(47) Here, ye beloved Sheep, observe: When Christ died, he did not cast away his Body (which he had here) and yield it up to the four Elements to be swallowed up, so that he must have wholly a strong Body; no, but zthe Source [or Property] of this World, which is in the Stars and Elements; and the a Incorruptible swallowed up the Corruptible, so that it is a Body which lives (in the Virtue of God) in God, and not in the Spirit of this [sour elementary] World; and Paul says concerning the last Judgment, That the Incorruptible (viz. the new Man) shall overpower the Corruptible, and shall swallow up the Corruptible, so that Death shall be made a Scorn, according to that Saying, [O Death!] where is thy Sting? O Hell! where is thy Victory?

(2) And when Jesus was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but among the tombs: he had devils long time, and no man could bind him, no not with chains.

(25) And so when Adam went out of the angelical Form and Property into the fourth Form, then all the fierce [wrathful] Essences fell upon him, and wrought in him, and scourged him exceedingly. But the Word of God in the Promise mitigated that again, though indeed we must still feel it enough; if thou hast any Reason, consider it. And now the outward Man Christ underwent this Pain also outwardly, when he was scourged; for all the inward Forms, which the Man Christ must bear inwardly for our Sakes, which caused him to sweat Drops of Blood, they stood also outwardly on his Body, to show that the outward Man in this outward World stood and dwelt in such a Source [Property or Condition.]

(12) Then a great disturbance took place. The archons raised up their wrath against him. They wanted to hand him over to the ruler of Hades. Then they recognized one of his followers. A fire took hold of his soul. He (Judas?) handed him over, since no one knew him (Jesus?). They acted and seized him. They brought judgment upon themselves. And they delivered him up to the ruler of Hades. And they handed him over to Sasabek for nine bronze coins. He prepared himself to go down and put them to shame. Then the ruler of Hades took him. And he found that the nature of his flesh could not be seized, in order to show it to the archons. But he was saying: "Who is this? What is it? His word has abolished the law of the aeon. He is from the Logos of the power of life." And he was victorious over the command of the archons, and they were not able by their work to rule over him.

(67) But those waters shall in those days serve for the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, for the healing of the body, but for the punishment of the spirit; now their spirit is full of lust, that they may be punished in their body, for they have denied the Lord of Spirits and see their punishment daily, and yet believe not in His name.

(28) And therefore instantly at the Fall, the Word of God the Father (and in the Word the Light) through the Holy Ghost, entered into the holy Element, and into the chaste Virgin of the Wisdom of God, and made a precious Covenant, to become a Creature in this Virgin, and to take away the Devil's Power in the Anger, and to destroy his Kingdom; and this Christ would yield himself to be in the perished Humanity, and with his Entering into Death separate the Hell of the Anger, and the Kingdom of this World from us; and God the Father discovered this Word (of the promised Seed of the Woman) instantly (after the Fall) in the Garden of Eden, where instantly it gave up itself (in the eternal Espousal) into the Center of the Light of Life, and separated all the Souls of Men, who have inclined themselves, and yielded themselves up to him, in the Dying of their Bodies, from the Anger of God, and from the Kingdom of this World, and brought them into him (into the pure Element of the Paradise) into the Joy, and into the chaste Virgin of God, there to wait, till God breaks the Kingdom of this World, with the Stars and Elements, where instantly the pure Element shall be instead of the Out-Birth; and there shall spring and grow the new Body upon the Soul in the holy Element before God eternally.

(50) And behold, I tell you a Mystery; as all whatsoever Adam was guilty of must stand yet [and be manifested] in this World on the Body of Christ, and must be seen in this World, so also you shall see this Temple (before the Time that the Incorruptible shall wholly swallow up the Corruptible) in the Lily in the Wonders; where the Anger opposes the Lily, till it be reconciled in Love, and till the Driver be put to open Shame (as was done also in the Death of Christ) which the Jews hope for. But their Scepter is broken, and their Life stands in the Birth of Christ; yet they come from the Ends of the World, and go out from Jericho again into the holy Jerusalem, and eat with the Lamb; this is a Wonder; but the a Driver is taken captive, and therefore we speak thus wonderfully; and at present we shall not be understood, till the Hunter is destroyed; and then our Life comes to us again, and stands in the Valley of Jehosaphat. The other Gate of the Sufferings of Christ.

(68) So also it is with the damned [Soul,] when the Body breaks, the Soul needs no flying forth, or departing far away; it remains in that which is Outermost a without the four Elements, in the Darkness, and in the anguishing Source; its Source is [that which comes] after the Light, and its Rising [or Springing-up] is Enmity against itself, and so climbs continually aloft over the Thrones of the Deity, and finds them not, to Eternity; but it rides in its Pride aloft over the Thrones, in their own Game, with the strong Might of the Grimness; of which you shall find at large, about the Description of the last Judgment.

(38) The Soul is washed in the holy Water, and the Word is presented to it, and the Soul stands in the Covenant. And now it may reach after the Pearl; although the Soul be tied backward in the Kingdom of this World, yet it stands in the Covenant notwithstanding. And if, in the unfeigned Faith of the Parents, of the Priest, and of the Standers by, it be thus washed in the Laver of Regeneration, and so passes into the Covenant, then the Devil may not touch it, till [the Time] that it understands what Evil and Good are, and enters into one of them in a free Will.

(6) For the Son of Man clothed himself with their first-fruits; he went down to Hades and performed many mighty works. He raised the dead therein; and the world-rulers of darkness became envious of him, for they did not find sin in him. But he also destroyed their works from among men, so that the lame, the blind, the paralytic, the dumb, (and) the demon-possessed were granted healing. And he walked upon the waters of the sea. For this reason he destroyed his flesh from [...] which he [...]. And he became [...] salvation [...] his death ... ... (4 lines unrecoverable) ... everyone [...] how many they are! They are blind guides, like the disciples. They boarded the ship; at about thirty stadies, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. These are empty martyrs, since they bear witness only to themselves. And yet they are sick, and they are not able to raise themselves.

(79) For when his animated or soulish spirit was generated in his body, then he stung forth from his body into the Salitter of God, as a fiery serpent out of a hole.

(45) The Perfect Savior said to them: "I want you to know that Sophia, the Mother of the Universe and the consort, desired by herself to bring these to existence without her male (consort). But by the will of the Father of the Universe, that his unimaginable goodness might be revealed, he created that curtain between the immortals and those that came afterward, that the consequence might follow ... [BG 118:] ... every aeon and chaos - that the defect of the female might , and it might come about that Error would contend with her. And these became the curtain of spirit. From aeons above the emanations of Light, as I have said already, a drop from Light and Spirit came down to the lower regions of Almighty in chaos, that their molded forms might appear from that drop, for it is a judgment on him, Arch-Begetter, who is called 'Yaldabaoth'. That drop revealed their molded forms through the breath, as a living soul. It was withered and it slumbered in the ignorance of the soul. When it became hot from the breath of the Great Light of the Male, and it took thought, (then) names were received by all who are in the world of chaos, and all things that are in it through that Immortal One, when the breath blew into him. But when this came about by the will of Mother Sophia - so that Immortal Man might piece together the garments there for a judgment on the robbers - then welcomed the blowing of that breath; but since he was soul-like, he was not able to take that power for himself until the number of chaos should be complete, (that is,) when the time determined by the great angel is complete.

(2) When God breathed the pure breath of life into the body of Adam, which was only earth and water, he wished that the hosts of angels should not know about it, and not even suspect it. So he said to them: 'Prostrate yourselves before

Adam, O Celesdal Spirits! ' All of them then bowed themselves down on the earth, and when they were bowed down, God breathed the breath of life into Adam and none of them was aware of the secret that God wished to hide. That is, none but Iblis, who said to himself, 'No one shall see me bend the knee. Even if my head falls from my body, it will not be as bad as doing what God wishes. I know very well that it is not just a question of Adam being on the earth, so I don't intend to bow my head down and not see the secret.' So instead of bowing down, Iblis watched, and saw the secret. Afterwards God said: 'O you who were lying in wait, you have stolen my secret, and for this I shall bring about your death, for I do not wish any other being to know about it. 'Tien an earthly king hides treasure he kills the person who saw it being hid. You are this person.'

'Lord,' said Iblis, 'grant a respite, for I am your servant; and tell me how I can expiate my sin?' 'Since you ask,' said God, 'I will grant you a respite; nevertheless, from this moment I shall put on your neck the collar of malediction and I impose on you the name of liar and slanderer, so that everyone will be on guard against you until the day of resurrection.'

Iblis said: ''Tiat have I to fear from your malediction since this pure treasure has been manifested to me? If malediction comes from you so does mercy. Where there is poison there is also an antidote. You curse some creatures and bless others. Now that I have transgressed I am the creature of your malediction.'

If you cannot discover and understand the secret of which I speak, it is not because it does not exist but because you do not seek rightly. If you make a distinction between the things which come from God you are not a man on the path of the spirit. If you consider yourself honoured by the diamond and humiliated by the stone, God is not with you. Note well, you should not love the diamond and detest the

stone, for both come from God. If your mistress in a moment of frenzy throws a stone at you, that is better than a jewel from another woman.

On the way of self-perfection a man must not loiter for an instant. If he should stop for a moment working on himself he will slip back.

(34) And as the Soul of Adam hung between two evil Kingdoms, between the Kingdom of this World, and the Kingdom of Hell, so Christ hung on the Cross between two Murderers; Parted asunder, or broken. and thus Christ must restore again all that Adam had lost. And as the one Malefactor turned and desired to be with Christ in his Kingdom, so the one Kingdom, viz. the earthly Man, must also turn again, and the poor Soul must enter into Christ again, through the earthly Death, and spring up again, like this Murderer, [Thief, or Malefactor,] on the Cross, who desired the Kingdom of Christ.