Search

(45) With veils drawn over their faces, and asleep; But when the morn shall burst forth and the sun arise Every creature will raise its head from its couch; To the unconscious God will restore consciousness; They will stand in rings as slaves with rings in ears; Dancing and clapping hands with songs of praise, Singing with joy, "Our Lord hath restored us to life!" Shedding their old skins and bones, All pressing on from Not-being to Being, On the last day, as well the thankful as the unthankful.

(111) This Word has brought the Souls of Men which have a inclined their Minds to it, ever since the Beginning of the World (when their Bodies have been dead) into the Bosom of Abraham, into the Element, into the Rest, [which is] without Source, [or Pain,] and there the Soul, [being yet] without a Body, has no Paradisical Source, [or active Property or Faculty,] but dwells in the broken Gate, in the meek Element, in the Bosom of the Virgin, in the Presence of their Bridegroom, after the long Strife of Unquietness, and waits for its Body without Pain. And as to the Soul there is no Time, but it is in Stillness; it sleeps not, but it sees (without Disturbance) in the Light of the Word.

(1) Let us now pass to the middle Order of the Heavenly Minds, gazing, as far as we may, with supermundane eyes upon those Lordships, and the truly terrible visions of the Divine Authorities and Powers. For each appellation of the Beings above us manifests their God-imitating characteristics of the Divine Likeness. I think, then, that the explanatory name of the Holy Lordships denotes a certain unslavish elevation, free from all grovelling subserviency, as becomes the free, not submitting itself in any way whatever to one of the tyrannical dissimilarities, as a cruel Lordship; superior to every kind of cringing slavery, indomitable to every subserviency, and elevated above every dissimilarity, ever aspiring to the true Lordship, and source of Lordship; and moulding, as an image of goodness, itself, and those after it, to its Lordly bearing, as attainable, turning itself wholly to none of the things that vainly seem, but to the Lordly Being, and ever sharing in the Lordly Likeness of God, to its utmost ability; and the appellation of the Holy Powers denotes a certain courageous and unflinching virility, for all those Godlike energies within them--not feebly weak for the reception of any of the Divine illuminations vouchsafed to it--vigorously conducted to the Divine imitation, not forsaking the Godlike movement through its own unmanliness, but unflinchingly looking to the superessential and powerful-making power, and becoming a powerlike image of this, as far as is attainable, and powerfully turned to this, as Source of Power, and issuing forth to those next in degree, in gift of Power, and in likeness to God; and that the appellation of the Holy Authorities, of the same rank as the Divine Lordships and Powers, (denotes) the beautiful and unconfused good order, with regard to the Divine receptions, and the discipline of the supermundane and intellectual authority, not using the authoritative powers imperiously for base purposes, but conducted indomitably, with good order, towards Divine things, and conducting those after it benignly, and assimilated, as far as permissible, to the Authoritative Source of authority, and making this visible, as is possible to Angels, in the well-ordered ranks of the authoritative power within it. The middle Order of the Heavenly Minds having these Godlike characteristics, is purified and illuminated and perfected in the manner described, by the Divine illuminations vouchsafed to it at second hand, through the first Hierarchical Order, and passing through this middle as a secondary manifestation.

(1) Such, according to David, "rest in the holy hill of God," in the Church far on high, in which are gathered the philosophers of God, "who are Israelites indeed, who are pure in heart, in whom there is no guile; " who do not remain in the seventh seat, the place of rest, but are promoted, through the active beneficence of the divine likeness, to the heritage of beneficence which is the eighth grade; devoting themselves to the pure vision of insatiable contemplation.

(5) That this may be the pleasure of God’s Love, such is our prayer for you, devoted ones. In other words, may He, when ye have served your time, and have put off the world’s restraint, and freed yourselves from deathly bonds, restore you pure and holy to the nature of your higher self, that is of the Divine! XII

(1) And the Saviour answered and said unto Mary: "Finely hast thou spoken. The servitors indeed are they who bear witness to all sins; but they abide in the judgments, seizing the souls and convicting all the souls of sinners who have received no mysteries; and they keep them fast in the chaos, chastizing them. And those retributive receivers cannot overstep the chaos to reach to the orders which are above the chaos, and convict the souls which come forth out of those regions. Now then it is not lawful to use force on the souls which receive mysteries, and lead them into the chaos, so that the retributive servitors may convict them. But the retributive servitors convict the souls of the sinners and they keep fast those who have received no mysteries which may lead them out of the chaos. The souls on the other hand which receive mysteries,--they have no power of convicting them, because they do not come forth out of their regions, and also, if they come forth into their regions, they are not able to obstruct them; nay, they cannot lead them into that chaos.

(18) He that will now sleep, let him sleep still; and he that will awake and trim his Lamp, let him awake still: Behold the Bridegroom cometh, and he that is awake and is ready, accompanieth into the eternal heavenly Wedding: But he that sleeps at his coming, he sleeps for ever eternally in the dark Prison of Fierceness or Wrath.

(55) And yet when this World shall break in Pieces, and be delivered from the Vanity of the Worm, it shall not obtain the Virgin; but it must continue without Spirit and Worm, under its own Shadow, in a fair and Sweet Rest, without any Wrestling, [Struggling,] or Desiring: For thereby it comes into its highest Degree and Beauty, and ceases [or rests] eternally from its Labour. For the Worm which here torments it, goes into its own Principle, and no more touches the Shadow nor the Figure of this World to Eternity, and then the Virgin governs with her Bridegroom.

(1) We, whilst admitting this as the arrangement of the holy Hierarchies, affirm, that every appellation of the celestial Minds denotes the Godlike characteristic of each; and those who know Hebrew affirm, that the holy designation of the Seraphim denotes either that they are kindling or burning; and that of Cherubim, a fulness of knowledge or stream of wisdom. Naturally, then, the first (order) of the Heavenly Hierarchies is ministered by the most exalted Beings, holding, as it does, a rank which is higher than all, from the fact, that it is established immediately around God, and that the first-wrought Divine manifestations and perfections pass earlier to it, as being nearest. They are called, then, "Burning," and Thrones, and Stream of Wisdom--by a name which sets forth their Godlike conditions. The appellation of Seraphim plainly teaches their ever moving around things Divine, and constancy, and warmth, and keenness, and the seething of that persistent, indomitable, and inflexible perpetual motion, and the vigorous assimilation and elevation of the subordinate, as giving new life and rekindling them to the same heat; and purifying through fire and burnt-offering, and the light-like and light-shedding characteristic which can never be concealed or consumed, and remains always the same, which destroys and dispels every kind of obscure darkness. But the appellation of the Cherubim denotes their knowledge and their vision of God, and their readiness to receive the highest gift of light, and their power of contemplating the super-Divine comeliness in its first revealed power, and their being filled anew with the impartation which maketh wise, and their ungrudging communication to those next to them, by the stream of the given wisdom. The appellation of the most exalted and pre-eminent Thrones denotes their manifest exaltation above every grovelling inferiority, and their supermundane tendency towards higher things; and their unswerving separation from all remoteness; and their invariable and firmly-fixed settlement around the veritable Highest, with the whole force of their powers; and their receptivity of the supremely Divine approach, in the absence of all passion and earthly tendency, and their bearing God; and the ardent expansion of themselves for the Divine receptions.

(4) Now, if the profane should see or hear that these things are done by us, they will, I suppose, split with laughter, and commiserate us on our, folly. But there is no need to wonder at this. For, as the Oracles say, "If they will not believe, neither shall they understand." And as for us, who have contemplated the spiritual meaning of the things done, whilst Jesus leads us to the light, let us say, that, not without reason, does the Hierarch conduct to, and place the man fallen asleep, in the place of the same rank; for it shews reverently, that, in the regeneration, all will be in those chosen inheritances, for which they have chosen their own life here. For example, if any one led a Godlike and most holy life here, so far as the imitation of God is attainable by man, he will be, in the age to come, in divine and blessed inheritances; but if he led a life inferior to the divine likeness in the highest degree, but, nevertheless, a holy life, even this man will receive the holy and similar retributions. The Hierarch, having given thanks for this Divine righteousness, offers a sacred prayer, and extols the worshipful Godhead, as subjugating the unjust and tyrannical power against us all, and conducting us back to our own most just possessions (or judgments).

(4) "But if Yew proveth them and findeth that they have completed their circuits and that it is not lawful to [re]turn them anew to the world, and that also the sign of the Ineffable is not with them, then Yew hath compassion upon them and leadeth them before the seven virgins of the Light. They baptize them with their baptisms, but they do not give them the spiritual chrism. And they lead them into the Treasury of the Light, but they do not put them in the orders of the Inheritance, because no sign and no seal of the Ineffable is with them. But they save them from all chastisements and put them into the light of the Treasury, separated and apart by themselves alone until the ascension of the universe. And at the time when they will draw apart the veils of the Treasury of the Light, they cleanse those souls anew and purify them most exceedingly and give them anew mysteries and put them in the last order which [is] in the Treasury, and those souls will be saved from all the chastisements of the judgments." And when the Saviour had said this, he said unto his disciples: "Have ye understood in what manner I discourse with you?"

(4) "The soul of such or such a man of whom I think in my heart,--if it is in the region of the chastisements of the dungeons of the outer darkness, or if it is in the rest of the chastisements of the dungeons of the outer darkness and in the rest of the chastisements of the dragons,--then is it to be removed out of them all. And if it hath completed its number of its circuits of the changes, then is it to be led before the Virgin of Light, and the Virgin of Light is to seal it with the seal of the Ineffable and cast it down in whatever month into a righteous body which shall find the mysteries of the Light, so that it may be good, go on high and inherit the Light-kingdom. And moreover if it hath completed the circuits of changes, then is that soul to be led before the seven virgins of the Light who [are set] over the baptisms, and they are to apply them to the soul and seal it with the sign of the kingdom of the Ineffable and lead it into the orders of the Light. "This then will ye say when ye perform the mystery. "Amēn, I say unto you: The soul for which ye shall pray, if it indeed is in the dragon of the outer darkness, he will draw his tail out of his mouth and let go that soul. And moreover if it is in all the regions of the judgments of the rulers, amēn, I say unto you: The receivers of Melchisedec will with haste snatch it away, whether the dragon let it go or it is in the judgments of the rulers; in a word, the receivers of Melchisedec will snatch it away out of all the regions in which it is, and will lead it into the region of the Midst before the Virgin of Light, and the Virgin of Light proveth it and seeth the sign of the kingdom of the Ineffable which is on that soul. "And if it hath not yet completed its number of circuits in the changes of the soul, or [in the changes] of the body, the Virgin of Light sealeth it with an excellent seal and hasteth to have it cast down in any month into a righteous body which shall find the mysteries of the Light, be good and go on high into the Light-kingdom. "And if that soul hath had its number of the circuits, then the Virgin of Light proveth it, and doth not have it chastized, because it hath had its number of circuits, but handeth it over to the seven virgins of the Light. And the seven virgins of the Light prove that soul, baptize it with their baptisms and give it the spiritual chrism and lead it into the Treasury of the Light and put it in the last order of the Light until the ascension of all the perfect souls. And when they prepare to draw apart the veils of the region of those of the Right, they cleanse that soul anew and purify it and put it in the orders of the first saviour who [is] in the Treasury of the Light."

(2) 'In the world they call cows and horses, elephants and gold, slaves, wives, fields and houses greatness. I do not mean this,' thus he spoke; 'for in that case one being (the possessor) rests in something else, (but the Infinite cannot rest in something different from itself)