Passages similar to: Apocryphon of John — The Four Luminaries
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Source passage
Gnostic
Apocryphon of John
The Four Luminaries (The Four Luminaries)
Now, from the light, which is the anointed, and from incorruptibility, by the grace of the spirit, the four luminaries that derive from the self-conceived god gazed out in order to stand before it. The three beings are: will, thought, life.…
Chapter 8: Of the Creation of the Creatures, and of the Springing up of every growing Thing; as also of the Stars and Elements, and of the Original of the a Substance of this World. (21)
God, who is the eternal Light, he is the eternal Will; he shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness has comprehended the Will: And in that Will (which...
(21) God, who is the eternal Light, he is the eternal Will; he shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness has comprehended the Will: And in that Will (which has comprehended the Darkness) the Anguish rises up, and in the sour [harsh] Anguish the Fire, and in the Fire the Light, and out of the Light [comes] the Virtue [or Power,] and out of the Virtue the Kingdom. So now out of the Fire [came] the Constellations, and moreover the Sun, and out of the Virtue came the Heaven; and the Kingdom is God's. All this was in the first Will in the Creation, one with another; wherein God severed the fiery Will from the mild Will of the Light, and called the fiery [Will] Stars, and the mild [Will] Heaven, in respect of the Virtue of each of them.
Chapter 86 (Of the powers of the Midst and their ascension)
"And the Virgin of Light and the great guide of the Midst, whom the rulers of the æons are wont to call the Great Yew after the name of a great ruler...
(5) "And the Virgin of Light and the great guide of the Midst, whom the rulers of the æons are wont to call the Great Yew after the name of a great ruler who is in their region,--he and the Virgin of Light and his twelve ministers, from whom ye have received your shape and from whom ye have received the power, they all will be kings with the first saviour of the first Voice in the region of the souls of those who will receive the first mystery of the First Mystery in the inheritances of the Light. "And the fifteen helpers of the seven virgins of the Light who are in the Midst, they will expand themselves in the regions of the twelve saviours, and the rest of the angels of the Midst, every one of them according to his glory, will rule with me in the inheritances of the Light. And I shall rule over them all in the inheritances of the Light.
In the middle region of the Table appears the all-form-containing personified Spiritual Essence--the source and substance of all things. From this...
(42) In the middle region of the Table appears the all-form-containing personified Spiritual Essence--the source and substance of all things. From this proceed the lower worlds as nine emanations in groups of three (the Ophionic, Ibimorphous, and Nephtæan Triads). Consider in this connection the analogy of the Qabbalistic Sephiroth, or the nine spheres issuing from Kether, the Crown. The twelve Governors of the Universe (the Mendesian, Ammonian, Momphtæan, and Omphtæan Triads)--vehicles for the distribution of the creative influences, and shown in the upper region of the Table-are directed in their activities by the Divine Mind patterns existing in the archetypal sphere, The archetypes are abstract patterns formulated in the Divine Mind and by them all the inferior activities are controlled.
Chapter 14 (The powers of the æons are amazed and fall down and adore him)
"And all the angels of the æons and their archangels and their rulers and their gods and their lords and their authorities and their tyrants and...
(2) "And all the angels of the æons and their archangels and their rulers and their gods and their lords and their authorities and their tyrants and their powers and their light-sparks and their light-givers and their unpaired and their invisibles and their forefathers and their triple-powers saw me, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light which was about me. And they were thrown into agitation the one over against the other and great fear fell upon them, when they saw the great light that was about me. And in their great agitation and their great fear they withdrew as far as the region of the great invisible Forefather, and of the three great triple-powers. And because of the great fear of their agitation, the great Forefather, he and the three triple-powers, kept on running hither and thither in his region, and they could not close all their regions because of the great fear in which they were. And they agitated all their æons together and all their spheres and all their orders, fearing and being greatly agitated because of the great light which was about me--not of the former quality that it was about me when I was on the earth of man-kind, when the light-vesture came over me,--for the world could not bear the light such as it was in its truth, else would the world at once be destroyed and all upon it,--but the light which was about me in the twelve æons was eight-thousand-and-seven-hundred-myriad times greater than that which was about me in the world among you.
Each of these worlds has ten powers, or spheres--a parent globe and nine others which conic out of it as emanations, each globe born out of the one...
(23) Each of these worlds has ten powers, or spheres--a parent globe and nine others which conic out of it as emanations, each globe born out of the one preceding. On the plane of Atziluth (A 1 to A 10), the highest and most divine of all the created worlds, the unmanifested AIN SOPH established His first point or dot in the Divine Sea--the three spheres of X. This dot--A 1--contains all creation within it, but in this first divine and uncontaminated state the dot, or first manifested. God, was not considered as a personality by the Qabbalists but rather as a divine establishment or foundation. It was called the First Crown and from it issued the other circles of the Atziluthic World: A 2, A 3, A 4, A 5, A 6, A 7, A 8, A 9, and A 10. In the three lower worlds these circles are intelligences, planers, and elements, but in this first divine world they are called the Rings of the Sacred Names.
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...
(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.
In the Mysteries the seven Logi, or Creative Lords, are shown as streams of force issuing from the mouth of the Eternal One. This signifies the...
(39) In the Mysteries the seven Logi, or Creative Lords, are shown as streams of force issuing from the mouth of the Eternal One. This signifies the spectrum being extracted from the white light of the Supreme Deity. The seven Creators, or Fabricators, of the inferior spheres were called by the Jews the Elohim. By the Egyptians they were referred to as the Builders (sometimes as the Governors) and are depicted with great knives in their hands with which they carved the universe from its primordial substance. Worship of the planets is based upon their acceptation as the cosmic embodiments of the seven creative attributes of God. The Lords of the planets were described as dwelling within the body of the sun, for the true nature of the sun, being analogous to the white light, contains the seeds of all the tone and color potencies which it manifests.
The ten Archangels of Briah are conceived to be ten great spiritual beings, whose duty is to manifest the ten powers of the Great Name of God...
(49) The ten Archangels of Briah are conceived to be ten great spiritual beings, whose duty is to manifest the ten powers of the Great Name of God existent in the Atziluthic World, which surrounds and interpenetrates the entire world of creation. All things manifesting in the lower worlds exist first in the intangible rings of the upper spheres, so that creation is, in truth, the process of making tangible the intangible by extending the intangible into various vibratory rates. The ten globes of Briatic power, while themselves reflections, are mirrored downward into the third or Yetziratic World, where still more limited in their expression they become the spiritual and invisible zodiac which is behind the visible band of constellations. In this third world the ten globes of the original Atziluthic World are greatly limited and dimmed, but they are still infinitely powerful in comparison with the state of substance in which man dwells. In the third world, C 1 to C 10, the globes become hierarchies of celestial creatures, called the Choirs of Yetzirah. Here again, all are included within the ring C 1, the power which controls the Yetziratic World and which includes within itself and controls the entire world D. The order of the globes and the names of the hierarchies composing them are as follows:
Chapter 13: Of the terrible, doleful, and lamentable, miserable Fall of the Kingdom of Lucifer. (39)
Now that Light in Lucifer was so fair, bright and beautiful, that he excelled the bright Form of Heaven, and in that Light was perfect Understanding;...
(39) Now that Light in Lucifer was so fair, bright and beautiful, that he excelled the bright Form of Heaven, and in that Light was perfect Understanding; for all the seven qualifying or fountain Spirits generate that same Light.
Chapter 86 (Of the powers of the Right, and their emanation and ascension)
"And Yew and the guard of the veil of the Great Light, and the receiver of Light and the two great guides and the great Sabaōth, the Good, will be...
(4) "And Yew and the guard of the veil of the Great Light, and the receiver of Light and the two great guides and the great Sabaōth, the Good, will be kings in the first saviour of the first Voice of the Treasury of the Light, [the saviour] who will be in the region of those who have received the first mystery of the First Mystery. For in sooth Yew and the guard of the region of those of the Right and Melchisedec, the great receiver of the Light, and the two great guides have come forth out of the purified and utterly pure light of the first Tree up to the fifth. "Yew in sooth is the overseer of the Light, who hath come forth first out of the pure light of the first Tree; on the other hand the guard of the veil of those of the Right hath come forth out of the second Tree; and the two guides again have come forth out of the pure and utterly purified light of the third and fourth Trees of the Treasury of the Light; Melchisedec again hath come forth out of the fifth Tree; on the other hand Sabaōth, the Good, whom I have called my father, hath come forth out of Yew, the overseer of the Light. "These six then by command of the First Mystery the last Helper hath caused to be in the region of those of the Right, for the economy of the ingathering of the upper light out of the æons of the rulers and out of the worlds and all races in them,--of every one of whom I will tell you the employment over which he hath been set in the expansion of the universe. Because, therefore, of the importance of the employment over which they have been set, they will be fellow-kings in the first [saviour] of the first Voice of the Treasury of the Light, who will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the first mystery of the First Mystery.
Chapter 86 (Of the twelve saviours and their regions in the Inheritance)
"And the saviour of the emanations of the first Voice will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the first mystery of the First Mys...
(1) at the time of the consummation [and] of the ascension of the universe.' The twelve saviours of the Treasury and the twelve orders of every one of them, which are the emanations of the seven Voices and of the five Trees, they will be with me in the region of the inheritances of the Light; being kings with me in my kingdom, and every one of them being king over his emanations, and moreover every one of them being king according to his glory, the great according to his greatness and the little according to his littleness. "And the saviour of the emanations of the first Voice will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the first mystery of the First Mystery in my kingdom. "And the saviour of the emanations of the second Voice will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the second mystery of the First Mystery. "In like manner also will the saviour of the emanations of the third Voice be in the region of the souls of those who have received the third mystery of the First Mystery in the E inheritances of the Light. "And the saviour of the emanations of the fourth Voice of the Treasury of the Light will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the fourth mystery of the First Mystery in the inheritances of the Light. "And the fifth saviour of the fifth Voice of the Treasury of the Light will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the fifth mystery of the First Mystery in the inheritances of the Light. "And the sixth saviour of the emanations of the sixth Voice of the Treasury of the Light will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the sixth mystery of the First Mystery. "And the seventh saviour of the emanations of the seventh Voice of the Treasury of the Light will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the seventh mystery of the First Mystery in the Treasury [ sic ] of the Light. "And the eighth saviour, that is the saviour of the emanations of the first Tree of the Treasury of the Light, will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the I eighth mystery of the First Mystery in the inheritances of the Light. "And the ninth saviour, that is the saviour of the emanations of the second Tree of the Treasury of the Light, will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the ninth mystery of the First Mystery in the inheritances of the Light. "And the tenth saviour, that is the saviour of the emanations of the third Tree of the Treasury of the Light, will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the tenth mystery of the First Mystery in the inheritances of the Light. "In like manner also the eleventh saviour, that is the saviour of the fourth Tree of the Treasury of the Light, will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the eleventh mystery of the First Mystery in the inheritances of the Light. "And the twelfth saviour, that is the saviour of the emanations of the fifth Tree of the Treasury of the Light, will be in the region of the souls of those who have received the twelfth mystery of the First Mystery in the inheritances of the Light.
In the second world, B 1 to B 10, the order of the spheres is the Name as in the Atziluthic World, but the ten circles of light are less brilliant...
(37) In the second world, B 1 to B 10, the order of the spheres is the Name as in the Atziluthic World, but the ten circles of light are less brilliant and more tangible, and are here referred to as ten great Spirits--divine creatures who assist in the establishment of order and intelligence in the universe. As already noted, B 1 is born out of A 10 and is included within all the spheres superior to itself. Out of B 1 are taken nine globes--B 2, B 3, B 4, B 5, B 6, B 7, B 8, B 9, and B 10--which constitute the World of Briah. These ten subdivisions, however, are really the ten Atziluthic powers reflected into the substance of the Briatic World. B 1 is the ruler of this world, for it contains all the other rings of its own world and also the rings of the third and fourth worlds, C and D. In the World of Briah the ten spheres of light are called the Archangels of Briah. Their order and powers are as follows:
Chapter 7: Of the Heaven and its eternal Birth and Essence, and how the four Elements are generated; wherein the eternal Band may be the more and the better understood, by meditating and considering the material World. The great Depth. (25)
Now thus the eternal Light, and the Virtue of the Light, or the heavenly Paradise, moves in the eternal Darkness; and the Darkness cannot comprehend...
(25) Now thus the eternal Light, and the Virtue of the Light, or the heavenly Paradise, moves in the eternal Darkness; and the Darkness cannot comprehend the Light; for they are two several Principles; and the Darkness longs after the Light, because that the Spirit beholds itself therein, and because the divine Virtue is manifested in it. But though it has not comprehended the divine Virtue and Light, yet it has continually with great Lust lifted up itself towards it, till it has kindled the Root of the Fire in itself, from the Beams of the Light of God; and there arose the third Principle: And it has its Original out of the first Principle, out of the dark Matrix, by the Speculating of the Virtue for Power] of God. But when the kindled Virtue in this springing up [of the third Principle] in the Darkness became fiery, then God put the Fiat therein, and by the moving Spirit, which goes forth in the Virtue of the Light, created the fiery Source in a bodily Manner, and severed it from the Matrix, and the Spirit called the fiery created Properties Stars, for their Quality.
Chapter 13: Of the terrible, doleful, and lamentable, miserable Fall of the Kingdom of Lucifer. (40)
But now the seven qualifying or fountain Spirits are the Father of the Light, and may permit or suffer the Birth of the Light to be as much as they pl...
(40) But now the seven qualifying or fountain Spirits are the Father of the Light, and may permit or suffer the Birth of the Light to be as much as they please; and the Light cannot exalt or raise itself higher than the qualifying or fountain Spirits will permit, or give it leave.
The four globes upon the central column reveal the function of the creative power in the various worlds. In the first world the creative power is...
(72) The four globes upon the central column reveal the function of the creative power in the various worlds. In the first world the creative power is Will--the one Divine Cause; in the second world, the hypothetical Daath--the Word coming forth from the Divine Thought; in the third world, Tiphereth--the Sun, or focal point between God and Nature; in the fourth world it is twofold, being the positive and negative poles of the reproductive system, of which Jesod is the male and Malchuth the female.
Thou must know, that all the seven Spirits of God are in the Earth, and generate as they do in Heaven: For the Earth is in God, and God never died;...
(78) Thou must know, that all the seven Spirits of God are in the Earth, and generate as they do in Heaven: For the Earth is in God, and God never died; but the outermost Birth or Geniture is dead, in which the Wrath rests, and is reserved for King Lucifer, to be a House of Death and of Darkness, and to be an eternal Prison or Dungeon. Of the seven Spirits of God, and of their Operation in the Earth.
Behold, again, the seven subject Worlds; ordered by Aeon's order, and with their varied course full-filling Aeon! [See how] all things [are] full of...
(7) Behold, again, the seven subject Worlds; ordered by Aeon's order, and with their varied course full-filling Aeon! [See how] all things [are] full of light, and nowhere [is there] fire; for 'tis the love and the blending of the contraries and the dissimilars that doth give birth to light down shining by the energy of God, the Father of all good, the Leader of all order, and Ruler of the seven world-orderings! [Behold] the Moon, forerunner of them all, the instrument of nature, and the transmuter of its lower matter! [Look at] the Earth set in the midst of All, foundation of the Cosmos Beautiful, feeder and nurse of things on Earth! And contemplate the multitude of deathless lives, how great it is, and that of lives subject to death; and midway, between both, immortal [lives] and mortal, [see thou] the circling Moon.
Chapter 11: Of the Seventh Qualifying or Fountain Spirit in the Divine Power. (28)
Now when that Light, which stands in the Midst or Center, shines into the four Spirits, then the Power of the four Spirits rises up in the Light, and...
(28) Now when that Light, which stands in the Midst or Center, shines into the four Spirits, then the Power of the four Spirits rises up in the Light, and they become Living, and love the Light; that is, they take it into them, and are impregnated with it, and that Spirit which is so taken in, is the Love of the Life, which is the fifth Spirit.
TABLE XIII, Figures 1-4. Figure 1 is Ain Soph, the Incomprehensible Abyss of Divine Majesty, an endless welling up, limitless in time and space....
(33) TABLE XIII, Figures 1-4. Figure 1 is Ain Soph, the Incomprehensible Abyss of Divine Majesty, an endless welling up, limitless in time and space. Figure 2 symbolizes the three Divine Principles--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Around the triangle is written: I Shall Be That I Shall Be. At the apex of the triangle is the word Crown; in the left point, Wisdom; in the right point, Understanding. Figure 3 represents the Trinity with its outflow. The words above the upper sphere are Revelation of the Divine Majesty in Jehovah Elohim. The lower circles contain the names of the Hierarchies controlling the lower worlds. The words within the circle of stars read: Lucifer the Son of the Aurora of the morning. The letter C represents the Universal Mercury. The words within the circle read: The first beginning of all creatures. Figure 4 represents the abode of Lucifer and his angels, the Chaos spoken of in Genesis.