(1) "O Shem, the disturbance that occurred at my wish happened so that nature might become empty. For the wrath of the darkness subsided. O Shem, the mouth of darkness was shut. No longer does the light that shone for the world appear in it, according to my will. And when nature had said that its wish was fulfilled, then every form was engulfed by the waters in prideful ignorance. Nature turned her dark vagina and cast from her the power of fire, which was in her from the beginning through the rubbing of the darkness. It lifted itself up and shone upon the whole world instead of the righteous one. And all her forms sent forth a power like a flame of fire up to heaven as a help to the corrupted light, which had lifted itself up. For they were members of the chaotic fire. And she did not know that she had harmed herself. When she cast forth the power, the power that she possessed, she cast it forth from the genitals. The demon, who is a deceiver, stirred up the womb in every form.

(3) Since, however, a contrary is receptive of a contrary, according to a mutation and departure from itself, and that which is allied to another thing, and familiar with it through similitude, is capable of receiving it, hence the illuminators receive darkness as a cooperator, and employ in illuminating the light of the sun, or of the moon, or, in short, of the air. Sometimes, likewise, they use collocations of such things as are adapted to the Gods that are about to descend, or they employ incantations or compositions, and these appropriately prepared for the reception, presence, and manifestation of the Gods. And again, sometimes they introduce light through water, because this being diaphanous, is aptly disposed to the reception of light. But at other times, they cause light to shine forth on a wall, having previously prepared the wall for the reception of light in the best manner by the sacred descriptions of characters; and, at the same time, they fix the light in a certain solid place, so that it may not be widely diffused.

(1) Oh Light! let the Light be kindled for thy Ka, O Osiris Chentamenta. Let the Light be kindled for the Night which followeth the Day: the Eye of Horus which riseth at thy temple: which riseth up over thee and which gathereth upon thy brow; which granteth thee its protection and overthroweth thine enemies

(3) The faculty that lends discourse to reason Did apprehend that they were candlesticks, And in the voices of the song "Hosanna!" Above them flamed the harness beautiful, Far brighter than the moon in the serene Of midnight, at the middle of her month. I turned me round, with admiration filled, To good Virgilius, and he answered me With visage no less full of wonderment. Then back I turned my face to those high things, Which moved themselves towards us so sedately, They had been distanced by new-wedded brides. The lady chid me: "Why dost thou burn only So with affection for the living lights, And dost not look at what comes after them?" Then saw I people, as behind their leaders, Coming behind them, garmented in white, And such a whiteness never was on earth. The water on my left flank was resplendent, And back to me reflected my left side, E'en as a mirror, if I looked therein. When I upon my margin had such post That nothing but the stream divided us, Better to see I gave my steps repose;

(30) So if it be kindled, then it is a fierce source of wrath, and a beginning of hell, and a torment and woe of the hellish fire, also a quality of darkness; for therein are extinguished the divine love, and also the divine light.

(2) And the sun's face, uprising, overshadowed So that by tempering influence of vapours For a long interval the eye sustained it; Thus in the bosom of a cloud of flowers Which from those hands angelical ascended, And downward fell again inside and out, Over her snow-white veil with olive cinct Appeared a lady under a green mantle, Vested in colour of the living flame. And my own spirit, that already now So long a time had been, that in her presence Trembling with awe it had not stood abashed, Without more knowledge having by mine eyes, Through occult virtue that from her proceeded Of ancient love the mighty influence felt. As soon as on my vision smote the power Sublime, that had already pierced me through Ere from my boyhood I had yet come forth, To the left hand I turned with that reliance With which the little child runs to his mother, When he has fear, or when he is afflicted, To say unto Virgilius: "Not a drachm Of blood remains in me, that does not tremble; I know the traces of the ancient flame."

(2) "'1. O Light, forget not my praise-singing. "'2. For Self-willed and his lion-faced power have opened their chops against me and have acted craftily against me. "'3. They have surrounded me, desiring to take away my power, and have hated me, because I have sung praises unto thee. "'4. Instead of loving me they slandered me. But I sang praises. "'5. They plotted a plot to take away my power, because I have sung to thee praises, O Light; and hated me, because I have loved thee. "'6. Let the darkness come over Self-willed, and let the ruler of the outermost darkness abide at his right hand. "'7. And when thou passest sentence, take from him his power; and the deed which he hath plotted, to take from me my light,--mayest thou take his from him. "'8. And may all his powers of his light in him finish, and let another of the three triple-powers receive his sovereignty. "'9. May all the powers of his emanation be lightless and may his matter be without any light in it. "'10. May his emanations remain in the chaos and not dare to go to their region. May their light in them die away and let them not go to the thirteenth æon, their region. "'11. May the Receiver, the Purifier of the lights, purify all the lights which are in Self-willed, and take them from them. "'12. May the rulers of the lower darkness rule over his emanations, and let no one give them shelter in his region; and let no one hearken to the power of his emanations in the chaos. "'13. Let them take away the light in his emanations and blot out their name from the thirteenth æon, yea rather take his name for ever out of that region. "'14. And on the lion-faced power let them bring the sin of him who emanated it, before the Light, and not wipe out the iniquity of the matter which hath brought him [ sc. Self-willed] forth. "'15. And may their sin be altogether before the Light eternally, and may they let them not look beyond [the chaos] and take their names out of all regions; "'16. Because they have not spared me and have oppressed him whose light and whose power they have taken away, and also conformably with those who set me therein, they desired to take away my whole light from me. "'17. They loved to descend to the chaos; so let them abide therein, and they shall not be brought up [therefrom] from now on. They desired not the region of Righteousness for dwelling-place, and they shall not be taken thither from now on. '"18. He put on darkness as a garment, and it entered into him as water, and it entered in into all his powers as oil. "'19. Let him wrap himself into the chaos as into a garment, and gird himself with the darkness as with a leathern girdle for ever. "'20. Let this befall them who have brought this upon me for the Light's sake and have said: Let us take away her whole power. "'21. But do thou, O Light, have mercy upon me for the sake of the mystery of thy name, and save me in the goodness of thy grace. "'22. For they have taken away my light and my power; and my power hath inwardly tottered, and I could not stand upright in their midst. "'23. I am become as matter which is fallen; I am tossed hither and thither as a demon in the air. "'24. My power hath perished, because I possess no mystery; and my matter hath become dwindled because of my light, for they have taken it away. "'25. And they mocked me; they looked at me, nodding at me. "'26. Help me according to thy mercy.' "Now, therefore, let him whose spirit is ready, come forward and utter the solution of the twelfth repentance of Pistis Sophia."

(8) But the Time is coming, when the Aurora or Day Spring will break forth, and then the Beast, that evil Child [or Child of Perdition] shall stand forth naked and in great Shame; for the Judgement of the Whore of the great Beast goes on. Therefore awake and fly away ye Children of God, that you bring not the Mark of the great evil Beast upon your Forehead with you, before the clear Light; or else you will have great Shame and Confusion of Face therewith. It is now high Time to awake from Sleep, for the Bridegroom makes himself ready to fetch home his Bride, and he comes with a clear shining Light: they that shall have Oil in their Lamps, their Lamps shall be kindled, and they shall be Guests; but those that shall have no Oil, their Lamps shall continue dark, and they shall sleep still, and retain the Marks of the Beast till the Sun rise, and then they shall be horribly affrighted, and stand in eternal Shame; for the Judgement shall be executed; the Children of God shall observe it, but those that sleep shall sleep till Day. Further of the Birth.

(1) "Then, by the will of the majesty, I took off my garment of light. I put on another garment of fire, which has no form, which is from the mind of the power, which was separated, and which was prepared for me, according to my will, in the middle region. For the middle region covered it with a dark power that I might come and put it on. I went down to chaos to save the whole light from it. For without the power of darkness I could not oppose nature. When I came into nature she was not able to tolerate my power. But I rested myself upon her staring eye, which was a light from the spirit. For it had been prepared for me as a garment and rest by the spirit. Through me, he opened his eyes down to Hades. He granted nature his voice for a time.

(22) The Sun is the Goddess in the third Principle; in the created World (understand, in the material Virtue) it went forth out of the Darkness in the Anguish of the Will, in the Way and Manner of the eternal Birth. For when God set the Fiat in the Darkness, then the Darkness received the Will of God, and was impregnated P for the Birth. The Will causes the [sour] Harshness, the Harshness causes the Attracting, and the Stirring of the Attracting to Mobility causes the Bitterness, which is the Woe, and the Woe causes the Anguish, and the Anguish causes the Moving, Breaking, and Rising up. Now the sour Harshness cannot endure the Stirring, and therefore attracts the harder to itself; and the Bitterness or the Attracting will not endure to be stayed, but breaks and stings so very hard in the Attracting, that it stirs up the Heat, wherein the Flash springs up, and the dark [Sourness or] Harshness is affrighted by the Flash, and in the Shriek the Fire kindles, and in the Fire the Light. Now there would be no Light if the Shriek in the Hardness had not been, but there would have remained nothing but Fire; yet the Shriek in the Harshness of the Fire kills the hard Harshness, so that it sinks down as it were to the Ground, and becomes as it were dead and soft; and when the Flash perceives itself in the Harshness, then it is affrighted much more, because it finds the Mother so very mild, and half dead in Weakness; and so in this Shriek its fiery Property becomes white, soft, and mild, and it is the Kindling of the Light, wherein the Fire is changed into a white Clarity, [Glance, Luster, or Brightness.]

(31) In the Originality of Darkness, there is Harshness and Austereness, this Harshness causes that it be light; for Harshness is Desirousness, an Attracting; and that is the first Ground of the Willing [or Longing] after the Light, and yet it is not possible to comprehend it; and the Attracting in the Will is the [Sting or] Prickle, which the Desiring attracts, and the first Stirring [or Moving.] Now the Prickle cannot endure the Attracting in the Will, but resists, flies up, and yet cannot get away from thence; for it is generated in the Attracting. But because it cannot remove from thence, nor can endure the Attracting, therefore there is a great Anguish, a Desiring [or Longing] after the Light, like a Furiousness, and like a breaking whirling Wheel; and the Anguish in the Bitterness rises up in the Wrath after the Light, but cannot get it, being desirous in the Anxiety to lift up itself above the Light, yet does not overcome, but is infected, [impregnated or mingled] with the Light, and attains a twinkling Flash; and as soon as the Harshness, or the Hardness (viz. the Darkness) gets the same into it, it is terrified, and instantly goes away into its Ether: And yet the Darkness continues in the Center. And in this Horror [Terror or Shriek] the Hardness or Harshness becomes mild, soft, [supple,] and thin; and the Flash is made in the Bitterness, which flies up thus in the Prickle: Thus the Prickle discovers itself in the Mother, which so terrifies the Mother with the Flash, that she yields herself to be overcome; and when the Prickle strengthens itself in the Mother, and finds her so mild, then that is much more terrified, and loses its [fierce, strong] wrathful Propriety, and in the Twinkling of an Eye becomes white, clear, and bright, and flies up very joyfully, trembling with great Delight, [Lust] and Desire; and the Mother of Harshness from the Light comes to be sweet, mild, thin, and material, even Water. For she loses not the Essence of the harsh Conditions, and therefore the Essence attracts continually to it out of the Mildness, so that out of the Nothing, Something comes to be, viz. Water.

(37) And indeed he has done somewhat, in that he has set the divine power into a burning, which appeareth even in the sun and stars; also the fire in the Salitter in the elements is often kindled, so that it seemeth as if the deep were of a burning fire; of which I shall speak in another place. [He stept back out of the meekness into the anxious fire-will, and fell into darkness. The Reader is advertised that he must not understand in any place, as if the devil had kindled or fired the light of God; no, but the forms of nature only, out of which the light shineth. For he has not comprehended the light, as little as the fire does, which cannot lay hold on " the light: But he entered into the fire, and is expelled into the darkness, and has neither fire nor light, besides, without or distinct from his creature." [Or his own creaturely- ness.]

(22) And we find greater Mysteries yet in Evidence of the horrible Fall; for after that the four Elements had thus set themselves every one in a several Region, then they made themselves Lords over the Spirit of the Soul, which was generated out of the Essences, and they have taken it into their Power, and qualify with it. The Fire, viz. the mightiest of them, has taken it into its Region [or Jurisdiction] in the Heart; and there it must mkeep, and the Blossom and Light thereof goes out of the Heart, and moves upon the Heart, as the kindled Light of a Candle, where the Candle resembles the fleshly Heart, with the Essences out of which the Light shines. And the Fire has set itself over the Essences, and continually reaches after the Light, and it supposes that it has the Virgin, viz. the divine Virtue [or Power.]

(1) Darkness of hell, and of a night deprived Of every planet under a poor sky, As much as may be tenebrous with cloud, Ne'er made unto my sight so thick a veil, As did that smoke which there enveloped us, Nor to the feeling of so rough a texture; For not an eye it suffered to stay open; Whereat mine escort, faithful and sagacious, Drew near to me and offered me his shoulder. E'en as a blind man goes behind his guide, Lest he should wander, or should strike against Aught that may harm or peradventure kill him, So went I through the bitter and foul air, Listening unto my Leader, who said only, "Look that from me thou be not separated." Voices I heard, and every one appeared To supplicate for peace and misericord The Lamb of God who takes away our sins. Still "Agnus Dei" their exordium was; One word there was in all, and metre one, So that all harmony appeared among them. "Master," I said, "are spirits those I hear?" And he to me: "Thou apprehendest truly, And they the knot of anger go unloosing."

(60) But they must use the heat of the sun to their kindling, because the qualities in this world are half dead, and are too weak; of which king Lucifer was the cause, which you will find, here following, concerning his fall, and concerning the creation of this world. Of the friendly Love, gracious, amiable Blessedness and Unity of the Five Qualifying or Fountain-spirits of God.

(16) The sixteenth pylon: the terrible, the lady of the morning dew, who throws out her burning heat, and sprinkles her sparks of fire over her enemies when she appears. She who creates (reveals?) the mysteries of the earth. She will prepare the enwrapping of the dead

(170) O security! the devil watcheth for thee. O high-mindedness! thou art a hellish fire. O beauty, pomp or bravery! thou art a dark valley. O potency of dominion! thou art a raging and a tearing of the hellish fire. O selfvindication or vengeance! thou art the fierce wrath of God.

(2) As when in nights serene of the full moon Smiles Trivia among the nymphs eternal Who paint the firmament through all its gulfs, Saw I, above the myriads of lamps, A Sun that one and all of them enkindled, E'en as our own doth the supernal sights, And through the living light transparent shone The lucent substance so intensely clear Into my sight, that I sustained it not. O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear! To me she said: "What overmasters thee A virtue is from which naught shields itself. There are the wisdom and the omnipotence That oped the thoroughfares 'twixt heaven and earth, For which there erst had been so long a yearning." As fire from out a cloud unlocks itself, Dilating so it finds not room therein, And down, against its nature, falls to earth, So did my mind, among those aliments Becoming larger, issue from itself, And that which it became cannot remember. "Open thine eyes, and look at what I am: Thou hast beheld such things, that strong enough Hast thou become to tolerate my smile."

(2) "And the exalted, infinite light appeared, for he was very joyful. He wished to reveal himself to the spirit. And the likeness of the exalted light appeared to the unconceived spirit. I appeared. I am the son of the incorruptible, infinite light. I appeared in the likeness of the spirit, for I am the ray of the universal light. And his appearance to me was in order that the mind of darkness might not remain in Hades. For the darkness made himself like his mind in a portion of the members. When I, O Shem, appeared in the likeness, so that the darkness might become dark to himself, according to the will of the majesty, and so that the darkness might become devoid of every aspect of the power that he possessed, the mind drew the chaotic fire, with which it was covered, from the midst of the darkness and the water. And from the darkness the water became a cloud, and from the cloud the womb took shape. The chaotic fire, which was a deviation, went there.

(1) Moreover, with respect to the tenuity and subtilty of light, the Gods extend a light so subtle that corporeal eyes cannot sustain it, but are affected in the same manner as fishes, when they are drawn upward from turbid and thick water into attenuated and diaphanous air. For men who survey divine fire are not able to breathe, through the subtilty of it, but become languid as soon as they perceive it, and are deprived of the use of their connascent spirit. Archangels, also, emit a light which is intolerable to respiration, yet their splendour is not equally pure with that of the Gods, nor similarly overpowering. The presence of angels renders the temperature of the air tolerable, so that theurgists are capable of being united to it. But when dæmons are present, the whole air is not at all affected; nor does the air, which surrounds them, become more attenuated; nor does a light precede them, in which, being previously received and preoccupied by the air, they unfold the form of themselves; nor are they surrounded by a certain splendour, which diffuses its light everywhere. When heroes appear, certain parts of the earth are moved, and sounds are heard around them; but, in short, the air does not become more attenuated, nor incommensurate to theurgists, so as to render them unable to receive it. But when archons are present, an assemblage of many luminous appearances runs round them, difficult to be borne, whether these appearances are mundane or terrestrial. They have not, however, a supermundane tenuity, nor even that of the supreme elements. And to the psychical appearances the air is more allied, and, being suspended from them, receives in itself their circumscription.