(74) No; but when God kindled the light for them, then they lived after the pleasures, voluptuousness and lusts of their own hearts, and would not be led or directed by the spirit, and so the outward light extinguished.

A certain Jewish king, the same who is referred to in the Sura "Signs of the Zodiac," I made up his mind to utterly exterminate the Christian faith, and with that view he set up a huge idol, and issued commands that all who refused to worship it should be cast into the fire. Thereupon his officers seized a Christian woman with her babe, and as she refused to worship it, they cast the babe into the fire. But the babe cried out to its mother, "Be not afraid, the fire has no power to burn me; it is as cool as water!" Hearing this, the rest of the Christians leapt into the fire, and found that it did not burn them. The king reproached the fire for failing to do its office, but the fire replied that it was God's servant, and that its consuming properties were not to be used for evil purposes. It then blazed up and consumed the king, and all his Jews with him.

The FUMIGATION with TORCHES. NIGHT, parent goddess, source of sweet repose, From whom at first both Gods and men arose, Hear, blessed Venus, deck'd with starry light, 3 In sleep's deep silence dwelling Ebon night! Dreams and soft case attend thy dusky train, Pleas'd with the length'ned gloom and feaftful strain. Dissolving anxious care, the friend of Mirth, With darkling coursers riding round the earth. Goddess of phantoms and of shadowy play, Whose drowsy pow'r divides the nat'ral day: By Fate's decree you constant send the light To deepest hell, remote from mortal sight For dire Necessity which nought withstands, Invests the world with adamantine bands. Be present, Goddess, to thy suppliant's pray'r, Desir'd by all, whom all alike revere, Blessed, benevolent, with friendly aid Dispell the fears of Twilight's dreadful shade.

(5) If a man performs his sacred works when these flames are shining, and the oblations follow at the right time, then they lead him as sun-rays to where the one Lord of the Devas dwells.

(140) That fire is the very Son of God, who is thus generated always from eternity to eternity: This I can demonstrate by the heaven and the earth, the stars and the elements, and by all the creatures, stones, leaves and grass, yea in the devil himself; and that, not with dead, slight, insignificant arguments, void of understanding, but with clear, quick, living and invincible firm arguments, even above, beyond and to the refutation of all men's reason, convincingly and undeniably; and lastly, in opposition against all the devils and the gates of hell; and I would do it here, if it would not take up too much room.

(32) Thus lord Lucifer thought also, that if he did but kindle his fire, then he might domineer forcibly in the divine power; for he thought it would have burnt eternally, and also have given light; his purpose was not to put out the light, but he would have it burn continually in the fire; he thought he would dry up the water, and then the light would move, stir or shine, in the burning fire.

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. WITH holy voice I call the stars on high, Pure sacred lights and genii of the sky. Celestial stars, the progeny of Night, In whirling circles beaming far your light, Refulgent rays around the heav'ns ye throw, Eternal fires, the source of all below. With flames significant of Fate ye shine, And aptly rule for men a path divine. In seven bright zones ye run with wand'ring flames, And heaven and earth compose your lucid frames: With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright Forever shining thro' the veil of Night. Hail twinkling, joyful, ever wakeful fires! Propitious shine on all my just desires; These sacred rites regard with conscious rays, And end our works devoted to your praise.

(3) For if the works which take place from the appearance of these powers are such as you say, viz. if they are arrogant and false, yet the operations about fire of true spirits are genuine and true. For, as in all other things, such as are principal primarily begin from themselves, and impart to themselves that which they give to others; as, for instance, in essence, in life, and in motion; thus also the natures which supply all beings with truth, primarily proclaim the truth of themselves, and precedaneously unfold the essence of themselves to the spectators. Hence, likewise, they exhibit to theurgists a fire which is of itself visible. For it is not the province of heat to refrigerate, nor of light to darken or conceal any thing; nor with any other nature which essentially performs a certain thing, is a power present of at the same time effecting the contrary. But things which do not possess a [true] nature, and which are contrary to things that exist essentially; these are able to receive contraries, and are adapted to fall into evil.

(8) Wherefore the wisest of the Egyptian priests decided that the temple of Athene should be hypaethral, just as the Hebrews constructed the temple without an image. And some, in worshipping God, make a representation of heaven containing the stars; and so worship, although Scripture says, "Let of Eurysus the Pythagorean, which is as follows, who in his book On Fortune, having said that the "Creator, on making man, took Himself as an exemplar," added, "And the body is like the other things, as being made of the same material, and fashioned by the best workman, who wrought it, taking Himself as the archetype." And, in fine, Pythagoras and his followers, with Plato also, and most of the other philosophers, were best acquainted with the Lawgiver, as may be concluded from their doctrine. And by a happy utterance of divination, not without divine help, concurring in certain prophetic declarations, and, seizing the truth in portions and aspects, in terms not obscure, and not going beyond the explanation of the things, they honoured it on as pertaining the appearance of relation with the truth. Whence the Hellenic philosophy is like the torch of wick which men kindle, artificially stealing the light from the sun. But on the proclamation of the Word all that holy light shone forth. Then in houses by night the stolen light is useful; but by day the fire blazes, and all the night is illuminated by such a sun of intellectual light.

The FUMIGATION from SAFFRON. O Ever untam'd Fire, who reign'st on high In Jove's dominions ruler of the sky; The glorious sun with dazzling lustre bright, And moon and stars from thee derive their light; All taming pow'r, ætherial shining fire, Whose vivid blasts the heat of life inspire: The world's best element, light-bearing pow'r, With starry radiance shining, splendid flow'r, O hear my suppliant pray'r, and may thy frame Be ever innocent, serene, and tame. Next: V. To Protogonus, Or the First-Born Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: III: To Heaven Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: V. To Protogonus, Or the Firs... » Sacred Texts | Classics

(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.

(14) Well, then, that fire like a pillar, and the fire in the desert, is the symbol of the holy light which passed through from earth and returned again to heaven, by the wood [of the cross], by which also the gift of intellectual vision was bestowed on us.

(1) "'2. Its plotting taketh away the light from me all the time, and as sharp iron have they taken away power from me. "'3. I chose to descend into the chaos rather than to abide in the thirteenth æon, the region of Righteousness. "'4. And they desired to lead me craftily, in order to consume my whole light. "'5. For this cause then will the Light take away their whole light, and also their whole matter will be made naught. And it will take away their light and not suffer them to abide in the thirteenth æon, their dwelling-place, and will not have their name in the region of those who shall live. "'6. And the four-and-twenty emanations will see what hath befallen thee, O lion-faced power, and will be afraid and not be disobedient, but give the purification of their light. "'7. And they will see thee and will rejoice over thee and say: Lo, an emanation which hath not given the purification of its light, so that it may be saved, but boasted itself in the abundance of the light of its power, because it did not emanate from the power in it, and hath said: I will take away the light from Pistis Sophia, which will now be taken from it.' "Now, therefore, let him in whom his power is raised, come forward and proclaim the solution of the eleventh repentance of Pistis Sophia." Then Salome came forward and said: "My Lord, concerning this thy light-power prophesied aforetime through David in the fifty-first Psalm, saying:

In a vision an apostolic person saw people who were locked up in a house of fire, bound with [chains] of fire, and thrown [into]…fire [on account of…false] faith. It was said, “[They might have] saved [their souls], but they did not want to, so they got [this place of ] punishment called the [outer] darkness….”

(91) "Yet the fire giveth or holdeth forth to us a mystery of the eternal nature, and of the Deity also, wherein a man is to understand two Principles of a twofold source, viz. I. a hot, fierce, astringent, bitter, anxious, consuming one in the fire-source. And out of the fire cometh II. viz. the light, which dwelleth in the fire, but is not apprehended or laid hold on by the fire; also it has another source than the fire has, which is meekness, wherein there is a desire of love, where then, in the love-desire, another will is understood than that which the fire has.

(11) It is said also in a certain oracle,- "A pillar to the Thebans is joy-inspiring Bacchus," from the history of the Hebrews. Also Euripides says, in Antiope,- "In the chambers within, the herdsman, With chaplet of ivy, pillar of the Evoean god." The pillar indicates that God cannot be portrayed. The pillar of light, too, in addition to its pointing out that God cannot be represented, shows also the stability and the permanent duration of the Deity, and His unchangeable and inexpressible light. Before, then, the invention of the forms of images, the ancients erected pillars, and reverenced them as statues of the Deity.

The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE and MANNA. I Call the mighty, holy, splendid light, Aerial, dreadful-sounding, fiery-bright; Flaming, aerial-light, with angry voice, Lightning thro' lucid clouds with horrid noise. Untam'd, to whom resentments dire belong, Pure, holy pow'r, all-parent, great and strong: Come, and benevolent these rites attend, And grant my days a peaceful, blessed end. Next: XX: To the Clouds Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: XVIII: To Thundring Jove Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: XX: To the Clouds » Sacred Texts | Classics

(1) And Jesus continued again in the discourse and said unto his disciples: "It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia had finished saying these words in the chaos, that I made the light-power, which I had sent to save her, become a light-wreath on her head, so that from now on the emanations of Self-willed could not have dominion over her. And when it had become a light-wreath round her head, all the evil matters in her were shaken and all were purified in her. They perished and remained in the chaos, while the emanations of Self-willed gazed upon them and rejoiced. And the purification of the pure light which was in Pistis Sophia, gave power to the light of my light-power, which had become a wreath round her head. "It came to pass then moreover, when it surrounded the pure light in Sophia, and her pure light did not depart from the wreath of the power of the light-flame, so that the emanations of Self-willed should not rob it from it,--when then this befell her, the pure light-power in Sophia began to sing praises. And she praised my light-power, which was a wreath round her head, and she sang praises, saying: "'1. The Light hath become a wreath round

(35) Thus it befell the pride of Lucifer: he triumphed a little while with his kindled light; but when his light was spent and burnt up, then he became a black devil.

(5) The solemn ceremony of Kindling the Light for the dead is repeatedly mentioned in the Siut inscriptions of Hapit’efae