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(42) Whereof you have an Image in the Revelation of John, where he sees seven Golden Candlesticks or Lights before the Son of God, which signify the seven Spirits of God, which shine in great Clarity, Brightness, or Lustre before the Son of God, out of which the Son of God is continually generated from Eternity to Eternity, and is the Heart of the seven Spirits of God, which I will here describe in Order one after another. [Rev. 1.]

(3) Wherefore the Word is called the Alpha and the Omega, of whom alone the end becomes beginning, and ends again at the original beginning without any break.

(32) I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

(4) And Jesus made invocation, turning himself towards the four corners of the world with his disciples, who were all clad in linen garments, and saying: " iaō iaō iaō ." This is its interpretation: iōta , because the universe hath gone forth; alpha , because it will turn itself back again; ōmega , because the completion of all the completeness will take place.

(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.

(15) Aeon, moreover, is God's image; Cosmos [is] Aeon's; the Sun, of Cosmos; and Man, [the image] of the Sun. The people call change death, because the body is dissolved, and life, when it's dissolved, withdraws to the unmanifest. But in this sermon (logos), Hermes, My beloved, as thou dost hear, I say the Cosmos also suffers change - for that a part of it each day is made to be in the unmanifest - yet it is ne'er dissolved. These are the passions of the Cosmos - revolvings and concealments; revolving is conversion and concealment renovation.

(5) "Now, therefore, amēn, I say unto you: Every man who will receive that mystery of the Ineffable and accomplish it in all its types and all its figures,--he is a man in the world, but he towereth above all angels and will tower still more above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all archangels and will tower still more above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all tyrants and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all lords and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all gods and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all light-givers and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all pure [ones] and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all triple-powers and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all forefathers and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all invisibles and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above the great invisible forefather and will raise himself above him. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above all those of the Midst and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above the emanations of the Treasury of the Light and will raise himself above them all. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above the Mixture and will raise himself entirely above it. "He is a man in the world, but he towereth above the whole region of the Treasury and will raise himself entirely above it. "He is a man in the world, but he will rule with me in my kingdom. "He is a man in the world, but he is king in the Light. "He is a man in the world, but he is not one of the world. "And amēn, I say unto you: That man is I and I am that man.

(5) And I turned to see the voice that spake: I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

(3) I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the ending:

(3) "And all rulers and all authorities and all angels therein were thrown all together into agitation because of the great light which was on me. And they gazed at the radiant vesture of light with which I was clad, and they saw the mystery which contains their names, and they feared most exceedingly. And all their bonds with which they were bound, were unloosed and every one left his order, and they all fell down before me, adored and said: 'How hath the lord of the universe passed through us without our knowing?' And they all sang praises together to the interiors of the interiors; but me they saw not, but they saw only the light. And they were in great fear and were exceedingly agitated and sang praises to the interiors of the interiors.

(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.

(42) Now if any Body would come into the Garden, he must press in through the Sword of Death; though indeed Christ has broken the Sword, so that now we can much easier enter in with our Souls, yet there is a Sword before it still; but he that finds the Way right, him it does not cut very much, for it is blunt, and it is bent; and if the Soul goes but into the Gate into the Center, then it is presently helped by the noble Champion Christ; for he has gotten the Sword into his Hands. He is the slain Lamb of the House of Israel, in the Revelation of John, which took the Book of the first Principle, out of the Hand of the Ancient [of Days] who sat upon the Throne, with his four and twenty Elders, which [Book] had seven Seals, or seven Spirits of the Birth of God, and opened them; where the Elders fell down before him, and worshipped the Lamb that was slain, and gave Praise and Honour to him which sat upon the Throne, because the Champion of the House of Israel had overcome. The seven golden Candlesticks are his Humanity, the seven Stars are his Deity, as the divine i Birth in itself stands in a sevenfold Form, as it is explained in the Beginning of this Book, in the first four Chapters.