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| Chapter XXXI
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Chapter
XXXI.
Moreover, if any one would wish to become
acquainted with the artifices of those sorcerers, through which they
desire to lead men away by their teaching (as if they possessed the
knowledge of certain secret rites), but are not at all successful in so
doing, let him listen to the instruction which they receive after
passing through what is termed the “fence of
wickedness,”4440
—gates which
are subjected to the world of ruling spirits.4441
| 4441 πύλας
ἀρχόντων
αἰῶνι
δεδεμένας. | (The following, then, is the manner in
which they proceed): “I salute the one-formed4442
king, the bond of blindness,
complete4443
oblivion, the first
power, preserved by the spirit of providence and by wisdom, from whom I
am sent forth pure, being already part of the light of the son and of
the father: grace be with me; yea, O father, let it be with
me.” They say also that the beginnings of the
Ogdoad4444
| 4444 ᾽Ογδοάδος.
Cf. Tertullian, de Præscript. adv.
Hæreticos, cap. xxxiii. (vol. iii. p. 259), and other
references in Benedictine ed. | are derived from
this. In the next place, they are taught to say as follows, while
passing through what they call Ialdabaoth: “Thou, O first
and seventh, who art born to command with confidence, thou, O
Ialdabaoth, who art the rational ruler of a pure mind, and a perfect
work to son and father, bearing the symbol of life in the character of
a type, and opening to the world the gate which thou didst close
against thy kingdom, I pass again in freedom through thy realm.
Let grace be with me; yea, O father, let it be with me.”
They say, moreover, that the star Phænon4445
| 4445 Φαίνων. “Ea,
quæ Saturni stella dicitur, φαινων que a Græcis
dicitur.”—Cicero,
de Nat. Deorum, book ii. c. 20. | is
in sympathy4446
with the lion-like
ruler. They next imagine that he who has passed through
Ialdabaoth and arrived at Iao ought thus to speak: “Thou, O
second Iao, who shinest by night,4447
who art the
ruler of the secret mysteries of son and father, first prince of death,
and portion of the innocent, bearing now mine own beard as symbol, I am
ready to pass through thy realm, having strengthened him who is born of
thee by the living word. Grace be with me; father, let it be with
me.” They next come to Sabaoth, to whom they think the
following should be addressed: “O governor of the fifth
realm, powerful Sabaoth, defender of the law of thy creatures, who are
liberated by thy grace through the help of a more powerful
Pentad,4448
admit me, seeing
the faultless symbol of their art, preserved by the stamp of an image,
a body liberated by a Pentad. Let grace be with me, O father, let
grace be with me.” And after Sabaoth they come to
Astaphæus, to whom they believe the following prayer should be
offered: “O Astaphæus, ruler of the third gate,
overseer of the first principle of water, look upon me as one of thine
initiated,4449
admit me who am
purified with the spirit of a virgin, thou who seest the essence of the
world. Let grace be with me, O father, let grace be with
me.” After him comes Aloæus, who is to be thus
addressed: “O Aloæus, governor of the second gate, let
me pass, seeing I bring to thee the symbol of thy mother, a grace which
is hidden by the powers of the realms.4450
| 4450 χάριν
κρυπτομένην
δυνάμεσιν
ἐξουσιῶν. | Let grace be with me, O father, let it
be with me.” And last of all they name Horæus, and
think that the following prayer ought to be offered to him:
“Thou who didst fearlessly overleap the rampart of fire, O
Horæus, who didst obtain the government of the first gate, let me
pass, seeing thou beholdest the symbol of thine own power,
sculptured4451
| 4451 For καταλυθέν
Boherellus conjectures καταγλυφθέν,
which has been adopted in the translation. | on the figure of
the tree of life, and formed after this image, in the likeness of
innocence. Let grace be with me, O father, let grace be with
me.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
