Upon her head twelve Monads form a crown; each has emanated another
twelve. Ten Decads encircle her neck, nine Enneads are about her
heart, and seven Hebdomads are under her feet, and each has emanated a
Hebdomad. The firmament which surrounds her is like a tower with
twelve gates, and at every gate are twelve myriads of powers;
archangels are they called, or angels. This is the metropolis of the
Alone-begotten Son (16).
Now it is of the Alone-begotten that Phôsilampes (17) has said, "Before
all things is He." He it is who has come forth from the Infinite; He
who has engendered Himself there and has no seal nor form and has given
birth to Himself. This is He who is come forth from the Ineffable One,
the Immeasurable One, who truly is, and in whom is found all that truly
is, who is the Father Incomprehensible. He is in His Alone-begotten
Son, while the All reposes in the Ineffable and Unspeakable King, whom
none can move and whose Divinity no one can declare, whose kingdom is
not of this world. Meditating upon Him, Phôsilampes has said, "Through
Him is That-which-really-is and That-which-really-is-not, through which
the Hidden-which-really-is and the Manifest-which-really-is-not exists."
He is the true Alone-begotten God, and all the Fullnesses (Plêrômata)
know that it is by Him that they have become gods and that they have
become rulers in this name--God. This is He of whom John has said, "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was in God and the Word was
God, and without Him was not anything made. That which was made in Him
was Life."
The Alone-begotten is found in the Monad, dwelling in her as in a city,
and the Monad is in Sêtheus as a concept, and Sêtheus dwells in the
Temple as King and as God. He is the Word creative, who has commanded
the Fullnesses to labour; the Creative Mind after the order of God the
Father, whom all creation worships as God and Lord, to whom all is
subjected.
The Fullnesses wonder at Him [Sêtheus] because of His beauty and grace.
Around His head those of the Inner Spaces of the Universe form a crown;
those of the external spaces are beneath His feet, while those of the
middle spaces encircle Him, all praising Him and saying, "Holy, Holy,
Holy, AAA, HHH, EEE, III, OOO, YYY, ΩΩΩ"--that is to say, "Thou art
the Living One of Living Ones, Holy of Holies, Being of Beings, Father
of Fathers, God of Gods, Lord of Lords, Space of Spaces" (18). They
praise Him, saying, "Thou art the House and the Dweller in the House."
They praise Him, saying unto the Son concealed in Him, "Thou art: Thou
art, O Alone-begotten, Light and Life and Grace."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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