If these three be within thy spirit, then shall the Spirit of God be within thee. And the glory shall be upon the propitiatory, in the holy place of thy prayer. These are the twelve gates of regeneration: through which if a man enter he shall have right to the tree of life. For the number of that Tree is Thirteen. It may happen to a man to have three, to another five, to another seven, to another ten. But until a man have twelve, he is not master over the last enemy. (5) Concerning the Passage of the Soul[77]. Evoi, Father Iacchos, Lord God of Egypt: initiate thy servants in the halls of thy Temple; Upon whose walls are the forms of every creature: of every beast of the earth, and of every fowl of the air; The lynx, and the lion, and the bull: the ibis and the serpent: the scorpion and every flying thing. And the columns thereof are human shapes; having the heads of eagles and the hoofs of the ox. All these are of thy kingdom: they are the chambers of ordeal, and the houses of the initiation of the soul. For the soul passeth from form to form; and the mansions of her pilgrimage are manifold. Thou callest her from the deep, and from the secret places of the earth; from the dust of the ground, and from the herb of the field. Thou coverest her nakedness with an apron of fig-leaves; thou clothest her with the skins of beasts. Thou art from of old, O soul of man; yea, thou art from the everlasting. Thou puttest off thy bodies as raiment; and as vesture dost thou fold them up. They perish, but thou remainest: the wind rendeth and scattereth them; and the place of them shall no more be known. For the wind is the Spirit of God in man, which bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it shall go. Even so is the spirit of man, which cometh from afar off and tarrieth not, but passeth away to a place thou knowest not. (6) Concerning the Mystic Exodus[77]. Evoi, Iacchos, Lord of the Sphinx; who linkest the lowest to the highest; the loins of the wild beast to the head and breast of the woman. Thou holdest the chalice of divination: all the forms of nature are reflected therein. Thou turnest man to destruction: then thou sayest, Come again, ye children of my hand. Yea, blessed and holy art thou, O Master of Earth: Lord of the cross and the tree of salvation. Vine of God, whose blood redeemeth; bread of heaven, broken on the altar of death. There is corn in Egypt; go thou down into her, O my soul, with joy. For in the kingdom of the Body, thou shalt eat the bread of thine initiation. But beware lest thou become subject to the flesh, and a bond-slave in the land of thy sojourn.