The Chaldæan Oracles, volume II

attention turned to the wrong side of the thing — the littleness and superstition of what in the Oracles was dearly intended to be a revelation of some greatness.

lynx is said to be the bird which we call the wryneck ; it was called iynx in Greek from its cry, as it is called wryneck in Enghsh from the movement of its head. lyge and iygm6s are used of howling, shrieking, yelling, both for shouts of joy and cries of pain, and also of the hissing of snakes.

The ancient wizards, it is said, used to bind the wryneck to a wheel, which they made to revolve, in the behef that they thus drew men's hearts along with it and chained them to obedience ; hence this magic wheel was frequently used in the beUef that it was a means of recovering unfaithful lovers. This operation was called setting the magic bird or magic wheel agoing. The unfortunate bird seems to have been attached to the wheel with its wings and legs pegged

out crosswise so as to form four spokes, ^J?,--.. spread-eagle fashion. The word iynx orj^£. thus came to mean a chann, aud a spell, and also a passionate yearning.

The root -idea accordingly seems to have been that of a " winged wheel " that emitted sound, and we are reminded of the winged creatures or wheels in the famous Vision of Ezekiel, who saw the mystic sight in Babylon, and thus probably caught some reflection of the symbolism of the Chaldxan mysteries.

How the wryneck was first brought in, and finally assumed the chief place, is a puzzle. It reminds one of the story of the calf in the Vaidik rite, which so interfered with the sacred service of the sage that he had to tie it up to a post before he could continue the rite. This casual incident became finally sterotyped into the chief feature of the rite !

Certain it is that the lynges of our Oracles have nothing to do with wrynecks ; we shall, therefore, make bold to translate them as Wheels or Starters.

riiAi nxAu ^*y w*re presumably thought of as ORACLES. Living Spheres, whirling out in every direction from the centre, and swirling in again to that same centre, once they had reached the limit of their periphery or surround. They were also, in a^ probability, conceived of as Winged Globes — a familiar figure in Babylonian and Egyptian art — thus symbolizing that they were powers of the Air, midway between Heaven, the Great Surround, and Earth, the fixed Centre. In other words, they were the Children of the JEon.

An anonymous ancient writer tells us (K. 39) that it is the blending of the intellectual (or gnostic) and intelligible (or ideal) orders — that is, the union of the prototypes of what we distinguish as subject and object in the sense-world of diversity, or what we might caU the self-reflective energy of the Mind on the plane of reality — that first " spirts forth " the One lynx, and after this the three lynges that are called "paternal"

and also " unspeakables." This writer the also characterizes the lynx as the " One SSaSk!"' in the three Depths after it " (it is, therefore, of an ieonic nature), and says that it is this three-in-one hierarchy that divides the worlds into three — namely, empyrean, setherial, and terrene.

The information of Damascius refines and comphcates the idea, when he tells us that " the Mind of the Father is said to bring forward [on to the stage of manifestation] the triadic ordering — lynges, Synoches, Teletarch* " — which we may render tentatively as Whirlings, Holdings-together and Perfectings.

The Synoches we have come across before (i. 58). TeletarchUi is used by ecclesiastical writers as a synonym of the Trinity ; while Orpheus is called teletdrches as the founder of mysteries or perfectionings.

The root-meanings underljdng the

names of the members of this triad seem

to suggest, as we have aheady said,

the ideas of creating (or preferably

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CHALDiEAN s**^!^*^?)" preserving {or maintaining), and ORACLES, completing (or perfecting or finishing).

Damasdus thinks that the last words of

the following two verses refer to the

triad of the One lynx.

K. 40. Many are these who leaping mount C. 40. upon the shining worlds ; among them are three excellencies [or heights'].

The meaning of the first clause is doubtful. Who the many (fem. pi.) are, is not dear ; it may mean that there are hosts of subordinate lynges. On the contrary, it may have nothing to do with these Nature-Iynges on the Path of Descent, that is the bringing into manifestation, but may refer to souls who in the Ascent win their way to the " shining worlds " or Worlds of Light, and become lynges consciously

According to both Damascius and Proclus, the Order of lynges is characterized as having the power both of

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proceeding or going-forth and of drawing- ™5 together or contracting — that is, both of orj^bsT expansion and contraction, of outbreathing and in-breathing. They are, moreover, free Intelligences.

The Whirls [Iynges\ created by the K. 40. Father's Thought are themselves, too, intel- C. 54. ligent [or gnosHc], being moved by Wills ineffable to understand.

They are created by Divine Tho;^ht, as Sons of Will and Yoga, and procreate by thought ; they are JGnd-bom and give birth to minds. Their epithet is the " Ineffables " or " Unspeakables "; they are further called in the Oracles " swift" and are said to proceed from and to " rush to " or " desire eagerly " the Father (C. 52) ; they are the "Father's Powers." Indeed, as Proclus declares :

" For not only do these three divinities [or divine natures] of themselves bring into manifestation and contract them [set., out of manifestationl but they are

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™5in«;»mr^° ' Cttariifltw * [OF Watchcts or Pre-

ORACLES. servers] of the ' works ' of the Father,

according to the Oracle — ^yea, of the One

Mind that doth create itself " (K. 40, C.

lynx in its root - meaning, according to Proclus, signifies the " power of transmission," which is said, in the Oracles, " to sustain the fountains." The same idea seems to be latent in the following verse :

K. 40. For aU cosmos has infiexible intelligent C. 64. sustainers.

The meaning is quite clearly brought out when Proclus, elsewhere, affirms that the Order of the Ijmges " has a transmissive [that is, intermediary or ferrying] power, as the Theologers call it, of fill things from the Intelligible [or T3rpal] Order into Matter, and again of all thmgs into it [sc*., the IntelligibleJ."

In other words, they are the direct link between the Divine and physical,

and to some extent also suggest the JJjJ .,. idea of Angels or Messengers ; yet are oracles. they like to Wheels and Whirls, or Vortices — on the one hand to vortical atoms, and on the other to individuaUties. They are, of course, in essence, quite unbound by ideas of extension in space, and sequence in time ; though they manifest in space and time.

Porphyry preserves a curious Oracle which r^ds :

With secret rites drawing the iynx K. 41. from the tether.

This Oracle, however, may have been taken from some Theurgist or Hellenized Magian source and not from our poem ; and so also niay the following quoted by Proclus :

Be active [or operate'] round the Hecatic K. 41. spinning thing, C. 194.

It is doubtful v^at strdphalus means

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CHALDiEAH """-"J- '* ^*y sometjmes mean a top ;

ORACLES. *°<^ ^ *he Mysteries tops were included among the mystic play-things of the young Bacchus, or lacchus. They represented, among other tilings, the " fixed " stars (humming tops) and planets (whipping tops).

The lynx was said to be active, or to energize, on the three — empyrean, stherial and terrene — planes.

THE HAINTAINERS.

Though the Later Platonic commentators make two other aUied hierarchies out of the Synoches and Teletarchae, both these, as we have seen, should rather be taken as modes of this same mysterious lynx. In manifestation, from one it passed to three, and so became many. Thus a scrap of our Oracles reads :

K. 41. Nay, and as many as are subject 'to C. 57. the hylic [or terrene'] Synoches.

This would seem to mean simply the

Powers that hold together, or con-tract, ™e or mass, material things ; and these or«lk. Powers are again the lynges, or simultaneously creative, preservative, and destructive or perfective Intelligences of the Father-Mind, which are in the Oracles symbolically ctUled His " Lightnings " when thought of as Rays or Intelligences. The word Presteres (Lightnings), however, is more graphically and literally rendered as Fiery Whirlwinds — like waterspouts. These are again our lynges or Whirls or Swirls or Wheels, spinning in and out. Thus two verses read :

But to ike Knowing Fire-whirls of the K. 42. Knowing Fire [i.e., the Father'] all things C. 63. do yield, subject unto the Father's Will which makes them to obey.

As we have seen above (p. 16) these Whirls, as Synoches — that is, in their power of holding together — were called " Guardians,-" and tins is borne out by two verses :

K. 42. He gave to His own Fire-whirls the C. 56. power to guard the summits, commingling

with the Synoches the proper power of

His own Might.

The " summits " suggest these selfsame lynges in their creative mode ; the series of which they were the " summits " being creative (or inceptive), preservative (or guardian), and perfective (consummative or r^enerative).

Thus Damascius tells us that the whole Demiui^c Order — that is to say» the order of things in genesis — was surrounded by what the Grades call the " Fire-whirling Guard." In brief it is the power of holding together (? gravitation on the Ufe-side of things).

This is fundamentally the great power of the Mother-side of things ; for, as we have seen (i. 57), the Great Mother is ;

K. 19. Source of all sources, Womb that holds C. 99. all things together.

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It follows, therefore, that the lynges, ™E as creative, are on the Father-side ; as orj^k.*" preservative (or Synoches) on the Motherside ; and as result or consummating or perfecting {or Teletarchie) on the Sonside.

Damascius bears this out when he tells us that the Oracles call the S3moches the " Whole-makers " {fiolopoioi) — that is to say, they are connected with the idea of wbdeness or oneness or the rootsubstance side of things, and again with the idea of the £on.

Of course, the symbohc categories of Father, Mother, and Son are really all aspects of One and the same Mystery — the That which understands itsdf alone and yet is beyond understanding. To this Proclus refers when he writes (K. 42, C. 7) : " Including [containing, preservii^] all things in the one excellency (or summit] of His own subsistence, ' Himself st^sists wholly beyond,' according to the Oracle."

THE THE ENDERS.

gj^l^ So also with the Teletarchs or Perfecting Powers ; as Proclus tells us, they have the same divisions as the Synoches (and lynges) ; that is to say, it is again all the same thii^ looked at from the Son-side of things. There was thus, in the elaboration of the Later Platonic commentators, a triple, and even a sevenfold, division of this order or hierarchy. Considering the Teletarchic energy, or activity, as triadic, Proclus tells us that in its fiurst mode it has to do with the finest or ultimate substance, the Empyrean, and says that it plays the part of Driver or Guide to the " foot [? — tars6n] of Fire " — which may be simply a poetical phrase for the Fire in its first contact with substance. Its middle mode, embracing beginnings and ends and middles, perfects the .(Ether ; while its third mode is concerned with Gross Matter (Hyle), still confused and unshaped, which it also perfects. From these and other elaborations of a like nature, we learn that the Teletarchs

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were regarded as three, and were i°-J5f,„-., timately bound up with the Synoches, oR^i& and therefore with the lynges {C. 58). The uniijdng or holding-together of the Sjfnochic power is de-fined and delimited by the perfecting nature of the Teletarchic power —

Into b^nnii^ and' end and middle K. 43. things by Order of Necessity.

In this connection it is of interest to cite a sentence from Proclus that is almost certainly quoted from the Oracles. It relates to the Ascent of the individual soul and not to cosmogenesis, to perfection in the Mysteries and not to the Mysteries that perfect the world :

The Soul-lord, he who doth set his feel K. 43. upon the realms eetherial, is the Perfectioner {Teietarch'].

Finally, Proclus refers the following two verses to the Teletarchs :

K. 43. Nay, a Name of august majesty, and, C. III. with sleepless whirling, leaping into the

worlds, by reason of the Father^s swift

AnmmrKement.

In another passage Proclus refers to the " Transmissive " Name that leaps into activity in the " boundless worlds " {K. 44) ; and in yet another passage (K. 40), which we have already quoted (p. 16), he gives this "Name" to the lyngcs. This plainly refers to the *** Intermediaries who stand " between the Father and Matter, as Damasdus says (K. 44), who further affirms that in their aspect of Teletarchs they are perfecting, and rule over all perfections, or the perfecting rites of the Mj^teries.

So much, then, for the highest Principles or Ruling Powers of tiie Sensible World. The commentators further speak of a division among the Gods into Gods within the Zones and Gods beyond the Zones ; but no verse from the Oracles

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is extant by which we can control *^I2?in-»- statement. It seems to mean simply that oracleI they were classified according as to whether their operations were concerned with the Seven Spheres, or were beyond them.

THE DAIMONES.

The lesser powers were, according to Olympiodonis, divided into Angels, Daimones and Heroes. Concerning the Heroes, however, we have no fragment remaining ; while Angels and Daimones are at times somewhat confused. On the Daimones we have the ftdlowing two

Naiufe persuades us thai the Daimones K. 44. are pure, and things that grow from evil C. igi. matter useful and good.

Kroll thinks that this means that Nature deceives us into thinking that the evil Daimones are good ; it may, however, mean that whereas from Man's standpoint Daimones are good or evil,

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CHAU>«AN :

according to Nature they are pure, or ORAO^ indifferent, or non-moral. Their operations are conditioned by man's nature. They are in themselves non-human entities, and there is a scale of them from lowest to highest.

THE DOGS.

Certain classes of them the Oracles call " Dogs " ; and here we may quote an interesting passage from Lydus (K, 30) :

" Whence the tra<fition of the Mystic Discourse [? the Oracles] that Hecate [the World-Mother] is four-headed because of the four elements. And the iire-breathing head of the Horse evidently refers as it were to the sphere of fire ; the bellowing head of the Bull has reference to a certain bellowing power connected with the sphere af air ; the bitter and unstable nature of the Hydra [or Water-Serpent] is connected with the sphere of water ; and the chastening and avenging nature of the Dog with that of earth."

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The last clause throws some Ught on the the aUied Bgure of Anubis in Egyptian SsJ^^** psychopompy, and also on the following fn^ment of the Oracles :

Out of the Womb of Earth leap Dogs K. 45. terrestrial that unto mortal never show C. 97. true sign.

It is impossible to say what this means precisely without the context. " Dogs *' are the intelligent guardians of the secrets of various mj'stery-traditions ; they are ever watchful. The Outer Guards of the Adyta in which the mystic rites were celebrated, were sometimes called Dogs. Much could be written on this symbolism, beginning with Anubis and the Dog-ape of Thoth (see " Dog " in the Index of H.). Dog was a name of honour in the Msreteries. The Pythagoraeans called the Planets the " Dogs of Persephon€ "; sparks were poetically called the " Do^ of Hephsestiis." The Eumenides, were called " Dogs," and the Harpies " Dogs

™a of Great Zeus." Perhaps this may throw

ORACLES, some Ught on our particular Oracle ; in the Oracles generally, however, they seem to have been a generic name of apparently wider meaning than in the symbolism which Lydus uses ; unless we assume that for tum the earth-sphere extended to the moon, when it would have three " planes " — terrene, watery and aery — each of which had its appropriate Dogs.

Thus Olympiodorus writes : " From the aery spaces begin to come into existence the irrational Daimones. Whwefore also the Oracle says : "

K. 45. She [? Hecate^ is the Driver of the airy C. 75. and the earthy and the watery Dogs.

Kroll refers to the last of these Do^ the epithet " Water-walkers," whidi Produs quotes from the Oracles in the , following pass£^e :

'* 'Watery' as apphed to divine natures signifies the undivided domain over

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water; for which cause, too, the Oracle ™f,«-„« calls these Gods 'Water-walkers'" {K.^SS^^

It is clear, however, that this refers to a far higher " dominion " than that of the Dogs. These inferior Daimones had their existence as far as the Moon only, in what was regarded as the realm of the impure nature or gross matter. Beyond the Moon the Daimones were held to be of a higher and purer order ; these were also called Angels — a term that in all probability came into our Hellenized Oracles along the line of the Hago-Chaldaean tradition.

Psellus speaks of " the manifoldlyfhwing tribes " {the group-soul idea) of the Daimones, and this phrase was in all probability taken from the Oracles. (K. 46). It would seem to indicate that the nature of the Daimones was unstable and Protean, or rather that they could assume any form at will.

THE THE HUMAN SOUL.

ORJ^ES^ We now come to the important subject of the doctrine of the OracJes concerning the hmnan soul.

The soul, as we have akeady seen (i. 71), was brought into being by the union of three ; it is a triad, or rather a monad united with a triad.

K. 26. Having mir^led the Spark of soul with C. 81. two in unanimity — with Mind and Breath Divine — to them He added, as a third. Pure Love, the august Master biriding ail.

We must, then, suppose that the individual souls, as Uves, Sow forth from the World-Soul, the Great Mother; it is, however, the Father who conditions them by His Creative Thought.

K. 46. These things the Father thought, and [so] C. 78. made mortal [man] to be ensouled.

" Mortal man " here seems to mean JJJE man as conditioned by body. The Soul oRACLES. is, as it were, a middle term between Mind and Body — both for the Great World and for the httle world, or man ; for two verses run :

The Father of men and gods placed Mind K. 47. in Soul, and SotU in inert Body. C. 18.

The fundamental distinction, however, between the Mind and Soul is not easy to draw with any great clearness. They may be thoi^ht of as Light and Life, the eternally miited complements of the One Mystery, the masculine and feminine powers of the sexless Supreme. So also with the individual soul in man ; the soul-spark is a light-spark which is aJso a life-spark, or rather life-flood ; it is centre and sphere in perpetual embrace — for mind and soul are not to be separated, no man can put them astmder. The nature of this " soul " (dttna-buddhi) is immortal and divine.

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K. 47. For Soul being shining Fire, by reason C. 20. of the Father's Power, both keeps immune from Death, and body is of Life, and hath the fulnesses [pleromata] of many wombs.

In the cosmic process (and also in the case of the individual) when the Sea of Substance has been impregnated by the Beams of Light, the whole Sea changes from dull and sluggish Matter (tamos) to bright Soul (sattva). It has become one now instead of indeterminate, cosmic and DO longer chaotic. It is now the Sea of Life, the complement of all imperfection.

It is in all probabihty to the individual Soul that Psellus refers, when he writes : " For if, according to the Oracles, it is ' a portion of the Fire Divine,' and ' shinit^ Fire," and ' a creation of the Father*s Thought,' its form is immaterial and self-subsistent " {K. 47, n. 2).

THE VEHICLES OF MAN.

The original text of our Oracle-poem had, probably, something to tell us of

other " vehicles " or " garmeats " of the JSf, „«.». Soul besides the gross body ; but no verses oracles. on this interesting subject are ext£i&t.

Proclus, however, tells us that the disciples of Porphyry "seem to follow the Oracles, in saying that in its Descent the Soul ' collects a portion of ^ther and ' of Sun and Moon, and eiII the elements contained in Air.'" Compare with this the Oracle quoted above (i. 79) :

Mther, Sun, Moon's Breath, Leaders K. 33.

And also a fragment of Porphyry preserved by Stobxus :

" For when the soul goes forth from the solid body, there follows along with it the spirit which it collected from the

And with this compare the following passage from the Trismegistic tractate

" Now the principles of man are this wise vehicled : mind in the reason, the

J5?, .„ reason in the soul, sou! in the spirit, and ORACLES, spint in the body.

"Spirit pervading body, by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living creature motion, and, as it were, doth bear it in a way. . . .

" It is the same for those who go out from the body.

" For when the soul withdraws into itseli, the spirit doth contract within the blood, and soul within the spirit. And then the mind, stripped of its wrappings, and naturally divine, takes to itself a

And so also Proclus, treatii^ of the Ascent or Return, and plainly referring to the Oracles, writes :

" In order that both the visible vehicle may, through the visible action of them {sci., the Rays], obtain its proper treatment [or careX and that the vehicle that's more divine than this, may secretly be purified, and [so] return to its own proper lot, ' drawn upward by the lunar

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and the solar Rays,^ as says somewhere one ™f n^iu of the Gods [*.«., the Oracles]." otaclm.

Compare with this the Pitri-ySna and Deva-y5na, or Way of the Fathers and Way of the Gods, in the Upanishads. This " more divine vehicle " was generally called by the Later Platonic sdiool the " ray-hke " (ai^o-eidis), or " star-hke " (astro-eidis), or "spirituous" (pneumatih- 6n) body ; and its pmification and enlivening by means of the Rays are admirably set forth in the rubrics of the Mithriac Ritual (Vol. VI.).

SOUL-aAVERY.

In itself, the Sotil is possessed of a divine nature, and is naturally free ; in the earth-state, however, it is now in slavery owing to its being drunk with the things of gross matter (hyli). This at any rate seems to be the meaning of the following three lines that have, unfortunately, been considerably mangled by the copyists :

K. 48. The Soul of man shall press God closely

C. 83. to itself, with naught subject to death in

it; [bia now] it is all drunk, for it doth

glory in the Harmony beneatti whose sway

the mortal frame exists

With these lines are probably to be taken the verse quoted above (i. 30) :

K. 15. Not knowing God is wholly God. O C. 184, wretched slaves, be sober !

The Harmony is the system of the Seven Formative Spheres of Genesis, or Fate. And so Proclus, speaking of Souls, writes :

" Which also the Gods [».«., the Oracles] say are slaves when they turn to generation {genesis) ; but ' if they serve their slavery with neck unbent,' they are brought home again from out this state, leaving the state of birth-and-death {genesis) behind."

THE BODY.

As to body, the doctrine of the Grades the ■was, as with nearly all the mystic schools orj^es!^ of the time, that of naive ascetic dualism in general, that is if we can trust the commentators. Body seems more or less to have been identified with matter. It is said to be " in a state of flux," " spread out," and "scattered." It was apparently called, in the Oracles, the " tumidtwms vessel " oc " vessel of tumult " — ;the epithet being derived from rushing, roaring and dashing waves, and the idea bong connected with the flowing nature of material things, presumably, as contrasted with the quiet of the contemplative mind. ■

Proclus speaks of " the earth from which one must * lighten the heart' " {K..^), and this " heart " must be associated with what he calls, after the Oracles, *' the ' inner heart ' in the essence of the

The imfortunate body is thus regarded

as the " ro<d of evil" or " naughtiness,''

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ruAtnsTAH *"'' "* ^^ *° ^ even the " purgation of oSJI^Ei '««*»' " -(K. 48), one of our extant fragments characterizing it plainly as the It may here be noted that in the PisHs Sophia, matter is called the "superfluity of naughtiness," and men (that is men's bodies) are said to be the "purgation of the matter {hyle) of the Rulers " credible that this was one of the doctrines of the " Books of the Chaldaeans."

Matter (hyle) is here not regarded as the fruitful substance of the universe, the " Land flowing with milk and honey," but as the dry and squalid element beneath the Moon, which, Proclus tells us, is called, in the Oracles, the " unwaiered," that is in itself unfruitful, the Desert as compared with the Land of true living substance (K. 48).

NATURE,

In^ this gross matter dwells the body which is subject to Nature, that is Fate.

The physical body, then, appears to have jf^ njKAv been regarded as an excretion within the qraclbs. domain of Nature or the Fate-sphere. Psellus, accordingly, writes concerning the Sout, or rather the Light-spark :

" But the Gnostic Fire comes from Above, and is in need of its native Source alone [presumably, the true spiritual life-substance] ; but if it be affected by the feelings of the body, Necessity compels that it should serve it [the body] and [so] -be set beneath the sway of Fate, and led about by Nature " (K. 48).

This suggests the putting on the "form of a servant," of the Pauline Letters {Phil., ii. 7), and the Trismegistic " becoming a slave within the Harmony

lids gross matter, or hyhc substance, extended as far as the Moon ; it constituted, therefore, practically the atmosphere, or surround, of the earth, generally spoken of as the sublunary region. The HooQ was its " Ruler," being the " image" of the Great Mother, Nature, who conditions

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CBALSiMJM ^ genesis — that is, becoming or birth- ORACLES. and-death. Spealong of this Lunar Sphere, which surrounds the hylic r^ons, E*rodus tells us that in it were " the causes of all genesis" or generation; and quotes a sacred logos in confirmation :

K. 49. The seif-revealed glory [or ivutge] of

Nature shines forth.

Whether these words are quoted directly from our poem, is not quite certain ; it is, however, hi^y probable, for an isolated verse runs :

K. 40. Do not invoke the self-revealed image

C. 148. of Nature.

Here Mother Nature is what the Greeks called Hecate, and her " image " or natare-symbol, or glory, is the Moon. Very similar to this is the fragment :

K. 49. Turn not thy face Naturewards ; [fori

C. 149. her Name is identical with Fate.

Perhaps the second clause has been ^f^j, _»,, defaced in the tradition ; it is difficult to oracles. make out the precise sense from the present text, unless it means simfdy, as lambhchus tells us, that : " The whole being [or essence] of Fate is in Nature " —that is to say, that Nature and Fate Are identical.

In close connection with this we must take the Oracular prohibition :

Do not increase thy Fate I K. 50.

Fate may here be said to be the result of contact with many people and objects. Everything that we have intercourse with on earth enlarges our destiny, for destiny in this sense is the result of earthly happenings. We should, accordingly, seek within everything for further ideas, ^d not simply rush about and spread ourselves all over space. This seelong within by means of true mind is not stirring up the secret powers of Great Nature ; it is rather the understanding of Fate.

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»ALD£AH "^^ prohibition thus seems to mean : >IUCLBS. ^'^ °^t increase the dominion of the body of the lower nature, or rather the Moonruled plasm.

Within the same range of ideas also, we may, perhaps, bring the isolated apostrophe from the Oracles :

K. so. man, thou suiOle handiwork of daring C. 94. Nature I

This refers to the body of man that is wrought by the Nature-powers, the elemental intell^ences of the Mother.

THE DIVINE SPARK.

The " soul " is thus thought of, in this doctrine, as struggling against the " body " ; in this great Strugj^, or Passion, it is helped by the Father, who has bestowed upon it a particle, or rather portion, of His own Mind, the living "symbol," or pledge, or token, of Himself. This struggle, or passion, is in reality the travail, or birth-throes, of the

sdf-bom Son. It is because

Ijght-spark, by reason of this pledge, that qhacSm*"

souls tdSlea into generation, and therefore

foi^etful in time of their Divine ongin,

can recover the memory of the Father.

For the Mind of the Father hath sown K. 50. symbols through the world— (the Mind] thai C. 47. understands things understandable, and that thinkS'for^ ineffable beauties.

Psellus has a variant of the first verse, namely:

The Mind of the Father has sown C. 80. symbols in the sow/s.

These "symbols" are the seeds of Divinity (the logoi or "words" of Philo and the Christian Gnosis), but they are not operative until the soul converts its will from the things of Fate to those of Freedom, from self-will to spiritual freewill. On this we have, fortunately, three verses preserved :

K. so. But the Mind of the Father doth not

C. 164. receive her will, i4iitil she hath departed

from Oblivion, and uttereth the word, by

putting in its [Oblivion's] place the Memory

of the Fatherhood's pure token.

On this Psellus comments : " Each, therefore, diving into the ineffable depths of his own nature, findeth the symbol ot the AU-Father." " Uttering the word " is, mystically, bringing this logos, or light-spark, into activity.

THE WAY OF RETURN.

The Path of Retimi to the Father was set forth at length in the Oracles, and on it we have, fortimately, a number of fragments :

K. 51. Seek out the channel of the Soul-stream,

C. 172, — whence and from what order is it that

the soul in slavery to body [did descend,

and] to what order thou again shalt rise,

at-one-ing work with holy word.

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The meaning of " word " in this and ™?u,jgjm the preceding fragment is doubtful. We qrac^ may either take it mystically, as we have suggested above, or it may be taken magically, as the utterance of compdling speech — in the lower sense, the theurgic use of invocations, and in the higher tiie utterance of true " words of power," that is the " speech of the gods " which is uttered by right action, or " work." This remindsusof the "Great Work" of the Alchemists, and of Karma-yoga, or the " union by wOTks," of Vaidik theosophy, taken in the m3rstic sense and not the usual meaning of ceremonial acts. Kroll thinks that the " holy word " means the knowledge of the intelligible world of the Father, but I do not quite follow him.

THE ARMOUR OF SOUNDING UGHT.

The nature of the Quest is set forth mysteriously as follows :

Armed at all points, clad in the bloom K. 51. of Sounding Light, arming both mind and C. 170.

sold with three-barbed Might, he must set

in his heart the Triads every sy»U>ol,

and iKrf move scatteredly along the enppyrean ways [or channels'], but [move] collectedly.

Cranpare with this (i. 87) ;

K. 36. Yea, verily, full -armed without and C. 171. armed within lil^ to a goddess.

This refers to the Re-geaerate, as described in the Mithriac Ritual. The " three-barbed Might " is taken probably from the symbol of the trident, and represents the triple-power of the Monad. As the Ritual says (page 27), he must hold himself steady and not allow himself to be " scattered abroad "; all his " limbs " must be collected, or gathered tt^ether, as the Osiris in resurrection. Cmnpare with this The Gnostic Crucifixion (pp. 16, 52 fi.), and also the remarkable description of a somewhat similar experience in a story, by £. R. Innes, in The

Theosophical Review (vol. xli., p. 343., THE

Espeaally to be noticed is the graphic phrase " Sounding Light," showing that the dose connection between colour and sound was known to the initiates of these mysteries. This Sounding Light, however, in its mystical sense, was probably the Uttered Word, or, to use another figure, the putting-on of the " Robe of Glory." C<Hnpare with this the Descent of the Ea^e in the Hyimi of the Soul of

" It flew in the form of the Eagle,

Of aB the winged tribes the king-bird; It flew and alighted beside me, And turned into speech altogether."

This Sounding Light is thus the true "symbol" of the Paternal or Spiritual or Intelli^ble Monad. Proclus speaks of the inteUigence as being " wellwheeled," by which he means smoothly spinning round a centre ; this centre

S5ld*an ^'^ ^* Intelligible (K. 51)- But, to ORACLES. <^^ taste, this is by ao means a good simile, for the Intelligible or Spiritual Mind embraces all things and is not a centre. Proclus, however, seems to base himself upon this verse :

K. $1. Urging himself to the centre of Sounding

But when we remember the " threebarbed Might " of our first fragment be permitted to translate kStttron as

Urging himself on with the goad of Sounding Light.

We thus bring the main idea into relation with the contempocaneous Trismegistic doctrine of the Master-Mind {i.e., the Spiritual Mind) being the Charioteer, and driving the soul-diaiiot,

with gnostic rays (or reins) that sound JSfin«jui forth its true counsels. In any case the OR^MST mystic should find no difficulty in transmuting the symbols, passing firom centre to periphery or from periphery to centre as the thought requires.

Finally, with regard to the first quotation under this heading, it may be said that in re-generation man begins to reclothe hims^f ; only when he makes these new clothes, they no longer bind but clothe him with power. The " bloom " (or vigour) of Sounding (or Resounding) Light is an armour that raj's forth. " Might " (or Strength) suggests inner stability, that which is planted within and is the root of stability, the foundation. The atniic, or spiritual, " spark," in the virgin soil, or womb, of the man's spiritual nature, is the Strength of the Father. It is the Power to stop chaos swirling, and so start the enforming or ordering of itself. Thus it is that the man starts makii^ the symbols and sounds whereby his Name or Word is actualized.

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THE THE WAY ABOVE.

ORACLES. S"*^ * '"*" should begin to know the nature of the regions unto which he is being brought, and so understand the mystic precept :

K. 51. Let the immortal depths of thy soul be C. 174. opened, and open all thy eyes at once to the Above.

It is proper to foUow the " great " passions and desires of the soul, provided the "eye," or true centre of the mind, be fixed Above ; for then the passions are swe to be pure, and not personal attractions, not httle bonds of feeling and sentiment.

This " opening of all the eyes " concerns the mystery of the ;Eon. In the Depths of the New Dawn every atom of the man must liecome an eye ; he must be " all eye." As vehicle of Sounding Light he must become an ^on — " a Star in the world of men, an Eye in the regions of the gods."

But to be clothed with this Royal ™E Vesture, this Robe of Glory, he mustj^^j^*" strip off the "garb of the servant," the bonds of slavery, the " earthy carapace " :

Tke mortal once endowed with Mind K. 52. must on his soul put bridle, in order that C. 175. it may not plunge into the ill-starred Earth but win to freedom.

" Endowed with Mind " is the Trismegistic " Mind-led." This Spiritual Mind, or Great Hind, is the Promethean, or Foreseeing, Mind in man (as Proclus tells us), who plays the part of Providence over the life of reason in us — that is, the rational man or animal — that this life may not be destroyed by being —

Dowsed in the frenzies of the Earth and C. 190. the necessities of Nature.

This is quoted by Proclus from oui poem,

for he adds: "As one of the Oracles sajrs."

This " dowsing," or baptism, of the

rS* I niKA-a ^^ "* *^® waves of the Ocean of Genesis, ORACLES. ^^ Generation, the Watery Spheres, is referred to several times in the Trismegistic fragments (K. 52, n. i), and is the converse of the Spiritual Baptism or " Dowsing in the Mind," as we read in the Divine Herald's Proclamation, in the treatise called " The Cup " or " Mixing-bowl" — the Monad.

" Baptize thyself with this Cup's Baptism, what heart can do so, thou that hast faith thou canst ascend to Him who hath sent down the Cup, thou that dost know for what thou did'st come into Of similar purport are the verses :

K. 52. Unto the Light and to the Father^s Rays

C. 160. thou oughfst to hasten, whence hath been

sent to thee a soul richly with Mind arrayed.

" Hasten " is a mystery-word, suggesting activity without motion. The soul must be Ughtened and stripped of its gross garments of matter (hyle].

For things Divine are fwt accessible K. 52. to mortals who fix their minds on bod,y ; C. 169. 'tis they who strip them naked [of this tf^if*gi thai speed aloft unto the Height.

These are the true Naked, the real Gymnosophists, as Apollonius of Tyana would have caUed them, who strip off the "fonn of the servant," the rags of the lower nature. Compare with this the early Jewish commentator in the Naassene Docmnent, who was evidently well versed in the " Books of the Chaldseans" :

" For this Mjreteiy is the Gate of Heaven, and this is the House of God, where the Good God dwells alone ; into which House no impure man shall come. But it is kept under watch for the Spiritual alone ; where, when they come, they must cast away their garments, and ah become bridegrooms, obtaining their true manhood through the Virginal Spirit "

If this transmutation be effected, and

ORACLBS. garments of the pure elements, the " wedding garments " of the Gospel parables, the soul by its own power wins its freedom. Such a man is characterized by Proclus as " having a soul that looks down upon body, and is capable of looking Above, ' by its own might,' acawding to the Grade, divorced from the hj^c org2ias of sense " (K. 52).

PURIFICATION BY FIRE.

The Path of Return, or Way Above, was conceived as a purification of the soul from the hylic elements, and therewith an entry into the purifying mystery of the Baptism of Fire, which in its highest sense is the " Dowsing " in the Divine Mind of the Trismegistic teaching.

K. 53, For if the mortal draw nigh to the Fire, C. 158. he shall have Light from God.

Speaking of the " perfecting purification," Proclus tells us that it was operated

by means of the " Divine Fire" and that ™?u,-juj it was the highest degree of purification, oracles. which caused all the "stains" that dimmed the pure nature of the soul, through her converse with generation, to disappear. This he takes directly from the Oracles.

THE ANGELIC POWERS OF PURIFICATION.

In this purification certain Divine Powers, or InteUigences, take part ; they are called Angels (Messengers or Mediatoi^). They are the higher correspondence of the infernal Daimones in The Vision of AridcBus (pp. 33 ff.), in which the *' stains " of the souls are graphically depicted.

The part played by these Intelligences, however, is not external to the soul, but an integral part of the transmutation ; it is the Angelic portion of the man that leads the soul Above.

It is this, as Proclus tells us, from the

cBALDXAii *-^**^^' ^** " makes " the soul " to shines round the man on all sides ; it rays-forth, becomes truly " astral " (augo-eidSs or astro-eidis), rays-forth with intell^ence.

It is this Angehc power that purifies the soul of gross matter (hyU), 2ind " tighUns it with warm spirit " — tliat is, endows it with a true impersonal or " cosmic " subtle vehicle, tempered by means of that " temperature " or " blend " which the Mithriac Ritual (p. 19) tells us depends entirely on the Fire.

The original poem seems, from Proclus' comments, further to have contained verses which referred to certain Angelic Powers who, as it were, made to indraw the external protrusions of the soul which it sympathetically projects in conformity with the configuration of the limbs of ite earthy prison>house ; their function, therefore, was to restore it to its pure spherical shape. To this may refer the very corrupt and obscure verse :

The projections of the soul are easy to K. 53. tmloose by being inbreathed. C. 88.

THE SACRED FIRES.

Breath (Spirit) is said mystically to be the Spouse of Fire (Mind) ; and so we find Proclus speaking of " perfecting the travail of souls and ' lighting up the Fire * in them," and also of "lighting up the fires that lead them Home " ; all of which, for the mystic, can refer to nothing else than the starting of what are called the "sacred fires " of spiritual transformation. These "fires" are inteUigent transfonning currents that re-form the soul-plasm into the " perfect body," that is, the " body of resmrectioD," as the Mifhriac Ritual (p. 19) informs us. And so we read :

Extend on every side the reins of Fire to K. 53. iguidel the unformed soul. C. 173.

That is, constrain the flowing watery nature of the soul by the fiery breath or spirit of the true Mmd. And this seems

!Sf.r.»<u *^ to ^ t^6 meaning of the difficult

.HALDiEAN t j. .

«ACLES. fragment .

K. 54. // thou extendest fiery Mind to flowing C. 176. work of piety, thou shaU preserve thy body too.

This seems to mean that, when by means of purification, and by dint of pious practices, the soul is made fluid — that is to say, is no longer bound to any configuration of external tbii^, when it is freed from prejudice, or opinion, and personal passion, or sentiment, and is " with pure purities now purified," as the Mithriac Ritual (p. 20) has it — then this re-generated soul-plasm, the germ of the " perfect body," can be configured afresh according to the plans or symbols of the true Mind.

Then shall the re-generate souls have Gnosis of the Divine Mind, be free from Fate, and breathe the Intelligible Fire, thus understanding the Works of the Father.

Theyfteethereckles$fatedwingofFate,and K. 54. sfoy themselves in God, drawing unto them- C. 90. selves the Fires in all their prime, as they descend from out the Father, from which, as they descend, the soul doth cull the Flower of Empyrean Fruit that nourisheth the soul.

It is hazardous to say what this may mean with any great precision, for in ^ probability the text is corrupt in several places. Taking it as it stands, however, we may conjecture that the first line refers to the state of the souls in subjection to Fate ; they are figured elsewhere as leaving the state of sameness and rest, and flying forth down into the hylic realms of Genesis, or repeated birth and death. This is winging the " shameless " (or reckless) " wing of Fate ;" and yet this too is " fated." They who return to the memory of their spiritual state, once more rest in God, and breathe in the " Gnostic Fires " of the Holy Spirit — ^the true Ambrosia, that which bestows immortality (athanasia).

THE THE FRUrr OF THE FIRE-TREE,

^SjkleI*" This Fruit of Life— that is, the Gnosis, or Gnostic Son of God — as may be seen from The Great Announcement, of the Simonian tradition, based on Mago- Gialdsean mystic doctiines (see The Gnostic Crucifixion, pp. 40 &.), was figured as the Fruit of the Fire-Tree. The Church Father Hippolytus (Ref., vi. 9) summarizes the original text as foUows : "And, generally, we may say, of all things tiiat are, both sensible and inteUigible, which he [the writer of the Announcement] calls Manifested and Hidden, the Fire which is above the Heavens, is the Treasure, as it were a Great Tree, Uke that seen by Nebuchadonosor in vision, from whit^ alt flesh is nourished. And he considers the manifested side of the Fire to be the trunk, branches, leaves, and the bark surrounding it on the outside. All the parts of the Great Tree, he says, are set on fire by the devouring flame of the Fire and destroyed. But the Fruit of the Tree,

if its imaging hath been perfected, *"d™J

it takes the shape of itself, is placed oi{aci,bs,

in the Storehouse, and not cast into the

Fire. For the Fruit, he says, is produced

to be placed in the Storehouse, but the

husk to be committed to the Fire ; that

is to say, the tnmk which is generated

not for its own sake but for that of the

Fruit."

See further my Simon Magus (p. 14). The original form of this Great Announcement is in all probability a pre-Christian document (see H., 184, n. 4), for the early Jewish commentator in the Naassene Document is acquainted with it. Now in this Document the pre-Christian Hellenistic initiate writes :

" Moreover, also, the Phrygians say that the Father of Wholes is ^^j^dalos [,lit., the Almond-Tree]."

And this is glossed by the same Jewish commentator, who knew The Great Announcement, as follows :

" No ordinary tree ; but that He is that Amj^dalos the Pre-existing, who,

having in Himself the Perfect Fruit, as it were, throbtnng and moving in His Depth, tore asunder His Womb, and gave birth to His own Son " {H., i. 182).

THE FJEAN OF THE SOUL.

But to return to the Oracles ; Produs evidently bases himself upon a very similar passage to the last-quoted verses of our poem, when he writes :

" Let us then offer this praise-giving to God — the becoming -hkeunto -Him. Let us leave the Flowing Essence [the River of Genesis] and draw nigh to the tnie End ; let us get to know the Master, let all our love be poured forth to the Father. When He calls us, let us be obedient ; let us baste to the Hot, and flee the Cold ; let us be Fire ; let us ' fare on our Way throi^h Fire.'' We have an ' agile Way ' for our Return. ' Our Father is our Guide' who ' openeih the Ways of Fire,' lest in forgetfulness we let ourselves flow in a ' downward stream ' '

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The lust of generation is said to ™^, „-.„ " moisten " the soul and make it watery ; oracles. the Fire dries it and lightens it. Tlie Hymn, or Prajse-giving, which the soiils sing on their Way Above is called by Olympiodorus, quoting most probably from the text of our poem, the "P«a«," or Song of Joy (C. 85) ; it is a continual praise-giving of the man who times himself into harmony with the Music of the Spheres. (See The Hymns of Hermes,

THE HYSTERY-CULTUS.

The cultus of the Oracles is, before all else, the cult of Fire, and that, too, for the most part, in a high mystical sense rather than in the cruder form of external fire-worship. The Sacred living Fh-e was to be adored in the shrine of the silence of the inner nature. These inner mysteries were in themselves inexpressible, and even the very method ol approach, it seems, was fianded on under the vow of silence.

^aldjEAM ^"^ poem was thus originally intended

ORACLES, to be an apocryphon (in the original sense

of the tenn), or esoteric document ; tor

Proclus tells us that its mystagogy was

prefaced by the words :

K. 55. Keep silence, thou who art admitted to C. 51. the secret rites [mysta].

And elsewhere he says that the Oracles were handed on to the Mystse alone. As a way of approach to the innennost form of the rites, which was indubitably a sohtary sacrament like the dynamis of the Mitkriac Ritual, there was an inner ceremonial cultus. Thus from <«ie fragment we recover the following instruction to the officiating priest :

K. 55. But, first of all, the priest who doth direct

C. 193. the Works of Fire, mu^ sprinkle with cold

wave of the deef>-souHding brine.

There was, therefore, a ceremonial

ritual. The consummation of the

innermost rite, however, was solitary, ^f , „„4„ and of the nature of a Mystic Union or oracles. Sacred Marriage.

THE MYSTIC MARRIAGE.

Thus Proclus speaks of the soul, " according to a certain ineffable at-onement, leading that-which-is-filled into sameness with that-which-fills, making one portion of itself, in an immaterial and impalpable fashion, a receptacle for the in-shining, and provoking the other to the imparting of its Light." This, he says, is the meaning of the verse :

When the currents mingle in consum- K. 55- maiion of the Works of Deathless Fire. C. 2r.

THE PURIFYING MYSTERIES.

But this can be accomplished only in the perfected body, or rather " perfect body " ; therefore, with regard to visions of the lower powers, operated by the daimones, Proclus tells us :

" The Gods admonish us not to look

ORACLBS. ^t^ the powers brought to birth by the Mjfstery-rites : "

K. 55- Thou should'st not look on them before C. 150, the body is perfected ; [/or] ever do they

fascinate men's souls and draw them from

the Mysteries.

The lower visions were to be turned from in order that the higher theophanies, or manifestations of the Gods, m^ht be seen. But this could be accomplished only by an orderiy discipline. And so Proclus writes :

"For in contemplation and the art of perfectioning, that which makes the Way Above safe and free from stumblingblocks for us, is orderly progress. At any rate, as the Oracles say : "

K. 56. Never so muck is God estranged from C. 183. man, and, with Living Power, sends him on fruitless quests —

"As when, in disorder and in "discord, J^f.^jBAu we [try to] make the Ascent to the^j^^|_ most divine heights of contemplation or the most sacred acts of Works — as it is said, ' with lips unhallowed and unwasken feet.' "

THE FIRE -GNOSIS.

Proclus further tells us that the first preliminary of this truly sacred cultus is that we should have a right intuition of the nature of the Divine, or, in the graphic words of the Oracles, a " Firewarmed itiiuition" (K, 56) :

For if the mortal draw nigh to the Fire, K. 53. he shall have Light from God. C. 158.

There must, however, be no rush or hurry, but calm steadfast perseverance, for it is ail a natural growth. Therefore is it said that :

For the mortal man who takes due time K. 56. the Blessed Ones are swift to come into being. C. 158.

^f.»>.u This, however, does not mean to say ORACLES.

that the man should be slow ; for :

K. 56. A mortal sluggish in these things spells the dismissal of the Gods,

This is explained by an interesting passage of Damascius, who, speaking of the mysterious " instrument " the iynx, writes : " When it turns inwards, it invokes the Gods ; and when outwards, it dismisses those it has invoked." Mj/stically this seems to mean that when the " wlurl " — or vortex " instrument " of consciousness, or the one-sense "perfect body " — turns inwards, theophanies, or manifestations of the Gods, appear ; and when it turns outward, to the physical, they disappear.

THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE GODS.

In themselves the Gods have no forms, they are incorporeal ; they, however, assume forms for the sake of mortaJs,

as Proclus writes : " For though we ™Aim*> [the Gods] are incorporeal : " oracles.

Bodies are allowed to our sdf^evealed K. 56. manifestations for your sakes. C. 106.

This self-revelation, which in one mode signifies the selection of some image in the seer's own mind, and in another, comiotes the seeing by one's own light, pertains to the mystery of that monadic Light which transcends the three lower (empyrean, aetherial and hylic) planes or states (K. 31). And Simplicius fmiher informs us (K. 57), quoting from Proclus :

" This, he says, is the Light which first receives the invisible allotments of the Gods, and for those worthy makes manifest in itself the seU-revealed spectacles. For in it, he says, according to the Oracle : "

The things that have no shape, take shape. K. 57. This seems to be the Astral Light

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CHALDEAN ORACLES.

rnf t nxkv P™P^» " cosmic " and not personal. To this interpretation of Proclus', however, Simplidus objects that, according to the Oracles, the impressions of typicd fonns, or root-symbols, and of the other divine visions, do not occur in the Light, but are rather made on the xther (C, 113). We, however, need not labour the point further than to remark that Proclus had wider personal experience of those things than Simplicius. The things seen in the Great Light were true, for this Light constituted the Plane of Truth, whereas the setherial was a reflection, and was further conditioned by the personality of the seer. Produs, therefore, tells us that :

" The Gods [i.e., presumably the Oracles] warn us to have understanding of ' the form of light that they display ' "

In another passage Produs refers to

the mystic experience of these theo-

phanies on the empyrean plane, where

shapes of fire are assumed : " The

tradition of these [visions] is handed on ™E by the mystagogy of the tradition of the orjwlk. Gods ; for it says : "

When thou hast uttered these [P words of K, 57. power], thou shalt behold either a fire C. 198. [? fiame] resembling a boy, dancing upon the surface of the waves of air [P ather] ; or even a flame that hath no shape, from which a voice proceeds ; or [yc/] a wealth of light around the area {of sight], strident, a-whirl. Nay, thou shalt see a horse as well, all made of fire, a-flash with light ; or yet again a boy, on a swift horse's back astride, — a boy clad all in flame, or all bedecked with gold, or else with nothing on ; or even shooting with a bow, and standing on horse-back.

With the above may be compared the symbohc visions in A Mitkriac Ritual (pp. 27, 32) ; we have here evidently to do with the same order of experiences, and so also in the following four verses :

K. 57. // thou shouliPst oft address Me, thou C. 196. shaU behold all things grow dark ; for at

that hour no Heaven's curved dome is.

seen ; there shine no Stars ; Moon's

light is veiled ; Earth is no longer firm ;

with Lightning-flash all is a-flame.

In connection with the idea underlyii^ the phrase " a flame that hath no shape, from which a voice proceeds," of the last fragment but one, we must take the lines ;

K. 58. But when thou dost behold the very C. 199. sacred Fire with dancing radiance flashing formless through the depths of the whole world, then hearken to the Voice of Fire.

THE THEURGIC ART.

But to reach this pure and formless vision was very difficult ; for all kinds of false appearances and changing shapes could intervene. These had to be cleaned from the field of vision, for tbey were held to be due to impure presences, or,

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as we should prefer it, to the ""P^nt'^s^fm*** of the man's own lower nature. OnoujJ^g|^ this subject our Oracles (though more probably it is an interpolation from a Theurgic tradition) had instruction, as we leam frora the curious fragment :

But when thou dost perceive an earth- K. 38. ward daimon drawing nigh, make offering C. 196. with the stone mnouziris, uttering [the proper chant}.

What this stone may have been, we have no knowledge. To " make offering " with a stone can mean nothing else than to put it into the fire, and this should connect with aldiemy. Mnouziris is a barbarum nomen.

The chant, or mantra, would also consist of harbara nomina (native names), concerning which Psellus quotes the famous lines that are generally referred to our Oracles, but which, for reasons of metre, could not have stood as part

'HALD^AM " ^®* *^** thou Dcver change the >RACLES. native names ; for there are names in every nation, given by the Gods, possessed of power, in mystic rites, no language can express."

In this Theurgy, or " Divine Work," moreover, certain symbols, or symboUc figures, were employed, for Proclus says (K. 58) that the Oracles " call the angular points of the figures ' the compactors.' "

THE ROYAL SOULS.

But Theurgy was not for all ; it was the Royal /at, and could be practised with spiritual success only by those whom the Trismegistic writers (H., iii. 125) would have called Royal Souls. Their nature is set forth in the following verses, preserved by Synesius :

K. 58. Yea, verily, indeed, do they ai least,

C. 86. most hapPy far of all the sotUs, pour down

to Earth from Heaven ; most blest are

they with fates [lit., threads'] no tongue

can tell, as many as are born from out

Thy Radiant Self, King, and from *A£™f,_,.„ Seed of Zeus Himself, through s/^owgoRj^Ei Necessity.

This is evidently a reference to the Race, the Sons of God. (See The Gnostic Crucifixion, pp. 48 ff.)- So also does the Orphic initiate declares : " My Race is from Heaven."

There may be some slight doubt as to whether the above fragment is from our poem, for Synesius does not say from what source he takes his quotation ; but short of the precise statement everything is in favour of its authenticity, and especially the following from the same plulosophic and mystical Bishop :

THE LIGHT.SPARK,

" Let him hear the sacred Oracles which tell about the different ways. After the full list of inducements [or promptings] that come from Home to cause us to return, according to which it is within our power to cause the

CHAU>j£AN ORACLES.

K^ gg. To some He gave it to receive the Token C. i6g, t*/ 'A* ^*S^i to others, even when asleep.

He gave the power of bearing Fruit from

His own Might.

The " Token oi Ught " is evidently the " Symbol " that the Father implants in souls. It is the Seed of Divinity, the Light-spark, that gradually flaraes forth into the Fire. This Light-spark was conceived of as a seed sown in good soil that could bear fruit, thirty, or sixty or a hundred fold, as the Christianized Gnosis has it.

And so in the Excerpts from the lost work of the Christian Gnostic Theodotus, made by the Church Father Clement of Alexan<lria, we read (K. 59) : " The followers of the Valentinian doctrine declare that when the Psychic Body hath been enformed, into the Elect Soul in sleep the Masculine Seed is implanted by the Logos."

If the soul can pronounce its own the true Word (Logos), utter its Sound, and obJ^eI** so create by itsell symbols, then may the man hope really to understand what his consciousness may catch from the highest spheres. But even if his soul cannot do this, even while it is unaware of its surroundings, and without this creative power, it is still possible that it may be able to catch some of the Strength and Might (not Light) of the Father-Mind, and thus be inspired to conceive some true ideas.

The re-generated soul is said to become a " Five-fold Star," as we learn from the Mitkriac Ritual (p. 24), and also from Lydus [De Mens., 23.6), who tells us that : " The Oracle declares that souls, when restored to their former nature by means of this Pentad, transcend Fate."

For Theurgists are not counted in the K. 59. herd subject to Fate. C. 185.

And so also Proclus tells us that :

™5i nauM " ^* should avoid the multitude of men OHJWLM. that go ' »'♦> *<^''s.' as saj^ the Oracle." The " herd " has, so to speak, got only one "over-soul" between them, — they do not yet stand alone ; or, rather, they have a soul each, and only one ' " over-mind " between them.

Those of the " herd " are the " processions of Fate " of the Trismegistic writings {H., iii. 273) ; while those who have perfected themselves, are freed from the Wheel of Fate, and become Angels or Gods. Speakii^ of the man who is truly devotc»i to sacred things, Proclus quotes an Oracle which says :

K. 60. Alive in power he runs, an Angel.

THE UNREGENERATE.

On the contrary, the unregenerate is characterized as :

6d, Hard to turn, with burden on the back, who has no share in Light.

J t, Google

While concerning those who " lead an the evil life," Proclus tells us that the Oracles oHj^S declared :

for as for them they are no great way k. 6o. off from Dogs irratiotuil.

Of such a one it is said :

My vessel the Beasts of the Earth shall K. 60, inhabit. c. 95.

Compare mth this the Gnostic Valentinian doctrine, as summarized by Hippolytus :

" And this material man is, according to them, as it were an inn, or dwellingplace, at one time of the soul alone, at another of the soul and daimonian existences, at another of the soul and words ilogoi), which are words sown from Above — icom the Common Fruit of the Pleroma (Fulness) and Wisdom — into this world, dwelling in the body of clay together

OrJ^lS. cohabit with her " (F.. p. 352).

And also the Basilidian doctrine, as summarized by Clement of Alexandria :

" The Basilidians are accustomed to give the name of appendages [or accretions] to the passions. These essences, they say, have a certain substantial existence, and are attached to the rational soul, owing to a certain turmoil and primitive confusion.

" Onto this nucleus other bastard and alien natures of the essence grow, such as those of the wolf, ape, lion, goat, etc. And when the peculiar qualities of such natures appear round the soul, they cause the desires of the soul to become like to the special natures of these animals, for they imitate the actions of those whose characteristics they bear "

THE PERFECTING OF THE BODY.

The physical body was called in the

Oracles the " dung of matter," as we have

seen above (p. 38), and as we may see ™g, nmAu fr<Mn the obscure couplet : oracles.

Thou shalt not leave behind the dung K, 61. 0/ maiter on the height; the image [eidolon] C. 147. «teo AoM its portion in the space thai shines on every side.

This seems to mean either that the higher states of consciousness were not to be contaminated and befouled with the passions of the body, or that in the highest theurgy the body was not to be left behind in trance, but, on the contrary, that conscious contact was to be kept with it throughout the whole of the sacred operation, as we learn from the MUkriac Ritual. The " image " also — ^presumably the image - man, or subtle vehicle of the soul, tiie augoeides or astroeides — ^had an important part to play in linking the consciousness up with the Light-world.

In this connection we may also take the Unes already quoted above (p. 58) :

K. 54- if '*">» ^st stretch thy fiery mind unio C. 176. ihe flowing work of pieiy, thou shall preserve thy body too.

What the " flowing work of piety '* may be, it is hazardous to say. It is probably a poetical expression for the pure plfistic substance out of which the " perfect body " was to be fonned, as set forth in the Mitkriac Ritual. The work of the " fiery mind " is thus described in the Trismegistic sermon " The Key " :

" For when the soul withdraws into itself, the spirit doth contract itself within the blood, and soul within the spirit. And then the mind, stript of its. wrappings, and naturally divine, taking unto itself a fiery body, doth traverse

And again :

" When mind becomes a daimon, the law requires that it should take a fiery body to execute the services of God "

And here we may append a passage

who loved our Oracles : ORACLES.

" To this the Oracles of the Gods bear witness ; and [therefore] I say that, by means of the holy life of purity, not only our souls but also our bodies are made worthy to receive much help, and saving [or soundness] ; for they declare : "

Save ye as well the mortal thing of K. 6i. bUter matter that surrounds you. C. 178.

For the mystery-term " bitter matter " see the note in the Mithriac Ritual (pp. 41 ft.). Kroll thinks that all this refers to the dogma of the resurrection of the physical body, but the Ritual makes it plain that the only " body of resurrection " with which the Mjrstics aad Gnostics were acquainted, was the " perfect body" ; the resurrection of the gross physical body was a superstition of the ignorant.

The " dung of matter " referred to

above may be rendered as " dross " or

" scum," and a somewhat more mystical interpretation might be suggested. " Dross " as a mystery-word is essentially the same as " scum," but from an analytical point of view suggests the reverse of " scum." Certain states of the soul may be spoken of as scum ; in spiritual alchemy when the soul-plawn is thought of as the " watery " sphere being gradually dried, so as to be eventually buUt up, or enformed, by the " fire " of the spiritual mind, then the scum rises to the top and is handed over to Fate. Scum would then mean men under the bondage of Fate. Dross, however, suggests the earth or metal side of things, and here the refuse falls and does not rise, and is again handed over to further schooling and discipline, and not allowed freedom from the law, like jewels and pure earth are.

Scum and dross are on the matter-side of things ; images may be said to correspond to them on the mind-side. As scum is to the soul, as dross to pure matter, so is image to pure mind. Both

scorn and image have to do with the j^J nrntAu sniface of things and not with the depth. ^j^£f^

RE-INCARNATION.

As we might expect, the Oracles taught the doctrine of the repeated descents and retumings of the soul, by whatever name we may call it, whether transmigration, re-incamation, palingenesis, metempsychosis, metensomatosis, or transcorporation. And 30 Produs tells us that :

"They make the soul descend many times into the world for many causes, either through the shedding of its feathers [or wings], or by the Will of the

The soul of a man, however, as also in the Trismegistic doctrine (H., ii. 153, 166), could not be reborn into the body of a brute ; as to this Proclus is quite clear when he writes :

' And that the passing into irrational natures is contrary to nature for human souls, not only do the Oracles teach us,

D, ..i.Gooj^le

SSacuS. f">*" *'*' Blessed Ones that naught can break ' ; the human soul : "

K. 62. Completes its life again in men and not in beasts.

THE DARKNESS.

There was also in our Oracles a doctrine of punishment in the Invisible (Hades) ; for Proclus speaks of " the Avenging Powers (Poinat), ' Throttlers of mortals,' " and of a state of ^oom and pain, below which stretched a still more awful gulf of Darkness, as the following verses tell us:

K. 62. See that thou verge not down unto the C. 145. world of the Dark Rays, 'neath which is ever spread the Deep [or Abyss] devoid of form, where is no light to see, wrapped in black gloom befouling, that joys in shades [eidola], void of all understanding, precipitous and sinuous, for ever winding

found its own blind depth, eternally *** J5?, „ -** marriage with a body that cannot be seen, oraclk. inert \_and] lifeless.

With this description of the Serpent of Darkness, ever in congress with his infernal counterpart of bhnd Matter and Ignorance, may be compared the vision of the Trismegistic " Man-Shepherd " treatise :

" But in a little while Darkness came settling down on part of it, awesome and gloomy, coiling in sinuous folds, so that methougbt it Uke unto a snake "

This is a vision of the other side, or antipodes, of the Light ; and so we And Produs writing : " For this region is ' Hater of the Light,^ as the Grade also saith " (K. 63). Also with regard to the system thoiight to underhe the Oracles, Psellus informs us that below the ^Ether come three hyhc worlds or planes of gross matter — the sublunary, terrene, and sub-terrene — " the uttermost of which is

™b^^ called chthonian and ' Light-^ater,' and OitA^K& is Qot cmly suUunaiy, but also contains

within it that matter (h^) which they

call the 'Deep:"

THE INFERNAL STAIRS.

In connection with the above fraj;me0t we must also take the following corrupt lines, which evidently form part of the directions given to the soul for its journey through Hades :

K. 63. But verge not doumvntrist Beneath

C, 159, thee lies a Precipice, sheer from the earth,

that draws one down a Stair of seven steps,

beneath which lies the Throne of Dire

Necessity.

The topography of the Throne of Necessity corresponds somewhat with that in Plato's famous Vision of Er— which was probably derived from an Orphic mystery-myth ; and the old Orphic tradition was in contact with "Chalddaean " sources. So also in the Vision

i.Gooj^lc

ol Aridaeus, which again is perhaps ™b connected with Orphic initiation, it isoRjw^T^ Adrasteia, Daughter of Necessity, who presides over the punishments in Tartarus, and her dominion extends to the uttermost parts of the hyUc cosmos, as we learn from a fragment of a theogoay preserved by Jerome (K. 63).

Proclus also speaks of the whole generative or genesiurgic Nature — that is. Nature uoc^ the sway of Necessity — in which, he says, is " both the ' tmbulmce of matter' and the ^light-hating world,' as the Gods [*.«., the Oracles] say, and the ' sinuous streams' by which the many are drawn down, as the Oracles tell us."

Moreover, there must have been mention of some roaring or bellowing soimd that struck the evil soul with terror, as in the Vision of Er ; for Psellus quotes a mutilated fragment, which runs :

"Ah/ Ah I" the Earth doth roar at K. 63. them, until [they turn] to children {?).

rnf I nxiM ^® "Jay, however, venture ,to suggest ORACLES, another point of view from which the above symbolic imagery (K. 62) can be regarded, and take it not as a warning to ordinary fate-fuU people, but as an admonition to those who are being initiated or re-generated, and who can thus begin to stand aside from the Fate-spheres.

The " Precipice," or Gulph, could thus be regarded as the way of descent from the light and the Fulness into the Fatespheres, and so the organ or instrument of creation of darkness and " flat " things (shades). The soul descends by means of a " flat " ladder of planes, tl^ way of the fonnal mind.

The admonition thus seems to say : Do not let the mind travel down into the Fate-spheres by means of " planes " and formal ideas, and the ordinary surface view of things ; because if so, it is apt to leave some of itself behind. There is a way of descending direct and straight into, or rather fathoming, the uttermost

Depths quite safely, but it is by way of J^E living creatures, and not by way of qr^^esT^ mind-made ladders.

In mystical language " Throne " is the point of stability ; it suggests coiitact with the Stable One. Tliis plan of seven, the ladder or root of form, is essentially stable and not vital ; and for an initiate who is on the return journey, active in the mystery of re-generation, it is to be avoided, as it lea^ back into imprisonment ; it is the proper way down, but not the right way back. It leads to states dominated by Fate, to a prison or school where the soul is bound all round with rules ; it does not lead to Freedom.

ON CONDUCT.

We may now conclude with some fragments coriceming right hving ; in the first place with the famous riddle :

Soil not the spirit, and deepen not K. 64. the plane I C. 152.

™*^ The first clause is generally thought to ORACLES. ^^^ ^^ ^^ spiritual, or rather spirituous, body, while the second is sup[>osed to mean : " Turn not the i^ane into the solid " — that is to say, if we follow Pythagoraean tradition : Do not make the subtle body dense or gross.

From a more mjrstical point of view it might be suggesteid that normal Nature is but as a superficies. Until a man is initiated properly, that is to say, naturally re-generated, it is better for him not to delve into her magical powers too soon, but rather keep within the plane-side of things till his own substance is made pure. When pure there is nothing in him to which these magical powers can attach themselves. As soon as his nature is purified then Spiritual Mind begins to enter his " perfect body," and so he can control the inner forces, or forces within, or sexual powers of Nature — those creative [>owers and passions which make her double herself. The superficial side of Nature is complete in its own way,

and normal man should be content withraE this ; he should not attempt to stir the oraclbs. secret powers of her Deptii, or Womb, till he is guided by the wisdom of the Spiritual Mind.

In the Latin translation of Proclus' lost treatise On Providence, the following three sayings are ascribed to the Oracles (Responsa). Kroll, however, thinks that the second only is authentic :

Wken thou dost look upon thyself, let K. 64. fear come on thee. C. 181.

Believe thyself to be out of body, and ihou art.

The spawning of illnesses in us is in our own control, for they are born out of the life we lead.

It the man regards his own lower self, he fears because of his imperfection ; if he gazes cm his higher self, he feels awe.

With the second aphorism compare

"The Mind to Hennes " (§ 19) :

"And, thus, think from thyself, and bid thy soul go unto any land, and there more quickly than thy bidding will it

THE GNOSIS OF PIETY.

That the spirit of the doctrine of the Oracles was far removed from the practice of the arts of astrology, earth-measurement, divination, augury, and the rest, and turned the mind to the contemplation of spiritual verities alone, may be seen from the following fine fragment :

K. 64. Submit not to thy mind the earth's C. 144. vast »teasures, for that the Tree of Truth grows not on earth ; and measure not the measure of the sun by adding rod to rod, for that his cottrse is in accordance with the Will eternal of the Foxier, and not for sake of thee. Let thou the moon's rush go ; she ever runs by operation of

Necessity. The siars^ procession was *w>'IJJ?i» brought forth for sake of thee. ORACt

The birds' wide-winging high tn air is never true, nor yet the sHcings of the victims' entrails. These are all toys, lending support to mercenary fraud.

Flee thou these things, if thou would'st enter in True Worship's Paradise, where Virtue, Wisdom, and Good-rule are met

There is somewhat of a Jewish Sibylline flavour about this which might seem to indicate contact with Jewish Gnostic circles. As, however, there is nothing else in our fragments which shows signs of Jewish influence, we may fairiy conclude that the ethic of our Oracles was similar, and that similarity does not spell plagiarism.

Moreover the phaseology is identical

with that of other fragments which can

lie under no suspicion of a " Judaizing "

influence ; for instance (i. 8i ; ii. 69) :

L.Google

K. 34. Both lunar course and staf'frogressioH.

C. 144. This star -progression was not delivered from the womfi of things because of thee.

K. 56. Bodies are allowed our self - reveaUd

C. 186. manifes$ations for your sakes.

And so we bring these two small volumes to a close in the hope that a few at least of the many riddles connected with these famous Oracles may have been made somewhat less puzzling.

STANFORD UNWERSnY UBRARIES