The Gnôsis of the Light

by F. Lamplugh

The fourth is called Gnôsis, and it is by her that we know the First Father, Him because of whom we live that we may know Him. [Gnôsis] the Mystery of Silence, who spake before all things, that which is hidden, the First Monad, for whom the Universe became being. It is upon the head of this Mystery that the three hundred and sixty-five substances form a crown like the hair of human kind, and the Temple of the Plêrôma is as a stairway beneath her feet. This is the Gate of God (26).

The fifth is called Peace, and it is by her that we give Peace to all, to those within and to those without, for it is in her that all things have been created.

This is that Abyss Immeasurable in which is found three hundred and sixty-five Paternities, thanks to whom they have devised the year.

This is the Abyss which surrounds the Temple of the Plêrôma, where is revealed the Triple-Power with his branches and his trees, and Mousanios and those which belong to him. There also is Aphrêdon and his twelve Holy Ones, and a Basket is in the midst of them. They come to carry in it the praises, the hymns, the prayers and supplications of the Mother of the Universe, the Mother of the (manifested?) worlds who is called Phanerios (27), and to give them a form, thanks to the twelve Holy Ones. They send them into the Plêrôma of Sêtheus, by which act they call to mind those of the external world in which there is matter.

This is the Deep where the Triple-Power rayed out the splendours of His glory, after He had been to the Indivisible Mother and had received the Grace of the One Beyond Knowledge, by which He had gotten such a Sonship that the Fullnesses were not able to stand upright before Him because of the excess of His light and brilliancy thereof. The whole Plêrôma was troubled, the Abyss and all it contained was moved, and the [æons] fled to the world of the Mother [Phanerios], and the Mystery ordained that the veils of the æons should be drawn until the Overseer had established them once more. And the Overseer established the æons once more, as it is written, "He has established the Earth, and it shall not be moved," and again, "The Earth has been dissolved and all that therein is" (28).

Then the Triple-Power went forth: the Son was concealed in him, and the crown of confirmation was upon his head, making myriads and myriads of glories. They cried, "Make straight the way of the Lord and receive the grace of God: every æon which is empty shall be filled with the grace of the Alone-begotten Son."

The Father holy and all-perfect stood above the Deep Immeasurable. It is in Him that all perfection is found, and in His fullness have we received grace. Then the world was established; it ceased to shake; the Father fashioned it so that it might nevermore be shaken, and the æon of the Mother remained full of those that were in it until the ordering came from the Mystery concealed in the First Father, He from whence came the Mystery; when His Son re-established the Universe once more in His Gnôsis, that which re-enforms the Universe.

Then Sêtheus sent the Logos Dêmiourgos, having with him a multitude of Powers, wearing the crowns on their heads; and their crowns darted forth rays. The brilliancy of their bodies is as the life of the Space into which they are come; the word that comes out of their mouths is life Æonian, and the light that comes from their eyes is a rest for them; the movement of their hands is their flight to the place from whence they have come, and their gazing on their own faces is Gnôsis of their interior nature; their going towards them is their return once more within; the stretching forth of their hands establishes them; the hearing of their ears is the intuition in their hearts; the union of their limbs is the regathering of the dispersal of Israel; their self-understanding is their contemplation of the Logos; the writing upon their fingers is the number which has gone forth, even as it is written, "He counteth the number of the Stars and calleth them all by their names."

And the whole union was made by the Logos Dêmiourgos with those who had come out of the turmoil that had been: altogether they became one and the same body, as it has been written, "They have all become one and the same body in this One and Only One." Then this Logos Dêmiourgos became a mighty God, Lord, Saviour, Christ, King, the Good, Father, Mother. This is He whose work was good: He was glorified and became Father to those that believed: He became Law in Aphrêdonia and mighty.

Then went forth Pandêlos [All-manifest]; she had a crown on her head, and she placed it upon them who had believed (29).