The Gnôsis of the Light

by F. Lamplugh

(7) A "name" was held to be that which manifests the innermost essence of a thing. Hence it symbolised the spiritual body or ideal vehicle of manifestation, the life clothing. The bestowal of a new name is therefore the sacramental sign of the gift of a new body or mode of life. The real and ineffable Name of God is the Concept or Conceiving Thought referred to in note 5. But this is the Name "Mother" or "Bride" of the Logos, Providence. To "name" was a sacramental way of invoking a presence or "spiritual vehicle."

(8) Cp. Codex Akhmim: "Of Him it is said, He thinketh His Image alone and beholdeth it in the Water of Pure Light which surroundeth Him. And His Thought energised and revealed herself, and stood before Him in the Light-Spark—which is the Power which existed before the All—which is the perfect Forethought of the All—the Barbêlô, the Æon perfect in glory—glorifying Him, because she hath manifested herself in Him and thinketh Him (i.e. gives Him birth). She is the first Thought, His Image." Barbêlô seems to mean "In the Four is God": in other words, it is the personified Tetragrammaton or Great Name commonly rendered by Jehovah.

(9) Kanoun. This is a flat, broad basket, originally made of rush or cane, but often manufactured in precious metals in later times. It was used in the sacrificial rites of the gods and was hence classed among sacred things (v. "Basket" in Hastings' Ency. of Rel. and Ethics). What it signifies exactly I am unable to say. Possibly the rites of the school, if we only knew them, would throw some light upon the question. The offerings of bread and wine at the Eucharist may have been made in the Kanoun. Sometimes in the MS. it seems to be connected with prayer.

(10) The Temple of the Plêrômata or Fullnesses seems to be pictured as being in the manner of that in Jerusalem. The Æons of the Inner Space correspond to the Holy of Holies, the Æons of the Middle Space to the Holy Place, and the Æons of the Outer Space to the Court. The various Æons and their powers now described seem to be those of the Inner Space. "Æon" and "Space" are practically equivalent terms, only Æon is on the Mind or Spiritual side of things, Space or Extension (Topos) is on the Life or Body side of things. "Space" is purely the space of mind. It is a Spiritual Body with many members, each of which is a god, having his own individual consciousness and being, and yet partaking perfectly and wholly of a common consciousness or life. Each Æon is a mighty Hierarchy in himself, and his "topos" is a Church or Holy Assembly. The ideal union of these Spaces is in the Monad or Indivisible Point, which is therefore the Church of Churches, the Body of the Man whom no man can comprehend.

(11) Sêtheus and the twelve three-faced Paternities seem to be the paradigms, or heavenly patterns, of the Sun, the signs of the Zodiac, and the thirty-six Decans. He is the Invisible Sun of Righteousness behind the visible flame which measures time. In other words, he is the symbol of the Æon of Æons, the Æon par excellence. What time is to the ordinary mundane mind that Sêtheus is to the Alone-begotten and the Monad, whose ineffable union he encompasses. For he is the manifested Sun of Eternity, ☉. The Monad is the Indivisible Point within the circle or sphere, and the Light-Spark or Logos is within the Point, while Sêtheus himself is, strictly speaking, the circle or sphere, the well-known symbol of Eternity. All the æons are found in the "topos" of Sêtheus, as their divinity is not innate, but comes from conscious participation, hence the name æon. I suggest the name "Sêtheus" is formed from that of the god Seth, who was a solar deity in some Egyptian traditions. No doubt the differentiation of the name is intentional.

The twelve Paternities about the head are referable to the rays, to the creative powers, the "Divine Imaginings" of the Mystic Sun in their totality.

(12) Schmidt thinks that the name "Nicotheos"—"the Victor God"—is a title of Christ, and that a quotation is given from some lost Apocalypse, called, perhaps, "The Apocalypse of Nicotheos." The whole passage seems to be a definite appeal to the experiences of attained mystics concerning the Dark Ray. The "Perfect" was a technical name, applied to those whose initiation or start had been consummated or perfected. Having been regenerated, they were "gods" or "æons," conscious of their kinship with the Plêrômata. Each was now a hierarchy in himself, a race, as it were. The passage is probably by a later hand.

(13) Cp. Pseudo Dionysius Myst. Theol.:

"The super-unknown, the super-luminous and loftiest height wherein the simple and absolute and unchangeable mysteries are cloaked in the super-lucent darkness of hidden mystic silence, which super-shines most super-brightly in the blackest night, and in the altogether intangible and unseen, superfills the eyeless understanding with super-beautiful brightnesses. And thou, dear Timothy, in thy intent and practice of the mystical contemplations, leave behind both thy senses and thy intellectual operations, and all things known by sense and intellect, and set thyself, as far as may be, to unite thyself in unknowing with Him who is above all being and knowledge; for by being purely free and absolute, out of self and all things, thou shalt be led up to the Ray of the Divine Darkness, stripped and loosed of all."

The above version is by Dom John Chapman, O.S.B., who says that this passage was "cited throughout the Middle Ages as the locus classicus for method of contemplation." This is, except for our text, the earliest mention of the "Dark Ray" in literature. Evidently Pseudo Dionysius did not invent the term himself, but followed a much older Christian tradition. This fact is important for the history of Christian mysticism.