Representatives of
the previous classes guiding our universe.
I. Hyperarchii—Archangels
II. Azonæi—Unzoned
gods
III. Zonæi—Planetary
Deities.
______________
Higher demons:
Angels
______________
Human Souls
______________
Lower demons,
elementals
Fiery
Airy
Earthy
Watery
______________
Evil demons
Lucifugous; the
kliphoth
______________
Chaldæan
Theology contemplated three great divisions of supra-mundane things:—the
First was Eternal, without beginning or end, being the "Paternal
Depth," the bosom of the Deity. The Second was conceived to be that mode of
being having beginning but no end; the Creative World or Empyræum falls
under this head, abounding as it does in productions, but its source
remaining superior to these. The third and last order of divine things had a
beginning in time and will end, this is the transitory Ethereal World. Seven
spheres extended through these three Worlds, viz., one in the
Empyræum or verging from it, three in the Ethereal and three in the
Elementary Worlds, while the whole physical realm synthesized the foregoing.
These seven spheres are not to be confounded with the Seven material
Planets; although the latter are the physical representatives of the former,
which can only be said to be material in the metaphysical sense of the term.
Psellus professed to identify them but his suggestions are inadequate as
Stanley pointed out. But Stanley, although disagreeing with Psellus, is
nevertheless inconsistent upon this point, for although he explains the four
Worlds of the Chaldæans as successively noumenal to the physical realm, he
obviously contradicts this in saying that one corporeal world is in
the Empyræum.
Prior to the
supramundane Light lay the "Paternal Depth," the Absolute Deity, containing
all things "in potentia" and eternally immanent. This is analogous to
the Ain Suph Aur of the Kabalah, three triads of three letters, expressing
three triads of Powers, which are subsequently translated into objectivity,
and constitute the great Triadic Law under the direction of the Demiurgus,
or artificer of the Universe.
In considering
this schema, it must be remembered that the supramundane Light was regarded
as the primal radiation from the Paternal Depth and the archetypal noumenon
of the Empyræum, a universal, all-pervading—and, to human
comprehension—ultimate essence. The Empyræum again, is a somewhat grosser
though still highly subtilized Fire and creative source, in its turn the
noumenon of the Formative or Ethereal World, as the latter is the noumenon
of the Elementary World. Through these graduated media the conceptions of
the Paternal Mind are ultimately fulfilled in time and space.
In some respects
it is probable that the Oriental mind today is not much altered from what it
was thousands of years ago, and much that now appears to us curious and
phantastic in Eastern traditions, still finds responsive echo in the hearts
and minds of a vast portion of mankind. A large number of thinkers and
scientists in modern times have advocated tenets which, while not exactly
similar, are parallel, to ancient Chaldæan conceptions; this is exemplified
in the notion that the operation of natural law in the Universe is
controlled or operated by conscious and discriminating power which is
co-ordinate with intelligence. It is but one step further to admit that
forces are entities, to people the vast spaces of the Universe with the
children of phantasy. Thus history repeats itself, and the old and the new
alike reflect the multiform truth.
Without entering
at length into the metaphysical aspect, it is important to notice the
supremacy attributed to the "Paternal Mind." The intelligence of the
Universe, poetically described as "energising before energy," establishes on
high the primordial types or patterns of things which are to be, and, then
inscrutably latent, vests the development of these in the Rectores
Mundorum, the divine Regents or powers already referred to. As it is
said, "Mind is with Him, Power with them."
The word
"Intelligible" is used in the Platonic sense, to denote a mode of being,
power or perception, transcending intellectual comprehension, i.e.,
wholly distinct from, and superior to, ratiocination. The Chaldæans
recognised three modes of perception, viz., the testimony of the
various senses, the ordinary processes of intellectual activity, and the
intelligible conceptions before referred to. Each of these operations is
distinct from the others, and, moreover, conducted in separate matrices, or
vehicula. The anatomy of the Soul was, however, carried much farther than
this, and, although in its ultimate radix recognised as identical with the
divinity, yet in manifested being it was conceived to be highly complex. The
Oracles speak of the "Paths of the Soul," the tracings of inflexible fire by
which its essential parts are associated in integrity; while its various
"summits," "fountains," and "vehicula," are all traceable by analogy with
universal principles. This latter fact is, indeed, not the least remarkable
feature of the Chaldæan system. Like several of the ancient cosmogonies, the
principal characteristic of which seems to have been a certain adaptability
to introversion, Chaldæan metaphysics synthesize most clearly in the human
constitution.
In each of the
Chaldæan Divine Worlds a trinity of divine powers operated, which
synthetically constituted a fourth term. "In every World," says the Oracle,
"a Triad shineth, of which; the Monad is the ruling principle." These
"Monads" are the divine Vice-gerents by which the Universe was conceived to
be administered. Each of the four Worlds, viz., the Empyræan,
Ethereal, Elementary and Material, was presided over by a Supreme Power,
itself in direct rapport with "the Father" and "moved by unspeakable
counsels." These are clearly identical with the Kabalistic conception of the
presidential heads of the four letters composing the Deity name in so many
different languages. A parallel tenet is conveyed in the Oracle which runs:
"There is a Venerable Name projected through the Worlds with a sleepless
revolution." The Kabalah again supplies the key to this utterance, by
regarding the Four Worlds as under the presidency of the four letters of the
Venerable Name, a certain letter of tile four being allotted to each World,
as also was a special mode of writing the four lettered name appropriate
thereto; and, indeed in that system it is taught that the order of the
Elements, both macrocosmic and microcosmic, on every plane, is directly
controlled by the "revolution of the name." That Name is associated with the
Æthers of the Elements and is thus considered as a Universal Law; it is the
power which marshals the creative host, summed up in the Demiurgus,
Hypezokos, or Flower of Fire.
Reference may
here be made to the psychic anatomy of the human being according to Plato.
He places the intellect in the head; the Soul endowed with some of the
passions, such as fortitude, in the heart; while another Soul, of which the
appetites, desires and grosser passions are its faculties, about the stomach
and the spleen.
So, the Chaldæan
doctrine as recorded by Psellus, considered man to be composed of three
kinds of Souls, which may respectively be called:
First, the
Intelligible, or divine soul,
Second, the
Intellect or rational soul, and
Third, the
Irrational, or passional soul.
This latter was
regarded as subject to mutation, to be dissolved and perish at the death of
the body.
Of the
Intelligible, or divine soul, the Oracles teach that "It is a bright fire,
which, by the power of the Father, remaineth immortal, and is Mistress of
Life;" its power may be dimly apprehended through regenerate phantasy and
when the sphere of the Intellect has ceased to respond to the images of the
passional nature.
Concerning the
rational soul, the Chaldæans taught that it was possible for it to
assimilate itself unto the divinity on the one hand, or the irrational soul
on the other. "Things divine," we read, "cannot be obtained by mortals whose
intellect is directed to the body alone, but those only who are stripped of
their garments, arrive at the summit."
To the three
Souls to which reference has been made, the Chaldæans moreover allotted
three distinct vehicles: that of the divine Soul was immortal, that: of the
rational soul by approximation became so; while to the irrational soul was
allotted what was called "the image," that is, the astral form of the
physical body.
Physical life
thus integrates three special modes of activity, which upon the dissolution
of the body are respectively involved in the web of fate consequent upon
incarnate energies in three different destinies.
The Oracles urge
men to devote themselves to things divine, and not to give way to the
promptings of the irrational soul, for, to such as fail herein, it is
significantly said, "Thy vessel the beasts of the earth shall inhabit."
The Chaldæans
assigned the place of the Image, the vehicle of the irrational soul, to the
Lunar Sphere; it is probable that by the Lunar Sphere was meant something
more than the orb of the Moon, the whole sublunary region, of which the
terrestrial earth is, as it were, the centre. At death, the rational Soul
rose above the lunar influence, provided always the past permitted that
happy release, Great importance was attributed to the way in which the
physical life was passed during the sojourn of the Soul in the tenement of
flesh, and frequent are the exhortations to rise to communion with those
Divine powers, to which nought but the highest Theurgy can pretend.
"Let the
immortal depth of your Soul lead you," says an Oracle, "but earnestly raise
your eyes upwards." Taylor comments upon this in the following beautiful
passage: "By the eyes are to be understood all the gnostic powers of the
Soul, for when these are extended the Soul becomes replete. with a more
excellent life and divine illumination; and is, as it were, raised above
itself."
Of the Chaldæan
Magi it might be truly said that they "among dreams did first discriminate
the truthful vision!" for they were certainly endowed with a far reaching
perception both mental and spiritual; attentive to images, and fired with
mystic fervours, they mere something more than mere theorists, but were also
practical exemplars of the philosophy they taught. Life on the plains of
Chaldæa, with its mild nights and jewelled skies, tended to foster the
interior unfoldment; in early life the disciples of the Magi learnt to
resolve the Bonds of proscription and enter the immeasurable region. One
Oracle assures us that, "The girders of the Soul, which give her; breathing,
are easy to be unloosed," and elsewhere we read of the "Melody of the Ether"
and of the "Lunar clashings," experiences which testify to the reality of
their occult methods.
The Oracles
assert that the impressions of characters and other divine visions appear in
the Ether. The Chaldæan philosophy recognized the ethers of the Elements as
the subtil media through which the operation of the grosser elements is
effected—by the grosser elements I mean what we know as Earth, Air, Water
and Fire—the principles of dryness and moisture, of heat and cold. These
subtil ethers are really the elements of the ancients, and seem at an early
period to have been connected with the Chaldæan astrology, as the signs of
the Zodiac were connected with them. The twelve signs of the Zodiac are
permutations of the ethers of the elements—four elements with three
variations each; and according to the preponderance of one or another
elemental condition in the constitution of the individual, so were his
natural inclinations deduced therefrom, Thus when in the astrological jargon
it was said that a man had Aries rising, he was said to be of a fiery
nature, his natural tendencies being active, energetic and fiery, for in the
constitution of such a one the fiery ether predominates. And these ethers
were stimulated, or endowed with a certain kind of vibration, by their
Presidents, the Planets; these latter being thus suspended in orderly
disposed zones. Unto the Planets, too, colour and sound were also
attributed; the planetary colours are connected with the ethers, and each of
the Planetary forces was said to have special dominion over, or affinity
with, one or other of the Zodiacal constellations. Communion with the
hierarchies of these constellations formed part of the Chaldæan theurgy, and
in a curious fragment it is said: "If thou often invokest it" (the celestial
constellation called the Lion) "then when no longer is Visible unto thee the
Vault of the Heavens, when the Stars have lost their light the lamp of the
Moon is veiled, the Earth abideth not, and around thee darts the lightning
flame, then all things will appear to thee in the form of a Lion!" The
Chaldæans, like the Egyptians, appear to have had a highly developed
appreciation of colours, an evidence of their psychic susceptibility. The
use of bright colours engenders the recognition of subsisting variety and
stimulates that perception of the mind which energizes through imagination,
or the operation of images. The Chaldæan method of contemplation appears to
have been to identify the self with the object of contemplation; this is of
course identical with the process of Indian Yoga, and is an idea which
appears replete with suggestion; as it is written "He assimilates the images
to himself casting them around his own form." But we are told, "All divine
natures are incorporeal, but bodies are bound in them for your sakes."
The subtil
ethers, of which I have spoken, served is their turn as it were for the
garment of the divine Light; for the Oracles teach that beyond these again
"A solar world and endless Light subsist!" This Divine Light was the object
of all veneration. Do not think that what was intended thereby was the Solar
Light we know: "The inerratic sphere of the Starless above" is an
unmistakable expression and therein "the more true Sun" has place:
Theosophists will appreciate the significance of "the more true Sun," for
according to The Secret Doctrine the Sun we see is but the physical
vehicle of a more transcendent splendour.
Some strong
Souls were able to reach up to the Light by their own power: "The mortal who
approaches the fire shall have Light from the divinity, and unto the
persevering mortal the blessed immortals are swift." But what of those of a
lesser stature? Were they, by inability, precluded from such illumination?
"Others," we read, "even when asleep, He makes fruitful from his own
Strength." That is to say, some men acquire divine knowledge through
communion with Divinity in sleep. This idea has given rise to some of the
most magnificent contributions to later literature; it has since been
thoroughly elaborated by Porphyry and Synesius. The eleventh Book of the
Metamorphoses of Apuleius and the Vision of Scipio ably vindicate
this; and, although no doubt every Christian has beard that "He giveth unto
his beloved in sleep," few, indeed, realise the possibility underlying that
conception.
What, it may be
asked, were the views of the Chaldæans with respect to terrestrial life: Was
it a spirit of pessimism, which led them to hold this in light: esteem? Or,
should we not rather say that the keynote of their philosophy was an immense
spiritual optimism? It appeals to me that the latter is the more true
interpretation. They realised that beyond the confines of matter lay a more
perfect existence, a truer realm of which terrestrial administration is but
a too often travestied reflection. They sought, as we seek now, the Good,
the Beautiful and the True, but they did not hasten to the Outer in the
thirst for sensation, but with a finer perception realised the true Utopia
to be within.
And the first
step in that admirable progress was a return to the simple life; hardly,
indeed, a return, for most of the Magi were thus brought up from birth."
**** The hardihood engendered by the rugged life, coupled with that
wisdom which directed their association, rendered these children of Nature
peculiarly receptive of Nature's Truths. "Stoop not down," says the Oracle,
"to the darkly splendid World, For a precipice lieth beneath the Earth, a
descent of seven steps, and therein is established the throne of an evil and
fatal force. Stoop not down unto that darkly splendid world, Defile not thy
brilliant flame with the earthly dress of matter, Stoop not down for its
splendour is but seeming, It is but the habitation of the Sons of the
Unhappy." No more beautiful formulation of the Great Truth that the exterior
and sensuous life is death to the highest energies of the Soul could
possibly have been uttered: but to such as by purification and the practice
of virtue rendered themselves worthy, encouragement was given, for, we read,
"The Higher powers build up the body of the holy man."
The law of Karma
was as much a feature of the Chaldæan philosophy as it is of the Theosophy
of today: from a passage in Ficinus, we read, "The Soul perpetually
runs and passes through all things in a certain space of time, which being
performed it is presently compelled to pass back again through all things
and unfold a similar web of generation in the World, according to Zoroaster,
who thinks that as often as the same causes return, the same effects will in
like manner return."
This is of
course the explanation of the proverb that "History repeats itself" and is
very far from the superstitious view of fate. Here each one receives his
deserts according to merit or demerit, and these are the bonds of life; but
the Oracles say, "Enlarge not thy destiny," and they urge men to "Explore
the River of the Soul, so that although you have become a servant to body,
you may again rise to the Order from which you descended, joining works to
sacred reason!"
To this end we
are commended to learn the Intelligible which exists beyond the mind, that
divine portion of the being which exists beyond Intellect: and this it is
only possible to grasp with the flower of the mind. "Understand the
intelligible with the extended flame of an extended intellect." To Zoroaster
also was attributed the utterance "who knows himself knows all things in
himself;" while it is elsewhere suggested that "The paternal Mind has sowed
symbols in the Soul," But such priceless knowledge was possible only to the
Theurgists Who, we are told, "fall not so as to be ranked with the herd that
are in subjection to fate." The divine light cannot radiate in an imperfect
microcosm, even as the Clouds obscure the Sun; for of such as make ascent to
the most divine of speculations in a confused and disordered manner, with
unhallowed lips, or unwashed feet, the progressions are imperfect, the
impulses are vain and the paths are dark.
Although
destiny, our destiny, may be "written in the Stars" yet it was the mission
of the divine Soul to raise the human Soul above the circle of necessity,
and the Oracles give Victory to that Masterly Will, which
"Hews the wall with
might of magic,
Breaks the palisade
in pieces,
Hews to atoms seven
pickets …
Speaks the Master
words of knowledge!"
The means taken
to that consummation consisted in the training of the Will and the elevation
of the imagination, a divine power which controls consciousness: "Relieve
yourself to be above body, and you are," says the Oracle; it might have
added "Then shall regenerate phantasy disclose the symbols of the Soul." But
it is said "On beholding yourself fear!" i.e., the imperfect self.
Everything must
be viewed as ideal by him who would understand the ultimate perfection.
Will is the
grand agent in the mystic progress; its rule is all potent over the nervous
system. By Will the fleeting vision is fixed on tile treacherous waves of
the astral Light; by Will the consciousness is impelled to commune with the
divinity: vet there is not One Will, but three Wills—the Wills, namely, of
the Divine, the Rational and Irrational Souls—to harmonize these is the
difficulty.
It is
selfishness which impedes the radiation of Thought, and attaches to body.
This is scientifically true and irrespective of sentiment, the selfishness
which reaches beyond the necessities of body is pure vulgarity.
A picture which
to the cultured eye beautifully portrays a given subject, nevertheless
appears to the savage a confused patchwork of streaks, so the extended
perceptions of a citizen of the Universe are not grasped by those whose
thoughts dwell within the sphere of the personal life.
The road to the
Summum Bonum lies therefore through self-sacrifice, the sacrifice of
the lower to the higher, for behind that Higher Self lies the concealed form
of the Antient of Days, the synthetical Being of Divine Humanity.
These things are
grasped by Soul; the song of the Soul is alone heard in the adytum of
God-nourished Silence!
___________________________
NOTES:
*
This powerful Guild was the guardian of Chaldæan philosophy, which
exceeded the bounds of their country, and diffused itself into Persia and
Arabia that borders upon it; for which reason the learning of the Chaldæans,
Persians and Arabians is comprehended under the general title of Chaldæan.
**Diodorus,
lib. I.
***Vide
Kabalah Denudata, by MacGregor Mathers.
****They
renounced rich attire and the wearing of gold, Their raiment was white upon
occasion; their beds the ground, and their food nothing but herbs, cheese
and bread.
THE ORACLES OF
ZOROASTER.
___________
CAUSE. GOD.
FATHER. MIND. FIRE
MONAD. DYAD. TRIAD.
1. But God is
He having the head of the Hawk. The same is the first, incorruptible,
eternal, unbegotten, indivisible, dissimilar: the dispenser of all good;
indestructible; the best of the good, the Wisest of the wise; He is the
Father of Equity and Justice, self-taught, physical, perfect, and wise—He
who inspires the Sacred Philosophy.
– Eusebius.
Præparatio Evangelica, Liber. I., chap. X,
This Oracle
does not appear in either of the ancient collections, nor in the group of
oracles given by any of the mediaeval occultists. Cory seems to have been
the first to discover it in the voluminous writings of Eusebius, who
attributes the authorship to the Persian Zoroaster.
___________
2. Theurgists
assert that He is a God and celebrate him as both older and younger, as a
circulating and eternal God, as understanding the whole number of all things
moving in the World, and moreover infinite through his power and energizing
a spiral force.
– Proclus on the
Timæus of Plato, 244. Z. or T.
The Egyptian
Pantheon had an Elder and a Younger Horus—a God—son of Osiris and Isis.
Taylor suggests that He refers to Kronos, Time, or Chronos as the later
Platonists wrote the name. Kronos, or Saturnus, of the Romans, was son of
Uranos and Gaia, husband of Rhea, father of Zeus.
___________
3. The God of
the Universe, eternal, limitless, both young and old, having a spiral force.
Cory includes
this Oracle in his collection, but he gives no authority for it. Lobek
doubted its authenticity.
___________
4. For the
Eternal Æon* —according to the Oracle— is the cause of never failing
life, of unwearied power and unsluggish energy.
– Taylor.—T.
*
"For the First Æeon, the Eternal one," or as Taylor gives,
"Eternity."
___________
5. Hence the
inscrutable God is called silent by the divine ones, and is said to consent
with Mind, and to be known to human souls through the power of the Mind
alone.
– Proclus in
Theologiam Platonis, 321. T.
Inscrutable.
Taylor gives "stable;" perhaps "incomprehensible" is better.
6. The
Chaldæans call the God Dionysos (or Bacchus), Iao in the Phoenician tongue
(instead of the Intelligible Light), and he is also called Sabaoth,*
signifying that he is above the Seven poles, that is the Demiurgos.
– Lydus, De
Mensibus, 83. T.
* This word
is Chaldee, TzBAUT, meaning hosts; but there is also a word SHBOH, meaning
"The Seven."
7. Containing
all things in the one summit of his own Hyparxis, He Himself subsists wholly
beyond.
– Proclus in
Theologiam Platonis, 212. T.
Hyparxis, is
generally deemed to mean "Subsistence." Hupar is Reality as distinct from
appearance; Huparche is a Beginning.
8. Measuring
and bounding all things.
– Proclus in
Theologiam Platonis, 386. T.
"Thus he
speaks the words," is omitted by Taylor and Cory, but present in the Greek.
9. For
nothing imperfect emanates from the Paternal Principle,
– Psellus,
38 ; Pletho. Z.
This
implies—but only from a succedent emanation.
10. The
Father effused not Fear, but He infused persuasion.
– Pletho. Z,
11. The
Father hath apprehended Himself and hath not restricted his Fire to his own
intellectual power.
– Psellus,
30; Pletho, 33. Z:
Taylor
gives:—"The Father hath hastily withdrawn Himself, but hath not shut up his
own Fire in his intellectual power."
The Greek
text has no word "hastily," and as to "withdrawn—Arpazo means, grasp of
snatch, but also "apprehend with the mind."
12. Such is
the Mind which is energized before energy, while yet it had not gone forth,
but abode in the Paternal Depth, and in the Adytum of God nourished silence.
– Proc. in Tim.,
167. T.
13. All
things have issued from that one Fire. The Father perfected all things, and
delivered them over to the Second Mind, whom all Nations of Men call the
First.
– Psellus,
24; Pletho, 30. Z.
14. The
Second Mind conducts the Empyrean. World .
– Damascius, De
Principiis. T.
15. What the
Intelligible saith, it saith by understanding.
– Psellus,
35. Z.
16. Power is
with them, but Mind is from Him.
– Proclus in
Platonis Theologiam, 365. T.
17. The Mind
of the Father riding on the subtle Guiders, which glitter with the tracings
of inflexible and relentless Fire.
– Proclus on the
Cratylus of Plato.
18. …After
the Paternal Conception I the Soul reside, a heat animating all things. …For
he placed the Intelligible in the Soul, and the Soul in dull body, Even so
the Father of Gods and Men placed them in us.
– Proclus in
Tim., Plat., 124. Z. or T.
19. Natural
works co-exist with the intellectual light of the Father. For it is the Soul
which adorned the vast Heaven, and which adorneth it after the Father, but
her dominion is established on high.
– Proclus in Tim.,
106. Z. or T.
Dominion,
krata: some copies give kerata, horus.
20. The Soul,
being a brilliant Fire, by the power of the Father remaineth immortal, and
is Mistress of Life, and filleth up the many recesses of the bosom of the
World.
– Psellus,
28; Pletho, 11. Z.
21. The
channels being intermixed therein she performeth the works of incorruptible
Fire.
– Proclus in
Politica, p. 399. Z. or T.
22. For not
in Matter did the Fire which is in the first beyond enclose His active
Power, but in Mind; for the framer of the Fiery World is the Mind of Mind.
– Proclus in
Theologiam, 333, and Tim., 157. T.
23. Who first
sprang from Mind, clothing the one Fire with the other Fire, binding them
together, that he might mingle the fountainous craters, while preserving
unsullied the brilliance of His own Fire.
– Proclus in
Parm. Platonis. T.
24. And
thence a Fiery Whirlwind drawing down the brilliance of the flashing flame,
penetrating the abysses of the Universe; for from thence downwards do all
extend their wondrous rays.
– Proclus in
Theologiam Platonis, 171 and 172. T.
25. The Monad
first existed, and the Paternal Monad still subsists.
– Proclus in
Euclidem, 27. T.
26. When the
Monad is extended, the Dyad is generated.
– Proclus in
Euclidem, 27. T.
Note that
"What the Pythagoreans signify by Monad, Duad and Triad, or Plato by Bound,
Infinite and Mixed; that the Oracles of the Gods intend by Hyparxis, Power
and Energy."
– Damascius De
Principiis. Taylor.
27. And
beside Him is seated the Dyad which glitters with intellectual sections, to
govern all things, and to order everything not ordered.
– Proclus in
Platonis Theologiam, 376. T.
28. The Mind
of the Father said that all things should be cut into Three, whose Will
assented, and immediately all things were so divided.
– Proclus in
Parmen. T.
29. The Mind
of the Eternal Father said into Three, governing all things by Mind.
– Proclus,
Timaeus of Plato. T.
30. The
Father mingled every Spirit from this Triad.
– Lydus, De
Mensibus, 20. Taylor.
31. All
things are supplied from the bosom of this Triad.
– Lydus, De
Mensibus, 20. Taylor.
32. All
things are governed and subsist in this Triad.
– Proclus in I.
Alcibiades. T.
33. For thou
most know that all things bow before the Three Supernals.
– Damascius, De
Principiis. T.
34. From
thence floweth forth the Form of the Triad, being preexistent; not the first
Essence, but that whereby all things are measured.
– Anon. Z. or T.
35. And there
appeared in it Virtue and Wisdom, and multiscient Truth.
– Anon. Z. or T.
36. For in
each World shineth the Triad, over which the Monad ruleth.
– Damascius in
Parmenidem. T.
37. The First
Course is Sacred, in the middle place courses the Sun,* in the third the
Earth is heated by the internal fire.
– Anon. Z. or T.
*Jones gives
Sun from Hellos, but some Greek versions give Herios, which Cory translates,
air.
38. Exalted upon
High and animating Light, Fire, Ether and Worlds.
– Simplicius in his
Physica, 143. Z. or T.