Hymn II
Again light shines forth, again dawn, again day, after the darkness
that roams by night. Again make supplication to God, O my heart, in songs of the morning.
He who has given light to the dawn, who has given stars to the night, the dancing company
that encircles the universe. Ether has enveloped the expanse of billowy matter, mounting
on the glory of flame, that the queenly rotation of the moon may divide her last phase.
Above the eight rotation of star-borne whorls a stream bereft of stars drives onwards,
hidden within its bosom, layers (of matter) in contrary currents, and circles about the
great Mind, which bends with grew wings down to the confines of the lordly universe. A
blessed silence covers all beyond, an indivisible division alike of the perceptive and the
perceived. One is the fountain-head, one the root. Lo, a thrice resplendent shape has
blazed forth, for where the profundity of the Father is, there is the august Son,
offspring as it were of the Heart. Wisdom, the Creator of the universe and the unified
flame of the Holy Spirit, has shone forth. One fountain-head, one root, did raise up a
rich plenty of good things, a progeny that passeth all being, glowing with desire of
generation, and the wondrous flames of the blessed in existence burn brightly. Whence
there has now entered into the universe a choir of immortal rulers, who sing in songs of
the mind the renown of the Creator, and the first conceived form. Near to their benign
progenitors an ageless army of angels, now looking upon Mind, plucks therefrom the
principle of beauty, and again, looking upwards the spheres, directeth the deep places of
the universe, drawing the world that is above even unto the extreme confines of matter,
where nature subsiding, giveth birth to a horde of demons turbulent and full of guile.
Thence a hero; thence now a spirit sown as seed through the lands, has filled earthly
destinies with life, with cunningly devised forms.
All things hang upon Thy Will, and Thou art the root of things present,
past, future and within. Thou art Father, art Mother, Thou Male, Thou Female, Thou Voice,
Thou Silence, of nature the fruitful Nature. All hail Thee, O King, whenever it be lawful
to cry this aloud, Age of ages, Root of the universe. All hail to Thee, Centre of existing
things, Monad of numbers immortal, of kings that existed not before thee. Mayest Thou
rejoice greatly, mayest Thou rejoice greatly, for it is with God that joy is found. Lend a
propitious ear to the hymns of my choirs. Open the light of wisdom, pour down the glorious
plenty of a calm life, pour down its shining grace. Drive poverty from our midst, and the
earthly calamity of wealth. Drive illness from my limbs, the disorderly urge of the
passions from my life, and soul-gnawing cares, to the end that the destiny of earth may
not weigh down the wings of my soul, but lifting a free pinion, may I dance in the
ineffable rites of Thy offspring.