aled mysteries; and
it will be seen in what manner Jesus was the Father of all Light-Sparks
and gave resurrection to the body. Such was the teaching of the
Gnosis. To make the matter clear to readers interested in mysticism,
but unfamiliar with Hellenistic technical terms, it may be said that
the "Bodies" so often referred to may be taken as standing for what may
be called the Life side of various stages of mystical consciousness, as
"Light" stands for the Mind side; but Life and Light are one.

(26) "The Gate of God." _Cp._ the Naasene Document in Hippolytus:
"This Mystery is the Gate of Heaven, and this is the House of God,
where the Good God dwells alone; into which no impure man shall come,
no psychic, nor fleshly man, ... but it is kept under watch for the
Spiritual alone--where, when they come, they must cast away their
garments, and all become bridegrooms, obtaining their true manhood
through the Virginal Spirit. For this is the Virgin big with child,
conceiving and bearing a Son--not psychic, not fleshly, but a blessed
AEon of AEons."

"Gnosis," then, was the Mystery of Regeneration or Rebirth from above.
It will be observed that the text shows no hostility to "Faith." This
is an indication of early date. "Mystery" is often, though not always,
the equivalent to "Sacrament."

(27) There is then another "Universal Mother," Phanerios or Phaneia
("Wisdom without the Pleroma"). In the last resort the two Mothers are
one. Phaneia is the Mother of the manifested world in which there is
matter, but she does not seem to be in exile, as in the Sophia Myth.
Like Isis in the Osiris legend, she seems to have gone forth to gather
together the self-scattered limbs of the Man and to redeem Him from
captivity through the efforts of the great hierarchs that are given to
her.

(28) The pre-existence of the soul is taught, also the loss of the
memory of its true nature owing to its fall into "Matter" [Hyle]. But
this fall is not regarded as either a sin or a mistake, but as a
needful step in the mystery of Rebirth or "Re-ordering." The Overseer
is the "Mind of all Masterhood," the Logos, the Second Father of all.

It is tempting to connect the Triple-Power with the Triple-Bodied Man
of the Naasene Document and see in him the symbol of a simple Universal
Consciousness "polarised" into the three states of Spiritual, Psychic,
and Material.

(29) This Vision of the Advent of the Creative Word seems to be in part
a sum