has been handed down to us."

Finally, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the scholarship of Mr
G. R. S. Mead, whose labours in the field of Hellenistic Theology have
to my mind received insufficient recognition, and whose admirable
translations I have often used in the notes.

[1] Not to be confused with the "astral body" of modern theosophy.

The Gnosis of the Light

[1]This is the Father of all Fathers, the God of all ... Gods, Lord of
all Lords, Sonship of all Sons, Saviour of all Saviours, Invisible of
all Invisibles, Infinity of all Infinities, Uncontainable of all
Uncontainables, Beyond-the-Deep of all Beyond-the-Deeps, Space of all
Spaces. This is the Spiritual Mind which existed before all Spiritual
Minds, the Holy Place comprehending all Holy Places, the Good
comprehending all Goods. This is the Seed of all good things. It is
He who has brought them all forth, this Autophues or Being who has
produced Himself, who existed before all the beings of the Pleroma
which He Himself has brought forth, Who is in all time. This is that
Ingenerable and Eternal One who has no name and who has all names; who
was the first to know those of the Universe, who has looked upon those
of the Universe, who has heard those of the Universe. He is mightier
than all might, upon whose incomprehensible Face no one is able to
gaze. Beyond all mind does He exist in His own Form, Solitary and
Unknowable. The Universal Mystery is He, the Universal Wisdom, of all
things the Beginning. In Him are all Lights, all Life, and all Repose.
He is the Beatitude of which all in the Universe are in need, for that
they might receive Him they are. All beings of the Universe does He
behold within Himself, that One Uncontainable, who parts those of the
Universe and receives them all into Himself. Without Him is nothing,
for all the worlds exist in Him, and He is the boundary of them all.
All of them has He enclosed, for in Him is all. No Space is there
without Him, nor any Intelligence; for without that Only One there
exists nothing. The Eternities (aeons) contemplate His
incomprehensibility which is within them all, but understand it not.
They wonder at it because He limits them all. They strive towards the
City in which is their Image. In this City (1) it is that they move
and live [and have their true being]; for it is the House of the
Father, the Robe of the Son, and the Power of the Mother, the Image of
the Pleroma.