ted or
perfected. Having been regenerated, they were "gods" or "aeons,"
conscious of their kinship with the Pleromata. 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.

(14) This seems to imply a doctrine of pre-existence. Perhaps the
passage is related to John 17:16: "They are not of the world, even as I
am not of the world.... As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so
sent I them into the world."

(15) _Cp._ Psalm 68:17 (R.V.): "The chariots of God are twenty
thousand, even thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them, as in
Sinai, in the sanctuary."

(16) Further descriptions of this, "the oldest of the AEons," are given
later on. From these it will be gathered that the crown is the Crown
of Life, and that the twelve gates are also twelve deeps or firmaments,
over each of which a Paternity presides. She is called the Indivisible
One, either "Point," "Atom," or perhaps even "Body" or "Raiment." As
she is both the Spouse and Mother of the Light-Spark within the AEon, I
have generally called her the Indivisible Queen.

(17) Mr Mead suggests that Phosilampes may be a mystery name