,,simon ,,magus ,,an ,,essay ,,on ,,the ,,founder ,,of ,,simonianism ,,based ,,on ,,the ,,ancient ,,sources ,,with ,a ,,re-,,evaluation ,,of ,,his ,,philosophy ,,and ,,teachings4 ,,by ,g4,r4,s4 ,,mead ,,simon ,,magus4 ,,introduction4 ,everybody in ,christendom has heard of ,simon1 the magician1 and how ,peter1 the apostle1 rebuked him1 as told in the narrative of the ,acts of the ,apostles4 ,many also have heard the legend of how at ,rome this wicked sorcerer endeavoured to fly by aid of the demons1 and how ,peter caused him to fall headlong and thus miserably perish4 ,and so most think that there is an end of the matter1 and either cast their mite of pity or contempt at the memory of ,simon1 or laugh at the whole matter as the invention of superstition or the imagination of religious fanaticism1 according as their respective beliefs may be in orthodoxy or materialism4 ,this for the general4 ,students of theology and church history1 on the other hand1 have had a more difficult task set them in comparing and arranging the materials they have at their disposal1 as found in the patristic writings and legendary records2 and various theories have been put forward1 not the least astonishing being the supposition that ,simon was an alias for ,paul1 and that the ,simon and ,peter in the accounts of the fathers and in the narrative of the legends were simply concrete symbols to represent the two sides of the ,pauline and ,petrine controversies4 ,the first reason why ,i have ventured on this present enquiry is that ,simon ,magus is invariably mentioned by the heresiologists as the founder of the first heresy of the commonly-accepted ,christian era1 and is believed by them to have been the originator of those systems of religio-philosophy and theosophy which are now somewhat inaccurately classed together under the heading of ,gnosticism4 ,and though this assumption of the patristic heresiologists is entirely incorrect1 as may be proved from their own works1 it is nevertheless true that ,simonianism is the first system that1 as far as our present records go1 came into conflict with what has been regarded as the orthodox stream of ,christianity4 ,a second reason is that ,i believe that ,simon has been grossly misrepresented1 and entirely misunderstood1 by his orthodox opponents1 whoever they were1 in the first place1 and also1 in the second place1 by those who have ignorantly and without enquiry copied from them4 ,but my chief reason is that the present revival of theosophical enquiry throws a flood of light on ,simon's teachings1 whenever we can get anything approaching a first-hand statement of them1 and shows that it was identical in its fundamentals with the ,esoteric ,philosophy of all the great religions of the world4 ,in this enquiry1 ,i shall have to be slightly wearisome to some of my readers1 for instead of giving a selection or even a paraphraze of the notices on ,simon which we have from authenticated patristic sources1 ,i shall furnish verbatim translations1 and present a digest only of the unauthenticated legends4 ,the growth of the ,simonian legend must unfold itself before the reader in its native form as it comes from the pens of those who have constructed it4 ,repetitions will1 therefore1 be unavoidable in the marshalling of authorities1 but they will be shown to be not without interest in the subsequent treatment of the subject1 and at any rate we shall at least be on the sure ground of having before us all that has been said on the matter by the ,church fathers4 ,having cited these authorities1 ,i shall attempt to submit them to a critical examination1 and so eliminate all accretions1 hearsay and controversial opinions1 and thus sift out what reliable residue is possible4 ,finally1 my task will be to show that ,simon taught a system of ,theosophy1 which instead of deserving our condemnation should rather excite our admiration1 and that1 instead of being a common impostor and impious perverter of public morality1 his method was in many respects of the same nature as the methods of the theosophical movement of to-day1 and deserves the study and consideration of all students of ,theosophy4 ,this essay will1 therefore1 be divided into the following parts3 ,i4--,sources of ,information4 ,,ii4--,a ,review of ,authorities4 ,,iii4--,the ,theosophy of ,simon4 ,,part ,i4 ,,sources ,,of ,,information4 ,our sources of information fall under three heads3 ,i4 ,the ,simon of the ,new ,testament2 ,,ii4 ,the ,simon of the ,fathers2 ,,iii4 ,the ,simon of the ,legends4 ,i4--,the ,simon of the ,new ,testament4 ,acts 7viii4 #i-bd72 author and date unknown2 commonly supposed to be by the author of the third gospel1 traditionally known as ,luke2#a not quoted prior to ,a4,d4 #agg2b earliest ,,ms4 not older than the sixth century1 though some contend for the third4 ,,ii4--,the ,simon of the ,fathers4 i4 ,justinus ,martyr 7,apologia1 ,i4 #bf1 #ef2 ,apologia1 ,,ii4 #ae2 ,dialogus cum ,tryphone1 #abj72 probable date of ,first ,apology ,a4,d4 #ada2 neither the date of the birth nor death of ,justin is known2 ,,ms4 fourteenth century4 ii4 ,irenaeus 7,contra ,haereses1 ,i4 xxiii4 #a-d72 chief literary activity last decennium of the second century2 ,,mss4 probably sixth1 seventh1 and eighth centuries2 date of birth and death unknown1 for the former any time from ,a4,d4 #ig-adg suggested1 for latter #bjb-c4 iii4 ,clemens ,alexandrinus 7,stromateis1 ii4 #aa2 vii4 #ag72 greatest literary activity ,a4,d4 #aij-bjc2 born #aej-afj1 date of death unknown2 oldest ,,ms4 eleventh century4 iv4 ,tertullianus 7,de ,praescriptionibus adversus ,haereticos1 #df1 generally attributed to a ,pseudo-,tertullian72 c4 ,a4,d4 #aii2 7,de ,anima1 #cd1 #cf72 c4 ,a4,d4 #bjh-i2 born #aej-afj1 died #bbj-bdj4 v4 ,hippolytus 787 7,philosophumena1 vi4 #g-bj72 date unknown1 probably last decade of second to third of third century2 author unknown and only conjecturally ,hippolytus2 ,,ms4 fourteenth century4 vi4 ,origenes 7,contra ,celsum1 i4 #eg2 v4 #fb2 vi4 #aa72 born ,a4,d4 #ahe-f1 died #bed-e2 ,,ms4 fourteenth century4 vii4 ,philastrius 7,de ,haeresibus72 date of birth unknown1 died probably ,a4,d4 #chg4 viii4 ,epiphanius 7,contra ,haereses1 ii4 #a-f72 born ,a4,d4 #caj-bj1 died #djd2 ,,ms4 eleventh century4 ix4 ,hieronymus 7,commentarium in ,evangelicum ,matthaei1 ,,iv4 xxiv4 #e72 written ,a4,d4 #chg4 x4 ,theodoretus 7,hereticarum ,fabularum ,compendium1 i4 #a72 born towards the end of the fourth century1 died ,a4,d4 #dec-eh2 ,,ms4 eleventh century4 ,,iii4--,the ,simon of the ,legends4 ,a4 ,the so-called ,clementine literature4 i4 ,recognitiones1 #b4 ,homiliae1 of which the ,greek originals are lost1 and the ,latin translation of ,rufinus 7born c4,a4,d4 #cde1 died #daj7 alone remains to us4 ,the originals are placed by conjecture somewhere about the beginning of the third century2 ,,ms4 eleventh century4 ,b4 ,a mediaeval account2 7,constitutiones ,sanctorum ,apostolorum1 ,,vi4 vii1 viii1 xvi72 these were never heard of prior to #aedf1 when a ,venetian1 ,carolus ,capellus1 printed an epitomized translation of them from an ,,ms4 found in ,crete4 ,they are hopelessly apocryphal4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i4--,the ,simon of the ,new ,testament4 ,acts 7viii4 #i-bd74 ,text3 ,the ,greek ,testament 7with the readings adopted by the revisers of the authorized version72 ,oxford1 #ahha4 ,now a certain fellow by name ,simon had been previously in the city practising magic and driving the people of ,samaria out of their wits1 saying that he was some great one2 to whom all from small to great gave heed1 saying3 ,this man is the ,power of ,god which is called ,great4 ,and they gave heed to him1 owing to his having driven them out of their wits for a long time by his magic arts4 ,but when they believed on ,philip preaching about the ,kingdom of ,god and the ,name of ,jesus ,christ1 they began to be baptized1 both men and women4 ,and ,simon himself also believed1 and after being baptized remained constantly with ,philip2 and was driven out of his wits on seeing the signs and great wonders#c that took place4 ,and the apostles in ,jerusalem hearing that ,samaria had received the ,word of ,god1 sent ,peter and ,john to them4 ,and they went down and prayed for them1 that they might receive the ,holy ,spirit4 ,for as yet it had not fallen upon any of them1 but they had only been baptized unto the ,name of the ,lord ,jesus4 ,then they laid their hands on them1 and they received the ,holy ,spirit4 ,and when ,simon saw that the ,holy ,spirit was given by the laying on of the hands of the apostles1 he offered them money1 saying3 ,give unto me also this power1 in order that on whomsoever ,i lay my hands he may receive the ,holy ,spirit4 ,but ,peter said unto him3 ,thy silver perish with thee1 in that thou didst think that the gift of ,god is possessed with money4 ,there is not for thee part or lot in this ,word1 for thy heart is not right before ,god4 ,therefore turn from this evil of thine1 and pray the ,lord1 if by chance the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee4 ,for ,i see that thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity4 ,and ,simon answered and said3 ,pray ye on my behalf to the ,lord1 that none of the things that ye have said may come upon me4 ,,ii4--,the ,simon of the ,fathers4 i4 ,justinus ,martyr 7,apologia1 ,i4 #bf74 ,text3 ,corpus ,apologetarum ,christianorum ,saeculi ,secundi 7edidit ,io4 ,car4 ,th4 ,eques de ,otto72 ,jenae1 #ahgf 7ed4 tert474 ,and thirdly1 that even after the ascension of the ,christ into heaven the daemons cast before themselves 7as a shield7 certain men who said that they were gods1 who were not only not expelled by you1#d but even thought worthy of honours2 a certain ,samaritan1 ,simon1 who came from a village called ,gitta2 who in the reign of ,claudius ,caesar#e wrought magic wonders by the art of the daemons who possessed him1 and was considered a god in your imperial city of ,rome1 and as a god was honoured with a statue by you1 which statue was erected in the river ,tiber1 between the two bridges1 with the following inscription in ,roman3 ,simoni ,deo ,sancto4 ,and nearly all the ,samaritans1 but few among the rest of the nations1 confess him to be the first god and worship him4 ,and they speak of a certain ,helen1 who went round with him at that time1 and who had formerly prostituted herself1#f but was made by him his first ,thought4 ii4 ,irenaeus 7,contra ,haereses1 ,i4 xxiii4 #a-d74 ,text3 ,opera 7edidit ,adolphus ,stieren72 ,lipsiae1 #ahdh4 #a4 ,simon was a ,samaritan1 the notorious magician of whom ,luke the disciple and adherent of the apostles says3 ,but there was a fellow by name ,simon1 who had previously practised the art of magic in their state1 and led away the people of the ,samaritans1 saying that he was some great one1 to whom they all listened1 from the small to the great1 saying3 ',he is the ,power of ,god1 which is called ,great4' ,now they gave heed to him because he had driven them out of their wits by his magical phenomena4 ,this ,simon1 therefore1 pretended to be a believer1 thinking that the apostles also wrought their cures by magic and not by the power of ,god2 and supposing that their filling with the ,holy ,spirit by the laying on of hands those who believed in ,god1 through that ,christ ,jesus who was being preached by them--that this was effected by some superior magical knowledge1 and offering money to the apostles1 so that he also might obtain the power of giving the ,holy ,spirit to whomsoever he would1 he received this answer from ,peter3 ,thy money perish with thee1 since thou hast thought that the gift of ,god is obtained possession of with money2 for thee there is neither part nor lot in this ,word1 for thy heart is not right before ,god4 ,for ,i see thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity4 ,and since the magician still refused to believe in ,god1 he ambitiously strove to contend against the apostles1 so that he also might be thought of great renown1 by extending his investigations into universal magic still farther1 so that he struck many aghast2 so much so that he is said to have been honoured with a statue for his magic knowledge by ,claudius ,caesar4 ,he1 therefore1 was glorified by many as a god2 and he taught that it was he himself who1 forsooth1 appeared among the ,jews as the ,son1 while in ,samaria he descended as the ,father1 and in the rest of the nations he came as the ,holy ,spirit4 ,that he was the highest power1 to wit1 the ,father over all1 and that he allowed himself to be called by whatever name men pleased4 #b4 ,now the sect of the ,samaritan ,simon1 from whom all the heresies took their origin1 was composed of the following materials4 ,he took round with him a certain ,helen1 a hired prostitute from the ,phoenician city ,tyre1 after he had purchased her freedom1 saying that she was the first conception 7or ,thought7 of his ,mind1 the ,mother of ,all1 by whom in the beginning he conceived in his ,mind the making of the ,angels and ,archangels4 ,that this ,thought1 leaping forth from him1 and knowing what was the will of her ,father1 descended to the lower regions and generated the ,angels and ,powers1 by whom also he said this world was made4 ,and after she had generated them1 she was detained by them through envy1 for they did not wish to be thought to be the progeny of any other4 ,as for himself1 he was entirely unknown by them2 and it was his ,thought that was made prisoner by the ,powers and ,angels that has been emanated by her4 ,and she suffered every kind of indignity at their hands1 to prevent her rescending to her ,father1 even to being imprisoned in the human body and transmigrating into other female bodies1 as from one vessel into another4#g ,she also was in that ,helen1 on whose account the ,trojan ,war arose2 wherefore also ,stesichorus#h was deprived of his sight when he spake evil of her in his poems2 and that afterwards when he repented and wrote what is called a recantation1 in which he sang her praises1 he recovered his sight4 ,so she1 transmigrating from body to body1 and thereby also continually undergoing indignity1 last of all even stood for hire in a brothel2 and she was the lost sheep4 #c4 ,wherefore also he himself had come1 to take her away for the first time1 and free her from her bonds1 and also to guarantee salvation to men by his knowledge4 ,for as the ,angels were mismanaging the world1 since each of them desired the sovereignty1 he had come to set matters right2 and that he had descended1 transforming himself and being made like to the ,powers and ,principalities and ,angels2 so that he appeared to men as a man1 although he was not a man2 and was thought to have suffered in ,judaea1 although he did not really suffer4 ,the ,prophets moreover had spoken their prophecies under the inspiration of the ,angels who made the world2 wherefore those who believed on him and his ,helen paid no further attention to them1 and followed their own pleasure as though free2 for men were saved by his grace1 and not by righteous works4 ,for righteous actions are not according to nature1 but from accident1 in the manner that the ,angels who made the world have laid it down1 by such precepts enslaving men4 ,wherefore also he gave new promises that the world should be dissolved and that they who were his should be freed from the rule of those who made the world4 #d4 ,wherefore their initiated priests live immorally4 ,and everyone of them practises magic arts to the best of his ability4 ,they use exorcisms and incantations4 ,love philtres also and spells and what are called familiars and dream-senders1 and the rest of the curious arts are assiduously cultivated by them4 ,they have also an image of ,simon made in the likeness of ,jupiter1 and of ,helen in that of ,minerva2 and they worship the 7statues72 and they have a designation from their most impiously minded founder1 being called ,simonians1 from whom the ,gnsis1 falsely so-called1 derives its origins1 as one can learn from their own assertions4 iii4 ,clemens ,alexandrinus 7,stromateis1 ii4 #aa2 vii4 #ag74 ,text3 ,opera 7edidit ,g4 ,dindorfius72 ,oxoniae1 #ahfi4 ,in the first passage the ,simonian use of the term1 ,he who stood1 is confirmed1 in the latter we are told that a branch of the ,simonians was called ,entychitae4 iv4 ,tertullianus1 or ,pseudo-,tertullianus 7,de ,praescriptionibus1 #df74 ,text3 ,liber de ,praes41 etc4 7edidit ,h4 ,hurter1 ,s4,j472 ,oeniponti1 #ahgj4 ,tertullianus 7,de ,anima1 #cd1 #cf74 ,text3 ,bibliothec4 ,patr4 ,eccles4 ,select4 7curavit ,dr4 ,guil4 ,bruno ,linder71 ,fasc4 iv2 ,lipsiae1 #ahei4 ,in the ,praescriptions the passage is very short1 the briefest notice possible1 under the heading1 ,anonymi ,catalogus ,heresum4 ,the notice in the ,de ,anima runs as follows3 ,for ,simon the ,samaritan also1 the purveyor of the ,holy ,spirit1 in the ,acts of the ,apostles1 after he had been condemned by himself1 together with his money1 to perdition1 shed vain tears and betook himself to assaulting the truth1 as though for the gratification of vengeance4 ,supported by the powers of his art1 for the purpose of his illusions through some power or other1 he purchased with the same money a ,tyrian woman ,helen from a place of public pleasure1 a fit commodity instead of the ,holy ,spirit4 ,and he pretended that he was the highest ,father1 and that she was his first suggestion whereby he had suggested the making of the ,angels and ,archangels2 that she sharing in this design had sprung forth from the ,father1 and leaped down into the lower regions2 and that there1 the design of the ,father being prevented1 she had brought forth ,angelic ,powers ignorant of the ,father1 the artificer of this world2 by these she was detained1 not according to his intention1 lest when she had gone they should be thought to be the progeny of another4 ,and therefore being made subject to every kind of contumely1 so that by her depreciation she might not choose to depart1 she had sunk to as low as the human form1 as though she had had to be restrained by chains of flesh1 and then for many ages being turned about through a succession of female conditions1 she became also that ,helen who proved so fatal to ,priam1 and after to the eyes of ,stesichorus1 for she had caused his blindness on account of the insult of his poem1 and afterwards had removed it because of her pleasure at his praise4 ,and thus transmigrating from body to body1 in the extreme of dishonour she had stood1 ticketed for hire1 a ,helen viler than her predecessor4 ,she was1 therefore1 the lost sheep1 to whom the highest ,father1 ,simon1 you know1 had descended4 ,and after she was recovered and brought back1 ,i know not whether on his shoulders or knees1 he afterwards had respect to the salvation of men1 as it were by the liberation of those who had to be freed from these ,angelic ,powers1 for the purpose of deceiving whom he transformed himself1 and pretended that he was a man to men only1 playing the part of the ,son in ,judaea1 and that of the ,father in ,samaria4 v4 ,hippolytus 787 7,philosophumena1 vi4 #g-bj74 ,text3 ,refutatio ,omnium ,haeresium 7ediderunt ,lud4 ,duncker et ,f4,g4 ,schneidewin72 ,gottingae1 #ahei4 #g4 ,i shall1 therefore1 set forth the system of ,simon of ,gittha1 a village of ,samaria1 and shall show that it is from him that those who followed#i him got their inspiration1 and that the speculations they venture upon have been of a like nature1 though their terminology is different4 ,this ,simon was skilled in magic1 and deluding many1 partly by the art of ,thrasymedes1 in the way we have explained above1#aj and partly corrupting them by means of daemons1 he endeavoured to deify himself--a sorcerer fellow and full of insanity1 whom the apostles confuted in the ,acts4 ,far more prudent and modest was the aim of ,apsethus1 the ,libyan1 who tried to get himself thought a god in ,libya4 ,and as the story of ,apsethus is not very dissimilar to the ambition of the foolish ,simon1 it will not be unseemly to repeat it1 for it is quite in keeping with ,simon's endeavour4 #h4 ,apsethus1 the ,libyan1 wanted to become a god4 ,but in spite of the greatest exertions he failed to realize his longing1 and so he desired that at any rate people should think that he had become one2 and1 indeed1 for a considerable time he really did get people to think that such was the case4 ,for the foolish ,libyans sacrificed to him as to some divine power1 thinking that they were placing their confidence in a voice that came down from heaven4 ,well1 he collected a large number of parrots and put them all into a cage4 ,for there are a great many parrots in ,libya and they mimic the human voice very distinctly4 ,so he kept the birds for some time and taught them to say1 ,apsethus is a god4 ,and when1 after a long time1 the birds were trained and could speak the sentence which he considered would make him be thought to be a god1 he opened the cage and let the parrots go in every direction4 ,and the voice of the birds as they flew about went out into all ,libya1 and their words reached as far as the ,greek settlements4 ,and thus the ,libyans1 astonished at the voice of the birds1 and having no idea of the trick which had been played them by ,apsethus1 considered him to be a god4 ,but one of the ,greeks1 correctly surmising the contrivance of the supposed god1 not only confuted him by means of the self-same parrots1 but also caused the total destruction of this boastful and vulgar fellow4 ,for the ,greek caught a number of the parrots and re-taught them to say ,apsethus caged us and made us say1 ',apsethus is a god4' ,and when the ,libyans heard the recantation of the parrots1 they all assembled together of one accord and burnt ,apsethus alive4 #i4 ,and in the same way we must regard ,simon1 the magician1 more readily comparing him with the ,libyan fellow's thus becoming a god4 ,and if the comparison is a correct one1 and the fate which the magician suffered was somewhat similar to that of ,apsethus1 let us endeavour to re-teach the parrots of ,simon1 that he was not ,christ1 who has stood1 stands and will stand1 but a man1 the child of a woman1 begotten of seed1 from blood and carnal desire1 like other men4 ,and that this is the case1 we shall easily demonstrate as our narrative proceeds4 ,now ,simon in his paraphrasing of the ,law of ,moses speaks with artful misunderstanding4 ,for when ,moses says ,god is a fire burning and destroying1#aa taking in an incorrect sense what ,moses said1 he declares that ,fire is the ,universal ,principle1 not understanding what was said1 viz41 not that ,god is fire1 but a fire burning and destroying4 ,and thus he not only tears to pieces the ,law of ,moses1 but also plunders from ,heracleitus the obscure4#ab ,and ,simon states that the ,universal ,principle is ,boundless ,power1 as follows3 ,this is the writing of the revelation of ,voice and ,name from ,thought1 the ,great ,power1 the ,boundless4 ,wherefore shall it be sealed1 hidden1 concealed1 laid in the ,dwelling of which the ,universal ,root is the foundation4#ac ,and he says that man here below1 born of blood1 is the ,dwelling1 and that the ,boundless ,power dwells in him1 which he says is the ,universal ,root4 ,and1 according to ,simon1 the ,boundless ,power1 ,fire1 is not a simple thing1 as the majority who say that the four elements are simple have considered fire also to be simple1 but that the ,fire has a twofold nature2 and of this twofold nature he calls the one side the concealed and the other the manifested1 7stating7 that the concealed 7parts7 of the ,fire are hidden in the manifested1 and the manifested produced by the concealed4 ,this is what ,aristotle calls in potentiality and in actuality1 and ,plato the intelligible and sensible4 ,and the manifested side of the ,fire has all things in itself which a man can perceive of things visible1 or which he unconsciously fails to perceive4 ,whereas the concealed side is everything which one can conceive as intelligible1 even though it escape sensation1 or which a man fails to conceive4 ,and generally we may say1 of all things that are1 both sensible and intelligible1 which he designates concealed and manifested1 the ,fire1 which is above the heavens1 is the treasure-house1 as it were a great ,tree1 like that seen by ,nabuchodonosor in vision1 from which all flesh is nourished4 ,and he considers the manifested side of the ,fire to be the trunk1 branches1 leaves1 and the bark surrounding it on the outside4 ,all these parts of the great ,tree1 he says1 are set on fire from the all-devouring flame of the ,fire and destroyed4 ,but the fruit of the ,tree1 if its imaging has been perfected and it takes the shape of itself1 is placed in the storehouse1 and not cast into the ,fire4 ,for the fruit1 he says1 is produced to be placed in the storehouse1 but the husk to be committed to the ,fire2 that is to say1 the trunk1 which is generated not for its own sake but for that of the fruit4 #aj4 ,and this he says is what is written in the scripture3 ,for the vineyard of the ,lord ,sabath is the house of ,israel1 and a man of ,judah a well-beloved shoot4#ad ,and if a man of ,judah is a well-beloved shoot1 it is shown1 he says1 that a tree is nothing else than a man4 ,but concerning its sundering and dispersion1 he says1 the scripture has sufficiently spoken1 and what has been said is sufficient for the instruction of those whose imaging has been perfected1 viz43 ,all flesh is grass1 and every glory of the flesh as the flower of grass4 ,the grass is dried up and the flower thereof falleth1 but the speech of the ,lord endureth for the eternity 7aeon74#ae ,now the ,speech of the ,lord1 he says1 is the ,speech engendered in the mouth and the ,word 7,logos71 for elsewhere there is no place of production4 #aa4 ,to be brief1 therefore1 the ,fire1 according to ,simon1 being of such a nature--both all things that are visible and invisible1 and in like manner1 those that sound within and those that sound aloud1 those which can be numbered and those which are numbered--in the ,great ,revelation he calls it the ,perfect ,intellectual1 as 7being7 everything that can be thought of an infinite number of times1 in an infinite number of ways1 both as to speech1 thought and action1 just as ,empedocles#af says3 ,by earth earth we perceive2 by water1 water2 by aether divine1 aether2 fire by destructive fire2 by friendship1 friendship2 and strife by bitter strife4 #ab4 ,for1 he says1 he considered that all the parts of the ,fire1 both visible and invisible1 possessed perception#ag and a portion of intelligence4 ,the generable cosmos1 therefore1 was generated from the ingenerable ,fire4 ,and it commenced to be generated1 he says1 in the following way4 ,the first six ,roots of the ,principle of generation which the generated 7sc41 cosmos7 took1 were from that ,fire4 ,and the ,roots1 he says1 were generated from the ,fire in pairs1#ah and he calls these ,roots ,mind and ,thought1 ,voice and ,name1 ,reason and ,reflection1 and in these six ,roots there was the whole of the ,boundless ,power together1 in potentiality1 but not in actuality4 ,and this ,boundless ,power he says is ,he who has stood1 stands and will stand2 who1 if his imaging is perfected while in the six ,powers1 will be1 in essence1 power1 greatness and completeness1 one and the same with the ingenerable and ,boundless ,power1 and not one single whit inferior to that ingenerable1 unchangeable and ,boundless ,power4 ,but if it remain in potentiality only1 and its imaging is not perfected1 then it disappears and perishes1 he says1 just as the potentiality of grammar or geometry in a man's mind4 ,for potentiality when it has obtained art becomes the light of generated things1 but if it does not do so an absence of art and darkness ensues1 exactly as if it had not existed at all2 and on the death of the man it perishes with him4 #ac4 ,of these six ,powers and the seventh which is beyond the six1 he calls the first pair ,mind and ,thought1 heaven and earth2 and the male 7heaven7 looks down from above and takes thought for its co-partner1 while the earth from below receives from the heaven the intellectual fruits that come down to it and are cognate with the earth4 ,wherefore1 he says1 the ,word ofttimes steadfastly contemplating the things which have been generated from ,mind and ,thought1 that is from heaven and earth1 says3 ,hear1 ,o heaven1 and give ear1 ,o earth1 for the ,lord hath said3 ,i have generated sons and raised them up1 but they have set me aside4#ai ,and he who says this1 he says1 is the seventh ,power1 ,he who has stood1 stands and will stand1 for ,he is the cause of those good things which ,moses praised and said they were very good4 ,and 7the second pair is7 ,voice and ,name1 sun and moon4 ,and 7the third7 ,reason and ,reflection1 air and water4 ,and in all of these was blended and mingled the ,great ,power1 the ,boundless1 ,he who has stood1 as ,i have said4 #ad4 ,and when ,moses says3 7,it is7 in six days that ,god made the heaven and the earth1 and on the seventh he rested from all his works1 ,simon arranges it differently and thus makes himself into a god4 ,when1 therefore1 they 7the ,simonians7 say1 that there are three days before the generation of the sun and moon1 they mean esoterically ,mind and ,thought--that is to say heaven and earth--and the seventh ,power1 the ,boundless4 ,for these three ,powers were generated before all the others4 ,and when they say he hath generated me before all the ,aeons1 the words1 he says1 are used concerning the seventh ,power4 ,now this seventh ,power which was the first ,power subsisting in the ,boundless ,power1 which was generated before all the ,aeons1 this1 he says1 was the seventh ,power1 about which ,moses says3 ,and the spirit of ,god moved over the water1 that is to say1 he says1 the spirit which hath all things in itself1 the ,image of the ,boundless ,power1 concerning which ,simon says3 ,the ,image from1 the incorruptible ,form1 alone ordering all things4 ,for the ,power which moves above the water1 he says1 is generated from an imperishable ,form1 and alone orders all things4 ,now the constitution of the world being with them after this or a similar fashion1 ,god1 he says1 fashioned man by taking soil from the earth4 ,and he made him not single but double1 according to the image and likeness4 ,and the ,image is the spirit moving above the water1 which1 if its imaging is not perfected1 perishes together with the world1 seeing that it remains only in potentiality and does not become in actuality4 ,and this is the meaning of the ,scripture1 he says3 ,lest we be condemned together with the world4#bj ,but if its imaging should be perfected and it should be generated from an indivisible point1 as it is written in his ,revelation1 the small shall become great4 ,and this great shall continue for the boundless and changeless eternity 7aeon71 in as much as it is no longer in the process of becoming4#ba ,how and in what manner1 then1 he asks1 does ,god fashion man8 ,in the ,garden 7,paradise71 he thinks4 ,we must consider the womb a ,garden1 he says1 and that this is the cave1 the ,scripture tells us when it says3 ,i am he who fashioned thee in thy mother's womb1#bb for he would have it written in this way4 ,in speaking of the ,garden1 he says1 ,moses allegorically referred to the womb1 if we are to believe the ,word4 ,and1 if ,god fashions man in his mother's womb1 that is to say in the ,garden1 as ,i have already said1 the womb must be taken for the ,garden1 and ,eden for the region 7surrounding the womb71 and the river going forth from ,eden to water the ,garden1#bc for the navel4 ,this navel1 he says1 is divided into four channels1 for on either side of the navel two air-ducts are stretched to convey the breath1 and two veins#bd to convey blood4 ,but when1 he says1 the navel going forth from the region of ,eden is attached to the foetus in the epigastric regions1 that which is commonly called by everyone the navel#be 444 and the two veins by which the blood flows and is carried from the ,edenic region through what are called the gates of the liver1 which nourish the foetus4 ,and the air-ducts1 which we said were channels for breath1 embracing the bladder on either side in the region of the pelvis1 are united at the great duct which is called the dorsal aorta4 ,and thus the breath passing through the side doors towards the heart produces the movement of the embryo4 ,for as long as the babe is being fashioned in the ,garden1 it neither takes nourishment through the mouth1 nor breathes through the nostrils4 ,for seeing that it is surrounded by the waters 7of the womb71 death would instantly supervene1 if it took a breath2 for it would draw after it the waters and so perish4 ,but the whole 7of the foetus7 is wrapped up in an envelope1 called the amnion1 and is nourished through the navel and receives the essence of the breath through the dorsal duct1 as ,i have said4 #ae4 ,the river1 therefore1 he says1 which goes out of ,eden1 is divided into four channels1 four ducts1 that is to say2 into four senses of the foetus3 sight1 7hearing71#bf smelling1 taste and touch4 ,for these are the only senses the child has while it is being formed in the ,garden4 ,this1 he says1 is the law which ,moses laid down1 and in accordance with this very law each of his books was written1 as the titles show4 ,the first book is ,genesis1 and the title of the book1 he says1 is sufficient for a knowledge of the whole matter4 ,for this ,genesis1 he says1 is sight1 which is one division of the river4 ,for the world is perceived by sight4 ,the title of the second book is ,exodus4 ,for it was necessary for that which is born to travel through the ,red ,sea1 and pass towards the ,desert--by ,red the blood is meant1 he says--and taste the bitter water4 ,for the bitter1 he says1 is the water beyond the ,red ,sea1 inasmuch as it is the path of knowledge of painful and bitter things which we travel along in life4 ,but when it is changed by ,moses1 that is to say by the ,word1 that bitter 7water7 becomes sweet4 ,and that this is so1 all may hear publicly by repeating after the poets3 ,in root it was black1 but like milk was the flower4 ,moly the ,gods call it4 ,for mortals to dig it up is difficult2 but ,gods can do all things4#bg #af4 ,sufficient1 he says1 is what is said by the ,gentiles for a knowledge of the whole matter1 for those who have ears for hearing4 ,for he who tasted this fruit1 he says1 was not only not changed into a beast by ,circe1 but using the virtue of the fruit1 reshaped those who had been already changed into beasts1 into their former proper shape1 and re-struck and recalled their type4 ,for the true man and one beloved by that sorceress is discovered by this milk-white divine fruit1 he says4 ,in like manner ,leviticus1 the third book1 is smelling or respiration4 ,for the whole of that book treats of sacrifices and offerings4 ,and wherever there is a sacrifice1 there arises the smell of the scent from the sacrifice owing to the incense1 concerning which sweet smell the sense of smell is the test4 ,numbers1 the fourth book1 signifies taste1 wherein speech 7or the ,word7 energizes4 ,and it is so called through uttering all things in numerical order4 ,deuteronomy1 again1 he says1 is so entitled in reference to the sense of touch of the child which is formed4 ,for just as the touch by contact synthesizes and confirms the sensations of the other senses1 proving objects to be either hard1 warm1 or adhesive1 so also the fifth book of the ,law is the synthesis of the four books which precede it4 ,all ingenerables1 therefore1 he says1 are in us in potentiality but not in actuality1 like the science of grammar or geometry4 ,and if they meet with befitting utterance#bh and instruction1 and the bitter is turned into the sweet--that is to say1 spears into reaping hooks and swords into ploughshares#bi--the ,fire will not have born to it husks and stocks1 but perfect fruit1 perfected in its imaging1 as ,i said above1 equal and similar to the ingenerable and ,boundless ,power4 ,for now1 says he1 the axe is nigh to the roots of the tree3 every tree1 he says1 that bringeth not forth good fruit1 is cut down and cast into the fire4#cj #ag4 ,and so1 according to ,simon1 that blessed and imperishable 7principle7 concealed in everything1 is in potentiality1 but not in actuality1 which indeed is ,he who has stood1 stands and will stand2 who has stood above in the ingenerable ,power1 who stands below in the stream of the waters1 generated in an image1 who shall stand above1 by the side of the blessed and ,boundless ,power1 if the imaging be perfected4 ,for three1 he says1 are they that stand1 and without there being three standing ,aeons1 there would be no setting in order#ca of the generable which1 according to them1 moves on the water1 and which is fashioned according to the similitude into a perfect celestial1 becoming in no whit inferior to the ingenerable ,power1 and this is the meaning of their saying3 ,thou and ,i1 the one thing2 before me1 thou2 that after thee1 ,i4 ,this1 he says1 is the one ,power1 separated into the above and below1 generating itself1 increasing itself1 seeking itself1 finding itself1 its own mother1 its own father1 its sister1 its spouse2 the daughter1 son1 mother1 and father of itself2 ,one1 the ,universal ,root4 ,and that1 as he says1 the beginning of the generation of things which are generated is from ,fire1 he understands somewhat in this fashion4 ,of all things of which there is generation1 the beginning of the desire for their generation is from ,fire4 ,for1 indeed1 the desire of mutable generation is called being on fire4 ,and though ,fire is one1 yet has it two modes of mutation4 ,for in the man1 he says1 the blood1 being hot and yellow--like fire when it takes form--is turned into seed1 whereas in the woman the same blood 7is changed7 into milk4 ,and this change in the male becomes the faculty of generating1 while that in the female 7becomes7 nourishment for the child4 ,this1 he says1 is the flaming sword that is turned about to keep the way of the tree of life4#cb ,for the blood is turned into seed and milk2 and this ,power becomes mother and father1 father of those that are born1 and mother of those that are nourished1 standing in want of nothing1 sufficient unto itself4 ,and the tree of life1 he says1 is guarded by the fiery sword which is turned about1 7which tree71 as we have said1 7is7 the seventh ,power which proceeds from itself1 contains all 7in itself71 and is stored in the six ,powers4 ,for were the flaming sword not turned about1 that fair tree would be destroyed and perish2 but if it is turned into seed and milk1 that which is stored in them in potentiality1 having obtained a fitting utterance1#cc and an appointed place in which the utterance may be developed1 starting as it were from the smallest spark1 it will increase to all perfection1 and expand1 and be an infinite power1 unchangeable1 equal and similar to the unchangeable ,aeon1 which is no more generated for the boundless eternity4 #ah4 ,conformably1 therefore1 to this reasoning1 for the foolish1 ,simon was a god1 like that ,libyan ,apsethus2 7a god7 subject to generation and suffering1 so long as he remained in potentiality1 but freed from the bonds of suffering and birth1 as soon as his imaging forth was accomplished1 and attaining perfection he passed forth from the first two ,powers1 to wit heaven and earth4 ,for ,simon speaks distinctly concerning this in his ,revelation as follows3 ,to you1 therefore1 ,i say what ,i say1 and write what ,i write4 ,and the writing is this4 ,of the universal ,aeons there are two shoots1 without beginning or end1 springing from one ,root1 which is the ,power invisible1 inapprehensible ,silence4 ,of these shoots one is manifested from above1 which is the ,great ,power1 the ,universal ,mind ordering all things1 male1 and the other1 7is manifested7 from below1 the ,great ,thought1 female1 producing all things4 ,hence pairing with each other1#cd they unite and manifest the ,middle ,distance1 incomprehensible ,air1 without beginning or end4 ,in this is the ,father who sustains all things1 and nourishes those things which have a beginning and end4 ,this is ,he who has stood1 stands and will stand1 a male-female power like the prexisting ,boundless ,power1 which has neither beginning nor end1 existing in oneness4 ,for it is from this that the ,thought in the oneness proceeded and became two4 ,so he#ce was one2 for having her#cf in himself1 he was alone1 not however first1 although prexisting1 but being manifested from himself to himself1 he became second4 ,nor was he called ,father before 7,thought7 called him ,father4 ,as1 therefore1 producing himself by himself1 he manifested to himself his own ,thought1 so also the ,thought that was manifested did not make the ,father1 but contemplating him hid him--that is to say the ,power--in herself1 and is male-female1 ,power and ,thought4 ,hence they pair with each other being one1 for there is no difference between ,power and ,thought4 ,from the things above is discovered ,power1 and from those below ,thought4 ,in the same manner also that which was manifested from them#cg although being one is yet found as two1 the male-female having the female in itself4 ,thus ,mind is in ,thought--things inseparable from one another--which although being one are yet found as two4 #ai4 ,so then ,simon by such inventions got what interpretation he pleased1 not only out of the writings of ,moses1 but also out of those of the 7pagan7 poets1 by falsifying them4 ,for he gives an allegorical interpretation of the wooden horse1 and ,helen with the torch1 and a number of other things1 which he metamorphoses and weaves into fictions concerning himself and his ,thought4 ,and he said that the latter was the lost sheep1 who again and again abiding in women throws the ,powers in the world into confusion1 on account of her unsurpassable beauty2 on account of which the ,trojan ,war came to pass through her4 ,for this ,thought took up its abode in the ,helen that was born just at that time1 and thus when all the ,powers laid claim to her1 there arose faction and war among those nations to whom she was manifested4 ,it was thus1 forsooth1 that ,stesichorus was deprived of sight when he abused her in his verses2 and afterwards when he repented and wrote the recantation in which he sung her praises he recovered his sight4 ,and subsequently1 when her body was changed by the ,angels and lower ,powers--which also1 he says1 made the world--she lived in a brothel in ,tyre1 a city of ,phoenicia1 where he found her on his arrival4 ,for he professes that he had come there for the purpose of finding her for the first time1 that he might deliver her from bondage4 ,and after he had purchased her freedom he took her about with him1 pretending that she was the lost sheep1 and that he himself was the ,power which is over all4 ,whereas the impostor having fallen in love with this strumpet1 called ,helen1 purchased and kept her1 and being ashamed to have it known by his disciples1 invented this story4 ,and those who copy the vagabond magician ,simon do like acts1 and pretend that intercourse should be promiscuous1 saying3 ,all soil is soil1 and it matters not where a man sows1 so long as he does sow4 ,nay1 they pride themselves on promiscuous intercourse1 saying that this is the perfect love1 citing the text1 the holy shall be sanctified by the 444 of the holy4#ch ,and they profess that they are not in the power of that which is usually considered evil1 for they are redeemed4 ,for by purchasing the freedom of ,helen1 he 7,simon7 thus offered salvation to men by knowledge peculiar to himself4#ci ,for he said that1 as the ,angels were misgoverning the world owing to their love of power1 he had come to set things right1 being metamorphosed and made like unto the ,dominions1 ,principalities and ,angels1 so that he was manifested as a man although he was not really a man1 and that he seemed to suffer#dj in ,judaea1 although he did not really undergo it1 but that he was manifested to the ,jews as the ,son1 in ,samaria as the ,father1 and among the other nations as the ,holy ,ghost1 and that he permitted himself to be called by whatever name men pleased to call him4 ,and that it was by the ,angels1 who made the world1 that the ,prophets were inspired to utter their prophecies4 ,wherefore they who believe on ,simon and ,helen pay no attention to the latter even to this day1 but do everything they like1 as being free1 for they contend that they are saved through his 7,simon's7 grace4 ,for 7they assert that7 there is no cause for punishment if a man does ill1 for evil is not in nature but in institution4 ,for1 he says1 the ,angels who made the world1 instituted what they wished1 thinking by such words to enslave all who listened to them4 ,whereas the dissolution of the world1 they 7the ,simonians7 say1 is for the ransoming of their own people4 #bj4 ,and 7,simon's7 disciples perform magical ceremonies and 7use7 incantations1 and philtres and spells1 and they also send what are called dream-sending daemons for disturbing whom they will4 ,they also train what are called familiars1#da and have a statue of ,simon in the form of ,zeus1 and one of ,helen in the form of ,athena1 which they worship1 calling the former ,lord and the latter ,lady4 ,and if any among them on seeing the images1 calls them by the name of ,simon or ,helen1 he is cast out as one ignorant of the mysteries4 ,while this ,simon was leading many astray by his magic rites in ,samaria1 he was confuted by the apostles4 ,and being cursed1 as it is written in the ,acts1 in dissatisfaction took to these schemes4 ,and at last he travelled to ,rome and again fell in with the apostles1 and ,peter had many encounters with him for he continued leading numbers astray by his magic4 ,and towards the end of his career going 444 he settled under a plane tree and continued his teachings4 ,and finally running the risk of exposure through the length of his stay1 he said1 that if he were buried alive1 he would rise again on the third day4 ,and he did actually order a grave to be dug by his disciples and told them to bury him4 ,so they carried out his orders1 but he has stopped away#db until the present day1 for he was not the ,christ4 vi4 ,origenes 7,contra ,celsum1 i4 #eg2 v4 #fb2 vi4 #aa74 ,text 7edidit ,carol4 ,henric4 ,eduard72 ,lommatzsch2 ,berolini1 #ahdf4 i4 #eg4 ,and ,simon also1 the ,samaritan magician1 endeavoured to steal away certain by his magic4 ,and at that time he succeeded in deceiving them1 but in our own day ,i do not think it possible to find thirty ,simonians altogether in the inhabited world4 ,and probably ,i have said more than they really are4 ,there are a very few of them round ,palestine2 but in the rest of the world his name is nowhere to be found in the sense of the doctrine he wished to spread broadcast concerning himself4 ,and alongside of the reports about him1 we have the account from the ,acts4 ,and they who say these things about him are ,christians and their clear witness is that ,simon was nothing divine4 v4 #fb4 ,then pouring out a quantity of our names1 he 7,celsus7 says he knows certain ,simonians who are called ,heleniani1 because they worship ,helen or a teacher ,helenus4 ,but ,celsus is ignorant that the ,simonians in no way confess that ,jesus is the ,son of ,god1 but they say that ,simon is the ,power of ,god1 telling some marvellous stories about the fellow1 who thought that if he laid claim to like powers as those which he thought ,jesus laid claim to1 he also would be as powerful among men as ,jesus is with many4 vi4 #aa4 ,for the former 7,simon7 pretended he was the ,power of ,god1 which is called ,great1 and the latter 7,dositheus7 that he too was the ,son of ,god4 ,for nowhere in the world do the ,simonians any longer exist4 ,moreover by getting many under his influence ,simon took away from his disciples the danger of death1 which ,christians were taught was taken away1 teaching them that there was no difference between it and idolatry4 ,and yet in the beginning the ,simonians were not plotted against4 ,for the evil daemon who plots against the teaching of ,jesus1 knew that no counsel of his own would be undone by the disciples of ,simon4 vii4 ,philastrius 7,de ,haeresibus1 i74 ,text3 ,patres ,quarti ,ecclesiae ,saeculi 7edidit ,d4,a4,b4 ,caillau72 ,paris1 #ahdb4 ,now after the passion of ,christ1 our ,lord1 and his ascension into heaven1 there arose a certain ,simon1 the magician1 a ,samaritan by birth1 from a village called ,gittha1 who having the leisure necessary for the arts of magic deceived many1 saying that he was some ,power of ,god1 above all powers4 ,whom the ,samaritans worship as the ,father1 and wickedly extol as the founder of their heresy1 and strive to exalt him with many praises4 ,who having been baptized by the blessed apostles1 went back from their faith1 and disseminated a wicked and pernicious heresy1 saying that he was transformed supposedly1 that is to say like a shadow1 and thus he had suffered1 although1 he says1 he did not suffer4 ,and he also dared to say that the world had been made by ,angels1 and the ,angels again had been made by certain endowed with perception from heaven1 and that they 7the ,angels7 had deceived the human race4 ,he asserted1 moreover1 that there was a certain other ,thought1 who descended into the world for the salvation of men2 he says she was that ,helen whose story is celebrated in the ,trojan ,war by the vain-glorious poets4 ,and the ,powers1 he says1 led on by desire of this ,helen1 stirred up sedition4 ,for she1 he says1 arousing desire in those ,powers1 and appearing in the form of a woman1 could not rescend into heaven1 because the ,powers which were in heaven did not permit her to reascend4 ,moreover1 she looked for another ,power1 that is to say1 the presence of ,simon himself1 which would come and free her4 ,the wooden horse also1 which the vain-glorious poets say was in the ,trojan ,war1 he asserted was allegorical1 namely1 that that mechanical invention typified the ignorance of all the impious nations1 although it is well known that that ,helen1 who was with the magician1 was a prostitute from ,tyre1 and that this same ,simon1 the magician1 had followed her1 and together with her had practised various magic arts and committed divers crimes4 ,but after he had fled from the blessed ,peter from the city of ,jerusalem1 and came to ,rome1 and contended there with the blessed apostle before the ,emperor ,nero1 he was routed on every point by the speech of the blessed apostle1 and being smitten by an angel came by a righteous end in order that the glaring falsity of his magic might be made known unto all men4 viii4 ,epiphanius 7,contra ,haereses1 ii4 #a-f74 ,text3 ,opera 7edidit ,g4 ,dindorfius72 ,lipsiae1 #ahei4 #a4 ,from the time of ,christ to our own day the first heresy was that of ,simon the magician1 and though it was not correctly and distinctly one of the ,christian name1 yet it worked great havoc by the corruption it produced among ,christians4 ,this ,simon was a sorcerer1 and the base of his operations was at ,gittha1 a city in ,samaria1 which still exists as a village4 ,and he deluded the ,samaritan people with magical phenomena1 deluding and enticing them with a bait by saying that he was the ,great ,power of ,god and had come down from above4 ,and he told the ,samaritans that he was the ,father1 and the ,jews that he was the ,son1 and that in undergoing the passion he had not really done so1 but that it was only in appearance4 ,and he ingratiated himself with the apostles1 was baptized by ,philip with many others1 and received the same rite as the rest4 ,and all except himself awaited the arrival of the great apostles and by the laying on of their hands received the ,holy ,spirit1 for ,philip1 being a deacon1 had not the power of laying on of hands to grant thereby the gift of the ,holy ,spirit4 ,but ,simon1 with wicked heart and erroneous calculations1 persisted in his base and mercenary covetousness1 without abandoning in any way his miserable pursuits1 and offered money to ,peter1 the apostle1 for the power of bestowing the ,holy ,spirit by the laying on of hands1 calculating that he would give little1 and that for the little 7he gave71 by bestowing the ,spirit on many1 he would amass a large sum of money and make a profit4 #b4 ,so with his mind in a vile state through the devilish illusions produced by his magic1 and weaving all kinds of images1 and being ever ready of his own villany to show his barbaric and demoniacal tricks by means of his charms1 he came forward publicly and under the cloak of the name of ,christ2 and pretending that he was mixing hellebore#dc with honey1 he added a poison for those whom he hunted into his mischievous illusion1 under the cloak of the name of ,christ1 and compassed the death of those who believed4 ,and being lewd in nature and goaded on through shame of his promises1 the vagabond fabricated a corrupt allegory for those whom he had deceived4 ,for picking up a roving woman1 called ,helen1 who originated from the city of the ,tyrians1 he took her about with him1 without letting people know that he was on terms of undue intimacy with her2 and when he was involved in bursting disgrace because of his mistress1 he started a fabulous kind of psychopompy#dd for his disciples1 and saying1 forsooth1 that he was the ,great ,power of ,god1 he ventured to call his prostitute companion the ,holy ,spirit1 and he says that it was on her account he descended4 ,and in each heaven ,i changed my form1 he says1 in order that ,i might not be perceived by my ,angelic ,powers1 and descend to my ,thought1 which is she who is called ,pruncus#de and ,holy ,spirit1 through whom ,i brought into being the ,angels1 and the ,angels brought into being the world and men4 7,he claimed7 that this was the ,helen of old1 on whose account the ,trojans and ,greeks went to war4 ,and he related a myth with regard to these matters1 that this ,power descending from above changed its form1 and that it was about this that the poets spake allegorically4 ,and through this ,power from above--which they call ,pruncus1 and which is called by other sects ,barbero or ,barbelo--displaying her beauty1 she drove them to frenzy1 and on this account was she sent for the despoiling of the ,rulers who brought the world into being2 and the ,angels themselves went to war on her account2 and while she experienced nothing1 they set to work to mutually slaughter each other on account of the desire which she infused into them for herself4 ,and constraining her so that she could not rescend1 each had intercourse with her in every body of womanly and female constitution--she rencarnating from female bodies into different bodies1 both of the human kingdom1 and of beasts and other things--in order that by means of their slaying and being slain1 they might bring about a diminution of themselves through the shedding of blood1 and that then she by collecting again the ,power would be enabled to rescend into heaven4 #c4 ,and she it was at that time who was possessed by the ,greeks and ,trojans2 and that both in the night of time before the world existed1 and after its existence1 by the invisible ,powers she had wrought things of a like nature4 ,and she it is who is now with me1 and on her account have ,i descended4 ,and she was looking for my coming4 ,for she is the ,thought1#df called ,helen in ,homer4 ,and it was on this account that ,homer was compelled to portray her as standing on a tower1 and by means of a torch revealing to the ,greeks the plot of the ,phrygians4 ,and by the torch1 he delineated1 as ,i said1 the manifestation of the light from above4 ,on which account also the wooden horse in ,homer was devised1 which the ,greeks think was made for a distinct purpose1 whereas the sorcerer maintained that this is the ignorance of the ,gentiles1 and that like as the ,phrygians when they dragged it along in ignorance drew on their own destruction1 so also the ,gentiles1 that is to say people who are without my wisdom1 through ignorance1 draw ruin on themselves4 ,moreover the impostor said that ,athena again was identical with what they called ,thought1 making use forsooth of the words of the holy apostle ,paul--changing the truth into his own lie--to wit3 ,put on the breastplate of faith and the helmet of salvation1 and the greaves and sword and buckler2#dg and that all this was in the mimes of ,philistion1#dh the rogue6--words uttered by the apostle with firm reasoning and faith of holy conversation1 and the power of the divine and heavenly word--turning them further into a joke and nothing more4 ,for what does he say8 ,that he 7,philistion7 arranged all these things in a mysterious manner into types of ,athena4 ,wherefore again1 in making known the woman with him whom he had taken from ,tyre and who had the same name as ,helen of old1 he spoke as ,i have told you above1 calling her by all those names1 ,thought1 and ,athena1 and ,helen and the rest4 ,and on her account1 he says1 ,i descended4 ,and this is the 'lost sheep' written of in the ,gospel4 ,moreover1 he left to his followers an image1 his own presumably1 and they worship it under the form of ,zeus2 and he left another in like manner of ,helen in the guise of ,athena1 and his dupes worship them4 #d4 ,and he enjoined mysteries of obscenity and--to set it forth more seriously--of the sheddings of bodies1 emissionum virorom1 feminarum menstruorum1 and that they should be gathered up for mysteries in a most filthy collection2 that these were the mysteries of life1 and of the most perfect ,gnsis--a practice which anyone who has understanding from ,god would most naturally consider to be most filthy conduct and death rather than life4 ,and he supposes names for the ,dominions and ,principalities1 and says there are different heavens1 and sets forth ,powers for each firmament and heaven1 and tricks them out with barbarous names1 and says that no man can be saved in any other fashion than by learning this mystagogy1 and how to offer such sacrifices to the ,universal ,father through these ,dominions and ,principalities4 ,and he says that this world 7aeon7 was constructed defectively by ,dominions and ,principalities of evil4 ,and he considers that corruption and destruction are of the flesh alone1 but that there is a purification of souls and that1 only if they are established in initiation by means of his misleading ,gnsis4 ,this is the beginning of the so-called ,gnostics4 ,and he pretended that the ,law was not of ,god1 but of the left-hand ,power1 and that the ,prophets were not from the ,good ,god but from this or the other ,power4 ,and he lays it down for each of them as he pleases3 the ,law was of one1 ,david of another1 ,isaiah of another1 ,ezekiel again of another1 and ascribes each of the ,prophets to some one ,dominion4 ,and all of them were from the left-hand ,power and outside the ,perfection1#di and every one that believed in the ,old ,testament was subject to death4 #e4 ,but this doctrine is overturned by the truth itself4 ,for if he were the ,great ,power of ,god1 and the harlot with him the ,holy ,spirit1 as he himself says1 let him say what is the name of the ,power or in what word#ej he discovered the epithet for the woman and nothing for himself at all4 ,and how and at what time is he found at ,rome successively paying back his debt1 when in the midst of the city of the ,romans the miserable fellow fell down and died8 ,and in what scripture did ,peter prove to him that he had neither lot nor share in the heritage of the fear of ,god8 ,and could the world not have its existence in the ,good ,god1 when all the good were chosen by him8 ,and how could it be a left-hand ,power which spake in the ,law and ,prophets1 when it has preached the coming of the ,christ1 the ,good ,god1 and forbids mean things8 ,and how could there not be one divine nature and the same spirit of the ,new and ,old ,testament1 when the ,lord said3 ,i am not come to destroy the ,law1 but to fulfil it8#ea ,and that ,he might show that the ,law was declared through ,him and was given through ,moses1 and that the grace of the ,gospel has been preached through himself and his carnal presence1 ,he said to the ,jews3 ,if ye believe ,moses1 ye should also believe me2 for he wrote about me4#eb ,there are many other arguments also to oppose to the contention of the sorcerer4 ,for how will obscene things give life1 if it were not a conception of daemons8 ,when the ,lord himself answers in the ,gospel to those who say unto him3 ,if such is the case of the man and the woman1 it is not good to marry4 ,but ,he said unto them3 ,all do not hold this2 for there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of the heavens4#ec ,and ,he showed that natural abstinence from union is the gift of the kingdom of the heavens2 and again in another place ,he says with respect to righteous marriage--which ,simon of his own accord basely corrupting treats according to his own desires--,whom ,god has joined together let no man put asunder4#ed #f4 ,and how unaware is again the vagabond that he confutes himself by his own babbling1 not knowing what he gives out8 ,for after saying that the ,angels were produced by him through his ,thought1 he goes on to say that he changed his form in every heaven1 to escape their notice in his descent4 ,consequently he avoided them through fear4 ,and how did the babbler fear the ,angels whom he had himself made8 ,and how will not the dissemination of his error be found by the intelligent to be instantly refuted by everyone1 when the scripture says3 ,in the beginning#ee ,god made the heaven and the earth8#ef ,and in unison with this word1 the ,lord in the ,gospel says1 as though to his own ,father3 ,o ,father1 ,lord of heaven and earth4#eg ,if1 therefore1 the maker of heaven and earth is naturally ,god1 the ,father of our ,lord ,jesus ,christ1 all that the slanderer ,simon says is vain2 to wit1 the defective production of the world by the ,angels1 and all the rest he has babbled about in addition to his world of ,daemons1 and he has deceived those who have been led away by him4 ix4 ,hieronymus 7,in ,matthaeum1 ,,iv4 xxiv4 #e74 ,text3 ,s4 ,eusebii ,hieronymi ,comment42 ,migne ,patrol4 ,grec41 ,,vii4 col4 #agf4 ,of whom there is one ,simon1 a ,samaritan1 whom we read of in the ,acts of the ,apostles1 who said he was some ,great ,power4 ,and among the rest of the things written in his volumes1 he proclaimed as follows3 ,i am the ,word of ,god2 ,i am the glorious one1 ,i the ,paraclete1 the ,almighty1 ,i the whole of ,god4 x4 ,theodoretus 7,haereticarum ,fabularum ,compendium1 ,i4 i474 ,text3 ,opera ,omnia 7ex recensione ,jacobi ,simondi1 denuo edidit ,joann4 ,ludov4 ,schulze72 ,halae1 #agfi4 ,now ,simon1 the ,samaritan magician1 was the first minister of his 7the ,daemon's7#eh evil practices who arose4 ,who1 making his base of operations from ,gittha1 which is a village of ,samaria1 and having rushed to the height of sorcery1 at first persuaded many1 by the wonder-working he wrought1 to attend his school1 and call him some divine ,power4 ,but afterwards seeing the apostles accomplishing wonder-workings that were really true and divine1 and bestowing on those who came to them the grace of the ,spirit1 thinking himself also worthy to receive equal power from them1 when great ,peter detected his villainous intention1 and bade him heal the incurable wounds of his mind with the drugs of repentance1 he immediately returned to his former evil-doing1 and leaving ,samaria1 since it had received the seeds of salvation1 ran off to those who had not yet been tilled by the apostles1 in order that1 having deceived with his magic arts those who were easy to capture1 and having enslaved them in the bonds of their own legendary lore1#ei he might make the teachings of the apostles difficult to be believed4 ,but the divine grace armed great ,peter against the fellow's madness4 ,for following after him1 he dispelled his abominable teaching like mist and darkness1 and showed forth the rays of the light of truth4 ,but for all that the thrice wretched fellow1 in spite of his public exposure1 did not cease from his working against the truth1 until he came to ,rome1 in the reign of ,claudius ,caesar4 ,and he so astonished the ,romans with his sorceries that he was honoured with a brazen pillar4 ,but on the arrival of the divine ,peter1 he stripped him naked of his wings of deception1 and finally1 having challenged him to a contest in wonder-working1 and having shown the difference between the divine grace and sorcery1 in the presence of the assembled ,romans1 caused him to fall headlong from a great height by his prayers and captured the eye-witnesses of the wonder for salvation4 ,this 7,simon7 gave birth to a legend somewhat as follows4 ,he started with supposing some ,boundless ,power2 and he called this the ,universal ,root4#fj ,and he said that this was ,fire1 which had a twofold energy1 the manifested and the concealed4 ,the world moreover was generable1 and had been generated from the manifested energy of the ,fire4 ,and first from it 7the manifested energy7 were emanated three pairs1 which he also called ,roots4 ,and the first 7pair7 he called ,mind and ,thought1 and the second1 ,voice and ,intelligence1 and the third1 ,reason and ,reflection4 ,whereas he called himself the ,boundless ,power1 and 7said7 that he had appeared to the ,jews as the ,son1 and to the ,samaritans he had descended as the ,father1 and among the rest of the nations he had gone up and down as the ,holy ,spirit4 ,and having made a certain harlot1 who was called ,helen1 live with him1 he pretended that she was his first ,thought1 and called her the ,universal ,mother1 7saying7 that through her he had made both the ,angels and ,archangels2 and that the world was fabricated by the ,angels4 ,then the ,angels in envy cast her down among them1 for they did not wish1 he says1 to be called fabrications4 ,for which cause1 forsooth1 they induced her into many female bodies and into that of the famous ,helen1 through whom the ,trojan ,war arose4 ,it was on her account also1 he said1 that he himself had descended1 to free her from the chains they had laid upon her1 and to offer to men salvation through a system of knowledge peculiar to himself4 ,and that in his descent he had undergone transformation1 so as not to be known to the ,angels that manage the establishment of the world4 ,and that he had appeared in ,judaea as a man1 although he was not a man1 and that he had suffered1 though not at all suffering1 and that the ,prophets were the ministers of the ,angels4 ,and he admonished those that believed on him not to pay attention to them1 and not to tremble at the threats of the ,law1 but1 as being free1 to do whatever they would4 ,for it was not by good actions1 but by grace they would gain salvation4 ,for which cause1 indeed1 those of his association ventured on every kind of licentiousness1 and practised every kind of magic1 fabricating love philtres and spells1 and all the other arts of sorcery1 as though in pursuit of divine mysteries4 ,and having prepared his 7,simon's7 statue in the form of ,zeus1 and ,helen's in the likeness of ,athena1 they burn incense and pour out libations before them1 and worship them as gods1 calling themselves ,simonians4 ,,iii4--,the ,simon of the ,legends4 ,the so-called ,clementine ,literature3 ,a4 ,recognitiones4 ,text3 ,rufino ,aquilei ,presb4 ,interprete 7curante ,e4,g4 ,gersdorf72 ,lipsiae1 #ahch4 ,homiliae4 ,text3 ,bibliotheca ,patrum ,ecclesiasticorum ,latinorum ,selecta1 ,vol4 ,i4 7edidit ,albertus ,schwegler72 ,tubingensis1 ,stuttgartiae1 #ahdg4 ,b4 ,constitutiones4 ,text3 ,,ss4 ,patrum qui ,temporibus ,apostolicis ,floruerunt ,opera 7edidit ,j4,b4 ,cotelerius72 ,amsteladami1 #agbd4 ,a4 ,the priority of the two varying accounts1 in the ,homilies and ,recognitiones1 of the same story is in much dispute1 but this is a question of no importance in the present enquiry4 ,the latest scholarship is of the opinion that the ,clementines are unmistakably a production of the sect of the ,ebionites4#fa ,the ,ebionites are described as3 ,a sect of heretics developed from among the ,judaizing ,christians of apostolic times late in the first or early in the second century4 ,they accepted ,christianity only as a reformed ,judaism1 and believed in our ,blessed ,lord only as a mere natural man spiritually perfected by exact observance of the ,mosaic law4#fb ,summary4#fc ,clement1 the hero of the legendary narrative1 arrives at ,caesarea ,stratonis in ,judaea1 on the eve of a great controversy between ,simon and the apostle ,peter1 and attaches himself to the latter as his disciple 7,h4 ,,ii4 xv2 ,r4,i4 lxxvii74 ,the history of ,simon is told to ,clement1 in the presence of ,peter1 by ,aquila and ,nicetas--the adopted sons of a convert--who had associated with ,simon4 ,simon was the son of ,antonius and ,rachael1 a ,samaritan of ,gittha1 a village six schoeni#fd from the city of ,caesarea 7,h4,i4 xxii71 called a village of the ,gettones 7,r4 ,,ii4 vii74 ,it was at ,alexandria that ,simon perfected his studies in magic1 being an adherent of ,john1 a ,hemero-baptist1#fe through whom he came to deal with religious doctrines4 ,john was the forerunner of ,jesus1 according to the method of combination or coupling4#ff ,whereas ,jesus had twelve disciples1 as the ,sun1 ,john1 the ,moon1 had thirty1 the number of days in a lunation1 or more correctly twenty-nine and a half1 one of his disciples being a woman called ,helen1 and a woman being reckoned as half a man in the perfect number of the ,triacontad1 or ,plerma of the ,aeons 7,h4,i4 xxiii2 ,r4 ,,ii4 viii74 ,in the ,recognitions the name of ,helen is given as ,luna in the ,latin translation of ,rufinus4#fg ,of all ,john's disciples1 ,simon was the favourite1 but on the death of his master1 he was absent in ,alexandria1 and so ,dositheus1#fh a co-disciple1 was chosen head of the school4 ,simon1 on his return1 acquiesced in the choice1 but his superior knowledge could not long remain under a bushel4 ,one day ,dositheus1 becoming enraged1 struck at ,simon with his staff2 but the staff passed through ,simon's body like smoke1 and ,dositheus1 struck with amazement1 yielded the leadership to ,simon and became his disciple1 and shortly afterwards died 7,h4,i4 xxiv2 ,r4 ,,ii4 xiii74 ,aquila and ,nicetas then go on to tell how ,simon had confessed to them privately his love for ,luna 7,r4 ,,ii4 viii71 and narrate the magic achievements possessed by ,simon1 of which they have had proof with their own eyes4 ,simon can dig through mountains1 pass through rocks as if they were merely clay1 cast himself from a lofty mountain and be borne gently to earth1 can break his chains when in prison1 and cause the doors to open of their own accord1 animate statues and make the eye-witness think them men1 make trees grow suddenly1 pass through fire unhurt1 change his face or become double-faced1 or turn into a sheep or goat or serpent1 make a beard grow upon a boy's chin1 fly in the air1 become gold1 make and unmake kings1 have divine worship and honours paid him1 order a sickle to go and reap of itself and it reaps ten times as much as an ordinary sickle 7,r4 ,,ii4 xi74 ,to this list of wonders the ,homilies add making stones into loaves1 melting iron1 the production of images of all kinds at a banquet2 in his own house dishes are brought of themselves to him 7,h4,i4 xxxii74 ,he makes spectres appear in the market place2 when he walks out statues move1 and shadows go before him which he says are souls of the dead 7,h4 ,,iv4 iv74 ,on one occasion ,aquila says he was present when ,luna was seen looking out of all the windows of a tower on all sides at once 7,r4 ,,ii4 xi74 ,the most peculiar incident1 however1 is the use ,simon is said to have made of the soul of a dead boy1 by which he did many of his wonders4 ,the incident is found in both accounts1 but more fully in the ,homilies 7,i4 xxv-xxx7 than in the ,recognitions 7,,ii4 xiii-xv71 for which reason the text of the former is followed4 ,simon did not stop at murder1 as he confessed to ,nicetas and ,aquila as a friend to friends4 ,in fact he separated the soul of a boy from his body to act as a confederate in his phenomena4 ,and this is the magical modus operandi4 ,he delineates the boy on a statue which he keeps consecrated in the inner part of the house where he sleeps1 and he says that after he has fashioned him out of the air by certain divine transmutations1 and has sketched his form1 he returns him again to the air4 ,simon explains the theory of this practice as follows3 ,first of all the spirit of the man having been turned into the nature of heat draws in and absorbs1 like a cupping-glass1 the surrounding air2 next he turns the air which comes within the envelope of spirit into water4 ,and the air in it not being able to escape owing to the confining force of the spirit1 he changed it into the nature of blood1 and the blood solidifying made flesh2 and so when the flesh is solidified he exhibited a man made of air and not of earth4 ,and thus having persuaded himself of his ability to make a new man of air1 he reversed the transmutations1 he said1 and returned him to the air4 ,when the converts thought that this was the soul of the person1 ,simon laughed and said1 that in the phenomena it was not the soul1 but some daemon#fi who pretended to be the soul that took possession of people4 ,the coming controversy with ,simon is then explained by ,peter to ,clement to rest on certain passages of scripture4 ,peter admits that there are falsehoods in the scriptures1 but says that it would never do to explain this to the people4 ,these falsehoods have been permitted for certain righteous reasons 7,h4 ,,iii4 v74 ,for the scriptures declare all manner of things that no one of those who enquire unthankfully may discover the truth1 but 7simply7 what he wishes to find 7,h4 ,,iii4 x74 ,in the lengthy explanation which follows1 however1 on the passages ,simon is going to bring forward1 such as the mention of a plurality of gods1 and ,god's hardening men's hearts1 ,peter states that in reality all the passages which speak against ,god are spurious additions1 but this is to be guarded as an esoteric secret4 ,nevertheless in the public controversy which follows1 this secret is made public property1 in order to meet ,simon's declaration3 ,i say that there are many gods1 but one ,god of all these gods1 incomprehensible and unknown to all 7,r4 ,,ii4 xxxviii72 and again3 ,my belief is that there is a ,power of immeasurable and ineffable ,light1 whose greatness is held to be incomprehensible1 a power which the maker of the world even does not know1 nor does ,moses the lawgiver1 nor your master ,jesus 7,r4 ,,ii4 xlix74 ,a point of interest to be noticed is that ,peter challenges ,simon to substantiate his statements by quotations either from the scriptures of the ,jews1 or from some they had not heard of1 or from those of the ,greeks1 or from his own scriptures 7,r4 ,,ii4 xxxviii74 ,simon argues that finding the ,god of the ,law imperfect1 he concludes this is not the supreme ,god4 ,after a wordy harangue of ,peter1 ,simon is said to have been worsted by ,peter's threatening to go to ,simon's bed-chamber and question the soul of the murdered boy4 ,simon flies to ,tyre 7,h47 or ,tripolis 7,r471 and ,peter determines to pursue him among the ,gentiles4 ,the two accounts here become exceedingly contradictory and confused4 ,according to the ,homilies1 ,simon flees from ,tyre to ,tripolis1 and thence further to ,syria4 ,the main dispute takes place at ,laodicaea on the unity of ,god 7,,xvi4 i74 ,simon appeals to the ,old ,testament to show that there are many gods 7,,xvi4 iv72 shows that the scriptures contradict themselves 7,,xvi4 ix72 accuses ,peter of using magic and teaching doctrines different to those taught by ,christ 7,,xvii4 ii-iv72 asserts that ,jesus is not consistent with himself 7,,xvii4 v72 that the maker of the world is not the highest ,god 7,,xviii4 i72 and declares the ,ineffable ,deity 7,,xviii4 iv74#gj ,peter of course refutes him 7,,xviii4 xii-xiv71 and ,simon retires4 ,the last incident of interest takes place at ,antioch4 ,simon stirs up the people against ,peter by representing him as an impostor4 ,friends of ,peter set the authorities on ,simon's track1 and he has to flee4 ,at ,laodicaea he meets ,faustinianus 7,r471 or ,faustus 7,h471 the father of ,clement1 who rebukes him 7,h4 ,,xix4 xxiv72 and so he changes the face of ,faustinianus into an exact likeness of his own that he may be taken in his place 7,h4 ,,xx4 xii2 ,r4,x4 liii74 ,peter sends the transformed ,faustinianus to ,antioch1 who1 in the guise of ,simon1 makes a confession of imposture and testifies to the divine mission of ,peter4 ,peter accordingly enters ,antioch in triumph4 ,the story of ,simon in the ,apostolic ,constitutions is short and taken from the ,acts1 and to some extent from the ,clementines1 finishing up1 however1 with the mythical death of ,simon at ,rome1 owing to the prayers of ,peter4 ,simon is here said to be conducted by daemons and to have flown 7,greek3 hiptato7 upwards4 ,the details of this magical feat are given variously elsewhere4#ga ,the only point of real interest is a vague reference to ,simonian literature 7,,vi4 xvi71 in a passage which runs as follows3 ,for we know that the followers of ,simon and ,cleobius having composed poisonous books in the name of ,christ and his disciples1 carry them about for the deception of you who have loved ,christ and us his servants4#gb ,so end the most important of the legends4 ,to these1 however1 must be added others of a like nature of which the scene of action is laid at ,rome in the time of ,nero4#gc ,i have not thought it worth while to refer to the original texts for these utterly apocryphal and unauthenticated stories1 but simply append a very short digest from the excellent summary of ,dr4 ,salmon1 the ,regius ,professor of ,divinity in ,dublin ,university1 as given in ,smith and ,wace's ,dictionary of ,christian ,biography4#gd ,the ,greek ,acts of ,peter and ,paul give details of the conflict and represent both apostles as having taken part in it4 ,simon and ,peter are each required to raise a dead body to life4 ,simon1 by his magic1 makes the head move1 but as soon as he leaves the body it again becomes lifeless4 ,peter1 however1 by his prayers effects a real resurrection4 ,both are challenged to divine what the other is planning4 ,peter prepares blessed bread1 and takes the emperor into the secret4 ,simon cannot guess what ,peter has been doing1 and so raises hell-hounds who rush on ,peter1 but the presentation of the blessed bread causes them to vanish4 ,in the ,acts of ,nereus and ,achilleus1#ge another version of the story is given4 ,simon had fastened a great dog at his door in order to prevent ,peter entering4 ,peter by making the sign of the cross renders the dog tame towards himself1 but so furious against his master ,simon that the latter had to leave the city in disgrace4 ,simon1 however1 still retains the emperor's favour by his magic power4 ,he pretends to permit his head to be cut off1 and by the power of glamour appears to be decapitated1 while the executioner really cuts off the head of a ram4 ,the last act of the drama is the erection of a wooden tower in the ,campus ,martius1 and ,simon is to ascend to heaven in a chariot of fire4 ,but1 through the prayers of ,peter1 the two daemons who were carrying him aloft let go their hold and so ,simon perishes miserably4 ,dr4 ,salmon connects this with the story1 told by ,suetonius#gf and ,dio ,chrysostom1#gg that ,nero caused a wooden theatre to be erected in the ,campus1 and that a gymnast who tried to play the part of ,icarus fell so near the emperor as to bespatter him with blood4 ,so much for these motley stories2 here and there instructive1 but mostly absurd4 ,i shall now endeavour to sift out the rubbish from this patristic and legendary heap1 and perhaps we shall find more of value than at present appears4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #a3 ,smith's ,dictionary of the ,bible1 art4 ,acts of the ,apostles4 ,footnote #b3 ,ibid4 ,footnote #c3 ,lit4 powers4 ,footnote #d3 ,the ,romans4 ,footnote #e3 ,claudius was the fourth of the ,caesars1 and reigned from ,a4,d4 #da-ed4 ,footnote #f3 ,lit41 stood on a roof2 an ,eastern metaphor4 ,footnote #g3 ,the technical term for this transmigration1 used by ,pythagoreans and others1 is ,greek3 metangismos1 the pouring of water from one vessel 7,greek3 angos7 into another4 ,footnote #h3 ,this famous lyric poet1 whose name was ,tisias1 and honorific title ,stesichorus1 was born about the middle of the seventh century ,b4,c41 in ,sicily4 ,the story of his being deprived of sight by ,castor and ,pollux for defaming their sister ,helen is mentioned by many classical writers4 ,the most familiar quotation is the ,horatian 7,ep4 xvii4 #db-dd73 ,infamis ,helenae ,castor offensus vicem ,fraterque magni ,castoris victi prece4 ,adempta vati redidere lumina4 ,footnote #i3 ,that is to say1 the heretics4 ,footnote #aj3 ,in a preceding part of the book against the ,magicians4 ,footnote #aa3 ,deuteronomy1 iv4 #bd4 ,footnote #ab3 ,heracleitus of ,ephesus flourished about the end of the sixth century ,b4,c4 ,he was named the obscure from the difficulty of his writings4 ,footnote #ac3 ,i put the few direct quotations we have from ,simon in italics4 ,footnote #ad3 ,isaiah1 v4 #g4 ,footnote #ae3 ,i ,peter1 i4 #bd4 ,footnote #af3 ,empedocles of ,agrigentum1 in ,sicily1 flourished about ,b4,c4 #ddd4 ,footnote #ag3 ,greek3 phronaesis1 consciousness8 ,footnote #ah3 ,syzygies4 ,footnote #ai3 ,isaiah1 i4 #b4 ,footnote #bj3 ,i ,corinth41 xi4 #cb4 ,footnote #ba3 ,greek3 to maeketi ginomenon4 ,footnote #bb3 ,see ,jeremiah1 i4 #e4 ,footnote #bc3 ,genesis1 ii1 #aj4 ,footnote #bd3 ,veins and arteries are said not to have been distinguished by ancient physiologists4 ,footnote #be3 ,a lacuna unfortunately occurs here in the text4 ,the missing words probably identified that which is commonly called by everyone the navel with the umbilical cord4 ,footnote #bf3 ,this is omitted by ,miller in the first ,oxford edition4 ,footnote #bg3 ,odyssey1 x4 #cjd1 seqq4 ,footnote #bh3 ,greek3 logos4 ,footnote #bi3 ,cf4 ,isaiah1 ii4 #d4 ,footnote #cj3 ,cf4 ,luke1 iii4 #i4 ,footnote #ca3 ,or adorning4 ,footnote #cb3 ,genesis1 iii4 #bd4 ,footnote #cc3 ,greek3 logos2 also reason4 ,footnote #cd3 ,greek3 antistoichountes2 used in ,xenophon 7,ana4 v4 #d1 #ab7 of two bands of dancers facing each other in rows or pairs4 ,footnote #ce3 ,he who has stood1 stands and will stand4 ,footnote #cf3 ,thought4 ,footnote #cg3 ,the ,middle ,distance4 ,footnote #ch3 ,there is a lacuna in the text here4 ,footnote #ci3 ,greek3 dia taes idias epignoseos4 ,footnote #dj3 ,undergo the passion4 ,footnote #da3 ,greek3 paredrous ,c4,w4 ,king calls these ,assessors4 7,the ,gnostics and their ,remains1 p4 #gj47 ,footnote #db3 ,this is presumably meant for a grim patristic joke4 ,footnote #dc3 ,a medicinal drug used by the ancients1 especially as a specific against madness4 ,footnote #dd3 ,the conducting of souls to or from the invisible world4 ,footnote #de3 ,greek3 prounikos3 prouneikos is one who bears burdens1 a carrier2 in a bad sense it means lewd4 ,footnote #df3 ,or the conception 7of the mind74 ,footnote #dg3 ,cf4 #a ,thess41 v4 #h4 ,footnote #dh3 ,a famous actor and mime writer who flourished in the time of ,augustus 7circa ,a4,d4 #g72 there are extant some doubtful fragments of ,philistion containing moral sentiments from the comic poets4 ,footnote #di3 ,greek3 plaeroma ,footnote #ej3 ,scripture4 ,footnote #ea3 ,matth41 v4 #ag4 ,footnote #eb3 ,john1 v4 #df1 #dg4 ,footnote #ec3 ,matth41 xix4 #aj-ab4 ,footnote #ed3 ,matth41 xix4 #f4 ,footnote #ee3 ,greek archae the same word is translated dominion when applied to the aeons of ,simon4 ,footnote #ef3 ,genesis1 i4 #a4 ,footnote #eg3 ,matth41 xi4 #be4 ,footnote #eh3 ,the all-evil ,daemon1 the avenger of men1 of the ,prologue4 ,footnote #ei3 ,mythologies4 ,footnote #fj3 ,rootage1 rather1 to coin a word4 ,greek3 rizoma must be distinguished from ,greek3 riza1 a root1 the word used a few sentences later4 ,footnote #fa3 ,dictionary of ,christian ,biography 7,ed4 ,smith and ,wace71 art4 ,clementine ,literature1 ,i4 #ege4 ,footnote #fb3 ,dictionary of ,sects1 ,heresies1 etc4 7,ed4 ,blunt71 art4 ,ebionites4 ,footnote #fc3 ,the two accounts are combined in the following digest1 and in the references ,h4 stands for the ,homiles and ,r4 for the ,recognitions4 ,footnote #fd3 ,some twenty-three miles4 ,footnote #fe3 ,we have little information of the ,hemero-baptists1 or ,day-baptists4 ,they are said to have been a sect of the ,jews and to have been so called for daily performing certain ceremonial ablutions 7,epiph41 ,contra ,haer41 ,i4 #ag74 ,it is conjectured that they were a sect of the ,pharisees who agreed with the ,sadducees in denying the resurrection4 ,the ,apostolic ,constitutions 7,,vi4 vii7 tell us of the ,hemero-baptists1 that unless they wash themselves every day they do not eat1 nor will they use a bed1 dish1 bowl1 cup1 or seat1 unless they have purified it with water4 ,footnote #ff3 ,greek3 kata ton taes suzugias logon4 ,footnote #fg3 ,this has led to the conjecture that the translation was made from the false reading ,selene instead of ,helene1 while ,bauer has used it to support his theory that ,justin and those who have followed him confused the ,phoenician worship of solar and lunar divinities of similar names with the worship of ,simon and ,helen4 ,footnote #fh3 ,this is not to be confused with the ,dositheus of ,origen1 who claimed to be a ,christ1 says ,matter 7,histoire ,critique du ,gnosticisme1 ,tom4 i4 p4 #bah1 n4 #ast4 ed41 #ahbh74 ,footnote #fi3 ,an elemental4 ,footnote #gj3 ,greek3 pataer en aporraetois4 ,footnote #ga3 ,hegesippus 7,de ,bello ,judaico1 iii4 #b71 ,abdias 7,hist41 i1 towards the end71 and ,maximus ,taurinensis 7,patr4 ,,vi4 ,synodi ad ,imp4 ,constant41 ,act4 #ah71 say that ,simon flew like ,icarus2 whereas in ,arnobius 7,contra ,gentes1 ii7 and the ,arabic ,preface to ,council of ,nicaea there is talk of a chariot of fire1 or a car that he had constructed4 ,footnote #gb3 ,cotelerius in a note 7i4 #cdg1 #cdh7 refers the reader to the passages in the ,recognitions and in ,jerome's ,commentary on ,matthew1 which ,i have already quoted4 ,he also says that the author of the book1 ,de ,divinis ,nominibus 7,c4 #f71 speaks of the controversial sentences of ,simon 7,greek3 ,simonos antirraetikoi logoi74 ,the author is the ,pseudo-,dionysius the ,areopagite1 and ,i shall quote later on some of these sentences1 though from a very uncertain source4 ,cotelerius also refers to the ,arabic ,preface to the ,nicaean ,council4 ,the text referred to will be found in the ,latin translation of ,abrahamus ,echellensis1 given in ,labb's ,concilia 7,sacrorum ,conciliorum ,nova ,collectio1 edd4 ,phil4 ,labbaeus et ,gabr4 ,cossartius1 ,s4,j41 ,florentiae1 #agei1 ,tom4 ii1 p4 #ajeg1 col4 #a71 and runs as follows3 ,those traitors 7the ,simonians7 fabricated for themselves a gospel1 which they divided into four books1 and called it the ',book of the ,four ,angles and ,points of the ,world4' ,all pursue magic zealously1 and defend it1 wearing red and rose-coloured threads round the neck in sign of a compact and treaty entered into with the devil their seducer4 ,as to the books of the followers of ,cleobius we have no further information4 ,footnote #gc3 ,a4,d4 #ed-fh4 ,footnote #gd3 ,art4 ,simon ,magus1 ,vol4 ,,iv4 p4 #fhf4 ,footnote #ge3 ,bolland1 ,acta ,,ss4 ,may iii4 #i4 ,footnote #gf3 vi4 #ab4 ,footnote #gg3 ,orat4 xxi4 #i4 ,,part ,,ii4 ,a ,,review ,,of ,,authorities4 ,the student will at once perceive that though the ,simon of the ,acts and the ,simon of the fathers both retain the two features of the possession of magical power and of collision with ,peter1 the tone of the narratives is entirely different4 ,though the apostles are naturally shown as rejecting with indignation the pecuniary offer of the thaumaturge1 they display no hate for his personality1 whereas the fathers depict him as the vilest of impostors and charlatans and hold him up to universal execration4 ,the incident of ,simon's offering money to ,peter is admittedly taken by the fathers from this account1 and therefore their repetition in no way corroborates the story4 ,hence its authenticity rests entirely with the writer of the ,acts1 for ,justin1 who was a native of ,samaria1 does not mention it4 ,as the ,acts are not quoted from prior to ,a4,d4 #agg1 and their writer is only traditionally claimed to be ,luke1 we may safely consider ourselves in the domain of legend and not of history4 ,the same may be said of all the incidents of ,simon's career2 they pertain to the region of fable and probably owe their creation to the ,patristic and ,simonian controversies of later ages4 ,the ,simon of ,justin gives us the birthplace of ,simon as at ,gitta1 and the rest of the fathers follow suit with variation of the name4 ,gitta1 ,gittha1 ,gittoi1 ,gitthoi1 ,gitto1 ,gitton1 ,gitteh1 so run the variants4 ,this1 however1 is a matter of no great importance1 and the little burg is said to-day to be called ,gittho4#gh ,the statement of ,justin as to the statue of ,simon at ,rome with the inscription ,,simoni ,,deo ,,sancto has been called in question by every scholar since the discovery in #aegd of a large marble fragment in the island of the ,tiber bearing the inscription ,,semoni ,,sanco ,,deo ,,fidio1 a ,sabine ,god4 ,a few1 however1 think that ,justin could not have made so glaring a mistake in writing to the ,romans1 and that if it were a mistake ,irenaeus would not have copied it4 ,the coincidence1 however1 is too striking to bear any other interpretation than that perhaps some ignorant controversialist had endeavoured to give the legend a historical appearance1 and that ,justin had lent a too ready ear to him4 ,it is also to be noticed that ,justin tells us that nearly all the ,samaritans were ,simonians4 ,we next come to the ,simon of ,irenaeus which1 owing to many similarities1 is supposed by scholars to have been taken from ,justin's account1 if not from the ,apology1 at any rate from ,justin's lost work on heresies which he speaks of in the ,apology4 ,or it may be that both borrowed from some common source now lost to us4 ,the story of ,helen is here for the first time given4 ,whether or not there was a ,helen we shall probably never know4 ,the lost sheep was a necessity of every ,gnostic system1 which taught the descent of the soul into matter4 ,by whatever name called1 whether ,sophia1 ,acamth1 ,pruncus1 ,barblo1 the glyph of the ,magdalene1 out of whom seven devils are cast1 has yet to be understood1 and the mystery of the ,christ and the seven aeons1 churches or assemblies 7ecclesiae71 in every man will not be without significance to every student of ,theosophy4 ,these data are common to all ,gnostic aeonology4 ,if it is argued that ,simon was the first inventor of this aeonology1 it is astonishing that his name and that of ,helen should not have had some recognition in the succeeding systems4 ,if1 on the contrary1 it is maintained that he used existing materials for his system1 and explained away his improper connection with ,helen by an adaptation of the ,sophia-mythos1 it is difficult to understand how such a palpable absurdity could have gained any credence among such cultured adherents as the ,simonians evidently were4 ,in either case the ,gnostic tradition is shown to be pre-,christian4 ,every initiated ,gnostic1 however1 must have known that the mythos referred to the ,world-,soul in the ,cosmos and the ,soul in man4 ,the accounts of the ,acts and of ,justin and ,irenaeus are so confusing that it has been supposed that two ,simons are referred to4#gi ,for if he claimed to be a rencarnation of ,jesus1 appearing in ,jerusalem as the ,son1 he could not have been contemporary with the apostles4 ,it follows1 therefore1 that either he made no such claim2 or if he made the claim1 ,justin and ,irenaeus had such vague information that they confused him with the ,simon of the ,acts2 or that the supposition is not well-founded1 and ,simon was simply inculcating the esoteric doctrine of the various manifestations or descents of one and the same ,christ principle4 ,the ,simon of ,tertullian again is clearly taken from ,irenaeus1 as the critics are agreed4 ,tertullian evidently knows no more than he read in ,irenaeus1 says ,dr4 ,salmon4#hj ,it is only when we come to the ,simon of the ,philosophumena that we feel on any safe ground4 ,the prior part of it is especially precious on account of the quotations from ,the ,great ,revelation 7,greek3 hae megalae apophasis7 which we hear of from no other source4 ,the author of ,philosophumena1 whoever he was1 evidently had access to some of the writings of the ,simonians1 and here at last we have arrived at any thing of real value in our rubbish heap4 ,it was not until the year #ahdb that ,minoides ,mynas brought to ,paris from ,mount ,athos1 on his return from a commission given him by the ,french ,government1 a fourteenth-century ,,ms4 in a mutilated condition4 ,this was the ,,ms4 of our ,philosophumena which is supposed to have been the work of ,hippolytus4 ,the authorship1 however1 is still uncertain1 as will appear by what will be said about the ,simon of ,epiphanius and ,philaster4 ,the latter part of the section on ,simon in the ,philosophumena is not so important1 and is undoubtedly taken from ,irenaeus or from the anti-heretical treatise of ,justin1 or from the source from which both these fathers drew4 ,the account of the death of ,simon1 however1 shows that the author was not ,hippolytus from whose lost work ,epiphanius and ,philaster are proved by ,lipsius to have taken their accounts4 ,the ,simon of ,origen gives us no new information1 except as to the small number of the ,simonians4 ,but like other data in his controversial writings against the ,gnostic philosopher ,celsus we can place little reliance on his statement1 for ,eusebius ,pamphyli writing in ,a4,d4 #cbd-e1 a century afterwards1 speaks of the ,simonians as still considerable in numbers4#ha ,the ,simon of ,epiphanius and ,philaster leads us to speak of a remarkable feat of scholarship performed by ,r4,a4 ,lipsius1#hb the learned professor of divinity in the university of ,jena4 ,from their accounts he has reconstructed to some extent a lost work of ,hippolytus against heresies of which a description was given by ,photius4 ,this treatise was founded on certain discourses of ,irenaeus4 ,by comparing ,philaster1 ,epiphanius1 and the ,pseudo-,tertullian1 he recovers ,hippolytus1 and by comparing his restored ,hippolytus with ,irenaeus he infers a common authority1 probably the lost work of ,justin ,martyr1 or1 may we suggest1 as remarked above1 the work from which ,justin got his information4#hc ,the ,simon of ,theodoret differs from that of his predecessor only in one or two important details of the aeonology1 a fact that has presumably led ,matter to suppose that he has introduced some later ,gnostic ideas or confused the teachings of the later ,simonians with those of ,simon4#hd ,the ,simon of the legends is so entirely outside any historical criticism1 and the stories gleaned from the ,homilies and ,recognitions are so evidently fabrications--most probably added to the doctrinal narrative at a later date--and so obviously the stock-in-trade legends of magic1 that not a solitary scholar supports their authenticity4 ,probably one of the reasons for this is the strong ,ebionism of the narratives1 which is by no means palatable to the orthodox taste4 ,in this connection the following table of the ,ebionite scheme of emanation may be of interest3 ,,god4 7,the ,one ,being1 the ,principle of all things47 _/ ,,spirit4 ,,matter4 ,the ,four elements4 7,this mixture produces7 ,,the ,,son4 ,,the ,,devil4 7,the ,leader of the future cycle47 7,the leader of the present cycle47 ,,great ,,things4 ,,little ,,things4 7,heaven1 light1 life1 etc47 7,earth1 fire1 death1 etc47 ,,adam4 ,,eve4 7,truth47 7,error47 _/ _/ ,,man4 7,the union of ,spirit and ,body1 of ,truth and ,error47 _/ _/ ,,inferior ,,men4 ,,superior ,,men4 ,ishmael4 ,isaac4 ,esau4 ,jacob4 ,aaron4 ,moses4 ,john the ,baptist4 ,jesus4 ,antichrist4 ,christ4 _/ ,v ,,god4 7,completion1 rest47#he ,there remains but to mention the curious theory of ,bauer and the ,tubingen school4 ,it is now established by recent theological criticism that the ,clementine writings were the work of some member or members of the ,elkesaites1 a sect of the ,ebionites1 and that they were written at ,rome somewhere in the third century4 ,the ,elkessaeans or ,elkesaites founded their creed on a book called ,elkesai1 which purported to be an angelic revelation and which was remarkable for its hostility to the apostle ,paul4 ,as the ,recognitions contain much anti-,paulinism1 ,bauer and his school not only pointed out the ,ebionite source of the ,clementine literature1 but also put forward the theory that whenever ,simon ,magus is mentioned ,paul is intended2 and that the narrative of the ,acts and the legends simply tell the tale of the jealousy of the elder apostles to ,paul1 and their attempt to keep him from the fullest enjoyment of apostolic privileges4 ,but the latest scholarship shakes its head gravely at the theory1 and however bitter controversialists the anti-,paulinists may have been1 it is not likely that they would have gone so far out of their way to vent their feelings in so grotesque a fashion4 ,in conclusion of this ,part let us take a general review of our authorities with regard to the life of ,simon and the immoral practices attributed to his followers1 including a few words of notice on the lost ,simonian literature1 and reserving the explanation of his system and some notice of magical practices for ,part ,,iii4 ,i have distinguished the ,simon of the fathers from the ,simon of the legends1 as to biography1 by convention and not by nature1 as the ,simonians would say1 for the one and the other is equally on a mythical basis4 ,it is easy to understand that the rejection of the ,simon of the legends is a logical necessity for those who have to repudiate the ,ebionite ,clementines4 ,admit the authenticity of the narrative as regards ,simon1 and the authenticity of the other incidents about ,john the ,baptist and ,peter would have to be acknowledged2 but this would never do1 so ,simon escapes from the clutches of his orthodox opponents as far as this count is concerned4 ,but the biographical incidents in the fathers are of a similar nature precisely to those in the ,clementines1 and their sources of information are so vague and unreliable1 and at such a distance from the time of their supposed occurrence1 that we have every reason to place them in the same category with the ,clementine legends4 ,therefore1 whether we reject the evidence or accept it1 we must reject both accounts or accept both4 ,to reject the one and accept the other is a prejudice that a partisan may be guilty of1 but a position which no unbiassed enquirer can with justice take up4 ,the legends1 however1 may find some excuse when it is remembered that they were current in a period when the metal of religious controversy was glowing at white heat4 ,orthodox ,christians had their ears still tingling with the echoing of countless accusations of the foulest nature to which they had been subjected4 ,not a crime that was known or could be imagined that had not been brought against them2 they naturally1 therefore1 returned the compliment when they could do so with safety1 and though in these more peaceful and tolerant days much as we may regret the flinging backwards and forwards of such vile accusations1 we may still find some excuse for it in the passionate enthusiasm of the times1 always1 however1 remembering that the readiest in accusation and in putting the worst construction on the actions of others1 is generally one who unconsciously brings a public accusation against his own lower nature4 ,this has been well noticed by ,matter1 who writes as follows3 ,there is nothing so impure1 says ,eusebius1 and one cannot imagine anything so criminal1 but the sect of the ,simonians goes far beyond it4#hf ,the bolt of ,eusebius is strong2 it is even too strong2 for one can imagine nothing that goes beyond the excess of criminality2 and ,eusebius1 belonging to a community who were just escaping from punishments into which accusations no less grave had caused them to be dragged1 should not perhaps have allowed himself to speak as he does4 ,but man is made thus2 he pursues when he ceases to be pursued4#hg ,all societies that have secret rites and a public position1 as was the case with all the early communities of ,christians and ,gnostics1 have had like accusations brought against them4 ,the communities of the ,simonians and ,christians may or may not have been impure1 it is now impossible to pronounce a positive opinion4 ,the important point to notice is that the accusations being identical and the evidence or want of evidence the same1 condemnation or acquittal must be meted out to both2 and that if one is condemned and the other acquitted1 the judgment will stand condemned as biassed1 and therefore be set aside by those who prefer truth to prejudice4 ,so eager were the fathers to discredit ,simon that they contradict themselves in the most flagrant fashion on many important points4 ,on the one hand we hear that ,samaria received the seed of the ,word from the apostles and ,simon in despair had to flee1 on the other hand ,justin1 a native of ,samaria1 tells us1 a century after this supposed event1 that nearly all the ,samaritans are ,simonians4 ,the accounts of ,simon's death again are contradictory2 if ,simon perished so miserably at ,rome1 it is the reverse of probable that the ,romans would have set up a statue in his honour4 ,but1 indeed1 it is a somewhat thankless task to criticize such manifest inventions2 we know the source of their inspiration1 and we know the fertility of the religious imagination1 especially in matters of controversy1 and this is a sufficient sieve wherewith to sift them out of our heap4 ,i must now say a few words on ,simonian literature of which the only geniune specimens we can in any way be certain are the quotations from the ,apophasis of ,simon in the text of the ,philosophumena4 ,that there was a body of ,simonian scriptures is undoubtedly true1 as may be seen from the passages we have quoted from the ,recognitions1 ,jerome1 ,pseudo-,dionysius and the ,arabic ,preface to the ,nicaean ,council1 and for some time ,i was in hopes of being able to collect at least some scattered fragments of these works1 but they have all unfortunately shared the fate of much else of value that the ignorance and fear of orthodoxy has committed to the flames4 ,we know at any rate that there was a book called ,the ,four ,quarters of the ,world1 just as the four orthodox gospels are dedicated to the signs of the four quarters in the old ,,mss41 and that a collection of sentences or controversial replies of ,simon were also held in repute by ,simonians and were highly distasteful to their opponents4 ,matter#hh and ,amlineau#hi speak of a book by the disciples of ,simon called ,de la ,prdication de ,s4 ,paul1 but neither from their references nor elsewhere can ,i find out any further information4 ,in ,migne's ,encyclopdie ,thologique1#ij also1 a reference is given to ,m4 ,miller 7,catalogue des ,manuscripts ,grecs de l',escurial1 p4 #aab71 who is said to mention a ,greek ,,ms4 on the subject of ,simon 7un crit en grec relatif ,simon74 ,but ,i cannot find this catalogue in the ,british ,museum1 nor can ,i discover any other mention of this ,,ms4 in any other author4 ,at last ,i thought that ,i had discovered something of real value in ,grabe's ,spicilegium1 purporting to be gleanings of fragments from the heretics of the first three centuries ,a4,d41#ia but the date of the authority is too late to be of much value4 ,grabe refers to the unsatisfactory references ,i have already given and1 to show the nature of these books1 according to the opinion of the unknown author or authors of the ,apostolic ,constitutions 7,grabe calls him the collector1 and for some reason best known to himself places him in the fourth century#ib71 quotes the following passage from their legendary pages4 ,such were the doings of these people with names of ill-omen slandering the creation and marriage1 providence1 child-bearing1 the ,law and the ,prophets2 setting down foreign names of ,angels1 as indeed they themselves say1 but in reality1 of ,daemons1 who answer back to them from below4 ,it is only when ,grabe refers to the ,simonian ,antirrhtikoi ,logoi1 mentioned by the ,pseudo-,dionysius1 which he calls vesani ,simonis ,refutatorii ,sermones1 that we get any new information4 ,a certain ,syrian bishop1 ,moses ,barcephas1 writing in the tenth century1#ic professes to preserve some of these controversial retorts of ,simon1 which the pious ,grabe--to keep this venom1 as he calls it1 apart from the orthodox refutation--has printed in italics4 ,the following is the translation of these italicized passages3 ,god willed that ,adam should not eat of that tree2 but he did eat2 he1 therefore1 did not remain as ,god willed him to remain3 it results1 therefore1 that the maker of ,adam was impotent4 ,god willed that ,adam should remain in ,paradise2 but he of his own disgraceful act fell from thence3 therefore the ,god that made ,adam was impotent1 inasmuch as he was unable of his own will to keep him in ,paradise4 7,for7 he interdicted 7he said7 ,adam from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil1 by tasting which he would have had power to judge between good and evil1 and to avoid this1 and follow after that4 ,but 7said he7 had not that maker of ,adam forbidden him to eat of that tree1 he would in no way have undergone this judgment and this punishment2 for hence is evil here1 in that he 7,adam7 had done contrary to the bidding of ,god1 for ,god had ordered him not to eat1 and he had eaten4 ,through envy 7said he7 he forbade ,adam to taste of the tree of life1 so that1 of course1 he should not be immortal4 ,for what reason on earth 7said he7 did ,god curse the serpent8 ,for if 7he cursed him7 as the one who caused the harm1 why did he not restrain him from so doing1 that is1 from seducing ,adam8 ,but if 7he cursed him7 as one who had brought some advantage1 in that he was the cause of ,adam's eating of that good tree1 it needs must follow that he was distinctly unrighteous and envious2 lastly1 if1 although from neither of these reasons1 he still cursed him1 he 7the maker of ,adam7 should most certainly be accused of ignorance and folly4 ,now although there seems no reason why the above contentions should not be considered as in substance the arguments employed by ,simon against his antagonists of the dead-letter1 yet the tenth century is too late to warrant verbal accuracy1 unless there may have been some ,syrian translation which escaped the hands of the destroyers4 ,the above quoted specimen of traditionary ,simonian logic1 however1 is interesting1 and will1 we believe1 be found not altogether out of date in our own times4#id ,finally1 there is one further point that ,i have reserved for the end of this ,part in order that my readers may constantly keep it in mind during the perusal of the ,part which follows4 ,we must always remember that every single syllable we possess about ,simon comes from the hands of bitter opponents1 from men who had no mercy or toleration for the heretic4 ,the heretic was accursed1 condemned eternally by the very fact of his heresy2 an emissary of ,satan and the natural enemy of ,god4 ,there was no hope for him1 no mercy for him2 he was irretrievably damned4#ie ,the ,simon of our authorities has no friend2 no one to say a word in his favour2 he is hounded down the byways of history and the highways of tradition1 and to crush him is to do ,god service4 ,one solitary ray of light beams forth in the fragment of his work called ,the ,great ,revelation1 one solitary ray1 that will illumine the garbled accounts of his doctrine1 and speak to the ,theosophists of to-day in no uncertain tones that each may say3 ,methinks there is much reason in his sayings4 ,if thou consider rightly of the matter1 ,simon has had great wrong4#if ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #gh3 ,m4,e4 ,amlineau1 ,essai sur le ,gnosticisme gyptien1 ,annales du ,muse ,guimet1 ,tom4 xvi4 p4 #bh4 ,footnote #gi3 ,mosheim's ,institutes of ,ecclesiastical ,history 7,trans4 etc41 ,murdock and ,soames2 ed4 ,stubbs #ahfc71 ,vol4 ,i41 p4 #hg1 note1 gives the following list of those who have maintained the theory of two ,simons3 ,vitringa1 ,observ4 ,sacrar41 v4 #ab1 #i1 p4 #aei1 ,c4,a4 ,heumann1 ,acta ,erudit4 ,lips4 for ,april1 ,a4,d4 #agbg1 p4 #agi1 and ,is4 de ,beausobre1 ,diss4 sur l',adamites1 pt4 ii4 subjoined to ,l',enfants' ,histoire de la ,guerre des ,hussites1 i4 #cej1 etc4 ,dr4 ,salmon also holds this theory4 ,footnote #hj3 ,dict4 ,christ4 ,biog41 art4 ,helena1 ,vol4 ,,ii1 p4 #hhj4 ,footnote #ha3 ,hist4 ,eccles41 ii4 #ac4 ,footnote #hb3 ,quellenkritik des ,epiphanios4 ,footnote #hc3 ,cf4 ,dr4 ,salmon's art4 ,hippolytus ,romanus1 ,dict4 ,christ4 ,biog41 iii4 #ic1 #id4 ,footnote #hd3 ,histoire ,critique du ,gnosticisme1 ,tom4 i4 p4 #aig 7#ast ed4 #ahbh74 ,footnote #he3 ,les ,bibles1 et les ,initiateurs ,religieux de l',humanit1 ,louis ,leblois1 i4 #add2 from ,uhlhorn1 ,die ,homilien und ,recognitionen1 p4 #bbd4 ,footnote #hf3 ,hist4 ,eccles41 ii4 #ac4 ,footnote #hg3 ,op4 cit41 i4 #bac4 ,footnote #hh3 ,op4 cit41 ii4 #bag4 ,footnote #hi3 ,op4 cit41 #cb4 ,footnote #ij3 ,tom4 xxiii1 ,dictionnaire des ,apocryphes1 ,vol4 ,,ii41 ,index1 pp4 lxviii1 lxix4 ,footnote #ia3 ,spicilegium ,,ss4 ,patrum ut et ,haereticorum ,saeculorum post ,christum natum1 ,i1 ,,ii et ,,iii2 ,johannes ,ernestus ,grabius2 ,oxoniae1 #agad1 ed4 alt41 ,vol4 ,i41 pp4 #cje-cab4 ,footnote #ib3 ,p4 #cjf4 ,footnote #ic3 ,comment4 de ,paradiso1 c4 i41 pp4 #bjj1 et seqq41 editionis ,antverpiensis1 anno #aefg1 in #hvo4 ,footnote #id3 ,grabe is also interesting for a somewhat wild speculation which he quotes from a ,british ,divine 7apud ,usserium in ,antiquitatibus ,eccles4 ,britannicae71 that the tonsure of the monks was taken from the ,simonians4 7,grabe1 op4 cit41 p1 #fig47 ,footnote #ie3 ,in the epistle of ,st4 ,ignatius ,ad ,trallianos 7 #aa71 ,simon is called the first-born ,son of the ,devil 7,greek3 prototokon ,diabolou huion72 and ,st4 ,polycarp seems to refer to ,simon in the following passage in his ,epistle ,ad ,philipp4 7 #g73 ,everyone who shall not confess that ,jesus ,christ has come in the flesh1 is antichrist1 and who shall not confess the martyrdom of the cross1 is of the ,devil2 and he who translates the words of the ,lord according to his own desires1 and says there is neither resurrection nor judgment1 he is the first-born of ,satan4 ,,part ,,iii4 ,,the ,,theosophy ,,of ,,simon4 ,in treating of eschatology and the beginning of things the human mind is ever beset with the same difficulties1 and no matter how grand may be the effort of the intellect to transcend itself1 the finite must ever fail to comprehend the infinite4 ,how much less then can words define that which even the whole phenomenal universe fails to express6 ,the change from the ,one to the ,many is not to be described4 ,how the ,all-,deity becomes the primal ,trinity1 is the eternal problem set for man's solution4 ,no system of religion or philosophy has ever explained this inexplicable mystery1 for it cannot be understood by the embodied ,soul1 whose vision and comprehension are dulled by the grossness of its physical envelope4 ,even the illuminated ,soul that quits its prison house1 to bathe in the light of infinitude1 can only recollect flashes of the ,vision ,glorious once it returns again to earth4 ,and this is also the teaching of ,simon when he says3 ,i say there are many gods1 but one ,god of all these gods1 incomprehensible and unknown to all1 444 a ,power of immeasurable and ineffable ,light1 whose greatness is held to be incomprehensible1 a ,tower which the maker of the world does not know4 ,this is a fundamental dogma of the ,gnsis in all climes and in all ages4 ,the demiurgic deity is not the ,all-,deity1 for there is an infinite succession of universes1 each having its particular deity1 its ,brahm1 to use the ,hind term1 but this ,brahm is not ,,that which is ,para-,brahman1 that which is beyond ,brahm4 ,this view of the ,simonian ,gnsis has been magnificently anticipated in the ,rig ,veda 7x4 #abi7 which reads in the fine translation of ,colebrooke as follows3 ,that1 whence all this great creation came1 ,whether ,its will created or was mute1 ,the ,most ,high ,seer that is in highest ,heaven1 ,he knows it--or perchance even ,he knows not4 ,in treating of emanation1 evolution1 creation or whatever other term may be given to the process of manifestation1 therefore1 the teachers deal only with one particular universe2 the ,unmanifested ,root1 and ,universal ,cause of all ,universes lying behind1 in potentiality 7,greek3 dynamis71 in ,incomprehensible ,silence 7,greek3 sigae akatalaeptos74 ,for on the ,tongue of the ,ineffable are many ,words 7,greek3 logoi71 each ,universe having its own ,logos4 ,thus then ,simon speaks of the ,logos of this ,universe and calls it ,fire 7,greek3 pyr74 ,this is the ,universal ,principle or ,beginning 7,greek3 ton holon archae71 or ,universal ,rootage 7,greek3 rizoma ton holon74 ,but this ,fire is not the fire of earth2 it is ,divine ,light and ,life and ,mind1 the ,perfect ,intellectual 7,greek3 to teleion noeron74 ,it is the ,one ,power1 generating itself1 increasing itself1 seeking itself1 finding itself1 its own mother1 its own father1 its sister1 its spouse3 the daughter1 son1 mother1 and father of itself2 ,one1 the ,universal ,root4 ,it is ,that1 which has neither beginning nor end1 existing in oneness4 ,producing itself by itself1 it manifested to itself its own ,thought 7,greek3 epinoia74 ,it is quite true that this symbology of ,fire is not original with ,simon1 but there is also no reason to suppose that the ,samaritan teacher plagiarized from ,heracleitus when we know that the major part of antiquity regarded fire and the sun as the most fitting symbols of ,deity4 ,of the manifested elements1 fire was the most potent1 and therefore the most fitting symbol that could be selected in manifested nature4 ,but what was the ,fire of ,heracleitus1 the ,obscure 7,greek3 ho skoteinos71 as ,cicero1 with the rest of the ancients1 called him1 because of his difficult style8 ,what was the ,universal ,principle of the weeping philosopher1 the pessimist who valued so little the estimation of the vulgar 7,greek3 ochloloidoros78 ,it certainly was no common fire1 certainly no puerile concept to be brushed away by the mere hurling of an epithet4 ,heracleitus of ,ephesus 7flor4 c4 #ejc ,b4,c47 was a sincerely religious man in the highest sense of the word1 a reformer who strongly opposed the degenerate polytheism and idolatry of his age2 he insisted on the impermanence of the phenomenal universe1 of human affairs1 beliefs and opinions1 and declared the ,one ,eternal ,reality2 teaching that the ,self of man was a portion of the ,divine ,intelligence4 ,the object of his enquiry was ,wisdom1 and he reproached his vain-glorious countrymen of the city of ,diana with the words3 ,your knowledge of many things does not give you wisdom4 ,in his philosophy of nature he declared the ,one ,thing to be ,fire1 but ,fire of a mystical nature1 self-kindled and self-extinguished1 the vital quickening power of the universe4 ,it was that ,universal ,life1 by participation in which all things have their being1 and apart from which they are unsubstantial and unreal4 ,this is the ,tree of ,life spoken of by ,simon4 ,in this ,ocean of ,fire or ,life--in every point or atom of it--is inherent a longing to manifest itself in various forms1 thus giving rise to the perpetual flux and change of the phenomenal world4 ,this ,divine ,desire1 this love for everything that lives and breathes1 is found in many systems1 and especially in the ,vedic and ,phoenician ,cosmogony4 ,in the ,rig ,veda 7x4 #abi71 it is that ,kma or ,desire which first arose in ,it 7the ,unknown ,deity71 elsewhere identified with ,agni or ,fire4 ,in the fragments of ,phoenician ,cosmogony1 recovered from ,sanchuniathon1 it is called ,pothos 7,greek3 pothos7 and ,ers 7,greek3 eros74 ,in its pure state1 the ,living and ,rational ,fire of ,heracleitus resides in the highest conceivable ,heaven1 whence it descends stage by stage1 gradually losing the velocity of its motion and vitality1 until it finally reaches the ,earth-stage1 having previously passed through that of ,water4 ,thence it returns to its parent source4 ,in this eternal flux1 the only repose was to be found in the harmony that occasionally resulted from one portion of the ,fire in its descent meeting another in its ascent4 ,all this took place under ,law and ,order1 and the ,soul of man being a portion of the ,fire in its pure state1 and therefore an exile here on ,earth1 could only be at rest by cultivating as the highest good1 contentment 7,greek3 euarestaesis71 or acquiescence to the ,law4 ,the author of the ,philosophumena professes to give us some additional information on this philosopher who bewailed all things1 condemning the ignorance of all that lives1 and of all men1 in pity for the life of mortals1 but the obscure philosopher does not lend himself very easily to the controversial purposes of the patristic writer4 ,heracleitus called the ,universal ,principle 7,greek3 ton hapanton archae7 ,intellectual ,fire 7,greek3 pur noeron71 and said that the sphere surrounding us and reaching to the ,moon was filled with evil1 but beyond the ,moon-sphere it was purer4#ig ,the sentences that the author quotes from ,heracleitus in ,book ,,ix1 are not only obscure enough in themselves1 but are also rendered all the more obscure by the polemical treatment they are subjected to by the patristic writer4 ,heracleitus makes the ,,all inclusive of all ,being and ,non-,being1 all pairs of opposites1 differentiation and non-differentiation1 the generable and ingenerable1 mortal and immortal1 the ,logos and ,aeon1 and the ,father and ,son1 which he calls the ,just ,god4 ,this ,,all is the ,sadasat-,tatparam yat of the ,bhagavad ,gt1 inclusive of ,being 7,sat71 ,non-,being 7,asat71 and ,that ,which transcends them 7,tatparam yat74#ih ,this ,logos plays an important part in the system of the ,ephesian sage1 who says that they who give ear to the ,logos 7the ,word or ,supreme ,reason7 know that ,all is ,one 7,greek3 hen panta eidenai74 ,such an admission he calls1 ,reflex ,harmony 7,greek3 palintropos harmoniae71 like unto the ,supernal ,harmony1 which he calls ,hidden or ,occult1 and declares its superiority to the ,manifested ,harmony4 ,the ignorance and misery of men arise from their not acting according to this ,harmony1 that is to say1 according to 7,divine7 ,nature 7,greek3 kata phusin74 ,he also declares that the ,aeon1 the ,emanative ,deity1 is as a child playing at creation1 an idea found in both the ,hind and ,hermetic ,scriptures4 ,in the former the ,universe is said to be the sport 7,ll7 of ,vishnu1 who is spoken of in one of his incarnations as ,llvatra1 descending on earth for his own pleasure1 when as ,krishna he assumed the shape of man as a pretence 7a purely ,docetic doctrine71 hence called ,ll-mnusha-vigraha2 while in the latter we learn from a magic papyrus that ,thoth 7the ,god of ,wisdom7 created the world by bursting into seven peals of laughter4 ,this1 of course1 typifies the ,bliss of the ,deity in ,emanation or ,creation1 caused by that ,divine ,love and ,compassion for all that lives and breathes1 which is the well-spring of the ,supreme ,cause of the ,universe4 ,diving into the ,mystery of ,being1 ,heracleitus showed how a thing could be good or evil1 and evil or good1 at one and the same time1 as for instance sea water which preserved and nourished fishes but destroyed men4 ,so also1 speaking in his usual paradoxical manner1 which can only be understood by a full comprehension of the dual nature of man1--the real divine entity1 and the passing and ever-changing manifestation1 which so many take for the whole man--he says3 ,the immortals are mortal1 and the mortals immortal1 the former living the death of the latter1 and the latter dying the life of the former4#ii ,thus all externals are transitory1 for no one has ever been twice on the same stream1 for different waters are constantly flowing down1 and therefore in following externals we shall err1 for nothing is efficient and forcible except through ,harmony1 and its subjection to the ,divine ,fire1 the central principle of ,life4 ,such was the ,fire of the distinguished ,ephesian1 and of like nature was the ,fire of ,simon with its three primordial hypostases1 ,incorruptible ,form 7,greek3 aphthartos morphae71 ,universal ,mind 7,greek3 nous ton holon71 and ,great ,thought 7,greek3 epinoia megalae71 synthesized as the ,universal ,logos1 ,he who has stood1 stands and will stand 7,greek3 ho estos1 stas1 staesomenos74 ,but before passing on to the aeonology of ,simon1 a short delay1 to enquire more fully into the notions of the ,initiated among the ancients as to the nature of ,mystic ,fire1 will not be without advantage4 ,if ,simon was a ,samaritan and learned in the esoteric interpretation of scripture1 he could not have failed to be acquainted with the ,kabalah1 perhaps even with the now lost ,chaldaean ,book of ,numbers4 ,among the books of the ,kabalah1 the ,zohar1 or ,book of ,splendour1 speaks of the mysterious ,hidden ,light1 that which ,simon calls the ,hidden ,fire 7,greek3 to krupton71 and tells us of the ,mystery of the ,three ,parts of the ,fire1 which are ,one as follows3 ,began ,rabbi ,sim-on and said3 ,two verses are written1 ,that ,,yhvh thy ,elohim is a devouring fire1 a zealous ,ail 7,el7 7,deut41 iv4 #bd72 again it is written1 ,but you that cleave unto ,,yhvh your ,elohim1 are alive1 every one of you1 this day 7,deut41 iv4 #d74 ,on this verse ,that ,,yhvh thy ,elohim is a consuming fire1 this we said to the companions2 ,that it is a fire which devours fire1 and it is a fire which devours itself and consumes itself1 because it is a fire which is more mighty than fire1 and it has been so confirmed4 ,but1 ,come1 ,see6 ,whoever desires to know the wisdom of the ,holy ,unity should look in that flame arising from a burning coal or a lighted lamp4 ,this flame comes out only when united with another thing4 ,come1 ,see6 ,in the flame which goes up are two lights3 one light is a bright white and one light is united with a dark or blue2 the white light is that which is above and ascends in a straight path1 and that below is that dark or blue light1 and this light below is the throne to the white light and that white light rests upon it1 and they unite one to the other so that they are one4 ,and this dark light1 or blue colour1 which is below1 is the precious throne to the white4 ,and this is the mystery of the blue4 ,and this blue dark throne unites itself with another thing to light that from below1 and this awakes it to unite with the upper white light1 and this blue or dark1 sometimes changes its colour1 but that white above never changes its colour1 it is always white2 but that blue changes to these different colours1 sometimes to blue or black and sometimes to a red colour1 and this unites itself to two sides4 ,it unites to the above1 to that white upper light1 and unites itself below to the thing which is under it1 which is the burning matter1 and this burns and consumes always from the matter below4 ,and this devours that matter below1 which connects with it and upon which the blue light rests1 therefore this eats up all which connects with it from below1 because it is the nature of it1 that it devour and consume everything which depends on it and is dead matter1 and therefore it eats up everything which connects with it below1 and this white light which rests upon it never consumes itself and never changes its light1 and therefore said ,moses2 ,that ,,yhvh thy ,elohim is a consuming fire4 ,surely ,he consumes4 ,it devours and consumes every thing which rests under it2 and on this he said3 ,,yhvh is thy ,elohim not our ,elohim1 because ,moses has been in that white light1 ,above1 which neither devours nor consumes4 ,come1 ,see6 ,it is not ,his ,will to light that blue light that should unite with that white light1 only for ,isral2 because they cleave or connect under ,him4 ,and1 ,come1 ,see6 ,although the nature of that dark or blue light is1 that it shall consume every thing which joins with it below1 still ,isral cleaves on ,him1 ,below1 444 and although you cleave in ,him nevertheless you exist1 because it is written3 ,you are all alive this day4 ,and on this white light rests above a ,hidden ,light which is stronger4 ,here is the above mystery of that flame which comes out from it1 and in it is the ,wisdom of the ,above4#ajj ,and if ,chaldaea gave the impulse which enshrined the workings of the ,cosmos in such graphic symbology as the above1 we are not surprised to read in the ,chaldaean ,oracles 7,greek3 logia71#aja ascribed to ,zoroaster1 that all things are generated from ,one ,fire4#ajb ,and this ,fire in its first energizing was intellectual2 the first ,creation was of ,mind and not of ,works3 ,for the ,fire ,beyond1 the first1 did not shut up its power 7,greek3 dunamis7 into ,matter 7,greek3 hulae7 by ,works1 but by ,mind1 for the fashioner of the ,fiery ,cosmos is the ,mind of ,mind4#ajc ,a striking similarity with the ,simonian system1 indeed1 rendered all the closer by the ,oracle which speaks of that3 ,which first leaped forth from ,mind1 enveloping ,fire with ,fire1 binding them together that it might interblend the mother-vortices1#ajd while retaining the flower of its own ,fire4#aje ,this flower of ,fire and the vorticle idea is further explained by the ,oracle which says3 ,thence a trailing whirlwind1 the flower of shadowy ,fire1 leaping into the wombs 7or hollows7 of worlds4 ,for thence it is that all things begin to stretch below their wondrous rays4#ajf ,compare this with the teaching of ,simon that the fruit of the ,tree is placed in the ,store-house and not cast into the ,fire4 ,in his aeonology1 ,simon1 like other ,gnostic teachers1 begins with the ,word1 the ,logos1 which springs up from the ,depths of the ,unknown--,invisible1 ,incomprehensible ,silence4 ,it is true that he does not so name the ,great ,power1 ,he who has stood1 stands and will stand2 but that which comes forth from ,silence is ,speech1 and the idea is the same whatever the terminology employed may be4 ,setting aside the ,hermetic teachings and those of the later ,gnsis1 we find this idea of the ,great ,silence referred to several times in the fragments of the ,chaldaean ,oracles4 ,it is called ,god-nourished ,silence 7,greek3 sigae theothremmon71 according to whose divine decrees the ,mind that energizes before all energies1 abides in the ,paternal ,depth4#ajg ,again3 ,this unswerving ,deity is called the ,silent ,one by the gods1 and is said to consent 7lit4 sing together7 with the ,mind1 and to be known by the ,souls through ,mind alone4#ajh ,elsewhere the ,oracles demonstrate this ,power which is prior to the highest ,heaven as ,mystic ,silence4#aji ,the ,word1 then1 issuing from ,silence is first a ,monad1 then a ,duad1 a ,triad and a ,hebdomad4 ,for no sooner has differentiation commenced in it1 and it passes from the state of ,oneness 7,greek3 monotaes71 than the ,duadic and ,triadic state immediately supervene1 arising1 so to say1 simultaneously in the mind1 for the mind cannot rest on ,duality1 but is forced by a law of its nature to rest only on the joint emanation of the ,two4 ,thus the first natural resting point is the ,trinity4 ,the next is the ,hebdomad or ,septenary1 according to the mathematical formula #bn-#a1 the sum of n things taken #a1 #b1 #c 444 n1 at a time4 ,the ,trinity being manifested1 n here #c2 and #bc-a #g4 ,thus ,simon has six ,roots and the ,seventh ,power1 seven in all1 as the type of the ,aeons in the ,plerma4 ,these all proceed from the ,fire4 ,in like manner also the ,cabeiric deities of ,samothrace and ,phoenicia were ,fire-gods1 born of the ,fire4 ,nonnus tells us they were sons of the mysterious ,hephaestus 7,vulcan71#aaj and ,eusebius1 in his quotations from ,sanchuniathon1 that they were seven in number4#aaa ,the ,vedic ,agni 7,ignis7 also1 the ,god of ,fire1 is called ,seven-tongued 7,sapta-jihva7 and ,seven-flamed 7,sapta-jvla74#aab ,in the ,hibbert ,lectures of #ahhg1 ,prof4 ,a4,h4 ,sayce gives the following ,hymn of ,ancient ,babylonia to the ,fire-god1 from ,the ,cuneiform ,inscriptions of ,western ,asia 7iv4 #ae73 #a4 ,the 7bed7 of the earth they took for their border1 but the god appeared not1 #b4 from the foundations of the earth he appeared not to make hostility2 #c4 7to7 the heaven below they extended 7their path71 and to the heaven that is unseen they climbed afar4 #d4 ,in the ,star7s7 of ,heaven was not their ministry2 in ,mazzaroth 7the ,zodiacal signs7 was their office4 #e4 ,the ,fire-god1 the first-born supreme1 into heaven they pursued and no father did he know4 #f4 ,o ,fire-god1 supreme on high1 the first-born1 the mighty1 supreme enjoiner of the commands of ,anu6 #g4 ,the ,fire-god enthrones with himself the friend that he loves4 #h4 ,he reveals the enmity of those seven4 #i4 ,on the work he ponders in his dwelling-place4 #aj4 ,o ,fire-god1 how were those seven begotten1 how were they nurtured8 #aa4 ,those seven in the mountain of the sunset were born2 #ab4 those seven in the mountain of the sunrise grew up4 #ac4 ,in the hollows of the earth they have their dwelling2 #ad4 on the high places of the earth their names are proclaimed4 #ae4 ,as for them1 in heaven and earth they have no dwelling1 hidden is their name4 #af4 ,among the sentient gods they are not known4 #ag4 ,their name in heaven and earth exists not4 #ah4 ,those seven from the mountain of the sunset gallop forth2 #ai4 those seven in the mountain of the sunrise are bound to rest4 #bj4 ,in the hollows of the earth they set the foot4 #ba4 ,on the high places of the earth they lift the neck4 #bb4 ,they by nought are known2 in heaven and in earth is no knowledge of them4#aac ,though ,i have no intention of contending that ,simon obtained his ideas specifically from ,vedic1 ,chaldaean1 ,babylonian1 ,zoroastrian1 or ,phoenician sources1 still the identity of ideas and the probability1 almost amounting to conviction for the student1 that the ,initiated of antiquity all drew from the same sources1 shows that there was nothing original in the main features of the ,simonian system4 ,this is also confirmed by the statements in ,epiphanius and the ,apostolic ,constitutions that the ,simonians gave barbarous or foreign names to their ,aeons4 ,that is to say1 names that were neither ,greek nor ,hebrew4 ,none of these names are mentioned by the ,fathers1 and probably the ,greek terms given by the author of the ,philosophumena and ,theodoret are exoteric equivalents of the mystery names4 ,there is abundant evidence1 from gems1 monuments and fragments1 to show that there was a mystery language employed by the ,gnostic and other schools4 ,what this language was no scholar has yet been able to tell us1 and it is sufficiently evident that the efforts at decipherment are so far abortive4 ,the fullest and most precious examples of these names and of this language are to be found in the papyri brought back by ,bruce from ,abyssinia at the latter end of the last century4#aad ,jamblichus tells us that the language of the ,mysteries was that of ancient ,egypt and ,assyria1 which he calls sacred nations1 as follows3 ,but1 you ask1 why among our symbolical terms 7,greek3 saemantika7 we prefer barbarous 7words7 to our respective native 7tongues78 ,there is also for this a mystic reason4 ,for it was the gods who taught the sacred nations1 such as the ,egyptians and ,assyrians1 the whole of their sacred dialect1 wherefore we think that we ought to make our own dialects resemble the speech cognate with the gods4 ,since also the first mode of speech in antiquity was of such a nature1 and especially since they who learnt the first names concerning the gods1 mingled them with their own tongue--as being suited to such 7names7 and conformable to them--and handed them down to us1 we therefore keep unchanged the rule of this immemorial tradition to our own times4 ,for of all things that are suited to the gods the most akin is manifestly that which is eternal and immutable4#aae ,the existence of this sacred tongue perhaps accounts for the constant distinction made by ,homer between the language of the gods and that of men4#aaf ,diodorus ,siculus also asserts that the ,samothracians used a very ancient and peculiar dialect in their sacred rites4#aag ,these barbarous names were regarded as of the greatest efficacy and sanctity1 and it was unlawful to change them4 ,as the ,chaldaean ,logia say3 ,change not the barbarous names1 for in all the nations are there names given by the gods1 possessing unspeakable power in the ,mysteries4#aah ,and the scholiast#aai adds that they should not be translated into ,greek4 ,it is1 therefore1 most probable that ,simon used the one1 three1 five1 and seven syllabled or vowelled names1 and that the ,greek terms were substitutes that completely veiled the esoteric meaning from the uninitiated4 ,the names of the seven ,aeons1 as given by the author of the ,philosophumena1 are as follows3 ,the ,image from the ,incorruptible ,form1 alone ordering all things 7,greek3 eikon ex aphthartou morphaes kosmousa monae panta71 also called ,the ,spirit moving on the ,waters 7,greek3 to pneuma to epipheroumenon epano tou hudatos7 and ,the ,seventh ,power 7,greek3 hae ebdomae dunamis72 ,mind 7,greek3 nous7 and ,thought 7,greek3 epinoia71 also called ,heaven 7,greek3 ouranos7 and ,earth 7,greek3 gae72 ,voice 7,greek3 phonae7 and ,name 7,greek3 onoma71#abj also called ,sun 7,greek3 haelios7 and ,moon 7,greek3 selaenae72 ,reason 7,greek3 logismos7 and ,reflection 7,greek3 enthumaesis71 also called ,air 7,greek3 aaer7 and ,water 7,greek3 hudor74 ,the first three of these are sufficiently explained in the fragment of ,simon's ,great ,revelation1 preserved in the ,philosophumena1 and become entirely comprehensible to the student of the ,kabalah who is learned in the emanations of the ,sephirothal ,tree4 ,mind and ,thought are evidently ,chokmah and ,binah1 and the three and seven ,sephiroth are to be clearly recognized in the scheme of the ,simonian ,system which is to follow4 ,of the two lower ,syzygies1 or ,lower ,quaternary of the ,aeons1 we have no details from the ,fathers4 ,we may1 however1 see some reason for the exoteric names--,voice and ,name1 ,reason and ,reflection--from the following considerations3 7#a7 ,we should bear in mind what has already been said about the ,logos1 ,speech and ,divine ,names4 7#b7 ,in the ,septenary the ,quaternary represents the ,manifested and the ,triad the ,concealed ,side of the ,fire4 7#c7 ,the fundamental characteristics of the manifested universe with the ,hinds and ,buddhists are ,name 7,nma7 and ,form 7,rpa74 7#d7 ,simon says that the ,great ,power was not called ,father until ,thought 7in manifestation becoming ,voice7 named 7,greek3 onomasai7 him ,father4 7#e7 ,reason and ,reflection are evidently the two lowest aspects1 principles1 or characteristics1 of the divine ,mind of man4 ,these are included in the lower mind1 or ,internal ,organ 7,antah-karana71 by the ,vedntin philosophers of ,india and called ,buddhi and ,manas1 being respectively the mental faculties used in the certainty of judgment and the doubt of enquiry4 ,this ,quaternary1 among a host of other things1 typifies the four lower planes1 elements1 principles1 aspects1 etc41 of the ,universe1 with their ,hierarchies of ,angels1 ,archangels1 ,rulers1 etc41 each synthesized by a ,lord who is supreme in his own domain4 ,seeing1 however1 that the outermost physical plane is so vast that it transcends the power of conception of even the greatest intellect1 it is useless for us to speculate on the interplay of cosmic forces and the mysterious interaction of ,spheres of ,being that transcend all normal human consciousness4 ,it is only on the lowest and outermost plane that the lower ,quaternary symbolizes the four ,cardinal ,points4 ,the ,michael 7,sun71 ,gabriel 7,moon71 ,uriel 7,venus71 and ,raphael 7,mercury7 of the ,kabalah1 the four ,beasts1 the ,wheels of ,ezekiel1 were living1 divine1 and intelligent ,entities pertaining to the inner nature of man and the universe for the ,initiated4 ,it is to be presumed that the ,simonians had distinct teachings on this point1 as is evidenced by the title of their lost work1 ,the ,book of the ,four ,angles and ,points of the ,world4 ,the ,four ,angles were probably connected with the four ducts or ,streams of the ,river going forth from ,eden to water the ,garden4 ,these ,streams have their analogy on all planes1 and cosmically are of the same nature as the ksha-,gang--the ,ganges in the ,akshic ,ocean of ,space--and the rest of the ,rivers in the ,paurnic writings of the ,hinds4 ,but before going further it will be as well to have a ,diagram or ,scheme of the ,simonian ,aeonology1 for presumably the ,school of ,simon had such a ,scheme1 as we know the ,ophites had from the work of ,origen1 ,contra ,celsum4 ,illustration3 ,,diagram ,,of ,,the ,,simonian ,,aeonology4#aba ,of course no ,diagram is anything more than a symbolical mnemonic1 so to say2 in itself it is entirely insufficient and only permits a glance at one aspect1 or face1 of the world-process4 ,it is a step in a ladder merely1 useful only for mounting and to be left aside when once a higher rung is reached4 ,thus it is that the whole of the elements of ,euclid were merely an introduction to the comprehension of the ,platonic ,solids1 which must also1 in their turn1 be discarded when the within or essence of things has to be dealt with and not the without or appearance1 no matter how typical that appearance may be4 ,sufficient has already been said of the ,universal ,principle1 of the ,universal ,root and of the ,boundless ,power--the ,parabrahman 7,that ,which transcends ,brahm71 ,mla-,prakriti 7,root-,nature71 and ,supreme shvara1 or the ,unmanifested ,eternal ,logos1 of the ,vedntic ,philosophers4 ,the next stage is the potential unmanifested type of the ,trinity1 the ,three in ,one and ,one in ,three1 the ,potentialities of ,vishnu1 ,brahm1 and ,shiva1 the ,preservative1 ,emanative1 and ,regenerative ,powers--the ,supreme ,logos1 ,universal ,ideation and ,potential ,wisdom1 called by ,simon the ,incorruptible ,form1 ,universal ,mind and ,great ,thought4 ,this ,incorruptible ,form is the ,paradigm of all ,forms1 called ,vishva ,rpam or ,all-,form and the ,param ,rpam or ,supreme ,form1 in the ,bhagavad ,gt#abb spoken also of as the ,param ,nidhnam or ,supreme ,treasure-house1#abc which ,simon also calls the ,treasure-house ,greek3 thaesauros and ,store-house ,greek3 apothaekae1 an idea found in many systems1 and most elaborately in that of the ,pistis-,sophia4 ,between this ,divine ,world1 the ,unmanifested ,triple ,aeon1 and the ,world of ,men is the ,middle ,distance--the ,waters of ,space differentiated by the ,image or ,reflection of the ,triple ,logos 7,d7 brooding upon them4 ,as there are three ,worlds1 the ,divine1 ,middle1 and ,lower1 which have been well named by the ,valentinians the ,pneumatic 7or ,spiritual71 ,psychic 7or ,soul-,world71 and ,hylic 7or ,material71 so in the ,middle ,distance we have three planes or degrees1 or even seven4 ,this ,middle ,distance contains the ,invisible ,spheres between the ,physical ,world and the ,divine4 ,to it the ,initiated and ,illuminati1 the ,spiritual ,teachers of all ages1 have devoted much exposition and explanation4 ,it is divine and infernal at one and the same time1 for as the higher parts--to use a phrase that is clumsy and misleading1 but which cannot be avoided--are pure and spiritual1 so the lower parts are corrupted and tainted4 ,the law of analogy1 imaging and reflection1 hold good in every department of emanative nature1 and though pure and spiritual ideas come to men from this realm of the ,middle ,distance1 it also receives back from man the impressions of his impure thoughts and desires1 so that its lower parts are fouler even than the physical world1 for man's secret thoughts and passions are fouler than the deeds he performs4 ,thus there is a ,heaven and ,hell in the ,middle ,distance1 a ,pneumatic and ,hylic state4 ,the ,lord of this ,middle ,world is ,one in his own ,aeon1 but in reality a reflection of the triple radiance from the ,unmanifested ,logos4 ,this ,lord is the ,manifested ,logos1 the ,spirit moving on the ,waters4 ,therefore all its emanations or creations are triple4 ,the triple ,light above and the triple ,darkness below1 force and matter1 or spirit and matter1 both owing their being and apparent opposition to the ,mind1 alone ordering all things4 ,the ,diagram to be more comprehensible should be so arranged1 mentally1 that each of the higher spheres is found within or interpenetrating the lower4 ,thus1 from this point of view1 the centre is a more important position than above or below4 ,external to all is the ,physical ,universe1 made by the ,hylic ,angels1 that is to say those emanated by ,thought1 ,epinoia1 as representing ,primeval ,mother ,earth1 or ,matter2 not the ,earth we know1 but the ,adamic ,earth of the ,philosophers1 the ,potencies of ,matter1 which ,eugenius ,philalethes assures us1 on his honour1 no man has ever seen4 ,this ,earth is1 in one sense1 the ,protyle for which the most advanced of our modern ,chemists are searching as the ,one ,mother ,element4 ,the idea of the ,spirit of ,god moving on the ,waters is a very beautiful one1 and we find it worked out in much detail in the ,hind scriptures4 ,for instance1 in the ,vishnu ,purna1#abd we find a description of the emanation of the present ,universe by the ,supreme ,spirit1 at the beginning of the present ,kalpa or ,aeon1 an infinity of ,kalpas and ,universes stretching behind4 ,this he creates endowed with the ,quality of ,goodness1 or the ,pneumatic ,potency4 ,for the three ,qualities 7or ,gunas7 of ,nature 7,prakriti7 are the ,pneumatic1 ,psychic and ,hylic ,potencies of the ,waters of ,simon4 ,at the close of the past 7or ,pdma7 ,kalpa1 the divine ,brahm1 endowed with the quality of goodness1 awoke from his night of sleep1 and beheld the universe void4 ,he1 the supreme ,nryana1 the incomprehensible1 the sovereign of all creatures1 invested with the form of ,brahm1 the god without beginning1 the creator of all things2 of whom1 with respect to his name ,nryana1 the god who has the form of ,brahm1 the imperishable origin#abe of the world1 this verse is repeated3 ,the waters are called ,nr1 because they were the offspring of ,nara 7the supreme spirit72 and1 as1 in them1 his first 7,ayana7#abf progress 7in the character of ,brahm7 took place1 he is thence named ,nryana 7he whose place of moving was the waters74 ,sir ,wm4 ,jones translates this well-known verse of ,manu#abg as follows3 ,the waters are called ,nrh1 because they were the production of ,nara1 or the spirit of ,god2 and1 since they were his first ,ayana1 or place of motion1 he thence is named ,nryana or moving on the waters4 ,substantially the same statement is made in the ,linga1 ,vyu1 and ,mrkandeya ,purnas1 and the ,bhgavata explains it more fully as follows3 ,purusha 7the ,spirit7 having divided the egg 7the ideal universe in germ71 on his issuing forth in the beginning1 desiring a place of motion 7,ayanam7 for himself1 pure he created the waters pure4 ,in the ,vishnu ,purna1 again1 ,brahm1 speaking to the ,celestials1 says3 ,i1 ,mahdeva 7,shiva71 and you all are but ,nryana4#abh ,the beautiful symbol of the ,divine ,spirit moving and brooding over the ,primordial ,waters of ,space--,waters which as differentiation proceeds become more and more turbid--is too graphic to require further explanation4 ,it is too hallowed by age and sanctified by the consent of humanity to meet with less than our highest admiration4 ,dissertation on our ,diagram could be pursued to almost any length1 but sufficient has already been said to show the points of correspondence between the ideas ascribed to ,simon and universal ,theosophy4 ,let us now enquire into the part played by ,epinoia1 the ,divine ,thought1 in the cosmic process1 reserving the part played by her in the human drama to when we come to treat of the soteriology of ,simon4 ,we have evidently here a version of the great ,sophia-mythus1 which plays so important a part in all ,gnostic systems4 ,on the one hand the energizings of the mother-side of ,divine ,nature1 on the other the history of the evolution of the ,divine ,monad1 shut into all forms throughout the elemental spheres1 throughout the lower kingdoms1 up to the man stage4 ,the mystery of ,sophia-,epinoia is great indeed1 insoluble in its origins2 for how does that which is ,divine descend below and create ,powers which imprison their parent8 ,it is the mystery of the universe and of man1 insoluble for all but the ,logos itself1 by whose self-sacrifice ,sophia1 the ,soul1 is finally freed from her bonds4 ,epinoia is a ,power of many names4 ,she is called the ,mother1 or ,all-,mother1 ,mother of the ,living or ,shining ,mother1 the ,celestial ,eve2 the ,power ,above2 the ,holy ,spirit1 for the ,spiritus in some systems is a feminine power 7in a symbolical sense1 of course71 pre-eminently in the ,codex ,nazaraeus1 the scripture of the ,mandates4 ,again she is called ,she of the ,left-hand1 as opposed to the ,christos1 ,he of the ,right-hand2 the ,man-woman2 ,prouneikos2 ,matrix2 ,paradise2 ,eden2 ,achamth2 the ,virgin2 ,barbelo2 ,daughter of ,light2 ,merciful ,mother2 ,consort of the ,masculine ,one2 ,revelant of the ,perfect ,mysteries2 ,perfect ,mercy2 ,revelant of the ,mysteries of the ,whole ,magnitude2 ,hidden ,mother2 ,she who knows the ,mysteries of the ,elect2 the ,holy ,dove1 who has given birth to the two ,twins2 ,ennoia2 and by many another name varying according to the terminology of the different systems1 but ever preserving the root idea of the ,world-,soul in the ,macrocosm and the ,soul in ,man4 ,within every form1 aye1 even apparently the meanest1 is ,epinoia confined2 for everything within is innate with ,life2 every form contains a spark of the ,divine ,fire1 essentially of the same nature as the ,all2 for in the ,roots1 and also in all things--since all is built on their type--is the whole of the ,boundless ,power together in potentiality1 but not in actuality4 ,the reason given for this imprisonment of ,sophia in most of the systems is that she endeavoured to create without her ,syzygy1 the ,father or ,nous1 wishing to imitate alone the self-generating power of the ,supreme4 ,thus through ignorance she involved herself in suffering1 from which she was freed by repentance and experience4 ,what explanation of this supreme mystery was publicly ventured on by ,simon we cannot know1 for the patristic accounts are confused and contradictory4 ,irenaeus tells us that3 ,she was the first ,conception 7,epinoia7 of his ,mind1 the ,mother of ,all1 by whom in the beginning he conceived in his ,mind1 the making of the ,angels and ,archangels4 ,this ,epinoia1 leaping forth from him 7the ,boundless ,power71 and knowing what was the will of her ,father1 descended to the ,lower ,regions and generated the ,angels and ,powers1 by whom also he said the world was made4 ,and after she had generated them1 she was detained by them through envy1 for they did not wish to be thought the progeny of another4 ,as for himself he was entirely unknown by them2 and it was his ,thought 7,epinoia7 that was made prisoner by the ,powers and ,angels that had been emanated by her4 ,and she suffered every kind of indignity at their hands to prevent her rescending to her ,father1 even to being imprisoned in the human body and transmigrating into other female bodies1 as from one vessel into another4 ,tertullian's account differs by the important addition that the design of the ,father was prevented2 how or why he does not say4 ,she was his first ,suggestion whereby he suggested the making of the ,angels and ,archangels2 that she sharing in this design had sprung forth from the ,father1 and leaped down into the ,lower ,regions2 and that there1 the design of the ,father being prevented1 she had brought forth ,angelic ,powers ignorant of the ,father1 the artificer of this world 7872 by these she was detained1 not according to his intention1 lest when she had gone they should be thought to be the progeny of another1 etc4 ,the ,philosophumena say nothing on this point1 except that ,epinoia throws all the ,powers in the ,world into confusion through her unsurpassable ,beauty4 ,philaster renders confusion worse confounded1 by writing3 ,and he also dared to say that the ,world had been made by ,angels1 and the ,angels again had been made by certain endowed with perception from ,heaven1 and that they 7the ,angels7 had deceived the human race4 ,he asserted1 moreover1 that there was a certain other ,thought 7,intellectus7 who descended into the world for the salvation of men4 ,epiphanius further complicates the problem as follows3 ,this ,power 7,pruncus and ,holy ,spirit7 descending from ,above changed its form4444 ,and through the ,power from ,above 444 displaying her beauty1 she drove them to frenzy1 and on this account was she sent for the despoiling of the ,rulers who brought the ,world into being2 and the ,angels themselves went to war on her account2 and while she experienced nothing1 they set to work to mutually slaughter each other on account of the desire which she infused into them for herself4 ,theodoret briefly follows ,irenaeus4 ,in these contradictory accounts we have a great confusion between the rles played by ,nous and ,epinoia1 the ,father and ,thought1 the ,spirit and ,spiritual ,soul4 ,then again how did the ,lower ,regions come into existence1 for ,epinoia to descend to them8 ,this lacuna is filled by the fuller information of the ,philosophumena which shows us the scheme of self-emanation out or down into matter by similitude1 thus confining the problem of evil to space and time1 and not raising it into an eternal principle4 ,naturally it is not to be supposed that the origin of evil is solvable for man in his present state1 therefore whether it was according to the design or contrary to the design of the ,father1 will ever depend upon the point of view from which we severally regard the problem4 ,law1 ,justice1 and ,compassion are not incompatible terms to one whose heart is set firm on spiritual things2 and the view that evil is not a thing in itself1 but exists only because of human ignorance1 is one that must commend itself to the truly religious and philosophical mind4 ,thus evil is not a fixed quantity in itself1 it depends on the internal attitude each man holds with regard to externals as to whether they are evil or no4 ,for instance1 it is not evil for an animal or savage to kill1 for the light of the higher law is not yet flaming brightly in their hearts4 ,that only is evil if we do what is displeasing to the ,self4 ,this may perhaps throw some light on the ,simonian dogma of action by accident 7ex accidenti71 or institution 7,greek3 thesei71 as opposed to action according to nature 7naturaliter or ,greek3 phusei7--evidently the same idea as the teaching of ,heracleitus to act according to nature 7,greek3 kata phusin7 which he explains as according to the ,unmanifested ,harmony which we can hear by straining our ears to catch that still small voice within1 the ,voice of the ,silence1 the ,logos or ,self4 ,simon presumably refers to this in the phrase the things which sound within 7,greek3 ta enaecha71 an idea remarkably confirmed by ,psellus1#abi who quotes the following ,logion3 ,when thou seest a most holy1 formless ,fire shining and bounding throughout the depths of the whole ,cosmos1 give ear to the ,voice of the ,fire4 ,this brings us to a consideration of the teachings of ,simon with regard to the ,lesser ,world1 the ,microcosm1 ,man1 and to the scheme of his soteriology4 ,evidently ,simon taught the ancient1 immemorial doctrine that the ,microcosm ,man was the ,mirror and ,potentiality of the ,cosmos1 the ,macrocosm1 as we have already seen above4 ,whatever was true of the emanation of the ,universe1 was also true of ,man1 whatever was true of the ,macrocosmic ,aeons was true of the ,microcosmic ,aeons in ,man1 which are potentially the same as those of the ,cosmos1 and will develop into the power and grandeur of the latter1 if they can find suitable expression1 or a fit vehicle4 ,this view will explain the reason of the ancients for saying that we could only perceive that of which we have a germ already within us4 ,thus it is that ,empedocles taught3 ,by earth earth we perceive2 by water1 water2 by aether1 aether2 fire1 by destructive fire2 by friendship1 friendship2 and strife by bitter strife4 ,and if the potentiality of all resided in every man1 the teaching on this point most forcibly has been1 ,qui se cognoscit1 in se omnia cognoscit--,he who knows himself1 knows all in himself--as ,q4 ,fabius ,pictor tells us4 ,and1 therefore1 the essential of moral and spiritual training in ancient times was the attainment of ,self-,knowledge--that is to say1 the attainment of the certitude that there is a divine nature within every man1 which is of infinite capacity to absorb universal ,wisdom2 that1 in brief1 ,man was essentially one with ,deity4 ,with ,simon1 as with the ,hermetic philosophers of ancient ,egypt1 all things were interrelated by correspondence1 analogy1 and similitude4 ,as above1 so below1 is the teaching on the ,smaragdine ,table of ,hermes4 ,therefore1 whatever happened to the divine ,epinoia1 the ,supreme ,mother1 among the ,aeons1 happened also to the human ,spiritual ,soul or ,monadic ,essence1 in its evolution through all stages of manifestation4 ,this ,soul is shut into all forms and bodies1 successively up to the stage of man4 ,from one point of view this teaching has been conclusively proved by ,modern ,science4 ,the evolution of the external form has been traced throughout all the kingdoms and is no longer in question4 ,the ancient teachers of evolution1 though less exact in detail1 were more accurate in fact1 in postulating a something within which alone could make the external evolution of form of any intelligible purpose4 ,the ,spiritual ,soul--the ,life1 ,consciousness1 ,spirit1 ,intelligence1 whatever we may choose to call it--was formless in itself1 but ever assuming new forms by a process called metempsychosis1 metasomatosis1 metangismos1 etc41 which in the human stage becomes rencarnation1 the rebirth or ,punarjanman of the ,hinds4 ,so much has been written on metempsychosis and rencarnation of late that it is hardly necessary to dwell on a now so familiar idea4 ,in its widest sense the whole process of nature is subject to this mode of existence1 and in its more restricted sense it is the path of pilgrimage of the ,soul in the desert of ,matter4 ,in treating of a philosophical conception1 which has already been completely established as far as its visible side is concerned by the researches of ,modern ,science in the field of evolution1 it is a waste of time to obscure the main issue by a rehashing of the superstitious belief that the human ,soul might pass back to the brute4 ,it may be that this superstition arose from the consideration that the body and lower vestures of the ,soul were shed off and gradually absorbed by the lower creation in the alchemical processes of nature4 ,this was the fate of the ,purgations of the ,soul1 but the ,soul itself when once it had passed from bodies of the lower kingdoms1 to bodies in the man-stage1 could not retrogress beyond the limits of that human kingdom4 ,by a glance at the ,diagram1 and regarding it from the microcosmic point of view1 it is easy to see that the inner nature of man is more complex than the elementary trichotomy of ,body1 ,soul1 and ,spirit1 might lead us to suppose4 ,each plane of ,being1 for which the ,soul has its own appropriate ,vesture1 is generated from an indivisible point1 as ,simon called it1 a zero-point1 to use a term of modern ,chemistry2 six of which are shown in the ,diagram1 and each plane of ,being is bounded by such zero-points1 for they are points like that of the ,circle whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere4 ,to pass on to the soteriology of ,simon4 ,the general concept of this presents no difficulty to the student of ,eastern ,religions4 ,the idea that the great teachers are ,avatras1 incarnations1 or descents1 of the ,supreme ,being1 appearing on earth to aid mankind1 is simple enough to comprehend in itself1 and would be open to little objection1 were it not for the theological dogmas and mythological legends that are wont to be so busily woven round the lives of such teachers4 ,in the present age it is hardly necessary for us1 with the experience of the past before our eyes1 to raise dissension as to whether such a manifestation is entirely divine1 or entirely human1 or perfectly human and divine at one and the same time1 or neither or all of these4 ,eastern philosophy1 regarding not only the external phenomenal world as ever-changing and impermanent1 but also all appearance or manifestation--no matter how subjective it may be to us now--as not the one ,truth in itself1 which it claims alone to be without change1 it is easy to see the reason why the ,gnostic ,philosophers for the most part held to ,doceticism--that is to say that the body of a ,saviour was not the ,saviour himself1 but an appearance4 ,the heat of polemical controversy may have led to exaggerated views on both sides1 but the philosophical mind will not be distressed at the thought that the body is an appearance or mask of the real man1 and that it forms no part of his eternal possession4 ,none the less the body is real to us here1 for we all have bodies of a like nature1 and appearances are real to appearances4 ,yet this does not invalidate the further consideration that there are other bodies1 vestures1 or vehicles of consciousness1 besides the gross physical coat of skin1 for the use of the spiritual man1 each being an appearance in comparison to the higher vehicle1 which is in its turn an appearance to that which is more subtle and less material or substantial than itself4 ,thus1 in the descent from the ,divine ,world1 the ,soul transforms itself1 or clothes itself in forms1 or bodies1 or vestures1 which it weaves out of its own substance1 like to the ,powers of the ,worlds it passes through1 for every ,soul has a different vehicle of consciousness for every ,world or ,plane4 ,but the doctrine of the ,soter1 or ,saviour1 does not apply until the ,christ-stage or consummation is reached4 ,following the idea of rebirth1 there is a spiritual life cycle1 or life-thread1 on which the various earth-lives are strung1 as beads on a necklace1 each successive life being purer and nobler1 as the ,soul gains control of matter1 or the driver control of the chariot and steeds that speed him through the experiences of life4 ,as the end of this great cycle approaches1 an earthly vehicle is evolved that can show forth the divine spirit in all the fulness possible to this world or phase of evolution4 ,now as the problem can be viewed from either the internal or external point of view1 we have the mystery of the ,soul depicted both from the side of the involution of spirit into matter and of the evolution of matter into spirit4 ,if1 on the one hand1 we insist too strongly on one view1 we shall only have a one-sided conception of the process2 if1 on the other1 we neglect one factor1 we shall never solve the at present unknown quantity of the equation4 ,thus the ,soul is represented as the lost sheep struggling in the meshes of the net of matter1 passing from body to body1 and the ,spirit is represented as descending1 transforming itself through the spheres1 in order to finally rescue its ,syzygy from the bonds that are about her4 ,the ,soul aspires to the ,spirit and the ,spirit takes thought for the ,soul2 as the ,simonians expressed it3 ,the male 7,heaven1 i4e41 the ,nous or ,christ1 or ,spiritual ,soul7 looks down from above and takes thought for its co-partner 7or ,syzygy72 while the ,earth 7i4e41 the ,epinoia or ,jesus1 or ,human ,soul7 from below receives from the ,heaven the intellectual 7in the spiritual and philosophical sense1 of course7 fruits that come down to it and are cognate with the ,earth 7i4e41 of the same nature essentially as ,epinoia1 who is essentially one with ,nous74 ,when this mystery is represented dramatically1 so to say1 and personified1 these two aspects of the ,soul are depicted as two persons4 ,thus we have ,simon and ,helen1 his favourite disciple1 ,krishna and ,arjuna1 etc4 ,in the ,canonical ,gospels the favourite disciple is said to be ,john1 and the women-disciples are placed well in the background4 ,in the ,gnostic ,gospels1 however1 the women-disciples are not so ostracized1 and the view taken by these early communities of philosophical and mystical ,christians throws much light on that wonderful history of the ,magdalene that has so touched the heart of ,christendom4 ,for instance1 in the ,pistis-,sophia1 the chief of all the disciples1 the most spiritual and intuitive1 is ,mary ,magdalene4 ,this is not without significance when we remember the love of the ,christ for ,mary out of whom he had cast seven devils4 ,the allegory is a striking one1 and perfectly comprehensible to the student of comparative religion4 ,as there are seven ,aeons in the ,spiritual ,world1 seven principles or aspects of the ,spiritual ,soul1 so here on ,earth1 by analogy1 there are seven lower aspects1 or impure reflections4 ,as there are seven ,cardinal ,virtues1 the ,prajn-,pramits1 or ,perfections of ,wisdom1 of the ,buddhists1 so there are seven ,cardinal ,vices1 and these must be cast out by the spiritual will1 before the repentant ,mary1 or ,human ,soul1 can be purified4 ,this is the mystery of the ,helen1 the lost sheep4 ,then follows the mystical marriage of the ,lamb1 the union of the ,human and ,spiritual ,soul in man1 referred to so often in the ,gospels and other mystical scriptures4 ,naturally the language used is symbolical1 and has naught to do with sex1 in any sense4 ,woe unto him or her who takes these allegories of the ,soul as literal histories1 for nothing but sorrow will follow such materialization of divine mysteries4 ,if ,simon or his followers fell into this error1 they worked their own downfall1 under the ,great ,law1 as surely do all who forge such bonds of matter for their own enslavement4 ,but with condemnation we have nothing to do2 they alone who are without sin have the right to cast stones at the ,magdalenes of this world2 and they who are truly without sin use their purity to cleanse their fellows1 and do not sully it with the stains of self-righteous condemnation4 ,we1 ordinary men and women of the age1 are all lost sheep1 human souls struggling in ignorance2 shall we then stone our fellows because their theology has a different nomenclature to our own8 ,for man was the same in the past as he is to-day4 ,the ,human ,soul has ever the same hopes and fears1 loves and hates1 passions and aspirations1 no matter how the mere form of their expression differs4 ,that which is important is the attitude we hold to the forms with which we are surrounded4 ,to-day the form of our belief is changed2 the fashion of our dress is scientific and not allegorical1 but are we any nearer the realization that it is a dress and no more1 and not the real expression of the true man within8 ,let us now take a brief glance at the ,symbolical ,tree of ,life1 which plays so important a part in the ,simonian ,gnsis4 ,not1 however1 that it was peculiar to this system1 for several of the schools use the same symbology4 ,for instance1 in the ,pistis-,sophia#acj the idea is immensely expanded1 and there is much said of an ,aeonian ,hierarchy called the ,five ,trees4 ,as this1 however1 may have been a later development1 let us turn to the ancient ,hind ,shstras1 and select one out of the many passages that could be adduced1 descriptive of the ,ashvattha ,tree1 the ,tree of ,life1 the ,ashvattha of golden wings1 where the bird-souls get their wings and fly away happily1 as the ,sanatsujtya tells us4 ,the passage we choose is from the ,bhagavad ,gt1 that marvellous philosophical episode from the ,mahbhrata1 which from internal evidence1 and at the very lowest estimate1 must be placed at a date anterior to ,simon4 ,at the beginning of the fifteenth ,adyya we read3 ,they say the imperishable ,ashvattha is with root above and branches below1 of which the sacred hymns are the leaves4 ,who knows this1 he is a knower of knowledge4 ,upwards and downwards stretch its branches1 expanded by the potencies 7,gunas72 the sense-objects are its sprouts4 ,downwards1 too1 its roots are stretched1 constraining to action in the world of men4 ,here neither its form is comprehended1 nor its end1 nor beginning1 nor its support4 ,having cut with the firm sword of detachment 7sc4 non-attachment to the fruit of action7 this ,ashvattha1 with its overgrown roots1 then should he 7the disciple7 search out that ,supreme whither they who come never return again1 7with the thought7 that now he is come to that primal ,being1 whence the evolution of old was emanated4 ,for what is this sword of detachment but another aspect of the fiery sword of ,simon1 which is turned about to guard the way to the ,tree of ,life8 ,this sword is our passions and desires1 which now keep us from the golden-leaved ,tree of ,life1 whence we may find wings to carry us to the ,father in ,heaven4 ,for once we have conquered ,desire and turned it into spiritual ,will1 it then becomes the ,sword of ,knowledge2 and the way to the ,tree of ,spiritual ,life being gained1 the purified ,life becomes the ,wings of the ,great ,bird on which we mount1 to be carried to its ,nest1 where peace at last is found4 ,the simile of the ,tree is used in many senses1 not the least important of which is that of the heavenly vine of the rencarnating ,soul1 every life of which is a branch4 ,this explains ,simon's citation of the ,logion so familiar to us in the ,gospel according to ,luke3 ,every tree not bearing good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire4 ,this also explains one of the inner meanings of the wonderful passage in the ,gospel according to ,john3 ,i am the true vine and my ,father is the husbandman4 ,every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away2 and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bear more fruit4#aca ,for only the spiritual fruit of every life is harvested in the ,store-house of the ,divine ,soul2 the rest is shed off to be purified in the ,fire of earthly existence4 ,into the correspondence between the world-process of ,nature1 and that which takes place in the womb of mortal woman1 it will not be necessary to enter at length4 ,no doubt ,simon taught many other correspondences between the processes of ,cosmic ,nature and ,microcosmic ,man1 but what were the details of this teaching we can in no way be certain4 ,simon may have made mistakes in physiology1 according to our present knowledge1 but with the evidence before us all we can do is to suspend our judgment4 ,for in the first place1 we do not know that he has been correctly reported by his patristic antagonists1 and1 in the second1 we are even yet too ignorant of the process of the nourishment of the foetus to pronounce any ex cathedr statement4 ,in any case ,simon's explanation is more in agreement with ,modern ,science than the generality of the phantasies on scientific subjects to which the uninstructed piety of the early ,fathers so readily lent itself4 ,as to whether the ,initiated of the ancients did or did not know of the circulation of the blood and the functions of the arterial system1 we must remain in doubt1 for both their well known method of concealing their knowledge and also the absence of texts which may yet be discovered by the industry of modern exploration teach us to hold our judgment in suspense4 ,again1 seeing the importance which the symbolical ,tree played in the ,simonian ,system1 it may be that there was an esoteric teaching in the school1 which pointed out correspondences in the human body for mystical purposes1 as has been the custom for long ages in ,india in the ,science of ,yoga4 ,in the human body are at least two ,trees1 the nervous1 and vascular systems4 ,the former has its root above in the cerebrum1 the latter has its roots in the heart4 ,along the trunks and branches run currents of nervous ether and life respectively1 and the ,science of ,yoga teaches its disciples to use both of these forces for mystical purposes4 ,it is highly probable also that the ,gnostics taught the same processes to their pupils1 as we know for a fact that the ,neo-,platonists inculcated like practices4 ,from these considerations1 then1 it may be supposed that ,simon was not so ignorant of the real laws of the circulation of the blood as might otherwise be imagined2 and as to the nourishment of the embryo1 modern authorities are at loggerheads1 the majority1 however1 inclining to the opinion of ,simon1 that the foetus is nourished through the umbilical cord4#acb ,the last point of importance to detain us1 before passing on to a notice on the magical practices ascribed to ,simon1 is the allegorical use made by the ,simonians of ,scripture4 ,here again we have little to do with the details reported1 but only with the idea4 ,it was a common belief of the sages of antiquity that the mythological part of the sacred writings of the nations were to be understood in an allegorical fashion4 ,not to speak of ,india1 we have the ,neo-,platonic ,school with its analogetical methods of interpretation1 and the mention of a work of ,porphyry in which an allegorical interpretation of the ,iliad was attempted4 ,allegorical shows of a similar nature also were enacted in the ,lesser ,mysteries and explained in the ,greater1 as ,julian tells us in the ,mother of the ,gods1#acc and ,plutarch on the ,cessation of ,oracles4#acd ,much evidence could be adduced that this was a widespread idea held by the learned of antiquity1 but space does not here allow a full treatment of the subject4 ,what is important to note is that ,simon claimed this as a method of his ,school1 and therefore1 in dealing with his system1 we cannot leave out so important a factor1 and persist in taking allegorical and symbolical expressions as literal teachings4 ,we may say that the method is misleading and has led to much superstition among the ignorant1 but we have no right to criticize the literal and historical meaning of an allegory1 and then fancy that we have criticized the doctrine it enshrines4 ,this has been the error of all rationalistic critics of the world bibles4 ,they have wilfully set on one side the whole method of ancient religious teaching1 and taken as literal history and narrative what was essentially allegorical and symbolical4 ,perhaps the reason for this may be in the fact that wherever religion decays and ignorance spreads herself1 there the symbolical and allegorical is materialized into the historical and literal4 ,the spirit is forgotten1 the letter is deified4 ,hence the rection of the rationalistic critic against the materialism and literalism of sacred verities4 ,nevertheless1 such criticism does not go deep enough to affect the real truths of religion and the convictions of the human soul1 any more than an aesthetic criticism on the shape of the ,roman letters and ,arabic figures can affect the truth of an algebraical formula4 ,rationalistic criticism may stir people from literalism and dogmatic crystallization1 in fact it has done much in this way1 but it does not reach the hidden doctrines4 ,now ,simon contended that many of the narrations of ,scripture were allegorical1 and opposed those who held to the dead-letter interpretation4 ,to the student of comparative religion1 it is difficult to see what is so highly blameworthy in this4 ,on the contrary1 this view is so worthy of praise1 that it deserves to be widely adopted to-day1 at the latter end of the nineteenth century4 ,to understand antiquity1 we must follow the methods of the wise among the ancients1 and the method of allegory and parable was the manner of teaching of the great ,masters of the past4 ,but supposing we grant this1 and admit that all ,scriptures possess an inner meaning and lend themselves to interpretation on every plane of being and thought1 who is to decide whether any particular interpretation is just or no8 ,already we have writers arising1 giving diametrically opposite interpretations of the same mystical narrative1 and though this may be an advance on bald physical literalism1 it is by no means encouraging to the instructed and philosophical mind4 ,if the ,deity is no respecter of persons1 times1 or nations1 and if no age is left without witness of the ,divine1 it would seem to be in accordance with the fitness of things that all religions in their purity are one in essence1 no matter how overgrown with error they may have become through the ignorance of man4 ,if1 again1 the root of true ,religion is one1 and the nature of the ,soul and of the inner constitution of things is identical in all climes and times1 as far as its main features are concerned1 no matter what terminology1 allegory1 and symbology may be employed to describe it2 and not only this1 but if it be true that such subjective things are as potent facts in human consciousness as any that exist1 as indeed is evidenced by the unrivalled influence such things have had on human hearts and actions throughout the history of the world--then we must consider that an interpretation that fits only one system and is found entirely unsuitable to the rest1 is no part of universal religion1 and is due rather to the ingenuity of the interpreter than to a discovery of any law of subjective nature4 ,the method of comparative religion alone can give us any certainty of correct interpretation1 and a refusal to institute such a comparison should invalidate the reliability of all such enquiries4 ,now ,simon is reported to have endeavoured to find an inner meaning in scriptural narratives and mythologies1 and against this method we can have nothing to say2 it is only when a man twists the interpretation to suit his own prejudices that danger arises4 ,simon1 however1 is shown to have appealed to the various sacred literatures known in his time1 an eclectic and theosophical method1 and one that cannot very well be longer set on one side even in our own days4 ,the primitive church was not so forgetful of symbology as are the majority of the ,christian faith to-day4 ,one of the commonest representations of primitive ,christian art was that of the ,four ,rivers4 ,as the ,rev4 ,professor ,cheetham tells us3 ,we find it repeated over and over again in the catacombs1 either in frescoes or in the sculptured ornaments of sarcophagi1 and sometimes on the bottoms of glass cups which have been discovered therein4#ace ,the interpretations given by the early divines were many and various2 in nearly every case1 however1 it was an interpretation which applied to the ,christian system alone1 and accentuated external differences4 ,little attempt was made to find an interpretation in nature1 either objective or subjective1 or in man4 ,simon1 at any rate1 made the attempt--an effort to broaden out into a universal system applying to all men at all times4 ,this is also the real spirit of pure ,christianity which is so often over-clouded by theological partisanship4 ,a true interpretation must stand the test of not only religious aspiration1 but also philosophical thought and scientific observation4 ,nor again should we find cause to grieve at an attempted interpretation of the ,trojan ,horse1 that was fabricated by the advice of ,athena 7,minerva-,epinoia71 for did not ,george ,stanley ,faber1 in the early years of this century1 labour with much learning to prove its identity with the ,ark4 ,true he only turned similar myths into the terms of one myth and got no further1 but that was an advance on his immediate predecessors4 ,simon1 however1 had centuries before gone further than ,faber1 as far as theory is concerned1 by seeking an interpretation in nature4 ,but1 in his turn1 as far as our records go1 he only attempted the interpretation of one aspect of this graphic symbol1 saying that it typified ignorance4 ,an interpretation1 however1 to be complete should cover all planes of consciousness and being from the physical human plane to the divine cosmic4 ,the ,ark floating on the ,waters of the ,deluge and containing the ,germs of ,life1 the ,mundane ,egg in the ,waters of ,space1 and the ,mare with her freight of armed warriors1 all typify a great fact in nature1 which may be studied scientifically in the development of the germ-cell1 and ethically by analogy1 as the egg of ignorance1 the germs in which are1 from the lower aspect1 our own evil passions4 ,in speaking of such allegories and tracing the correspondences between certain symbologies and the natural facts of embryology1 ,simon speaks of the cave which plays so important a part in so many religious allegories4 ,as the child is born in a cave1 so the new man is also born in a cave1 and all the ,saviours are so recorded to have been born in their birth legends4 ,the ,mysteries of antiquity were for the most part solemnized in caves1 or rock-cut temples4 ,the ,epoptae deemed such caverns as symbols both of the physical world and ,hades or the ,unseen ,world1 which surrounds every child of man4 ,into such a cave1 in the middle of the ,ocean1 ,cronus shut his children1 as ,porphyry#acf tells us4 ,it was called by the name ,petra1 or ,rock1 and from such a ,rock ,mithras is said to have been born4#acg ,faber endeavours to identify this symbolical cave with the ,ark1#ach which may be permissible from one aspect1 as the womb of mother nature and of the human mother correspond analogically4 ,in the new birth of the mysteries1 the ,souls were typified as bees born from the body of an ox1 for they were to gather the honey of wisdom1 and were born from the now dead body of their lower natures4 ,in the cave were two doors1 one for immortals1 the other for mortals4 ,in this connection the cave is the psychic womb that surrounds every man1 of which ,nicodemus displays such ignorance in the ,gospels4 ,it is the microcosmic ,middle ,distance2 by one door the ,lower ,soul enters1 and uniting with its immortal consort1 who descends through the door of the immortals1 becomes immortal4 ,the cavern is overshadowed by an olive tree--again the ,tree of ,life to which we have referred above--on the branches of which the doves rest1 and bring back the leaves to the ark of the body and the prisoner within it4 ,but space does not permit us to pursue further this interesting subject1 which requires an entire treatise by itself1 or even a series of volumes4 ,enough1 however1 has been said to show that the method of interpretation employed by ,simon is not without interest and profit1 and that the tolerant spirit of to-day which animates the best minds and hearts in ,christendom will find no reason to mete out to ,simon wholesale condemnation on this score4 ,there are also many other points of interest that could be elaborated upon1 in the fragments of the system we are reviewing1 but as my task is in the form of an essay1 and not an exhaustive work1 ,i must be content to pass them by for the present1 and to hurry on to a few words on that strange and misunderstood subject1 commonly known as ,magic4 ,what ,magic1 the ,great ,art of the ancients1 was in reality is now as difficult to discover as is the true ,religion that underlies all the great religions of the world4 ,it was an art1 a practice1 the ,great and ,supreme ,art of the most ,sacred ,science of ,god1 the ,universe and ,man4 ,it was and it is all this in its highest sense1 and its method was what is now called creation4 ,as the ,aeons imitated the ,boundless ,power and emanated or created in their turn1 so could man imitate the ,aeons and emanate or create in his turn4 ,but creation is not generation1 it is a work of the mind1 in the highest sense of the word4 ,by purification and aspiration1 by prayer and fasting1 man had to make his mind harmonious with the ,great ,mind of the ,universe1 and so by imitation create pure vehicles whereby his consciousness could be carried in every direction of the ,universe4 ,such spiritual operations required the greatest purity and piety1 real purity and true piety1 without disguise or subterfuge1 for man had to face himself and his ,god1 before whom no disguise was possible4 ,the most secret motives1 the most hidden desires1 were revealed by the stern self-discipline to which the ,adepts of the ,science subjected themselves4 ,but as in all things here below1 so with the ,art of ,magic1 it was two-fold4 ,above ,i have only spoken of the bright side of it1 the path along which the ,world-,saviours have trodden1 for no one can gain entrance to the path of self-sacrifice and compassion unless his heart burns with love for all that lives1 and unless he treads the way of wisdom only in order that he may become that ,path itself for the salvation of the race4 ,but there is the other side2 knowledge is knowledge irrespective of the use to which it may be put4 ,the sword of knowledge is two-edged1 as remarked above1 and may be put to good or evil use1 according to the selfishness or unselfishness of the possessor4 ,but corruptio optimi pessima1 and as the employment of wisdom for the benefit of mankind--as1 for instance1 curing the sick1 physically and morally--is the highest1 so the use of any abnormal power for the advantage of self is the vilest sin that man can commit4 ,there are strange analogies in ,nature1 and the higher the spiritual1 the lower the corresponding material process2 so that we find in the history of magic--perhaps the longest history in the world--extremes ever meeting4 ,abuse of spiritual powers1 and the vilest physical processes1 noxious1 fantastic1 and pestilential1 are recorded in the pages of so-called magical literature1 but such foul deeds are no more real ,magic than are the horrors of religious fanaticism the outcome of true ,mohammedanism or ,christianity4 ,this is the abuse1 the superstition1 the degeneration of all that is good and true1 rendered all the more vile because it pertains to denser planes of matter than even the physical4 ,it is a strange thing that the highest should pair with the lowest where man is concerned1 but it ever remains true that the higher we climb the lower we may fall4 ,man is much the same in nature at all times1 and though the ,art was practised in its purity by the great ,world-,teachers and their immediate followers1 whether we call it by the name ,magic or no1 it ever fell into abuse and degeneracy owing to the ingrained ignorance and selfishness of man4 ,thus the ,deity and ,gods or ,daemons of one nation became the ,devil and ,demons of another2 the names were changed1 the facts remained the same4 ,for if we are to reject all such things as superstition1 hallucination1 and what not1 the good must go with the bad4 ,but facts1 whether good or bad1 are still facts1 and man is still man1 no matter how he changes the fashion of his belief4 ,the followers of the ,world-,teachers cannot hold to the so-called miracles of their respective ,masters and reject all others as false in fact1 no matter from what source they may believe they emanate4 ,in nature there can be nothing supernatural1 and as man stands mid-way between the divine and infernal1 if we accept the energizing of the one side of his nature1 we must also accept that of the other4 ,both are founded on nature and science1 both are under law and order4 ,the great ,master of ,christendom is reported to have told his disciples that if they had but faith they should do greater works than even he had done4 ,either this was false or else the followers have been false to their ,teacher4 ,there is no escape from the dilemma4 ,and such works are to be wrought by divine ,magic alone1 or if the term be disliked1 by whatever name the great ,science of the ,soul and ,divine things may be called4 ,for the last two hundred years or so it has been the fashion to deride all such matters1 perhaps owing to a rection against over-credulity on the part of those who held to the letter of the law and forgot its spirit2 but to-day it is no longer possible to entirely set aside this all-important part of man's nature1 and it now calls for as strict a scientific treatment as the facts of the physical universe have been subjected to4 ,hypnotism1 ,mesmerism1 ,spiritualism and ,psychical ,research1 are the cloud no bigger than a man's hand that is forcing the facts of ,magic again on the attention of both the theological and scientific world4 ,hypnotism and ,psychical ,research are already becoming respectable and attracting the attention of the generality of men of science and of our clergy4 ,spiritualism and ,mesmerism are still tabooed1 but wait their turn for popular recognition1 having already been recognized by pioneers distinguished in science and other professions4 ,of course ,i speak only of the facts of these arts1 ,i do not speak of the theories put forward4 ,all these processes are in the very outermost court of the ,temple of ,true ,magic1 even if they are not outside the precinct4 ,but they are sufficient for our purpose1 and should make the serious thinker and unprejudiced enquirer pause before pronouncing the words1 superstition and hallucination1 in too confident a tone1 for he now must see the necessity of having a clear idea of what he means by the terms4 ,it is not uncommon of late to hear the superficially instructed setting down everything to suggestion1 a word they have picked up from modern hypnotic research1 or telepathy1 a name invented by psychical research--the ideas being as old as the world--forgetting that their mind remains in precisely the same attitude with regard to such matters as it was in previously when they utterly denied the possibility of suggestion and telepathy4 ,but to the earnest and patient student hypnotism and the rest are but the public reppearance of what has always existed in spite of the denial of two hundred years or so1 and instead of covering the whole ground is but the forward spray from the returning wave of psychism which will sweep the nations off their feet and moral balance1 if they will not turn to the experience of the past and gain strength to withstand the inrush4 ,the higher forms of all these things1 in the ,western ,world1 should have now been in the hands of the ministers of the ,church1 in which case we should not have had the reppearance of such powers in the hands of vulgar stage exhibitions and mercenary public mediumship4 ,but so it is2 and in vain is it any longer to raise the cry of fraud and hallucination on the one hand and of the devil on the other4 ,this is a mere shirking of responsibility1 and nothing but a reasonable investigation and an insistence on the highest ideals of life will help humanity4 ,i do not intend to enter into any review of the wonders attributed to ,simon1 neither to deny them as hallucinations1 nor attribute them to the devil1 nor explain them away by suggestion4 ,as a matter of fact we do not even know whether ,simon did or pretended to do any of the precise things mentioned4 ,all we are competent to decide is the general question1 viz41 that any use of abnormal power is pernicious if done for a personal motive1 and will assuredly1 sooner or later1 react on the doer4 ,here and there in the patristic accounts we light on a fact worthy of consideration1 as1 for example1 when ,simon is reported to have denied that the real soul of a boy could be exorcised1 and said that it was only a daemon1 in this case a sub-human intelligence or elemental1 as the ,mediaeval ,kabalists called them4 ,again the ,simonians are said to have expelled any from their ,mysteries who worshipped the statues of ,zeus or ,athena as being representatives of ,simon and ,helen2 thus showing that they were symbolical figures for some purpose other than ordinary worship2 and probably the sect in its purity possessed a body of teaching which threw light on many of the religious practices of the times1 and gave them a rational interpretation1 quite at variance with the fantastic diabolism which the ,fathers have so loudly charged against them4 ,the legends of magic are the same in all countries1 fantastic enough to us in the nineteenth century1 in all conscience1 and most probably exaggerated out of all correct resemblance to facts by the excited imagination of the legend-tellers1 but still it is not all imagination1 and after sifting out even ninety-nine per cent of rubbish1 the residue that remains is such vast evidence to the main facts that it is fairly overwhelming1 and deserves the investigation of every honest student4 ,but the study is beset with great difficulty1 and if left in the hands of untrained thinkers1 as are the majority of those who are interested in such matters in the present day1 will only result in a new phase of credulity and superstition4 ,and such a disastrous state of affairs will be the distinct fault of the leaders of thought in the religious1 philosophical1 and scientific world1 if they refuse the task which is naturally theirs1 and if they are untrue to the responsibility of their position as the directors1 guardians1 and adjusters of the popular mind4 ,denial is useless1 mere condemnation is of small value1 explanation alone will meet the difficulty4 ,thus when we are brought face to face with the recital of magical wonders as attributed to ,simon in the patristic legends1 it is not sufficient to sweep them on one side and ticket them with the contemptuous label of superstition4 ,we must recognize that whether or not these things were actually done by ,simon1 the ancient world both ,pagan and ,christian firmly believed in their reality1 and that if our only attitude towards them is one of blank denial1 we include in that denial the possibility of the so-called miracles of ,christianity and other great religions1 and therewith invalidate one of the most important factors of religious thought and history4 ,that the present attitude of denial is owing to the absurd explanation of the phenomena given by the majority of the ancient worthies1 is easily admissible1 but this is no reason why the denial of the possibilities of the existence of such things should be logical or scientific4 ,as to the wonders ascribed to ,simon1 though extraordinary1 they are puerile compared to the ideals of the truly religious mind1 and if ,simon used such marvels as proofs of the truth of his doctrine1 he unduly took advantage of the ignorance of the populace and was untrue to his better nature4 ,again1 setting aside all historical criticism1 if ,simon1 as the ,acts report1 thought to purchase spiritual powers with money1 or that those who were really in possession of such powers would ever sell them1 we can understand the righteous indignation of the apostles1 though we cannot understand their cursing a brother-man4 ,the view of the ,christian writer on this point is a true one1 but the dogma that every operation which is not done in the name of the particular ,master of ,christendom is of the ,devil--or1 to avoid personifications1 is evil--can hardly find favour with those who believe in the brotherhood of the whole race and that ,deity is one1 no matter under what form worshipped4 ,finally1 to sum up the matter1 we have cited our authorities1 and reviewed them1 and then endeavoured to sift out what is good from the heap1 leaving the rubbish to its fate4 ,removed as we are by so many centuries from the fierce strife of religious controversy which so deeply marked the rise of ,christianity1 we can view the matter with impartiality and seek to redress the errors that are patent both on the side of orthodoxy and of heterodoxy4 ,it is true we cannot be free of the past1 but it is also true that to identify ourselves with the hates and strifes of the ancients1 is merely to retrogress from the path of progress4 ,on the contrary1 our duty should be to identify ourselves with all that is good and beautiful and true in the past1 and so gleaning it together1 bind it into a sheaf of corn that1 when ground in the mills of common-sense and practical experience1 may feed the millions of every denomination who for the most part are starving on the unsatisfying husks of crude dogmatism4 ,there is no need for a new revelation1 in whatever sense the word is understood1 but there is every need for an explanation of the old revelations and the undeniable facts of human experience4 ,if the ,augean stables of the materialism that is so prevalent in the religion1 philosophy and science of to-day1 are to be cleansed1 the spiritual sources of the world-religions can alone be effectual for their cleansing1 but these are at present hidden by the rocks and overgrowth of dogma and ignorance4 ,and this overgrowth can only be removed by explanation and investigation1 and each who works at the task is1 consciously or unconsciously1 in the train of the ,hercules who is pioneering the future of humanity4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #if3 ,julius ,caesar1 ,,iii4 ii4 #ajf-h4 ,footnote #ig3 ,op4 cit4 i4 #d4 ,compare the ,diagram and explanation of the ,middle ,distance infra4 ,the ,moon is the ,lord of the lower plane of the ,middle ,distance1 the ,astral ,light of the medieval ,kabalists4 ,this is a doctrine common to the ,hermetic1 ,vedntic1 and many other schools of ,antiquity4 ,footnote #ih3 xi4 #cg4 ,footnote #ii3 ,philos41 ix4 #aj4 ,footnote #ajj3 ,zohar1 i4 #ej;b1 ,amsterdam and ,brody ,editions3 quoted in ,isaac ,myer's ,qabbalah1 pp4 #cgf1 #cgg4 ,footnote #aja3 ,see ,cory's ,ancient ,fragments1 #bnd ed42 not the redited third edition1 which is no longer ,cory's work4 ,footnote #ajb3 ,greek3 eisi panta puros henos ekgegaota--,psell4 #bd--,plet4 #cj4 ,footnote #ajc3 ,proc4 in ,theol4 #ccc--;in ,tim4 #aeg4 ,footnote #ajd3 ,greek3 paegaious krataeras--,i have ventured the above translation for this difficult combination from the meaning of the term ,greek3 paegae1 found elsewhere in the ,oracles1 in the metaphorical sense of source 7compare also ,plato1 ,phaed4 #bde ,c41 #hef ,d41 ,greek3 paegae kai archae chinaeseos--the source and beginning of motion71 and also from the meaning of ,greek3 krataer 7cratr71 as a cup-shaped hollow4 ,the idea of this ,crater is interestingly exemplified in the ,twelfth ,book of ,hermes ,trismegistus1 called ,his ,crater1 or ,monas1 as follows3 #aj4 ,tat4 ,but wherefore1 ,father1 did not ,god distribute the ,mind to all men8 #aa4 ,herm4 ,because it pleased him1 ,o ,son1 to set that in the middle among all souls1 as a reward to strive for4 #ab4 ,tat4 ,and where hath he set it8 #ac4 ,herm4 ,filling a large ,cup or ,bowl 7,crater7 therewith1 he sent it down1 giving also a ,cryer or ,proclaimer4 #ad4 ,and he commanded him to proclaim these things to the souls of men4 #ae4 ,dip and wash thyself1 thou that art able1 in this ,cup or ,bowl3 ,thou that believeth that thou shalt return to him that sent this cup2 thou that acknowledgest whereunto thou wert made4 #af4 ,as many1 therefore1 as understood the ,proclamation1 and were baptized1 or dowsed into the ,mind1 these were made partakers of knowledge1 and became perfect men1 receiving the ,mind4 ,this striking passage explains the mystic ,baptism of ,fire1 or ,mind1 whereby man became one with his ,divine ,monas1 which is indeed his ,mother ,vortex or ,source4 ,footnote #aje3 ,proc4 in ,parm4 ,footnote #ajf3 ,proc4 in ,theol4 ,plat41 #aga1 #agb4 ,footnote #ajg3 ,proc4 in ,tim41 #afg4 ,footnote #ajh3 ,proc4 in ,theol41 #cba4 ,footnote #aji3 ,proc4 in ,crat4 ,footnote #aaj3 ,dionys41 xiv4 ,footnote #aaa3 ,praep4 ,evan41 i4 #aj4 ,footnote #aab3 ,the names of these seven flames of the ,fire1 with their surface translations1 are as follows3 ,kl1 ,dark-blue2 ,karl1 ,terrible2 ,mano-jav1 ,swift as ,thought2 ,su-lohit1 ,deep-red colour2 ,su-dhmra-varn1 ,deep-purple colour2 ,ugr or ,sphulingin1 ,hot1 ,passionate1 or ,sparkling2 ,pradpt1 ,shining1 ,clear4 ,these are the literal meanings2 the mystic meanings are very different1 and among other things denote the septenary prismatic colours and other septenaries in nature4 ,footnote #aac3 ,hibbert lectures1 #ahhg3 ,lecture on the ,origin and ,growth of ,religion as illustrated by the ,religion of the ,ancient ,babylonians1 pp4 #agi1 #ahj4 ,footnote #aad3 ,see ,schwartze's ,pistis-,sophia and ,amlineau's ,notice sur le ,papyrus ,gnostique ,bruce4 ,footnote #aae3 ,de ,mysteriis ,liber1 vii4 #d4 ,footnote #aaf3 ,compare also ,herodot4 ii1 #ed--;,greek3 phonae anthropaeiae4 ,footnote #aag3 ,lib4 v4 ,footnote #aah3 ,psel4 #g4 ,footnote #aai3 ,psel4 ,schol4 in ,orac4 ,magic1 p4 #gj4 ,footnote #abj3 ,theodoret gives ,greek3 ennoia4 ,footnote #aba3 ,a4 ,aphthartos ,morph4 ,b4 ,nous tn ,holn4 c4 ,epinoia ,megal4 ,d4 ,eikn4 a4 ,nous4 b4 ,phn4 c4 ,logismos4 d4 ,enthumsis4 e4 ,onoma4 f4 ,epinoia4 ,footnote #abb3 xi4 #dg4 ,footnote #abc3 ,ibid41 xi4 #ah1 #ch4 ,footnote #abd3 ,wilson's ,trans4 i4 pp4 #ee et seqq4 ,footnote #abe3 ,prabhavpyaya3 ,pra-bhavathe forth-being or origin1 and ,apy-ayathe return or reabsorption4 ,it is the same idea as the ,simonian ,treasure-house4 ,footnote #abf3 ,ayana simply means moving4 ,footnote #abg3 ,mnava-,dharma ,shstra1 i4 #aj4 ,footnote #abh3 ,op4 cit41 iv4 #bea4 ,footnote #abi3 #ad4 ,footnote #acj3 ,this ,gnostic gospel1 together with the treatises entitled1 ,the ,book of the ,gnoses of the ,invisible and ,the ,book of the ,great ,logos in each ,mystery 7the ,bruce ,,mss471 is especially referred to1 as1 with the exception of the ,codex ,nazaraeus1 being the only ,gnostic works remaining to us4 ,all else comes from the writings of the ,fathers4 ,footnote #aca3 xv1 #a1 #b ,footnote #acb3 ,the most advanced theory1 however1 is that the foetus derives nourishment from the amniotic fluid1 and ,dr4 ,jerome ,a4 ,anderson sums up his highly interesting paper on the ,nutrition of the ,foetus in the ,american ,journal of ,obstetrics1 ,vol4 ,,xxi1 ,july1 #ahhh1 as follows3 ,to briefly sum up the facts supporting amniotic nutrition3 #ast4 ,the constant presence of nutritive substances in the amniotic fluid during the whole period of gestation4 #bnd4 ,the certainty of the absorption by a growing1 almost skinless1 foetus of any nutritive material in which it is constantly bathed4 #crd4 ,the permeability of the digestive tract at an early period1 and the necessary entrance therein1 according to the laws of hydrostatics1 of the albuminous amniotic fluid4 #dth4 ,the presence of1 as it seems to me1 bon fide dbris of digestion1 or meconium1 in the lower intestine4 #eth4 ,the presence of urine in the bladder1 and bile in the upper intestine2 their normal locations4 #fth4 ,the mechanical difficulties opposing direct nutrition through the placenta1 and the impossibility of nourishment by this method during the early stages of embryonic life previous to the formation of the placenta or umbilical vesicle4 #gth4 ,the evident material source of the fluid1 as shown by the hydrorrheas of pregnancy1 as well as in the exhaustion the mother experiences1 in some cases1 at least1 under its loss and rapid reproduction4 #hth4 ,the entire absence during gestation of any trace of the placenta in certain animals1 notably the salamander4 ,footnote #acc3 ,oratio ,v1 ,in ,matrem ,deorum4 ,footnote #acd3 ,de ,defectu ,oraculorum1 xxi4 ,footnote #ace3 ,dictionary of ,christian ,antiquities1 art4 ,four ,rivers1 ,the4 ,footnote #acf3 ,the ,homeric ,cave of ,nymphs1 ,greek3 peri tou en ,odusseia ,numphon antrou4 ,footnote #acg3 ,greek3 legousin ek petras gegennaesthai auton--,just4 ,mart4 ,dial4 cum4 ,tryph4 ,footnote #ach3 ,cabiri1 ii1 #cfc4