Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
1 I may be mistaken, but the ideas involved in this exposition seem to be precisely the same as those involved in the most modern dynamic theories of atomicity, except that the atoms or rather monads of our Gnostics are intelligent.
2 Lit., con-currence.
resembling a Womb, with the embryo l in the middle ; and if (he says) one would bring this to the test of sight, let him scrutinise scientifically the gravid womb of whatsoever living creature he wishes, and he will find the model of Heaven and Earth and of all things between them lying before him without any alteration.
" So the configuration of Heaven and Earth was such that it resembled a Womb as it were, according to the first concourse [of the three Principles].
" And again in the midst of Heaven and Earth infinite concourses of powers occurred, and every single concourse effected and expressed the image of nothing else but a seal of Heaven and Earth — a thing resembling a Womb.
" And in the Earth itself there developed from the
infinite seals of different kinds of living creatures,
[living things] still more infinite.
" And into all this infinity below the Heaven in the different kinds of living creatures, the fragrance of the Spirit from above together with the Light was sown and was distributed.2 . . .
"Accordingly there arose out of the Water a firstborn source — Wind vehement and boisterous — and cause of all genesis.
"For by making a certain seething3 in the waters it 4 raises up waves from the waters.
" And the genesis of the waves, being as it were a
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certain pregnant l impulse, is the source of the production of man or mind, whenever [this motion] quickens under the impulse of the Spirit.
1 Lit., navel ; but the word stands metaphorically for anything like a navel — e.g. the boss of a shield, a knob of any kind ; hence any centre, or nucleus.
2 Hippolytus here seems to have omitted some important section of his source from his summary ; in any case the text of that which follows is very corrupt, and in some important details demonstrably imperfect, as may be seen by comparing the Epitome, X. iv.
3 Or ferment. « Sc. Wind.
"And whenever this wave, raised from the Water by the Wind, and rendering nature pregnant, receives in itself the power of production of the female, it keeps down the Light from above that has been sown into it together with the fragrance of the Spirit, — that is to say, mind that takes forms in the various types ; that is a perfect god, brought down from the Ingenerable Light from above and Spirit into a human nature, as into a temple, by the course of Nature and motion of the Wind, generated from Water, commingled and blended with bodies, as though he were the salt of existing things and the light of the Darkness, struggling to be freed from bodies, and unable to find liberation and the way out of himself.
"For as it were a very minute spark . . . like a ray 2 . . . .
" Every thought and care of the Light above, therefore, is how and in what way mind may be liberated from the Death of the evil and dark Body,3 from the Father below, who is the Wind that in ferment and turmoil raised up the waves and brought to birth perfect mind, son -of himself, and yet not his own in essence.
" For he was a ray from above, from that Perfect Light, overpowered in the sinuous 4 and awesome and bitter 5 and blood-stained Water ; and that Light is the Spirit of Light borne upon the water.1 . . .
1 lyKvuwv — a play on /cD/ua, which means embryo as well as wave.
2 The text is here destroyed beyond hope of conjecture.
3 Sc. Darkness.
4 ffito\i$. Cf. the ano\iS>s of C. H., i. 4.
5 Cf, the Naassene Hymn : " She seeks to flee the bitter Chaos " ; and compare Jacob Bohme's " Bitterness," and also his " three Principles," with those of our system. The analogies are striking, and yet Jacob could not possibly have known this system physically.
" But the Wind, being both boisterous and vehement in its rush, is in its whistling 2 like unto a Serpent— a winged one.
" From the Wind, that is from the Serpent, the source of generation arose in the way that has been said; all things receiving together the beginning of generation.