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VII. A prayer of consecration. Footnotes
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VII. A PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
[Revised text, R. 28, 29. Wessely, ibid., 84, 1598 ff. ]
1. Thee I invoke, O greatest God, Lord everlasting, thou world-ruler, above the world, beneath the world, mighty sea-ruler;
2. Who shinest forth at dawn, out from the East rising for all the world, and setting in the West!
3. Come unto me, thou who dost rise from the four winds, joyous Good Daimon, for whom the heaven is thy revelling-place! 2
4. I call upon thy holy, mighty, hidden names which thou dost joy to hear.
5. When thou dost shine the earth doth sprout afresh, the trees bear fruit when thou dost laugh, the animals bring forth when thou dost turn to them.
6. Give glory, honour, grace, fortune and power. . . !
7. Thee I invoke, the great in heaven. . . , O dazzling Sun, who shed’st thy beams on all the world!
8. Thou art the mighty serpent, the chief of all the
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gods, 1 O thou who dost possess Egypt’s beginning, 2 and the end of all the world!
9. Thou art the [God] who saileth o’er the ocean; thou art the [God] who doth come into sight each day.
10. O thou who art above the world, and art beneath the world, O mighty ruler of the sea, give ear unto my voice this day, this night, these holy hours [of thine], and through this amulet let that be done for which I consecrate it!
Footnotes
84: 1 I have supplied the titles.
84: 2 Perhaps originally spirits or breaths.
84: 3 π α ν τ ο κ ρ ά τ ω ρ, used of Hermes, Anth. P., append., 282.
84: 4 Compare Lactantius, i. 6 (Frag. II. ); and especially iv. 7 (Frag. VI. ).
84: 5 The “eyes and light of Horus, ” according to Plutarch, De Is. et Os., lii.; mystically, the higher and lower “ego” and much else.
84: 6 ἐ ν τ α ῖ ς κ ό ρ α ι ς —compare the dissertation on the meaning of the title of our treatise generally translated “Virgin (κ ό ρ η ) of the World, ” in the commentary thereto.
84: 7 Sc. the Ocean of Space, the “Great Green” of the Ritual.
84: 8 That is, father-mother of the universe.
84: 9 κ ω μ α σ τ ή ρ ι ο ν —that is, heaven. See VII. 3 below.
84: 10 ἀ π ό ρ ρ ο ι α ι —or personified influences. See Plutarch, De Is. et Os., xxxviii., liii., lviii.; and especially Pistis Sophia, where it occurs over and over again. Compare also K. K., 1; Stob., p. 405, 17 (W. ).
85: 1 ε ὐ κ ε ρ α σ ί α —referring apparently to the composition of “body” and “soul. ”
85: 2 That is, the Pleroma or Æ on (see VI. 9 below). Reitzenstein (p. 18) says rightly, as we have seen, that Egyptologists have long recognised that the God here identified with Agathodaimon was originally the Hermes or Thoth of Hermopolis Magna, Lord of the Eight Wardens (the Ogdoad), symbolised by apes, hymned by the Muses (? the Nine or Ennead), and spouse of Isis-Righteousness (cf. Plut., De Is. et Os., iii. ).
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85: 3 See 13 below.
85: 4 Compare the extra-canonical logos: “I stood on a lofty mountain and saw a gigantic man, and another, a dwarf; and I heard as it were a voice of thunder, and drew nigh for to hear; and He spake unto me and said: I am thou, and thou art I; and wheresoever thou mayest be I am there. In all am I scattered [that is, the Logos as seed or “members”], and whencesoever thou wiliest, thou gatherest Me; and gathering Me, thou gatherest Thyself. ” (From the Gospel of Eve, quoted by Epiphanius, Hæ res., xxvi. 3. ) Cf. II. 7.
85: 5 In the Egyptian sense—that is, thy true “person” or “presence. ” See R. 17, n. 6, for many references to this fundamental concept of Egyptian religion.
85: 6 φ υ λ α κ τ ή ρ ι ο ν —lit., as a phylactery or amulet. See R. 18, n. 8, for Egyptian origin of Jewish phylacteries.
86: 1 δ ρ ά ξ —here the symbol of any hostile elemental force. Compare K. K., —Stob., 402, 22 (W. ).
86: 2 κ α θ ’ Ἅ ι δ ο υ.
86: 3 See 9 above.
86: 4 ἀ β ά σ κ α ν τ ο ς, ἀ β ά σ κ α ν τ ο ς.
86: 5 σ ω τ η ρ ί α ν, or salvation.
86: 6 See II. 2 below.
86: 7 Compare with this prayer for the descent of the Mind into the heart, the ascent of the man into the Mind of C. H., xiii. (xiii. ) 3.
86: 8 This is an echo of spiritual rebirth or regeneration.
86: 9 In its highest sense the heavenly food, or wisdom, the “supersubstantial bread, ” or “bread of life. ”
87: 1 ἐ π α φ ρ ο δ ι σ ί α ν π ρ ο σ ώ π ο υ. See I. 13 above.
87: 2 The symbols of which are: the ibis in the east, ape in the west, the serpent in the north, the wolf (or jackal) in the south. So says the overworking of the text; but perhaps wolf should rather be dog.
87: 3 The terebinth, or turpentine palm. Compare this with the story of Terebinthus, from whose four Books Manes is said, in the Acta Archelai, to have derived his system.
87: 4 The ebony; perhaps symbolic of the “dark” wisdom, the initiation “in the black” of the K. K. Fragments.
87: 5 τ ὰ β α ρ β α ρ ι κ ὰ ὀ ν ό μ α τ α —lit., barbarous, that is, non-Greek.
87: 6 Cf. I. 11.
87: 7 Lit., with Agathodaimon; compare σ ὺ ν θ ε ῷ —“with God’s blessing. ”
88: 1 σ υ ν δ ω κ ό ν τ ω ν —a ἅ π α ξ λ ε γ ό μ ε ν ο ν —δ ώ κ ω (δ ί δ ω μ ι ) may be compared with σ τ ή κ ω (ἵ σ τ η μ ι ). The image may be taken from the well-known symbolical representation of the sun sending forth rays, each furnished with a hand for giving and blessing, especially in the frescoes of the Atem-cult period. Cf. K. K., 11 and 31.
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88: 2 In the mystery-myth.
88: 3 Orig., medicines or philtres.
88: 4 ε ὐ δ ι ά λ ε κ τ ο ς γ ε ν ο ῦ —a unique and inelegant expression in Greek, and of uncertain translation into English.
88: 5 This appears here to refer to Anubis, the “dog” of Hades, or the “death-genius, ” the attendant on Thoth. “Black” is lit. “Ethiopian. ” But compare in Pistis Sophia, 367, “Æ thiopic Ariouth, ” a ruler among the infernal daimonials, who is “entirely black. ” The Ethiopians were famous for their sorcery and black magic. They were the traditional opponents of the “white magicians” of Egypt. Compare “Hor, son of the Negress” in the “Second Story of Khamuas, ” in Griffith’s (F. Ll. ) Stories of the High Priests of Memphis (Oxford, 1900), pp. 51 ff.
89: 1 This is not necessarily a prayer for physical form and the rest, but a prayer that the subtle ka of the man, the plastic soul-substance, may take a form of power and beauty, in the unseen world.
89: 2 ε ἴ δ ω λ ο ν, or image or double. The theurgist is endeavouring to identify his ka with that of the god. It was with his ka also, presumably, that the consecrated statue of the god was “animated. ” Compare the exposition of this theory as given in P. S. A., and the “image” or “likeness of God” in Lactantius, ii. 10. According to the Egyptians, man possessed: (1) a physical body (khat); (2) a soul (ba); (3) a heart (ȧ b); (4) a double (ka); (5) an intelligence (khu); (6) a power (sekhem); (7) a shadow (khaibit) (8) a spiritual body (sȧ ḥ [sic]); (9) a name (ren). See Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, ii. 299, 300. These are, of course, not arranged in any natural order or in a scientific distribution. The precise meaning of most of these terms is not known. Budge (op. cit., i. 163, 164), however, writes: “Related intimately to the body, but with undefined functions, as far as we can discover, was the sekhem, a word which has been translated ‘power, ’ and ‘form, ’ and even ‘vital force’; finally the glorified body, to which had been united the soul, and spirit and power, and name of the deceased, had its abode in heaven. This new body of the deceased in heaven was called sā ḥ u. ”
89: 3 Thoth and Maā t are represented as sitting on either side of Rā in his boat.
90: 1 That is, Hermes as the cosmic Logos.
90: 2 Thoth changes his form in every heaven-space or sphere. Compare C. H., i. 13; and also the same idea in the descent of the Christos in a number of Gnostic systems, where the Saviour and King conceals himself in the forms of his servants in every phase of his descent. Cf. also C. H., xi. (xii. ) 16.
90: 3 θ α ύ θ.
90: 4 That is, essence, or may be type.
90: 5 Presumably a symbol for air.
90: 6 Presumably a symbol for earth.
90: 7 Compare C. H., xi. (xii. ) 20; and P. S. A., vi.
91: 1 With the Egyptians, Darkness was the mystery of all mysteries. As Damascius (On First Principles) says: “Of the first principle the Egyptians said nothing; but characterised it as a darkness beyond all intellectual conception, a thrice unknown Darkness” (σ κ ό τ ο ς ἄ γ ν ω σ τ ο ν τ ρ ὶ ς τ ο ῦ τ ο ἐ π ι φ η μ ί ζ ο ν τ ε ς ). See my Orpheus (London, 1896), p. 93, and for “Night, ” pp. 154 and 170 ff. Perhaps this may again give some clue to the initiation “in the black” of the K. K. excerpt. The “dark wisdom” was the hidden of the hidden.
91: 2 α ἰ ὼ ν α ἰ ῶ ν ο ς. In another hymn, Hermes, as Logos, is called “Cosmos of cosmos” (R. 23, n. 1)—that is, the spiritual world or order.
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91: 3 That is the spiritual cosmos, or cosmos of Mind.
91: 4 Compare Isaiah xlv. 7: “I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. ” Cf. C. H., i. 23, “the avenging daimon”; and ibid., 15, “Within the Harmony he hath become a slave. ”
91: 5 Called in the Trismegistic literature the “Religion of the Mind” (Mentis religio). See P. S. A., xxv.
92: 1 Compare the cosmogony in Dieterich, Abraxas, 17, 43: “Through the Bitterness of God, there appeared Mind. . . that restrains the heart, and was called Hermes. ” With this peculiar phrase “Bitterness of God” compare the “Bitter Chaos” of the hymn at the end of the J. source of the Naassene Document in “The Myth of Man” chapter; also the “Bitter Water” or Chaos of the Sethian System (Hipp., Philos., v. 19); so also Julian, in Oration V., who writes: “The oracles of the gods declare that through purification not only our soul but also our bodies are judged worthy of being greatly helped and preserved, for it is said in them that ‘the mortal vesture of bitter matter is preserved. ’” Is it thus possible that the “Bitterness” of Jacob Bö hme may be a reminiscence of the ancient Gnosis?
92: 2 For pure Egyptian parallels see R. 24, n. 1.
92: 3 See the theogony in Dieterich, op. cit., 18, 75: “And the soul came into being. And God said: ‘Thou shalt move all things. . . Hermes guiding thee. ’” Compare C. H., x. (xi. ) 21: “But on the pious soul the Mind doth mount, and guide it to the Gnosis’ light; ” also xii. (xiii. ) 12, ix. (x. ) 10, iv. (v. ) 11, vii. (viii. ) 2.
93: 1 These rubrics I have added, following the example of Reitzenstein, but not his wording.
93: 2 Compare the expression “Jesus the living [one]” found frequently in the Introduction to the “First Book of Ieou” (Carl Schmidt, Gnostische Schriften in koptischer Sprache aus dem Codex Brucianus (Leipzig, 1892), 142-145—reprinted with his recent translation of the Pistis Sophia in Band I. of his Koptisch gnostische Schriften (Leipzig, 1905); and also the Preface to the newest found logoi: “These are the. . . words which Jesus, the living [one], spake” (Grenfell and Hunt, New Sayings of Jesus, London, 1904).
93: 3 Compare in the same writings the oft-repeated “Father of all fatherhood, Boundless Light. ”
94: 1 See Dieterich, Jahrb. f. Phil., Suppl., xvi. 802, 171, and 706. Compare also Ephes. iii. 18, and the Valentinian interpretation of the terms in this text as given by Hippolytus, Philos., vi. 34 (Dunker and Schneidewin, p. 248); also the interpretation of the Light Hymn in Pistis Sophia, 146, where the “height” is identified with the “home” of the Light.
94: 2 The magic names of power are omitted, as in the other prayers.
94: 3 Horus is often represented as pilot of the sun-ship in its voyage across the ocean of space, the “Great Green. ”
94: 4 The dragon here undoubtedly meaning darkness. Cf. C. H., i. 4.
95: 1 ὡ ς κ υ ν ο κ έ φ α λ ο ς. Can it be possible that behind this strange symbolism there may once have been some such idea as this—that as the ape is to man, so was this great elemental to the God?
95: 2 Lit., art seated on the head of cosmos.
95: 3 That is the Eternity or Æ on, called elsewhere the Pleroma or “fullness of grace, ” and identified with Agathodaimon (see prayer, R. 30). See also Wessely, op. cit., 185 (R. 362); and compare John i. 14, “full of grace and truth”; and 16, “Of his fullness have we received, and grace for grace. ”
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95: 4 The regenerate, or spirit-born—that is of “virgin-birth” or the “birth of Horus. ” But compare the declaration of the soul on its entrance into the unseen world after death, as given on an inscription found in the tomb of an Orphic or Pythagorean initiate, at Petilia, in what was once Magna Græ cia: “Of Earth and starry Heaven child am I; my race is of the Heavens! ” (See Inscr. Gr. Siciliæ et Italiæ, 638; and my “Notes on the Eleusinian Mysteries, ” Theosophical Review, xxii. 317. )
95: 5 These are the logoi hidden in the hearts of all.
95: 6 This may be merely a figurative expression in praise of the might that can not only dissolve the most stable things on earth, but also set in motion the centre of stability of spiritual essences; or it may refer to the idea of the “God born from the rock, ” which is most familiar to us from the Mithriac mystery-tradition, where the rock is said to symbolise in physics the “firmament, ” which was thought of as solid or rigid by the ancients.
95: 7 That is, the seven cosmic spheres.
96: 1 μ ε μ ν ο ι ν η ν —an untranslatable reading. Is it Egyptian? —or is it intended for μ ε μ ν ό ν ε ι α ν? If the latter, it would presumably be connected with the Egyptian myth and cult of Memnon (see Roscher’s Lexikon, coll. 2661 ff. ). The Memnon cult was somehow connected with Hermes, for in the ruins of the temple were still (at the beginning of the third century) to be seen “statues of Hermes, ” according to Philostratus (Vit. Apoll., vi. 4), who also (Imag., i. 7) tells us that the Memnon statue was as a lyre which was struck by the rod (π λ ῆ κ τ ρ ο ν ), that is the ray (ἡ ἀ κ τ ί ς ), of the sun. If so, “the rod [of power], by which thou sendest forth the gods, ” that is thy rays, each god being a ray of the spiritual sun, might have the epithet Memnonian applied to it. But in our present lack of information, this interpretation seems very strained.
96: 2 δ ό ξ α ι —here meaning powers.
97: 1 ἀ ν ε ι δ ω λ ό π λ η κ τ ο ν.
97: 2 κ ω μ α σ τ ή ρ ι ο ν. Cf. I. 5 above.
98: 1 The serpent was a symbol of the Logos, and this is the idea underlying the so-called Ophite systems of the Gnosis.
98: 2 This refers to the first nome of Upper Egypt, whose metropolis, Elephantine, was once the chief seat of the popular Agathodaimon cult (R. 29, n. 4). The “world” was thus the Egyptian civilised world, beyond which was the darkness of Ethiopia.
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