Simon Magus Part 8

Thus Simon has six Roots and the Seventh Power, seven in all, as the type of the Aeons in the Pleroma. These all proceed from the Fire. In like manner also the Cabeiric deities of Samothrace and Phoenicia were Fire-G.o.ds, born of the Fire. Nonnus tells us they were sons of the mysterious Hephaestus (Vulcan),[110] and Eusebius, in his quotations from Sanchuniathon, that they were _seven_ in number.[111] The Vedic Agni (Ignis) also, the G.o.d of Fire, is called "Seven-tongued"

(Sapta-jihva) and "Seven-flamed" (Sapta-jvala).[112]

In the _Hibbert Lectures_ of 1887, Prof. A.H. Sayce gives the following Hymn of Ancient Babylonia to the Fire-G.o.d, from _The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_ (iv. 15):

1. The (bed) of the earth they took for their border, but the G.o.d appeared not,

2. from the foundations of the earth he appeared not to make hostility;

3. (to) the heaven below they extended (their path), and to the heaven that is unseen they climbed afar.

4. In the Star(s) of Heaven was not their ministry; in Mazzaroth (the Zodiacal signs) was their office.

5. The Fire-G.o.d, the first-born supreme, into heaven they pursued and no father did he know.

6. O Fire-G.o.d, supreme on high, the first-born, the mighty, supreme enjoiner of the commands of Anu!

7. The Fire-G.o.d enthrones with himself the friend that he loves.

8. He reveals the enmity of those seven.

9. On the work he ponders in his dwelling-place.

10. O Fire-G.o.d, how were those seven begotten, how were they nurtured?

11. Those seven in the mountain of the sunset were born;

12. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise grew up.

13. In the hollows of the earth they have their dwelling;

14. on the high places of the earth their names are proclaimed.

15. As for them, in heaven and earth they have no dwelling, hidden is their name.

16. Among the sentient G.o.ds they are not known.

17. Their name in heaven and earth exists not.

18. Those seven from the mountain of the sunset gallop forth;

19. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise are bound to rest.

20. In the hollows of the earth they set the foot.

21. On the high places of the earth they lift the neck.

22. They by nought are known; in heaven and in earth is no knowledge of them.[113]

Though I have no intention of contending that Simon obtained his ideas specifically from Vedic, Chaldaean, Babylonian, Zoroastrian, or Phoenician sources, still the ident.i.ty of ideas and the probability, almost amounting to conviction for the student, that the Initiated of antiquity all drew from the same sources, shows that there was nothing original in the main features of the Simonian system.

This is also confirmed by the statements in Epiphanius and the _Apostolic Const.i.tutions_ that the Simonians gave "barbarous" or "foreign names" to their Aeons. That is to say, names that were neither Greek nor Hebrew. None of these names are mentioned by the Fathers, and probably the Greek terms given by the author of the _Philosophumena_ and Theodoret are exoteric equivalents of the mystery names. There is abundant evidence, from gems, monuments and fragments, to show that there was a mystery language employed by the Gnostic and other schools.

What this language was no scholar has yet been able to tell us, and it is sufficiently evident that the efforts at decipherment are so far abortive. 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 century.[114]

Jamblichus tells us that the language of the Mysteries was that of ancient Egypt and a.s.syria, which he calls "sacred nations," as follows:

But, you ask, why among our symbolical terms ([Greek: saemantika]) we prefer barbarous (words) to our respective native (tongues)?

There is also for this a mystic reason. For it was the G.o.ds who taught the sacred nations, such as the Egyptians and a.s.syrians, the whole of their sacred dialect, wherefore we think that we ought to make our own dialects resemble the speech cognate with the G.o.ds.

Since also the first mode of speech in antiquity was of such a nature, and especially since they who learnt the first names concerning the G.o.ds, mingled them with their own tongue--as being suited to such (names) and conformable to them--and handed them down to us, we therefore keep unchanged the rule of this immemorial tradition to our own times. For of all things that are suited to the G.o.ds the most akin is manifestly that which is eternal and immutable.[115]

The existence of this sacred tongue perhaps accounts for the constant distinction made by Homer between the language of the G.o.ds and that of men.[116] Diodorus Siculus also a.s.serts that the Samothracians used a very ancient and peculiar dialect in their sacred rites.[117]

These "barbarous names" were regarded as of the greatest efficacy and sanct.i.ty, and it was unlawful to change them. As the Chaldaean Logia say:

Change not the barbarous names, for in all the nations are there names given by the G.o.ds, possessing unspeakable power in the Mysteries.[118]

And the scholiast[119] adds that they should not be translated into Greek.

It is, therefore, most probable that Simon used the one, three, five, and seven syllabled or vowelled names, and that the Greek terms were subst.i.tutes that completely veiled the esoteric meaning from the uninitiated.

The names of the seven Aeons, as given by the author of the _Philosophumena_, are as follows: The Image from the Incorruptible Form, alone ordering all things ([Greek: eikon ex aphthartou morphaes kosmousa monae panta]), also called The Spirit moving on the Waters ([Greek: to pneuma to epipheroumenon epano tou hudatos]) and The Seventh Power ([Greek: hae ebdomae dunamis]); Mind ([Greek: nous]) and Thought ([Greek: epinoia]), also called Heaven ([Greek: ouranos]) and Earth ([Greek: gae]); Voice ([Greek: phonae]) and Name ([Greek: onoma]),[120]

also called Sun ([Greek: haelios]) and Moon ([Greek: selaenae]); Reason ([Greek: logismos]) and Reflection ([Greek: enthumaesis]), also called Air ([Greek: aaer]) and Water ([Greek: hudor]).

The first three of these are sufficiently explained in the fragment of Simon's _Great Revelation_, preserved in the _Philosophumena_, and become entirely comprehensible to the student of the Kabalah who is learned in the emanations of the Sephirothal Tree. Mind and Thought are evidently Chokmah and Binah, and the three and seven Sephiroth are to be clearly recognized in the scheme of the Simonian System which is to follow.

Of the two lower Syzygies, or Lower Quaternary of the Aeons, we have no details from the Fathers. We may, however, see some reason for the exoteric names--Voice and Name, Reason and Reflection--from the following considerations:

(1) We should bear in mind what has already been said about the Logos, Speech and Divine Names. (2) In the Septenary the Quaternary represents the Manifested and the Triad the Concealed Side of the Fire. (3) The fundamental characteristics of the manifested universe with the Hindus and Buddhists are Name (Nama) and Form (Rupa). (4) Simon says that the Great Power was not called Father until Thought (in manifestation becoming Voice) _named_ ([Greek: onomasai]) him Father. (5) Reason and Reflection are evidently the two lowest aspects, principles, or characteristics, of the _divine_ Mind of man. These are included in the lower mind, or Internal Organ (Antah-karana), by the Vedantin philosophers of India and called Buddhi and Manas, being respectively the mental faculties used in the certainty of judgment and the doubt of enquiry.

This Quaternary, among a host of other things, typifies the four lower planes, elements, principles, aspects, etc., of the Universe, with their Hierarchies of Angels, Archangels, Rulers, etc., each synthesized by a Lord who is supreme in his own domain. Seeing, however, that the outermost physical plane is so vast that it transcends the power of conception of even the greatest intellect, 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 consciousness. It is only on the lowest and outermost plane that the lower Quaternary symbolizes the four Cardinal Points. The Michael (Sun), Gabriel (Moon), Uriel (Venus), and Raphael (Mercury) of the Kabalah, the four Beasts, the Wheels of Ezekiel, were living, divine, and intelligent Ent.i.ties pertaining to the inner nature of man and the universe for the Initiated.

It is to be presumed that the Simonians had distinct teachings on this point, as is evidenced by the t.i.tle of their lost work, _The Book of the Four Angles and Points of the World_. The Four Angles were probably connected with the four ducts or Streams of the "River going forth from Eden to water the Garden." These Streams have their a.n.a.logy on all planes, and cosmically are of the same nature as the akasha-Ganga--the Ganges in the Akas.h.i.+c Ocean of s.p.a.ce--and the rest of the Rivers in the Pauranic writings of the Hindus.

But before going further it will be as well to have a Diagram or Scheme of the Simonian Aeonology, for presumably the School of Simon had such a Scheme, as we know the Ophites had from the work of Origen, _Contra Celsum_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DIAGRAM OF THE SIMONIAN AEONOLOGY.][121]

Of course no Diagram is anything more than a symbolical mnemonic, so to say; in itself it is entirely insufficient and only permits a glance at one aspect, or face, of the world-process. It is a step in a ladder merely, useful only for mounting and to be left aside when once a higher rung is reached. Thus it is that the whole of the elements of Euclid were merely an introduction to the comprehension of the "Platonic Solids," which must also, in their turn, be discarded when the within or essence of things has to be dealt with and not the without or appearance, no matter how "typical" that appearance may be.

Sufficient has already been said of the Universal Principle, of the Universal Root and of the Boundless Power--the Parabrahman (That Which transcends Brahma), Mula-Prakriti (Root-Nature), and Supreme ishvara, or the Unmanifested Eternal Logos, of the Vedantic Philosophers. The next stage is the potential unmanifested type of the Trinity, the Three in One and One in Three, the Potentialities of Vishnu, Brahma, and s.h.i.+va, the Preservative, Emanative, and Regenerative Powers--the Supreme Logos, Universal Ideation and Potential Wisdom, called by Simon the Incorruptible Form, Universal Mind and Great Thought. This Incorruptible Form is the Paradigm of all Forms, called Vishva Rupam or All-Form and the Param Rupam or Supreme Form, in the _Bhagavad Gita_[122] spoken also of as the Param Nidhanam or Supreme Treasure-house,[123] which Simon also calls the Treasure-house [Greek: thaesauros] and Store-house [Greek: apothaekae], an idea found in many systems, and most elaborately in that of the _Pistis-Sophia_.

Between this Divine World, the Unmanifested Triple Aeon, and the World of Men is the Middle Distance--the Waters of s.p.a.ce differentiated by the Image or Reflection of the Triple Logos (D) brooding upon them. As there are three Worlds, the Divine, Middle, and Lower, which have been well named by the Valentinians the Pneumatic (or Spiritual), Psychic (or Soul-World), and Hylic (or Material), so in the Middle Distance we have three planes or degrees, or even seven. This Middle Distance contains the Invisible Spheres between the Physical World and the Divine. To it the Initiated and Illuminati, the Spiritual Teachers of all ages, have devoted much exposition and explanation. It is divine and infernal at one and the same time, for as the higher parts--to use a phrase that is clumsy and misleading, but which cannot be avoided--are pure and spiritual, so the lower parts are corrupted and tainted. The law of a.n.a.logy, imaging and reflection, hold good in every department of emanative nature, and though pure and spiritual ideas come to men from this realm of the Middle Distance, it also receives back from man the impressions of his impure thoughts and desires, so that its lower parts are fouler even than the physical world, for man's secret thoughts and pa.s.sions are fouler than the deeds he performs. Thus there is a Heaven and h.e.l.l in the Middle Distance, a Pneumatic and Hylic state.

The Lord of this Middle World is One in his own Aeon, but in reality a reflection of the triple radiance from the Unmanifested Logos. This Lord is the Manifested Logos, the Spirit moving on the Waters. Therefore all its emanations or creations are triple. The triple Light above and the triple Darkness below, force and matter, or spirit and matter, both owing their being and apparent opposition to the Mind, "alone ordering all things."

The Diagram to be more comprehensible should be so arranged, mentally, that each of the higher spheres is found within or interpenetrating the lower. Thus, from this point of view, the centre is a more important position than above or below. External to all is the Physical Universe, made by the Hylic Angels, that is to say those emanated by Thought, Epinoia, as representing Primeval Mother Earth, or Matter; not the Earth we know, but the Adamic Earth of the Philosophers, the Potencies of Matter, which Eugenius Philalethes a.s.sures us, on his honour, no man has ever seen. This Earth is, in one sense, the Protyle for which the most advanced of our modern Chemists are searching as the One Mother Element.

The idea of the Spirit of G.o.d moving on the Waters is a very beautiful one, and we find it worked out in much detail in the Hindu scriptures.

For instance, in the _Vishnu Purana_,[124] we find a description of the emanation of the present Universe by the Supreme Spirit, at the beginning of the present Kalpa or Aeon, an infinity of Kalpas and Universes stretching behind. This he creates endowed with the Quality of Goodness, or the Pneumatic Potency. For the three Qualities (or Gunas) of Nature (Prakriti) are the Pneumatic, Psychic and Hylic Potencies of the Waters of Simon.