Apocryphal Mysticism & Metaphysics

As Above so Below as Within so Without

~ That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above, working the miracles of one.

- Hermes Trismegistus
- The Emerald Tablet

~ The universe is one, and it began to come into being from the centre, and from the centre upwards at the same intervals of distance as those below. For the parts above from the centre are in inverse relationship to those below, for the centre is to what is below as it is to what is above, and so with all the rest, for both stand in the same relationship to the centre, except in so far as their positions are reversed.

- Philolaus of Tarentum
- Pythagorean Philosopher (5th century BC)

~ "To you, then, I address the things which I speak, and to you I write what I write. The writing is this, there are two offshoots from all the Aeons, having neither beginning nor end, from one root. And this is a power, who is invisible and incomprehensible. And one of these offshoots appears from above, which constitutes a great power, the creative Mind of the universe, which manages all things, and is a male.

The other offshoot, however, is from below, and constitutes a great Intelligence, and is a female which produces all things. From whence, ranged in pairs opposite each other, they undergo conjugal union, and manifest an intermediate interval, namely, an incomprehensible air, which has neither beginning nor end.

But in this is a Father who sustains all things, and nourishes things that have beginning and end. This is he who stood, stands, and will stand, being an hermaphrodite power according to the pre-existent indefinite power, which has neither beginning nor end. Now this power exists in isolation.

For Intelligence, that subsists in unity, proceeded forth from this power, and became two. And that Father was one, for having in himself this power he was isolated, and, however, He was not primal though pre-existent; but being rendered manifest to himself from himself, he passed into a state of duality.

But neither was he denominated Father before this power would style him Father. As, therefore, he himself, bringing forward himself by means of himself, manifested unto himself his own peculiar intelligence, so also the intelligence, when it was manifested, did not exercise the function of creation. But beholding him, she concealed the Father within herself, that is, the power; and it is an hermaphrodite power, and an intelligence.

And hence it is that they are ranged in pairs, one opposite the other; for power is in no wise different from intelligence, inasmuch as they are one. For from those things that are above is discovered power; and from those below, intelligence.

So it is, therefore, that likewise what is manifested from these, being unity, is discovered to be duality, an hermaphrodite having the female in itself. This, therefore, is Mind subsisting in Intelligence; and these are separable one from the other, though both taken together are one, and are discovered in a state of duality."

- Simon Magus
- Gnostic Philosher (1st century AD)

~ Yeshua saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, “These little ones being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.”

They said to him, “Then will we enter the kingdom as little ones?”

Yeshua said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, that is, to make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female will not be female".

"And when you make eyes instead of an eye and a hand in place of a hand and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the Kingdom".

- Yeshua the Nazorane
-The Gospel of Thomas (1st century AD)

The legend and History of The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus

The Emerald Tablet (not to be confused with The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean) is one of the earliest of all alchemical works that survives today, of which along with The Corpus Hermeticum went on to become the most famous Hermetic texts which inspired many of the great minds of alchemist scientists, philosophers, and artists of the Renaissance.

According to the ancient Egyptian legend 'The Story of the Book of Thoth' Nefer-ka-ptah was the son of the King Amenhotep who cared not for the material things of the earth but sought out the wisdom of his ancestors by spending all his free time studying the ancient records written on papyrus in the House of LIfe or engraved on stone in the temples.

One day while studying in a temple he heard laughter coming from behind him from a priest. Neferkaptah confronted the priest and asked why he was laughing at him, and the priest answered; 'Because you read worthless writings, if you want to read writings worthy of reading I can tell you where the Book of Thoth lies hidden'.

Neferkaptah eagerly wanted to know more and the priest told him Thoth (Djehuty) had written a book with his own hand that contained all the secrets of the Egyptian god of wisdom, and magics that would enable the reader to know the language of the animals, to cast great spells, even to enchant the sky and the earth itself!

For the priest to reveal the books whereabouts he asked Neferkaptah to provide 100 pieces of silver for his funeral, with offerings, libations, and incence, so his soul could rest in peace in the fields of Aalu. Neferkaptah agreed to his request and the priest told him, the book lay hidden at Koptos in the middle of the river inside an iron box, inside a bronze box, inside a ketewood box, inside a ivory and ebony box, inside a silver box, inside a gold box. Guarded by snakes and scorpions and all manner of crawling things, and a snake which no man can kill.

The ancient Greeks identified Djehuty (Thoth in Greek) with their messenger god Hermes, but to distinquish the Egyptian Hermes they give him the title of Trismegistus (Three-times-Great). And recognised Egypt and the famous Pillars of Hermes (the symbolic name for the wisdom of the original tradition of Thoth the first Hermes preserved in the scared language of hieroglyphs and inscriptions in the stone monuments) as the source where ancient Greece's most brilliant philosophers and sages derived a greater part of their wisdom, said to go as far back as Orpheus continuing down through the likes of Thales, Salon, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

In 332 BC when Macedonian general Alexander the great invaded Egypt (without any blood-shed) he became the Pharoah, and was therefore granted access to all the treasures of the ancient land of mysteries. And according to the legend following the source of knowledge of his Greek wisdom teacher Aristotle the whereabouts of the tomb of Hermes Trismegistus (the son of Thoth and second Hermes).

Convinced it was his destiny to reveal the ancient secrets Alexander immediately headed across the Libyan desert to an ancient temple in Siwa where the tomb was located, and upon excavation discovered the mysterious Emerald Tablet. Alexander is said to have taken the tablet to Heliopolis where he put the tablet on public display, and the scrolls in private archives. Constructing the newly named city of Alexandria to study the Hermetic texts, and assembly a panel of priests and scholars to prepare the Greek translations.

When Alexander left Egypt, it has been suggested he took the tablet with him for safekeeping before going on the conqueror Babylon and parts of India. Meanwhile copies of the tablet because primary documents in Alexandria, and across the Hellenistic empires. When Alexander died from a fever on his return from India his body was buried in a tomb somewhere in Egypt of which today its location remains a mystery.

However someone is said to have discovered the location of The Emerald Tablet, a brilliant Syrian youth named Ballinas found in a large cavern close to his hometown of Tyana in Cappadocia during the 1st century AD. The young man became known as Apollonius of Tyana (named after the Greek god and brother of Hermes, Apollo) the wandering Pythagorean, whom some have suggested can also be identified as the third Hermes (and son of Hermes Trismegistus) Tatios (Tat).

Although today no physical emerald tablet has been discovered the earliest translations of The Emerald Tablet appear in a 6th century Arabic book called The Book of the Secrets of Creation and Art of Nature, aka The Book of Ballinas the Wise on the Causes, and a 8th century Arabic text The Secretum Secretorum, a book of advice to kings. Along with the 8th century Arabic text written by alchemist Jabir Hayyan The Second Book of the Elements of Foundation. In all the oldest translations Ballinas (Apollonius) is given as the source, and describes finding the tablet in a cave in Tyana.

(the earliest translations of The Emerald Tablet, and segment of The Book of Thoth below)

~ Balinas mentions the engraving on the table in the hand of Hermes, which says,

Truth! Certainty! That in which there is no doubt!

That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above, working the miracles of one.

As all things were from one.

Its father is the Sun and its mother the Moon.

The Earth carried it in her belly, and the Wind nourished it in her belly, as Earth which shall become Fire. Feed the Earth from that which is subtle, with the greatest power.

It ascends from the earth to the heaven and becomes ruler over that which is above and that which is below.

And I have already explained the meaning of the whole of this in two of these books of mine.

- The Emerald Tablet
- Translation From Jabir ibn Hayyan

~ Here is that which the priest Sagijus of Nabulus has dictated concerning the entrance of Balinas into the hidden chamber. After my entrance into the chamber, where the talisman was set up, I came up to an old man sitting on a golden throne, who was holding an emerald table in one hand. And behold the following in Syriac, the primordial language was written thereon.

Here is a true explanation, concerning which there can be no doubt.

It attests, The above from the below, and the below from the above the work of the miracle of the One.

And things have been from this primal substance through a single act. How wonderful is this work! It is the main principle of the world and is its maintainer.

Its father is the sun and its mother the moon; the wind has borne it in its body, and the earth has nourished it.

The father of talismen and the protector of miracles whose powers are perfect, and whose lights are confirmed, a fire that becomes earth.

Separate the earth from the fire, so you will attain the subtle as more inherent than the gross, with care and sagacity.

It rises from earth to heaven, so as to draw the lights of the heights to itself, and descends to the earth; thus within it are the forces of the above and the below, because the light of lights within it, thus does the darkness flee before it.

The force of forces, which overcomes every subtle thing and penetrates into everything gross.

The structure of the microcosm is in accordance with the structure of the macrocosm.

And accordingly proceed the knowledgeable.

And to this aspired Hermes (Trismegistus), who was threefold graced with wisdom.

And this is his last book, which he concealed in the chamber.

- The Emerald Tablet
- Arabic Version (from the German of Ruska)

~ Now Ahura was the wife of Neferkaptah, and their child was Merab, this was the name by which he was registered by the scribes in the House of Life. And Neferkaptah, though he was the son of the King, cared for naught on earth but to read the ancient records, written on papyrus in the House of Life or engraved on stone in the temples, all day and every day he studied the writings of the ancestors.

One day he went into the temple to pray to the Gods, but when he saw the inscriptions on the walls he began to read them; and he forgot to pray, he forgot the gods, he forgot the priests, he forgot all that was around him until he heard laughter behind him. He looked round and a priest stood there, and from him came the laughter.

"Why laughest thou at me?" said Neferkaptah.

"Because thou readest these worthless writings," answered the priest. "If thou wouldest read writings that are worth the reading I can tell thee where the Book of Thoth lies hidden."

Then Neferkaptah was eager in his questions, and the priest replied, "Thoth wrote the Book with his own hand, and in it is all the magic in the world. If thou readest the first page, thou wilt enchant the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea; thou wilt understand the language of the birds of the air, and thou wilt know what the creeping things of earth are saying, and thou wilt see the fishes from the darkest depths of the sea.

And if thou readest the other page, even though thou wert dead and in the world of ghosts, thou couldest come back to earth in the form thou once hadst. And besides this, thou wilt see the sun shining in the sky with the full moon and the stars, and thou wilt behold the great shapes of the gods."

Then said Neferkaptah, "By the life of Pharaoh, that Book shall be mine. Tell me whatsoever it is that thou desirest, and I will do it for thee."

"Provide for my funeral," said the priest. "See that I am buried as a rich man, with priests and mourning women, offerings, libations, and incense. Then shall my soul rest in peace in the fields of Aalu. One hundred pieces of silver must be spent upon my burying."

Then Neferkaptah sent a fleet messenger to fetch the money, and he paid one hundred pieces of silver into the priest's hands. When the priest had taken the silver, he said to Neferkaptah:

"The Book is at Koptos in the middle of the river. In the middle of the river is an iron box,
In the iron box is a bronze box, in the bronze box is a keté-wood box, in the keté-wood box is an ivory-and-ebony box, in the ivory-and-ebony box is a silver box, in the silver box is a gold box, and in the gold box is the Book of Thoth.
Round about the great iron box are snakes and scorpions and all manner of crawling things, and above all there is a snake which no man can kill. These are set to guard the Book of Thoth."

- The Story of The Book of Thoth
- Ancient Egyptian Legends

~ “It is proposed then to make a few extracts concerning the Egyptian dynasties from the Books of Manetho. This Manetho (Egyptian high priest 3rd century BC), being high priest of the Heathen temples in Egypt, based his replies to King Ptolemy on the monuments which lay in the Seriadic country. These monuments he tells us, were engraved in the sacred language and in the characters of the sacred writing by Thoth the first Hermes after the flood they were translated from the sacred language into the then common tongue, but still written in hieroglyphic characters, and stored away in books by the Good Daimon’s son and the second Hermes (Trismegistus), father of Tat, in the inner chambers of the temples of Egypt"

- Syncellus
- Manetho Sothis

The Gnostic Origins of Peter's Inverted Cross

During the first two centuries just as there existed, prior to and alongside the (four) canonical Gospels, many other Apocryphal Gospels and Agapha (sayings of Christ), there existed, prior to and alongside the Canonical Acts, many other narratives claiming to record the doings and sayings of the Apostles and disciples of Jesus the Nazorane (Yeshua ha-Notzri).

Most of these originated in what are now called 'heretical circles', but were subsequently worked over by Orthodox editors to suit doctrinal prejudices, and eagerly embraced by the Catholic church. However for all their efforts some fragments which still preserve traces of the original Gnostic teachings still survive.

The earliest collection of these Gnostic Acts is said to have been made by Leucius, a disciple of Apostle John, and written at a time when the Gnostics Christian sects were not yet considered heretical, that is to say, prior to 150 AD, and probably collected in Alexandria, for 2nd century Apostolic church father Clement of Alexandria was acquainted with them. Another early collector of Gnostic Acts are credited to a certain Linus, of whom nothing certain is known, but may probably have lived in Rome.

The Acts of Peter features the travels of Apostle Peter in Rome and ironically his encounters with Samaritan Gnostic teacher Simon Magus including the legend of Peter's and Simon's miracle contest in which Simon ultimately falls to his death while flying with the the aid of demons. But more importantly found in the older fragment of the Linus collection, the Gnostic origin of the mystery of the cross, and The Martyrdom of Peter in which Peter insisted on being crucified head downwards.

In the Apocryphal Act after his contest with Simon Magus while leaving Rome Peter encounters the risen Christ whom tells him he is going to Rome to be crucified again (symbolically referring to Peter himself). Peter returns to Rome and is arrested and sentenced to death by crucifixion, he then inturn tells his executioners to crucify him upside down and proceeded to tell his symbolic reasons why, and quotes a Agapha saying of Jesus found in the early Gnostic texts The Gospel of Thomas, and The Gospel of the Egyptians, along with the Apocryphal Second Epistle of Clement, but excluded from the Canonical Gospels.

~ And as he went forth of the city, he saw the Lord entering into Rome. And when he saw him, he said, "Lord, where are you going?" And the Lord said unto him, "I go into Rome to be crucified".

And Peter said unto him, "Lord, art thou (being) crucified again?" He said unto him, "Yea, Peter, I am (being) crucified again". And Peter came to himself, and having beheld the Lord ascending up into heaven, he returned to Rome, rejoicing, and glorifying the Lord, for that he said, I am being crucified, the which was about to happen to Peter.

~ I beseech you the executioners, crucify me thus, with the head downward and not otherwise, and the reason wherefore, I will tell unto them that hear.

And when they had hanged him up after the manner he desired, he began again to say,
"Ye men unto whom it belongeth to hear, hearken to that which I shall declare unto you at this especial time as I hang here. Learn ye the mystery of all nature, and the beginning of all things, what it was. For the first man, whose race I bear in mine appearance , fell (was borne) head downwards, and showed forth a manner of birth such as was not heretofore, for it was dead, having no motion.

He, then, being pulled down who also cast his first state down upon the earth established this whole disposition of all things, being hanged up an image of the creation wherein he made the things of the right hand into left hand and the left hand into right hand, and changed about all the marks of their nature, so that he thought those things that were not fair to be fair, and those that were in truth evil, to be good.

Concerning which the Lord saith in a mystery, "Unless ye make the things of the right hand as those of the left, and those of the left as those of the right, and those that are above as those below, and those that are behind as those that are before, ye shall not have knowledge of the kingdom".

I explain this information to you, and the manner of my suspension is symbolic of that man who was first made.

- The Acts of Peter

~ When Salome inquired when the things concerning which she asked should be known, the Lord said, "When ye have trampled on the garment of shame, and when the two become one and the male with the female, neither male nor female."

- The Gospel of the Egyptians

~ Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, “These little ones being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.”

They said to him, “Then will we enter the kingdom as little ones?”

Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below, that is, to make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female will not be female".

"And when you make eyes instead of an eye and a hand in place of a hand and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the Kingdom".

-The Gospel of Thomas

Simon Magus and Helen of Tyre the Founders of Gnosticism

Simon Magus (magician in Latin) was a charismatic Gnostic leader with a reputation of a miracle worker and contemporary of Jesus the Nazorane (Yeshua ha Notzri) who lived during the 1st century AD in Samaria, part of the Roman province of Judeo. According to various testimonies including early 2nd century Christian apologist and philosophy Justin Martyr (also a native of Samaria), Simon had come from the city of Gitta, and had a large number of followers throughout the Roman empire which during included most of his country, and travelled around and taught with a former pr******te from Tyre named Helen. And was even honoured with a statue erected in the river of Tiber in Rome with the inscription 'Simoni DEO Sancto' (To Simon the holy god).

Simon Magus appears briefly in The New Testament in The Acts of the Apostles as a magician miracle worker whose followers call him 'the Power of God which is called Great,' and is so impressed by the Apostles of Jesus in the canonical account that he becomes baptized by the disciple Phillip. Then later comes into conflict with Apostle Peter for allegedly trying to buy the blessing of the Holy Spirit with money and is inturn cursed by Peter.

(And possibly in The Gospel of Luke when Apostle John tells Jesus “we (Apostles) saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” And Jesus replies “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you.”)

This brief incident lead the Apostolic church fathers to write extensively against their rival Simon Magus and his sect labelling him as the founder of Gnosticism, and the Simonians as the first Gnostic heretical sect of the 1st century. And the development of various Apocryphal texts and legends that eloborate Simon's encounters with Peter and Paul, including a miracle contest between the two holy men in Rome in The Acts of Peter, and The Acts of Peter and Paul (this time in the presence of Roman emperor Nero).

2nd century Apostolic church father Irenenus of Lyons most famously known for his lengthy anti Gnostic Christian writings reported after his confrontation with Peter as recounted in 'The Acts' Simon continued on with his studies of Magic and public ministry and one day when visiting Tyre (in present day Lebanon) met a pr******te called Helen in a brothal of the city. We can only assume that there was a promot connection since Irenenus wrote that Simon immediately bought her freedom and from then on she was with him everywhere.

That all the oldest testimonies of Simon Magus include a woman named Helen as his companion seems a sure fact, but as to whether she really was a pr******te, it is difficult to say whether it is historical or a cruel libel of the early anti Gnostic Christian authors towards their rival, just like Mary Magdalene was later falsely labelled by the Catholic church, or how Jesus was also accused in anti-Christian propaganda found in Jewish and Neo-Platonic literature of being the son of a pr******te, or the product of r**e.

Whatever may be the case, Simon established a complex spiritual and mystical relationship with his Helen that transcended the realm of purely sexual. For Simon she was Helen of Troy herself, the most beautiful woman in the world, and before Troy, his companion had been the first Thought of God, who had been imprisoned in the body of a woman in the lower realm and suffered countless vexations from spiritual powers (Aeons) to prevent her from returning to the celestial kingdom. Through successive reincarnations, Helen had finally ended up inhabiting the body of a pr******te in Tyre. Simon saw the 'lost sheep' in her whom he had to rescue and free her from her chains.

Today unfortunately due to the efforts of the early Orthodox/Catholic church none of the Simonian literature has survived, however some short quotations from Simonian manuscripts were preserved in the writings of late 2nd century - early 3rd century Apostolic church father Hippolytus of Rome. Of which includes a different account of Simon's death than the one found in the Apocryphal Acts legends, and more importantly words said to have come from Simon himself from a work titled 'The Great Announcement' and features some Simonian metaphysics and cosmology, collating with the Simon-Helen symbolism,
(the Mind and his Thought, Helen was Thought in human soul fallen into matter and Simon the Mind which brings about her redemption).

According to the 3rd century work 'The Clementine Homilies' attributed to Clement of Rome, a disciple of Apostle Peter, John the Baptist was a Hemerobaptists, a subsect of the Essenes (whom would baptize with water every day before praying every morning in order to be able to pronounce the Name of God with a clean body), and teacher of Simon Magus. But It was at Alexandria where Simon perfected his studies in magic.

John was the forerunner of Jesus, according to the method of coupling. Whereas Jesus had 12 disciples, as the sun, John had 30, as the moon, the number of days in a lunation, (or more correctly 29.5, with one of his disciples being a woman called Helen or Luna in Latin, and a woman being reckoned as a half a man in the perfect number of the Triacontad, or Pleroma of the Aeons, as documented by Hippolytus).

Of all John's disciples Simon was his favourite. But on the death of his teacher, he was absent in Alexandria, and so Dositheus, a co-disciple, was chosen as John's successor as head of the school. Simon on his return from Alexandria, acquiesced in the choice, but his superior knowledge could not remain hidden. One day Dositheus, became enraged and struck at Simon with his staff, but the staff passed through Simon's body like smoke, and Dositheus struck with amazement, yielded the leadership to Simon and became his disciple, and shortly afterwards died.

Simon confesses his love towards Helen (Luna) to his disciples, and they tell of the miracles (or magic) performed by Simon they witnessed. Simon can raise the dead, dig through mountains, pass through rocks as if they were merely clay, cast himself from a mountain and land gently to earth, can cause doors to open of their own accord, animate statues, make trees grow suddenly, pass through fire unhurt, shape-shift his face or become double-faced, or turn into a sheep or goat or serpent, fly in the air, become gold, and make and unmake kings. And on one occasion Helen was seen looking out of all the windows of a tower on all sides at once.

The initiated Simonian priests were accused of sexual immorality, and performing exorcisms through magical incantations and spells by the Orthodoxy fathers. Members wore magical amulets, and red and pink beads, and used their own holy scriptures with one book called 'The Four Quarters of the World,' and a collection of early Sayings ascribed to Simon. And erected statues of the Greek Olympian gods Zues and Athena representative of Simon and Helen which they reportedly worshipped and addressed as Lord and Lady.

By the mid 3rd century Egyptian Apostolic church father and philosopher Origen of Alexandria wrote the Simonian schools were nearly all but extinct and knows of no more than 30 members still active in Palestine. And reports his contemporary Celsus (a Neoplatonic philosopher who wrote the earliest theological critique of Christianity entitled 'The True Discourse') knows certain Simonians who are called Heleniani, because they worship Helen (or a teacher Helenus).

~ Simon was a Samaritan, the notorious magician of whom Luke the disciple and adherent of the apostles says, "But there was a fellow by name Simon, who had previously practised the art of magic in their state, and led away the people of the Samaritans, saying that he was some great one, to whom they all listened, from the small to the great, saying, 'He is the Power of God, which is called Great.' Now they gave heed to him because he had driven them out of their wits by his magical phenomena."

This Simon, therefore, pretended to be a believer, thinking that the apostles also wrought their cures by magic and not by the power of God, and supposing that their filling with the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands those who believed in God, through that Christ Jesus who was being preached by them that this was effected by some superior magical knowledge, and offering money to the apostles, so that he also might obtain the power of giving the Holy Spirit to whomsoever he would, he received this answer from Peter,

"Thy money perish with thee, since thou hast thought that the gift of God is obtained possession of with money; for thee there is neither part nor lot in this Word, for thy heart is not right before God. For I see thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity."

And since the magician still refused to believe in God, he ambitiously strove to contend against the apostles, so that he also might be thought of great renown, by extending his investigations into universal magic still farther, so that he struck many aghast; so much so that he is said to have been honoured with a statue for his magic knowledge by Claudius Caesar.

He therefore, was glorified by many as a god, and he taught that it was he himself who, forsooth, appeared among the Jews as the Son, while in Samaria he descended as the Father, and in the rest of the nations he came as the Holy Spirit. That he was the highest power, to wit, the Father over all, and that he allowed himself to be called by whatever name men pleased.

Now the sect of the Samaritan Simon, from whom all the heresies took their origin, was composed of the following materials.

He took round with him a certain Helen, a hired pr******te from the Phoenician city Tyre, after he had purchased her freedom, saying that she was the first conception (or Thought) of his Mind, the Mother of All, by whom in the beginning he conceived in his Mind the making of the Angels and Archangels. That this Thought, leaping forth from him, and knowing what was the will of her Father, descended to the lower regions and generated the Angels and Powers, by whom also he said this world was made. And after she had generated them, she was detained by them through envy, for they did not wish to be thought to be the progeny of any other.

As for himself, he was entirely unknown by them; and it was his Thought that was made prisoner by the Powers and Angels that has been emanated by her. And she suffered every kind of indignity at their hands, to prevent her reäscending to her Father, even to being imprisoned in the human body and transmigrating into other female bodies, as from one vessel into another.

She also was in that Helen, on whose account the Trojan War arose; wherefore also Stesichorus was deprived of his sight when he spake evil of her in his poems, and that afterwards when he repented and wrote what is called a recantation, in which he sang her praises, he recovered his sight. So she, transmigrating from body to body, and thereby also continually undergoing indignity, last of all even stood for hire in a brothel; and she was the "lost sheep."

Wherefore also he himself had come, to take her away for the first time, and free her from her bonds, and also to guarantee salvation to men by his "knowledge." For as the Angels were mismanaging the world, since each of them desired the sovereignty, he had come to set matters right; and that he had descended, transforming himself and being made like to the Powers and Principalities and Angels; so that he appeared to men as a man, although he was not a man; and was thought to have suffered in Judea, although he did not really suffer.

The Prophets moreover had spoken their prophecies under the inspiration of the Angels who made the world; wherefore those who believed on him and his Helen paid no further attention to them, and followed their own pleasure as though free, for men were saved by his grace, and not by righteous works. For righteous actions are not according to nature, but from accident, in the manner that the Angels who made the world have laid it down, by such precepts enslaving men. 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 world.

Wherefore their initiated priests live immorally. And everyone of them practises magic arts to the best of his ability. They use exorcisms and incantations. Love philtres also and spells and what are called "familiars" and "dream-senders," and the rest of the curious arts are assiduously cultivated by them. They have also an image of Simon made in the likeness of Zues, and of Helen in that of Athena, and they worship the (statues) and they have a designation from their most impiously minded founder, being called Simonians, from whom the Gnosis falsely so-called, derives its origins, as one can learn from their own assertions.

- Irenenus of Lyons
- Against Heresies

~ For Simon expressly speaks of this in the Revelation after this manner:

"To you, then, I (Simon Magus) address the things which I speak, and to you I write what I write. The writing is this, there are two offshoots from all the Aeons, having neither beginning nor end, from one root. And this is a power, who is invisible and incomprehensible. And one of these offshoots appears from above, which constitutes a great power, (the creative) Mind of the universe, which manages all things, and is a male.

The other offshoot, however, is from below, and constitutes a great Intelligence, and is a female which produces all things. From whence, ranged in pairs opposite each other, they undergo conjugal union, and manifest an intermediate interval, namely, an incomprehensible air, which has neither beginning nor end.

But in this is a Father who sustains all things, and nourishes things that have beginning and end. This is he who stood, stands, and will stand, being an hermaphrodite power according to the pre-existent indefinite power, which has neither beginning nor end. Now this power exists in isolation.

For Intelligence, that subsists in unity, proceeded forth from this power, and became two. And that Father was one, for having in himself this power he was isolated, and, however, He was not primal though pre-existent; but being rendered manifest to himself from himself, he passed into a state of duality.

But neither was he denominated Father before this power would style him Father. As, therefore, he himself, bringing forward himself by means of himself, manifested unto himself his own peculiar intelligence, so also the intelligence, when it was manifested, did not exercise the function of creation. But beholding him, she concealed the Father within herself, that is, the power; and it is an hermaphrodite power, and an intelligence.

And hence it is that they are ranged in pairs, one opposite the other; for power is in no wise different from intelligence, inasmuch as they are one. For from those things that are above is discovered power; and from those below, intelligence. So it is, therefore, that likewise what is manifested from these, being unity, is discovered to be duality, an hermaphrodite having the female in itself. This, therefore, is Mind subsisting in Intelligence, and these are separable one from the other, though both taken together are one, and are discovered in a state of duality."

So then Simon by such inventions got what interpretation he pleased, not only out of the writings of Moses, but also out of those of the pagan poets, by falsifying them. For he gives an allegorical interpretation of the wooden horse, and Helen with the torch, and a number of other things, which he metamorphoses and weaves into fictions concerning himself and his Thought.

And he said that the latter was the "lost sheep," who again and again abiding in women throws the Powers in the world into confusion, on account of her unsurpassable beauty; on account of which the Trojan War came to pass through her. For this Thought took up its abode in the Helen that was born just at that time, and thus when all the Powers laid claim to her, there arose faction and war among those nations to whom she was manifested.

It was thus, forsooth, that Stesichorus was deprived of sight when he abused her in his verses; and afterwards when he repented and wrote the recantation in which he sung her praises he recovered his sight.

And subsequently, when her body was changed by the Angels and lower Powers which also, he says, made the world she lived in a brothel in Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, where he found her on his arrival. For he professes that he had come there for the purpose of finding her for the first time, that he might deliver her from bo***ge. And after he had purchased her freedom he took her about with him, pretending that she was the "lost sheep," and that he himself was the Power which is over all. Whereas the impostor having fallen in love with this strumpet, called Helen, purchased and kept her, and being ashamed to have it known by his disciples, invented this story.

And those who copy the vagabond magician Simon do like acts, and pretend that in*******se should be promiscuous, saying, "All soil is soil, and it matters not where a man sows, so long as he does sow." Nay, they pride themselves on promiscuous in*******se, saying that this is the "perfect love," citing the text, "the holy shall be sanctified by the ... of the holy." And they profess that they are not in the power of that which is usually considered evil, for they are redeemed. For by purchasing the freedom of Helen, he Simon thus offered salvation to men by knowledge peculiar to himself.

For he said that, as the Angels were misgoverning the world owing to their love of power, he had come to set things right, being metamorphosed and made like unto the Dominions, Principalities and Angels, so that he was manifested as a man although he was not really a man, and that he seemed to suffer in Judæa, although he did not really undergo it, but that he was manifested to the Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father, and among the other nations as the Holy Ghost, and that he permitted himself to be called by whatever name men pleased to call him. And that it was by the Angels, who made the world, that the Prophets were inspired to utter their prophecies. Wherefore they who believe on Simon and Helen pay no attention to the latter even to this day, but do everything they like, as being free, for they contend that they are saved through his (Simon's) grace.

For (they assert that) there is no cause for punishment if a man does ill, for evil is not in nature but in institution. For, he says, the Angels who made the world, instituted what they wished, thinking by such words to enslave all who listened to them. Whereas the dissolution of the world, they (the Simonians) say, is for the ransoming of their own people.

And Simon's disciples perform magical ceremonies and use incantations, and philtres and spells, and they also send what are called "dream-sending" daemons for disturbing whom they will. They also train what are called "familiars," and have a statue of Simon in the form of Zeus, and one of Helen in the form of Athena, which they worship, calling the former Lord and the latter Lady. And if any among them on seeing the images, calls them by the name of Simon or Helen, he is cast out as one ignorant of the mysteries.

- Hippolytus of Rome
- Philosophumena

~ Then pouring out a quantity of our names, he (Celsus) says he knows certain Simonians who are called Heleniani, because they worship Helen or a teacher Helenus (Helen). But Celsus is ignorant that the Simonians in no way confess that Jesus is the Son of God, but they say that Simon is the Power of God, telling some marvellous stories about the fellow, who thought that if he laid claim to like powers as those which he thought Jesus laid claim to, he also would be as powerful among men as Jesus is with many.

- Origen of Alexandria
- Contra Celsum