4 of 38 | Sacred Sexuality, Whether asexual or sexual

  4 of 38 | Sacred Sexuality, Whether asexual or sexual

"What a different world, on the contrary, meets us in our thirty-one

leaves!  We find ourselves in the pure spheres of the highest Plêrôma;

we see, step by step, this world, so rich in heavenly beings, coming

into existence before our eyes; each individual space with all its

inmates is minutely described, so that we can form for ourselves a

living picture of the glory and splendour of this Gnôstic heaven.  The

speculations are not so confused and fantastic as those of the Pistis

Sophia and our two Books of Jeu....  The author is imbued with the

Greek spirit, equipped with a full knowledge of Greek philosophy, full

of the doctrine of the Platonic ideas, an adherent of Plato's view of

the origin of evil--that is to say, Hyle....  We possess in these

leaves a magnificently conceived work by an old Gnôstic philosopher,

and we stand astonished, marvelling at the boldness of the

speculations, dazzled by the richness of the thought, touched by the

depth of soul of the author.  This is not, like the Pistis Sophia, the

product of declining Gnôsticism, but dates from a period when Gnôstic

genius, like a mighty eagle, left the world behind it and soared in

wide and ever wider circles towards pure light, towards pure knowledge,

in which it lost itself in ecstasy.

"In one word, we possess in this Gnôstic work, as regards age and

contents, a work of the very highest importance, which takes us into a

period of Gnôsticism, and therefore of Christianity, of which very

little knowledge has been handed down to us."

Finally, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the scholarship of Mr

G. R. S. Mead, whose labours in the field of Hellenistic Theology have

to my mind received insufficient recognition, and whose admirable

translations I have often used in the notes.

The Body in Spiritual BDSM is Not to be confused with the "astral body" of modern theosophy.

The Mysteries of the Light Through Personal Experience

This is the Father of all Fathers, the God of all ... Gods, Lord of

all Lords, Sonship of all Sons, Saviour of all Saviours, Invisible of

all Invisibles, Infinity of all Infinities, Uncontainable of all

Uncontainables, Beyond-the-Deep of all Beyond-the-Deeps, Space of all

Spaces.  This is the Spiritual Mind which existed before all Spiritual

Minds, the Holy Place comprehending all Holy Places, the Good

comprehending all Goods.  This is the Seed of all good things.  It is

He who has brought them all forth, this Autophues or Being who has

produced Himself, who existed before all the beings of the Plêrôma

which He Himself has brought forth, Who is in all time.  This is that

Ingenerable and Eternal One who has no name and who has all names; who

was the first to know those of the Universe, who has looked upon those

of the Universe, who has heard those of the Universe.  He is mightier

than all might, upon whose incomprehensible Face no one is able to

gaze.  Beyond all mind does He exist in His own Form, Solitary and

Unknowable.  The Universal Mystery is He, the Universal Wisdom, of all

things the Beginning.  In Him are all Lights, all Life, and all Repose.