Simon Magus | Page 9

above, by
the side of the blessed and Boundless Power, if the imaging be
perfected. For three, he says, are they that stand, and without there
being three standing Aeons, there would be no setting in order[31] of
the generable which, according to them, moves on the water, and which
is fashioned according to the similitude into a perfect celestial,
becoming in no whit inferior to the ingenerable Power, and this is the
meaning of their saying: "_Thou and I, the one thing; before me, thou;
that after thee, I._"
This, he says, is the one Power, separated into the above and below,
generating itself, increasing itself, seeking itself, finding itself, its own
mother, its own father, its sister, its spouse; the daughter, son, mother,
and father of itself; One, the Universal Root.
And that, as he says, the beginning of the generation of things which
are generated is from Fire, he understands somewhat in this fashion. Of
all things of which there is generation, the beginning of the desire for
their generation is from Fire. For, indeed, the desire of mutable
generation is called "being on fire." And though Fire is one, yet has it
two modes of mutation. For in the man, he says, the blood, being hot
and yellow--like fire when it takes form--is turned into seed, whereas in
the woman the same blood (is changed) into milk. And this change in
the male becomes the faculty of generating, while that in the female
(becomes) nourishment for the child. This, he says, is "the flaming
sword that is turned about to keep the way of the tree of life."[32] For
the blood is turned into seed and milk; and this Power becomes mother
and father, father of those that are born, and mother of those that are
nourished, standing in want of nothing, sufficient unto itself. And the
tree of life, he says, is guarded by the fiery sword which is turned about,
(which tree), as we have said, (is) the seventh Power which proceeds
from itself, contains all (in itself), and is stored in the six Powers. For
were the flaming sword not turned about, that fair tree would be
destroyed and perish; but if it is turned into seed and milk, that which is
stored in them in potentiality, having obtained a fitting utterance,[33]
and an appointed place in which the utterance may be developed,
starting as it were from the smallest spark, it will increase to all

perfection, and expand, and be an infinite power, unchangeable, equal
and similar to the unchangeable Aeon, which is no more generated for
the boundless eternity.
18. Conformably, therefore, to this reasoning, for the foolish, Simon
was a god, like that Libyan Apsethus; (a god) subject to generation and
suffering, so long as he remained in potentiality, but freed from the
bonds of suffering and birth, as soon as his imaging forth was
accomplished, and attaining perfection he passed forth from the first
two Powers, to wit heaven and earth. For Simon speaks distinctly
concerning this in his Revelation as follows:
"_To you, therefore, I say what I say, and write what I write. And the
writing is this._
"_Of the universal Aeons there are two shoots, without beginning or
end, springing from one Root, which is the Power invisible,
inapprehensible Silence. Of these shoots one is manifested from above,
which is the Great Power, the Universal Mind ordering all things, male,
and the other, (is manifested) from below, the Great Thought, female,
producing all things_.
"Hence pairing with each other,[34] _they unite and manifest the
Middle Distance, incomprehensible Air, without beginning or end. In
this is the Father who sustains all things, and nourishes those things
which have a beginning and end._
"_This is He who has stood, stands and will stand, a male-female power
like the preëxisting Boundless Power, which has neither beginning nor
end, existing in oneness. For it is from this that the Thought in the
oneness proceeded and became two._
"So he[35] was one; for having her[36] _in himself, he was alone, not
however first, although preëxisting, but being manifested from himself
to himself, he became second. Nor was he called Father before
(Thought) called him Father._
"_As, therefore, producing himself by himself, he manifested to himself

his own Thought, so also the Thought that was manifested did not
make the Father, but contemplating him hid him--that is to say the
Power--in herself, and is male-female, Power and Thought._
"_Hence they pair with each other being one, for there is no difference
between Power and Thought. From the things above is discovered
Power, and from those below Thought._
"In the same manner also that which was manifested from them[37]
_although being one is yet found as two, the male-female having the
female in itself. Thus