The Naassene Psalm

The Law of Universal Genesis
was the firstborn nous; the second Chaos
shed by the firstborn. The third was received
by the soul... Clad in the shape of a hind
she is worn away in death's slavery.
Now she has mastery and glimpses light:
now she is plunged in misery and weeps.
Now she is mourned, and herself rejoices.
Now she weeps and is finally condemned.
Now she is condemned and finally dies.
And now she even reaches the point where
hemmed in by evil, she knows no way out.
Misled, she has entered a labyrinth.
Then Jesus said: "Behold, Father,
she wanders the earth pursued by evil.
Far from thy Breath she is going astray.
She is trying to flee bitter Chaos,
and does not know how she is to escape.
Send me forth, o Father, therefore, and I,
bearing the seal shall descend and wander
all Aeons through, all mysteries reveal.
I shall manifest the forms of the gods
and teach the secrets of the holy way
which I call Gnosis.

[Quoted by Hippolytus, Refutations, translated by Robert Haardt]

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