Seven exhortations to the dead, written by Basilides in Alexandria, the city
where East and West meet.
The First Sermon
The dead came back from Jerusalem, where they did not find what they were seeking.
They asked admittance to me and demanded to be taught by me, and thus I taught
them.
Hear Ye: I begin with nothing. Nothing is the same as fullness. In the endless
state fullness is the same as emptiness. The Nothing is both empty and full.
One may just as well state some other thing about the Nothing, namely that it
is white or that it is black or that it exists or that it exists not. That which
is endless and eternal has no qualities, because it has all qualities.
The Nothing, or fullness, is called by us the PLEROMA. In it thinking and being
cease, because the eternal is without qualities. In it there is no one, for
if anyone were, he then would be differentiated from the Pleroma and would possess
qualities which would distinguish him from the Pleroma.
In the Pleroma there is nothing and everything: it is not profitable to think
about the Pleroma, for to do that would mean one's dissolution.
The CREATED WORLD is not in the Pleroma, but in itself. The Pleroma is the beginning
and end of the created world. The Pleroma penetrates it completely, the created
world has no part of it, just as an utterly transparent body does not become
either dark or light in color as the result of the passage of the light through
it. We ourselves, however, are the Pleroma, so it is that the Pleroma is present
within us. Even in the smallest point the Pleroma is present without any bounds,
eternally and completely, for small and great are the qualities which are alien
to the Pleroma. The Pleroma is the nothingness which is everywhere complete
and without end. It is because of this that I speak of the created world as
a portion of the Pleroma, but only in an allegorical sense; for the Pleroma
is not divided into portions, for it is nothingness. We, also, are the total
Pleroma; for figuratively the Pleroma is an exceedingly small, hypothetical,
even non-existent point within us, and also it is the limitless firmament of
the cosmos about us. Why, however, do we discourse about the Pleroma, if it
is the all, and also nothing?
I speak of it, in order to begin somewhere, and also to remove from you the
delusion that somewhere within or without there is something absolutely firm
and definite. All things which are called definite and solid are but relative,
for only that which is subject to change appears definite and solid.
The created world is subject to change. It is the only thing that is solid and
definite, since it has qualities. In fact, the created world is itself but a
quality.
We ask the question: how did creation originate? Creatures indeed originated
but not the created world itself, for the created world is a quality of the
Pleroma, in the same way as the uncreated; eternal death is also a quality of
the Pleroma. Creation is always and everywhere, and death is always and everywhere.
The Pleroma possesses all: differentiation and non-differentiation.
Differentiation is creation. The created world is indeed differentiated. Differentiation
is the essence of the created world and for this reason the created also causes
further differentiation. That is why man himself is a divider, inasmuch as his
essence is also differentiation. That is why he distinguishes the qualities
of the Pleroma, yea, those qualities which do not exist. These divisions man
draws from his own being. This then, is the reason for man discoursing about
the qualities of the Pleroma, which do not exist.
You say to me: What good is it then to talk about this, since it has been said
that it is useless to think about the Pleroma?
I say these things to you in order to free you from the illusion that it is
possible to think about the Pleroma. When you speak of the divisions of the
Pleroma, we are speaking from the position of our own divisions, and we speak
about our own differentiated state; but while we do this, we have in reality
said nothing about the Pleroma. However, it is necessary for us to talk about
our own differentiation, for this enables us to discriminate sufficiently. Our
essence is differentiation. For this reason we must distinguish individual qualities.
You say: What harm does it not do to discriminate, for then we reach beyond
the limits of our own being; we extend ourselves beyond the created world, and
we fall into the undifferentiated state which is another quality of the Pleroma.
We submerge into the Pleroma itself, and we cease to be created beings. Thus
we become subject to dissolution and nothingness.
Such is the very death of the created being. We die to the extent that we fail
to discriminate. For this reason the natural impulse of the created being is
directed toward differentiation and toward the struggle against the ancient,
pernicious state of sameness. The natural tendency is called Principium Individuationis
(Principle of Individuation). This principle is indeed the essence of every
created being. From these things you may readily recognize why the undifferentiated
principle and lack of discrimination are all a great danger to created beings.
For this reason we must be able to distinguish the qualities of the Pleroma.
Its qualities are the PAIRS OF OPPOSITES such as
the effective and the ineffective
fullness and emptiness
the living and the dead
difference and sameness
light and dark
hot and cold
energy and matter
time and space
good and evil
the beautiful and the ugly
the one and the many
and so forth.
The pairs of opposites are the qualities of the Pleroma: they are also in reality
non-existent because they cancel each other out.
Since we ourselves are the Pleroma, we also have these qualities present within
us; inasmuch as the foundation of our being is differentiation, we possess these
qualities in the name and under the sign of differentiation, which means:
First-- that the qualities are in us differentiated from each other, and they
are separated from each other, and thus they do not cancel each other out, rather
they are in action. It is thus that we are the victims of the pairs of opposites.
For in us the Pleroma is rent in two.
Second-- the qualities belong to the Pleroma, and we can and should partake
of them only in the name and under the sign of differentiation. We must separate
ourselves from these qualities. In the Pleroma they cancel each other out; in
us they do not. But if we know how to know ourselves as being apart from the
pairs of opposites, then we have attained to salvation.
When we strive for the good and the beautiful, we thereby forget about our essential
being, which is differentiation, and we are victimized by the qualities of the
Pleroma which are the pairs of opposites. We strive to attain to the good and
the beautiful, but at the same time we also attain to the evil and the ugly,
because in the Pleroma these are identical with the good and the beautiful.
However, if we remain faithful to our nature, which is differentiation, we then
differentiate ourselves from the good and the beautiful, and thus we have immediately
also differentiated ourselves from the evil and the ugly. It is only thus that
we do not merge into the Pleroma, that is, into nothingness and dissolution.
You will object and say to me: Thou hast said that differentiation and sameness
are also qualities of the Pleroma. How is it then when we strive for differentiation?
Are we not then true to our natures and must we then also eventually be in the
state of sameness, while we strive for differentiation?
What you should never forget is that the Pleroma has no qualities. We are the
ones who create these qualities through our thinking. When you strive after
differentiation or sameness or after other qualities, you strive after thoughts
about the non-existant qualities of the Pleroma. While you run after these thoughts,
you fall again into the Pleroma and arrive at differentiation and sameness at
the same time. Not your thinking but your being is differentiation. That is
why you should not strive after differentiation and discrimination as you know
these, but strive after your true nature. If you would thus truly strive, you
would not need to know anyting about the Pleroma and its qualities, and still
you would arrive at the true goal because of your nature. However, because thinking
alienates us from our true nature, therefore I must teach knowledge to you,
with which you can keep your thinking under control.
The Second Sermon
During the night the dead stood along the walls and shouted: "We want to
know about God! Where is God? Is God dead?"
--God is not dead; he is as much alive as ever. God is the created world, inasmuch
as he is something definite and therefore he is differentiated from the Pleroma.
God is a quality of the Pleroma and everythingthat I have stated in reference
to the created world is equally true of him.
God is distinguished from the created world, however, inasmuch as he is less
definite and less definable than the created world in general. He is less differentiated
than the created world, because the ground of his being is effective fullness;
and only to the extent that he is definite and differentiated is he identical
with the created world; and thus he is the manifestation of the effective fullness
of the Pleroma.
Everything that we do not differentiate falls into the Pleroma and is cancelled
out along with its opposite. Therefore if we do not discern God, then the effective
fullness is cancelled out for us. God also is himself the Pleroma, even as every
smallest point within the created world, as well as within the uncreated realm,
is itself the Pleroma.
The effective emptiness is the being of the Devil. God and Devil are the first
manifestations of the nothingness, which we call the Pleroma. It does not matter
whether the Pleroma is or is not, for it cancels itself out in all things. The
created world, hoever, is different. Inasmuch as God and Devil are created beings,
they do not cancel each other out, rather thy stand against each other as active
opposites. we need no proof of their being; it is sufficient that we must always
speak about them. Even if they did not exist, the created being would forever
(because of its own differentiated nature) bring them forth out of the Pleroma.
All things which are brought forth from the Pleroma by differentiation are pairs
of opposites; therefore God always has with him the Devil.
This interrelationship is so close, as you have learned, it is so indissoluble
in your own lives, that it is even as the Pleroma itself. The reason for this
is that these two stand very close to the Pleroma, in which all opposites are
cancelled out and unified.
God and Devil are distinguished by fullness and emptiness, generation and destruction.
Activity is common to both. Activity unites them. It is for this reason that
activity stands above both, being God above God, for it unites fullness and
emptiness in its working.
There is a God about whom you know nothing, because men have forgotten him.
We call him by his name: ABRAXAS. He is less definite than God or Devil. In
order to distinguish God from him, we call God HELIOS, or the Sun.
Abraxas is activity; nothing can resist him but the unreal, and thus his active
being freely unfolds. The unreal is not, and therefore cannot truly resist.
Abraxas stands above the sun and above the devil. He is the unlikely likely
one, who is powerful in the realm of unreality. If the Pleroma were capable
of having a being, Abraxas would be its manifestation.
Although he is activity itself, he is not a particular result but result in
general.
He is active non-reality, because he has no definite result.
He is still a created being, inasmuch as he is differentiated from the Pleroma.
The sun has a definite effect and so does the devil; therefore they appear to
us more effective than the undefinable Abraxas.
For he is power, endurance, change.
--At this point the dead caused a great riot, because they were Christians.
The Third Sermon
The dead approached us like mist out of the swamps and they shouted: "Speak
to us further about the hightest god!"
--Abraxas is the god whom it is difficult to know. his power is the very greatest,
because man does not perceive it at all. Man sees the summum bonum (supreme
good) of the sun, and also the infinum malum (endless evil) of the devil, but
Abraxas, he does not see, for he is undefinable life itself, which is the mother
of good and evil alike.
Life aappears smaller and weaker than the summum bonum (supreme good), wherefore
it is hard to think that Abraxas should supersede in his power the sun, which
is the radiant fountain of all life force.
Abraxas is the sun and also the eternally gaping abyss of emptiness, of the
diminisher and dissembler, the devil.
The power of Abraxas is twofold. You cannot see it, because in your eyes the
opposition of this power seems to cancel it out.
That which is spoken by God-the-Sun is life;
That which is spoken by the Devil is death.
Abraxas, however, speaks the venerable and also accursed word, which is life
and death at once.
Abraxas generates truth and falsehood, good and evil, light and darkness with
the same word and in the same deed. Therefore Abraxas is truly the terrible
one.
He is magnificent even as the lion at the very moment when he strikes his prey
down. His beauty is like the beauty of a spring morn.
Indeed, he is himself the greater Pan, and also the lesser. He is Priapos.
He is the monster of the underworld, the octopus with a thousand tentacles,
he is the twisting of winged serpents and of madness.
He is the hermaphrodite of the lowest beginnings.
He is the lord of toads and frogs, who live in water and come out unto the land,
and who sing together at high noon and at midnight.
He is fullness, uniting itself with emptiness.
He is the sacred wedding;
He is love and the murder of love;
He is the holy one and his betrayer.
He is the brightest light of day and the deepest night of madness.
To see him means blindness;
To know him is sickness;
To worship him is death;
To fear him is wisdom;
Not to resist him means liberation.
God lives behind the sun; the devil lives behind the night. What god brings
into birth from the light, that the devil pulls into the night. Abraxas, however,
is the cosmos; its genesis and its dissolution. To every gift of God-the-Sun,
the devil adds his curse.
All things which you beg from God-the-Sun, generate an act of the devil. Allt
hings which you accomplish through God-the-Sun add to the effective might of
the devil.
Such is the terrible Abraxas.
He is the mightiest manifest being, and in him creation becomes frightened of
itself.
He is the revealed protest of creation against the Pleroma and its nothingness.
He is the terror of the son, which he feels against his mother.
He is the love of the mother for her son.
He is the delight of earth and the cruelty of heaven.
Man becomes paralyzed before his face.
Before him there exist neither question nor answer.
He is the life of creation.
He is the activity of differentiation.
He is the love of man.
He is the speech of man.
He is both the radiance and the dark shadow of man.
He is deceitful reality.
--Here the dead howled and raved greatly, for they were still incomplete ones.
The Fourth Sermon
Grumbling, the dead filled the room and said: "Speak to us about gods and
devils, thou accursed one!"
--God-the-Sun is the highest good, the devil is the opposite; thus you have
two gods. but there are many great goods and many vast evils, and among them
there are two god-devils, one of which is the BURNING ONE, and the other the
GROWING ONE. The burning one is EROS in his form as a flame. It shines and it
devours. The growing one is the TREE OF LIFE; it grows green, and it accumulates
living matter while it grows. Eros flames up and then dies away; the tree of
life, however, grows slowly and reaches stately stature throughout countless
ages.
Good and evil are united in the flame.
Good and evil are united in the growth of the tree.
Life and love oppose each other in their own divinity.
Immeasurable, like the host of the stars, is the number of gods and devils.
Every star is a god, and every space occupied by a star is a devil. And the
emptiness of the whole is the Pleroma. The activity of the whole is Abraxas;
only the unreal opposes him. Four is the number of the chief deities, because
four is the number of the measurements of the world. One is the beginning; God-the-Sun.
Two is Eros, because he expands with a bright light and combines two. Three
is the Tree of Life, because it fills space with bodies. Four is the devil,
because he opens everything that is closed; he dissolves everything that is
formed and embodied; he is the destroyer, in whom all things come to nothing.
Blessed am I, for it is granted unto me to know the multiplicity and diversity
of the gods. Woe unto you, for you have substituted the oneness of God for the
diversity which cannot be resolved into the one. Through this you have created
the torment of incomprehension, and the mutilation of the created world, the
essence and law of which is diversity. How can you be true to your nature when
you attempt to make one out of the many? What you do to the gods, that also
befalls you. All of you are made thus the same and in this way your nature also
becomes mutilated.
For the sake of man there may reign unity, but never for the sake of god, because
there are many gods but only few men. The gods are mighty, and they bear their
diversity, because like the stars they stand in solitude and are separated by
vast distances one from the other. Humans are weak and cannot bear their own
diversity, because they live close to each other and are desirous of company,
so that they cannot bear their own distinct separateness. For the sake of salvation
do I teach you that which is to be cast out, for the sake of which I myself
have been cast out.
The multiplicity of the gods equals the multiplicity of men. Countless gods
are waiting to become men. Countless gods have already been men. Man is a partaker
of the essence of the gods; he comes from the gods and he goes to God.
Even as it is useless to think about the Pleroma, so it is useless to worship
the number of the gods. Least of all is it of any use to worship the first God,
the effective fullness and the highest good. Through our prayer we cannot add
to it and we cannot take away from it, because the effective emptiness swallows
everything. The gods of light compose the heavenly world, which is multiple
and stretches into infinity and which expands without end. Their highest lord
is God-the-Sun.
The dark gods constitute the underworld. They are uncomplicated and they are
capable of diminishing and shrinking into infinity. Their deepest lord is the
devil, the spirit of the mooon, the serf of the earth, who is smaller, colder
and deader than the earth.
There is no difference in the power of the heavenly and the earthly gods. The
heavenly ones expand, the earthly ones diminish. Both directions stretch into
infinity.
The Fifth Sermon
The dead were full of mocking and cried: "Teach us, thou fool, about church
and holy community!"
--The world of the gods is manifest in spirituality and sexuality. The heavenly
gods appear in spirituality, the earth gods appear in sexuality.
Spirituality receives and comprehends. It is feminine and therefore we call
it MATER COELESTIS, the heavenly mother. Sexuality generates and creates. It
is masculine and therefore we call it PHALLOS, the earthly father. The sexuality
of man is more earthly, while the sexuality of woman is more heavenly; for it
moves in the direction of the greater. On the other hand, the spirituality of
woman is more earthly; for it moves in the direction of the smaller.
Deceitful and devilish is the spirituality of the man who goes toward the smaller.
Deceitful and devilish is the spirituality of woman who goes toward the greater.
Each is to go to its own place.
Man and woman become a devil to each other when they do not separate their spiritual
paths, for the nature of created beings is always of the nature of differentiation.
The sexuality of man goes to that which is eartly; the sexuality of woman goes
to that which is spiritual. Man and woman become a devil to each other if they
do not discriminate between their two forms of sexuality.
Man shall know that which is smaller, woman that which is greater. Man shall
separate himself from spirituality and from sexuality alike. He shall call spirituality
mother, and he shall enthrone her between heaven and earth. He shall name sexuality
phallos, and shall place it between himself and the earth, for the mother and
the phallos are super-human demons and manifestations of the world of the gods.
They are more effective for us than the gods, because they are nearer to our
own being. When you cannot distinguish between yourselves on the one hand, and
sexuality and spirituality on the other, and when you cannot regard these two
as beings above and beside yourselves, then you become victimized by them, i.e.,
by the qualities of the Pleroma. Spirituality and sexuality are not your qualities,
they are not things which you can possess and comprehend; on the contrary, these
are might demons, manifestations of the gods, and therefore they tower above
you and they exist in themselves. One does not possess spirituality for oneself
or sexuality for oneself; rather one is subject to the laws of spirituality
and sexuality.
Therefore no one escapes these two demons. You shall regard them as demons,
as common causes and grave dangers, quite like the gods, and above all, like
the terrible Abraxas.
Man is weak, therefore community is indispensible; if it is not the community
in the sign of the mother, then it is in the sign of the phallos. Not to have
community consists of suffering and sickness. Community brings with itself fragmentation
and dissolution. Differentiation leads to solitude. Solitude is contrary to
community. Because of the weakness of man's will, as opposed to the gods and
demons and their inescapable law, there is need for community.
For this reason there shall be as much community as necessary, not for the sake
of men but for the sake of the gods. The gods force you into a community. As
much community as they force upon you is necessary, but more than that is evil.
In the community each shall be subject to another, so that the community will
be maintained, inasmuch as you have need of it. In the solitary state each one
shall be placed above all others, so that he may know himself and avoid servitude.
In community there shall be abstinence.
In solitude let there be squandering of abundance.
For community is the depth, while solitude is the height.
The true order in community purifies and preserves.
The true order in solitude purifies and increases.
Community gives us warmth, while solitude gives us the light.
The Sixth Sermon
The demon of sexuality comes to our soul like a serpent. It is half a human
soul and is called thought-desire.
The demon of spirituality descends into our soul like a white bird. It is half
a human soul and is called desire-thought.
The serpent is an earthly soul, half demonic, a spirit, and related to the spirits
of the dead. Like the spirits of the dead, the serpent enters various terrestrial
objects. The serpent also induces fear of itself in the hearts of men, and enkindles
desire in the same. The serpent is of a generally feminine character and seeks
forever the company of the dead. It is associated with the dead who are earthbound,
who have not found the way by which to cross over to the state of solitude.
The serpent is a whore and she consorts with the devil and with evil spirits;
she is a tyrant and a tormenting spirit, always tempting people to keep the
worst kind of company.
The white bird is the semi-heavenly soul of man. It lives with the mother and
occasionally descends from the mother's abode. The bird is masculine and is
called effective thought. The bird is chaste and solitary, a messenger of the
mother. It flies high above the earth. It commands solitude. It brings messages
from the distance, from those who have gone before, those who are perfected.
It carries our words up to the mother. The mother intercedes and warns, but
she has no power against the gods. She is a vehicle of the sun.
The serpent descends into the deep and with her cunning she either paralyzes
or stimulates the phallic demon. The serpent brings up from the deep the very
cunning thoughts of the earthly one, thoughts that crawl through all openings
and become saturated with desire. Althought the serpent does nto want to be,
she is nevertheless useful to us. The serpent eludes our grasp, we pursue her
and she thus shows the way, which, with our limited human wit, we could not
find.
--The dead looked up with contempt and said: "Cease to speak to us about
gods, demons and souls. We have known all of this in essence for a long time!"
The Seventh Sermon
At night the dead came back again and amidst complaining said: "One more
thing we must know, because we had forgotten to discuss it: teach us concerning
man!"
--Man is a portal through which one enters from the outer world of the gods,
demons and souls, into the inner world, from the greater world into the smaller
world. Small and insignificant is man; one leaves him soon behind, and thus
one enters once more into infinite space, into the microcosm, into the inner
eternity.
In immeasureable distance there glimmers a solitary star on the highest point
of heaven. This is the only God of this lonely one. This is his world, his Pleroma,
his divinity.
In this world, man is Abraxas, who gives birth to and devours his own world.
This star is man's God and goal.
It is his guiding divinity; in it man finds repose.
To it goes the long journey of the soul after death; in it shine all thins which
otherwise might keep man from the greater world with the brilliance of a great
light.
To this One, man ought to pray.
Such a prayer increases the light of the star.
Such a prayer builds a bridge over death.
It increases the life of the microcosm; when the outer world grows cold, this
star still shines.
There is nothing that can separate man from his own God, if man can only turn
his gaze away from the fiery spectacle of Abraxas.
Man here, God there. Weakness and insignificance here, eternal creative power
there. Here is but darkness and damp cold. There all is sunshine.
Upon hearing this the dead fell silent, and they rose up like smoke rises over
the fire of the shepherd, who guards his flock by night.
Anagramma:
Nahtriheccunde
Gahinneverahtunin
Zehgessurklach
Zunnus.
END OF THE SEVEN SERMONS TO THE DEAD