The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 · 11 of 24 · tr. Samuel Zinner
Yaltabaoth-b
The first <is> Athoth – he has the face of a sheep;
the second is Eloaiou – he has the face of a donkey;
the third is Astaphaios – he has the face of a [hyena];
the fourth is Yao – he has the face of a seven-headed [dragon];
the fifth is Sabaoth – he has the face of a dragon;
the sixth is Adonin – he has the face of a monkey;
the seventh is Sabbede – he has the face of a glowing fire.
These are the sevenfold (aspect) of the week.
Yaltabaoth, however, possessed a multitude [II, 12] of faces – more than all the others – so that when among the seraphs he was able put on any face [IV, 19] in front of all of them as he wished. Because he shared his fire with them, he became their overlord. On account of the glorious power he possessed owing to his mother’s light, he named himself God, and he was disobedient to the place where he had originated. He further joined the seven powers inside his thought together with the authorities who were with him, and when he spoke, it happened, and he named each of the powers, beginning with the highest:
The first is Goodness, together with the first (authority), Athoth;
the second is Providence, together with the second (authority), Eloaio;
and the third is Divinity, together with the third (authority), Astraphaio;
the fourth is Lordship, together with the fourth (authority), Yao;
the fifth is Kingdom, together with the fifth (authority), Sabaoth;
the sixth is Jealousy, together with the sixth (authority), Adonein;
the seventh is Sophia, together with the seventh (authority), Sabbateon.
These also possess a [IV, 20] firmament that corresponds to each heavenly aeon. They were given names that accord with the glory of the heavenly entities, to bring about the [annihilation of the] powers, but power dwelt in the names given to [them by] their originator, yet the names that were given to them in accord with the glory of the heavenly entities will mean for them annihilation and feebleness. In this way, they possess two names.
Further, everything he organized (var. *[Further, after] creating [everything, he organized] them)* in accord with the semblance of the first aeons that had come into being, in order that he could [II, 13] create them after the likeness of the indestructible ones.
It was not because of his seeing the indestructible entities, but because of the power inside him, which he had procured from his mother, that he generated inside him the likeness of the world, and when he saw the creation around him and the host of the angels around him, which had issued forth from him, he declared to them: ‘I am a jealous God, and there is no God other than me.’ By declaring this, however, he implied to the angels attending him that there is another God, because if there had not been another, how could he be jealous of another?
The mother then began ‘to move back and forth,’ becoming aware of the deficiency as the luminosity [IV, 21] of her light decreased, and she grew dark on account of her companion not having agreed together with her.”
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text notes that the firmament and names of the lower powers correspond to the glory of the heavenly entities.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage details the origin of the world, describing how Yaltabaoth organized creation in the semblance of higher aeons.
The Gnostic myth of Wisdom's prolapse from the Pleroma — her unilateral desire or error producing the Demiurge and the entrapment of divine sparks in matter.
The narrative describes the 'mother' (Sophia) experiencing a deficiency and darkness due to her companion's disobedience, reflecting the myth of Wisdom's error.
Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.
Yaltabaoth is described as possessing a multitude of faces and the ability to put on any face he wishes among the seraphs.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The passage states that when Yaltabaoth spoke, creation happened, and he named the powers, demonstrating the creative efficacy of the spoken word.