And I trusted unto thee: now therefore, O Light of the Lights, I am afflicted in the darkness of the Chaos: if thou wishest therefore to come to deliver me, great is thy mercy; hear me in truth and deliver me: deliver me out of the matter of this darkness, that I should not be drowned in it, that I should be delivered unto the emanations of the Self-willed God, [47 ] these which afflict me, and out of their evil: let not this darkness drown me, and this power with face of lion, let not it swallow (down) all my power for ever, and let not this Chaos cover over my power.
Hear me, O Light, because good is thy mercy, and look upon me according to the multitude of mercifulness of thy light.
Turn not thy face away from me because I am tormented greatly.
Hasten, hear me and deliver my power, deliver me because of the Rulers who hate me, because thou art he who knoweth my affliction with my torment, with the torment of my power which they took away from me.
They are being in thy presence, those who planted me in all these evils: use them according to that which thou willest.
My power looked out of the midst of the Chaos, and (out) of the midst of the darknesses.
I looked out [47 ] for my partner, that he should come and fight for me, and he came 26 not.
And I was looking that he should come and give power to me, and I did not find him.
And having sought after the light, they gave to me a darkness, and having sought after my power they gave to me matter.
Now therefore, O Light of the Lights, the darkness with the matter, which brought upon me the emanations of the Self-willed: let them become to them for a snare, and let them be entangled among them, and pay back to them; and (let) them stumble and not come unto the Place of their Self-willed: let them continue in the darkness and not see out unto the light, let them look unto the Chaos for every hour; and let them not look unto the Height.
Bring upon them their vengeance and let catch them [48 ] thy judgment.
Let them not go unto their Place from this hour together with their Self-willed God; and let not his emanations go unto their Places from this hour, because impious and self-willed is their God; and he was thinking that he did these evils through himself, not knowing of course that unless they humbled me according to the precept he would not have been able to prevail against me: but thou having humbled me by thy precept they pursued me the more, and their emanations added trouble to my humbling, and they took away a power of light in me.
And also they began again, they afflicted me greatly for to take away all the light which (is) in me.
Because of those in which they planted me, let them not [48 ] go up unto the thirteenth Aeon the Place of the righteousness, and let them not be reckoned unto the lot of those who purify themselves and their light.
And let them not be reckoned unto those who will repent quickly, for them to receive mystery quickly in the light.
Because that they took away my own light from me, and my power began to fail in me, and I was lacking of my light.
Now therefore, O Light which is in me, that which becometh with me, I hymn thy name, O Light, in glory.
And my hymn, O Light, let it be pleasing to thee as of a mystery surpassing this which taketh into the gates of the Light, this which will say those who will repent and will purge [49 ] his light.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The text references 'emanations of the Self-willed God' and distinguishes between higher realms like the 'Height' and lower realms like Chaos.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
Evil is described as a lack of light ('took away all the light which (is) in me') rather than a positive force.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The speaker describes being 'aflicted in the darkness' and lacking light due to the removal of power by malevolent forces.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The speaker seeks to be delivered unto the emanations of the Self-willed God, implying a transformation into divine likeness.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The text involves ritual petition and invocation to engage divine power directly.