Section 23

3 Sc. Life. The concluding paragraph runs on without break in the German, being assigned to the same speaker; but the subject is clearly changed and the whole spirit is different. The Good Shepherd now seeks for the lost sheep and does not leave it to perish. 1 In § 9 ( p. 39 ) N. is called the Watcher who has his station in every region, i.e. the Great Watcher. 1 Y. is the Helper or Saviour. The shekīnah or celestial abode of Yawar, the Chosen, is the Home of the Blessed ( cp . J.B. 189 4 ). 1 Kannā . L. leaves this technical term untranslated; but in note 4 to p. 4 he shows that it frequently means a wine-cup or wine-bowl. I would therefore venture to connect it with the widespread notion of the kratēr or mixing-bowl of souls as handed on, for instance, by Plato in the Timæus, presumably from Hither Asian sources. One of the treatises of the Corpus Hermeticum is called 'The Cup' or 'The Bowl,' or alternatively 'The Monad.' It was not only the source of souls, but also the Mind into which they had to be dowsed for spiritual baptism or regeneration. 2 Presumably the rays of glory, signifying a state of contemplation. 3 The supernal powers. 4 I can find no explanation of this occasionally recurring figure; it indubitably goes back to some ancient myth.