a tradition, sacredly signifying, having stripped the one approaching of his former life, so to speak, and having released him even from the final ties of that life, sets him naked and barefoot to look toward the west and, with the pushing away of his hands, to renounce the fellowships of lightless evil, and to breathe out, as it were, the habit of dissimilarity that had come to be in him, and to confess his complete renunciations of what is contrary to the godlike. Thus, when he has become completely unconnected and without fellowship, it turns him toward the east, announcing that his station and upward gaze in the divine light will be pure in the complete departure from evil, and truly accepting his sacred confessions of complete inclination toward the One, now that he has become uniform. But it is clear, I think, to those knowledgeable of hierarchical matters, that the intelligible aspects of the godlike state hold their unchangeable quality by continual elevations in intensity toward the One and by the complete mortifications and non-existences of their contraries. For one must not only depart from all evil, but also be manfully unyielding and fearless always against the destructive yielding to it, nor ever come to a cessation of the sacred love of truth, but attentively and eternally strain toward it with all one's might, always sacredly working out the elevation to the more perfect things of the Godhead. 6 And you see the exact images of these things in the rites hierarchically performed. For the godlike hierarch begins with the sacred anointing, and the priests under him complete the rite of anointing, summoning the one being initiated in a figure to the sacred contests, in which, being under Christ as prize-giver—since as God He is the creator of the prize-giving, and as wise He has set its laws, and as beautiful He has wrought fitting prizes for the victors, and what is yet more divine, since as good He was among the contestants, sacredly striving with them for their own freedom and victory against the power of death and corruption—the one being initiated will enter rejoicing into the contests as divine, and he will abide in the laws of the wise one and according to them he will strive without transgression, holding fast to the hope of the beautiful prizes, being ranked under the good Lord and leader of the prize-giving, and having entered into the divine footsteps of the first of contestants through goodness, with God-imitating contests having wrestled down the energies and existences contrary to his deification, he dies with Christ, mystically speaking, to sin, according to baptism. 7 And consider for me with understanding with how much fitness the sacred rites have their symbols. For since death for us is not the non-existence of our being, as seemed to others, but the separation of the united parts, leading to what is unseen by us, the soul becoming formless, as in the privation of a body, and the body being hidden in the earth or, through some other of the bodily changes, disappearing from the human form, appropriately the complete covering by water has been taken as an image of death and of unseen burial. Therefore the symbolic teaching initiates the one being sacredly baptized, by the three immersions in the water, to imitate the divine death of the three-day-and-night burial of Jesus the life-giver in a God-imitating way, as is possible for men, in which, according to the mysterious and secret tradition of the scripture, the ruler of this world found nothing. 8 Next, they put luminous garments on the one being initiated. For by the manly and godlike impassibility to contraries and by the inclination in intensity toward the One, what is disordered is ordered and what is formless is given form, being illumined by the altogether luminous life. And the perfecting chrismation with myrrh makes the perfected one fragrant. For the sacred perfection of the divine birth unites those who have been perfected with the divine Spirit. But the visitation that makes fragrant and perfects intellectually, being most ineffable, I leave to be known intellectually by those who have been deemed worthy of the sacred and deifying communion of the divine Spirit in the mind. And at the end of all things, the hierarch calls the perfected one to the most sacred Eucharist and imparts to him communion in the perfecting mysteries.

παράδοσις ἱερῶς αἰνισσομένη τὸν προσιόντα τὴν οἷον προτέραν ζωὴν ἀπεκδύσασα καὶ μέχρι τῶν κατ' ἐκείνην ἐσχάτων σχέσεων ἀπολύσασα γυμνὸν καὶ ἀνυπόδετον ἵστησι πρὸς δυσμὰς ἀφορῶντα καὶ τῇ τῶν χειρῶν ἀπώσει τὰς τῆς ἀλαμποῦς κακίας ἀναινόμενον κοινωνίας καὶ τὴν ἐγγενομένην αὐτῷ τῆς ἀνομοιότητος ἕξιν ὥσπερ ἐκπνέοντα καὶ τὰς ὁλικὰς ὁμολογή σαντα πρὸς τὸ τοῦ θεοειδοῦς ἐναντίον ἀποταγάς. Oὕτω παντελῶς ἄσχετον αὐτὸν καὶ ἀκοινώνητον γεγονότα πρὸς ἕω μετάγει τὴν ἐν τῷ θείῳ φωτὶ στάσιν τε καὶ ἀνάνευσιν ἔσεσθαι καθαρῶς ἐν τῇ παντελεῖ τῆς κακίας ἀποφοιτήσει διαγγέλλουσα καὶ τὰς ἱερὰς αὐτοῦ τῆς πρὸς τὸ ἓν ὁλικῆς συννεύσεως ὁμολογίας ἑνοειδοῦς γενομένου φιλαλήθως ἀποδεχομένη. Ἀλλ' ἔστι που δῆλον ὡς οἶμαι τοῖς τῶν ἱεραρχικῶν ἐπιστήμοσιν, ὅτι ταῖς διηνεκέσιν ἐν συντονίᾳ πρὸς τὸ ἓν ἀνατάσεσι καὶ ταῖς τῶν ἐναντίων ὁλικαῖς νεκρώσεσι καὶ ἀνυπαρξίαις τὸ ἀναλλοίωτον ἴσχει τὰ νοερὰ τῆς θεοειδοῦς ἕξεως. Oὐ γὰρ ἀναχωρῆσαι χρὴ μόνον ἀπὸ κακίας ἁπάσης, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀρρενωπῶς ἀμάλθακτον εἶναι καὶ ἀφόβητον ἀεὶ πρὸς τὴν ἐπ' αὐτὴν ὀλέθριον ὕφεσιν οὐδὲ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τῆς ἀληθείας ἔρωτος ἐν καταλήξει ποτὲ γενέσθαι, προσεχῶς δὲ καὶ αἰωνίως ἐπ' αὐτὴν ὅση δύναμις ἀνατείνεσθαι τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ τελεώτερα τῆς θεαρχίας ἀναγωγὴν ἱερῶς ἀεὶ δια πραγματευόμενον. <6> Ὁρᾷς δὲ τὰς τούτων ἀκριβεῖς εἰκόνας ἐν τοῖς ἱεραρχικῶς τελουμένοις. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ θεοειδὴς ἱεράρχης ἀπάρχεται τῆς ἱερᾶς ἀλοιφῆς, οἱ δὲ ἱερεῖς ὑπ' αὐτῷ ελοῦσι τὴν τῆς χρίσεως ἱερουργίαν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἐν τύπῳ τὸν τελούμενον ἀγῶνας ἐκκαλούμενοι, καθ' οὓς ὑπ' ἀθλοθέτῃ Χριστῷ γινόμενος, ἐπειδὴ ὡς θεός ἐστι τῆς ἀθλοθεσίας δημιουργός, ὡς σοφὸς δὲ τοὺς νόμους αὐτῆς τέθεικεν, εἰργάσατο δὲ ὡς καλὸς εὐπρεπῆ τοῖς νικῶσι τὰ ἔπαθλα, καὶ τὸ ἔτι θειότερον· ἐπείπερ ὡς ἀγαθὸς ἐν τοῖς ἀθληταῖς ἐγεγόνει μετ' αὐτῶν ἱερῶς ὑπὲρ τῆς αὐτῶν ἐλευθερίας καὶ νίκης πρὸς τὸ τοῦ θανάτου καὶ τῆς φθορᾶς ἀγωνιζόμενος κράτος, τοῖς μὲν ἀγῶσιν ὡς θείοις ὁ τελούμενος ἐπιβήσεται χαίρων, ἐμμενεῖ δὲ ταῖς τοῦ σοφοῦ νομοθεσίαις καὶ κατ' αὐτὰς ἀπαραβάτως ἀγωνιεῖται πρὸς τὴν τῶν καλῶν ἐπάθλων ἐλπίδα βεβαίως ἔχων ὑπ' ἀγαθῷ τῆς ἀθλοθεσίας κυρίῳ καὶ ἡγεμόνι ταττόμενος, ἐπιβὰς δὲ τοῖς θείοις ἴχνεσι τοῦ ἀθλητῶν πρώτου δι' ἀγαθότητα ταῖς θεομιμήτοις ἀθλήσεσι τὰς πρὸς θέωσιν ἐναντίας αὐτῷ καταπαλαίσας ἐνεργείας τε καὶ ὑπάρξεις συναποθνήσκει Χριστῷ μυστικῶς εἰπεῖν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ κατὰ τὸ βάπτισμα. <7> Καί μοι συνετῶς ἐννόει τὰ ἱερὰ μεθ' ὅσης οἰκειότητος ἔχει τὰ σύμβολα. Καὶ γὰρ ἐπειδὴ θάνατός ἐστιν ἐφ' ἡμῶν οὐ τῆς οὐσίας ἀνυπαρξία κατὰ τὸ δόξαν ἑτέροις ἀλλ' ἡ τῶν ἡνωμένων διάκρισις εἰς τὸ ἡμῖν ἀφανὲς ἄγουσα τὴν ψυχὴν μὲν ὡς ἐν στερήσει σώματος ἀειδῆ γινομένην, τὸ σῶμα δὲ ὡς ἐν γῇ καλυπτόμενον ἢ καθ' ἑτέραν τινὰ τῶν σωματοειδῶν ἀλλοιώσεων ἐκ τῆς κατ' ἄνθρωπον ἰδέας ἀφανιζόμενον, οἰκείως ἡ δι' ὕδατος ὁλικὴ κάλυψις εἰς τὴν τοῦ θανάτου καὶ τοῦ τῆς ταφῆς ἀειδοῦς εἰκόνα παρείληπται. Τὸν οὖν ἱερῶς βαπτιζόμενον ἡ συμβολικὴ διδασκαλία μυσταγωγεῖ ταῖς ἐν τῷ ὕδατι τρισὶ καταδύσεσι τὸν θεαρχικὸν τῆς τριημερονύκτου ταφῆς Ἰησοῦ τοῦ ζωοδότου μιμεῖσθαι θάνατον ὡς ἐφικτὸν ἀνδράσι τὸ θεομίμητον, ἐν ᾧ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ λογίου μυστηριώδη καὶ κρυφίαν παράδοσιν οὐδὲν εὕρηκεν ὁ τοῦ κόσμου ἄρχων. <8> Ἑξῆς δὲ φωτοειδεῖς ἐσθῆτας ἐπιβάλλουσι τῷ τελουμένῳ. Τῇ γὰρ ἀνδρικῇ καὶ θεοειδεῖ τῶν ἐναντίων ἀπαθείᾳ καὶ τῇ πρὸς τὸ ἓν ἐν συντονίᾳ συννεύσει τὸ ἄκοσμον κοσμεῖται καὶ τὸ ἀνείδεον εἰδοποιεῖται τῇ φωτοειδεῖ καθόλου ζωῇ λαμπρυνόμενον. Ἡ δὲ τοῦ μύρου τελειωτικὴ χρῖσις εὐώδη ποιεῖ τὸν τετελεσμένον. Ἡ γὰρ ἱερὰ τῆς θεογενεσίας τελείωσις ἑνοῖ τὰ τελεσθέντα τῷ θεαρχικῷ πνεύματι. Τὴν δὲ νοητῶς εὐωδοποιὸν καὶ τελεσιουργὸν ἐπιφοίτησιν ἀρρητοτάτην οὖσαν ἐπιγνῶναι νοερῶς παρίημι τοῖς ἠξιωμένοις τῆς κατὰ νοῦν τοῦ θείου πνεύματος ἱερᾶς καὶ θεουργοῦ κοινωνίας. Ἐν τέλει δὲ πάντων ὁ ἱεράρχης ἐπὶ τὴν ἱερωτάτην εὐχαριστίαν καλεῖ τὸν τετελεσμένον καὶ τῆς τῶν τελεστικῶν μυστηρίων αὐτῷ μεταδίδωσι κοινωνίας.