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by prayer and by the unceasing turning towards God, having already been transformed to the angelic dignity, do they not even have a shadow of a shadow of God? Well, therefore, through the Revelation, John has revealed to us that "what is in the white stone no one can know, except he who receives it": not because he cannot know, but unless he has a faithful ear, he does not think there is anything at all, considering the truly existing vision as a lack of vision, not as something beyond sense and knowledge, like a sacred darkness, but as being nowhere at all.

(p. 570) Therefore, these things also the philosopher, being manifestly a natural man and not receiving the things of the Spirit, declared that those who through the age have been revealed as seers of God did not even see a shadow of a shadow of God, and having become a disciple of some of the survivors, through his falsely so-called knowledge and rejected wisdom as not having known God, he made war against his teachers. For since they, according to the tradition of the fathers, told him that beginners should by certain devices force the mind, since it is with difficulty separated from external things, to turn back upon itself from its accustomed habits and thus look at themselves even according to the outer man, for this reason he proceeded against his teachers. But why do I say that those who have just stripped for this contest should turn toward themselves even according to the outer man? For even among the more perfect there are those who, having used this posture during prayer, have had the divine favorably hear them. And Elias himself, most perfect in the vision of God, having rested his head on his knees and thus more diligently gathered his mind to himself and to God, ended that long drought.

But since to this noble man who was undergoing the trembling of Cain in his mind, our own people advised him to hold his breath a little, so that he might at least for a short time hold his thought together, and not to let his eye wander here and there, but to fix it, as on a support, on his own chest or on his navel, and through such a posture of the body to send the power of the mind, which is poured out through sight, back into the heart (for as one of the great ones says concerning these things, "after the transgression, the inner man is accustomed to be assimilated to the outer postures"): since they suggested these things to him, after a very short time he became unruly, and did not stop at desertion, but also became a bitter accuser against them at a synod, calling them 'navel-souls' (p. 572). Perhaps also him who said to God "my belly will sound like a harp and my inward parts like a wall of brass which you have renewed" and him who said that "the law of God is in the midst of my belly," this man would address as 'belly-souls' or 'belly-lawed' and to the one who wrote "let the memory of God be joined to your breath" he would apply a similar epithet; and he will slander all those who through bodily symbols figure and name and trace out intellectual and divine and spiritual things. But this will harm them in no way, while he himself will remain outside the sacred veils and will not even be able to gaze at the shadows of the truth.

And surely you will not be displeased hearing these things from us; for we make you nearer to God than you do those who are united with God; for we cast you out from the shadows, but you cast them out even from the shadow of shadows. "But now," he says, "we see in a mirror," says the great Paul. What then is the mirror? Does it not have the shadow of a shadow appearing in it, even if it is less transparent and smooth? And how could it show anything, and how could it be a mirror, and how do we see anything in it if it does not even have a shadow of a shadow? But when someone makes himself a pure mirror of God, and, God being propitious, this in

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προσευχῇ καί διά τῆς ἀνεπιστρόφου πρός Θεόν ἀνανεύσεως πρός ἀγγελικήν ἤδη μετασκευασθέντες ἀξίαν οὐδέ σκιάν σκιᾶς ἔχουσι Θεοῦ; Καλῶς ἄρα διά τῆς Ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰωάννης ἀπεκάλυψεν ἡμῖν ὅτι «τά ἐν τῇ ψήφῳ τῇ λευκῇ οὐδείς δύναται γνῶναι, εἰ μή ὁ λαβών˙ μή ὅτι γάρ οὐ γνῶναι δύναται, ἀλλ᾿ εἰ μή πιστόν ὑπέχει οὖς, οὐδ᾿ εἶναι ὅλως οἴεταί τι, τήν ὄντως οὖσαν θεωρίαν ἀβλεψίαν λογιζόμενος, οὐχ ὡς ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν καί γνῶσιν, οἷόν τινα γνόφον ἱερόν, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς μηδαμῇ οὖσαν μηδαμῶς.

(σελ. 570) Ταῦτα ἄρα καί ὁ φιλόσοφος, ψυχικός ἄντικρυς ὤν καί μή δεχόμενος τά τοῦ Πνεύματος, τούς τε δι᾿ αἰῶνος θεόπτας ἀναπεφηνότας οὐδέ σκιάν γοῦν σκιᾶς ἰδεῖν ἀπεφήνατο Θεοῦ, καί τῶν περιόντων ἔστιν ὧν μαθητής γενόμενος, διά τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως καί τῆς ἀπεδεδοκιμασμένης σοφίας ὡς μή γνούσης τόν Θεόν ἐπεστράτευσε τοῖς διδασκάλοις. Ἐπεί γάρ πρός αὐτόν ἔλεγον ἐκεῖνοι κατά πατροπαράδοτον ὑφήγησιν τοῖς ἀρχομένοις τόν νοῦν εἰς ἑαυτόν, ἅτε δυσχερῶς ἀπαλλαττόμενον τῶν ἔξω, μηχαναῖς τισιν ἐπιστρέφειν βιάζεσθαι τῶν εἰθισμένων εἶναι καί οὕτω πρός ἑαυτούς βλέπειν καί κατά τόν ἔξω ἄνθρωπον, αὐτός διά τοῦτο κατά τῶν διδασκόντων ἐχώρησεν. Ἀλλά τί λέγω τούς ἄρτι πρός τόν ἀγῶνα τοῦτον ἀποδυσαμένους πρός ἑαυτούς καί κατά τόν ἔξω ἄνθρωπον στρέφειν; Καί τῶν τελεωτέρων γάρ εἰσιν οἵ τούτῳ χρησάμενοι τῷ σχήματι κατά τήν προσευχήν, εὐήκοον τό θεῖον ἔσχον. Καί αὐτός ὁ τήν θεοπτίαν τελεώτατος Ἠλίας, τήν κεφαλήν τοῖς γόνασιν ἐρείσας καί οὕτω τόν νοῦν εἰς ἑαυτόν καί τόν Θεόν φιλοπονώτερον συναγαγών, τόν πολυειδῆ ἐκεῖνον ἔλυσεν αὐχμόν.

Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεί καί τῷ γεννάδᾳ τούτῳ τόν τοῦ Κάιν τρόμον ὑφισταμένῳ κατά νοῦν, τήν τε ἀναπνοήν μικρόν ἐπέχειν συνεβούλευον οἱ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς, ὡς καί τήν διάνοιαν πρός βραχύ γοῦν συνεπισχοίη, τόν τε ὀφθαλμόν μή ὧδε κἀκεῖσε περιάγειν, ἀλλ᾿ οἷον ἐρείσματί τινι τῷ οἰκείῳ στήθει ἤ τῷ ὀμφαλῷ τοῦτον προσερείδειν καί τήν δι᾿ ὄψεως ἔξω χεομένην δύναμιν τοῦ νοῦ τῆς καρδίας εἴσω πέμπειν αὖθις διά τοῦ τοιούτου σχήματος τοῦ σώματος (ὡς γάρ τῶν μεγάλων περί ταῦτά τίς φησι «τοῖς ἔξω σχήμασιν εἴωθεν ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος συνεξομοιοῦσθαι μετά τήν παράβασιν»)˙ ἐπεί ταῦτ᾿ ἐκεῖνοι τούτῳ ὑπετίθεντο, μετά βραχύ λίαν ἀφηνιάσας, οὐ μέχρι τοῦ λειποταξίου ἔστη, ἀλλά καί πικρός αὐτοῖς ἐπί συνόδου κατέστη κατήγορος, 'ὀμφαλοψύχους' (σελ. 572) ὀνόμάζων αὐτούς. Τάχα καί τόν εἰπόντα πρός Θεόν «ἡ κοιλία μου ἠχήσει ὡς κιθάρα καί τά ἐντός μου ὡσεί τεῖχος χαλκοῦν ὅ ἐνεκαίνισας» καί τόν εἰπόντα ὡς «ὁ νόμος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν μέσῳ τῆς κοιλίας μου» 'κοιλιοψύχους' ἄν οὗτος ἤ 'κοιλιονόμους' προσαγορεύσειε καί τόν γράφοντα «μνήμη Θεοῦ κολληθήτω τῇ πνοῇ σου» παραπλησίαν ἐπιθείη τήν ἐπωνυμίαν˙ καί διαβαλεῖ πάντας τούς διά σωματικῶν συμβόλων τά νοερά καί θεῖα καί πνευματικά καί τυποῦντας καί ὀνομάζοντας καί ἀνιχνεύοντας. Ἀλλ᾿ ἐκείνους μέν παρά τοῦτο βλάψει γε οὐδέν, αὐτός δέ καί τῶν ἱερῶν παραπετασμάτων ἔξω μενεῖ καί οὐδέ καί πρός τάς σκιάς ἀτενίζειν ἕξει τῆς ἀληθείας.

Καί οὐ δυσχερανεῖς πάντως ταῦτα παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀκούων˙ ἐγγυτέρω γάρ σε Θεοῦ ποιοῦμεν ἤ σύ τούς ἡνωμένους Θεῷ˙ τῶν γάρ σκιῶν ἡμεῖς σε ἐκβάλλομεν, σύ δ᾿ ἐκείνους καί τῆς σκιᾶς τῶν σκιῶν. «Ἀλλά νῦν», φησίν, «ἐν ἐσόπτρῳ βλέπομεν» ὁ μέγας Παῦλός φησι. Τί οὖν τό ἔσοπτρον; Οὐδέ σκιάν σκιᾶς ἔχει τήν ἐμφαινομένην, κἄν ἧττον διειδές καί λεῖον ἦ; Καί πῶς ἄν δεικνύοι τι καί πῶς ἄν ἔσοπτρον εἴη καί πῶς βλέπομεν ἐν αὐτῷ τι μηδέ γοῦν σκιάν σκιᾶς ἔχοντι; Ὅταν δέ καί αὐτός τις ἑαυτόν ἔσοπτρον ἀκραιφνές κατασκευάσῃ Θεοῦ καί τοῦ Θεοῦ τυχόν ἵλεω τοῦτον ἐν