be expressed by any name, O. We pass to the Logos, the Divine
Mind, He who can be named, and His Pleroma, A, from which is "started"
the Visible World by the going forth of the "Light-Spark" or "Man," I.
After this we read from left to right, but this is the expounding of
the mystical life, the "return," under a veil of symbolism. IAO is the
great Name of God in three vowels, derived historically, no doubt, from
the Great Name in Judaism, and is the counterpart of the Indian AUM.
Probably, like this latter, it was pronounced in three ways: (1)
audibly; (2) inaudibly to others, but with the lips; (3) mentally. It
was a formula of a sacramental kind by which the life of the disciple
was mystically identified with the Life of the Master, so that the
knowledge of the real nature of the soul is given or restored by God.
During its use the mind was, of course, concentrated on its inner
meanings. Various aspects of mystical truth could be expressed by its
permutations; IAO, OAI, AOI, etc.

(3) _Cp._ Odes of Solomon, 27: "I stretched out my hands and worshipped
the Lord, for the extension of my hands is His sign, and my expansion
is the Upright Tree [or Pillar]."

The Cross of Calvary was taken, by the Gnostics, to be the outward and
visible sign of a concealed or Cosmic Cross, another aspect of the
"City" or Monad, upon which the Logos or Light-Spark, as the "Son of
Man," or the "Man," was crucified perpetually in an ineffable manner,
thus communicating His Life and Light to the Universe. The substance
or "strain" of this Cross is symbolised here by the Ennead or Ninefold
Being, the members of which, Knowledge, Life, Hope, etc., are each in
themselves Ideal Beings, Eternities, or Gods. Yet these Nine, a number
typical of Initiation, are also one, as the Master and the Cross are
also one. The Mystery is that of an Unbloody Sacrifice once and
perpetually offered and also of Divine Espousal. [See further the
"Hymn of Jesus" and the "Gnostic Crucifixion" texts and commentaries by
G. R. S. Mead, who renders the passage in the text by "The Source of
the Cross is the Man whom no man can comprehend."]

(4) "Twelve" seems to symbolise the Powers creative of all kinds of
life in their totality, the creative imagination or raying forth power.

(5) "Truth" is another name for the Bride of the Logos, His "Great
Surround" or Body. It is the Divine Concept or Conceiving Thought of
the Cosmos and its processes, and hence it is als