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The Work of the Great Builder
1. Then the Lord of the Seven Climes and the
Mother of the Righteous began to plan how to arrange this world. Then they
began to fashion it. First they made five Carpets ; there they seated the
Holder of Custody under that they formed ten firmaments (and) set up one
magic twelve faced Lens ; there they seated a Son of God as Watcher, so
that the demons could do no harm in all the ten firmaments. Further more
they evoked forty Angels, who hold the ten firmaments upraised.
2. In each firmament they fashioned
twelve Gates; they constructed four more Gates in the four directions right
where those Angels stand. The thickness of the ten firmaments is a hundred
thousand parasangs; (that of) their air again is ten thousand parasangs.
3. To each of the twelve Gates that are in
each of the firmaments they constructed six Thresholds, to each Threshold
thirty Bazaars; in each Bazaar (there are) twelve Rows, (and in each Row
two Sides); to the one Side they made 180 Stalls, (and) 180 to the other
Side. In every Stall they chained and confined yakskas (and) demons, the
males apart from the females. Thereupon the All Maker 1 called the Lord
' of the Firmaments; they seated him on a throne in the seventh heaven,
and made him the lord and king over all the firmaments. Then they fashioned
below the ten firmaments a rolling Wheel and Zodiac. Within the Zodiac
they fettered those that were the most wicked, vicious and rebellious of
the demons of the Darkness. They made the Twelve Signs and the seven Planets
rulers over the whole Mixed World, and set them in opposition to each other.
5. From all the demons that had been imprisoned
in the Zodiac, they wove to and fro the roots, veins and links; in the
lowest firmament they bored a hole and suspended the' Zodiac from it. two
Sons of God were set as Watchers by them, so as continually to control
(?) the Upper Wheel (M 178: Henning). |