Against Heresies: Book I

I want to explain to you their theory about how creation was formed through the mother by the Demiurge (apparently without his knowledge), patterned after the image of invisible things. They claim that first of all, the four elements—fire, water, earth, and air—were created after the image of the primary Tetrad above. When their operations—heat, cold, dryness, and humidity—are added, an exact likeness of the Ogdoad is shown.

THEY THEN LIST TEN POWERS IN THIS WAY: there are seven spherical bodies, which they also call heavens; then the spherical body that contains these, which they call the eighth heaven; and, in addition to these, the sun and moon. These ten, they say, are types of the invisible Decad, which came from Logos and Zoe.

As for the Duodecad, it is shown by the zodiacal circle; they claim that the twelve signs clearly represent the Duodecad, the daughter of Anthropos and Ecclesia. since the highest heaven, acting on the sphere of the seventh heaven, is linked with the swift precession of the whole system, balancing it with its own gravity to complete the cycle from sign to sign in thirty years, they say this is an image of Horus, encircling their thirty-named mother.

As the moon travels through her section of heaven in thirty days, they believe these days express the number of the thirty Æons. The sun, moving through his orbit in twelve months and returning to the same point in the circle, makes the Duodecad evident through these twelve months; and the days, measured by twelve hours, are a type of the invisible Duodecad. They also say the hour, the twelfth part of the day, is made of thirty parts, to show the image of the Triacontad. The circumference of the zodiacal circle contains three hundred and sixty degrees (each sign has thirty), and they claim that this circle preserves the image of the connection between the twelve and the thirty.

Furthermore, they assert that the earth is divided into twelve zones, and in each, it receives power from the heavens based on the sun's position above it, producing results according to the power that influences it. They believe this is a clear example of the Duodecad and its offspring.

IN ADDITION TO THESE THINGS: they say that the Demiurge, wanting to imitate the infinitude, eternity, immensity, and timelessness of the Ogdoad above, but being the result of defect and unable to express its permanence and eternity, resorted to the strategy of spreading its eternity into times, seasons, and numerous years, thinking that by the multitude of such times he might mimic its immensity. They further say that, having missed the truth, he followed falsehood, and for this reason, when the times are completed, his work will perish.