Observations placeholder

O Lord, while being born again, I am passing away; while growing and having grown,

(720) I am dying; while being born from a life-generating birth, I am passing on, released to death-- as you have founded, as you have decreed, and have established the mystery.
I am PHEROYRA MIOYRI."

After you have said these things, he will immediately respond with a revelation

(725). Now you will grow weak in soul and will not be in yourself, when he answers you. He speaks the oracle to you in verse, and after speaking he will depart. But you remain silent, since you will be able to comprehend all these matters by yourself; for at a later time

(730) you will remember infallibly the things spoken by the great god, even if the oracle contained myriads of verses. If you also wish to use a fellow-initiate, so that he alone may hear with you the things spoken, let him remain pure together With you for

(735) days, and abstain from meat and the bath. And even if you are alone, and you undertake the things communicated by the god, you speak as though prophesying in ecstasy. And if you also wish to show him, then judge whether he is completely worthy as a man

(740): treat him just as if in his place you were being judged in the matter of immortalization, and whisper to him the first prayer, of which the beginning is "First origin of my origin, AEEIOYO." And say the successive things as an initiate, over his

(745) head, in a soft voice, so that he may not hear, as you are anointing his face with the mystery. This immortalization takes place three times a year. And if anyone, O child, after the teaching, wishes to disobey, then for him it will no longer

(750) be in effect. Instruction for the ritual:

Take a sun-scarab which has twelve rays, and make it fall into a deep, turquoise cup, at the time when the moon is invisible; put in together with it the seed of the lotometra,

(755) and honey; and, after grinding it, prepare a cake. And at once you will see it (viz. the scarab) moving forward and eating; and when it has consumed it, it immediately dies. Pick it up and throw it into a glass vessel of excellent rose oil, as much as you wish; and

(760) spreading sacred sand in a pure manner, set the vessel on it, and say the formula over the vessel for seven days, while the sun is in mid-heaven:

"I have consecrated you, that your essence may be useful to me, to _______ alone, IE IA E EE OY EIA, that you may prove useful to me

(765) alone. For I am PHOR PHORA PHOS PHOTIZAAS (others: PHOR PHOR OPHOTHEI XAAS)."

On the seventh day pick up the scarab, and bury it with Myrrh and wine from Mendes and fine linen; and put it away in a flourishing bean-field.

(770) Then, after you have entertained and feasted together, put away, in a pure manner, the ointment for the immortalization. If you want to show this to someone else, take the juice of the herb called "kentritis," and smear it, along with rose oil, over the eyes of the one you wish;

(775) and he will see so clearly that he will amaze you. I have not found a greater spell than this in the world. Ask the god for what you want, and he will give to you.

Now presentation before the great god is like this: obtaining the above-mentioned herb

(780) kentritis, at the conjunction (viz. of the sun and the moon) occurring in the Lion, take the juice and, after mixing it with honey and myrrh, write on a leaf of the persea tree the eight-letter formula, as is mentioned below. And keeping yourself pure for three days before, set out early in the morning toward the East,

(785) lick off the leaf while you show it to the Sun, and then he (viz. the sun god) will listen to you attentively. Begin to consecrate this at the divine new moon, in the Lion. Now this is the formula:

"I EE 00 IAI."

Lick this up, so that you may be protected; and rolling up the leaf

(790) , throw it into the rose oil. Many times have I used the spell, and have wondered greatly. But the god said to me: "Use the ointment no longer, but, after casting it into the river, consult while wearing the great mystery

(795) of the scarab revitalized through the twenty-five living birds, and consult once a month, at full moon, instead of three times a year." The kentritis plant grows from the month of Payni, in the regions of the

(800) black earth, and is similar to the erect verbena. This is how to recognize it: an ibis wing is dipped at its black tip and smeared with the juice, and the feathers fall off when touched. After the Lord

(805) pointed this out, it was found in Menelaitis in Phalagry, at the river banks, near the Besas plant.

it is of a single stem, and reddish down to the root; and the leaves are rather crinkled and have fruit

(810) like the tip of wild asparagus. It is similar to the so-called talapes, like the wild beet. Now the amulets require this procedure: copy the right one onto the skin

(815) of a black sheep, with myrrh-ink, and after tying it with sinews of the same ani- mal, put it on; and copy the left one onto the skin of a white sheep, and use the same procedure. The left one is very full of "PROSTHYMERI"

(820), and has this text: "So speaking, he drove through the trench the single-hoofed horses." (Il. X. 564) "And men gasping among grievous slaughters." (Il. X. 521) "And they washed off their profuse sweat in the sea." (Il. X. 572) "You will dare to lift up your mighty spear against Zeus." (IL. VIII.424)

(825) Zeus went up the mountain with a golden bullock and a silver dagger. Upon all he bestowed a share, only to Amara did he not give, but he said: "Let go of what you have, and then you will receive, PSINOTHER NOPSITHER THERNOPSI" (and so on, as you like).

(830) "So Ares suffered, when Otos and mighty Epialtes23 ... him. (Il. V. 385) spell for restraining anger: "You will dare to lift up your mighty spear against Zeus." (Il. VIII.424) For friends: "Let ... seize ... , lest we become a source of joy for our enemies." (Il. X. 193)