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Zosimos of Panopolis - The Vision of Zosimos

And I saw the same altar in the shape of a bowl and water bubbled at the top of it, and in it were many people endlessly. And there was no one whom I might question outside of the bowl. And I went up to the altar to view the spectacle.

And I saw a little man, a barber, whitened with age, and he said to me, "What are you looking at?"

I answered that I wondered at the boiling water and the men who were burning but remained alive.

And he answered me saying, "The spectacle which you see is at once the entrance and the exit and the process."

I questioned him further, "What is the nature of the process?"

And he answered saying, "It is the place of the practice called the embalming. Men wishing to obtain virtue enter here and, fleeing the body, become spirits."

I said to him, "And are you a spirit?"

And he answered, saying, "Both a spirit and a guardian of spirits."