Tripartite Tractate 19

1The beings of memory who are located outside are humble, preserving the representation of the Fullness, especially because they share in the names that adorn them. Conversion results in humility toward the beings of memory, and humility toward them is also the law of judgment, which consists of condemnation and anger.

2Humility toward them is also the power that separates those who fall beneath them and sends them far away. It prevents them [] [from] spreading over the beings of memory and conversion. This power consists of fear, confusion, oblivion, bewilderment, ignorance, and the things that have come into being through imagination, as a likeness does. In addition, exalted names are bestowed on these things that were actually lowly. Knowledge <is lacking for those> who were produced from them through pride, lust for control, disobedience, and falsity.

3He bestowed a name on each <of> them, because the two orders exist in a name. Those who belong to memory and representation are called “Those of the Right,” “Soulish,” “the Fiery Ones,” and “Those of the Middle.” Those who belong to the prideful thought and the likeness are called “Those of the Left,” “Material,” “the Dark Ones,” and “the Last Ones.”

4After the Word established each in its own order—namely, the images, the representations, and the likenesses—he kept the aeon of the images pure from all who struggle against it, because it is a place of joy. To those of memory, however, he revealed the thought that he had stripped from himself. He wished to move them into a material union and to provide them with an ordered system and a dwelling place, so that they might also produce a desire to weaken evil’s attraction for them. In this way, they could cease taking excessive delight in the glory of their surroundings and thus remaining in exile, and instead recognize the infirmity from which they suffer. [] In this way, they could produce love and an unceasing search for the one who can heal them of this weakness. To make them take on a form, he placed the word of beauty over those who belong to the likeness, and he also placed the law of judgment over them. He further placed over them the powers that the roots had produced [in] their lust for control. The Word was pleased with them because they are useful in the plan of salvation, so he [chose] them to be rulers over them. This was so that, with the help of the beautiful word, by the threat of the [law], or through the influence of the lust for control, the order might be protected from those who would bring it down into evil.

5The Word knows the lust for control shared by the two orders. To them and to everyone else, he kindly granted their desire, giving each one the appropriate rank of command. Thus, each would rule over a place and an activity, deferring to those of a higher order while commanding the activity of the lower places and exercising control in accordance with his mode of being. As a result, among the angels [] and archangels there are leaders and subordinates in positions of rule and submission, while their activities are diverse and of different kinds.

6Each of the archons, together with his race and privileges, enjoys what his allotted portion has entitled him to. In keeping with the manner of their appearance, each one stood at his post, entrusted with the plan of salvation. None lacks kingship over them, from the end of the heavens to the end of the [earth], throughout every region of the [earth], and among those beneath the earth. There are kings and lords, as well as those who receive commands: some oversee punishment, others oversee justice, still others grant rest and healing, others provide instruction, and others keep watch.