One Versus Two

"This, my son, is the only way to Truth, which was also followed by those who went before us and on which they received the Good.

Sublime and well-trodden is this road, but difficult for the Soul to follow as long as it is in the body.

First the Soul has to struggle against itself, achieve a great separation and allow one part to gain victory over it. For a conflict arises between one part and the other two parts: the former tries to escape while the latter try to drag the former - that is, the Soul - down from below. The result is a fight and a great trial of strength between the part that wants to escape and the two others that strive to detain the Soul.

However, it makes no small difference whether the one or the other side wins, for the one strives with great effort towards the Good, while the others make their home in the domain of perdition. The one yearns after freedom, the others embrace slavery. If the two are vanquished, they remain locked up within themselves, inactive and lonely, abandoned by the one that rules. But if the one part is defeated, it is carried off as captive by the two and deprived of everything and is punished by the life it lives here.

See, my son, this is the guide on the way that leads to Freedom: you must give up the body before it dies and overcome the life of Conflict; then, if you have won that victory, you will return to the Highest".

Corpus Hermeticum, Book 5, verses 8-14
.