The Three Steles of Seth — Sethian Hymnody
The Three Steles of Seth are hymns to the divine triad — a Sethian liturgical text that enables the practitioner to participate in the divine self-praise of the Aeons.
The Three Steles of Seth (NHC VII, 5) is one of the most extraordinary liturgical texts in the Nag Hammadi library — three hymns addressed to the three members of the divine Triad: Geradamas (the divine Anthropos — the perfect human Adam), Barbelo (the divine Mother), and the Invisible Spirit (the highest Father). The text ends with a rubric: 'These are the three steles of Seth, the Father of the living and unmoveable race, which he wrote and placed in the mountain called Charaxio, in order that those who belong to the life and are descended from Seth might read them and praise the God of the living silence.' The hymns are structured as ascending degrees of divine praise — each stele addressing a higher level of the divine hierarchy with increasing intensity and theological abstraction. The Three Steles represent Sethian Gnosticism at its most liturgical — the contemplative practice of divine praise as a vehicle for the soul's ascent and participation in the divine self-praise of the Aeons.
Hear us first — we are divine offspring. Hear us second — we are perfect individuals. Hear us third — we are children of the unbegotten Father.
Scholar Birger Pearson (Three Forms of First Thought) showed how the Three Steles of Seth represents a Sethian 'theology of divine self-reflection' — the divine Aeons praising one another in a circular movement of mutual recognition, with the practitioner's liturgical praise becoming a participation in this divine self-recognition.
Nag Hammadi Library