Chaldean Oracles

This is an original translation of a fragmentary collection of second-century poetry. The Oracles combine Chaldean (Babylonian) wisdom with Plato’s teachings.

For there is a certain thing that can be grasped
But you must grasp with the bloom of your spiritual awareness
For if you should incline your mind and try to grasp It
 as if grasping a specific thing, you would not grasp It.
For It is the power behind strength, surrounded by light,
 flashing with spiritual rays.
Therefore, it is not by asserting yourself that you should try to
  grasp the Formless, but passively, through self-surrender,
 through the upward-moving flame of the receptive mind
 which can measure and count everything but It.
You must not strain to grasp It,
 but by keeping the pure eye of the soul turned inward,
 extend the empty mind towards the Formless,
 so that you can grasp the Formless.
For It is beyond your mind.
_{Chaldean Oracles, as translated by D. Markus}