The Fall of the Soul

Long ago sages gave the soul a feminine name. She is in fact also female in her nature. She even has a womb. For as long as she dwelt in solitude with the Father, she was virgin, and in form she was androgynous. When she, however, fell into a body and entered this life, she then fell into the hands of many robbers.⁠a And the cruel creatures passed her between each other and [violated] her. Some used her forcefully, while others seduced her with a gift. To be brief, they defiled her, and she [lost] her virginity. And in her body she practiced prostitution and gave herself to all without exception, thinking of each one she was ready to embrace as her husband. When she had surrendered herself to cruel, faithless adulterers, so they could misuse her, she then moaned profoundly and repented. Yet even when she turned away her face from those adulterers, she ran to others, and they forced her to live with them and to be of service to them on their bed, as though they were her masters. Ashamed, she stopped daring to leave them. They, for their part, tricked her for a long time, posing as loyal, true husbands, as though they greatly reverenced her. And after all this, they forsook her and went away. Next she became a helpless, poor, desolate widow. In the time of her distress, not a morsel of food was left for her. All she ever gained from them was the sullying that came from sexual intercourse. And her children from the adulterers are dumb, blind, ailing, and weak-minded. When, however, the exalted Father visited her and looked on her, and saw her moaning in her pains and shame, repenting for the prostitution she practiced, and when she started to invoke his name that he might help her, [she moaned] with all her heart and said: “Save me, my Father. Look on me, because I will give [an account to you], because I forsook my house and escaped from my maiden’s quarters.⁠b Restore me to yourself once more.” When he beholds her in this condition, he will then consider her worthy of bestowing his mercy on her, because many are the sufferings that befell her because she forsook her house.