The male-female Nous begets the Demiurge — and Fate
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ὁ δὲ νοῦς ὁ θεός, ἀρρενόθηλυς ὤν, ζωὴ καὶ φῶς ὑπάρχων, ἀπεκύησε λόγῳ ἕτερον νοῦν δημιουργόν, ὃς θεὸς τοῦ πυρὸς καὶ πνεύματος ὤν ἐδημιούργησε διοικητάς τινας ἑπτά, ἐν κύκλοις περιέχοντας τὸν αἰσθητὸν κόσμον. καὶ ἡ διοίκησις αὐτῶν εἱμαρμένη καλεῖται.
But the Nous, the God, being male-and-female, being Life and Light, brought forth by a word another Mind, a Demiurge, who, being god of fire and breath, fashioned seven Administrators encompassing the sensible world in circles; and their governance is called Fate.
The Nous-God, being male-and-female (ἀρρενόθηλυς), being Life and Light, brings forth by a word a second Mind, a Demiurge. This Demiurge, god of fire and breath, fashions the seven Governors who encircle the sensible world in their orbits — and their governance is what is called Fate (εἱμαρμένη).
Generation happens by fullness, not by pairing: the Nous-God is ἀρρενόθηλυς, male-and-female at once, and 'by a word' (λόγῳ) begets a second, Demiurgic Mind. Divinity contains both poles and speaks its offspring into being — the Word again doing the creative work.
Then the machinery McKenna makes so much of: the Demiurge fashions seven Governors — the planetary powers — who wheel the sensible world in their orbits, 'and their governance is called Fate (εἱμαρμένη).' Here is the cosmic prison of Hellenistic religion, named at its source. The whole later drama of the soul's ascent is the drama of passing back out through these seven rings.
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