You will see the gods staring at you and rushing upon you. At once put your right finger to your mouth and say: 'Silence, silence, silence, symbol of the living, incorruptible god; guard me, silence nechtheir thanmelou!'

The gods, once seen, are dangerous — they stare and charge (hormōménous, the verb for a cavalry rush). And the initiate's protection is the strangest weapon in the book: not a name shouted but a finger laid on the lips and the word silence, spoken three times. The gesture is the universal 'hush,' but here it is armor. What makes it work is the claim that follows: silence is the symbol of the living, incorruptible god. Symbolon is a token — originally the matched half of a broken object, proof of identity between guest and host. Silence is the initiate's tally, the thing he holds up to show he belongs to the deathless side. In the gnostic systems that grew from this world, Sigē, Silence, is a named divine power, the stillness out of which the Word is born; the magician wields her here as a password. He answers the onrush of the gods not with more sound but with the one power older than speech.