Simon is a fool, according to Hypolitus and other church fathers.
David explains that the Great Declaration talks about a great fire within all human beings, an intelligence/consciousness.
There are 3 stages of God:
- God has a preexistent state
- God has a becoming state
- God has a state of return
To Simon Magus, all humans are god in these three stages, and as we are restored so it god (certainly a proto-Kabbalist idea).
To Simon, man becoming god is just part of the natural maturing of consciousness. The zenith is to become spirit and rise above the material world. Not to become like a god but to become god.