Day 197 (Post 777)

Reading 4 2 14, The Alchemical Tarot Renewed by Robert M Place

 

 

Position 1 Hanged Man, air, beginning…

Position 2 The Magus, reversed. Fire. changing. maturing

Position 3, the Queen of Vessels, Water of Water, Goddess as grail bearer of the Ocean

Position 4 9 swords, Air, destruction, cutting, moon, sex, completion not quite complete

Position 5 The High Priestess, Sophia, Lifter of the Veil, Bearer of Gnosis, Shekinah, Her of the heavens.

 

 

Tarot is an interesting thing. It works on many levels and in many ways. Some even view it as the perfect window into the soul. I don’t believe they are that good, personally…One large aspect of modern Tarot is the Hermetic traditions. The Hermetic traditions center around a form of Gnosticism (see the passages of the Corpus Hermeticum in comparison to Sethian for example cosmological beliefs etc.) centering around a divine priest in the Melchizadeck tradition honoring all priests, but from Thoth. Thoth the A Egyptian God, to Thoth the Atlantean. To a more familiar Hermes and Mercury. As an archetype for all priests the Hermetic tradition then is an interesting one. By archetype we mean more Platonic archetype and not Jungian.

One key principle or more accurately axiom of Hermeticism is “As above, So below.” The concept of macro and microcosm. The universe in miniature and in full expanse, the self and the Self. Hermeticism textually goes back around 2000 years, or approx. 1^st Cent CE. Of course all text documents, of such nature are often far older than their written equivalents, oral tradition can date things… but that’s an argument for another time.

Tarot then can be seen through this lens of the Hermetic Axiom. We can see the court cards and number cards as the Microcosm, or the self. The trumps then can be seen as the Macrocosm. The Macrocosm of course can be seen as the Nous or divine mind, the mind of the divine.

 

The above reading is interesting in that it is composed of three potent Macrocosmic images and two Microcosmic images.

Nous: “Mind”, The soul, not the same as ‘pneuma’ or spirit. It is the part of
the anima that gives us consciousness. The anima as a whole gives life (or
literally movement.. “animates”) to our bodies. Tatian declares the soul as a
special kind of spirit. (See; Tatian’s “Letter to the Greeks’)

 

Ogdoad: Regarded in some texts as the “eighth kingdom above the hebdomas.” It is the realm of the Demiurgos (or sometimes that is the 7th, with the eighth being that of Sabaoth), as well as usually being the realm of the zodiac
(dodecon). Sometimes it is also seen as the beginning of freedom from the
Archons, and the beginning of connection to the Aeons. Pythagoris says…
“The ogdoad–8–was sacred because it was the number of the first cube, which
form had eight corners, and was the only evenly-even number under 10
(1-2-4-8-4-2-1). Thus, the 8 is divided into two 4’s, each 4 is divided into two
2’s, and each 2 is divided into two 1’s, thereby reestablishing the monad. Among
the keywords of the ogdoad are love, counsel, prudence, law, and convenience.
Among the divinities partaking of its nature were Panarmonia, Rhea, Cibele,
Cadmæa, Dindymene, Orcia, Neptune, Themis, and Euterpe (a Muse).” (Thomas
Taylor’s Theoretic Arithmetic, Thought by one source to be the rarest and most
important compilation of Pythagorean mathematical fragments extant.)

”… the Ogdoad, which is the eighth, and that we might receive that place of
salvation.” (”The Testimony of Truth.” See also; ”A Valentinian
Exposition.”) ) The Sacred ogdoad according to some sources is: Barbelo (deep), Sige (silence), Nous (mind), Veritus (truth), Sermo (word), Vita (life), Homo (man), Ecclesia (church). The last member of the group acts to syncretize the group.

 

Rba , Rabai – elect priest, chief intator and the ordainer of new Mandaean priests. Holds the office known as rabuta. Compare to the Jewish “rabbi”.

Seth: ”From Adam three natures were begotten. The first was the irrational, which was Cain’s, the second the rational and just, which was Abel’s, the third the spiritual, which was Seth’s. Now that which is earthly is “according to the image,” that which is psychical according to the ” likeness ” of God, and that
which is spiritual is according to the real nature; and with refer­ence to these three, without the other children of Adam, it was said, “This is the book of the generation of men.” And because Seth was spiritual he neither tends flocks nor tills the soil but produces a child, as spiritual things do. And him, who “hoped
to call upon the name of the Lord” who looked upward and whose “citizenship is in heaven – him the world does not contain.” (Theodotus, Criddle Collection.)

Sethian: It is a name for a specific sect of Gnostics, but also a category created by scholars to refer to a number of sects that are related to Valentinians. The Sethians as a group were known to Hippolytus who dedicated Book Five in his work, ”The Refutation of All Hereseys,” to denouncing them. (See Gaffney) Seth was a character of Gnosticism who represented a savior figure and third son of Adam, founder of the Gnostic race. Generally Sethian works include, “Pistis Sophia,” “Allogenes,” ”The Gospel of Mary,*” “Sentences of Sextus,” “Marsanes,” “Gospel of The Egyptians,*” ”The Apocalypse of Adam,*”
“Origin of The World,” ”The Gospel of Thomas,*” ”The Gospel of Philip,” “The Three Steles of Seth,” “Melchizidek,” ”The Apocryphon of John,” ”The Gospel of Judas,” Trimorphic Protennoia,” the un-named text in the Bruce Codex, and ”Zostrianos.” (Others) Some Sethian works suggest strong ties with
Jewish Gnosticism, as well as Platonic thought, as well as Zoroasterism. (They maintained three principles; darkness below, light above, and spirit in-between, according to work attributed to Dr. Roy Blizzard, University of Texas. See also; ”Sethian Gnosticism, A Literary History,” Turner) see also;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sethian ( * Indicates works from the Nag Hammadi Lib., with other works by the same name.)

Sethian Monadology: The system of the monad, constructed through the tetraktys
of the decad, which serves as an underlying philosophy in Sethian Gnosticism. It
is developed from the creation myths. The system is like, and based upon that
of Pythagoreans, and resembles the principles of the ancient Chinese philosophy
of the Tai Chi., which is based upon the ogdoad. The system is based upon
working variations of numerical values. Turner states, ”….vigorous
arithmological speculation on the first ten numbers, but especially the first
four numbers, comprising the Pythagorean tetraktys (the {mode} of the first four
numbers). This was carried on by such Pythagoreanizing Platonists as Theon of
Smyrna and Nicomachus of Gerasa, who in turn depend in part on similar
arithmological and mathematical theories produced by such early first century
Platonist figures as Dercyllides, Adrastos of Aphrodisias (a Peripatetic
commentator on Plato’s Timaeus) and Thrasyllos, a court philosopher under the
Emperor Tiberius. The harmonic ratios produced by these first four numbers and
the geometric entities of point, line, surface, and solid had been applied to
the structure and the creation of the world soul long before by Plato and his
successors in the Old Academy, especially Speusippus and Xenocrates. (See;
Turner, See also; ”The History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 2.,” by Fung
Yu-Lan, Princeton, 1953, See also; ”A Valentinian Exposition.”)

 

….

The Sufi mystic Ibn al-Arabi drew a diagram similar to the one used to develop a pattern around a khatam (see above). However, Al-Arabi’s diagram’s diagram is concerned with spirituality, not ornamentation. He drew it as part of his explanation that “all phenomena are nothing but manifestations of Being, which is one with God.” Conincidentally, Al-Arabi was born in Spain at around the same time the practice of zillij, mosaic design, was starting to flourish. As Sufism had particular appeal to North Africa, his spirtual use of the pattern may explain the prolific use of the eight-point star and and symetries of eight in Moroccan Islamic patterns.

 

The number eight was important among Sufi mystics. “The octagon, with a ninth point in the center, is also central to the mystical symbology of Sufism. It is the seal or design which Ernest Scott says ‘reaches for the innermost secrets of man’. Meaning wholeness, power and perfection, this primary geometrical symbol is one which Sufis associate with Shambhala …”

On his website of natural patterns, Ian Alexander refers to the eight-point star as both the Sufi star and the Moroccan star. He offers the following explanation, as quoted from Friday mosque in Iran “Form is symbolised by the square. Expansion is symbolised by the square with triangles pointing outwards (an 8-pointed star). Contraction is symbolised by the square with triangles pointing inwards (a 4-pointed star). The two star-shapes together symbolise the cycle of creation, ‘the breath of the compassionate.’”

Origins and Meanings of the Eight-Point Star

 

 

 

 

Reflection for August 7th, 2013: The greater must reveal itself to the lesser

If this metaphysical space is to be known,

such knowledge can be attained only by faith and grace,

not by ‘entering’ but by ‘being entered’

-this is so because the greater must reveal itself to the lesser.

Put differently, that which is immanently ‘Spirit’ can only be known receptively,

through its own intellective vision, and not any derivative faculty such as reason,

feeling or sensation. Reason can only discern conceptually,

at best reducing reality to a dualism of subject and object

(as in the case of Descartes) or catagorical postulate

(as in the case of Kant) or dialectic process

(as in the case of Hegel) – its ‘telos’ will tend to be utopian(as in the case of Marx),

fundamentalist( as in the cases of religious, political or secular dogmatism)

or anthropocentrically consencual (as in the case of Rousseau’s social contract);

while sensation or feeling even where elevated to

the level of empirical ‘science,’ can only discern reality as matter or as psyche,

quantitatively, thereby cutting it off from its transcendent

and qualitative roots, leading to an emphasis on hypertrophic subjectivism

(as in the case of Nietzsche), Psychologism(as in the case of Freud),

or reductive positivism(as in the cases of philosophical positivism and of scientism).

That which transcends us cannot be known reductively

but only by that transcendent faculty which is immanent in us-which in

Tradition is termed the ‘Intellect’

or the Self-knowing Spirit. To know is to discern BEING.

We must empty ourselves or our ‘self’ in order to know who we ARE.

We must return to the sacred emptiness of the space that is our

ontological core in order to know that which truly IS.

–M Ali Lakhani (the Distance between us, found in Sacred Web issue 31)

 

Reflection for June 16, 2013: The tree surrounded by four rivers

 

 

 

Soaring upwards
Can be like reaching down

Pushing forward

Can be like pushing back

Going right

Can be like Going left

Within is within

All things begin

And end at the cross roads

–GraalBaum 2013

 

 

This world-mountain was Nizir to the Chaldeans, Olympus to the Greeks, Hara Berezaiti to the Persians of the Avesta, the later Alborz and Elburz; a transfer, as says Mme. Ragozin, of ‘mythical heavenly geography to the earth.’ This mountain—the solar hill of the Egyptians—we shall again refer to in the next two or three chapters. At its apex springs, the heaven tree on which the solar bird is perched. From its roots spring the waters of life—the celestial sea, which, rushing adown the firmament, supplies the ocean which circumscribes the earth or falls directly in rain. At their fountain these springs are guarded by a goddess. In Egypt Nut, the goddess of the oversea, leans from the branches of the heavenly persea and pours forth the celestial water. In the Vedas, Yama, lord of the waters, sits in the highest heaven in the midst of the heavenly ocean under the tree of life, which drops the nectar Soma, and here, on the ‘navel of the waters,’ matter first took form. In the Norse, the central tree Yggdrasil has at its roots the spring of knowledge guarded by the Norns, the northern Fates; two swans the parents of all those of earth, float there. In Chaldea the mighty tree of Eridu, centre of the world, springs by the waters. The Avesta gives a very complete picture—Iran is at the centre of the seven countries of the world; it was the first created, and so beautiful, that were it not that God has implanted in all men a love for their own land, all nations would crowd into this the loveliest land. To the east somewhere, but still at the centre of the world, rises the ‘Lofty Mountain,’ from which all the mountains of the earth have grown, ‘High Haraiti;’ at its

summit is the gathering place of waters, out of which spring the two trees, the heavenly Haoma (Soma), and another tree which bears all the seeds that germinate on earth. This heavenly mountain is called ‘Navel of Waters,’ for the fountain of all waters springs there, guarded by a majestic and beneficent goddess. In Buddhist accounts, the waters issue in four streams like the

Eden from this reservoir, and flow to the cardinal points, each making one complete circuit in its descent. In the Persian Bundahish there are two of these heavenly rivers flowing east and west. To the Hindus the Ganges is such a heavenly stream. ‘The stream of heaven was called by the Greeks Achelous.’ The Nile in Egypt, the Hoang-Ho in China, and the Jordan to the Jews, seem to have been celestial rivers. This mountain of heaven is often figured in Christian art with the four rivers issuing from under the Throne of God.

Sir John Maundeville gives an account of the earthly Paradise quite perfect in its detailed scheme. It is the highest place on earth, nearly reaching to the circle of the moon (as in Dante), and the flood did not reach it. ‘And in the highest place, exactly in the middle, is a well that casts out the four streams’—Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates. ‘And men there beyond say that all the sweet waters of the world above and beneath take their beginning from the well of Paradise, and out of that well all water come and go.

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/amm/amm07.htm

 

http://chasinghermes.com/2009/04/24/08-axis-mundi.aspx

 

 

Reflection for May 30, 2013: At the borders of speech

It is precisely the challenge involved

in using inadequate words

that drives the mind

beyond all words…

At the borders of speech

we open ourselves

to the positive value of silence….

Literary reading,

through its complexity, its music,

its suggestiveness, points to a fuller realm of being.

–Edward k Kaplan (citing Abraham Joshua Heschel)

 

Gender in Gnosticism

Gender in Gnosticism

If the woman had not separated from the man, she should not die with the man. His separation became the beginning of death. Because of this, Christ came to repair the separation, which was from the beginning, and again unite the two, and to give life to those who died as a result of the separation, and unite them. But the woman is united to her husband in the bridal chamber. Indeed, those who have united in the bridal chamber will no longer be separated. Thus Eve separated from Adam because it was not in the bridal chamber that she united with him.

–Gospel of Philip

God, the one true God, the source of being is seen as a force that transcends gender and ultimately God is beyond categories of gender. But at the same time gender is very formative of our human experience. So just like God in an absolute sense cannot be contained in words but we still have to approach God through language, right? Through myths and stories and theology and…which is all kind of creating analogies about God. Similarly we have to approach God, or approach God through gender. And traditionally of course there’s been this hyper masculinisation of God, in which God has been primarily confined to male attributes, the father, the son or you know, God as the old bearded guy of the Cisteen Chapel ceiling or God as Superman, shooting down fire from the sky and destroying people. What Gnosticism works to change this image, not to destroy the male imagery of the father, the son or the imagery of the brother, but rather to compliment it with female imagery as well. SO that we understand in some sense that our relationship to God is like a father and a mother, like a lover and the beloved, a brother and a sister; so it’s like a complimentary to the relationship.

So what I want to talk about tonight is the metaphysical nature of gender itself. I’m going to leave the question of God alone for this evening and talk about our own experiences of gender and what the spiritual significances of those might be. I think we begin from a Gnostic perspective that gender arises out of the cosmos, out of the material reality or the physical reality and like other dualities, good /evil, light/dark, right/left…these are seen as the constituents parts of material reality, its these dualities and divisions and separations that make the material what it is and create the limitations that we associate with physical reality. And of these limitations it is probably gender that Gnosticism sees as the most traumatic one of all, well except maybe the good/evil dichotomy. But the division of male/female gender, the division is very traumatic in a lot of ways, it’s been a sort of division of the wholeness of the spirit into two separate pieces and as a result can often lead to very self destructive behavior as all too often when we adhere to the gender identity that we are taught to display and see in ourselves and we don’t find a way to pursue the complimentary aspects of the spirit then we quickly descend into patterns of abuse and dependence and domination that are really devoid of the true spiritual connection.

So one of the goals of Gnosis is to transcend and heal these dualities and divisions in human experience. And thus the question of gender and the question of how we heal the brokenness that is sort of implicit in it is stressed in the Gospel of Thomas especially saying 22:

Jesus saw some infants nursing. He said to his disciples, “These nursing infants are like those who enter the (Father’s) kingdom.”

They said to him, “Then shall we enter the (Father’s) kingdom as babies?”

Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, a likeness in place of a likeness, then you will enter [the kingdom].”

So when we look at this issue of what needs healing and the reconciliation, the issue, the problem, is that we’ve been taught and conditioned not just in our own lifetimes but over in generations of humanity to ascribe huge importance over what are really minor biological differences and not really seek to expand our consciousness in this area. To assume that we are locked in this duality and that there is no way to transcend it.

So what Gnosticism does, is to argue that each of us has a spiritual identity and it is the spiritual identity that can lead us back on a path to wholeness this is because even though we live in a very divided and sometimes painful existence in the physical world the spirit has what the Gnostic teacher Carpocrates would call a “deep spiritual memory.” These are the words he uses “the spiritual memory.” The most famous place where he talks about what this memory is when he makes his Christological statement about Jesus and says “That Jesus is a man like any other man, the son of Joseph; except that he was different from other people in that his mind, pure and clear could remember, could exercise memory of what it had seen in the realm of the ungenerated God.”

So if Jesus is a great model for what we can attain, then through Gnosis we can gain access to these spiritual memories of what was in the realm of the ungenerated God, to use Carpocrates’ term. And these memories are of wholeness, of a unity, indeed not a cessation of our individual existences, but rather as it were a completion of them. And part of this spiritual memory of wholeness beyond the divisions of gender is part of what makes up this spiritual memory, and it is in this sense that the Gospel of Thomas puts this question as central to the idea of what is going to bring us into what the Gospel calls the Kingdom. It is very important to make clear here that, the Gospel of Philip makes it clear that not only is this unity, the Pleroma, the fullness, it’s not only our destiny, but it’s also as spiritual beings, but also as in the words of the Gospel of Philip, our earliest origin, the earliest origin of things. So there is some way that this wholeness of the Pleroma is imprinted and on our spirits, this pneuma or the breath that gives us life, or rather makes us human, and we can access those memories that are imprinted on us. But it is something that takes time as we are held back by other things.

So when we begin to pursue through Gnosis a kind of healing and wholeness through the question of gender a number of things begin to happen in our lives and in the way we experience the world. First of all we begin to revolutionize the way in which we relate to others especially those of the other gender or to use the more common term, the opposite sex…and really what begins to happen is instead of seeing them quote “as the opposite sex” as something to be possessed or owned or intimidated or feared or dominated or dominated by in an unhealthy way, we can begin to construct relationships with those of other genders in a way that really engage in a true human level; and seek on those others how we can begin to complete our own spiritual existence. In this sense relationships between men and women are very important because they have so much to teach us about this completeness, this wholeness and what it might look like. We are in many ways, forces of revelation to each other. Allowing us to open up the mysteries of the hidden things concealed in those things visible, to use the words of the Gospel of Philip. Or to return to the Gospel of Thomas as Jesus says “The person of light, lights up the whole world.” Or in other words, we are each other’s light. These places of spiritual wholeness are sometimes shrouded in a kind of darkness and ignorance. Through the light provided by other people we can begin to see the contours of their meaning.

So I think there is an importance for anyone seeking the Gnostic path to obtain a certain degree of intimacy with people of the opposite sex. Now what I want to make clear is what I am talking about is not tied in any way to what is called sexuality. I’m certainly not saying that heterosexual sexuality is somehow necessary for Gnosis, although it can indeed be an important manifestation of this kind of intimacy. Or it can be a barrier to this kind of intimacy, as we know. Of course we know there are lots of people who are simply not heterosexual. They don’t share this sexual orientation, as part of their constituent identities; they have some kind of other sexual orientation; that they are drawn to other ways of living as sexual beings. Gnosticism of course is generally open to lots of different forms of sexual identity.

But ultimately what I am saying is, it is not that important about sexual contact, it’s about intimacy. The kind of inter gender intimacy that can be pursued in lots of ways. Through friendship, through intellectual exchange, through the kind of connection where you learn to build mutual networks of care…and exchange of thoughts and ideas, and spiritual growth. Men and women learn from each other in a mutual way when they begin to experience this intimacy. Which indeed, indeed, even when it does involve sexuality, when it does involve heterosexual contact is in fact something that transcends it. It is an intimacy that takes place on the spiritual level and transcends merely the physical level.

So this should make clear, as is important to state, that gender like other forms of division in the material world are not EVIL; it’s not as if gender is something bad and evil and something we want to run away from. These sources of division are indeed sources of limitation. U ironically or paradoxically, the very things that create these limitations can be the sources of the transcendent liberation, that can lift us up out of the world as defined by limitations and limits or rather live in that world in a way that helps set our spirits free.

The question of suffering, similarly suffering is something we see as to be transcended through Gnosis but at the same time, it offers us things. It offers us understanding and compassion toward others. Again it can make us bitter and angry people or it can make us much more open to other people. And I think gender is much the same way. It can be a very troubling phenomenon or it can be something we harness the force of to propel us along the spiritual journey in a way that incorporates healing and reconciliation. So ultimately I think though, the pursuit of gender wholeness, if that is what we want to call it, is probably more importantly something that happens within ourselves. Our intra-gender identities rather than our inter-gender relationships.

When we begin to search for that spiritual memory that Carpocrates talks about; that memory of spiritual wholeness. In the Pleroma, that was later divided through the shaping of the Demiurge. We are really searching to recover in our own beings a wholeness of gender that has been divided and separated in our own experience of life. It is important to remember that of course that, Demiurgic forces and Archonic forces and Pleromic forces are not so much beings but are forces operating within us. So we are looking for something in our own identities and what we want to do is move closer to wholeness. And it is this wholeness that is already deep within us. As I said, as Carpocrates said it is imprinted on the spiritual memory, that we all possess through the pneuma, through the spirit that is within us.

So we want to move closer to that wholeness that is both our ultimate destiny and is our earliest origins. To use the words of the Gospel of Philip, we want to gradually transform our lives, and our beings and our existences into that image of that spiritual memory at the heart of the pneuma, the spirit. Which is indeed what really makes us human.

The journey of Gnosis is predicated on the idea that even in the midst of this limited material existence we can begin to transform things and transform ourselves. Our bodies, our minds, in a way that infuses them with a new wholeness of the spirit. And as you see in that same verse, saying 22 of the Gospel of Thomas that we not only recreate the unity of gender, that it goes on to say that we, it goes on to say that we, you know, make the hand in the place of a hand and the foot in the place of a foot and likeness in the place of a likeness… One way to think of that is it is talking about a recreation of the self and the image of the spirit. Or as some have said, through our spirit we are created in the image of God. What we need to do through Gnosis is to recreate ourselves into the likeness of God. That is to transform the entirety of our being into a full realization of this image of God that is in our deepest human natures.

In a very real sense we have already in our spirits a sort of latent inner partnership between things we have called male and female in our experience of the material and intellectual world. Thus, in a very real sense each of us has within us, a sort of inner man and inner woman, what some mystics have spoken of as the Animus and Anima. We must pursue the kind of inner metaphysical partnership that will allow their mutual complimentarity that will shine forth in our lives and transform our consciousness.

Just as we want to revolutionize our relationships externally with regards to gender, and the opposite sex; so in parallel, we want to revolutionize our gender relationships internally within our own identities.

Now, if we look at Christ and Sophia, I want to discuss how they personify a Gnostic theory of gender both in terms of what we should do unto others and how we should persue that wholeness of gender within ourselves. We see in the stories of Christ and Sophia a great exchange, a great partnership, a sort of dialogue that is going on in these stories of “cosmic missions” and developments in time. These forces that represent in some sense the feminine and the masculine within the whole unity of the Pleroma.

If we look at the creation myth of the Valentinians, these were the Gnostics that followed Valentinus, the great preacher of the 2^nd century, it is a little more different and complicated from what you may be used to. Just to give you a taste of what I mean, what happens to Sophia in this story is that… of course it starts off the same, she’s an Aeon, she’s in fact sometimes portrayed as the yuoungest of the Aeons, and she goes off by herself. Wanting to obtain more about her origins, thinking she can learn more by being alone and thinking alone. This of course brings about division and separation. What she produces, now in the Valentinian story is not the Demiurge immediately, but rather a realm of imperfection, the cosmos or chaos which is the stuff that the Demiurge will later create the cosmic world. What happens in the Valentinian story (again you’ll see how this is different to the simpler Gnostic story) is that this is so traumatic that Sophia literally gets split into two pieces. There ends up being a higher Sophia, who remains kind of connected fully in the Pleroma, but there also emerges a lower Sophia, part of Sophia’s identity becomes trapped in the imperfect realm. It becomes trapped in the cosmic chaos, and it tries and tries to get out, but it can’t. What happens is the Demiurge emerges out of the imperfect realm and begins to create all this stuff and eventually creates human beings. In the Valentinian story the Demiurge thinks its creating everything on its own for its own power. But in fact the lower Sophia (Echamoth) with the help of the Aeons, is influencing the Demiurge. They are subtly, sort of influencing what he does. In particularly, subtly pressing him into the creation of human beings.

The lower Sophia realizes the only way she can free herself and the rest of the spirit that is trapped in the cosmic world is if there can emerge some kind of beings that will have some kind of amalgamated identities. That is, they will be, part of the cosmic world and part of the spirit world. Part cosmos and part Pleroma. This she sees in human beings. So there is a sort of subversion of what the Demiurge wants to do. He wants to create automatons to worship him, but Sophia wants to create autonamus beings that can achieve liberation. So it is the lower Sophia, in this Valentinian story that comes into the form of the serpent. The lower Sophia says, “Alright, I have to get in contact with the human beings.” And so she says “What I’ll do is that I will go into the most humblest and the most simple of physical things. This animal that simply slithers along the ground, the serpent.” The Demiurge is so overwhelmed with his own arrogance and his own power that he’s not going to notice something as humble as the serpent. It is going to be completely off his radar screen.

So the lower Sophia, enters the serpent and comes to the people and then has the dialogue in which she begins to tell them the truth about things which is as she says, the Demiurge is not the one true God. That in fact human beings have this divine core within them and that if they would have the courage to eat the fruit of moral truth, if they have the courage to face the realities of the universe or rather not the universe but of all existence. Then they too can be transformed into God.

So you can see that is a little more complicated than other stories. I wouldn’t say it contradicts “on the origin of the World” more that it compliments it. What we see is the relationship between Christ and Sophia becomes more explicit. When Christ comes down to earth and manifests in the human being Jesus, Valentinian Gnostics would say “Why?” you know, why? This is a problem, why does Christ come into the world? I mean what is the point? They would say it is to help liberate Sophia. It is because Sophia is so important, so fundamental to him in the Pleroma, that he sees the lower Sophia and the rest of the spirit in the cosmic realm. He wants to enter that world; he wants to be willing to empty himself into a human existence so that he can help bring about the liberation of the lower Sophia and the reunification of the two parts of Sophia. Because there is a great pain involved in the separation for every being in the Pleroma because their wholeness has been ripped apart. So there is very much a sense that Christ and all the other beings or Aeons and God, even God, is deeply moved by compassion. It is compassion that moves all of these forces to try to help us. It is compassion and it is suffering. As Origen, an early Christian theologian said something interesting, he said, he was talking about Jesus Christ and he said “Christ suffered before he died on the cross.” And that “Actually Christ suffered before he was even born.” He goes on to say that “If Christ did not suffer, he would have never have come down to Earth.” That is his explanation of why Christ enters the world. That you can see is tied into this very interesting relationship between Christ and Sophia.

— Brother Matthew Ouroboro

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sophia: Means “Wisdom.” Like the Logos this is considered a primal form. While the Logos is personified as male, Sophia is female. Logos has a direct and intellectual basis for guidance, Sophia is inspirational (sometimes even sensual). The basic idea is comparable to wisdom being Sophia (sofia) or “Holy
Spirit” in the form of pure wisdom. Pistis, means faith, hylic, or Prunikus Sophia refers to the imperfect or earthly state of the living, or earthly form from Pleromic origins. ”As appropriated by Sethianism and the Gnostics in general, Sophia is a hypostatized form of Hokmah, (i.e., the divine Wisdom of Proverbs 8, Job 28, Sirach 24).” ( See; Turner.)

Carpocrates: (100?-150 CE); Formed a sect in Alexandria known as Carpocrations. Possible successor to Samaritan Simon Magus. He taught reincarnation in his Gnostic philosophy. An individual had to live many lives and adsorb a full range of experiences before being able to return to God. They practiced free sexuality. They believed that Jesus was the son of Joseph. They questioned the docetic aspects attributed to Jesus. (See; “Stromata,” Bk 3.) http://www.antinopolis.org/carpocrates.html

Pleroma: The word means “fullness,” and the ‘All.’ It refers to ”all existence
beyond matter. Refers to the world of the Aeons, the heavens or spiritual
universe, which represents being out of the state of matter. According to the
“Gospel of Truth” “….all the emanations from the Father are Pleromas.” see
Tractates 3, 2, Codices, I, and XII, Nag Hammadi Lib. Pleroma can have other
connotations according to the Gnostic school of thought, some differences in
Sethian and Valentinian (other) schools can be noted. Pleroma, is different than
Logos. (See; Logos, See also; Gaffney, p. 246.)

Pneumatic: One who identifies with the spirit (pneuma), beyond that of the
physical (hylic) world and the intellect alone (psychic). The pneuma, described
in the ”Gospel of Phillip,” as ‘breath,’ refers to bonding with the internal
spark (spinther) that came from and is drawn to reunite with the Father in some
Gnostic schema. One who awakens it (the spinther) within the self does it
through the process of gnosis. (See; Gregory of Nicea (Basil), who used the term
in his mystical teachings, and is a later term which connotes Gnostic. See;
”Early Christian Mystics,” McGinn, Crossroads, 2003.)

the “Pneumatics”, correspond with “Pneuma”, the spiritual
“breath”, the spiritual order.  These are the Gnostic Initiates,
those who go beyond mentality/consciousness, and all modes related to
the individuality.  That which concerns Pneumatics, is as different
from the psychics, and the psychics from the hylics.

Aeon: These are characterized as emanations from the ‘first cause,’ the Father in some Gnostic schema. The word not only refers to the “worlds” of emanation, but to the personalities as well. Sophia, Logos, and the other high principles are aeons. ”A link or level of the great chain of being, the sum total which is the ‘All’ or Pleroma…Can also mean a world age.” (See; Gaffney) ”According to other Gnostics, for example Valentinus, the first principle is also called Aeon or the unfathomable, the primeval depth, the absolute abyss, bythos, in which everything is sublimated…” translated by Scott J. Thompson from G.W.F.
Hegel’s ”Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie ii ,” (Theorie Werkausgabe, Bd. 19), Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp Verlag, 1977, 426-430] ( See also; Pleroma.) The first ten aeons in the Valentinian schema are, Bythios (Profound) and Mixis (Mixture), Ageratos (Never old) and Henosis (Union), Autophyes (Essential nature) and Hedone (Pleasure), Acinetos (Immoveable) and Syncrasis (Commixture,) Monogenes (Only-begotten) and Macaria (Happiness). http://www.wbenjamin.org/hegel_kabbalah.html

Demiurge: Meaning ‘Creator’ in Greek. Thought to be the “Craftsman” or creator of the material world. (Heracleon) In Orthodox thought this is a supernatural entity or force, such as the appearance of God to Moses. In the Gnostic schema the Word refers to an order, and it may be a natural sort of intelligent design, related to wisdom, the earthly or kenomic state of the higher wisdom, or form from the Pleroma. The material state is considered less than the Pleromic, and highly flawed. Archons seem to be emanations from the Demiurge process, much like other emanations from the Pleroma. (See; Pleroma, Kenoma, Archon.)

https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/the-demiurge/

Echmoth: (Echamoth) Meaning a form of wisdom; “Echamoth is one thing and Echmoth, another. Echamoth is Wisdom simply, but (e) Echmoth is the Wisdom of death, which is the one who knows death, which is called “the little Wisdom”. (”Gospel of Phillip, NHL.)

 

How much time Between Adam and Jesus

how much time between adam and yessua ?

The Question of time and Adam and Yeshu is a complex one.

For Gnostics (and some mainstream Christians) the figure of Yeshu appears before the “new testament.”

For Gnostics we find that Christ is an emanation, a divine aeon.

Aeon: These are characterized as emanations from the ‘first cause,’ the Father in some Gnostic schema. The word not only refers to the “worlds” of emanation, but to the personalities as well. Sophia, Logos, and the other high principles are aeons. ”A link or level of the great chain of being, the sum total which is
the ‘All’ or Pleroma…Can also mean a world age.” (See; Gaffney) ”According to other Gnostics, for example Valentinus, the first principle is also called Aeon or the unfathomable, the primeval depth, the absolute abyss, bythos, in which everything is sublimated…” translated by Scott J. Thompson from G.W.F.
Hegel’s ”Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie ii ,” (Theorie Werkausgabe, Bd. 19), Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp Verlag, 1977, 426-430] ( See also; Pleroma.)

Thus Christ and his consort, Sophia, are to be found in the Eden story.. for it is Christ and Sophia that are the serpent. Through the serpent Adam and Eve learn they are in ignorance, trapped by the Demi urge (Samael who’s name means ‘blind god’).

But back to Adam….
When we think of Adam there are two adams, the primordial adam and the seperated Adam.
The primordial Adam is “complete” and is reffered to as Adam Cadmon in Jewish mysticism for instance

from Wiki

In the religious writings of Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon is a phrase meaning “Primordial Man,” or “Primal Man,” comparable to the Anthropos of Gnosticism and Manichaeism. However, in Lurianic Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon acquired much more exalted status, equivalent to Purusha in the Upanishads, denoting the Manifest Absolute itself, while ‘Adam Soul’, the primeval Soul that contained all human souls, is described in different terms in this variant of mythopoetic cosmogenesis and anthropogenesis. It is said that Adam Kadmon had rays of light projecting from his eyes. There is also a similar concept in Alevi and Sufic philosophy called Insan-i Kamil, the Perfect or Complete Man.

Primal man…. Adam of course becomes “seperated” and forms a duality, of Adam and Eve.
Here we find the goal of many “spiritual” paths, to obtain unification, completeness and the return to the primordial.

As Thomas Aquinas said:
There are only 3 movements in the universe

The circle, female
The Line, Male

and
Obtuse, the serpent, lightining, the Christ.

Thus we see the primordial Adam is the serpent, composed of the male and the female, both and yet neither.
In Gnosticism we see this in the figure of Seth. Thus Adam forms adam and eve, then we have cain and abel and various daughters(depending on who’s version you are reading!)…who are all unified, back through a marriage of opposites in the figure of Seth.

”From Adam three natures were begotten. The first was the irrational, which was Cain’s, the second the rational and just, which was Abel’s, the third the spiritual, which was Seth’s. Now that which is earthly is “according to the image,” that which is psychical according to the ” likeness ” of God, and that
which is spiritual is according to the real nature; and with refer­ence to these three, without the other children of Adam, it was said, “This is the book of the generation of men.” And because Seth was spiritual he neither tends flocks nor tills the soil but produces a child, as spiritual things do. And him, who “hoped
to call upon the name of the Lord” who looked upward and whose “citizenship is in heaven – him the world does not contain.” (Theodotus, Criddle Collection.) (SGG)

For Gnostics Yeshu is then a further echo or “reincarnation” of Seth….
This is of course further confused when you consider Docetic ideas of Christ..which I personally dont agree with, as Philip tells us that:

“Jesus took them all by stealth, for he did not appear as he was, but in the manner in which they would be able to see him. He appeared to them all. He appeared to the great as great. He appeared to the small as small. He appeared to the angels as an angel, and to men as a man. Because of this, his word hid itself from everyone. Some indeed saw him, thinking that they were seeing themselves, but when he appeared to his disciples in glory on the mount, he was not small. He became great, but he made the disciples great, that they might be able to see him in his greatness.”

…

So the question how many years between Adam and Jesus is one we can consider if we are fixed on times and dates and history. One would argue the bible says an X amount of years, for arguments sake, lets say 5,000. But as Gnostics, history is always secondary, our texts, our cosmology are ways of understanding, a means to an end; they are not to be taken dogmatically or to be used literally alone…for as Gnostics, we must scratch below the surface “If you wish to obtain pearls, you must dive for them.”

Docetism: Meaning “image.” Docetic refers to being non-corporeal, or not being composed of matter. (See; Julius Cassianus.)

Barbelo (BARBHLW): Generally the first aeon, body or voice in the Sethian creation myth; “the first virginal emanation,” it may have an androgynous connotation, but represents a Gnostic version of Yin, and Yang, and the sexual energy called ‘Jing’. (See Allogenes, Tractate 3, Codex XI, of the Nag Hammadi
Lib. See also: Pistis Sophia, Ch. 8, BK 1, Askew Codex. See also: ”Apocryphon of John,” ”Marsenes,” ”The Gospel of the Egyptians,” ”Melchizedek,” ”TheGospel of Judas,” Trimorphic Protennoia,” ”The Three Steles of Seth, and Zostrianos”) “I cast into her the first power which I had received from the
Barbelo, which is the body which I wore in the height.” (”Pistis Sophia”) ”And I saw holy powers by means of the Luminaries of the virginal male Barbelo telling me that I would be able to test what happens in the world:” (Allogenes) ”Great is the first aeon, male virginal Barbelo, the first glory of the invisible Father, she who is called perfect.” (”The Three Steles of Seth”) ”O Mother of the aeons, Barbelo! O first-born of the aeons, splendid Doxomedon Dom[…]! O glorious one, Jesus Christ!’ (”Melchizedek”)

“She requested from the invisible, virginal Spirit – that is Barbelo – to give her FOREKNOWLEDGE. And the Spirit consented. And when he had consented, the foreknowledge came forth, and it stood by the FORETHOUGHT; it originates from the thought of the invisible, virginal Spirit. It glorified him and his perfect power, Barbelo, for it was for her sake that it had come into being.

“And she requested again to grant her INDESTRUCTIBILITY, and he consented. When he had consented, indestructibility came forth, and it stood by the thought and the foreknowledge. It glorified the invisible One and Barbelo, the one for whose sake they had come into being. “

And Barbelo requested to grant her ETERNAL LIFE. And the invisible Spirit consented. And when he had consented, eternal life came forth, and they attended and glorified the invisible Spirit and Barbelo, the one for whose sake they had come into being.

“And she requested again to grant her TRUTH. And the invisible Spirit consented. And when he had consented, truth came forth, and they attended and glorified the invisible, excellent Spirit and his Barbelo, the one for whose sake they had come into being.

“This is the pentad of the aeons of the Father, which is the first man, the image of the invisible Spirit; it is the forethought, which Barbelo, and the thought, and the foreknowledge, and the indestructibility, and the eternal life, and the truth. This is the androgynous pentad of the aeons, which is the decad of the aeons, which is the Father. – Apocryphon of John

The Barbelo

This Gnostic figure, appearing in a number of systems, the Nicolaites, the “Gnostics” of Epiphanius, the Sethians, the system of the “Evangelium Mariae” and that in Iren., I, xxix, 2 sq., remains to a certain extent an enigma. The name barbelo, barbeloth, barthenos has not been explained with certainty. In any case she represents the supreme female principle, is in fact the highest Godhead in its female aspect. Barbelo has most of the functions of the ano Sophia as described above. So prominent was her place amongst some Gnostics that some schools were designated as Barbeliotae, Barbelo worshippers of Barbelognostics. She is probably none other than the Light-Maiden of the Pistis Sophia, the thygater tou photos or simply the Maiden, parthenos. In Epiphanius (Haer., xxvi, 1) and Philastrius (Haer., xxxiii) Parthenos (Barbelos) seems identical with Noria, whoplays a great role as wife either of Noe or of Seth. The suggestion, that Noria is “Maiden”, parthenos, Istar, Athena, Wisdom, Sophia, or Archamoth, seems worthy of consideration. http://essenes.net/gnostikoi.html

further: THE GNOSTIC THREEFOLD PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT The Ascent of Mind and the Descent of Wisdom Novum Testamentum XXII, 4 (1980) by JOHN D. TURNER

Sethian Gnosticism a Literary history by JOHN D. TURNER

GNOSTICISM AND PLATONISM THE PLATONIZING SETHIAN TEXTS FROM NAG HAMMADI IN THEIR RELATION TO LATER PLATONIC LITERATURE by JOHN D. TURNER

TO SEE THE LIGHT: A GNOSTIC APPROPRIATION OF JEWISH PRIESTLY PRACTICE AND SAPIENTIAL AND APOCALYPTIC VISIONARY LORE

Achamoth: In Hebrew meaning ‘wisdom,’ possibly related to the Hebrew word for wisdom, “chokmah”. An Aeon representing ‘wisdom’ created by Sophia (Wisdom) in the pleroma. (See; ”First Apocalypse of James,” Nag Hammadi Lib.) Called ‘Echmoth’ in the ”Gospel of Phillip,” meaning ‘little Wisdom’ or “wisdom of death.”

Further:

https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2007/04/01/basic-sethian-christian-history/
https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/steles-of-seth-part-1/
https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2007/03/31/the-second-stele-of-seth/
https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2007/04/03/steles-of-seth-part-3/
https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2007/04/03/secrets-of-the-sethian-monad/
https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/understanding-the-secret-christianity/
https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/aeons/
https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/pleroma/
https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/the-demiurge/
https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/sophia/
http://www.archive.org/details/AGCA_radio_march06
http://www.archive.org/details/AGCA_august_2006_Broadcast
http://www.archive.org/details/Gnostic_Gender

 

Gnostic words for October 14, 2008:Tai Chi, Tartaros, Tatian,Tertullian, Tetraktys (Tetractys), Thereapeutae, Theodotus,Theosis, Theudas, Theurgy, Torah, Transubstantiation, Treatise

Tai Chi: As an icon the Tai Chi is a symbol, composed of the Yin and Yang circle, surrounded by eight trigrams. It, in terms of function is the underlying philosophy of all Chinese, and ‘classical’ Oriental philosophy. According to the scholar Fung Yu-Lan, ”The History of Chinese Philosophy, Vol 2.” Princeton, 1953, the philosophies of Pythagoras, and the Tai Chi are almost identical. The concept of Chi, and Sophia (wisdom), Logos, and Tao, meaning ”Word,” are identical. The power of male and female polarities in the Tai Chi, resemble the ideas of Pronoia, and Protophanes, in the concept of ”Barbelo.” ( See Barbelo, and Sethian Monadology. See also; ”The Valentinian Exposition.”) The Tai Chi is associated with the ”Book of Changes,” (I Ching), in Chinese Philosophy. Pythagoras is thought to have studied Chinese Philosophy, and obviously did. (See; Bulfinch’s Mythology, Gramercy, Crown Pub.
1979.) The analogy to the Tai Chi, Sethian values are in ”Tetrakys of the
Decad, Monadic Vlaues.”

Tartaros (Tartarus): Keeper of Hades. Also referred to as Tartarucus, Tatrokis, Saklas
and Temeluchus in various Christian texts. (See; ”The Book of Thomas the Contender,” Nag Hammadi Lib. Name is also used by Clement in “Stromata“)

Tatian: (110-180) Pupil of Justin Martyr and author of the “Diatessaron,” and “Letter to the Greeks.” Formed Gnostic sects in Syria called Encratites, meaning literally, ‘Masters of Themselves.’ Qualified the soul, as a special kind of spirit. (”Letter to the Greeks.”)

Tatian the Assyrian.

Tertullian: (160-230) Native of Carthage who joined literalist Christianity
around 196, after becoming a lawyer in Rome. Before he became a Montanist in 207, he argued with Hippolytus against Gnosticism. However his work does not reflect a sound knowledge of any of the pre-Christian, Valentinian, or Sethian
epistemologies. (See; Tertullian’s, ”Treatise of the Soul.”)

Tetraktys (Tetractys) of the Decad, The Monadic Values: There is no doubt that Sethian Gnostics applied the principles of this paradigm. ”Pythagorus considered all things relative to numbers… How he conceived this process has never been satisfactorily explained.” (Bullfinch, pg. 289.) Perhaps this is
the secret….

tetraktys

Pythagorus considered the monad as the source of all things. In the case of the tetraktys of the decad, the concepts of form and structure are related in mathematical values. These values work in harmony. They are not just a list, they are a set. The first and most obvious is numerical value is the digital sequence of one through ten. ‘Monad,’ 2. Decad, 3. Triad, 4. Tetrad, 5. Pentad, 6. Hexad, 7. Heptad, 8. Ogdoad, 9. Ennead, and 10. Decad.

Digital sequencing can be done in different base values, like using base six to count on your hands. You count to five on the right hand, and the first digit of the left hand represents six, the next set the left hand finger is given the value of twelve, then eighteen, then the sequence goes up to 35, when you run out of fingers, if you have ten. Another sequencing schema is the Heaven Sequence of the Tai Chi, which is in base eight.

The Pythagorean model showing the tetraktys of the decad is in the form of a triangle, usually shown as only dots, I have placed numbers beside the dots, denoting the digital sequence. Below is a traditional explanation for this sequence, where I have made aditions to show how the Tai Chi, and this sequence
are parallel….

o Monad
o o Decad
o o o Triad
o o o o Tetrad

________________________________These triangles should be equalateral.

1.
2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9. 10.

1.. The Tetractys represented the organization of space: {Wu Chi, Void, ”Jesus is Silence.” See; ”A Valentinian Exposition.”}
2.. the first row represented zero-dimensions (a point) {Tai Chi, yin and yang are the same.}
3.. the second row represented one-dimension (a line of two points) {Liang Yi, yin and yang are different}
4.. the third row represented two-dimensions (a plane defined by a triangle of
three points) {This is consistent with the San Ti. Man is the same as heaven and earth.}
5.. the fourth row represented three-dimensions (a triangular pyramid defined by four points) {This is consistent with the Si Xiang. This is Yin and Yang seenas two different things, or four types. This parallel to the Tai Chi does not include the Ba Gua (8 trigrams)} Wikapedia source…..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys

This triangle represents five, or more different mathematical values, not generally recognized unless you apply the Tai Chi model with the parallel of the Tetraktys. The mathematical values are thought of more like aphorisms, or a mantra, rather than calculations in some respect. Pythagoras put everything in terms of math, and I think the statistical terms below can be adapted to both the Tai Chi and the Tetraktys of the Decad.

The digital sequence of one through ten, connotes the decad. What cannotes the the ‘tetra’ is the number four. In the case of the tetraktys of the decad, the value of four corresponds with the relative value of the mathematical concept of ‘mode.’ One through six, would make the triangle a triad, and if you add a fifth
line, 11. through, 15., to the base, the mode is a pentad. As shown above we have the tetrad. (See; ”The Table of Ten Numbers,” http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta16.htm )

The mode is the value, or set of like units that appear most frequently in a set. As can be seen in the model of the tetraktys of the decad, all three sides of the triangle contain four units. (This is looking at the triangle of dots as an icon like the Tai Chi.) In terms of the triangle there are four levels, or modes (called types in the ”Gospel of Mary,”), Level 1. is one, level two the decad, is 2. and 3., level three the triad, is 4. 5. and 6., level four the tetrad, is 7. 8. 9. and 10.

O monad
O O decad
O O O triad
O O O O tetrad

A set in most science involving polarity, is called a field or pool, which connotes a perimeter of the form, or the unified body of the set, as a whole. Mode connotes the ‘level,’ of the form and structure of the pool. Therefor tetrads, hexads, ogdoads, etc. are thought of as modes and levels, which can be
applied to fields.

As you build the triangle by adding lines of digits to the base, the mode changes in sequence, but the values of mean, and median, also become relative to the model. This is allegorical to how a seed turns into a tree or plant. This same sequence is thought to be extant in the working of the Logos, Pleroma,
Kenoma, and Psyche of man, and collective consciousness of mankind.

This means you are using mathematical terms as points of a contemplation, or meditation, more like aphorism than calculation. Each configuration of the triangle regardless of the mode, retains the value of the monad in the digital sequence. The mode sequence, the mean value in the sequence, and the median
values in the sequence, are not mutually exclusive. They work in harmony.

The mode sequence is determined by looking at the triangle like an icon, and determining the number of units each side of the triangle has. The mode sequence has a different numerical value than the digital sequence value. In the Tai Chi, Wu Chi, is the void or zero, and in the Sethian system Jesus is Silence. Tai Chi, is one, meaning Yin and Yang are the same. Liang Yi is the third in the Heaven Sequence, and means Yin and Yang as seperate or different. The student of the Tetraktys retains the triology, or ‘tripartite,’ as a mindset, in the contemplation of the sequence. “Man’s mind/heart, is the same as heaven and
earth.” (”Kenpo Gokui’.’)

The next stage in the Heaven Sequence, (Use of even numbers) is the Si Xiang, which represents the tetrad or four units. In the Chinese system Wu Chi = 0, Tai Chi equals 2., Liang Yi = 2, and Si Xiang= 4., puting the Tai Chi in a setof eight parts, symbolically aligned with the Ba Gua, or eight trigrams, making
the Tai Chi an organized Ogdoad. The Sacred Tetrad is regarded in the same way, as the Si Xiang, in form, structure, and mechanics. (See; Tai Chi. See; ”The History of Chinese Philosophy,” Vol. 2, Fung Yu-Lan, Princeton, 1953.)

The mean is determined by adding the number of units, in the digital sequence, then dividing that sum by the number of units, the result is an average number of units. That would be the pentad or five, the mean of ten units. In building form and structure in the Monadology, the constant value of the mean is thevalue of one, (Monad) and denotes the value of the monad in each consecutive mode in the sequence. The Monad remains integrated into the form and structure of all mode values. (See; Decalogue.)

The median, is the value where half of the units in a set are larger or smaller than the opposite set of units. The median is the point where the set is divided, and determines balance with the reflective or dual values of male/female, good/evil, light and darkness. The odd numbers where their are more units on one half of the set than the other, represents unbalance. Pythagoreans used the terms square for even numbers, and oblong for odd numbers.
(Ibid.)

In the application of the sequence the consideration of median, is that ‘duality,’ reamains a constant regardless of the level, or mode, as does the power of the Monad. Duality can be meant to be more than one feature, when drawing a monadic paradigm, as duality does not always mean opposite, it can
mean either, or. In some cases it can be implied as an opposite. It can be areflective value, like a mirror image, or reflection. (See; Bythos)

For instance, the pentad can be given five values, with good connotations, and their opposite with negative conotations. Five constructive values, are opposed to the destructive values of opposition. The Chinese use the idea of the Wu Xing, or five constructive, and destructive forces. The reflective value or
median value (duality) is always considered as part of form and structure,
regardless of the mode, or level in the sequence.

The fifth value is the parabolic, more of a geometric adaptation, which has dimensions or perspective, reflection and even vibration. (See; Parables.) The parabolic view is in reference to the higher modes of the Pentad and above, where the structure and form can be seen as multi-dimensional and having
perspective. (See; Parabole, which can be shown as viewing the inside of a
cone. See also; Gematria.)

As a contemplation device, all the values of the tetraktys of the decad, are imagined in unison as a harmony. This unified perception is imperical to the idea of how the natural order of wisdom works in the tripartite vision of man as being psyche, material, and spiritual. The sequence is operational in the realms of man, heaven and earth.

You can see that 1. 2. 3. and 5. form the equalateral cross, common in the first century. There may be more of these parallels, than I mention at this time. The Platonic tetrad, used in the ”Square of Opposition,” a tool of logic, can also be seen in the formation of 2. 3. 5. 8. and 9.

If you look at the triagle of dots you will see that 2. 3. 4. 6. 8. and 9. form a circle with 5. in the middle. 1. 7., and 9. are outside the circle. (See Tripartite) As one contemplates this image the fifth value of the parabolic becomes apparent. The image can look like it is multi-dimensional, where the center (5) as seen as closer and further away, adds perspective. The center dot 5. becomes parabolic point of center, and the middle of the sequence.

In regard to the human figure, you can draw arms going up from 2., and 3., and legs off 8. and 9., and you can imagine the human figure in the gematria within the triangle.

In martial arts, especially those aligned with the classic Tai Chi, the points of the shoulders and hips represent the primary centers of the body’s natural ”primary square of balance,” where 5. is the center of the body the diaphram. Some martial artists use this ‘cone’ image like sights on a gun, aiming at a
target, and using the same grid for defense. This shows the tool (sequence) is useful as both applied in the material world, and applied to the psyche. The entire system of Isshin Ryu Karate can be shown in the ”Heaven Sequence,” as well as the application against opponents.

Kabbalistic Tetraktys illustrating the 72 names of God and the manifestation of creation

Thereapeutae: (Therapuetrides) A Jewish sect in Alexandria described by Philo in his “On the Contemplative Life.” They were similar to Essenes, and were mistaken by Eusebius as being Christian. ( “The History of the Church,” Eusebius, Williamson, Penguin, 1989, pg. 422-23)

“the entire interval from dawn to evening is given up by them to spiritual exercises. For they read the holy scriptures and draw out in thought and allegory their ancestral philosophy, since they regard the literal meanings as symbols of an inner and hidden nature revealing itself in covert ideas.”

—Philo, para. 28

Theodotus: A student of Valentinus, and Pantaenus in the Alexandrian lineage. Theodotus explains that passions are called spirits: ” The passions that are in the soul are called spirits, not spirits of power, since in that case the man under the influence of passion would be a legion of demons; but they are so
called in consequence of the impulse they communicate. For the soul itself, through modifications, taking on this and that other sort of qualities of wickedness, is said to receive spirits.” ( See; Fragments of Theodotus, Kirby, Criddle.

http://neonostalgia.com/xtian/Extracts_from_Theodotus.htm , and Theodotus )

Theosis: (Theiosis, Theopoiesis, Theōsis) In Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic theology, theosis, meaning divinization (or deification or, to become god), is the call to man to become holy and seek union with God, beginning in this life and later consummated in the resurrection. Theosis comprehends salvation from sin, is premised upon apostolic and early Christian understanding of the life of faith, and is conceptually foundational in both the East and the West. See also; Consecration, Deification, Divine Union, Sanctification. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosis

The Ladder of Paradise icon described by John Climacus.

Theudas: (42 CE approx.) Theudas, meaning ‘gift from God’ declared himself a prophet and was executed while attempting to ‘part the Jordan” for his followers. Years later Valentinus laid claim to some of his teaching. ( Ehrman, “Lost Christianities, pg 193, says Theudas was a disciple of Paul, this is not true.. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 20.97-98 )

Theurgy: ‘Works of the Gods’ ( See; “Zostrianos”). This refers to human affairs and the effects in the earthly state. ”Theurgy (from Latin: theurgia, Greek: theourgeia) describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action of God (or other personified supernatural power), especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving theosis, and perfecting oneself.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theurgy

……

In its “original Egyptian” use, the term Theurgy however refers to “becoming a hollow reed. This concept is quite different to the “modern” use employed by modern “Hermeticists.” Although the two concepts may in turn cross over, the fundamental difference is one involves taking from the “Gods” and the other involves opening one’s self up in order to be filled. In theory this may be the same or similar, but the actual process is different. In such that one involves manipulation and the other involves self sacrifice.

https://magdelene.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/more-thoughts-on-ritual/

Torah: The first five books of the Bible, “Genesis,” “Exodus,” “Leviticus,”
Numbers,” and “Deuteronomy,” also referred to as “The Law.”

Transubstantiation: The act of applying or transference of Holy Spirit into wine and bread. The term is common to the Christian and Gnostic Eucharist, Communion, or sacramental ceremonies. ”A change of substance, {transmutation} usually refering to the doctrine of the Eucharist sacrement of the Lord’s Supper, where the bread and wine were declared symbols of the body and blood of Jesus.”( See; ”The Steinerbooks Dictionary of the Psychic, Mystic, and Occult,” Rudolf Steiner, 1973. pg. 219. See also; “Valentinian Exposition,”
Baptism A., B., Eucarist, Chrism, etc. Nag Hammadi Lib. See also; ”Gospel of Philip.”)

Treatise: A book or writing directed toward a specific purpose.

 

Reflection for July 23,2008: can’t touch it, show it, taste it,

“If we set out into this darkness, we have to meet these inexorable
forces.  We will have to face fears and doubts.  We will have to call
into question the whole structure of our spiritual life.  We will have
to make a new evaluation of our motives for belief, for love, for
self-commitment to the invisible God.  And at this moment, precisely,
all spiritual light is darkened, all values lose their shape and
reality, and we remain, so to speak, suspended in the void.

The most crucial aspect of this experience is precisely the temptation
to doubt God himself.  We must not minimize the fact that this is a
genuine risk.”

–Thomas Merton (CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER,  page 77)

I know that I am presenting the solution in difficult terms, but there is nothing difficult in the Word of Truth. But since the Solution appeared so as not to leave anything hidden, but to reveal all things openly concerning existence – the destruction of evil on the one hand, the revelation of the elect on the other. This is the emanation of Truth and Spirit, Grace is of the Truth.

The Savior swallowed up death – (of this) you are not reckoned as being ignorant – for he put aside the world which is perishing. He transformed himself into an imperishable Aeon and raised himself up, having swallowed the visible by the invisible, and he gave us the way of our immortality. Then, indeed, as the Apostle said, “We suffered with him, and we arose with him, and we went to heaven with him”. Now if we are manifest in this world wearing him, we are that one`s beams, and we are embraced by him until our setting, that is to say, our death in this life. We are drawn to heaven by him, like beams by the sun, not being restrained by anything. This is the spiritual resurrection which swallows up the psychic in the same way as the fleshly.

But if there is one who does not believe, he does not have the (capacity to be) persuaded. For it is the domain of faith, my son, and not that which belongs to persuasion: the dead shall arise! There is one who believes among the philsophers who are in this world. At least he will arise. And let not the philosopher who is in this world have cause to believe that he is one who returns himself by himself – and (that) because of our faith! For we have known the Son of Man, and we have believed that he rose from among the dead. This is he of whom we say, “He became the destruction of death, as he is a great one in whom they believe.” Great are those who believe.

The thought of those who are saved shall not perish. The mind of those who have known him shall not perish. Therefore, we are elected to salvation and redemption since we are predestined from the beginning not to fall into the foolishness of those who are without knowledge, but we shall enter into the wisdom of those who have known the Truth. Indeed, the Truth which is kept cannot be abandoned, nor has it been. “Strong is the system of the Pleroma; small is that which broke loose (and) became (the) world. But the All is what is encompassed. It has not come into being; it was existing.” So, never doubt concerning the resurrection, my son Rheginos! For if you were not existing in flesh, you received flesh when you entered this world. Why will you not receive flesh when you ascend into the Aeon? That which is better than the flesh is that which is for (the) cause of life. That which came into being on your account, is it not yours? Does not that which is yours exist with you? Yet, while you are in this world, what is it that you lack? This is what you have been making every effort to learn.

–The treatise on the resurrection

Zen mind is the “Natural” state of our beings: No self, no identity, no memes, no beliefs.

Any idea of “what is” takes us away from what is – to be in the moment, all ideas need to be gone. There’s not even an “I” to have the ideas.

The natural being acts as an outcome of the movement of the universe, in the same way that an artist’s brush is moved by its “universe”.

All “teachings”, “spiritual” paths or “sacred” practices actually take us away from the moment, because it needs an “I” to do them, with an agenda of some kind, something to gain. All of which removes our beingness from the identity-free moment.

The only way that “what is” can be experienced is to lose all traces of self, in which case the “what is” can’t be experienced because there is no one there to experience it.

Any description of the state of the natural mind is false, including this one. “It” cannot be described. “It” is always “bigger” than the limiting description.

There is not even an “ultimate” state to gain, because the very idea that there is, takes us away from it.

All there is, is the operation of the universe in its all-ness. There’s no such thing as “enlightened” or “unenlightened”. These are just ideas of what is.

Even “bliss” or “transcendence” is a state of mind that needs an “I” to experience those feelings.

Thoughts are the glue of our belief structures. “I” is the creation of thoughts and beliefs.

What’s happening, when we think we are functioning human beings, is the operating system of the brain, running sophisticated meme/belief structures that create the content of our identities and sense of self.

The only act awareness can “do” is to let go of “self” awareness. Awareness, to be fully there, needs to have no “I” attached to it.

Where there was self, there is now “active” emptiness.

Action, from this place, is an instantaneous, pure response to the call of the moment. It is the moment, the universe acting, not the person.

True peace is an absence of agitation, an absence of self-generated internal activity. So peace cannot be “done”, or created – it’s an absence of doing. This allows unadulterated “what-is” to be.

All action out of this state is completely harmonious and non-conflicting. There is nothing there to conflict with anything else.

A transcended being feels the world cleanly, whereas an “I”, full of beliefs and ideas of self, overlays those unadulterated feelings with external content, imbuing them with emotional “charge”. This charge is reactive to the world around it, continually creating conflict as it attempts to dissipate.

Whatever is actual or real can only be there when all ideas, all thoughts, all belief, all traces of identity are gone – when there is no “I” left to take us out of the moment. If the eternal now moment is all there is, this may be the only way to be in it.

Thought is only necessary, only of any use, when it is called for by the moment, for a particular task. To keep thinking beyond the particular call of the moment is the same as keeping your arm above your head all the time, or hopping on one leg all the time.

What comes out of the moment relates only to that moment. It’s already past and nonexistent as it is experienced. To hold to anything experienced or said in that moment, is to live in the dead past.

If you can’t touch it, show it, taste it, does it have any reality?

http://www.becomereal.com/zen.html

……..

In the beginning there are intellectual structures to help us
understand our experiences – then the structures necessarily fall
away as we fall back into the bliss of simple being.

 

Reflection for April 3, 2008: The coming of the Shekinah

I have no pen to describe the Heavenly Kingdom; neither can I express it, for the earthly tongue is much too insufficient to do it. We will defer it until we come into the bosom of the Maiden.

-Jacob Boehme

……………

I am knowledge and ignorance.

I am shame and boldness.

I am shameless, I am ashamed.

I am strength and I am fear.

I am war and peace.

Give heed to me.

I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.

–The Thunder Perfect Mind

…………..

This same transmutation is understood to occur in faithful Christians within Eastern Orthodox tradition. Theosis or god-becoming is the recognized vocation of all Christians. The transfiguration is a doxophony, a revelation of glory. Peter and James, the only witness to this event, are confused, choosing to make tents to shelter from the glory, perhaps in imitation of the sukkah booth of the feast of the Tabernacles. The other participants –Elijah and Moses –have already beheld God face to face and have already experienced the glory of the Shekinah.

–Caitlin Matthews (Sophia Goddess of Wisdom, Bride of God, P. 139)

……………..

 And he said to them, `Verily I say to you, That there are certain of those standing here, who may not taste of death till they see the reign of God having come in power.’

 And after six days doth Jesus take Peter, and James, and John, and bringeth them up to a high mount by themselves, alone, and he was transfigured before them,

 and his garments became glittering, white exceedingly, as snow, so as a fuller upon the earth is not able to whiten [them].

 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

 And Peter answering saith to Jesus, `Rabbi, it is good to us to be here; and we may make three booths, for thee one, and for Moses one, and for Elijah one:’

 for he was not knowing what he might say, for they were greatly afraid.

 And there came a cloud overshadowing them, and there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, `This is My Son — the Beloved, hear ye him;’

 and suddenly, having looked around, they saw no one any more, but Jesus only with themselves.

 And as they are coming down from the mount, he charged them that they may declare to no one the things that they saw, except when the Son of Man may rise out of the dead;

–Mark 9:1-9

…………

And whenever Sophia receives her consort and Jesus receives the Christ and the seeds and the angels, then the pleroma will receive Sophia joyfully and All will come to be in unity and reconciliation.

–A Valentinian Exposition

 

 

What is Gnosticism? 1. Ineffable

Ineffable

To continue the discussion on “What is Gnosticism?” I am posting this. I offer this as my opinion only, not as an authority. I think we can always learn from each other, I certainly have much to learn.
When it comes to Gnosticism, most modern professed Gnostics generally refer to classical Gnosticism as Gnosticism. By this they mean the writers and users of the Naghammadi texts. Of course I would beg to say this is a bit narrow, but that is their choice. So to continue aspects, that I consider are “universal” to the majority if not all sects of “classical” Gnosticism, I am briefly reposting a post on ineffable. This concept and others of course are found not only within Gnosticism…as I think it is clear. This perhaps ties in well this week’s coffee and cigarettes Gnostic radio show on the syncretic nature of Gnosticism.

Ineffable: Means, 1. Incapable of being expressed; indescribable or unutterable. See Synonyms; unspeakable. 2. Not to be uttered; taboo: “the ineffable name of God.” (American Heritage Dictionary)….”Moreover it is these who have known him who is, the Father, that is, the Root of the All, the Ineffable One who dwells in the Monad. He dwells alone in silence, and silence is tranquility
since, after all, he was a Monad and no one was before him.” (”A Valentinian Exposition. ”)
…………………..
In Gnosticism one of the universal concepts is the unknowable mature of God. Indeed Gnostic texts even state that word God is insufficient. So as Gnostics we know that God is unknowable.
But we can easily fall into a trap here. As Gnostics we know that our concepts, our map, our cosmology etc are merely sign posts upon the way. Metaphor and symbolism. Thus things should be taken at face value, yes…but not JUST.

O HOW may I ever express that secret word?
O how can I say He is not like this, and He is like that?
If I say that He is within me, the universe is ashamed:
If I say that He is without me, it is falsehood.
He makes the inner and the outer worlds to be indivisibly one;
The conscious and the unconscious, both are His footstools.
He is neither manifest nor hidden, He is neither revealed nor unrevealed:
There are no words to tell that which He is.
–Kabir
Kabir the Hindu/Islamic mystic here explores this very theme, very well. God is ineffable, but that is not really the whole story. Sister Artemis expressed a view that G_d is the root. So G_d is “knowable” to a point… But I think you get the idea, I hope.
The Kabbalistic concept of Ain or En Sof is this unknowable root.
http://magdelene.net/ain.htm

I think it is very easy to see this concept is fairly universal within mystic traditions. I think it is important to restate that we should not fall into the trap of thinking a concept is the truth. There is truth in the idea of the Ineffable, but that is not the whole “truth.”
This leads in to the idea of transcendence…
………………….
As for the Way, the Way that can be spoken of is not the constant Way;
As for names, the name that can be named is not the constant name.
The nameless is the beginning of the ten thousand things;
The named is the mother of the ten thousand things.
Therefore, those constantly without desires, by this means will see only that which they yearn for and seek.
These two together emerge;
They have different names yet they’re called the same;
That which is even more profound than the profound—
The gateway of all subtleties.

–Tao Te Ching (chapter 1)
…………………

Therefore to It Gnosis is no beginning; rather is it [that Gnosis doth afford] to us the first beginning of its being known.
Let us lay hold, therefore, of the beginning. and quickly speed through all [we have to pass].
`Tis very hard, to leave the things we have grown used to, which meet our gaze on every side, and turn ourselves back to the Old Old [Path].
Appearances delight us, whereas things which appear not make their believing hard.
Now evils are the more apparent things, whereas the Good can never show Itself unto the eyes, for It hath neither form nor figure.
Therefore the Good is like Itself alone, and unlike all things else; or `tis impossible that That which hath no body should make Itself apparent to a body.
The “Like’s” superiority to the “Unlike” and the “Unlike’s” inferiority unto the “Like” consists in this:
The Oneness being Source and Root of all, is in all things as Root and Source. Without [this] Source is naught; whereas the Source [Itself] is from naught but itself, since it is Source of all the rest. It is Itself Its Source, since It may have no other Source.
The Oneness then being Source, containeth every number, but is contained by none; engendereth every number, but is engendered by no other one.
Now all that is engendered is imperfect, it is divisible, to increase subject and to decrease; but with the Perfect [One] none of these things doth hold. Now that which is increasable increases from the Oneness, but succumbs through its own feebleness when it no longer can contain the One.
–Corpus Hermeticum
…………………….
Light and darkness, life and death, and right and left are siblings of one another, and inseparable. For this reason the good are not good, the bad are not bad, life is not life, and death is not death. Each will dissolve into its original nature, but what is superior to the world cannot be dissolved, for it is eternal.

The names of worldly things are utterly deceptive, for they turn the heart from what is real to what is unreal. Whoever hears the word “god“ thinks not of what is real but rather of what is unreal. So also with the words “father,” “son,” “holy spirit,” “life,” “light,” “resurrection,” “church,” and all the rest, people do not think of what is real but of what is unreal, [though] the words refer to what is real. The words [that are] heard belong to this world. [Do not be] deceived. If words belonged to the eternal realm, they would never be pronounced in this world, nor would they designate worldly things. They would refer to what is in the eternal realm.

Only one name is not pronounced in the world, the name the Father gave the Son. It is the name above all-it is the Father’s name. For the Son would not have become Father if he had not put on-the Father’s name. Those who have this name understand it but do not speak it. Those who do not have it cannot even un­derstand it.

Truth brought forth names in the world for us, and no one can refer to truth without names. Truth is one and many, for our sakes, to teach us about the one, in love, through the many.

–Gospel of Philip
……………….
Monad: From the Greek word, meaning “one”, “single” or “unique.” It has ample
descriptions according to different contexts: According to Pythagoras it was the
first thing in existence. ”The Valentinian Exposition” declares Jesus the
‘Monad.’ (See Sethian Monadology.) mo·nad; (mnd) n. 1. Philosophy; An
indivisible, impenetrable unit of substance viewed as the basic constituent
element of physical reality in the metaphysics of Leibnitz. 2. Biology; A
single-celled microorganism, especially a flagellate protozoan of the genus
”Monas.” 3. Chemistry ; An atom or a radical with valence 1. (Online
Webster’s Dic. See also; Wikipedia.) The Monadic sequence to the Triad is
expressed is by the ”Oracles of Zoroaster,” which illuminates the
sequence…..
25. The Monad first existed, and the Paternal Monad still subsists.
26. When the Monad is extended, the Dyad is generated.
27. And beside Him is seated the Dyad which glitters with intellectual sections,
to govern all things and to order everything not ordered.
28. The Mind of the Father said that all things should be cut into Three, whose
Will assented, and immediately all things were so divided.
29. The Mind of the Eternal Father said into Three, governing all things by Mind.
30. The Father mingled every Spirit from this Triad.
31. All things are supplied from the bosom of this Triad.
32. All things are governed and subsist in this Triad
33. For thou must know that all things bow before the Three Supernals.
34. From thence floweth forth the Form of the Triad, being preexistent; not the
first Essence, but that whereby all things are measured.
35. And there appeared in it Virtue and Wisdom, and multiscient Truth.
36. For in each World shineth the Triad, over which the Monad ruleth.”

Tao