Visions of Gnostic Light

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PART ONE: COMMENTARY ON A MANICHAEAN HYMN

PART TWO: A TREATISE ON THE VISIONARY MEDITATION PRACTICES OF THE GNOSTICS,

ESPECIALLY IN AN ANCIENT GNOSTIC SCRIPTURE CALLED " TRIMORPHIC PROTENNOIA " --

VISIONS OF HEAVEN

 

 

A MANICHAEAN PRAYER, AND COMMENTARY

 

Come to me my Kinsman, the Light, My Guide.

 

 

HYMN:

 

Come to me, my kinsman, the Light, my Guide.

Since I went forth into the darkness I was given a water to drink.

I bear up beneath a burden which is not my own.

I am in the midst of my enemies, the beasts surrounding me;

the burden which I bear is of the powers and principalities.

They burned in their wrath, they rose up against me.

Matter and her sons divided me up amongst them,

they burnt me in their fire, they gave me a bitter likeness.

The strangers with whom I mixed, me they know not;

they tasted my sweetness, they desired to keep me with them.

I was life to them, but they were death to me; I bore up beneath them,

they wore me as a garment upon them.

I am in everything, I bear the skies, I am the foundation, I support the

earths;

I am the Light that shines forth, that gives joy to the souls.

I am the Life of the world; I am the milk that is in all trees; I am the

sweet water that is beneath the sons of matter.

I bore these things until I had fulfilled the will of my Father; the First

Man is my father whose will I have carried out.

Lo, the darkness I have subdued ; lo, the fire of the fountains I have

extinguished, as the sphere turns hurrying round, as the sun receives the

refined part of

Life.

O soul, raise your eyes to the Height and contemplate your bond, lo, your

fathers are calling you.

Now go aboard the Ship of Light and receive your garland of glory and return

to your Kingdom and rejoice with all the Aeons.

 

COMMENTARY:

 

" Come to me, my kinsman, the Light, my Guide. " A prayer to a spiritual

guide, a being of Light, to come to the aid of the soul. In this

otherworldly Gnostic literature, as well as in the Bible, ascensions or

revelations usually include a soul being escorted through the heavenly

realms by an apostle, angel, or being of Light. The soul doesn't travel

alone during mystic ascent -- it usually has a heavenly Guide.

 

" Since I went forth into the darkness I was given a water to drink.

I bear up beneath a burden which is not my own.

I am in the midst of my enemies, the beasts surrounding me;

the burden which I bear is of the powers and principalities.

They burned in their wrath, they rose up against me.

Matter and her sons divided me up amongst them,

they burnt me in their fire, they gave me a bitter likeness.

The strangers with whom I mixed, me they know not;

they tasted my sweetness, they desired to keep me with them. "

 

This is a classic description of life in the hylic universe of the Gnostics,

a world of darkness where imprisoned souls, " sons of matter, " often attempt

to crucify messengers of the Light that come to help them. (I sense a bit

of a crucifixion story going on in the background here.)

 

The Gnostics conceived of the material universe as being like the sediment

that settles to the bottom of pond, in this case a great cosmic pond! Souls

who are attached to limited material existence are like " pearls in the mud "

in need of rescue by divine Pearl-divers from Above. Both Gnostic redeemers

and souls seeking redemption contend with hostile " archons " (rulers),

" principalities and powers " (Saint Paul also used these terms as well), the

lower ruling spirits whose job it is to keep the Grand Illusion going, to

prevent the " pearls " from finding themselves, knowing themselves again (see

the Hymn of the Pearl story in the " Acts of Thomas " ). Our soul, the

" stranger in a strange land " in this hymn, expresses feelings of alienation

and encounters opposition to his message from Above, and has to, himself,

actively resist the downward pull of material existence and forgetfulness.

 

" I was life to them, but they were death to me; I bore up beneath them,

they wore me as a garment upon them.

I am in everything, I bear the skies, I am the foundation, I support the

earths;

I am the Light that shines forth, that gives joy to the souls.

I am the life of the world; I am the milk that is in all trees; I am the

sweet water that is beneath the sons of matter.

I bore these things until I had fulfilled the will of my Father; the First

Man is my father whose will I have carried out.

Lo, the darkness I have subdued; lo, the fire of the fountains I have

extinguished, as the sphere turns hurrying round, as the sun receives the

refined part of life. "

 

The " I AM " in the hymn seems to be the Voice of the Gnostic heavenly

redeemer, a divine Being of Light, who really is a personification of the

God within every living thing. This part of the hymn reminds me of other " I

AM THAT I AM " hymns. See, " The Thunder: Perfect Mind, " and " Trimorphic

Protennoia " in " The Nag Hammadi Library In English, " James M. Robinson,

Harper San Francisco. Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas, Saying 77, also

becomes the " I Am: " " It is I who am the Light which is Above them all. It

is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the

all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and

you will find Me there. "

 

Most are annoyed by the dark characterizations of the material world in

Gnosticism, but there's much more to the Gnostic message than " matter is

illusion. " In this part of the hymn we can finally begin to catch a glimpse

of what the Gnostic Eye really sees: that hidden within every living thing

is a Radiant Divine Spark of Beauty, " joy, " " milk, " " life, " " sweet water, "

and " Light. " " I am in everything, I bear the skies, I am the foundation, I

support the earths; I am the Light that shines forth, that gives joy to the

souls. "

 

So how do we see beyond the overcast skies of dark matter that obscures our

view of the Light? This hymn exhorts: " O soul, raise your eyes to the Height

and contemplate your bond, lo, your fathers are calling you. Now go aboard

the Ship of Light and receive your garland of glory and return to your

Kingdom and rejoice with all the Aeons. "

 

The Sufi Master Fakhruddin 'Iraqi, in his book " Divine Flashes, " puts it

this way:

 

Know yourself: a cloud

drifting before your sun.

Cut yourself off from your senses

and behold your Sun of intimacy.

 

 

Physical eyesight may be quite limited, but the message of the Gnostic

mystics is that there is another kind of seeing that's available to us.

 

One can learn how to see and hear spiritually from souls who are already

experiencing this. In the Gospel of Thomas the Master says: " I will give you

what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, and

what has never occurred to the human mind. " (Saying 17) During antiquity

this was once a popular axiom in many spiritual movements of the middle and

near east. Gnostic Masters were once living human beings, not ascended

masters or disembodied spirits. Schools of Spirituality once had living

teachers: Valentinus, Mani, etc. It seems strange to have to say it as it

points out the obvious, but these teachers had physical bodies, headed

various spiritual movements during their day -- in other words they weren't

disincarnate " channelled " spirits, dead prophets from centuries earlier, or

holy books of the past. A physically incarnated, living teacher with living

students can thus say: " I disclose my Mysteries to those who are worthy of

my mysteries. " (Jesus, Gospel of Thomas, Saying 62) And says the anonymous

messiah of " Trimorphic Protennoia: " " I am the Light that rejoices [in my]

brethren, for I came down to the world [of] mortals..... "

 

Books on these traditions like " The Gnostic Mystery, " by Andrea Grace Diem

(see below), " Seek To See Him -- Ascension Mysticism in the Gospel of

Thomas, " and, " The Robe of Glory, " by John Davidson, provide excellent

introductions to the mystical paradigm of the Gnostic Schools of

Spirituality that once operated in the west, and I refer & defer to them to

make the case in detail for the mystical practices of these Schools. Having

said this.......

 

A TREATISE ON THE VISIONARY MEDITATION PRACTICES OF THE GNOSTICS -- AN

INTRODUCTION TO GNOSTIC MEDITATION TECHNIQUES

 

Secret names of God, angels, and a multitude of heavenly beings are central

to spiritual practice. The Coptic writings from Egypt are filled with

hundreds of these names! One can verbally chant or silently, mentally repeat

during meditation a name of God or a combination of various names. Some

ancient examples of sacred names to choose from: IAO, various combinations

of vowels (eeeeooooouuuuuoooooaaaaaa), Armoz-el, Oroia-el, Daveithe, and

El-ethe.

 

Andrea Grace Diem in " The Gnostic Mystery, " writes about the meaning of the

last four sacred names I listed: " Throughout Gnostic literature names of

specific lights of the different Realms are described: Armoz-el of the First

Region, Oroia-el of the Second, Daveithe of the Third, and El-ethe of the

Fourth. The Fifth Aeon, the Divine, is the all-encompassing Light. A

specific description of these lights is absent, although they are referred

to as " eternal Lights, perfect because they were perfected individually. "

The author of Trimorphic Protennoia expounds that " each Aeon gave myriads of

glories within great unsearchable Lights and they all together blessed the

Perfect Son, the God who was begotten. "

 

The Gnostics had their own " maps " of the inner cosmos, believed that the

soul has to pass through several different heavens on the way back to the

One. The repetition of sacred names, names that relate to various heavenly

regions, helps one to find the necessary singleness of vision and rise above

body-consciousness. Andrea Grace Diem: " The purpose of withdrawing from the

physical body is twofold: 1) first of all, it is a means to purify the soul

to heighten consciousness of God. As the soul ascends to higher levels, its

awareness of God sharpens. In essence, self-knowledge is knowledge of God.

2) Also, it entails the act of dying while living. Step by step one enacts

the actual process of death so that at the time of death the soul is not

lost but knows the path of ascent to the Unknown Father. "

 

THE APPEARANCE OF INTERNAL LIGHT AND SOUND

 

During meditation by repeating names or a name of God we may find our

concentration shifting from our normal waking state of consciousness to

another state that we haven't encountered before; in the darkness Light will

appear. Our attention will collect at the Single Eye. " If thine eye becomes

single, thy whole body shall be full of Light. " (Jesus, New Testament) The

energies of our soul that have been throughout the ages, scattered, divided,

dissipated, out of focus. What would happen if we were to " gather up all

our powers " and enter into a laser-like focused concentration? If one is

divided, one will be filled with darkness, but if one is whole, one will be

filled with Light. (Gospel of Thomas, Saying 61) When the initiate reaches a

certain Singleness of Vision, out of darkness, Light will appear. " Thus as a

result of recollecting all these things the impulses of the mind are

extended from the sphere of material things towards those impulses which are

without limit, that is to say, wonder at the New World.....For none of the

visionaries or gnostics is able to distinguish the identity of the mind as a

result of the vision of that glorious Light that is seen......, for all the

innermost chambers of the heart [the soul or inner self] are filled by that

blessed Light. " (Joseph the Visionary, a mystic from northern Iraq)

 

Andrea Grace Diem in " The Gnostic Mystery: " " Gnostic literature is filled

with descriptions of mystical experiences beyond the simple waking state.

For instance, the Gnostic text Zostrianos explains that the one " who can be

saved is the one who seeks after him and his mind,... he withdraws to

himself alone, for he can become divine. "

 

" Experience for the Gnostic is inherent to learning; to experience death (or

practice the process of death) plays a key role in learning about the higher

regions. The tractate Zostrianos petitions:

 

Awaken your divine part to God ... Behold death here and seek the immutable

ingenerateness, the Father of everything.

 

" The soul, when pulled from the physical body, is said to rise upward

experiencing higher states of consciousness. It is here that visions of

Light and Sound are described. According to the mystics of these traditions,

such manifestations are believed to be guides for the wayward soul, leading

the soul through various higher states of consciousness. The author of the

Pistis Sophia comments:

 

" Man's soul shall become, when it leaveth the body, a great flood of Light,

so as to traverse all the regions until it cometh into the Kingdom of

Mystery. "

 

" Contacting this Light and Sound is said to be transforming. The writer of

the treatise Allogenes purports:

 

turned to myself [and] saw Light that [surrounded] me and the Good that

was in me, I became divine.

" .....With the Gnostic tradition, the Light and Sound are described in

particular patterns. Once withdrawal has commenced, the darkness within is

said to gradually be illuminated with shifting points of Light that

eventually " cease flickering and develop into a single radiating point. " As

the soul continues its journey variations of a beautiful white Light and of

a melodious Sound occur. Describing this inner Light and Sound exactly is

said to be an impossible task, for, claims Shiv Dayal Singh, 'how can I

describe the Melody, when nothing like it is to be found in the world.' The

Sound Current is not a Sound one hears with the physical ears, but only with

the inner self, the Spirit Entity. Accordingly, this 'Heavenly Music that

plays interminably' is, in essence, God manifest and it upholds all of

creation.

When describing the philosophical nature of the cosmos, Gnostic writers

emphasize this Sound Current, variously referred to as Word, Voice, Logos,

Speech, or simply Sound. Also, throughout Gnostic texts reference is made to

the manifestation of a mystical Light, known as Treasury of Light,

Immeasurable Light, etc. In the Trimorphic Protennoia it is described in the

following way:

I am [the Word] who dwells [in the] ineffable [silence]. I dwell in

undefiled [Light] and a Thought [revealed itself] perceptibly through [the

great] Sound ... And it [the Sound] exists from the beginning in the

foundations of the All. But there is a Light [that] swells hidden in Silence

and it was the first to [come] forth...I alone am the Word, ineffable,

incorruptible, immeasurable, inconceivable. It (the Word?) is a hidden Light

.... being unreproducible, an immeasurable Light, the source of All...It is

foundation that supports every movement of the Aeons that belong to the

mighty glory. It is the founding of every foundation. It is the breath of

the powers. It is the eye of the three permanences, which exist as a Voice

by virtue of a Thought. And it is a Word by virtue of the Sound ... I (the

Word) became a foundation for the All. " ( " The Gnostic Mystery, " in its

entirety, is posted on the Gnostic Golfer website:

http://members.tripod.com/~andrea65 )

For the explorers of inner space the multiverse is filled with Lights of

various colors, and an Audible Life Stream that connects all souls to the

One. This Sound can be heard in the silence of contemplation. By becoming

one with this Sound, the soul is pulled toward the Place where the Sound

originates: " In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the

Word was God. "

The Gnostic develops, under the guidance of his/her teacher, the spiritual

senses and can then begin to explore the " many mansions " of the heavenly

realms. Trimorphic Protennoia:

I cast [voiced] Speech [or Sound] into the ears of those who know me. And I

am inviting you into the exalted, perfect Light. Moreover (as for) this

(Light), when you enter it you will be glorified ... you will become

gloriously glorious, the way you first were when you were <Light>. And I hid

myself in everyone and revealed [myself] within them, and every mind seeking

me longed for me, for it is I who gave shape to the All when it had no form.

And I transformed their forms into (other) forms until the time when a form

will be given to the All. It is through me that the Voice originated ... And

it is a Word, by virtue of a Sound; it was sent to illumine those who dwell

in darkness... am a Light that illuminates the All. I am the Light that

rejoices [in my] brethren, for I came down to the world [of] mortals.....

In these ancient religions of the middle east that were heavily into the

Light motif, the view often held was that all souls originally came from

" the Light " (True Heaven) and will return there again (see GoThomas, Sayings

24, 49 and 50). Visionary Gnostic meditation practices were all about

bringing one back into an awareness of the divine realm, here and now. For

the Gnostic, the Day of Resurrection and Rapture is not pushed off till some

end of time " tomorrow that never comes. " Rather, the heavenly realms are

perceived instead to be all around us and within us, right now. By becoming

an initiate of the Mysteries the mystic soul seeks to experience the

heavenly realms not only in the next life, but during this one as well.

Soon I'll post some meditation instructions on actualizing the Light of the

soul.

Namaste,'

James

spiritualawakeningatonelist

Kabir says: " The Light of one soul is equal to that of sixteen suns. "

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