Introduction & Shape of Our Sessions

Dear friends, Lynn and I wanted to share with you how we see our work on this Gospel unfolding during each session. 

At least a week before each session you will receive the commentary for the analogue we will be studying. We recommend you print it.  In Lynn's translation (The Luminous Gospels, by Bauman, Baurman and Bourgeault)  the gospel is divided into analogues, seventy four in total.  We recommend that you read the commentary carefully, probably several times. The commentary refers to images. They are NOT included in what you will receive. You will see the images during our time together and you will receive them afterwards for  further reflection.

We will begin each session with some silence. Lynn will then spell out the essence of the analogue. We will then open up the space for questions about the commentary.  Using one or maybe two of the questions for reflections , which are included in the commentary,  we will then break you out into groups of 4-5  for collective discussion for about 15-20 minutes. Will then gather together again for reflections that arose in the discussions. This time for exploration and clarification will last around an hour.

We will then divide the group into two for Midrash. This will allow us to dip into the Imaginal realm of this visionary text. Some of you may not be familiar with Midrash. We have posted below an essay that we wrote when this practice was first coming into shape as a new praxis. We have learned much about how this practice grows and deepens as the collectivity rests more and more in presence and less and less in the interpretive mind. Lynn and I will hold the space for each group.

We will then return to the whole group for the closing.  

You will receive the zoom link before our gathering. Please save both the commentary and the zoom link. This will spare us from having to send you repeat emails.

Blessings, Alison and Lynn

An Introduction to the Iconic Illuminations of the Gospel of Thomasand the Sapiential Use of the Analogical Imagination

By Lynn C. Bauman and Alison Hine

The purpose of this introduction is to describe a new form of creative expression that brings together texts from the ancient Christian world and a contemporary form of iconic illumination. It is also meant to stimulate the creative imaginations of human beings in the realm of the sacred arts as well as initiate the productive use of the imagination as an analogical means of spiritual interpretation. 

We live in a world of forms—beautiful forms, natural forms—each one part of a vast web of patterned and intricate beauty. In the Gospel of Philip, the writer says: Truth did not come to us in this world naked. Rather it was clothed with symbol and image, for it cannot be received in any other way (Analogue 44). Images and symbols are the metaphoric clothing that both veil and reveal deeper truths. Typically in our world we have difficulty seeing the truth behind forms. We can easily discern the surface of things. We can even describe its immediate features, but because we have not been properly trained, often we cannot “read” the truth lying behind (or enfold within) the form. We simply have trouble seeing the truth in this way.

In the traditions of perennial wisdom (sophia perennis), iconic images and poetic speech have been the primary means used to convey spiritual truth. Specifically, we might think of poetic speech as “bent discourse”—language that has been turned from its normative purpose to portray reality along the horizontal axis and put at the disposal of describing the vertical axis instead. Such speech would include the many genres of wisdom literature: proverb, aphorism, poetry, parable, and mythic narrative. Iconic images serve another purpose. They act as windows opening out onto (and bring us into direct contact with) worlds, realities, energies and presences existing along the vertical axis so we can see and get to know them. Each image becomes an entry point—a doorway—into that realm which has direct influence upon us. Together, poetic speech and iconic image are vehicles that invite us into themselves and carry us into the many levels and dimensions that lie along the vertical axis. These two forms of communication and discourse, then, are the primary mode of wisdom communication. Without them we are reduced to rational discourse or discursive thought, which is a much slower, less direct, and more ponderous form of transmission. 

Yeshua, the Master of first century Jewish wisdom, taught the truth of his visionary seeing to us using this primary mode. In the West however, over time, our culture has replaced poetic speech and iconic image with rational thought and logical discourse as the primary means of transmitting wisdom. It is imperative now that we receive them back again. We not only need to learn to use our outer eyes and ears (our scientific and analytical minds) to read truth, we need to enter more deeply into our kardial core and learn to see and hear from within. We need to be trained to see and listen in a way that appears at odds with our standard western education.

This form of sapiential discourse used in the ancient world was called mash’al in Hebrew (or, mis’al in Arabic). These two Semitic terms describe the “clothed form” that the Gospel of Philip is talking about. What is required to understand and use them well is a trained inner eye to see and ear to hear. This proficiency is called ekasia (the ability to read the truth behind or contained within an image or icon, eikon). The skill to hear truth spoken poetically at the level of the heart can be called esakia, or deep listening. Truth or wisdom becomes available to us using these two very significant means of perception in order to connect us to sapiential truth.

Combined, these give us a capacity that we would not otherwise possess through our ordinary consciousness. Working together this skill is sometimes called “the analogical imagination,” referring to the heart’s intrinsic ability to read and understand wisdom through iconic images and to hear and translate poetic speech into insight. We possess innate capabilities in much the same way that a baby has an inherent ability for language as a new-born. All a child anywhere in the world needs is to be exposed to an environment in which language is being spoken and he or she begins immediately to hear, receive, and ultimately learn to use human speech. This ability is built into our very genetic structure. In the same way, the heart has its own innate abilities, but what it needs is to be bathed in a sea of images, symbols, metaphors and poetic language in order to begin to exercise its unique ability to receive truth or wisdom (sophia perennis) being conveyed in this manner. And, again, as the Gospel of Philip suggests, in truth, it cannot be properly conveyed or received in any other way.

Icon and Poetry as an Intermediary and Sapiential Art

From the earliest moments when humankind began to awaken to Wisdom’s voice, this stream of sapiential transmission through icon and poetry has been available across the earth. Our ancient texts say that human beings have responded accordingly. Hebrew tradition speaks of Sophia’s voice has been calling out to us and playing the field of the human world since our creation. Christian tradition says that it is the Logos which has been speaking deeply and directly to the human heart from its beginning. Poetry has been called our “first speech”—the perennial call-and-response between these human and divine realities. Images painted in caves and carved into petroglyphs were our first recorded iconic expressions attempting both to reveal and portray our experience of the Ineffable. In some form these have continued to be present right up into the present moment. And it is now, perhaps, at this critical moment in history, when humanity is most deeply in need of them. We are not without this same iconic impulse and poetic transmission in the contemporary world, and, of course, we already possess the necessary inner instrumentation to see and to hear this sacred, sapiential art.

Sacred art can be defined, then, as that which evokes and supports an inner movement within us towards contact with cosmic Reality. It pushes us beyond the narrow limitations of our ability to see and hear and sets us upon a path of spiritual transformation. But we must remember that conveyance of sacred art’s energies is through “clothed forms,” images and symbols expressed in icons and metaphoric speech. In his important work on iconography Richard Temple says that these are intermediaries which are the necessary to awaken the heart and move humanity forward toward its destiny, 

Ancient tradition holds that the cerebral mind is not the instrument for apprehending higher knowledge and the realities of the cosmos, nor can the kingdom of Heaven be known by the senses. Another faculty, only the embryo of which exists in us, has to be developed. This is the highest aim a man can have: to develop that faculty and become the recipient and guardian of that higher knowledge. Such an aim demands the participation of the whole of himself. At the same time, knowledge of the higher world can and does reach the ordinary level of humanity, but it appears among us in partly hidden forms, in the guise of something readily acceptable, where only seekers will look for a higher meaning. Thus an intermediary level exists; it is not the inconceivable Divine Realm, neither is it at the level of our animal nature. It is the world of traditions, ceremonies, rituals, symbolic myths and allegories; symbolic architectural and pictorial images, symbolic numbers, sometimes expressed in forms, or music, or colors (Richard Temple: Icons and the Mystical Origins of Christianity, 13). 

In his foreword to the same text, Jacob Needleman makes another critically important point that cannot be overlooked if we are to properly understand the power of an icon and the speech of a poet. He says that such art not only awakens us, it is by its very nature a doorway at whose threshold stands other presences who come to meet and greet us, and then lead us beyond ourselves into the horizons and pathways of other worlds, 

If during or after the reading of this book, one makes the effort to ‘just look’ at icons, one may undergo a fleeting, but extraordinary experience. From trying to see the icon, one may suddenly sense that one is been by it. For a moment, we are under the regard of a greater presence. The language of religion may speak of this seeing presence as located “in heaven”—but unmistakably, the call is to receive its action upon us from within All ideas, all prayer, all ritual and all the compassionate traditions of mankind are meant to guide us again and again towards this experience which alone can bring “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. 

It is often “Presence” which is the missing element in contemporary religious experience. We are willing to practice our religious life (or even to follow a spiritual path) without a sense of Presence. Without it, however, we are severely limited and diminished. With Presence we are guided, and our worlds open into new meanings, new insights, and out onto a path that leads to personal wisdom, the creation of qualities that strengthen our being, and to freedom from the limitation of our egoic and cultural programming. When Presence appears at the threshold of our world, though, there is a telltale sign of its authenticity—the sign of beauty.

The Sign of Beauty

From the ancient psalms onward there has been a recurring theme that describes God as the Most Beautiful One. The psalmist declares,

Open wide your gates and doors, O humankind,

Open everything

and let God’s glory in.

This God whose beauty streams to us

in majesty so strong.

A God who battled chaos and who won!

Yes, open everything to God

Let no door be shut.

Let beauty flood and fill the world!

This king of majesty, this queen of light,

The Lord of All,

The God of everything that is, your God,

The Radiant One, Most Beautiful!

(Psalm 24: 7-10)

As this translation suggests, God overflows with majesty, glory, and beauty. And as other of the Psalms say, the created universe, reflecting that glory, majesty, and beauty, is also exquisite and beautiful (Psalm 8 and 19 are only two examples). Everywhere we look we can confirm that this is so. Our eyes take in the beauty of the world around us from the tiniest patterns in nature to the photographs of the cosmos from the Hubble telescope. 

Even in their austerity, the ancient desert fathers and mothers said that their passion was for philokalia  (the quest for the beauty of God). Two traditional terms, shekhinah and the doxa, found in the Hebrew and Christian traditions describe God in precisely this same way. Similarly, in the Islamic world the word kibriyah describes God’s beauty and majesty. Andrew Harvey in his work on Jalaluddin Rumi’s Poetry says, 

(The word Kibriya) ... means Divine Gory, Divine Grandeur. As Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote: ‘God’s grandeur will flame out like shining from shook foil.’ ... (and) the ultimate knowledge is a knowledge of Kibriya, of the Divine Glory manifesting in everything as everything. And before that knowledge, one is just heart struck, washed away with wonder, with awe, with rapture, with mad joy (The Way of Passion, 48-49).

Reflecting this grandeur and beauty, the temples, mosques and churches of the Abrahamic traditions are adorned with mathematical perfection and precision in every imaginable way. Islamic and Medieval Christian architecture is some of the most pristine and beautiful of forms in the world. Their purpose is to reflect the beauty and majesty of God “the Beautiful One” and are used it to inspire the spiritual human quest so that we too embody and perfect the beautiful and the good within ourselves. In our estimation, therefore, anything expressing these divine qualities, must be profoundly beautiful.

Iconography and the Analogical Imagination 

Humans put their image-making capabilities to use through works of creativity and artistic expression. Artists, poets, musicians, dancers, and actors of every kind manifest the creative genius of humankind through this very real gift. It is an endowment that we all possess in some manner. In the sacred arts, however, this gift is used to convey higher realities, divine qualities, and the wisdom and beauty of Ultimate Reality itself. 

Because Ultimate Reality expresses itself to humankind through direct revelation and inspiration, the exercise of the Creative Imagination is the necessary means we human beings have of putting it into forms that can be useful for all of humanity. And because we are also meant to receive its truth through these revelatory and inspired forms, then the use of our own heart’s own innate ability (the Analogical Imagination), is determinative in how we receive and interpret that truth. We have a capacity for both, and both have been active in creating a new and contemporary form of iconic illumination.

Iconic Illuminations

This new form was, we believe, pioneered in the creation of St. John’s Illuminated Bible, the first of its kind in over five hundred years. The images illuminating that magnificent text are inspired iconic art forms combining traditional and contemporary images to create a breath-taking display of sacred art and beauty. This work is parallel to another digital expression of sacred illumination that is very similar in style and in sensibility.

Recently very serendipitously, in her mysterious stimulus of human creativity, Wisdom has helped to give rise to a new form of iconography. Through the careful seeing and deep listening of Alison Hine (and her unique artistic eye), what we are calling “Iconic Illuminations” has come into being. These are being used to illuminate the Gospel of Thomas and the other texts from the Luminous Gospels. Digitally produced, these images layer multiple arrangements and representations creating a singular iconic image. Over a period of months Alison has been able to illuminate the entire Gospel translated by Lynn C. Bauman. Together they have collaborated to produce these images which are clearly iconic and metaphoric. Though each image may contain some elements of the literal saying, their intended purpose is to symbolically convey their sapiential content. The result is a colorful and beautiful set of images illuminating the sapiential content of these Gospels. Though some may be stark and even graphic, each one attempts to express metaphoric depth and not mere literal representation.

Each Logion has at least one iconic image conveying its inner meaning. Some of them have more than one. There are now a total of some one hundred and sixty images whose purpose is to see through to the wisdom sayings of Yeshua. From the use they have already enjoyed, it is clear that they are a distinctive means of both seeing and gaining sapiential insight through ekasia. For some time now we have listened to the words of these ancient texts, but this new expression takes the verbal representations and gives them visual power allowing us the opportunity of seeing them with the inner eye. We have also discovered they also provide a unique way of transmitting sapiential insight that pairs the poetic speech of Yeshua’s words with their iconic expressions so that individuals who learn to read the images have a more direct access to their wisdom. 

The Creative Process

This outpouring of creative energy took the convergence of many factors. As Lynn and Alison collaborated together they made many important discoveries. Their first discovery was that they shared a compatible aesthetic eye. Alison says, "We discovered that we spoke easily and comfortably across wide swaths of metaphysical and spiritual experience and understanding." Lynn, of course, had just completed his extensive commentary on Thomas. In addition to Alison's own extensive spiritual inquiries, she had recently become familiar with the technique of layering photos using the app "Brushes" on her iPad. Google searches allowed Alison access to thousands of photos on the Web. The idea, then, of creating images emerged out of a kind of synchronicity of complimentary skills and a surprising ease of collaboration.

Alison began her work with each logion without a preconceived idea about how to capture its essence. "This discipline took some getting used to," she explained. "As we went along, it became clear that this was a kind of inquiry process. For example, each logion generated its own set of search questions." Alison then went looking for photos of trees, stars, persecution, transcendence, the absolute, pearls, pigs, on and on.  Google generates hundreds of images most of which were irrelevant, ugly, even pornographic, or just plain wrong. But then a photo or image would catch her attention as a kind of ‘yes’ and the creative dance would begin. There were many false starts; more google questions, moving and layering the photos, dissolving and erasing them until there was another ‘yes’ or something suddenly "popped" into view. Sometimes the iconic image appeared in a rush. Sometimes the image went back and forth via email between the collaborators until there was another ‘yes’. Alison explains that sometimes the work would loop backwards in the Gospel to previous images, but mostly the process went from one logion to the next. Gradually a vocabulary of photographic elements emerged. Photos from earlier images would drop in, then disappear only to reappear later. 

The pace at times seemed breathtaking and almost overwhelming. Alison says, "I often went to bed with the images and woke up with images in the middle of night." She explains that she had never experienced such a creative explosion. "And I had never considered seriously that I had an artistic eye," although she has dabbled with art at other times in her life. And it never occurred to her, as Lynn kept insisting, that she was "writing" as an iconographer.

It was clear to both of them that this outpouring took two sets of eyes and two individuals coming from different spiritual backgrounds and life experiences to sustain this creative endeavor. Lynn with his many years of contemplation of Thomas offered Alison a kind of ground or supportive field of understanding without which Alison felt this work would have faltered. Alison provided a level of expertise and intense attention to artistic detail and commitment to the spiritual unfolding. There were times when their seeing fundamentally converged. More often than not they were both astonished. Where did these images come from? Who knew? "All we knew was that they were truly gifts offered to us generously and graciously." 

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Rev. Alison Hine, OOOW, MSW