Analogue 44b

Analogue 44 

Signs and Images of the Mysteries

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. There is rebirth into another time, and there is the image of that rebirth, but it is truly imperative that one not be reborn in symbol only. So what, then, is the resurrection and its image or symbol—for resurrection comes through the icon? And what is the image of the Bridal Chamber—for through its icon one is brought into the truth of the restoration of all things? It is crucial, then, not simply to come to birth through the Father, the Son, and the Sacred Spirit in name only, but to be born through them in actuality. Whoever is not given birth by them will also have their names, which one received in the anointing that comes from the power of the cross, removed. These individuals have not simply received the anointing—which the Apostles called the union of the opposites of the right and the left—but they have also themselves become “the Christ,” the Anointed One.

The Master accomplished all this through the mysteries: Baptism, Anointing, Eucharist, Restoration to fullness of being, and the Bridal Chamber, saying, “I have come to make the inner as the outer, and the outer as the inner.” Everything he said he spoke by means of signs and images concerning that place which is transcendent to this one. And all those who confirm, “I am the Christ,” also come from that transcendent place beyond confusion.

SYNOPSIS

• A definitive statement about transcendent Truth and its conveyance: Transcendent truth is carried first not by words but by symbol, image, icon, and metaphor. These are the means by which Truth is conveyed into the human world and to the human heart. 
• The heart becomes the primary interpreter of the symbolic representations of transcendent Truth. 
• Symbolic truth can be received by the heart, but it must be actualized—made real in life itself.
• Four realities that change the nature of the human soul are at the core of this analogue: rebirth, resurrection, anointing and the bridal chamber. These are foundational for the restoration of all things beginning in each human soul. 
• The soul’s journey is one of incarnating and being born into the horizontal realm, standing up along the vertical axis, and becoming a mature spiritual being culminates in the union that occurs in the bridal chamber. 
• Rebirth is accomplished through the Father and the Mother (Sacred Spirit) and is midwifed by the Son not just symbolically but in actuality. 
• A name is not the ultimate conveyer of reality, but a new name given at anointing bestows power from the cross.
• The crucial difference between receiving an anointing and becoming the Anointed One distinguishes between two types of individuals.  
• Anointing is an action while becoming the Christ is the pattern of the fully realized human being. 
• The midwifery of the Master occurs through the Mysteries seen as alchemical Sacraments: baptism, anointing, eucharist, and restoration to fullness of being (including the healing of that which was ill). 
• The work in the Bridal Chamber (and the anointing preparing one to go into it as the priest-Messiah) is the union of opposites—the right and the left. As the inside and outside are brought together into a new unity where the original oneness is restored.
• There is the hermetic axiom “As above, so below”. This analogue is Philip’s (and Yeshua’s) version: “Make what is exoteric an interior reality, and take the inner or esoteric reality and manifest it outside in the exterior world. “
• The Great Temple’s principle of interiorization is here offered to all of humanity. 
• All of this is communicated by means of signs coming from a place of transcendent truth, as that which is above descends to the realms below. 
• Anointing carries one beyond confusion (perhaps the same “trouble” or confusion of Logion 2 in the Gospel of Thomas.)

You Tube recording for Analogue 44b

COMMENTARY

Sign and Symbol and the Path of Wisdom

The epistemological premises of this text are in many respects quite contemporary and nuanced, exhibiting a remarkable level of philosophical sophistication. The Gospel of Philip recognizes that human knowledge needs the conveyance of the language through signs, symbols and metaphors in order to be transmitted. It knows too that transmitting truth through words is just the beginning. True knowing is predicated on a level of integration that today we call integral knowledge, that is, a form of human comprehension that becomes available not simply to the mind but is integrated into one’s entire being, becoming entirely personal and implicit (the way you know how to ride a bicycle).

There are multiple paths that lead to Truth. From the perspective of this Gospel, the guidance necessary for sapiential progression comes when an understanding of truth is received through the conveyance of iconic representations as a unique form of language, which can then be integrated more fully into one’s being. Truth itself is One, but through its signs and symbols (the sacred language of icons), it guides us more deeply into the realm of Spirit leading to the experience of the Bridal Chamber. In this part of the text we have come to the heart of the mysteries, the secret teachings which Yeshua was said to have given to his first students, and it is through signs, symbols, and metaphors that he is both teaching them and we are coming to know them. 

Gateways to transcendence (a transformational evolution into the mysteries) were made possible through the sacramental openings offered by the Master of Wisdom and Transformation.

The Language of Conveyance

Many lines of thought and teaching converge in this analogue and it is difficult to comprehensively connect them all. Here, however, are a few whose foundations have been laid in previous analogues of this text. The first concerns the soul’s re-birth through the agency of the Philippian Trinity (the Father, Mother and their son) into another realm of time. The second concerns process and practice of Resurrection, the standing up out of this world following that birth into the many dimensions of the vertical axis. The third is the experience of the Bridal Chamber which is preceded by the essential anointing to become an Anointed Being. In that interior chamber one knows the experience of intimate relationship between the human and the divine (Analogues 42 and 43). All of these are pointing to this place where words and images converge to convey a truth that in many respects is at its deepest truth concerning the apocatastasis (the Restoration of all Things), which is far beyond our ordinary understanding or comprehension. Philip insists that to grasp it we must go beyond images and live into the reality toward which they point. Rebirth into these new realities must be experienced and become alive within the soul. True knowledge exceeds words about or conceptions of these mysteries and their completion. They are said, therefore, to enter into human understanding through their “icons,” at an interior depth.  

Again, humans need images and symbols as aids in order to grasp the deepest truths. Words assist their truthful transmission, like fingers which point towards the moon: they are not the moon itself, but they direct us in the right direction. The states of rebirth, becoming a true son or daughter, rising from death into resurrection, entering the Bridal Chamber, and becoming an Anointed One (as Yeshua himself was) are to be known because they are realities alive inside the soul and not simply words or even symbols. (Certainly not to be known as mere theological formulations). 

Unlike our first birth into the horizontal axis of time and space, Yeshua offers a form of birth into realms along the vertical axis. The Gospel insists that this birthing process occurs not by accepting doctrines or theological teachings but through the energetic activity of the Sacred Spirit which catalyzes all of these within the human soul. Awakening into these realities through a new birth, and then standing up into their myriad dimensions, allows us to take up residence within them as realities, not simply to hold them as concepts. By experience, then, these also come to reside within us. 

The Mysteries

The texts says that the Master of these inner alchemical transformations used five great centers of energy (or perhaps we could call them processes) symbolized by water, oil set aflame, bread, wine, restorative healing, and something akin to sexual intimacy to channel the power that rearranges and transforms the interior life of the soul. In this text they are called baptism, anointing, eucharistic feeding, full restoration and healing, and the experience of union within the Bridal Chamber, which in view of this Gospel constitute a complete spiritual alchemy. They appear to be related to each other perhaps even as an embedded hierarchy starting with the soul’s birthing caused by water and expanding upward and outward into each new process, culminating in mystical union or spiritual marriage which completes them.  

These five sacramental mysteries are theurgic, that is, divine energies activated by the Sacred Spirit which descended upon the Master at his baptism and which he continued to use (perhaps even behind the scenes) in soul-work (the soul’s transformation) throughout his ministry. Without the personal experience of them, however, the reception of these sacramental mysteries (in name only) have no transformative force and are rendered impotent. Bearing no fruit, their power is only suggestive, though we need the image in order to perceive the power available that can be received through them. Once their power is conveyed and the transformations begin, the image has become effective and the energy they represent unfolds. Only then is it possible to say that the inner and the outer realities combine to bring the soul into a transcendent place beyond confusion. 

The Soul in Seed-Form

This passage points to mysterious divine energies acting secretly perhaps within and upon the human soul. When they become known it is because they are deeply experienced in complex ways, leading to an inward place said to be beyond confusion perhaps because they are known now personally. Trying to imagine them and how their processes work, we might use the analogy of a gardener taking a small nondescript seed with all its potential and planting it in dark earth with the intent of growing a garden for food. In order to prepare for a future harvest, many transformations must occur. First, that tiny seed (full of pure potential) is awakened into birth bursting its normal boundaries because it has had an encounter with water. That coming to life, however, is hidden deep within the soil where water acting together with the warmth from the sun’s light bathes its dark world allowing a tap root to reach further down into the moist, wet earth. That first process allows for the next external signs of life to emerge above the ground where the infant leaves are “anointed” with or bathed in light. 

As the plant continues to grow toward the light, the gardener knows to give it further feeding and nutrition. As it is fed and fertilized the young plant matures into stronger and stronger forms, growing until maturation is completed in a final fruit-bearing. Again, bathed in light and being deeply fed, its fruit ripens being made ready for harvest. When the moment comes, the fruit from long labor is lifted into another realm, and a time of feasting beyond its native domain and certainly beyond its own telling.  We might see this whole process as expressing in some way the sacramental mysteries operating by analogy on the seed-form of the human soul. 

These mysteries are realities that reside in the soul and not doctrines or belief systems in the head. They are to be experienced inwardly as complex interactions. Until they are known inwardly in this way, they languish exoterically in a realm of emptiness or “outer darkness.” As names or ideas they are mere shadows of themselves. The outer description must be internalized for there to be transcendence beyond confusion. This transformational experience was Yeshua’s goal. The purpose of anointing was for one to become saturated with the same Spirit and Light in the union of opposites, catalyzed by these mysterious powers, so that soul-work would be a reality. 

The Template of the Temple

The gateway to transcendence (transformational evolution into through the mysteries) was made possible through the sacramental openings offered by the Master of Wisdom himself. It is possible to image that Yeshua experienced all of them through 40 days of intense mystical encounter in the wilderness, starting with his baptism into the River Jordan. This is also an important interpretive lens by which we may see the direct experience of Yeshua using these iconic images. However, there is another mode of conceptualizing them which appears to be part of Yeshua’s description and understanding having to do with first Temple theology which is also used illustratively in this Gospel. 

Though in the western tradition there are said to be seven sacraments, Philip recognizes this shorter list of five which has nomenclature that appears to be uniquely related to the structure of the Temple and temple worship. Once again using the analogy of the Temple we can describe our own soul’s experience with these sacred mysteries. Yeshua’s apparent affinity for a strand of first Temple Jewish mysticism also becomes clearer. The template of the outer structure of the Temple utilizing these sacramental rites are also modes of transformation taking place within the interior temple of human being. (See the illustration above and below). 

Consider, first, the outer court of the Temple which was a large open area surrounding the Temple’s central structures. Worshipers gathered there to prepare to enter the inner spaces by washing in the laver of cleansing and sacrificing on the burning alter as a means of purification. Imagine then that these also represent Baptism and Anointing which are deep engagements with water and fire within the soul. The water of life is available and washes over the soul. The divine fire, lit from the oil of anointing, saturates the consciousness of the soul’s own self-awareness. 

The Master offered first the fundamental element of water through a spiritual immersion as a life-giving force and an inner cleansing. The imperative is to step into the watery depths, knowing and drinking the living water that flows all around and in the aquifers beneath us. This awakens, bringing us a new form of life. Can you inwardly sense a connection to the waters of the infinite Ocean of divine Mercy that is beginning to have its effect, flowing through your own soul and awakening you into a new life-form?

Made alive and awakened by water, one is made ready for the oil of anointing. When set aflame to burn, oil gives off light. So it was with the sacrificial fire—fire and light prepared the worshipper to enter the holy inner sanctum of the first room of the temple where further light was also available from the sacred lamp stand, and bread offered at the place of a deeper and more intimate communion with the Presence that dwells within. Can you sense the light of new understanding and insight as a form of enlightenment opening and entering your consciousness? Does it often act also as a fire?

In the first inner room of the Temple there are seven more lights of the menorah. Bread is there along with an altar of incense. It is a place of prayer and reckoning with the Holy Presence before the veil. It is a form of both seeing and feasting which is capable of feeding and even intoxicating the soul. This is perhaps why the element of wine is added here—hinting at the whole ritual of an inner Passover meal where both bread and wine are present. In this inner sanctum a deeper communion begins, perhaps even as a form of reciprocal feeding. At the soul-level, the water and the oil sink deeper into one’s being, one begins to ingest light and eat the Bread of Life and thus the wine of a deeper communion and remembrance is offered. One is led to the table of the Lord as an offering of sweet-smelling incense before the divine Presence. Do you sense this deeper form of communion with the divine Presence taking place within you?

This text speaks of the healing and reconciling forces that unite the various aspects and fragments of the soul. It could be said that the soul has been torn asunder and wounded, and in this feeding the healing begins—the soul is being restored to complete health and fullness of life. There begins a new union. A new unity is forged in the soul, where the union of opposites are reconciled, the right-hand and the left-hand unite for an even deeper anointing (or Christ-ing). It is at this threshold before the Most Holy of all places (the Bridal Chamber), that a personal, ultimate reconciliation is experienced—where the inner and the outer reach a place of non-dual unity beyond confusion. 

Stepping further in then, past the veil and into the most secret interior place, the deepest relationship with the Master is made available without veils in mystical union. All barriers (veils) are stripped away and there is mystical union with the Christ. This Christ-ing is not simply about some historic event that occurred in the past (even in our own personal past), but is an interior and ongoing relationship possible in every present moment. According to the principles of first Temple mystical thought, this is what prepares the soul for its deepest form of knowing within the Bridal Chamber where lives are shared and exchanges in deepest mystical intimacy. Can you sense within yourself a form of intimate sharing in mystical companionship with the divine Beloved that might be akin to human love-making?

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. This analogue outlines a series of complex relationships building toward ultimate union in the Bridal Chamber where the Reconciliation of all things into oneness reaches a form of fulfillment. It describes the changes and transformations, laying out the whole sequence in the progressive unfolding of five mysteries. As you read the analogue, what steps do you recognize as ones you may have experienced yourself? Which ones are less familiar?
2. Beginning with an understanding of truth and how it is transmitted and communicated, what sacred symbols and images of truth have become important for you? If realized truth is personal truth, truth that has been integrated into one’s own being, what truths do you feel have reached and been realized at deeper levels within you? Can you detect truths that are still “outer,” ones not yet interiorized? 
3. What is the meaning of rebirth—being born anew into “another time?” What roles do the Father, the Son and the Sacred Spirit play in that birthing process (understood perhaps as father, mother and offspring)? (These may be very complex relationships even describing pairs of opposites coming together creatively). 
4. Are there left-handed truths and right-handed truths, truths that appear to you to be opposites of each other? Which have been reconciled for you? Which have not?
5. The Reconciliation of Opposites described in this passage takes place in a realm beyond the mundane world we normally inhabit and yet also inside it. How would you understand such a realm to exist? Where would you place it?  How might you have experienced it?
6. Do you have images and symbols for the re-birth and the resurrection (for standing up along the vertical axis) that help you to remember these states inwardly? How do you practice bringing your awareness into them as forms of saturation by Spirit and the processes of healing? 

 

NOTES FOR FURTHER STUDY 

AND REFERENCE

1. In this Gospel consistent themes are expressed concerning how transcendent Truth (truth beyond reason and logic) is made known and available to the deeper understandings of the soul. Epistemology is the philosophical study of the ways humans come to know things. It is a wide branch of philosophy, ultimately including the wisdom way of knowing—the ways in which wisdom comes to be known by the heart. It is within that context that this passage falls. The assertion is made that while transcendent Truth can be transmitted through words, images and symbols, it can never be fully known or realized in this way—it must be experienced personally and inwardly. While acknowledging the entry levels of knowing through multiple doorways of language and thought, it recognizes that truth in the form of wisdom is an interior integration and internalization through personal experience. This is called Personal Knowledge and is explicated by Michael Polanyi in an important text by that name. You might want to explore the subject of Personal or Implicit Knowledge on the internet to understand this better. Cynthia Bourgeault’s text The Wisdom Way of Knowing (Jossey-Bass, 2003) also explains many of these dimensions.
2. Mention is made of names and naming—of a name given and then taken away. It is difficult in this context to know exactly how we are to interpret this. It would typically be thought of in terms of eternity and eternal damnation, but since the idea of the ultimate restoration of all things back to God (apocatastasis) is so important and taught in this very analogue, this cannot be the proper understanding here. Might we think of it using the illustration of being on a sports team? Imagine joining an Olympic team. While on the team, you are called an Olympian, but if you are not capable of being one, you cannot stay on the team and your name is removed from its roster. You will not be destroyed, but the team itself is an elite force and something more is required of you to belong to it. The analogue seems to suggest that this is so in order to work alongside Yeshua towards the restoration of all things. We must ask, what does readiness for the work alongside the Messiah require?
3. The Bridal Chamber can be seen as a metaphor symbolizing both a place at the heart of divine Reality mirrored deep within our own souls, and also the experience of ultimate transcendence and immanence with the divine Reality inside of us. Modeled on the Temple’s most holy inner sanctum, this is said to be the chamber of intimacy and union between the bride and the bridegroom—the human and the divine. These metaphors are understood in multiple ways throughout this Gospel, and in this analogue (and those that follow), their meaning is explored more fully as are the experiences within the chamber itself. It appears that we are entering into Yeshua’s own mystical experience and the many mysteries that this form of consciousness took inside of him. These he made available to his first students and, in this Gospel, to all who follow later on. We will, of course, return to this metaphor multiple times throughout the remainder of this commentary. 
4. The meaning of the phrase “rebirth of (or into) another time” is ambiguous. This could suggest rebirth into another round of time, as in the concept of reincarnation. It could also mean, as is often suggested in this text, that it is birth into a different kind of time, or perhaps an Age or Aeon of time which continues our own space-time historical development. Although the specific term (space-time) is not used in this particular portion of the Coptic Gospel, chronological time verses kairos (the exact right moment) is used. It is also likely that rebirth through the baptismal waters brings one into a completely different relationship to time itself even while we are passing through it in this realm. All of these are possibilities which can be explored interpretively. 

Notes ON the Translation

• The term “rebirth” is literally “birth of another time.”
• The two words “icon” and “image” translate the same term which in Greek is literally “icon.” However, the word “type” is used with “icon” to describe how truth has come into the world.
• It is difficult to understand the meaning of the two statements concerning resurrection and the bridal chamber and their icons, since in the statement about rebirth it is important not to be reborn in symbol only, whereas in these latter two the action seems to come through the image or icon. The phrases may be entirely parenthetical in nature.
• The term musterion is sometimes translated as “sacraments,” but nonetheless the term means “mysteries.”
• The word (from the Greek term sodzo or soteria ) is sometimes translated simply as “salvation,” but it means far more than that and is better understood as deep healing and can best be translated as “restoration to fullness of being."

DIAGRAM OF SOLOMON’S TEMPLE

IN JERUSALEM

The following is an approximate drawing of the historical temple constructed in Jerusalem based on the original tent of meeting used through the pilgrimage of the Exodus. There are three chambers and an outer court. Each chamber possesses furniture and instruments.