Analogue 47

The Elements 

and Inhabitants of the Bridal Chamber

Let not the Bridal Chamber be for animals, slaves, or harlots. Rather, let it be for those both free and virginal!

Indeed we have been begotten and brought into being by the aid of the Sacred Spirit, and then we were reborn by means of the Anointed One. In both cases it is Spirit who has anointed us, and having thus been reborn, we are now “married” beings.

No one can see the reflection of themselves in water or in a mirror without light, and no one can see that light without water or a mirror to reflect it. To see one’s true self, it is necessary to be immersed in both—the light as well as the water, and the light is present in the oil of anointing.

SYNOPSIS

• This analogue is perhaps the early beginnings of interiorized monasticism with its emphasis on “chastity” understood now perhaps in a new way. 
• The phrase virginal beings is contrasted with these three (animals, slaves, harlots) which are, it seems, symbolic humans—animals (totally driven by inner instincts over which they have no control), slaves (totally driven by external forces over which they have no control—slaves to addiction, for example), harlots (selling themselves short and making wrong choices to stay alive or in intimate relationship perhaps). 
• The Bridal Chamber described in this Gospel is not for these kinds of beings, but those who are free from these forces. Thus they are virginal (sold to nothing or no one) and uncompromised. Also they are deeply in-love. 
• The phrase “married beings” refers to a new class of humans. The original conception is someone who is not bound by space-time because they are born anew in time by means of the Anointed One. 
• This was true of Yeshua who was anointed by Spirit (bathed in and supersaturated by Spirit), but then, according to this Gospel, became a married being—unified or united in oneness. We are to follow in that same progression from anointing to marriage. 
• A new analogy is used which sees the true self by means of light (described as water mirroring Light). Water becomes a metaphor for mirror. 
• The purpose of mirroring is to see one’s true Self. We cannot see it or know it without immersion into water which clears and clarifies, providing a mirror-like surface in which we are reflected through and by means of Light. 
• Light comes through fire which is provided by the oil of anointing when ignited. 
• Water and fire (referring perhaps to the first Temple Laver and Altar of Sacrifice) which allows us to see by means of both the fire-light. 
• As part of the divine Alchemy, these are the elements and energies through which one becomes virginal. 

Video link to YouTube recording

COMMENTARY

Conditions Necessary for the Bridal Chamber

The previous analogue speaks of the resurrection into life and of the new unified form of human being. It is described these as both a transformation and a transfiguration—the form and the figure are remade whole, renewed according to the original designs. Earlier in this Gospel mention was made of various animal shapes and forms, many of which were related to states and stages of human being and consciousness—the donkey, domesticated animals, wild animals. They symbolized humans lost in their own compulsions, wholly addicted and driven by desire, analogues perhaps to the current human condition. The Bridal Chamber exists in relationship to none of these and thus, it is neither a barn yard nor a brothel. It is a honeymoon suite where lovers join in intimacy and their love is consummated based on their freedom from the ego and their virginal desires. If we keep in mind that the Bridal Chamber within an individual soul is the exact place of the heart, then the state of the human soul that holds it and has egress there is no trivial matter. 

Philip imagines that in an animal-like state, a human is not ready for the maturity and intimacy of a loving relationship within the Bridal Chamber. The soul’s animal instinct for self-protection and self-preservation is too strong. Self-centered, the soul has little ability for anything other than attend to its own self-survival. There is little freedom beyond that. This is even more true for a soul that is enslaved. An enslaved soul has not freedom, is movement and actions are totally determined by service to authorities (desires) beyond itself. Self-autonomy is virtually gone, and servitude and dependency upon an external and dominating authority remains the only modality for action. A soul with no freedom other than which is dictated to it from without (or perhaps by the ego from within), has little or nothing to give to another in a relationship of mutual love. 

Pleasure Principles and Virginal Love

A final condition which precludes the Bridal Chamber experience is simply to live under the spell of the drives and demands of desire for pleasure itself. In our world this is common, almost a doctrine, and we often talk about it as an addiction to pleasure or sometimes to the “highs of adrenaline,” for example. To sell one’s autonomy merely for pleasure in this world is a form of behavior that may seem unbounded and yet whatever is done to satisfy our addictions to pleasure without the element of loving intimacy are done at the expense of our own and the souls of others. This image of slavery to desire (sexual or otherwise) is the perversion Bridal Chamber experience. It is a mirrored opposite, and none of these fore mentioned states can occupy that sacred space. What flourishes there is not only a mature freedom, but a form of loving intimacy that gives rise to the mutual benefit of each and as well as to new relationships that extend into the cosmos beyond the secrets of the Bridal Chamber itself. These are all virginal mysteries where not only are lover and beloved united into a new intimacy of musical care and respect, but then of a greater responsibility which is then released from their private intimacy and turned to benefit the whole creation. 

This series of thoughts appear to be a part of Philips’ understanding of what virginity must be describing an inward state. This is juxtaposed, perhaps to the doctrines of the Virgin birth promulgated in the West and assigned to St. Mary. Philip sees so differently. He understands that we are destined to become free of egoic compulsion and to be virginal in thought, focus and desire—single pointed toward the divine-human relationship for which we are designed and destined. This conjugal intimacy with the divine Beloved is our inheritance. To make this possible, however, changes must be made within the being of each individual, which has been separated both from its true nature and also its Source. The work (and promptings) of holy Wisdom as Sacred Spirit is to intercede to make this possible. She is the mother of such a birthing into intimacy. Her gift is to give humankind a fresh birth through inward anointing and the sacred fire. Like Yeshua, who experienced this most deeply and intimately in the his forty day retreat in the wilderness, where the Spirit drove him into intimacy, we too are to become anointed beings through the intercession of Spirit. In his mystical becoming, Yeshua opened up the way and set the parameters for the transformation. It was, however, initiated by the Sacred Spirit so that when and where human beings are saturated by Spirit, they can also become “married” beings (inwardly united), ushered into this new, mature and adult union of intimacy with the divine Beloved. This ultimate wedding, the marriage the human and the divine, male and female, is also the marriage of heaven and earth which is beginning of the new creation. 

The outer world of the Temple became illustrative, describing the inner world that Yeshua taught in secret.

Metaphors of the Bridal Chamber

So who are we? In our current state of ignorance we truly do not know who or what we actually are. We often cannot see our own image or reflection or the incompleteness of our being. We think we are whole and complete, but we are blinded to our own true condition and to the truth of things as well as to our original state. We need a mirror. We need light to see by so we can understand. We need to catch a glimpse of the truth of things in the smooth surface of the waters with light enough to see. To see our true selves, to see our true condition and our destiny (to become both free and virginal), we need to be washed by water and given the light of an illumined consciousness to see these things. This is the condition for the possibility of a new human becoming. We need water and light, cleansing and enlightenment, and it is in the condition of saturation by Spirit through the oil of anointing that sparks the divine fire when the oil is lit, and we are illumined. 

In this Gospel these are all the images (the metaphors used) to explain the condition of spiritual enlightenment and the arising into a new form of being. Using metaphors available from the early Abrahamic traditions, the outer templates of Temple and Rite are being re-examined afresh, as are inner realities disclosed to the mind and heart that can discern what Sacred Spirit is doing behind the veil—beyond the surface structures of the exoteric and conventional religion—to peer into the region of Spirit and her sacred mysteries. It is difficult, of course, to put the scope of this entire vision into suitable words. It sounds fantastical to the ordinary human ear. It appears formidable and forbidding, even impossible, but the teachers and visionaries of this First Temple tradition of Jewish mystical thought saw the vision of it by means of these metaphors, conveying it through temple teaching. The Temple itself, where Yeshua taught, appears to have been the very place from which these teachings arose, and perhaps the place where he drew his students in order to learn and understand the teaching. All of this seems to have been only a metaphoric telling of Yeshua’s own true mystical experience of enlightenment, but also the core teaching of Good News of his sapiential transmission.

The outer world of the Temple became illustrative, describing the inner world that Yeshua taught in secret. The Holy of Holies in the second temple of Herod was a site and outer sign of the spiritual mysteries of the first temple. This Gospel became a later transmission from the teacher of Wisdom to explain and expand these mysteries, and Philip not only appears to have seen and recorded them, but based upon his own reflections, helped then to explicate their implications using the many metaphors of that time and place, which serendipitously have come into our world today. 

An Inner Alchemy

The link between the ancient past, the mysteries told by Yeshua and ourselves (and our own personal inner condition), however, must be made now in our world today. We too must have the willingness to travel deeply into our own hearts and there walk with the Master through these mysteries. We are also are invited into the Bridal Chamber of our own being where we are washed, anointed, lit on fire and filled with light—the processes of Yeshua’s enlightenment. These are not words about the past (though their metaphoric conveyances is certainly dated to historical and social conditions of that era), but these are inner conditions to be experienced and realized in such a way that we are included in them as a form of direct personal knowledge. The explicit ancient images become implicit contemporary experiences, as we too enter through the sacramental gateways, not as institutional doorways but through personal inner experience. 

The final paragraph speaks of the necessary mirroring and the light reflecting our visage that allows us to seek ourselves in a way that is entirely different from the norm. We know we need a mirror to observe our own face. We use it to make adjustments to our appearance and prepare for meeting the out world. In a way that is similar, perhaps, to meet the divine Beloved and to prepare ourselves for that meeting we need the mirrored surface of the waters into which we have been plunged. We need light by which to see, and the light available is from the oil of anointing which has been set aflame. Without saying it explicitly, these are a series of inner alchemical changes that change the nature of both consciousness and being—allowing us both to see true inner conditions as well as experience changes in the depths of our own souls. Washing by water, saturation by Spirit, the oil lit into flame, the burning and the seeing, all of these speak of an inner alchemy which is the experience of the soul in the depths of the Bridal Chamber. 

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. We understand virginity to have everything to do with sexuality. In this text it is interpreted very differently not having to do with a physical act, but with an interior state of being at a very deep level. How would you explain this understanding? Journal your reflections. 
2. Why is freedom associated with and defining the word virginal?
3. Can you see elements or aspects of yourself that manifest the three forms of human being that are not yet ready for the Bridal Chamber experience. What is animal like in you? Which animal? How might certain aspects of you be slave-like? What parts of you might you imagine to be sold into some kind of metaphoric prostitution? These are very vivid images, of course, but they are meant to evoke a careful response. 
4. The reading is thinking of you not as a natural born being, but as one who has been born spiritually with your own set of spiritual birth parents. Imagine who these may be?
5. According to this Gospel, there are a series of steps and responses that make an individual a “married being.” Much like the way we think of getting married after being single, this text outlines the necessary condition for that bonding to occur, but in contrast, not with another human being, but perhaps astonishing to us, with the divine Beloved. 
6. Seeing one’s true self is an important part of the wisdom teaching of Yeshua—seeing past the veil of the outer surface (the outer-human form that is observable) and into the core which is not easily observed perhaps even by ourselves. How are we often hidden to ourselves? What might others see that we do not see? 
7. This analogue relates true seeing to inner alchemical processes that come about by the cleansing water and the oil of anointing and the light that comes from its fire. Do these relate in any way to experiences within yourself or to sacred acts and rituals that you may have performed within yourself or with others?

 

NOTES FOR FURTHER STUDY 

AND REFERENCE

1. The subject of sacred marriage (hieros gamos) is an ancient teaching which has been examined earlier. It appears throughout the sacred traditions in one form or another and is mirrored in human rites of marriage pointing toward a great marriage between heaven and earth, humankind with the divine Reality, and inwardly the uniting of the masculine and the feminine in a new, integral way. Such a union is said to be the epitome of all mystical experience and the point toward which all spiritual experience is leading. In this analogue conditions and requirements are outlined, and the parameters are set according to a series of the requirements of highest authority in the heavens. Such a marriage is not consummated by human will or its institutions, but a sense of the human and the divine will entwined together so that the commitment to each other is made, and its subsequent relationships between heaven and earth in a reality that combines the inner and the outer as one with no divisions.  
2. In Christianity the topic of virginity is a fraught subject as is the whole discussion about human sexuality. Beginning with the laws of purity in the Hebrew tradition, Yeshua apparently went beyond many of those boundaries in ways that challenged his own traditions and the human customs of his day. Much is made of physical and biological virginity in the Christian tradition and its genesis may not be in the social world, but in the discussion that Yeshua was having about inner virginity—which is a singular commitment made to the divine. All this of course raises the question, was Yeshua a virgin? Western tradition would have it so, but the Oriental and Jewish worlds puts that in question—especially in regards to Yeshua’s relationship with Mary Magdalene. However that may be historically, it is clear that the subject of spiritual virginity is important to this Gospel and is defined as the soul’s commitment to the divine relationship without prostituting itself to the outer kosmos. This seems to be the focus of this Gospel text. In the West, physical virginity was taken to extremes. Not only was Yeshua said to be a virgin (sexual relationships being seen as sinful), but so was his mother—perpetually. All of this puts the normal relationship of marriage in shadow, making it a lesser pathway and elevating celibacy and virginity as the superior state of human being in this world. Sexual relationships are, thus, seen to be the enemy of Spirit, and so the position and state of women becomes more and more suspect and degraded leading to a renewed patriarchy which Yeshua appeared to be challenging. This is a historically difficult and troubled subject with a complex history. Again, the Gospel of Philip appears to set itself apart from the theological developments occurring in the Occidental Christian world of that early era. 
3. The sacramental actions in this Gospel are deeply related to Temple practice and rite. In later wester Christian tradition they are not seen in this way, but rather as independent rites established by Jesus/Yeshua apart from Temple practices and traditions. This tendency loses important historical relationships and spiritual meaning, especially as it is being explicated by this Gospel text. More important than the relationship to Temple ritual, perhaps, is an understanding of the hidden energy contained within the outer elements and rites that affect the soul deeply and in unseen ways. There is a spiritual alchemy at work and the Gospel of Philip is a disclosure of these hidden energies which are changing the nature of the soul from within. The word alchemy (taken from later tradition) sees these divine energies at work in this manner. Alchemy understood in this way is not magic (as such), but the divine potential set free in the human realm to work behind the scenes accomplishing transformational change at very deep levels of human being—changing the nature of human being and consciousness. This alchemical understanding was central to later treatises where the subject of changing the human element of metaphorical lead into gold was useful, applying to this text as well. You might want to explore the history of alchemy used not as a rudimentary chemistry, but as a mystical and metaphoric understanding to human transformation. 

Notes ON the Translation

• In each of these paragraphs the emphasis is upon the movement toward or realization of union. The Bridal Chamber as the place of union can only be experienced under certain conditions.
• Union itself is the coupling, marrying, uniting, or mating of the two “birthed” forms of ourselves—physical and spiritual. In each case, as the second paragraph explains, it is the Spirit who assists. Perhaps the image, then, can be see as the midwife who is present at birth in each instance.
• In the third image, immersion, (the original text uses the Greek term “baptism”) into both water (literally in the first birth and figuratively in the second birth) and light (second birth). These are the two instances which are united in one being to produce one new form of humanity.
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