Analogue 49

Analogue 49 

Original Soul, World Soul

The powers that be can do nothing against those who have been clothed in perfected light. They can neither see nor seize them, for they have been vested with light through the mysteries of spiritual marriage.

If the female had not been separated from the male, she would never have died with the male. Her separation, however, became the cause and origin of death. It is for this reason that the Anointed One came that he might remedy this condition by uniting the masculine and the feminine together again. When the feminine and the masculine come together in spiritual union within the Bridal Chamber, therefore, they are no longer separated—a separation which occurred when Adam and Eve united outside the Bridal Chamber.

Adam’s soul was brought into being by the Breath whose spouse is the Anointed One. The Spirit gave Adam his soul, for she is the soul’s mother. But because he had not yet been united to the Logos, the dominant powers were able to deceive him. Still, all those who unite to the Sacred Spirit in the secret place within are invited one by one into the Bridal Chamber where they are joined in spiritual marriage.

SYNOPSIS

• Spiritual marriage vests one with ‘perfected Light’
• Vested with Light means that one cannot be prevented from ascent. 
• A vested being is also a married being. 
• Union between male and female within the Bridal Chamber is the marriage of opposites, particularly the masculine and the feminine. 
• Questions are raised: What does such a spiritual marriage mean? Does this create a true androgyny? Where does that new union take the human soul?
• Yeshua came to remedy humanity’s divided condition which is the restoration to fullness of being (the meaning of healing). This is not salvation from sin, but the restoration to wholeness of being.
• The state of Eve—united to or divided from Adam—is examined.
• The state of Adam—united or not united to the Logos—is explored. 
• The Anointed One’s spouse is Sacred Spirit (breath, ruach). 
• The true Mother of the human soul is that same Sacred Spirit.
• Adam needed to unite with the Logos in order to realize a larger consciousness, a larger Self 
• Uniting to Sacred Spirit is also necessary in order to become a married being. 
• Instruction to go to a sacred place within (Analogue 44) where one is invited into the Bridal Chamber where opposites are united in spiritual marriage. 
• These define the true nature and state of the Logos. 

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COMMENTARY

Deep Alchemy and Mystical Union

The complexities in the mysterious relationships created within the Bridal Chamber and the outcomes of those relationships are the focus of this analogue, as are the origins of human separation requiring reparation and healing. Here at the heart of everything (in what this Gospels calls “the Bridal Chamber”), true reunion happens. This is the spiritual nexus as the turning-point of humankind from the separations known throughout the historical pathways of humanity’s long journey onto the path towards the Unity of All Things. The Oneness that Yeshua prayed for in John 17  (as well as what all the logia in the Gospel of Thomas are pointing toward), become focused on this metaphor of deep alchemy and mystical union that is key in multiple streams of perennial wisdom. 

This analogue also provides us with new possibilities for understanding the mystical thought of early Jewish Christianity and its widening visionary landscape. It takes us past the exterior veils of conventional religious thought into the mysteries. It reveals the inner chamber to mystical experience available to those on the path of realization both then and now. Something that had occurred in humanity’s ancient past, which had to be addressed and undone if humankind was ever to move forward into a new future, is contained in these intimate analogues. Yeshua’s goal and task in this world was to cure the original wounds of separation and the resulting processes of death. He opened up a pathway for anyone who wished to take it toward a new and different future. 

This mystical journey also takes the soul into a future that … is part of an eternal destiny that has been prepared for all humankind.

The central place of cure (overcoming the original separations), is said to be a hidden chamber inside the sacred precinct of the Temple which is analogically and substantially inside each of us. The work there is accomplished in the secret recesses inside hidden to the outer world. Few understood Yeshua’s goal for he acted in a hidden way, from the inside out. The focus of his work both then and now is within the holiest of all places (the secret chamber of the heart deep inside the soul). There, a new turning toward the vertical axis and its many dimensions allows each initiated one to move inter-dimensionally. This mystical journey also takes the soul into a future that had heretofore been unknown and was inaccessible to most if not to all, but which nonetheless is part of an eternal destiny that has been prepared for all humankind.

The Great Reversal

To understand what happens in this hidden inner precinct, it is important to know the pre-conditions at the beginning when the masculine and feminine forms were separated from each other. Entering time and space it appears that the soul loses contact with its own higher dimensions—the greater Self and its founding Logos). According to this Gospel, the outcome is death. When the feminine was externalized and the only intimacy that could take place was outside the Bridal Chamber (the place of spiritual union), death was the result. It was then that the human experience of dissolution and death began. Through the millennia, in outer darkness beyond the veil and in the external world, humans experienced the state of separation as a permanent condition. The cleavage of the two realities (the masculine and the feminine) from one another, created a permanent alienation from their true source, the higher Self. The Messiah (the one anointed as the divine agent of change) came to correct these conditions. His work began the great reversal of death and the soul’s restoration to life and light. A human could not only become a fully united being  (the masculine and feminine married at the level of the heart), they could also a be fully vested—clothed with Light. This is the enlightenment that connects heaven to earth. 

In summary, the ancient separation and alienation resulted in death, but now rites of passage leading back into unity reverse that condition. Now at last what was originally lost in one’s own soul, is restored. With the help of the Logos (the Anointed One in full relationship with its ancient archetype) and in unity with Sophia as Sacred Spirit (who is spouse), they work together to bring humankind and each individual human being back to origination fully restored. Thus begins the reconciliation of all things. Opposites are united and a new form of being emerges, one that is no longer vulnerable and unprotected from the powers-that-be in the external world of darkness where separation presides. Vested with Eternal Light, enlightenment becomes the ruling interior condition. Darkness has been vanquished, restoration achieved, and humans live spiritually as married beings. This is the Messiah’s ultimate work. From Philip’s perspective (and it appears from Yeshua’s own experience and inward perception), this is his true task and Messianic mission. This is what he came to do. It is a visionary theology and mystical goal sometimes totally lost in conventional religion. It’s consummation however is the final experience of union in the most holy place—the Bridal Chamber. This Great Work is not meant just for the individual soul, but for the entire cosmos from where the new creation has begun. 

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. The visionary perspective outlined above is extraordinary and clearly outside the parameters of ordinary theological language. It was, however, known through the centuries as the mystical language of sacred marriage. How do you respond and react to this kind of language? How does it intrigue or excite you? How might it confuse you?
2. Although this language may seem distant, do you feel you have ever tasted such an experience within your own soul (perhaps only glimmerings of it)? Describe what you have experienced. 
3. Are you aware of divisions within yourself where parts of you might have been broken off? Describe those? Does this include the masculine and feminine aspects of your being in any way?
4. Do you feel you are alienated from your own higher Self—described sometimes as the logos of your being? What does that alienation mean for you and how would you describe it? Journal your reflections. 
5. Entities with sacred names that are part of the early traditions of first century Judaism and Christianity are enlisted to accomplish in this empowerment and union. Make a list of these as you read them in this text. How do you understand them? How do you relate to those names and personages? 
6. Describe how Philip’s understanding of our ancient separation is different from the doctrine of original sin as it has been described in the West. How are these doctrines different for you?
7. If we understood the Messiah to represent not just one human being, but all those who possess a new or higher form of consciousness that has been infiltrated with Light (what we might call enlightened consciousness), then this could represent a leap in human history necessary for the evolution of the human species. If we see it that way, how does what we know about Yeshua support this viewpoint? Describe this in as much detail as you can.

 

NOTES FOR FURTHER STUDY 

AND REFERENCE

1. From the theological perspective of this analogue (as well as the entire Gospel of Philip), what happened long ago at the beginning left humankind not in a state of sin as Occidental Christianity will assert and make central to its doctrines, but in a state of ignorance caused by the separation from one’s true Self and the suffering of that great wound. The Messiah came to bring back balance to the inner world, mending the separations within, bringing healing, and eventually uniting our earth to heaven. This can only be achieved by means of the Sacred Spirit (the soul’s true mother who, it is said in this Gospel, became the spouse of the Messiah through his own maturation, manifesting “Messianic consciousness” in him). As the divine agent and restorer, the Anointed One works to reverse what was lost. At the beginning, the original form of Adam was a young and unprotected soul, having not yet achieved unity or parity with the Logos. Adam was vulnerable and susceptible to deceit and as a result lost the feminine half of his being—he was no longer whole. In the Bridal Chamber, however, under the guidance of the Logos as the Messiah assisted by his Bridal consort, the masculine and feminine divisions were united within, enabling humans to attain the highest state, hieros gamos (hierogamy), spiritual marriage (or remarriage). This is a deeply held secret, remaining a mystery until one is able to enter the Bridal Chamber and claim this experience as one own.  
2. In modern psychology we have become aware of the duality of anima/animus—the feminine and masculine aspects of human being. Though one may be gendered so that the predominance of a single identity stands out, in truth the latent opposite lies within and in potentia makes up the whole. Accordingly, the original androgynous nature of humankind has been broken apart necessitating the need for a certain rebalance through the gift of natural marriage. The reconnection for any human being lies not only in the acknowledgement of the latent other half, but also in the emergence of that half, perhaps understood as an Angel with whom one unites. This spiritual psychology and sacred anthropology has many aspects to it, and though it has perhaps been rediscovered in the modern era, its roots go back to these ancient wisdom teachings from earlier ages, part of which is being expressed in this Gospel. 
3. This analogue takes the opportunity to describe the place of integration and uniting into wholeness. Its holiest and most sacred ground is the heart itself which is an inner domain of intimate uniting, known as the Bridal Chamber. Here, within the Temple of human being, is where these many exchanges take place, and where the uniting is competed. This chamber is also part of an entire Temple structure which mirrors the Celestial Temple and the throne of God. We might see this as the site where we are able to “con-temple” (contemplate) with the divine itself. It is also here in this secret center which some call the virginal point (point vierge) that the many worlds intersect and coexist. In this sacred spot where the inner and outer worlds meet, what is Above in all of its many dimensions is reflected in the regions below. Here, too, the great cosmic story of relational exchange takes place in a world that we might imagine to be a holographic whole. 
4. In the contemporary world we focus on the lone individual as the main determiner of personhood. These teachings with their roots in earlier Hebrew tradition, however, recognize the existence of the World Soul (Anima Mundi) in pre-eternity beyond but including the individual. That Soul is birthed into each individual soul and gives rise to the consciousness of all humankind on earth. Regardless of the temporal flow, all humanity is present in one great human form, and the Soul that animates that form contains all individual souls no matter their state in or outside of time. 
5. When the term the Messiah (the Anointed One) is used, we tend to think of a single individual with that designation. As a title of recognition, it signifies a figure of honor and religious importance throughout Jewish  tradition and history. What may be more important to understand, however, is that when Yeshua was baptized and filled with Spirit, it represented not only a change of title, but more importantly an effect upon his being, more particularly upon his consciousness. His awareness became Messianic. He was able to see and know from the divine perspective, acting from that deep form of inner knowing. His consciousness was touched and expanded by the gift of Spirit. From that moment on, we could say that he possessed Messianic Consciousness, which was the primary effect. 

Notes ON the Translation

• The term perfected light is light which has been completed and thus made perfect or fulsome. 
• The third paragraph does not specify what the powers are which are able to deceive, but they appear to be equivalent to the archons (lower level powers which influence the world).
• Spiritual marriage is a term that has been used in tradition for this idea which is expressed in Coptic as the “mating” or the union of opposites.
• The terms masculine and feminine can also be translated as male and female.
• In the final phrase of the second paragraph that says Adam and Eve united outside the Bridal Chamber, the original says “mated outside the Bridal Chamber.” 
• In the final paragraph Breath and Spirit, are two separate words in the Coptic version, but identified as the same element and being.

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• The phrase “the secret place within” translates a portion of the text which has other words missing, but the word “the secret” is in the text, which has been used elsewhere to mean the inner realm.