Daily Archives: April 26, 2005

The Fravartis pt.8

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Daena:
Spenta Armaiti, Spendarmat – the feminine
Archangel of Earth, is the Mother of Daena.
Corbin, Spiritual Body.. pp.15 paraphrased


“Daena is, in fact, the feminine Angel who in herself
typifies the transcendent or celestial “I”; she appears as the soul at the dawn following the third night after its departure from this world: She is its Glory and its Destiny, Its Aeon.”


The capacity of Daena as Archetype of the Soul on its Journey, rather than souls per se, or souls in any static
condition – presents her as a Heroine in all Narratives. Yet she is also a guardian of a most glorious secret, the secret which leads to the manifestation of the fullest and most hidden Pleromic Grace of her
Mother, Spendarmat, our Sophia. To those who are acquianted with the Eleusinian mysteries, these figures correlate directly to Demeter and Korè Persephonè. And
those who have read the Pistis Sophia will also find a correlation between the Virgin of Light (Barbelo) and her daughter Sophia Achamoth. In relation to Daena as the Soul´s Glory, the term Aeon is used by Corbin.
Aeon typifies alternatively age, persona and world (or “universe”) – to me this is very suggestive. Especially in
light of what we have been told so far about the Mystery of the Fravarti and the Xvarnah destiny of the human being who “Choose” the Path of Recollection, who choose to submit to the Quest belonging to the Knighthood of Sophia. Whose Motto is recited in the Yasna
Liturgy as
:” May we be among those who will bring about
the Transfiguration of the Earth”.
,and whose profession is:
“My Mother is Spendarmat (Sophia), Archangel of the Earth, and my Father is Ohrmazd(Christ), the Lord of Wisdom.”

The Fravartis pt.7

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Henri Corbin continues:

“For man to
undertake such a work,is primarely for his own being what
the Pahlavi texts call Spendarmatikih (an abstract
noun derived from Spendarmat, the Pahlavi form of the
name Spenta Armaiti), and which we can translate as
Sophianity, the Sophianic nature of Spenta Armaiti considered as Sophia (Plutarch translated the Pahlavi concept
thus)..By assuming this nature, the human being is then, in
the true sense, the son of the Angel of the Earth, and so able to have a mental vision of her. The soul then awakens also to consciousness of its celestial kinship.”


pp.37 Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth.
The Soul awakens to its function as co-redeemer – on each
of its side it has the host of Sophian and Christic angels (to translate it into western terms) – who ocillate between their functions; from unions into individual quests.Corbin here suggests the specific Xvarnah/Spendarmat relationship as one of Sophianity, which is interesting, since quite a lot of our “gnostisizing” and
mystical orienations actually encompass a recognition of the ensouled life as a specific compartment of human identity; this Sophianity presents Man with a duty ; first to become re-acquianted with his initial kinship, secondly to participate in the mystery of restoriation, which he already endeavoured, although at first
semi-consciously.
In other lore the Archangel Gabriel is consigned as both “Angel of the Earth” and “Angel of Mankind”; this dual image is what this concept of Sophianity contains. The sharing of predicament, on a deeper level – is also part of the plight of this “Knighthood of
Sophia” (especially described in Arthur Versluis: Theosophia:
The Hidden Dimensions of Christianity“).

———————-
I read an interview with Jose Saramago, the
Portuguese Nobel´s Literary Award winner of 98- where he
basically denied the existence of acollectively
verifyable and humanly normative”reality”; I do not
remember precisely what his argument where, but he would
need some kind of distance from so-called
“objectivity” even to be narrator/story-teller with good
conscience. He´s a contemporary disciple of Plato and quoted
the Republic quite a lot.A true poet needs to
believe that the soul needs liberation, he must truelly
be interested in how the cage feels and looks like
for the nightingale.. if he says “Oh, what a nice
song that bird produces”.. he belongs among the
spectators, not in blindfolded at the firing range, which is
the place of every true adventurer in life… In
this nightmare of counterfeits, produced of
convenience and the attempt to calm the mind, still the
senses and numb the feelings..it is important to
remember why we ask questions about the veracity of any
thing or being or concept: it is because we need to
know the direct relevance of these things presented to
us. If we awake in the middle of that night which is
the world in its sleep, we must move beyond the
safehouse of the collective dream – and commune with
another reality. And why is that? We awoke because we
were touched..we were embraced..we were aroused by its
perfumes, moved by the beauty of its song.But then,
alas, we become lost to the world.. no more can we
become devalued,degraded and prostitute to its false
glories…

Wisdom in your pocket…

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Stephan Hoeller’s lectures have followed me around the past ten years or so now… I studiously borrowed the dear cassettes from my friend Jan Valentin Saether, since I had such a long bus rides home everytime I had business in the big city. I live about an hour’s drive north of Oslo, so I usually got to listen to a lecture each visit on my Walkman. Times are changing and I remember the topic was dicussed that perhaps it would be more rational to create archives of the specific lecture series, in for example CD-RW or CD-Rom format, so that it would be all in one place and also accessible through more than one medium. Cherished as the old cassette players where, it was fading out.

I now notice that Bruce Campbell at BC recordings have decided to make a compromise that at least some people will find useful. BC Recordings is digitizing and making mp3 versions of Stephan Hoeller’s lectures. This may help preserve both the existing collection as well as the new additions for the future.

In addition to the free Real Audio format lectures that Lance Owens in Utah has formatted and published on the Gnosis Archive, – you can now find a growing assortment of more recent lectures held by Stephan Hoeller at the Gnostic Society, Philosophical Research Society &c, which you may purchase through their new online store.

I for one has paid attention to the Friday lecture schedule for years thinking it is a damn shame I live so far away, like for instance, last month he held a series on the Apocryphon of John, a Gnostic scripture I think is quite unique among the remains after the Alexandrian school of Christian Gnosticism because it contains a complete account of the Gnostic myth as well as an extensive soteriology. I’ll be checking out BC Recordings store occasionally to see if some of the semi-old lectures (the Gnostic Library in Oslo has a few hundred cassettes which spans the late 80’s and onwards to the late 90’s or somesuch, along with lectures by Roger Weir, modern renaissance man and hermetic philosopher.. who I feel complement Stephan Hoeller’s work quite brilliantly.) from 2000 and onwards is available for purchase.

I’d like to see John Goeltz, Lance Owens, Jan Valentin Saether and others who have guest lectured at the Gnostic Society represented as well, but thats another issue.

This might not mean much to people who are not familiar with the work of Stephan Hoeller, who is the Director of Studies at the Gnostic Society as well as a respected Bishop in the English Gnostic lineage.

I recommend checking out the lecture section of the Gnosis Archive which is the official homepage for the Gnostic Society.