This bit was actually reported on Ananova:

Egyptian censors has decided to ban The Matrix Reloaded on religious grounds because it is too violent….

Fine..well, Egypt doesnt “get” heavy metal groups like Sepultura neither, believing it to be satanic.. but these religious grounds on account of violence.. appears to address what Questions Matrix asks concerning existence and the world… because further in this report we find vocalized a very, to Gnostics, recognizeable argument:

The committee said: “Despite the high technology and fabulous effects of the movie, it explicitly handles the issue of existence and creation, which are related to the three divine religions, which we all respect and believe in”.

The movie “tackles the issue of the creator and his creations, searching the origin of creation and the issue of compulsion and free will”, the committee said.

It added that “such religious issues, raised in previous times, caused crises”.

The statement says violent scenes in the movie also played a role in the decision to ban it.

“Screening the movie may cause troubles and harm social peace,” the statement said.

Can you smell that tar-like odour? It`s the Library of Alexandria burning.. across 1300 years. That bacon-fry smoky funk? It`s heretics and rebels and sorcerors and storytellers on the pyre…

Im exaggerating? Of course, this is a wonderful exercise in “ecumenical diplomacy” – last time around they wanted to ban and actually burn the reels of the first film in the sequel because it supposedly promoted “Zionism” (seen the movie? The city of the rebels were called Zion…Zion=Zionism.. funny)..

Now they want to ban it because it overtly promotes….Gnosticism? If so..of course it is quite controversial to the Islamo-Christian-Jewish people of Egypt…perhaps they wouldnt want to be exposed to these questions?
On the other hand: How on earth can they possibly avoid them?

I thought I would share some impressions from the interim between the “regime” of Easter to the “regime” of the Holy Spirit in its descent at Pentecost. Realization dawns that where the wind blows the hardest and

resistance has become most dense, there the presence of Sophia is felt the most intense. Why not ask then if the price for the most gracious and loving instruction is not indeed the hardships we must reconcile ourselves with?

Notice I use the term reconcile, not “abjectly accept”. There are galaxies floating between the stretch of distance and distinction which exists between the two. Pentecost promises the active indwelling of the Holy Spirit – a radical penetration of our condition which reveals that within the Mysteries of the redemption and the ascent to our eternal abode – We are Sophia. As this is intuited on one of manifold levels, we need inspect again the premise of Gnostic Myth of Sophia`s fall into chaos and a begetting of the Shadow. For at its root, the space which encompass all things which follow as a consequence of this arrest of consciousness, this interruption of the unfolding mystery of Being – we find the ladder of ascent, as Gnostics.

Consider how the descent is unfolded within the Gnostic revelatory treatise
The Apocryphon of John:

“And the Sophia of the Epinoia, being an aeon, conceived a thought from herself and the conception of the invisible Spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth a likeness out of herself without the consent of the Spirit, – he had not approved – and without her consort, and without his consideration. And though the person of her maleness had not approved, and she had not found her agreement, and she had thought without the consent of the Spirit and the knowledge of her agreement, (yet) she brought forth. And because of the invincible power which is in her, her thought did not remain idle, and something came out of her which was imperfect and different from her appearance, because she had created it without her consort. And it was dissimilar to the likeness of its mother, for it has another form.”

The Mystery of the all-elusive and unapproachable paradox of our free will and our inability to instinctually master our psyche`s impulses is quite apparent in this – and is involved in the creation of the authorities. Spiritually speaking, this developement emanates out of our first experience of absence of the consort/the ever-present witness who engages us in a consciousnesss-creating dialogue interior and exterior to ourselves – the “life in God” which nevertheless is a vital theme in all theistic religions, even Gnosticism.

I am not entirely content with the premise that this is incurred by the developement of a distinct personality as opposed to the “panoramic” and passive personality of the infant/small child. Separate existence is also completely different from “division” or even “duality”.

The doubt of parents and persons of authority haved touched us and upon impact we are carried into the perception and modus operandi which they themselves inhabit. However, all we carry, whether we are found within the mystery or on its perimeter – is this potentional, this seed – which has its own life, so far as we do not proceed from this interior life, in sleep or wakeful meditation, it is inactive, but a hope of glory – but when the light which is within the man of light shines, it enlightens the entire world. This life of active manifestation is the bringing forth that which is within you, which will save us – from error, from a complete deficiency, a total failure in being spiritual men and women. This is how we “attain” the consent, agreement and participation of the Spirit of God in our lives.

Further in The Apocryphon of John :

“”And when the light had mixed with the darkness, it caused the darkness to shine. And when the darkness had mixed with the light, it darkened the light and it became neither light nor dark, but it became dim.”

Here we may inspect the premise of mixture. Why is distinction, integrity and genius still considered of great value by human beings inhabiting the 21st Century? Perhaps its nostalgia and everything really is one massive Block of Shite; perhaps someone consciously attempts to burrow through, to explode, to dissolve it from the inside, someone who is someone – while stars and pulsars ignite and fade, galaxies appear and collapse – as they are bound to do. Perhaps that someone is either me or you. Perhaps that someone can say something meaningful from his or her predicament. Perhaps this is where language originated.

This is where the descent of the Holy Spirit comes in – and the gift of the tongues.

May we have safe passage through this difficult and most challenging landscape, interior as well as exterior.

Last Sunday`s epistle reading from the Gnostic Lectionary of the Ecclesia Gnostica instilled , from the Great Book of the Mandaeans (the Ginza Rba) in our thoughts, this triple prayer to Divine Reality:

Mildness in which there is no rebellion.

Smooth paths to ascend and behold the place of light.

May we attain to these three, and proceed towards our liberation, and in turn, assist in the liberation of our fellow beings.

We underwent our first communally complete Easter these past weeks at the

Capella Santa Sophia in Oslo. It is difficult to explain what were going on – although we were together, we were each on our own journeys – perhaps a mirror of what might have occured to the disciples when Jesus disappeared, some would say – died. The exterior, visible focus of attention – the beloved,adored or appreciated person whose presence assured and affirmed the community, where just lifted out of it with a quick and precise thrust.

Instead of the anticipated multi-purpouse answer, instead of the assurance and affirmation of expectation – a deep question, an unease, a restlessness – replaces it. Now, I have a suspicion the adherents of mainstream of western religiousity much prefers it otherwise – notice how important Christmas is, the advent of the child – who has promise, who is glory and hope and belongs to the future. Despite all the talk about being “Born again”, they get enthused about Christmas but only obliquely nostalgic over the bloody and cataclysmic time of Good Friday. I am quite grateful I now have been able to enter into another chamber, a lower, subterreneous chamber – of the mystery which is Easter – where things really happen. A time out of time. A space out of space.

Strangely, immersed in the oppressive darkness and silence of the tomb – it was the heartbeat of the womb I heard; and the two became superimposed.

What happens when we after a very long struggle to maintain our grasp on things, when all manner of prestige,encouragement and pressure can no longer assist or fuel our pursuit to that end.. when we loose?

The answer is what makes anyone victorious – Grace, Mercy, Beneficence, Love.

“And it happened that day, when John had come up to the temple, that a Pharisee named Arimanius approached him and said to him, “Where is your master whom you followed?” And John replied, saying : “He has gone to the place from which he came.” The Pharisee said to him, “With deception did this Nazarene deceive you (pl.), and he filled your ears with lies, and closed your hearts (and) turned you from the traditions of your fathers.”

When John heard these things he turned away from the temple, and went to a desert place. And he was greatly troubled in his heart, saying, “How then was the savior appointed, and why was he sent into the world by his Father, and who is his Father who sent him, and of what sort is that aeon to which we shall go? For what did he mean when he said to us, ‘This aeon to which you will go is of the type of the imperishable aeon, but he did not teach us concerning the latter, of what sort it is.” A paraphrase of the beginning of the Apocryphon of John.

I feel these questions lay at the root of the Christian Mystery tradition, and addresses the things which Jesus promised his disciples to speak of “plain and without parables” – in effect the instruction which easter day would bring to the candidates for Initiation (baptism) in the primitive Church.

Amazing as it might seem, I just haven`t the patience or time to participate in the kind of discussion the Gnostic Heresy forum offered. Im not even sure I would recommend it to anyone. Throughout my 9 years on the Internet I have been interested in discussions on the theme of Gnosticism, Gnosis, Hermeticism, the Western Mystery tradition, Esotericism, the Hermetica, Kabbalah and so forth. Still my fondest memories where with Lee Irwin`s bark Hermetica, David Fideler`s Alexandria journal readers forum and Dean Edwards original Gnosis list which spawned the Gnosis Archive in its day (edited by Thomas Leavitt at that time, consisting of faq`s, tidbits, extracts from scriptures, news and rumours)..now it is the homepage for the Gnostic Society, Ecclesia Gnostica and home for the Gnostic Virtual Library which I began working on independently in 1994.

I also have fond memories from my time in the Rosicrucian Free-Speech Forum , to which I was invited, despite of the fact I am not a Rosicrucian nor aspire to become one.

But alas, I think I will let that particular list “Gnostic Heresy” go past..

Conformists Die, but Heretics Live on Forever!

So says the blurb on Jan Valentin Saether and Hanne Ofteland

handtomouth.

I have always had serious issues with the naming of certain schools

of thoughts as Heresy because the usage of the term has been inflated

by its historical use of it by especially the Roman Catholic Church as license and excuse to persecute,purge,imprisoned and burn fellow human beings.

Moderns who have been fortunate to only suffer the intolerance and banter of what now has become a fringe movement of self-proclaimed conservatives and orthodoxists, tend to adopt the term as uncritically to denote the novelty and progressive nature of specifically their attitude and other peccadilloes of a more intellectual kind.

“The word heresy derives from the Greek hairein, “to make a choice” (good or bad) hence hairesis, an “opinion”.

“A heretic was a dissenter formally condemned by an accepted ecclesiastical authority. At least that was the theory. In practice, the term heretic was often flung to discredit one`s enemies; in the Middle Ages a number of popes,bishops,monks,theologians, and laypeople were called heretics in loose and virtually meaningless vituperation.”

(J.B.Russell: Dissent and Order in the early Middle Ages. New York, 1992).

With special reference to the Middle Ages, R.I.Moore in The origins of European Dissent (1985) writes:

“Heresy was defined by the medieval church as an “opinion based on human perception, founded on the scriptures, contrary to the teaching of the church, publically avowed and obstinately defended”

and “Orthodox Christians, and orthodox historians, have always assumed and frequently asserted that heresy is unnatural, and therefore requires not only correction but explanation”.

Which is ironic out of the consideration of the doctrine that the Kingdom, the subject and axis of the reorientation of Christians of any age – is not of this world, which is to say – it is in and of itself in any manifestation (short of counterfeits and forgeries, such as the arrogation of the Roman Catholic Church that its institution of Men and Man-Made structures _is_ the Fullness of Time described in the New Testament.) per definition unnatural. The other irony relates to the “contrary to the teaching of the Church”, unless our blinders have grown so wide we have no sight, we must acknowledge that it has changed to the extent that yesterdays orthodox becomes todays heretic.

The modern Gnostic Church tradition cultivates a culture of heterodoxy – which is to say, it recognizes the need for each individual to develop and seek towards truth, understanding and Gnosis – according to own inherent and acquired experiences, perspectives and references; and the tolerance of such contending views, seeing that it has to do with the fullness and multiplicity of minds and hearts whose contents thankfully and gloriously are different from eachother.

Where each voice is unique and there might be as many songs sung on the great pilgrimage as there are voices, for each assuredly has its time and season.

When Paul uses (as the first Christian writer using it) the term it signifies contending subgroups within the Christian community, one place he opines that “it is necessary that there should be haereses among you”, this has been read to signify that such contentions are necessary so that it might produce the right doctrine, but it can as easily be read to mean that it is necessary that there be disagreement so that there will develop integrity,confidence and sincerity among grown-up and mature adherents. An incident is instructive, Paul encounters a certain Apollos in Corinth, upon being informed about the substance and nature of Apollos teaching, especially as it pertained to observing the commandments and customs of the Jews, whose diaspora community Apollos specifically ministered to – he found it right to inform Apollos that there existed in the Christian tradition more than one baptism, to wit, there were the “watery baptism” of John the Baptizer, dubbed “forerunner to Christ”, and the baptism of the imposition of hands which the Apostles after the departure of Christ practiced. Apollos represented an earlier generation, an earlier tradition – possibly connected to the 70 witnesses Jesus sent into the different Jewish populations to preach “the Gospel” (which were about the coming times, the nature of the kingdom “not of this world” – rather than the dramatic story of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection which still was to come) – a direct convert from among the followers of John the Baptizer. As such, Apollos, for obvious reasons were not informed of these new institutions nor their intended meaning among other Christians. Paul and Apollos could battle it out with a great braveur, and excommunicate eachother and their followers to their hearts content – but they didnt. Paul tries to explain by saying that the intention of the community were not that they should follow one or another current instructor, and say “I belong to the party of x (Paul)” or “I belong to the party of y (Apollos)” – but rather that they should be one – which is neither x nor y, but z. Still Paul is largely read as a polemist, a schismatic, a founder of sects – and the strongest testimony of the authenticity of any Christian sect you can think of.

What spurred me to write this much were the gracious invitation of yours truely to the Gnostic Heresy discussion forum on yahoogroups. Although I have had many experiences with such forums to be too optimistic about such, I have still chosen to join. Hope it will be worth my while there. Although I am not so sure about the wisdom of “admitting heresy” on account of the fact that the Middle Ages have come back to stay, and in the past, such frivolty were punishable with seven kinds of death.

A little sniblet – the first person to be put on trial for heresy and executed were a Bishop. His name were Priscillian of Avila. Around 389ce he and 5 of his priests were found guilty of “heresy,sorcery and conspiracy against the Holy Roman Emperor” and first boiled alive, to be decapitated and lastly burnt – with his head put up as a warning to the rest of the population. Which is to say, the Roman Catholic Church did not battle sects or deviants, but its own faithful with the institution of the Inquisition (which also were founded around the time of Eusebius and the Nicene Council, so whereas the big beast grew terrible and expert at its task – the Inquisition existed 900 years prior to the big bonfires in the Middle Ages)…

Who was Tau Harmonius?

Tau Harmonius were the ecclesiastical name for Constant Martin Chevillon

(born 26.10.1880 – dead 22.03.1944), Patriarch for both Eglise Gnostique Universelle and the Eglise Gallicanne. With respect of EGU, Harmonius succeeded Jean Bricaud, in ecclesia Tau Jean II – when the latter died 21.February 1934. With respect of Eglise Gallicanne, Constant Martin Chevillon were elected Patriarch to succeeded Jean Bricaud on 5. January , 1936 were he received consecration to that central position by Louis Francois Giraud. He was additionally representative for the following esoteric and initiatory orders: L’Ordre Martiniste de Lyon, The Order of Knights Masons of Elus Cohen and the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis-Mizraim of which he was Grand Master after Jean Bricaud (c.1934-1944). Constant Martin Chevillon was born in Annoire (Jura) the 26th October 1880, he was of a philosophical and literary disposition and wrote several books in addition to countless articles on a great variety of topics. It appears Chevillon had from the early 1920`s onwards a penchant for the perspective provided by the awakening in France towards the idea and ideal of the Universal Tradition and treated the subject more consistently than many Theosophists who were greatly enchanted and enthused about the idea but lacked the expertise of actual and consistent comparative scholarship. Another aspect of Harmonius work were his vision of a Spiritual and Christian socialism, ever since the inference of certain philosophies of a libertarian and communalistic kind into France, by for instance Charles Fourier and Antoine-Hoene Wronskij, the latter incidentally one of the tutors of Alphonse Louis Constant aka. Eliphas Levi – the ideals contained in that Vision has been central for the Esoteric initiatory traditions in France and the Benelux countries. Doubtless some of this fervour also influenced the way and manner Harmonius treated his many responsibilities as leader for colleges and orders of a Hermetic and Esoteric nature, so also with Masonry – drawing on inspiration from Count Cagliostro`s organization of the Rite of Egyptian FreeMasonry, which included a Feminine Rite – he decided that the Masonic work he lead should also respect and facilitate a specifically feminine actual Masonic initiatory progress – this became very controversial, just as the later inclusion of a feminine Episcopate which initially in the “non-apostolic” Gnostic Church had presedence with Doinel`s consecration of female Bishops, so-called Sophia`s and Priestesses – would cause controversy in the later incarnations of the Eglise Gnostique.

On March 22, 1944, somewhere outside Lyon,Constant Chevillon faced a firing-squad, formed by a pseudo police-unit. In reality they were collaborating Frenchmen , by order of the ‘ Parti Populaire Francais” and the ‘M.S.R.’ -after having been arrested and interrogated consistently for a long period of time.

The Nazis had formed an iron fist since their occupation of France, to deal with the different movements and orders there which would pose a threat to their new Reich, among those were chiefly Masonic orders, especially those that had developed on French soil, autonomous since the French Revolution, and also those that had developed in England, like Yarker`s charter of the Rite of Memphis-Mizraim. Some leaders of Esoteric colleges did not comprehend the danger they were in, they thought that the occupational forces would empower non-Catholic and anti-Catholic groups such as their own, for example, Les Polaires thought the Third Reich would become the beacon of a coming new race, and became fascinated by the Nationalsocialists own mythology and “technology”.

Rather than bring the man to court for supposed subversive activities, the Nazi occupation goverment and their pawns elected to shoot the man down anonymously. Thus ended a very fertile and yet frustrated period of Underground esoteric work in Europe, from which arose a situation which still haunts continental Initiatory and Gnostic circles.

Milko Borgaard reports in his paper on the FUDOSI:

“Many members and dignitaries of the initiatic brotherhoods and societies were threaten with their lives or simply put into concentration-camps.

Robert Ambelain, a close friend of Chevillon, had a wife and child both deported to the concentration-camps. Jean Mallinger was constantly persecuted by the Gestapo. Fr.Serge Hutin (Sar Pascal), who was the Archon of ‘forreign affairs’ for the ‘Ordre Hermetistse Tetramegiste et Mystique’ (Order of Hermes), was arrested in Cherbourg, France. He was deported to “Camp-Neuengam” were he died in Februari, 1945. Nico Wolff (Sar Ignis) was arrested on March 5, 1943 and deported to ‘Camp Flossenburg’ were he died on April 22, 1943, after prolonged torturing. Raoul Fructus , who was the chairman of the Grand-Council of the Memphis-Misraim Rite (under the F.U.D.O.S.I., part 5-6), died after his deportation in 1945.”

You can find a brief biography written by one of Chevillon`s pupils-

The True Face of French Masonry by Tau Renatus (Renè Chambellant) at Apostolic Gnosis:Journal of the Eglise Gnostique Apostolique & the Athenea Theologica Seminary Institute.

I am finishing my study of Yuri Stoganov`s The Other God – which traces the history of religious dualism from Late Antiquity until the time of the Cathars… my impression is that we are fed too many loose ends to really get a good overview of the “phenomenon”, there is a consistent lack of a red thread in there, although it is incredibly detailed and varied, this is the books strenght, that it could be a kind of historical map of the phenomenon.

Stoganov basically redoes every step Steven Runciman, a famous “historian” of the Cathar movement, takes in his The Medieval Manichee and in terms of this its almost like a replacement with corrections and a more current and thorough perspective.

A much needed revision is the way the author consistently distinguishes between Monarchian dualism (which is the belief that evil emanates out of a created and inferior/subservient being or principle which will be dissolved or redeemed/transformed at the end of the cosmic cycle, including the assertion of two creators, two “universes” and two qualitatively and essentially different diametrically opposed to eachother, but where the other originates in the first and what proceeds from this one will be reconciled into the first) and Radical dualism (Two eternally co-existent principles which never be reconciled and which originally inhabited two completely realms, eternal struggle more or less defines being) – as well as philosophical dualism (Mind/Body etc.) versus religious dualism (Two gods, two authorities, two worlds, two ontological realms – a duality which is spiritual and essential rather than one of Spirit against Matter). He also consistently describes Catharism, Bogomilism, Zurvanism and to a lesser extent Manichaeism – without attempting to mix metaphors and describe either of these by way of sources and quotations from Gnostic sources. This is very helpful for those who seek to get an idea of what either of these were, with a basis in the studies of Gnosticism.

I haven`t made my mind up about it yet – the “best” is yet to come : A summary of the Bogomil and Cathar mythologies, which is the most detailed I have found.

I found a very interesting (but demanding) article in the 4th Volume of

Arthur Versluis excellent Esoterica Journal, which addresses some of my chief interests in the work of Henri Corbin.

Tom Cheetham`s Within This Darkness:Incarnation, Theophany and the Primordial Revelation. What haunts me somewhat is the preface to the article which is a quote from a

fragment which Henri Corbin wrote, 29 years old, at his visit to Lake Siljan

in Sweden, Theology by the Lakeside:

“Everything is but revelation; there can only be re-velation. But revelation comes from the Spirit, and there is no knowledge of the Spirit.

It will soon be dusk, but for now the clouds are still clear, the pines are not yet darkened, for the lake brightens them into transparency. And everything is green with a green that would be richer than if pulling all the organ stops in recital. It must be heard seated, very close to the Earth, arms crossed, eyes closed, pretending to sleep.

For it is not necessary to strut about like a conqueror and want to give a name to things, to everything; it is they who will tell you who they are, if you listen, yielding like a lover; for suddenly for you, in the untroubled peace of this forest of the North, the Earth has come to Thou, visible as an Angel that would perhaps be a woman, and in this apparition, this greatly green and thronging solitude, yes, the Angel too is robed in green, the green of dusk, of silence and of truth. Then there is in you all the sweetness that is present in the surrender to an embrace that triumphs over you.

Earth, Angel, Woman, all of this is a single thing that I adore and that is in this forest. Dusk on the lake, my Annunciation. The mountain: a line. Listen! Something is happening! The anticipation is immense, the air is quivering under a fine and barely visible rain; the houses that stretch out along the ground, their wood red and rustic, their roofs of thatch, are there, there on the other side of the lake. Something will begin this evening, something promised, in that I believe. Ah! This evening? When, then, this evening? If it were truly in a few hours, it would never be, because it would be necessary to finish and then begin again, and that would always end and never begin. Do you know what it means to wait, and do you know what it means to have faith?

The Mystery of Holy Communion where you will be ushered in, where all the beings will be present, yes, you can only say it in the future. Because at each moment where you read in truth as now what is there before you, where you hear the Angel, and the Earth and Woman, then you receive Everything, Everything, in your absolute poverty. But as soon as you have read and have received, as soon as you consider, as you want to understand, as you want to possess, to give a name and restrain, to explain and recover, ah! there is only a cipher, and your judgment is pronounced.

For at every instant you are judged, and someday you will die. So you die, when your existence is decided and realized, for then its is over: what was is not, you want without renouncing, renounce without wanting.

No, you are the poor one, you are man; and he is God, and you cannot know God, or the Angel, or the Earth, or Woman. You must be encountered, taken, known, that they may speak, otherwise you are alone, and perhaps it is better thus, and will be always thus, always, that is, there would be no eternity for you. Because you were born in a sin that was sinned before you, and Thou you have had fear, great fear, and you have cried, cried because the Earth is immense, cried because the Woman was too beautiful, cried because the Angel was invisible, and because Thou you were Adam, and Adam would want to live.

Adam established Love, poetry, religion, for he wanted life, he wanted that is, to be God, and then to speak as he would want to three beings. To Question; Alas! and he alone responded. To listen; Alas! to give a concert to himself alone.

But then, surely comes surging suddenly from this lake a cortege of beautiful beings. They sing the funeral chant of Adam; and because Adam is dead, it will be sung in a chorale where more voices will be raised than there is anguish in all its guises: “Christ is born! Christ is Risen!”[1]

Here he addresses seeing without object and classification, the young man were an initiate of the intelligentsa of the Universities, with a poetic heart – confronted with the Theophany of the scenery, he became intoxicated and lucid at once.

I remember my own experiences by the small lake which were right outside of my door the summer of 2002, how awake I felt sitting at the edge of the lake at 5am, watching the sun rise above the forest behind it. Similarly, in such an solitude and quiet, you loose appetite for the conquest of things pertaining to Nature. We observe, when we have let our eyes become accustomed to actual sight, that Nature is change and room for change, forms as such, are interchangeable with eachother. Funny I should write this in view of the exhibition in the Museum right now, where a Swedish artist have made animals out of common houshold objects and cartyres – with a precision revealing a unconscious coincidence of man-made materials with organic structures in animals of every kind and variation. Strange I should concur so much with Henri Corbin in these ecstatic observances and his orientation, when I am a Gnostic and am accused from every kind of polemists for hating Nature,

but I don`t – and neither did my brethren in the Gnose for over two thousand years ago, but this business with Creator and the arrogance of all possible systems claiming to be whole,total,perfect and capital letter “t” True is what

we, including me, rage against. Which is restriction, bondage and subservience

to Death as the High Lord of the Universe. Nature is not to be confused with

Matter, because once you remove the forms – from the cell to the molecule,

– then you have removed Matter from Nature and it becomes the total abstract

with which we have no associating personally, before we somehow become the corpse. But having become the corpse, we are nothing but the residue of an organic life, when that echo ceases there is nothing more.

If we believe in Spirit, there exists an absolute and irreversible distinction between it and Body. If we are confused and believe in the bodily

resurrection as read from the book of materialistic literalism; which is to say – that we believe Spirit is nothing without the body of matter, and somehow doubt

that there is anything, anywhere – into which the memory of the being we have been and what we essentially are – can go, when the physical world have managed to forget – we harbour an actual superstition that the Matter, not the form, is that which is alive, and again that this material could reconstruct out of nothing. As such, let me ask those who are very literal in the issue of “bodily resurrection” – how is it possible of not confessing in sincerity adherence to

an absolute faith and confidence in Positivistic Atheism and radical materialism?

Corbin`s theological fragment contains the seeds of the core and centre of Christianity neglected by literalists who adhere to flesh and error – preoccupied with the body, and with sin – as centred in the body – at the end of

the fragment we find his appreciation of the Hope of Glory, In the death of the mortal selves in the Baptism, which here is his vision at the lake containing nativity and annihilation at the same time – and the resurrection of Christ on the third day: …surely comes surging suddenly from this lake a cortege of beautiful beings. They sing the funeral chant of Adam; and because Adam is dead, it will be sung in a chorale where more voices will be raised than there is anguish in all its guises: “Christ is born! Christ is Risen!”.

Both the nativity and the resurrection, and between it the Cross. This is the Journey of the Soul. Every ecstatic theophany contain within itself a map, a pattern which has all three.