I begun working on a Vesper some years ago, devoted to Barbelo, this is an excerpt from it on occasion of the pause between the Assumptio Sophiae (on August 15th) and the Descent of Sophia.

I wrote it with the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) in mind, which also happens to be the birthday of my mother (sic!). In a dream my mother told me that I had to be patient and look towards the transformation of “God” through Sophia (Wisdom), which would be simultaneously my own redemption (in terms of the Agon going on in my heart concerning outward and interior religion) and the redemption also, of “him”. She told me this, in the dream, with an ambience of a rather rash bid on my own part (in the dream) to win her symphathy for my rejection of the God of the Old Testament, as she belongs to a denomination which belongs to a type of “Protestant Orthodoxy”. It is fair to say that whatever we may argue, the Imago Dei is constantly changing. Also, that such change is more dependent on a constant searching of the human heart; a patient observance of how that particular instrument responds to those sublime mysteries we know as
Divine,Suprasensual,True and Godly – than the mechanisms of outward society. Metanoia – as much as regeneration, resurrection and rebirth – occurs first in the interior of individual seekers and only then, through a most mysterious and incalculable process – find a way to affect also the outside world.

Unconsciously, my attempt to wed the traditional Feast of Annunciation, wherein God the Father, through the mediation of the Arhcangel Gabriel forewarns his servant, Mary, that she will be instrumental in the incarnation of God the Son – with the mystery of the Barbelo; approaches this in every turn and byway, where my words unifies with that of liturgy, whether heterodox, such as the one found in the Gospel of the Egyptians, a Sethian Gnostic text unearthed at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in August 1945, a brief week after the horror of Nagasaki, approximately _on_ August the 15th – I found it addressed this mystery; which is not untimely nor impious, for the traditions of the fathers say that God becomes Man so that Man may be glorified and godly; so that they may see Him, rather than hear about him in rumours and rusty reminisciences of the generations.

Celebrant voice:

Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou – before the becoming of the Aeons.
Holy art Thou, Mother of all the Aeons and the Four Lights – Barbelo!
Holy art Thou, the Virgin of Eternity, who shine in beauty and resounds
in Song, in this your Mystery which is interior to all beings!

Holy art Thou, Barbelo
Holy art Thou, Doxomedon, in eternities eternity
Holy art Thou, Protennoia, in eternities eternity
Holy art Thou, Kalyptos, in eternities eternity
Holy art Thou, Sophia, Our Mother, in all eternity, throughout all Aeons!

All:

Blessed be the Virgin who hovers above the Tabernacle of our souls!

Celebrant voice:
May we know Thee truely and safely through Thine Mysteries, so as to receive
superessential sustenance and grow in strenght and beauty; we are born conceived
in the Gnosis of thy most interior chamber; and we have ascended , by Thy Grace,
high above the foundation of the All.

Therefore, as we are Thine – receive the prayer of our heart: We praise Thee, in our great need and in the confoundment of the world.

We have assembled here in commemoration of the Logos, our Word and our Hope of Glory, who deigned to descend below the Limit, on our behalf.

We have attended to the selfsame Call in our inner Man; the Announciation of the Incarnation of the Most Holy Logos into our sleep of the flesh, of ignorance and spiritual atrophy. Our Adam – Forefather to the three people who wander the earth
without respite, and who has as only succour and rest the Heavenly Regions – Let
Him have ressurrection in and through Us.

Hearers voice:
Hear Us in our great need and our plight; Have compassion on Us and assist our
purification and completion; May the Seed that Thou hast sown into our earth
be glorified in Perfect Fruit, in which we have our glory and honour, in which
Thou has Thine glory in Us!

All: Amen

I thought that they would throw something nastier at me:

You scored as Mystical Communion Model. Your model of the church is Mystical Communion, which includes both People of God and Body of Christ. The church is essentially people in union with Christ and the Father through the Holy Spirit. Both lay people and clergy are drawn together in a family of faith. This model can exalt the church beyond what is appropriate, but can be supplemented with other models. Herald Model 61% Mystical Communion Model 61% Sacrament model 56% Servant Model 28% Institutional Model 22% What is your model of the church? [Dulles] created with QuizFarm.com

I just stumbled upon Father Justin Courtier’s LiveJournal Heimskringla:The Saga of a Erstwhile Hierophant, It’s a recommended read I think I should say,and updated frequently as well.

If you haven’t catched my series on the Fravartis in Mazdean Gnosis and its relation to the Gnostics’ Path, I have now added a sub-category for the series.

The substance matter for the series is the erudite meditation on the theme which goes throughout most of Henry Corbin‘s Spiritual Body, Celestial Earth. The latter of course a heartfully recommended work on the continuity of Gnostic themes from pre-historic Zoroaster, through Suhravardi‘s Oriental Theosophy of Light to more recent developements of Ismailism. I have considered beginning a series of meditations on the theme of the Imago Templi as found in Imago Templi in Confrontation with the Profane, found in the excellent “final” anthology of Henry Corbin’s last papers Temple and Contemplation, but will probably settle for a review of the theme of Inner Man,the Man of Light in Gnostic, Christian Esoteric and Sufi perspective – with Henry Corbin’s Man of Light in Iranian Sufism as one of the primary sources.

pp.33, Henry Corbin:The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism.

“In Mandaean gnosis, every being in the physical universe has its counterpart in the heavenly Earth of Mshunia Kushta, inhabitated by the descendent of a mystical Adam and Eve (Adam Kasia, Eva Kasia). Every being has his archetypical Figure (mabda) there, and the latter communicates with its earthly counterpart. After the exitus at death, the earthly person abandons his body and takes on the subtle body of his heavenly alter ego, while the latter, rising to a higher plane, assumes a body of pure light. When the human soul has completed its cycle of purifications and when the realm of Abathur Muzunia bear witness to its perfect purity, it enters the world of light and is reunited with its eternal partner.

“I go towards my likeness/ And my likeness goes toward me/He embraces me and holds me close/ As if I had come out of Prison”.

Nasiruddin Tusi speaking of what becomes of the faithful adept after he has ascended above the Limit:

“His thought becomes an Angel proceeding from the archetypal world,

his speech becomes a spirit proceeding from this Angel,

his action becomes a body proceeding from this spirit.”

The Gnostics discovered a new axis, a new pole of orientation – embedded, against all reasoning, in the substantiality of manifest being. This new centre of being is the central mystery of existence. Approached by human beings, it becomes a human being – but it is wholly Divine and not delimited to human form. Some call her the Anima Mundi, others the Hochma, others again Shekinah – the Gnostics called her Sophia and said of Her;”She is the mother of all the Angels”.

We too, look towards the Assumptio Sophiae, the ascent of Sophia into Her own. We do so, because we participate in Her life, as surely as She participates in ours.

Our unknown friend Ouroboros has got his blog back onto the blogsphere, welcome back. I look forward to following the discussions and postings in the future.