Trimorphic Protennoia:
I am Protennoia, the Thought that dwells in the Light. I am the movement that dwells in the All, She in whom the All takes its stand, the first-born among those who came to be, She who exists before the All.
Trimorphic Protennoia. Nag Hammadi Library Codex XIII. Transl. John D. Turner. 1990
No one knows for certain were the Coptic Gnostic scripture originates; who wrote it, who edited it, who gave it the form and expression it has today.
What we do know of its transmission through almost two millenia and to a format we can read and share is:
– when it was rediscovered, August 1945 (month of the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
in the desert outside of the ancient Chenoboskion monastic commune , close to a contemporary Egyptian village which bears the name Nag Hammadi hence the name of the collection of codexes buried in jars, the Nag Hammadi Library.
– who, in a succession of contributions and completions, studied the text and translated
it from its Sahidic dialect of Coptic to contemporary languages.
– what, in a sense of common features and characteristics, it is – an apocalyptic writing
classed with the Sethian or non-Christian Gnostics of the first 4 centuries of the common era Middle East.
1st revelation: I am movement.
The first thought in three forms says of herself :
I am the movement that dwells in the All
… . I move in every creature.
If it is alive, we expect it to move. Even if a mountain is a million times greater than a child, one is experienced by us as more real and substantial than the other. It is arguably a question of quality over quantity. However inert, however diminutive – the most shallow breath, the sway of its body, the beating of its heart, the smallest subconscious gesture. The Revealed is great, the Revealed is perfect – because it is invisibly near , that is to say,
She is perceived that way. Compare that to a woman, there is no quantification of her beauty, virtue, wit or dignity – only qualification.
My musical piece – I am movement, first part of the Piece Trimorphic Protennoia, is
all over the place, it is rhythmically flowing, and staccato – dissonant, and harmonic;
it does not shift according to convention, some places it translates poorly. This is part
conscious, and part the result of some very visible, or rather, audible, shortcomings of the
“composer.” What makes me curious as well as courageous enough to unleash this on the Internet, which is the true public domain, is the plot to find out where
music comes from. I perfectly understand that few have patience with that, let’s say they know, if they know, and this knowing does not entertain or stimulate them, it is natural that
they shall have no time with it.
And yes, the style here is something between ambient electronica, contemporary music
and noise.
—
Those who sleep I awaken.
I am the life of my Epinoia that dwells within every Power and every eternal movement, and (in) invisible Lights and within the Archons and Angels and Demons, and every soul dwelling in Tartaros, and (in) every material soul. I dwell in those who came to be. I move in everyone and I delve into them all. I walk uprightly, and those who sleep, I awaken. And I am the sight of those who dwell in sleep.
Here we reach deeper, from the demonstration of an invisible mover and movement, towards great mysterious landscapes populated by the supernatural, that is to say –
populated as well. Tartaros is the helleno-roman realm of the dead, the greek Hades,
the shades, Hel, the Gehenna, the West – not quite hell, not quite purgatory.
Those who sleep I awaken, she said – and I’m vision to those who dwell in sleep.
Sleep is the inanimate Animate state, we have not figured out sleep, we are trying –
the more science find the more frustrated, or amazed, scientists, and we their charges,
become. The dead shall not escape her presence, nor her movement. What place could
such take place in, she says herself – and we are stupified by the answer.
“Those who sleep, I awaken.” I like to think – does that. It is more true to how I navigate, I
am more confident with and more at ease with “I am movement.” In terms of “language”,
frame of references, you have “heard” most of it before, even though the creator thought
he shut up and off everything while creating it. On the first listen as a complete, it struck me that it was both close to some Classical work I have heard and alas, forgot the name of , and something in the genre of Progressive Rock, but it doesn’t pack the same punch, and I thought that was just fine.
– to be continued.
A note: Some of my colleagues, fellow craftsmen, dreamers, obsessive-compulsives wondered how I work and what I use; I use virtual (software) instruments, a MIDI keyboard, a Macbook Pro and a microphone. It is put together, adjusted, edited, automated and mixed in Logic Express 9.