(1) THE WISE MAN asked the Spirit of Wisdom (saying), “How and in what manner did Ohrmazd create this creation? (2) And how and in what manner did he fashion and create the Amahraspands and the Spirit of Wisdom? (3) How did the accursed Ahriman give birth to the demons and lies and other abortions? (4) And how do all good and bad things come to mankind and other creatures? (5) And can what is destined be changed or not?”
(6) The Spirit of Wisdom made answer (and said), “The Creator Ohrmazd fashioned this creation and the Amahraspands and the Spirit of Wisdom from his own light with the blessing of the Infinite Zurvan: (7) for the Infinite Zurvan is unageing, undying, without pain, uncorrupting and undecaying, free from aggression, and for ever and ever no one can violate him nor deprive him of his sovereignty in his proper sphere.
(8) And the accursed Ahriman gave birth to the demons and lies and the other abortions by committing sodomy on his own person. (9) And for nine thousand years he made a treaty with Ohrmazd through infinite Time and till it is completed no one can change it or make it different. (10) And when nine thousand years have fully elapsed, Ahriman will be made powerless; and Sros the Blessed will smite Esm (Wrath); and Mihr, the Infinite Zurvan and the Genius of the Law (justice or order) who lie to no one, and Fate and the divine Fate will smite all the creation of Ahriman, and in the end the demon Az also: (11) and all the creation of Ohrmazd will again be free from aggression as it was fashioned and created in the beginning.
(12) All welfare and adversity that come to man and other creatures come through the Seven and the Twelve. (13) The twelve Signs of the Zodiac, as the Religion says, are the twelve commanders on the side of Ohrmazd; and the seven planets are said to be the seven commanders on the side of Ahriman. (14) And the seven planets oppress all creation and deliver it over to death and all manner of evil: for the twelve Signs of the Zodiac and the seven planets rule the fate of the world and direct it.
(15) Ohrmazd desires welfare and is never susceptible to evil, nor does it beseem him. And Ahriman desires evil and never thinks of anything good nor is he susceptible to it. (16) Sometimes, when he wills, Ohrmazd can change the creation of Ahriman; and sometimes, when he wills, Ahriman can change the creation of Ohrmazd; but he can only change it in such wise that in the end Ohrmazd suffers no loss; for the final victory belongs to Ohrmazd. (17) For it is revealed that Ohrmazd created Yam and Freton and Kayos immortal but Ahriman changed this in the manner that is known. And to Ahriman it seemed that Bevarasp (Dahak) and Frasyak and Alexander were immortal: and Ohrmazd changed this for this greater profit as it is revealed.”
—R. C. Zaehner. Zurvan: A Zoroastrian Dilemma. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1955, pp. 368–369.
GNOSTIC MYTHS
From the Poimandres of Hermes Trismegistus Popular all over the Graeco-Roman world, Gnosticism was a religious movement comprised of many various sects, most quite independent of each other but nevertheless holding certain ideas in common. All presumed a fundamental cosmological dualism like that of Zoroastrianism and all not only posited the eternal existence of good and evil spirits but also identified the former with light, mind and spirit and the latter with darkness and materiality. The world was generally seen as the creation of a lesser god (or an evil one) and as the realm in which particles of light were trapped in evil matter. Illusion was common here, and thus “gnosis” or saving knowledge was required to educate souls as to their true origin and the possibility of escape back into pure form. While the origin of Gnosticism is somewhat uncertain (even though it has obvious parallels to Orphism and other eastern cults), its influences on early Christianity are both evident and powerful.
The mostly Gnostic writings of Hermes Trismegistus (the “thrice great,” one of Thoth’s titles applied to Hermes in the mistaken belief that he and Thoth were the same) originated in Hellenistic Egypt in the second century A.D. In the first book, the Poimandres (shepherd of Men) appears and reveals the nature of the world (transformed from the Will of God), the Demiurge (produced by the Nous, the Mind of God), and man (brought forth by the Nous, like unto himself).
Man’s fall into the realm of mindless nature resulted from his love of the divine reflection in earth’s waters. Ever after unique among creatures, he has a dual identity: “For though he is immortal and has power over all things, he suffers the lot of mortality.” The tragic character of this mixing of light and darkness, of spirit and matter, becomes clearer as the ensnared souls struggle to ascend back out of the material world and rejoin themselves to divinity.
(1) ONCE, when I had engaged in meditation upon the things that are and my mind was mightily lifted up, while my bodily senses were curbed…I thought I beheld a presence of immeasurable greatness that called my name and said to me:” “What dost thou wish to hear and see and in thought learn and understand?” (2) I said, “Who are thou?” “I am,” he said, “Poimandres, the Nous of the Absolute Power. I know what thou wishest, and I am with thee everywhere.” (3) I said, “I desire to be taught about the things that are and understand their nature and know God….” And he replied, “Hold fast in thy mind what thou wishest to learn, and I shall teach thee.”
(4) With these words, he changed his form, and suddenly everything was opened before me in a flash, and I beheld a boundless view, everything became Light, serene and joyful. And I became enamored with the sight. And after a while there was a Darkness borne downward…, appalling and hateful, tortuously coiled, resembling a serpent. Then I saw this darkness change into some humid nature, indescribably agitated and giving off smoke as from a fire and uttering a kind of sound unspeakable, mournful. Then a roar [or, cry] came forth from it unarticulately, comparable to the voice of a fire. (5) From out of the Light a holy Word [logos] came over the nature, and unmixed fire leapt out of the humid nature upward to the height; it was light and keen, and active at the same time; and the air, being light, followed the fiery breath, rising up as far as the fire from earth and water, so that it seemed suspended from it; but earth and water remained in their place, intermingled, so that the earth was not discernible apart from the water; and they were kept in audible motion through the breath of the Word which was borne over them.
(6) Then Poimandres said to me: “…That light is I, Nous, thy God, who was before the humid nature that appeared out of the Darkness. And the luminous Word that issued from Nous is the Son of God…. By this understand: that which in thee sees and hears is the Word of the Lord, but the Nous [thy nous?] is God the Father: they are not separate from each other, for Life is the union of these…. Now then, fix your mind on the Light and learn to know it.”
(7) Having said this, he gazed long at me intently, so that I trembled at his aspect; then when he looked up, I behold in my nous the Light consisting in innumerable Powers and become a boundless Cosmos, and the fire contained by a mighty power and under its firm control keeping its place….
(8) He again speaks to me: “Thou hast seen in the Nous the archetypal form, the principle preceding the infinite beginning.”…“Wherefrom then,” I ask, “have the elements of nature arisen?” To which he replies: “From the Will of God, who having received into herself the Word and beheld the beautiful [archetypal] Cosmos, imitated it, fashioning herself into a cosmos [or: ordering herself] according to her own elements and her progeny, i.e., the souls.
“(9) But the divine Nous, being androgynous, existing as Life and Light, brought forth by a word another Nous, the Demiurge, who as god over the fire and the breath fashioned seven Governors, who encompass with their circles the sensible world, and their government is called Heimarmene [Destiny]. (10) Forthwith the Word of God leapt out of the downward-borne elements upward into the pure [part of the] physical creation [the demiurgical sphere] and became united with the Nous-Demiurge, for he was of the same substance. And thus the lower elements of Nature were left without reason, so that they were now mere Matter. (11) And together with the Word the Nous-Demiurge, encompassing the circles and whirling them with thunderous speed, set his crea
tions circling in endless revolution, for it begins where it ends. And this rotation of the spheres according to the will of the Nous[-Demiurge] produced out of the lower elements irrational animals, for those elements had not retained the Word…. [air, water, earth—the last two now separated—each producing its own animals: androgynous ones, as appears later.]
“(12) Now the Nous, Father of all, being Life and Light, brought forth Man like to himself, of whom he became enamored as his own child, for he was very beautiful, since he bore the Father’s image; for indeed even God became enamored of his own form, and he delivered over to him all his works. (13) And Man, beholding the creation which the Demiurge had fashioned in the fire [the celestial spheres], wished himself to create as well, and was permitted by the Father. When he had entered the demiurgical sphere where he was to have full authority, he beheld his brother’s works, and they [the seven Governors] became enamored of him, and each gave him a share in his own realm. Having come to know their essence and having received a share of their nature, he then wished to break through the circumference of the circles and to overcome [?] the power of him who rules over the fire. (14) And he [Man] who had full power over the world of things mortal and over the irrational animals bent down through the Harmony and having broken through the vault showed to lower Nature the beautiful form of God. When she beheld him who had in himself inexhaustible beauty and all the forces of the Governors combined with the form of God, she smiled in love; for she had seen the reflection of this most beautiful form of Man in the water and its shadow upon the earth. He too, seeing his likeness present in her, reflected in the water, loved it and desired to dwell in it. At once with the wish it became reality, and he came to inhabit the form devoid of reason. And Nature, having received into herself the beloved, embraced him wholly, and they mingled: for they were inflamed with love. (15) And this is why alone of all the animals on earth man is twofold, mortal through the body, immortal through the essential Man. For though he is immortal and has power over all things, he suffers the lot of mortality, being subject to the Heimarmene; though he was above the Harmony, he has become a slave within the Harmony; though he was androgynous, having issued from the androgynous Father, and unsleeping from the unsleeping one, he is conquered by love and sleep.”
Since the Man, now intermingled with Nature, “had in himself the nature of the harmony of the Seven,” Nature brought forth seven androgynous men, corresponding to the natures of the seven Governors. We pass over the details of the respective contributions of the elements earth, water, fire, and ether to the constitution of these creatures. As to the contribution of Man as a part of the begetting mixture, he turned “from Life and Light into soul and mind (nous), into soul from Life and into mind from Light.” (17) This condition of creation lasted to the end of a world-era. The new world-era was initiated by the separation of all the androgynous creatures, animals and men alike, into male and female. And here occurs the only instance in which the author shows his familiarity with the Greek Old Testament in something like a direct quotation: on the model of Gen. 1:22, 28, God admonishes the new bisexual creation, “Be fruitful and multiply,” then continues in a very different vein: “and [man] endowed with mind shall recognize that he is immortal and that the cause of death is love” (viz., ultimately the love which drew the Primal Man down into nature). (18) He who has come thus to know himself has come into the supreme good; he, however, who has cherished the body issued from the error of love, he remains in the darkness erring, suffering in his senses the dispensations of death. What then is the sin of those ignorant ones, that they should be deprived of immortality? The first cause of the individual body is the hateful darkness, from which came the humid nature, from which was constituted the body of the sensible world, from which death draws nourishment. Thus the lovers of the body actually are in death and deserve death. On the other hand, he who knows himself knows that the Father of all things consists of Light and Life, therefore likewise the Primal Man issued from him, and by this he knows himself to be of Light and Life, and will through this knowledge return to the Life. The knowing ones, filled with love for the Father, before they deliver the body to its own death abhor the senses, whose effects they know; and the Poimandres-Nous assists them in this by acting as a warder at the gates and barring entrance to the evil influences of the body. The unknowing ones are left a prey to all the evil passions, whose insatiability is their torment, always augmenting the flame that consumes them.
[The last part of the instruction (24–26) is devoted to the soul’s ascent after death. First at the dissolution of the material body you yield up to the demon your sensuous nature (?) now ineffective, and the bodily senses return each to its source among the elements.] “(25) And thereafter, man thrusts upward through the Harmony, and to the first zone he surrenders the power to grow and to decrease, and to the second the machinations of evil cunning, now rendered powerless, and to the third the deceit of concupiscence, now rendered powerless, and to the fourth the arrogance of dominion, drained of [or: now impotent to achieve] its ambition, and to the fifth the impious audacity and the rashness of impulsive deed, and to the sixth the evil appetites of wealth, now rendered powerless, and to the seventh zone the lying that ensnares. (26) And then denuded of the effects of the Harmony, he enters the nature of the Ogdoas [i.e., the eighth sphere, that of the fixed stars], now in possession of his own power, and with those already there exalts the Father; and those persent rejoice with him at his presence, and having become like his companions he hears also certain powers above the eighth sphere exalting God with a sweet voice. And then in procession they rise up towards the Father and give themselves up to the Powers, and having become Powers themselves, enter the Godhead. This is the good end of those who have attained gnosis: to become God.”
Hans Jonas. The Gnostic Religion. Boston: Beacon Press. 1958. pp. 148–153.
The Creation According to Mani The founder of the most popular form of Gnosticism, Mani was born in Seleucia-Ctesiphon c. 215 A.D. and, until he was flayed to death by the Sassanian king Bahram I some sixty years later, taught a religion combining the theologies of the Buddha, Jesus, and Zoroaster. The last was the most influential in terms of Mani’s cosmology as can be seen by the radical dualism of this myth.
Creation is understood only in terms of the continuing battle between good and evil here. After the initial defeat of Primal Man and his helpers by the forces of darkness, the trapped light and good elements tried to escape. Rescue missions by the Living Spirit and the Messenger were only partially successful, although the latter set the world in motion so that matter would ultimately disintegrate and the light be freed. Realizing his only hope for retaining light lay in increasing the amount of matter, the King of Darkness created Adam and Eve and encouraged them to procreate. To counteract that move, the Father of Greatness sent Jesus to reveal the saving knowledge (gnosis) of true origin and identity to Adam. The myth ends with Adam’s lament over his alienation from the light—a lament that characterizes the longing for release from relativity and materiality central to Manichaean dualism.
BEFORE the existence of heaven and earth and everything in them there were two natures, the one good and the other evil. Both are separate each from the other. The good principle dwells in the place of Light and is called ‘Father of Greatness.’ Outside him dwelt his five Sh’kinas: Intelligence, Knowledge, Thought, Deliberation, Resolution. The evil principle is called ‘King of Darkness,’ and he dwells in his land of Darkness surrounded by his five Aeons (or, ‘Worlds’), the Aeons of Smoke, of Fire, of Wind, of Water, and of Darkness. The world of Light borders on that of Darkness without a dividing wall between the two. The Darkness was divided against itself—the tree against its fruits and the fruits against the tree. Strife and bitterness belong to the nature of its parts; the gentle stillness is alien to them who are filled with every malignity, and each destroys what is close to him.
Yet it was their very tumult which gave them the occasion to rise up t
o the worlds of Light. For truly, these members of the tree of death did not even know one another to begin with. Each one had but his own mind, each knew nothing but his own voice and saw but what was before his eyes. Only when one of them screamed did they hear him and turned impetuously towards the sound.
Thus aroused and mutually incited they fought and devoured one another, and they did not cease to press each other hard, until at last they caught sight of the Light. For in the course of the war they came, some pursued and some pursuing, to the boundaries of the Light, and when they beheld the Light—a sight wondrous and glorious, by far superior to their own—it pleased them and they marvelled at it; and they assembled—all the Matter of Darkness—and conferred how they could mingle with the Light. But because of the disorder of their minds they failed to perceive that the strong and mighty God dwelt there. And they strove to rise upward to the height, because never a knowledge of the Good and the Godhead had come to them. Thus without understanding, they cast a mad glance upon it from lust for the spectacle of these blessed worlds, and they thought it could become theirs. And carried away by the passion within them, they now wished with all their might to fight against it in order to bring it into their power and to mix with the Light their own Darkness. They united the whole dark pernicious Hyle and with their innumerable forces rose all together, and in desire for the better opened the attack. They attacked in one body, as it were without knowing their adversary, for they had never heard of the Deity.
As the King of Darkness was planning to mount up to the place of Light, fear spread through the five Sh’kinas. Then the Father of Greatness considered and said:
“Of these my Acons, the five Sh’kinas,
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