THUNDERBEINGS - DAUGHTER of THE THUNDER BEINGS - THE TRICKSTER - KIMBERLEYANN MONTGOMERY

THUNDERBEINGS aka thunders aka thunder being aka thunderbird aka thunder bird

- DAUGHTER of THE THUNDER BEINGS - THE TRICKSTER - KIMBERLEYANN MONTGOMERY
Thunderbeings
Daughter of the Thunder Beings



THUNDERBEINGSby Kimberleyann Montgomery on Friday, December 30, 2011 at 6:13pm
·Old Man Coyote

The Trickster



This was sent to me from Bud Johnston of 'The Keepers of the Sacred Tradition of Pipemakers',
the website is in my links. It was sent to him by a friend and I felt it needed to be posted.

The Winds of Change Blow from All Directions.
We know this is the time for All Truth to come to the Surface.
Some might say, "you can't handle the truth", some might say,
"the truth will set you free".
The Trickster is at Play Across the Land.

"So what exactly is a Trickster?
He is both subhuman and super human, bestial and divine.
superior and inferior to man, a powerful life spirit.
At one and the same time creator and destroyer, giver and negator,
he who dupes others and is always duped himself.
He possesSes no values, moral or social,
is at the mercy of his passions and appetites,
yet through his actions all values come into being.

Are tricksters real?
Amorphous concentrations of psychic energy, macro-psychokinetic events,
super-realized collective unconscious eruptions, psychoids, materialized psychisms,
supernatural transmorgrifications of paranormal energy archetypal psychic manifestations,
and psychokinetic tulpoidal manifestations. Old Man Coyote would have a good laugh at that list of terms.

The trickster's role is to bring novelty, vitality and change as needed.
He cautions us not to become victims of our own rationalistic thinking.
We have two sides to our brains.


By nature we are both rationalistic and emotional/intuitive.
Can't these two parts of our being just get along?
The world is a network of relations, that which was once thought to be absolute is
always subject to evolution and renegoitiation.
We don't even know what reality is and now we have to negotiate with it.

The parade of modern day clowns is hard to miss and will undoubtedly continue.
The current state of affairs could be offered as an example of tricksterism run amok.
When clowns appear in creation stories they play important roles that help define
traditional societal roles during the reemergence of the people from the previous world into the next.
As we lurch forward toward the new world perhaps a new understanding of the trickster
will help us on our way to redefining our perception of reality.

But first we must eliminate our fatal flaws and reorder our lifestyle.
We must live with consciousness of our oneness with all creatures, and with the Creative Source.
We must lay aside our greed and materialism, and learn to live more simply
and without undue attachments.
We must reject promiscuity, and exercise love with consciousness of the sacredness of sexuality.

What will the Fifth World to which we are headed be like?
The Prophecy gives a brief glimpse of what is in store.
"Those who take no part in the making of world division by ideology
are ready to resume life in another World, be they of the Black, White, Red or Yellow race.
They are all one, brothers and sisters."
As for this Fourth World, "Material matters will be destroyed by spiritual beings,
who shall remain to create one world and one nation under one power, that of the Creator."

During this transition more than ever before, each of us is being called to serve
The Great Mystery, that Center of Consciousness from which everything derives its being.
Each of us has an important role during this Great Purification.
We need to help find ways for nations, races and tribes to put aside differences,
and join together for the good of everyone.

We need to lay aside the "success" lifestyle of greed and materialism,
and learn to adopt a lifestyle of "just enough" and "good enough".
We need to move away from the twin follies of Promiscuity and Puritanism,
and learn to reverence sex as the delightful yet sacred activity of appropriately joining opposites
to create a higher truth. And we need to lay aside the weapons of war,
and operate with that compassion, understanding and economic justice which make for peace.

Native American tradition honors the existence of Thunder Beings.
These Thunder Beings are understood by Native Americans to be messengers
from the powers on high, The Star People (extraterrestrial visitors).
The Thunder Beings are a force for both dissolution and re-creation.
In the Plains Indian tradition, a person who has a visit by a Thunder Being,
in person, in vision or in dream, becomes a heyoka, a "contrary".
This heyoka then customarily soon starts behaving in a way opposite to the conventions
of the dominant culture.
The heyoka does so, precisely in order to wake up society to see that there are other
and fresher ways of doing things.
Thus, the heyoka is the human counterpart of the Thunder Beings,
who repeatedly dissolve the existing order and fashion a new arrangement from the pieces.

As we transition from the Fourth into the Fifth World, we realize that not all heyokas are Plains Indians. Some have yellow skin, others black, others white. These heyokas of every color are experiencers, and have been changed by their experience of extraterrestrial contact by messengers from the sky (Thunder Beings). As modern-day heyokas, experiencers are charged to live as active witnesses against the ignorance and corruption of the Fourth World, and to live as witnesses of the Fifth World which is emerging. In doing so, modern heyokas honor the Thunder Beings, the extraterrestrials, who have come as cosmic midwives to help us birth the Fifth World.

Any and all who choose to work to bring in the Fifth World are heyokas. Recognize your calling in your behaviors. And then get down to work in fashioning this Fifth World. The negative power of the Fourth World cannot be annihilated. It can only be transmuted, by being confronted by the simplicity and cosmic consciousness of the Fifth World's midwives, the heyokas. We are not alone in this task. The Thunder Beings (ETs) have come to awaken us, and help us transmute. As heyokas, our role is to confront the Fourth World's negative energies, channel and transmute them into cooperative, spiritual, non aggressive, inclusive, noncompetitive, service-oriented, dominance-rejecting, psychic, highly-conscious, natural and harmonious energies.

As we evolve forward, the vibratory rate of the biological and consciousness energy fields
within us increases.
You will notice that people of like vibratory rate can "hear"
and feel each other's inner consciousness level.
And here is a miracle.
A higher-vibrating person is like a tuning fork, tending to create a higher matching
(sympathetic) vibration rate in others around who are functioning at a lower
(Fourth World) vibratory/consciousness level. Heyokas can cause Fourth Worlders
around them to tend to increase their vibratory rate.
But Fourth Worlders have choices.
They can go along with the higher vibratory/consciousness rate, and transition
into the Fifth World.
Or they can resist and like glass, "shatter", as threasingly dissonant
with the emerging Fifth World.
As for the heyoka midwives of the Fifth World,
recognize that your role is in harmony with your fundamental way of being,
and is therefore unavoidable.
Therefore, you are encouraged to operate at your highest vibration,
and help usher in the Fifth World.

Respect for the Thunder Beings

Some of the medicine ways of the Thunder Beings involve work
with many Spirit- helpers of the West.
These are some very brief descriptions of some aspects of the Thunder Beings.
There are "Clowns" who make fun where there is none.
"Winktas" bring female energy, which helps balance out masculine energy.
"Spider Beings" play tricks with people's faith.
'Fools" try to get in the way and distract knowingly.
"Backwards Ones" are inexperienced and mischievous;
they play,
mock others, and disrespect all things around them. The " Mindless" have to blindly follow instructions to hurt. maim, and kill the innocent.


cont'd in next posting

 

THUNDER PERFECT MIND

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

This mysterious poem, discovered among the gnostic manuscripts at Nag Hammadi,
is narrated by a female divine revealer. "
'Thunder Perfect Mind' is a marvelous, strange poem.
It speaks in the voice of a feminine divine power,
but one that unites all opposites.
One that is not only speaking in women, but also in all people.
One that speaks not only in citizens, but aliens, it says,
in the poor and in the rich.
It's a poem which sees the radiance of the divine in all aspects of human life,
from the sordidness of the slums of Cairo or Alexandria,
as they would have been, to the people of great wealth,
from men to women to slaves.
In that poem, the divine appears in every, and the most unexpected, forms....

'Thunder Perfect Mind' may have been written in Egypt.
It's probably written by somebody who knows the traditions of Isis,
knows the traditions of the Jews.
It shows that this movement grew up in a world in which Jewish, Egyptian,
Greek, Roman traditions are mingled and mixing
and well-known to many sophisticated people.
All you had to do is travel around a city, like Carnac,
and you saw all these images, and these various religions and these various cultures mixing.'

-- Elaine Pagels, from her interview in FRONTLINE's
From Jesus to Christ

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

Translated by George W. MacRae

I was sent forth from the power,

and I have come to those who reflect upon me,

and I have been found among those who seek after me.

Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,

and you hearers, hear me.

You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.

And do not banish me from your sight.

And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.

Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time.
Be on your guard!

Do not be ignorant of me.

For I am the first and the last.

I am the honored one and the scorned one.

I am the whore and the holy one.

I am the wife and the virgin.

I am <the mother> and the daughter.

I am the members of my mother.

I am the barren one

and many are her sons.

I am she whose wedding is great,

and I have not taken a husband.

I am the midwife and she who does not bear.

I am the solace of my labor pains.

I am the bride and the bridegroom,

and it is my husband who begot me.

I am the mother of my father

and the sister of my husband

and he is my offspring.

I am the slave of him who prepared me.

I am the ruler of my offspring.

But he is the one who begot me before the time on a birthday.

And he is my offspring in (due) time,

and my power is from him.

I am the staff of his power in his youth,

and he is the rod of my old age.

And whatever he wills happens to me.

I am the silence that is incomprehensible

and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.

I am the voice whose sound is manifold

and the word whose appearance is multiple.

I am the utterance of my name.

Why, you who hate me, do you love me,

and hate those who love me?

You who deny me, confess me,

and you who confess me, deny me.

You who tell the truth about me, lie about me,

and you who have lied about me, tell the truth about me.

You who know me, be ignorant of me,

and those who have not known me, let them know me.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.

I am shame and boldness.

I am shameless; I am ashamed.

I am strength and I am fear.

I am war and peace.

Give heed to me.

I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.

Give heed to my poverty and my wealth.

Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth,

and you will find me in those that are to come.

And do not look upon me on the dung-heap

nor go and leave me cast out,

and you will find me in the kingdoms.

And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who

are disgraced and in the least places,

nor laugh at me.

And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.

But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel.

Be on your guard!

Do not hate my obedience

and do not love my self-control.

In my weakness, do not forsake me,

and do not be afraid of my power.

For why do you despise my fear

and curse my pride?

But I am she who exists in all fears

and strength in trembling.

I am she who is weak,

and I am well in a pleasant place.

I am senseless and I am wise.

Why have you hated me in your counsels?

For I shall be silent among those who are silent,

and I shall appear and speak,

Why then have you hated me, you Greeks?

Because I am a barbarian among the barbarians?

For I am the wisdom of the Greeks

and the knowledge of the barbarians.

I am the judgement of the Greeks and of the barbarians.

I am the one whose image is great in Egypt

and the one who has no image among the barbarians.

I am the one who has been hated everywhere

and who has been loved everywhere.

I am the one whom they call Life,

and you have called Death.

I am the one whom they call Law,

and you have called Lawlessness.

I am the one whom you have pursued,

and I am the one whom you have seized.

I am the one whom you have scattered,

and you have gathered me together.

I am the one before whom you have been ashamed,

and you have been shameless to me.

I am she who does not keep festival,

and I am she whose festivals are many.

I, I am godless,

and I am the one whose God is great.

I am the one whom you have reflected upon,

and you have scorned me.

I am unlearned,

and they learn from me.

I am the one that you have despised,

and you reflect upon me.

I am the one whom you have hidden from,

and you appear to me.

But whenever you hide yourselves,

I myself will appear.

For whenever you appear,

I myself will hide from you.

Those who have [...] to it [...] senselessly [...].

Take me [... understanding] from grief.

and take me to yourselves from understanding and grief.

And take me to yourselves from places that are ugly and in ruin,

and rob from those which are good even though in ugliness.

Out of shame, take me to yourselves shamelessly;

and out of shamelessness and shame,

upbraid my members in yourselves.

And come forward to me, you who know me

and you who know my members,

and establish the great ones among the small first creatures.

Come forward to childhood,

and do not despise it because it is small and it is little.

And do not turn away greatnesses in some parts from the smallnesses,

for the smallnesses are known from the greatnesses.

Why do you curse me and honor me?

You have wounded and you have had mercy.

Do not separate me from the first ones whom you have known.

And do not cast anyone out nor turn anyone away

[...] turn you away and [... know] him not.

[...].

What is mine [...].

I know the first ones and those after them know me.

But I am the mind of [...] and the rest of [...].

I am the knowledge of my inquiry,

and the finding of those who seek after me,

and the command of those who ask of me,

and the power of the powers in my knowledge

of the angels, who have been sent at my word,

and of gods in their seasons by my counsel,

and of spirits of every man who exists with me,

and of women who dwell within me.

I am the one who is honored, and who is praised,

and who is despised scornfully.

I am peace,

and war has come because of me.

And I am an alien and a citizen.

I am the substance and the one who has no substance.

Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me,

and those who are in my substance are the ones who know me.

Those who are close to me have been ignorant of me,

and those who are far away from me are the ones who have known me.

On the day when I am close to you, you are far away from me,

and on the day when I am far away from you, I am close to you.

[I am ...] within.

[I am ...] of the natures.

I am [...] of the creation of the spirits.

[...] request of the souls.

I am control and the uncontrollable.

I am the union and the dissolution.

I am the abiding and I am the dissolution.

I am the one below,

and they come up to me.

I am the judgment and the acquittal.

I, I am sinless,

and the root of sin derives from me.

I am lust in (outward) appearance,

and interior self-control exists within me.

I am the hearing which is attainable to everyone

and the speech which cannot be grasped.

I am a mute who does not speak,

and great is my multitude of words.

Hear me in gentleness, and learn of me in roughness.

I am she who cries out,

and I am cast forth upon the face of the earth.

I prepare the bread and my mind within.

I am the knowledge of my name.

I am the one who cries out,

and I listen.

I appear and [...] walk in [...] seal of my [...].

I am [...] the defense [...].

I am the one who is called Truth

and iniquity [...].

You honor me [...] and you whisper against me.

You who are vanquished, judge them (who vanquish you)

before they give judgment against you,

because the judge and partiality exist in you.

If you are condemned by this one, who will acquit you?

Or, if you are acquitted by him, who will be able to detain you?

For what is inside of you is what is outside of you,

and the one who fashions you on the outside

is the one who shaped the inside of you.

And what you see outside of you, you see inside of you;

it is visible and it is your garment.

Hear me, you hearers

and learn of my words, you who know me.

I am the hearing that is attainable to everything;

I am the speech that cannot be grasped.

I am the name of the sound

and the sound of the name.

I am the sign of the letter

and the designation of the division.

And I [...].

(3 lines missing)

[...] light [...].

[...] hearers [...] to you

[...] the great power.

And [...] will not move the name.

[...] to the one who created me.

And I will speak his name.

Look then at his words

and all the writings which have been completed.

Give heed then, you hearers

and you also, the angels and those who have been sent,

and you spirits who have arisen from the dead.

For I am the one who alone exists,

and I have no one who will judge me.

For many are the pleasant forms which exist in numerous sins,

and incontinencies,

and disgraceful passions,

and fleeting pleasures,

which (men) embrace until they become sober

and go up to their resting place.

And they will find me there,

and they will live,

and they will not die again.


James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, revised edition. HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1990.

cont;d in next posting

 

Sacred Prostitution:
The Whore and the Holy One,
a paper by Elizabeth Cunningham
prepared for The New Seminary

I was sent forth from the power,
and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
and I have been found among those who seek after me,
Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,
and you hearers, hear me.

You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves
And do not banish me from your sight…

For I am the first and the last
I am the honored one and the scorned one,
I am the whore and the holy one…

I am the silence that is incomprehensible
and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
I am the voice whose sound is manifold
and the word whose appearance is multiple.
I am the utterance of my name…

Excerpts from "The Thunder, Perfect Mind",
THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY.So opens "The Thunder, Perfect Mind."
This short tractate is part of the Nag Hammadi Library,
a collection of mostly Gnostic writings from the third century CE,
discovered in Egypt in 1945.
Scholar George W. MacRae calls "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" a revelation discourse.
It is the proclamation of the great female I-Am.
Throughout the piece this powerful voice utters apparent paradoxes
in what seems more like a hymn or a poem than a discourse.
In his introduction, MacRae comments that "in terms of religious tradition
"The Thunder, Perfect Mind" is difficult to classify as it presents
no distinctly Jewish, Gnostic, or Christian themes."

I believe "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" may represent
or contain fragments of a religious tradition older than Judaism,
far older than the classical period of Greek civilization,
certainly older than Christianity and Gnosticism,
a tradition that was no longer intact at the time "The Thunder, Perfect Mind"
was written down. MacRae compares the tone of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind"
to the Isis aretalogies, but he notes that "The Thunder, Perfect Mind"
differs from the aretalogies in its insistent use of paradox and contradiction.

I invite you to consider this possibility:
If the voice of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" echoes the voices of Isis, Ishtar andInanna,
goddesses who were once all powerful, who contained all paradox in a magnificent wholeness,
then at the time that this voice lifted itself up she had to speak in paradox.
The voice of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind" is the voice of a divine female power
asserting her importance to a people who were already deeply ambivalent about her
and their attraction to her, whose ancestors had been torn for centuries
between honoring and scorning her.
Even more, this female I-am knows that she is pleading with a people
on the verge of forgetting who she is, becoming deaf to her wisdom,
silencing her.
Some 1,800 years have passed since the writing of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind",
and our own time.
We are only just beginning to hear again "this voice whose sound is manifold."

Once upon a time, so long ago that we only have fragments
of Sumerain and Babylonian tablets, myths and our own dreams
to tell us this story, the assertion "I am the whore and the holy one"
would not have been a paradox at all.
In ancient Sumer and Babylon, temple priestess/prostitutes
of the goddess received the god-bearing stranger.
Their sexual union was, for both participants,
communion with the divine.
In many ancient cultures,
in order for the land to prosper
and for a king to have legitimacy in the eyes of the people,
he had to celebrate the hieros gamos (sacred marriage)
with a priestess who represented the goddess.
In Sumer, the people sang ecstatic, erotic hymns to encourage
and celebrate the marriage of the shepherd-king Dumuzi with the goddess Inanna.
Here’s a passage from the Sacred Marriage Rite
translated by Samuel Kramer from the Gudea Cylinders written in Sumer around 3,000 BCE.

The King goes with lifted head to the holy lap
He goes with lifted head to the holy lap of Inanna,
The King coming with lifted head,
Coming to my queen with lifted head
Embraces the Hierdoule.

According to Jungian analyst Nancy Qualls-Corbett,
author of The Sacred Prostitute,
the term hierdoule literally means sacred servant.
It refers specifically to the priestess whose functions included sexual rites.

Over time the enactment of the king’s symbolic marriage
with the goddess probably became mere form and finally obsolete
as Babylon and other societies became more stratified and war-like.
Then military might, instead of mystical union with the goddess,
conferred legitimacy on a ruler.
In Babylon there was also a hierarchy of prostitutes
from the high-ranking temple priestesses, the entu and naditu,
to the tavern or street whore called harimtu.
It’s worth noting that in Babylonian religious texts,
the goddess Ishtar identifies herself with the lower ranks of the street prostitutes,
saying "When I sit in the entrance of a tavern, I, Ishtar, am a loving harimtu."
In another Babylonian text Ishtar proclaims, "A prostitute compassionate am I."

Isis began her long, illustrious life as a goddess in Egypt around 2,500 BCE.
Worship of Isis spread all over the Mediterranean world and beyond.
There was even a temple to Isis on the Thames River.
In Rome, though she was regarded by the ruling class
as an exotic (and suspect) Oriental import,
she was worshipped well into Christian times.
Like Jesus, Isis was a universal and merciful savior
who paid no attention to social class or lineage.
Like the Virgin Mary, she was a divine and devoted mother.
She was also beloved by prostitutes.
According to the wealth of lore surrounding her,
during her long search for the body of her lover/brother Osiris,
she was a prostitute in Tyre for ten years,
perhaps a temple prostitute.
She eventually found Osiris’ coffin in a pillar of a temple to Ashstarte in Byblos.
Isis’s own temples were often located near brothels
and had the reputation of being a meeting place for prostitutes.

Isis, like Inanna and Ishtar, was all in one:
whore, wife, mother, all holy.
Apparently worshippers saw no contradiction,
no need to exalt one aspect of the goddess (or divine feminine, if you prefer)
and debase another.
But something happens, some dis-integration.
Listen again to the voice of "The Thunder, Perfect Mind."

I am the one whom they called Life
and you have called Death.
I am the one whom they call Law
and you have called Lawlessness.
I am the one you have pursued
and I am the one whom you have seized.
I am the one whom you have scattered
and you have gathered me together.

There are many theories about what might have caused
the near total-eclipse of goddess worship (at least in the Western world)
and I don’t want to address them today.
I just want to observe that she (whoever, whatever she is)
seems to be re-emerging.
It is time to gather together her scattered archetypes.
In her virgin mother aspect, she never completely disappeared,
at least among Roman Catholics.
I can’t help wonder if the tragic adulation/hounding of women
like the late Princess of Wales doesn’t have something to do
with the absence of a goddess to adore
n the predominantly Protestant cultures of the United States and Britain.
I believe that in order to heal our individual and collective psyches
we need the divine feminine not only as the holy mother or the virgin
or as a disembodied divine Wisdom,
but as the holy whore, the "prostitute compassionate".

It is probably not practical or possible to reconstruct temples to the goddess
for the practice of sacred prostitution (although some of us might like to).
But we can begin to reclaim the archetype of the holy whore
—or to put it more colorfully, we can embrace the sacred prostitute within.
We can also examine our own and our culture’s attitude towards secular prostitutes,
the descendants of the harimtu with whom Ishtar identified herself.
The virgin/whore dichotomy, with all women implicitly forced to one side
or the other of the good girl/bad girl divide, has harmed us all,
women and men.
If the virgin/whore dichotomy stands,
then our souls and our bodies,
our spirituality and our sexuality also remained divided, even at war.

As noted, Inanna, Ishtar, Isis and other great goddesses played all parts:
wife, mother, lover, and in their completeness-in-themselves, also virgin.
(As an aside, it is worth observing that the patriarchal classical Greeks
divided these archetypal roles between many goddesses
so that no one female deity had the kind of power Zeus wielded.)
Though in Isis’s case, her lover is her brother,
the goddess often bears a son-lover.
The son begets himself as is technically the case in Christian doctrine,
the son and the father being different aspects of one god.
But in our culture we can’t quite grasp the concept of divine sexual passion.
So Mary conceives mystically through an angelic messenger,
and her virginity is taken literally as intactness of the hymen.
We do not allow her to experience sexual ecstasy.

Although we profess to believe that Jesus became incarnate to share
our human nature, in all its joy and sorrow,
we do not allow him sexual expression or freedom.
We know that a lot of women followed him
(although they are not, officially, acknowledged as disciples),
chief among them Mary Magdalen, the first witness of his resurrection.
We are not supposed to speculate on the nature of his relationship with Mary Magdalen,
although of course we have for centuries.

It is interesting, in terms of archetype, that so many women in the Gospel are named Mary,
at least five, possibly six.
No doubt Mary was an ubiquitous first century name.
But it almost seems as if all those scattered parts of the goddess
—virgin, wife, mother, sister, lover, whore
—want to come back under the name Mary.
The name Mary in Hebrew is Miriam(also the name of Moses’ sister)
a name rich in meanings, among them bitterness, rebellion
and the salty brine of tears, of the womb, of the sea.

The virgin/whore dichotomy demands that Mary Magdalen serve
as the whore counterpart to Mary the Virgin, although there is no scriptural evidence
that Mary Magdalen was a prostitute.
Also, according to the lore that has accrued to her over the ages,
she was a repentant prostitute,
turned from her sinful ways by Jesus who heals and forgives her.
And so, ironically, despite her reputation (deserved or not)
Mary Magdalen doesn’t get to experience sexual ecstasy either.
Regarding Mary Magdalen as a repentant, redeemed prostitute
does nothing to heal the split between spirituality and sexuality,
for in that scenario she does not integrate her sexuality
with her new found life of the spirit, she merely renounces it.

Nickie Roberts, a former prostitute and prostitutes’ rights advocate
writes in her book Whores in History: "To this day the whore stigma affects all women,
whether or not we subscribe to the good girl/bad girl dichotomy
which can be traced back to the beginning of patriarchal thought.
Any woman can be branded a whore if she steps out of line."

Until the holy whore archetype is honored, there will be a whore stigma.
Women will be divided against each other and themselves,
and we will all be at odds with our own human nature.
As a practical counterpart to archetypal integration,
I’d also suggest that we advocate for decriminalization of prostitution.
However women (and men) enter what is called the oldest profession,
whether as victims of circumstance or by choice,
whether they practice in a manner that we view as sacred or profane
(another aspect of the same dichotomy)
they do not deserve to be persecuted or prosecuted.

I’d like to leave you today with this proposition
(pun more or less intended):
Maybe Mary Magdalen, whom according to Gnostic texts Jesus loved above all others,
was a whore, a real and unrepentant whore.
Though there is no scriptural evidence that she was,
scripture also makes no mention of her father, brother, husband or son.
Without male protection and support her options for livelihood were few.
The Gospel (Luke 8) indicates that she (and other female followers)
may have provided Jesus with financial support for his ministry.
They had to have some source of income.
Why not the oldest profession?
(Thanks are due to Judith Marcus for helping me develop this line of thought.)

Maybe Jesus, who had no tolerance for hypocrites
and who was not exactly a proponent of conventional family values,
loved Mary Magdalen just as she was.
Perhaps he had the wisdom and the greatness to recognize in her
the prostitute compassionate, the whore and the holy one.

Thank you all for listening today. If anyone is interested, I have a bibliography available.

May the compassion of the Holy Whore be with you
and flow through you for the healing of us all. Amen and Blessed Be.

Bibliography:

• Cunningham, Elizabeth. Holy Whore, a novel-in-progress,
• Volume II of The Magdalen Trilogy. Research for the novel inspired this sermon.
• Volume I, Daughter of the Shining Isles, is complete.
• I am seeking a major publisher for the Trilogy. Watch for it!
  
• The Nag Hammadi Library. Robinson, James, M., General Editor. San Francisco: Harper and Row Publishers, 1978.
  
• Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books, 1975.
  
• Qualls-Corbett, Nancy. With a foreword by Marion Woodman. The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspects of the Feminine. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1998.
  
• Roberts, Nickie. Whores in History: Prostitution in Western Society. London: Harper-Collins, 1993.

An Analysis of Thunder: Perfect MindJoey Kerns,

The Nag Hammadi library was discovered in Nag Hammadi, in 1945.
t is a collection of religious texts written in Coptic that were buried around 400 CE.
The texts themselves vary from each other as to when, where,
and by whom they were written (NgH. Robinson,
1). Before the Bible was canonized and consequently these texts were banned, the texts in this collection were considered Christian and devout Christians often owned copies.
However, a movement began in early Christianity to standardize Christian beliefs,
which lead to the canonization of the Bible. Therefore, these texts eventually
became considered unorthodox and heretical.

Monks who studied and read this heretical literature were often banned from the church
and considered heretics themselves.

That is possibly the reason these were buried, so monks who wanted
to continue studying these could do so without being caught.

This particular sect of Christianity is today called Gnosticism.
Although altered, some Gnostic sects have remained through the centuries in , ,
and . Gnostics often considered themselves to be the knowers of the true Christianity.
In fact, the term Gnosis can be translated to mean knowers or knowledge.
Their "life-style involved giving up all the goods that people usually desire
and longing for an ultimate liberation" (NgH. Robinson,
1). They often withdrew from society and from many material desires in the hopes
that they would be united with the Realm of Light.

Their particular theology is extremely complex.
They believed that Genesis existed in fragments.
The first part of the original revelation of Genesis had actually been lost.
They then added their own version of the lost section and interpreted Genesis 1-5 differently.

Most gnostics believed that Jesus was simply a shell for the spirit.
He was an emanation sent from the Realm of Light.
This seems to suggest that the need for a male and a female is a material concern
and is inferior to the concerns of the emanations.
If you will recall, Sophia begot Yaldabaoth without the aide of a male.
Also, some Gnostic texts such as the Apocryphon of John call the parent of the entirety
"the thrice-named androgynous one" (Apocryphon of John, 5).
Therefore, Androgyny is portrayed as a divine characteristic.

Now with that as background, we can finally proceed to "Thunder: Perfect Mind".
The text consists of contradictory phrases spoken by a female.
Throughout the text, she uses the phrase "I am" at the beginning
of nearly every sentence.
orunn Jacobson Buckley in her article "Two Female Gnostic Revealers" says,
"The recurring 'I am' statement provides contradictory clues as to what kind of personage
the speaker is. In fact, she seems to elude most categories reserved for revealers and goddesses"
(Buckley, 259). Perhaps by having a female use the term "I am"
suggests that God is female or androgynous.
This would partly explain why the statements contained in this are contradictory.
Perhaps, the author wanted to expose flaws in social concepts of God.
Perhaps the author did not view God in conventional ways-that is,
people often thought of God in terms of human and male characteristics
and the author wanted to escape from that limited way of thinking.
This would fit quite nicely into the Gnostic way of thinking,
since Gnostic theology encouraged deviation from the norms.

I now want to read a section from this text.
It's the third stanza on page 298 for those who want to follow along.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
Give heed to me.
I am the one who is disgraced and the great one (Thunder, 14).


With the paradoxical phrases, the reader is encouraged to pursue a hidden meaning within the words.
It's almost as if the author wants the reader to examine the text as a whole rather than specific statements.
This suggests that one should look for a deeper meaning in the world.
One should not simply accept the status quo.
Rather, the reader should be lead to discover the divine within the text and within themselves (McGuire, Diotima).
By making it necessary to interpret the text for a more complete understanding,
the reader begins to look for meaning in it and then attempts to relate it to his or her own life.

Earlier, I discussed Sophia in the Gnostic tradition.
Some scholars believe that the speaker in this text is supposed to be Sophia.
On page 299 the speaker says, "For I am the wisdom of the Greeks and the knowledge of the Barbarians"
(Thunder, 16). The term "wisdom" was translated from the word Sophia
and the term knowledge has the same meaning as gnosis.
Therefore, this passage alludes to Sophia as being the speaker since she asserts that she is the wisdom.

Another important thing to notice is that the term "thunder" does not actually appear in the text.
Why, then, would Thunder appear in the title?
Perhaps, that is another mystery the author wants the reader to figure out.
Perhaps, even in the title, the reader is supposed to look for a deeper meaning.
Douglas M. Parrott suggests that thunder in Greek myths and the Hebrew Bible
comes from the highest God.
The Greeks often called Zeus "The Thundering One".
Thunder "is the way in which the god makes his presence known on earth" (NgH. Parrott, 296).
This would explain the importance of thunder for the divine.

The prose of "Thunder: Perfect Mind" has an almost Zen-like quality.
It does not explain to the reader what and how to believe. Instead,
it causes the reader to question the true meaning of the words.
By doing this, the reader can ponder the various contradictory statements
and perhaps find some meaning within them.
Essentially, this causes the reader to have a religious experience
by provoking deep thought into the nature of the divine and one's relation to her.

Bibliography

Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. "Two Female Gnostic Revealers". History of Religions. Vol 19, No 3, pp. 259-269. Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1980.

MacRae, George W. and Douglas M. Parrott. Translators. "The Thunder: Perfect Mind". Nag Hammadi Library. 3rd ed, 295-303. San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1988.

McGuire, Anne. Essay on "The Thunder: Perfect Mind". Diotima website.http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/thunder.shtml

Wisse, Frederik. Translator. "The Apocryphon of John". The Nag Hammadi Library.3rd ed, pp. 104-123. San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1988.

Death is Life, for none would be without death
And Sacrifice; it is I who dies, I who am Sacrificed
If you hold the four winds in your hand, I am with you
For Day is but the Eye of the storm of Night
And I rule over all that is in Darkness
-- The Book of Night

This text, part of the Nag Hamadi codices found in Egypt presents something of a paradox in that, while obviously valued by the collector of the Nag Hamadi texts, Thunder, Perfect Mind does not clearly fit into the definition of ‘Gnostic’ text, as it is not radically duelistic, as Gnosticism is generally defined. In fact, the ‘poem’ or Litany is, if anything the opposite. Radically monistic, the speaker (who does not name herself, perhaps because a name would, in turn invite a distinction between any identity claimed and those which the reader or hearer – we believe this was a liturgical work or invocation – may consider in contrast) asserts Her essential unity with the entire spectrum of social existance. Whether or not this is a metaphoric identity we leave up to the discerment of the student.

The popular author Elaine Pagels sums up the work:
‘Thunder Perfect Mind' is a marvelous, strange poem. It speaks in the voice of a feminine divine power, but one that unites all opposites. One that is not only speaking in women, but also in all people. One that speaks not only in citizens, but aliens, it says, in the poor and in the rich. It's a poem which sees the radiance of the divine in all aspects of human life, from the sordidness of the slums of Cairo or Alexandria, as they would have been, to the people of great wealth, from men to women to slaves. In that poem, the divine appears in every, and the most unexpected, forms....
'Thunder Perfect Mind' may have been written in Egypt. It's probably written by somebody who knows the traditions of Isis, knows the traditions of the Jews. It shows that this movement grew up in a world in which Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, Roman traditions are mingled and mixing and well-known to many sophisticated people. All you had to do is travel around a city, like Carnac, and you saw all these images, and these various religions and these various cultures mixing.'

The very first line identifies the speaker - the Greater Sophia:
I was sent forth from the power, and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
This is clearly a key, since we hold that the First was not created, and here she informs us that she was sent forth and, in ourmy the key, not created by the power, which I would call the depth (Bythos).

In the Fragments from the Book of the Coiled Dragon, we have:
And it came to pass that within the Silence arose Thought, a movement of Nous within the Limitless Depth, alone and awake within the Silence and the Nous rose up from the Depth creating movement within it.
And this is the First Mystery whereby the Nous of the All came forth and stirred the Depth and the Silence.
And Nous was naked and perfect, unbound, unbegotten, unborn. Being the Nous of the Eternal, the Father, she carried within herself the All, and the All was the Light within her and she was thereby the enclosing Darkness of being, the womb and mother of all that was to be. So it was in the Beginning.
- Fragments from the Book of the Coiled Dragon, 130-133

Following the key identification there follows a series of entreaties which exhorts those who seek to persist and for all readers of the work to remember her. Unlike the wrathful YHVH and His ilk, the self revelation of the Goddess encourages her faithful and those who desire her presence. There is no threat implied except the constraint of ignorance if the nature of the Goddess and thus reality itself, are forgotten.

After the exhorations, we come to the beginning of the first set of identity statements. Note the formula I am <a> and not <a>. In the first statement the Goddess identifies herself as the First and Last or All things. Compare to the identity statements of the Heavenly Logos
Revelation 1:11 “Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: “
Revelation 22:13 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
This is the basis of the esoteric identity of Christ with the Sophia-Barbelo of the Gnostics, the dichotomy of Holy and worldly (whore). As she is the source and substance of the Universe, Nyx-Barbelo must partake in all of the expressions of existance which are, ultimatly expressions of her own Being. Note that the earlier exhortations not to hate or think evil against her are cast in a new light and the previous exhortation can now be read as ‘reject nothing and no one - they are all expressions of my Divinity.’ Again compare to the gospels ( Matthew 25, 34-46 )

The nature of the identity statements has been compared to Zen koans, which are riddles that aim to break down unconscious ‘structuring’ of thought by posing seemingly unanswerable questions, such as the famous example, what is the sound of one hand clapping. While certainly these statements are in some sense comparable (as are any attempts to verbalize a concept, thought or experience that is transcendant to the binary nature of language) we consider the analogy to be innapropriate. The Goddess here speaks:

You who know me, be ignorant of me, and those who have not known me, let them know me.
For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
(32-38)

These statements are perfect binary pairs, knowledge and ignorance, war and peace, etc. There is no transcendence and no synthesis here, rather, it is a total inclusion into the Being of the speaker. As such, while the juxtaposition of the opposites and their claimed unity in the Goddess are jarring to the ‘worldly’ mind of yes/no right/wrong everyday consciousness, it is our contention that these statements are expressed as truths in-themselves. Ultimately, the teaching of the Litany is this: there is no substantial (in the technical sense) difference between anything and any other thing. This is a fundamental teaching of, for instance , Tantra, and certain esoteric streams in the West. Any other interpretation would be overcomplicating the expression of a profound truth.

As for the work itself, one can meditate on the text in conjunction with other works, including the Fragments from the Book of the Coiled Dragon and any exoteric scripture you may choose. After the work has been ‘incorporated’ into the your personal system, no doubt a multitude of previously unnoticed connections will appear.

 

- Posted Dec 3rd 2013

Death is Life, for none would be without death
And Sacrifice; it is I who dies, I who am Sacrificed
If you hold the four winds in your hand, I am with you
For Day is but the Eye of the storm of Night
And I rule over all that is in Darkness
-- The Book of Night

This text, part of the Nag Hamadi codices found in Egypt presents something of a paradox in that,
while obviously valued by the collector of the Nag Hamadi texts,
Thunder, Perfect Mind does not clearly fit into the definition of ‘Gnostic’ text, as it is not radically duelistic,
as Gnosticism is generally defined. In fact, the ‘poem’ or Litany is, if anything the opposite.
Radically monistic, the speaker (who does not name herself, perhaps because a name would,
in turn invite a distinction between any identity claimed and those which the reader or hearer
– we believe this was a liturgical work or invocation
– may consider in contrast) asserts Her essential unity with the entire spectrum of social existance.
Whether or not this is a metaphoric identity we leave up to the discerment of the student.

The popular author Elaine Pagels sums up the work:
‘Thunder Perfect Mind' is a marvelous, strange poem. It speaks in the voice of a feminine divine power, but one that unites all opposites.
One that is not only speaking in women, but also in all people. One that speaks not only in citizens, but aliens, it says, in the poor and in the rich.
It's a poem which sees the radiance of the divine in all aspects of human life, from the sordidness of the slums of Cairo or Alexandria,
as they would have been, to the people of great wealth, from men to women to slaves. In that poem, the divine appears in every,
and the most unexpected, forms....
'Thunder Perfect Mind' may have been written in Egypt.
It's probably written by somebody who knows the traditions of Isis, knows the traditions of the Jews.
It shows that this movement grew up in a world in which Jewish, Egyptian, Greek,
Roman traditions are mingled and mixing and well-known to many sophisticated people.
All you had to do is travel around a city, like Carnac, and you saw all these images, and these various religions and these various cultures mixing.'

The very first line identifies the speaker - the Greater Sophia:
I was sent forth from the power, and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
This is clearly a key, since we hold that the First was not created,
and here she informs us that she was sent forth and, in ourmy the key, not created by the power, which I would call the depth (Bythos).

In the Fragments from the Book of the Coiled Dragon, we have:
And it came to pass that within the Silence arose Thought, a movement of Nous within the Limitless Depth,
alone and awake within the Silence and the Nous rose up from the Depth creating movement within it.

And this is the First Mystery whereby the Nous of the All came forth and stirred the Depth and the Silence.
And Nous was naked and perfect, unbound, unbegotten, unborn. Being the Nous of the Eternal, the Father,
she carried within herself the All, and the All was the Light within her and she was thereby the enclosing Darkness of being,
the womb and mother of all that was to be. So it was in the Beginning.
- Fragments from the Book of the Coiled Dragon, 130-133

Following the key identification there follows a series of entreaties which exhorts those who seek to persist
and for all readers of the work to remember her.
Unlike the wrathful YHVH and His ilk, the self revelation of the Goddess encourages her faithful and those who desire her presence.
There is no threat implied except the constraint of ignorance if the nature of the Goddess and thus reality itself, are forgotten.

After the exhorations, we come to the beginning of the first set of identity statements.
Note the formula I am <a> and not <a>.
In the first statement the Goddess identifies herself as the First and Last or All things.
Compare to the identity statements of the Heavenly Logos
Revelation 1:11 “Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: “
Revelation 22:13 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
This is the basis of the esoteric identity of Christ with the Sophia-Barbelo of the Gnostics,
the dichotomy of Holy and worldly (whore)
. As she is the source and substance of the Universe, Nyx-Barbelo must partake in all of the expressions of existance

which are, ultimatly expressions of her own Being. Note that the earlier exhortations not to hate
or think evil against her are cast in a new light and the previous exhortation can now be read as ‘reject nothing and no one
- they are all expressions of my Divinity.’ Again compare to the gospels ( Matthew 25, 34-46 )

The nature of the identity statements has been compared to Zen koans,
which are riddles that aim to break down unconscious ‘structuring’ of thought by posing seemingly unanswerable questions,
such as the famous example, what is the sound of one hand clapping.
While certainly these statements are in some sense comparable
(as are any attempts to verbalize a concept, thought or experience that is transcendant to the binary nature of language)
we consider the analogy to be innapropriate. The Goddess here speaks:

You who know me, be ignorant of me, and those who have not known me, let them know me.
For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
(32-38)

These statements are perfect binary pairs, knowledge and ignorance, war and peace, etc.
There is no transcendence and no synthesis here, rather, it is a total inclusion into the Being of the speaker.
As such, while the juxtaposition of the opposites and their claimed unity in the Goddess are jarring to the ‘worldly’ mind
of yes/no right/wrong everyday consciousness, it is our contention that these statements are expressed as truths in-themselves.
Ultimately, the teaching of the Litany is this: there is no substantial (in the technical sense) difference
between anything and any other thing. This is a fundamental teaching of, for instance , Tantra,
and certain esoteric streams in the West. Any other interpretation would be overcomplicating the expression of a profound truth.

As for the work itself, one can meditate on the text in conjunction with other works, including the Fragments
from the Book of the Coiled Dragon and any exoteric scripture you may choose.
After the work has been ‘incorporated’ into the your personal system, no doubt a multitude of previously unnoticed connections will appear.


THE END

(insert credit)