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The Divine Spark
One of the things that’s both intrigued and confused me about gnosticism is this idea that all humans have a divine spark. On the one hand, it makes a certain type of sense on it’s own. But on the other, it’s really easy to then enter the idea that spirit is somehow “trapped” in matter, or that it has fallen into the debased state of matter. Whatever the traditional gnostic interpretations of this were (and I’m sure they were many and varied), I could never really reconcile it for myself. I really enjoy and find useful certain gnostic metaphors, like the Black Iron Prison and archons, but I just don’t buy into the whole idea that the flesh is evil or bad or accidental, or however you want to color it.
In any event, I thought of a metaphor last night that I think really put the whole concept into a form which I can finally get behind. Imagine that the body, the earthly incarnation is like a pot of soil. The divine spark then is like a seed that is placed in the soil. The seed is not “trapped” and has not debased itself by being in the soil. Rather, it requires the soil to grow and to achieve it’s full potential. This also puts the idea of the Pleroma into new perspective for me. Originally, I thought of the Pleroma as sort of this heavenly paradise that you’re supposed to escape to through gnosis. But instead, I would now put forth the possibility that the Pleroma is similar to the seedling sprouting forth from underground, breaking through to the other side.
This in turn makes the canonical Gospel saying of Luke 13:18-19 make much more sense:
Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.”
Although, supposedly mustard doesn’t really grow into trees. But I think the point is that the kingdom of God is the seed that grows up, out of the ground, into a mighty plant. I might also try to correlate this to kundalini, wherein the goal is to raise the coiled serpent energy from where it rests at the base of the spine, upwards as it activates the chakras, ascending to the final one which opens up to a type of cosmic-consciousness. This could also make more sense of how in gnostic mythology, Sophia and the Logos are thought to descend into the material world, in order to aid you in growing up and out of it. It’s almost like they are rainwater, sunlight or nutrients, pulling you out, urging you onward and upward. Or else they act as gardeners from the Pleroma.
This also raises the question of what’s the real purpose of the archons and the Black Iron Prison? Philip K. Dick raised the possibility that the whole point of the artificial control systems placed on us is to inspire us to throw them off. So maybe in some weird sense it’s actually the archons who are tending the garden. Or rather, “archon” is just another costume that Sophia and the Logos wear. Either that, or the archons represent some force that has a vested interest in preventing the divine spark/seed from sprouting or the kundalini from rising. What that interest would be is, however, inscrutable to me.
[PS. It might also be interesting to come back and do a close reading of Jack and the Beanstalk from this perspective. I’ll try to do that later.]
- Sophia and Shekinah
- Religious Anarchist
- Notes: Dance This Into Existence
- What Is Gnosticism?
- “Gnosticism failed because it was elitist.”
- Prev: Tulpas
- Next: The Guardian Angel
June 21st, 2005 at 2:49 pm
i’ve always seen the gnostic concept of flesh being ‘debased’ or ‘insane’ or ‘evil’ as more of a metaphor than anything else. i think the best way to describe it is limited, or imperfect, inasmuch as it contains and limits the consciousness of the universe as it experiences itself subjectively. this doesn’t mean it’s ‘evil,’ just that it’s limited, or . . . incomplete, one could say. no matter how awesome physicality is, it doesn’t lend itself to experiencing infinity. it experiences pain and pleasure, but it’s no more ‘evil’ than a tsunami is evil. the materia is any place in which one can stub one’s toe on something, and the imperfect flesh is any toe that can be stubbed.
this is really all a very platonic idea. socrates had his inner daemon that inspired him to great heights, and the ‘imperfection’ of the physical only refers to its status as a reflection of a more perfect, or ideal state.
that the archons may exist solely so that we can overcome them is certainly discussed in some of the gnostic texts. the idea is that the archons themselves can and will be ‘redeemed,’ and, as such, are part of a temporary imperfection within an overall perfect state. it’s like that post you had on how you’re supposed to wish the genie (jinn!) its own freedom or deal with the devil for his own redemption. ideally, the gnostic doesn’t just seek to know one’s self & experience one’s own gnosis, the gnostic seeks to assist the universal redemption of the archons, and even the demiurge, as well.
again, it’s a myth; although historically some gnostics were crazy ascetic, i don’t see it heading in that direction any more. i don’t know any modern gnostics who think that the flesh is out-and-out evil. gnosticism is cool because it lends itself to constant evolution– it’s beginning to coalesce into a new form, and a lot of the old ways aren’t applicable any more.
June 21st, 2005 at 6:02 pm
From a Jungian perspective, the meaning of this idea of flesh being evil could relate to projection. Instead of experiencing the self or consciousness in and of itself - that is, in a pure state - we mix it up with our awareness of the material world. As Puma put it above, the flesh “limits the consciousness of the universe as it experiences itself subjectively”. That’s saying it another way.
Whenever we withdraw a projection, we effectively clean or purify the soul, coming closer and closer to experiencing subjectivity in a clear manner. When we dream we are already in that state because we’ve shut off our senses but the trick is to achieve this awareness while awake.
Gnosis, as I understand it, is not only about knowledge but also about love. Any separation - as of flesh from spirit - is only an initial phase prior to their reunion. This act of love, then, is the true gnosis, the true knowing.
Here is how Rumi has expressed it:
June 21st, 2005 at 6:23 pm
“Gnosis, as I understand it, is not only about knowledge but also about love. Any separation - as of flesh from spirit - is only an initial phase prior to their reunion.”
yes yes, arizona! that’s the whole mystery of the bridal chamber and the hieros gamos in a nutshell– the lover and the beloved of the song of songs are the subjective personality and the objective completeness of the limitless light.
btw, i added you to the ol’ blogroll on fp.
June 21st, 2005 at 7:07 pm
Fuck, I just wrote a 15 paragraph post and it was accidentally deleted. Oh well.
I agree with all that the matter-spirit dualism is most likely a metaphor, that lends itself to literalization, and so is unhelpful.
The real dualism IMHO is epistemelogical - the gulf gap or veil is in our perception and understanding, not in what is.
Personally I think that the body is a projection of the mind, as the tantras say “man is a tree with his roots in another world.” The Hebrew world for tree and the world for spine are identical BTW. The Eden myth may also be interpreted as a description of proprioceptive states similar to those found in yoga. Tim this reminds me of your examination of the seed metaphor.
RE: The plaeroma, I had a similar view or experience, the idea of a static pleroma that you enter when you die or acheive gnoss - how is that different from teh Xian heaven. It just becomes another game of “stay in this circle, when you pass the test you can enter that one” That happened to me it almost wrecked gnosticism for me I had to get involved in other systems in orde rto rgeian perspective.
Blake was a radical monist, also to the Ismaelis, the ranters, the aghora, etc. - many of the most extreme antinomian sects in history have been non-dual. But speaking of blake I’m remind of his account of the journey of the soul, e.g., people pass from
Innocence -> Experience -> Wisdom
You can’t just stay in Eden, you have to move forward and get that experience (or that acquaintance, ha ha) then you keep moving forward in a dynamic process.
JP writes: i’ve always seen the gnostic concept of flesh being ‘debased’ or ‘insane’ or ‘evil’ as more of a metaphor than anything else. i think the best way to describe it is limited, or imperfect, inasmuch as it contains and limits the consciousness of the universe as it experiences itself subjectively. this doesn’t mean it’s ‘evil,’ just that it’s limited, or . . . incomplete, one could say. no matter how awesome physicality is, it doesn’t lend itself to experiencing infinity.
—————–
Personally (and probably to repeat myself) I see the body as a projection of the mind, the mind is a projection of something else too, and so on. We are like people looking through a keyhole though, for example compared to animals we are blind deaf and dumb, we can see so little of the spectrum, smell almost nothing, hear almost nothing, etc.
What if we could see ultraviolet, infrared, hear ultrasonic, subsonic, hypersonic frequences, etc? Lovecraft wrote about world that exist coterminous with ours but IMHO it is the SAME world but we are blind to it. Take some mushrooms, the veil drops, suddenly you see the little guys pushing the waves in on the shore, working together as team to keep the tide coming in, now its not just theory or fancy, its real you can’t unsee it.
As much as people make fun of Icke I do dig his whole promotion of the idea that humans are hyperdimensional.
One last passing fancy, I read a book about ayahusca shamnism once and this anthropolgist described seeing beings similar to Castaneda “predators” (read: archons). These entered his mind and showed him how they had first colonize dthe earth and created all life on it. WHen he emerged from the trance he reported his vision to the medecine man who laughed and said “oh they’re always saying that but they are only the masters of outer darkness.”
This too me says that the archons are here and do play a role - we sustain them - but they are alien, implants or overlays, more like parasites than anything else. They entered into something that was healthy and made it sick and now are still clinging to it. But they aren’t part of the monism because they have no real existence in themselves.
- scattered mind Max at 4pm
June 21st, 2005 at 7:14 pm
From the perspective of Islam, every child has the ability of Gnosis. According to Muslims, if you were to take a child, and put him on a desert island somewhere with absolutely no outside influences, then the child would come to worship God in his own way. That is because it is inbuit in our nature, it is in the fitra, the natural disposition of mankind. Of course - in real life, there are outside influences, if not from fellow humans, then from the jinns and shayateen who are assigned to each child.
There is an interesting discussion of this here:
June 21st, 2005 at 7:16 pm
[…] zes and reaches his Fravashi.” The Fravashis also seem to be closely related to the divine spark that we spoke about earlier: Fravashis are the divine, spiritual ess […]
June 21st, 2005 at 7:45 pm
I buy hyperdimensional too. Ever smoked Salvia? I did that one and had the weirdest experience with time. I heard voices that were happening in the past/furture.
June 21st, 2005 at 7:51 pm
actually i have smoked salvia. one of the few drugs ive done besides pot. i had what i would categorize as probably a “light” experience on it. but it still involved me losing awareness of where my body was. i couldnt find my hands or the lighter in order to pack and smoke another bowl. when i did locate them, i felt like my hands were being pulled away from me by something. i also experienced what i would describe as a sensation of “slithering vines” and i saw an old woman down by a river
June 21st, 2005 at 10:35 pm
It’s weird stuff, for sure. The living plant has an increibly purple aura. Oddly enough, i have had no effect from anything but fresh or recently dried leaves.
June 21st, 2005 at 11:33 pm
ive read a lot of other accounts of using it. and it took me a while to “figure out” how to use it. its so different from pot, the way you open yourself to it and what it does. that reminds me, i also saw my aura briefly while on it. its also interesting this whole thing how they call it “leaves of the shepherdess” or something… i guess meeting a mystical woman while on it is one of its primary features
June 22nd, 2005 at 12:49 am
A friend of mine who is a shamaness calls divnorum the three sisters, I tried it and didn’t see them, I did see the creeping twisting vines as the world fell away though
June 22nd, 2005 at 5:35 am
I think of sin in the latin sense, as meaning ‘without’, not ‘evil’. From that perspective, the bible seems to make alot of sense, that by embracing your sins, you find salvation. By embracing what you aren’t, you define what you are, and maybe the divine spark, or seed, is identity.
Btw, I think we are definitely at least four dimensional creatures. A family tree exists literally in time, all the way back to the first cell in some prehistoric ocean. Maybe the divine spark is your unique twig (ha ha), and the repressive system is actually a warning to try to grow off into a different direction, and not to populate what is already populated. Jung thought that God was actually ordering him to sin– that vision he had of shit coming down on a church led him to that conclusion when he was a teenager.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:00 pm
[…] going in! Keep up if you can!” Tim has given me permission by example. I have read posts by him and Jeremy Puma discussing how neither take seriously or literally the id […]