Some say Sufism, or Tasawwuf as it is known in the Muslim world, is Islamic mysticism; others say it is the primordial mystical tradition, much older than Islam, using Islam as a structural frame as Gnostics usually did. In this article, we will use Jungian concepts, Sufi poetry, and myths to explore the relationship of female Archetypes and the Sufi path. Although the leaders of tariqas and participants in public dhikrs are (almost) always men, there have been some well-known Sufi women adepts, e.g. Rābiʿah al-Baṣrī, and many others, less well-known. Women participate considerably in popular Sufism, especially in visits to the tombs of walis, mulids.
Perhaps Sufism is best defined as an universal path to union with God through self reflection – individuation. In Jungian psychology there are many concepts that illumine the relationship between soul and Absolute, human and God: the ego as the center of consciousness and the Self as a path to god; the individuation process whereby the ego increasingly realizes its source and dependence upon the Self; the alchemical conjunction of ego and Self.
Sufis understand themselves as the only heir of a spiritual heritage, which had been split in many religions and sects. Like Tao, Sufi is eternal, and uses words like “drunkenness” or “grape” or “heart” … As Rumi puts it: Before garden, vine or grape were in the world Our soul was drunken with immortal wine.
I also found, to my astonishment, Sufism is addressing the greats belonging to a variety of cultures: Rumi, Shakespeare, Goethe and other influential thinkers and poets. Goethe’s West-östlicher Divan, or West-East Divan, is a work with deep roots his knowledge of and love for Sufism. I regret to say, that Sufis even caught up with C.G. Jung, and the concept of individuation. C.G. Jung was aware, that any spiritual aware religion – for example Sufism and Catholicism – inherently resembles a psychoanalytic healing.
Boundaries of Sufism
Sufism in a hurry
Well, in any case lets define the boundaries first, but be aware that my understanding of Sufism is deeply influenced by Idries Shah and the interpretation of it by C.G. Jung. This article is not an attempt to feminize Islam, but to explore Sufism from this particular point of view.
See above a slide show with some basic concepts of Sufism. You may press buttons to change slides manually or switch to full screen.
- Sufism is a dimension of Islam rather than a sect of Islam. Its mysticism and monastic order are hosted by Islam, but originating and reaching beyond Islam. The abstinence from pleasure, wealth, and prestige sought by most Sufi Masters, and their retiring from others to worship alone has of course a striking similarity to Christian monks. Sufi orders (Tariqas) can be found in Sunni, Shia and non-Islamic (or hardly Islamic) groups. Like the Christian monks Sufis were influential in spreading their belief, particularly to the furthest outpost world in Africa, India and the Far East.
- Doris Lessing, stated once: “I found Sufism as taught by Idries Shah, which claims to be the reintroduction of an ancient teaching, suitable for this time and this place.” Arthur J. Deikman, a professor of psychiatry, expressed the view that Western psychotherapists could benefit from the perspective provided by Sufism”.
- Sufis are emphatic, that knowledge should be learned from teachers and not exclusively from books. They view deceiving and fanatic fundamentalists seeing Sufis as haram and deceiving scholars as evil spirits, no wonder that these attempts to destroy Sufi heritage.
- Tariqas can trace their teachers back through the generation. Modelling themselves on their teachers, students hope that they too will glean something of the Prophetic character. Although Sufis are relatively few in number they have shaped thought and history. Through the centuries Sufis contributed hugely to literature for example Rumi, Omar Khayyám and Al-Ghazali’s is quoted by Western philosophers, writers and theologians.
- This new voice of the Abrahamic tradition attempted to reestablish the recognition of the Unity of Being. It tried to address the imbalances that had arisen by the three religions of the books, advising respect and honor for the feminine as well as for the graciousness and harmony of nature.
- From the early days onward, women have played an important role in the development of Sufism, which is classically claimed to have begun with the Prophet Muhammad, but Sufisms’s roots are most likely older. Within some Sufi circles, women were integrated with men in ceremonies; in other orders, women gathered in their own circles of remembrance and worshiped apart from men. Some women devoted themselves ascetic, apart from society, others chose the role of benefactress and fostered circles of worship and study. Many of the great masters had female teachers, students, and spiritual friends who greatly influenced their thought and being. The Sufi Master Ibn Arabi (see below), tells of time he spent with one elderly woman mystic, Fatimah of Cordova: “I served as a disciple one of the lovers of God, a gnostic, a lady of Seville called Fatimah bint Ibn al-Muthanna of Cordova. I served her for several years, she being over ninety-five years of age… “
Panentheism
Given the diversity of schools and the diversity of religious and philosophical ideas of their masters, it is very difficult to pin down the Sufi thoughts define. By some scholars Sufism is considered a perfect pantheism in the search for knowledge and reunion with the Divine. I prefer, therefore, not necessarily to speak of any religious doctrine in Sufism, as the Sufi belief system exceeds them Sufism is free because of its mindset – of every religious limit. Rather, it seems to me an attitude, an enlightened philosophy of the individual search for God. Ibn al-‘Arabi (Ibn’ Arabi) (se also below) is the most rigorous Sufi panentheism. Many theologians were scandalized by the apparently blasphemous expressions that occur in his writings, and taxed him with holding heretical doctrines, e.g., the incarnation of God in man (ḥulúl) and the identification of man with God (ittiḥád). Centuries passed, but controversies continue. To Ibn al-‘Arab everything, that exists is a part of and a manifestation of the Oneness of God. Humans are part of God. To him the idea of a separate self is the result of ignorance. Ibn al-‘Arabi was born in Spain, in AD 1165. At the age of twenty he was initiated into Sufism. From the 1190s he engaged in three decades of travels as a wandering scholar, poet and mystic, visiting the Maghreb, Egypt, Arabia, Syria and Asia Minor and finally settled in Damascus. Ibn’ Arabi ascribes the source of his inspirations to an angel, which, in Jungian terms, is an archetypal inhabitant of the unconscious. Angels are particularly regarded as the messengers or intermediaries between God and the human world. With respect to the psyche, as intermediaries and messengers, angels are the very permeability of the division between the two zones of the psyche. Unconscious content, which cannot be directly apprehended by the conscious, is translated into terms the conscious can comprehend: language. Intermediaries between conscious and unconscious are necessary because, as Jung points out, [. . .] “psychic contents cannot be observed in their unconscious state, and moreover the psyche cannot know itself. The conscious can know the unconscious only so far as it has become conscious “( C. G. Jung). Insofar as God is beyond the categories of human thought and beyond language and concept, He is unknowable, unutterable. Commensurately, the Sufi experience of God is referred to as knowledge of the heart. The Sufi calls “knowledge” his own experience – in all areas of the senses and in the experience of own transcendence. Important is the strength and the ability to leave the social frames of that limitation, religion to which we belong; then, suddenly, the consciousness understands the true core of any religion. Any religion.
Sufi literature
We owe a lot Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866) , who was a German poet, translator, and one of the founders of the German Oriental Studies. Like Heine and Goethe was Friedrich Rückert a German Sufi ethics. As a translator of poetry Rückert devoted himself to the transmission of countless Sufi verses in the German language poets. 1818, the same year, as Goethe drew up a West–Eastern Divan, the eloquent young poet came to Vienna and began studying oriental languages. With its “dual talent, poetic and philological“, Rückert translated Arabic and Persian poetry, notably the Sufi mysticism, amazingly accurate.
Ibn ‘Arabî – Sufism and heresy
Ibn `Arabî (1165-1240) has been one of the most influential Sufi authors, who deeply influenced the west. He wrote in Persian and Arabic clearly not only for the purposefully for a global readership of all beliefs, but was quite at odds with scholarly interpretations of religious thoughts. Through Spain and Sicily, and in part by the Templars Cristian and Sufi thoughts interrelated. The Sufis in the East, like the Christian mystics in the West were attracted the refreshing, deep old knowledge of the Oriental world. None of them apparently did not fear the danger of heresy, and many of them led a double life, so to speak: on the one hand, they lived as devout Christians or Muslims, on the other hand they thought as Sufi scholars.
In the 12th century the master Suhrawardi lived in Aleppo. He wrote the work “The knowledge of enlightenment” and was murdered by order of the orthodox Scholars. They publicly burned his writing, but some copies have survived: Suhrawardi
refers to the Sufi tradition as identical with the esoteric teachings of the old Egyptians, the Greeks and the Persians. Later the English scholar Roger Bacon, who spread this knowledge in Europe. Bacon confirmed in his writings that the Sufi ideas came from the ancient Egyptian era and later inherited Pythagoras, Zoroaster and Socrates thoughts.The Sufis have always called “The Lovers”.
But behind the concept of Love hides rather the pursuit of truth, for the knowledge. In his book “The Sufis” Idries Shah gives a brief history of the great masters Ibn `Arabî and Sufi. Idries Shah finds many parallels between Francis and the Dervishes: the clothing with hood and wide sleeves, the exchange of secular dresses with a cowl and the Franciscan idea of the “holy prayer” and Francis‘ typical Welcome: “Pace a voi” – “Peace be with you” – which is an Arabic greeting
Idries Shah suggests, based on the Spanish Priest Asin Palacios, that Dante had drawn on Ibn ‘Arabi’s writings for his Divine Comedy. That has to be interpreted differently not as a de-christianizing of Dante, as the central theme of “comedy” is the Trinity, that very concept, which distinguishes Christianity from Islam. Not only this poem as such has a Trinitarian form, but also the process, by which the pilgrim Dante (and with it the reader) through purgatory ascends to heaven, “proves” the Trinity. Through the process of self-perfection of the pilgrim Dante, who gradually realizes the divine laws of the universe, he reached the entrance to the world of science, to paradise. The Earthly Paradise turns out at the end of the book about Purgatory as a chimera, and as a polemical contrast, the real paradise unfolds as a process, by which the individual understands the divine laws, as a science. Dante’s poem seems a proof of Jun’s individuation and the Sufi paths though. Both relate to the Christian idea of the imago viva Dei.
In the 13th century, the “Scuola siciliana“, the Sicilian literary movement was established at the court of the Hohenstaufen. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, a pupil of the Templars, founded this institution. The German Emperor Friederich II (Frederick) spoke and wrote Arabic perfectly, and the soldiers of his bodyguard were all Arabs. Sicily, then in charge of the Knights Templars was the center of the Arab sciences. The German Emperor was a close friend of the Sultan of Egypt, al-Kamil, the very same Sultan, who had also received the St. Francis of Assisi.
Rumi – Sufism and individuation
In his book “The Sufis” Idries Shah gives a unique history of the great master Rumi. This is a typical example of Sufi central theme – love – therefore I would like to quote it here:
„Ein Mann kam zur Tür der Geliebten und klopfte. Eine Stimme fragte: – Wer ist da? –
-Ich bin es -, antwortete er.
Da sagte die Stimme: -Hier ist nicht genug Platz für mich und dich.- Und die Tür blieb geschlossen.
Nach einem Jahr der Einsamkeit unt Entbehrung kam der Mann wieder und klopfte.
Von drinnen fragte die Stimme: – Wer ist da?-
– Du bist es -, sagte der Mann. Und die Tür wurde geöffnet.“
(Jalauddin Rumi)
The connection between the Troubadour movement and Sufis had been established long ago. The term “Troubadour”, the “Finder” can be originally derived from an Arabic root “rbb”, as this certain Sufi community, whose members are the “slaves of love”, played viola. And from the Arabic word for “Viola” came the European “Troubadour”. The Sufis have always called “The Lovers”. But behind the concept of Love hides rather the pursuit of truth and knowledge.
How is it that a thirteenth-century Sufi master, like Rumi should become the darling of the West and Amazon Kindle books, in times with interest in neither poetry nor spiritual discipline? His works include a massive collection of lyric poems (ghazels and rubaiyat) as well as the six-volume Mathnawi, a collection of rhymed couplets that weaves together a rich fabric of stories, humor, and spiritual teaching. In our Western literary tradition and empty churches we have lost this union of the sensual and the spiritual. Our own cultural history has discarded: religion and literature. The Sufis, especially, were neither puritanical nor sensual indulgent. In Rumi we have a model of the potential harmony between the physical and the spiritual, the animus and the anima, the Ego and the Self, the human and the Divine. Two examples from Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks
When I am with you, we stay up all night,
When you’re not here, I can’t get to sleep.
Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.
And an excerpt …
Could this be our real master?
Sufism and psychology
In Arabic, the words for ‘eye, ‘fountain’, and ‘self or identity (Self or Ego)’ all emerge from the same root.The specialty of having the same consonance for different words has given poets many opportunities for connections and word play, and Ibn ‘Arabi made masterly use of it.Gardens of paradise are beautiful metaphors for the heart; its center being this spring, which waters and vivifies all in the garden. Spreading out from this centre, according to this cosmological diagram (from Miguel Asin Palacios’ 1931 book on Ibn ‘Arabi – El Islam cristianizado) he compares the Ibn ‘Arabi’s vision of paradise to that of Dante: Self and Ego arr central concepts.
Every discipline – temporal or spriritual – in the world has among its practitioners, those who engage the faith beyond the common boundaries of doctrine and dogma, seeking an unmediated relationship with reality and selfrealization. Sufism, as can be discerned from the writings of Ibn’ Arabi and Jelaluddin Rumi, can be discussed in the terms offered by C.G. Jung in his theories of the structures and functions of the human psyche. In Jung’s terms, Sufism can be seen as an example of how a healthy, integrated psyche might function, and what a living mythology might look like. Sufism as a psychological system has postulated the discoveries of Freud or C.G.Jung centuries before: the Sufi sheikh Ghasali wrote down the sexual knowledge of Freud around 1200 AD and C. G. Jung’s findings on psychological archetypes and the collective unconscious were formulated by the Sufi Master Ibn Arabi. C.G. Jung might have known that therefore and wrote: „What we hold for a specifically western invention, namely the psychoanalysis and those of her outgoing suggestions, it is a beginner’s attempt in comparison to that what is old-skilled art in the east.“ He meant the Far East, but also the Middle East as he was well aware of the findings of the Nag Hammadi library (famous for the “fifth” Gospel of Thomas favored by the Sufis). C. G. Jung has shown a pronounced and informed interest in Gnosticism an Middle Eastern knowledge. Sufism emphasises on the knowledge of transcendence arrived at by way of interior, intuitive means as Jung’s individuation. The importance of the Nag Hammadi library, discovered in upper Egypt in 1945, was pointed out by C.G. Jung. His Book “Antwort auf Hiob” (Answer to Job) is a downright answer to the Bible´, but in accordance of Sufism’s answer to rigid religions. In the light of such recognitions, one may ask: “Is Sufism a religion or a psychology?” The answer is that it may very-well be both, just like Jung’s thought may be interpreted religiously. One of the aeonial beings who bears the name Sophia (“Wisdom”), referred to by C.G. Jung many times, is of great importance to the Gnostic world view and resembles closely the story of the human psyche that loses its connection with the collective unconscious and needs to be rescued by the Self. Analogies of this sort exist in great profusion.
Sufism and syncretic Gnosticism
We do not know for sure, why has Sufism so much common with Gnosticism. The reason is maybe, that both of these systems implanted their mystical ways, in the prophetic religion (Judaism,Christianity or Islam,) or in a deeper sense how to individually unite with God. We can also admit that the Gnostic Christianity could have influenced the early stage of Islam, particularly Arianism.
From ancient Oriental religion?
Zoroastrian, Mesopotamian, Indian?
From heterodox Judaism?
Apocalyptic, mystical?
From heterodox Christianity?
From late Hellenistic philosophy?
Neoplatonism?
While Sufi teachings have been influenced by various religions, their practices also bear close similarities to those of Hinduism and other mystical religions of the East. The Sufi orders are led by shaikhs, who play the same role as Hindu gurus. Most Sufi orders still consider the five pillars of Islam to be essential, and practice them piously, however, they go far beyond this, aiming to spiritual awakening. Central to all of these practices are ritual “invocations of the Divine Name,” also known as dhikr, which can be done either silently or in a chant. Here similarities with Hindu mantras are unmistakable. The evidence of Sufi borrowings from other Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Zoroastrianism is certain. The similarities in teachings and ritual are overwhelming. It is no surprise then that the goals of Sufism reflect their pantheism and monism. Of course it is one of the characteristics of living traditions that they are ultimately oral. The spark that kindles the enlightenment is rarely captured on paper: it shifts its emphasis and context with the times and the individual. In matters of the heart and soul, it is the experience of love or of the Self that resonates – not dogmas or theories. This aspect of Sufism is the hardest to convey: In Sufism, great importance is given to the complete human being, the one who is considered activated. It is through the guidance of such a human being that the inner process unfolds. Any particular beliefs in dogmas dissolve as the complete one assists the seeker to fall fully into his or her relationship with God and to recognize the importance of that essential experience.
The socially approved knowledge of argumentation is not valid – unless we have found it out ourself. The Sufi calls all things meaningless, if they are old or new, big or small, important or insignificant, because all things are separated in reality forms one and not. All things („the evident“) are merely bridges to the true reality. Rituals, symbols are representatives, are to reflexion of an internal truth they can be exterior dead and stereotyped; but they show that who can see a way to the internal truth. There is no external sign (like the Christians Cross or the Crescent of Islam) from which one could say this symbolises the Sufi being. Sufis use the most different symbols, quite knowingly that these are just represented phenomena.
Sufism and female archetypes
Fatimah – the primordial woman
Fatimah, beloved daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, is the most prominent female in the Islamic tradition. Islam is aniconic. In other words, images, effigies, or idols her are not allowed, although verbal depiction is elaborate. She is regarded as a primordial woman, a symbol of divine womanhood giving her many holy names. Shias revere the person of Fatimah, mother of the line of inspired imams who embodied the divine truth for their generation. She was the wife of the fourth Caliph, wife of Ali, mother of Hasan and Hussein and defended Ali’s cause, fiercely opposed the election of Abu Bakr. Fatimah is often associated with Sophia, the divine wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge of God. She has thus become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother. When Fatimah, enters the throne all 124,000 Prophets stand in respect. Around the world men and women of Islam and Sufism look to Fatimah for comfort and inspiration. Because of her special beingness of personality and beyond, Fatimah is considered by many Muslims as divine in origin and several variations of a major hadith describe how she was conceived on the night of Mi’raj (ascension).
I heard the Apostle of Allah say, ‘I am a tree, Fatimah is its trunk and Ali is its pollen. Hassan and Hussein are its fruits, and our followers are its leaves. The roots of the tree are in the Garden of Eden, and its trunk, fruits and leaves are in Paradise.’ – Sacred tradition of Islam on the authority of ‘Abdu ‘r-Rahman ibn ‘Awf’
Fatimah tul Zehra (Fatimah the Radiant, Fatimah the Brightest Star, Fatimah-Star of Venus, Fatimah-The Evening Star), the daughter of the Prophet, is the secret in Sufism. She is the Hujjat of ‘Ali. In other words, she establishes the esoteric sense of his knowledge and guides those who attain to it. Through her perfume, we breathe paradise. Though she was his daughter, the Prophet Muhammad called her Um Abi’ha (mother of her father). While Fatimah Zehra was Muhammad’s daughter, the Rasulallah (Prophet of God – Muhammad) understood that his gnosis was bestowed upon him from the Divine Feminine.
In his allegorical book Herrman Hesse’s “The Journey to the East” searches for a mystical woman named Fatima. Given that this is the author of Siddhartha, one might suppose that the league represents a group of individuals in search of eastern mysticism. The book has clear spiritual overtones.
Sophia – Sufism’s goddess of wisdom
At the very core of Sufism there is a vision of the gnostic Sophia. The philosopher Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) saw a young girl in Mecca surrounded by light and realised that, for him, she was an incarnation of the divine Sophia. She is part of many mystical and religious currents and mentioned often by the psychoanalyst C.G. Jung.
- Torah/Old Testament: Sophia is the Greek word for wisdom which is a “she” who personifies integrity, honesty, clear perception, the power by which kings and princes rule, and the creative power present with Yahweh at creation. (see also C. G. Jung’s Answer to Job about the “anamnesis of Sophia” referring to the recollection of God of Wisdom.)
- Ancient Wisdom Goddesses: Isis as the “Black One.”
- Iranian Sufism: Sophia is Perfect Nature, the object of ecstatic ideation, which was described in an 11th century text as “the philosopher’s angel.” (Cf. H. Corbin, Man of Light in Iranian Sufism.)
- Gnosticism: Two Sophias, higher and lower: Ogdoad and Sophia Achamoth, the generative wisdom of the world. (Cf. also “The Thunder Perfect Mind” in Nag Hammadi Library.)
- Alchemy: Sapientia (Latin for Sophia, Wisdom). Moon, tree, ogdoad, alchemical salt. (Cf. Jung’s writings on alchemy.)
- Christian Black Madonnas in churches throughout Europe: may represent Sophia (often likened to Mary Magdalene) in exile, blackened by association with either the sun, solar principle, or the earth, as in alchemy, black earth.
- Western mystical /philosophical/ humanistic tradition: Dante, Boethius, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rudolph Steiner . . .
- Nietzsche: “Supposing truth is a woman . . .” (Beyond Good and Evil)
- Jungian psychology: anima development in male psychology; individuation concept.
Sophia (Greek for “wisdom”) comes from Hellenistic philosophy (Platonism) and is important in Gnosticism, Orthodox Christianity and Christian mysticism. Sophia is honored as a goddess of wisdom by Gnostics, as well as by some Neopagan, New Age, and feminist-inspired Goddess spirituality groups. In Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity, Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), is an expression of understanding for the second person of the Holy Trinity as seen in the Book of Proverbs 9:1, but not a goddess.
The earliest Gnostic forms of Sophia emphasized her power and influence on earth and in the human psyche. In the ancient text of Hypostasis of the Archons, found at Nag Hammadi, it is written that Sophia preexisted and gave birth to the male godhead. She chastises his arrogance when he says there is no other god before him. She claims her spiritual authority. She says “you are wrong, Samuel” (meaning Lord of the blind) and stretches forth her finger to send light into matter. She then follows the light down into the region of “Chaos.”
This power of Sophia within the earth realm was seen in early visions: “I am nature, the universal mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen of the immortals, My nod governs the shining heights of heaven, the wholesome sea breezes, the lamentable silences of the world below. I know the cycles of growth and decay.”
Certainly Sophia has been derived by the Great Mother(s) from whom all life arises and is sustained. The Great Mother was worshipped from 25,000 to 5,000 BC. Themes of the intertwining of nature and spirit, and the paradox of life and death are everywhere in images of the Great Feminine. Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi believed that women were the most potent icons of the sacred, because they inspired a love in men, which must ultimately be directed to God, the only true object of love. Ibn al-Arabi argued that humans have a duty to create theophanies for themselves, by means of the creative imagination that pierces the imperfect exterior of mundane reality and glimpses the divine within.
The faculty of imagination is commonly associated with the Divine Feminine. The Sufi poetry teaches the feminine qualities of joy, love, tenderness and self sacrifice on a path of true knowledge derived from the spiritual heart. The spiritual rebirth of the individual is not unlike the trial and tribulation of physical childbirth, according to the Sufis. They take the principle of divine love and use it to facilitate the process of alchemical transformation from mundane human to spiritual being. Sophia is the mystical companion, which belongs to no race or religion exclusivly: ‘My place is the placeless, my trace is the traceless. ‘Tis neither body, nor soul, for I belong to the Soul of the Beloved.’40 Certainly, the Divine Feminine is so marginalized in Islam, that one might be forgiven for believing it to be totally absent.Both Mary and Fatimah are reverenced within esoteric Islam, for they are both mothers of the Logos, the Word. Fatimah inherits the role of Spenta Armaiti, within Shi’ism, for she is the mother of a lineage of imams. She is seen as symbolic of the ‘supracelestial earth.’ She is considered to be the source of the imam’s wisdom because she is lawh mahfuz or ‘the hidden tablet; upon which God has written.’ One of her titles in Ismaeli Shi’ism is Fatimah Fatir, or Fatimah the Creator, which recalls the Sophia Ergane of Proverbs.The nature of both the Black Goddess and Sophia are brought out in Islam. The exoteric fulminations about women, so similar to those found in Christianity and Judaism are, of course, negative polarizations of the devouring Goddess, yet this exists side by side with the positive image of the Ka’ba, Islam’s Black Madonna, preserves the veiled tradition of Sufism.
The Peacock Angel and Sufi’s Iblis
Considered a mystery by Orientalists, the Cult of the Snake and Peacock in Iraq was founded on the teaching of a Sufi Sheikh, Adi, son of Musafir, in the twelfth century, although they date their origin back 6,000 years or more.The Yezidi faith is syncretic and combines elements of Judaism, Christianity, Sufism, Manichaeism and the Persian Zoroastrianism faith in parallel and selectively.
In Arabic, ‘Peacock’ also stands for ‘adornment’; while ‘Snake’ has the same letter-form as ‘organism’ and ‘life’. Hence the symbolism of the cryptic Peacock Angel Cult—the Yezidis—is a way of indicating ‘The Interior and the External’, traditional Sufi formula. The Cult has adherents in the West, but was largely unknown, before CNN put the spotlight on them, because of their recent persecution (together with the Christians).
In the Gnostic tradition (in which both Yezidi and Sufism have some roots), the Peacock Angel is analogous to the first son of the Goddess Sophia, who in the process of creating and governing the universe divided herself into seven rays or “sons.” Her seven sons were coeval with and governed one of the seven colors, tones, planets, etc. The peacock was the first form of the Supreme God and one of the Seven Great Angels, named Tawsi Melek or Melek Tawus (the Ildabaoth of the Gnostic’s).
However the Angel’ other name — Shaytan — means “devil” not only in Arabic, even in German Scheitan means Satan. Therefore Yezidi, have often seen as Devil worshippers, also through the manifestation the Peacock Angel as as a snake. This is analogous with the gnostic understanding of the Serpent on the Tree in the Garden of Eden – interpreted in Christianity as Satan. Furthermore, because to the connection to the Sufi Iblis tradition, some equate the Peacock Angel with their own unredeemed evil spirit Satan. Iblis is a supernatural being — either a fallen angel or a diabolical fiery creature known as a jinn. In his disobedience against God and his role as tempter of mankind, again resembling the rebellious Satan in the Christian tradition. In fact, they are more remnant of pre Christian religion: the peacock angel being the mysterious Phoenix. The picture above shows an aroused snake by the entrance to a Yezidee-temple. It is blackened by soot. Yezidees (today almost a million believers) think, that in the last judgement the devil will be reconciled with God, and even play an important role in the final judgement of man.
Mary – Sufism’s divine mother
Mary, mother of Christ, is regarded as the most marvelous of all women, a high adept and living example of the pure and holy life. Later commentaries describe Mary as an intervening force between God and humanity. When Muhammad retook Mecca, he removed many frescoes and images from Kaaba, that he considered inauspicious but he specifically left on the walls a fresco of the Virgin Mary and her child.
In one of the most powerful Hadiths ( prophetic sayings of Muhammad) it is reported that Muhammad said, “Paradise is at the feet of the Mother”. Muhammad was escorted by the archangel Gabriel (a masculine force) but the vehicle upon which he rode was the Buraq, a white horse with wings and the face of a woman, clearly suggesting a symbol Goddess or Divine Mother.
A Sufi Ode to the Divine Mother
On the face of the earth there is no one more beautiful than You
Wherever I go I wear your image in my heart
Whenever I fall in a despondent mood I remember your image
And my spirit rises a thousand fold
Your advent is the blossom time of the Universe
O Mother you have showered your choicest blessings upon me
Also remember me on the Day of Judgement
I don’t know if I will go to heaven or hell
But wherever I go, please always abide in me.
While Sophia has noteworthy archetypal qualities, she lacks in some of the most virtuous aspects. Within the areas they lack in virtue and morality, the Virgin Mary, who is from Christian religions, make up for them. The Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. Mary is not the wife of God though. She was chosen by God to give birth to Jesus. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). Mary represents everything good in the world. She has never been touched and is clean and pure. The Virgin Mary represents the woman that man wants. “She will conceive…a Son”. Mary is the subservient to man. She is not represented with any symbols, excepts for her pureness. She does not have any mystical powers, except for her conception of child without sex. The Virgin Mary is represented as a woman that has been graciously touched by God himself, and gives birth to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Yet she is still a “handmaid of the lord”(Luke 1:38). The church, the creator of this story, was apparently concerned with the idolization of the Virgin Mary and wrote:
God came down from heaven, the Word clothed Himself with flesh from a holy Virgin, not, assuredly, that the Virgin should be adored, nor to make her God, nor that we should offer sacrifice to her name, nor that, now after so many generations, women should once again be appointed priests…Let no one adore Mary. (Epiphanius 49)
Here we can see man coming into the monotheism, where Christian belief is today. The Virgin Mary does represent a mother archetype, although it is not as prevalent as Demeter and Isis. Mary’s character is more housed, in a way that can be controlled and can be put into guidelines. Just as times before, man wants what he can not have. In Mary’s case, the forever virgin.
Man needs to realize that men and women are different, and each has wonderful traits. Though many of these archetypes are brought on by the unconscious mind, which is the portion of one’s psyche which is outside of awareness, those thoughts should be left at the realization that they are thoughts. These goddess or mother archetypes are brought into our societies to teach man and woman the values in each other. To restore balance in one’s lives. Demeter, she helped to explain strange occurrences in Greece as well as reveal the importance of woman’s traits to give life. Isis, she kept the Egyptian nation strong and united during her reign by being everything at once. Mary, she has had mercy brought into the Christian beliefs against the sometimes stern male God. All three characters are important throughout history, and have managed to keep their legends alive.
Conclusion
The West is, as Herrman Hesses wrote 1920 in “The Longing of Our Time for a Worldview”. We, in the West, “understand” Sufism, like the group of blind men (or men in the dark) who touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one feels a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare notes and learn that they are in complete disagreement. Some see Sufism as Neo-platonic, some connected with Manicheanism, some see Sufism as heretic Christianity and others as Persian sect (the latter three all may be interpreted as Gnosticism). To me, Idries Shah’s presentation of Sufism as a form of timeless wisdom, that predated Islam makes sense. Sufis are connected with sacred sex and the movement of troubadours; quite a few important Sufi scholars were women. Sufism has often called the concept and denomination to love. Clearly the role of the Divine Feminine, its principle has been described and explored at length in the tradition of Sufism. Sufism emphasizes passionate, mystical and individual adoration of God. Many Sufis (and other mystics in other religions) seek a spiritual union between themselves and the divine principle not unlike that between a child (the Sufi) and his mother (God) or a bride (Sufi) and the husband (God).
Bibliography
- Idries Shah The Sufis 1964, Translated 1980 „Die Sufis“, Diederich’s Gelbe Reihe
- West-östlicher Divan. In: Project Gutenberg.
- Philip Jenkins Baylor University, History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — and How It Died
- “The Other God”. Yuri Soyanov, Yale University Press, 2000
- neo-sufism-the-case-of-idries-shah-reprint
- Women and Sufism, by Camille Adams Helminski
- Ibn ‘Arabi, SELECTED POEMS
- KABIR HELMINSKI, THE POCKET RUMI 2011 Shambhala Publication
- Mystische Dimensionen des Islam, Annemarie Simmel 3rd Edition, Munich 1995
- CW9(i) = Jung, C.G. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol.9, Part I, The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious Zürich 1951, Rascher
- CW9(ii) = Jung, C.G. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol.9, Part II, Aion Zürich 1951, Rascher
- Jacobi, J. The Psychology of C.G. Jung. Zürich 1961
- Jung, C.G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections, London: Harper Collins, 1995, PG213.
- The Yezidis http://www.yeziditruth.org/
Appendix
I encountered this fairly good paper and Hesses essay after I finished my article, which also investigated the fact that spiritual Sufi training is very similar to the process of Individuation.
Spiritual Sufi Training is a Process of Individuation Leading Into the Infinite
This paper was presented to the VIII International Conference of the International Transpersonal Association at Davos, Switzerland, Sept 1st, 1983, by Irina Tweedie
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