“Faust I”, the Germans’ favorite drama is about a scholar who wants the impossible, who wants to know what keeps the world together at heart. Goethe’s Faust failed on this worldly question, which ultimately leads either straight to Augustine’s heaven or Dante’s hell. Therefore Faust needed and accepted diabolical assistance. But what keeps the world together is also a fundamental question of today’s particle physics. The essay approaches Faust’s complex question from philosophy, depth psychology, religion and science. Many suggestions and thoughts derived from a monastery-retreat with that title and C.G. Jung, who was aware and fond of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
To enlighten me more,
What Holds the world together at its innermost core
All this potency and seed I shall see,
And stop peddling in words that mean nothing to me.
Daß ich erkenne, was die Welt
Im Innersten zusammenhält,
Schau alle Wirkenskraft und Samen,
Und tu nicht mehr in Worten kramen.
Faust’s path leads from science to magic from humanistic enlightenment to liberal entrepreneurship, from Troy’s Helena to artificial intelligence ultimately to Christianity. Mephisto is not an archetype, but a very personal and likable devil, partly spirit of good and action, partly evil. Faust II and especially Faust I contains the classic devil’s pact (Teufelsbund) motive.
Faust embodies that human curiosity that was the moving principle of modern Enlightenment. Mephisto teaches the magic of FIAT money creation, through which capitalism became a dominant force. That “spirit” is emancipating itself from ecclesiastical institutions, which exposes the internal corruption – in Faust II – by power and money.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe worked extensively on Faust for more than 60 years. Between 1773 and 1775, in the area of enlightenment and four years shy of the French revolution, the Urfaust was born.
TimeLine of Faust Genesis
In 1808 the first part of the Faust tragedy appeared during the German Classic period and German Romanticism. Historically this is the Napoleonic era, which begins roughly 1799 with Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup d’état. Napoleon’s armies soon conquered the Iberian and Italian peninsulas, occupied lands, forced feudal Austria, Prussia, and Russia to ally with him and respect French hegemony in Europe until the Battle of Waterloo 1815. The Congress of Vienna quickly restored Europe to pre-French Revolution days, restore Feudalism that is to say.
“Faust II” was written in 1825 until the summer of 1831, was published in 1832 (a few months after Goethe’s death) and was a continuation of “Faust I” but integrated the classical Helena part, written long before. The second part of the tragedy, however, differs markedly in its narrative structure and style from its predecessor. In the first part, the play deals exclusively with the tormented soul of Faust (inner world). In the second part, Goethe places the figure of the scholar in a historical, cultural and political context of 19th century, at the time of the beginning capitalism (outer world) .
Synopsis Faust I and II
Faust I
Who is more likable
Goethe’s “Faust – The First Tragedy” contains many elements of a tragedy, and can be divided into three parts: Exposition (“Prologue in Heaven” and the “prelude to the theater”), Scholar tragedy (Devil pact) and Gretchen tragedy. So Mephisto will try again and again to pull Faust into nothing and yet fail in the last. The sparks of good will always strike from magic, from the destructive, that is, from the evil intended and affected by Mephisto. Faust, after the conclusion of pact and bet, renounces “knowledge” in favor of “sensuality,” the secluded scholarly existence. After rejuvenation in the “witch’s kitchen” begins the love drama. But sexual desire creates the mystery of the love of Faust and Gretchen, which Mephisto cannot destroy. Mephisto does manage to pull Faust and Gretchen down into the criminal (death of the mother and Valentine, Gretchen’s infanticide, Gretchen’s death). At the end of Faust I, four tragic deaths have occurred.
Faust II
Faust I kills Grete’s Brother
On the other hand, “Faust – the tragedy of the second part” corresponds in its formal structure to the dramatic poetics of Aristotle and the classical German drama: in five acts Goethe designs the story of his protagonist. But the strict five-act structure is only the outer framework. A series of sometimes confusing acts that tell self-contained stories, as well as interludes, mythical scenes with ancient figures and different stages of time through which Faust lives, complicate the overall understanding. It begins with Goethe’s outrageous idea of having Faust awaken on the classical soil. Faust is now brought back to his former study, the student scene repeats itself with exchanged omens: now the “old man” Mephisto is cornered by the advancing Baccalaureate Studiosus. Wagner, as a kind of Prometheus caricature, seeks to fabricate a human being from the retort, which is indicative of the hubris of a technical science. Faust becomes an entrepreneur, again fails morally but ultimately goes to heaven. Not because he was good, but at least endeavored.
The inner world – C.G. Jung’s view
The anima / animus theme
Faust I u Grete II
The Faust in the first part is in a serious life crisis because he despairs on the borders of traditional science. He makes a pact with the devil to help him. If that succeeds, Faust must leave devil his soul as a reward.
Something ostensibly has C.G. Jung with his lecture ‘Faust and Alchemy’ [2] given the alchemical reference and also on the anima/animus theme – especially to scholars this has spoken extensively. Many such Jungian papers say more about the imagination than about the ‘Faus’ and seem to have emerged without any involvement with the many other interpretations of Faust.
The Gnostic C.G. Jung is fascinated by the neutral evaluation of sin as inner preparation and the role of evil in the salvation of men in Goethe’s Faust. As in Luke’s Gospel, sinners are especially soft-painted (Luke 11:37). Also, the meaning of the individual figures and the events of the Faust tragedy can – symbolically – be understood as (failed) individuation process.
Faust I kills Grete’s Brother
Mephisto quickly leads the lonely housemaid in Faust I to erotic ways; Faus promptly falls in love with Margarete (Gretchen), his anima, who admires him, the scholar. The catastrophe takes its course: she kills unknowingly her mother with Mephisto’s “sleeping aid”, becomes pregnant by Faust; he stabs her brother Valentin, who wants to take revenge on the scholar. Margarete finally murdered her (and his) child. The court condemns them to death, but at the end of the tragedy, God saves their soul. Faust, together with the devil, seeks his shadow and wakes up in the second part of the tragedy from a healing sleep. A series of evil – four dead bodies- on Faust’s account still lead at least for Gretchen to salvation.
Augustine’s heaven or after Dante’s hell?
Mephisto and God – Evil and Good
The nullity of evil comes from Augustine because God could not and should not be thought of as the author of evil. The entire proof of the nullity of evil is thus directed against the Gnostic (Manichaeism) dualism. Augustine, at an early stage of his intellectual development, was a follower of the Manichaean sect, a Gnostic religion founded in the third century AD by the Syrian Mani. But since Augustine, with Neo-Platonism against the Manichaean concept, emphasizes the ontological vanity of evil, he must find another explanation for the obvious malum in the world. His answer: Man, by removing himself from the good, and willingly. Although this relieves God of the responsibility for moral evil, man now carries it himself, since he has the freedom to act morally evil. In the course of the development and execution of his theory, Augustine
establishes this “evil will” (to which man freely decides) by means of original sin, which makes him a priori rejected, who can only be redeemed by the grace of God.
RENNES-LE-CHATEAU Church Devil
This contradicts C.G. Jung, he even felt “recognized” in Goethe’s Faust, for in the division Faust / Mephisto he found his inner discord described: “It poured like a miracle balm into my soul. Finally a human being, I thought, taking the devil seriously and even concluding a blood pact with the adversary … Finally, I had found confirmation that there were or had been people who saw the evil and its global power and more that is, the mysterious role it plays in the salvation of people from darkness and suffering. To that extent Goethe became a prophet to me … “[3.65-66].
The Enlightenment, especially some French enlighteners and German Romantics, were, however, convinced that man is good by nature. Of course, Rousseau, an opponent of Voltaire, meant it requires their re-education so that they accept virtuous, peaceful and happy the common good as a will of their own. In this context, C.G. Jung fit Goethe’s Faust in his Gnostic worldview;
“Faust triggered a resonance in me and hit me in a way I could not understand otherwise than personally. Above all, it was the problem of the opposites of good and evil, of spirit and matter, of light and dark that touched me deeply. My inner contradictions appeared dramatized here. In a way, Goethe gave a basic drawing and a scheme of my own conflicts and solutions. The division Faust – Mephisto drew me together in a single human being, and that was me. In other words, I was affected and felt recognized, and since it was my destiny, all the peripetia of the drama affected me as well “[3,238-239].
Exactly the good, as well as the evil, was invested by Goethe as two individuals. For Faust, this Manichaean conception means in the (unchristian) consequence that man is not wholly responsible for his evil actions. Goethe’s answer is of his time, that of enlightenment and romanticism “omne bonum ab homini” or, as Kant says, at least his inclination to do good.
C. G. Jung’s point of view about the “summum bonum” and negation of man as “omne malum ab homini” is an idiosyncratic synthesis of Gnosticism and Augustine of Hippo. It seems that C.G. Jung recognizes a theodicy in Goethe’s Faust, a Christianity in need to add to his own always more theses (theory of the will, the theology of the original sin) and in fact arrives at the very dualistic model it denied.
The Red book: Jung, Salome, Elijah
In the chapter about life after death in [3] C.G. Jung touches the famous final scene of Faust II (3,312), not only because Jung resumes the Septem Sermones ad mortuos here (3, 310 f.), but also because he also outlines a vision of life purpose that is probably his own and his vision of a successful individuation: “The unconscious wholeness appears as the actual spiritus rector of all biological and psychic events. […] Consciousness is a culture in the broadest sense, and self-knowledge, therefore, the essence and heart of this process.” (3,327).
What Jung describes here defines precisely the psychological dynamics that he also illustrates in his Red Book: Like [all do-gooders], [the spiritual deaf] will fall victim to unconsciousness. On the contrary, the aim of man would be to become aware of transcendence pressing from the unconscious, in order to become authentic [and good].
The mystic world – Faust as an alchemist
The Lapis (Alchemy) Quaternia
Alchemy did not appear to be consistent in the early modern period. A distinction should, therefore, be made between the “Alchemia transmutatoria”, the art of metal transformation, as found, for example, in the alchemistic “Florilegium Rosarium phosphonium”, the “Alchemia medica” which tried Medicines against diseases produce and last but not least the “Alchemia mystica”, which tried to reconcile “mystical-Christological elements with science”. The origin of the Alchemiet, which can certainly be regarded as a precursor of modern chemistry was classical Greece, Hellenistic Egypt. The ‘philosophers’ of medieval alchemy: seem to have called, based on the sweeping, Egyptian’ enthusiasm, on the mysteries and revelations of the Nile: the God Thoth, later the Greek Hermes, originally a magic demon, equated with the hermetic writings ascribed to him as the oldest authority,
Walpurgisnacht
In this context, natural-philosophical aspects lay the foundations, on which Goethe created a being that is without any precedent in literature. Paracelsus and his natural philosophy are regarded as the source and model for Goethe’s Homunculus, so here too a historical basis must be created. Above all, it is Goethe’s scientific knowledge, which is important in terms of decoding the homunculus, without forgetting the alchemical origin or wanting to interpret the homunculus purely biologically.
In the words of Wagner that describe so aptly what happens in the laboratory scene, because “it is made a man”. The creation of a human being is less reminiscent of the creation myth than of modern genetic engineering and of today’s reproductive medicine and the Artificial Intelligence under development.
In Faust II, Goethe presents himself as a “progress-oriented poet” who deals with “forward-looking topics and visions”. Unlike to the first part of Faustus, which presents a homogeneous unity of persons and action, the second part breaks down into broadly unfolded individual scenes, in which the abundance of symbols present the fast üacing time.
Political utopias and its nasty realities
Faust meets Grete in prison
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe undertakes in Faust II the daring attempt to guide his protagonist through the history and myths of the Medival Ages to the upheavals of the Enlightenment, right up to his own time the begin of capitalism and entrepreneurs. In his period, there were a number of significant political and social upheavals and changes, to which Goethe refers to his work. Above all, the disintegration of the feudal late medieval society in the transition to entrepreneurship with the current monetary system and the French Revolution with Rousseau’s totalitarian utopia and restoration represent central themes in “Faust II”.
This period is based on an important feature of the Enlightenment: man is portrayed as something good. The most important content-related features of the classical period are: harmony, self-determination, humanity and tolerance, beauty and the French Revolution were influential. In the French Revolution, people advocated that the same rights should apply to all. But the success achieved with the Declaration of Civil and Human Rights did not last long. During the reign of Robespierre, people went through a time of terror and terror. It was not until 1795, after Robespierre was overthrown, that there was a transitional government. This held until four years later, Napoleon came to power and in 1804 even became emperor. He stood after this troubled time for (not feudal) order and security – and for wars and oppression. Meanwhile, significant reforms were initiated in Prussia to liberate and educate the population. At the Battle of Waterloo (1815) Napoleon’s reign ended with his defeat. In the same year, the reorganization of Europe was sealed in the Congress of Vienna, which provided a restoration of the old order before Napoleon’s reign.
Still, there is a lot of utopia and criticism of the capitalism felt in the second part of Faust. Or no? Faust dies in anticipation of the fulfillment of his utopia of creating an earthly paradise in which many people can live in a “free country in freedom”. This promised paradise on earth became in the 20th century several times and inevitably hell on earth. Faust indulges in materialism and loses his bet and therefore his soul to the devil. He still focuses his gaze on the here and now, not the hereafter. The megalomania of an ideology destroyed Faust. But still, the angels wrest the prey from the devil. They raise Faust to heaven because they have always endeavored – to do good things according to the Calvinistic work ethics which was the core of the industrial revolution. Goethe only gives us the subtle, but inconclusive hint.
During the mentioned weekend retreat we approached Faust’s question from the angle of science and philosophy. A monk and priest with a somewhat fitting Faustian cv, who had worked for 12 years in his former profession as particle physicist gave lectures and moderated the discussion.
Science and Religion
Quarks and leptons keep the world together
Credits Contemporary Physic Education Project
Science has come a long way to answer basic questions. What does matter consist of? How is the universe structured? How did it come about? What is the nature of space and time on both a large and a small scale? What is the role of humans and the earth in the cosmos?
For this purpose, the basic components of visible matter, the quarks and leptons and the most important composite particles are named in the standard model. Of course, this is not (yet) a philosophical outline of the meaning and universality of our laws of nature throughout the universe. The standard model is a hugely successful theory of fundamental particles and how they interact. It incorporated all that was known about subatomic particles today and successfully predicted the existence of additional particles as well. There are seventeen named particles in the standard model, organized into the chart shown above. The last particles discovered were the W and Z bosons in 1983, the top quark in 1995, the tau neutrino in 2000, and the Higgs boson in 2012.
The fine tuned universe and the anthropic principle
The Fined Tuned Universe
The peculiarity of our theories, however, goes even further. If the values of many constants of nature were only slightly different, life in space would hardly be possible. For example, the stable ground state of carbon, without it, there would be no heavy elements that allow for complex chemistry, and correspondingly no life. So our existence depends on the thread. Points such a coincidence to intelligent design?
There are some physicists and philosophers who deny this question and refer to the so-called anthropic principle: in its weak version, it simply says that the very fact that we exist answers why the universe must be such that it exists can.
Some are not very satisfied with this form of the anthropic principle because, strictly speaking, it nevertheless does not explain why our universe is now exactly as it is. String theory has a more sophisticated to muddle the water. It assumes that we live in a multiverse that hosts a multitude of universes. All of these universes have different properties, different values of the natural constants. Ironically particle physics arrived at a level of speculation that cannot be falsified in the Popperian sense. Structurally, we are no longer so far from religion, which likes to say that you can not prove the non-existence of a god. If empirical data becomes too scarce, the problem of underdetermination of theories is means, we can no longer decide on the basis of empirical evidence how to interpret the data, but we can only believe. Or not.
Of course, sub determination is not limited to astrophysics but occurs in all sciences. However, astrophysics and particle physics might support (but not answer) philosophical questions, because they are dealing with the unimaginable vastness of the cosmos and creation – and this borders to traditional cosmology.
I like the approach of the legendary String Theory developer Leonard Susskind, who wrote 2006: “Let me be up front and state my prejudices right here. I thoroughly believe that real science requires explanations that do not involve supernatural agents… Evidence has been accumulating for an explanation of the ‘illusion of intelligent design’ that depends only on the principles of physics, mathematics, and the laws of large numbers. This is what ‘The Cosmic Landscape’ is about: the scientific explanation of the apparent miracles of physics a cosmology and its philosophical implications.” ( [4] Pg. xi)
He continues, “On one side are the people who are convinced that the world must have been created or designed by an intelligent agent with a benevolent purpose. On the other side are the hard-nosed, scientific types who feel certain that the universe is the product of impersonal, disinterested laws of physics, mathematics, and probability—a world without a purpose… By the first group… I am talking about thoughtful, intelligent people who look around at the world and have a hard time believing that it was just dumb luck that made the world so accommodating to human beings.”( [4] Pg. xi)
It is, therefore, unwise when gifted astrophysicists overreach their philosophical expertise and make theological claims likeGod did not create the universe. Nor hold theistic arguments any weight in science.
[2] Faust und die Alchemie. Von JUNG, Carl Gustav: Vortrag im Psychologischen Club, Zürich, vom 8. Oktober 1949. Sowie DIENER, Gottfried: Fausts Weg zu Helena. Urphänomen und Achetypus. Darstellung und Deutung einer symbolischen Szenenfolge aus Goethes Faust. Stuttgart 1961, S. 249.
[5] Goethe als Alchemist. Von Gustav F. Hartlaub (Heidelberg). Euphorion : Zeitschrift für Literaturgeschichte 3. Folge, 48 (1954), S. 19-40
[6] KOSTRETSKA, Antonia: Der künstliche Mensch. Vergleich auf der Grundlage der Texte von Goethe, Shelley und Bulgakow. München 2011.
[7] ARENS, Hans: Kommentar zu Goethes Faust II. Heidelberg 1989. (Beiträge zur neueren Literaturgeschichte, Folge 3, 86)
[8] Vgl. u.a. HARTLAUB, Gustav Friedrich: Der Stein der Weisen. Wesen und Bilderwelt der Alchemie. (Bibliothek des Germanischen Nationalmuseums Nürnberg zur deutschen Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte, Band 11, Bilder aus deutscher Vergangenheit). München 1959.
Last weekend I checked in for a three-day time-out at my local monastery to prepare for Christmas. The countdown to Christmas is on and for many, the Advent season is one of the most beautiful in the year. But! Have we ever realized, that this story with Mary and Joseph and birth of the Messiah was Matthew actually worth one single verse? Pope Benedict, in a speech in Freiburg during his 2011 apostolic journey to Germany, recommended a “profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness” (Entweltlichung) so that the Church becomes a more credible witness and regains her spiritual role. To me ‘Entweltlichung‘ sums up the central theme of the three-day retreat and its topic, the Gospel of John nicely.
Rudolf Bultmann claims in his Theology of the new testament a closer similarity with the Gnostic myth of redemption. There is no nativity scene in the Gospel, no shepherds or three Kings/Magi can be found. John packs the birth of Jesus in a single verse, which has become famous (John 1:14): “And the Word (Logos) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have looked at his glory, a glory as a native of the Father, full of grace and truth”. Mentioned only briefly, it comes with infinite knowledge and reflection.
Psychology was a major vehicle for revisiting Gnostic thoughts in the last century. Carl Gustav Jung, especially in his early years drawn to mysticism, wrote extensively on ancient Gnostic thinkers and mythology in works like Seven Sermons to the Dead (1916). As I wrote earlier about the psychoanalytic interpretation of the Gospel of John: the usage of the Gnostic „trademark “Logos”, was immediately interpreted by C.G. Jung as “Nous” or Sophie. In his book “Answer to Job”. Jung describes Sophie (Wisdom) as the wife of Yahweh, a good “co-author” of this demiurge, the creator of the material world. Indeed the Greek word “Logos” has a strong philosophical background and is a term for a principle of order and knowledge, “reason”, “proportion”. However, as we will see, the author of the Gospel develops a new Christian counter-cosmology – and “Cosmos” is the word for order (opposite term of “Chaos“).
Anyway, during the monastery retreat, we wanted to understand the Christmas story presented by the Gospel of John. Let’s take a closer look at what this really means to us. Note: for the reader in a hurry a short presentation is included later in this article.
Christian Cosmology
Orion and Light
The author has dealt much more than the other three evangelists with a doctrine that young Christianity fought as a heresy: the so-called gnosis (Greek: knowledge). It may be said that if this doctrine had prevailed, Christianity would have quickly disappeared. The author of the Gospel of John began to grapple with Gnostic cosmology – to develop his own.
From a Gnostic point of view, the cosmos was divided into a realm of the material and a heavenly world of light. The soul of man was a splinter of light trapped on earth in the body of the human. The world as the power of darkness watched over the soul in the prison of matter forgetting its heavenly home.
Knowledge – gnosis – was the way to salvation, the remembrance of one’s own origin from the light. Jesus was seen in this context as a teacher of light – as one who reminds people of their true spirituality: “The real world is not just a stranger to man, but a prison, a dark, stinking cave into which he is thrown. ” Man is filled with “loneliness”, “terrible fear” of the noise and cunning of the world and its demonic powers. All life executions appear as “poisoned, demonically infected”. The God of Gnosticism was hostile to life and the world, unable to love and suffer, and above all, unwilling to maim with creation. God is radically non-world, and man can only despise his life, the world, and the people’s activities as outward appearances. The world is evil because the world it was created by evil powers. Another clear distinction is, while a Gnostic will speak of Satan as the God of this world, an apocalyptist will speak of Satan as the god of the present age. To Christians the world is not imperfectly created by a Demiurge, but comes from God. This creation is good – but with the freedom of man to worsen it.
1760 the Coptic text “Pistis Sophia” (Faith-Wisdom, or Faith of Wisdom), an allegorical account of the conception of the world of the Gnostics, was purchased by the British Museum and 1851 translated into Latin and Greek.G.R.S. Mead, the great popularizer of forgotten heresies, who made “The Gnostic John the Baptist (John the Baptist the Gnostic)” known as hidden gospels, described Pistis Sophia as a Gnostic gospel. The Pistis Sophia, mentioned Stephan A. Hoeller and Phillip Jenkins “Le Jésus des sectes”, begins with an allegory of the death and resurrection of Christ, which at the same time describes the ascension and descent of the soul – the promise of a two-way street for us.
Gnostic cosmology as presented in the “Pistis Sophia, is enumerating 32 carnal desires that must be overcome in order to attain salvation. Seven deadly sins, also known as cardinal sins, must be overcome in order to attain salvation, according to Christian teachings. This is the Gospel, the good message, which has freed people like the Apostle Paul to leave everything behind, to re-think God, and to bring these thoughts into the world.
The key to the Gospel of John, in any way we approach it, is provided by the 17-verse hymnodic prologue. Those poetic words are a kind of hostile takeover of the Gnostic doctrine and manifest the birth of a Christian cosmology. The dualistic worldview – light beings here, stinking matter there – is opposed to a thoroughly positive cosmology of creation: “In the Word was life, and life was the light of man.” For John, language becomes a mystical gateway between the world of God and that of man. His view seems similar to another critic of Gnosticism, Plotin, who in his notion of the means by which man is to become divine. The Gospel of John makes the natural appeal to Christ as the only son of God, while also rejecting the notion of a completely unknowable first god of the Gnostics.
Redemption myth
Between completorium and laudes matutinae… Light cannot be seen without darkness.
The conceptual world in which John moves is completely different from that of the Synoptic Gospels. It is almost always characterized by dualistic opposites: “light and darkness”, “lies and truth,” “above and below,” “father and son,” the “God-distant” cosmos, and the “Messenger and Revealer of God”. What is peculiar are the concepts that describe salvation: “life-water”, “bread of life”, “light of the world”: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God, all things became by the Word, and without the Word nothing became that which has become.” Words full of poetic, enigmatic beauty.
Essentially, the gospel follows the Gnostic redemption myth with one decisive exception – the Redeemer himself became man: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, a glory as the only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth “.
To Gnosticism however, Jesus’ suffering was understood only as appearance, for that inner spark of light is well-caught, but essentially untouchable. Light does not suffer; it only shines. Thus, in the Gnostic view, the cross of Christ was only in the realm of matter. Christianity would have become a completely different religion if the Gnostic’s had prevailed. That God really became man, that he really suffers in and at his creation, that he does not abandon it, but accompanies it as a place of blessing and his dawning reign of God – all this was (and is today) at stake in this conflict.
John counters Gnosticism sharply with this unique feature – a unique selling proposition in the market of religious beliefs: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Instead: The word was trapped in the flesh and lived only for appearance among us.
Instead: In a heresy, that later became the basis of ideologies disguised as religion, which degrades Jesus only as prophet and human being.
This is not just theological theory – this approach uniquely shapes concepts and language of John. Furthermore, this Gospel clearly and early defines Christianity, for which the ‘Jesus Wars‘ needed seven Councils, from the First of Nicaea (325) to the Second Council of Nicaea (787) and few centuries to settle.
Gospel of John – Ego Emi
Language unfolds in John like a fan: a word denotes a thing and something else; Concepts suddenly shine with meaning and ambiguity. Words matter in politics. Words do matter, of course, also in religious texts. The author of the Gospel of John was even better in Greek than the author of the Gospel of Luke and in his playful use of Greek, one can find also humor. Many crucial words in the author of the Gospel of John uses have in the Greek a double meaning. On the other hand, the messianic claim is made crystal clear with the unprecedented power of ego Emi (I Am) and delivers, at the same time, a poetic density unique in the New Testament.
There are only seven miracles – signs listed in John, but each tells us very special things we need to know about Jesus:
Changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana (Jn 2:1-11);
Healing the royal official’s son (Jn 4:46-54);
Healing the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem (Jn 5:1-15);
Feeding the 5,000 (Jn 6:5-14);
Walking on water (Jn 6:16-21);
Healing the man born blind (Jn 9:1-7);
Raising Lazarus from the dead (Jn 11:1-45).
The seven “I am” words of Jesus are words full of theological force in which Jesus identifies his person with the abstract symbols of the seven signs (miracles):
I am the bread of life
I am the light of the world
I am the gate of the sheep
I am the good shepherd
I am the resurrection and the life
I am the truth and the life
I am the true vine stock
In such passages, it becomes clear time and again that the whole world, life, every detail and every life is something like an abstraction and a symbol of higher things. The outside of the world reflects the sky; you just have to look or listen, because all that is hidden in the language, in the word that is of divine origin to John and whose reflection fills every human word with spirit. Crucial is: salvation and knowledge of God are not special matters for initiated Pneumatics, but the Incarnation of Jesus shows a two-way street for all the people on.
Theological features
The Gospel of John is the most demanding of the Gospels. The language of Jesus is also very different in the Gospel of John than in the synoptic tradition. The author dealt with a doctrine dangerous to Christianity: the Gnostics. The Gospel of John differs considerably from the Synoptic Gospels, localities and temporal, as well as linguistic and content wise. The gospel is characterized by speeches of Jesus; Jesus’ acts serve either as a reason for his speeches or are incorporated into larger scenes with dialogues and speeches. The text shows clear traces of a prolonged growth process. For instance, it is widely undisputed, that John Chapter 21 is the addendum of an editorial board. The gospel is framed by the prologue and the remark about the purpose of the gospel.
Most of what Jesus in this Gospel says, can be found neither in the Gospel of Mark nor in Luke nor in Matthew. It is likely that the author of John’s Gospel knew the Gospel of Mark and Luke, but used his “sources” completely free. The theological profile identifies him as an author who considers the efficacy of Jesus at a considerable interval and with a high level of reflection. He could hardly belong to the generation of the disciples, since the author intensively uses traditions whose origins are to be found in Hellenistic Judaism. He himself may have been Jewish Christian.
The Christology of John’s Gospel shows similarities to pagan or Jewish gnosis and the writings of the Qumran community. The Gnosis (Greek: “knowledge”) was a religious-dualistic stream, which took Christianity, especially in the 2nd century. Gnosis described a world (as a result of a primeval case), people (who are connected to God through a spark of divine spirit), and salvation (through radical rejection of the here and the belief in the inalienable divinity of man). One may suspect the spiritual ground of John’s gospel in the imaginative world of Jewish gnosis and the ideas of the Qumran community (a Jewish sect in the second century BC to AD 68). Until the discovery of the Library of Nag Hammadi in 1945, Irenaeus’ [Against Heresies] was the best-surviving description of the Gnostics. The discovery of their Dead Sea Scrolls in the remote Judean Desert cave was not only the greatest archaeological event of the twentieth century but gave rise to new interpretations of the Gospels. The legacy of the Qumran community was found in abundance in those Qumran scrolls. Apparently, John used the language of Gnosticism to show that Jesus was the true religion of all Gentiles.
Background and Structure
The tradition of the Church has for while proclaimed John, the son of Zebedee and “gentleman of the gentleman, who was also at his [Jesus’] breast,” the author of the Gospel. (For example, Irenaeus 115-202, Bishop of Lyons) There are, however, numerous arguments against this, such as the Gnostic language of the Gospel and some interconnections with the Gospel of Mark. The author of the Gospel of John remains unknown to us. Possible discussed variants for the origin of the Johannes are Asia Minor (especially Ephesus) and Syria. From this area, also the authors of the letters of John and the New Testament apocalypse may have originated. The presupposed discussion about the Christological confession, the literary character of John and the oldest manuscript tradition suggest a genesis of the final version of John at the beginning of the 2nd century (c.100-110).
The origin of the Johannes community may be found in the Jewish Christian milieu but in its final form, John is certainly destined for a Gentile Christian community. At the time of writing the gospel is the new, changed conflict situation. At the time of writing the gospel is the new, changed conflict situation. Apparently, in the church, Christians have appeared who denied the salvific meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (Docetists).
The prologue
The author opens his gospel with a hymn to the pre-existent logos (Jesus / logos = word). In the final verse of the hymn (1: 14-18), the Logos is identified with the Son of God. In him, the Logos became flesh and worked on earth (1:14 paradoxical linking of “flesh” as a synonym for the earthly weakness of man and “glory”). Only the logo has direct access to God. People are dependent on his revelation and interpretation of God (1:18).
The Baptist, the first disciples
The main interest here lies in the relationship determination Jesus-Baptist. The Baptist expressly emphasizes that he is not the Messiah (1:20), but the subordinate forerunner of the coming. The first two disciples of Jesus come from within the circle of the Baptist. Three more discipleship calls follow.
The revelation of Jesus before “the world”
In the first half of his Gospel, John records the public activity of Jesus. This begins with the wine miracle at the wedding in Cana (2,1-12). The purification of the temple (2: 13-25) is at the beginning of John’s activity in John. In the end, the miracle is called a “sign” (semeion). This term plays a very important role understanding Jesus’ deeds in the Gospel of John.
In the discourse of Jesus, which grows out of the conversation with Nicodemus (3: 1-21), essential underpinnings of John’s theology are unfolded. In the mission of the Son, God’s love turns to the world. The attitude of the people to the son (faith/unbelief) decides here and now about their fate (present eschatology).
God must be worshiped “in spirit and in truth” (4:24). God as the Father has given Jesus, as the Son, the authority to bring life to life (5:21).
In chapter 6 the sovereignty of Jesus is strongly emphasized (6,6) and the final attempt to make him king is not found among the Synoptic. Ultimately, however, the feeding miracle serves as the occasion for the opening speech on the bread of life. In the words of Jesus, a dispute is kindled among the disciples. But just among the faithful, Judas is the traitor.
Jesus announces his return to the Father in enigmatic words (7:33) and speaks of the gift of the Holy Ghost (7: 37f.).
In two short words of revelation, Jesus speaks of the veracity of his testimony. He is the light of the world (8:12). Afterwards, a sharp controversy between Jesus and Jews (!) evolves. Who believe in him is ignited (8: 31-59). Since they have not really accepted the deliverance of the Son, they are called sons of the devil (8:44). Jesus is greater than Abraham because he gives eternal life and was rather than this (pre-existence).
Jesus expressly opposes the traditional idea of sin (9,3). In the talk of the Good Shepherd, Jesus turns against the Pharisees and compares them to thieves, robbers, and hirelings. Jesus, on the other hand, gives his life for the sheep. At the temple there is a renewed confrontation with the Jews. In this context, the core the Gospel of John appears: “I and the Father are one.” (10:30).
The resurrection of Lazarus leads to the death of the High Council (11: 1-57). The resurrection is a sign of the mission of Jesus from God (11:42). In conversation with Marta, Jesus deals with the traditional hope of resurrection. Jesus is the resurrection and the life (11:25).
After the anointing in Bethany (12: 1-11), Jesus enters Jerusalem (12: 12-50) and the hour of glory has come. “Exaltation” and “glorification” are the concepts for the crucifixion of Jesus, which is interpreted as the victory of Jesus. After the verdict on the unbelief of the Jews (fulfillment of Isa. 6:10), Jesus, at the end of his public activity, calls for the decision of the saving faith once more.
The revelation of Jesus before “his own”
The scene of the last meal has been extended by the author of John for a long farewell speech of Jesus. For this the Lord’s Supper is missing.
In the centre of the first discourse (13.31-14.31) is the I-am-word in 14.6 (Jesus is way, truth and life). His departure is to be understood positively by the disciples.
In the second section (15:1-16:4a) the love commandment (13:34f.) and the consolation for situations of persecution take the center stage. The third part of the speech (16: 4b-24) announces again the mission of the Paraclete, who will convict the world (16:8). But he will lead the disciples “into the whole truth” (16:13). In the end, the theme of the mourning of the disciples about the departure of Jesus is again the theme, which will turn into joy (16:22)
The “high priestly prayer” of Jesus (17:1-26) completes the meal. Jesus gives account to the Father, asking for the sanctification of the disciples in the world and all believers.
The exaltation and glorification of the Revealer
Even the arrest scene shows that the author of John emphasizes even in the Passion the sovereignty of Jesus story to the utmost. The trial before Pilate describes masterfully the tearing of the earthly judge between the parties.
The solemn testimony in 19:35 emphasizes the salvific meaning of the crucifixion, and the appearances of the risen Christ are ultimately aimed at the word of Jesus in 20:29, for the disciples, must believe without seeing.
The End(s)
The editors of John added a supplementary chapter after the original conclusion of the Gospel (20: 30f.). It seems to be primarily concerned with clarifying the relationship between Peter and the favorite disciple. The favorite disciple recognizes Jesus (21: 7a), he remains until the coming of Jesus (21:22). In the end, the editors emphasize the truth of the testimony of the favorite disciple (21:24).
Conclusion
It seems today, this truth of the testimony sounds muted. Sermons aim to win an argument, instead of presenting transcendence they “negotiate” the meaning of the Word of God (or temporal demands) with the “powerful” and the “proud.” The (not entirely wrong) theory of the “marketplace of religion” emphasizes religious groups acting like businesses and political parties “innovating” their theologies and practices in response to consumer or voter demand. As in temporal realm, because of this Christian symbols became almost an empty or are actively supressed. The newly proposed, so-called missionary character of the Church, tastes very much like unreflected globalism or worse, even to give in to stale one-world ideologies and virulent expansive competition.
In this it seems, the general attitude of the Catholic Church runs contrary to what Benedict XVI said during his famous “Entweltlichung” speech to ecclesiastical and civic leaders in Germany: [The Church] “must constantly renew the effort to detach herself from her tendency towards worldliness and once again to become open towards God.” So do we. The Gospel of John invites to a journey within transcendence: Through a Jungian perspective, this is individuation. “Every conscious process of becoming as individuation, but also every science, leads to a higher level, to transcendence, to the self, to the image of God“. In this awareness, I experience myself as both limited and eternal, as one and the other. By being unique in my personal combination, that is ultimately limited, I have the opportunity to become aware of the limitless”. (C. G. Jung).
Merry Christmas 2017
Sources:
[1] Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the new testament
[2 ] Phillip Jenkins, “Jesus Wars” How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years
[3 ] C. G. Jung – Studienausgabe in 20 Bänden. Bd. 8: Antwort auf Hiob. Bd. 9: Psychologie u. Religion, Verlag: Zürich, Ex Libris, 1972
[4 ] C. G. Jung – Zur Psychologie westlicher und östlicher Religion: Gesammelte Werke 11 1995 Patmos Verlag
[5 ]Blank, Josef – Geistliche Schriftlesung Band 4/1a: Das Evangelium nach Johannes 1. Teil Verlag: Patmos, Düsseldorf (1981)
[6 ]Blank, Josef – Geistliche Schriftlesung Band 4/1b: Das Evangelium nach Johannes 2. Teil Verlag: Patmos, Düsseldorf (1981)
[7 ] Stephan A. Hoeller Der gnostische Jung und die sieben Reden an die Toten, Schatzkammer Verlag (1981)
[8 ] Gnosticism and Early Christianity (Englisch) Gebundene Ausgabe, Robert M. Grant 1967
Last fall, I travelled all over Al-Andalus in the footsteps of philosophers, poets, warriors and great mystics Sufi’s like Ibn-Arabi. If you are interested in philosophy, science history and intercultural transmission of knowledge, Al- Andalus is your place and I invite you to read further. Al-Andalus represents a singular, tragic and wonderful moment of cultural history, however, also a warning, despite being obscured by its Western romanticized view.
Being an outpost, al-Andalus did give more freedom to outstanding thinkers, but they were a minority. A transmission of knowledge existed, but that was filtered and soon tolerance stopped by fundamentalists from North Africa invited to help out against the Christians advances.
It was the very autumn, when CNN sent those images from Munich of a welcomed mass immigration in the world. Influenced and attracted by the history of Al-Andalus, I remember seeing those strange pictures with rather mixed emotions. Indeed this “German Fall” would on New Years Eve turn into a winter like the “Arab Spring” did.
Anyway, Al-Andalus is one of many icons of Europe’s cultural diversity. It is also a visible warning, despite it’s history has been heavily obscured by a Western romanticized view.
Please be aware, this is just an essay, written to collect my memories of al-Andalus. In first two main chapters I want to connect history and culture with an emphasis on Sufism. In the last chapter this essay presents al-Andalus’ beauty in art and architecture and last but not least its great people.
For those in a hurry, who just want a quick powerpoint intro to the history of al-Andalus:
al -Andalus an anticipated Renaissance
Medivial Spain
“al-Andalus” is the historical and also geographical term for the epoch, when Islam dominated from the eighth to the fifteenth century Southern Spain. It refers to the cities of Almeria, Malaga, Cadiz, Seville, Cordoba, Jaen and Granada. The contact of Islam with all the good and evil of the West created the unique culture of Al Andalus. The culture shock of the invaders anticipated a (failed) Islamic Renaissance, with great thinkers of secular philosophical and mystical Islam.
It is a fact that al-Andalus developed a unique frontier society. Cordoba, at one time the capital city of Al-Andalus, was the center of a sophisticated and rich civilization. In its heyday, Cordoba is often praised for its intellectually advanced culture, its centers of learning and its great libraries. In those years, there were about one million people, 200,000 houses, 60 palaces, 600 mosques, 700 baths, 17 universities and 70 public libraries in the city.
Cordoba The Mezquita
al-Andalus and Andalusia are different two terms and even opposed. The ambiguity, of course, based on the phonetic similarity. In Arabic, al-Andalus refers to any Muslim Hispania (that is to say up to Duero River, the northern border in the tenth century, or only the kingdom of Granada in the XIV century). The word Andalucia (Andalusia) is used in Spanish that in the course of the thirteenth century.
The Moorish era is so regarded as the golden age of cultural prosperity and religious tolerance among Muslims, Christians and Jews. The myth of al-Andalus – too good to be true. Every time, every culture, indeed every society creates myths in which they reflect themselves. This is different to living mythology as defined by C.G. Jung. Every discipline – temporal or spiritual – 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 self realization. Myths load the cold randomness of existence with meaning, to organize the world into good and evil. Myths are like magical mirrors the viewer reflect the picture that he and his peers have of themselves. One of the favorite myths of the educated classes of the West is the one from Splendor and the decline of Moorish Spain considered as the golden age of science and the arts and Christian-Jewish-Muslim harmony – under the protection of a tolerant, mild, of reason through the Islam on European soil.
The Alhambra, Granada @fallenangel
The Muslim Spain as a place superior humanity was invented 250 years ago in the period of Enlightenment and has been renewed in countless versions. Political myths always serve these interests at the appropriate time. At that time French ideology based on radicalized revolutionary ideals wanted to contrast the sclerotic rigid Catholic Church with an idealized, almost deistic purified Islamic alternative. A world without Pope, dogma or inquisition (which indeed has strong Spanish roots). As Rousseau’s noble savage, also the figure of the noble Muslim or noble Orientals of Pierre Bayle, and later Karl May and others form a critical “model of virtue and self shame” towards the European culture and civilization. Jean-Jacques appeared the cultural activist and champion of the opressed; but he also provided arguments which served the purposes of the Jacobine terror in contrast to Montesquieu and Voltaire.
In Herder’s humanity utopia, it finally appears as the Hispano-Arabs act as “Teacher of Europe”, who bring the light of the “oriental Genius”, to end the culture occidental “darkness” of the Medieval Age. The romantic turnings with their longing for the past and an enchanted place in the Moorish traditions and legends are an ideal decor for tales of chivalry, honor and selfless love. Washington Irving (“Tales of the Alhambra”, 1832) started this with his book an Alhambra cult” and as a result the cultural tourism with relevant travel reports – as mine.
The famous Rainer Maria Rilke wrote 1912 in a letter from Spain: “By the way, you need to know, since I’m from Córdoba an almost rabid Antichristianity, I read the Quoran, often it creates a voice so I feel all it strengths, as the airflow inside an church organ.“
Ibn al-‘Arabi – al-Andalus seen from Jungian view
Little private Museum Córdoba dedicated to mystics an philosophers
There is no better biography (to me), which relates the greatness of al-Andalus and the offer the Islam rejected, than that of the Sufi master, poet and philosopher Ibn al-‘Arabi . The reason, that I am attracted or at least fond of Sufism, is Ibn al-‘Arabi. His Sufism is more of a secular, almost a pantheist like Taoism and approachable for Westeners even from C.G. Jung.
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. 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. See here another of my essay about Sufism: Sufism the Gnostic chameleon – muscle and brain of Islam.
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.
To Ibn al-‘Arabi Sufism is best defined as a universal path to union with God through self reflection – individuation in Jungian terms. 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 communication path to God or even rather gnostic, a part of god.
Everything that exists is a part of and a manifestation of the Oneness of God. Humans are part of God. The idea of ones Ego is the result of ignorance.
Ibn al-‘Arabi was born in a Taifa called Murcia, one of the many petty-kingdoms in al-Andalus, in AD 1165. At the age of twenty he was initiated into Sufism.His father Ali Ibn al-Arabi was a man of influence as he considered Cordoba‟s chief judge Ibn Rushd. When Ibn Arabi was 8 years old, Murcia was occupied the family moved to Seville, the great intellectual centre. This is where Ibn Arabi spent the next 30 years of his life. Seville was also an important centre of Sufism, with a record number of Sufis living in the city. He met two women saints here who had a strong influence on him,Yasamin of Marchena, and Fatimah of Cordoba. Due to Ibn Arabi‟s extraordinary scholarship and spiritual insights, his fame spread throughout Andalus.
Cordoba‟s Qazi Ibn Rushd, also the master interpreter of Aristotle, requested Ibn „Arabi’s father for a meeting with Ibn Arabi.This meeting is important in that of the two illustrious men, one was a follower of the edicts of reason, who became the most influential thinker in the West. The other was almost a Gnostic for whom knowledge meant “vision”, who became a towering personality in 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. In 1223 he finally settled in Damascus.
Ibn al-‘Arabi applies Sufism rigorously. To associate anything at all with God would be shirk. Therefore, nothing can exist except God.
However, Ibn al-‘Arabi believed that God had a transcendental as well as an immanent aspect. God was manifested in, but also extended beyond the material universe. Ibn al-‘Arabi had a hidden, non-religious side. In the Juderia, the Jewish quarter of Cordoba, I visited a peaceful little museum to Sufism with a little bookshop. A poem of Ibn al-‘Arabi on rough, self-made paper caught my eye, so tourism or not, I bought it. This is one of my favorite poem by him:
My heart has become capable of taking on all forms. A pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks, and a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Kaa’ba, and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran. I follow the religion of Love: whatever route Love’s caravans shall take, that path shall be the path of my faith.
Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, or the ‘Interpreter of Desires,’ the first edition of which was completed in 1215 A.D.When the poems were later criticized by religious scholars as being to sensous, he had to add an explaining comment. There are other statements from The Bezels of Wisdom and The Treatise on Being, which go in the same direction.
Identity of self and God. Thou art not thou: thou art He. Thou never wast nor wilt be, Thou art neither ceasing to be nor still existing. Thou art He. [TB]
God is all things. The Cosmos is His form. The forms of the Cosmos are the manifest Reality, He being the manifest. He is also their inner essence, being also the unmanifest. He is the first, since He was when they were not, and also the Last, since in their manifestation He is the Essence. [BW X]
God is essentially all things. He permeates through all beings created and originated. [BW X]
He is Being itself, the Essence of Being, He is the Preserver of all. In preserving all things, He is preserving His form, lest anything should assume a form other than His Form, which is not possible. [BW X]
One of the most prolific of the medieval Sufi writers, al-Arabi wrote over 150 books. Unfortunately, very little of this output was translated, up to the early 20th century.
His texts are of great interest, aside from its literary merits as delightful (but highly encoded) Sufi love poetry. Reynold A. Nicholson supplied extensive commentary for each poem. This is key to disentangling the Sufi narrative from the exterior form of the work. At this level, Sufi love poems may actually be interpreted a philosophical treatise with profound insights.
The whole of the spiritual life begins, Ibn ‘Arabi would say, in the realization of transcendence, and Ego ends in it Jung would say. What lies between is the discovery of the intimate heart of each individual being the self. So the discovery of God is equally the self-discovery of the individual. The world is no longer static, but the dynamic theatre of the Divine manifestation, and every movement in it is essentially a movement in love of God. It is simultaneously “He and not He”, as Ibn ‘Arabi says, just like the image of a person in a mirror. The particular quality that he often employs in his writings is that of the constant interplay of paradox, similar to the Zen koan, a Taoist poem, to force the mind to reach its limit so that the truth may be seen without limitation.
al-Andalus Myths and Reality
al-Andalus war and peace
The reality is, that al-Andalus has seen numerous religious and ethic fights and many revolts and revolutions. In short, it was also blunt Islamic imperialism. It is the fact, that 800 years of Islamic rule of Al-Andalus were a permanent war and inner-Islamic struggle between ethnics, sects, Islam fractions, fiefdoms, or dynasties of Islam. There were also constant fights with uprisings of the non-Muslims, slaves, or against Christian intruders and Muslim raids or failed expansions into Christian territory. Furthermore the Renaissance was primarily not defeated by the Christians, but destroyed by “Islamist” fundamentalists (the second wave of Berbers), who viewed Al-Andalus decadent. From al-Andalus from Arab troops and gangs launched regular raids (al-ghazw, Arab. ” the rampage”) deep into the backcountry of the Christian barbarians. They plundered repeatedly the Rhone Valley, terrorizing southern France, occupied Arles, Avignon, Nîmes, Narbonne, which they set on fire 793, devastated 981 Zamora and deported 4,000 prisoners. Four years later, they burned down Barcelona, killed or enslaved all the inhabitants, 987 they devastated the Portuguese Coimbra, which then seven years remained uninhabited. León along with surroundings was destroyed by the Amiriden ruler al-Mansur, “the Victorious” (981-1002), known for burning all philosophical books, which he got hold of. He led during his reign about fifty vampaigns, one regularly in the spring and one in autumn.
al-Andalus Islamic tolerance
The Orientalist Bernard Lewis has pointed out, that the “myth of Spanish-Islamic Tolerance was particularly promoted by Jewish scholars for a very good reason: “One of the main reasons was the prolonged refusal of Christian Europe, in regards of emancipation and recognition of Jews. To offset this, Jewish intellectuals led the historic case of al-Andalus in the battle, “those beautiful and unmatched Civilization “, as the English statesman Disraeli wrote: “During this blessed centuries it was difficult to distinguish the followers of Moses the followers of Mohammed. Both they built palaces, gardens and Wells, sided equal the highest offices of state, competed in an ambitious and enlightened in the distance trade and vied together at famous universities.”
Also in recent years al-Andalus evocative sound soothes confused elites of Europe scared and offended by unending violence and war in the Middle Easte and by the advance of Islamist terror in their own cities. Just opening the borders is and contact is fruitful, isolation and struggle is seen as deadly.True, Christians and the Jews enjoyed under Muslim rule limited religious freedom. Nobody was forced to convert, there, but there were numerous penalties and executions of real or alleged religious violation. Apostasy was like today atoned with the death. Christians as well as Jews were granted a Dhimmi status, an Arabic term that refers to its non-Islamic embracing population living in Islamic conquered lands and subject to special tax. The Dhimmi is a distinctly subjugated second class non-citizen. Granted, this status also brought a certain degree of security and even participation. Influential Christians, as well as Jewish, made a good living as scholars, administrators, even run petty kingdoms called Taifas and were integrated into this rich culture. The attempt of a tiny minority of Islamic scholars to reconcile Islam with Greek philosophy proved ultimately unsuccessful due to persistent religious resistance. Philosophers were banned and their books burned by the orthodox majority. Now, that’s not what I really wanted to focus on. I am interested in the historical and cultural dimension of that period and in particularly Sufism.
Rise and fall of al-Andalus
Pre-conquest
Al-Andalus history is one of invasion and immigration; they came over the Pyrenees or over the sea, warriors or merchants. The blessed Iberian Peninsula at the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic was an attractive place for Carthaginians, Romans, Phoenician and Greeks. Carthage the trade city at the North African coast had its branches in Andalusia. After the Punic wars the Romans valued this piece of country for approximately 700 years. Very important Roman personalities were originally from Andalusia, so the philosopher Seneca to whom a monument is dedicated in Córdoba and Emperor Trajan and Hadrian. After the Fall of the West Roman empire the Visigoths reigned briefly 3 million inhabitants. Visigoths believed to a Christian heresy called Arianism so they were never entirely comfortable with the Church of Rom nor with the Byzantine East Rom. They saw their legitimization from their noble descent.
Andalusia was soon conquered by the Arabs and mostly Berbers, the Moors. They dominated almost 800 years the south of Spain. Unlike the Visigoths, the Islamic rulers did interact with the Roman, Greek and Hispanic culture, which created the uniqueness of Al-Andalus I want to focus on the cultural aspects of that historical period Al-Andalus. If the Arab were conquerors of the Iberian Peninsula or created by the interaction of cultures the identity of Spain is still a hotly debated topic, which has been controversially discussed by two historians Americo Castro and Claudio Sanchez-Albarnoz.
According to Claudio Sanchez-Albarnoz the signs of the Roman and Visigoth culture in Andalusia must not to be discarded and the influence of the Iberian Romans culture to the Muslim Invaders not to be overlooked. Also, it is fact that Islam interacted not only close with the two religions of the book, but also Greek philosophy. This has influenced deeply the history of Spain, also Europe, but not the orthodox Islam in its core constituency.
Rough overview over the Muslim Period
After a passible betrayal of the Byzantine Exarch (viceroy) Julian, the count of Ceuta, an army under the leadership of Berber commander Tariq Gibraltar (Jabal al-Tarik, the Rock of Tarik) invaded 711 AD and short time later controlled, large parts of Spain.It was the most western part of the Islamic Empire, which itself stretched from Lisbon to the Indus. The Muslim rule in al-Andalus can be divided in five major phases:
711-756: Dependent Emirate of Damascus. Al-Andalus is ruled by the Umayyads.
756-929: Independent Emirate after the Abbasids replaced Umayyad dynasty in Damascus and Abd-al-Rahman I takes refuge in Cordoba.
929-1031: Caliphate of Córdoba with Abd-al-Rahman III first proclaimed caliph.
1031-1261: Taifa Kingdoms. Political division of al-Andalus inidependent petty kingdoms called Taifa. Later the Almoravids and then the Almohads took power.
1238-1492: Kingdom of Granada. Last stronghold of the Arab presence in the Iberian Peninsula.
During the whole epoch also Islamic sailors and pirates crossed the Coasts of southern France, Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, Greece on. Their devastating raids resulted in the depopulation as many contemporary accounts document. Crete, recorded in a chronicle, was looted 827 for twelve days, and the inhabitants of 29 cities were driven into slavery. Another chronicle tells of the case of Syracuse after a nine month siege in 878: “Thousands of people were killed, and it was there booty like never before in another city. Only a few managed to escape. “
The troops of the emirs and caliphs consisted partly of large contingents of non-Muslims. The raids presented – in addition to the filling of the rulers treasury – the supply of fighting slaves, but also those of working slaves or women in the harem. And it had yet another purpose, according to the historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari from the North African. Because of the terror, he wrote, which the Arab horsemen and sailors spread, the later conquest was easier: “Allah, on this manner sows fear among the infidels, so that they are not there dared to stir, and to fight against the invaders; only as a supplicant they approached, begging for peace. “
To be clear, raw brutality, enslavement, pillage were the practice of all armies of the in the past. But the “excess, the regularity and the systematic nature of devastation », says the British-Egyptian Historian Bat Ye’or, distinguish the Islamo-Arab expansion of military operations of the then Greek, Slavic, Latin armies, and make them to “perhaps the greatest of lootings of history”.
The Muslim combatants were inspired by the idea of jihad, the holy war, a central concept in Islam until today. Islam divides the world into the Dar al-Islam (House of Islam), in which the law Allah prevails, and in the Dar al-Harb (House of War), residence of the Infidels, meaning all non-Muslims. The goal of jihad is to bring the people of the world under the law of Allah, to bring under the Sharia. “The jihad is a sacred duty” , wrote 14 in the century the famous Ibn Khaldun, a politician, sociologist and descendant of a noble Arab family from al-Andalus, “because of the Universality of the Islamic mission and the obligation to anyone to convert to Islam , either by persuasion or by force”.
Arab Invasion
The invasion seemed to happen like an accident, more like a private enterprise than centrally ordered. After the brief 710 exploratory raid led by a Tarif bin Malluq (remembered in the town of Tarifa, where it happened), Tariq ibn Ziyad, governor of Tangier, sent 711 an expedition of 7,000 Berbers to the Iberian Peninsula through the Strait of Gibraltar. Tariq ibn Ziyad conquests swiftly Algeciras (Portus Vandalusius) and defeats the Visigoth king Rodrigo at the Battle of Guadalete. The location of the battle has been described at various but was probably thirty-five kilometers to the north-west of. The Visigoth troops were decisively defeated and fled northwards, spreading terror and despair, because the invaders triumphed over the Visigoth army and eliminated their king.
Musa, the Arab governor of Tunisia and Tariq’s superior, follows 712 to incorporate the Berber conquests to the Arab Empire. It is often claimed that religious convulsions and resentments to the Visigoths, may have favored the quick surrender of many cities like Cordoba, Malaga, Seville and Toledo (capital of the Visigoths) In 713 Merida fell, this has been a refuge for many Goths in the region of Murcia. It is true, that the Spanish-Roman population disliked their Visigoth leaders and the Jewish community the treatment of the Christian majority. The existing network of roads laid down by the Romans and the standard pragmatic approach, giving treaty on favourable terms to surrenders have helped. But in any case there is a lack documentation of Arab conquest. The first Arab chronicle that relates the event, that of Ibn’Abd al-Hakam is in effect after a century and a half. Maybe, it is due to the fact, that the first three major actors vanished quickly. In 713 Musa’s son Abd al-Aziz, who was appointed Governor of al-Andalus as Musa had been recalled to Damascus 712 and never heard of. Musa’s deputy Tariq also fades out of history. Musa’s son Abd al-Aziz, married in kingly ambitions Egilona, the widow of Roderic, but got murdered in Seville in 715.
Myth of Visigoth King Rodrigo
With the Islamic conquest a myth is connected. The Visigoth Count Julian sent his daughter Florinda Cava to the Visigoth court of Toledo. King Rodrigo (Roderic) raped her and the enraged Count turned to the Islamic conquerors. This development is said to have led to the rapid demise of the Visigoth kingdom and has probably a historical core. In Spain, the figures of the lecherous King Rodrigo, of Count Julian and his beautiful daughter Cava Florinda were themes of folk romance songs. In those romances the king must pay for his lust, through a two-headed snake, which eats both his heart and his private members as a kind of symbolic punishment for the rape and the destruction of the Visigoth kingdom in southern Spain.
Emirate of Dependent Damascus
Caliphate of Córdoba
It took a while, until the spoils of the victory were divided, and the Berber grumbled, since they counted for the majority in the army, but got short changed by the Arabs, who saw them inferior. Córdoba became the capital a few years after the invasion.
There were numerous uprising of the Berbers. On one occasion the Arabs called in a Syrian relief army in, which, after quelling the Berber unrest turned against the Arabs. The Syrian were given some fertile lands and settled, fractionizing al-Adalus even more. A pattern we will see more often later in the history of al-Andalus. The invasion was brought further, as Arab army crossed the Pyrenees at the eastern end and took Narbonne in 720. In an attack on Toulouse in 721, the Arabs suffered a defeat. A defeat through Charles Martel ended the France adventure, logistically over-extended, and up against an equally powerful force. They continued raiding Christian possessions and got rich by tributes an looting, until fragmented Muslim states weakened under the Taifa period. Muslim petty kingdoms got invaded in return, raided or had to pay tribute.
In 750 the Umayyad Caliph was overthrown by the Abbasid clan. Only one young man, Abd al-Rahman an Umayyad prince fled from Damascus and established the Iberian branch of the dynasty in 756. Only with this establishment of the Emirate of Cordoba Uma by Abdel Al Rahman I, Southern Spain was brought in a solid and permanent form Islamic rule.
Umayyad Emirate and Caliphate
As described above, the Umayyad conquest of Hispania established the dependent Emirate of Cordoba. The situation changed after the Umayyad caliphs in Damascus were defeated by the Abbasids. Al- Andalus and Cordoba became an independent Umayyad outpost of the Abbasids rule in Baghdad. The independent Emirate of Cordoba was established by Abd al-Rahman I, which marks the westernmost expansion of both the Muslim rule in Europe.
Later Abd al-Rahman III, called al-Nasir (or Victorious), succeeded in 912 his grandfather as emir and ruled until 961 for almost 50 moon years. An astute politician, Abd al-Rahman adopted the supreme title of Caliph in 929, to legitimize his imperial pretensions over the claims of Abbasid and Fatimid rivals. Cordoba became during his reign the greatest metropolis of Western Europe, rivaling Constantinople. He had pacified the realm, dealt aptly with his Fatimid rivals, and stabilized the frontier with Christian Spain.
Almoravids 1086 until 1147
His son Al Hakam II brought Cordoba to the height of its power. He expanded the Mosque of Córdoba and a library which included 400,000 books and manuscripts from religion to philosophy and rule book subsidence. His successor was less successful, their period is called in Arabic the time of confusion. Invasion, civil wars and complex ethnic conflicts between newly arrived Berbers from North Africa against Arabs and the already assimilated first wave Berbers brought the caliphate down. On the death of al-Mansur finally internal struggles reappeared and Al-Andalus disintegrated 1031 into numerous kingdoms called Taifa. The caliphate disappeared and the aftermath was a patchwork of petty Taifa kingdoms fighting each other sometimes of religious lines.
The fragmented Taifa Kingdoms of Al-Andalus
1031-1261 Taifa Kingdoms
Al-Andalus fragmented 1031 into numerous kingdoms, the most powerful were those of Seville, Toledo, Zaragoza and Badajoz.
Abdallah ibn Buluggin, a contemporary explained the rise of the Taifas:
“When the ‘Amirid dynasty [of al-Mansur] came to an end and the people were left without an imam [leader], every military commander rose up in his own town and entrenched himself behind the walls of his own fortress, having first secured his own position, created his own army and amassed his own resources. These persons vied with one another for worldly power, and each sought to subdue the other.”
Those Taifa kings were not from the Umayyad family, nor did they have any traditional claims to authority, so their ability to exert authority was limited to their ability to militarily conquer lands. With dozens of commanders rising up in the mid-11th century, conflict was bound to happen. Later the Almoravids and then the Almohads halted momentarily the Christian domination, but also incorporated it in their Berber empire.
Almoravids came to Spain in the eleventh century to stop the inexorable advance of the Reconquista, but their rigid understanding of Islam marked also end of tolerance in al-Andalus. Almoravids were a Berber dynasty controlling an empire stretching from Morocco to al-Andalus, so it lost its independence and became merely a province. Almohades replaced in the twelfth century Almoravids. They were even more literal interpreting the Koran. Almohad (al-Muwahhidun) means ‘monotheistic’.
Defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa (1212)
This fragmented situation obviously favored the advance of the Christian kingdoms of the North which was slowed down by Berber armies from North African kingdoms. This Almoravids dominance 1086 until 1147 and the Almohad dominance from 1172 until 1212 proved more a curse than a blessing. During the Reconquista, Muslim states fell one by one to the Christian kingdoms invading from the North. The major cities of Cordoba, Seville, and Toledo fell from the 1000s to the 1200s. Eventually the Almohades suffered a major defeat at Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) until 1261 all but one Taifa Kingdoms had vanished.
Granada – last stand of Islam in Al-Andalus
1238-1492 Kingdom of Granada
In the days following the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212) years, the Spaniards conquered the Guadalquivir valley. One Muslim state – Granada – was able to escape conquest by Christians in the 1200s. After the fall of Cordoba in 1236, the rulers of the Emirate of Granada signed a special agreement with the Kingdom of Castile, one of the most powerful Christian kingdoms. It became the only Muslim kingdom of Granada territory, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. 1238-1492 the Kingdom of Granada represented the last stronghold of the Arab presence.
Its territory was mountainous, which facilitated the defense. Furthermore, the extent of its coasts facilitated trade. The kingdom of Granada achieved great cultural and artistic splendor, though their kings often were forced to pay tribute to the Christian monarchs of Castile.
Culture of Al-Andalus
We hear that the Spanish are the heirs of the Arab-Muslim culture that has been present in Spain for more than seven centuries. Some even say that the Spanish are “half-Arab”, anxious to find exotic origins, distinct from those of all other Spaniards. The existence of a Spanish vocabulary whose root is Arabic is not a strong argument in favour of the thesis of the Arab-Muslim legacy, as the phonetics, prosody, morph syntax of Spanish Arabs are few, while the Latin affiliations Germanic and Christian are absolutely predominant. There were many languages spoken in al-Andalus.
High Arabic used by Mozarabics and rulers
Latin, the high language used by Christians
Hebrew used by Jews
Mozarabic language a continuum of Romance dialects was spoken by many groups in the territory of al-Andalus.there are preserved documents written in Mozarabic.
Andalusia Arabic, or Hispano-Arabic, was a variety or were varieties of the Arabic dialects spoken by all groups in the territory of al-Andalus
Berber dialects spoken by the new Berber of al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the birthplace of important philosophers and religious scholars and some of then played a pivotal role in the Jewish history. In Roman times the Stoic philosopher Seneca needs to be mentioned.
Sufi Mystics
Sufism
Sufism is a continuity of Near Eastern tradition using any religion as a vessel and structure. It may be at the same time indigenous to Islam. You may read more about Sufism in my other essays. Muslim mystic-philosopher gave the esoteric, mystical dimension of Islamic thought its first full-fledged philosophic expression, but they were called into doubt by many scholars, who were suspicious of the monastic tendencies of their metaphysical teaching and often allegorical interpretation of the Qur’an. Ibn ‘Arabi, the most well known Sufi in the West, faced fierce theological controversy over the great Muslim mystical thinker. Even during his lifetime, Ibn ‘Arabi’s conformity with the Muslim dogma was called into doubt by many scholars. Following Ibn ‘Arabi’s death, these misgivings grew into an outright condemnation of his teachings by a number of influential thirteenth through fifteenth century theologians who portrayed him as a dangerous heretic bent on undermining the foundations of Islamic faith and communal life. Ibn ‘Arabi’s advocates, however, praised him as the greatest saint of Islam who was unjustly slandered by the bigoted and narrow-minded critics. Ibn ‘Arabi was rejected by many in Islam, for example, Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), the Wahhabi movement as a pantheist who leads people into heresy with are heretical innovations. But supporters see him until today as a saint who explained reality in the most profound way. His writings are not for the layman, but rather in the spiritual and scholarly elect.
The Near Eastern Tradition is based on Christian desert ascetics & monks of Syria and Gnostic Tradition, i.e. salvational knowledge to escape the prison of the material world and reunite with God. In the 9th century those Gnostic themes appeared in Sufism: a model of emanation and return. There were l‘Sober’ (later ‘Orthodox) Sufis prominent in Baghdad and Iran like Junayd (d. 910), al-Sarraj (d. 988), al-Qushayri (d. 1072) who attempted to portray Sufism as thoroughly ‘Islamic’. Early Sufis like Ibn Hanbal were portrayed as Sufis and Gnostics and got even mainstream acceptance.
Ibn al-ʿArabī, in full Muḥyī al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad, also called Al-Sheikh al-Akbar or “Magister Magnus
born July 28, 1165, Murcia, Valencia—died November 16, 1240, Damascus),
His major works are the monumental Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyyah (“The Meccan Revelations”) and Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (1229; “The Bezels of Wisdom”). Educated at Sufi school of Ibn al-Arif in Almería (Taifa of Murcia), moved to Sevillia and later Damascus. Father friend of Philosopher Averroes. Human beings as manifestation of God’s attributes God: “I was a hidden treasure….”
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
Born c. 1058
Tus Persia, Great Seljuq Empire
Died 1111
Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic of Phas been referred to by some historians as the single most influential Muslim
God is ‘Light of all Lights’ – Gnostic model
Jalal al-Din Rumi
born c., 1207, Balkh [now in Afghanistan]—died 1273), l
the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Mas̄navī-yi Maʿnavī (“Spiritual Couplets”) the cry of the reed-flute
Neo-platonic philosophers
philo
In Islamic times, the attempt to reconcile Islam with Greek philosophy was to last for several centuries, but ultimately proved unsuccessful due to persistent religious resistance.
Jews were given high positions as something more reliable than Christians who were under latent suspicion to be a treacherous partisan of the enemy Christians States. And towards Muslim dignitaries they had the advantage, that they could never be a threat to the Caliph or Sultan. Without tribal or family connections to the courtyard, infidels never hope itself to gain power, and owed their by sharia in prohibited position only because of the arbitrary decision of their ruler created a strong loyalty.
After Samuel Ibn Nagrella died 1056 under unclear circumstances was followed by his son Josef, also a gifted scholar in his official post. At 1066, there was an anti-Jewish pogrom. The thousands of members of the Jewish community of Granada were slain, with them also the Jewish Vizier. Pamphlets and poems as that of pious jurist Abu Ishaq had the mood prepared: “These Jews, who earlier in the Middens a scrap of colored cloth sought to bury their dead, […]
Granada has now divided among themselves […]. Drag a Tribute and dress up elegant […], and the monkey Josef has his house with marble designed […]. Hasten to cut his throat; He is a fat Hammel, take him off his money, because you deserve it more than him! “
Dishonored intolerably the most famous Jew of Moorish Spain and Cordoba, the great philosopher and doctor Maimonides wrote his works in Cairo in exile. When he fled in 1149 with his family before the persecution of the Jews from Córdoba, already existed hardly any Christian or Jewish communities existed anymore in al-Andalus. He later wrote in a much-quoted letter to the Jews of Yemen, us he had reported the local pogroms: “Remember, my coreligionists that God gives us our great burden of sin because in the midst of this people, the Arabs, has thrown […]. Never us a nation has so complained, humiliated, Humiliated and hated as they […], we were of them in intolerable Way dishonored.”
Al-Andalus has left a rich legacy of lyrical. In Arabic and Hebrew is celebrated nature, the enjoyment of wine, the love Youths, the transience of life. The sophistication, the beauty, and frivolity of poems testify to the intellectual freedom and libertinism a narrow urban and courtly elite, which is rigid from the
Whose rules too strict doctrine of God far away. It is striking, however, also the highest percentage of lobby poetry: Almost all poets have written to the mighty many hymns. This refers to another feature of their life. Not only the court Jews, but also poets and Scholar, science and art were generally part of an Oriental clientele system.
The ruler patron gave the order, and he had the power, the artists in throwing the dungeon, if he did not like the result. Only he could before he protects the snares of a fanatical theology or before vindictiveness another patron. What he chose depended on his mood or his current interests. The artist or scholar was his master dependent to death, and he had every reason to keep these in a good mood.
Fundamentalist
Even more precarious the status of the scholar was the unstable political ratios. The era of al-Andalus was marked by riots, semi-anarchy, civil war, progroms, throne struggles, conquests and reconquests. Times of peace were rare. The protective patron could be suddenly gone, murdered by the brother, expelled from another competitor tribal. The biographies of many Moorish scholars reflect this situation. They tell of escape, a new beginning, banishment, of adjustment. List of a deeper meaning. As that of the great scholar Averroes (1126-1198), the modern European philosophy owes so much.
From his audience with the Almohad Sultan Yusuf I Averroes reported: “After the Commander of the Faithful had asked me my name, just after my origins, he began the conversation by saying: ‘What they think (the philosopher) across the sky and the world? Think of them as forever or created?. It came over me, a mixture of shame and fear. […] I found my composure back, so in the end, I took the floor and he could find out what I thought about. For the goodbye, he order a gift of money, a precious robe of honor and to hand over a horse.”
Averroës was personal physician to the sultan and commented on whose behalf the works Aristotle. When the Sultan died, issued his successor Sultan Jakub”Al-Mansur» 1195 a decree, in which the philosophy and the “Greek”
Studies were sentenced. The books of Averroes were the fire thrown, asked the philosopher in front of the Mosque of Cordoba in the pillory and subsequently banned for three years. Shortly after his release he died.
He developed one of the earliest nonreligious philosophies of history, contained in his work the Muqaddimah (“Introduction”) where he sought to explain the basic factors in the historical development of the Islamic countries. Yet he was limited by his traditional Islamic contempt for non-Muslim cultures.
(ca. AD 801-870), flourished in Iraq under the caliphs al-Maʾmūn (813–833) and al-Muʿtaṣim (833–842).
First notable Muslim philosopher, although his reputation in the Middle East was eventually eclipsed by that of al-Farabi (ca. AD 878-950). Al-Kindi flourished in Baghdad in the ninth century where he wrote on many subjects ranging from medicine, optics, mathematics, Indian arithmetic and basic cryptography to the manufacture of swords.
His attempts to integrate Islamic traditions with neoplatonic Greek thought and Aristotelian philosophy were largely ignored in the Islamic world but were ironically thoroughly studied in Latin Christian Europe. He faced trouble for his work, was expelled and books burned. He is today hailed as a beacon of “tolerance,” yet he was also an orthodox jurist of Makati law and served as an Islamic judge in Seville. He approved, without reservation, the killing of heretics in a work that was entirely philosophical in nature.
He combined Middle Eastern and Greco-Roman Classical teachings with his own innovations and became “Islam’s greatest medieval surgeon.” As a matter of fact he was “virtually the only significant physician in the Islamic world who had practical experience with surgery. Surgery was neglected also by Rhazes and Avicenna.” His surgical treatise had again tremendous influence in Christian Europe.
Avempace, Ibn Bâjja or Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya, Baddscha, Badjdja, Ibn Badj, Ibn Bagga, Ibn Bajja, Ibn Bajjah, Ibn Sa’igh Ibn Baggain
(ca. 1085 – 1138)
Medieval Andalusian: his writings include works regarding astronomy, physics, and music, as well as philosophy, medicine, botany, and poetry
Ibn Ḥazm, in full Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd Ibn Ḥazm
(born November 7, 994, Córdoba, Caliphate of Córdoba—died August 15, 1064, Manta Līsham, near Sevilla)
Muslim writer, historian, jurist, and theologian of Islamic Spain, and leading exponents of the Ẓāhirī (Literalist) school of jurisprudence, he produced some 400 works, covering jurisprudence, logic, history, ethics, comparative religion, and theology, and The Ring of the Dove, on the art of love.
Other Islamic Scholars
Abd Allah al-Qaysi, an early jurist spreading the Zahirite school
Mundhir bin Sa’īd al-Ballūṭī, a prominent judge for the Caliph of Cordoba,
Ibn Maḍāʾ, the first linguist to write about dependency grammar,
al-Qurtubi, a leading jurist of the Maliki school
Moses Maimonides
Cordoba
A rabbi who radically changed Jewish philosophy.
Andalusian religious groups
2 Ways to see it – Los Baños de Doña María de Padilla, Alcazar de Seville
Like in all Islamized countries, also in al-Andalus, the Dhimma law applied. Although less contractual and more like blackmail arrangement- tribute or death – Dhimma methods exerted a civilizing effect on dominated states. Jihad was the tradition of a predatory economy where the migrant Bedouin formed the main forces of the united Islamic occupations. The idea of a binding agreement with the vanquished not to exercise the usual plundering, massacres and enslavement moderated the cruelty of the Bedouins” (Bat Ye’or). A Dhimma law made the Jihad efficient. The modern lovers of Moorish occupation in Spain, with amazing logic see in the Dhimma a striking proof of al-Andalus’ tolerance. “The new Islamic policy, “writes, for example, the Yale professor María Rosa Menocal in her book “The Ornament of the World,” “not only has permitted the survival of the Christians and Jews but according to the Koranic order protected on them as a whole. “But the protection contract obeyed the secular principle of Utilitas, with pragmatic sly usefulness. The protection agreement is also called Pact of Umar, after Umar (634-644), the second Caliph, who urged his followers to protect the Dhimmi, because it is the will of the prophet and because “it for the livelihoods of your families to care”. And one of the companions of the Prophet was asked, so the
Tradition, including the tributaries of the Muslims were good. “They help you, “the answer,” to escape poverty.”The system of tribute, takes the form of Cash, or kind of work, too, “was because the first (and most important) Source » (Bat Ye’or) of economic welfare of the Umma, the Islamic Community.
The sheer demographic reality forced the Muslims to bureaucratization and legalization of raising funds. They stood as foreign conquerors for a long time against huge majority local Christian and Jewish faith. The transfer of resources and makes locking
Knowledge was ensured by the Caliph, the head of the Dhimmi communities, the rabbis and bishops with high positions in business and administration entrusted. As a command receiver and privileged beneficiaries of the Islamic Power were those prepared to squeeze their own people even if the tribute demands had long exceeded the tolerable measure.
At the same time provided a theological, political and everyday rules for permanent humiliation and “ritual humiliation” (Bernard Lewis) of non-Muslim population. The highly respected scholar Ibn Abdun wrote, for example, in 1100 in Seville a long legal appraisal as the representative of the Maliki school of law, which had prevailed in al-Andalus. It states: “A Muslim must not massage a Jew, not a Christian. He is allowed to not eliminate their waste and do not clean their latrines; it is reasonable that Jews and Christians to exercise this trade, because it is the work of the most despised “(n. 153).
“We must not allow a tax collector, policeman, lawyer or a rich Jew a Christian, to dress like a noble. Sincerely, because Satan has taken possession of them and forget the remembrance of Allah. Satan has gained mastery over them and has made them neglect remembering Allah. They are the party of Satan. Behold, the party of Satan will be the losers. (Sura 58:19). You must wear a badge on which one recognizes that you shame enough “(n. 169).
“One must sell the Jews and the Christians no scientific book sell, unless the author confess to their religion, because they translating scientific books and write their trailers and Bishops, while their authors are bishops “(n. 206).
The society was divieded in religous groups:
Muladíes (<muwalladín ‘non-Arab mother’) were the Christians during the Islamic domination embraced the new faith of Muhammad.
Mozárabes (<musta’rabí ‘Arabized): Christians who lived in Muslim Spain until the late eleventh century, preserving their Christian religion and even ecclesiastical and judicial organization
Mudejares (<muwalladín ‘non-Arab mother’) were the Moslems under the Christian domination
Moriscos were the Moslems embraced christianity in reality or deceiving
Jews
Andalusian ethnic groups
Bernard Lewis and before him, Ignaz Goldziher showed from many Arab texts of the time that ethnic criteria were commonly used: Arab north against southern Arabs, Berbers against Arabs against Arabs and Slavs against Muslims of Hispanic origin (who were the most numerous) and, obviously vice versa.
Visigoths noble ruling until conquest
Hispanic-Romans
Jews
Few families of Arab origin ruling the army (Berber and Slaves)
Old Berber, Islamized native inhabitants of North Africa, predominant in invasion army
New Berber, Mercenaries of Caliphs or Berber dynasties
Moriscos, crypto muslims after 1500
The religious “apartheid” continued in a sharp social stratification . At the top of the social hierarchy al-Andalus’ was the
Master race of Arab tribes. Set out from the most inhospitable parts of the world, they had the fertile river valleys of Spain
possession. In constant rivalry with each other for the most lucrative positions in new kingdom, they were united in their contempt for the North African Berber. This, forcibly Islamized by the Arabs and them as clients assumed had the dry mountain and steppe regions make shift and looked down at the turn Muwallad, converted to Islam Locals. The condescension of all turn hit the unbelievers who in theCities in ghettos lived, whose testimony was inalid in court, where it was forbidden to ride on a noble animal like a horse or to have sexual relations with Muslim women and marry them, and had to live constant fear, denigrated for blasphemy and for death sentenced to be. Social deeper were only slaves.al-Andalus Cities and Taifas.
The following is an overview of the most important cities.
Cordoba
Cordoba was founded by the Romans, with its mighty bridge “El Puente Romano” over the Guadalquivir River. But Cordoba’s hour of greatest glory was when it became the Moorish formal capital of the independent Emirate and later Caliphate. A brief period of one-off and relative religious tolerance witnessed al-Andalus in the second half of the 10th century under Abdurrahman III. (912-961), the Caliph of Córdoba, and his successor al-Hakam a bibliophile, who is said to have created the mentioned library of 400,000 volumes. With ruthlessness Abdurrahman had united the disintegrated rich country again and organized it with prudence.The economic boom – not least caused by the peacefulness Christian principalities, which lowered the cost of the army, and by a exceptional series yielding crops – took some pressure off the dhimmi away, helped unprecedented lavish tour of the farm and attracted large European ambassadors and the heads of the international intelligence and Art by Córdoba. Luxury and cosmopolitanism produced a “sham boom multicultural tolerance “as the Orientalist Hans-Peter Raddatz writes, “Whose existence depended less from the spirit of Islam but of its ability to maintain the flow of tribute.
Moses Maimonides was born in 1135 in Córdoba. He was a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Andalusia, Morocco and Egypt during the Middle Ages.Little magic hotel
The city’s most famous landmark, The Great Mosque, or “Mezquita” became, after several centuries of additions and enlargements one of the largest in all of Islam. The Romans had built a pagan temple earlier on this site, which was replaced by the Visigoths by a church for St. Vincent which, in turn, was razed by the victorious Moors. The spectacular landmark took more than 200 years to complete and more than 1,000 pillars of granite, onyx, marble and jasper support its arches. When the Christians seized the city in 1236 they built a cathedral in the midst of it, creating today’s extraordinary church-mosque. The juderia is a charming entirely white district, filled with patios and flowers that state the testimony of the Jewish nucleus that already existed at Roman and Wisigoth times. In 1965, in the small Tiberias square, after over 800 years, the Cordobans finally erected a monument in honor of Maimonide, born in 1135 right there in the juderia. Persecuted and expelled from his homeland by the Moors when very young, he traveled the world studying medecine and philosophy becoming the illustrious and wise thinker we known today. Also in its western part, amongst ponds and gardens, a tribute to two others great Cordoban figures: Seneca, Roman writer and philosopher, whose statue is located in a charming square neighbouring the Door of Almodovar, and the statue of Averroes in the street of the Muralla. Another famous monument is the Alcazar, or Fortress, which was constructed by the Christians in 1326.
Seville
The Giralda of the Cathedral in Seville, Spain. It was originally built as a minaret during the Moorish periodb
During the period of Al-Andalus the Arabs arrived under the command of General Musa ibn Nusayr, and made Sevilla one of the most beautiful cities of Al-Andalus. She was known as the Isbiliyya. From 1013 on the town became one the of the Taifas kingdoms.
The Almoravids ruled it from 1086 on, and the Almohads from 1144 on. From that time on Sevillia experienced an economic boom through trade with North Africa . The Great Mosque is built, whose towers the Giralda belongs. During the Christian conquest it was taken by Ferdinand III. 1248
Cádiz
Founded as Gadir or Agadir by Phoenicians from Tyre, Cádiz may be the most ancient standing city still standing in Western Europe.Under Moorish rule between 711 and 1262, the city was called Qādis. The Moors were finally ousted by Alphonso X of Castile in 1262.
Almería
View From Moorish Castle Fortress Of Coastal City Almeria …
In 955 it became the principal harbour of Abd-ar-Rahman III of Córdoba in his extensive domain to strengthen his Mediterranean defences. In this period, the port city of Almería reached its historical peak. Its Moorish castle, the Alcazaba of Almería, is the second largest among the Muslim fortresses of Andalusia, after the Alhambra.
After the fragmentation of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031, Almería continued to be ruled by powerful local Muslim Taifa emirs like Jairan and Almotacin, the poet emir. Contested by the emirs of Granada and Valencia, Almería experienced many sieges, including that of Alfonso VII and it was occupied in October 1147. Within a decade, however, Almería had passed to the control of the puritanical Muslim Almoravid emirs. The city surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs, Fernando and Isabel, on December 26, 1489.
Málaga
The castle of Gibralfaro, Malaga
After the Moors invaded Spain Málaga became a major Moorish city and port – it was the main port for Granada tooe. Moorish ruler Yusuf I built the Gibralfaro as a defence against the Christian conquerors. Málaga fell to the Christians in 1487. It was one of the last cities to be taken by the Christian conquerors,
Ronda
Ronda was part of the Visigoth reign until 713, when it fell to the Arabs, who named it Izn-Rand Onda (“city of the castle”) and made it the capital of the Takurunna province.
After the disintegration of the caliphate of Córdoba, Ronda became the capital of a small kingdom ruled by the Berber Banu Ifran, the taifa of Ronda. During this period Ronda received most of its Islamic architectural heritage. In 1065 Ronda was conquered by the taifa of Seville led by Abbad II al-Mu’tadid.
The Islamic domination of Ronda ended in 1485, when it was conquered by the Marquis of Cádiz after a brief siege. Shortly after 1492, when Granada, was conquered, the Spanish decreed that all Muslims and Jews must either vacate the peninsula or convert to Christianity. Muslims who converted were called Moriscos (“Little Moors”). The term later became a pejorative applied those who had outwardly converted but secretly continued to practice Islam. The Spanish Inquisition investigated suspected secret Muslims. Systematic suppression forced the Muslims to seek refuge in mountainous regions; Ronda was one such refuge. Both the poet Salih ben Sharif al-Rundi (1204–1285) and the Sufi scholar Ibn Abbad al-Rundi (1333–1390) were born in Ronda.It was the hometown of Abbas Ibn Firnas (810–887), an inventor, engineer, aviator, physician, Arabic poet, and Andalusian musician.
Conclusion
Myth & Reality
A myth will not be primarily recognized for its upscale, anthemic sound, but especially at the obstinacy with which it resists reality and time. So the transfiguration of of the Islamic rule in Spain and its accompanying complaints of Christian intolerance systematically ignored the Arab military invasion and violent domination in Spain.
Al-Andalus is not only for a the intellectuals a mythical desired country. In one of the apartments of the Islamist bombers who killed 191 people on 11th March 2004 in Madrid trains and injured hundreds more, the police found a video claiming responsibility. The terrorist Islamists justified it by referring to al-Andalus, the land which was once belonged to the Dar al-Islam.
Fact is, there was no permanent confrontation in al-Andalus, but there was also no harmony or tolerance without limits: everything depended on the specific circumstances. The Moriscos, Jewish and Christian communities saw some of their rights (not all, of course) recognized as groups. Jews and Christians practice their religions with restrictions and with the greatest possible discretion. In the middle of the ninth century, there was an anti-Christian persecution in Cordoba, with many martyrs. The largest anti-Jewish pogrom in Granada occurred in 1066. But the situation worsened even further from the twelfth century, after the Almohad took over.
Serafín Fanjul is one of the most prestigious Spanish Arabists and written books and numerous articles denouncing the myth of al-Andalus “the most advanced civilization of the High Middle Ages,” symbol of the peaceful and tolerant coexistence of the three cultures. He refutes a homogeneous historical process of nearly eight centuries. In the eighth century, the society of al-Andalus was different from the tenth century, a time when Muslims were the majority, and Arabic cultural hegemony was a fact and Christianity in full decline. The kingdom of Granada, which lasted two and a half centuries (1238-1492), was not identical to the al-Andalus in the prior period. It was a monoculture society, with one language, one religion and often a terribly intolerant society.
The contribution of scientists of al-Andalus was undoubtedly important, especially in transmitting knowledge of Persian, Indian and Greek antiquity that reached Europe through various channels including that of al-Andalus. However the medievalist Sylvain Gougenheim questioned the claim that the Muslim world has played a single and a fundamental role in the transmission of Greek science and philosophy to the West in the Middle Ages. In his book, Aristotle at Mont Saint-Michel: The Greek roots of Christian Europe, he showed the importance of filiations Latin translations was widely underestimated thus incurring the reproach.
Bibliography
For those who wish to explore further the world that was al-Andalus, the following are recommended in the first instance:
Bernard Lewis. The Arabs in History, 1993 edition
Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East 2002 edition
Georg Bossong, Das Maurische Spanien: Geschichte und Kultur (Beck’sche Reihe)– 25. Juni 2011
Michael B. Barry Homage to al-Andalus: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain, ebook . Andalus Press 2014
Washington Irving Tales of the Alhambra – 2009
Claudio. SANCHEZ ALBORNOZ ESPAÑA, UN ENIGMA HISTORICO. (English Translation) Madrid – 1975
Barrucand, M. and Bednorz, A., Maurische Architektur in Andalusien Gebundene Ausgabe – 1991
Stanley Lane-Poole The Moors in Spain – ebook Published by Didactic Press 2013
Fletcher, R., ‘Moorish Spain’, University of California Press, Berkley, 1993.
Guichard, P., ‘From the Arab Conquest to the Reconquest, The Splendour and Fragility of al-Andalus’, Legado Andalusí, Granada, 2006.
Karoline Gimpel, DuMont Kunst-Reiseführer Andalusien: Kathedralen, maurische Paläste und Gärten im Süden Spaniens – 2012
For those who wish to explore Sufism and transmission of cultures, the following were helpful for me:
Idries Shah The Sufis – 1971 An exellent introduction of Sufism interest in philosophical Sufi aspects
Annemarie Schimmel, Mystische Dimensionen des Islam – 1992
Sylvain Gouguenheim Aristoteles auf dem Mont Saint-Michel: Die griechischen Wurzeln des christlichen Abendlandes – 2012
Bat Ye’or, Europe, Globalization, and the Coming of the Universal Caliphate – 2011
Bat Ye’or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam by Bat Ye’or – 1985
Idries Shah Tales of the Dervishes – 1993
Idries Shah Caravan of Dreams – ebook 2015
Idries Shah und Doris Lessing Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way – 1996
Sigrid Hunke, Le Soleil d’Allah brille sur l’Occident : Notre héritage arabe 1. German 1961
Who were the Gnostics? Christian commentators described them as dualists who pitted ‘divine spark or ‘light’ against the of the material world. Christianity painted many Gnostics as heretics for claiming to be Christ’s true followers while denying his singular divinity.
Its claim of a world as a mistake and shadow of the Christian creation myth (if not Christianity as a whole), favors a gloomy view of the world. Carl Gustav Jung warned that if societies do not attend to their collective shadow, a world crisis can result. Our era is one of failing civilizations and broken social covenants, is fraught with the dangers of unleashed economical, military and social chaos. We each can do our part to safeguard each other by understanding black swans.
Are we witnessing a rediscovery of Gnosticism? I’d say yes. Increased academic attention (beginning with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi scriptures in 1945) and the ensuing popular interest have produced utter confusion. It is often difficult even to tell what is meant by the word. Not only Gnosis is gnostic, classical Gnosticism of Valentinus, Basilides, but the heretics are gnostic, the Neoplatonic too, Nazism was gnostic, Islam (at least Sufism) if not also seen of heretic origins, existentialism and psychoanalysis is gnostic too. Certainly the early C. G. Jung can be seen as one.
Evil world
Confused Religions
This metaphysical dream is utterly incompatible with Christianity. The world was made fundamentally good, as the first pages of Genesis remind us. Though Creation has been corrupted by sin, its essential goodness could not be totally destroyed; being corrupted is not the same as being completely corrupt. Both Gnostics and those Christians seeking a rapturous rescue from the world have misread the architecture: our bodies are not “prisons” to be escaped, renovated, destroyed ad lib., but temples of the Holy Spirit.
So the Corinthians heard from St. Paul, whose much-abused spirit-flesh distinction Irenaeus clarifies: “the weakness of the flesh” can be “absorbed by the strength of the Spirit”; the two may then inherit the kingdom together.[1] Our resurrected “spiritual bodies” are not spiritual in substance, but in the sense that they are moved first by spirit and not by flesh. In the Christian metaphysical dream, matter is subordinated in order to be glorified – neither abolished nor discarded, but perfected.
But affirmations of the world’s created goodness require a leap of faith, and thus a rejection of knowing spiritualism and dogmatic materialism; the normativity of this stance tolerates neither.
Certainly it is true that gnostics who ridiculed the idea of bodily resurrection frequently devalued the body, and considered its actions (sexual acts,for example) unimportant to the “spiritual” person. According to the Gospel of Thomas, for example, Jesus says, “If spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed at how this great wealth [the spirit] has made its home in this poverty [the body].” I have written here an here of the Chartensians in Southern France, which I consider a as typical medieval Neo-gnostic movement.
Now, any leap of faith has a mystery at its core. But the ‘mystery’ of Gnosticism is less a reasonable affirmation that can be accepted in love than a hopeless and anti-individual agnosticism, ever subject to opportunistic revision. Neo-Gnostics and cultural revolutionaries give us an imagined freedom from norms while imposing – consciously or not – worse commitments. It is the same liberty that defines the right to construct one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life – a sunny ambiguity the employed to extend the right to end and create life.
The Hypostasis of the Archons, recounting Sophia’s tale, says the universe started out “like a miscarriage.”[2] In a world built on stillbirth from the womb of an aeon, or on the freak chance of meaningless matter from nowhere, destruction in our own mothers’ wombs just blends into the landscape. A flight to the pleroma or an escape into “pure pleasure” will not rouse us from this metaphysical nightmare. The threefold promise of Creation, Incarnation, and Resurrection may.
Many argue with same truth in it, however, the established Christianity, that affirmed the threefold promise is merely a cultural construction: it is in fact ‘the greatest marketing sucess a a religion viewed as a product’ or in a Jungian sense a clever use of collective archetypes some of them of Egyptian origin.
The Pauline faction, being both moralistic and power-hungry, desorted the “Christian legend” to launch history’s most successful project of mass mind-control and cultural hegemony.[3] Meanwhile, Christ’s potentially human life with the Magdalene, had to be suppressed; his identification with Yahweh gave the project its trump card. Small bands of dissenters, however, preserved the truth – until Rom – East and West stamped them out.
Divine spark
Divine Spark
Pagels, a professor at Princeton, has devoted her career to the writings of these noble Gnostic underdogs, most of which have only been re-discovered beginning in the 1940s. 2006, Pagels proclaimed that the newly found Gospel of Judas would continue “exploding the myth of a monolithic Christianity and showing how diverse and fascinating the early Christian movement really was.”[4]
Among their most ‘diverse’ elements, Pagels observes, is a vaguely Eastern strain: “the ‘living Jesus’…speaks in sayings as cryptic and compelling as Zen koans.” Whereas “Orthodox Jews and Christians insist that a chasm separates humanity from Its creator,” such that “God is wholly other,” Pagel proffers “the secret of gnosis” with more than a hint of Jung’s individation: “self-knowledge is knowledge of God; the self and the divine are
The Ego, the Self and Jesus – Individuation and Transcendence
identical.” Jesus, no savior, is a mere “guide” showing us the way to a “spiritual understanding” rendering leader and follower “equal—even identical.”[5]. I have written about individuation and the Self here. Gnosis is non-creedal; indeed, the events recounted in the Christian canon are anything but literally true. Belief in the Virgin Birth is an “error,” says the Gospel of Philip, and Christ’s resurrection is metaphorical: “he rose up first and [then] died.”[6]
Self-actualization is just the beginning. Some Gnostics could even be read as bring back the supressed female spirituality – wise women. Valentinians, for example, drank not Christ’s blood in their sacraments, but a mother-spirit’s.[7] Salvation was through “Immortal Androgynous Man”; in the Wisdom of Jesus Christ, his “female name is…‘All-Begettress Sophia’ [Wisdom].” The divine narrator of The Thunder, Perfect Mind frequently adopts a feminine voice; Sophia resurfaces as the self-awareness of a depersonalized One in the Secret Book of John, where Jesus also calls himself “Mother”.[8] There’s a Gospel of Mary with the Magdalene as the favorite disciple, and in Philip Jesus kisses her, leaving the other disciples scandalized, or perhaps jealous.[9] Indeed Sects devoted to these traditions were more inclusive to women and even had priestesses. So Gnostics look almost like looking for their anima (and animus).
Gnostic heretics
The most exhaustive (and hostile) commentary on the early Gnostics comes from St. Irenaeus, the second-century bishop of Lyon. On some points he confirms the popular account of their liberal practices in his condemnation of them. Gnostics would “yield themselves up to the lusts of the flesh with the utmost greediness, maintaining that carnal things should be allowed to the carnal nature, while spiritual things are provided for the spiritual.”[10] Carpocratics even claimed that salvation demanded the experience of everything, and rather than storing up treasure in, say, virtue, it was sexual experiences they were keenest on collecting. But so what? “God,” at any rate, “does not greatly regard such matters.”[11]
Today such a statement is hardly controversial. But the bishop levels other charges – manipulation, brainwashing, adultery, polygamy, intimidation – some of which sound like the very cultish practices we do still condemn. They also sound like charges that some pro-Gnostic writers bring against orthodox churches.
To be fair, Irenaeus is polemical in its purpose to stamp Gnosticism out. But the texts of the Gnostics themselves confirm his account more than not. Their value of women, for example, turns out to be very inconsistent. In the Gospel of Thomas, Simon demands of his guru, “Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.” Instead of reprimanding him, Jesus reassures him: “I shall lead her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”[12] In a number of texts, “the bondage of femaleness” must be shed for “the salvation of maleness”; even metaphorical interpretations do not celebrate differences, but only obliterate them.[13]
In fact, no one should be comfortable in any human body. Elsewhere in Thomas, Christ says that soul, flesh, and body are each “wretched.”[14] Matter, Christ tells Mary, will all be destroyed.[15] The Secret Book of John consistently refers to the body as a “prison” that degrades the soul, trapping it in cycles of transmigration and reincarnation so long as it lacks salvific gnosis. For Carpocratics, this belief justified the pursuit of carnal knowledge; for others, the harshest asceticism.[16] If they were sometimes ascetics and sometimes aesthetes, it was because the body didn’t matter: anything could be justified or condemned, and almost everything was, depending on what magnified ‘light’. A sort of Gnostic dualism about the texts exists today: the bad is from the Orthodox patriarchy, whereas the good is Gnostic cafeteria ethics, wich maps well onto today’s conventional narrative.
The world a mistake
But whether Irenaeus is right damming the Gnostic myths and truth-claims the bottom line today is, their cosmology deserves a hearing. What did Gnostics teach about the world’s origins?
The Gnostic story of Creation is begins before Adam and Eve. According to this doctrine, there is an unknowable being called the “True Father.” He created a being called Sophia. It is an impersonal father-principle whose emanations filled the divine pleroma, or spiritual realm, with dyads of sexual, sentient aeons. The most important aeon – of course, it’s the wise Sophia – but because Sophia was forbidden to know the True Father, she became angry and created a monstrous god named Yaldaboath or Yahweh (the most sacred Hebrew name for God) – further in her anguish, matter fell stillborn and formless from her womb.[17] Her torment, “by means of a defect,” produced a scheming demiurge, viler but duller than Plato’s.[18] It then formed the universe, and with it corporeal mankind, from the undesired matter: “material substance had its beginning from ignorance and grief, and fear and bewilderment.”[19] Philip puts it bluntly: “the world came about through a mistake.”[20] Recalling the pre-incarnate, star-riding souls of Plato’s Timaeus, the Wisdom of Jesus Christ says we existed as “drop[s] from Light and Spirit” before being trapped in bodies; it is gnosis that breaks our chains and lets us be subsumed into the same impersonal substance of the father-principle whence our drams of divinity were drawn.[21]
Zeitgeist and Gnostic worldviews
SatanCenter
Yet the Zeitgeist and Gnostic worldviews share more than an ill-fitting ethical overlap and a common enemy. For, despite certain peculiarities, their metaphysical dreams of the (new) world unite them. The current world is essentially not good.Who can blame them for this view? Goodness in the material world implies a normativity and an absolute grounding in nature, to which both Gnostics and Zeitgeist are allergic. Out acts in the flesh are irrelevant at the deepest level, since matter is devoid of intrinsic value. The strictest principles we can apply are those of pleasure/pain and that of superiority/harmdoers – individuals perceived attributes. Our refuge is in surregate religion, understood as knowledge, and the sacrosanct orientation of the global will.
Perhaps the newspeak say it best. Alive, the body seems to be what matters. But while the material is denied its intrinsic worth, the mind cannot avoid immaterial experiences like choice and thought: something persists which can say, “What my body is doing is irrelevant.” Our reduction of any life to coperate and economic ressource has really chased us outside of our body, an intellectual and voluntary abstraction of the Ego from itself, the Self. And so, even alive, the body and the soul turns out not to matter.
And it matters even less when wie are in transition from life to death or vice versa. At death, or during pregnancy artifacts might as easily be used as spare parts as be patented. We are quite finished with our bodies when we die, we’re probably finished, period. Almost like the Demiurge (demigurge) starts all over again. In a time, when I have to watch a catholic priest during Chrismas Mass , pacing around the altar, and shouting five times – wir schaffen das (Yes we can), there is almost a perverse comfort in it.
[1] Irenaeus, Bk V, Ch. IX, 1-2.
[2] Hypostasis of the Archons, 94:8-19.
[3] Pagels, Elaine. The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Vintage Books, 1979, p. xii. xv-xxiii. avaiable as pdf
[4] Pagels. “The Gospel Truth.” New York Times. April 8, 2006.
[5] Pagels. The Gnostic Gospels, pp. xv-xxiii.
[6] Gospel of Philip 22
[7] Pagels, Elaine. “The Suppressed Gnostic Feminism.” New York Review of Books. November 22, 1979.
[8] The Secret Book of John 10 and 3, respectively.
[9] Gospel of Mary 5:5, Philip 59.
[10] Irenaeus of Lyon. Against Heresies, Bk. I, Ch. VI, 3.
[11] Ibid., Bk. I, Ch. XXV, 4; Ch. XXVIII, 2.
[12] Gospel of Thomas 114.
[13] First Apocalypse of James 41:15-19; cf. Clement of Alexandria, Excerpts from Theodotus, 79, and commentary in Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 5.8.44.
[14] Thomas 84, 87, 112
[15] Mary 4:22-23.
[16] Secret Book of John 23, 26; Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Bk. I, Ch. XXV, 4.
[17] Irenaeus, Book I, Ch. IV, 3.
[18] Ibid., Bk I, Ch. XVI, 3.
[19] Ibid., Bk. I, Ch. II, 3.
[20] Philip 105.
[21] Wisdom of Jesus Christ (verses unnumbered; p. 118 of the Berlin Gnostic Codex).
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
panteistic god
Given thediversity ofschoolsand the diversity ofreligious and philosophicalideas of theirmasters, it is very difficult to pin down theSufithoughtsdefine. By some scholarsSufismis considered a perfectpantheisminthesearch for knowledgeandreunion with theDivine.I prefer, therefore, not necessarilyto speak of anyreligiousdoctrine in Sufism, as the Sufibelief systemexceeds them Sufism is freebecause of its mindset–of every religious limit.Rather, itseems to mean attitude, an enlightenedphilosophy 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 FriedrichRückert(1788-1866) , whowas a Germanpoet, translator, and one of the foundersof the GermanOriental Studies. LikeHeine andGoethewasFriedrichRückertaGermanSufiethics. As a translatorof poetryRückertdevoted himself to thetransmissionof countlessSufiverses intheGermanlanguagepoets. 1818, the sameyear, asGoethedrew up aWest–Eastern Divan, the eloquentyoungpoetcame to Viennaandbegan studyingoriental languages.With its“dual talent, poeticandphilological“, RückerttranslatedArabic and Persianpoetry, notably the Sufi mysticism, amazinglyaccurate.
Ibn ‘Arabî – Sufism and heresy
templars
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. ThroughSpainand Sicily, andin part by theTemplars Cristian and Sufi thoughts interrelated.The Sufis in the East,like theChristian mystics in the West were attractedtherefreshing, deep old knowledgeof the Orientalworld. None of themapparently did not fear the dangerof heresy, and many of themleda double life, so to speak: on the one hand,they livedasdevout Christians or Muslims, on the other handthey thoughtasSufischolars. In the 12thcenturythe masterSuhrawardilived inAleppo.He wrotethe work“The knowledgeofenlightenment” andwas murdered byorder of theorthodox Scholars.Theypublicly burnedhis writing, but some copieshave survived: Suhrawardi refers to theSufitraditionas identical withthe esotericteachings of the oldEgyptians, theGreeks andthePersians.Later theEnglish scholarRogerBacon, whospreadthis knowledgein Europe.Baconconfirmedinhis writings thattheSufiideas came from theancient Egyptianera and later inheritedPythagoras, Zoroasterand Socratesthoughts.The Sufishave alwayscalled“The Lovers”.
sufism
But behindthe concept ofLovehidesratherthe pursuit of truth, for the knowledge. In his book“The Sufis” Idries Shahgives a briefhistoryof the great masters Ibn `Arabî and Sufi. IdriesShahfindsmany parallelsbetweenFrancis andthe Dervishes: theclothingwith hood andwide sleeves, theexchangeof seculardresses withacowland theFranciscanideaof the “holyprayer” and Francis‘ typicalWelcome:“Pace a voi” –“Peacebe with you”–whichis an Arabicgreeting
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” isthe Trinity, that very concept, which distinguishesChristianityfrom Islam. Not only thispoemas suchhasa Trinitarianform, but also theprocess, by whichthe pilgrimDante(and with it the reader) through purgatoryascends toheaven,“proves”the Trinity.Through the processof self-perfectionof the pilgrimDante, whograduallyrealizesthe divine lawsof the universe,hereached theentranceto the world ofscience,to paradise.The Earthly Paradiseturns outat the endof the bookabout Purgatoryas achimera, andas apolemicalcontrast,the realparadiseunfoldsas aprocess, by whichthe individualunderstandsthe divine laws, as a science. Dante’spoem seems a proof of Jun’s individuation and the Sufi paths though. Both relate to the Christian ideaof theimagovivaDei.
In the 13thcentury, the“Scuola siciliana“, the Sicilianliterary movement was established at the courtof the Hohenstaufen. Frederick II ofHohenstaufen,apupil of the Templars,founded thisinstitution. The German Emperor Friederich II (Frederick)spoke and wroteArabicperfectly, and thesoldiers of hisbodyguardwere allArabs.Sicily, then incharge of theKnights Templars was thecenter of theArabsciences.TheGermanEmperor wasa close friend ofthe Sultan ofEgypt,al-Kamil, the very same Sultan, whohad also receivedtheSt. Francis ofAssisi.
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 bliebgeschlossen. 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 Sufishave alwayscalled“The Lovers”. But behindthe concept ofLovehidesratherthe 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 (ghazelsandrubaiyat) as well as the six-volumeMathnawi, 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?
The lover is forever like a drunkard whose secrets spill out,forever mad, frenzied, and in love.
To be self-conscious is to worry about everything, but once drunk, what will be will be.
If you desire the self, get out of the self.
Leave the shallow stream behind and flow into the river deep and wide.
Don’t be an ox pulling the wheel of the plow, turn with the stars that wheel above you.
Sufism and psychology
Source: Khalil Andani’s Concept of Tawhid in the Isma’ili & Sufi Thought
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
Myth of the Baphomet derived from its usage in Provence the centre of the Cathar Church in France,
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.
The Sufi and also Gnostic view on the created world is sometimes very negative.“The world is a dunghill, and a gathering place of dogs; and meaner than a dog is that person who does not stay away from it.” Sufi could not participate in secular affairs and he must know, that world is a merely an illusion. Even Jesus (highly considered by Sufis) said in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas: “Whoever has cometo understand the world has found (only) a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world.” We can clearly say that Gnostics and Sufis are not interested in the world or they despise it. Not only, the world is seen in the negative light, but also the work of the heavens and the time. According to the Gnostics, the mundane world is influenced and ruled by the lower heavens – seven spheres with one planetary ruler( archon).
Gnosticism 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 Zehra wife of Ali
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__Wisdom
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.”
Black_Madonna_of_Einsiedeln
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
PeacockAngel
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).
Aroused snake by the entrance to a Yezidee-temple. It is blackened by soot.
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 – Divine Mother Maria-Hilf-Kirche. Murnau was the chosen residence of the famous painters – Blaue Reiter
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
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
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
