FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   >>  
ted or perfected. Having been regenerated, they were "gods" or "aeons," conscious of their kinship with the Pleromata. Each was now a hierarchy in himself, a race, as it were. The passage is probably by a later hand. (13) _Cp._ Pseudo Dionysius Myst. Theol.: "The super-unknown, the super-luminous and loftiest height wherein the simple and absolute and unchangeable mysteries are cloaked in the super-lucent darkness of hidden mystic silence, which super-shines most super-brightly in the blackest night, and in the altogether intangible and unseen, superfills the eyeless understanding with super-beautiful brightnesses. And thou, dear Timothy, in thy intent and practice of the mystical contemplations, leave behind both thy senses and thy intellectual operations, and all things known by sense and intellect, and set thyself, as far as may be, to unite thyself in unknowing with Him who is above all being and knowledge; for by being purely free and absolute, out of self and all things, thou shalt be led up to the _Ray of the Divine Darkness_, stripped and loosed of all." The above version is by Dom John Chapman, O.S.B., who says that this passage was "cited throughout the Middle Ages as the _locus classicus_ for method of contemplation." This is, except for our text, the earliest mention of the "Dark Ray" in literature. Evidently Pseudo Dionysius did not invent the term himself, but followed a much older Christian tradition. This fact is important for the history of Christian mysticism. (14) This seems to imply a doctrine of pre-existence. Perhaps the passage is related to John 17:16: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.... As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world." (15) _Cp._ Psalm 68:17 (R.V.): "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the sanctuary." (16) Further descriptions of this, "the oldest of the AEons," are given later on. From these it will be gathered that the crown is the Crown of Life, and that the twelve gates are also twelve deeps or firmaments, over each of which a Paternity presides. She is called the Indivisible One, either "Point," "Atom," or perhaps even "Body" or "Raiment." As she is both the Spouse and Mother of the Light-Spark within the AEon, I have generally called her the Indivisible Queen. (17) Mr Mead suggests that Phosilampes may be a mystery name
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   >>  



Top keywords:
passage
 

Indivisible

 

twelve

 
absolute
 
called
 
thyself
 

Christian

 

thousands

 

things

 

Pseudo


Dionysius
 
existence
 

tradition

 

important

 

invent

 

history

 

mysticism

 

related

 

Perhaps

 

doctrine


oldest
 

Raiment

 

Mother

 
Spouse
 

presides

 
Paternity
 
suggests
 

Phosilampes

 

mystery

 

generally


sanctuary

 

Further

 
descriptions
 
Evidently
 

chariots

 
twenty
 

thousand

 

firmaments

 

gathered

 

mystic


hidden

 

silence

 
shines
 

darkness

 
lucent
 
simple
 

unchangeable

 

mysteries

 
cloaked
 

brightly