The Serpent's Wisdom

The Feast of the Epiphany is traditionally the holiest day of the Gnostic calendar. (It is also, totally non-coincidentally, the first day of Carnival.) I haven't observed it in a while... in fact for a long time I've lived as more or less an atheist, with no spiritual or esoteric practice whatsoever. So I've been meditating today on the idea of making space for the sacred. In my head and heart and in my life, mainly, though the final plan for my room (which I'll hopefully work on by this weekend) will involve setting up an altar.

I'll start with a few words from Neil Douglas-Klotz's The Hidden Gospel:

The word for holy in Aramaic, qadash, combines two old Semitic roots. The first (KD) points to the pivot or point upon which everything turns. The second (ASh) suggests a circle that unfolds from that point with power and heat. To become holy in an Aramaic sense then means to create separate space for whatever becomes the pivot of our lives, the axis on which our universe turns. In this way, we clarify the essence of our being so that we can find our unique place in the cosmic Unity. We fully individuate -- which feels like a process of separation -- in order to enrich the whole texture of the reality of Alaha.

This makes me mindful of a passage I have not thought of in a long time, the 37th Ode of Solomon:

I stretched out my hands to my Lord:
and to the Most High I raised my voice:
And I spake with the lips of my heart;
and He heard me when my voice reached Him:
His answer came to me and gave me the fruits of my labours;
And it gave me rest by the grace of the Lord.
Hallelujah.

Quite some time ago I unpacked an esoteric formula described by this passage, representing the readiness of the mystic to receive the ruach, the breath which is spirit and life. (See also the 8th Ode, which is more explicitly esoteric.)

Concluding my commentary on the passage I quoted the Gospel of Thomas: "Jesus said, 'Let the one seeking not stop seeking until he finds. And when he finds he will marvel, and marveling he will reign, and reigning he will rest.'"

"Rest" or "repose" or "silence" (alternately "the abyss") is found throughout the Gnostic literature as the companion (or residence) of the Root of All, implying that the repose of the individual mystic in prayer or meditation is one and the same as the ain soph, the cosmic limitless abyss that precedes the moment-to-moment manifest unfolding of all that exists and all that happens in the universe.

Making space for the sacred is both the beginning and the end of this process.

My previous entries marking the Feast of Epiphany can be read here:
http://sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com/107424.html
http://sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com/329818.html
http://sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com/482919.html

So, here at the library I found a translation of the Odes of Solomon I have not previously examined, that of James H. Charlesworth. His slant appears to downplay the considerable influence of Gnosticism upon the Odes in favor of a more orthodox Jewish influence.

Just upon examination of one Ode, Ode 8, I noted a few Gnostic motifs that Charlesworth was either unaware of, or chose to omit.

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It occurs to me, while working with all of this material, that this is what I am called to do. I have known this for some time; but it strikes me very keenly that I need to find a way to dedicate as much time and energy to this as possible. I had shrugged off the idea of returning to school; and this still does not seem a particularly viable option; but I may literally have no choice but to seek a way to return to school and study this in a scholarly way.

At least, that is the feeling that strikes me today.