by Nuvoadam
On September 16, 2003, Nuvoadam posted this essay to alt.religion.gnostic in the midst of an ongoing debate about Gnostic cosmology. At issue was a passage from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene in which Mary declares: "the All is being dissolved, both the earthly things and the heavenly." The standard Gnostic reading interpreted this as a prophecy of cosmic destruction — the Demiurge's material world annihilated at the end of time. Nuvoadam argued for a different reading: Mary is speaking from inside a meditative state. The "dissolution" is the dissolution of the illusion of duality, not a physical apocalypse.
The essay moves through a remarkable range of sources — Whitman's "Divine am I inside and out," Thoreau's encounter with the Vedanta, Rumi's famous paradox about knocking from inside the door, Plato's distinction between being and becoming, Plotinus on the soul revolving around the One — and brings them all to bear on a close reading of the soul's ascent through the seven Archon gates in the Gospel of Mary. The meditative soul does not destroy the world. It strips away ignorance, desire, and the sense of separation. What remains is the Samadhi-unity the Gnostics called Silence.
This is not a theological treatise. It is a meditation teacher explaining, through the mouth of early Gnostic scripture and cross-traditional wisdom, what actually happens when the practice works. Nuvoadam was a prolific contributor to alt.religion.gnostic from 2003 to 2004, best known for his essays on Hermetic Gnosticism, the Alexandrian roots of the tradition, and the cross-traditional character of Gnostic meditation.
Transcendentalists claim that we each of us are the Universe inside of ourselves. The connectivity is brokered through meditative contemplation and a successful taming of one's ego and desire. One who had connected to the Unity found it hard to relate the quickening of Samadhi to others. Whitman and Thoreau became Transcendentalists who tried very hard.
Whitman announced in the "Song of Myself":
Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from.
Thoreau once referred to a "Hindoo" book: "So the Soul, from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahma."
You are the part of the Demiurge. You have not been born yet to true Gnosis of what and who you are. When you close your eyes you too see the dark cloud of ignorance in which you live.
Your light has been hidden within a dark cloud. — Jesus, The Book of Thomas
We must begin by discriminating between that which is and never becomes, and that which is always becoming and which never is. — Plato
I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I've been knocking from the inside! — Rumi
Remember what you have heard, and trace your root. — Jesus, The Secret Book of John
Whoever finds self is worth more than the world. — Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas
I went in search of myself. — Heraclitus
Man as he now is has ceased to be the All. But when he ceases to be a separate individual, he raises himself again and permeates the universe. — Plotinus
Even if you travel everywhere you will not find the limits of the soul, so great is its nature. — Heraclitus
You are a fragment torn from God. You have a portion of Him within you. — Epictetus
The warmth of life in every human being is immortal. It sees, hears, and knows all that is and all that will be. — Hippocrates
The One is God. — Xenophanes
If you see things as they are here and now, you have seen everything that has happened from all of eternity. All things are an interrelated Oneness. — Marcus Aurelius
Mary Magdalene and the Dissolution of the All
In the Gospel of Mary, Mary states:
I was not recognized. But I have recognized that the All is being dissolved, both the earthly things and the heavenly.
Mary is not saying that the All is going to be dissolved because of a huge confrontation with the Demiurge. She has already indicated the nature of this dissolution. Jesus responds: "The Savior said, All nature, all formations, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots. For the nature of matter is resolved into the roots of its own nature alone."
Mary describes this dissolution in the vision of the soul's ascent:
16. I was bound, though I have not bound.
17. I was not recognized. But I have recognized that the All is being dissolved, both the earthly things and the heavenly.
18. When the soul had overcome the third power, it went upwards and saw the fourth power, which took seven forms.
19. The first form is darkness, the second desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven powers of wrath.
20. They asked the soul, Whence do you come slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
21. The soul answered and said, What binds me has been slain, and what turns me about has been overcome,
22. and my desire has been ended, and ignorance has died.
23. In an aeon I was released from a world, and in a Type from a type, and from the fetter of oblivion which is transient.
24. From this time on will I attain to the rest of the time, of the season, of the aeon, in silence.
She is saying that with meditation, the soul will have to face its karmic debts by passing through the seven Chakra Gates guarded by the Archons. Her "ignorance has died" during meditation, and with it the veil of duality is pierced. She has dissolved the world and entered the spiritual realm. The Demiurgic world was not literally destroyed. She is no longer here as opposed to there, but both here and there. She is now one with everything in every dimension.
She is in the supra-Nirvana of silence: "From this time on will I attain to the rest of the time, of the season, of the aeon, in silence." She is called by her soul a "conqueror of space" and a "slayer of men." Why? Because through successful meditation comes the taming of the ignorant ego-mind. "What binds me has been slain, and what turns me about has been overcome, and my desire has been ended, and ignorance has died." What happens after this? "I was released from a world, and in a Type from a type, and from the fetter of oblivion which is transient."
She was "released" from the World of the Demiurge. It was not destroyed — she merely broke the chains of desire, and ended her ignorance. This most certainly includes any distinction between a material world created by an evil Cosmocrator as being somehow separated from the spiritual realm. Only her ignorance had made her see a dualistic separation in the first place. Jesus would say: "My father's Kingdom is already spread out upon this Earth, only you don't see it."
The Dialogue of the Savior
In the Dialogue of the Savior, Judas asks Jesus about meditation: "Pray in the place where there is no woman," the Lord says — meaning, as Matthew explains: "Destroy the works of womanhood, not because there is any other manner of birth, but because they will cease giving birth."
But Mary disagrees. "They will never be obliterated," she says.
The Lord responds: "Who knows that they will not dissolve?"
Mary did not believe that the "works of womanhood" — the material world ruled by desire, and the governors and administrators who possess garments "granted only for a time, which do not last" — would ever truly be destroyed. The rulers possess material bodies that do not last. The meditator's perception of them dissolves, but they remain. The child who plays hide and seek by covering its own eyes has not made the world disappear.
Jesus and Mary both knew something intuitively. They knew that the concept of "the All" and "the One" denoted complete and total Samadhi-unity, a concept which ultimately brooks no separation.
The Dance Around the One
Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas:
It is I who am the light which transcends all others. It is I who am from the All. Out from Me the All flows outward, and into Me does All extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone, and there you will find Me.
The Sophia of the Jesus Christ: "For where the mind is, there is the treasure. He does not see through the soul nor through the spirit, but the mind which is between the two — that is what he sees the vision with. The soul serves you as a garment, though you do not know it."
And Plotinus describes the meditative return to unity:
We always revolve about the One, but we do not always pay attention to it. Like a chorus singing harmoniously around its conductor becomes discordant when it turns away from him, but sings beautifully when turned inward and fully attentive — we similarly revolve around the Oneness of God, but do not always look to him. Yet when we do, we find our home and resting place. Around him we dance the true dance — God-inspired and no longer dissonant.
Hermes Trismegistus, from the Corpus:
IT is too great to be called by the name 'God'. IT is hidden, yet obvious everywhere. IT is bodiless, yet embodied in everything. There is nothing that IT is not. IT has no name, because all names are IT's name. IT is the unity in all things, so we must know IT by all names and call everything 'God'.
And from the Secret Book of John:
IT is the immeasurable light, pure, holy, bright. IT is unutterable, and is perfect in IT's imperishability. IT is neither corporeal nor incorporeal. IT is neither large nor small. Not that IT is actually greater. Rather, as IT is in IT-SELF, IT is not a part of worlds or time... The ONE who exists first does not need anything from one who is later.
This is the Gnostic All-Father. This is the goal of the meditative death. When one meditates successfully — when the soul passes through the seven gates and ignorance dies — the distinction between self and other dissolves. You are no longer here as opposed to there. You are the dancer who has finally turned toward the conductor. The All is not destroyed. The illusion of the All's separation from you is dissolved.
Here you shall put on your robe of light. Find the Bridal Chamber.
Colophon
Written by Nuvoadam and posted to alt.religion.gnostic on September 16, 2003. Message-ID: [email protected]. Nuvoadam was a regular contributor to alt.religion.gnostic from 2003 to 2004, producing a series of cross-traditional essays on Hermetic Gnosticism, meditation, and the unity of the divine. This essay is one of his most developed statements of the Gnostic understanding of samadhi-unity. Spelling and style preserved from the original.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].
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