THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND JEWISH MYSTICS: (Excerpted from History of Mysticism, 1987;
reprinted 10-21-23)
reprinted 10-21-23)
THE EARLY EGYPTIANS
When we examine any ancient civilization, we see before us a broad cultural tapestry of multiple mythic images. And yet, if we search carefully, we shall undoubtedly find in one small corner of that tapestry the evidence that a genuine seer existed, and spoke, and left his imprint on future generations. The popular polytheistic culture of ancient Egypt, with which we are familiar from the findings of archaeology, was the product of its artists, poets, priests, and intellectuals. They invented a panoply of gods and goddesses, creatures of the religious imagination; yet, despite this apparent polytheism, the cornerstone of the religious consciousness of ancient Egypt was the recognition of an absolute Unity, which was called Neter, in which all gods (neteru), men, and creatures were included.
For the Egyptians of the early dynasties, the various gods, such as Ra, Horus, and Osiris, for example, were symbolic representatives of various aspects or attributes of the one universal Spirit, much as Indra, Varuna, and Agni personified various attributes of the universal Brahman in the Vedic tradition. The Unity, called Neter, was regarded as the one eternal Being, omnipotent, omniscient and inscrutable, in whom and from whom all the phenomenal and noumenal universe exists. Men, gods, creatures, and all objects were seen to be mental creations of the transcendent God, who, in Himself, remained eternally pure and unchanging. Here is a synopsis of their view of Creation, as presented by noted Egyptologist, Sir Wallis Budge:
"According to the writings of the Egyptians, there was a time when neither heaven nor earth existed, and when nothing had Being except the boundless primeval water, which was, however, shrouded with thick darkness. In this condition, the primeval water remained for a considerable time, notwithstanding that it contained within it the germs of the things, which afterwards came into existence in this world and the world itself. At length, the Spirit of the primeval water felt the desire for creative activity, and having uttered the word, the world sprang straightway into being in the form which had already been depicted in the mind of the Spirit before He spake the word which resulted in its creation." 1
This view, it should be noted, is strikingly similar to the view, already cited, of the Vedic seers of ancient India. It should be noted also that, for the ancient Egyptians, it is the “Thought” or “Word” of the one Spirit which constitutes the world of creation—a Thought or Word born of, yet distinct from, the originating Mind. We find this view consistently held as far back as the 24th century B.C.E. at Memphis, in Egypt, where an independent religious tradition worshipped the One as Ptah. The rock carvings on the walls of the pyramids, known as “the Pyramid Texts” (ca. 2350-2175 B.C.E.) declare:
"Mighty and great is Ptah, who gives power to all the
gods; . . . He is in every body and every mouth of all gods, all men, all beasts,
all crawling things, and whatever lives, since He thinks forth and
calls into being everything according to His will."
"When the eyes see, the ears hear, and the nose breathes, these sensations
are referred to the mind. And it is the mind that brings forth every word,
for the tongue only repeats the thought of the mind. Likewise, everything
has come into existence through the thought of Ptah and His word.
[Through the mind of Ptah] all the gods were fashioned, . . . and all the gods
are at one with Him, content and united with the Lord of heaven and earth."2
This is undoubtedly the work of an ancient mystic, of one who has seen the origin of the universe in the clarity of mystical vision. But even more compelling evidence for the existence and influence of an ancient mystic may be found in a portion of The Egyptian Book Of The Dead, called “The Papyrus of Ani,” which contains material dating back to the 30th century B.C.E., and may even have predated the dynastic eras in a purely oral tradition. Here, we find a number of recurring epithets for the one originating Principle, which clearly bespeak such a mystical influence:
“God is One and alone, and none other exists with Him; God is the One,
the One who has made all things. He is eternal and infinite; . . .He has endured
for countless ages, and He shall endure to all eternity.
“God is a spirit, a hidden spirit, the Spirit of spirits, the Divine Spirit.
He is a mystery to His creatures, and no man knows how to know Him.
His names are innumerable; they are manifold, and no one knows their number.
“God has made the universe, and He has created all that is in it;
. . . He has stretched out the heavens and founded the earth.
What His heart conceived came to pass straightway, and when He had
spoken, His word came to pass, and it shall endure forever.
God, Himself, is existence; He lives in all things, and lives
upon all things. He endures without increase or diminution;
He multiplies Himself millions of times, and He possesses multitudes
of forms and multitudes of members.
“God is life, and through Him only man lives. He gives life to man, and
He breathes the breath of life into his nostrils. God is merciful unto those
who reverence Him, and He hears those who call upon Him.
He protects the weak against the strong, and He hears the cry
of him that is bound in fetters.
“God knows those who know Him; He rewards those who serve Him,
and He protects those who follow Him. “3
Scholars today view these epithets as merely an exceptionally early expression of monotheistic theory, predating that of the Judaic scriptures; but the mystic recognizes the author of these words, not as a theoretician, but as a person who has realized the ultimate Reality through direct experience, who has “seen” the Unity in the clarity of mystical vision. It is because his knowledge came of a God-given revelation that he was able to speak with such authority and conviction, and for that reason also his words endured to so deeply effect the religious sentiment of ancient Egypt and very likely that of the early Jews of Israel as well.
THE EARLY JEWS
Around the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. a small group of people left the city of Ur of Chaldea in Babylonia (present-day Iraq), led by a man named Terah and his son, Abraham, and traveled northward across the Euphrates River. These were the first people to later become known as Ivriim, or Hebrews, “the people who crossed over the river.” Later, Abraham, at the age of seventy-five, told his few fellow tribesmen that he had heard the voice of God speaking to him from on High, and the voice told him that they would become God’s “chosen people” if they would follow the commandments God had given to him. Abraham told them that God would lead His people south into the land of Canaan (the “promised land” which now comprises Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon) if they would agree to the circumcision of all their male descendants. His followers agreed to this covenant, and the Judaic religion was born.
For several centuries thereafter, Abraham’s descendants wandered as nomads in the land of Canaan, worshipping their God, whom they called JHVH (“Yahweh”), perhaps as a variant of Jahu, originally the name of a tribal god of rain. Then, in the 16th century B.C.E., Joseph, a descendant of Abraham, led some of the Hebrew tribe into Egypt, and eventual slavery, while some others remained in the “promised land” of Canaan. Those Hebrews who had endured slavery in Egypt returned to Canaan in the 12th century B.C.E., led by a new leader named Moses, who, with his code of social conduct, helped to establish a lawful and integrated society. However, in the four hundred years of their absence, the Canaanites (those who had remained behind) had evolved their own religious culture, borrowing much from their ancient Babylonian roots and other indigenous influences.
They had embraced the mystical concept of the two Divine aspects of the one Truth: They called the one aspect, which was transcendent and Male, El (“the First”) or Ba’al (“the Lord”); and the other aspect, which was the creative Energy manifest as the world, they depicted as immanent and Female, and called Her Elat (the feminine form of El), or Ba’ala (the feminine form of Ba’al). She was also known as Anath, Athirat, or Asherah—all variants of the Syrian Astarte or the Babylonian Ishtar. This cult of Ashera, the Mother Goddess, was anathema to Moses and the newly arrived Hebrews, however. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible (called the Pentateuch), traditionally considered to have been written by Moses, contains more than 40 references to Ashera in which the Jews recently arrived in Israel from Egypt were warned against Her worship.
Nonetheless, it is clear that some segments of the Hebrews adopted the concept of the Goddess; for, in 1975 of the Current Era, at a site in the Sinai desert called Kuntillet Ajrud, archaeologists found fragments of a storage jar dating from the 8th century B.C.E., which contained three figures, one a female playing a lyre, with an inscription referring to “Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah.”1 The Asherah, or goddess, is also represented on these fragments by Her icons: the sacred tree, symbol of Nature’s bounty; and the lion, Her frequent mount in representations from ancient Sumeria to India.
Between the 10th and 6th centuries B.C.E., the Canaanite cult of Ashera continued to resurface, as evidenced by the recurring injunctions against Her worship in many of the Old Testament books written during that time. And, eventually, the conflict between the Canaanite worshippers of the One in Its dual aspects which they called Baal and Asherah, and the Hebrew worshippers of the One in Its dual aspects which they called Yahweh and Chokmah resulted in the systematic slaughter of many of the Canaanites by the Hebrews. Ba’al was replaced by Yahweh, and Asherah was replaced by Chokmah. Chokmah (pronounced Hoke-mah), which means “Wisdom,” was the Hebrew version of the creative Power of Yahweh, synonymous with Prthivi of the Vedas. Later, in the Jewish rabbinical tradition, She would become Shekinah; and the Greek seers of a later time—notably the Stoics, and the Gnostics as well, would call Her Sophia, their own word for “Wisdom.” By both Jews and Greeks alike, She was regarded, not only as the creative aspect of God, but also as the principle of Intelligence inherent in mankind who is Her embodiment.
In the book of Proverbs, in the Old Testament of the Bible, She is made to say:
"God made me [Wisdom] in the beginning of His works, as the first of His acts.
. . . Before God made the earth and the fields or the first dust of the world,
when He set up the heavens, I was there.
". . . When He laid the foundations of the earth, I existed as His instrument.
I was His delight every day, playing always before Him, playing on His
inhabited earth, and my delights are with human beings." 2
She, the female aspect of God, was regarded as coeternal with the unmanifested God, being His Power of manifestation by which the universe came into existence:
"Chokmah [Wisdom] is from the Lord; She is with Him eternally.
. . . It is He who created Her, . . and infused Her into all His works. "3
She is the vibratory Energy from which all matter is produced, a vibratory Energy,
which emanates from God, as the sound of a word emanates from a person’s mouth:
"Hear the praise of Chokmah from Her own mouth: ‘I am the Word which was spoken by the
Most High’." 4
In the 1st century C.E., an unknown Alexandrian Jew wrote a book, later incorporated into the Hebrew Bible, entitled The Wisdom of Solomon, wherein he stated:
"She [Sophia, Wisdom] is an exhalation from the [Creative] Power of God, a pure
effluence from the glory of the Almighty; therefore, nothing tainted
insinuates itself into her. She is an effulgence of everlasting light,
an unblemished mirror of the active power of God, and an image of His goodness." 5
Yet, while the early seers of Judaism recognized the dual-facets of the One, they were also keenly aware of the danger of the hypostatization of the creative Principle as a second and separate Divinity, and the consequent error of philosophical Dualism. For this reason, they continually hearkened back to the declaration of the singularity and unity of God:
"I am the one Lord; there is no other beside Me. I form the light and create the darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the one Lord, do all these things." 6
This great declaration of Nondualism is perhaps the most significant statement in all of the Hebrew Bible. It acknowledges the singleness of God and stands as a bulwark against those who would divide the responsibility for the nature of things between a good Principle and an evil Principle, as has been done so often throughout history. Dualism— the doctrine which asserts that there are two independent and contrary Principles at work in the universe is a belief which perennially resurfaces among the unlearned segments of the populace as a means of explaining the apparent injustice and suffering in the world. God is good and just, they reason; and so, these things could not have originated with Him, but had to have been produced by some other.
Such a creed of Dualism existed during Biblical times as well and required frequent reminders from the Hebrew prophets and seers that all that is comes from the one Lord. The Creative Power, usually symbolized as a female Goddess, never was a separate and independent Divinity, but is merely a symbol of the Creative Power of the One; they were never two. It is that one Lord who is the source of the Creative Power from whom comes both good and evil; all such opposites: the light and the darkness, pleasure and pain, life and death, composition and decomposition, are complementary aspects of the one Life force, while He, the transcendent God, is beyond all dualities, and is unaffected by the appearance of duality.
As those who have seen the Truth in the “mystical vision” tell us, He is always pure, always unaffected by the play of opposites which we experience as the world. Just as our own personal consciousness remains clear and unstained by the millions of thoughts and images which have paraded across it, or just as the sky remains clear and unmarred even though millions of thunder clouds have passed across its face, so He is ever pure, ever-unchanged and unaffected by the manifestation of the countless thought-forms which constitute this universe.
To be sure, He is solely responsible for the existence of this universe; He is its sole Source and animating power. And yet, as is evident from the analogy with the human consciousness, He, in his own being, remains uninvolved, unaffected by the immensely complex activities and evolutions taking place within the cosmic drama. This is not to say, of course, that He is not as close as our own breath; we, and the objects of our world, are nothing else but His existence, and He is the Source and inner Self of everyone. He is the voice of reason, He is the fire of song within the heart; He is the compassion that stirs the soul, He is the light of wisdom shining, full of joy, within us all. It is He who, in the very creation of this world of opposites, has placed the dust of blindness before our inner eye, and concealed Himself in the fog of our ignorance. And it is He, also, who increases His own light in the soul, causing it to yearn for total illumination, and then reveals Himself within as the Light of all lights, the Self of all selves.
Of all the various prophets and authors of the Hebrew Bible who yearned for a clear vision of God, the nameless author of the book of Psalms seems best qualified to be regarded as a true mystic. These noble and poetically beautiful songs of God-longing and praise have been attributed to David, king of Palestine (ca. 1000 B.C.E.), but it is very unlikely that they really were penned by that famous warrior-king. Whoever their author was, it is clear that he had experienced the yearning for God and had received the grace of mystical “vision.” His Psalms, apparently recorded around the same time as some of the songs of the Rig Veda, bear some similarity to those Vedic Hymns. His world, like that of the Vedic authors, was a harsh one of mysterious, unexplained forces, and violent, warlike men. He calls on his God to defeat them and to favor him and his own. In his plaintive songs to God, he oftentimes cries out in anguish at God’s slowness in vanquishing the wicked and granting victory to the righteous.
Like the Vedas, the Psalms run the gamut of human emotions, from humility to rage, from prayer for righteousness to prayer for conquest. They are songs from an obviously difficult time of savage and brutal struggle, and yet, it seems that, during the time of the Psalmist, there was a strong movement toward the path of devotion, and many who sought, through solitary contemplation, to know God. It was the Psalmist, who gave voice to this movement, saying: “This is the generation of them that seek after Him, that seek Thy Face, O God.” 7 His one desire was to see God face to face; “As for me,” he says in the 17th Psalm, “let me behold Thy Face through righteousness.” Like Jesus, who was to come long after him, he declared that it is the pure in heart who shall see God: “The Lord loves righteousness; it is the righteous who shall behold His Face.”8
Wherever we find a literature of loving devotion to God, we may expect also to find a seer of God. The Psalmist was just such a lover and seer. In his Songs of longing for the embrace of God, we find the forerunners of the songs of devotion written much later by the saints of the Bhakti movement in India. In the period of his most intense longing, he sings: “As a deer pants for the cool stream, so my soul longs for Thee, O God.”9 And in his anguish, he cries out, “How long, O Lord? Wilt Thou forget me forever? How long wilt Thou hide thy Face from me?”10 And then, when at last he attains the vision he sought, and realizes the oneness and all-pervasiveness of God, he sings:
"O Lord, Thou art behind me and before me, and Thy hand is ever upon me. This is a knowledge too wonderful for me to grasp! Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I take the wings of the morning, or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall uphold me." 11
In such utterances, we are able to hear the perennial song of unity sung by the later mystic seers. The Psalmist clearly recognizes, at least briefly, the all-pervasiveness of God, the all-inclusiveness of God, and knows in that moment that even his own life is but an expression of God’s manifold being. But it is too wonderful, too subtle, for him to grasp. And besides, the Psalmist is little concerned with establishing a consistent philosophical world view; his songs are prayers to God, songs of rejoicing, praise, or wails of distress. Like the Vedas, they originate from the primitive heart, which seeks in all simplicity to know and follow the ways of the mysterious God who holds in His hands the fate of all men. To their author, the formulation of a ‘philosophy of Unity’ was unthinkable; he was a lover, and he knew only that his beloved God had shown him His grace.
Whether it was king David or some other who wrote the Psalms, their author was a man who had undoubtedly received a profound experience of God within himself, and who, because of that grace, was able to provide inspiration and strength to men of many later generations through his songs in praise of God. To be sure, those ancient songs are mixed with the stain of bigotry, violence, and other human weaknesses; but we must remember the time and circumstances under which they were written. Their author stood alone in a time of barbarism and stupidity, and fearlessly sang of his God, and upheld the banner of truth and righteousness for his people to follow. Today, so many centuries removed from his times and trials, we may still catch a glimpse of the greatness of the Psalmist and hear the echo of his mighty voice across the mountainous years, resounding in praise of the ancient and everlasting God.
NOTES:
The Early Egyptians
1.Budge, W., 1959, pp. 40-41
2.Campbell, J., 1962, pp.86-88
3. Budge, W., 1959, pp. 37-38, quoting Brusch, Dr. H., 1929, pp. 96-99
The Early Jews
1.Hestrin, 1991, pp. 50-58
2.Old Testament, Proverbs: 8:22-30
3.Ibid., Ecclesiasticus: 1:1-6
4. Ibid., Ecclesiasticus: 24
5. Ibid., The Wisdom of Solomon: 7:25-26
6. Ibid., Second Isaiah: 45:4
7. Ibid., Psalms: 24
8. Ibid., Psalms: 11
9. Ibid., Psalms: 42
10. Ibid., Psalms: 13
11. Ibid., Psalms: 139
* * *
When we examine any ancient civilization, we see before us a broad cultural tapestry of multiple mythic images. And yet, if we search carefully, we shall undoubtedly find in one small corner of that tapestry the evidence that a genuine seer existed, and spoke, and left his imprint on future generations. The popular polytheistic culture of ancient Egypt, with which we are familiar from the findings of archaeology, was the product of its artists, poets, priests, and intellectuals. They invented a panoply of gods and goddesses, creatures of the religious imagination; yet, despite this apparent polytheism, the cornerstone of the religious consciousness of ancient Egypt was the recognition of an absolute Unity, which was called Neter, in which all gods (neteru), men, and creatures were included.
For the Egyptians of the early dynasties, the various gods, such as Ra, Horus, and Osiris, for example, were symbolic representatives of various aspects or attributes of the one universal Spirit, much as Indra, Varuna, and Agni personified various attributes of the universal Brahman in the Vedic tradition. The Unity, called Neter, was regarded as the one eternal Being, omnipotent, omniscient and inscrutable, in whom and from whom all the phenomenal and noumenal universe exists. Men, gods, creatures, and all objects were seen to be mental creations of the transcendent God, who, in Himself, remained eternally pure and unchanging. Here is a synopsis of their view of Creation, as presented by noted Egyptologist, Sir Wallis Budge:
"According to the writings of the Egyptians, there was a time when neither heaven nor earth existed, and when nothing had Being except the boundless primeval water, which was, however, shrouded with thick darkness. In this condition, the primeval water remained for a considerable time, notwithstanding that it contained within it the germs of the things, which afterwards came into existence in this world and the world itself. At length, the Spirit of the primeval water felt the desire for creative activity, and having uttered the word, the world sprang straightway into being in the form which had already been depicted in the mind of the Spirit before He spake the word which resulted in its creation." 1
This view, it should be noted, is strikingly similar to the view, already cited, of the Vedic seers of ancient India. It should be noted also that, for the ancient Egyptians, it is the “Thought” or “Word” of the one Spirit which constitutes the world of creation—a Thought or Word born of, yet distinct from, the originating Mind. We find this view consistently held as far back as the 24th century B.C.E. at Memphis, in Egypt, where an independent religious tradition worshipped the One as Ptah. The rock carvings on the walls of the pyramids, known as “the Pyramid Texts” (ca. 2350-2175 B.C.E.) declare:
"Mighty and great is Ptah, who gives power to all the
gods; . . . He is in every body and every mouth of all gods, all men, all beasts,
all crawling things, and whatever lives, since He thinks forth and
calls into being everything according to His will."
"When the eyes see, the ears hear, and the nose breathes, these sensations
are referred to the mind. And it is the mind that brings forth every word,
for the tongue only repeats the thought of the mind. Likewise, everything
has come into existence through the thought of Ptah and His word.
[Through the mind of Ptah] all the gods were fashioned, . . . and all the gods
are at one with Him, content and united with the Lord of heaven and earth."2
This is undoubtedly the work of an ancient mystic, of one who has seen the origin of the universe in the clarity of mystical vision. But even more compelling evidence for the existence and influence of an ancient mystic may be found in a portion of The Egyptian Book Of The Dead, called “The Papyrus of Ani,” which contains material dating back to the 30th century B.C.E., and may even have predated the dynastic eras in a purely oral tradition. Here, we find a number of recurring epithets for the one originating Principle, which clearly bespeak such a mystical influence:
“God is One and alone, and none other exists with Him; God is the One,
the One who has made all things. He is eternal and infinite; . . .He has endured
for countless ages, and He shall endure to all eternity.
“God is a spirit, a hidden spirit, the Spirit of spirits, the Divine Spirit.
He is a mystery to His creatures, and no man knows how to know Him.
His names are innumerable; they are manifold, and no one knows their number.
“God has made the universe, and He has created all that is in it;
. . . He has stretched out the heavens and founded the earth.
What His heart conceived came to pass straightway, and when He had
spoken, His word came to pass, and it shall endure forever.
God, Himself, is existence; He lives in all things, and lives
upon all things. He endures without increase or diminution;
He multiplies Himself millions of times, and He possesses multitudes
of forms and multitudes of members.
“God is life, and through Him only man lives. He gives life to man, and
He breathes the breath of life into his nostrils. God is merciful unto those
who reverence Him, and He hears those who call upon Him.
He protects the weak against the strong, and He hears the cry
of him that is bound in fetters.
“God knows those who know Him; He rewards those who serve Him,
and He protects those who follow Him. “3
Scholars today view these epithets as merely an exceptionally early expression of monotheistic theory, predating that of the Judaic scriptures; but the mystic recognizes the author of these words, not as a theoretician, but as a person who has realized the ultimate Reality through direct experience, who has “seen” the Unity in the clarity of mystical vision. It is because his knowledge came of a God-given revelation that he was able to speak with such authority and conviction, and for that reason also his words endured to so deeply effect the religious sentiment of ancient Egypt and very likely that of the early Jews of Israel as well.
THE EARLY JEWS
Around the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. a small group of people left the city of Ur of Chaldea in Babylonia (present-day Iraq), led by a man named Terah and his son, Abraham, and traveled northward across the Euphrates River. These were the first people to later become known as Ivriim, or Hebrews, “the people who crossed over the river.” Later, Abraham, at the age of seventy-five, told his few fellow tribesmen that he had heard the voice of God speaking to him from on High, and the voice told him that they would become God’s “chosen people” if they would follow the commandments God had given to him. Abraham told them that God would lead His people south into the land of Canaan (the “promised land” which now comprises Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon) if they would agree to the circumcision of all their male descendants. His followers agreed to this covenant, and the Judaic religion was born.
For several centuries thereafter, Abraham’s descendants wandered as nomads in the land of Canaan, worshipping their God, whom they called JHVH (“Yahweh”), perhaps as a variant of Jahu, originally the name of a tribal god of rain. Then, in the 16th century B.C.E., Joseph, a descendant of Abraham, led some of the Hebrew tribe into Egypt, and eventual slavery, while some others remained in the “promised land” of Canaan. Those Hebrews who had endured slavery in Egypt returned to Canaan in the 12th century B.C.E., led by a new leader named Moses, who, with his code of social conduct, helped to establish a lawful and integrated society. However, in the four hundred years of their absence, the Canaanites (those who had remained behind) had evolved their own religious culture, borrowing much from their ancient Babylonian roots and other indigenous influences.
They had embraced the mystical concept of the two Divine aspects of the one Truth: They called the one aspect, which was transcendent and Male, El (“the First”) or Ba’al (“the Lord”); and the other aspect, which was the creative Energy manifest as the world, they depicted as immanent and Female, and called Her Elat (the feminine form of El), or Ba’ala (the feminine form of Ba’al). She was also known as Anath, Athirat, or Asherah—all variants of the Syrian Astarte or the Babylonian Ishtar. This cult of Ashera, the Mother Goddess, was anathema to Moses and the newly arrived Hebrews, however. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible (called the Pentateuch), traditionally considered to have been written by Moses, contains more than 40 references to Ashera in which the Jews recently arrived in Israel from Egypt were warned against Her worship.
Nonetheless, it is clear that some segments of the Hebrews adopted the concept of the Goddess; for, in 1975 of the Current Era, at a site in the Sinai desert called Kuntillet Ajrud, archaeologists found fragments of a storage jar dating from the 8th century B.C.E., which contained three figures, one a female playing a lyre, with an inscription referring to “Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah.”1 The Asherah, or goddess, is also represented on these fragments by Her icons: the sacred tree, symbol of Nature’s bounty; and the lion, Her frequent mount in representations from ancient Sumeria to India.
Between the 10th and 6th centuries B.C.E., the Canaanite cult of Ashera continued to resurface, as evidenced by the recurring injunctions against Her worship in many of the Old Testament books written during that time. And, eventually, the conflict between the Canaanite worshippers of the One in Its dual aspects which they called Baal and Asherah, and the Hebrew worshippers of the One in Its dual aspects which they called Yahweh and Chokmah resulted in the systematic slaughter of many of the Canaanites by the Hebrews. Ba’al was replaced by Yahweh, and Asherah was replaced by Chokmah. Chokmah (pronounced Hoke-mah), which means “Wisdom,” was the Hebrew version of the creative Power of Yahweh, synonymous with Prthivi of the Vedas. Later, in the Jewish rabbinical tradition, She would become Shekinah; and the Greek seers of a later time—notably the Stoics, and the Gnostics as well, would call Her Sophia, their own word for “Wisdom.” By both Jews and Greeks alike, She was regarded, not only as the creative aspect of God, but also as the principle of Intelligence inherent in mankind who is Her embodiment.
In the book of Proverbs, in the Old Testament of the Bible, She is made to say:
"God made me [Wisdom] in the beginning of His works, as the first of His acts.
. . . Before God made the earth and the fields or the first dust of the world,
when He set up the heavens, I was there.
". . . When He laid the foundations of the earth, I existed as His instrument.
I was His delight every day, playing always before Him, playing on His
inhabited earth, and my delights are with human beings." 2
She, the female aspect of God, was regarded as coeternal with the unmanifested God, being His Power of manifestation by which the universe came into existence:
"Chokmah [Wisdom] is from the Lord; She is with Him eternally.
. . . It is He who created Her, . . and infused Her into all His works. "3
She is the vibratory Energy from which all matter is produced, a vibratory Energy,
which emanates from God, as the sound of a word emanates from a person’s mouth:
"Hear the praise of Chokmah from Her own mouth: ‘I am the Word which was spoken by the
Most High’." 4
In the 1st century C.E., an unknown Alexandrian Jew wrote a book, later incorporated into the Hebrew Bible, entitled The Wisdom of Solomon, wherein he stated:
"She [Sophia, Wisdom] is an exhalation from the [Creative] Power of God, a pure
effluence from the glory of the Almighty; therefore, nothing tainted
insinuates itself into her. She is an effulgence of everlasting light,
an unblemished mirror of the active power of God, and an image of His goodness." 5
Yet, while the early seers of Judaism recognized the dual-facets of the One, they were also keenly aware of the danger of the hypostatization of the creative Principle as a second and separate Divinity, and the consequent error of philosophical Dualism. For this reason, they continually hearkened back to the declaration of the singularity and unity of God:
"I am the one Lord; there is no other beside Me. I form the light and create the darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the one Lord, do all these things." 6
This great declaration of Nondualism is perhaps the most significant statement in all of the Hebrew Bible. It acknowledges the singleness of God and stands as a bulwark against those who would divide the responsibility for the nature of things between a good Principle and an evil Principle, as has been done so often throughout history. Dualism— the doctrine which asserts that there are two independent and contrary Principles at work in the universe is a belief which perennially resurfaces among the unlearned segments of the populace as a means of explaining the apparent injustice and suffering in the world. God is good and just, they reason; and so, these things could not have originated with Him, but had to have been produced by some other.
Such a creed of Dualism existed during Biblical times as well and required frequent reminders from the Hebrew prophets and seers that all that is comes from the one Lord. The Creative Power, usually symbolized as a female Goddess, never was a separate and independent Divinity, but is merely a symbol of the Creative Power of the One; they were never two. It is that one Lord who is the source of the Creative Power from whom comes both good and evil; all such opposites: the light and the darkness, pleasure and pain, life and death, composition and decomposition, are complementary aspects of the one Life force, while He, the transcendent God, is beyond all dualities, and is unaffected by the appearance of duality.
As those who have seen the Truth in the “mystical vision” tell us, He is always pure, always unaffected by the play of opposites which we experience as the world. Just as our own personal consciousness remains clear and unstained by the millions of thoughts and images which have paraded across it, or just as the sky remains clear and unmarred even though millions of thunder clouds have passed across its face, so He is ever pure, ever-unchanged and unaffected by the manifestation of the countless thought-forms which constitute this universe.
To be sure, He is solely responsible for the existence of this universe; He is its sole Source and animating power. And yet, as is evident from the analogy with the human consciousness, He, in his own being, remains uninvolved, unaffected by the immensely complex activities and evolutions taking place within the cosmic drama. This is not to say, of course, that He is not as close as our own breath; we, and the objects of our world, are nothing else but His existence, and He is the Source and inner Self of everyone. He is the voice of reason, He is the fire of song within the heart; He is the compassion that stirs the soul, He is the light of wisdom shining, full of joy, within us all. It is He who, in the very creation of this world of opposites, has placed the dust of blindness before our inner eye, and concealed Himself in the fog of our ignorance. And it is He, also, who increases His own light in the soul, causing it to yearn for total illumination, and then reveals Himself within as the Light of all lights, the Self of all selves.
Of all the various prophets and authors of the Hebrew Bible who yearned for a clear vision of God, the nameless author of the book of Psalms seems best qualified to be regarded as a true mystic. These noble and poetically beautiful songs of God-longing and praise have been attributed to David, king of Palestine (ca. 1000 B.C.E.), but it is very unlikely that they really were penned by that famous warrior-king. Whoever their author was, it is clear that he had experienced the yearning for God and had received the grace of mystical “vision.” His Psalms, apparently recorded around the same time as some of the songs of the Rig Veda, bear some similarity to those Vedic Hymns. His world, like that of the Vedic authors, was a harsh one of mysterious, unexplained forces, and violent, warlike men. He calls on his God to defeat them and to favor him and his own. In his plaintive songs to God, he oftentimes cries out in anguish at God’s slowness in vanquishing the wicked and granting victory to the righteous.
Like the Vedas, the Psalms run the gamut of human emotions, from humility to rage, from prayer for righteousness to prayer for conquest. They are songs from an obviously difficult time of savage and brutal struggle, and yet, it seems that, during the time of the Psalmist, there was a strong movement toward the path of devotion, and many who sought, through solitary contemplation, to know God. It was the Psalmist, who gave voice to this movement, saying: “This is the generation of them that seek after Him, that seek Thy Face, O God.” 7 His one desire was to see God face to face; “As for me,” he says in the 17th Psalm, “let me behold Thy Face through righteousness.” Like Jesus, who was to come long after him, he declared that it is the pure in heart who shall see God: “The Lord loves righteousness; it is the righteous who shall behold His Face.”8
Wherever we find a literature of loving devotion to God, we may expect also to find a seer of God. The Psalmist was just such a lover and seer. In his Songs of longing for the embrace of God, we find the forerunners of the songs of devotion written much later by the saints of the Bhakti movement in India. In the period of his most intense longing, he sings: “As a deer pants for the cool stream, so my soul longs for Thee, O God.”9 And in his anguish, he cries out, “How long, O Lord? Wilt Thou forget me forever? How long wilt Thou hide thy Face from me?”10 And then, when at last he attains the vision he sought, and realizes the oneness and all-pervasiveness of God, he sings:
"O Lord, Thou art behind me and before me, and Thy hand is ever upon me. This is a knowledge too wonderful for me to grasp! Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I take the wings of the morning, or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall uphold me." 11
In such utterances, we are able to hear the perennial song of unity sung by the later mystic seers. The Psalmist clearly recognizes, at least briefly, the all-pervasiveness of God, the all-inclusiveness of God, and knows in that moment that even his own life is but an expression of God’s manifold being. But it is too wonderful, too subtle, for him to grasp. And besides, the Psalmist is little concerned with establishing a consistent philosophical world view; his songs are prayers to God, songs of rejoicing, praise, or wails of distress. Like the Vedas, they originate from the primitive heart, which seeks in all simplicity to know and follow the ways of the mysterious God who holds in His hands the fate of all men. To their author, the formulation of a ‘philosophy of Unity’ was unthinkable; he was a lover, and he knew only that his beloved God had shown him His grace.
Whether it was king David or some other who wrote the Psalms, their author was a man who had undoubtedly received a profound experience of God within himself, and who, because of that grace, was able to provide inspiration and strength to men of many later generations through his songs in praise of God. To be sure, those ancient songs are mixed with the stain of bigotry, violence, and other human weaknesses; but we must remember the time and circumstances under which they were written. Their author stood alone in a time of barbarism and stupidity, and fearlessly sang of his God, and upheld the banner of truth and righteousness for his people to follow. Today, so many centuries removed from his times and trials, we may still catch a glimpse of the greatness of the Psalmist and hear the echo of his mighty voice across the mountainous years, resounding in praise of the ancient and everlasting God.
NOTES:
The Early Egyptians
1.Budge, W., 1959, pp. 40-41
2.Campbell, J., 1962, pp.86-88
3. Budge, W., 1959, pp. 37-38, quoting Brusch, Dr. H., 1929, pp. 96-99
The Early Jews
1.Hestrin, 1991, pp. 50-58
2.Old Testament, Proverbs: 8:22-30
3.Ibid., Ecclesiasticus: 1:1-6
4. Ibid., Ecclesiasticus: 24
5. Ibid., The Wisdom of Solomon: 7:25-26
6. Ibid., Second Isaiah: 45:4
7. Ibid., Psalms: 24
8. Ibid., Psalms: 11
9. Ibid., Psalms: 42
10. Ibid., Psalms: 13
11. Ibid., Psalms: 139
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