Hints of an Apostolic Gnosis from the Early Christian Pistis Sophia and the Books of Jeu

The Great Egyptologist Erik Hornung once noted “An abundance of testimony, (Fülle von Zeugnissen) which has come from ancient Egypt, gives the impression of a systematic, carefully thought-out shaping of the world, which takes into account all essential forces of the world and leaves nothing to chance (und nichts dem Zufall uberlasst).”[1] Egyptologists have explained the ancient Egyptian logic and philosophy as a system of gods "that described and explained the world, they were the knots of a network of forces. The governing idea of this network was Maat. This word stands for order, harmony, balance, justice and truth."[2] This sounds exactly like the early Christian understanding of the Logos, which they equated with Christ, while the Greeks equated logos with Hermes. It's also 5 characteristics of the Sephirah of the Jewish Kabbalah Tree of Life. Klaus Koch called Maat “a healing substance, not just as an abstract value (heilbringende Substanz, nicht nur als abstraktes Werturteil)."[3]

The point is this; there are abundant evidences that the ancients used each others' philosophies and ideas and adapted them to their own culture. Ancient religious philosophy goes far back into antiquity and has a red thread throughout time perhaps even up to our own day, but at least up to the Second Temple Judaism and early Christian/Gnostic/Hermetic times until 400 A. D. when the official "Church" stamped out what they deemed as all heresies. In other words, everything else the church didn't like because it was different from their own beliefs.

We are the inheritors of the Christian tradition from the West, like it or not, and if we are to understand that heritage, we have to think like them, imagine what their world without electricity, knowledge of biological cells, nuclear power, and hundred billion star galaxies by the billions in the universe was like. Their thought is not ours, let alone their language, politics or religion, which we seem to have already judged as higglety pigglety nonsense. For the most part it is. But it's hard to believe that hundreds of grown men and women, scholars in their own right, being at least multi-lingual, world travelers, and translator of texts would just simply write nonsense for the world at large to think they had brain problem issues. I no longer think that is the case. I think these highly intelligent people have something quite interesting to tell us and show us. The hints in the Pistis Sophia and the Books of Jeu are enough to show they were quite ingenius in hiding their knowledge in the midst of religious stories and parables.

Once we get tuned in to their lingo, the teachers of the mysteries are coherent, interesting, and actually, correct in their assessments and definitions and descriptions of what is going on. It's the most amazing thing, but we have to tune into their methods/language, not ours. I cannot over-emphasize this enough.

What struck me this time in reading through the Pistis Sophia are the hints about the math. The mysteries are equated with numbers or something that is numerically in front of something else, and other ideas like that. Right off the bat, Jesus tells his disciples "I have come from that first mystery, which is the last mystery, which is the twenty fourth."[4] This is about the Greek alphabet, and its 24 letters, getting them into the gematria aspect of their initiation, according to Bligh Bond & Lea.[5] And I think they are seriously onto something with that keen observation. Jesus has gathered his disciples and has been teaching them for 11 years after the resurrection according to Pistis Sophia, and he is constantly bringing up the various numbers of the orders, incisions, mysteries, treasuries, etc. He says at one place "I brought the twelve powers with me which I took from the twelve saviors of the Treasury of light, according to the command of the First Mystery. Those now I cast into the wombs of your mothers, when I came into the world, and it is these which are in your bodies today."[6] What the heck?! O.K., so, for a little speculation on my part.

We can make an interpretation, one among many, that the ancients were trying to tell us their gods were the immutable, unchangeable ratios and various proportions within a mathematical/geometric scheme, which they then in a spiritual sense applied to themselves as principles good to live by and think on, especially about the nature of the world and universe. In the Books of Jeu, the treasuries are usually headed by three messengers of light, and there are twelves archons or guardians as it were. I suggest those three messengers are the three square roots of general geometry. Hear me out. The first thing a geometer does is mark a point, an indefineable (one of the ancients' descriptions of their God!) immeasurable (literally, it has no dimensionality in a 3-D world - another description of their God!) point, which is the beginning of a circle as he whirls a circle using the compass. To the ancients there is no other way to say this, this is God. Of course, it's symbolic, work with me here for a minute. The circle performs from within itself an "emanation" (a word used constantly in the Books of Jeu, I mean constantly!) which the initiate is doing using his compass as he contemplates the meaning of this emanation and the appearance of yet a second circle, overlapping the first which gives rise to the justifiably famous Vesica Pisces shape between overlapping circles. I seriously envision Jesus talking to the disciples as they are going through their geometry lessons and drawing the figures as he is explaining to them the meanings out loud. From the Vesica comes all other geometric forms. Lets take a careful look here. I'm serious, I think I have something. What is the progression? Jesus said he brought the twelve powers with him. Here is what I propose he could be showing them and describing.

1. THE MYSTERY (Ein Soph in Kabbalah will get your bearings if you have studied Kabbalah)

2. the point

3. the circle

4. the second circle emanated

5. the Vesica Piscis

6. the triangle in the vesica

7. the square

8. the pentagon

9. the hexagon

10. the octagon

11. the decagon

12. dodecagon

The three messengers can be seen as the three root powers of 2, 3, and 5, since from them come infinite, incommensurable ratios (called logos by the Greeks!) which give rise to geometric progression of further figures on into infinity. This is not mystical mumbo jumbo being spouted, this is true in actual geometry. The infinite is discovered within the finite symbolically as the geometer uses his compass and straight edge. Take the example of the ever expanding, growing in both size and number, the vesica Piscis obtained through calculating the square root of 3. The ratio of 1 to square root of three remains fundamental and never changes, it is immutable, eternal, fixed. Yes as we continue on with the geometric progression we see first the horizontal green vesica, then the second golden vesica which is in proportion to the green one only larger. Then again, advancing, we get the pink vesica, again the same ratio is occurring, but the number of vesica are growing, and their size is expanding. We can mentally, ideologically, and intellectually fathom that this will never end. We have discovered constancy, immutable, eternal constancy (the law, as it were), amid change, and the more we go, the more drastic the change in both size and number of figures.

We also discover something else sensational on contemplation, as Robert Lawlor pointed out about the expanding squares under the authority of the square root of 2. What we are witnessing is the long line of the smallest vesica is the short line of the next vesica, which in turn is the short line of the next vesica, etc. It is an irrational function and universally applied relationship, hence it is a symbol of the archetypal realm. The power can go both ways, into ever expanding magnitude, or into diminution in size. We have one line that simultaneously divides and destroys the original figure, while being the building block for the next one! It grows progressively by being broken down. "This is a transformative power existing a priori in the causal root," [whether of root 2, 3, or 5 I might add.[7]

Now, Marke Pawson has discussed the significance of Bligh Bond and Lea's insightful analysis of the mysteries in the Pistis Sophia as well as the robe of Jesus, his "light robe." Jesus, in his discourse on the robes of Christ, there are three of them, says the second Endyma is spoken of as "... the glorious name of mystery... that which is ineffable, which is the great light." The three robes of Christ correspond to the three rays of light (Bond shows they gematrically correlate, amazingly enough, with the spectral Frauenhofer line measurements of Red, Yellow, and Blue! Jesus's three Great Lights of his robe give us the seven rays of the rainbow spectrum Jesus is talking about in Pistis Sophia. Once you understand the actual subject, the lingo makes perfect sense! Yes, I will show you, perhaps in a later paper, for now here's the source[8])

The three aeons in Pistis Sophia are the three square roots of mathematics also! These are displayed in the AlphaBetic cube, the "Cube of Space" which Kevin Townley[9] elaborates on extensively and which I will be showing along with much else he didn't Ya just gotta give me time to put it together, these things take time! Lol! The geometric picture Jesus is talking about when he says the First Mystery (the Greek Alpha) and the last mystery is also the first, what he is saying is it embraces the whole cube. The mystery is about the cube! Here is the diagram of the Hebrew letters on the Cube. It works with either alphabet because both Jesus in the early Christian mystery literature and the Jewish Kabbalah are immersed in the geometry of the cube, because of the gematria of the words involved with the mysteries and how they correlate and fit into the cube itself! It is an astonishing system of correlation of multiple disciplines. And notice once again, all creation occurs from within the "womb of the Mother(s)" as Jesus said, the Vesica Piscis! Barbara Walker has shown the Vesica as womb is in many other cultures, and adapted by Christianity to represent the womb of the mother, and Jesus was pictured in Mary's womb in Christian art represented by the Vesica Piscis.[10] This is what Jesus meant in the Pistis Sophia when he said the powers he cast into the wombs of the mothers. Yes, via the ratios, all geometric forms, and hence all creation is "born" from the womb.[11]

Its very interesting in this regard that the "simple, incommensurable root powers as geometric metaphors for the supra-rational moment of transformation... has been done in all known traditions of Sacred Geometry." There are three processes of transformation, beautifully symbolized by our three root powers of 2, 3, and 5. (and make no mistake about it, Jesus in the Pistis Sophia and Books of Jeu is definitely transforming his disciples into the light!); the Generative, symbolized by the square root of 2; the Formative, symbolized by the square root of 3; and the Regenerative, symbolized by the square root of 5, and its related function of Phi, the Golden Mean."[12]

It is in relation to the geometric cube that the Kabbalah has had its many secrets. Its shape as well as number of sides and corners and lines has been a dominant factor for symbolism in the different mystery religions. It is no surprise it is powerfully so in early Christian and Gnostic materials, with the attendant and synchronized stories and parables and theologies to go with it.

"The highest and truest temple of God is the whole universe."[13] No one literally knows what the universe looks like, so of course, we deal in symbols. One of the very most prominant is the Cube, and another symbol is the tree that connects the worlds, which can also be thought of as a ladder. (Yes, Jacob's ladder in the Old Testament is an appropriate thought here as a parallel).

Another symbolism is the combination of the circle and the square (which is only one side showing of a cube, we always have to keep that in mind). Now, modern man has largely misunderstood the intention of squaring the circle. The idea behind it is simple, not literal mathematical as so many of us imagine they thinking like we do as it being impossible.[13] The two most prominant symbols were used for heaven and earth, and thus combined in a philosophical, theological manner, not literally finding the two were commensurable. It is our literalism in so many ways that has prevented us from understanding the meaning of the ancient mysteries and their variegated expositions of numerous mystics, scholars, disciples and others.

Squaring the circle was their way of attempting to demonstrate that infinite is within the finite in all things universally considered. It was the bringing down of heaven to earth, and elevating the earth to heaven, incommensurable though they are. All things are connected in the universe is what the symbolism was telling them, and us, if we would only grasp its symbolic meaning, not the silly literalness of our age. We actually may not have been so literal had we continued being taught the ideas of the ratios in geometry and what they instill within us as a way of thinking about ideal reality.

It's not only in geometry, however, that the significance of the "Apostolic Gnosis" is seen or grasped, but also in the more impressive combination and mutual support of geometrical figurates with the mathematical aspects of the words, involving language, math, and geometry that is impressive. Here is a very strange, yet quite interesting example. And I shall then have to take up leave from here as I have a lot to read in order to continue writing and showing the ideas of the "Apostolic Gnosis" had in and throughout various disciplines.

Bligh Bond and Lea demonstrated some intriguing gematric relations with geometric figures showing a relationship of interlocking disciplines that carried a much stronger message to the early Christians than mere words alone. Three of them especially I will look at here because they have to do with the circle and the square, literally and philosophically. The one thing intriguing about the Sacred Geometry is how well the figures worked together with the language. That is because it is a carefully designed system of instruction to those wanting to know the mysteries.

"When the perimeter of the Square is 1270, that of the circle inscribed in the square is 998."[14] What does this mean, and where do the numbers come from? What are Bond and Lea trying to show us actually? I'm not trying to talk down to anyone, but it's important to explain in some detail so we can get our bearings for the examples I will discuss, as well as all future examinations we will make. Once we get this easy background under our belts, then all further discussions are easy to grasp and enlightening.

There are Greek words that match the numbers of the square with a perimeter of 1270. One of those Greek words is

Νυμφιος - "The Bridegroom" The Greek letters all add up to 1270 in this word.

Νυμφη - "The Bride" The Greek letters all add up to the value of the circle, 998.[15]

The two go together, Bride and Bridegroom. The two geometric figures of a square of a certain measure gives the circle of another measure and they belong together. It is quite intriguing. It appears to be planned.

It goes greater and all inclusive than just this also, interestingly enough. Again, subjective and arbitrary appears to be less credible than this being a planned out coordination of language and geometric form, which can translate into actual substance and real philosophical meaning.

Take the name Jeu itself, in the Greek ΙΕΟΥ = 485 by gematric calculation. It has numerous associations with the square roots, among other things. When the Jewish Kabbalists substituted another name for the Divine Name it was באבשלום BAB-SHaLOM - "Gate of Salem or Peace." (ειρηνης [Gk "peace"] = 381). Interestingly, with a circle measure equal to 381, the square it is contained in will equal a 485 perimeter! And, the Greek Αδωναι - 866 is 485 + 381. 485 is also associated with the roots of 2 and 3 and 6 as shown. The square roots, as one of my proposals, are a critical key to grasping the ancient mysteries and the connections they strive to make with language, number, geometry, music, and philosophical, ideal reality of the aeonic worlds as they call it. That's just their fancy name for Plato's "world of ideas." We can think of them, yet they are not physical, they are aeonic. One key item Bond and Lea bring out on the Books of Jeu is the 28 surviving diagrams in it. Many of those have concentric squares of Jeu! Pictorially presented to our gaze. Unfortunately it appears the 29th is missing. So, there appear to be grounds that "these diagrams may be referencing to the system of hypotenuse squares, and the fundamental importance attributed by the old geometers to these squares is well known and can be readily understood by reference to the early editions of Euclid. They have various geometric uses."[16] I have listed their several correspondences in the picture to the right below.

The name Jeu appears to have been deliberately chosen and used in conjunction with geometric figures in other words! And involving the ratios which demonstrate geometrically that the infinite is within the finite. When you have the square, you automatically have the means of finding the infinite within through the square root, whether the square ends up with side of 1 or 2 or 3 or whatever, giving rise to the square root of 2, 3, 5, 6, whatever number based on the geometry law of the figure.

This isn't mystical mumbo-jumbo, this is sober, real geometric ratio and proportion that is timeless. It's eternal whether anyone draws the figures and sees the ratios or not. They just are. They are immutable and unchangeable whether they are done by a human on earth or someone else in another galaxy in the universe. The square root of 2, though not physically existing, is literally true and a very real ratio anywhere in the universe, and will give rise to further infinite larger squares in other words. It is this, the eternal, the universal, that the mysteries are attempting to getting us to. And to get us there, we have to recognize they are already there! In us, as we are geometric beings. It is these that are unseen, hence invisible, yet real and last forever, i.e., the gods are named for them. The gods are quite real and always have been. They are the ratios discovered using Sacred Geometry. Jesus tells the disciples many times I have come from the light in order to take you to the light, but we have to understand the treasuries of light. Those treasuries of light, I would propose, as one way of interpreting them is, they are the various geometric figures used in a coordinated manner with the gematria involved as well as the colors and musical ratios, since Jesus is also always having the disciples "sing." They must "hear" the truth, as well as see it, and do it, geometrically among one of the ways. What Jeu has are the hints of the initiation and process of becoming enlightened using the music, math, and language of the mysteries. We are indeed very fortunate to have those diagrams with the books!

And finally, there is one more item I wish to show you. Bond and Lea don't present the math you need to do in order to arrive at the information they give you. I will. I think it is very important for us to be able to check, verify, and come to the same conclusions others have on our own, rather than merely take their word for it. By doing so, we process and integrate the information personally into our own souls, instead of merely "believe." The disciples in Jeu and Pistis Sophia are always asking questions about what they don't yet grasp, and Jesus praises them for it! Miriam is especially asking several really great questions and grasping things. There must be personal interaction from drawing the geometric figures ourselves, to doing the math, reading the language, and realizing the infinite within ourselves. This is what the ancient mysteries were declaring, albeit in rather oblique language, I have to admit. It would make sense as Jesus is teaching the disciples he is drawing the figures as he explains their meaning and having them also drawing them so they can be involved in the "creation" themselves, because by doing comes actual understanding, not superficial "Oh yeah, I get it," by merely watching. The wise master gracefully and gently showing them as he teaches, what the eternal, invisible gods and truths are the Logos, eventually enlightening them to the point, as they participate in the drawing and learning, that they too get it, that the ratios are the gods, and that they inhabit our very being as well, we being part of the whole, and therefore, gods also, having the infinite within.

I'm going to just post my handnotes here as it is easier to describe and show you.

The above handnote ideas on the gamtria is from Bond & Lea's Gematria. I worked out the math to share so you too can do it on your own instead of relying on someone else's say so. (p. 63). So, not only do the gematric calculations make sense within an internal setting comparing and coordinating key concepts or people who are involved together in significant ways, but they also produce exact geometric figures which are interlocking, coordinated, and ratios matching with one another. This can't be accidental, but demonstrates some elaborate planning and contextualizations intent on teaching something logical, rational, and realistic. It's their mysteries and their ideas we see here. It is fascinating. There is much more which I will continue to share as I have time.

UPDATE: 1 hour later.....

So I get my newly arrived book David Fideler's Pythagorean Sourcebook, right? I start reading and am thoroughly enjoying it when I run into this on page 31 - "Pythagoras said that a man is a microcosm, which means a compendium of the universe...because he contains all the powers of the cosmos." And further I read on and find this right after the quote - " Man, by comprising a world order in miniature, contains all of those principles [PRINCIPLES, the ratios] constituting the greater cosmos, of which he is a reflection, including the powers of divinity. The problem is not so much of becoming divine, as becoming aware of the divine, universal principle within. It is this end, primarily, toward which the Pythagorean curriculum was focused." And then on page 32 I read - "Man realizes the divine by knowing the universal and divine principles which constitute the cosmos - i.e., for the Pythagoreans, number. To know the cosmos is to seek and know the divine element within...."

I mean, isn't that what I said in the above article too?! Lol! The early Christians and Jews and Hermeticists were the heirs of the Pythagorean spiritual thought and mysteries. I see the evidence of this abundantly in at least FOUR main works, the Pistis Sophia, the Books of Jeu, and the Old and New Testaments.... Now the Greeks trace the origin back to Orpheus, but there is evidence of Egyptian influence as well which goes way back into hoary antiquity. Hermes was Thoth for instance. MUCH interesting stuff on Hermes to get out here to read also. LOTS more work to be done in those areas as well...... stay tuned.

Endnotes

1. Erik Hornung, "Politische Planung und Realität im alten Ägypten," Saeculum, 1971: 48.

2. Gertie England, "Gods as a Frame of Reference," in The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, Cognitive Structures and Popular Expressions, Uppsala, Gertie England, editor, 1989: 23.

3. Klaus Koch, Geschichte der ägyptischen Religion Von den Pyramiden bis zu den Mysterien der Isis, W. Kohlhammer, 1993: 69.

4. Carl Schmidt, Die Pistis Sophia Die Beiden Bucher des Jeu Unbekanntes Altgnostisches Werk, Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 1962: 1.

5. Bligh Bond and Lea, Gematria, A Preliminary Investigation of the Cabala, Chameleon Press, 4th Impression, 1992: 43.

6. Schmidt, Pistis Sophia, p. 7.

7. Robert Lawlor, Sacred Geometry, Philosophy and Practice, Thames & Hudson, 1982: 30.

8. Bond & Lea, Gematria, p. 28-30.

9. Kevin Townley, The Cube of Space, Container of Creation, Archive Press, 1993. His second book on this magnificent theme is Meditations on the Cube of Space, Archer Books, 2003. David Allen Hulse also has a book with an actual initiation into the learning New Dimensions for the Cube of Space, Samuel Weiser, Inc., 2000.

10. Barbara Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Harper & Row, 1983: 1045.

11. Marke Pawson, Gematria, The Numbers of Infinity, Green Magic, 2004: 121-122.

12. Lawlor, Sacred Geometry, p. 31.

Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls, the Mythology of Judaism, Oxford University Press, 2004: 417.

13. One very amusing story is of Dr. E. J. Goodwin, who, thought he made a significant discovery that Pi was the same as a square, and introduced legislation in Indiana's General Assembly to the effect that Indiana needed to make into law the circle is equal to the square in area, as told by William Dunham, The Mathematical Universe, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1994: 33.

14. Bond and Lea, Gematria, p. 63.

15. Bond and Lea, Gematria, p. 61.

16. Bond & Lea, Gematria, p. 62.