First Century String Theory
The ‘Father of all heresies’ meets the ‘Mother of all theories’ (It’s a love story.)
Simon Magus by all accounts was the first and most prominent ‘heretic’ or Gnostic in the first century. The Third Century Church Father, Hippolytus, has the most philosophical and detailed rendition of his metaphysics. Everything derives from one root which is “the Power invisible, inapprehensible silence”. This might be as good a description as anyone can come up with concerning what might have preceded the Big Bang.
Simon agrees with the Greek mystic, Heraclitus, who preceded him by five hundred years that the first principle is ‘fire’. This is not a bad analogy for active, primal unity on a quantum level. This ‘Silence’ is not a dead, static state but more like the activity of a quantum state: “The generable cosmos, therefor, was generated from the ingenerable Fire.”
In fact, Simon uses the analogy of a tree where the manifested parts of the tree like the branches, bark, and leaves all get burned up but the fruit gets saved into the ‘storehouse’. This approximates the visible universe which we have come to understand is born in the Big Bang, collapses into the Big Crunch, and probably expands again but which doesn’t disappear entirely. The strings of String Theory-- which are maybe the only things left after even the quark gluon plasma collapses (or the seed of the “fruit” of Simon’s tree) -- can, then, begin growing again.
It was thought prior to 1995 that these oscillating strings of string theory that vibrate different ways and result in different ‘flavors’ of quarks which make up protons and neutrons in the nucleus of atoms and everything else we know were either open on one end and attached to a multi-dimensional membrane of some kind on the other or were closed in a loop so they were free to have a potential effect as large as the universe such as we see in gravity.
However in 1995 physicist Edward Whitten announced what he called ‘M Theory’ to unite five previous ten dimensional string theories into one eleven dimensional theory. Whitten changed the wording of ‘Membrane Theory’ to simply ‘M’ which many now suggest should really stand for ‘Master Theory’ or ‘Mother Theory’. This theory includes the familiar three spacial dimensions and one of time along with seven other dimensions normally thought to be ‘higher dimensions’ or ‘curled up’ in the others. In this theory strings were defined as part of a two dimensional membrane existing in eleven dimensional space: a duality.
An excellent way to conceptualize this comes from the Dogon Tribe which very possible originated as an Egyptian mystery school but was forced into exile thousands of years ago. There is no evidence that their ‘Nummo Fish’ diagram was extant in Egypt in the First Century.
The Nummo Fish diagram begins at the tail where divine thought begins to pull a conception from the unmanifest in seven sections of a Fish. Each section of the Fish is bifurcated in representing duality or a ‘two dimensional membrane’. The Father is represented in the Fish (the Mother) by a dot in the middle of the six segments. On either side of the Fish is a squiggle representing fins but which is in the likeness of strings of string theory which vibrate different ways in creating the material universe.
The seventh segment is very interesting in not only being bifurcated but having a little circle on each side like worm holes through which the material world is created. On top of this segment is a square head. The squareness represents the box of material creation. Within the box are two little dots representing the presence of duality. On top of the box are four little lines like hair which represent the four quantum forces. (See my teeshirt on the ‘About’ section of my website for the diagram: www.themirroredbridalchamber.com) In this diagram we have the seven higher dimensions in the body of the Fish along with the three of space and one of time in the head of the Fish equaling eleven dimensions.
Here is where things also begin to get interesting for Simon’s metaphysics. His primal Root of Silence produces First Thought. Before the ‘Mother’ there was no ‘Father’ so that now we have a duality of Great Power and First Thought.
It was noticed that there were many ‘dualities’ between the previous string theories so that different objects being described in different theories were actually equivalent. M theory didn’t abolish the previous theories since they were all seen as correct from certain standpoints but were united in a higher eleven dimensional perspective. So, to have ‘open strings’ and ‘closed strings’ could still be seen as correct from certain vantage points.
Simon’s emanationist metaphysics, then, goes on in Hippolytus to say that from the Fire there are six ‘principals of generation’ which result in the material world. These principals are numerically equivalent to the unseen dimensions of M theory. Moreover, they are arranged in pairs or dualities. Simon names them as “Mind and Thought, Voice and Name, Reason and Reflection”. So, now we have ten dimensions if one includes the three of space and one of time along with the six Principals.
In this ten dimensional worldview we still have open and closed strings that still make sense that vibrate in different ways to create quantum particle waves, light, and matter. Simon, also, posits a seventh dimension that is inclusive of all the previous ones who is the incarnation of the Boundless Power “in potentiality but not in actuality” who he describes as “He who has stood, stands, and will stand”. Aside from somewhat resembling an image of a string this timeless description makes it clear that this ‘Standing One’ is not inferior to Great Power and First Thought in a temporal sense.
A string, then, is seen as a duality in higher eleven dimensional reality but as a singularity in lower dimensional space that creates all that is. This is equivalent to the classical definition of the Logos or Word or Fire that creates all that is. Hippolytus explains the Simonian view this way: “When…there are three days before the generation of the sun and moon, they mean esoterically Mind and Thought—that is to say heaven and earth—and the seventh Power, the Boundless. For these three Powers were generated before all others.” This Trinitarian formula seems fundamentally Christian but he also quotes Simon directly in a remarkably Platonic format saying: “The Image from, the incorruptible Form, alone ordering all things.”
It is said that Simon considered himself ‘The Standing One’. Whether this referred to him experiencing his origin in the Standing One, or being the representative of the Standing One, or channeling the Standing One it may be impossible to know for sure since all the commentaries extant on Simon are all from his enemies.
It is also clear that Simon was considered part of a syzygy (or duality) with his consort Helen—or as in his look-a-like Jesus with his odd ‘disciple’, Mary Magdalene, who the Gospel of Philip, remarkably, comments that he used to kiss her often on the mouth. This has been considered the mystic kiss of Gnosis which the Gospel of Philip seems to insinuate became a cultic practice. (The First and Second Apocalypse of James refer to Jesus giving James the Just this kiss.) Helen was considered the incarnation of Sophia/ Divine Wisdom/ Holy Spirit that was First Thought.
Whether Simon and Jesus were the same person or different and despite their identities being smudged over by their enemies and proponents these two figures are mythologically equivalent. They both:
--utilized a Trinitarian formula distinct from Hebraism but at home in Egypt or India,
--had a consort of some kind,
--utilized magical techniques in healing
--utilized sacramental forms disgusting and appalling to the Hebraic mind
--had a an antagonistic relationship to the Temple
--were leading disciples of John the Baptist.
--both referred to themselves in a deific way as a ‘Son’.
--were both broadly hated and lied about
In addition, a key to their common identity can be found in the identity of their consort. Helen, the consort of Simon, was also a leading disciple of John the Baptist. Mary Magdalene was the first witness to the Resurrection and the one who anointed Jesus culticly in Mark with a large amount of wine on the head. A third and relatively unknown figure in this trinity is Helen, the Queen of Adiabene who was an early and oddly ‘non-circumcision’ convert to Judaism. She built palaces and donated richly to the Temple in Jerusalem. Queen Helen was part of a harem which led to the ‘prostitute’ slander and the innuendo against the Magdalene—as well as the suspected sexual relationship with Simon. Two of these three women were named ‘Helen’. Two descriptions of them sound alike in ‘Magdalene’ and ‘Adiabene’. It can be considered that ‘Magdalene means ‘Great Mary’. ‘Mary’ was a spiritual name from Miriam the sister of Moses. They all operated in and around Jerusalem in the same time period. The rationale for covering up the identity of the Queen was that her relatives and descendants died as martyrs fighting the Roman Empire.
We can see the relationship of Simon with Divine Wisdom in many of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas. In Saying 10: “Jesus said, ‘I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am guarding it until it blazes’” This is not some hellfire as some fundamentalists think but the ‘fire of the Holy Spirit’ in Acts which is directly related back to the Fire of Heraclitus that Simon also posits as an original principal. Thomas revisits the ‘fire’ imagery in Saying 13 where “a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up” but this is to be understood as an inner fire of guilt and shame arising from sin or error. Again, in Saying 82: “Jesus said: ‘He who is near me is near the fire, and he who is far from me is far from the Kingdom.’”
Another analogy that Thomas uses that resonates with the flow or wave-like nature of fire is the flow-like nature of water or liquid. These sayings are a wonderful reflection of the quantum world from strings to quarks that comprise the nucleus of atoms, electrons that circle the nucleus of atoms, and the photons of light. Modern science views all these ‘particles’, though, as exhibiting wave-like qualities. Even simple electrons that circle the nucleus of atoms ‘inhabit orbitals’ which means they inhabit a ‘cloud of possible locations’.
Earlier in the Saying 13 above we find: “Jesus said, I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out.’” In Saying 108 “Jesus said, He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.’” In Saying 46 we have the “drink new wine” saying. It can be argued that these can be references to the out flow of wisdom statements from a teacher, however, all of these sayings reflect a wave-like identity and unity of being between Jesus and his disciples.
Resonant with the ‘bubbling spring’ and ‘drink from my mouth’ are the feeding analogies in Thomas. Kicking it off is Saying 4 speaking of an infant at the mother’s breast (“the place of life”) which is the breast of the Holy Spirit. This is reprised in Saying 22: “These infants who are being suckled are like those who enter the Kingdom.” Slightly more obscure is saying 46: “…whichever one of you comes to be a child will be acquainted with the kingdom and will be superior to John.” Even more obscure is Saying 102 where oxen in a manger are not allowed to eat because of the Pharisees bothering them. The most remarkable is in Saying 101 with Jesus saying “but my true mother gave me life”. This best demonstrates the multi-dimensionality of Sophia-First Thought from lover to mother to the hypostasis of divinity.
Could the string be, actually, the interface between the ‘two dimensional membrane vibrating in eleven dimensional space’ rather than one half of a syzygy? At any rate, the Gospel of Thomas does make room for the ‘Father’ in Saying 105 as well where the Father and the Mother are the syzygy: “Jesus said, ‘He who knows the father and the mother will be called the son of a harlot’”. The “harlot” reference is to the Sophia Mythos where Sophia created on her own without agreement of her male counterpart.
The string can be considered the first dimension of matter that vibrates different ways and creates the physical world. The second dimension of matter could be considered quarks and their cousins. Quarks that make up the nucleus of atoms are almost as mythological and mystical as strings since they cannot be seen and do not act alone but in conjunction with other quarks. There are six ‘flavors’ or types of quarks in three paired generations. How odd it is that this numerical arrangement corresponds to that of Simon’s Principals.
Much is known about quarks such as that they have an electric charge, flavor typology, mass, and a certain ‘spin’, and three of them compose the nucleus of an atom. However they have certain mystical qualities along with the same wave-like characteristics of electrons. They can transform into each other or ‘decay’. If they are split apart by distance their bonds become stronger and stronger. This is much like the tightness of a rubber band that is pulled wide. This seems to be a correlative of gravity that is called ‘entanglement’.
Experiments have found that a quark-gluon plasma can be created at high temperatures to model the very early state of the universe in its first fractions of a second. Gluons are simply ‘exchange particles’ between quarks and have no mass of themselves. Quark-gluon plasma is described as very liquid-like.
On the other end of the spectrum, it is theorized that quark stars can form after a very large star becomes a supernova and collapses in upon itself. Smaller stars become white dwarfs or neutron stars which emit pulsars. If the star is even more massive than quark stars and creating even more gravitational force on the quarks then they are squeezed into a class of particles that are cousins of the quarks called leptons such as the neutrino which turns the star into an electroweak star that can burn for ten million years in electroweak burning that emits neutrinos.
Neutrinos are even more magical than quarks. They are similar to quarks in having three flavors in making up one half of the class of leptons. They each may be their own antineutrino as well or not since they can oscillate or change from one to another and are a million times lighter than other particles in the Standard Model. They interact very little with matter so that where it may take a photon 40,000 years to move from the interior of a star to the exterior a neutrino can pass right through. Supernovae release 99% of their radiant energy in neutrinos. In fact, neutrinos are so speedy that recent experiments seem to indicate they can travel the speed of light or greater. This is such an astounding result that errors in methodology are expected to have caused this.
Neutrinos are the subject of much research since they might be able to say something about supernovae explosions, the Milky Way Galaxy black hole or other deep space structures when nothing else can.
Black holes from which not even neutrinos can escape the force of gravity are created from the largest stars that supernova and collapse in upon themselves. An interesting recent insight is that black holes may function as holograms. When an object enters the event horizon it ‘spaghettifies’ or stretches out to be everywhere present in the event horizon which means that the image of the three dimensional original object is preserved so that from within the Black hole it can be re-imaged. This has led to the conjecture that maybe the whole universe is a hologram and we are just projections from the perimeter of it.
At any rate, black holes, electroweak stars, quark stars, and even neutron stars, white dwarfs, and stars themselves share quantum dimensionality on a graduated scale. Even simple stars utilize quantum tunneling where barriers are overcome on a quantum scale that normally would not be. Another quantum effect was discovered as far back as 1803 from something as simple as light when light was shown to have a wave-like function as well as a particle function. Light shown through a slit screen spreads out after passing through the slit. How does that happen?
Quantum particles are described in ‘clouds’ of probabilities. Furthermore, observation of whether they are a wave or a particle determines what the result is. If that isn’t spooky enough quantum particles can be entangled so that changing one particle changes the other which is at a distance. Quantum particles can also change from one to another as well.
The corollary of the mystery schools to the heavenly outposts of concentrated quantum activity from stars to black holes are the various mythological realms of the gods and goddesses. A person was advised in Egypt when entering the heavenly Hall of Maat to address the god as a goddess. Even though a god existed in both genders it was important to address them as a goddess which recognized their true essence. This idea corresponds well with Simon’s articulation of First Thought as Sophia/Wisdom within whom we all reside.
The god of the dead, Osiris, was depicted as having a backbone made up of the Djed Pillar. This was an Egyptian point of primal beginning and bears a resemblance to the event horizon of a black hole such as at the center of our galaxy. Many have pointed out that Osiris bears many uncanny resemblances as a divine man prototype for Christ in having been killed, raised from the dead, and reigning as Lord of the Dead.
First Century metaphysics owes an even greater debt to Plato, the Greeks and their idea of perfect heavenly mental forms as a counterpart to material creation from where was derived the concept of the Pleroma that referred to the fullness of the divine emanations of God.
The earliest work called the Dialogue of the Savior from the middle of the First Century is shy about using the word ‘Pleroma’ in their cultural context. They substitute the phrase ‘the Greatness’ several times. It refers to the First Word which “established the cosmos” which is Simon’s formulation. It mostly speaks of ‘the deficiency’ of material creation but which implies the fullness or Pleroma of divine reality. It speaks of the disciples of Jesus who are present as coming from the Greatness and from those that “who do not move”. This latter description is a bit reminiscent of the holographic nature of the black hole. It goes on in the next sentence to express the non-locality aspect of the quantum world: “In the hearts of those who speak out of joy and truth, you exist.”
A Samaritan Christian work in the Nag Hammadi Library called ‘The Second Treatise of the Great Seth’ also references the Pleroma in the words of Christ: “And I said these things to the whole multitude of the multitudinous assembly of the rejoicing Majesty”. It describes the Crucifixion three times and could have been authored as early as around 80 CE to as late as the 120’s CE. Christ is described as the great being who took over the body of Jesus. This would be described in the current day as a ‘walk-in’ and corresponds to the Adoptionist Christian view where Christ ‘adopted’ Jesus at his Baptism. The work describes ‘Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder” in the context of the body that Christ took over.
The Synoptics all refer to a Simon who carried the cross for Christ but in the sense of a separate person entirely. It is possible that Mark was first crafted depicting Jesus as a great magician in the Seventies and utilized as a secret teaching that did not contain a Simon carrying the cross. In the 80’s CE when Emperor Domitian was beginning to micro-manage the religion and morals of the Empire and Matthew and Luke were created to turn Jesus into a more familiar god-man in the Greek tradition it could have been that they needed to explain who this Simon was and turned him into a separate character assisting Jesus. At this point Mark was edited to include the Simon character and the details of Simon’s two sons, Alexander and Rufus, were added for more credibility. It is exceedingly odd that if a person named Simon was dragooned into carrying the cross of Christ that he didn’t also appear in the Gospel of John. The answer is that John was written for a Samaritan audience who knew what the real story was and it was known that they would not have appreciated the deceitful allegory.
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth references the “new and perfect bridal chamber of the heavens” so it is included in the Bridal Chamber Christianity of the Dialogue of the Savior, Gospel of Thomas, and Gospel of Philip.
When the soul becomes free of its earthly attachments and “is endowed with nobility in the world, standing before the Father without weariness and fear, always mixed with the Nous of power and of form” then the soul will be ‘transferred’ through “every gate without fear” to the “third glory” or “third baptism”. This earthly freedom is what begins the process of the ‘ladder of divine ascent’ that is the spiritual equivalent of the transitional action of the weak force in the quantum world.
The resultant consciousness that is described is reminiscent of a hologram: “They will see me from every side without hatred. For since they see me, they are being seen (and) are mixed with them. Since they did not put me to shame, they were not put to shame…” The unitary consciousness is a constant refrain:
“But everyone who brings division—and he will learn no wisdom at all because he brings division and is not a friend—is hostile to them all. But he who lives in harmony and friendship of brotherly love, naturally and not artificially, completely and not partially, this person is truly the desire of the Father. He is the universal one and perfect love.”
Scholars have some consensus, generally, that the Gospel of Thomas was crafted after the Synoptics and before the Gospel of John. It was a Syrian Bridal Chamber Christianity response to the Roman Synoptic Gospels about 90 CE which used Roman literary images to carve out their own viewpoint.
The holographic principle is best seen in Thomas in Saying 77 which reads: “Jesus said, ‘I am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the All. From me did the All come forth, and unto me did the All extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.’” The Gospel of Philip which probably comes from very early in the Second Century and certainly from Syrian Bridal Chamber Christianity is a bit more explanatory in delineating how this cosmic consciousness is possible:
“It is not possible for anyone to see anything of the things that actually exist unless he becomes like them. This is not the way with man in the world: he sees the sun without being the sun; and he sees the heaven and the earth and all things, but he is not these things. This is quite in keeping with the truth. But you saw something of that place, and you became those things. You saw the spirit, you became spirit. You saw Christ, you became Christ. You saw (the Father, you) shall become Father. So (in this place) you see everything and (do) not (see) yourself, but (in that place) you do see yourself—and what you see you shall (become).”
The spiritual corollary to the strong force which binds quarks together and has a secondary and weaker action in binding protons and neutrons inside of the atom’s nucleus can be seen in Saying 25: “…Love your brother like your soul, guard him like the pupil of your eye”. Distance is no barrier for separated quarks in the quantum world where strong force strength only grows like a stretched rubber band. This is expressed in Saying 23: “Jesus said: ‘I shall choose you, one out of a thousand, and two out of ten thousand, and they shall stand as a single one.’” The quintessential strong force saying would have to be Saying 107: “The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep, ‘I care for you more than the ninety-nine.’”
One hundred times less powerful that the strong force is the electromagnetic force but the energy of electromagnetic fields can be exemplified in Saying 11: “…I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out.” Again in Saying 24: “…There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world.” Saying 33 reinforces this: “Jesus said: ‘preach from your housetops that which you will hear in your ear. For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel…he sets it on a lampstand…’”
The weak force and gravity are an order of magnitude less in power than even the electromagnetic force but exhibit a different order of strength.
The transitional nature of the weak force is exhibited in personal experience beginning in Saying 2: “…Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All.” Saying 20 concerning the Parable of the Mustard Seed is a good example of all of creation growing from the First Word and the quantum world. The quantum mechanical foundation of creation is expressed in Saying 96: “The kingdom of Father is like a (certain) woman. She took a little leaven, (concealed) it in some dough, and made it into large loaves…” The quintessential weak force saying would have to be Saying 106: “When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man, and when you say, ‘Mountain, move away,’ it will move away.” This describes making the lower self one with the higher self which is outside of time and space and able to view the rise and fall of mountains.
The force of gravity is exemplified in Saying 66: “…Show me the stone which the builders have rejected. That one is the cornerstone.” The ‘cornerstone’ is not the physical Jesus but the higher self from whose direction the lower self builds its ‘house’. Another poignant one feeling the pull of gravity is saying 88: “The angels and prophets will come to you and give to you those things you (already) have. And you too, give those things which you have, and say to yourselves, ‘When will they come and take what is theirs?’” The higher self is expressed again in Saying 104: “They said Jesus, ‘Come let us pray today and let us fast.’ Jesus said, ‘What is the sin that I have committed, or wherein have I been defeated? But when the bridegroom leaves the bridal chamber, then let them fast and pray.’”
At very high energy levels the electromagnetic force and weak force merge to become the electroweak force. Saying 108 reflects this transitional merging of identities: “He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.”
At a certain point, however, the black hole model breaks down. Is our end to be merely spiritually compacted by gravity into a black hole ‘garbage can’ in the sky? It is clear from Thomas that our end has the quality of tremendous spiritual freedom. Saying 11 is one of many which exults in this: “…On the day when you were one you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?” It is more likely that the black hole (or electroweak star, quark star, neutron star, white dwarf, and the ordinary star) is a trip through the looking glass as a two way mirror for those outside of time and space in the other dimensions of M theory and beyond.
Aside from these concentrated outposts of intense quantum activity mentioned above that we know about there is also a very high percentage of dark matter and dark energy about which we know very little. In fact it is shocking that the matter that we see makes up only 4.9% of the universe while dark matter makes up 26.8 % and dark energy makes up a shocking 68.3 % of the universe.
Dark matter doesn’t interact electromagnetically but can be ‘seen’ in its gravitational effects on galaxies, radiation, and larger structures in the universe. There just aren’t enough black holes or brown dwarfs out there to account for it so the best theory is that it is made up of some kind of new quantum particle that interacts with the weak force and gravity rather like neutrinos. Neutrinos, though, don’t have enough mass to be dark matter. In the Milky Way there is about ten times the amount of dark matter than ordinary matter. It is thought that dense cusps of dark matter may be searched for most profitably in galaxy centers. It is interesting from the standpoint of consciousness that dark matter seems to be associated with viewable matter.
Dark energy is even more difficult to conceptualize but seems necessary to factor in. A leading theory is that it is homogenous in being even distributed in space so that it can be conceived of as a property of spacetime. A leading aspect of this is that its density acts repulsively to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Dark energy could be evenly repulsive or it could be both repulsive and attractive (if, say, the universe begins contracting upon itself in the Big Crunch).
A Sethian Christian philosophical work called ‘On the Origin of the World’ (crafted most probably in Alexandria) has similar and effluvious descriptions of the origin of the universe in reference to dark energy.
The quantum world is described within what could be the physical world which is called ‘shadow’ in the fourth paragraph of Orig. World: “Now the eternal realm (aeon) of truth has no shadow outside it, for the limitless light is everywhere within it. But its exterior is shadow, which has been called by the name darkness.
The next sentence relates how there is a “force, presiding over the darkness” which relates to consciousness while at the same time it is described as “the limitless chaos”. The prior paragraph explained that Shadow emanated as a likeness of “primeval light” from an immortal being called Pistis Sophia who operated as a veil separating immortal beings from Shadow and Chaos.
While Shadow has a clear Platonic reference to idealized forms it is also said that Shadow appeared in the “abyss” and was called “limitless chaos” by “every kind of divinity” which “sprouted up” afterwards.
While Shadow was conscious, it “perceived that there was something mightier than it”. This engendered envy and jealousy that filled all of its creation but did not have any spirit in it like an aborted fetus. This “bile” that was created in a “vast watery substance” became matter in “limitless darkness and bottomless water”.
Pistis Sophia was so upset at the lack of spirit in matter that she drew the envy together and formed a ruler over matter “out of the waters, lion-like in appearance, androgenous, having great authority within him, and ignorant of whence he had come into being.” She called him Yaldabaoth which derives from “child, pass through to here” (from the waters to the light): “yalda baoth”.
The above description could be as good a hypothesis as any for what consciousness was like in the first period of the Big Bang with the expansion of dark energy, dark matter, and creation of the first atomic and astral structures.
The summary of this first consciousness called Yaldabaoth is that it was inter-dimensional in that “from matter he made himself an abode, and he called it heaven. And from matter, the ruler made a footstool, and he called it earth” but he was not conscious of the higher realms of light and thought himself alone in his “magnitude” in the “water and darkness”—the water possibly being a way to express an astral plane-like dark energy.
‘On the Origin of the World’ is Christian in referencing the Gospel of Mark, the Logos, and ending like the book of Revelations does. The gods of chaos will destroy each other and be consumed by Yaldabaoth who will end up consuming himself.
All of this unknown vastness is, seemingly, characterized in Bridal Chamber literature. From the first little mini-sermon in the first century ‘Dialogue of the Savior’ we see Jesus guiding the disciples’ soul travel: “For the crossing place is fearful before you. But you, with a single mind, pass it by! For its depth is great; its height is enormous…”
The third mini-sermon is even more descriptive:
Then he [TOOK] Judas and Matthew and Mary [TO] the edge of heaven and earth. And when he placed his hand upon them, they hoped that they might [SEE] it. Judas raised his eyes and saw an exceedingly high place, and he saw the place of the abyss below. Judas said to Matthew, "Brother, who will be able to climb up to such a height or down to the bottom of the abyss? For there is a tremendous fire there, and something very fearful!" At that moment, a Word came forth from it. As it stood there, he saw how it had come down. Then he said to it, "Why have you come down?"
And the Son of Man greeted them and said to them, "A seed from a power was deficient, and it went down to the abyss of the earth. And the Greatness remembered it, and he sent the Word to it. It brought it up into his presence, so that the First Word might not fail."
The four mini-sermons (which are slightly repetitive) and sayings list comprising the Dialogue of the Savior were cobbled together maybe around the turn of the first century by an editor with the knowledge of the Gospel of John who added a few Johannine paragraphs. The obvious conclusion is that these mini-sermons functioned like the minutes to the early visioning sessions of Jesus and his most intimate disciples before the Gospel genre appeared.
The various mystery school (or Gnostic) works of literature are replete with realms of the archons (‘authorities’, extra-terrestrials) which are considered temporary sand castles that will come to an end. The Gospel of Philip calls this realm ‘the middle’ which it is horrified about:
“But there is evil after this world which is truly evil—what is called ‘the middle’. For many go astray on the way.”
Compared to being free in the ecstasy and freedom of the higher self that is outside of time and space to walk around like a ghost haunting battle fields or trapped in insatiable lusts or obsessions seemed horrific to the author of the Gospel of Philip.
Possibly dark energy is the realm of this effluvious and dream-like material.
On the other hand there are clear heaven-like realms in mystery school, out-of-body, and near-death literatures. The Gospel of Thomas seems to reference them as well. Saying 19 reads: “For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. Whoever becomes acquainted with them will not experience death.” Could Thomas be referring to five dimensions with dark matter and dark energy making seven where the lower two astral ones are inhabited by archons and troubled souls on a learning curve? Is dark matter maybe the positive one being nearer to galactic centers and probably involving quantum quark-like particles and dark energy not so much? It is interesting that dark matter is five times (26.8% versus 4.9%) the visible matter of the universe in corresponding numerically to the “five trees…in Paradise”.
These “five trees….in paradise” seem related to many other Nag Hammadi texts. The Apocryphon of John was probably crafted in Egypt and describes the first emanation from the Father, First Thought, of being composed as a pentad or a five dimensional being that is bifurcated into really a pentad. The five major dimensions are described as thought, foreknowledge, indestructability, eternal life, and truth.
The Gospel of the Egyptians is more explanatory with a number of interesting references where ‘five seals’ is the phraseology and given high placement such as in: “the Father, and the Mother, and the Son, the five seals….” Another place references the five seals in the scope of First Thought: “…the Father, and the Mother, and the Son, and their whole Pleroma…the five seals which possess the myriads, and they who rule over the aeons…” A little later the five seals could be a fill-in for First Thought: “…the Great Seth was sent …by the good pleasure of the Great Invisible Spirit, and the five seals, and the whole Pleroma. Finally at the end it is clear that the five seals also reference a cultic initiation: “Though…and they who are worthy of the invocation, the renunciations of the five seals in the spring-baptism…These will by no means taste death.”
A book called Trimorphic Protennoia says that the “baptismal rite” of the five seals was given by the Logos from First Thought for the purposes of divine knowledge by one who “has stripped off the garments of ignorance and put on a shining light.”
It is probably no accident that the Gospel of Philip speaks of five sacraments: “…a baptism and a chrism and a eucharist and a redemption and a bridal chamber”. If these sacraments represent dimensions of the Mother/First Thought then the ‘Middle’ or the negative astral plane about which it is horrified and the physical dimension adds up to seven dimensions.
Other books like the Origin of the World speak of seven dimensions of just the “seven heavens of chaos” (or the ‘Middle’ of the Gospel of Philip) also that are androgenous as well but “consistent with the immortal pattern that existed before them, according to the wishes of Pistis (Sophia)”.
At any rate, what is the end game? It has been thought that black holes create a singularity of infinite proportions. In like manner the Universe is thought to end also in a Big Crunch that again ends in a singularity of infinite proportions.
This theory has been combatted in recent years by those arguing that Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and those of quantum mechanics breaks down at this point in not being able to say anything useful concerning what precedes a Big Bang, what comes after the Big Crunch, or what is in a Big Bang. A countervailing theory is gaining ground that is described as the Big Bounce where the universe goes through a serious of expansion and contraction cycles. From a spiritual viewpoint this can be seen as appealing if every Bounce gets larger and larger evolutionarily.
This Big Bounce theory is appealing from the logical standpoint of realizing that there is a quantum mechanical rule that wave-like particles cannot inhabit a space smaller than their wavelength so there is no infinite regression forced by gravity into infinite density. Indeed, the oscillatory nature of the string and of quantum particles provides a model for the expansion-contraction cycles of the universe. The key insight seems to be that quantum gravity changes from an attractive mode to a repulsive mode at a certain point. Martin Bojowald likens his ‘loop quantum gravity’ theory to the action of a sponge which absorbs water up to a certain point and then when the sponge is filled it begins to repel water. In like manner when energy entirely fills quantum space then a period of violent hyper-expansion takes place before it slows down and eventually reverses.
Both orthodox and gnostic literature is consistent, at least, in having the story of the mustard seed which grows into a large plant and various harvest stories. In the thought of Simon, all the ‘fruit’ is brought into the storehouse and everything else is ‘burned up’. Implicit in this analogy is the possibility that the seed gets replanted and grows into a large tree again after the storehouse of the original seven dimensions of M theory re-images the new expansion. The cosmic love story continues.
John Munter
Warba, MN
11Dec13