Gnostic Visions

With evidence now presented that both plants required to make this visonary brew were known about and used by the ancient Egyptians as early as the New Kingdom, there is also evidence that the two plants required to make this visonary brew were also known about and used among the Gnostics. Evidence for this can be seen from the remarkable relationship these two plants are known to have had with the Sethain Gnostic Mandaeans. The Mandaeans are also known to go by the name "Nasoraeans,” and are the last surviving group of ancient Gnostics alive today. The Mandaeans as indicated by themselves and in the written historical works of Epiphanius are descended from Sethian Gnostic origins. The Mandaeans claim that their religion was handed down since the beginning of human history from the first man, Adam also known as the Adamas or the primal man. Adam, according the Mandonic history, translated his divine wisdom to his son Seth and from Seth down an ancient line of people until it found its way into the lands of ancient Mesopotamia and Israel manifesting into two distinct sects, one known as the Hebrews, the other known as the Nasoraeans. In the Quran, the holy book of the Muslims, we see them labeled as the Sabians. Mandaeans are called Subi by their Muslim neighbors. The word Sabaean comes from the Aramaic-Mandic word saba, or "immersed in water," according to the group's website, (www.mandaeans.org), Mandaean comes from the word menda, or "knowledge." That same word when translated from the Greek is known today as Gnostic, thus making the Mandaeans the last true group of surviving ancient Gnostics. Because of the Mandaeans relationship to ancient Gnosticism and early Christianity, the Mandaeans are profoundly important in helping us to understand many important details of the ancient world that have come to be lost or unknown today. By studying the Mandaeans researchers are able to gain a profound insight into the ancient world they emerged from. The language Mandaeans use is called Mandonic, a language that is also very closely related to Aramaic which was the same original language that was spoken by both Jesus and John the Baptist. The Mandaeans are also some of the only people left on the planet known to still speak this ancient and nearly extinct language. The Catholic Church has labeled the group the church of Saint John based on a comment made by Portuguese monks in the 16th century who first discovered them. Since the 1st century A.D. after fleeing Israel from the Romans, the Mandaeans have lived mainly in the borderland areas of Iraq and Iran since that time. In more recent years, many have fled the region since the 1990s due to the unstable political climate in Iraq and have immigrated worldwide. There is no official census of the Mandaeans; conservative guesses at current population size have been made in the range of only 50,000 to 80,000. Because of the more recent unstable political climate and war in Iraq, many of the Mandaeans have been marked by Islamic extremists, being heavily persecuted and even systematically slaughtered. Because of their dwindling population the Mandaeans are on the verge of cultural extinction and have been marked by the United Nations as critically endangered. While a few small groups have immigrated around the world, they have received little to no help from their Christian or Jewish companions and remain today as one of the most important and endangered religious traditions on earth. 19 The core of the Mandaean religion, through all vicissitudes and changes, is the ancient worship of the principal of life and fertility. The great life is a personification of the creative and sustaining forces of the universe. The symbol for the Great Life is “living Water,” that is, flowing water, or yardna. This is entirely natural in a land where all life, human, animal, and vegetable, clings to the banks of the two great rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. It follows that, we find that one of the central rites in the Sethian Gnostic and Mandaean tradition is immersion if flowing water. The second great vivifying power is light, which is represented by personifications (great light, light spirits, divine light) who bestow such light- gifts as health, strength, virtue, and justice. This dual application was also characteristic of the ancient Mesopotamian cults of Anu and Ea in Sumerian times and Bel and Ea in Babylonian time. Mandaean white magic or healing magic is also directly rooted in ancient Mesopotamian practices. It is an age old Mandaean custom in times of plague and sickness to bury by the threshold or by the grave of a person carried off by disease two bowls, one inverted above the other, within which are inscribed exorcisms of disease spirits, spirits of darkness, and invocation of spirits of light and life. The magic rolls have been copied and re-copied for centuries, often without comprehension, since many magic names and spirits mentioned have disappeared from the orthodox religion and are not found in the holy books. They are often pagan in tone and represent names found in older Babylonia and Sumerian traditions. While this may seem important, it is the use and incorporation of Paganum Harmala within these Mandaean healing texts that demonstrate the most direct evidence for the ancient magical, healing and visionary use of the plant among ancient Gnostic groups.