Mandaean Wisdom

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From the ancient Mandaean Scriptures of Iraq:

 

MAKING THE OUTSIDE LIKE THE INSIDE

 

My brothers! speak the truth

and lie not with lying lips.

Be not like a pomegranate,

whose outer face looks fine,

but inside it is full of rottenness.

Be like wine-jars

full of fragrant wine.

Their outside is clay and pitch,

but inside is fragrant wine.

The Message of Life cries out,

ears of my chosen, harken to me.

 

-- " Canonical Prayer Book of the Mandaeans, " E.S. Drower, out of

print, but it's now online.

 

VISIONS OF THE HEAVENLY WORLDS BEYOND

 

The jordans of the worlds of Light* are full of white waters,

whiter than milk, cool and tasty, and their aroma is stronger

than the great aromatic vines.....

 

Those beings of Light are made up of many kinds and fall into

earths, skinas [abodes], jordans, trees, uthras [good beings of

Light], and angels, as well as radiance, Light, and brightness

which rest upon them.

 

Their form is luminous and bright and the look of their faces is

clear and bright like pure beryl. Every day strength and voice,

utterance and victory are planted by the King of all the worlds

of Light and sent to them.....

 

They are clothed in garments of radiance and are arrayed in a

covering of Light. They sit and dwell together, without

offending one another and without sinning against one another.

They are honoured in their firmament and match as the eyelash

the eye. Their thoughts are open to one another, and they know

the First and the Last. They are a thousand thousand miles

distant from one another and yet one is illumined by the other's

radiance, one is fragrant through another's fragrance......

 

* Heavenly Jordan Rivers of Light

 

-- " Gnosis II, " Werner Forester, Oxford University Press, out of

print.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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