Please refer to the charts, "Mandaean Cosmology: 1, 2, and 3."
Note: The Greek and Hebrew characters did not translate too well from WordPerfect, so the WP Multilanguage fonts aren't of any use in specifying for html. In their place we have selected SPIonic and SPTiberian, excellent fonts. However, they do not come with all the necessary diacritical marks, especially in the Greek.
"The ground and origin of all things is PIRA, or more correctly, PERA RABBA ("the great abyss,"...), associated with whom, and forming a triad with him, are the primal aeons AYAR ZIVA RABBA, 'the Great Shining Aether,' and MANA RABBA D'EKARA, 'the great spirit of glory,' usually called simply MANA RABBA. The last-named, the most prominent of the three, is the King of Light properly so-called, from whom the development of all things begins.
"From him emanates YARDENA RABBA, 'the Great Jordan,' (1) which, as the higher-world soul, permeates the whole aether; the domain of Ayar. Alongside of MANA RABBA frequent mention is made of D'MUTHA, his "IMAGE", as a female power; the name 'image of the Father' arises out of the same conception as that which gives rise to the name of Ennoia among the Greek Gnostics.
"MANA RABBA called into being the highest of the aeons properly so-called, HAYYE KADMAYE, 'Primal Life', and then withdrew into deepest secrecy, visible indeed to the highest but not to the lowest aeons (cf. Sofia and Propator), yet manifesting himself also to the souls of the more pious of the Mandaeans after their separation from the body. Primal Life, who is properly speaking the Mandaean God, has the same predicates as the primal spirit, and every prayer, as well as every section of the sacred books, begins by invoking him.
"The extremely fantastic delineation of the world of light by which HAYYE KADMAYE is surrounded corresponds very closely with the Manichaean description of the abode of the 'King of the Paradise of Light.' The King of light 'sits in the far north in might and glory.'
"The Primal Light unfolds himself by five great branches, viz., 'the highest purest light, the gentle wind, the harmony of sounds, the voice of all the aeons, and the beauty of their forms,' all these being treated as abstractions and personified. Out of the further development and combination of these primary manifestations arise numerous aeons ('Uthre, 'splendours', from rt(, 'is rich'), of which the number is often stated to be three hundred and sixty. They are divided into a number of classes (Kings, Hypostases, forms, etc.); the proper names by which they are invoked are many, and for the most part obscure, borrowed doubtless, to some extent, from the Parsee angelology.
"From the FIRST LIFE proceeds as a principal emanation the SECOND LIFE. 'HAYYE TINYANE, generally called YOSHAMIN. This last name is evidently meant to be Hebrew, 'YAHWEH pf the Heavens,' the God of the Jews being of a secondary rank in the usual Gnostic style.
"The next emanation after YOSHAMIN is 'the Messenger of Life' (MANDA D'HAYYE, literally gnwsij thjzohj), the most important figure in the entire system, the mediator and redeemer, the logoj and the Christ of the Mandaeans, from whom, as already stated, they take their name. He belongs to the heathen Gnosis, and is in his essence the same as the Babylonian MARDUK. Yoshamin desired to raise himself above the Primal Light, but failed in the attempt, and was punished by removal out of the pure aetherial world into that of inferior light. Manda, on the other hand, continues with the First Life and MANA RABBA, and is called his 'beloved son' the 'first born', 'high priest,' and 'word of life'. The 'Life' calls into existence in the visible world a series of three great Helpers, HIBIL, SHITHIL, and ANOSH (late Judaeo-Babylonian transformations of the well-known names of the book of Genesis), the guardians of souls. (2)
"The last son of the SECOND LIFE is HAYYE T'LITHAYE, the 'THIRD LIFE', usually called Father of the Uthre (ABA D'UTHRE, ABATHUR). His usual epithet is 'The ANCIENT', ('ATIQA), and he is also called 'the deeply hidden and guarded.' He stands on the BORDERLAND between the here and the hereafter, like the mysterious presbuthj tritoj or senex tertius of Mani, whose becoming visible will betoken the end of the world. Abathur sits on the farthest verge of the world of light that lies towards the lower regions, and weighs in his balance the deeds of the departed spirits who ascend to him. Beneath him was originally nothing but a huge void with muddy black water at the bottom, in which his image was reflected, becoming ultimately solidied into P'TAHIL, his son, who now partakes of the nature of matter.
"The demiurge of the Mandaeans, and corresponding to the IALDABAOTH of the Ophites, he at the instance of his father frames the earth and men - according to some passages in conjunction with the seven bad planetary spirits. He created Adam and Eve, but was unable to make them stand upright, whereupon HIBIL, SHITHIL, and ANOSH were sent by the First Life to infuse into their forms spirit from MANA RABBA himself. HIBIL, at the instance of the Supreme God, also taught men about the World of Light and the aeons, and especially gave them to know that not P'Tahil but another was their creator and supreme God, who as 'the great King of Light, without number, without limit,' stands far above him. At the same time he enjoined the pair to marry and people the world. P'tahil had now lost his power over men, and was driven by his father out of the world of light into a place beneath it, whence he shall at the day of Judgement be raised, and after receiving baptism be made King of the 'UTHRE with divine honours.
"The underworld is made up of four vestibules and three hells properly so-called. The vestibules have each two rulers, ZARTAY and ZARTANAY, HAG and MAG, GAF and GAFAN, ANATAN and KIN. In the highest hell rules along the grisly king SH'DUM, 'the warrior', (3) in the storey immediately beneath is GIV, 'the great'; and in the lowest is KRUN or KARKUM, the oldest and most powerful of all, commonly called 'the great mountain of flesh' (Tura Rabba d'besra), but also 'the first-born of darkness'.
"In the vestibules dirty water is still to be met with, but the hells are full of scorching, consuming fire, except KRUN's domain, where is nought but dust, ashes and vacancy. Into these regions descended HIBIL the brilliant, in the power of MANA RABBA, just as in the Manichaean mythology of the 'primal man' armed with the elements of the King of Light, descends to a contest with the primal devil. (4) HIBIL lingers, gradually unfolding his power, in each of the vestibules, and finally passing from hell to hell reaches Karkum. Hibil allows himself to be half swallowed by the monster, but is unhurt, and compels his antagonist to recognize the superiority of MANA RABBA, the God of light, and to divulge his profoundest secret, the HIDDEN NAME OF DARKNESS. ARMED WITH THIS HE RETURNS THROUGH THE SUCCESSIVE HELLS, COMPELLING THE DISCLOSURE OF EVERY SECRET, DEPRIVING THE RULERS OF THEIR POWER, AND BARRING THE DOORS OF THE SEVERAL REGIONS.
"From the fourth vestibule he brought the female devil RUHA, daughter of KIN, and set her over the whole four. This RUHA, the mother of falsehood and lies, of poisoning and fornication, is an anti-Christian parody of the RUHA D'QUDSHA (Holy Spirit) of the Syriac Church. She is the Mother of UR, the personified fire of Hell, who in anger and pride made a violent onset on the world of Light (compare the similaroccurrence in the Manichaean mythology), but was mastered by HIBIL and thrown in chains, down to the 'black water', and imprisoned within seven iron and seven golden walls.
"By UR, RUHA, while P'TAHIL was engaged in his work of creation, became mother of three sets of seven, twelve, and five sons respectively; all were translated by P'Tahil to the heavenly firmament (like the Archons of Mani), the First group forming the planets and the nest the signs of the Zodiac, while the third is as yet undetermined.
"Of the names of the planets ESTERA (Ishtar, Venus), also called RUHA D'QUDSHA, 'holy spirit'), ENBA (Nebo, Mercury), SIN (Moon), KEWAN (Saturn), BIL (Jupiter), and NIRIG (Nergal, Mars) reveal their Babylonian origin; IL or ILIL, the sun, is also known as KADUSH and ADUNAY (the Adonai of the Old Testament); as lord of the planetary spirits his place is in the midst of them; they are the source of all temptation and evil amongst men. The houses of the planets, as well as the earth and A SECOND WORLD IMMEDIATELY TO THE NORTH OF IT, REST UPON ANVILS laid by Hibil on the belly of UR.
"In the Mandaean representation the sky is an ocean of water, pure and clear; but of more than adamantine solidity, upon which the stars and planets sail. Its transparency allows us to seee even to the pole star, who is the central sun around whom all the heavenly bodies move. Wearing a jewelled crown, he stands before ABATHUR's door at the gate of the World of Light; the Mandaeans accordingly invariably pray with their faces turned northward. The earth is conceived of as a round disk, slightly sloping towards the south, surrounded on three sides by the sea, but on the north by a high mountain of turquoises; (5) behind this is the abode of the blest, a sort of inferior paradise, inhabited by the Egyptians who were saved from drowning with the Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and whom the Mandaeans look upon as their ancestors, Pharaoh himself having been their first high priest and king."
1. According to Kessler's article in the Schaff-Herzog, Vol. 7, p. 146, Yardena Rabba emanates from Yora Rabba (Great Brilliance), an emanation of AYAR ZIWA RABBA. Evidently this was left out of his article in the E. B. Is there any possibility of an etymological connection between ZIVA or ZIWA and SIVA or SHIVA? The purists will probably say that there is not, but who knows?
2. Hibil is Abel; Shithil is Seth; and Anosh (sometimes spelled ANUS) or Anosh Uthra, is Enoch. We are told in another place that Anosh is pronounced like Oannes.
3. Any comparison with Saddam? Perhaps...
4. Cf. Inanna's descent into the underworld.
5. Along with Copper, Turquoise is sacred to Hathor.
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