"O those who do not see! You do not see your blindness! You do not see that which was not known! ... The senseless and blind are always senseless, always slaves of law and earthly fear. I am Christ, the Son of Man, from you and among you...I alone am the friend of Sophia. I have been in the bosom of the Father from the beginning, where the children of truth and the Greatness are. Rest with me, my fellow spirits and my kin, forever."Second Treatise of the Great Seth 65.2-17, 70.5-10 (probably a late second-century Christian Sethian text)
Manuscript illumination: an alchemical representation of Sophia as a Tree of Learning and source of Life.
4 comments:
I don't know, perhaps this is a silly question, but I'm wondering, Dr. D, were they synthesizing particularly Gen. 3 and Prov. 8 (and for what reason) or were they motivated by something else?
Wow...is that picture supposed to be a representation of the temple?
It also reminds me a bit of the concentric gates of Hekhalot texts.
Fascinating manuscript illumination.
And is the tree of life ALSO the burning bush? It looks like fire at the base of it.
A few comments by an amateur:
1. Notice that the human figures in the courtyard have symbols over their heads and the same symbols covering their genitals. The symbol over the male figure looks like the sun and the symbol over the female figure looks like the moon.
2. There are 7 stars next to the tree of life.
3. If the figure in the tree is the Spirit/Shekinah/Sophia does the fact that there are two other figures suggest anything? Particularly since the one on the left seems to have a crown?
4. I can't get a good enough resolution to figure out what the symbol is on the wall next to the figure with the crown.
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