The Gnostic Discoveries: The Impact of the Nag Hammadi Library

Book Review: The Gnostic Discoveries: The Impact of the Nag Hammadi Library  by Marvin Meyer (Harper-Collins 2005)

This is nice non-technical foray into so-called Gnosticism and the history of the discovery and impact of the codices found in the 1940’s in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Meyer is a knowledgeable scholar and seems to have a genuine interest in Gnosticism, or what he seems to call “gnosticizing writings”. There was no official sect or sects called Gnosticism – it is apparently a term applied by the heresiologists though at least one noted that that is what they called themselves. I use the term throughout this review. I also read, enjoyed, and reviewed Meyer’s analysis of Ancient Mystery Cults. The story of the discovery of the codices in a jar buried in the barren sands beyond the black soil of the Nile floodplain is told. Unfortunately the poor Egyptians who discovered it did not right away recognize the potential value of such things, damaging and destroying parts of the ancient texts.

Meyer speaks positively about other scholars of Gnostic movements such as Elaine Pagels, Kurt Rudolph, and Hans Jonas and often passes on their ideas. Prior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts and other Gnostic texts the only information about Gnosticism came from the early Christian heresiologists who presented them as flawed and heretical Christian beliefs. The works of the heresiologists are mainly refutations that are biased and often distort some of the beliefs. Even so, Meyer suggests that a careful reading of them combined with what we now know from discovered and translated texts can be revealing. He lists significant Gnostic figures from the first and second centuries: Simon Magus, Helena, Marcellina, Basilides, Valentinus, and Marcus. Other textual Gnostic sources mentioned include the Askew Codex which contains the Pistis Sophia, the Bruce Codex, Hermetic texts such as the Corpus Hermeticum, and Mandean and Manichaean texts from the Middle East and Asia.

He compares the staunch opposing dualism of Manichaeism to the dualism arising from oneness of the Valentinians. I speculate that this may be due to the Manicheans being closer to the source area of light/dark, good/evil dualism ideas among Persians and likely transferred to Judaism from the time of Cyrus the Great.

Nag Hammadi texts are complemented by equally recently discovered texts found in a rubbish heap at Oxyrhynchus now known as the Berlin Codex. These texts can be classified into various ‘traditions’ says Meyer: the Thomas tradition, Sethian, Valentinian, Hermetic, and others not easily classifiable. Meyer gives many snippets of translated texts, most his own translations from his other books.

Meyer gives an account with a few pictures of the discovery of the texts in 1945 in a desert area beneath a large rock outcrop in Nag Hammadi Egypt. This area is just beyond the black soil of the Nile Valley and into the infertile red desert soil. In an allegorical sense one could say the texts were cast out like the Egyptian god Seth to his red desert as they were cast out of the developing orthodoxy that Christianity became. Meyer notes this and in that sense the Gnostic texts are metaphorically akin to Set as the great outcaste heretic. The texts are in an Egyptian language called Coptic but most are thought to have been translated from Greek. The Gospel of Thomas is thought to have been composed in Syria and the Hermetic fragments in Egypt since they refer to places there. There is an excerpt from Plato’s Republic and the Sethian texts are thought to have Platonic characteristics. Meyer notes some arguments about dating of texts and suggests that those who want to marginalize controversial texts such as the Gospel of Thomas routinely assign it a later date.

Gnosticism was not a specific movement but an aspect of Christianity, Judaism, Hermeticism, or possibly even Platonism that was likely syncretic as a Hellenized and Romanized Middle East was syncretic. Texts classified as Gnostic emphasize ‘gnosis’ or knowledge as the key function of the cult in contrast to redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus. Heresiologists such as Clement and Irenaeus of Lyon referred to the heretics as Gnostics and even said that is what they called themselves. The present day Mandeans of the Middle East refer to themselves as Mandaye, or “knowers” and this may be a related attribution. Meyer proposes the following description of Gnostic religion:

“Gnostic religion is a religious tradition that emphasizes the primary place of gnosis, or mystical knowledge, understood through aspects of wisdom, often personified wisdom, presented in creation stories, particularly stories based on the Genesis accounts, and interpreted by means of a variety of religious and philosophical traditions, including Platonism, in order to proclaim a radically enlightened way of life and knowledge.”

The group of texts that were found buried in the jar at Nag Hammadi may have been texts that were recently cast out since changes to the official orthodox canon were frequent after Constantinian times when different Church leaders came to power. The debates that determined orthodoxy and heresy probably went on for a few hundred years at least. An important event regarding the canon happened in 367 when Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria proclaimed in a letter which canonical texts would be included in the bible and which discarded. This suggests that the Pachomian monks who utilized the texts were compelled to seal them away as inappropriate to the canon.

In a section about wisdom the author presents examples of wisdom veneration from throughout the Middle and Near East – Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Judea, and among the philosophers of Ancient Greece. The Gospel of Thomas and other Thomas texts record wisdom sayings of Jesus which are not unlike the sayings of philosophers. He notes that a few sayings of Jesus survive in a lost text called Q that was probably used to compose the books of Matthew and Luke. The Jesus presented in the Gospel of Thomas does not perform miracles, healings, or prophesies nor does he die for sins and become mystically resurrected. He is not born of a virgin. He is not addressed in this text as the Christ or the Messiah, just as Jesus. Here he is a purveyor of Jewish parables, some cryptic, some a bit shocking, and some quite sensible and even humorous. Some of the sayings are riddle-like and have been referred to as hidden sayings that require interpretation. Meyer makes a good case for dating the Gospel of Thomas to the first century. This is the text that was said to be recorded by Judas Thomas, the twin brother of Jesus. The author notes that the character of Judas Thomas does not seem to match that of Thomas in the Gospel of John. Some sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas have also survived in Islamic tradition as just that – the sayings of Isa, or Jesus. Al-Ghazali’s Revival of the Religious Sciences is one text where they can be found. The final saying is outwardly anti-woman, saying that women are not worthy of life and need to transform to a male form to enter the kingdom of heaven. Meyer suggests that the interpretation of this may be allegorical with the female referring to the perishable matter and the male referring to the imperishable spirit.

Other Thomas texts in the codex are the Book of Thomas and the Dialogue of the Savior. These are described as Hellenistic Jewish works drawing on Platonic philosophy. Much as in Plato there is emphasis on the notion that people are imprisoned by their own fiery passions or the concept that the body imprisons the soul.

Meyer also notes a contrast between these Gnostic texts emphasizing wisdom and the canonical texts emphasizing the sacrifice of the crucifixion. He thinks that this enhances the historical understanding of Jesus.

Next is an examination of - the Fall and Restoration of Sophia - in the Secret Book of John and other Sethian Texts. This is one key mythos that is characteristic of “Gnosticism” but notably absent in conventional Christianity. Hebrew personifications of Wisdom as Chokmah and Sophia are female. The Gnostic Sophia is entangled in the myth which involves her fall and redemption. This has been revived in a slightly different sense in Aleister Crowley’s notion of the redeemed woman becoming the once despised now redeemed/redeemer Babalon. Early wisdom goddesses of the Ancient World include Inanna/Ishtar of Mesopotamia and Maat of Egypt. In Ancient Greece it was Metis, the first wife of Zeus and their daughter Athena (who rose from the head of Zeus after he swallowed her) who are associated with wisdom. Meyer notes that the story of Sophia in the Sethian Secret Book of John is very similar to the model of the story of Zeus, Metis, and Athena, told by Hesiod. One of the earliest formulators of the doctrine of gnosis is said to be Simon Magus who the heresiologists noted was venerated by the heretics. His place in the canonized biblical tradition was relegated to the status of a cheap and selfish wonder-worker. He travelled with Helena, a former prostitute from Tyre and to both of them are attributed Gnostic texts and indeed Helena may well be a version of personified wisdom as wisdom or the soul (Psyche)  - often depicted as female and there are myths of “Her” spending time as a prostitute during her fallen stage. The folly of Sophia is said to be in trying to imitate the creation of the Father – and Meyer notes this is much like Hera in Hesiod’s Theogony where out of jealousy she tries to create without Zeus.

Another model of the fallen woman is of course that of Eve in the Garden of Eden. In Greek, Eve is Zoe, or life. The Sethians are also called Barbelognostics after Barbelo, the divine mother. Meyer seems to think that the Secret Book of John was originally a Jewish Gnostic text with Greco-Roman elements that later became Christianized. In some versions the goddess emanates as divine forethought (Pronoia, also Barbelo the mother) - the revealer, and insight (Epinoia). Another version has her revealed as the “Trimorphic Protennoia” or Three Forms of First Thought – voice, speech, and word. Her first thought is word, or logos. In the canonized biblical accounts Jesus is the revealer as well as the bearer of the logos. Another section recounts the emanation of the many from the one, the Pleroma from the Monad. Much like Hera forming Hephaistos and Typhon, Sophia forms her deformed and flawed child, the megalomaniacal Yaldabaoth. Sometimes the creation stories are said to be the unfolding of the mind of God and there are many versions of creation around the Ancient World including those recounted in the Qabala and the Chaldean Oracles of Zoraster though those may have been later in their current forms and owe much to Neoplatonism. Not too dissimilar are the manifestations from the Infinite described in the Vedas and Upanishads. The fall of Sophia, much like the fall of Eve can be considered the descent of spirit into the prison of matter. The idea seems to exist in earlier form in Persian dualism with the descent of light and its subsequent fragmentation and the imprisonment of spirit in matter. Valentinian texts suggest two wisdoms: the incorruptible Sophia of spirit and the flawed Sophia of matter. Yaldabaoth the flawed and the Archons become the demiurge(s) that create the world which is also flawed. The origin of evil and the way to subdue it with gnosis is a key theme of Gnosticism and a key complaint of Augustine when he refutes the Manichean Gnosticism he used to practice. Augustine said that Manicheism was overly concerned with the origin of evil.   

Meyer mentions Elaine Pagel’s suggestion in her book Beyond Belief that Epinoia, or insight, is a key concept in gnostic thought. . The idea is that we have an innate capacity to know the divine and as Pagels describes it: “ Eve symbolizes the gift of spiritual understanding, which enables us to reflect – however imperfectly – upon divine reality. The Secret Book of John also seems to have some offspring in Islamic texts including the Shia Um al-Katib, or Mother of Books, though the ideas were changed to reflect the family of Mohammed.

Meyer notes that Sethian Gnosticism is related to Platonic tradition but also that there is a geneaology of the Gnostic descendents of Seth who keep the Adam and Eve mystical tradition alive. Dositheos and his student Simon Magus are part of this Sethian Gnostic lineage. Indeed everyone who follows the teachings is called the offspring of Seth.

Sethians practice baptismal ritual like many Jewish, Christian, and Persian sects of the time. This is to remove the stain of the fall of Sophia rather than the “original sin” of humans recounted in mainstream Christianity. Sophia may be flawed but she is also God and in this scheme it is God that made the mistake, not humans.

Valentinus is described as a mystic. Meyer describes Valentinian Gnosticism as an adaptation of Sethian Gnosticism. He notes that the Valentinians likely described themselves as devoted Christians rather than Gnostics or Valentinians. Apparently, the Valentinians would attend the services of the other Christians but also convene amongst themselves. The main Valentinian text in the Nag Hammadi library is called – The Gospel of Truth. Valentinus was an African born in Egypt, had a Hellenistic education, a was one of the most famous church leaders of the 2^nd century. He was a contender for the bishop of Rome, an equivalent of the pope at that time. His writings were poetic and according to the author, among the most beautiful of any Christian tradition. By the 4^th century there was strife among the sects as orthodoxy and heretical strains were decided and some Valentinian temples were burned. In the Gospel of Truth it is metaphorical “error” that causes the crucifixion and Jesus, nailed to a tree, was called the fruit of the tree, the fruit of the knowledge of the father. This text has several parables that have allegorical interpretations. Valentinians had a particular metaphysical interpretation of the emanation of the pleroma of the divine. First everything came from the divine depth, the bathos. The emanation is arranged into 15 aeons, or divine couples, for a total of 30 or more aeons. Most important are the first two groups of four (the tetrads). According to Irenaeus of Lyon these are the divine couples of: depth and thought (or grace and silence), mind and truth, word and life, and human and church. Owing to the fall of Sophia two other aeons are emanated: those of Christ and the holy spirit. “Christ assists with the restoration of Sophia, but her desire is thrown out of the divine realm of fullness, and it becomes Achamoth, a lower wisdom, from whose passions our world here below is created. Christ is often referred to as the son of Sophia and is thought to represent her incorruptible manifestation.

The Gospel of Phillip is another Valentinian text from the Nag Hammadi library. Regarding the idea that Mary the mother of Jesus was impregnated by the holy spirit the text ridicules the notion: “When did a woman – Mary – ever get pregnant by a woman – the holy spirit?” The Gospel of Phillip also talks about Mary of Magdala (Mary Magdalene) as the companion of Jesus: “The [savior loved] her more than [all] the disciples [and he] kissed her often on her [mouth].” (Meyer does note that “mouth” may not be the right interpretation here). The Gospel of Mary is another Gnostic text that describes the special love between Jesus and Mary of Magdala. The Gospel of Phillip also mentions Sophia as barren, and as the mother of angels.

The healing of the separation of the male and female recounted in the Adam and Eve mythos is part of Valentinian tradition. This re-union occurs in the bridal chamber. This is not just sexual union but a sacrament for salvific union. Meyer notes five main sacraments, or mysteries, identified in the Gospel of Phillip: baptism, chrism, eucharist, redemption, and bridal chamber. It seems likely that Valentinian married couples practiced the mystery of the bridal chamber as a mystical form of sex in order to pass the spiritual seed as the – semen of light. There was also an esoteric version of baptism where one attains spiritual understanding rather than forgiveness of sins. There are similarities here to the methods of sexual tantra and there are those who see the impetus for the tantra of the East deriving from the Near East, particularly the Heiros Gamos (sacred marriage) rites associated with Inanna/Ishtar of Sumeria/Babylonia but this is only speculative as there is no direct evidence thus far. It is far more likely that the Heiros Gamos of Mesopotamia influenced the bridal chamber sacramental rites of the Valentinians. 

There is another Valentinian text from the discovery called – The Treatise on Resurrection. This is an esoteric interpretation of the resurrection – the resurrection of the spirit – that builds on the idea that one must become the Christ and the father. It seems to me that many of the metaphysical ideas in the various Gnostic creation schemes were perhaps part of a more flexible and contemplative Judeo-Christian tradition than the more rigid and dogmatic forms of Pauline and orthodox Christianity.

The last chapter of Nag Hammadi texts explored are those of Hermes, Derdekeas, Thunder, and Mary. These are all other revealers of wisdom. Hermes Trismegistos (thrice-greatest Hermes) is the revealer of the Hermetic wisdom. He is a composite of Greek god Hermes and Egyptian god Thoth, and so is thought to be a mythic figure. The Hermetic text in the Nag Hammadi library concerns the 8^th and 9^th levels (beyond the realms of the seven planets). These may correspond to realms in the Secret Book of John where Yaldabaoth dwells in the 8^th realm and his mother Sophia in the 9^th realm. The text has some similarities to the – Three Steles of Seth. To me this combination of Hermeticism and Gnosticism suggests the syncretic and perhaps non-dogmatic approach of the Alexandrian esotericists who were more cosmopolitan and less sectarian before the mandatory implementation of orthodox Christianity. During the throws of the struggle a mob of Christians burned the magnificent library of Alexandria, perhaps a low point in human culture, and symbolically at least, a harbinger of the Dark Ages. The Hermetic text is clearly Egyptian and prescribes hieroglyphics and typical Egyptian art and magic. There is also a Hermetic prayer of thanksgiving to the Womb and the Father. After the prayer there is a prescription to embrace and share a sacred vegetarian meal. Next is another Hermetic text given by Hermes Trismegistus to the student Asclepius. Here is revealed the mystery of metaphorical sexual intercourse as the communion between gods and people. Here Hermes reveals an apocalyptic scenario for Egypt followed by a restoration.

The next text is called the - Paraphrase of Shem – and is revealed by Derdekeas to Shem. Shem is the son of Noah and father of the Semitic people. “In the beginning, Derdekeas says, there were three primal powers, the light above, the darkness below, and the spirit in between, and somehow the darkness had control of mind:” (text quote follows) “Light was thought full of hearing and word united in one form. Darkness was wind in the waters, and darkness had a mind wrapped in restless fire. Between them was spirit, a quiet, humble light.” After this the darkness stirs which noise surprises the spirit and the uneasy peace ends. Spirit discovers the existence of darkness. Darkness sees that spirit is enlightened and lifts up to partake. The darkness may be similar to Sophia trying to imitate the spirit. This is one of several Gnostic scenarios of darkness and light becoming intermingled. The liberation of the mind of darkness and the light of the spirit is achieved (in a convoluted manner according to Meyer) through the use of sexual weaponry. Darkness ejaculates into nature, the cosmic womb. Derdekeas, the revealer of this text, is the savior of light, and descends to have sex with nature, which itself is a world of sexuality. Here I think we see an attempt at equating metaphysical creation of the world with biological creation/reproduction.

Next we come to the revelation of a female called Thunder. The title of the text is given as – Thunder: Perfect Mind. This consists of “I am” statements and shows a marked similarity to statements attributed to Isis. She identifies herself as Sophia, Eve (Zoe), and Epinoia (insight). Meyer and others connect her to Sethian thought, particularly to Barbelo. One similarity to Barbelo who was sent from above is recounted:

“I was sent from the power

and have come to those who contemplate me
and am found among those who seek me”

In the poetic lines she often invokes one thing then its opposite:

“For I am the first and the last.

I am the honored and the scorned.
I am the whore and the holy.
I am the wife and the virgin
I am <the mother> and the daughter”

“I alone exist,

and I have no one to judge me.
For there are many sorts of seductive sins
and deeds without restraint
and disgraceful desires
and fleeting pleasures that people embrace,
until they become sober
and rise up to their place of rest.
They will find me there,
and they will live and not die again.”

Lastly there is – The Gospel of Mary – which is fragmentary. There are fragments preserved in other codices as well but this is the most complete. There is debate how Gnostic the text is as some consider it more a Stoic text. This is due to the language of the text. The Stoics considered matter to be a thought construct and matter to be intertwined with nature. Gnostics tended to promote the avoidance of the material world as defiled while the Stoics simply guarded against being overly influenced by it. The final message in this text from Jesus to his disciples before he is crucified is that the son of man (child of humankind) is within and that there is no rule to lay down beyond this. As Jesus is leaving Mary speaks to the disciples about the inner journey of the soul beyond the passions of desire, ignorance, anger and such. In the Gospel of Mary we again find that the most favored disciple was this Mary of Magdala: “… in the Gospel of Philip, the Dialogue of the Savior, Pistis Sophis, and a song from the Psalms of Heracleides from the Manichaean Psalmbook – Mary of Magdal receives similar high praise, but in the New Testament gospels her role is limited and her praise is muted.”

“In the sixth century Pope Gregory the Great completed the work of marginalizing Mary Magdalene by equating Mary with the prostitute of Luke 7, and Mary became the paradigmatic repentant whore thereafter.”

So we see fairly clearly that this Mary has been defamed (historically and mythically) and in line with Gnostic mythos she is a woman that should be restored to her proper place.

Meyer notes that there are quite a few Gnostic saviors: Jesus, Derdekeas, Thunder, Seth, Hermes, even Mani – the Iranian “messenger of light.” Mani was a syncretist in the 200’s who combined the teachings of the Hebrews, Jesus, Zoroaster, and later of Buddha. Meyer also acknowledges the influence of Hebrew, Greek, and Egyptian traditions on Gnostic thought. The trinity of Isis/Osiris/Horus certainly influenced the Christian trinity. Later church leaders came to embrace male revealers and church leaders and attack the female Gnostic revealers for their boldness and audacity to perform religious actions!

Indeed, with the murder of Hypatia of Alexandria and the loss of the feminine traditions of the Near and Middle East – long powerful, particularly in Anatolia – we see a degradation and imbalance that darkened humanity yet it can also be said that the unity of tradition and conversion enforced by the sword also allowed for a more homogenous society and all that it entails.

The pre-orthodox Christian world was one of diversity and one might note that the birth of religious wars was at the end of this time and likely influenced the Islamic conversions by the sword that swept the world a few centuries later. Incidentally, the Islamic world inherited pockets of Gnostic-minded practitioners and that became part of later, mostly Sufi and Shia traditions along with Hellenistic and Neoplatonic thought.

Finally, Meyer goes through some even more recent Gnostic texts discovered. Perhaps more will be unearthed in the future and reveal more of the unknown of the religious ideas of this time and place. At the end there is a list of each text in the Nag Hammadi Codex with a description of its contents and character.

This is an excellent overview of the Nag Hammadi library and of so-called Gnostic thought in general by an accomplished author with a genuine interest in the subject matter. Much is revealed especially about the early history of Christianity and more especially about the character of it that was lost to orthodoxy.

 

 

Eskimo Legends

Book Review: Eskimo Legends by Lela Kiana Oman (Alaskan Methodist University Press 1975, 1^st published in 1959) – illustrated by Minnie Kiana Keezer

This is a neat collection of stories mainly from the author’s family heritage and the region of Northwest Alaska. Some are stories told about times in the 1800’s while others are old lore and legends. One gets a certain feel for the needs, dangers, and special features of life on the tundra. One gets a hint of the difficulties of a life of subsistence hunting in cold and barren winterscapes. This 2^nd edition is nicely illustrated. Many of these tales take place near Nome, Alaska and along the Selawik and Kobuk rivers which are north of the Yukon River.

In the introduction she mentions the possibility that large animals from pre-historic times have influenced subsequent tales of large and sometimes magical animals. There are tales of children and people taken by giant eagles and sea serpents. She mentions the big dipper as a time indicator – called the Tutugruk (Big Caribou) – when it kicked up its legs in winter (~ 9 o’clock) it was time for bed. In summer it was Siqupsiqot (Seven Sisters –presumably Pleiades) that indicated bedtime. Christian missionaries came to the these Eskimos late -  in the 1880’s – so it was then that their old beliefs began to be called evil. The author was born in 1915 and so had some childhood taste of the old ways. She mentions Quakers and Baptists in this area. She also mentions light-skinned natives – descendents of Norwegian sailors that were shipwrecked and settled here 600 yrs ago – presumably in the 1300’s.

The author talks a bit about her own childhood peppered throughout the tales and her relationship with her grandmothers, parents, and siblings. She mentions the many stories that were told, especially on cold winter nights. The tales were told in her native language though she says now (1959-1975) this is not done anymore and since the stories are rarely even told she wanted to preserve them. Indeed – many stories lost in time were probably at the clan level.   

The first story is an account of a narrative of Lela’s aunt – named Nathlook/Susie. This story painted an interesting picture in my mind. She tells of her long ago existence in a celestial realm and of re-incarnating with her siblings, first as spirits, then in the form of wolves but also successive incarnations as sea worms, and as fish. She mentions being noticed by scary human-like spirits with legs and a head with no torso. I remember such spirits being mentioned in Iroquoian lore as well.  She mentions trying to find a human mother but that the human and dog mothers had similar brightnesses and it was hard to tell. When she was a puppy her mother wolf was approached by a human woman who asked for one of her puppies to make a baby for her in-law. Nathlook/Susie was chosen.

Before she entered her human mother she noticed that the annatquk, the shaman – a feature of many of the stories here – noticed her presence and her nature as a wolf pup. The woman who brought her actually wanted to make trouble for her in law – make her have a stillborn or damaged child, but the shaman saw this and helped her to be born naturally as a human. The shaman who saved her and her mother was Kagrak, or Doctor Charlie, a feature of several of these stories. The child was born with teeth. She was visited by her wolf-mother and wolf siblings while her mother was asleep and given caribou fat to eat. After this she got sick. Her mother saw but thought she was dreaming. The shaman asked if she had seen anything and the mother told him her dream. She told her to tell the child not to take anything and that she would understand. She was named for a long dead relative but she mentions that she kept finding her bones when looking for her parka on the bank of a certain slough. She goes on to tell of growing up, marrying, and having a store and shipping business – but also of sisters losing babies, sickness, and the premature death of her husband while traveling. Indeed many of these stories reveal the hardships and danger of life in the cold north.

Next is the story of Utauyuk, Bear Woman, who said she was a bear in the other life. She had several encounters with bear, was unafraid of them, and could even scare them off. When attacked by a bear she killed it with a sapling cane thrust down his throat. She was known to travel magically fast. Once on a cold night she was woken by an intruder who stole a coal from the fire – she spoke as if she knew him. He replied but gave away an Indian dialect and she knew he was with a raiding party. She then went about waking others in the other sod houses and they were able to subdue and route the invaders.

Another fascinating story is called – The Spirit of Slumber. Kitkone had been at sea in his kayak for 3 days hunting seals. He was bringing the seals back. He paddled hard with the heavy weight on rough seas but he was very sleepy. He kept nodding off and bumping his head on the ridge of the kayak. He fell asleep and dreamed he was at the bottom of the sea but then woke again banging his head on the kayak. Knowing that each person has a spirit of slumber that doles out sleep to him as it is needed – he began to shout down this spirit and decided he would kill the spirit of slumber. He took out his knife and cut at the air and shouted his intent. Blood came from his head where he had hit it on the kayak several times. He then knew he had killed his spirit of slumber. After this he could no longer sleep. He faked it for many years until his sons grew up but one day he told his wife and children. After this he fell asleep and as the story says: “He had killed his spirit of slumber and in turn the spirit of slumber had killed him.

There is a story of the Creek of Whale Oil – about a giant eagle that would catch small black whales – easy to catch as they moved into shallow water to mate. The eagle would bring them up onto the mountain and eat a very small part of them that he liked and leave the rest to die, making the creek oily with whale oil. His voracious appetite was making fewer whales available for the people in a year of low food supply. The people held a meeting to decide what to do and a young man named Tinuk volunteered to slay the eagle. This story reminded me a bit of a dragon slayer myth. In any case, he succeeds and that is that.  

There is a story about Annatkuq (shaman) and his four wives who every autumn dug a large whole in the ice wherein would walk much game and be trapped. For this they had abundant food to eat and to trade for other goods. They also traded furs for Siberian blue and white beads that were used like money. Here they would have multi-tribal gatherings where trading was a big part. Each tribe would be expected to give a dance and a feast. Annatkuq was often the home host of these gatherings. One day a cry was heard from the hole and a frightened woman, Ayai-ya, was found trapped there. Annatkuq was sad for the woman and vowed that the trap would never “fly” again. He ritually undid the trap and they filled the hole with dirt – the shaman preferred peace of mind to a life of prosperity.

Next is a story told to the author and her sibs as children about the severe winter of 1880. The shaman now was Qaagrak (Doctor Charlie) and he had two wives that did not like one another and were in competition. There was a lack of food and they were wandering in search of game worried about starvation. They suspected there was a herd of caribou to the north under the aurora borealis. Doctor Charlie took out his drum one night in the tent and began to drum and chant. “iiyaaya” was one chant mentioned. A rope was wrapped around his neck and pulled in opposite directions by his wives and others and others while he smoked his pipe. Eventually this made him pass out (and broke his neck according to the story). This caused him to go into spirit form and ascend through the smoke hole of the tent. This reminds me a bit of a shamanism where one hangs like Odin. While he was away his long dead aunt who was also his guardian as a child as well as his shaman teacher came in spirit form to guard his limp body. She was kept with offerings of food and water. He mentions in the story that in those days the dead were not buried since it was believed that burial would prevent the soul from escaping the body. Doctor Charlie returned to his body and said he had killed many Caribou spirits but since they were far away they would not come for two days. When they did come they were abundant and had to be cut up and gathered. After this they made clothes and food for Doctor Charlie – not as a reward for him – but to dress him in honor of the ancestors which is the custom to honor them.

Next is another story about a giant eagle that carried off a human, an Eskimo in a canoe. The eagle had the lad by his parka and lifted him into the air. He escaped from his parka and climbed onto the eagle’s back, took out his knife, and cut off one feather at a time until the eagle had to land so then he was able to kill the eagle. He was naked and it was mosquito season which is intense in the Arctic. The eagle was cooked for food and distributed as was the custom of a man’s first kill.

Next is the story of Aye-mee and the Mermaid. Aye-mee, a woman who cast a fishing net during a time of famine, had caught a mermaid in her net. The fierce and dangerous mermaid was caught in the net. Aye-Mee set out to the task of freeing her which she was able to do. Aye-Mee slowly untangled the mermaid’s strands of dark hair from the net while she talked to cover up her fear. She told of their struggle to find food and store it for the winter ahead. She asked the mermaid for help as she was freed. The next day Aye-Mee found her willow-bark net full of white fish and for days after the people caught white fish and put much food up for winter.

Next is the story of a large fearsome sea serpent that was making its presence known. The shaman was able to approach it fearlessly and bid it to have mercy on them and after this it was not seen again. This makes me wonder if it is perhaps a tale of a tsunami or a series of them – since disturbed water and waves were mentioned.

The last story is called the Enchanted Sky and is about three men on the sea in kayaks when the sky became mysterious and seemed odd and unnatural. One of the men stood up in his kayak and saw through a crack in the sky to another world. The others stayed low in their kayaks and bid him to get down too but he described a fantastic world in the sky full of blooming flowers and enchanting lands. Then the crack closed up and the remaining two paddled homeward. The boy is said to live in the sky.

I think this is a powerful selection of a clan-level folk story tradition of a unique people with unique needs due to geography and climate. One can clearly see the shamanic past and the fragility of having to rely on subsistence hunting.

Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and Ghostly Processions of the Undead

Book Review: Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead by Claude Lecouteux –translated by Jon E Graham (Inner Traditions 2011 – originally 1999)

This is a good folkloric study by an apparent scholar of medieval European literature. He utilizes medieval text sources and folk traditions from all over Europe to unravel the pre-Christian and post-Christian manifestations of the Wild Hunt motif. Lecouteux also examines scholarship about the Wild Hunt folk-myth, particularly that from French and German researchers. His simple definition of the Wild Hunt is this:

“… a band of the dead whose passage over the earth at certain times of the year is accompanied by diverse phenomena. Beyond these elements , all else varies: the makeup of the troop; the appearance of its members; the presence or absence of animals; noise or silence; the existence of a male or female leader who, depending on the country and the region, bears different names – the devil, Wode, Mother Hulda, Dame Holle, Percht, Hennequin, and more.”

The author notes the dynamism of folk myth and its ever-changing forms in different places and times. This, he says, contributes to the difficulty of uncovering in detail the earliest models of such beliefs. He also notes that the Church sometimes re-introduced pre-existing mythic beliefs in new forms, most usually to further the aims of the Church.

European stories about the astral doubles of women who roam the night as in the witch’s sabbat genre begin in the 800’s referring to a time in 314 CE when paganism would still have had a strong effect in Southern Europe. The leader of the troop was Diana or Herodias or sometimes Frau Holda and she was considered later an agent of Satan and the troop a demonic horde. Burchard of Worms wrote in 1066 that it was the devil himself who provided the astral body and limbs to the night travelers. Apparently, he did not understand previous shamanic conceptions of an external soul such as the Scandinavian hamr, or the Latin animus. The author notes that the Diana of this later time may be different from the Roman goddess. The Celtic goddess Di Ana, or Anu is implicated as she had a consort, the god Di Anu – as Diana was consort to Dianus, or possibly Dianum, in a probably later Tuscan tradition. Herodias comes from the bible as an anti-Christian woman who betrayed John the Baptist. For this, in some accounts, she was condemned to fly in the sky in the night and became leader of the flying witches. Dame Abonde (Abundia, also Satia) is another such character though in folk traditions these goddesses also have beneficial aspects – particularly related to fertility. Indeed, the author makes a very good case that these troops of the dead relate what is known as the “third function” in Indo-European societies, that of fertility and agriculture. Such is clearly the case with the Italian Benandanti – who would fight astral battles representing good and evil, fertility and sterility, success and failure. Further east in Bavaria it is the goddess Percht who is the leader of these ladies of the night. Food is left out for these ladies – uncovered - so that Christians would later consider it unclean and pagan. Most often their appearance of propitiation occurred during the twelve day Christmas cycle – as in Frau Holda’s night aka “Mother’s Night” in the midst of the cycle. This was a time of foreshadowing and divining for the next year and its agricultural cycle. The goddesses of fate are also active this time of year and incorporated into the myth. The Celtic Matronae, the fate fairies which include Morta (death) and the Scandinavian alfablot, or sacrifice to the elves and ancestors and the disir who fly through the night are also invoked this time of year. Valkyries, psychopomps who deliver selected slain warriors to Valhalla, can also be related – also appearing in troops and among storms. The Wild Hunt motif seems to have few parallels among the Irish Celts, an exception being the Sidhe army – or army of fairie folk. Continental versions are found all over France, Spain, all Germanic and Scandinavian lands, and northern Italy around the Alps. Bottom line is that there is clear connection between ancestors, ancestor veneration, and fertility.

When the Church came to power, all these beliefs that were found to be unpalatable were demonized. Any night troops became phalanxes of demons. There were also stories of revenants, the living dead with broken limbs and severe body distortions, like zombies. Stories of flying ghost-like animals are common to Scandinavia, such as Gloso, the glowing sow, who is propitiated during the twelve days of Christmas in order to ensure a good harvest.   

Beginning around 1010 CE there are stories of people having visions of armies of the dead. Sometimes there is a known recently deceased person among them which seeks to communicate to the one having the vision. Dangerous and murdering revenants occur in literature referring to earlier times such as the Saga of Snorri the Godi (Eyrbyggja Saga) written in 1230 (Norway?) but referring to the time period 884-1031. Here is the story of Thorolf Twist-Foot, “a wicked man who returns after his death and causes the death of the inhabitants of Hvamm.” He was thought to be a leader of a troop of the dead. There was a strong belief that people who died prematurely, at a young age, or in battle, could band together and travel in groups as revenants. The predominant Christian version of this is that the dead who have not atoned for their sins or left unfulfilled vows must remain in a purgatory, hell, or underworld existence until their penance is completed.

 The motif of the band of warriors suggests the initiatory brotherhood of the war band (mannerbunde) of Germanic tribes. There is a folk notion of an eternal battle and several stories to this effect where warriors are revived and continue the battle daily. This suggests the same function as in the slain heroes of Valhalla and indeed visions of battles in the sky were reported. Since it was thought that every person had a similar allotted number of days the slain warriors can be thought of as waiting out their days.

Lecouteux divides the stories of the hunter into three types:

 

         1)      The diabolical huntsman – a demon in pursuit of a specific person, usually on a horse and accompanied by a pack of hounds

   2)      The wild huntsman – a tracker/stalker of supernatural beings (humans in supernatural form)

   3)      The cursed huntsman – a man on horseback who pursues a prey that eternally eludes him – usually an animal.

He goes through several of the textual sources of these motifs. The diabolical huntsman was often chasing a human who committed “sins” and is most often a creation of Church clerics. The wild huntsman seems to most closely resemble the ‘lord of beasts’ but also the spirit of the land which controls fortune and misfortune. The story may involve a giant or ogre chasing a woman through the spirit world. In one group of stories it is a giant called the Wunderer chasing Dame Fortune as Frau Saelde as she is promised to him as a wife. The author thinks this may be an old mythic motif of a sacred marriage for the sake of tribal prosperity. In 1250 was the Eckenlied (Song of Ecke) where Dietrich von Bern (Theodoric the Great) meets a wild maiden named Babehilt who is pursued by a giant named Fasolt who rules over wild lands. Fasolt also occurs in a charm as a weather demon.

The author notes the work of Phillip Walter who recently proposed that the name of the wild huntsman as Hennequin (Hellequin, later Harlequin) comes from the German (han, henne) and Norman (quin). The first is the cock/rooster and the second the dog. Dogs and roosters were often sacrificial victims – the dog representing death and the rooster resurrection. He sees the ‘union of the cock and the dog’ as the hunter pursuing the virgin mother goddess for a similar ritual hierogamy for fertility. The horse is also a common figure in the Wild Hunt and often the horses have extra limbs (like Odin’s Sleipnir) and deformations and horses have long been associated as the chief means of travel to and from the Otherworld. The cock is also associated with night as in the stages of cock crow from midnight to dawn.

The cursed hunter motif is most often a Christianized version of a man atoning for his sins with a penance of pursuing an elusive prey. Foresters in Britain noted visions of seeing the army of King Arthur – a damned Arthur atoning for his sins as in some stories he did not live an exemplary life. Arthur is also the quintessential dormant king under the hill, sovereignty attached to the land, and sometimes the leader of the Wild Hunt. The Wild Hunt has also been associated with other kings such as Charlemaigne and Barbarossa.

The original Wild Hunt may have involved the aforementioned nature hierogamy and the psychopomp function of transferring the dead. The author sees the wild hunt leader as one similar to the Celtic god Dagda, “who killed men with one end of his staff and resuscitated them with the other, and whose attributes included a rooster and a dog, which symbolically reflected his dual function.” Shakespeare tells a tale of a forest keeper called Herne the Hunter who has been compared to the lord of beasts, Cernunnos. He is said to be toxic or as the author calls it – the malefic side of the third function (fertility).

Around 1180 the first text story came out of the Legend of King Herla. There are two differing versions – one by Orderic Vitalis about the Mesnie Hellequin and the other by Walter Map about King Herla. King Herla was said to be a king of the Britons who met a dwarf king riding a goat who described himself as a king among kings who was sent to him as a messenger. He said that Herla was a special king with a special relationship to him and that he would attend Herla’s wedding and that Herla must also attend his wedding in the dwarf realm - a double pact. The dwarves, along with the elves, long associated with ancestors and the dead, attended Herla’s wedding to a Frankish princess bearing the riches and lavish foods of the otherworld. Herla came through with his part of the pact and the dwarf king sent him off with animals including a wolfhound in the arms of one of the men. His instructions were that the men were not to dismount until the hound leapt from the arms of its bearer. Unfortunately, as in several Celtic narratives Herla’s return from the otherworld leaves him a few centuries ahead in time as he is met by a Saxon who cannot much understand his speech. A few of his men dismount and are instantly turned to dust – presumably gone back to the otherworld. The dog does not leap and King Herla and his men are said to wander for eternity – as an army – trapped by otherworldy forces – represented by the dog. The author suggests that the story arises from the very old belief that at death one’s life continues as oneself but in another realm. King Herla may also be a representation of the sleeping or dormant sovereign who dwells in the land – being now tied to otherworlds. Some have suggested that since the rule of order in the land was now established (in Saxon times) that King Herla and his band were no longer needed and so wander in dormancy.  

The cleric Orderic Vitalis’s story about the Mesnie Hellequin is dated to before his death in 1140 and refers to the year 1091 or 1092. Here in Normandy are described visions of an army that appeared much like a funeral procession with some known dead townspeople, grossly disfigured beings with large heads, dead men being tortured for crimes, etc. Some of the currently living were seen as well which is traditionally a sign of the imminence of their deaths. But Orderic’s tale is wrought with ulterior motives of inspiring fear to inspire repentance. Some of the wandering dead are in a purgatory state from which they can eventually escape. Often the witness to such a procession is protected by an angelic force who may leave for a time and subsequently he is attacked by demons and saved when the angel guide returns. The name Herla has been associated with the Germanic Hel but that is probably not plausible. It may mean Herla’s dog. The name is also associated with King Charles V of France who was killed in battle and said to wander with his own Furious Army. Herlequin may also refer to the “kin” of Herla. One interesting explanation is that of “ Herla’s wain, the cult wagon of the Angles, which became Charles’ Wain, the name of the seven brightest stars of the Big Dipper …” The Big Dipper is also called “Odin’s Chariot” in the Netherlands.

Cistercian monk Helinand of Froidmont said in the 1100’s that Virgil was the source of the belief in the Mesnie Hellequin as it was Virgil that said arms and horses accompanied one beyond death and that one also retains one’s form after death, albeit in another realm.

Some versions have it that this state is temporary and that the dead are gathered until they can travel on to their final destinations. Other narratives occur where the troop consists of crafts people working their arts in a procession- blacksmiths, cobblers, tanners, weaver, and woodworkers.

Some legends include an army of the dead heading to Jerusalem on crusade, or pilgrimage. Many of the troops involved making a great racket of noise sometimes akin to the noise of storms. The Wild Hunt in Spain was called the Huesta or the Santa Campana. Some of the Spanish accounts suggest that the dead mass together in a wandering before going to their destinations. Here and in Brittany the procession of the dead was thought to travel the path of the Milky Way to a personal judgment before final judgment. The Milky Way as a path of the dead is a very old belief – possibly stretching back many thousands of years.

Another motif is that of the members of the troop being bound together with a rope or chain. This brings to mind old Roman accounts of the Celtic god and psychopomp Ogmios with his tongue bound to the ears of others. In Switzerland the Furious Army is often called the Furious Bond. Sometimes a figure bearing a cross precedes the procession and identifies it as funerary. Certain funerary routes involved many sightings and were likely magically charged places. Another preceding figure is called by the author – the Warning Figure. The Loyal Eckhart from German stories is such a warning figure who precedes and protects others from harm by the Wild Hunt troop. There is a danger of being kidnapped.  Loyal Eckhart is also said to precede the winter night troop of Dame Holle in some accounts. Other versions involve The Good Women and Dame Abundia and Percht of the Long Nose. The troop is often said to consist of unbaptized children, warriors and criminals who died before their time, and ecstatics (both crazy people and witches). Hooded figures are also noted. The author goes through many variants and indeed there are quite a few throughout Europe.

Another related motif is processions of masked figures – a masquerade, often associated with a funeral procession. The Romance of Fauvel from 1316 involves this in the form of a wedding. The loud and dissonant noise and music of the Charivari – a folk custom where people would do this in a parade often to express disapproval of unwed mothers and  widows who took another husband, but also of wife beaters. A similar din was associated with the Wild Hunt and indeed Hellequin later came to be associated with the Charivari. The Padstow tradition of the Hobby Horse at New Year is another involving masks, a horse, and the dead. Indeed masks have often been associated with the dead. Masked processions are associated with the 12 days of Christmas in Scandinavia and with Percht in Germany and Austria. One goal of these masked feasts was likely the “expulsion of the harmful dead” as well as propitiation of the ancestors for good fortune in the coming year. Mesnie Hellequin also found its way into the Carnival traditions which can be said to have a similar banishing function. The author also suggests these masked processions as a possible parody of burials. Masked men or spirits appear in the “Terrifying Ride” or Oskoreia of Norway and Scandinavia. In some stories spirits go into wolf form and steal beer. The Lapps would offer food hung in trees to the Jol Army. The woman Gudrun Horsetail was said to lead the Norse Oskoreia sometimes accompanied by young Sigurd, the hero in the Saga of the Volsungs. Gudrun possibly connects to the female spirits called Disir, which have similarity to the Valkyries and are also connected to Odin, another legendary leader of the Wild Hunt. 

Odin as leader of the Wild Hunt is well known and was proclaimed by Jacob Grimm in 1835 and many others but some scholars disagree. H. P. Hasenfratz has suggested masked secret societies (likely originating with Odinic war bands) as a cognate for the army of the dead. These ecstatic cults fit in with Odin as the god of ecstasy. They may have indulged in ancestor worship as well. Ecstatics, able to project their “astral doubles” in order to wage battles with spirits in spirit worlds, such as known Latvian werewolf societies, may have been a shamanic prototype of the Wild Hunt.

Christians have long likened Odin to the devil and some have even suggested “quin” as “king” and Hellequin as king of hell – which is very unlikely. Certainly the melding of ancestor veneration with fertility and fortune suggests ecstatic means to bring this about.

The Wild Hunt has long been associated with weather and intense storms with cold and fierce winds. The Indo-Aryan version of Rudra (the howler) or Indra and his troop of Maruts is a likely prototype for the Wild Hunt. Here it was said that these wind spirits were also fierce warriors armed with spears and that they were very powerful and capable of making the earth tremble with their storming thunder. Indeed the word “Maruts’ is a likely cognate of the Roman war god  “Mars”. Their horses urine was said to be like wild rain and parallels of the sweat of horses occur in Norse tales. Rudra was a patron of hunters, thieves, and brigands. On the other hand, the author suggests that Odin corresponds more to Varuna while Tyr corresponds more to Indra but time and distance may have obscured such associations. Thor as lord of thunder and bearer of the hammer also matches much with Indra as the bearer of the vajra. In India there is also Vayu (Air) as the god of winds and storms. So, many of these names and functions overlap in various ways. Odin also fits in as lord of the Wild Hunt as he is the master of Jol. Regarding fertility it should also be noted that it is dependent upon rain from the sky and storms so that storm gods are also fertility gods. Devotees of Dame Holle would roll their yarn during her Yuletide rites.

Apparently, the first literary reference to Odin as leader of the Wild Hunt is from 1593 in Nicolaus Gryse’s Mirror of the Anti-Christian Papacy and Lutheran Christianity. Here Odin is called a false god and indeed Odin has long been associated with the Devil. Of course, Odin may have been associated with the Wild Hunt long before this. Numerous later accounts throughout Germanic lands associate the Wild Hunt with Odin, Woden, Gooden, Waur, and Goor. Flocks of noisy migrating birds are even compared to the Wild Hunt.

The author’s concluding remarks include: 1) Orderic Vitalis’s account was the first to begin the association of Wild Hunt motifs with Christian propaganda; 2) the leader of the Wild Hunt was a psychopompic deity before the Christians made him into a demon; 3) there was likely a belief in the seasonal return of the dead – though they could appear at any time – just more likely at certain times; 4) the Wild Hunt is an enduring and captivating theme that has persisted in many variant forms for a vast time period.

Finally, there are several appendixes. One is about – The Society of the Bone – from Veran (Spain) which is apparently a secret society that attends and predicts death, and utilizes bones and candles and maybe masks as well. They are said to be able to perform premonitions of death and to walk between the worlds.

This is a very interesting study that shows the Wild Hunt and likely the Yule Season as a time of ancestor worship and the related functions of fortune and fertility for the coming year. The Wild Hunt is an army of the dead, a zombie apocalypse of antiquity that has always fascinated humans.

The excellent essay below points out some interesting ideas. One is that the otherworldly or ghostly status of figures such as King Herla, or the Mesnie Hellequin allows the king to be remembered as lore, a sort of immortality through remembrance – so ghost manifestations become noticeable and remembered ancestral forces.

http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forhunt.html

Here is another short blog piece about the Wild Hunt:

http://celticmythpodshow.com/blog/the-wild-hunt-by-sigurd-towrie/

 

 

 

 

 

Ecomysticism: The Profound Experience of Nature as Spiritual Guide

Book Review: Ecomysticism: The Profound Experience of Nature as Spiritual Guide

By Carl Von Essen, M.D. (Bear & Company 2007, 2010)

This book explores nature mysticism and nature trance in general. It is a well-researched book that approaches the subject from many angles including biological, neurological, psychological, religious, and through personal experience.

He begins by examining the Greek creation myth given by Hesiod in his Theogony. Here it is said that first there was Chaos, then Gaia, then Eros. He sees this as a metaphoric natural progression or evolution from chaos to biospheric awareness and finally to deep love. He suggests that knowledge of biology and evolution can be a foundation for nature mysticism. Since consciousness appears to evolve and have a developmental history and all our experiences are based on consciousness then it is also possible that that the whole history and evolution of consciousness somehow exists within us and is retrievable in some ways. Evolution appears to move from the simple to the complex and perhaps from chaos to order. The biosphere, our home, is revealed to be fragile. We seem to be part of the biospheric organism. The author points out biologist E.O. Wilson’s idea of biophilia – “… the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms.” Wilson equates biophilia to our attraction to nature and fellow life. We seek and enjoy contact with pets and to watch birds and wild animals, trees and plants. We enjoy gardening. Connection with nature seems – well natural – and therapeutic. The forms in nature, the irregular yet regular patterns of fractals found in many growing things, can be fascinating. Appreciation of form is art and aesthetics and something to which we humans are attracted. This delight in nature is part of the Eros section of the metaphor of Hesiod as interpreted by the author.

The hunter’s trance is examined. ‘The Hunter’s Trance’ was the previous title of this book. Being alert while alone in the woods among other creatures that are secretive and adept at avoiding – can be exhilarating. I see this as the ‘Art of Stalking’ and have done it myself mostly with plants but sometimes with animals. The author notes his own experiences on remote fishing adventures. He also reminds us that until about 10,000 years ago all humans were hunter gatherers – keenly aware of our natural surroundings that contained both danger and food. Von Essen describes the hunter’s trance as  mindfulness without presumptions and compares it to Zen contemplation and also to a warrior’s battle-awareness. A similar trance can accompany a naturalist, who is basically a scientist hunting knowledge through observation. Some say there is an instinct specific for hunting but it may just be a basic questing instinct. The author also explores the precision awareness of the archer and the Zen of archery, and the kinesthetic awareness of the rock climber. Each requires unwavering attention as well as a relaxed quality. A similar trance can be had by the explorer. There is delight at finding a hidden patch of food, of plants, of mushrooms, an unknown stream or landform, and of wild animals. Finding special places, ancient humans made temples and sacred groves there and from such places was probably derived the notions of geomancy and feng shui. Along with biophilia there is topophilia, our intuitive connection with the land and its forms and intricacies. This book is also filled with poetry and the words of nature mystics such as Emerson, Thoreau, Goethe, John Wheeler, Wordsworth, Annie Dillard, William James, John Muir, Ansel Adams, Ted Hughes, and many others. Each seems to promote a different way of seeing, often a more mystical way. Indigenous peoples are also often said to have different ways of seeing and experiencing nature. Often a precursor to a natural mystical experience is simply solitude, preferably extended solitude. This is the format of the ‘vision quest’ often undertaken by Native Americans. The animism of many indigenous peoples is not disimilar to biophilia. The nature poet transforms the wonders of nature into language. It is another means of connecting through recollection. The author, along with many others, seems to have some disdain for the use of recreational drugs as a means to experience mystical states, seeing it more as a sickness than a quest. However, this too was a method of indigenous peoples the world over.

The mystical states of warriors and athletes are examined. Battle duty and awareness are the subjects of many of the sagas of the past. The Bhagavad Gita is most noteworthy in this respect. Fight-or-flight brings out neuro-chemicals and a more compelling immediate awareness than to which we are accustomed. Athletes often claim to experience a high, a “flow”, a groove. It is often described as a sort of ‘self-transcendence’ that is in some sense automatic. Runners call this a “runner’s high” and say that it most often happens after an hour of running. Bummer, I usually only run 30- 45 minutes and only ever seem to get a mild high. John Muir described a moment of danger during a mountain climb that resulted (after an initial state of fear and confusion) in a mystical state of great awareness. The author describes this type of experience as engaging the “ecstasy of danger”. I once met a woman who was mountain climbing in West Virginia and was bitten by a copperhead, a poisonous snake. That might just have sucked! In any case, in dangerous situations there can arise an intense enhanced state of mindful awareness as many have experienced. Certainly the trauma of danger and war can bring on unusual hyper-alert states.

The poet and the artist as nature mystics are examined. The nature poet explores the inner being through the metaphor of the outer world. The author goes through the nature poetry of Wordsworth and the critiques of Wordsworth’s poetry by Aldous Huxley, who the author seems to think is excessively arrogant (outspoken he puts it) – perhaps as a result of his antagonism toward drug use, though he does note others’ critiques of the sometimes overblown nature poetry of the transcendentalists. Wordsworth was from Britain and was especially descriptive regarding the mysticism of nature – perhaps a bit like a New Ager today.  The 19th century transcendentalist poets – Thoreau and Emerson to which he adds Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville are well covered. Also examined are the works of Ted Hughes, who explored the roots of Celtic Lore, particularly the story of the Salmon of Wisdom and knowledge of the ways of nature in general. Though not mentioned it is indeed true that the salmon may have taught Paleolithic man that nature exhibits a regularity that can be exploited for food as being present for the spawning runs upriver in spring meant abundant food. The Paleolithic hunter is also represented by the explosion of sublime human art on deeply remote and barely accessible cave walls. Fascination with hunting and nature seems to be the main subject. Special and remarkable landforms and rock formations were likely places of veneration and reflection if only for the distraction of their uniqueness. Taoist Chinese traditions of venerating special rocks evolved into the depiction of mini versions called ‘scholar’s rocks’ that were erected in smaller spaces to be like altars of nature in the home. The Zen stone garden is a similar manifestation where natural forms and relationships are contemplated. There is also a section on – The Healer – the author is a doctor and surgeon so knows this aspect through personal experience. He compares the healing arts of the shaman to those of the modern doctor and notes a “healer’s trance” not unlike the hunter’s stalking awareness. He notes that the physician’s skill is both an art and a science. He mentions the sage words of a mentor of his, the Canadian physician Sir William Osler: “To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always.” He even suggests that it can be a ‘calling’ to practice medicine much like the shaman is ‘called’. He also notes observing the trance-like work of Balinese woodcarving artists.

Part Two of the book deals with theories and perspectives of mystical experience. First there are the – four properties of mystical experience – described by William James: 1) ineffability – from Plato to Lao Tzu this quality has been noted; 2) noetic quality – this is the quality of unshakeable truth that a mystical experience can convey – akin to Richard Bucke’s “cosmic consciousness.” 3) transiency – the experience typically passes and is retained only in memory as we get on with mundane existence; 4) passivity – he gives passivity as having two components: the suddenness of mystical revelation and the receptivity of the experiencer who is free of pretence so that the revelation can be “received”. Mystical experience is often more emotional than intellectual. Other mystical models are Henri Bergson’s “supraconsciousness” and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy toward greater unity and the “peak experience.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied the peak experience and described it as “flow” and the “total involvement with life.” He noted these tendencies with artists, musicians, athletes, and rock climbers. Herbert Benson described it in terms of the “relaxation response” where a sort of stabilized and relaxed awareness is associated with peak experience. E. O. Wilson called it his “naturalist’s trance.” Biologically these states can be tied to lower heart rates and lower blood pressure relative to the normal state. Many others had similar models of mystical awareness: Freud’s “oceanic feeling, Einstein’s “ambivalence,” and the neurologist and Zen practitioner James Austin, who described various stages of mystical experience.  (indeed in the meditative traditions there are many models of levels and manifestations of various states).

Models of consciousness have long existed and evolved. Fechner, in the 1800’s described a simple wave idea of consciousness where a line was drawn through the center of a sine wave pattern and all above the line is waking consciousness and all below is unconsciousness, the line being the threshold. Aldous Huxley spoke of a “mind at large” where the unconscious flooded the conscious realm during mystical experience. Modern neurology notes that the brain is involved in consciousness in various ways but how this relates to mystical experience and the subconscious is only beginning to be unraveled. William James made a three-dimensional model similar to Fechner’s wave where waking consciousness is like a ripple on the stream of consciousness rising above the threshold. Physicist David Bohm thought similarly. Beginning with Herbert Benson’s “relaxation response” as an interpretation of the alpha brain wave state, neurologists have measured various brain responses and activity in various parts of the brain during certain states. Hooking electrodes to various parts of the brains of those in meditation, sensory isolation, and under the influence of chemical substances and pathological states has revealed much about the relationships of experiences and brain activity. Brain activity is different when the senses are disengaged then when they are engaged. Even though brain and brain chemical activity can be measured there is still a subjective component to these experiences as the activity is correlated to feelings or to self-described states.

The author mentions the phenomenon known as “photism” or the experience of light or luminosity. This has been a feature of many mystical experiences and many well-known ones included from religious literature. Ecstatic experience is full of these accounts of “enhancements and distortions of light and color.” Hypnogogia and near-death experiences may be related phenomena especially when related to physical and mental trauma as some mystical experiences are. The author makes an analogy of mystical flow states to Ohm’s Law where resistance may be decreased due to “cooling” resulting in a sort of mental superconductivity. He suggests this may be equated to “pure consciousness, emptied of sensory and cognitive content.” Physicist Alan Lightman described it in a similar analogy – like a “loss of frictional drag when sailing a boat.”

The neurology of religious experience has been studied now for a while, even getting its own name – neurotheology. Some researchers do point out that neurology may be limited to only telling us about the mechanics of various experiences and this may not have so much benefit. The notion of endeavoring to describe that which is beyond description may not be a very fruitful endeavor. Nonetheless, neurology will probably yield much in the way of understanding and probably have useful health and psychological applications.

Pathological states are examined. Thomas Merton referred to some states such as Hitler’s racist megalomania and the overly superstitious nature worship of some primitive peoples as “false mysticism.” Mob psychology and charismatic cultism may fall into this category. Psychoses and psychological disorders such as schizophrenia often involve altered states of consciousness that may be intense and share qualities with those of mystical states. Drug induced mystical states are another overlap. The author seems to think these states are less meaningful than those derived through other means. He mentions Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary – seeing Leary as a sort of goof off. I am not sure if I agree there. Sure – Leary as psychedelic priest and his off key behavior  could be disconcerting but he was a distinguished Harvard psychologist and wrote quite a bit about consciousness as well as delving into the psychedelic drug experience. His model of the “eight circuits of consciousness” could have easily been included here. Certainly mental states are influenced by brain chemistry and drugs influence that brain chemistry in profound ways.

The section on – Ecocrisis - refers to the state of the world today where species and habitat are disappearing and global warming threatens. Human population is the source of much of the disappearance of nature though much of our exploitation of nature has been wasteful and not entirely necessary. Population pressures, the quest for resources, and the pollution and greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuels are difficult problems we need to deal with and it is uncertain how bad things will get. In some ways it is necessary for all of us to be ecologically aware – to contemplate these difficult problems together in a manner of speaking. It is our duty to be well-informed and not overly biased. Some humans are optimistic that we can solve these problems. Others prophesize doom. Unchecked growth and industrialization is not sustainable and needs to be stemmed to some extent. The environment needs to be monitored in many ways – on global, regional, and local levels. Energy needs to become much more efficient. People need to be frugal and practical. Nature needs to be respected. These needs should be fairly obvious to everyone. The author goes through the views of Georg von Wright from is book “Science and Reason” regarding the future of humanity and the planet. Like many others he notes that we are heading for catastrophe if current trajectories continue. Predictions of others range from barely sustainable to totally apocalyptic but without a doubt we are stressing the planet and the biosphere we inhabit. The ability to love and to commune with the natural world that we inhabit may be a boon to stabilizing the ecocrisis. Certainly being aware of our individual actions is a step in the right direction. The author as well as others like David Suzuki speak out against increased urbanization but I think that perhaps they fail to see some of the benefits of urbanization – centralization, decreased transportation of people, products, energy, and electricity, and more chances to share things. Certainly urban living can distance one from nature a bit but most cities seem to have ample places where there is some greenery and wildness. Whether consumerism and materialism pull us apart is not a given. Certainly most of us suspect that there is a lot of junk out there that people seem to want for whatever reasons – perhaps just because it is available. The author suggests that what is needed is the “moral equivalent of war.” Personally I do not like that approach and see what is needed as – more detailed collaboration and problem-solving. We need to figure not fight. Sure we need to do it with vigor but we also need to do it in a collaborative spirit.

This is a worthy book to read and is a good overview of nature mysticism in general.