In its entirety for the first time. I think I make my views on this pretty clear.
You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
And do not pursue me from your vision.
And do not make your sound hate me, nor your hearing.
Do not be ignorant of me at any place or any time.
Be on guard!
Do not be ignorant of me.
For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored and the scorned,
I am the harlot and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am the mother and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one and the one with many children.
I am she whose marriage is multiple, and I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and she who does not give birth.
I am the comforting of my labor pains.
I am the bride and the bridegroom.
It is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father and the sister of my husband.
And he is my offspring.
I am the servant of him who prepared me and I am the lord of my offspring.
But he is the one who begot me before time on a day of birth and he is my offspring in time, and my power is from him.
I am the staff of his power in his youth and he is the rod of my old age.
And whatever he wills happens to me.
I am the incomprehensible silence and the much-remembered thought.
I am the voice of many sounds and the utterance of many forms.
I am the utterance of my name.
Why, you who hate me, do you love me
And hate those who love me?
You who deny me, confess me,
And you who confess me, deny me.
You who speak the truth about me, tell lies about me,
And you who have told lies about me, speak the truth about me.
You who know me, become ignorant of me; and may those who have been ignorant of me come to know me.
For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am unashamed, I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
Give heed to me.
I am the disgraced and the exalted one.
These are the words of Thunder, Perfect Mind, written sometime in the early centuries of the Common Era, when ancient philosophy, and paganism, and mystery religions, and Christianity, created a stew of belief called Gnosticism. Who is this woman that contains multitudes? Surely, to encompass such a dichotomy of being, these are the claims of a goddess. But who?
The statement, “I am” echoes the ancient hymns sung to Isis. For the Gnostics, Isis was analogous to the principle of Sophia, the representation of wisdom, and in her way, a manifestation of YHVH’s wife Asherah. And so we have, almost two millennia before Gardner, a universal feminine divine.
Reblogging this oldie but goodie so people know how I really feel on the subject.