Poem was taken from "The Book Gnostic Gospels" by Author Elaine Pagels, whose work examines the information in the Coptic translations made about 1500yrs ago from anicent maniscripts. Due to the Coptic scripts and leather bindings they were dated around C. A.D. 120-150. These were found on a hill side buried in an area scattered with caves and large boulders in the region of Nag Hammadi by a peasant farmer. I found it soo fascinating reading personal(expansion/contraction) the events regarding the farmer who discovered these works of Wholly(holy)order.
In these diverse texts range, from secret gospels, poems, and quasi-philosophic descriptions of the orgin of the universe, to myths, magic, and the instructions for mystical practice.
This text entitled Tunder, Perfect Mind offers an this extraordinary poem spoken in the voice of a feminine divine power:

For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one,
I am the wife and the virgin...
I am the barren one,
and many are her sons...
I am the silence that is incomprehensible...
I am the utterance of my name.

As I am reading this material my heart and mind travel to
"The Last Tempation of Christ", the video Kathleen recommended that I have viewed twice and am drawn to view again. VLL

A very inducting offering, Vonda.

Makes me wonder, "Who am I?"


Thank you . . .

An attempt to answer your question: Per my researching/reading and taken from of a favorite Authors Gregg Braden's material in the book The Divine Matrix, bridging time, space, miracles, and belief. His perspective, and from the CD "An Ancient Magicial Prayer Innsights from the Dead Sea Scrolls. It really spoke to me when I read it late several nights ago.

We're holographic beings, in holograpic bodies living in holograpic consciousness of a holographic universe. We're powerful beings expressing ourselves through the bodies that extend beyond the edge of our cells to become the universe itself. By simply "being" who we are, we eccompass the whole of creation, mirroring everything from the largest phenemenon to the minutest occurance, from the lighest of the light to the darkess of the dark. Our friends are part of the whole, as well as our partners, parents, and children. Our bodies mirror the patterns of the universe, embedded within more patterns, embedded within still more patterns, and so on. Our holographic existnce is no secret, however, and has been the subject of some of the most profound and moving prose and poetry in the history of our world.
In the Gnostic work The Tunder:Perfect Mind, for example, a 3rd century woman declares that she is nothing more and nothing less than the embodiment of all possibilities that already exist with in every person. "I am the first and the last, she states" I am the whore and the holy one. I am the wife and the virgin... I am the mother of my father and the sister of my husband...In my weakness, do not forsake me, and do not be afraid of my power... Why have you hated me in your counsels"
As these words may describe our holographic existence, they were written during the early years of the Christian church and were far ahead of their time. With this in mind, when the patriarchy of the church council was asked to choose which documents would be ommitted from the "offical" religious texts, its easy to see why The tundert: Perfect Mind was lost until the discovery of the pre-church Nag Hammadi Library, nearly 1,700 yrs later.
What's important here is that each of us is whole and complete unto ourselves. And in this state, we find the key to even greater patterns of healing that exists within an even greater wholeness. It's a powerful pricipal that plays out in our lives, triggering experiences and emotions that may in fact have so little to do with what we think they are about.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Vonda,

I believe Tom's question was a rhetorical question, it really has/needs no answer. Important to grasp, because we can spend a lifetime, seeking answers to questions that have none...the question is only a function of taking us into the mystery, to allow us to glimpse the vastness of it all. Not to be answered and satisfy our ego inquiry and give us the ability to say we "know" the answer...the joy is the constant discovery.

And that is what is exciting about what you are doing Vonda, the constant exploration and discovery of what wasn't in your consciousness before....that is a great wonder of being human, it seems to me. And I enjoy your explorations, they are however, not answers...they are a function of going deeper into the mystery.

Gregg Braden has done a fine job of attempting to describe the mystery, as have so many. I am always interested in those attempts and usually a little bemused, when they speak of it as "the truth".
What Gregg is addressing is what we speak of when we speak of oneness...it is a wonderous mystery how that can be.

And I have come to believe that the feminine withdrew her forces in consciousness to allow another evolution that would not/could not have occurred with her forces so powerfully at play. So I don't feel a connection when we enter the "why have you hated me in your counsels"...I feel this is a temporal energy seeking validation...not the wholeness who already knows the reasons for the withdrawal of the feminine forces. And yes, while it may be a part of the Gnostic Texts to present this aspect, I feel we must have the wisdom to see what aspect is being offered for our viewing. The temporal, human aspects...the soul already knows. Important distinctions, least we feed the monster of feminism, which seperates us.

quote:

What's important here is that each of us is whole and complete unto ourselves. And in this state, we find the key to even greater patterns of healing that exists within an even greater wholeness. It's a powerful pricipal that plays out in our lives,

And in this state we can greet "shadow" the aspects that show up outside ourselves as those in our lives causing us conflict. This is the same principle as shadow work...if indeed we are the glorious and the healing principle....we are also the darkness and that which wounds....this is the greatest function of this piece. To see it in the dark and in the light......

Always bringing in great explorations Vonda..... Thank you!