South African Sophian Gnostic Circle
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The Dark Mother & Bride
posted Saturday, 3 November 2007
In the journey to acquire gnosis of the Sacred Feminine and understanding of Sophia, according to many masters of the tradition, one must begin by seeking to know the Black Mother and Bride; hence the Dark aspects of the Divine Feminine.
Interestingly enough the word for "black" in Hebrew is the same as it is in the Hindu language: Kali. Thus, the name of the Dark Mother in our tradition is Kali Imma, and the name for the Dark Bride is Kali Kallah. The distinction between the Mother and Bride, in general, is the collective or transpersonal and the individual or personal, respectively - the Daughter or Bride is the individual manifestation and experience of that greater principle represented by the Mother. Thus, in truth, everything we might say about the Mother is equally true of the Daughter, and everything we might say of the Daughter is true of the Mother also - they are not truly separate at all.
The Black Mother is not easily understood - she is, perhaps, the most veiled or concealed aspect of Sophia. She is at the very heart of the creative process, and while she may be clearly experienced in the body and life process, yet she may also be experienced as completely disembodied rather than incarnate - completely transcendental. She is the primordial manifestation of the Divine Feminine - the Deep of the Void and Chaos from which all things arise and come into being. In her essence and nature she is unthinkable - completely inconceivable and incomprehensible; and yet she is the very primordial ground from which all being-consciousness-force emerges.
Although transcendental, and such things as beauty and horror are one and the same to her; yet, she is brooding and immanent, ever present in our experience of a constantly changing reality - and as the motivator of constant change or transformation, her immense power goes without saying. Equally, the Dark Mother is the Great Virgin, completely self-contained and hidden in herself, and though the very principle of change, often called 'Destruction,' which is the power behind all Creation, yet is she, in her essence and nature, never changed.
Chaotic and unpredictable, uncertainty and unknowing, dread and terrible - these are words that describe her; yet, so also are words such as sweet and all-giving, liberating and uplifting, and illuminating. She is the core of the Creative Process - the journey into Void and Chaos and Destruction from which a New Creation arise: Mother of the Apocalypse!
Yeshua says, "One must be reborn of the Holy Spirit to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." This, in truth, is a mystical death - passing back into the womb of the Deep of Void and Chaos, those Bitter Waters (Marah), to arise as a child of Light. As any woman can bear witness, the fullness of the womb leads to an explosive and chaotic event of giving birth, so that with birth both mother and child pass through a great ordeal - in this the Black Mother is perfectly known by women. Indeed! She is innately known by women within their own deep and unspoken but natural and instinctual qualities.
Here, of course, we speak of the Dark Night of the Soul and the Cloud of Unknowing - which leads to the realization of the True Light. Yet, until there is a mystical death, and the embrace of the depth of Darkness, how shall the Bright Mother, the Queen of Heaven or Enlightement be known?
Kali Imma and Kali Kallah are not well accepted in our society and culture - rather they are ignored and avoided, demonized, as it were, because they cannot be defined and packaged by finite and linear reason, or controlled when invoked. Few women truly embrace her, and even fewer men - yet, it is she who brings about a true and full metanoia (spiritual transformation or conversion).
The difficulty is this - she is the honest truth of life, much of which is deemed unacceptible or undesirable. You see, the Black Mother/Bride is enigmatic, for while she brings into the Light, she also is among monstrous, horrific and demonic things. She is present in everything without exception, and empowers the entire play of cosmic forces - divine, admixed and demonic.
Interestingly enough the word for "black" in Hebrew is the same as it is in the Hindu language: Kali. Thus, the name of the Dark Mother in our tradition is Kali Imma, and the name for the Dark Bride is Kali Kallah. The distinction between the Mother and Bride, in general, is the collective or transpersonal and the individual or personal, respectively - the Daughter or Bride is the individual manifestation and experience of that greater principle represented by the Mother. Thus, in truth, everything we might say about the Mother is equally true of the Daughter, and everything we might say of the Daughter is true of the Mother also - they are not truly separate at all.
The Black Mother is not easily understood - she is, perhaps, the most veiled or concealed aspect of Sophia. She is at the very heart of the creative process, and while she may be clearly experienced in the body and life process, yet she may also be experienced as completely disembodied rather than incarnate - completely transcendental. She is the primordial manifestation of the Divine Feminine - the Deep of the Void and Chaos from which all things arise and come into being. In her essence and nature she is unthinkable - completely inconceivable and incomprehensible; and yet she is the very primordial ground from which all being-consciousness-force emerges.
Although transcendental, and such things as beauty and horror are one and the same to her; yet, she is brooding and immanent, ever present in our experience of a constantly changing reality - and as the motivator of constant change or transformation, her immense power goes without saying. Equally, the Dark Mother is the Great Virgin, completely self-contained and hidden in herself, and though the very principle of change, often called 'Destruction,' which is the power behind all Creation, yet is she, in her essence and nature, never changed.
Chaotic and unpredictable, uncertainty and unknowing, dread and terrible - these are words that describe her; yet, so also are words such as sweet and all-giving, liberating and uplifting, and illuminating. She is the core of the Creative Process - the journey into Void and Chaos and Destruction from which a New Creation arise: Mother of the Apocalypse!
Yeshua says, "One must be reborn of the Holy Spirit to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." This, in truth, is a mystical death - passing back into the womb of the Deep of Void and Chaos, those Bitter Waters (Marah), to arise as a child of Light. As any woman can bear witness, the fullness of the womb leads to an explosive and chaotic event of giving birth, so that with birth both mother and child pass through a great ordeal - in this the Black Mother is perfectly known by women. Indeed! She is innately known by women within their own deep and unspoken but natural and instinctual qualities.
Here, of course, we speak of the Dark Night of the Soul and the Cloud of Unknowing - which leads to the realization of the True Light. Yet, until there is a mystical death, and the embrace of the depth of Darkness, how shall the Bright Mother, the Queen of Heaven or Enlightement be known?
Kali Imma and Kali Kallah are not well accepted in our society and culture - rather they are ignored and avoided, demonized, as it were, because they cannot be defined and packaged by finite and linear reason, or controlled when invoked. Few women truly embrace her, and even fewer men - yet, it is she who brings about a true and full metanoia (spiritual transformation or conversion).
The difficulty is this - she is the honest truth of life, much of which is deemed unacceptible or undesirable. You see, the Black Mother/Bride is enigmatic, for while she brings into the Light, she also is among monstrous, horrific and demonic things. She is present in everything without exception, and empowers the entire play of cosmic forces - divine, admixed and demonic.
There are two actions of both the Mother and Bride - purification and consecration, corresponding to the Dark and Bright aspects of Sophia. Purification implies the removal of all that distorts, perverts, corrupts, hinders or obstructs; consecration implies a dedication, something brought into alignment and harmony wih the Divine will and kingdom. Thus, purification precedes consecration, the two going hand in hand together.
I'm reminded of the truth that action of creation is at one and the same time the action of destruction. This is reflected in the transition of the Maiden to the Mother, for example. The state of the Maiden is shattered as she comes into being as the Mother - that which was passing away as that which shall be comes into being. This is the reality of the present moment, always. This seems directly connected to the twofold action of purification and consecration.
I'm reminded of the truth that action of creation is at one and the same time the action of destruction. This is reflected in the transition of the Maiden to the Mother, for example. The state of the Maiden is shattered as she comes into being as the Mother - that which was passing away as that which shall be comes into being. This is the reality of the present moment, always. This seems directly connected to the twofold action of purification and consecration.
Whether bright or dark faces, there is one Sophia of God, one Wisdom of God – how Sophia appears to us is dependent upon our own state or consciousness. In fact, when we speak about the Holy Shekinah and we speak about Sophia, in essence, it is the same Presence and Power of God; the Sacred Feminine. When we use the name “Sophia,” we are simply drawing out the aspect of Wisdom and pointing to the Shekinah of Messiah – both the Mother and the Bride.
Sophia appears to us as Sophia Nigrans when we are encumbered by klippot – identified with shades and shadows in our consciousness; yet, Sophia Nigrans is not darkness, but is light, she is Sophia Stellarum. Go out and contemplate the starry night sky, and look and see the radiant darkness of space, and all of the light of the stars; therein, perchance, you will glimpse the union of Sophia Nigrans and Sophia Stellarum – Sophia of God, Sophia of Christ.
Indeed! Eve is Sophia, the Mother and the Daughter, and True Womanhood is Sophia, the Mother and the Daughter – she is Sophia, she is Shekinah; in her is the Pleroma of Light and the Entirety, for she is the Mother of All-Life. She is bright, and she is dark, the dark aspects are necessary for the realization of the Light Kingdom.
Quite naturally, in the ordeals of initiation, and the play of running and returning, we encounter Sophia Nigrans; she who reveals the obstructions that prevent us from entering fully into the Light, and she who leads us into the Light, which is her own True Essence. Thus, in our experience, before we embrace Sophia Stellarum, we must embrace Sophia Nigrans; after all, Sophia is Sophia, dark or bright, and we must embrace the entire spectrum of God’s Wisdom is we seek to become wise.
Sophia appears to us as Sophia Nigrans when we are encumbered by klippot – identified with shades and shadows in our consciousness; yet, Sophia Nigrans is not darkness, but is light, she is Sophia Stellarum. Go out and contemplate the starry night sky, and look and see the radiant darkness of space, and all of the light of the stars; therein, perchance, you will glimpse the union of Sophia Nigrans and Sophia Stellarum – Sophia of God, Sophia of Christ.
Indeed! Eve is Sophia, the Mother and the Daughter, and True Womanhood is Sophia, the Mother and the Daughter – she is Sophia, she is Shekinah; in her is the Pleroma of Light and the Entirety, for she is the Mother of All-Life. She is bright, and she is dark, the dark aspects are necessary for the realization of the Light Kingdom.
Quite naturally, in the ordeals of initiation, and the play of running and returning, we encounter Sophia Nigrans; she who reveals the obstructions that prevent us from entering fully into the Light, and she who leads us into the Light, which is her own True Essence. Thus, in our experience, before we embrace Sophia Stellarum, we must embrace Sophia Nigrans; after all, Sophia is Sophia, dark or bright, and we must embrace the entire spectrum of God’s Wisdom is we seek to become wise.
Kali Imma is black to those who do not know her, who gaze at a distance, but to her lovers she is white brilliance – the all-consuming Holy Fire that devours all that is not like unto the Divine, it is at one and the same time the Light of Divine Illumination? Sophia is Sophia, bright or dark; just as the nature of mind is the same, whether unenlightened or enlightened.
She is the Partzuf (divine personality) of the dark phase of the moon’s cycle; yes, death and rebirth, and passage through in-betweens, yet also presiding over initiation into deep mysteries of being and consciousness, and bearing a capacity to heal, regenerate and renew. She holds the keys to wild gnosis, my friend, with all her unpredictability, transcendental insight, and great passionate force.
Consider, perhaps, the Black Madonna and the many people who flock to her for comfort and healing.
Yes, she bears the attributes of the outcast, but then it is she who is swift to deliver the outcast from injustice and to receive and accept them as they are, though certainly seeking their enlightenment and liberation.
She is metadimensional and, yes, she is wild – no doubt she can be awesome and terrible, but also sweet and passionately loving. Who is looking?
She brings into Union.
She may reveal delights of the senses, yet also the error of grasping at them; she can guide through unseen spaces, revealing deep secrets, and lead us into new horizons; she can heal and nurture, and she can cut straight through our deepest delusions and shatter the bonds of our self-grasping – she becomes so many things to us, and yet she is none of them, for she is the Great Void itself!
Indeed! She is the Supreme Trickster, operating quite outside of the confines of conventional wisdom and the dullness of unenlightened society – but how can one not love her, she is the perfect delight of liberation!
Can you separate out the new moon from the full moon?
Mother Sarah once said of Kali Imma, “She is repose in motion!”
No explanation quite captures her, and she will not be bound by our concepts – she is pure experience at the primal core of being. It is on an experiential level that we must know and understand her, and here in this world she is quite immanent in our experience, though, indeed, we attempt to avoid her or ignore her in our culture and society.
Perhaps Sophia Nigrans is the realization of the whole of life as one single energetic display, the beauty and horror alike.
She is the Partzuf (divine personality) of the dark phase of the moon’s cycle; yes, death and rebirth, and passage through in-betweens, yet also presiding over initiation into deep mysteries of being and consciousness, and bearing a capacity to heal, regenerate and renew. She holds the keys to wild gnosis, my friend, with all her unpredictability, transcendental insight, and great passionate force.
Consider, perhaps, the Black Madonna and the many people who flock to her for comfort and healing.
Yes, she bears the attributes of the outcast, but then it is she who is swift to deliver the outcast from injustice and to receive and accept them as they are, though certainly seeking their enlightenment and liberation.
She is metadimensional and, yes, she is wild – no doubt she can be awesome and terrible, but also sweet and passionately loving. Who is looking?
She brings into Union.
She may reveal delights of the senses, yet also the error of grasping at them; she can guide through unseen spaces, revealing deep secrets, and lead us into new horizons; she can heal and nurture, and she can cut straight through our deepest delusions and shatter the bonds of our self-grasping – she becomes so many things to us, and yet she is none of them, for she is the Great Void itself!
Indeed! She is the Supreme Trickster, operating quite outside of the confines of conventional wisdom and the dullness of unenlightened society – but how can one not love her, she is the perfect delight of liberation!
Can you separate out the new moon from the full moon?
Mother Sarah once said of Kali Imma, “She is repose in motion!”
No explanation quite captures her, and she will not be bound by our concepts – she is pure experience at the primal core of being. It is on an experiential level that we must know and understand her, and here in this world she is quite immanent in our experience, though, indeed, we attempt to avoid her or ignore her in our culture and society.
Perhaps Sophia Nigrans is the realization of the whole of life as one single energetic display, the beauty and horror alike.
It is very easy to miss the deeper teachings on Kali Imma by fixation only upon those aspects that may stand out to us as less desirable – it is much like what happens in exoteric Christianity, when Christians fixate on the passion of the Christ and the Crucifixion, they miss the great mystery of the Risen Christ and the Ascension.
That empty tomb on Easter morning and the darkness in the tomb – isn’t that Kali Imma? The joy of the Resurrection, is that not the bliss of Kali Imma?
Look and see! She is the Great Void, the Clear Radiant Luminosity, in which Ani is realized as Ain, and thus the ultimate truth is realized – she is the Truth of Impermanence and, therefore, the potential of Self-liberation!
This life-display, fraught with perpetual tragedy, is it not the radiant of one’s own mind, the display of a karmic continuum amidst things every changing?
So she is Change! Is all change a challenge, or is all change something dire?
There is no avoiding change, there is no avoiding her!
Do you need to invoke change? Do you need to seek change? Or, is change innate to your experience – the very nature of your experience? Talk about a primal core – ever churning, ever changing, the ground of reality is groundless!
Whether change is “bright” or “dark,” or joyful or sorrowful – that is all a matter of one’s view. When attachment and aversion are brought into cessation; specifically, self-grasping is brought into cessation – What, then, is the experience of change?
She has been called “Mother Destruction,” and has been said to ride upon the back of Leviathan – the “Destroyer”; of course, this is the play of spiritual adepts and masters seeking to reflect our own self-grasping as we fixate on this title. Would “Mother Change” be more acceptable, causing less of an aversion?
Ah! Mother Impermanence, you may love her, or you may hate her; either way, she remains the same – the changelessness of change!
When change seems to go our way, we love her; when it does not, we hate her – isn’t this the reflection of our bondage to cosmic ignorance?
When we call her name, we are not invoking her, but rather we are recognizing her ever-present and embracing what is happening.
These faces of the Mother, bright and dark, and the many faces of the Bride, are they not the reflection of our own state of mind, the radiant display of our own consciousness or soul? What does she look like without self-grasping, without attachment or aversion? She is Mother Clear Light; she is Daughter Clear Light – she looks like Ain! (Which is to say: She looks like No-Thingness!)
So, observing the self-generating capacity of the mind, and the arising of thoughts and images, just as observing the apparently external reality display – whether seemingly positive, neutral or negative, is it not all the same in essence, nature and energy? Is it not all the radiant display of the Ain Nature? This continual stream of self-generation – these are the appearances of Mother and Daughter Sophia; the universal display is the Mother and the individual display is the Daughter, and these two are one in their essence, nature and energy! This is the recognition that leads to realization of the ultimate truth.
The point to be made is most subtle and sublime – Kali Imma is not what we think, but no doubt her appearance is colored by our thoughts, by our attachments and aversions.
There is a great secret to be spoken – brilliant white light is so intense, so overwhelming, it appears as blackness!
That empty tomb on Easter morning and the darkness in the tomb – isn’t that Kali Imma? The joy of the Resurrection, is that not the bliss of Kali Imma?
Look and see! She is the Great Void, the Clear Radiant Luminosity, in which Ani is realized as Ain, and thus the ultimate truth is realized – she is the Truth of Impermanence and, therefore, the potential of Self-liberation!
This life-display, fraught with perpetual tragedy, is it not the radiant of one’s own mind, the display of a karmic continuum amidst things every changing?
So she is Change! Is all change a challenge, or is all change something dire?
There is no avoiding change, there is no avoiding her!
Do you need to invoke change? Do you need to seek change? Or, is change innate to your experience – the very nature of your experience? Talk about a primal core – ever churning, ever changing, the ground of reality is groundless!
Whether change is “bright” or “dark,” or joyful or sorrowful – that is all a matter of one’s view. When attachment and aversion are brought into cessation; specifically, self-grasping is brought into cessation – What, then, is the experience of change?
She has been called “Mother Destruction,” and has been said to ride upon the back of Leviathan – the “Destroyer”; of course, this is the play of spiritual adepts and masters seeking to reflect our own self-grasping as we fixate on this title. Would “Mother Change” be more acceptable, causing less of an aversion?
Ah! Mother Impermanence, you may love her, or you may hate her; either way, she remains the same – the changelessness of change!
When change seems to go our way, we love her; when it does not, we hate her – isn’t this the reflection of our bondage to cosmic ignorance?
When we call her name, we are not invoking her, but rather we are recognizing her ever-present and embracing what is happening.
These faces of the Mother, bright and dark, and the many faces of the Bride, are they not the reflection of our own state of mind, the radiant display of our own consciousness or soul? What does she look like without self-grasping, without attachment or aversion? She is Mother Clear Light; she is Daughter Clear Light – she looks like Ain! (Which is to say: She looks like No-Thingness!)
So, observing the self-generating capacity of the mind, and the arising of thoughts and images, just as observing the apparently external reality display – whether seemingly positive, neutral or negative, is it not all the same in essence, nature and energy? Is it not all the radiant display of the Ain Nature? This continual stream of self-generation – these are the appearances of Mother and Daughter Sophia; the universal display is the Mother and the individual display is the Daughter, and these two are one in their essence, nature and energy! This is the recognition that leads to realization of the ultimate truth.
The point to be made is most subtle and sublime – Kali Imma is not what we think, but no doubt her appearance is colored by our thoughts, by our attachments and aversions.
There is a great secret to be spoken – brilliant white light is so intense, so overwhelming, it appears as blackness!
If Kali Imma appears dreadful or terrible to us – that is the projection of our fears upon the Great Void, the emptiness.
Perhaps we associate Kali Imma only with changes that challenge us, because in the midst of such
challenge we experience a crisis in self-identity and draw near to the truth of this Void Nature in us – this Ain Nature. Unfortunately, however, we project our fear upon this feeling and perception of emptiness, avoiding looking into it and embracing it, and so we remain in bondage.
If we will look and see, without attachment or aversion, the recognition and realization of this very emptiness is the enlightenment and liberation of our mind or soul-stream; it is the womb in which Supernal or Messianic Consciousness dawns!
(In this we may understand the Union of Sophia Nigrans and Sophia Stellarum.)
Remember, all of the Partzufim are personifications of the same essential Truth and Light, as though diverse angles of the Pure Vision.
Perhaps we associate Kali Imma only with changes that challenge us, because in the midst of such
challenge we experience a crisis in self-identity and draw near to the truth of this Void Nature in us – this Ain Nature. Unfortunately, however, we project our fear upon this feeling and perception of emptiness, avoiding looking into it and embracing it, and so we remain in bondage.
If we will look and see, without attachment or aversion, the recognition and realization of this very emptiness is the enlightenment and liberation of our mind or soul-stream; it is the womb in which Supernal or Messianic Consciousness dawns!
(In this we may understand the Union of Sophia Nigrans and Sophia Stellarum.)
Remember, all of the Partzufim are personifications of the same essential Truth and Light, as though diverse angles of the Pure Vision.
May Sophia unveil herself before us, that we might know her, amen.