How Masculine & Feminine Shaped Religion

While hellenization was happening-

FUN FACT: all of the collective knowledge we appreciate today comes from a very blended, and multicultural background. Scribes and priests, Holy people and ordinary folks from every culture imaginable have risked life and limb to carry our most sacred knowledge to safety from invasions and fires to the best of their ability. Some of the pillagers would flay people alive for having written down esoteric Wisdom in the first place. (think of the fires in Alexandria). There was something fleshed out in the Hellenist world humanity seemed to mistrust.

Mystic understanding comes from a place of symbolism and allegory. The meditators from all schools of thought, historically speaking, mongrelized much more than everyone else. It’s something about existence we intimately cherish. It’s like, “there has to be a reason because we’re why so let’s not get caught up in how!” (think about that)

-Greek culture and Jewish culture became very integrated because they lived and traded together. They had come to an understanding via Kemet (Egypt) and all three of those groups connected to the cultures as far as the coasts of the pacific in Asia. We’ve had all sorts of trade routes going way back but we only remember the politics or war.

We forget the brotherhoods of scribes and mystic healers. All of the nerds who like to read and don’t really connect with small talk. Those with no use for bread and circuses that simply like to know. Those people will always swap information. There was no appropriation between the mystics as they will always share light with each and live in love. They’re the ones who kept the methods to experience Oneness alive through times that were much darker than our own. We forget how long we’ve known each other as a species. Wisdom brings everyone together.

“ KOINE- GHETTO TONGUE- DIRTY GREEK!”

Let’s talk scholars and education a minute. Consider how the Greek Translations of the Old Testament came to be. I want you to consider how fluid language is and ask yourself if it would be difficult to share mystical concepts from one language to another.

If you think your educated train of thought can’t be confused by the language barriers I want you to consider the nature of Greek and Hebrew in relation to the word Wisdom. The concept of Sophia lines up perfectly with the Woman Wisdom of Solomon except for the fact that Hebrew word for Wisdom- chokhmah (חכמה)- is masculine. Binah (Understanding) is feminine in the Hebrew language.. Kabbalah was still a behind the scenes discipline and these Hellenists weren’t mystery school initiates. Internalized understanding was missing. So these Rabbi’s and Greeks working together to translate scripture didn’t establish from the beginning that Sophia is recognized as the Ru’ahh HakoDesh in Judaism. Ru’ahh is definitely tied to the feminine gender in creation. She’s read as Woman Wisdom because She exists as feminine. How?

Obviously. we experience what we can see and describe what we can to each other in our common tongue. While it’s clear from the writings of each culture that they defined God between polarites- the masculine and feminine didn’t translate seamlessly– Since they didn’t translate in the same fluid language as the other we lost the understanding between the two-

Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication where knowledge, art, ideas, and culture are received, internalized, and repeated back to the teacher ensuring the wisdom was intact. Thus teachings were preserved and transmitted orally from one generation to another. So long as they recognize the greater truths and had ears for understanding.

-But… in some ways they still connected. We probably wouldn’t recognize the ways the Wisdom Traditions lined up back then but that’s because both cultures dove into the Knowledge of Kemet. Moshe “was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” Psalms 104 is derived from the Hymn Of The Sun. The Indo-Aryans Zoroastrians had ransacked the Indus Valley at this point carrying the knowledge of long ago into other parts of the globe. The Babylonian exile had taken place. Groups like Essenes had set up centers for esia (healers in Aramaic) outside of major towns as far as trade stretched. Out and in information flowed. The Royal Mysteries blended with Greek cults and names like Isis became Demeter. On and on it’s went since the dawn of civilization passing these archetypes on.

As you well know, there is a line of esoteric Wisdom that comes down to us through the Hermetic Philosophers and Alchemists that lived very quietly in society. To do the Great Work is to become very intimate with the Self. History can now point out how the elements of Kemet spread deep into European high society, but… people don’t consider them to be in the religious community. As a result, their knowledge of God became labeled occult science. (Some of these doctrines needed to be suppressed, I get that.) But…

We forget, Hermes Trismegistus also serves as an archetype, one deeply connected to Jewish esotericism. Some site the story of Akhenaten and bring the parallels to Moshe in light. Some allude to thrice-greatest meaning he is three men of renown, including the biblical patriarch Enoch and moving a few directions beyond there. Hermes is another enigma that shows just how deeply the inner traditions moved into each other. Maybe that’s why the Church had such a need for distinct identity.

What if we had used Sophia as the Divine Mother Earth and displayed Christ as the Son shooting across the sky in His Chariot? Do we land in a pagan landscape sharing the same Wisdom? This underlying theme threatened the power appointed by the state of Rome at one point. Never forget the carnality of human beings offered power when you think of how we landed in the modern Christian era., You do neither your intellect nor the Divine a service when you do. The mystery schools were deep felt in the Hellenist landscape.

Sophia looked like She fit the part.

So gender playing a role in the cosmic balance of the All became a hidden doctrine while Sophia became Logos in the official church teaching. Posturing in the Roman Empire led to the doctrine we have today:

Because the Gnostics loved using Sophia in their demi-urge philosophy the True Wisdom doctrine was thwarted tossing the baby out with the bathwater.

It was asserted that there is a strong enough connection between Logos and the Sophia that makes them practically interchangeable. The Arian controversy was adjourned and Constantine had all the scrolls that said otherwise burned.

Now the Hebrew and Greek language dilemma teaches us the Ultimate truth in duality, By failing to recognize polarity connecting their languages together mirroring each cultures understanding with the others we didn’t receive the knowledge directly. Sophia and Logos were the same concept in a broader sense but the two met on opposite ends. Ones form was the others shape and the others doers were done. Naturally, the two cultures failed to recognize Wisdom in polarity and looked at it dualistically. Their tongues were reversed and they went their separate ways without ever seeing the irony. Reminds me of Heraclitus:

For wisdom, listen not to me but to the Word, and know that all is one. (Men do not know how what is at variance agrees with itself. It is an attunement of opposite tensions, like that of the bow and lyre.)

I want you to rationally consider something. Would we get lost in the sauce with our modern understanding of the mystical journey? There’s no argument. No “listen to what I tell you.” We’re passed that point and hearing each other clearly.

How would you directly teach connection with the “Absolute-All-There-Will-Be” to the people you love?

What description would come out of your lips?

“Girl, you know you’re lost…Lost in the thrill of it all…”
“Miami, Amsterdam… Tokyo, Spain, lost…” (it goes a little Frank Ocean in my head when I try and explain the Wisdom. Finding its origin is) “Los Angeles, India, Lost on a train, lost….”

This is why the timeless Wisdom only passes from the lips of the teacher to the student in those unsaid things Understood between two in their setting. Some things said in scripture are very difficult for the modern mind to understand. Language has evolved so much since then and the translations cause more confusion than good.

TAKEAWAY,

Koine Greek- how things were spoken at the time John was written. Familiarize yourself with a Hellenist setting and look for the resistance. Jewish thinking wasn’t always in line with the Greek language being used at the time the New Testament Gospels were written. We have even older manuscripts that point to how our Christian philosophy was fleshed out. This is no small thing.

Judaism stood in stark contrast with Greek wisdom of the soul. One saw an extension of the Divine breathing into being whereas the other saw a very individual breathe that was unique. The Proto-orthodxy founders blended these two doctrines without asking themselves how Jewish the writings they were looking at actually were.

Now, we have a whitewashed understanding of a mysticism born to the therapeutae known as the Essenes to the north of Jerusalem. This Wisdom passed in Aramaic, it wasn’t Greek in origin for a second. Their paths only kissed in Kemet (Egypt).

The meditations will take you to two different places because they start from different understandings. The spiritual ego can’t be ruled out. We oftentimes find what we’re seeking. We still look through our shades of perception.

Understanding shares wisdom right?

So…

Think of the language gaps and the modes of viewing life between these two cultures.

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