The Thunder, Perfect Mind

An exhibition

This post took a little longer to put together and did not make it on my usual Mercury hour/Mercury day distribution. But as SHE probably would have it, Venus day and Venus hour is more HER style. Whom am I speaking about? Read on.

The Thunder, Perfect Mind, is a mysterious document that was found amongst the Nag Hammadi cache in 1945. This group of codices have been called Gnostic and represents what is probably a small peek into the flourishing ideas and multivalent world of early Christianity. The Thunder was possibly an ode to the mysteries of Isis and I’ve also read it speculated to have been written by a woman, although no one can be sure. Our new exhibition at The Alembic in Berkeley will be focusing on this enigmatic, powerful, and evocative text. Sixteen artists from around the world were selected because their work embodies and brings the poem to life. 

Artists on this card from top left clockwise with their Instagram handles:

Mariana Moreno-Gonzalez, Mi Lago de Lágrimas (detail) @marianapaintedthis

Luna Charlotte, The Ocean's Keeper @lunacharlotteart

Thailen When, Chrysalis @thailenwhen

Vibrata Chromodoris, Metatron @vibrata

Evan Bartholomew (Bluetech), Sofia Reflected Beyond the Labyrinth of Linear Time, @Bluetechofficial

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I wanted to take a moment and say a few words about the thoughts behind this exhibition from my curatorial perspective. This poem is timeless in that there is something so prescient about its tone that it could have been written today as well as in the future, not just several thousand years ago. Personally, I resonate a lot with the everything and nothing style of mysticism, the kind rife with paradox and apophatic language. It is how I experience the Divine. Everything I can say about whatever They/She/He/It are can and should be unsaid in the next breath. It is this slippery holographic quality that seems the most true, not clear and defined statements that take a stance. It is why experiencing the ineffable is a mystery, because while there is an experience to be had and even if in peak experience it makes perfect sense (and on some level it should), back in normal reality there is always a quality that is just falling away from the tip of your tongue as you try and speak it into being. It can’t be replicated or duplicated in our normal states of consciousness and so paradox and apophatic writing is the closest we can get to saying the unsayable.

Sometimes art can show in images what we cannot say in words. Through a combination of color and symbols we can get closer to representing something that is not able to be held down. And it isn’t any of the specific colors or symbols but rather the thing that is in between them all. I chose the works in this show because to me, the in-between-ness of these artworks makes me feel into the realms beyond and gives me a tingling sensation that the veil is just slightly thinner in their presence.

For those that can come in person to see the show, the opening is November 4th 7-9pm. The show will be up until early January if you’ll be in town. Next week I’ll share a video with all of the work in the show as I’m still getting a few in this week. Can’t wait for you to see the whole vision together.

I’ll leave you all with the actual text. It’s a short read and I highly recommend it. Nothing like getting into the real source. Enjoy.

I was sent forth from the power,

and I have come to those who reflect upon me,

and I have been found among those who seek after me.

Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,

and you hearers, hear me.

You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.

And do not banish me from your sight.And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.

Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on your guard!

Do not be ignorant of me.

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 mother> and the daughter.I am the members of my mother.I am the barren one

and many are her sons.

I am she whose wedding is great,

and I have not taken a husband.

I am the midwife and she who does not bear.I am the solace of my labor pains.I am the bride and the bridegroom,

and 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 slave of him who prepared me.I am the ruler of my offspring.

But he is the one who begot me before the time on a birthday.

And he is my offspring in (due) 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 silence that is incomprehensible

and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.

I am the voice whose sound is manifold

and the word whose appearance is multiple.

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 tell the truth about me, lie about me,

and you who have lied about me, tell the truth about me.

You who know me, be ignorant of me,

and those who have not known me, let them know me.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.I am shame and boldness.I am shameless; I am ashamed.I am strength and I am fear.I am war and peace.Give heed to me.
I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.Give heed to my poverty and my wealth.Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth,

and you will find me in those that are to come.

And do not look upon me on the dung-heap

nor go and leave me cast out,

and you will find me in the kingdoms.

And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who

are disgraced and in the least places,

nor laugh at me.

And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.
But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel.Be on your guard!
Do not hate my obedience

and do not love my self-control.

In my weakness, do not forsake me,

and do not be afraid of my power.

For why do you despise my fear

and curse my pride?

But I am she who exists in all fears

and strength in trembling.

I am she who is weak,

and I am well in a pleasant place.

I am senseless and I am wise.
Why have you hated me in your counsels?For I shall be silent among those who are silent,

and I shall appear and speak,

Why then have you hated me, you Greeks?

Because I am a barbarian among the barbarians?

For I am the wisdom of the Greeks

and the knowledge of the barbarians.

I am the judgement of the Greeks and of the barbarians.I am the one whose image is great in Egypt

and the one who has no image among the barbarians.

I am the one who has been hated everywhere

and who has been loved everywhere.

I am the one whom they call Life,

and you have called Death.

I am the one whom they call Law,

and you have called Lawlessness.

I am the one whom you have pursued,

and I am the one whom you have seized.

I am the one whom you have scattered,

and you have gathered me together.

I am the one before whom you have been ashamed,

and you have been shameless to me.

I am she who does not keep festival,

and I am she whose festivals are many.

I, I am godless,

and I am the one whose God is great.

I am the one whom you have reflected upon,

and you have scorned me.

I am unlearned,

and they learn from me.

I am the one that you have despised,

and you reflect upon me.

I am the one whom you have hidden from,

and you appear to me.

But whenever you hide yourselves,

I myself will appear.

For whenever you appear,

I myself will hide from you.

Those who have [...] to it [...] senselessly [...].Take me [... understanding] from grief.

and take me to yourselves from understanding and grief.

And take me to yourselves from places that are ugly and in ruin,

and rob from those which are good even though in ugliness.

Out of shame, take me to yourselves shamelessly;

and out of shamelessness and shame,

upbraid my members in yourselves.

And come forward to me, you who know me

and you who know my members,

and establish the great ones among the small first creatures.

Come forward to childhood,

and do not despise it because it is small and it is little.

And do not turn away greatnesses in some parts from the smallnesses,

for the smallnesses are known from the greatnesses.

Why do you curse me and honor me?You have wounded and you have had mercy.Do not separate me from the first ones whom you have known.And do not cast anyone out nor turn anyone away

[...] turn you away and [... know] him not.

[...].

What is mine [...].

I know the first ones and those after them know me.But I am the mind of [...] and the rest of [...].I am the knowledge of my inquiry,

and the finding of those who seek after me,

and the command of those who ask of me,

and the power of the powers in my knowledge

of the angels, who have been sent at my word,

and of gods in their seasons by my counsel,

and of spirits of every man who exists with me,

and of women who dwell within me.

I am the one who is honored, and who is praised,

and who is despised scornfully.

I am peace,

and war has come because of me.

And I am an alien and a citizen.
I am the substance and the one who has no substance.Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me,

and those who are in my substance are the ones who know me.

Those who are close to me have been ignorant of me,

and those who are far away from me are the ones who have known me.

On the day when I am close to you, you are far away from me,

and on the day when I am far away from you, I am close to you.

[I am ...] within.[I am ...] of the natures.I am [...] of the creation of the spirits.[...] request of the souls.I am control and the uncontrollable.I am the union and the dissolution.I am the abiding and I am the dissolution.I am the one below,

and they come up to me.

I am the judgment and the acquittal.I, I am sinless,

and the root of sin derives from me.

I am lust in (outward) appearance,

and interior self-control exists within me.

I am the hearing which is attainable to everyone

and the speech which cannot be grasped.

I am a mute who does not speak,

and great is my multitude of words.

Hear me in gentleness, and learn of me in roughness.I am she who cries out,

and I am cast forth upon the face of the earth.

I prepare the bread and my mind within.I am the knowledge of my name.I am the one who cries out,

and I listen.

I appear and [...] walk in [...] seal of my [...].I am [...] the defense [...].I am the one who is called Truth

and iniquity [...].

You honor me [...] and you whisper against me.You who are vanquished, judge them (who vanquish you)

before they give judgment against you,

because the judge and partiality exist in you.

If you are condemned by this one, who will acquit you?

Or, if you are acquitted by him, who will be able to detain you?

For what is inside of you is what is outside of you,

and the one who fashions you on the outside

is the one who shaped the inside of you.

And what you see outside of you, you see inside of you;

it is visible and it is your garment.

Hear me, you hearers

and learn of my words, you who know me.

I am the hearing that is attainable to everything;

I am the speech that cannot be grasped.

I am the name of the sound

and the sound of the name.

I am the sign of the letter

and the designation of the division.

And I [...].(3 lines missing)[...] light [...].[...] hearers [...] to you[...] the great power.And [...] will not move the name.[...] to the one who created me.

And I will speak his name.

Look then at his words

and all the writings which have been completed.

Give heed then, you hearers

and you also, the angels and those who have been sent,

and you spirits who have arisen from the dead.

For I am the one who alone exists,

and I have no one who will judge me.

For many are the pleasant forms which exist in numerous sins,

and incontinencies,

and disgraceful passions,

and fleeting pleasures,

which (men) embrace until they become sober

and go up to their resting place.

And they will find me there,

and they will live,

and they will not die again.

This is the translation by George W. MacRae as published online HERE on the Gnostic Library website.