The Thunder: Perfect Mind, an ancient sacred text

Reading:

Taussig, Hal. The Thunder: Perfect Mind : A New Translation and Introduction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

In the mid-20th century, two Egyptians found in the hills around the Nile valley in middle Egypt near the town of Nag Hammadi a trove of early Christian literature, much of which had never been seen before.  This collection included a full copy of The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Truth, and The Secret Revelation of James.

Another startling document in this collection is “The Thunder: Perfect Mind,” the topic of our next adult study at 9:30 a.m. Sundays.  This piece is in a startling voice that is both feminine and seemingly divine.

The discussion will be led by Hal Taussig, the co-author (with Jared Caloway, Justin Lasser,  Celene Lillie, and Maia Kotrosits) of the first book in English on The Thunder: Perfect Mind.

A new translation by Taussig, Caloway, Lasser, Lillie, and Kotrosits is below:

 

I was sent from within power

I came to those pondering me

And I was found among those seeking me

Look at me, all you who contemplate me

Audience, hear me

Those expecting me, receive me

Don’t chase me from your sight

Don’t let your voice or your hearing hate me

Don’t ignore me any place, any time

Be careful!  Do not ignore me!

 

I am the first and the last

I am she who is honored and she who is mocked

I am the whore and the holy woman

I am the wife and the virgin

I am he the mother and the daughter

I am the limbs of my mother

I am a sterile woman and she has many children

I am she whose wedding is extravagant and I didn’t have a husband

I am the midwife, and she who hasn’t given birth

I am the comfort of my labor pains

I am the bride and the brideman

And it is my husband who gave birth to me

I am my father’s mother, my husband’s sister, and he is my child

I am the slavewoman of him who served me

I am she the lord of my child

 

But it is he who gave birth to me at the wrong time

And he is my child born at the right time

And my power is from within him

I am the staff of his youthful power

And he is the tuning rod of my old womanhood

Whatever he wants happens to me

 

I am the silence never found

And the idea infinitely recalled

I am the voice with countless sounds

And the thousand guises of the word

I am the speaking of my name

 

You who loathe me, why do you love me and loathe the ones who love me?

You who deny me, confess me

You who confess me, deny me

You who speak the truth about me, lie about me

You who lied about me, now speak the truth about me

You who know me, ignore me

You who ignore me, notice me

 

Since I am both awareness and obliviousness

I am humiliation and pride

I am without shame

I am ashamed

I am security and I am fear

I am war and peace

 

Pay attention to me!

I am she who is disgraced and she who is important

Pay attention to me, to my poverty and to my extravagance

 

Do not be arrogant to me when I am thrown to the ground

You will find me among the expected

 

Do not stare at me in the pile of shit, leaving me discarded

You will find me in the kingdoms

 

Do not stare at me when I am thrown out into the condemned

Do not laugh at me in the lowest places

Do not throw me down into those slaughtered viciously

 

I myself am compassionate

And I am cruel

Watch out!

Do not hate my compliance and do not love my restraint

In my weakness do not strip me bare

Do not be afraid of my power

 

Why do you despise my fear and curse my pride?

I am she who exists in all fears and in trembling boldness

I am she who is timid

And I am safe in a comfortable place

I am witless, and I am wise.

 

 

Why did you hate me with your schemes?

I shall shut my mouth among those whose mouths are shut

and then I will show up and speak

 

Why then did you hate me, you Greeks?

Because I am a barbarian among barbarians?

Since I am the wisdom of the Greeks and the knowledge of the barbarians

I am the justice of both the Greeks and barbarians

I am he whose image is multiple in Egypt

And she who is without an image among the barbarians

I am she who was hated in every place

And she who was loved in every place

 

I am she whom they call life

And you all called death

I am she who they call law

And you all called lawlessness

 

I am she whom you chased and she whom you captured

I am she whom you scattered

And you have gathered me together

I am she before whom you were ashamed

And you have been shameless to me

I am she who does not celebrate festivals

And I am she whose festivals are spectacular

 

I, I am without God

And I am she whose God is magnificent

I am he the one you thought about and you detested me

I am not learned, and they learn from me

I am she whom you detested and yet you think about me

I am he from whom you hid

And you appear to me

 

Whenever you hide yourselves, I myself will appear

For whenever you [            ], I myself [            ] you

Those who have [            ]

to it…

…

Take me……
from within

Receive me with understanding and heartache

Take me from the disgraced and crushed places

Rob from those who are good, even though in disgrace

Bring me in shame, to yourselves, out of shame

With or without shame

blame the parts of me within yourselves

Come towards me, you who know me

and you who know the parts of me

 

Assemble the great among the small and earliest creatures

Advance toward childhood

Do not hate it because it is small and insignificant

Don’t reject the small parts of greatness because they are small

since smallness is recognized from within greatness

Why did you curse me, and revere me?

You wounded me, and you relented

Don’t separate me from the first ones

you ---

throw away no one…

turn away no…
…..

I know those…

And the ones after these know me

 

But I am the mind …and the rest….

I am the learning from my search

And the discovery of those seeking me

The command of those who ask about me

And the power of powers

In my understanding of the angels

Who were sent on my word

And the Gods of God, according to my design

And spirits of men who exist with me

And the women who live in me

 

I am she who is revered and adored

And she who is reviled with contempt

I am peace and war exists because of me

I am a foreigner and a citizen of the city

I am being

I am she who is nothing

Those who don’t participate in my presence, don’t know me

Those who share in my being know me

Those who are close to me, did not know me

Those who are far from me, knew me

 

On the day that I am close to you...are far away

...on the day that....from you...to you...

 

I…..within....of the natures

I am he...of the creation of the spirits....request of the souls

 

...control and the uncontrollable

I am the coming together and the falling apart

I am the enduring and the disintegration

I am down in the dirt, and they come up to me

I am judgment and acquittal

 

I myself am without sin, and the root of sin is from within me

I appear to be lust, but inside is self-control

I am what anyone can hear, but no one can say

I am a mute that does not speak, and my words are endless

Hear me in tenderness, learn from me in roughness

I am she who shouts out, and they throw me down on the ground

I am the one who prepares the bread and my mind within

I am the knowledge of my name

I am she who shouts out, and it is I that listens

 

I appear and...walk in...seal of my...I am he...the defense

I am she they call truth, and violation...

You honor me...and you whisper against me

You conquered ones: judge them before they judge you

Because the judge and favoritism both exist in you

If he condemns you, who will release you?

If he releases you, who can detain you?

 

Since what is your inside is your outside

And the one who shapes your outside is he who shaped your inside

And what you see on the outside, you see revealed on the inside

It is your clothing

 

Hear me, audience, and learn from my words, you who know me

I am what everyone can hear and no one can say

I am the name of sound, and the sound of the name

I am the sign of writing and disclosure of difference

And I…………

 

 

 

….….light….and…...hearers…..to you…

take…..the great power.

And….will not move the name…

….he who created me

But I will speak his name

 

Look then at his pronouncements and all the writings that have been completed

Listen then, audience

And also you angels

Along with those who have been sent

And spirits who have risen from among the dead

Since I am he who exists alone

And no one judges me

 

Since many sweet ideas exist in all kinds of sin

They are uncontrollable and condemning passions

And passing pleasures that people have until they become sober

They go up to their resting place,

And they will find me in that place

They will live and they will not die again