This is a short summary of the Manichaean Creation Myth. Manichaeism affects my deeply and is part of my spiritual life, but I in no way view it as the path, and this creation myth is a good exemplar of why, Mani’s teachings are too dualistic for me. However, as spiritual tools for attaining a higher knowledge of the divine, Mani’s teachings rank very high, and I want to share a myth that few people hear about and is one of my favorite creation myths.
This story is full of truth and shows how soft polytheism can actually be used at times to explain the unity of God. It is all about Christ really, and though at times Mani seems to elevate himself above Christ, or at least equal too, this is not apparent in this tale.
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So firstly, according to Mani, knoweldge of creation was brought to us by the Holy Spirit, which I take to mean Christ. Christ is said to have taught men to see the eternal divide between the two aspects of creation, Light and Dark.
Mani then explains that before there was time there was a Kingdom of Light, and a Kingdom of Darkness. The Kingdom of Light is internally united, great in five ways - the Aspects of the divine represented within it. These are the Father, his twelve servants of selfs, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Kingdom of Heaven. They are said to be nurured and fed by the essence of pure divinity.
The Kingdom of Darkness is said to consist of five Chambers, unlike the five great Aspects of the Kingdom of Light, Chambers are internal divisions. The Chambers are said to be Smoke, Fire, Wind, Water and Darkness. They hate the light so much that they attack each other in a mindless rage. Eventually they gather up the steadfast to attack the Land of Light together, and they have not doubt they can conquer it. This section of the tale has a foreboding feel to it. The student of the tale, hopefully closer to the side of Light, has already felt the great flaw in the Kingdom of Darkness, hubris.
What the Chambers of Darkness not foreseen was that the Land of Light was inhabited by beautiful yet terrible warrior angels who fight in the Name and Glory of the Father. the Father’s wish was to send his Word against the destroyers of true Divinity so that they could not succeed in their attempt to usurp Divine Glory. So this is what he did, he made a man in the image of his Word, a Son. As well he produced a femine power, the Maiden, who could control the five Aspects of Light.
When the Son was fighting off the Chambers of Darkness, he unveiled the Maiden from inside his own soul. The Chambers of Darkness wee overcome with lust even at her pure beauty. She created an affront to the Abbyss within themselves and they tried to consume her.
When the Chambers were wrapt in lust the Son cast every bit of the Maiden’s Power outward and around the Chambers, she allowed herself to be consumed, and in so doing bound them to the Son. When all this was done the Father sent forth a second Son who removed his brother from the Abbyss. From all the mess made in the battle of Light and Dark the Sons created this world.
Through his Sons the father spread each of the Chambers out amongst the heavens and the earths and used this earth to hold them, making it a prison, a hell, for the powers of darkness. Yet the soul of the Father and the So, which was the Maiden, Wife and Daughter, Mother and Sister, had been captured in this world as well by being bound up in the Chambers of Darkness, so this world was made to be a place of purification, where the Maiden could arise over eons in a new form separate from Darkness. Thus this was made a limbo for souls of men, aspects of her divine soul.
The Sun and Moon were made to take the purified soul to the heaven and compel the tainted soul deeper into this material reality. Only for a single Divine Season will this world remain as it is, because the Sons are busy creating a Fortress of Perfection nearby yet outside the material world. When the Architect completes the Fortress the material world will be put out of its misery. At this time the Father will gather every remnant of Light left in the world and create a likeness of himself, and of the Darkness a likeness of itself. Then the Spirit of Divinity will come and nurture the Light and lock away the Darkness forever. It is explained that because the Darkness has chosen to make itself alien to Light, it cannot be dealt with any other way, it cannot be allowed to become lLght because it has made itself fundamentally opposed to such, and it cannot be left on this world because it would then endanger sometime in the future that purified soul.
Mani explains that the Father’s plan was never bested, it only appears to have been and in the end this will become apparent. In place of this material abomination, the beauty accumulated will be made the final Aspect of Divinity and Darkness shall have no more sway. Mani then explains that any man who trusts in what he says will be a part of that Aspect. The tale ends like this.
Honor and Victory to our Lord Mani, the Spirit of Truth,
that cometh from the Father and has revealed to us
the Beginning, the Middle, and the End.
Victory to the Soul of the Blessed Mary. Theona, Pshai, Jemnoute.
