The Hermit (or sometimes Lord of Time) is numbered nine and is usually depicted as an old man, carrying a lamp or staff. He picks his way carefully through the terrain. The Lamp of Knowledge he carries is a magical receptacle for all the knowledge and wisdom he has acquired through many years of study and meditation. The staff represents the weight of his experience, upon which he leans for support.
The Hermit lacks human company, as the teaching/learning process is often one of aloneness and solitude. He is an adept, someone who knows the inner mysteries of life. He has reached the point in his journey where nobody else can help – he must rely on inner resources, previous experiences and sheer faith in the light which leads him.
When we walk the path of the Hermit we travel deep inside our soul. Here we discover the name of the god or goddess residing within us and bring back the keys to self-knowledge and mastery. After this, we live from the centre of our self and become content with our essential aloneness. And perhaps, after this, we will be ready to teach others what we have discovered.
Domhoff’s text is teaches students about how power operates in U.S. society. It argues that the owners and top-level managers in large income-producing properties are far and away the dominant figures in the U.S.
Originally published in 1935. GOD IS MY ADVENTURE- a book on modern mystics masters and teachers By ROM LANDAU. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION: There is something sacrilegious in your intention of writing such a book, ‘ said a friend and yet I went on with it. Since I was a boy I have always been attracted by those regions of truth that the official religions and sciences are shy of exploring. The men who claim to have penetrated them have always had for me the same fascination that famous artists, explorers or states men have for others and such men are the subject of this book. Some of them come from the East, some from Europe and America; some give us a glimpse of truth by the mere flicker of an eyelid, while others speak of heaven and hell with the precision of mathe maticians. I have met them all, and some I have watched in their daily lives. For years now I have sought their company, questioned them and watched them closely at work. I have tried to dissociate the per sonality from the teaching and then to reconcile the two. I have included some of those whom now I cannot view without mistrust. Since thousands of other people believe in them, they are at any rate most interesting figures in contemporary spiritual life, however little of ultimate value their teaching may possess. There are people who know the heroes of this book more inti mately than I, but my aim has never been to identify myself with any one teacher. On the contrary, I have always been anxious to discover for myself through what powers they have influenced so many people. This attitude will warn the reader not to expect an impersonal survey of contemporary spiritual doctrines. I have limited myself to writing of those men with whom I have been in personal contact. I approach them not as the scholar but as the ordinary man who tries to find God in daily life. This book is the confession of an adventure and the story of my friendships with those men whom a future generation may possibly call the true prophets of our time. The core of the adventure is a search for God. I leave it to the reader to decide whether such a search can be sacrilegious. R. L. MOCKBRIDGE HOUSE HENFIELD, SUSSEX Summer, 1935. PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION ( Ninth Impression): It is an agreeable duty for an a* uthor to express his pleasure when one of his books has enjoyed public favour sufficiently to call for yet another edition seven years after its first publication. In the present case, to the author’s pleasure must be added his gratitude to his readers. For I have greatly profited from the thousands of letters received from people previously unknown to me, and even more so from the many valuable personal contacts which have often resulted from such correspondence. I should be false to my real feelings if I refrained from giving utterance to my gratitude for the enlightenment which I have thus derived. When the manuscript of God Is My Adventure was first submitted to its original publishers, four of the five readers to whom the book was sent for a professional opinion, turned it down. The fifth pointed out that, whatever merits the book might possibly possess, it hardly justified publication since not more than a handful of people were ever likely to be interested in it. The five readers were unanimous in thinking that for a ‘ philosophical’ book God Is My Adventure was not sufficiently orthodox, and for one purporting to explore the by-ways of modem esotericism, not pronounced enough in its allegiance to any individual one of the teachers and systems which it described.
Ebionites (Greek: Ἐβιωναῖοι, Ebionaioi, derived from Hebrew אביונים ebyonim, ebionim, meaning ‘the poor’ or ‘poor ones’) as a term refers to a Jewish Christiansect who were vegetarians, viewed poverty as holy, believed in ritual ablutions, and rejected animal sacrifices.[1] They existed during the early centuries of the Common Era.[2] The Ebionites embraced an adoptionistChristology, thus understanding Jesus of Nazareth as a mere man who, by virtue of his righteousness, was chosen by God to be a true prophet. A majority of the Ebionites rejected as heresies the proto-orthodox Christian beliefs in Jesus’s divinity and virgin birth.[3] They maintained that Jesus was the natural son of Joseph and Mary who became the Messiah because he obeyed the Jewish law.[1]
Since historical records by the Ebionites are scarce, fragmentary and disputed, much of what is known or conjectured about them derives from the Church Fathers who saw all Jewish Christians as Ebionites and confused different groups in their polemics whom they labeled heretical “Judaizers“.[7][8] Consequently, very little about the Ebionite sect or sects is known with certainty, and most, if not all, statements about them are speculative. The Church Fathers consider the Ebionites identical with other Jewish Christian sects, such as the Nazarenes.[9][10]
Name
The hellenized Hebrew term Ebionite (Ebionai) was first applied by Irenaeus in the second century without making mention of Nazarenes (c.180 CE).[11][12]Origen wrote “for Ebion signifies ‘poor’ among the Jews, and those Jews who have received Jesus as Christ are called by the name of Ebionites.”[13][14]Tertullian was the first to write against a heresiarch called Ebion; scholars believe he derived this name from a literal reading of Ebionaioi as ‘followers of Ebion’, a derivation now considered mistaken for lack of any more substantial references to such a figure.[15][16] The term the poor (Greek: ptōkhoí) was still used in its original, more general sense.[15][16] Modern Hebrew still uses the Biblical Hebrew term the needy both in histories of Christianity for “Ebionites” (אביונים) and for almsgiving to the needy at Purim.[17]
History
Map of the Decapolis showing the location of Pella.
Emergence
The earliest reference to a sect that might fit the description of the later Ebionites appears in Justin Martyr‘s Dialogue with Trypho (c. 140).[citation needed] Justin distinguishes between Jewish Christians who observe the Law of Moses but do not require its observance upon others and those who believe the Mosaic Law to be obligatory on all.[18]Irenaeus (c. 180) was probably the first to use the term Ebionites to name a sect he labeled heretical “Judaizers” for “stubbornly clinging to the Law“.[19]Origen (c. 212) remarks that the name derives from the Hebrew word evyon, meaning ‘poor’.[20]Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 310–320 – 403) gives the most complete account in his heresiology called Panarion, denouncing eighty heretical sects, among them the Ebionites.[21][22] Epiphanius mostly gives general descriptions of their religious beliefs and includes quotations from their gospels, which have not survived. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Ebionite movement “may have arisen about the time of the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem (70 CE).”[23] The tentative dating of the origins of this sect depends on Epiphanius writing three centuries later and relying on information for the Ebionites from the Book of Elchasai, which may not have had anything to do with the Ebionites.[24]
Paul talks of his collection for the “poor among the saints” in the Jerusalem church, but this is generally taken as meaning the poorer members of the church rather than a schismatic sect.[25]
The actual number of sects described as Ebionites is difficult to ascertain, as the contradictory patristic accounts in their attempt to distinguish various sects sometimes confuse them with each other.[16] Other sects mentioned are the Carpocratians, the Cerinthians, the Elcesaites, the fourth century Nazarenes and the Sampsaeans, most of whom were Jewish Christian sects who held gnostic or other views rejected by the Ebionites. Epiphanius, however, mentions that a sect of Ebionites came to embrace some of these views despite keeping their name.[26]
As the Ebionites are first mentioned as such in the second century, their earlier history and any relation to the first Jerusalem church remains obscure and a matter of contention. There is no evidence linking the origin of the later sect of the Ebionites with the First Jewish-Roman War of 66–70 CE or with the Jerusalem church led by James. Eusebius relates a tradition, probably based on Aristo of Pella, that the early Christians left Jerusalem just prior to the war and fled to Pella,[27]Jordan beyond the Jordan River, but does not connect this with Ebionites.[15][16] They were led by Simeon of Jerusalem (d. 107) and during the Second Jewish-Roman War of 115–117, they were persecuted by the Jewish followers of Bar Kochba for refusing to recognize his messianic claims.[26] As late as Epiphanius of Salamis (310–403), members of the Ebionite sect resided in Nabatea, and Paneas, Moabitis, and Kochaba in the region of Bashan, near Adraa.[28] From these places, they dispersed and went into Asia (Turkey), Rome and Cyprus.[28]
After the end of the First Jewish–Roman War, the importance of the Jerusalem church began to fade. Jewish Christianity became dispersed throughout the Jewish diaspora in the Levant, where it was slowly eclipsed by Gentile Christianity, which then spread throughout the Roman Empire without competition from Jewish Christian sects.[30] Once the Jerusalem church was eliminated during the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135, the Ebionites gradually lost influence and followers. Some modern scholars, such as Hyam Maccoby, argue the decline of the Ebionites was due to marginalization and persecution by both Jews and Christians.[5] Following the defeat of the rebellion and the expulsion of Jews from Judea, Jerusalem became the Gentile city of Aelia Capitolina. Many of the Jewish Christians residing at Pella renounced their Jewish practices at this time and joined to the mainstream Christian church. Those who remained at Pella and continued in obedience to the Law were labeled heretics.[31] In 375, Epiphanius records the settlement of Ebionites on Cyprus, but by the fifth century, Theodoret of Cyrrhus reported that they were no longer present in the region.[26]
The Ebionites are still attested, if as marginal communities, down to the 7th century. Some modern scholars argue that the Ebionites survived much longer and identify them with a sect encountered by the historian Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad around the year 1000.[32] There is another possible reference to Ebionite communities existing around the 11th century in northwestern Arabia in Sefer Ha’masaot, the “Book of the Travels” of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, a rabbi from Spain. These communities were located in two cities, Tayma and “Tilmas”,[33] possibly Sa`dah in Yemen. The 12th century Muslim historian Muhammad al-Shahrastani mentions Jews living in nearby Medina and Hejaz who accepted Jesus as a prophetic figure and followed traditional Judaism, rejecting mainstream Christian views.[34] Some scholars argue that they contributed to the development of the Islamic view of Jesus due to exchanges of Ebionite remnants with the first Muslims.[16][35]
While mainstream biblical scholars do suppose some Essene influence on the nascent Jewish Christian church in some organizational, administrative and cultic respects, some scholars go beyond that assumption. Regarding the Ebionites specifically, a number of scholars have different theories on how the Ebionites may have developed from an Essene Jewish messianic sect. Hans-Joachim Schoeps argues that the conversion of some Essenes to Jewish Christianity after the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE may be the source of some Ebionites adopting Essene views and practices,[35] while some conclude that the Essenes did not become Jewish Christians, but still had an influence on the Ebionites.[48]
On John the Baptist
In the Gospel of the Ebionites, as quoted by Epiphanius, John the Baptist and Jesus are portrayed as vegetarians.[49][50][51] Epiphanius states that the Ebionites had amended “locusts” (Greek akris) to “honey cake” (Greek ekris). This emendation is not found in any other New Testament manuscript or translation,[52][53] though a different vegetarian reading is found in a late Slavonic version of Josephus‘ War of the Jews.[54] Pines and other modern scholars propose that the Ebionites were projecting their own vegetarianism onto John the Baptist.[47]
The strict vegetarianism of the Ebionites may have been a reaction to the cessation of animal sacrifices after the destruction of Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE and a safeguard against the consumption of unclean meat in a pagan environment.[55]James Tabor, however, argues that Ebionite disdain for eating meat and the Temple sacrifice of animals is due to their preference for the ideal pre-Flood diet and what they took to be the original form of worship. In this view, the Ebionites had an interest in reviving the traditions inspired by pre-Sinai revelation, especially the time from Enoch to Noah.[56]
Here is the end of choice. For here we come to a decision to accept ourselves as God created us. And what is choice except uncertainty of what we are? There is no doubt that is not rooted here. There is no question but reflects this one. There is no conflict that does not entail the single, simple question, “What am I?”
Yet who could ask this question except one who has refused to recognize himself? Only refusal to accept yourself could make the question seem to be sincere. The only thing that can be surely known by any living thing is what it is. From this one point of certainty, it looks on other things as certain as itself.
Uncertainty about what you must be is self-deception on a scale so vast, its magnitude can hardly be conceived. To be alive and not to know yourself is to believe that you are really dead. For what is life except to be yourself, and what but you can be alive instead? Who is the doubter? What is it he doubts? Whom does he question? Who can answer him?
He merely states that he is not himself, and therefore, being something else, becomes a questioner of what that something is. Yet he could never be alive at all unless he knew the answer. If he asks as if he does not know, it merely shows he does not want to be the thing he is. He has accepted it because he lives; has judged against it and denied its worth, and has decided that he does not know the only certainty by which he lives.
Thus he becomes uncertain of his life, for what it is has been denied by him. It is for this denial that you need Atonement. Your denial made no change in what you are. But you have split your mind into what knows and does not know the truth. You are yourself. There is no doubt of this. And yet you doubt it. But you do not ask what part of you can really doubt yourself. It cannot really be a part of you that asks this question. For it asks of one who knows the answer. Were it part of you, then certainty would be impossible.
Atonement remedies the strange idea that it is possible to doubt yourself, and be unsure of what you really are. This is the depth of madness. Yet it is the universal question of the world. What does this mean except the world is mad? Why share its madness in the sad belief that what is universal here is true?
Nothing the world believes is true. It is a place whose purpose is to be a home where those who claim they do not know themselves can come to question what it is they are. And they will come again until the time Atonement is accepted, and they learn it is impossible to doubt yourself, and not to be aware of what you are.
Only acceptance can be asked of you, for what you are is certain. It is set forever in the holy Mind of God, and in your own. It is so far beyond all doubt and question that to ask what it must be is all the proof you need to show that you believe the contradiction that you know not what you cannot fail to know. Is this a question, or a statement which denies itself in statement? Let us not allow our holy minds to occupy themselves with senseless musings such as this.
We have a mission here. We did not come to reinforce the madness that we once believed in. Let us not forget the goal that we accepted. It is more than just our happiness alone we came to gain. What we accept as what we are proclaims what everyone must be, along with us. Fail not your brothers, or you fail yourself. Look lovingly on them, that they may know that they are part of you, and you of them.
This does Atonement teach, and demonstrates the Oneness of God’s Son is unassailed by his belief he knows not what he is. Today accept Atonement, not to change reality, but merely to accept the truth about yourself, and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love of God. It is but this that we are asked to do. It is but this that we will do today.
Five minutes in the morning and at night we will devote to dedicate our minds to our assignment for today. We start with this review of what our mission is:
I will accept Atonement for myself, For I remain as God created me.
We have not lost the knowledge that God gave to us when He created us like Him. We can remember it for everyone, for in creation are all minds as one. And in our memory is the recall how dear our brothers are to us in truth, how much a part of us is every mind, how faithful they have really been to us, and how our Father’s Love contains them all.
In thanks for all creation, in the Name of its Creator and His Oneness with all aspects of creation, we repeat our dedication to our cause today each hour, as we lay aside all thoughts that would distract us from our holy aim. For several minutes let your mind be cleared of all the foolish cobwebs which the world would weave around the holy Son of God. And learn the fragile nature of the chains that seem to keep the knowledge of yourself apart from your awareness, as you say:
I will accept Atonement for myself, For I remain as God created me.
“What benefits new books bring us! I would like a basket full of books telling the youth of images which fall from heaven for me every day. This desire is natural. This prodigy is easy. For, up there, in heaven, isn’t paradise an immense library?
But it is not sufficient to receive; one must welcome. One must, say the pedagogue and the dietician in the same voice, ‘assimilate.’ In order to do that, we are advised not to read too fast and to be careful not to swallow too large a bite. We are told to divide each difficulty into as many parts as possible, the better to solve them. Yes, chew well, drink a little at a time, savor poems line by line. All these precepts are well and good. But one precept orders them. One first needs a good desire to eat, drink and read. One must want to read a lot, read more, always read.
Thus, in the morning, before the books piled high on my table, to the god of reading, I say my prayer of the devouring reader: ‘Give us this day our daily hunger…’”
– Gaston Bachelard, ”Introduction”, The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos, Pages 25-26”
Gaston Bachelard (June 27, 1884 – October 16, 1962) was a French philosopher. He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. To the latter, he introduced the concepts of epistemological obstacle and epistemological break. Wikipedia
Joseph, a popular figure in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, can be seen as a gender-nonconformist who inspires LGBTQ people today.
Queer Bible scholars focus on how Joseph wore a robe that is usually known in English as a “coat of many colors,” but could be translated as a rainbow-colored “princess dress.”
Even before birth, there was something queer about Joseph. According to ancient commentaries known as midrash, Joseph and his half-sister Dinah were miraculously switched in the womb, meaning that they changed gender even before they were born.
Joseph’s father, Jacob, loved him more than any of this other children, so he had a special robe made for him. In Hebrew the robe is called “ketonet passim.” Its meaning is considered unclear by many traditional Bible scholars. Various translations use terms such as “a robe with long sleeves,” “an elaborately embroidered coat” or “a varicolored tunic.”
The only other use of the term is in II Samuel 13, where princess Tamar wears a “ketonet passim” and the author helpfully explains that this is “how the virgin daughters of the king were clothed in earlier times.”
Traditional Bible scholars found it confusing that Joseph would wear an article of female clothing, the meaning is clear enough to today’s queer people of faith. Joseph was able to interpret dreams, and his rainbow robe also suggests the multi-colored garments that are sometimes worn by shamans and magicians.
From a queer perspective, it’s not surprising that when Joseph’s 11 brothers saw “that dreamer” in his princess dress, they got so upset that they attacked him and sold him into slavery. There is even a theory that the Egyptian officer Potiphar bought Joseph as a sex slave to satisfy his homosexual desire. The Bible story goes on to tell how Joseph triumphed in the end, rising to become Egypt’s second most powerful man and rescuing his family from starvation during a famine.
The story of Joseph and his princess dress (Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28) is part of the three-year cycle of lectionary readings. It will be read again at many churches worldwide on Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023.
Resources on the queer Joseph of Genesis
There are many books, artworks, articles and videos that provide more queer insights into Joseph. They include:
Joseph wears a rainbow dress in a photo by queer artist Laura Sommer of Heidelberg, Germany. She describes herself as “disabled, Autistic, queer, non-binary, aro/ace (aromantic/asexual), Christian and a neeeeeeerd.” On her website Wibbley Wobbley Minds, she uses Playmobil toy figurines to recreate the life of Joseph and other stories from the Bible and literature.
Jade Sylvan won the Billings Preaching Prize at Harvard Divinity School in 2019 with a video sermon on Joseph and the princess dress. Sylvan wrote “Beloved King,” a musical about David and Jonathan, as one of the requirements for a master of divinity degree at Harvard.https://www.youtube.com/embed/eUTWEgT0hfk?start=1413
There’s even a Joseph of Genesis patch that can be ordered in the colors of the rainbow flag, the trans pride flag, bi pride flag, asexual pride flag, nonbinary pride flag and more from the Sapphic Stiches Etsy shop.
A popular mainstream retelling of the story is “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” a musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
___ Note on pronouns: This article follows Biblical tradition by using he/him/his pronouns for Joseph.
___ Top image credit: Joseph wears his princess dress as he tells his brothers about his dreams in an illustration of Genesis Chapter 37 by Sweet Publishing (Wikipedia)
___ This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBT and queer martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit in August 2020 and was updated for accuracy and expanded with new material on Nov. 7, 2021.
Follow Kittredge Cherry Founder at Q Spirit Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author who writes regularly about LGBTQ spirituality.She holds degrees in religion, journalism and art history.She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer, advocating for LGBTQ rights at the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches.
Comet Leonard, ‘2021’s Best Comet,’ Buzzing Through the December Skies
Also known as C/2021 A, the Comet Leonard will be visible all month, and early mornings are your best time to see it. But you’ll probably need binoculars.
Named for astronomer Greg Leonard, who first spotted it back in January, Comet Leonard has probably been blazing toward our Sun for 35,000 years, going 158,084 miles per hour, after being formed 4.5 billion years ago — and whatever loop it may be on, Earthlings aren’t going to see it ever again.
Leonard’s technical name is C/2021 A, and December will be its most visible month here in the northern hemisphere. “The comet is currently heading sunward, toward its perihelion (closest point to the sun) on January 3, 2022,” EarthSky says. “Comets are typically brightest around perihelion. Comet Leonard has been in the morning sky, and it just passed the beautiful globular star cluster M3.”
This fellow in the video above is Pat Prokop of Savannah, Georgia, who’s been posting some terrific pictures and video (because he has a Orion EON ED triplet apochromatic refractor telescope). He got great shots when the comet passed that above-mentioned M3 star cluster on Friday. “The comet seemed a little bit brighter this morning, about a Magnitude 6 now, a week ago it was 8.5,” h said in a December 3 video. “So it is getting brighter. However, I don’t think it’s going to become a naked eye comet. It might. But it will be very dim in the morning sky. And after December 12, it will start reappearing in the evening sky, below the planet Venus.”
A sort of “Comet Leonard fan account” on Twitter points out that there are only five more mornings of comet viewing. Griffith Observatory astronomer Ed Krupp tells NPR, “The comet is in the early morning sky right at the moment, and that means getting up very early, probably around 5 a.m. or so and looking more or less to the northeast.” Leonard is expected to be less bright when it moves into its evening phase on December 12, but that may change.
“Comets are notoriously difficult to predict in terms of brightness and visibility,” a NASA spokesperson told KRON4. “Comet Leonard is predicted to peak at a brightness that will probably require binoculars to spot it. There’s a chance it could be bright enough to see with the unaided eye, but again, with comets, you really never know.”
Let’s Talk Religion The mystical metaphysics of Love is one of the most recurring themes in Sufism, as it is in many other religious traditions. In this collaboration with Dr. Justin Sledge and the channel ESOTERICA, we explore the Love Mystics of Islam and Christianity. Here I talk about Sufi women like Rabi’a al-Adawiyya and A’isha al-Ba’nuiyya and what role they played in the development of Islamic mysticism. In Dr. Sledge’s video, he talks about the Beguine mystics of medieval Christianity with figures like Mechtild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch & Marguerite Porete. Watch ESOTERICA’s companion video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkFMG… Link to my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion Sources/Further Reading: Helminski, Camille Adams (2013). “Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure”. Shambala Publications. Homerin, Th. Emil (2003). “Living Love: The Mystical Writings of ‘A’ishah al-Ba‘uniyah (d. 922/1516)”. University of Rochester. Karamustafa, Ahmet T. (2007). “Sufism – the formative period”. Edinburgh University Press. Silvers, Laury (2015). “Early Pious, Mystic Sufi Women”. In “The Cambridge Companion to Sufism” (Edited by Lloyd Ridgeon). Cambridge University Press. Leonard Lewisohn (2015). Sufism’s Religion of Love, From Rabi’a to Ibn ‘Arabi. In “The Cambridge Companion to Sufism” (Edited by Lloyd Ridgeon). Cambridge University Press.
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