Mercea Eliade, the world renowned mythologist/historian, wrote some worthwhile materials about the early Christian hymn, The Hymn of the Pearl. And rather than this analysis of his being written “so insipid,” and as being “below a certain level,”[1] his ideas on the Hymn of the Pearl are quite enlightening, especially as a co-theme, as I shall call it, of ascension literature, alchemical themes and ideas in general.[2] As a fascinating analogy, the Pearl of Great Price, is also associated with the Philosopher’s Stone, which is the goal of all alchemy as Eliade noted. His story of his first article he published in contest with other Lycee students in the Ziarul Stiintelor Populare (The Newspaper of Popular Sciences) has some connection with not only his writings, and eventually his illustrious career, but with ancient writings as well, not least among them this early Christian Hymn of the Pearl.
He wrote about falling asleep in the chemistry lab and dreamed of an old man (“a strange character”) showing him that alchemy was real, that gold was produced using alchemical techniques, which the “strange character” performs with him in the lab to produce the gold. He was a student of chemistry at the time, and says that he knew nothing about alchemy. After numerous books written, and travels to India and other countries through the years, collecting materials, and becoming an expert in the history, philosophy, energy, and spirit of alchemy, Eliade wrote in a note of personal reference about his true character in his soul, when he wrote his book The Forge and the Crucible.
At that time I knew nothing about Jung’s researches. I tried to demonstrate, nevertheless, that alchemy was not a rudimentary chemistry, a ‘pre-chemistry,’ but a spiritual technique, seeking something entirely different from the conquest of matter; seeking, at bottom, the transmutation of man: his ‘salvation,’ or liberation… I had found, in dreams, the Philosopher‘s Stone.
Eliade’s personal journey through understanding has many ideas that ring together with this early Christian story found in the Hymn of the Pearl. Dreams (both Eliade’s, and in the Hymn) are involved with the idea of finding one’s true self, the real alchemical meaning of the Philosopher’s Stone, which I would propose can be understood as a “pearl.”
Eliade understood the context of the Hymn of the Pearl within the mythological themes of sleep and death, represented by Hypnos and Thanatos, the Greek twins, as well as in the Hebrew scriptures of Job 3:13-15, 17, and Sheol, Eccles. 9:3, 10, or both at once, Psalm 88, including Socrates telling the people he was there to awaken them in his divine mission, from their own sleep.[4] Joseph Campbell also delved into this theme extensively, with the notion that the entire universe is a dream of gods, and men have their lives, work, and meaning within such a context.[5] The literary phenomena of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake is precisely along these lines, being written in “the dream realm,” hence its amazing language structure, themes, characters, etc.[6]
The theme of awakening, or being awakened from our deep sleep [of ignorance of who we are, and from where we really do come from], arises again in Gnosticism according to Eliade, although with “considerable elaborated and reinterpreted” descriptions.[7] The Hymn of the Pearl found in the Acts of Thomas is of a prince who originated in heaven, coming to Egypt to seek a pearl of great price. In his searches, and living through the various vicissitudes of his life he forgets his mission. His Father and Mother in heaven send him a letter from heaven which arrives like a great eagle, and as it arrived at the prince, began to speak and tell him to remember who he is, and what he is! The prince was ecstatic and remembered “I was a son of royal parents, and my noble birth asserted its nature.”[8] So he lulled the serpent who was guarding the pearl to sleep, took the pearl and returned back to his father’s home. The sequel to the hymn, Eliade notes, concerns a garment of light (the “luminous garment”) that the prince put off when he began his journey to get the pearl, which he finds again when he returned home.[9]
Eliade concentrates on one of several themes in the hymn, mainly that of “turning toward matter ’and burning with the desire to experience the body,’ the soul forgets its identity. It is in these terms that El Chatibi presents the central belief of the Harranites. According to the Gnostics, men not only sleep, but love to sleep… In the Apocryphon of John it is written: “Let him who hears wake from heavy sleep. The same motif recurs in Manichaean cosmogony… “Jesus the luminous went down to the innocent Adam and waked him from a sleep of death that he might be delivered. Ignorance and sleep are also expressed in terms of intoxication. The Gospel of Truth compares the one who had Gnosis, to one who, having been intoxicatec becomes sober, and having come to himself reaffirms that he is essentially his own. The Ginza tells how Adam ‘awoke’ from his slumber and lifted up his eyes to the place of light.
Earthly life is defined as ‘forlornness,’ ‘dread,’ ‘nostalgia,’ and yet also as ‘sleep,’ ‘drunkenness,’ and ‘oblivion.’
The messenger who awakes man from his sleep brings him both ‘life’ and ‘salvation.’ I am the call of awakening from sleep in the Aeon of the night…Waking implies anamnesis, recognition of the soul’s true identity, that is, re-cognition of its celestial origin… the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh, must stay awake for 6 days and nights in order to get to the island of the mythical Utnapishtim, but he doesn’t succeed in this initiatory ordeal and so loses his chance for immortality…remaining awake means being fully conscious, being present in the world of the spirit.”[10]
The idea of the messenger coming down to enlighten mankind is the flipside, yet related form of the ascent of mankind to the heavens. This, Eliade has shown powerfully and rather fully in his research.
The essential features of Archaic Shamanism are:
(1) an initiation comprising the candidates symbolic dismemberment, death, and resurrection, which, among other things, implies his descent into hell and ascent to heaven. [here I might add 2 observations which perhaps the public might be unaware. This theme is precisely the idea behind Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, since Finnegan (representing mankind) has a fall, dies, and at his wake, arises again phoenix like, exactly as does Er the Armenian in Plato’s story. And the second observation is the Tarot Card symbolisms precisely depict this with the very first card, the Fool. He is not paying attention and is going to “fall” off the cliff from his celestial heights (the yellow color depicts this as does the white orb up in the top corner from which the Fool (representing all mankind, again) is descending from. He is going to “fall” from the spirit world, into the world of gross material, which the rest of the Tarot symbolisms depict, as well as they are depicting the way of return back to our celestial home - KAS]
(2) The shaman can make ecstatic journeys in his role as healer.[11]
The ascent to the heavens is always described as an ascent to the center, as Robert E. Ryan has noted. Hence, whether in the ancient caves of Lascaux, or in the visionary travels of Black Elk, the Oglala Sioux Holy Man, who was taken back to the “council of the ancestors or ’grandfathers’ - which he describes as “the powers of the world.” [a very powerful parallel to the ancient Hebraic Council of the Gods, if not the same thing which all “prophets“ have access to][12]
“This is a hierophant of the creative plenitude that fires the cosmos. The Powers of the World are fourfold and describe a mandala around the sacred center.”[13] The symbolism of the ascent are mostly bird symbolisms. The ascent is described as the “magical flight.”[14] “The symbolism of the ascent to heaven still exists [as birds, wings, wind, etc.]. It always expresses the transcendent.”[15] The center is involved because it represents the cosmic axis, the pole, ladder, central pillar, mountain, which the person climbs to ascend to heaven, while other descriptions describe a flight to heaven on wings, rather than climbing.[16]
From an LDS Perspective, none have written on the Hymn of the Pearl with more depth than both Hugh Nibley, and Jack Welch. Welch’s and Garrison’s excellent summation of LDS views is worth quoting.
LDS readers can immediately sense the potential significance of the Hymn of the Pearl since many of its elements are consistent with fundamental LDS precepts. In addition to the obvious symbols are some subtle ones, and these symbols have caught the attention of several scholars. For example, Hugh Nibley has outlined possible LDS interpretations for many parts of this text. Nibley sees the hymn as the reflection of a ritual journey of the soul, a journey of "deliverance from the dark prison of this world and of the underworld." Accordingly, the main character in the hymn is the redeemed soul, probably of a typical good Christian, retelling the story of personal salvation and deliverance. Especially intriguing to Nibley is the bundle of treasures given to the soul before the soul leaves its premortal existence. In his view, the treasures are "the treasures of wisdom" or the knowledge of ordinances, especially those of the temple, and the garment left behind symbolizes the premortal glory of the soul and the robe of the priesthood. The soul travels down through Babel and into Egypt, which represent the materialistic world and "spiritual Sodom," or the telestial world. The pearl that the soul must find there is in fact the soul itself, "rescued and returned from the depths." The serpent guarding the pearl embodies all obstacles that would impede progress and spiritual growth. The Egyptian food that puts the soul to sleep could have various LDS interpretations, such as sin or pride; Nibley, however, favors the view that it represents the false philosophies of men. Concerning the robe sent to the soul as it returns home, Nibley wishes to see this encounter in a ritual sense, although the text is problematical and hence most translations of this passage are obscure. Nibley emphasizes the point that the text clearly involves a message "whispered," although "all the translators are puzzled by the context." Passing through this stage, the soul is received back to its heavenly family, where it receives the promised rewards. Significantly, the hymn mentions not only the soul’s father, the King of Kings, but also the soul’s mother, the Queen of the East, along with the elder brother and second in command, who together send the letter from the heavenly home to the sleeping soul
And LDS scholar Brent L. Top has summarized other LDS writings and interpretations on this most interesting document:
The Gospel of Thomas refers to the elect of God as those who find the kingdom of heaven because they came from it in the first place. The Psalm of Thomas speaks of the return to a heavenly home. "I came from the house of my Father in a far land, and I shall mount up until I return to that land of the pure.” Other scrolls speak of man as being older than the world and a child of an earlier spiritual birth or creation. After citing numerous references to man's premortal life and his divine relationship to God, Nibley concluded that, to the writers of these early Christian and Jewish texts, "Man's premortal existence was an illustrious one. There are descriptions of the glory we enjoyed before we came here.” Joseph Fielding McConkie also has identified references in these ancient texts not only to the immortality of man's soul but also to foreordinations and premortal heavenly councils. While there is still debate among the scholars concerning the authorship and inspiration of many of these ancient writings, one text in particular displays unique insight and understanding. It is found in the Acts of Thomas and is known as the Syriac Hymn of the Pearl. McConkie has given us this summation of this ancient apocryphal yet inspired glimpse of the doctrine of premortal life: This is an allegory of a king's son who is required to leave his father's kingdom, where he enjoyed great wealth, to obtain a pearl. The pearl, quite obviously, is a symbol of his own soul. His parents see that he is properly provisioned for his journey. Before leaving their presence he is required to surrender his splendid robe. This robe, or garment of light, we are told, had been woven to the measure of his stature. He also enters into a covenant with them to obtain the pearl and return that he might once again enjoy their presence and wear his splendid robe. The covenant is written upon his heart. Though the way is hazardous and difficult, an intimate friend referred to as "an (anointed one)" warns him of the dangers that beset him. Notwithstanding all this he soon forgets his identity as a king's son and his mission to obtain the pearl. At this point a council is held; it is attended by his father, his mother, his brother (the crown prince), and many other great and mighty ones. They determine to send him a letter imploring him to awake and remember who he is and what king he serves. He is encouraged to remember his splendid robe and to so conduct himself that his name might be written in the book of heroes, and that with his brother he may be an heir to his father's kingdom. Thus reminded, he commences again his efforts to obtain the pearl, which he must wrestle from a terrible serpent. This he is able to do only by naming his father's name, that of his brother, and that of his mother. Having obtained the pearl he flees Egypt, sheds his dirty and unclean garments, and is further guided by the letter. At this point he is greeted by messengers from his parents, who clothe him once more in his royal robe, and he returns as an heir to his father's kingdom. The great value of these ancient apocryphal texts is that they verify that the doctrine of a premortal existence was common among the early Christians as well as among ancient Jewish sects. By themselves certainly they do not prove man's premortal existence or serve as the foundation for LDS beliefs, but rather they provide additional evidence of the validity of the doctrine when coupled with scriptural teachings. As Joseph Fielding McConkie concluded after enumerating and describing several of these glimpses in the ancient Jewish and Christian texts, "The doctrines of premortal existence, heavenly councils, and foreordinations were all a part of the theology of the ancient Saints and as such are a necessary part of the promised restoration of all things. Not found in the theology of the rest of the so-called Bible-believing world, these doctrines stand as an evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that ours is an ancient church restored....These doctrines, of such importance to the ancient Saints, have been restored once again to a place of prominence among the Saints of the latter days.”
LDS scholars are not the only ones to recognize this hymn as valuable for our own self understanding, as I have shown with Eliade’s materials. My reason for concentrating on this hymn, is that it is the other angle as it were, the flipside notion of ascent, namely, the heavens are contacting us with a descent of knowledge as well. That is the spirit of this hymn. The alchemists principle of converting the lead to gold, which was a concern of exalting the human soul, as Eliade so taught, gives us the philosopher’s stone, as Eliade hinted at. The Philosopher’s stone is the Pearl… as such, it is a pearl of great price indeed!
Endnotes
1. Mercea Eliade Autobiography: Journey East, Journey West, Harper and Row, 1981: 315, where he describes his manuscript of Stefania he was writing in his 30’s as “insipid.”
2. Mercea Eliade, Myth and Reality, Harper and Row, 1975:126-132.
3. Eliade Autobiography, pp. 55-56.
4. Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 126.
5. Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image, Princeton University Press, 1974:1.1 - 1.13.
6. Joseph Campbell, Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1993: 189. His popular exposition of Finnegan’s Wake is A Skeleton Key to Finnegan’s Wake, with Henry Morton Robinson, Penguin Books, reprint, 1986. See also his comments in The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion, Harper and Row, 1988: 111.
7. Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 127.
8. Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 127. LDS scholar Stephen E. Robinson says “The beautiful Gnostic "Hymn of the Pearl" portrays man as a spirit child of his Heavenly Father who lived as a prince in the palace of the Heavenly King before descending to the earth.” in “The Apocalypse of Adam,” by Stephen E. Robinson, BYU Studies, vol. 17 (1976-1977), Number 1 - Autumn 1976: 133.)
9. Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 128.
10. Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 127-131.
11. Mercea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press, 3rd printing, 1973: 320. Eliade’s Magnum Opus, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Princeton University Press, 2nd printing, 1974, has numerous examples of the ascent to heaven of the shamans, and their receiving powers, knowledge, and the healing arts due to their ascent.
12. Robert E. Ryan, The Strong Eye of Shamanism, Inner Traditions, 1999: 237.
13. Ryan, Ibid., p. 238.
14. Mercea Eliade, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries, Harper Torchbooks, 1975: 99-110.
15. Eliade, Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries, p. 107.
16. Mercea Eliade, Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism, Princeton University Press, 1991: 47-56.
17. John W. Welch, The "Hymn of the Pearl": An Ancient Counterpart to "O My Father" BYU Studies, vol. 36 (1996-97), Number 1--1996-97:
18. Brent L. Top, The Life Before [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988], 21-22.
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