A Brief Introduction to:
Manichaeism
There once existed two worlds wholly separate yet comprising the same cosmos.[1]They existed in a perfect and complete balance with one another.The first realm lay towards the south extending infinitely from east to west.This was a realm of chaos and constant war lying under a shroud of darkness.In the darkness grew five trees representing five worlds and the five kinds of demons that lived there.The worlds were mad of smoke, fire, storm, mud and darkness.Over each world ruled a powerful demon known, as the Archons there were only five of them in all.Over the entire realm of darkness there sat one ruler and one overlord, known as the prince of Darkness.To the north of the realm of darkness lay the second kingdom, the realm of light.As the realm of darkness was a realm of war so the realm of light was a realm of peace.Over the realm ruled the Father of light who had five special attributes opposite to the five worlds in the realm of darkness.[2]All throughout the realm of light, angels and heavenly creatures known as Aions can be found, there are twelve Aions of importance who rule over the four partitions of the realm.
One day the prince of Darkness while participating in a battle in the realm of darkness approached the border of the realm of light and caught a glimpse of its resounding splendor and immense beauty.The Prince was captivated and knew that he would not be able to rest until the realm of light belonged to him.It wasn’t long before he gathered his forces for war and invaded the neighboring realm.The Father of Light himself decided to go down and beat back the demonic invaders.He turned himself into a trinity, Spirit, Mother, and First man.First man was the emanation that was chosen to fight.First man had five sons who were his soul and who he donned as armor before hurling himself into the demonic horde.The first man fought valiantly with lance and shield, but was overcome in the end.His armor was devoured by demons and he was left unconscious on the battlefield.The armor that had been eaten by the demons was composed of light and after a while it affected the demons of matter and they became dependent on it.The Spirit and the Mother went down to the battlefield and called upon the First man, awakening him again and returning him to the realm of light.The Spirit then made war on the demons killing many of them, but the light of the armor of the First man was still trapped in their lifeless bodies.
So, the Spirit set about creating a machine from the bodies of the demons that would allow the light to be removed and returned to the realm of light.The machine consisted of what is now the whole solar system.The planets were the bodies of dead demons, the Milky Way a pipeline for light, the moon a collecting place that once filled with light emptied it up to the sun the resting place of light (Apiryon 4).However, the Prince of Darkness was not about to lose his precious light after he had obtained it.He corrupted the machine and finally set two humans upon it, Adam and Eve.As long as the humans lived and their light particles could not be recovered since they would be continuously trapped in the human bodies.And so, the world as we know it began.
This bizarre tale is a very abridged version of the Manichaeistic creation story.The story when first read seems unimportant to the practices of Manichaeism as the Genesis version of creation is unimportant to Christian practice, but in actuality that is not at all the case.The entire set of doctrines, laws, and practices of Manichaeism comes out of this unusual concept of the cosmos.Without an understanding of the Manichaeistic creation story a full understanding of Manichaeistic belief and faith life is not possible.
Manichaeism is an ancient Gnostic religion that was founded by a mysterious prophet who went by the title Mani.Mani is commonly believed to mean bringer of light, or illuminator, but could also mean vessel or messenger.Mani was born in 216 to a father with a strong proclivity for religion.Mani’s father moved into a cult community early in Mani’s life, but scholars disagree as to what religion that community was.It has been described as everything from an obscure Zoroastrian cult, to a group of Jewish vegetarians.This community, whatever religion it belonged to, is believed to have had a strong impact on the young Mani.While in the community he received his first vision that he was to be called as a prophet.Mani was visited by something in the night that left him with the desire to become a religious reformer, some traditions hold that it was his spiritual twin, the Christian Paraclete, others argue that it was an angel.Mani received a second visitation at the age of twenty-four when he decided to begin his ministry (Apiryron 7).He spent the rest of his life traveling great distances preaching his gospel.He traveled from as far east as India, and as far west as Babylon and the Persian royal court.He spent most of his ministry under the protection of the royal family, but was eventually killed by one of the less tolerant kings in 276.However, it is not the life of Mani that is important, but the picture of the cosmos that he drew and its religious implications and impact.
Manichaeism spread quickly through the ancient world because of its ideas about the cosmos.The dualist system developed by Mani drew on a number of different religious traditions and was modified in later years to better fit with a variety of local religions, one of the reasons that there are so many conflicting findings.This religious flexibility made it a religion that appealed to a wide variety of cultures.However, despite its conflicting traditions and wide variety of source material the basic idea of Manichaeism comes from the creation story outlined at the beginning of this paper.
For Mani the goal of creation was the return of the light that had been trapped in human beings and the creation itself at the beginning of time as a result of the conflict between light and dark.This trapped light is found in everything in creation, plants, animals and humans.When light is released through human death it travels up the milky way to the moon.The moon once full of light empties itself and slowly fills again, a nice religious picture of the lunar cycle.Once enough light is returned to the realm of light there will be a final cataclysmic battle in which light will reign triumphant and darkness will be defeated forever.However, the only way for the light to be returned is through the right practice and beliefs of the followers of Mani.These followers in order to most effectively organize right practice gathered themselves into spiritual communities.
The Manichaeist spiritual communities are made up of two different types of worshippers, the elect and the hearers.The elect are the extremely serious and ascetic disciples of Mani.They live an extremely pious life that includes a strict vegetarian diet along with frequent fasting.In addition they were not allowed to hold a job and were required to live a transient lifestyle moving from place to place preaching the gospel of Mani.The hearers were held to a less strict lifestyle, their main focus was to support the elect in their divine calling.The hearers could marry and eat meat, but still had limitations in a set of ten laws reminiscent to the Judeo-Christian Decalogue (Aremdzen 4).The laws included both restrictions against humans, idolatry, and diet.Both the elect and hearers followed a strict regimen of daily prayer and weekly fasting.The final goal of both of these groups was the same, but their roles in it were different.
The elect embody the ultimate purpose of Manicheism, if an Elect lived a righteous life then upon their death the light trapped inside them would be released and return to the realm of life forever.The elect also had the ability to collect light from creation, by ingesting special foods and engaging in certain rituals.The hearers existed primarily to support the elect in their asceticism and in the hope that they one day would become a member of the elect.The promise to hearers is that when they die they will be reincarnated as an elect and so able to finally release the trapped light and escape from the cycle of reincarnation (a very Buddhist idea).St. Augustine spent about nine years as a hearer before he became a Christian.[3]This release of light through death was the final purpose of the gospel of Mani.However, aside from individual duties, there were also several cultic practices and rituals used by the church of Mani which center around the function of releasing light.
In early Christian sources there is mention of ceremonies existing in Manicheism that closely parallel Christian rituals.Several Christian critics of Manichaeism mention that it has a “eucharist” and some kind of a baptismal ceremony (Burkitt 121).However, modern scholarly sources tend to claim the opposite explaining the Manichaeism avoided Christian like ceremonies in order to set itself apart from Christianity.They instead point to a ritualistic meal as being the primary ceremony of the Manichaeists.The meal was put on by the hearers for the elect and apparently involved feeding the elect certain foods in hopes of releasing more light from its entrapment.This meal was performed in accordance with the lunar calendar.An annual Manichaeistic festival was a feast held on the date of Mani’s execution similar to the Christian practice of Easter (Aremdzen 2).
These ceremonies were by in large led by the elect and conducted on a very local level, but there is evidence of a priestly hierarchy that existed for a few hundred years over the western Persian portions of Manichaeism, any information about a possible clergy over the Chinese and Indian Manichaeists has been lost.The hierarchy was composed of“the head of the church, called the Archegos, twelve master teachers called Magistiri, 72 Bishops, and 360 presbyters.[4]”These priests were all ascetics and were prevented by ritual law from having property or working, so the construction of monumental architecture was never an option for the Manicheists.One can construe from the communities of hearers, supporting the Elect and the weekly gatherings and meal requirements that Manicheistic buildings would have been extremely similar to ancient synagogues and churches.However, the archeological evidence to support this hypothesis does not exist there are not many remains that are known to be distinctively
Manichaeistic.However, in China at the sight of Turfan where Manichaeism may have lasted as late as 1500 CE there is extensive archeological investigation going on and a number of texts have been discovered, perhaps a building will be uncovered as well.
As for the role of women Manichaeistic documents remain silent.Women could become members of the elect, but could not advance to any level in the priestly hierarchy.However the role of a woman as a member of the elect could be seen as a liberating option.Since the elect had to remain abstinent a woman who became a member of the elect was released from the traditional marital role.The requirement for constant travel would also have been liberating to the ancient woman, who normally wouldn’t have traveled much. So, while women weren’t given the option of priesthood, the ability to become one of the Elect may have been socially liberating.Despite this seemingly liberating role there are some texts, which seem to reduce the role of women.In some versions of the creation story women are painted, especially in the person of Eve, as being temptresses and part of the reason that light is still trapped in creation since reproduction continues.However, there isn’t much evidence available to draw any more insightful conclusions about the role of women then these.
The most
frustrating thing to deal with concerning Manicheism is the lack of physical
evidence that exists today.The Manicheists
wrote many texts, a number of gospels and countless hymns, but not a single
text exists today in its complete form.The
texts are also written in a variety of different languages and time periods
making the possibility of a text being free from textual corruption impossible.The
only things known for sure about Manicheism are the basic tenets of its
view of the cosmos, which come out of its creation story.The
heart of Manichaeism is to be found in its delightfully colorful creation
story and view of the end for which the cosmos exists.Interestingly
enough there are a few modern Gnostic groups who claim Manichaein heritage
here is the website for one group, http://www.crosswinds.net/~essenes/subindex1.htm.
Works Cited
Apiryon,
Tau. Mystery of Mystery: A Primer of Thelemic Ecclesiastical Gnosticism.
Red Flame No. 2 Berkely, CA 1995
St.
Augustine, The WritingsAgainst the Manichaeins and Against the Donatists.
P. Schaff, editor, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,
vol 7.
Aremdzen, J P. Manicheism. The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent 1997.
J. F. Ma. Manichaeism, the Oxford Classical Dictionary
Greenless, Duncan. The Gospel of the Prophet Mani, Theosophical Publishing House, 1958.
Burkitt, F. C. The Religion of the Manichees, AMS Press, 1978
Lieu, Samuel. Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China, A Historical Survey, Manchester University Press, 1985.