THE GREAT HERMETIC RIDERS

This section of the work in progress demands a certain amount of dedication. It is first necessary to read the material from Henry Corbin, below, and then to return to the second paragraph, in order to make sense of the matter.  I have left the Corbin material intact even though some of the amplifications are not germane to the line of thought.

   Sharing their common Persian culture, it seems that the Rukban or Rukkab  and the Fravashis operate on a similar level.  For example: “Yet the whole of the macrocosm is kept in being by the Fravashis. . .” and Corbin “ . . . it is thanks to them and to their equitation that something like a "science of correspondences" can exist.”  This ‘science’ is of course the great Hermetic Law of Correspondence. Using this Law, it is obvious that real ‘horsemen’ in time and space are not indicated. We are at once brought to consider that Sagittarius, and well as the Constellation of Centaurus, contains ‘horse” symbolism, or to flagellate the point, Hermetic codes. But Sagittarius expresses the energy patters of the God of the Gods, Zeus/Jupiter,  who in the Tarot, is known as The Hierophant, Arcanum 5. It would be in context to note at this point, the central significance that Georgios Gemistos Plethon gave to Zeus in his patterning of the Gods. Thus, as Corbin always amplifies, in the Rukban/ Rukkab  and Fravashis we have Hierophantic operations. Or to stress the equivalences: A Hermetic/Hierophantic transmission, that is ongoing, in terms of an evolutionary thrust, and that maintains, manifests and nurtures the ‘cosmic’ correspondences. This is the basis for the Research, in which the 22 Arcana of the Sacred Tarot, have been delegated archival deposit boxes, into which all the corresponding material is placed. That is to say, in common terms, in 22 Folders.

    Thus, we need to explore the Hierophantic Horse as one route, amongst many others.  Before expanding this – I would like to suggest that the Tibet Wind Horse [lungta] may also be placed within this complex, as well as PEGASUS, also one of the Minor Constellations. Pegasus is extremely interesting in that with its hooves, it creates the Spring of Wisdom. And the Horsemen in the Tarot are the Knights:  Resonances of The Grail Myths as well. More on this later.

Samten de Wet

Cape Town, 23^rd May 2017

 FRAVASHIS

"A class of higher intelligence that are ancient Persian guardian warrior spirits. The 19th day of every month is consecrated to them. King Phraortes' (647 BC) Persian name is derived from the term."(Dhalla: 1963..pg 235)..... "Hence Finite Time and Finite Space control man's destiny from the cradle to the grave. Yet the whole of the macrocosm is kept in being by the Fravashis (Dralas ??), the spiritual powers that are indissolubly linked with each human being and with humanity as a whole. Finite time-space, then, is not a kenoma, an empty nothingness, but a pleroma, a 'full' and vital organism...."...(Zaehner, 1961, p. 150).”

Fravashis [HERE]

THE CORBIN MATERIAL: TEMPLE AND CONTEMPLATION

 Corbin introduces the subject here:

“We shall examine, in succession, the "Balance of the Seven and the Twelve" (the correspondences between the astronomy of the visible Heaven and that of the spiritual Heaven, between the esoteric hierarchy and its cosmic correspondences); the "Balance of the Nineteen", which "measures" the epic of divine Mercy descending and ascending from world to world; and the "Balance of the Twenty-Eight", which is an aspect of the balance of sacred history. Finally, the mysterious personages known as the "horsemen of the Invisible" may enlighten us more fully as to the nature of the world of correspondences.” pp. 59 – 60

 He then continues in detail further on in the text:

 THE SCIENCE OF THE BALANCE

  “There was one category that we deliberately omitted for the time being, since the appropriate moment to discuss it had to be deferred until now; and this, precisely, is the category designated by Ibn 'Arabi as the Rukban or Rukkab, the "horsemen". Needless to say, it is a cavalry, or knighthood, whose function is strictly esoteric, a "cavalry of the invisible worlds" which is incognito to the eyes of men.

    “There are two categories of these horsemen. The first is made up of  those who are mounted on great contemplations and sublime visions; the second is formed of those mounted on great actions, great enterprises. The two categories could be said to correspond on the one hand to a speculative, contemplative knighthood, and on the other to one devoted to practical activity. The first category, composed of contemplatives, is designated as that of the Afrad: the Peerless, the Incomparable, the Unique. On the level of man, they correspond to those Angels who were previously described to us as the "Angels ecstatic with love" for the divine beauty and glory (cf. supra the seven Cherubim who, in the Dionysian hierarchy, would more likely be the Seraphim; cf. also the Seven in the books of Enoch, the book of Tobias, the Apocalypse, the seven Source-Spirits in Jacob Boehme, and so on). These Angels are essentially dedicated to the celestial liturgy. The second category of knights, those devoted to practical activity, corresponds, on the level of man, to the Angels whose task it is to rule over a world and to govern the things of this world. As we shall see, it is thanks to them and to their equitation that something like a "science of correspondences" can exist.

     “We are told that to the knights of the first category God has entrusted a supernatural power, and that this is why they conceal themselves beneath the veil of the pavilions of the Invisible (suradiqat al-ghayb), or even beneath the veil of ways that are contrary to their state. In a sense they are "volunteers of disapprobation" (malamatiyah) should they judge it expedient in order to preserve their incognito; they are Fityan (plural form of fata), a term whose appearance in this context is all the more distinctive in that it designates the members of the futuwwah—that is to say, of the Islamic equivalent of our Western phenomenon of chivalry and comradeship.  They are men who are absolutely free (abriya'), free even of the authority of the Pole (Qutb) that is the summit of the esoteric hierarchy: they are not at the Pole's disposal. On the contrary, they are themselves designated as poles, not because they are in charge of a group and rule over it as leaders—they are too highly placed for that—but because of their mystical status and their service to the divine. They exercise no command because they achieve full realization of their being in serving the divine. They are horsemen who move without movement, carried away by the sheer spontaneous impulse of their mounts. If they cover at great speed the distances which they are ordered to cover by divine command, the credit belongs to the steed which bears them, and on which they sit motionless in their contemplation. This is expressed by the Koranic verse 8:17: "When you shoot the arrow, it is not you, but God who shoots it." One cannot claim glory for something which is negative, and immobility is simply the negation of movement. They traverse spiritual distances, those perilous wildernesses, in their souls and by means of their souls, but they do not place their trust in their souls, for they are the Transported (majdhubun) by the divine attraction. Each night they undergo a spiritual ascension (mi'raj ruhani). Like Abraham, their vision of the Malakut is direct, and it is to this that their immobility is due. They have no "bridge" to cross, for direct vision has no need of interpretations. We would say that they do not have to engage in "hermeneutical rides".

   “These "hermeneutical rides" devolve upon the horsemen in the second category. What exactly are they? Ibn 'Arabi puts us on the right track when he expresses his admiration for a Koranic verse that he continually re-reads and meditates upon. All the creatures in the universe are so many divine Signs, and "among these Signs", says the verse in question, "is your sleep during the night and during the day, and your expectation of the blessing of this sleep" (30:23). Why does Ibn 'Arabi consider this verse to refer par excellence to the second category of the "horsemen of the Invisible"? The reason is that in addition to speaking of sleep during the night, which is natural, it speaks of sleep during the day, excluding thereby all mention of a state of wakefulness. Herein lies the secret of that state of things described by the Prophet when he said, in a remark already quoted: "Human beings are plunged into sleep; it is when they die that they awaken". Contrary to profane opinion, death is not a falling asleep but an awakening. This can apply both to death in the mystical sense and to death in the physical sense of an exilus; and, as Haydar Amuli has explained, the purpose of the first death is that the second one should be a resurrection.

   “It is precisely this that is important for Ibn 'Arabi. Man's present condition in this world is such that the visions we see in sleep in the world of Night, and what we think of as our perceptions in the world of Day, are similar in that both visions and perceptions take place in a state of sleep, equally in the world of Night and in the world of Day. Thus both visions and perceptions, by the same token, require an interpretation, a hermeneutic; and it is for this reason that Ibn 'Arabi views this world as a bridge, as a stage to be traversed.

    “One Arabic root ('br) conceals in effect a valuable ambiguity. It means to cross, to traverse. In the second form (the causative, 'abbara) it means to cross a bridge, to traverse a river, for example. In designating the act of crossing over from one side to another, the same verbal noun ta'bir designates eo ipso the act of interpreting—the hermeneutic—because the ta'bir or hermeneutic consists in making the crossing from the apparent to the hidden, from the exoteric (zahir) to the esoteric (batin). Ta'bir al-ru'ya, the interpretation of visions and dreams, is one of the chief applications of the "science of the Balance". It is to make the crossing from the forms perceived in vision to the secret meaning of their appearance. The visions we see in sleep in the world of Night, as well as the perceptions we have in what we call the world of Day, require the same crossing to be made before we can perceive their secret meaning. The reason for this is that both are motivated by a secret purpose deriving from another world. This is why our present world—the world of Night and the world of Day—is a bridge which must be crossed. A bridge is a place of passage, not a stopping-place or a dwelling-place. One crosses over it, and it must be crossed if one is to understand the secret meaning, the invisible "correspondence" of what "takes place" on this side of it. This is the task assigned to the interpreters, the hermeneutists of the esoteric who are promoted to the rank of "horsemen of the Invisible".

   Ibn 'Arabi goes on to recapitulate the situation which, in this world, keeps us in a state of slumber both at night and during the day. It may happen that someone sees visions in his sleep and dreams, still asleep, that he has woken up; and he dreams—thinking himself awake—that he is telling his dreams to someone who is also part of his dream. He goes on sleeping the same sleep, dreaming that he is interpreting what he has seen while asleep. Then he wakes up, and realizes that he has not ceased to be asleep, both while dreaming and while interpreting the visions of his dream.

    The same thing is true in the case of the man the eyes of whose inner vision are opened while he is still in this world, before his exitus. From the moment of his great awakening, he realizes that he has always been dreaming, but he thanks God for granting him this sleep, as well as   for the fact that he has lived in sleep both his visions and the interpretations of these visions. This is, perhaps, what we do when, like Haydar Amuli, we construct great diagrams of worlds and intermediary worlds; yet this, precisely, is the hidden meaning of the Koranic verse which speaks of "your expectation of the blessing of this sleep". To be forearmed against the decadence of dreams is to be capable of crossing the bridge with regard both to the dreams of Night and to those of the Day, since such is our condition in this world; and this crossing is effected by the "knighthood devoted to practical activity", a knighthood dedicated, as Ibn 'Arabi has told us, to great actions, great enterprises. Could there, indeed, be any undertaking greater than to dedicate oneself to the search for the correspondences between what we see in this world and the Invisible, the ghayb, the world of Mystery? For only this search can abolish the frontier which keeps our destiny captive.

 Henry Corbin, Temple and Contemplation, Tr. Philip Sherrard, London: Kegan Paul International in association with Islamic Publications Ltd., 1986, London [The Institute of Ismaili Studies]  [ONLINE HERE]