A Liturgy of the Sacrament of the
Ascent Through the Heavens to the Holy Bridal Chamber
with Analytical Introduction

   Abstract: The article reconstructs the Sacrament or Mystery of the Bridal Chamber as a ritual of unification with God based on the Books of Jeu (Bruce Codex) and other ancient Gnostic Gospels. In doing so, it discusses the Gnostic concept of the ascent of the soul through the heavens (aeons) and provides a description of the different beings dwelling in them, as well as a transliteration of the passwords from the Coptic which Gnostics need to pass through them. Unlike current practices in the Gnostic movement today, which assimilate the Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber to the Ceremony of Matrimony, the article shows that the Mystery of the Bridal Chamber was taught along with the Holy Eucharist by Jesus as the Christ as a very important salvific “mystery of unification” with the Divine. It provides all the information needed to the Gnostic to compose their own liturgy.

Thesis for Consideration to the Holy Order of the Gnostic Priesthood

Humbly Submitted by: Seminary Student Reverend Brother Mathieu Ravignat, M.A., K.T., K.K., K.R+C,VII, Adeptus Exemptus

On: January 6, 2017 on the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord the Aeon Christ, and to the Glory of Yeheshuah!

Submitted to: The Most Reverend +John A. Mongiovi, Primat Évêque of l’Église Gnostique Catholique Apostolique of North America, Grand Master of the Ordre Martiniste of North America and of all other Institutes and Concordant Orders of Our Holy Church, and Director of the Seminary for North America of the Athenea Theologica.

Acknowledgments: I would like to take this opportunity to remember and pray for the Light of Past Primat +Bishop Cokinis who left us during the year (2016) of the drafting of this publication. Though I knew him all too briefly, his effect on my life and my spiritual development has been profound.

As important to me, I would also like to thank the Most Reverend +John Mongiovi for his spiritual support throughout the last two years of Gnostic study and in the writing of this Thesis as we as for his continued guidance and friendship.

Part I: Analytical Introduction 

The discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices in Upper Egypt almost 60 years ago has sparked considerable debate about Christianity’s central mystery of unification with the Godhead. Post-Nag Hammadi, the place of the Holy Eucharist as the only rite of unification has been re-evaluated, and a new candidate for that mystery has appeared (or re-appeared): the Sacrament of the Holy Bridal Chamber.

Many Gnostic Churches today have interpreted this mystery as being linked to the Ceremony of Holy Matrimony which of course causes some significant historical problems with regard to what we know about many ancient Gnostics who refused the very idea of marriage all together. Furthermore, it is rather explicitly stated in the Gospel of Phillip, and alluded to in the Exegesis of the Soul, that the Bridal Chamber is a means to attain Christhood and not a simple marriage between two people.

Perhaps to distance the parishioner from the Deity without the Clergy as an intermediary, or because of prudish sexual attitudes prevalent at the time, there appears to have been a willful suppression of the mystery of this rite. Why this is the case is not clear, but there may have been a conflict between different ideas of unification with the Deity, that is, between the idea of symbolically eating his flesh and the idea of the union with Deity as a symbolic coupling.

Evidence shows that some Greco-Roman Mystery Religions, such as those Mithras, ate the flesh of their gods as a way to experience divine union. These traditions were well known in the Hellenistic and Roman world, and it is likely that it was that very familiarity with eating the flesh of a god which caused the Eucharist to become the preferred rite when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. However, from the Jewish perspective, and this is evidenced both by the style of the Song of Solomon and the Song of Songs, as well as Jewish Shabbat traditions, the unification with the Deity was often conceived of as a wedding feast and/or even a symbolic love making:  Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth – for your love is more delightful than wine.[1]

This distinction between these two approaches to unification may very well have come from the differing views of the relationship between sexuality and the sacred in the Hellenistic and Semitic  worlds, which may also have been carried forward in the differences between Alexandrian and Syrio-Palestinian Gnosticism.

But the fact is that Jesus taught both rites. The Christ, perhaps aiming to unify the Semitic and Hellenistic worldviews, instituted both the Rite of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper and the Rite of the Holy Bridal Chamber. The first is rather well known, but the second takes some explanation because of its suppression.

The fact that Jesus taught a symbolic sacred mystery about the union of male and female and the Deity is well attested to in such passages as the one found in the Gospel of Thomas (Saying 22): When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner as the outer, and the upper as the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male shall not be male, and the female shall not be female: . . . then you will enter [the kingdom]."[2]

The Gospel of Thomas is an important example because many scholars believe that it is either contemporaneous with or earlier than the Canonical Gospels in the New Testament, raising the question of how exactly the Church authorities finally selected which rites were ultimately to be practiced by the Orthodox Churches. The fact that the Rite of the Bridal Chamber is not included in the sacraments of the Roman Church or those of the Eastern Orthodox Churches is strong evidence that it was suppressed to the advantage of The Holy Eucharist as the only acceptable “unitary rite” in Christendom.

This deep spiritual wound in the fullness of the Christian ritualistic body is something Gnostics are well positioned to heal. There is no reason why, unlike the Roman Church, Gnostics today cannot practice both rites. In fact, wouldn’t this be serving God’s plan since both of these rites were mandated by the Aeon Christ Himself? I believe so, and in a way all this thesis truly is, is a humble contribution to the healing of that spiritual wound.

Therefore, the following thesis, which is a practice in liturgy composition, a skill any Priest should reasonable be expected to possess, will attempt to help reverse the suppression of the Rite of the Bridal Chamber by developing a Liturgy for a symbolic rite of divine union in the Bridal Chamber different from the rather literal association many Gnostic Churches today make with Holy Ceremony of Matrimony.  By doing so, and in the interest of promoting a form of Universal Gnosticism, it will bring it together with the Barbeloist idea of the Gnostic ascent of the soul through the heavens.

However, before I discuss in more depth the spiritual nature of the Sacrament (Rite) of the Holy Bridal Chamber, I will briefly discuss the idea of the soul’s ascent through the heavens.

The Perennial Concept of the Souls Ascent through the Heavens 

Moving in parallel with the two primary Gnostic rites of union (those of the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Bridal Chamber) are rites and ceremonies surrounding the soul’s ascent into heaven. Historical experts refer to these as “ascensional and contemplative practices.”  Much like the Rite of the Holy Bridal Chamber these rites are often assumed by modern Gnostics to be funerary rites.  However, I also contend that this is an oversimplification of the Gnostic idea of the soul’s ascension into the heavens, which is in fact also a symbolic rite of unification in the primitive Gnostic Church.  In fact, my argument is that it is part and parcel of The Sacrament of the Holy Bridal Chamber and essential to it.

We may start with the history of the idea of this ascension of the soul in Ancient Egypt. There are distinct similarities between the version in the II Book of Jeu and that of the weighing of the soul in the Egyptian Book of Life and Death and its Judgement Halls. For example, Anubis, the psychopomp of the Egyptian soul, much like the Paralemptai in the II Book of Jeu, guides the person’s soul to the Chamber of Horus and Isis, and the soul is challenged by 42 assessors. The person’s heart is then weighed against the feather of Ma’at (the deified concept of truth) before being allowed to pass before Osiris, the God of the realm of the dead. Like Ma’at, in the Gnostic version, the last aeon before entry in the Holy of Holies is also said to be the place of the true God. In addition, names play a big role in the performance of the magic of his resurrection. This similar staged approach to the Egyptian is deemed a necessary process for the soul to realise its ultimate resurrection as it is in The Gnostic Scriptures and particularly in the II Book of Jeu (or the Bruce Codex).

Another major ancient pagan myth related to this idea of the ascension of the soul is the Semitic Dance of the Seven Veils of the goddess Ishtar, which incidentally made its way in a changed form in the Gospels as Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils before Herod, which resulted in the beheading of John the Baptist. Her dance is a symbolic descent through seven gates of Hades to rescue her dead lover Tammuz to ensure his resurrection and through it that of the seasons and crops. Very much like the Gnostic concept of the ascent of the soul through the aeons of the archons, her journey in the underworld necessitates that she travel through a series of underworld levels of to reach her beloved god. At each of the seven gates of the underworld she pauses, asking permission from the spirits to enter, and at each, she is challenged by beings to remove her jewellery, girdles, and royal regalia which bind her spirit to the material world. She is also asked to take off one of her seven veils at each gate.  Only thus ‘naked’ may she gain entry to the halls and ultimately in the bed of her lover god. These veils may be viewed as metaphors of barriers to entering higher levels of deeper understanding of the spiritual mysteries, and they also appear, albeit in a very different way, in the last steps to access the Holy Bridal Chamber in The Gnostic Scriptures. 

We can therefore see in this ancient myth of Ishtar the same idea of the soul travelling through levels to acquire sacred knowledge as the Gnostic idea of the Bridal Chamber, because the descent of Ishtar leads her to an affectionate union with her chosen god.

A little closer to home, in the Torah there are 7 days of creation which Kabbalistically have been referred to as the “seven heavens”. The existence of several heavens (not a single heaven) is also attested in Bible, and the word used for them is shamayim (heavens in Hebrew), which appears only in the plural form in the Bible. Traditionally, Jacob’s ladder has also been used to refer to this ascent of the soul through the rungs (heavens) of a ladder.

Whereas in the New Testament, the Greek ouranos can mean “the dwelling place of God” (Matthew 12:50) or “the sky” (Acts 10:11); and paradeisos (“paradise” or “garden”) can refer to the place where dead believers await resurrection (Luke 23:43), to where God dwells now (2 Corinthians 12:4), or to our eternal home (Revelation 2:7).

St. Paul, ever the Gnostic, also makes explicit reference to there being many heavens to ascend. In 2 Corinthians 12:2 Paul says: “he knew a man (assumed to be himself—he is speaking in the third person) who went to the third heaven.” Sadly, nothing else is said about this.

Evidence that Jesus also taught that there were many heavens is given in The Canonical Gospels:  “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Clearly, there is a rich underlying cosmology to all of these scattered statements about heavens in the Christian Bible.
I would now like to turn to another historical example of the ascent of the soul in the Esoteric Islamic tradition, because it is evidence of the late survival of this ancient and Biblical idea.

In Islam the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be Upon Him) is said to have ascended into heaven and then to have returned back to earth. The events of this voyage or of the Isra and Mi'raj are referred to in both the Qur'an and in the literature of the Hadith. In The Holy Quran, we read:

"Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things).[3] 

Whereas, in the Hadith, Muhammad is said to have travelled on the steed Buraq to the farthest mosque, where he ascends through various levels of heaven in which he leads other prophets in prayer. Muhammad eventually speaks to God Himself, who gives him instructions on how to pray for the faithful.

We can therefore see a great continuity in history, from very ancient pagan times all the way to the Islamic period and beyond, of the esoteric idea of the ascent of the soul through the heavens.  

In order to understand the ascent of the soul through the heavens specifically in the Gnostic tradition, we will have to discuss the geography of the Judaeo-Christian heavens themselves.  However, before we do that we will turn our attention to the exclusively spiritual nature of the goal of the ascent of the soul, i.e., the Gnostic Bridal Chamber.   

The Meaning of the Bridal Chamber in the Gnostic Gospels 

In many of the Gnostic scriptures the spiritual goal for the soul appears to be a kind of immaculate conception, resulting from a “pure embrace” between two divided souls, i.e., a restoration of the unity between the male and female before the fall of Adam. This is seemingly linked to the original hermaphroditic nature of the human being as an archetype. For example, it is written in Genesis that we were created both as male and female:

"Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.[4]
This was also a belief held by the Greek Philosophers and Neo-Platonists as can be found in Plato’s Symposium:
“Once they were split in half, they clung desperately to their other half until they withered and died from weariness and hunger. Zeus had compassion on these wretched creatures, and made sure their genitals were functioning properly so that they could fit together.  This is why we feel love for others: we are literally searching for our other halves.” Translated by Tom Griffith, 1998)[5]

For Gnostics, this re-union of our two separated parts leads to a second birth, that of the Christ within, and represents the return to humankind's wholeness as the state in which God originally created us.

As The Gnostic Scriptures teach: [We] are reborn by the Christ two by two. In his Breath, we experience a new embrace; we are no longer in duality, but in unity. (Gospel of Phillip)

It is important to note here that it is the Breath, and therefore the Spirit of God, which causes the embrace and the Divine Unity mentioned above, and not the physical union between a man and a woman.

The Gospel of Phillip continues:

"All will be clothed in light when they enter into the mystery of the sacred embrace…What is the bridal chamber, if not the place of trust and consciousness in the embrace? It is an icon of Union, beyond all forms of possession; here is where the veil is torn from top to bottom; here is where some arise and awaken."

This union is said to be beyond all possession, which is a clear indication that we are not talking about marriage which was conceived in the second century as a possessive act and in which women were viewed as bartered goods necessitating dowries to be traded and sold. On the contrary, this sacred embrace offers a return to the Edenic state in which Adam and Eve were not yet driven apart by the effects of the fall. As the Gospel of Philip explains:

If woman had not been separated from man, she would not die with man. Her separation was at the origin of death. Christ comes again to heal this wound, to rediscover the lost unity, to enliven those who kill themselves in separation, reviving them in union. 

It is also clear that it is the Christ which works this restoration and not the bond of marriage:

 [Jesus came] to the place of separation so as to reunite all that had been separated in God. (Gospel of Phillip)

But what exactly is the nature of this sacred embrace in the Bridal Chamber:

[The] embrace that incarnates the hidden union... is not only a reality of the flesh, for there is silence in this embrace. It does not arise from impulse or desire; it is an act of will. (Gospel of Phillip)

This passage is yet another clue that The Sacrament of the Holy Bridal Chamber is not really about the union of two bodies or persons through marriage, or the sexual act, but rather an act of will and a working of the Spirit.

Another example confirming this, and more specifically the important role that Christ plays in this unification, can be found in the Exegesis of the Soul:

Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber from heaven the Father sent her man, who is her brother, the firstborn. (Jesus is of course the firstborn) Then the bridegroom came down to the bride....Since that marriage is not like the carnal marriage, those who are to have intercourse with one another will be satisfied with that intercourse. And as if it were a burden they leave behind them the annoyance of physical desire....[Once] they unite [with one another], they become a single life....For they were originally joined to one another when they were with the Father before the woman led astray the man, who is her brother. This marriage has brought them back together again and the soul has been joined to her true love....

We can compare this passage with that found in the Gospel of Phillip:

If someone experiences Trust and Consciousness in the heart of the embrace, they become a child of light. If someone does not receive these, it is because they remain attached to what they know; when they cease to be attached, they will be able to receive them… Seek the experience of the pure embrace [also translated as "undefiled intercourse"]; it has great power.

Interestingly, the Gospel of Philip specifically mentions that only those who are are no longer enslaved by the world and attached to carnal desires and attraction will experience the true embrace.  

Furthermore, in The Book of Revelations, the most Gnostic of texts found in the New Testament, we also find evidence of the Bridal Chamber idea as solely a spiritual experience:

And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And with regards to the New Jerusalem and the New Earth:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

These passages in the Book of Revelations are usually interpreted in Orthodox circles to mean the union of Christ with his Church, symbolised as the union between the Church being the mass of Christian souls with the bridegroom Christ during the end days. But from a Gnostic perspective it is, on the contrary, a permanent reality accessible to us all at all times. To a Gnostic, the end days represent each time a soul has reached such a height of Gnosis as to experience this wedding with the Christ within himself or herself.

Having established above that The Sacrament of the Holy Bridal Chamber is: 1. not a rite involving sexual intercourse, nor a marriage ceremony between a man and a woman; 2. a reconstitution of our primordial Adamic wholeness through the union between the individual soul (female) and Christ/God (male), and the culmination of the goal of the Gnostic quest for Divine Union with the Godhead; let us therefore with confidence affirm that it is also the last step for the soul on its ascent through the lower realms into the very presence of God, and that any Liturgy of The Sacrament of the Holy Bridal Chamber should have as its central focus the realisation (accomplishment) of that final elevated spiritual goal.

Having this in mind, let us now turn to the lower steps, or lower rungs on Jacob’s proverbial ladder, through which the soul must ascend before reaching the Holy of Holies or the Bridal Chamber of God. 

Heavenly Geography: The Book of Enoch and the Second Book of Jeu

To say that there are several levels of heaven in Gnostic cosmology would be truly an understatement. The “heavens/aeons” consist of many levels and dimensions populated by many spirits, aeons, archons, powers, gods, angels, etc, etc. Gnostic cosmologies abound, but describing them is the main goal of this thesis, which is after all liturgical composition. Therefore, I will be discussing only two hierarchies: one (The Book of Enoch) from the more traditional Judeo-Christian Semitic tradition, and the other (II Book of Jeu) from the more Gnostic Hellenised Alexandrian Barbeloist tradition.

The Heavens in the II Book of Enoch

There are 10 heavens in the apocryphal and deeply esoteric II Book of Enoch, which match up beautifully with the 10 Sephirah of the Kabbalah and the 9+1 order of angels of the: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions,Virtues, Powers, Archangels, Principalities, Angels, and Holy Guardian Angels.

Here are descriptions of each of the 10 heavens of the Book of Enoch [6] hopefully these typical descriptions of the traditional Judaeo-Christian heavens will give the reader a baseline for comparison as we move into the aeons of the II Books of Jeu. In the II Book of Jeuwe find 15 levels of heavens (not 10), and the actual passwords are given for each level.  In the chapter dedicated to the II Book of Jeuwe will translate these passwords phonetically from the Coptic so that they can be pronounced by the officiating Clergy and the Recipient during the actual sacrament. 

Here are the 10 heavens according to the II Book of Enoch, which it might interest the reader to know is actually a canonical scripture in the Ethiopian Church, one of the oldest Christian Churches in existence:

I. The 1st Heaven – Clouds, Stars, Snow, and Morning Dew: Located atop the clouds and inhabited by winged Angels, this is where the rulers and elders of the constellations reside here with 200 angels. Nearby is the Great Sea, larger than any of earth’s oceans, while the Heavenly store-houses for both snow and morning dew are located here. (II Enoch 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, 6:1)

II. The 2nd Heaven – Prison of Darkness, Death and Despair: A place of darkness where the angels of darkness who joined with Satan in his original rebellion have been imprisoned, hanging from chains and awaiting Judgment Day. (II Enoch 7:1-3)

III. The 3rd Heaven – Mercy of Paradise and Justice of Hell: A Paradise reserved for the good and the righteous, consisting of a fragrant orchard grove with the fiery golden Tree of Life in the center where the LORD rests when visiting. The roots to the Tree of Life extend downwards to the Garden of Eden below and there four different springs flowing with milk, honey, wine, and oil. 300 singing Angels tend the Garden. In contrast, the northern section is a terrible place of icy, frozen darkness with a river of fire flowing through it and inhabited by fierce cruel angels with weapons who torture those sinners who have been condemned here. (II Enoch 8:1-10, 9:1, 10:1-3)

IV. The 4th Heaven – Twelve Gates of the Sun and the Moon: Includes the 12 great gates (and pathways) of the Moon, the 6 eastern gates and 6 western gates of the Sun along with all its different pathways. Guarded and maintained by thousands upon thousands of Angels, the sun is escorted daily by 8,000 other stars and needs 100 Angels just to light its fire Some of the inhabitants include six-winged creatures who accompany the Angels, exotic Rainbow-colored Phoenixes and Chalkydri with heads like crocodiles, as well as armed soldiers who are constantly singing and playing musical instruments. (II Enoch 11:1-6, 12:1-2, 13:1-2, 14:1-2, 15:1-3, 16:1-3, 17:1)

V. The 5th Heaven – Giants of Silence, Sadness and Regret: A sad, solemn place of silence and gloom filled with a countless number of gigantic human soldiers called the Grigori who chose Satan as their prince and rejected the LORD of light. Their faces are withered, but they still remain capable of occasionally singing praises unto the LORD. (II Enoch 18:1-7)

VI. The 6th Heaven – Archangels of the Arts and Sciences: Traditional home of seven different groups of Angels who both rule over the stars, keeping track of their motions, as well overseeing and managing the various governments on Earth. They also keep records of everyone’s good or bad deeds, and keep careful watch over earth’s natural systems of life and death. Other inhabitants include six Phoenixes, six Cherubim, six Seraphim who, with one voice, sing songs so other-worldly, they remain impossible to describe. (II Enoch 19:1-3)

VII. The 7th Heaven – Powers and Dominions of Fire and Light: an Angelic realm of light and fire, filled with the many different eternally loyal soldiers of the LORD including Archangels, Virtues (forces), Dominions, Powers, (orders), and Principalities (governments). Also present are the other-worldly Cherubim, seraphim, thrones, and other celestial being with many eyes, along with what the text calles ‘nine regiments’ and the ‘Ioanit stations of light.’ (II Enoch 20:1-2, 21:3)

VIII.The 8th Heaven – Summer and Winter of Drought and Snow: Controls and changes the different seasons of the year causing either draught or rain on Earth. Also contains the twelve constellations. (II Enoch 21:7)

IX. The 9th Heaven – Twelve Secret Mansions of the Stars in the Night: Considered the celestial homes of the constellations which lie both above and behind the 12 groups of stars as seen in the circular night sky above the Earth. Called Kuchavim in Hebrew. (II Enoch 21:8)

X. The 10th Heaven – Cherubim, Seraphim, and the Throne of Thunder and Lightning: Seen as the highest of Heavens as well as the actual location of the LORD God’s mighty Throne of Judgment. Typically, this is where the LORD holds counsel with His Angels and Saints, making His decisions, handing down His judgments, and commanding His countless Angels who surround Him as they sing songs of praise and glory. (II Enoch 22:1-10)

Origins and Classification of the II Book of Jeu 

Before moving onto a discussion of the ascent of the soul through the heavens (referred to as aeons) in the II Book of Jeu, it might be important to pause here and consider the history of the text (which is also known as the Bruce Codex) since, unlike the Book of Enoch, it is one of the least known Gnostic texts, mainly because it was one of the first to be found well before the Nag Hammadi discoveries. The text is written in Coptic (Sahidic), like most of the Gnostic gospels. It is referred to as the Books of Jeu, because Jeu is the Coptic phoneticisation of IAO, the Greek Tetragrammaton, and which is the name of God used the most extensively in the text.

According to linguists, the text is a translation of a Greek original, most likely composed in Egypt (probably in Alexandria) in the first half of the 2nd century or at the beginning of the 3rd century. The writing is said to be closely related to the Codex Askewianus, and therefore is believed to have belonged to a group of Barbelo Gnostics with Encratite tendencies.

In 1769, James Bruce (1730 –1794) (who was a Scotsman, adventurer, and a Freemason, which is of no small consequence for us) purchased the Bruce Codex in Upper Egypt. It was transferred to the museum with a number of other Oriental texts in 1842. It currently resides in the Bodleian Library (Bruce 96), where it has been since 1848. It was edited and translated into German in 1893 by the leading near-eastern text translator at the time, Carl Schmidt. Violet Macdermot translated it into English as The Books of Jeu and as the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex in 1978. Schmidt identified the two texts in the Codex as being “Gnostic mystery texts,” and he concluded that the first (in two books) was identical with the Book of Jeu mentioned in the Pistis Sophia. Therefore, we can be rather confident that it is from the same Gnostic communities which produced some of the texts in the Nag Hammadi Corpus.[7]

The Rite of the Ascension Through the Heavens in the II Book of Jeu
 
The process of the rising of the soul through the heavens is laid out in considerable detail by Jesus himself in the text of the II Book of Jeu. It is referred to by Him as the Mystery of the Treasury of Light. Essentially it constitutes a sort of grand rite of forgiveness, a sort of theurgical operation, which effect is the total negation the evil influences of the archons on the human soul:
Jesus said to his disciples who were gathered to him, the twelve disciples and the woman disciples: …..But the paralemptai of the Treasury of the Light come and they bring forth the soul from the body, until they pass through all the aeons and the places of the invisible God, and they take it into the Treasury of Light. And they erase all sin which they have committed knowingly and those which they have committed unknowingly. And they make them pure light. And the soul leaps continually place to place, until it reaches the Treasury of Light. 
 
The paralemptai are not clearly identified in the text. It would appear that they are some kind of spiritual being serving as psychopomps by helping souls to escape their bodies and to travel through the aeons. The word however is masculine and we will see how significant this fact is in our later discussion of the Bridal Chamber. 
 
Jesus is also clear about the efficacy of this grand rite of forgiveness (mystery/sacrament). He clearly explains that it makes man into an immortal god and causes all the archons to flee from him, allowing him to reach the Pleroma and the presence of the unapproachable God:
 
For it is necessary that every man who will believe in the Kingdom of Light should perform the mystery of forgiveness of sins only once. For to every man who will perform the mystery of forgiveness of sins, all sins which he has committed knowingly and unknowingly from his childhood until today, and which he has committed since the foundation of the world until today will all be erased, and he will be made to be pure light and take to the Light if these Lights. And I say to you that since they were on earth they have already inherited the Kingdom of God. They have their part in the Treasury of the Light, and they are immortal gods. And when those who have received these mysteries and the mystery of the forgiveness of sins come forth from the body, all the aeons draw back one after another, and they flee to the west to the left on account of the soul which has received the mystery of the forgiveness of sins, until they (the souls) reach the gates of the Treasury of the Light and the watchers of the gates open to them.  
 
It is interesting to note here that 1,200 years later the Cathar Gnostics would also offer a sort of grand rite of confession of their own called The Consallamentum, which was also believed to render the Cathar into Perfecti (Perfect ones or Bonshommes), that is, living saints free from the influences of the evil god and his fallen angels. However, the rite of The Consollamentum as it has survived in the extant texts (Lyon, Latin and Dublin rituals) did not contain a rising of the soul through the heavens, and because of the strictness the code imposed after its conferral, was mainly reserved for the dying. It would appear that walking around daily life as a perfect being, including abstaining from sex and meat, was too much to expect from most medieval Cathar followers in their “vivant.” (René Nelli, 1995)
 
Based on his own neo-Catharism, First Patriarch Jules Doinel also instituted a sort of grand rite of confession called The Appareilamentum, which was conferred at the request of a penitent who had previously received the Church’s Consolamentum. It was also intended to allow the penitent to come into closer communion with the Pleroma. But Doinel’s Aappareilmentum, like the Cathar Consallamentum it did not contain a rising through the heavens either.[8]
 
Spiritual Pre-conditions for Receiving the Rite 
 
Evidence of the very elevated nature of this rite can also be seen from the spiritual pre-conditions, or requirements for its performance on the Recipient:
 
Jesus: Before all these things I will give to you the three baptisms: the water baptism, the baptism of fire and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I will give you the mystery of taking away from you the evil archons. And after these things I will give to you the mystery of the spiritual inunction. (II Book of Jeu)
 
An interesting note here is the spiritual nature of inunction (anointing with oil). This passage points to the fact that inunction was not only used for simple healing but for the higher purpose of removing the influences of the archons (which naturally were also thought to cause disease). It is extensively used for example to seal the seals on the forehead of the Recipient when actually conferring the rite of The Mystery of the Treasury of Light.
 
Ethical pre-conditions for receiving the Rite 
 
The disciples are instructed before giving these mysteries to others to command them not to:
 
fornicate, commit adultery, steal, swear, desire anything, or to love silver or gold, nor to invoke the name of archons nor the name of angels over any matter, nor to curse, accuse falsely, slander and to let their yea be yea and their nay be nay (that is to be honest in all things). 
 
After having done all these things and having received the three baptisms indicated, the soul was then judged capable of traversing each heavenly level (aeons) one by one while being given a seal, a seal name, and a cipher helping it to repel the archons of each level until it reached the level of the true God; the final step before the Bridal Chamber in which Divine Union can occur.
 
This final step is described in the following way:
 
And at that moment (of entry) it will cause the Treasuries of the Light and their ranks to be withdrawn until you pass into the interior, and you reach the treasury of the true God. But he, the true God himself, will give to you his great mystery and his great seal and his great name which is the ruler (king) over his treasury…the unapproachable God will (then) cast forth from himself a light-power to come to you to the place of the true God, and give to you the character of the treasury of the true God. And it will complete you in every Pleroma and make you into a rank in that treasury. And you will give glory to the unapproachable God because you have received the mystery of the forgiveness of sins, while you were in the body. And you will be in the place of the true God because you have received the mystery of forgiveness of sins, with its defence and its seal and its cipher and all its injunctions with which I have enjoined you. 
 
The place in which this union with the Light of the unapproachable is possible is unfortunately not described in the II Book of Jeu, but it is my liturgical operative assumption that it is the same place as the Valentinian Bridal Chamber. How could it not be if it is the location of Divine Union? Nevertheless, I will present my evidence more fully on this correlation latter below.
 
The results of this unification are also made clear in the above quote. Man becomes a “rank” that is an immortal god, the purpose of which is to glorify the unapproachable God. However, in the II Book of Jeu, nothing else is described about the actual process, and what it is actually likened to; for that we must turn to the description of the Bridal Chamber in the Gospel of Phillip and the Exegesis of the Soul. We will also do this later.
 
For now, let us turn our attention to the various aeons the soul must ascend through in the II Book of Jeu.
 
The text starts with the requirements of baptism and gives details regarding the baptisms of water, fire, and of the Holy Spirit. These will not be analysed in this thesis, as the goal of this article is the creation of a liturgy for the Bridal Chamber and not for baptisms. Having said that, there are many important details in these baptismal passages, which would be quite appropriate to include in the Church’s existing baptism liturgy, particularly with regards to making the fire and Holy Spirit parts more explicit in it. Though the existing baptismal liturgy does include all these elements (and draws heavily from the Books of Jeu), it might be more clear if the different baptisms were actually conferred separately. The rites of baptism by fire and by the Holy Spirit in the II Book of Jeu would indeed be fertile ground for this reconstruction.  In this endeavour however, information would also have to be taken into account from other Gnostic Gospels which discuss the baptism of fire and of the Holy Spirit, not the least being the Gospel of Phillip as well as the Book of Baruch, the Apocalypse of James, etc.:
 
In the second Book of Jeu (chs. 45-52) one finds a most elaborate baptismal rite that affords entry into the Treasury of Light. In a ritual setting featuring a table set with bread, pitchers of wine and water, herbs, and incense, the disciples of Jesus don linen robes and myrtle crowns to receive a sequence of three baptisms (in living water, fire, and the Holy Spirit) in which they acquire certain ciphers and names as "seals" allowing them to ascend through the aeons. 
Unfortunately, the manuscript ends before Jesus reveals the great "mystery of the forgiveness of sins" required for ultimate entrance into the Treasury of Light.[9]
 
The last statement is not completely accurate. In fact, the grand name and seal and cipher for the final unification of the soul with the unapproachable God are clearly given in the first section of the I Book of Jeu. In fact, there is ample liturgical material in the text to easily reconstruct the final stage of unification with the Godhead.
 
Furthermore, it becomes rather clear when all the Gnostic texts which discuss sacraments are compared with that of the Books of Jeu, this text helps give a much clearer picture of them all and particularly that of the Bridal Chamber experience. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the ascent of the soul through the lower aeons in the II Book of Jeu is the missing link to the whole ritualistic complex of the Gnostic tradition. We will see how below.
 
Let us now turn to the different levels of aeons (heavens), their names, seals and ciphers, which lead to the ultimate Mystery of the Treasury of Light in the II Book of Jeu. In the following table, the aeon will be identified and a transliteration of the names of the archons and the conquering (or defending) names will be given. The seals and signs are graphically shown in the II Book of Jeu, and a reference to the appropriate page for these will also be given for ease of reference.
 
With a few notable exceptions, each of the aeons is passed using a standard formula of words and actions with some minor variations. Here is a typical example:
 
Hold this cipher (number cipher) in your two hands. When you have finished sealing yourselves with this seal and you have said its name once only, say these defences also: Withdraw yourselves (archon names)…you archons of the (first aeon), because I call upon(defending names).
 
But when the archons of the (first) aeons hear these names, they will be very afraid and they will withdraw and flee to the west to the left, and you will proceed upwards. 
 
The Aeons in the II Book of Jeu