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The Divine Feminine Presence in Ibn 'Arabi and Moses De Leon

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The Divine Feminine Presence in Ibn 'Arabi and Moses De Leon religions Article The Divine Feminine Presence in Ibn ‘Arabi and Moses de Leon Julia Alonso Vicerrectorado Investigación, Cátedra Internacional De Hermenéutica Crítica: Hercritia, National Distance Education University (UNED), 28015 Madrid, Spain; [email protected] Abstract: This paper is an investigation of the divine feminine power as depicted in the texts of Hispanic mystics from Sufi, Hebrew, and Christian traditions. This work is intended to investigate the origin and subsequent development of a transcendent reconciliation of polarity, its diverse manifestations, and the attainment of a common goal, the quintessential of the Perfect Human Being. The architect of the encounter that leads to Union is “Sophia”. She is the Secret. Only those who are able to discern Her own immeasurable dimension may contemplate the Lady who dwells in the sacred geometry of the abyss. Sophia is linked to the hermetic Word, She is allusive, clandestine, poetic, and pregnant with symbols, gnostic resonances, and musical murmurs that conduct the “traveler” through dwellings and stations towards an ancient Sophianic knowledge that leads to the “germinal vesicle”, the “inner wine cellar”, to the Initium, to the Motherland. She is the Mater filius sapientae, who through an alchemical transmutation becomes a song to the absent Sophia whose Presence can only be intuited. Present throughout the Creation, Sophia is the axis around which the Citation: Alonso, Julia. 2021. The poetics of the Taryuman al-ashwaq rotates and the kabbalistic Tree of Life is structured. Divine Feminine Presence in Ibn ‘Arabi and Moses de Leon. Religions Keywords: Sophia; Duende; union; Eros; path; feminine power; heart; Presence; secret; theophany; 12: 156. https://doi.org/10.3390/ Hieros Gamos rel12030156 Academic Editor: Cristobal Serran-Pagan Y Fuentes 1. Introduction Those born in present-day Spain, whose Islamic and Jewish history has been concealed Received: 15 January 2021 from us, have a responsibility to discover our long-neglected authors, the ones who Accepted: 19 February 2021 Published: 27 February 2021 wrote in other languages—Hebrew and Arabic. For centuries, their linguistic and cultural perceptions shaped the ways of life and interpretations of the world that, in conjunction, Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral gave rise to that crucible of knowledge, the Andalusian world [andalusí], characterized with regard to jurisdictional claims in by riches and originality. As Fernando Mora says, “It is an ‘old vernacular disease’ to published maps and institutional affil- think that our cultural background consists exclusively of texts written in Spanish” (Mora iations. 2019, pp. 15–29). And it was the Spanish historian Sánchez Albornoz, in his book Spain: a historical enigma, who declared that Ibn al ‘Arabi is “the personification of a Spaniard”. (Mora 2019, pp. 15–29). The same can be said of Moses de Leon. The purpose of this article is to address the subject of investigation within a broad historico-religious context whose written manifestation, as we know from Noah Kramer’s Copyright: © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. translation of the Sumerian hymns, dates back to the bridal rite of (Ryan 2008, p. 7) Hieros 1 This article is an open access article Gamos . To support the thesis of a common origin of the mystics linked to our authors, it is 2 distributed under the terms and necessary to investigate the symbolic concurrences, exegesis, and the process employed by conditions of the Creative Commons each of these hermeneutical seekers whose object is to gain access to Supreme Knowledge, Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// in which Sophia plays the primary role. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ The present investigation reveals the exceedingly ancient Presence of a Feminine 4.0/). Power of Divinity, as displayed in diverse currents that shaped the many religious, spiritual, 1 See: (Kramer 2001). Sacred sexual intercourse is thought to have been common in the Ancient Near East as a form of “Sacred Marriage” or hieros gamos between the kings of a Sumerian city-states and the High Priestesses of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility and warfare. See: (Vázquez 2007). 2 The Zohar is an esoteric and mystical exegesis of the Torah, by means of the sacred value of its letters. Ibn ‘Arabi, for his part, wrote an exegesis of his Interpreter of Desires, in which he elucidates the hidden meaning of the text. Religions 2021, 12, 156. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12030156 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Religions 2021, 12, 156 2 of 24 and philosophical movements coexisting within Al-Andalus. Within that framework, despite a certain friction, Muslims and Hebrews were able to project their interpretation of spirituality and divine structure into Christian mystical theology, where it gave rise to a powerful and unique way of Knowledge whose originality consisted in the vision of a force emanating from the celestial order. This emanation results in a differentiated polarity that includes, yet transcends, the amorous entanglement that leads to an encounter with Unity. It is thus that a sort of irruption occurs within Hispanic mystical life, where the figure of Sophia linked to Love acquires enormous power and a singular means of expression. It is proposed to describe this original manifestation within the borders of Al-Andalus, focusing on the intimacy generated between the seeker and the Creative Force and on the ways in which this encounter is described in the three languages linked to the religions of the Book: Arabic, Hebrew, and Spanish. Underlying the Presence and manifestation of the Creative Force (known by various names, and to our authors as Ibn ‘Arabi’s, Himma, Moses de León’s, Shekhinah, and St. John of the Cross’, Wisdom), is the Science of Letters,3 the knowledge of harmonic sounds, number, and sacred mathematics. That said, the goal of this work will be to highlight the equilibrium of the Divine, the celestial hieros gamos that is projected into the human soul and into the Creation in a continuous circular flow, embracing differences and weaving them into a single manifestation that reflects, like a mirror, the unsayable. The hypothesis is that diverse mystical paths suggest the existence of a universal entanglement that can be discovered by apparently divergent pathways, all leading to a common goal: intuitive, noetic knowledge. To those who undertake the voyage into uncertainty, Sophia grants this particular kind of knowledge in the form of Light. The current proposal will emphasize the original Unity, the power of the Cosmic Eros that guides the enamored soul toward an “experience” that takes place in dimensions of reality beyond time and space, incorporating harmonies and discrepancies, encounters and dis- encounters that emerge in an intermediary world between the spiritual and the material: the world of the soul. It seems essential to investigate, beyond an anthropocentric and unidirectional vision, the relationship of the human being with Longing, with the Presence of a mysterious Saudade,4 and definitively with the seductive figure of Sophia, who precipitates those who “suffer” from love-sickness into another dimension. This perspective will necessitate a search for cultural variations in varying contexts, perhaps even a sacred language that connects us to all the inhabitants of the universe, in an attempt to reveal the common indi- cators underlying the diverse interpretations and expressions and their hidden messages. Something is summoning us, challenging us, calling attention to the paths that coincide with this search, to the convergence of itineraries that guides us to the fulfillment of a lack. The present study will examine, in short, the common threads and concurrences that speak to us of a community formed around the sacred lineage of gnosis, which inhabits a very particular spiritual and contemplative cartography. Despite the diversity of perspectives and historical or cultural dissonances, it calls our attention to the sense of a universal gnostic communion. As the Murcian Sufi Ibn ‘Arabi reminds us, the mystic souls of all historical epochs live out the same spiritual experience, though conditioned by the diversity of beliefs, by religious plurality. This diversity gives rise to what the Sheikh denominates as “the god created through the creeds”, which is inevitably problematic, since according to a proverbial saying: “There are as many ways to God as there are human souls” (Chittick 2003, p. 7). It is precisely Ibn ‘Arabi who emphasizes the diversity of opinions (Chittick 3 See: footnote 16. 4 See: (Borges 2008); De Sa´Carneiro Mario, No lado esquerdo da alma, 2ª ed. Alma Azul, Coimbra 2004, p. 38; Pereira Dacosta Dalila, Encontro na noite, Lello & Irmão Editores, Porto 1973. https://www.ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/17602.pdf (accessed on 12 December 2020). Saudade is a Galician-Portuguese term and is therefore Iberian. There is no direct translation into English. It is an ardent desire or longing to return to the origin, which implies a deep sense of loss of an initial state of fullness in unity. This results in an emotional state of profound nostalgia or melancholia, predicated on the absence of a beloved person, place, object, or state of being. Religions 2021, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 26 that speak to us of a community formed around the sacred lineage of gnosis, which in- habits a very particular spiritual and contemplative cartography. Despite the diversity of perspectives and historical or cultural dissonances, it calls our attention to the sense of a universal gnostic communion. As the Murcian Sufi Ibn ‘Arabi reminds us, the mystic souls of all historical epochs live out the same spiritual experience, though conditioned by the diversity of beliefs, by religious plurality. This diversity gives rise to what the Sheikh de- Religions 2021, 12, 156 3 of 24 nominates as “the god created through the creeds”, which is inevitably problematic, since according to a proverbial saying: “There are as many ways to God as there are human souls” (Chittick 2003, p.
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