The Thunder: Perfect Mind: A New Translation and Introduction

by Hal Taussig, J. Calaway, M. Kotrosits

This is the first book-length treatment in English of the Nag Hammadi text, The Perfect Mind - a poem of 'I am' statements that has garnered a strong following in mainstream culture. This book offers a fresh, current translation (with detailed Coptic annotations) and ten chapters of introductory analysis of the text.

Genres: Poetry, Religion, Philosophy, Spirituality, Esoterica, Mysticism, Nonfiction

201 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2010

About the author

A founding member of the Jesus Seminar, HAL TAUSSIG is a pastor, professor of Biblical literature at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and professor of early Christianity at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. He is the author of In the Beginning Was the Meal; The Thunder: Perfect Mind; A New Spiritual Home; Reimagining Life Together in America (with Catherine Nerney); Jesus Before God; Reimagining Christian Origins (with Elizabeth Castelli), and others.

Reviews

[Kiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

These texts evoke something completely unknown to me yet intimately familiar and I want to return to these words over and over again for the rest of my life.

The cosmological duality of resonating with the direct oppositions of every antithesis as well as anything that could possibly exist in between, feels dreadful but divine. Some archaic soul inside of me wakes up to the understanding of these scripts and even though the woman who wrote this spilled all of her being into these words I still wonder who she was.

[Oli Hastings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great scholarly treatment of Thunder, that is both useful to experts and approachable to lay audiences. The emphasis on the grammatical use of gender for literary effect is appreciated, as is discussions pertaining to the context of Graeco-Roman Egypt in the late classical period and late antiquity.

[Jomar Canales Conde · Rating 5 out of 5]

trueno: mente perfecta

este es, sencillamente, uno de los poemas más extraordinarios, más radiantes que he leído en mi vida. está cruzado por una estela de luz —la misma estela de un cuerpo y una mente que se elevan más allá de los prodigios y miserias de la tierra; es la estela de la mente quieta y el corazón atolondrado de safo, del piramidal e indisoluble sueño que erige sor juana. me gustaría pensar que el bibliotecario de borges, en las profundidades de la biblioteca de babel, se había equivocado, que cuando refirió aquel libro llamado trueno peinado en realidad era una corrupción o acaso un pobre calco de este, y cuando desenrolló el pergamino un trueno retumbó por las paredes hexagonales de la biblioteca, y en vez de un olor mustio a papel el perfume de una larga cabellera impregnó la habitación, reordenando las cosas, poniéndolas en su sitio.

[Ângela Maresch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since the first time that I read the translation of "The Thunder: Perfect Mind" I was intrigued. The paradoxes and antithesis in the text, the suggestion of divinity in such mundane circumstances and the feminine energy embedded in most of the lines made me grow curious on understanding it better. This book helps making a lot more sense of this so called "gnostic" poem found within the collection of Nag Hammadi manuscripts, and adds other dimensions to it.

"Advance toward childhood
Do not hate it because it is small and insignificant
Don’t reject the small parts of greatness because they are small
since smallness is recognized from within greatness"

[Sia Karamalegos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The translation is 5 stars. The analysis can be good at times but often gets bogged down in overly academic language with no real conclusion. At times, different chapters contradict previous ones. The language varies as well. Could have used a good editor to make this a really cohesive book rather than feeling like several different PhD dissertations by different authors stapled together. Overall though, I really appreciate the deeper insight, and especially to the nuances of gender in the translation and resulting analysis. Definitely feels like the best translation and analysis currently available.

[Daja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever read a piece, not fully understand it but it felt right within your soul?

Some people call this intuition. Others like Audre Lorde calls this the "erotic"; being able to feel the truth even if you can't speak to it. I like to think of pieces like this as reminders. Reminders to be more aware, more present, more me.

So many of us have dualistic opposing parts to ourselves. Sometimes good. Sometimes evil. Impulsive yet calculative. Chaotic yet structured. Toxic yet mature. It can be really confusing navigating these two parts with compassion and finding the truth through the synergy (aka shadow work).

The "Thunder: Perfect Mind" is a Coptic Gnostic text from around 350 C.E. The text is written from the perspective of a female divine (whether being God herself or one of her many iterations within Gnosticism such as Sofia, is unclear). This female divine describes herself in paradoxical dualistic terms such as below:

"For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
Give heed to me."

In this text, this "female divine" is describing herself in a drastically different conceptualization compared to our modern Christian understanding of "God". Instead of being definitely good, "God" is nuanced, complex, existing in the grey. God is both good and evil. God is human. And perhaps by wresting and learning to love God's dualistic paradoxical nature then we can also learn to love the dualistic nature within ourselves?

There is also another review I would like to include: "It speaks about the divine in paradoxical terms, as both honored and cursed, as life and death, and as both the cause of peace and war. The poem also emphasizes the idea that the divine exists both inside and outside of oneself, and that one's judgment and salvation are dependent on their relationship to the divine. It offers a unique perspective on the nature of the divine and the individual's relationship to it, and it highlights the idea of duality and the interconnectedness of opposing forces."

Lastly, I don't know if I believe in this "female divine" or "God" but on a spiritual basis pieces like this make me feel both more human and divine.

[Akanay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poem changed the image I had of the divine feminine drastically.

As a text of divine revelation the divine voice that reveals herself, the Thunder, often uses phrases like "I am she who..." pointing towards it being a feminine in nature. She often uses paradoxical statements like "I am the whore and I am the holy woman", inverts the positions, and contradicts herself endlessly as in "You who deny me, confess me. You who confess me, deny me." It does seem to not make sense at first as what this divine being was, it seemed random and confusing. But then it hit me, this being is not the way we think of the divine feminine in the current trend or ever has been. A Goddess of all qualities that man deem sacred, a precious maiden or a nurturing mother. Thunder is not this at all, a man's idea of what is holy as a woman. Thunder is the divine feminine as the collective feminine. She does not represent one particular type of woman, she is all of us as one.

[Timothy Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enigma of dialectic logic whose answer seems to be time. The feminine energy here is great!
Once one hears this and one knows; everything falls into place. PEACE HOLINESS HUMILITY LOVE LIFE EVERYTHING FOREVER. THE MOON IS HERE FOR US TO SEE DURING THE NIGHTTIME. FOLLOW HER RHYTHM AND THEN ASK HER HOW YOU CAN GET HER.

[Brian Cham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and enigmatic text that encapsulates a lot of ancient wisdom and paradoxes. Although it appears nonsensical at first glance, it calls for deeper contemplation and has meaning beyond just its historical value.