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I Magi e la “Madre celeste”

Summary: The article analyses an aspect of that, which can be defined the gnosis of Aramaic area, in whose doctrinal channel flowed various syncretist elements of Iranian-Mesopotanian origin. In the information on the Magi-Kings, given by the Chronicle of Zuqnin, an important Syrian text, we find next to the Father-Creator the "Greatness", rabbuta, from whom arises a Star, the stigma of his "supreme mystery" and of his androgyny. It is the "fountain of life", an emanation of the immaculate Light, analogous to that luminous "great source", which in mandeism  is the living water of the yardna, the cosmic "Jordan", from which derives the "flaming splendour" of aina usindirka, the secret name of the heavenly Mother: aina usindirka is the "matrix",  tanna, of fire from which proceeds the water of life, the vital fluid of the universe. These concepts are closely related to the Iranian idea of x^arenah-, the inflaming splendour hidden in the waters of the "liquid goddess". Aredvi Sura Anahita: the glory, the luminous force. the inflaming splendour. is enclosed within the waters, above and below, in the macrocosm and the microcosm; it is the magic force, which has as a vehicle the humid element. Similar concepts can be traced also in some important "sethian" documents, originating from the Coptic corpus of Nag-Hammadi. Among these. the Apocalypse of Adam speaks of FOSTER, a future "Enlightener", who "springs forth" from the water, whereas in Zostrian the ecstatic apotheosis is marked with the vision of "a living water"and of "a fire which cannot be extinguished".