VMs: Mandaeans and the VMS...?

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

Has anyone considered the Mandaeans as a possible source of the 
astrological (volvelle) pages in the VMS? Their calendar is a solar 
(agricultural) calendar, consisting of 12 months each of thirty days, plus 
"five auspicious days of epact" added at the end.

The obvious inconsistency might be that their Great New Year currently 
falls round about July 21, which might not match up with the VMS' months 
(if the star signs in the middle of each are at all correct)... though I 
don't know if this has always been so. It's hard to tell.

All the same, this (structurally) seems like the strongest candidate I've 
yet seen for this.

http://www.mystae.com/restricted/streams/scripts/johannite.html

This page is full of good clippings about the Mandaeans/Johannites culled 
from many sources, most notably from Chris King, "The Apocalyptic 
Tradition". Chris King is a senior mathematics lecturer in Auckland 
University, New Zealand, with wide-ranging research interests. [*]

http://matu1.math.auckland.ac.nz/~king/Preprints/book/yeshua/apoc.html

"According to their own tradition, the Mandaeans originated in Palestine 
and went into exile first in Harran and then in Mesopotamia. The teacher of 
the Madaeans was John the Baptist, himself baptised, while yet a boy by the 
"Knowledge of Life'. ... The Mandaeans believe that the upper world is 
represented by the Great King of light, the Great Life. Inferior to him are 
countless spiritual beings, some benificent, others demoniac. The earth was 
created out of black waters; the Zodiac and the seven planets are the work 
of evil spirits. The 'Knowledge of Life' and the light-giving powers seek 
to direct men and women to good actions; the planets and the spirit of 
physical life incite them to error through Judaism, Christianity, Islam and 
other 'false religions'. Those who lead a good life pass after death to a 
world of light, others undergo torture, but even the most evil will be 
purified in a great baptism at the end of the world. Baptism in flowing 
water - yardna (Jordan?) is the most important ritual, giving them the name 
Subba or baptisers, performed before all religious ceremonies and daily 
before sunrise. A second form of sacrament is the sacred meal of fish, 
pomegranate, coconuts and other fruits and nuts. Most religious occasions 
are also marked by the drinking of consecrated water and the eating of 
consecrated bread and of sa (phallus-shaped dough)" (Segal 1963 220). These 
are performed at birth, marriage and particularly death, where punctilious 
ritual is observed connected with their belief in the afterlife. They hold 
to planetary influence on the hours and have a seven day induction of 
priests like the Sabians. Their year consists of twelve months of thirty 
days each, followed by five auspicious days of epact. At the New Year they 
keep vigil for the spirits of light to return from congratulating the 
Supreme Being for creation. They utter "Ask and find, speak and listen" 
like Harranians, but invoke a formal denial of the powers of the sun and 
moon contrary to the Sabians. Their dietary habits differ. Their calendar 
is solar while the Harranian one is luni-solar. Women may own property, 
divorce is not recognised, a man may have as many wives as he desires. 
(Segal 1963 219)

Steinmann (128) notes:"Though they are hostile to Judaism, Christianity and 
Islam, they very frequently practise baptism in running water and a sort of 
'consolamentum' or confirmation, given to the dying. They repudiate 
idolatry and circumcision, while celibacy is absolutely forbidden. They 
practise a moral code of charity and goodwill. They have sacred books, 
written in an Aramaic dialect of Babylon and dating from about the seventh 
and eighth centuries A.D. These are the Ginza, or Treasure, a collection of 
various works, the Qolasta, a sort of hymn book, and the Yohn Book, which 
contains a legendary account of the Baptist's message, and also some hymns 
and fragments of teaching from many different sources.

References (both of which the British Library has copies of):-

Steinmann, Jean 1964 "Saint John the Baptist", Harpers & Bros., New York.

Segal J.B. 1963 "The Sabian Mysteries" in "Vanished Civilisations. 
Forgotten people of the ancient world." ed. Edward Bacon, Thames & Hudson, 
London.

				* * * * * *

There's a huge amount of Mandaean-related info on this (frankly, quite 
amazing) site:
	http://www.geocities.com/usamandaean/mandaeanworld.html

However, I should point out that the various Mandaic alphabets look to be 
fairly unrelated to the VMS' alphabet, so I'll be sticking with the 
shorthand hypothesis for now. :-)

	http://www.geocities.com/mandaeanworld1/alphabet.html

Also, note that this Mandaean history page marks the first Western mention 
of them at 1560:
	http://hp1.switchboard.com/FetchPage/27188/default.htm

	"It might be of interest to the reader that the first reference to the
	Mandaean in western books was in 1560 and by the lates1800's
	literally dozens and dozens of books either mention or deal with
	the Mandaeans."

The same site also mentions Babylonian demon bowls (which I've always 
thought were very cool artefacts), some of which have Mandaic writing on. 
Here's an excellent site containing lots of nice pictures of magical items 
from Late Antiquity:

	http://www.lib.umich.edu/pap/magic/def2.html

Finally: if you're in the UK & can read Arabic, there's a UK Mandaean site, 
based in Swansea:
	http://www.mandaeans.org/

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....

[*]  Don't let the beard and woolly jumper on his home page put you off. 
:-)  I'd also like to know what "supercausality" is... :-)