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Seeking Thunder’s Perfect Mind

by Shirley Paulson, PhD

The Thunder of Thunder: Perfect Mind keeps pounding on me. I suppose that’s the reason for its title. I am not alone in this relationship with Thunder, either. This ancient writing, one of the manuscripts discovered in the collection of codices near Nag Hammadi in the 20^th century, has captured more attention from dramatists, musicians, novelists, theologians, and the curious public than any of the other 51 tractates in that collection.

It’s also full of mysteries, and many people are drawn to its ambiguity. But I find a saving, healing message in it that is profound and unambiguous.

Breaking free from the one-size-fits all model, Thunder delights in diversity and conundrum.

I am the mother and the daughter. . . .
It is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father and the sister of my husband, and he is my offspring.

According to the laws of genetics, of course, this is senseless. But Thunder embraces all corners of human experiences.

I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am fear. I am war and peace.

Thunder is even greater than the extent of these human extremes, exceeding the sum of humanity’s self-awareness. Her divine origin empowers her engagement with the world.

I am . . . the command of those who ask of me, and the power of the powers in my knowledge of the angels,
Who have been sent at my word
And of gods in their seasons by my counsel,
And of spirits of every man who exists with me.

We hear her warning rumbling in our ears to seek and learn from her. (Is this gentle thunder?)

Hear me, you hearers, and learn of my words, you who know me.
I am the hearing which is attainable to everyone, and the speech which cannot be grasped.

Her perfect mind embraces all human extremes, and she draws each one to her own perfection. Everyone can learn of her. No one is too lowly, and she welcomes the honorable.

I am she who is honored and she who is mocked
I am the whore and the holy woman

But what kind of divine entity is it who would confide to her people that she is ignorance, ashamed, fear, and war, even while she claims to be knowledge, boldness, shameless, strength, and peace? Some find it comforting to envision a vulnerable deity. Whenever we are weakened, the divine presence is weak, right with us.

We are indeed comforted with this presence, but I think Thunder leads us beyond our own predicaments with her saving message. Jumping ahead to her concluding remarks, she counsels:

Since many sweet ideas exist in all kinds of sin,
Uncontrollable and condemning passions
And passing pleasures that people have
Until they become sober and go up to their resting place,
And they will find me in that place.
They will live and they will not die again.

What a gentle way to compel us to change our ways! Becoming sober implies the necessity for a change of mind, but we are not blamed for our “uncontrollable and condemning passions.” We just know we cannot continue in them and expect to find our oneness with Thunder. We find her in the “resting place,” where we “live and will not die again” only after we have exchanged the many “sweet ideas in all kinds of sin” with clear-headed “sobriety.”

In fact, Thunder never tells us that she engages in those passions and passing pleasures herself. There is no solidarity with self-centeredness. She claims that she is lust, but the evidence of lust is an outward appearance. It is only an appearance of lust because the interior self-control exists within. Likewise, she explains:

I am the one who is honored, and who is praised, and who is despised scornfully.

Who is doing the honoring, praising, and despising? We—those who observe her—see in her a reflection of our own thoughts! She is honored by us when we recognize what is honorable. She is despised when we despise that which is good. In case we miss the point, she explains:

For what is inside of you is what is outside of you,
And the one who fashions you on the outside is the one who shaped the inside of you.
And what you see outside of you, you see inside of you;
It is visible and it is your garment.

I hear her warning, plainly: what you exhibit is what you are thinking. What you find in me (Thunder) is what you are thinking.

No wonder Thunder is “the perfect Mind.” She knows who she is, and she knows that those whose minds are hateful will hate her, and those with loving minds will love her. As she puts it:

I am the one who has been hated everywhere
and who has been loved everywhere.

She calls us to know her perfect mind.

Hear me, you hearers,
and learn of my words, you who know me.

If we know her, we will no longer hate her. We will see her, because we will see from within ourselves the love that knows her as she knows herself.

I am the knowledge of my inquiry, and
The finding of those who seek after me.

Thunder does not remain poor and wealthy, wise and ignorant, in solidarity with all of us from the far corners of human experience. Rather, she calls each of us, regardless of our weaknesses, into union with her “perfect mind.”