Dearly beloved reader friends:
I am pleased to write to you to send you this engraving that bears the name…
…BENIGNITA
─‘Benignity’─
This engraving appears in the book Iconologias overo Descrittion dell imagine universali, ‘Icon or Description of Universal Images’, written by the Italian author Cesare Ripa ─1555-1622─ and published for the first time in 1593 without images. After 1600, the first editions appeared with more than 150 images/emblems in the form of an encyclopedia, a very influential book at the time.
This drawing represents Benignity.
We quote parts of the description that appears in the book:
“A woman dressed in blue with gold stars. With both hands she squeezes her breasts, from which abundant milk gushes out that feeds the various animals. Close to her there is an altar with a lit fire.
Benevolence does not differ much from affability, clemency, and humanity; and it is compassion rightly felt, interpreting the Law without rigor, almost what the Greeks called a pleasant interpretation of the law.
She is dressed in starry blue, like the sky which, the more illuminated and adorned with stars it is, the more benevolent it is said to be toward us. In the same way, a man who with a serene face gives thanks to others courteously, without worldly interest or recognition, and who practices merciful justice, is said to be benevolent.
As has been said, when kindness is practiced toward the faithful, it must take precedence over the rigor of justice toward the faithful. Kindness is the companion of justice itself.
The altar with the fire indicates that kindness is to be employed for the sake of religion, which is practiced primarily by sacrifice, or at least not without it, so that justice may not run the risk of being hindered or delayed, in order to imitate God himself, who is equally just and kind.”
What is all of this telling us, dear friends?
Undoubtedly, the woman who gives her milk to all creatures is none other than the ancient Egyptians’ interpretation of NUT ─Mother Space─. We all already know, through Gnosis, that the divine Eternal Feminine possesses five most sacred aspects in Her manifestation, namely:
Cosmic Mother ─the sustainer of life in the different cosmos─.
Mother Nature ─the one who gives life to all the kingdoms in each world─.
Mother Kundalini ─the savior of souls, both those of men and of women─.
Mother Death ─the one who determines the end of the psychological aggregates, defects that we carry inside us─.
Elemental Mage ─the one who provides us with the various instincts, including the sexual instinct─.
Obviously, the one shown to us in this engraving is the eternal Mother NUT, Mother Space, the one that the Hindus call MULAPRAKRITI or the womb of the Universe. She is LOVE in the fullest sense of the word…
She sustains life itself with her life, for this reason we see her feeding the dogs or jackals of the GREAT LAW with her milk. It is undoubted that the LOVE of the Cosmic Mother is what we call CONSCIOUS LOVE. The Law itself needs LOVE in order to manifest, because justice rests on two plates called MERCY and JUSTICE. Justice without mercy is TYRANNY, mercy without justice is ANARCHY…….
There is no doubt that the closer we are to the Cosmic Mother, the more we will feel the radiance of her faculties ─the stars─ of her own nature.
Likewise, without a doubt, COSMIC JUSTICE itself needs the aforementioned pillars for its manifestation, otherwise it would cease to exist and the Universe itself would be a CHAOS.
The altar that we see behind the ineffable Cosmic Mother symbolizes that She is the very expression of the Fire of the Eternal.
This fire quoted above is described in one of our ceremonials, let us see it:
“That is why you know me by the name of Nut, and by the occult name that I will give to you when at last you know me. For I am the infinite Space, limitless, prolonged and eternal, where the innumerable stars dwell.
Neither attach nor bind anything, the difference is not in this, since between you and existing things there is no differentiation, and everything will be the same for you. No harm comes from this. Whoever consecrates and constantly fulfills everything that I say will be the master or counselor of all. Finally, I am Nut and my word is 56. […]
“O Nut, unmistakable, endless light of the Heavens, may it always be like on this day, that men do not speak of you within the form, divine butterfly, but feel you as seamless and winged, and diluted in everything that exists. And do not allow that you be spoken of as a tangible thing, because you are the perpetual and continuous light that never extinguishes.”
Salve, Nut!, Eternal Cosmic Seity.
Salve, Nut, Light of the Heavens.
Salve, Nut!, primordial and unique Soul.
I.A.O. – I.A.O. – I.A.O.”
I now send you a few quotations for your reflections:
“For, although the attributes of God are all equal, the attributes of mercy shine and stand out more in our sight than that of justice.”
Cervantes
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
Gospel of Saint Matthew
“Mercy is an integral part of justice.”
Bossuet
“Reading without thinking gives us a disordered mind, and thinking without reading makes us unbalanced.”
Confucius
“There are afflictions in which we find no comfort in anyone, and in which a strong heart can appeal to its own strength.”
Schiller
NON PLUS ULTRA.
─‘Nothing further beyond’─.
KWEN KHAN KHU
