Coming Back for More, Part XI: Håkon Fiane Teigen on Manichæan Reincarnation

The zodiacal spheres, Virgin of Light, and judge, from a Chinese Manichæan cosmological painting

In this episode we go back in time slightly to the third century, when Mani, the founder of the Religion of Light known as Manichæism, lived and had his visions. Håkon Fiane Teigen is our guide down the three eschatological paths of the Manichees, one of which leads to hyperkosmic ascent and escape from the enmattered existence into realms of pure light, one of which leads to hell-realms where even the divine light is rendered dark and corrupt, and the third of which leads to, well, reincarnation. But this is not reincarnation as we know it; it’s more a kind of recycling. It’s stranger (to me at least) and more interesting than I can really summarise here. Have a listen, seriously.

Interview Bio:

Håkon Fiane Teigen is a reasearcher in Manichæism at the University of Oslo.

Works Cited in this Episode:

Primary sources to follow anon

Secondary:

Jason BeDuhn. The Co-formation of the Manichaean and Zoroastrian Religions in Third-Century Iran. Entangled Religions, 11(2), 2020.

Iain Gardner. The Kephalaia of the Teacher: The Edited Coptic Manichaean Texts in Translation with Commentary. Number 37 in Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies. Brill, Leiden/New York, NY/Köln, 1995.

Iain Gardner. The Founder of Manichaeism: Rethinking the Life of Mani. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2020.

Themes

Archons, Astral Eschatology, Astral Influences, Astrology, Doubles, Dualism, Gnosticism, Interview, Lunar Nodes, Manichæism, Metempsychosis, Upanishads, Zoroastrianism