John the Baptist (Yahya Yuhana) baptizing Yeshua the Nazorean Christ (Yeshua Ha Mashiah / Yishu Mshiha / Jesus Christ)
In Mandaean and early Nazorean Gnostic traditions, baptism is a central ritual symbolizing spiritual purification, enlightenment, and the soul’s connection to the divine world. Unlike the Christian concept of baptism as a one-time act for salvation, Mandaean baptism (masbuta) is a repeated, sacred act performed in flowing, living waters, representing the soul’s continual cleansing and ascent toward the Lightworld. It is a powerful rite of renewal and protection, believed to wash away darkness and negative influences while reconnecting the individual with divine truth and the higher spiritual realms. For early Nazoreans, baptism also carried esoteric significance as a transformative journey—an initiation into hidden wisdom and an alignment with cosmic forces. Both groups viewed John the Baptist as the master of this sacred practice, elevating baptism as a mystical path to liberation and unity with the divine.
The Mandaeans of southern Iraq are the only remaining Gnostic sect from ancient times. They began their history on Sri Lanka when the island was part of the land-mass of Lemuria and home of the primeval Goddess Culture. Eventually migrating west they became part of the Sumerian, Persian, Egyptian and Jewish Essene civilizations. Finally, retracing their steps, they returned to their present location. In the tradition of the ancient gnostic sects descended from the Goddess and the Left Hand Path, the Mandaeans are dedicated to the achievement of gnosis for all their people, which they know involves the balance and union of the polarity and the alchemical force that results from that union.
To engender the balance and union of the polarity in their culture, the Mandaeans provide equal rights for both men and women. They are governed by their priest/priestess class, which is composed of both men and women. The centerpiece of their religion is the rite of baptism which is observed daily, during which is invoked the presence of the ancient Dragon Enki, the embodiment of the alchemical Kundalini, under his contemporary name of Manda d’Hiya. Enki is the “Water of Life,” the subtle alchemical force that moves within the physical water of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. When activated it purifies Mandaeans on all levels and can awaken their “inner Enki,” the Kundalini power at the base of the spine.
The daily baptismal immersion of a Mandaean, known as the “Rishama,” a prayer is repeated while each part of the body is sequentially cleansed. At the end of the rite, the power and wisdom of ancient Enki as Manda d’Hiya is invoked with the words: “The name of the Life [the Divine Power] and the name of Manda d’Hiya [the Divine Wisdom] are pronounced upon me.”
The most powerful of baptisms are observed on Sunday under the guidance of a Mandaean priest and incorporate much more ritual than the Rishama. They include the sacraments of oil, bread, and water, and end with the sacred kiss upon the head from a priest, a rite known as “giving Kushta.” Possibly the most valuable part of the ceremony for a person’s spiritual progress is a special transmission of energy given them by the priest or preistess, who after the water immersion transmits the Water of Life or Kundalini power into a baptized Mandaean by placing their right hand upon his or her head and calling forth Manda d’Hiya.
At the conclusion of their life, all Mandaeans rise up to Mshunia Kushta, an etheric dimension where they merge with their etheric-body double that has been waiting for them during their earthly sojourn. When asked the location of this etheric world, the priests give the description of an etheric world that apparently overlays the planet Venus and mimics the Earth when it was the Garden of Eden. One Mandaean priest has stated: “There is a star inhabited by men, the descendants of the Hidden Adam [the etheric double of Adam], but they are semi-spiritual in nature, and not gross like ourselves. This star is called Merikh, the star of the morning.” The Mandaean baptismal purifications continue on this “star” until each Mandaean is ready to shed his or her etheric forms and live exclusively in their most refined bodies of light as pure luminaries of gnosis. They are then eligible to return home through the Pleiades stargate to the highest Pleroma worlds of light.
From Mark Amaru Pinkham – Author : THE GNOSTIC CIVILIZATION OF THE MANDAEANS (Excerpted from World Gnosis: Coming Gnostic Civilization)
PHOTO: A Mandean baptism in the Tigris River, May 2003. Credit : Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images
John the Baptist was an incarnation of the Peacock Angel. This truth is revealed by understanding the deities John was linked with during his life.
John was recognized to be an incarnation of Elijah, the prophet who was synonymous with the Sufis’ al-Khadr, the “Green Man.” The Green Man is one of the titles of Tawsi Melek, whose etheric feathers engulfed the Earth and then crystallized to become the vegetation of our planet.
John the Baptist was also recognized as the incarnation of Sanat Kumara, the Hindu Avatar whose brother, Sananda Kumara, returned with him as the reincarnated Jesus. Sanat Kumara is the Hindu version of the Peacock Angel.
And John was also identified as the Sumerian Avatar, Enki, who returns to Earth at the beginning of every great cycle of time, and like John spends half his life in water and half on land. The connection between Enki and the future John was revealed to the Jews during their time of captivity in Babylonia.
Sanat Kumara, Enki, John, and Roman Green Man, Janus, are all synonymous and share the same name, which is a version of Jnana, meaning “Gnosis.”
The Gnostic Serpents of Palestine were descended from the lineage of Serpents from Egypt, Sumeria, and the Far East, where they had been the Djedhi Adepts, the priests of Lord Enki, and disciples of Sanat Kumara.
Moses brought the Djedhi tradition with him from Egypt and first introduced it to the Hebrews in the desert with the image of the Serpent on the Cross, which he assured his people would heal them. Throughout his many years Moses taught his tribe, the Levites, the Egyptian wisdom of the serpent, including how to both properly invoke the Primal Serpent and how to awaken it internally as the Kundalini. The Primal Serpent was placed upon the altars and venerated by the Levites until the time of King Hezekiah “who broke the images of the serpent which had been in the high places [temples] since the time of Moses.” The name Levi reflects that of “Leviathan,” the epithet under which the Levite priests’ venerated the Primal Serpent.
Much of the esoteric Serpent Wisdom that Moses brought out of Egypt was compiled into the Kabbala, which was secret knowledge first taught in the Garden of Eden by the Angel Raziel, one of Sanat Kumara’s entourage (Sanat Kumara’s western name is St. Michael, the leader of the Archangels). According to the Kabbala, the Gnostic-alchemical tradition of the Serpent Masters began in the Garden of Eden with the Serpent on the Tree who was either a name for Cain or the father of Cain. The Name Cain denotes “a worker of [Serpent] fire,” and Cain is related to Can, the universal word for “Serpent. Another name for Cain is Seth and both are names for the Egyptian Thoth-Hermes. This truth was taught among the later Cainite and Sethian Gnostics of Alexandria who, like the Ophites and Naaseni, claimed to have descended directly from the Primal Serpent and been heir to the Gnostic wisdom that had passed from Adam to Cain-Seth and then down a long line of enlightened Gnostics.
The Gnostic Serpents of Palestine also received both Serpent Wisdom and Power from the lineage of Abraham from Sumeria. The name Abraham was originally “Abram,” meaning “Possessor of fire.” This was the Serpent Fire that Abraham received from King Melchizedek, who by another name was Sanat Kumara, the Dragon King of the World. Melchizedek’s sacred fire in turn passed from Abraham to the lineage of Jewish Prophets and to the Gnostic Masters of the Kabbala. Sanat Kumara’s yantra – his geometrical form body – was also passed to the Jews from King Melchizedek in the form of the Star of David.
The third line of Serpent Gnostics that influenced the Jewish Serpents of Wisdom were the Mandeans who had originated on Sri Lanka when it was part of Lemuria and known as the Garden of Eden of Serendib. They were disciples of Sanat Kumara, the Serpent on the Tree and founder of the Gnostic-Alchemical Path. The Nasurai, the enlightened “Serpents” (Nas = “Serpent”) of the Mandeans, transmitted the power and wisdom of Sanat Kumara to the Essenes when the Jewish sect united with the Mandeans to form the Nasoreans. Born within the Nasorean sect of Serpent Gnostics were John the Baptist, Jesus, Mary Magdaelene and John the Apostle, the wayshowers who spread the wisdom of the Gnostic-Serpents throughout the western world.
From: “The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom” 🐍 by Mark Amaru Pinkham
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