DeConick A.D

335
PLEASANTVILLE RELIGIONS
Ptahil undertakes to carry out his father’s suggestion, but he finds the
task impossible to accomplish on his own. He discovers that he has lost his
power by stepping out of the light world. Without the light to empower
him, he struggles to give life to the middle realm. Eventually, with the aid
of Abathur, he casts the planets into orbit, solidifies the earth, and shapes
its waterways.
Then Ptahil turns to Ruha and the ancient demonic gods who rule the
planets and stars for help in creating the first human being, Adam, in the
image of the light beings above. Although they are successful in molding
Adam’s body and installing an elemental vital spirit from Ruha, they cannot
give Adam life as a conscious, standing, speaking person. No amount
of fire, wind, water, or air will do the trick. Adam does not live in this
conscious capacity until Inner Adam, a light being, takes pity on the poor
creature and agrees to become contained within Adam as his soul.
This may be why the soul is also called mana (vessel or container).
The vessel, or soul, here the divine element in the human, gives Adam
consciousness and personhood. The elemental spirit within the soul is the
middle, psychological component of a person, which vacillates between
the divine soul and the flesh, influencing the person one way toward the
good, and then the other way toward wickedness. It is the soul that contains
or limits Ruha’s demonic spirit. So the Mandaeans write about the
soul of Adam and the soul of every Mandaean (Left Ginza III.1 75.17):
O soul, arise, go forth,
enter the body and be chained in the palace.
The rebellious lion will be chained by you,
the rebellious, unruly lion.
The dragon will be chained by you,
the evil one will be slain where it is.
By you (O soul) the King of Darkness will be bound,
against whose might no one can prevail.
In life, as in death, the Mandaeans believe that this elemental spirit from
Ruha must be integrated into the soul, where it can be contained by it
and subordinated to it, where it can be brought under control, so that
Hiia (Life) is victorious. Although clean living is practiced—almsgiving
and other charity, brotherly love, care for spouses and family, a kosher-like