Pillar of Glory
🌟 The Pillar of Glory (Mandaean: "Shislam Rabba" or "Amuda d-Tusbaḥta")
In the Mandaean belief system, the "Pillar of Glory" (in Aramaic: Amuda d-Tusbaḥta) plays a central role as a spiritual symbol that describes the soul's path to the realm of light.
Meaning:
The Pillar of Glory is a mythical-spiritual structure that enables the purified soul to ascend from the material world back to the divine realm of light.
It is like a heavenly connection between the physical world (considered impure) and the divine realm of light (Alma d-Nhura).
Only souls prepared through gnosis, purity, and ritual practices can walk this path.
In practice:
Mandaeans believe that after death, the soul undergoes a kind of spiritual journey through various planes (similar to Gnosis or ancient Platonism).
The "Pillar of Glory" is like a spiritual elevator or a heavenly ladder on which the soul can ascend – comparable to Jacob's ladder to heaven in the Bible, but much more ritualized.
On the way, the soul encounters guardians, beings of light, but also dark forces, and must prove itself with the correct knowledge (“Gnosis”).
📖 Reference in Mandaean literature:
In sacred texts such as the "Ginza Rabba" (the main book of the Mandaeans), the "Pillar of Glory" is frequently mentioned – always in the context of light, praise, and the soul's journey home.