Cyclical History, Gnosis, and Memory: A Study in the Role and Significance of Mystical Poetry as a Medium of Popular Culture for Persian Sufism

The 'automatic' sense in immediately identifying and relating to what is 'right,' 'just,' 'true,' or 'real' is just an example of how cunningly our inner-selves know 'who we are,' 'what we are,' 'where we come from' and 'where we are going.' Just as quickly as this 'hyper' sense identifies with the good, not a moment is wasted in informing us of the 'wrong,' the 'bad,' the 'lie,' or the 'evil.' This has prompted humankind to ask the question 'What is in us that knows? How does it know? Most importantly, where does this knowledge come from?' In one simple answer, this knowledge is within; it is our 'real self' that knows because we were meant to know. In mystical or esoteric language, it does not get any more confusing than this, and paradoxically, no simpler. Answers to life's riddles and much more have been laid to claim by gnostic persons or groups for centuries on end. Their admission to this spiritual wealth is the result of a spiritual alchemy that transforms the common man of flesh to the 'Man of Light,' to adapt Henry Corbin's title.1 In Iranian gnoseology, this theme is profoundly important and prevalent among its religious heritage, especially within Sufism. Sufism, which is, among other inheritors of 'gnosis,' a contemporary face of today's spirituality, finds an ongoing relevance in the heart of the second millennium through not only the great lyrical poets of Persia but also through its obvious links with the various spiritual or gnostic contents or themes as manifested in popular film.