Hayyi Rabbi (the Great Life)

Mandaean · deity · Mandaean Gnostic religion; continuing · deity

Hayyi Rabbi, the Great Life, is the supreme and wholly transcendent deity of the Mandaeans. Unlike the anthropomorphic gods of neighbouring traditions, the Great Life is conceived as an ineffable, boundless presence of light and life pervading the World of Light. The Great Life does not fashion the material world directly; rather, creation is willed and delegated through a descending series of emanated beings, the Lives and the uthras. Among the divine titles recorded in the Ginza Rabba and the Qolasta are King of Light (Malka d-Nhura), Lord of Greatness (Mara d-Rabuta) and the Great Mind (Mana Rabba), the over-soul from which individual human souls are held to be sparks.

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