Ruha (the Spirit of the lower world)

Ruha, simply 'the Spirit', is the great female power of the lower world in Mandaean cosmology, a deeply ambivalent figure. Though her name means 'spirit' and she bears the title Ruha d-Qudsha, 'the Holy Spirit', she is not benevolent: she is the mother of the seven planets (the šuba) and the twelve signs of the zodiac (the trisar), the astral powers that govern and bind the material cosmos. She personifies the lower, passionate and material element that entangles human souls and impedes their return to the Light, and is portrayed as a seductress (Ruha Masṭanita). In the cosmological narratives she rules the realm of darkness together with her offspring, and is confronted by the descending saviour Hibil Ziwa.

Domains

• spirit of the lower world
• planets and zodiac

Powers

• to bring forth the seven planets and twelve signs of the zodiac
• to entangle souls in the material world and hinder their ascent

Epithets

• Ruha ḏ-Qudša
• Ruha Masṭanita

Relations

• enemy: Hibil Ziwa (Abel of Splendour)
• ally: Ptahil (the Fourth Life, the demiurge)

Sources

• E.S. Drower, The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1937)
• Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002)
• Mark Lidzbarski (trans.), Ginza: Der Schatz oder das grosse Buch der Mandäer (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1925)