RevelationZ:
How Saint Thomas's
Mobius “God” Strips?
(c) Sticks&Stones Press, Cville Va, 2014
By Yale P. St. Landsberg, M.S.;
apostotle of chrestoschismism*
*For all of you with a sense of humor – as well as a sense of cognitive/spiritual adventure: “chestos”, Greek word meaning “useful in a practical
way” and “schismism” & “apostotle” because as all new and old ideas eventually lead to heresies and then schisms, why not encourage differences
of opinion about Mobius Gnosticism from the git-go, and as passed along by philosophical “apostles”; not mindless sheep & sheep-clothed wolves!
“Very beautifully done! Note specially the topological relation of the Mobistre to the double
crown of ancient Egypt--there is sure to be a connection, making the bishop's mitre an artifact of
the monophysite Christianity of the Copts (one God, one substance, one side, one edge). Likewise
obelisk. If the universe were shaped in some analogy to the bishop's Mitre, it would have no
beginning and no end, but simply expand and contract round and round in circles.” Roy
Dr. Roy Wagner, Professor of Anthropology, University of Virginia – in addition to Coyote
Anthropology, author of The Invention Of Culture, Symbols That Stand For Themselves, and An
Anthropology Of The Subject. An Anthropology of the Subject rounds out the theoretical-philosophical
cosmos of one of the twentieth century's most intellectually adventurous anthropologists. Roy Wagner,
having turned "culture" and "symbols" inside out (in The Invention of Culture and Symbols That Stand
for Themselves, respectively), now does the same for the "subject" and subjectivity. In studying the
human subject and the way human culture mirrors itself, Wagner has redefined holography as "the
exact equivalence, or comprehensive identity, of part and whole in any human contingency."
Could a secret art older than Hermes Trismegistos. and yet paradoxically, also as modern as generality
relativity, be here for your entertainment, and maybe even more than that? In this case, several childish
steps leading to a very adult “Mobius Gnosticism” – one as similar, yet different as two sides of a coin?
For the price of a few minutes of your very valuable time, hopefully here is where you get to find out...
Many of you are aware of well-known aspects of Mobius strips such as the above. But who of you
have come upon some other aspects like these below, which are unexpectedly revealed when mods
to more traditional Mobius manipulations are performed. For example, consider these twists...
1) As usual, half-twist a strip of paper, but after matching up its two ends so that they touch, do
not yet bind them. Instead of doing that carefully flatten out your soon to be Mobius strip until it
forms a Mobius obelisk. Easily done, but note this step needs some patience to get it exactly right.
2) Only after you have constructed the above “Mobelisk”, for just a moment tape its two ends
together. Then play around with your Mobelisk until you have manipulated it into this almost
flattened triangle-like version...
3) After you have seen that Mobius strip of paper in both its phallic 1-like and its more standard
orifice 0-like shapes, cut/return it to its Mobelisk 1 state. Then unfold your paper strip back to its
original two sides/two edges length. At that point, carefully examine the square which is now to
be seen in the middle of the strip: like a diadem, two crossing creases found in a central square.
4) For now -- without rebinding its ends, several times repeat the above enfolding and unfolding
process until you've created (and maybe marked off) lambda-shaped flex markings as seen here...
(Later those creases will be seen as more than just creases. But for now, just notice how each time
you fold and unfold the first-two sided-then-one-sided-and-then-back-again material which you
are working with, that “Mobius flexing” is softening up strategic portions of your paper strip.)
By now, you have seen aspects of a Mobius Strip almost no one has ever seen. But as you will now
see, that is only the beginning of an adventure into the heart and soul of Gnostic mathart.
Because now:
5) Take the extended strip in your hands, one portion resting on one hand and held down by its
thumb, and the other portion covered by your other hand while its thumb is firmly holding it up.
6) Then, using both hands, begin giving the strip a first quarter turn. And then a last quarter-
turn, while noticing how the longer part of the lambda creases first, and the shorter part of the
lambda creases last, each taking its turn facilitating your re-creation of the upright Mobelisk:
both figuratively and physically expressing unsuspected mathematical “Oneness” + “wHoleness”.
All of that done, have we by now reached a possible Gnostic “MathArtThou” 7th Heaven of sorts?
Decide for yourself by evaluating this: As your thumbs are making way for your Mobelisk's two
ends to come together as your two hands are arriving in the position of someone praying, perhaps
also take a moment or so to now con-template how the above rarely noticed aspects of a Mobius
strip might perhaps have something to do with these two thousand year old seemingly enigmatic
words from the Gospel of Thomas (maybe)...
22. Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those
who enter the (Father's) kingdom."
They said to him, "Then shall we enter the (Father's) kingdom as babies?"
Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the
outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and
female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you
make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place
of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."
A Gnostic 7th Heaven? Surely not likely. And yet perhaps a question worth a little contemplation
by those seekers of mysteries who love to revel in curiosities? Because after we begin with a two-
sided flat strip of paper, and then turn it into a Mobius obelisk, we continue on by transmuting it.
First, by transmuting it into a Mobius ribbon that (with much thanks to Dr. Toby Johnson for
“Christening” it) we chestoschimism MobiGnosisists are now calling the “Ribbon of Mobiyoni”,
after which we ultimately fold one of its paradoxically both same and yet also different Mobius
strip ends up and the other down into a Mobius Bishop's Mitre which we call a “Mobistre”...
which when beheld from a horizontal perspective causes to emerge, like Venus arising from the
sea, a hidden-in-plain sight vesica pisces: the Mobistre's unexpectedly fitting yonic companion to
its phallic Mobelisk origins -- the male becoming female, outside as inside, etc...
More About Mobius Gnosticism's “Mobistre” -- And Another Mobius Secret
If we vary the width versus length dimensions of the paper strip which we begin with, the
proportions and appearances of the Mobelisks and Mobistres we end up with turn out to have
surprising additional aspects. For example, consider this ancient symbol of Love for which there
is no agreed origin...
And then there is my TrueTyme Android app: heart & soul of primordial sun time/moon time
“natural time”. It brings Eternity down to the level of human experience. Users are able to, via
Plat, at no cost trial TT's wholly unique combo of corporate time/natural time/“Mobius Strip of
natural clock” times. It is truly a “true time, all of time, all of the time” time-keeper -- one which
uniquely displays the flows and the ebbs of outside natural times to the deepest inner parts of our
minds and bodies. By trying it, you see how men and women can chrono-cognitively meet up with
and then, over time, increasingly reconnect with both their physical and psychological insides...
Important: TrueTyme's central natural time displays show the passage of daytime followed by
nighttime followed by daytime... Whereas, its central conventional clock shows the passage of
corporate time. But time as it is presented in TrueTymes' crescent does much more: It not only
shows the turning of day into night and night into day, it does so in a “time as a Mobius Strip
way” that can have huge spiritual as well as increased well-being and health effects on us. I.e.,
“SunTyme” mode displays in the striking crescent portion of TrueTyme's unique dial an extra
granular dawn, then before noon, then after noon, then dusk, then before mid-night, then after midnight, then dawn... eternally twisting pattern of eternal Mobius Time. (MobiTyme on the right.)
How much does seeing the connection of 24-four hour natural time with Mobius Strip time's six
stages add to you thinking and living, Gnostically? Gnostically-speaking, find out for your self.