Ambiguity of the Demiurge

Abstract

In his important chapter on the “Demiurge in North American Mythology”¹ Frithj of Schuon has suggested a profound correlation between the notion of Mâyâ and that of the Demiurge. According to Schuon the “key to this doctrine is basically that by definition Infinitude demands the dimension of the finite.”² Mâyâ can be considered as the extrinsic dimension of Infinitude. She is so inasmuch as she can be defined as the unfolding of the inexhaustible core of the infinite Reality. Mâyâ is like the projected mask of the faceless Infinite.³ This unfolding results of necessity in the production of finite beings that may be considered as fragmented shells of the Divine Whole. Fragmentation and externalization are by the same token the very roots of what we call evil. Evil has nothing absolute, or even fully real, about it; it is only the extreme consequence of the inversion and fragmentation of Reality as Mâyâ. Now the Demiurge can be precisely defined as the ambiguous principle of the unfolding of Mâyâ as it manifests itself in the onto-cosmogonic process. Frithjof Schuon has remarkably encapsulated the metaphysical foundation of the doctrine of the Demiurge while distinguishing the various levels of manifestation of the creative Word on the level of Being and Existence.