Gnosticism 101

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Two thousand years ago, in Northern Egypt, a religious culture existed that embraced early Christianity, Qabalistic Judaism, Roman State Religion, Egyptian Mystery cults, Mithraism, and Greek philosophy. Because this religion emphasized personal revelatory experience and rejected Faith, it was a threat to the conformist orthodoxy which was taking shape in the Christian Church. Gnosticism's adherents were first ostracized, then persecuted, then slaughtered. But Gnosticism's ideas speak to a basic truth, and Gnosticism itself resurfaced countless times in the intervening centuries.

- In the beginning, there is only the Pleroma (the "empty fullness"), a state of infinite potential, unity, nothingness, and totality. For the Gnostic, this is God - without gender, personality, or human characteristics. The Pleroma is the Primal Source, and every universe, and the potential for every universe, is an emanation of the Pleroma.


- At some point, the Pleroma conceives of the "something" as opposed to "nothing". There is a sudden and significant division between these two poles, a fundamental one and zero. As yin and yang, positive and negative, male and female - all Diads are a reflection of these two "magnetic poles of God".


- These two poles, yearning for the unity of the pre-existing Pleroma, again come together. The result of that union is a daughter, Sophia ("Wisdom"). Sophia is as close as a Gnostic comes to ascribing a human personality to God.


- In one myth, Sophia, jealous of Her parents ability to create, creates in turn Her own children. These children, however, do not contain the spark of the Divine, as they do not come from the Pleroma.


- These children - known as the Archons, or rulers - are a huge problem. They are in turn jealous of their Mother's ability to create, and they create an entire universe over which to rule. The set themselves up as gods over their creation, but as they are imperfect their creation is flawed, cruel, and grotesque. This is the universe in which we live, and we are their creatures. It is a caricature of the Real World of union with the Pleroma.


- The early part of human history relates to our imprisonment and the injustice of the created world. A critical part of the Archon's agenda is to hide the truth of the Pleroma from their pawns. The chief of the Archons, the Demiurge, is particularly megalomaniacal and sadistic. He wants the world to worship him as the one true god.


- Sophia discovers the scheme of the Archons and their creation, and is horrified. She returns to the Pleroma and repents for Her error. She then carries a "spark" of Divinity, slips down through the complex hierarchies of the Archons, and conceals a splinter of God into everything and everyone.


- In some traditions, Sophia incarnates as Eve within the garden. Other stories have Her assume the role of Serpent. When the Demiurge appears before Adam and Eve and declares "There is no God but me", Sophia reveals Her True Self and states "You are wrong!" and shames Her monstrous offspring.


- Things start to get paranoid here. A small number of the Archons realize their error, and wish to return with Sophia to the Pleroma. She commands that they remain in their creation to act secretly as her agents, and encourage the spark in humanity.


- Christian Gnostics subscribe to the tradition which implies that Sophia is thereafter trapped in the created world and separated from the Pleroma. One aspect of the Pleroma, the Logos ("Word") is sent down through the Archons to rescue Her. The Logos is incarnated as Jesus, and his mission is to awaken the spark of God among humankind in order to generate a kind of "critical mass" of Divinity. The idea is that this would function as a kind of rocket fuel to return both the Logos and Sophia to the Pleroma. Some traditions state that this was successful, others not.


- Where this leaves us, as Gnostics, is to kindle the inner spark in order to escape the cruelty of the Demiurge and his agents, and light the way home to Divinity. This awakening is called gnosis ("knowledge" - spiritual enlightenment), a first-hand certainty of their relationship with the divine. This also involves a rejection of faith, and of third-party salvation. The Gnostic must personally negotiate with the Archons, and debate, argue, and define the nature of that relationship.


- I've never met a Gnostic who feels this is anything other than a metaphor, a powerful and transformative myth. But it does describe an almost universal sense of "this is not the deal", that the SYSTEM ("kosmos") of time, decay, disease, ignorance, jealousy, pettiness - does not reflect the "true" world, and that the god in charge of this creation must be cruel, insane, or both.


- Gnostics tend to come in one of three main varieties: Christian (about 70%), Hermetic (about 25%) and Sophianic (5%).


- The main sources for Gnostic thought, written between 200 BCE and 200 CE, were narrowly circulated, and hidden from mainstream or orthodox authorities. A large collection of these texts, the Nag Hammadi library, was unearthed in 1945. Among these is the Christian Gospel of Thomas, believed by many biblical scholars to be the oldest and most accurate account of the real teachings of Jesus.


- Hermetic Gnostics study the writings of the semi-mythical Hermes Trimegistus, an Egyptian priest (actually a nom-de-plume for up to a dozen philosophers over a few centuries). It is the discipline of magic, of alchemy and metaphysics, the "yoga of the west". The renaissance humanists, the Rosicrucians and early Freemasons were of these.


- Sophian Gnostics hold the idea of the Divine Feminine, inherent in the world and advocating for our enlightenment. She is the Queen of Heaven, Holy Wisdom, the Celestial Bride. Similarly, the Magdalene is also a central figure as an aspect of Sophia, as is the Egyptian goddess Aset, more commonly known as Isis.
posted by Jordan Stratford+ at 1:26 PM

Article Source : Egina Blog