The Nature of the Gnostic God

The Father is the ground state of consciousness, and so this is why we begin to build out from the Father the flow of consciousness.
The word for that sort of study is “cosmogony,” which is defined as the study of the origins of the universe. This makes the most sense to me–to start at the very beginning and then to go through the entire process of how everything came to be and who the principal players are and then, after that is established, to see how that applies to our lives. Then we can ask, “Why are we here? Is there a purpose to our lives? How should we live?” After that, we can finally consider the termination of the universe and what happens after we “die.” All of these questions are answered very precisely in the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi. This knowledge is known as “gnosis.”

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Gnostic Insights Podcasts

Cyd Ropp explains basic Gnostic ideas, often narrated while walking the dog.

  • Thumbnail for Free Will. What is it? Do you have it?

    Free Will. What is it? Do you have it?

    Everything that is living, everything that is alive, everything that’s gestated and is born into this world is a Second Order power. And we come directly from the Fullness. We bring down the remembrance of the God Above All Gods. We bring down with us the remembrance of love and glory and our aeonic parents who are in heaven. So we have all of these memories that the Demiurge doesn’t even know about. And what else did we bring down with us? We brought down the free will of the Aeons and the ALL and the Son because we are of that direct lineage that flows downward into this material universe.

  • Thumbnail for Interview with Adrian Smith

    Interview with Adrian Smith

    There’s a cognitive dissonance going on like you’re constantly being told something is true but witnessing contradictions in behavior. And internal contradictions. George Orwell talks about this, you know—double think. You encounter two sets of facts and they don’t match up. In order to continue to believe a lie, you have to put one of these beliefs in a memory hole and you have to forget about it or bury it.

  • Thumbnail for Our Spiritual Inheritance

    Our Spiritual Inheritance

    The Father’s consciousness and spirit flows out from him in an unending stream. It is His reflected glory, initiating through their singing of the hymns, that disposes the Totalities to grasp their own Selfhood, their own “individuality, seeds, and thoughts,” and that they will “live forever,” along with the Son. We are of that inheritance. We have inherited the dispositions and qualities of the Fullness of the Aeons, the Totalities of the Father. And to awaken to Selfhood, the way to do it isn’t to focus egoistically upon ourselves—it’s actually to focus on the Father, and to give glory to the Father. And it’s in that reflected glory that we can see ourselves.

  • Thumbnail for The Nicene Creed

    The Nicene Creed

    The Nicene Creed is a meme bundle of what one must believe in order to call themselves a Christian. And it came to be that anyone who didn’t believe in those edicts of the Nicene Creed was labeled a heretic, and anyone such as myself that may profess other beliefs, other gnostic beliefs, for example, well, those are heretics because they don’t believe in the Nicene Creed. So let’s look at the Nicene Creed today and see what it is that we agree or disagree with, as far as this Gnostic Reformation goes.

  • Thumbnail for Knowledge, Not Information

    Knowledge, Not Information

    The presumption in the academic community is that we’re developing knowledge. But all the best we can do is to develop well founded beliefs according to Plato and for the reasons that I’ve just argued for. Plato believed that learning, properly conducted, was a way of recalling what is already known by a person. So those who attended Plato’s Academy were hoping to recall the forms in the ethereal world and therefore have knowledge. So in Plato’s Academy, they weren’t strictly scholastic. They were trying to recall, because that’s the only way we can know.

  • Thumbnail for Karma and Memes

    Karma and Memes

    Our karma is the karma that we generate that causes the memes that we cling to to hold on to us. We hold those memes and they are bound to us like a covering through our karma, and my karma is different than your karma. Everybody’s karma is unique to the individual. When you pass away, your karma is momentarily laid aside so that you can see the truth in the in between place after your material body dies.

  • Thumbnail for Misplaced Hopes

    Misplaced Hopes

    Are you better off than you were four years ago? Are you better off than you were ten years ago? Are the cities safer? Are the homeless housed? Are the drug addicts taken care of and given a clean and better life? Has cancer been cured? Do immunizations really help? So without stepping on any of my listeners’ toes, I would say no, probably not. And that’s what I’m going to try to explain to you today.

  • Thumbnail for Finding Gnosis, Finding God

    Finding Gnosis, Finding God

    The God Above All Gods wants to be known. This God wants us to know we are loved.

  • Thumbnail for Aeons, Archons, Angels, or Aliens?     A Gnostic Interpretation of Ancient Aliens Theory

    Aeons, Archons, Angels, or Aliens?     A Gnostic Interpretation of Ancient Aliens Theory

    This episode pays attention to the question continually raised by the ancient aliens theorists—were the “gods” of the pre-flood era merely misinterpreted alien visitors with alien tech? Are the “fallen angels” of the Book Enoch angels from God, or were they actually ancient astronauts who moved to earth and occasionally married human women? It is said that the worldwide flood was sent by God to wipe out the angel-human offspring known as Nephilim. What were the Nephilim and what God would have wiped out the entire earth and everyone on it to kill them off, and how is it that some humans were spared by warnings from “angels”?

  • Thumbnail for Revisiting Reincarnation

    Revisiting Reincarnation

    That the “you” that exists between material incarnations is nothing but your karmic record is proved by one of our basic assertions that all units of consciousness are fundamentally one and the same, and that all units of consciousness begin their individuated journey as perfect echoes of God. Then it follows that “I” develop as a result of my choices and the choices of others—“I” am my perfect unit of consciousness enshrouded in karma and the memes that my karma attracts.

  • Thumbnail for John Munter Interview Part 2

    John Munter Interview Part 2

    This week we’ll hear part two of my interview with gnostic John Munter. He’s a follower of the Gospel of Thomas, which is one of the more popular gnostic books. John offers a unique method of interpreting the Gospel of Thomas.

  • Thumbnail for The Ecstasy of Another–John Munter Interview Part 1

    The Ecstasy of Another–John Munter Interview Part 1

    This week’s episode presents part 1 of an interview with a fellow gnostic, John Munter. In this episode, John tells us about his unique method of interpreting the Gospel of Thomas. We will continue that train of thought next week.

  • Thumbnail for Demiurgic Justice

    Demiurgic Justice

    A podcast listener recently asked me to amend my categorization of the Demiurge as a malevolent force. He asked me to read the “Epistle to Flora” from The Gnostic Scriptures to see that the Demiurge is a force for good on the right hand side of the ledger. In other words, is the Demiurge evil or good? Turns out it’s a controversial subject in the Gnostic community. That is what we consider on today’s podcast.

  • Thumbnail for Birth of the Demiurge

    Birth of the Demiurge

    What is the Demiurge and how did it come about? What was the presumptuous thought that led the youngest Aeon to overreach and fall and how does that relate to Self and Ego? Why would the Father set things up so that this Aeon could make a unilateral decision that resulted in the Fall? Was it a mistake? Did God cause this Aeon to create evil? How is such a thing even possible? Was it God’s will that it should fall?

  • Thumbnail for There’s too much confusion

    There’s too much confusion

    This week’s episode is about confusion versus simplicity. Our God is not a god of confusion, but of peace. If you find yourself becoming more and more confused when studying gnostic scriptures and books about gnosticism, it’s possible you are heading down the wrong rabbit trails. We don’t need to learn how historical gnostics practiced their religion. We don’t need to memorize arcane diagrams and rituals. All we need to do is remember the gnosis that is already within us. Anything more than that may be leading to confusion rather than clarity. And if you find yourself becoming disillusioned and disheartened, then what you’re learning is likely demiurgic and not gnosis.