Reforming Gnosticism

When people say, “My goodness, your Gnosticism is so different than what I have come to understand Gnosticism to be,” that’s because I didn’t take it from secondary sources. I took it from the original sources.  Then of course, Valentinian Gnosticism is an early form of what has come to be called Christianity. Christianity diverged immensely from the original message around the 300’s and on up, when the gnostic books were taken out of Orthodoxy. Those folks that are called heresiologists are the people that went around slapping heresy labels on the early Christianity—the early Valentinian Gnosticism. They weeded it out of the official sacred texts that made their way into the New Testament.

The main book of the Nag Hammadi that I relate to is called the Tripartite Tractate. I believe it to be the purest form of gnosis. It has very little in the way of mythologies, of extraneous characters, of the names of things and the numbers of things and the astrology of it all.

Valentinian Gnosticism from the Tripartite Tractate is unique in that the fallen Aeon is not called Sophia, a female character. The Aeon who fell is called Logos, not to be confused with the Son of God, Christ, or Jesus.

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Tag: fractal consciousness

  • Thumbnail for Matter is an illusion

    Matter is an illusion

    We call the result of the Fall the deficiency, commonly referred to as the material cosmos. Here’s the Sethian take on the structure of our cosmos:
    Yaldabaoth organized everything after the pattern of the first aeons that had come into being, so that he might create everything in an incorruptible form. (The Secret Book of John, verse 12)
    The Tripartite Tractate adds this caution to the construction of the cosmos:
    Those who came into being from the presumptuous thought resemble in fact the Fullnesses of whom they are imitations, though they are phantoms, shadows, and illusions, deprived of reason and light, belonging to this empty thought, being nobody’s offspring. (TTT, verse 78)
    We Second Order Powers were subsequently fruited into this material realm by the will of the Fullness in order to restore the fallen Aeon to the Fullness and bring this material creation to an end.
    Gnostics say that this material world was constructed by the Demiurge as a fallen imitation of the Paradise that exists on the ethereal plane. We think of this cosmos as being material in contrast to the ethereal nature of the originating consciousness of the Father, Son, and Fullness of God. But, as my brother needs to remind me from time to time, there is no such thing as matter. Matter itself is an illusion. In other words, there is no dualism.

  • Thumbnail for When Truth Falls, Ego Rises

    When Truth Falls, Ego Rises

    All of our egos have a choice to cooperate with the Self or to deny the Self and stake a narcissistic claim to consciousness. Since this ego of Logos was unaware of its origin as the Logos of the Fullness and the Father, it believed it was its own originating consciousness. Hence, everything that it produced was similarly ignorant and disobedient to the Father and the Fullness. In this manner, the deficiency took on an imitation of life on its own, becoming the cause of the things that do not exist on their own account.

  • Thumbnail for The Big Picture–Gnostic Cosmology

    The Big Picture–Gnostic Cosmology

    I thought today what we’d look at is the entire run—the overall big picture. You can’t get a bigger picture than this of our existence and our universe. So this is the overall, overarching flow of consciousness from the Source to us and then after we pass how it all rolls up. This is the entire run, or cosmology, all rolled up into one package and presented for you today.

  • Thumbnail for What Are Archons

    What Are Archons

    “Now on the one hand, The word gave birth to himself as a perfect single one, to the glory of the Father who had desired him and was pleased with him. The things he had wished to grasp and reach, however, he produced as shadows, phantoms, and imitations. For he could not bear to look at the light, but looked at the depths, and he faltered. Because of this, he suffered a division and a turning away. From the faltering and the division came came oblivion and ignorance of oneself and of that which is.”
    “Those who came into being from the presumptuous thought resemble in fact the Fullnesses of whom they are imitations, though they are phantoms, shadows, and illusions, deprived of reason and light, belonging to this empty thought, being nobody’s offspring. For this reason also their end will be like their beginning, coming from that which was not, they will return to that which will not be. In their own eyes, however, they are great and powerful beings, more beautiful than the names that adorn them, though they are only their shadows, made beautiful by way of imitations. For the beauty one sees in an image derives from what the image represents.”

    “They thought of themselves that only they existed and that they had no beginning since they saw no one existing before them. For this reason, they exhibited disobedience and rebellion, being unwilling to submit to the one who had brought them into existence. For they desired to command one another and to lord it over them in their vain love of glory. And the glory that they acquired became the cause of the structure that was to be.” “Being imitations, then, of those above, they exalted themselves in lust for dominion, each one of them according to the magnitude of the name of which he was a shadow, fantasizing that he would become greater than his fellows. Thus the thought of these others was not idle, but in accordance with the model of those whose shadows they are, where every thought becomes a son, so do the things they think about also become their offspring. Because of this, it came to pass that many issued from them as offspring. Fighters, warriors, troublemakers, rebels, disobedient folks who love to dominate, and all the others of that sort who derive from these.”

  • Thumbnail for The Fullness of God–Consciousness Branches Outward

    The Fullness of God–Consciousness Branches Outward

    If the members of the ALL had risen to give glory according to the individual powers of each, they would have brought forth a glory that was only a semblance of the Father, who Himself is the ALL. [verse 68]
    For that reason they were drawn into mutual intermingling union and oneness through the singing of praise. From their assembled Fullness they were one and at the same time many, accurately reflecting the One who Himself is the entirety of the ALL. Out of perfect union with itself and with the Son, and by means of a single shared effort, the ALL gave glory to the Eternal One who had brought it forth. The glory given out of this perfect communion left the ALL perfect and full, as it was perfect and full to begin with, and the object of their glory was also perfect and full. [68, 69]

  • Thumbnail for All Is One–A Conversation with my Brother

    All Is One–A Conversation with my Brother

    The reason there is quantum entanglement is because there is no space and time. All potentialities exist within the mind of the Father and our consciousness notices one after another, giving the illusion of time and space. The Demiurge organizes the confusion of the Fall and that is the imitation. At the end of time, illusion drops away and all are redeemed into the ethereal awareness of pure consciousness.

  • Thumbnail for We Are the Second Order of Powers

    We Are the Second Order of Powers

    These new creatures that were devised are better than the Deficiency because they come from the union of the entire Fullness, whereas the Deficiency came out of a mistaken solo effort by Logos alone. Out of this union of the Fullness and Logos came what are called the Second Order Powers, and these powers are better and greater than those of the imitation because they did not come into being out of ego and out of lack of thought. This new fruit of the Fullness and Logos was fitted purposely into the boundary that surrounded the Fall, and so because they were fitted to live within this boundary, they were able to have a cooperative structure the way the Fullness had a cooperative structure.

  • Thumbnail for First Emanations of Consciousness

    First Emanations of Consciousness

    When their generations had been established, the one who is in control wished to lay hold of and to bring forth that which was not yet manifest, and he brought forth those within him.
    For that reason the Father had also thought in advance that they should exist not only for himself, but should exist for themselves as well, that they should remain in thought as mental substance, but also exist for themselves.

  • Thumbnail for Ego, Self, Body–Who Are You?

    Ego, Self, Body–Who Are You?

    We are not just one big clump of consciousness but are made up of different sub-selves. In other words, who are you? When you say “I” what is that I? Who is that me? What is the difference between your ego and your Self or what people call your soul and spirit? Who runs the show? What’s the difference between being selfish and selfless? How is ego related to selfishness? And finally, is having a strong ego a bad thing?

  • Thumbnail for We Are the Children of the Most High God

    We Are the Children of the Most High God

    Here is an odd thing about Christians and the New Testament. There are many things that managed to slip by the Nicene Council when they were purging the gnosis from scripture. There’s plenty of gnosis still in the New Testament, but Christians kind of skip over that part. The Bible says we are the “sons of Elohim,” usually translated as “children of God.” In the modern vernacular I use in A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel, we are the fractals of the Spirit of God. We are the fruit of the elohim above, who are themselves the divisions of the Adonai Elohim (Lord of the Fullness and Son of the Father God Above All Gods). So when Jesus said we are elohim, sons of God, he was saying we, too, are the fractal elohim of God. Jesus was not the only son of God. We are all the sons of God, or the children of the Adonai Elohim.

  • Thumbnail for Mapping the Gnostic Gospel 2015-2025

    Mapping the Gnostic Gospel 2015-2025

    In 2015 I first mapped the Gnostic Cosmogeny. I’m going to go through it with you today to see how this gnosis has held up over the past 10 years.
    The obvious improvement is the quality of my illustrations. I thought it would be a treat for you to see how they have evolved.  This was the original mapping of the new Gnostic Gospel. These concepts have been more colorfully illustrated, although the original mapping still holds up. You may find all of this in its most simple form in my book, The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated. For a more detailed explanation, pick up a copy of A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel at amazon.

  • Thumbnail for The Gnosis of Virtue

    The Gnosis of Virtue

    We humans are fractal iterations of the Aeons of the Fullness. We are their fruit. We have dim memories of a perfect Paradise, as dreamt by the Fullness. We have a built-in longing for Fullness. We barely remember the Son and the Father, other than an expectation of feeling loved or that we should be loved, and we are locked into an endless war with the dark side of our natures and with other people who stand in our way.

  • Thumbnail for Units of Consciousness, Free Will, and the Cosmic Simulation

    Units of Consciousness, Free Will, and the Cosmic Simulation

    Most units of consciousness perform their work as expected. They do their part. They work according to plan, and that’s a really good thing because that’s what holds everything together. The material controlled by the consciousness of the Demiurge is foundational. If the Demiurge did not control the material, the material universe would not hold together and it would completely and very rapidly fall apart. On the other hand, Second Order Powers, who are fractals of the Aeons above, have complete free will to either fulfill or contradict their responsibilities. Most units of consciousness do their job according to the job they were given to do and, overall, things work according to plan. There is enough redundancy in the system so that when the odd unit of consciousness decides to go rogue, things still hold together.

  • Thumbnail for Is Any Sin Unforgiveable? Blaspheming the Holy Spirit

    Is Any Sin Unforgiveable? Blaspheming the Holy Spirit

    The Third Order Powers of the Christ are the most powerful force in our cosmos, far more powerful than we are and infinitely more powerful than the Pleroma of the Demiurge. This is how it is that once we accept the Christ and invite our personal Third Order Powers to enter into our soul we immediately feel the love of the Father and are no longer powerless to resist the wily temptations of the archons of the Demiurge. The Third Order Powers see through the lies and phantoms of the imitation. They cannot be deluded by the deficiency. They are not affected by the never-ending war. And we share that enlightenment to the extent that we accept the indwelling of the Third Order Powers.

  • Thumbnail for Eternal Life, Guardian Angels, and Spirit Melding to Mud

    Eternal Life, Guardian Angels, and Spirit Melding to Mud

    Last week’s episode was a link to an interview I had just given on Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio. That interview on Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio was called “Gnostic Psychology and Preparing for Death,” and that was posted on January 29, 2025.
    As we so often do, my brother and I chatted after the interview was posted and after he had had a chance to watch it, and we discussed some of the finer points of the Gnosis shared there in that episode. I gave Bill an important piece of Gnosis during that conversation, and he gave me an important piece of Gnosis during that conversation, and I thought I would share those with you today. This is part of our ongoing process of mining our Gnosis.