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: gnosticism

  • Thumbnail for Journey to Gnosis

    Gnostic Insights Podcasts, New Gnostic Gospel Simply Explained & Illustrated

    Journey to Gnosis

    I have continued to develop the Gnostic theology as presented in the Tripartite Tractate through my Gnostic Insights podcast. I have also had the pleasure of presenting this Gnostic theology as a guest on numerous podcasts hosted by others. The book, A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel, represents the current state of my personal gnosis within the context of a fully developed Gnostic theology. Although The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated presents everything one needs to know to remember the gnosis they were born with, A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel goes beyond The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated to explain, as simply as humanly possible, the why’s and wherefores of gnosis.

  • Thumbnail for What Is Gnosis?

    Gnostic Insights Podcasts, New Gnostic Gospel Simply Explained & Illustrated

    What Is Gnosis?

    If I love my dog, I ought to love my neighbor, my human neighbor. But I really love my dog with affection, right? My human neighbor, maybe not so much. Maybe they irritate me. Maybe they have a political sign posted on their lawn that I think is just horrible. But I’m called to love them. And how can I do that? The only way to love them is to take my ego off of the throne, off of the center of my considerations, off of the center of my unit of consciousness, and remember to re-enthrone Christ.

  • Thumbnail for There’s too much confusion

    Gnostic Insights Podcasts, New Gnostic Gospel Simply Explained & Illustrated

    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.

  • Thumbnail for Introduction to A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel

    Podcasts

    Introduction to A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel

    And then around 2016, I read a copy of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures. At first I found the ideas shocking. These were the very heresies my conservative Christianity had warned me away from. According to Christians, these beliefs were excluded from our modern versions of the Bible to protect the church from theological misinformation. I discovered that radical repackaging had removed from the New Testament a type of spiritual belief that was well- known to Jesus and his followers. This belief system, commonly called Gnosticism, describes Christianity differently than does our modern Church. Gnosticism makes sense of most of the more mysterious aspects of Christianity, including humanity’s role in the great scheme of things, and common questions such as “why is there evil in the world?”

  • Thumbnail for Yearning for the Pleroma

    Gnostic Insights Podcasts, Podcasts

    Yearning for the Pleroma

    This episode challenges the notion that there’s something wrong and “unChristian” about the Gnostic’s Pleroma of God.