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: Units of Consciousness

  • Thumbnail for The Son, Part 2: The Generation of the Aeons

    The Son, Part 2: The Generation of the Aeons

    Last week’s episode was supposed to be about the Son. But we’ve hardly heard anything about the Son himself. We hear about the Father being indescribable and we hear about the infinite number of spirits of the Church that form the body of the Son. But we really haven’t heard much in the way of descriptions of the Son itself. This is because the only way that the Son can be described is through the Aeons, which is to say, through the fractals that come out of the Son. As we trace the path of emanations flowing out of the inconceivable Father and through the barely conceivable Son, we become more and more concrete in our ability to understand the nature of God. It is when we enter the realm of the Aeons that we can begin to recognize the panoply of properties of the Father and Son.

  • Thumbnail for Left and Right

    Left and Right

    Extremism in either the Left or Right direction both encourage archonic interference in human affairs, as they represent the person’s strong attachment to power and control over self and others. Power and control over humans is much to be desired by the Demiurge and its archonic helpers. Anytime one favors an authority pulling the strings and forcing behavior upon the citizenry, you have Leftist values at play. This is Demiurgic. Inversely, anytime one favors personal responsibility and self-determination, you are embodying Aeonic virtues.

  • Thumbnail for Mud Up, Spirit Down

    Mud Up, Spirit Down

    This episode shares a couple of basic concepts from Cyd’s theory of everything called “A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything.” The idea that kicked it all off was a phrase that came to me: “Mud Up, Spirit Down.” What does that have to do with toruses? Or fruit salads? How on earth does any of this tie in to Gnostic studies and the Nag Hammadi? And why should we care?

  • Thumbnail for Gnosis and the Tao, Verses 1 and 31

    Gnosis and the Tao, Verses 1 and 31

    Abstract thought on the part of the Pleroma defined creation prior to the Big Bang. In our universe, we are only able to recognize objects and concepts we have named.

  • Thumbnail for As Below, So Above: Inferring the Transcendent

    As Below, So Above: Inferring the Transcendent

    If we start with the premise of a singular consciousness that pre-exists everything that came after it, then we can follow the genesis of our universe from that consciousness step-by-step. In today’s episode, we are going to map aspects of our human personalities onto the Gnostic Gospel to see what we can infer about ourselves down here below and about the forms of consciousness above.

  • Thumbnail for Escaping Fundamentalism, Part 2, with Adrian Charles Smith

    Escaping Fundamentalism, Part 2, with Adrian Charles Smith

    Continuing our discussion of fundamentalism in all its fractal forms with my gnostic friend, Adrian Smith. Learn how manufactured fear and demonization of the other drives us into the clutches of the powerful few where we look in vain for salvation. These saviors put on a face of piety and pretty promises, but their motivation is always power–the more power over your life, the better.

  • Thumbnail for Whence Arises Consciousness? Part 1: Consider Viruses and Organoids

    Whence Arises Consciousness? Part 1: Consider Viruses and Organoids

    Much to its chagrin, the demiurge cannot create life or imbue consciousness into dead matter. This episode examines viruses and organoids to uncover the fine…

  • Thumbnail for Slime Mold Pleroma

    Slime Mold Pleroma

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  • Thumbnail for Monads, Panpsychism, and the Fullness of God

    Monads, Panpsychism, and the Fullness of God

    Our universe is comprised of fractal units of consciousness of the Fullness of God, each with their own point-of-view. These monads come into our universe with all of the original consciousness of the Father and the Son, however the knowledge contained is on a need-to-know basis.

  • Thumbnail for Aeons, Not Ages

    Aeons, Not Ages

    In this ground-breaking episode, we take a close look at David Bentley Hart’s recent translation of the New Testament, and how his more accurate rendering of the original Greek brings the New Testament fully in line with the concepts of Gnosticism.

  • Thumbnail for Consciousness and Free Will

    Consciousness and Free Will

    Every unit of consciousness has the free will to fulfill or contradict its responsibilities. The more complex the unit of consciousness, the more opportunities it has to exercise free will.

  • Thumbnail for Episode 6  Second Order Powers and Units of Consciousness

    Episode 6 Second Order Powers and Units of Consciousness

    With great zeal, Those of the Remembrance pitted themselves against Those of the Imitation.