GNOSTICISM

Extract from SUNDAY SERVICE
August 1, 2004

By Aeptha

Every once in a while I still think I can do things my way, and so in preparation for this service there were several topics that I explored, but none of them were coming together.  So I went into meditation and asked for clarification, and I was told to bring to you a different understanding of Gnosis, of Gnosticism.

In most of the writers on Gnosticism that I have been reading there appears to be the understanding that you were either Christian or you were pagan/heathen, and it wasn’t even whether that was good or bad, it was just the distinction that was made in most of the historical records and a lot of the teachings.  And that is pretty much how the Christians looked at it too. They felt that you were either with them or you were against them.  There wasn't a whole lot in between. 

I would like to start out by giving you some clarity concerning Gnosticism.  In the way that I will speak of it today, Gnosticism is very much an aspect of, and many would say the foundation of and the key to, Esoteric Christianity.  The word Gnosticism is associated with Esoteric Christianity. There is another aspect that is very much reflective of Gnostic principles, and that is what we would call Hermeticism, which ultimately changed into what we would call Sacred Alchemy.  These were people who acknowledged Jesus, but their core theme was influenced by the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth.  There was also the mystical sect that we know as the Essenes, which later developed into Mystical Qabbalism, which is different from Gnosticism. 

And why am I giving you these subtle differences?  Because I seek to stand in the light, the beauty, and the illuminating wisdom of Gnosis.  Gnosis is not about the intellect.  It is about knowing, and in part, knowing comes from philosophy.  As you know, part of what we strive to do here is to open new areas of mind and understanding, and new areas of consciousness, and in order to do that we must challenge our tendency to group everything under one heading because we don't want to experience the subtleties of it, particularly with something like this that is perhaps unfamiliar. Perhaps what a Gnostic would say to you, if I may be so presumptuous to say this, given that most of Gnosticism has been stamped out for many centuries and has just now, in the past 50 or 60 years been revived with discoveries such as the Nag Hammadi texts and with the Dead Sea Scrolls; given what I have explored I suspect that what a Gnostic would say to you is that it is in the subtleties that you challenge the tendency of your nature not to refine. 

For those of you who have read the statement of Light Haven’s mission, you will note that we proclaim that an aspect of our teaching and an aspect of what this Center is based upon, is Gnosis, Gnosticism, and it is no accident that in the last several months we have been called upon by Spirit to explore different teachings that have been revealed through the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts and through the Dead Sea Scrolls.  In the past we have looked at the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary, and this afternoon in class we will be moving into Hermeticism.

We have also spoken quite extensively about Wisdom/Sophia, which is a core aspect of Gnosis.  A few months ago we spoke about the importance of understanding the hidden teachings around Sophia or the Wisdom aspect of early Christianity, versus the Holy aspect, which was associated with the laws of purity.  A basic tenet in Gnosticism is that the Universal Savior is Wisdom.  It is the reconciler of cause and effect, or karma.  So we would do well to consider Gnosis or Gnosticism from a deeper, truer level of understanding rather than just saying, “It is about knowing”.  We should explore some of the subtleties of this energy and power of the Mother.  We have spoken of the Five Powers of the Mother[i], which is a teaching that came out of an aspect of Gnosticism that was very strongly influenced by the Egyptian Mysteries in their purest sense.

I recently read something by a well-known writer on Western Mysteries who had an interesting description of Gnosticism, and it showed me how we sometimes can be quite uninformed.  It was written as a definitive statement that Gnosticism is a complex system of cosmology with a confusing plethora of gods and demigods that have to be addressed, and who stand at each of the gateways. It was basically quite dismissive.  Let me say that we tend to look at something like Gnosticism and we don’t see past the words.  One of the more commonly known arms of Gnosticism is concerned with levels of the cosmos and levels of the underworld that are ruled by gods, and so what we think is, “They had so many gods.”  And when people look at the Egyptian Mysteries they cannot see past gods with human bodies and animal heads.

One of the core bases of Gnosticism was mythology.  Now we could say that mythology is just a fabricated story, so why would they base their system on that?  Gnosticism sprang out of mystical experience, and to try to define in absolute terms a mystical experience in any way but through the use of mythology would be to reduce it down to something that becomes dogmatic and absolute.  And so the gods’ names on the many levels were not absolute, any more than there was an Egyptian god called Anubis who had a human body and a jackal head.  There was the subtlety, the recognition and the Gnosis that to try to define your inner world and your inner mystical, magical experiences in terms of a defined system, was to do it a disservice. They open us to the mythological realms, to the subtleties, to the realms upon realms upon realms of our perceptions that would challenge our absoluteness.  And then we can take a deity that has expressed itself in a one-dimensional, perhaps at best a two-dimensional form, and see it in its multifaceted brilliance, and we know that even in that we do not see the totality. 

I have said many times that we should not box things in.  And now you understand why, for if we seek Gnosis, if we seek the Universal Savior of Wisdom, we must have the courage, the strength, and the integrity to go beyond our need for absolutes or definitives, which unfortunately is not what this particular writer of the Western mysteries did.  He was quick to slap an interpretation on what he saw as the diagrams of Gnosis.  In his mind he proclaimed that the gods were absolute beings that the Gnostics had decided existed on the inner realms, and therefore he was boxed in.  If we look beyond our present understanding of mythology, we may find what the Gnostic teachers sought to open us to, which is that there are realities upon realities, and truths within truths, that are beyond the perceptions of our senses. These speak to us, seek to touch us and open us to the deeper levels of awareness, and in doing this we are liberated from our normal perceptions.  We can appreciate those individuals such as Joseph Campbell who have sought to reopen the reality that mythology transcends all cultures, for it is part of the universal expression of the divine.  Perhaps it also gives a different perspective as to why Campbell and others have said that an abyss has been created that can be filled in no other way than by finding our myths, and creating ritual with those myths.

The other aspect that was a key factor in the expression of the manifestation of a Gnostic was sacrament which is an aspect of ritual.  And so we have Myth and Sacrament. Their sacraments included what we would be more familiar with, such as the Eucharist and Baptism, but the orthodoxy significantly accused them of being sorcerers, and in truth they were, for they experienced and expressed the profound magic of deity within themselves and within all life through their rites of ceremony.  Women as well is those who were infirm in body were able to deliver those sacraments, for the authority to do such was not based upon class or perception; it was based upon the individual’s union with inner Gnosis.  This was virtually unheard of in that time within the Christian community, although, in truth, Gnostics also considered themselves Christians.

It is said that Gnostic teachers had a two-fold purpose, and Jesus was one of the great Gnostic teachers.  Firstly, their teaching challenged the general way that knowledge and information was assimilated, thereby opening new areas of mind and consciousness.  So there was a strong philosophical aspect to their teaching that pushed people beyond the parameters of the particular way they perceived that belief system. The other aspect was that by grace and by the power of the union within themselves, the teachers’ light was of such an emanation that they would inspire the release of Gnosis within their students.

This reminds me of what we have been taught about Sophia.  Those of you who were with us when we studied the Sea and the Sun Mysteries will remember that they said that there was a time in which there was complete Union, before form as we know it now. And then there was a rending, a tearing, that resulted in obstruction of consciousness. In essence an aspect of the Creator became unknown to itself. Then there were those who were called in, one of them being Sophia, to remind, to awaken, to resolve, to reconcile the experience of separation.  And it was absolutely understood that matter is not evil.  For in the orthodox Christian belief system it is taught that the Earth, matter, has fallen, and that salvation means to leave matter behind in the search for God.  The Gnostics teach that matter, which includes aspects of our consciousness, is divine, but matter does not have the wisdom to know itself as divine, to liberate itself from the illusion, and so those messengers of light came to awaken, to vitalize, to bring about, to reflect, to mirror the Gnosis, and to enliven the wisdom that already exists.

The other aspect of Gnosis, of this wisdom, is that it is not only the great Universal Savior, the reconciler of cause and effect, but through its attraction, through its potency, through the intent from which it sprang, it can bring into alignment that which is unresolved, unclear, and held in darkness.  In Qabbalah we would describe it as the power and potencies of the Middle Pillar.  One of the aspects of Gnosticism that enraged not only the orthodox Christian community but also the pagan community of the time was that it proposed that the two groups could be reconciled.  This is one of the many reasons it did not survive beyond the 10^th century when only remnants of Gnosticism still remained.  The core of Gnosticism and that from which it sprang was reconciliation of that which stood in opposition.  We certainly cannot deny that we are in a world that expresses itself in the appearance of that which seems to be irreconcilable, in our religious systems, in our political systems, in our social systems, and for many even within their internal world.

We often talk about the divine spark, the God within, and we take for granted that in general this concept is believed.  Actually, this is not a Christian belief. The orthodox Christian system would say that God created all things, including the Soul.  Gnostics would say that the divine spark was not created by Deity, but that the Soul is an aspect of Deity.  That is two very different things, for creation can never be the Creator; it can be a mirror, a reflection of the Creator, it can even possibly sit at the right hand of the Creator, but it can never be God.  This belief was not well received in early Christianity. 

In the 15^th and 16^th centuries there was a revival of Hermeticism and this revival came as a result of the discovery of some alchemical Hermetic texts. I believe that the 15^th and 16^th centuries were also the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, at least from the standpoint of the Western hemisphere, following a rather extensive period of darkness, the Dark Ages. And in occult circles the reappearance of these Hermetic texts generated a reactivation of interest in alchemy and Hermeticism, and it was said that they carried with them a rebirth of a certain level of light into what had become a very darkened state of consciousness. I do not think that it was an accident that in 1945 there was the discovery of the Gnostic texts.  Even after the attempt was made to prevent these texts from reaching the general public, they found their way out, and in places like this we have started to study these Gnostic texts which have taken us into metaphysical levels to those doorways that have been opened through that particular vehicle.

I believe that Sophia is sending forth her message.  I know that the Universal Savior is reemerging, and I know that we must have the desire and the aspiration to enliven and awaken the Gnosis within ourselves so that the great Reconciler of Opposites may then express itself through us, and so that we can be carriers and messengers of this light.  And that is why I am speaking to you of Gnosis today.  There was a teaching aspect, perhaps a sharing with you of some understandings of the great Gnostic tradition that you did not know.  But I am also here calling to you to awaken to the mysticism and magic of the great and potent universal wisdom that expressed itself, that embodied itself, through Gnostic teachings.

Wisdom is an expression of Tiphereth, an expression of the heart, but another aspect of wisdom is Will.  I love this saying which I read in my exploration of Gnosticism:  “It is the will to see the Divine in all things.  It is the will to know the purpose of the Divine in all things.  It is the will to express the Divine in all things.  It is the will to be the Divine, to awaken from unconsciousness.”

Pathworking

So please deepen your breathing as we go deep into the heart of the hidden mysteries and we open in our heart to the One heart, and we call to the Messengers of Light, to the Revealers of Light, to the Holders of the keys of Wisdom.  And I would ask you to take a moment and to move your attention into the hara, the center that is about two inches behind your belly button.  Take a moment to feel the sacred creative power, the beauty, and the wonder of the hara.   Breathe into this sacred fire of creation, of manifestation, of expression of the Divine. And we do so with the intent that this creative fire would burn and blaze forth stronger, uniting now with the fire of our hearts, the fire of our aspiration. We take the fire of creation, the fire of procreation, the fire of manifestation, and unite it with the sacred heart, so that the fires of the heart, of aspiration and mysticism would burn with the holy fire of the gift of life, holy life, holy form, sacred form, and join with the Sacred Heart.  In the Sacred Heart this fire deepens, with its hues of oranges, blues, yellows and whites, hues of red.  The hues of green are beginning to emerge as we deepen in the mystery.

Open to the subtleties, the nuances, open to the expanse.  And now be aware of the centers, your heart, throat, third eye, your crown, and beyond.  I invite you to be aware of a flow of energy that is beginning to take place.  It is in the form of a vertical figure eight.  It flows around your head, it meets in your heart which is the center point of this figure eight, and then it flows in its circular fashion through the hara, through the pelvic floor, back up through the heart and back around your head centers and crosses back through your heart.  It is a figure eight.  It is alpha and omega.  It is infinity.  Be aware of this flow.  And there is another figure eight that is beginning to take form.  I am seeing it on the inner levels, and it is coming out of the heart and one circle of it is in the front of the heart area and the other is at the back.  So there are two figure eights that are occurring simultaneously, both of them meeting in the heart, one that flows vertically in your body and one that flows horizontally in front of you and behind you.  Be aware of the flow.  It is increasing.  It is growing stronger.  And in the center where these two energies of infinity meet, there is a space called the Holy of Holies, the Sanctum of Sanctums.  You are called to move into that center space now in your heart where the two symbols of infinity meet.  Awaken the Gnosis, liberate, be the liberator.  Offer yourself as a willing participant in the reconciliation of opposites, as a willing expression of the Divine.  Be aware that the energies of the infinities are continuing.  It is in this place of Gnosis that we offer our prayers unto the world; we offer our love and our commitment to serve. And I invite you to deepen in the beauty, the healing and the love that is here.  We take joy in this moment of sharing. We strengthen, we renew, we revitalize, we remember, and we know.  And we do give thanks.