Violence and Death from a Gnostic's Perspective

The following video is from Steve, from truebluehealer.com, talking about what you will NOT find in gnosis. This is a must watch video for those concerned with the "pagan" stamp placed on gnosticism by literalist churches(i.e. Vatican), when in fact the opposite is true: gnosis is the ultimate and most intimate relationship with the divine. No priests or Hail Mary's required. Gnosis is for everyone!!!

After you are finished watching the vid continue reading down below. If you don't watch the vid then what I write next may not make much sense.

If you look at gnosticism's history you will see this is very true. The All/Pleroma does not protect us with a Holy Umbrella. Look at the Cathars and all the other gnostic communities through the ages for proof. We are still expected to learn how to do things on our own in the physical world and to use our common sense and good judgment. We do not get a free Get Out of Experiencing Physical Death card by default of being gnostic.

Steve touched on the broad topic when he mentioned violence and death. I wanted to go in deeper with this and talk about death from the All's perspective.

The past months have shown me a new perspective on the topic of death and it's not necessarily a warm and fluffy one. Not impersonal. Hardly that!! Just... a different way to look at Pleroma's 'agenda' so to speak.

Last episode of Saving Grace. Anyone see it? I did. And the last few minutes of the episode clearly shows what I have difficulty putting into words. I'll describe the scenes instead and go from there.

Grace is given two options: go look for and stop a Very Bad Demon/Entity which is personified evil and chaos or to look the other way and play it safe. She chooses the first route. Earl, Grace's angel, is here and there and everywhere, setting things in motion to go according to God's plan dependent upon what Grace decides to do.

Meanwhile, Grace's best friend goes to a woman named Neely who also shares Earl as an angel(long back story there). Grace's friend asks Neely to call Earl and give him a message-- "Tell me if Grace is going to be ok." A physical sign given a few hours later points toward Earl giving an affirmative response. Yes, Grace is going to be ok.

Grace died. She flicked a lit lighter onto a few tons of fertilizer and went boom, thereby taking out the bad entity with her.

Did Grace have a choice? Was Heaven pushing her? Was Grace cornered like a whipped dog?

Yes, Grace always had a choice. Heaven nudged her but always gave her the option to say no and go in another direction. Free will. And no, Grace was frightened at times of the magnitude of what lay before her but she was never cowed and too terrified to put one foot in front of the other to search for what God ultimately wanted to show her and teach her about herself. Granted, she did have her tantrums. We all do when faced with monumental decisions and the unknown. But she made her choice and she stood her ground.

And she died. So was Grace "ok"?

Grace's best friend felt betrayed by Earl and by default, God. Earl said Grace was going to be ok.

Steve: "you cannot be excessively guided or you no longer have free will."

Exactly.

And "gnostics do get run over by buses."

Darn!

And we're also not going to "get winning lottery numbers." Steve, you ruined my plans!! I was going to retire at thirty-five in the Bahamas. *sob*

So where does that leave us? Why would the All not save us with a Golden Parachute or Holy Umbrella of protection? We're special, right?! We're GNOSTIC!

...... back up there. Delete that "s" word. It has no place in gnosis. Absolutely none. We are all unique individuals with individual paths... and here's the kicker- our paths intersect with millions of other intersecting paths of other individuals. We're all special in the All's eyes. We are all worthy of the same amount of care and attention and he is fully capable of giving it.

So what is the deal with this "everything is going to be ok" type line that gnostics know and feel to be true? And where does fire and brimstone come into this? The answer is that it doesn't. Hell is a human creation whereas heaven is being reunited with the body and fabric of the All. Our existence is simply an evolution of our soul. Learning, thinking, and discovering how much love we can feel for someone even as they are making a mistake. Being able to love is key.

Why would the All tell us(and even convey to us through "angels") that everything is going to be ok? More simply put- divinity runs on a very different clock than humanity. In the long run the All is more worried about the nature and growth of your soul than more immediate concerns that you may have. A non-functioning car does not always merit heavenly intervention!! It's not that he doesn't care. Because he does. But ultimately, everything will be "ok" if you died at that very moment, with or without your car working again so try not to take it personally. The All is concerned with your soul.

He wants to show you, teach you, listen to you, and be your most intimate companion. But that does not mean he will protect you from disease or accident. Even murder. Because remember- our lives intersect millions of other people's lives and this includes their bad decisions. Not just the good. We can't always have the good.

This realization that everything truly WILL be ok makes it much harder to be terrified of physical death.