Dogma vs. Gnosticism continued

A Reader commented on the last blog post and I decided that these are some really excellent questions worth digging into. Deep stuff. Here we go!

Paul(Nite Reflections) said: "I agree about being innocent by birth. I can also see evidence of the "born in sin" concept. When you look at the selfish instinct of a toddler. I guess if a toddler is told "no don't touch that" he could get protective of his own things. So, I guess that could be a learned response. Sorry I guess I am debating with myself here."

Debate until the day you die, man. Because really, what else is there? If we were stagnant and boring people then what the hell is the point of continuing to breathe? Really. Seriously contemplate that. What's the point of taking that next breath if this is all there is? This world is nuts. If there wasn't a point to it all I'd be six feet under right now. By nature, I am easily bored.

Confronting learned responses one at a time is vital to gnostic growth. Breaking yourself free from them is hard work. Baby steps. 

Here's the gnostic answer to your query about sin and children/adults: we grow through time, just like any other creature. The 'selfish' actions of a toddler are just exactly what they are- the actions of a child with a child's mind and a child's body. Through time we grow and learn what is not selfish. Our parents and community raise us to have morals which will help guide us through society successfully. But, it's up to us to freely use their advice or to ignore it. We create the life we want, period.  You already know this. So now comes the obvious question: where did the original morality come from?

Use it or ignore it, the same is true with pleroma's morality and the freedom that he shouts is available to us. It is up to us to decide how to use that freedom. The freedom has always really been ours but dogma is like a choke chain around our neck. It cuts off the oxygen to our very thirsty brain. It's such a profound thing to tell someone or to have pleroma whisper in their ear, "Life itself is not evil. Live it. Experience it. You can do whatever you want." 

It's like the person's internal bubble bursts and they start clawing and scrambling for walls that aren't there anymore. A lot of people freak out for a few months while they adjust to the epiphany. When pleroma says you can do whatever you want that's exactly what he means. You can get up out of bed for the day or you can lay and daydream. He knows there are repercussions for you choosing the second option and gosh darn it, he's going to let you figure out what they are! That doesn't mean he's not going to chide like the child you're being as you're laying there, though.

To put it into simple context-- If we were truly 'born in sin' then any civilization before Christ's intervention would have been nothing but a slobbery mass of murdering heathens with no concept of morality or organized structure. But this isn't so. Archeology is proving without a doubt that the time before Christ was rich and filled with hope, the same as now. Just for an example of the kind of organization and cooperation necessary to create community and purpose, read about Gobekli Tepe, a place we still know next to nothing about. This civilization is around 12,000 years old!!! Stone Henge is only between 4,000-5,000 thousand years old. Christianity is only around 2,000 years old. Doesn't that make your head spin? 

We're talk about 10,000 years of time before Christ in which these people lived and died and what they left behind is so momentous we are gaping at it like children. And yet look at the skyscrapers and airplanes we've built? Aren't they amazing? And yet we're still gaping like wide eyed children at people's leavings of over 10,000 years ago. 

Even Plato and Plotinus, Euripides, Ptolemy, Porphyry, and the like... these scientists and philosophers are only around 2,000 years old. When you think of what could have come before them, it makes you realize just how much humanity has lost and gained again. We're in a gnostic Renaissance right now. Stretching our intellect inside the tight dogmatic skin we've created for ourselves the past 2,000 years is going to be painful for a while yet.
  

Paul(Nite Reflections) said: "There are some things that are honestly are a stretch for me, having been taught otherwise for 50 years. The biggest question that came to my mind was, where do Gnostics stand on creation vs evolution. If we didn't rise up out of a garden, what is the Gnostic theory?"

This is a fundamentalist mind trap. It's a divisive diversion and we're stuck on it for a variety of reasons. We have to consider here, first, that the theory of evolution has only been in the mainstream education system for a handful of decades. Before that every school had a parochial slant in the science and history department so this is a lot for our older generations to recover from.

The gnostic theory is part of the Donut and Coke Bottle brain teaser I've been talking about for a few months. I believe that the creation/evolution question is never really going to be answered because of dogma. Dogmatic thought and control processes as part of our civilization are just too strong. All we can do is see it's(creation's/evolution's) results. Gnosis will always be a minority thought pattern. We will never have big glorious churches because there is no profit in that(we wouldn't use them anyway!) and the powers-that-be on this world(archons) are all about influence and control. 

But the good things is that trying to get rid of religion in science(and vice versa) is ... well... impossible. The more our brightest scientists learn the more they keep turning to questioning religion and our origins. It's the greatest mystery for the human mind to ponder. Some scientists say it's the only question worth asking and they're finding bread crumbs to follow in everything from DNA folding(our understanding of which came from the art of origami paper folding!!!) to the gasses inside of stars and following their trajectory throughout their life. 

Looking out in the sciences isn't going to get us the real meaty answers, though. Those answers are going to come within and as individuals. This is the exoteric as opposed to the esoteric, however even this is becoming an old way of seeing things now because they're gradually merging! The exoteric sciences are leading to greater understanding of the esoteric sciences of our own soul and existence on this plane of reality.

The mass of humanity won't ever really get it.  But it will not be because information isn't made public; they won't 'get it' because it wont resonate with them on a personal level. They're not ready for it. Personal understanding is essential to going up that ladder toward him.

Read about white holes which are the opposite of black holes. Science is vital to understanding what we are as a physical manifestation but it's amazing to me just how much of this theory overlaps with metaphysical and religious theory. 

For example, some scientists are theorizing(with some proof to back it up so far) that we are nothing but holograms. No computer system today can DISprove it. These, and other scientists are also working on the theory that we are energetic beings which are so closely entwined that when confined alone we would go insane. We need one another for some real physical reason but the electricity is the only formed hypothesis so far. Electricity?!! What are we, batteries? Or is this relating to the aiua theory by Orson Scot Card(sci-fi writer extraordinaire) who has prompted study in this new field? But wait-the 'aiua' isn't new. It's old. Really old. The oldest gnostic thinkers knew about this but told us in allegorical stories. What is old is new again. Or is it being recycled through our massive human consciousness?

I'd never heard of white holes before last week and yet my answer concerning the Donut and Coke Bottle Challenge has already been written(Note: the answer is not a white hole, per say). Now there's a strange coincidence. Which isn't. Which makes it even more cosmically funny. Pleroma's a goofball.

Every gnostic piece of writing and every gnostic I have ever talked to about humanity's genesis have been in either of these two camps: 

1. One group answers with a koan like this, "How do you know we really originated on Earth?"  Truly enlightened people, I tell you.  They call us stardust babies.
2. The other group answers with scientific data and usually shrugs their shoulders and says, "The elder gnostics wrote what pleroma told them and didn't have any other way to explain it. Now we have the science but even so we're still children in that field. The Garden story is a metaphor for humanity growing up, which we are still doing as individuals as we combat dogma." 

Even Jesus himself as a man or spirit or somewhere in between, gnostics are all on the fence about him. Gnosis is individual but with some very common threads. 

We're questioners. That is what we do. That is our job. We are professional students of the human condition.
  

Paul(Nite Reflections) said: "With Sophia being the wisdom of Pleroma would you say that would be kind of the same thing as the Holy Spirit to Jehovah?"

Sophia. This spirit is something of an enigma to me still. Personally, I think I missed her along the way. I jumped right from "Tarot.. hmmm. could be interesting to learn about" which lasted a grand total of a year to "Holy crap, who's singing to me in the shower?!!" 

What I means is that someone can jump from hylic to psychic to pneumatic in weird off the wall ways. I never saw or felt Sophia along my way. I don't feel a separate manifestation from pleroma. I don't feel anything particularly female or separate from his intelligence or strong personality. 

All the reading I've done on Sophia does indicate she is like the Holy Spirit. Or even, in a pagan sense, the Goddess Mother. In my pagan phase I could never conjure up or talk to anyone like her, let along connect with any of those spirits. It would not surprise me in the least if this is exactly what she is; simply a pagan-turned-dogma character gnostics made up to create dialogue with fundamentalists using their concepts. Certainly wouldn't be the first time!

So then is the gnostic 'genesis' story still correct? Did Sophia create the demiurge? I don't know.  Personal experience tells me that I can sense pleroma, the demiurge, and all the archonic forces within our lives. But Sophia? I just don't know. There are some gnostic stories which have speculated that Sophia went on vacation somewhere after creating her awful child or that she merged back with pleroma to be at peace after her decision. So can we still sense her?

When I was a Christian in the dogmatic sense, I never once felt the Holy Ghost. I did feel(what I now recognize) pleroma trying to bust down my mental doors, but there was nothing Ghostly about it, not in anyway the Holy Ghost has ever been described as a spirit or essence of god.

Now, as a gnostic I think back to that time and realize that the reason was that it's all one. There is no two or three. It's just one. We try to personify him and compartmentalize him out into parts we can understand in human terms but it's just impossible.  He's massive. And this is the reason why he tries to be so gentle with us; he knows he overwhelms us! Look at all of the gnostic definitions for pleroma. Just reading down a small portion of that list makes my head throb. It's a physicists worst nightmare, trying to quantify that. And yet look at our universe itself. Is there a coincidence there?

In my article Gnostic Universe at a Glance I talk about the three main variations of how gnostics view our universe. I am more partial to the onion-verse. It makes more sense to me, especially regarding the demiurge(Jehovah/Yahweh).

Paul, with your background you'll probably find the mainstream Cathar depiction to be more understandable, at least for now. It looks quite a bit more like what you're used to. 

I'm going to be posting the answer to the Challenge soon and since I am referencing the Gnostic Universe at a Glance here I wanted to give another small hint-- invert the onion.

Gospel of Truth- Calling Those Who Have Knowledge

Blog Author's Note: In The Gnostic Bible section in the side-column you'll see the names of several books. This blog post is a continuation of a series on The Gospel of Truth. This collection of gnostic wisdom is a meaty, stick-to-your-bones, meditative kind of literature. It is not light religious cuisine. 

In several online sources for the text I have found a very common problem- headings, or rather a lack thereof. The interpretations are all the same, however they do not possess the subject headings of the printed version in the Gnostic Bible. I am keeping the subject headings provided in the printed version as it is easier to ... digest, if you will.  Without the headings it all runs together in a mish-mashed heap.

Because the Gospel of Truth is such heavy reading I prefer to keep the headings and separate the book out into easier-to-swallow type chapters. Each chapter or section is never very long but the use of sectional headings is important when searching for topic matter. Also, if one attempts to read the book as one long tract they will end up with a migraine to end all migraines. I do not advise doing it. But if you do, have some mercy on yourself and keep a heavily caffeinated drink nearby or at least some Tylenol. It is best to enjoy the book as a fine sipping wine-- in very small doses.

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The Father Calling Those Who Have Knowledge

Those whose name he knew first were called last, so that the one who has knowledge is he whose name the Father has pronounced. For he whose name has not been spoken is ignorant. Indeed, how shall one hear if his name has not been uttered? For he who remains ignorant until the end is a creature of forgetfulness and will perish with it. If this is not so, why have these wretches no name, why do they have no sound? Hence, if one has knowledge, he is from above. If he is called, he hears, he replies, and he turns toward him who called him and he ascends to him and he knows what he is called. Since he has knowledge, he does the will of him who called him. He desires to please him and he finds rest. He receives a certain name. He who thus is going to have knowledge knows whence he came and whither he is going. He knows it as a person who, having become intoxicated, has turned from his drunkenness and having come to himself, has restored what is his own. 

He has turned many from error. He went before them to their own places, from which they departed when they erred because of the depth of him who surrounds every place, whereas there is nothing which surrounds him. It was a great wonder that they were in the Father without knowing him and that they were able to leave on their own, since they were not able to contain him and know him in whom they were, for indeed his will had not come forth from him. For he revealed it as a knowledge with which all its emanations agree, namely, the knowledge of the living book which he revealed to the Aeons at last as his letters, displaying to them that these are not merely vowels nor consonants, so that one may read them and think of something void of meaning; on the contrary, they are letters which convey the truth. They are pronounced only when they are known. Each letter is a perfect truth like a perfect book, for they are letters written by the hand of the unity, since the Father wrote them for the Aeons, so that they by means of his letters might come to know the Father. 

The Father's Son Is Jesus Of Utmost Sweetness

While his wisdom mediates on the logos,

and since his teaching expresses it,

his knowledge has been revealed.

His honor is a crown upon it.

Since his joy agrees with it,

his glory exalted it.

It has revealed his image.

It has obtained his rest.

His love took bodily form around it.

His trust embraced it.

Thus the logos of the Father goes forth into the All, being the fruit of his heart and expression of his will. It supports the All. It chooses and also takes the form of the All, purifying it, and causing it to return to the Father and to the Mother, Jesus of the utmost sweetness. The Father opens his bosom, but his bosom is the Holy Spirit. He reveals his hidden self which is his son, so that through the compassion of the Father the Aeons may know him, end their wearying search for the Father and rest themselves in him, knowing that this is rest. After he had filled what was incomplete, he did away with form. The form of it is the world, that which it served.

For where there is envy and strife, there is an incompleteness; but where there is unity, there is completeness. Since this incompleteness came about because they did not know the Father, so when they know the Father, incompleteness, from that moment on, will cease to exist. As one's ignorance disappears when he gains knowledge, and as darkness disappears when light appears, so also incompleteness is eliminated by completeness. Certainly, from that moment on, form is no longer manifest, but will be dissolved in fusion with unity. For now their works lie scattered. In time unity will make the spaces complete. By means of unity each one will understand itself. By means of knowledge it will purify itself of diversity with a view towards unity, devouring matter within itself like fire and darkness by light, death by life.