You Put Your Arms Around Me And I'm Home

This song by Christina Perri, "Arms," is yet another artistic reminder of how pleroma touches artists so frequently. Listen to the lyrics. It could be a love song to any one in particular but to me it sounds like it's to pleroma directly, thanking him for not letting us go. Beautiful.

Showing What Needs To Be Shown

Vanessa Carlton wrote a humdinger of a gnostic song in "Twilight"(NOT the movie!). This melody has always touched a nerve with me. Read, listen, and see what you think. Complete catharsis. Rebirth and eye-opening bittersweet agony. We have to recognize a few hardcore facts about ourselves and learn to forgive ourselves if we want to move on and grow within the All.

"And it was so easy not to behold what I could hold..." Yes, it is definitely easier to continue to live with the wool over your eyes, so nicely stitched and arranged by the demiurge. And that is the point isn't it? We have to do the difficult thing and rip the wool off like it's a bandaid that we know is going to sting like a bitch. But we have to do it if we want answers. 

"I didn't know that I could be so blind to all that is so real
But as illusion dies I see there is so much to be revealed
But you taught me I could change 
Whatever came within these shallow days."

Gnosis, once glimpsed and accepted, then becomes our soul's sustenance. What a beautiful feast it is!

[Verse 1]
I was stained, with a role, in a day not my own
But as you walked into my life you showed what needed to be shown
And I always knew, what was right I just didn't know that I might
Peel away and choose to see with such a different sight

[Chorus]
And I will never see the sky the same way and
I will learn to say good-bye to yesterday and
I will never cease to fly if held down and
I will always reach too high cause I've seen, cause I've seen, twilight

[Verse 2]
Never cared never wanted
Never sought to see what flaunted
So on purpose so in my face 
Couldn't see beyond my own place
And it was so easy not to behold what I could hold
But you taught me I could change 
Whatever came within these shallow days

[Chorus]
And I will never see the sky the same way and
I will learn to say good-bye to yesterday and
I will never cease to fly if held down and
I will always reach too high cause I've seen, cause I've seen

[Bridge]
As the sun shines through it pushes away and pushes ahead
It fills the warmth of blue and leaves a chill instead and
I didn't know that I could be so blind to all that is so real
But as illusion dies I see there is so much to be revealed

[Chorus]
And I will never see the sky the same way and
I will learn to say good-bye to yesterday and
I will never cease to fly if held down and
I will always reach too high cause I've seen, cause I've seen, twilight

[Verse 3]
I was stained, by a role, in a day not my own
But as you walked into my life you showed what needed to be shown
And I always knew, what was right
I just didn't know that I might
Peel away and choose to see with such a different sight

[Chorus]
And I will never see the sky the same way and
I will learn to say good-bye to yesterday and
I will never cease to fly if held down and
I will always reach too high cause I've seen, cause I've seen, twilight...

Somebody to Love

Queen, singing 'Somebody to Love.' I gotta tell you that between Freddie's killer vocals, his rockin' Superman shirt, and his antic at the end, this guy put on an awesome show. I'd have loved to have been able to see a concert of his. It'd have been a riot, I'm sure.

So where's the gnosis in this song?  Freddie got it about right, I'd say. It's in pink text. Rest in peace, man.  When you break down that far Somebody does indeed lift you up.

"Somebody To Love"

Can anybody find me somebody to love?
Each morning I get up I die a little
Can barely stand on my feet
Take a look in the mirror and cry
Lord what you're doing to me
I have spent all my years in believing you
But I just can't get no relief,
Lord!
Somebody, somebody
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

I work hard every day of my life
I work till I ache my bones
At the end I take home my hard earned pay all on my own -
I get down on my knees
And I start to pray
Till the tears run down from my eyes
Lord - somebody - somebody
Can anybody find me - somebody to love?

(He works hard)

Everyday - I try and I try and I try -
But everybody wants to put me down
They say I'm goin' crazy
They say I got a lot of water in my brain
Got no common sense
I got nobody left to believe
Yeah - yeah yeah yeah

Oh Lord
Somebody - somebody
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

Got no feel, I got no rhythm
I just keep losing my beat
I'm ok, I'm alright
Ain't gonna face no defeat
I just gotta get out of this prison cell
Someday I'm gonna be free, Lord!

Find me somebody to love
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity

For artists, creators, imaginative humans everywhere- here's the help you need:

13:35 had me rolling laughing. I empathize. Being woken up in the wee hours of the morning with a truly craptastic joke or some other such nonsense from that divine creative spark is enough to make you giggle, punch your pillow, and then cry when you look at the clock.

14:10 "Strange, external thing that was not quite Tom."  I sense a theme here, don't you? Pleroma.

Steve at truebluehealer.com has a wonderful invitation at the end of the vid. Stick around for it.

Crash and Burn

Savage Garden says, "If you need to crash, then crash and burn you're not alone" and "You will breathe again." I think that the All wishes we all knew this. We forget it all too often. We do think we're alone in this high stakes game called Life.

I especially enjoy the inset text floating throughout the video; it gives an extra dimension to the lyrics. The kids and I watched this video together today and since they took Sign Language as an elective this year they thought it was pretty cool that the last part was done by signing.

Big Love does exist all around us and inside us.

Thank You

2:25-3:18 is especially enlightening to see/hear in the video. There's quite a bit of religious tone here. Enjoy.

"Thank U"

Alanis Morissette, 1998
how bout getting off these antibiotics
how bout stopping eating when I'm full up
how bout them transparent dangling carrots
how bout that ever elusive kudo

thank you india
thank you terror
thank you disillusionment
thank you frailty
thank you consequence
thank you thank you silence

how bout me not blaming you for everything
how bout me enjoying the moment for once
how bout how good it feels to finally forgive you
how bout grieving it all one at a time

thank you india
thank you terror
thank you disillusionment
thank you frailty
thank you consequence
thank you thank you silence

the moment I let go of it was the moment
I got more than I could handle
the moment I jumped off of it
was the moment I touched down

how bout no longer being masochistic
how bout remembering your divinity
how bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out
how bout not equating death with stopping

thank you india
thank you providence
thank you disillusionment
thank you nothingness
thank you clarity
thank you thank you silence

Sombody That I Used To Know

Try not to get hung up on the awesomeness of their collective work on that one guitar. The lyrics are quite enlightening. Can be understood with a conversion slant toward gnosticism from literalism. Do you have Someone you used to know? Which one was it?

I Love You Always Forever

Here's an adorable blast from the past- 1996 to be specific. I heard this song playing in a store today and it's stayed with me all evening. Listen to it and see if you can feel Someone trying to give you a nudge to smile more today. Because He really does love you. Always and forever.

I Love You Always Forever
By: Donna Lewis

This vid I've embedded below has the clearest sounding lyrics but doesn't have the original television visual clips. Linked here is the original vid from back in '96 if you'd like to see it but the vocals are too soft really to be clear. Heck, I was unsure of a few lines and had to look them up so I could post them for you below! She speaks quite softly in several verses.


Feels like
I'm standing
in a timeless dream of light mists
Of pale amber rose
Feels like
I'm lost in a deep cloud of heavenly scent
touching
Discovering you.

Those days
of warm rains
come rushing back to me
Miles of windless
summer night air
Secret moments
shared in the heat of the afternoon
Out of the stillness
Soft spoken words

Say it, say it again

[Chorus:]
I love you always forever
Near and far closer together
Everywhere I will be with you
Everything I will do for you
[Repeat]

You've got
the most unbelievable blue eyes I've ever seen
You've got
me almost melting away
As we lay there
under a blue sky with pure white stars
Exotic sweetness
a magical time

Say it, say it again

[Chorus x2]

Say you'll love love me forever
Never stop, never whatever
Near and far and always
And everywhere and everything
[Repeat x4]

[Chorus x2]

Gnosis in the News

Ahh Valentinus! How gnostics are rejoicing now!

Some beautiful verses were found. Enjoy, Readers!

World's Earliest Christian Engraving Shows Surprising Pagan Elements

Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor
Date: 30 September 2011 Time: 10:09 AM ET

Researchers have identified what is believed to be the world's earliest surviving Christian inscription, shedding light on an ancient sect that followed the teachings of a second-century philosopher named Valentinus.

Officially called NCE 156, the inscription is written in Greek and is dated to the latter half of the second century, a time when the Roman Empire was at the height of its power.

An inscription is an artifact containing writing that is carved on stone. The only other written Christian remains that survive from that time period are fragments of papyri that quote part of the gospels and are written in ink. Stone inscriptions are more durable than papyri and are easier to display. NCE 156 also doesn't quote the gospels directly; instead, its inscription alludes to Christian beliefs.

"If it is in fact a second-century inscription, as I think it probably is, it is about the earliest Christian material object that we possess," study researcher Gregory Snyder, of Davidson College in North Carolina, told LiveScience.

Snyder, who detailed the finding in the most recent issue of the Journal of Early Christian Studies, believes it to be a funeral epigram, incorporating both Christian and pagan elements. His work caps 50 years of research done by multiple scholars, much of it in Italian. The inscription is in the collection of the Capitoline Museums in Rome.

"Assuming that Professor Snyder is right, it's clearly the earliest identifiable Christian inscription," said Paul McKechnie, a professor of ancient history at Macquarie University in Australia, who has also studied the inscription.

As translated by Snyder, the inscription reads:

To my bath, the brothers of the bridal chamber carry the torches,
[here] in our halls, they hunger for the [true] banquets,
even while praising the Father and glorifying the Son.
There [with the Father and the Son] is the only spring and source of truth.

Details on the provenance of the inscription are sketchy. It was first published in 1953 by Luigi Moretti in the "Bullettino della commissione archeologica comunale di Roma," an Italian archaeological journal published annually.

The only reference to where it was found is a note scribbled on a squeeze (a paper impression) of the inscription, Snyder said. According to that note, it was found in the suburbs of Rome near Tor Fiscale, a medieval tower. In ancient times, the location of the tower would have been near mile four of a roadway called the Via Latina.

How was it dated?

Margherita Guarducci, a well-known Italian epigrapher who passed away in 1999, proposed a second-century date for the inscription more than four decades ago. She argued that the way it was written, with a classical style of Greek letters, was only used in Rome during the first and second centuries.

After that, the letters change; for instance, the letter omega, Ω, changes into something closer to the letter w. The letter Sigma, Σ, changes into a symbol that resembles the letter c.

Snyder essentially added more evidence to Guarducci's theory. He analyzed a 1968 catalog of more than 1,700 inscriptions from Rome called "Inscriptiones graecae urbis Romae." He found 53 cases of Greek inscriptions with classical letterforms.

"Not one case is to be found in which, in the judgment of the [catalog]editors, an inscription with the classical letter forms found in NCE 156 can be securely placed in the mid-third or fourth century," Snyder wrote in his paper.

In addition, Snyder analyzed an inventory of inscriptions from nearby Naples, published in a series of two volumes in the 1990s called "Iscrizioni greche d'Italia." He found only two examples that might date into the third century. "In sum, Guarducci's case for a second-century date for NCE 156 is stronger than ever," he wrote.

McKechnie said that, after reviewing Snyder's work, he agrees with the date. "The first time I read his article I was far from sure, but the second time I read it I was convinced by his argument about the letter shape."

Who was Valentinus?

The author of the inscription likely followed the teachings of a man named Valentinus, an early Christian teacher who would eventually be declared a heretic, Snyder said. The presence of the inscription suggests that a community of his followers may have lived on the Via Latina during the second century.

"We know that Valentinus was a famous Gnostic teacher in the second century (who) lived in Rome for something like 20 years, and was a very sophisticated ... poetic, talented, thinker, speaker, writer."

His teachings are believed to be preserved, to some degree, in the Gospel of Philip, a third-century anthology that was discovered in 1945 in the town of Nag Hammadi in Egypt. That gospel is a collection of gnostic beliefs, some of which were probably composed in the second century, that are written in a cryptic manner. However, like the inscription, it also refers prominently to a "bridal chamber."

One example, near the end of the gospel, reads in part:

The mysteries of truth are revealed, though in type and image. The bridal chamber, however, remains hidden. It is the Holy in the Holy. The veil at first concealed how God controlled the creation, but when the veil is rent and the things inside are revealed, this house will be left desolate, or rather will be destroyed. And the whole (inferior) godhead will flee from here, but not into the holies of the holies, for it will not be able to mix with the unmixed light and the flawless fullness, but will be under the wings of the cross and under its arms...

(Translation by Wesley Isenberg)

"It's not quite clear what it [the bridal chamber] is, it's explained to some degree, but explained in cryptic terms in the Gospel of Philip, it's a ritual involving freedom and purification and union with the deity," McKechnie said.

Perhaps rather than an actual ritual, the bridal chamber is a metaphor.

"It may be a metaphor for something that happens in death — maybe it's a kind of ritual that happens when people are still alive. That you achieve a new kind of existence or spiritual status based on this kind of wedding with your spiritual ideal counterpart," Snyder said.

"Some groups may have celebrated it as a concrete ritual, others perhaps sawit in metaphorical terms. I like the idea that it is connected with the death of the believer, who has cast off the mortal coil and enjoys a new life in the spirit," he added in a follow-up email.

But there were some important differences between Valentinians and other early Christians. "Valentinians in particular, and gnostics more generally, most of them wouldn't, for example, get martyred," McKechnie said. "They wouldn't think it was wrong or unlawful to do the things that Christian martyrs refused to do, like take an oath in the name of Caesar or offer incense to a statue or that kind of thing."

The reason for their lack of bias has to do with the Valentinians' beliefs about all things physical. "They believed that not only matter and the physical world was evil, but also that matter and the physical world was unimportant," McKechnie said. "Therefore, it was unimportant what you or what your body did in the physical world."

"It's mostly about the world of the mind."

Valentinians were also likely influenced by earlier Greek philosophers such as Plato, Snyder has found, though he doesn't think they would have interpreted the story of the resurrection of Jesus in a literal way.

"It's certainly not the case that they would have considered that to be a physical resurrection," he said. "Christians of this particular variety (who incorporated Plato's philosophy) generally speaking saw the material body as something not so desirable, not so good."

Christian and pagan

When analyzing the inscription, Snyder also noticed some similarities with funeral epigrams composed for non-Christians. In those inscriptions, the wedding imagery is used in a tragic way.

One example, written about 2,100 years ago, reads in part:

I am Theophila, short-lived daughter of Hecateus. The ghosts of the unmarried dead were courting me, a young maiden, for marriage, Hades outstripped the others and seized me, for he desired me, looking upon me as a Persephone more desirable than Persephone. And when he carved the letters on her tombstone, he wept for the girl Theophila from Sinope, her father Hecateus, who composed the wedding torches not for marriage but for Hades...

(Translation by Gregory Snyder)

"Typically, that wedding imagery is tragic," said Snyder. "Here's the promising young person entering into the prime of life, suddenly snatched away, and betrothed, married to Hades."

What the second-century Christian inscription does is turn this convention on its head. "They're playing with that... it's not decline, it's looking forward to a new life."

Snyder said that the mix of Christian and pagan traditions in the inscription is striking. He told LiveScience that he's studied early Christian paintings on the Via Latina that mix biblical themes, such as the story of Samson or the raising of Lazarus, along with figures from classical mythology, like that of Hercules.

"Those kinds of things I find particularly interesting, because they seem to suggest a period of time in which a Christian identity is flexible," Snyder said. "Is it just a simple either/or between pagan and Christian?" he asked. "Or is there really something rather like a spectrum? Or are you really sort of both in certain respects?"

Amy Winehouse = Nina Simone Reborn?

Veering off the road a bit from the topic of gnosis I'd like to pay tribute to two wonderful singers.


Beyond listening to the song "Rehab" and watching the crazed news blurbs about her drunken and drug induced states of mental instability, I honestly have not followed much of Amy Winehouse's career. However when I learned of her death today I took a few hours to look back over her life and work. I came to the stunned realization that Nina Simone had been reborn! ....and then we lost her again. It happens like that, though. Musicians flit in and out of this world in the blink of an eye and most of the time are only appreciated after the gravestone has been set in the ground for a good decade or so.

Now Amy's career was nowhere near as prolific as Nina's, however her look, deep vocal tone, flare for the bold and dramatic.... it's all there. Even right down to the abuse of her patrons, unfortunately. If only she could have stayed away from the drugs and booze Amy might have had a fighting chance.

Wiki: Writer Josh Tyrangiel praised Winehouse for her confidence, opining, “What she is is mouthy, funny, sultry, and quite possibly crazy."

Yep. Sounds a lot like my beloved Nina!

Financial success does not make a person happy. But I don't think that financial success would have made either woman happy because their desires so drastically clashed with the reality of what they were being offered and had access to.

I look at Nina's life and it is one royal disaster after the other. Her biography reads like the worst sort of fate that the three bitch Fates could have possible concocted out of sheer spite. Combine undiagnosed(for at least 20 years)schizophrenia with a pair of golden lungs and a con-artist for a record label manager and.... you've got a recipe for disaster! Fortunately for her fans Nina did not succumb to despair, she just strapped on her boots and kicked in doors that much harder.

What makes my heart hurt the most when reading about Nina's history in the music industry is how little she is appreciated for her contribution. Ask most any jazz fan who their top five favorite singers are and they'll give you the same old generic list. Ask them who Nina Simone is and you're lucky if one of them says, "Oh, that crazy lady who died hiding out in France?" erm.. yes. That one. And the same lady who is known as the High Priestess of Soul.

And the worst part is that she HATED being linked to the jazz genre!! She wanted to be known for her talents on the piano, not her voice. I fell in love with her from the very first time I heard a strangely neuter voice singing "Wild is the Wind," a sad ballad in the movie Point of No Return. To hear "Sinnerman" in the Thomas Crown Affair always makes me want to stomp my feet and clap in time. Nina is everywhere now! But she is still not covered anywhere near as much as she deserves. In any jazz or soul compilation album you're pretty much out of luck to see anything at all of Nina. She was burned by the music labels and she burned more than a few bridges with them with her bad behavior. I think that her absence from compilation albums is in direct relation to these labels still being irritated with her past fall(s) from grace.

"Four Women" will make you cry and "Pirate Jenny" will have you grinning and cheering for Jenny as she 'scrubbing these floors while you're gawking. Maybe if you tip me and it makes you feel swell in this crummy old town in this crummy old hotel.. but you couldn't ever guess to who you're talking. No, you couldn't ever guess...' Jenny gets her revenge in the end. I think Nina did, too.

Nevermind that "Pirate Jenny" was written in 1931 for a GERMAN opera! - Nina managed to bring this extravagant tune to life once again and gave it relevance in the 1960-1970 era of intense civil strife. It is to this day one of my top five favorite songs.

If Nina's "Mississippi Goddamn" was boycotted back in 1964 and Amy's "Rehab" (and various other adult themed songs)was met with uneasy acceptance then I think our society has at least matured enough to embrace singers and song writers to show us what we makes us squirm to see in the mirror. We may not like it but we are forced to at least acknowledge it; to confront our sense of unease and analyze it further.

If you read this blog post and do nothing else today, please listen to Nina's live recording of "Mississippi Goddamn." This 'show tune... but a show hasn't been written for it... yet' is still so very relevant today. Nina tells us to Wake Up! Act! ... and it isn't such bad advice.

Rest in peace, Nina and Amy.

The Paradise of Monasteries

Manichaean Literature
The Gnostic Bible, pages 640-641


The Paradise of Monasteries

How good for us to have known your teaching!
Please have mercy on us, generous ruler.
The messenger of the father heals souls,
draws joy in all of us, and carries away sorrow.
Lofty and limitless, where darkness never comes,
all the monasteries and the dwelling places are great
in beauty, for they are happy in the light
and know no pain. Those who enter remain
forever. No blow or torture ever reaches them.
The clothing they wear no one made by hand.
They shine with light, and no ants crawl in them.
The green wreathes on their heads never lose color.
Their bodies are unfamiliar with dead weight
and don't droop. Their limbs are not paralyzed.
Heavy sleep never overtakes their souls,
and deceptive dreams and delusions are unknown
among them. In that land hunger and anguish
are not known. There is no thirst. The waters
of all its lakes give out a wondrous fragrance
everywhere. No one knows floods and drowning.
Their walk is quicker by far than lightning.

In their bodies there is no sickness. The actions
of all the dark powers leave them completely alone.
Fear and horror do not live in those lands,
nor does destruction. The trees don't shake down
their fruit. Decay is foreign to their fruit.

Within and outdoors it is replete with brilliance,
the gardens aromatic and no stray bricks
or thorns. Those who ascend to those precincts
and have knowledge will extol his manifestation.
No one suffers a dark shadow. Its earth and face
are radiant. Precious forms are free from hurt.
Their limbs don't become feeble with age.
They are happy. They speak well. They revere
the high generous one. There is glad sweet song
in splendid monasteries. No fear, no dogs howling,
no bird squawking, no confusing evil
and dreadful screeching. Nothing coarse in that land.
Darkness and fog have not marked pure paradise.
The self lives in light. The virtues of joy, love,
and beauty are shared. No living being dies.

Your Journey

Dolores O'Riordan does it again! Such a political beastie, she is. And not scared to open up and scream it like it is.

From the newest album of The Cranberries, here is the song Your Journey. Embedding was disabled, otherwise I'd show you right here on the blog. It's stunning. Scenes from the rocky coasts of Ireland.

When I was weak we both went walking on the sand
We were walking hand in hand in appeared
Once set our footprints when you carried me along
It was then that abandoned my fears....

The Concept

Been dealing with a migraine since late last night. So for around 24 hours now I've had a stabbing pain going straight through the tear duct of my left eye and into my brain. Marvelous feeling, I tell you. One good thing that's come out of this is that my time has been well spent- resting!

During bedrest I've had quite a day conversing and communing with Pleroma. Quirky little snippets and flashes. Soothing. Then irritating because I didn't have enough energy to get up and grab my notebook to write stuff in. So I resigned myself to relaxing and drowsily enjoying the company. Quite a nice siesta, honestly. The most pleasant migraine I've ever had. lol

Now that I'm feeling good enough to be vertical once more I decided to relay a dream I had. It repeated in a fuzzier quality a few times before stopping completely. What I mean is that I'd wake up from it and lay awake for a few hours and then when I fell into a drowsy state once again it'd repeat.

Recall a while back where I mentioned a motif trend in gnostic dreams and landscapes? This dream fits into that same category. The landscape of this dream stands out vividly- it was the female barracks I lived in during Basic Training. (I washed out during training due to injuries. I'm dreaming of the barracks I lived in BEFORE I went to the physical therapy unit and discharged.)

So everyone was asleep. Fifty something females up in their bunks, dead to the world. I was on night guard but instead of sitting at a table by the door like normal, I was sitting at a piano.

I stretched the right side of my body forward and rested my right arm on the top of the piano and lay my head in the crook of my elbow, looking down at the keys. I played with my left hand, which is bizarre in itself because I'm mostly right handed. I played a very simple mid-toned tune over and over again. It was like, half of the tune, because I didn't have both hands on the keys. Somebody leaned over my shoulder and said, "you've almost got it."

I could feel the vibration of the chords through my chest and arms.

It was ten minutes before everyone was due to wake up. That same voice standing over me said, "Not yet. It's not time. You'll wake them up early." But I played anyway because the music wanted to come out through my fingers. So I played the same tune over and over again.... and then woke up from the dream when the lights came on in the barracks.

Took me nearly an hour to track down the song. The Cranberries have a quite a few albums and I had to listen to a minute or so of each song before I could rule it out. I could hear the words in my head but it didn't occur to me precisely which song it was because it didn't really appeal to me when I first heard it years ago. Now the opposite is true. I can't get it out of my head. And today that's not a bad thing. I need all the soothing I can get because my eyes still hurt so badly from the migraine.

Anyway, here's the song. "The Concept" by the Cranberries from their album Wake Up And Smell The Coffee. The chorus is the bit which keeps repeating in my mind from Pleroma as a gentle hug. Very appreciated. Lyrics are down below.



Come here, my lover
Something's on your mind
Listen to no other
They could be unkind

Chorus:
Hold on to the concept of love, always
Darling
Hold on to the concept of love, always

Take life between us
Live it like we choose
They'll never see us
I will hear you call

Hold on to the concept of love, always
Darling
Hold on to the concept of love, always

Night all night all night

Ode to the Demiurge?

With my iPod on shuffle today I stumbled over a song which took me by surprise from my past. Mid '90's. The group with the iconic name of STP, not to be confused with the motor oil.

The lyrics to this particular song are quite striking. Pay careful attention to the description of the being and the muffled shift to Bible verses at the end. Kinda makes me cringe. I honestly can't think of anyone else who has created such a bold piece of work about the demiurge's doings.

Stone Temple Pilots -- "Naked Sunday"
(There's a few seconds delay at the beginning for the lower instrumentals and I haven't found a real video that was made for the song by the band. Not sure if it even exists.)

You're the fuel to the fire
You're the weapons of war
You're the irony of justice
And the father of law

I've been waiting for awhile to meet you
For the chance to shake your hand
To give you thanks for all the suffering you command
And when all is over and we return to dust
Who will be my judge and which one do I trust

You're the champion of sorrow
You're the love and the pain
You're the fighter of evil
Yet you're one in the same

I've been waiting for awhile to meet you
For the chance to shake your hand
To give you thanks for all the suffering you command
And when all is over and we return to dust
Who will be my judge and which one do I trust?

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
Turn the other cheek aside
We're all god's children, the giver of life
Alone, we will survive.

Natasha Bedingfield- Unwritten

Listen closely and you'll hear Pleroma saying, "Wake up! See, feel, experience life!!" in the lyrics. Makes me happy. Wanted to share it with you.

Modern Music With Gnostic Flavor

Listening to my iPod on random today I stumbled across one of my favorite songs from Jewel. Hadn't heard it for quite a while and honestly, I don't recall ever hearing it on the radio. It's not exactly PC.

Political correctness is shoved out the window when you examine gnostic writers/poets, singers, and visual artists. It's not that they don't care about selling their work, it's that they don't care, period, about anything except expressing themselves. The drive and need to produce their works is overshadowed by anything else in their lives, even if their greatness is only discovered posthumously. Talking about showing your breasts on TV or abortion or paying clergy for absolution is a bit off putting. Pop singers have it easier. They sing about love's many phases of adoration/jealousy/breakup while those with eyes to see and ears to hear very often have the mouth to back it up. Their efforts are not often well received unless they have other more acceptable(and accessible) music to even out their wildness of spirit.

Jewel's song called "Jesus Loves You" from her album called This Way, fits the bill of a gnostic anthem, promoting the greatest sense of freedom for the human spirit possible and calling into question all the notions literal religions push upon our society.


They say that Jesus loves you
What about me?
They say that money breaks you
I still wanna see
They say you're only half alive
Till you give extra whitening a try

Well i wanna see, I wanna see
What can you do for me?

Showing ta-tas on the TV is OK
I wanna be OK, too
Having my picture in a magazine makes me special
How special are you?
They say if i donate, even I
Can buy a lot in heaven before i die

Well I wanna see, I wanna see
What can u do for me?

I want someone else to pack my lunch
Gonna get get someone else to pull the punch
Pay a psychic for romance
Gonna pay a priest for a...
Will u give me a second chance
Will u give me a second chance

They say abortion will send u straight to a fiery hell
That is if the fanatics don't beat Satan to the kill
It's not what i can do for anybody
It's what their body can do for me

Well I wanna see, I wanna see
What can u do for me?

They say that Jesus loves u
What about me?