Thanks for the warm welcome!
Nick:
Traditional Gnosis, in its outer or exoteric form, is a dualistic world-view in which it is considered to exist a polarity or opposition between the “Unknown God” of Pure Spirit, and the Demiurge or Creator, responsible for the creation (or, in other views, organization) of the material world, and the imprisonment of Man’s “wandering spirit” in the labyrinth of Matter.
The Gnostics, therefore, considered that the real Christ wasn’t a “flesh and bone” Messiah and an incarnation of the Creator God – as is assumed in modern “literalist” Christianity – but actually a Spirit with the appearance of a physical body, according to the gnostic doctrine of Docetism, who, having descended from the Plenitude of the Spiritual Worlds of the Pleroma, plunged into the darkness of matter in order to bring the Light of Gnosis and show how Man could liberate his Spirit from the shackles of the Demiurge and his Archons and return to the plenitude of the Pleroma. This is the universal form of Gnosis followed by the Ophites, Naassenes, Valentinians, Sethians, and also the Cathars, Bogomils, etc. The Cathars, as an example, considered the Church of ROMA (Rome) to be the Church of the Demiurge, while the real Christian-Gnostic Church was the Church of AMOR (Love: “ROMA” backwards).
It should also be noted that in Gnostic thought there wasn’t any “Satan” or “Devil” in the modern christian meaning. The only “Satan” there is is the Demiurge, which doesn’t symbolize absolute evil, but the “evil” of ignorance and spiritual blindness. Also, they considered the Demiurge to be identical to the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh-Jehovah, and called him by the names of Yaldabaoth (“Child of Chaos”), Saklas (“Fool”) and Samael (“God of the Blind”). He was often represented as a lion-headed serpent, part fire and part darkness, “who stole from his mother Sophia a great power” in order to call himself “The Only God” and create hierarchies of angels, demons, archons and beasts. So, in a Gnostic sense, there was no difference between Jehovah and Satan, since both titles represent the same principle of arrogance and spiritual blindness. Jesus’ God of Love, however, they called the Unknown God or Invisible Father. He was the Father of the Spirit in Man, unreachable and unknowable through material Creation.
So much goes for the “outer” interpretation of Gnosticism.
Regarding the “secret” or esoteric interpretation of Gnosis, I believe that is a matter of personal meditation on the myths and allegories, trying to understand how those myths and allegories are related to ourselves. That is, for instance: “who or what is the Christ in me?”; “who or what is the Demiurge and his Archons in me?”; and finally “who am I and how can I liberate my true Spirit?”.
On a personal level, in my quest for Gnosis I have allied several doctrines and philosophies. To the mystical flavour of Traditional Gnosis I have added some points of Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way, Nietzsche’s doctrine of the Übermensch, and some other authors and researchers that have shed a great light on some doubts I had.
Anyway, I am always a learner...
If you’re interested in deepening your knowledge on Gnosis, I invite you to read
Stephan A. Hoeller’s excellent Gnostic Catechism [can't paste the link: please google it]. It’s a very good and complete introduction to the subject of Gnosis.
Also, J.M. Herrou Aragón’s book “Primordial Gnosis: The Forbidden Religion” is quite a Gnostic masterpiece and brings some points that aren’t (and couldn’t ever be) covered in the Gnostic Catechism. In it you begin to understand how Gnosis is indeed a “forbidden religion”, and how you have been a victim of constant illusions keeping you unaware of your full spiritual power. Gnosis, in its full antinomian nature, can be a very dangerous path.
Finally, Gurdjieff’s “Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson” is always an extremely valuable classic, as is Nietzsche’s “Thus spoke Zarathustra”. I was admired when I first read Nietzsche, because from his words he seemed to be a type of “crypto-gnostic”.
Sorry for the long text! I hope you find my words to be of some value and usefulness
Best regards,
A.Theos
