Gnostic Christians

[WDSurviving22]

Was just wondering if there are any Gnostic Christians on this forum. What type of things do you do to pray for support? Im praying to the All Father, and Mother Sophia for help, and guidence. That is helping me stay strong.

[scallywag]

If you would like to learn more about what Gnostic Christianity is, please consult these: Search results for "gnostic christian"

[cpuusage]

i've looked into Gnosticism a lot.

 

This is a very interesting interview that i listened to recently -

 

 

Circes International -

 

http://circesinternational.org/

 

 

 

CIRCES is for those spiritual seekers seriously interested in learning the necessary tools that will allow them to perfect their nature through active study and service, to become co-builders in the creation of a world more united and fraternal.  In turn, this inner individual transformation will lead to greater understanding and harmony between all men and women on the entire planet.  It is hoped that by a rigorous study and practical application of the principles within CIRCES, its members will be prepared to take the next step of spiritual knighthood within the Order of the Temple, and that they will gain tools to be spiritual ambassadors in the world.

 

The quoted book is here, which is a very interesting read -

 

The Inner Journey: Pathways to the Higher Self -

 

http://www.douglasbakerbooks.com/book.php?book_id=78

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Claregate also do a Foundation Course in Esoteric Studies -

 

http://www.claregategroup.org/index.php/about/course-overview-content/

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"One day religions will disappear, but God will not." ~ A.D. Williams

 

"God builds his temple in the heart on the ruins of churches and religions". - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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Jesus said: I stood in the midst of the world. I came to them in the flesh. I found all of them drunk. I found not one of them to be thirsty. My soul was saddened by the son of men for they are mentally blind. They do not see that they have come into the world empty and they will go out of the world empty. But now they are drunk. When they sober up they will repent. - Gospel of Thomas

 

Rabbi Yeshua ben Josephus was an observant Jew, an End Times Preacher taught by the Essenes, who believed he was the Messiah for the Jewish people.
He would not recognize pretty much any part of what today is called, “Christianity.”

[cpuusage]

Another fascinating talk with Timothy Hogan -

A Gnostic World – Timothy Hogan

 

http://gnosticwarrior.com/timothy-hogan-2.html

 

"Timothy is a new Leader and Teacher in The Order of the Gnostics. He will be a regular guest on the podcast and a contributor to the teachings and lessons of the Order. Timothy comes from an extensive background of working in Gnosticism, Templarism, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Martinism, and many other esoteric Orders and traditions. He is a world traveler who has lectured all over the world and has broken bread with many wise Brothers from different countries, orders, and religions.

Timothy is the author of several books such as Gnostic Reflections in Freemasonry, The Alchemical Keys to Masonic Ritual, The 32 Secret Paths of Solomon: A New Examination of the Qabbalah in Freemasonry, Novo Clavis Esoterika, Revelation of the Holy Grail, and The Way of the Templar.

In this podcast, he shares with us how Gnosticism and Gnostic thought are mentioned several times in the Scottish Rite degrees, and we can see it as a general theme in Freemasonry.  He explains how many of the world's religions, various secret orders, mystery schools and teachings spawn from the ancient well of Gnosticism. An undercurrent of light that can be found in all lands and countries."

[cpuusage]

"During this Christmas season there might be a few people on
earth who think about Christ and begin to wonder what he was
all about. Now, anybody who begins to think seriously about
Christ and His ministry here on earth, the first thing you do
is to have a sense of separation from Christ, of distance, of
unattainability, of mystery and bewilderment.

Now, you have been taught here in this room and will continue
to be taught that all attempts to solve the mystery of Christ,
of God, of spirituality, all attempts to solve it through words,
of what He lived for and stood for – all attempts to solve it by
thinking about it must fail.

Thought, idea, belief, opinion, religious creeds are always
separated from the spirit of Christ. Human beings who don’t
understand this, and furthermore who don’t want to understand it
immediately say, 'I do understand' and they build churches and
they write books which become best sellers and they quote and
they dress up on Sundays - and they become the enemies of Christ.
They become not even the passive enemy but the active, aggressive,
all-out enemy of everything that Christ stood for, and here is why.

Idea is always the enemy of spirit. The two don’t live together,
they can’t live together. They are not compatible. Idea doesn’t
want spirit and spirit doesn’t want idea. Light doesn’t want
darkness, darkness doesn’t want light.

So you have to study your own ideas and beliefs about Christ.
You have to study your own attitudes, beliefs - desperations even,
'God help me,' that sort of thing' – you have to study all your
acquired ideas about Christ and when you have studied them
thoroughly you must, if you are honest, sincere, you must come
to the conclusion that all memorized self-references about Christ
and God are the very thing that is keeping you distant and mystified,
that makes you feel that coming close to Christ and His truth is
unattainable, which it is as long as 'you' are trying to find God and
Christ."

 

Vernon Howard

    The Higher Teachings of Christ - Part 1
  Heavenly Help Awaits You - MP3 CD, track 9

[cpuusage]

The Darkest Apocalypse Ever Conceived Came from the Gnostics

http://thegodabovegod.com/the-darkest-apocalypse-ever-conceived-came-from-the-gnostics/

 

"I admit there is a lot left in translating the Gospel of Judas. I admit I’m interpreting an interpretation that not all scholars agree with. But you gotta admit this is dark; that astral determinism might be the worst fate, pardon the pun. If this gospel is anything close to true, is there anything that can be done?

 

Dream better than Yaldabaoth and Judas – and their roads to Groundhog Day hell paved with their good intentions. Write better myths than these sectarian Sethians. Turn the other cheek when you’re kicked in the face by fate, and never, never accept the visions of earthly representatives have for you.

 

Then you just might be ok."

 

Gnostic writings & teachings contain as much Mythology as anything else. All best understood imo as myth, symbol, analogy & metaphor.

 

Still, an interesting little article.

[cpuusage]

The God Drug: When Religion Becomes an Addiction -

 

https://psmag.com/the-god-drug-when-religion-becomes-an-addiction-2b031792a43a#.til3fgyz2

 

In recent decades, the idea of recovery from addiction to religion has taken root, particularly in Christian America.

 

By Valerie Tarico

 

"Although he quit believing in God as a teenager, 50-year-old Brandon Osborn feared hell and damnation until he was 35. Raised in the “holiness movement” branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints after escaping his mother’s abusive home, Osborn finds addiction and recovery fitting symbols for his experience.

 

“I consider religion to be an imposed addiction — no different than holding a baby and shooting it up with small doses of heroin, increasing the doses as the baby grows,” he says. “Religion is as poisonous and as attractive, to many, as heroin — Karl Marx said it right, ‘Religion is the opiate of the masses.’ I’m still recovering from it. Part of my recovery is helping others get free.”"

[MRothbard]

My obsessive thought du jour is: "what's going to happen to me when I die" so I came onto the site and saw this thread. Gnosticism holds a lot of attraction to me, but it came along quite awhile after Jesus was around so I'm doubtful of its legitimacy as a a Christian faith. Plus some of it is a little new agey, which gives me pause as well.

I guess there's a fine line between a spiritual practice and religion. Jesus wanted his disciples to establish a church, but I'm pretty sure the Catholic church was not what he had in mind. 

Kinda on the fence I guess.

[cpuusage]

My obsessive thought du jour is: "what's going to happen to me when I die" so I came onto the site and saw this thread. Gnosticism holds a lot of attraction to me, but it came along quite awhile after Jesus was around so I'm doubtful of its legitimacy as a a Christian faith. Plus some of it is a little new agey, which gives me pause as well.

 

I guess there's a fine line between a spiritual practice and religion. Jesus wanted his disciples to establish a church, but I'm pretty sure the Catholic church was not what he had in mind. 

 

Kinda on the fence I guess.

 

 

My understanding of Gnosticism is that it pre-dates Christianity & that Jeshua / Christ was a Gnostic / Mystic / Shaman / White Magician - Probably a bit controversial to some to say. & that's if such a figure even did exist? The Bible seems to be a synthesis of various other systems anyway, with a common root within the Shamanic; animist / pantheist traditions, as all religions appears to be.

 

“Intelligence is dangerous. Intelligence means you will start thinking on your own; you will start looking around on your own. You will not believe in the scriptures; you will believe only in your own experience.”

 

― Osho

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The Wisdom of the Knowing Ones: Gnosticism: The Key to Esoteric Christianity
by Manly P. Hall

 

If any group, which shared in the Christian mystery, possessed the esoteric secrets of the early Church, it was the Gnostics. This order preserved to the end the high ethical and rational standards which confer honor upon a teaching. The Church therefore attacked Gnosticism vigorously and relentlessly, recognizing these mystical philosophers as being the most formidable adversaries to the temporal power of Christian theology.

 

Download the book in PDF format:

 

bookzz.org/dl/933639/d947d0

[cpuusage]

Sparks of the Divinity:

Keats' Gnostic Vision of Soul-Making

by Maureen B. Roberts, Ph.D.

http://jungcircle.com/sparks.html

 

The New Mysticism and the Life after Death -

 

http://paulijungunusmundus.eu/hknw/lifeafterdeathandmysticism1.htm

[WilliamWallace]

to be clear here, gnosticism isn't Christian at all. gnostics think Christ was a good guy and like his teachings but think that you are saved through knowedge as opposed to by faith and grace. from a Biblical perspective, its a form of satanism as it views lucifer as more of a liberator and the Father as a tyrant. this is a theme in many luciferian religions such as those that come out of egypt like the emerald tablets and things like that. you can find the same themes over and over again but packaged in different ways. it kind of is about ascension and being saved through secret knowledge and that sort of thing. if you study the occult at all, which i would be careful of, wisdom and knowledge are revered highly. digging around or messing around with the occult can really damage you spiritually IMO so its something I would avoid personally. 

[cpuusage]

to be clear here, gnosticism isn't Christian at all. gnostics think Christ was a good guy and like his teachings but think that you are saved through knowedge as opposed to by faith and grace. from a Biblical perspective, its a form of satanism as it views lucifer as more of a liberator and the Father as a tyrant. this is a theme in many luciferian religions such as those that come out of egypt like the emerald tablets and things like that. you can find the same themes over and over again but packaged in different ways. it kind of is about ascension and being saved through secret knowledge and that sort of thing. if you study the occult at all, which i would be careful of, wisdom and knowledge are revered highly. digging around or messing around with the occult can really damage you spiritually IMO so its something I would avoid personally. 

 

Good bit of fear generating about genuine Self Knowledge - God / Self Realisation. It terrifies people.

 

Pretty easy to see what the response of the Establishment / Mainstream always has been & still is to anything that seeks genuine Gnosis / Personal direct connection with the Divine. i have my own understandings as to why that is, & always have / will roll the dice & take my chances with what i see as the truth of it all. Other people's prerogative is their own.

 

Carl Gustav Jung — 'People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.'

 

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[WilliamWallace]

No fear, just trying to clarify the differences from a Biblical perspective as it can be confusing by the label. surely, you are entitled to your beliefs, we each have our own path. I typically dislike discussing such things on the internet as they usually devolve into some type of mud slinging. 

 

out of curiousity, which part of the establishment or mainstream would you consider Christian? 

 

im not attacking you here so you don't have to be defensive. 

[cpuusage]

No fear, just trying to clarify the differences from a Biblical perspective as it can be confusing by the label. surely, you are entitled to your beliefs, we each have our own path. I typically dislike discussing such things on the internet as they usually devolve into some type of mud slinging. 

 

out of curiousity, which part of the establishment or mainstream would you consider Christian? 

 

im not attacking you here so you don't have to be defensive.

 

No defensiveness, But i do express my own opinion as i see it.

 

Firstly i'm very strictly non-religious / non dogmatic. i don't hold to any specific belief system or religion. i am however very interested in anything & everything that humans have come up with - i feel free to (& always have done) read / study / research & look into anything - comparative religion, Atheism, World Mythology, shamanism, Pagan, spiritual crisis, magick / Witchcraft, Theosophy / Perennial Philosophy / Ancient wisdom, Energy Healing, sacred geometry, new age, philosophy, parapsychology, depth / transpersonal psychology, Alchemy, past life / inter life research, OBE / NDE areas, conspiracy, UFOlogy, Masonic as well as the area of secret societies / teachings in general, all esoteric & occult areas, all areas of science, alternative / fringe & mainstream history, whatever, everything.  

 

i was raised in part with a very strict Church of England / Christian upbringing, & i read / studied the Bible at a lot of depth, especially in my late teens / early 20's, There are myriad ways of interpreting things from a Biblical perspective, as with all religious texts.

 

There are myriad sects / denominations / interpretations / practises of different religions, But there is what i what i would class (to greatly generalise) as the organised / exoteric & esoteric / mystical traditions, that are very different in nature.

 

Religion as a whole is very obviously a very in depth & broad subject. i do see a more mainstream / exoteric aspect of all the main religions, that often has been / is part of general society / the establishment. Are you saying that there isn't? The Abrahamic Faiths have pretty much dominated a lot of 'modern Western' culture / the World for some time.

[cpuusage]

to be clear here, gnosticism isn't Christian at all. gnostics think Christ was a good guy and like his teachings but think that you are saved through knowedge as opposed to by faith and grace. from a Biblical perspective, its a form of satanism as it views lucifer as more of a liberator and the Father as a tyrant. this is a theme in many luciferian religions such as those that come out of egypt like the emerald tablets and things like that. you can find the same themes over and over again but packaged in different ways. it kind of is about ascension and being saved through secret knowledge and that sort of thing. if you study the occult at all, which i would be careful of, wisdom and knowledge are revered highly. digging around or messing around with the occult can really damage you spiritually IMO so its something I would avoid personally. 

 

To come back to this, it all depends on so many different interpretations, understandings & perspectives. Jeshua / Christ was Gnostic according to some traditions. A lot of Gnostics very much did & do consider themselves to be genuine Christians.

 

The whole history of who / what the Devil / Lucifer is / isn't, is Not a simple matter, there are many different understandings & perspectives to it all, even within exoteric religious theology. According to some far older Christian Theology Lucifer was Jesus. Within the Bible the Devil / Lucifer are Not the same Being. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer

 

The root meaning of the term Lucifer was the name for Venus. The association of Lucifer with the Devil primarily came much later on with the literary works of Milton & Dante,

 

i'm Not aware of Heliopolitan / Hermetic traditions as being Luciferic?

 

There are endless writings on all these subjects - i personally don't believe that such beings exist.

 

[Edit - i would add that i'm Not saying this for an argument - just what i have researched / come across, & it's what different people have thought / believed / practised, i don't believe in any of it, am Not a Christian / Religious in any formal / defined sense in any way, exoteric / esoteric / Gnostic or otherwise]

[Yesyes123]

This is very interesting