Gnosticism

http://www.gnosticteachings.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=56

 

Spam spread!

 

Why is Gnosticism in the pagan forum?

 

Well seeing as how gnosticism is the root of all religions i figured it may help you on your journeys

 

i am merely a signpost giving you a direction left when your traveling right

 

If that is what you believe, then your "gnosis" is quite limited.

 

No my friend, limits come with boundaries, i know no boundaries.

"True Gnosis is universal to all mankind and can be found in all genuine religions and mystical traditions. Thus, within all of them is The Doctrine of the Synthesis: the Universal Teaching from which all religions have been born."

Trying reading some of it, it can't hurt.

 

Gnostic might, MIGHT, be a root in transedental religions, but thats about it, and thats a big might.

 

Actually as regards the gnostic sects of the early christian era, a great deal of their philosophy came from pagan sources like neo-platonism. Even very central things in their belief systems like identification of christ with the logos of plato.
I've heard the opinion expressed that historic gnosticism was a knid of 'halfway house' between paganism and christianity. This is probably true in respect of some sects. Others were less pagan influenced.

These days the term gnosis has a much wider application. I've seen it used by neo-pagans like Crowley, Hindus like Sri Aurobindo etc..

 

the only gnostics I ever met were just watered-down christians. *shrug* don't know much about it myself, don't really care to know either.

yeah, that.

 

Well technically gnostics like to think their beliefs came before paganism, and religion. In a time of pure animism and shamanism. The gnosis is the aim of all the ancient Egyptian Mystery cults and every shaman the primitave world has ever known.

 

but animism and shamanism are not transendental, so therefore "gnostic" beliefs are not its core. Shamans do not seek "gnosis", but what they seek could be generally called "gnosis" to justify the "gnostics" argument.

Thats like saying that "My tribe worships the sun, and call it "bogo", that tribe over there worships the sun, so therefore they have the same religion of "bogoism" and they must have gotten it from us"

Bullshit.

 

not really, gnosis is just the answer we seek, the knowledgee. the same question that is rooted in all religions and forms of worship are the same as gnosis, the customs and beliefs may be somewhat different, but they all spawn from the same intuition and curiousity that man has.

 

thats easy to say. Gnosis, being a "higher knowledge" is of course what all religions seek, higher knowledge that is, but that doesnt mean that "gnosticism" is the root to anything.

No more that a religion called "knowledgeism" or "knowism" because they are just words to express ideas, nothing special, and therefore, not a root.

 

Good point Heron, and a crucial one.
One of my main criticisms of the historical gnostics of the early christian era is that most of them had anti-life anti-world anti-nature philosophies. These were more extreme in many instances than the anti-nature dogmas of the official church. Some even turned the pagan gods into 'archons' or devils.
They had an extremely negative view of the world and our place in it - mainly it is seen as a prison for the soul and our only legitimate course is to get out of it.
This attitude seems to me quite out of kilter with the attitudes of pagan cultures the world over. The last thing the gnostics were doing was 'celebrating life'.
Plotinus, the Roman mystical philosopher, who is often claimed as an influence on gnostic cults of the period, in fact had a marked distain for the gnostics. He seem to have looked on them much as sensible peole today look on narrow or fanatical cults.

 

Yea they just hated the material world and black alchemy, the bastard child of the alchemic arts. there is white alchemy, which is becoming in tune with nature and one with your surroundings, and black alchemy, which is machines and buildings that contain no life. this is what they wanted to free themselves from, a life where objects and tools are what we surround ourselves with, things with no soul. Gnosticism is merely a way to connect to the true god, not the demiurge, by means of psylocibin and other psychadelic drugs, such as ayahuasca in amazon. the beleived the soul was trapped in this monkey body because of the demiurge, that is the only reason they hated life so much. daath, hebrew for knowledge, is similar to death is not? this was the only escape, but i beleive that the church used the cathars as propoganda and didn't inform the people about the ingestion of these mushrooms.

i take it you are pagan, which i agree is a good choice, because you celebrate mother nature, which gnostics also beleive in. but also celebrate the father, the one who created mother earth, and this is only possible through psylocibin and dmt, something shamans, occultists, and even me, not a follower of religion, but a follower of my own internal guiding beleives is the best way to contact this higher godly force. this is what i mean when i say gnosticism is at the root of all religions, because it is based mainly around finding a connection to god and nothing else. there are no dogma's or rules, only your own morals, and it is only you who can find true gnosis.

 

http://www.religioustolerance.org/gnostic.htm

That defines a sort of Christianity, not Paganism. Even mainstream Christianity has its roots in the pagan theologies that were popular way way back... even if they do celebrate Christmas and Easter (which we all know were celebrated in much the same manner long before they were given those names), they are still not even close to being Pagan.

IMO, this thread belongs in the Christianity forum.

 

True, but so was Catholicism. But you don't see Catholics making threads about Catholicism in the Paganism forum. Because it isn't paganism, even if it was influenced by it.

Reefer Madness, I can tell you're pumped with these ideas, and that's cool. But don't spam all the forums with it.

True; kind of like the dude in your sig pic... like, "get me the hell out of this place!"

(but that is a cool pic, I always liked it. Can I ask where you found it, and maybe, if you know, what all that stuff outside the "world" is? The wheels and stuff?)

 

wheels within wheels... the layers of heaven and all that... very interesting stuff to read about. I highly recommend! Like sci-fi fantasy from the long long ago. Really cool.

 

the picture shows the seperation from the material world.

Sci-fi fantasy from a long time ago?