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Recent content by theosis

  1. theosis

    Gnosticism and Death

    I'm sorry for your loss. I recently lost a family but I can take no solace in religion because there is no afterlife. If you read the Hebrew Bible (or if you read the NT correctly too), you'll see that there is no such thing as Heaven. Sheol is a state of non-existence.
  2. theosis

    Gnostic Advaita

    Barbelo is not the pleroma in gnosticism, she is an emanation of Yahweh. The rest reads like a garbled version of a Phillip K. Dick novel. Also pretty sure you can't be "blessed with gnosis" -- that's not how it works.
  3. theosis

    The Soul's Deliverance (Mandaean prayer)

    Yes, the Mandeans have (had?) a strong belief in astrology. I didn't think that was interesting or very gnostic so I left it in a smaller font.
  4. theosis

    The Soul's Deliverance (Mandaean prayer)

    An interesting (and ancient) Gnostic prayer, thought I might share (I've loosely translated a few Mandaean-specific words into a more traditional Abrahamic language): The Soul's Deliverance Hail to you, hail to you, soul, for you have departed from the world. You have left corruption...
  5. theosis

    Demiurge or no Demiurge?

    I believe that the demiurge is nothing more than a mistaken concept and simplistic (theistic) conception of God that keeps us "chained" to organized orthodox religion. The idea that some kind of divine entity specially created the Earth and humanity really needs to go if we are to grow...
  6. theosis

    Help: Branches (or "Groups within 'Gnosticism'") [Christian?]

    Nazz, (Abrahamic) Gnosticism originated with eclectic Jewish sects before Yeshua was born. Mandaeism and Kabbalah are two surviving offshots of this tradition. Christian gnosticism is essentially the expression of the faith that Jesus Christ was one of these Gnostic Jews. Pagan (Egyptian)...
  7. theosis

    Help: Branches (or "Groups within 'Gnosticism'") [Christian?]

    ELoWolfe, I agree with you that most of these groups have little to do with ancient gnosticism. Most Western esoteric traditions (Tarot, Alchemy, the Masons, etc.) are a millennium or more younger than any gnostic tradition. But also remember that Christianity is younger than gnosticism. I see...
  8. theosis

    How do you worship?

    Strangely enough, I think Wikipedia puts it well: "Gnosis taught a deliverance of man from the constraints of earthly existence through "insight" into an essential relationship, as soul or spirit, with a supramundane place of freedom." This "supramundane place of freedom" is the Pleroma which...
  9. theosis

    Help: Branches (or "Groups within 'Gnosticism'") [Christian?]

    Everyone's taking a shot in the dark. It seems like most of those gnostic churches take the rituals of orthodoxy and add some verses from, say, Thomas to their sermons. I'm looking at Unitarian Universalist churches since I don't want to trade one dogma for another.
  10. theosis

    How do you worship?

    I leave it vague simply because I don't know -- I haven't achieved gnosis. A big point of difference between us is that I'm a pantheist. That's going to make my theology look extremely "minimal" from the point of view of a more traditional theist. For me gnosis is vaguely "self-knowledge"...
  11. theosis

    How do you worship?

    I take it to be self-knowledge first and foremost -- understanding ourselves as more than our bodies, the physical entities that we represent.
  12. theosis

    How do you worship?

    I think if you take the basic gnostic framework -- a flawed physical world as a prison for the soul -- you can take the concept in wildly different directions and remain gnostic. I don't believe in most of what one would consider the supernatural -- for me, archons, gods, miracles, angels...
  13. theosis

    How do you worship?

    Shermana, I think it's admirable that you're trying to reconstruct some kind of gnostic orthodoxy. However, your theology (some kind of Valentinian reconstruction, I take it) does not have a monopoly on the term "gnosis." Remember that this concept existed in Hellenistic thought before the...
  14. theosis

    How do you worship?

    I don't pray since I don't conceive of the Monad as a diety with consciousness. I meditate less frequently than I should.
  15. theosis

    A possibly offensive question for anybody worshiping Jesus.

    The virgin birth story was invented after Jesus's death so there is probably no credence to this theory.
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