Gnostic Woo-woo

Over the past few months I have joined some facebook gnostic groups. I even started one of my own after getting kicked out of one that had an anti-Christian bent. Something I have been noticing is that many people claiming to be gnostics espouse some rather fantastic beliefs (to put it mildly). Belief in conspiracy theories, extraterrestrial visitations, astrology, tarot and other occult practices, etc are seen as representing "Gnosticism". Basically anything outside the norm, anything "New Age", is embraced seemingly without question.

This greatly concerns me because being a gnostic is not about adopting every zany belief that comes along but rather testing every idea to determine if there is any validity to it. Gnosis is spiritual science and science is all about testing the validity of ideas.

Anyone else notice what I'm talking about?

THANK YOU.

Seriously! Thank you.

I honestly thought I was the only one that saw this. It makes me especially sad for the Valentinian group, because I thought it would be a little more in-line academically and theologically, but it seems to be rather New Age as well.

I think this is why I have been reacting so adamantly against pluralism, as evident on this board. I had to stop and wonder where that attitude came from (since I definitely take other ideas and incorporate them) and I believe it has to be from seeing this.

This is also why I am pushing away from the term 'Gnosticism' in personal use. I think I would develop my own system, which seems to be a blending of Sethian and Valentinian gnosis. I am seeing that I think Sethians went too far, while Valentinians didn't go far enough. This may also be because I am combing through April DeConick's blog (from the beginning) and really learning a lot and questioning myself.

I wanted to touch on this a little more and actually discuss it, since I think it is a problem that should be addressed. I don't expect any actual resolution to this problem, since this board is very small, but it may help.

I am reading a study on contemporary Gnosticism which the author of the study is comparing Ecclesia Gnostica (Hoeller), Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (Crowley), and Universal Christian Gnostic Movement (Weor). A common thread through all of these is their beginnings focus on the Theosophy Society, even if these groups attempt to downplay the connection. The Theosophy Society, for whatever they're worth, was fairly "New Age" themselves. They took superficial understandings of any religion, attempted to connect them, but did not seem to integrate them. An example I can think of with this rather sloppy connecting practice is brought down to Hoeller in his annual Tarot Card readings. Not only was the concept of Tarot known to classical Gnostics, but the concept of the Tarot would place it at odds with Gnosticism (since Tarot, and Astrology, use systems within the system of Demiurge to predict future outcomes, the source is not the Father of Revelation). So the organizations which claim to be Gnostic are already faulted with a foundation of New Age.

The fact that these organizations are different (at least on the surfaces) also complicates things because it begs the question of "What is Gnostic?" Each claim their way is the proper right way. Hoeller even attempts to "brand" his method as the correct way (ignoring other organizations such as Apostolic Johannite Church) and discrediting Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. Anyone looking for a specific organization to learn from would probably find either Ecclesia Gnostica or Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and because of the closeness of their name, they would probably be confused by what exactly is gnosis.

This leads to misinformation about what gnosis is. People look up gnosis, but the popular definition is in flux. The academic definition is difficult as well, but the academic is controlled by peer review while the popular is not. Anyone who has "convert zeal" will go out and profess what they learned and build upon it. We end up getting sites such as gnostic.org which is not Gnostic but rather New Age. Gnosticism does not profess "There is only One Truth and the Religions of the World are but facets of its expression" (found on website; many religions and faiths are of the Demiurge), nor would a Gnostic worry about or even sell an astrology chart (offered through main page of website). Much of what is said on that page is, to be blunt, garbage. It is not gnostic. Yet people will see it.

Gnosis and gnostic are rather esoteric terms because it is in Greek, and there is no proper English equivalent that really encompasses what gnosis is. It is more than just "knowledge." So because of this lack of "concrete" usage, and because of the Theosophical Society hijacking the word first, it opened up a floodgate of misinformation and the New Age to take it over. While the Theosophical Society may be thanked for reaching the limits of their time and pushing boundaries, they really "screwed the pooch" with their lack of a cohesive and solid foundation, their lack of regard for scholarship, and their misuse of vocabulary to express what was proper instead of what they thought was proper.

With further reflection, I think the problem also comes from a lack of authority. The report I read, "Contemporary 'Gnosticism' as a Discursive Field: an analysis of individual and institutional authority in twentieth century 'gnostic' movements" by David G. Robertson, it was made mention that any Ecclesia Gnostica group that formed from EG ended up splintering away. So instead of one cohesive movement, you have a parent with children who grow independent. On the one hand, I see this very similar to classical Valentinianism where it seems many students ended up founding their own school (Marcosian, Colarbasian, etc.). On the other hand, it does not give a central source that promotes "right thought," and even more important, dissuade "wrong thought."

I have begun reading a forum thread asking what happened to the internet Gnostic group Palm Tree Garden (Palm Tree Garden (or, what happened to the online (G)nostic community?) - Printable Version Immediately, I am struck at a conversation of Jordan Stratford and a user Passerby. Now, I warn that I had not gone very far (posts 5-8), but Jordan advocates a dogma for Gnosticism (which isn't surprising, being in the Apostolic Johannite Church) and Passerby being very opposed to it. Jordan believes in the "orthodoxy" of such ideas like the Aeons, pleroma, archons, etc. Passerby, however, seems to feel such things are inconsequential to personal gnosis, and that personal gnosis invalidates discussion along these mythic lines. It is a very "find your bliss" feel.

It is interesting because I feel this discussion happened on these forums not too long ago. The discussion of individualism versus communal gnosis. Are the two complementary, or independent? Does one grow out of the other, or do they develop separately? In this situation, I would venture that Jordan would believe that gnosis is communal, that the community helps foster growth of gnosis, while Passerby believes that the community is, at best, a stepping stone and at worst, a stumbling block. I don't know either though, so I can't say.

One thing I found interesting from these type of people though, is an immediate drawn to the Gospel of Thomas with little or no mention of any writings after. I am constantly seeing the Gospel of Thomas mentioned or referred to, but never the Gospel of Truth, or Philip, or the Hypostasis of the Archons. Something to consider, perhaps?

I wonder if this fierce independence, rather than interdependence, is a cultural thing (American) or if it is a reactionary thing?

An interesting Thread. What I see with line of thought is that you are trying to find a place for 'Gnosticism' in the world. People can call themselves whatever they like and attach whatever beliefs and behaviours they want to that name. Like minded people may choose to join them, that's all good for them. This though brings that group into the same category as any church or club, by that I mean it externalises the experience through its rules and regulations, whether written down or simply expected behaviour. The two by two church is an excellent example of this. Truth, which is true knowledge of God does not come from without, nor from academic study, you can learn about Truth academically, but you can not experience it academically. Each of us must literally be ambassadors of Truth and this means we must live Truth, even with all our shortcomings grow in Truth, and at some point become Truth, that is Christ-like. This is an individual journey, The true Christian way, which we are referring to as Gnosticism, is an individual journey. It does not belong in the world, it provides an individual a way out of chaos to peace through itself through redemption of the married Spirit and Soul as one being in Christ. Perhaps the souls of the unrighteous are reincarnated by their god, the demiurge, perhaps they just perish when the person dies, I don't know and don't care because I don't care for the matter universe, neither does God. He cares for the Spirits imprisoned in flesh and through Christ has offered us an escape, a straight path out of hell. Our souls can be saved with our Spirits if we follow the Truth. It is an inward journey, it is not external, not discovered by the five sensory perceptions, but it is felt by others from us through our behaviour toward them. We hope our example inspires others to seek what we have. It is nice to meet others who are like minded, but it is not possible to place real Truth into the world as a recognised part of the world, seeing it is not of the world and alien to it. It is in the world as an escape through Spiritual reality from the world.

nazz said:

Over the past few months I have joined some facebook gnostic groups. I even started one of my own after getting kicked out of one that had an anti-Christian bent. Something I have been noticing is that many people claiming to be gnostics espouse some rather fantastic beliefs (to put it mildly). Belief in conspiracy theories, extraterrestrial visitations, astrology, tarot and other occult practices, etc are seen as representing "Gnosticism". Basically anything outside the norm, anything "New Age", is embraced seemingly without question.

This greatly concerns me because being a gnostic is not about adopting every zany belief that comes along but rather testing every idea to determine if there is any validity to it. Gnosis is spiritual science and science is all about testing the validity of ideas.

Anyone else notice what I'm talking about?

Click to expand...

There is indeed a wide range of people who call themselves Gnostic Christians with novel ideas.

I am always quick to remind them that Gnostic Christianity is a thinking person's religion and good thinkers do not hole any belief in anything supernatural.

I use this link on occasion to reinforce the poor direction that Christianity and Islam have taken by becoming idol worshiping cults who have decided to ruin their minds by believing in the supernatural.

http://bigthink.com/videos/what-is-god-2-2

Regards
DL

Hi Folks..

If I may ?..To the gnostic - its not so much a case that there is NO "supernatural" - but rather - a definate case that we encounter these other,none physical realities, seek them out purposefully in order to discover their truths - and having accomplished that then, to the Gnostic the "supernatural" becomes - merely the natural - known,understood,directly experienced..There is no sepration EVER between these "supernatural" and "mundane" existances - only the illusion of the physical senses - and as we know,these are not even Gnostic tools...

I would say also - its not so much about "escape" - more about Self mastery - Self disclosure..This realm is not a prison or place of punishment for the enlightened Soul - it is a place of exploration - and can still be a place of wonder and majesty - Self perception is always the key...This whole idea of a demi urge fallen creation - is a misunderstood half truth based on the things my mate taught us, mixed with much earlier THEORIES about existance,stemming right back to Plato and our ancient past..I will tell you it form a "world view2 perspective - as in - inthe world itself - walking and interacting with mankind directly - WERE ENTITIES WE TOOK TO BE (demi)GODS !! Like - they ACTUALLY EXISTED as flesh and bone like you and I do...Check out ALL ANCIENT HISTORY, and this is easily verified....we once took it for granted,beyond question that gods and demigods were AMONG US here on the Earth..The closest modern truth we have is perhaps the bible account of "Fallen Angels" - sent here among us,after rebelling against their god and creator...THESE same Angels - the world over - have given mankind ALL OUR so called "spiritual wiisdom"...All the various Hindu gods - are the same group of Beings depicted in Genesis...ALL the American gods of the Aztecs,Mayans etc etc - again - same group of ACTUAL Beings.....Trace it all way way back - like 450000 years - we arrive in SUMER - the now famous Annunaki....EVERY major event that these OTHER religions depict - all their core foundation - is firmly rooted in that much earlier recorded truth..

Look here and understand - CHRIST VERIFIED IT ALL - didnt He tell us SPECIFICALLY - that this realm we inhabit - at first - is completely ISOLATED,SEPERATED and HIDDEN form ALL the rest of Creation ??...

Yes - Sofia - unguarded Karma - causes the creation of a "malformed angel" - Yaldaboath (who we know as the Jewish God Yahweh of course) - She then out of shame and fear - casts this CREATURE out of the Divine realm and forms THIS UNIVERSE for it to inhabit - She then HIDES this universe from the true Divine....CHRIST told us all that - so understand then without a doubt - ALL mankinds "spiritual wisdom" - I say spiritual confusion - stems directly from these SAME Angelic beings as this entire realm was - BEFORE CHRSIT - entirely seperate and isolated and no legitimate Divine entities had any interaction here at all until Christ came and established that metaphysical "pathway" direct to Source....we ARE dealing with real world and actual events here Folks..

And out of all that CONFUSION - many many "schools" arose - ideas and philosophies that sort to comprehend and understand the entire truth of it - but it was IMPOSSIBLE - for as said - our truth and legitmate wisdom, had always been less than whole - as simlpy - every source we had came form WITHIN this universe, and mankind had NEVER encountered the TRUE and full Divine realms,until Christ cam eamong us to bridge these two seperate,isolated and forgotten realms !!

Plato first in ancient Greece - came to realise, through the teachings and knowldeg of these they called "gods" (actual rulers here - each tribe nation had a different deity,that according to ALL the accounts was a LIVING and interacting god here among us - and later of course their offspring would become rulers and "men of renown" as we are told - and PRE FLOOD all this was accepted as ACTUAL truth - actual fact accepted then without question...( if this is true then of course it does explain all the ancient mysteries - especially the great building achievements they attained back then that even modern wisdom cannot match yet such magnificent feats are shown ALL OVER THE WORLD and all share a level of ability that is beyond modern man even...we HAVE lost a great GREAT big chunk of our history - stolen from us - replaced by those who gained full control here - and now we are simply IGNORANT again - confused again wholly in these modern times with its multi sources of conflicting knoweldge

These we now know as Angels, spoke openly of a GREATER spirit - a CREATOR - and they imparted the wisdom to us that THEIR god,was NOT SUPREME and this is why they are here at all - REBELLED against that false authority....THEY gave is all our spiritual wisdom - and so we have ALWAYS known perhaps, that there was this "lesser god" and a greater God above - but neither we - nor these Angels themselves - had EVER directly encountered that realm at all - Christ said that emphatically and indeed it was metaphysically impossible for a mortal to ascend TO those higher realms at all (all about the transformation "purification" of that which we term energy,which is of course - SPIRIT - the very essence of the Divine Mother Sofia).....This is WHY the Angels gave us all this wisdom int he first place - they wanted us - NEEDED us - to ASCEND - past the "heavens" as we and they know them - to encounter the Greater realms beyond - that Yahweh had forbad them from knowing at all in its jealousy and fear - and when the first Angels began to give this truth to us in Eden, this "god" did likewise to us - and banished us all down here fully mortal - and UNABLE to attain these higher energetic realms...The Angels taught us all manner of knowledge - leading us to uncover access to the other worlds that have ALWAYS existed,and in our turn we adopted THEM as gods and rulers of course..Yahweh IS the demiurge as that one CREATED this world AND the Angels we would interact with....

But see - the GNOSTIC truth itself - is NEVER based upon these external world truths - GNOSIS - its essence - is the LIVING truth of SELF - understood by the DIRECT EXPERIENCE - such wisdom is ALWAYS delivered spirit to spirit - Soul to Soul - as MY unique individual Self here, leaves THIS mortal shell,and communes DIRECTLY with the greater realities that surround us..Do we see here then - there can NEVER be - any structure,dogma,doctrine - rule or ritual - to a TRUE Gnostic, such things are a direct hinderance....Following such institutionalised religion in the approach itself - is the very OPPOSITE of that which the Gnostic seeks...If we want Gnosis of Self then it MUST COME FORM WITHIN - and so understand, to follow an external source, such as these "gnostic schools", gurus, teachers,religions - ALL an ERROR - that immediately lead us AWAY form true Gnosis of Self - and give in its place only SECONDHAND and ACADEMIC knowldge that we have learned parrot fashion form an "authority"...that is NOT Gnosis - and as said - ALL THAT KNOWELDGE - given BY these worldly sources - are all and always have been - LIMITED and pertaining to THIS solitary and isolated,once seperate Creation....!!

Before Christ - we had never had a full or legitimate Divine truth !! Let is sink in deep Folks for according to Chirst this must be absoluitely correct - this is why He said Iam the WAY and the ONLY way - none may attain the Father except they BECOME Me..A metaphysical truth - as He knows and understand - we were once ISOLATED and SEPERATE from the TRUE Divine...I have to state emphatically here - there is actually - no such thing as Gnostic(ISM) - the "ism" part - the structuring of it to form a religion or "cult" - the process itself DESTROYS true Gnosis - this is why Christ had us shun and avoid ALL forms of organised,temple "worship" - quit babbling like a pagan He told them - go ALONE IN SECRET - shut the door - dont allow the world to intrude - seek my Father in the empty silence of your own inner mind - NOT ever to be found in the temple - from a priest or book from a man - but instead ALWAYS He advised - seek this inner LIVING Presence - bring it forth always...

So all the confusion continued - they MURDERED Him to silence Him - then as we know - we end up with hundreds of years of civil unrest until finally - ROME - military power - literally DICTATES a new "one religion" and ENFORCES its truth on the whole world as it set about conquering and expanding ROMES power (it has nothing to do with spiritual truth at all,simply power mongering always)...And as they did this of course they DESTROYED pretty much ALL trace of Yeshua who IS Christ - and replaced it with "jesus of the bible" - a part fiction character based ON the life and Divine truth of Yeshua, but now twisted to suit this religious purpose of DOMINATION...

Out of all that mix of confusion - various so called "gnostic truths" were presented - chief among them of course,this issue of "demi urge" and the "flesh is evil" - lol - Im laughing there because Christ Himself actually - SAID NO SUCH THINGS !!

The new forming CATHOLIC church - literally INVENTED the "gnostic religion" - they have us believe it is structured similar to THEIR religion - and they do this ,present it that way because simply they needed an ENEMY to justify all this war, murder and destruction - as they SYSTEMATICALLY go about hunting down and destroying all the LEGITIMATE truth of Christ - and replace it the world over with bogus "catholic creed and doctrine"...THEY primarily - promoted this "demi urge" idea - THEY primarily promoted the idea that "flesh is evil" - all part of their CONTROL system - trapped here they say - in NEED of "salvation" that only THEY can provde - they have us believe this demi urge is an enemy - INVENTED the satan evil character - again - CHRIST NEVER MENTIONS ANY OF IT - which is very strange once we realise that actually, He told us EVERYTHING - right from my Fathers first stirring mind - through to mankind here and now - and even what to expect after mortal death, both under the lesser one Yahweh - and also what to expect if we CHOOSE to follow Christ and attain my Fathers rest..

Two seperate and isolated realms are at the heart and core of all this - Christ alone is the legitimate bridge - the legitimate path to our true Divine Home and Divine inheritance..He came to give us this truth - so that it would finally free us from the false domination of a lesser god - but look here - He NEVER says ANYWHERE - that there is a deity or god or ANY SUCH THING - that is in "opposition" to my Father - NEVER MENTIONS anything like that at all....These Bible narratives and accepted truths are the reflection of the LEGITIMATE narrative that Christ gave - the lesser god Yahweh as we name it, has us believe it is supreme and tells us that IT has an "adversary" - but in real world terms the oppisition to this one is legitimate as this one is not supreme and is bogus, claiming Divine authority over all that it simply is not entitled to hold..

ALL Christ says about it - is that a mistake happened - an angel created and cast away alone and hidden - that Angel He said is OUR god who creates us - it ONCE believed it was supreme (alone and isolated) - but when it learned its truth,it became jealous and fearful,chose to dominate the Souls here and hold us captive in its own isolated realm - for THIS REASON - Christ intervened directly....Took a mortal form here among us - to cause to exist a metaphysical energetic pathway that then linked the two forgotten realms as one - Souls here able to travel freely once they learn how and no longer forced into a Self perpetuating cycle of death birth death HERE in these low realms - but free finally to TRANSCEND and attain the High realms that were once hidden from us...

If any doubt this truth - then I ask you to consider the Beginning of it All as Christ Himself recounts it - I will paraphrase modern plain English as always - Our Father is a MIND that literally IMAGINES that which it Will Be - this is how Creation occurs - a SELF CREATED BEING always - to link these two isolated realms, the MIND of CHRIST (integral to the Trinity, literally SOURCE OF CREATION) - HAD to take a physical mortal form HERE in THIS realm - thus iopening this "gateway between realms" - then - planned,known and VITAL - His mortal form,Yeshus MUST DIE - perish, to free the Divine essence again to return to SOURCE - thus allowing ALL SOULS HERE - FINALLY - to have access to that prior isolated and SEPERATE High realm...MIND CREATES EVERYTHING - never forget - Christ is a METAPHYSICAL and UNIVERSAL truth to ALL existance

Self perception is ALWAYS the master key - as He said - KNOW THY SELF FULLY ALL our wisdom - all our confusion - comes from those who themselves have NEVER encountered the High truth - for that there is Christ alone....

I must stress here - He NEVER speaks of an evil god a demi urge or adversary to my Father - BUT - He does say "evil" and "sin" exist - and these are the products of SELF IGNORANCE borne here in the mundane mortal ISOLATED and therefore LIMITED world of form...He knows the results of this Self ignorance are very pervasive here - and so His PRIMARY teaching was never the truth of the greater realms or the lesser one Yahweh - these are all incidentals He said - side tracks - obstacles to avoid, and indeed HIS truth alone, allows the Soul to literally "by pass" Yahwehs "trap" of imposed spiritual slavery and DIRECTLY attain the High relams once we shed this mortal form. To achieve this ability to Transcend He said - first and foremost - we MUST come to KNOW THY SELF - fully and absolutely - then He said literally all "mystery" will become revealed - Angels and Prophets He PROMISED - will come to us as required and so the true Gnostic encounters the "supernatural" and it becomes as said - NATURAL - there is a gateway deep within the mind He advised - find it - open it,go through - allow that which you find there to be the Guide, and the ONLY guide - and I tell you ALL - this is truly the essence of Gnosis - NEVER a structured religion - NEVER a teaching from a book or man that can bring only further confusion - BUT ALWAYS - the LIVING communion - as my mortal Soul here encounters and becomes literally and directly - the Universal and Eternal Christ...As always,for those with ears to hear..

Thanks for this.

Regards
DL

I likewise am repelled by New Age beliefs. As far as I am concerned they are nothing but nonsense.

I like aspects of the modern movement identifying itself as Gnostic, but I am not anti-cosmic, nor do I think there is any special fall or reason that suffering exists other than the fact that we are bits of the universe that have evolved in such a way as to possess a sense of separation. That doesn't mean that the universe or matter is fundamentally flawed, either, even if circumstances do not always unfold the way we wish them to: the universe simply is what it is.

Hi Folks..

EverChanging; Yes I like that - agree entirely...This on the personal individual level is always unvaoidably an issue of either - Ignorant Self creation - or Sentient Self creation - but that Self Creation process itself is UNSTOPPABLE - truly this is Karma - and as your name implies, we are indeed ever changing - and with a little Self observation - we will raise our mind out of the Ignorance and become fully Sentient - Self aware AS the SOURCE of Creation itself.....

ELoWolfe said:

I am reading a study on contemporary Gnosticism which the author of the study is comparing Ecclesia Gnostica (Hoeller), Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (Crowley), and Universal Christian Gnostic Movement (Weor). A common thread through all of these is their beginnings focus on the Theosophy Society, even if these groups attempt to downplay the connection. The Theosophy Society, for whatever they're worth, was fairly "New Age" themselves. They took superficial understandings of any religion, attempted to connect them, but did not seem to integrate them. An example I can think of with this rather sloppy connecting practice is brought down to Hoeller in his annual Tarot Card readings. Not only was the concept of Tarot known to classical Gnostics, but the concept of the Tarot would place it at odds with Gnosticism (since Tarot, and Astrology, use systems within the system of Demiurge to predict future outcomes, the source is not the Father of Revelation). So the organizations which claim to be Gnostic are already faulted with a foundation of New Age.

The fact that these organizations are different (at least on the surfaces) also complicates things because it begs the question of "What is Gnostic?" Each claim their way is the proper right way. Hoeller even attempts to "brand" his method as the correct way (ignoring other organizations such as Apostolic Johannite Church) and discrediting Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. Anyone looking for a specific organization to learn from would probably find either Ecclesia Gnostica or Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and because of the closeness of their name, they would probably be confused by what exactly is gnosis.

Click to expand...

Perfectly agreed, except I would prefer Neognostic as a general term of diverse New-Age movements adopting some Gnostic traits. I would regard EG as Liberal Catholics in quasi-Gnostic guise, they seem to make heavy use of Jung, and his ideas of praising Abraxas the Demiurge, seems to be a ... misunderstanding. They obviously have inherited the pompous narcissism from Jung too. EGC, broke with Christianity with Aleister Crowley, and so is nothing like theosophical anymore, and not very Gnostic by the way either, although some Johannites tolerate them. UCGM (the Samaelians) imported most of its material from George Gurdjieff who invented his own teaching. Samael Aun Weor added his own books to the books of Gurdjieff. In conclusion neither of them is very Gnostic.

ELoWolfe said:

This leads to misinformation about what gnosis is. People look up gnosis, but the popular definition is in flux. The academic definition is difficult as well, but the academic is controlled by peer review while the popular is not. Anyone who has "convert zeal" will go out and profess what they learned and build upon it. We end up getting sites such as gnostic.org which is not Gnostic but rather New Age. Gnosticism does not profess "There is only One Truth and the Religions of the World are but facets of its expression" (found on website; many religions and faiths are of the Demiurge), nor would a Gnostic worry about or even sell an astrology chart (offered through main page of website). Much of what is said on that page is, to be blunt, garbage. It is not gnostic. Yet people will see it.

Click to expand...

I've experienced that too. Most groups on Facebook uphold the Theosophical definition of Gnosis. The academics who use the term, claim that it instead means "sacred knowledge".

ELoWolfe said:

Gnosis and gnostic are rather esoteric terms because it is in Greek, and there is no proper English equivalent that really encompasses what gnosis is. It is more than just "knowledge." So because of this lack of "concrete" usage, and because of the Theosophical Society hijacking the word first, it opened up a floodgate of misinformation and the New Age to take it over. While the Theosophical Society may be thanked for reaching the limits of their time and pushing boundaries, they really "screwed the pooch" with their lack of a cohesive and solid foundation, their lack of regard for scholarship, and their misuse of vocabulary to express what was proper instead of what they thought was proper.

Click to expand...

Gnosis is "sacred knowledge" per academic definition. In pure Greek it means experiential knowledge, and in ancient pagan religious system, it referred to experiences gotten in mystery-rites. Gnostic and Gnosticism is a modern construct. Some academics would prefer to remove the term, some other claim that it refers to certain Judaic and Christian sects that had an aeonic cosmology with angels and a fallen world ruled by destructive archons or fallen angels. I for my part cannot appreciate the Theosophical Society and the authoritarian Helena Blavatsky very much. She was just trying to make her own religion. Gnosticism was revived before the Theosophers emerged: the French Gnostic's emerged earlier in the 19th century, the key person being Jules Doinel. It was a messy conglomerate of New Age this-and-that from the very beginning, but at least they aren't necessary adherents of theosophy, nor Jung.

EverChanging said:

I likewise am repelled by New Age beliefs. As far as I am concerned they are nothing but nonsense.

I like aspects of the modern movement identifying itself as Gnostic, but I am not anti-cosmic, nor do I think there is any special fall or reason that suffering exists other than the fact that we are bits of the universe that have evolved in such a way as to possess a sense of separation. That doesn't mean that the universe or matter is fundamentally flawed, either, even if circumstances do not always unfold the way we wish them to: the universe simply is what it is.

Click to expand...

But matter is entropic. That means that we by necessity must die, and that it is an inherent quality of this universe. I would call that a flaw.

Tomas Kindahl said:

But matter is entropic. That means that we by necessity must die, and that it is an inherent quality of this universe. I would call that a flaw.

Click to expand...

Why?

EverChanging said:

But matter is entropic. That means that we by necessity must die, and that it is an inherent quality of this universe. I would call that a flaw.

Click to expand...

Why?

Click to expand...

Life is a mechanism for keeping entropy low, that's an essential quality of life (part of the definition). The failure of that mechanism is death. It's the definition of death. Since the 2nd law of thermodynamics by necessity increases entropy in the university, by necessity we must die. In this universe.

I'm in on this nearly a year late, but my 2 cent's worth is that the term 'Gnostic' is thrown about rather haphazardly these days, with anything touching on Christianity-but-not-quite-Christian being labeled as 'Gnostic' whether it really is or not. As such, putting any crackpot theory under the blanket of Gnosticism provides an easy out for those who want to ignore it or attack it.

For myself, I am trying to follow in the footsteps of the medieval Cathars, a Christian faith with definite Manichaean/Gnostic roots. As one can go as deep into the rabbit hole of Gnosticism as one wants, I try to keep it as simple as possible.

The main sources for this are Helena Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, Samuel Aun Weor, and David Icke, who each appropriated Gnostic ideas for their own syncretic beliefs.

Since the New Age Movement tends to have heavy overlap with Theosophy and Thelema, which are closely tied to Blavatsky and Crowley, it's not really a surprise that they have taken up an interest in Gnosticism.