I'm neither Christian nor Hindu, so I don't know how helpful my words here will be, but I'll give it a try, anyway. :)
I am...well, I hesitate to say "I am a Gnostic" because that sounds so pretentious to me, like I'm saying that I have acquired all the gnosis I could possibly need, which is...
I know it's not exactly what the OP is asking, but same here. Gnosticism is essentially a reconstructionist movement as well, though probably not to the extent that Neopaganism is.
I think that if I have any sense of nostalgia, it's left over from former lives. :p
I think we should do what we can to make our world a better place for others. Some people might to choose to do that through politics, and others might choose to do it in other ways. Compassion is a virtue that comes from the Father, and we should use it as often as possible.
BUT we...
Ugh. People twist the word "gnosticism" to make it mean whatever they want it to. I know there's not much that can be done about it, but it's still super-annoying.
My thoughts are that, regardless of how flawed this universe is, we're still stuck in it until we can rejoin the Light. We can...
You're welcome! And you're not insane at all. I kinda half-remembered because I've read the story recently. It's in the Secret Book of John, maybe? Again, don't hold me to that. My memory's gotten bad in my old age. :facepalm:
ETA: It was bugging me, so I looked it up. The story (or one...
I think they're two different beings. However, I don't know that I take the Demiurge's word for it that Lucifer/Satan/whoever is evil. I just think that the Demiurge was enough of an egomaniac that he needed an opponent of some sort to rally his people around or whatever, so he created the...
I saw this post earlier, but wasn't sure how to respond. I'll give it a shot now.
Yes, the Demiurge is alive and well. His archons are, too. Just look around you if you're not sure.
As for the rest of your post, I think you and I come from such different points of view that I'm not sure...
The Unknown God is the supreme consciousness of the universe, infinitely loving, the source of all truth, and totally outside the influence of space and time, although His essence pervades it. So He's both transcendent and immanent.
Yes.
Neither, really. We just are, just like God is...
I don't know how particular schools of Gnostic thought view it, unfortunately.
Personally, I view it like I do pretty much everything in the Bible: Parts of it are inspired by the Unknown God, parts of it are inspired by the Demiurge, and most of it is a human trying to make sense of...
I take the characters of Gnostic mythology literally. (Just personal preference.) So, yes, I do believe there's a Demiurge and that he and his archons are real beings who created...something. Maybe it's the whole known Universe, maybe it's only our planet, or maybe it's just the uncharted...
I don't subscribe to any one particular "school" of Gnosticism, mostly because what we're all doing is just reconstructionism, anyway. Gnosticism had been dead for centuries until its revival a couple of hundred years or so ago--excepting the Mandaeans, of course. I take what makes sense to...
I just kinda...don't really.
I'm not that great at visualization and have zero spatial intelligence. I can't really wrap my brain around things like that. I think in words. :facepalm:
I have a kind of vague and hazy impression of a beam of light from a giant flashlight or something...
Yay for this topic! I really like the idea of making it a point to start emphasizing the different types of theism(s) more often. There are lots of us out there who believe in...something...but aren't classical monotheists, and, like y'all said, it often gets pushed aside.
*Says the rabbit...
Thank you for this thread. I've been thinking about starting a similar one about individual Gnostic practices, but now I don't have to. :p
I don't feel comfortable in churches, either. Never have. So I sorta do my own thing. Even if there were "Gnostic" churches around, I still don't think...
I believe that Jesus was the biological child of Mary and Joseph. To my way of thinking, it doesn't matter where the body that housed the spirit of Christ came from. Jesus was Divine because of that spirit, not because of who his biological father was.