An Introduction to Gnosticism
David Jones
http://www.newdawnmagazine.com
An Introduction to Gnosticism
By S.M. ROMANOV
Jesus said, 'Blessed are the solitary and elect, for you will find the
kingdom. For you are from it, and to it you will return.'
— Gospel of Thomas
The term Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis meaning “ultimate
knowledge”. Joseph Campbell tells us Gnosis refers to a knowledge that
transcends “that derived either empirically from the senses or
rationally by way of the categories of thought. Such ineffable
knowledge transcends, as well, the terms and images by which it is
metaphorically suggested.”
Gnosticism is not a religion, nor is it a philosophical dogma, but a
particular body of knowledge obtained by direct personal experience of
the divine. Perhaps it cannot find a better definition than that
offered by one of the 2nd century communities specifically calling
themselves Gnostic: “The beginning of perfection is the knowledge of
Man, but absolute perfection is the knowledge of God.”
A Spiritual Path
Unlike Catholicism, Gnosticism has never been one religion or a set
creed in its own right, but is a way of life and thought. An awareness
of existence and a path to be followed, rather than a dogma to be
passively believed or obeyed. History shows that most Gnostic schools
and communities in the first three centuries were linked to what
became known as the Christian Church. In fact, several researchers
believe the Christian Church is just a debased descendent of
Gnosticism. With the discovery of Gnostic scriptures at Nag Hammadi in
1945, scholars had to confront the reality that far from being
‘heretics’, the Gnostics were the original Christians who received
their teachings directly from the disciples of Jesus. Clement of
Alexandria, an early Christian theologian, conceded: “The life of the
Gnostics is, in my view, no other than works and words which
correspond to the tradition of the Lord.”
What is today known as Christianity, in its myriad of forms including
both Catholic and Protestant varieties, is a very degraded heresy of
Gnosticism. This helps to explain the Church Father’s virulent hatred
of the Gnostics and the brutal thoroughness with which the established
Christian Church, backed by the force of the Roman Empire, tried to
stamp out the Gnostic movement in the 4th century. As the officially
sanctioned Christian Church set its sights on worldly power, the
remaining Gnostic Christians, still adhering to the original inner
teachings of Jesus, were quickly perceived as the enemy, potential
revivals to be destroyed.
Precisely because Gnosticism is a spiritual path, its truths are
timeless and beyond the limitations of structures and the outward
professions of faith. Gnosis has been expressed in varied forms in
different cultures and civilisations. This is why Gnostics are also
found within the mystical schools of Judaism and Islam. And like the
Gnostic Christians, they too have often been condemned as heretics by
the mainstream establishment of their own religion. Gnosticism can be
approached as the esoteric wisdom or inner living core in the original
revelations of all the great religions.
The Garden of Delights
The Gnostics are Knowers in contrast to mundane believers, the
possessors of an inner wisdom and guardians of an ancient secret
tradition. Humanity is viewed as scattered divine sparks trapped in
matter. As a result of their immersion in matter, the vast majority of
people have forgotten their real origin, and are ‘drunk’ or ‘asleep’.
The world into which they are born as exiles is the work of a false
god, the Demiurge, the King of the World. Trapped in the forgetfulness
of the flesh, most people are unaware of their true being, ignorant of
their real condition in the world and of their home beyond the Earth.
This is the state of mind of humanity as they move unthinkingly
towards their doom in the world, the Demiurge’s enclosed Garden of
Delights. In their state of “waking sleep” humans voyage from birth to
death aboard a ship of fools. The captain is asleep, the steersman is
drunk and the navigator has forgotten the aim of the voyage. Any fool
on board could push the steersman aside and try to steer the ship.
One ancient Gnostic text describes the exile of the Light Souls in
physical bodies:
The Soul once turned toward matter, she became enamoured of it, and
burning with the desire to experience the pleasures of the body, she
no longer wanted to disengage herself from it. Thus the world was
born. From the moment the Soul forgot herself. She forgot her original
habitation, her true centre, her eternal being.
Blinded by life in the world of the Demiurge, human beings are
persuaded, by various subtle and not so subtle methods, to do what
they are told. Men and women are perpetually conditioned, cajoled and
blackmailed into a life of compromise and acceptance of the narrowest
perceptions. The world veils the mystery of existence.
Awakening
Men and women need to be awakened again, so that they can remember
their real natures and understand their condition. Awakening is the
first step in the soul’s rescue, and the beginning of true knowledge
or Gnosis.
The Gospel of Thomas, a Gnostic text compiled at the same time of the
New Testament Gospels, declares that Jesus the Christ came from the
True God, the Heavenly Father, to remind “the children of humanity” of
where they came from and to where they should ultimately return:
Jesus said, ‘I took my stand in the midst of the world, and in the
flesh I appeared to them. I found them all drunk, and I did not find
any of them thirsty. My soul ached for the children of humanity,
because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came
into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world
empty. But meanwhile they are drunk. When they shake off their wine,
then they will repent.
Jesus the Christ called people to break free of human entanglements
and overcome the human condition! By submitting to crucifixion Jesus
pointed the way to salvation. For he who would be saved must be purged
of all carnal will and freed from everything that binds him to the
world and created things. To the Gnostic, ‘the Cross’ may include
life’s physical burdens and worldly persecution, but above all it
includes intense spiritual agonies, weariness with the world. Only
when this point has been reached, when the human condition has been
stripped utterly naked, can Gnosis be realised. Then ‘the living
Christ’ enters into the soul and the spirit is awakened and purified,
making the seeker a vessel of the Holy Spirit.
It is necessary to combat the King of the World by whatever means
necessary. One historian describes the early Gnostic Christians as
engaged in efforts “to rouse the soul from its sleepwalking condition
and to make it aware of the high destiny to which it is called.”1 This
complex apparatus of Gnostic practice, explains a writer on the
Western mystery tradition:
was designed to stimulate the divine spark within, to prepare it for
the release from flesh and for the hazardous journey of the soul
through the kingdoms of the archons, the servants of the Demiurge, who
ruled every sphere between earth and that of the Pleroma [Realm of
Light] itself.2
The Gnostic Gospel of Truth proclaims:
If one has knowledge, he is from above. If he is called, he hears, he
answers, and he turns to him who is calling him, and ascends to him.
And he knows in what manner he is called.... He who is to have
knowledge in this manner knows where he comes from and where he is
going. He knows as one who having become drunk has turned away from
his drunkenness, (and) having returned to himself, has set right what
are his own.
The world of the Demiurge is one of imperfection, darkness and evil.
Far from being a pessimistic, negative and debilitating view, as some
detractors claim, such a realisation is total freedom. Gnostics follow
a way of liberation able to break all negative earthly bonds and
empower the individual to live a full and active life while ‘being in
the world, but not of the world.’ Freed from illusions and the
numbness, sleep and drunkenness of the enclosed Garden of Delights,
the Gnostic is transformed into a warrior in the army of the King of
Light.
Gnostics strive to overcome the world and its false values, while
shaping their lives after the pattern of the Christ. Jesus’s message
was designed to make people more alive, more conscious, awaken their
longing for transformation, and open the door to real life.
Abandon sleep, awake,
behold the light
Which is drawn near.
He has come to the world!
All the sons of Darkness hide.
The Light is come, and near [is] the dawn!
Arise brethren, give praise!
We shall forget the dark night.
— Gnostic hymn
Footnotes:
1. The Early Church, Henry Chadwick
2. The Western Way, C. & J. Matthews
The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 66 (May-June 2001)