The Gnostic Christ--Who, What, Why? A Simple Explanation of the Redeemer

Gnosticism is the forerunner of the modern Christian faith. As such, a better understanding of the figure of the Christ is essential to understanding both Gnosticism and Christianity. The cosmology outlined below was well-known to Jesus and his original followers, but was cut out of Christianity about 1,700 years ago by the Nicene Council at the urging of the Pope and the Roman Emperor. Fortunately, a trove of 13 ancient Gnostic texts was discovered in 1945, dating back to the origins of Christianity. This collection is known as the Nag Hammadi codices.

Because this theology was subtracted from orthodox Christianity, many of the ideas of Gnostic cosmology sound odd and unfamiliar to modern church-goers. Some of the ideas may even sound heretical at first glance, due to their unfamiliarity. Yet the theology contained in these early scriptures make sense of so many puzzling aspects of Christian faith that they must be reexamined. So, if you will bear with me, I will explain in very simple terms the key points of Gnostic belief. I am confident that once you understand Gnostic Christianity, you will better understand your relationship with God.

According to Gnostic cosmology as laid out in the Nag Hammadi, we humans and all other forms of life on earth, from bacteria and eukaryotes on up, are the "fruit" of the Pleroma and Logos. We Second Order Powers find ourselves locked in a never-ending battle for dominion over the earth with forces that were generated as a result of the Fall. Due to the law of mutual combat, we have forgotten our origin in the Fullness and our mission to bring love and harmony to creation, and have instead taken on many of the characteristics of the shadows of the Deficiency.

Below is how I have visualized the Gnostic creation story—this may help you to better understand the order of creation and why the Christ is needed.

Before the beginning, before our universe, before time and space, there was pure Originating Consciousness and Love (the Father).

Then Originating Consciousness had a thought. This first thought is called the Son. The Son is the First Fruit of the Father.

The Son had many thoughts. These distinct ideas and attributes of the Son are altogether known as the Fullness of God. Individually, they are called "Aeons."

The Pleroma (the Fullness of God) is the Aeons sorted into a hierarchy of functions and forms. Some of the Aeons are personalities, and some of the Aeons are processes such as laws of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology; still others are powers such as gravity or beauty; still others are talents such as music and art. The Pleroma is made up of all of the individual characteristics of the Son working in perfect harmony.

The Aeon at the top of the hierarchy, named Logos, broke the rules by attempting to reach beyond the Pleroma and Fell; the Fall created the material universe.

Lacking the Son's blessing of love and consciousness, the shadows of the Fall (known as the Deficiency) are small, dead, and chaotic. 

The Aeon named Logos, who had fallen and broken open, prayed for a solution to clean up the shadows that had spilled forth from his creative blueprint.

Together, the Aeons and Logos fashioned the Second Order Powers to populate the Deficiency and bring life to the lifeless material of the Fall. (Most Gnostic texts call the Mother of these Second Order Powers “Sophia”—the Aeon who serves as the conduit and doorway for birth and consciousness into this universe.

The Simple Explanation model identifies this torus shape as the Womb of Creation. In Gnostic terms, this shape is “Sophia,” the Mother of Life on Earth.

The Second Order Powers are locked in a never-ending war with the Deficiency. Here below we constantly battle the physical forces of death and entropy, as well as the spiritual forces of vice, sin, delusion, and despair.

In order to restore memory and reason to the Second Order Powers, the Aeons of the Fullness, every one of them individually and all of them collectively, gave glory in unison to their Father while praying for a helper to bring peace to the Deficiency and forgiveness to Logos. Out of their focused prayer, a unique fruit emerged, one that contained all of the capabilities and powers of the Fullness along with all of the love and eternal qualities of the Father.

The singular Fruit of the Fullness and the Father is known by various names—the Christ, the Savior and the Redeemer, the Advocate, the Light, the Beloved.

In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ is a perfect and full fractal of the Father and the Son, all rolled up into One perfect form. 

Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth was both perfect Man and perfect God incarnate. Christian Gnostics believe the same. Here is the more complete explanation of who Jesus was:

It is said that Jesus was conceived without sin, because he carried within his body the perfection of Man and God. This would mean that Jesus’s DNA was perfect and true to the original DNA formula for humanity, hence the importance of the virgin birth that imparted that perfect DNA to the baby.

Jesus was also without negative karma in his soul, as his soul was the soul of God.

The components of Jesus’s body were also without sin, as the cells and flesh that became Jesus were in fact the Aeons of the Fullness incarnate. As Colossians 1:19 says, “For God was pleased to have all his Fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

This one sentence from Colossians contains the entire Christian Gnostic gospel. Because Jesus brought along the entire Fullness of the Pleroma when he incarnated, every aspect of the Father and the Son came to material instantiation on earth. In this manner, the eternal God experienced the finite life of us Second Order Powers and all of the struggles between birth and death that plague us all.

Here is how the Tripartite Tractate describes it:

“As for those of the shadow, [Logos] separated himself from them in every way, since they fight against him and are not at all humble before him... The stumbling, which happened to the Aeons of the Father... was brought to them, as if it were their own, in a careful and nonmalicious and immensely sweet way. It was brought to the Fullnesses so that they might be instructed about the Deficiency by the single One, from whom alone they all received strength to eliminate the defects.

“They gathered together, asking the Father with beneficent intent that there be aid from above, from the Father, for his glory since the defective one could not become perfect in any other way, unless it was the will of the Pleroma of the Father, which he had drawn to himself, revealed, and given to the defective one. Then from the harmony, in a joyous willingness which had come into being, they brought forth the fruit, which was a begetting from the harmony, a unity, a possession of the Fullnesses, revealing the countenance of the Father, of whom the Aeons thought as they gave glory and prayed for help for their brother with a wish in which the Father counted himself with them. Thus it was willingly and gladly that they brought forth the fruit.

“And he made manifest the agreement of the revelation of his union with them—which was his beloved Son. But the Son in whom the Fullnesses are pleased put himself on them as a garment, through which he gave perfection to the defective one, and gave confirmation to those who are perfect, the one who is properly called ‘Savior’ and ‘the Redeemer’ and ‘the Well-Pleasing One’ and ‘the Beloved,’ ‘the One to whom prayers have been offered’ and ‘the Christ’ and ‘the Light of those appointed,’ in accordance with the ones from whom he was brought forth, sine he has become the names of the positions which were given to him. Yet, what other name may be applied to him except ‘the Son,’ as we previously said, since he is the knowledge of the Father, whom he wanted them to know?

“Not only did the Aeons generate the countenance of the Father to whom they gave praise, but also they generated their own; for the Aeons who give glory generated their countenance and their face. They were produced as an army for him, as for a king, since the beings of the thought have a powerful fellowship and an intermingled harmony. They came forth in a multifaceted form in order that the one to whom help was to be given might see those to whom he had prayed for help. He also sees the One who gave it to him.”  [Tripartite Tractate, sections 85—87]

So, you see, the mission of the Christ, as stated in Colossians, was to redeem all of creation, including the fallen Aeon who founded our material universe. Because the Christ came to redeem everyone, the body of Jesus came to earth with every one of the Fullnesses on board. For every fallen spirit, the Christ brought their own personal and recognizable Savior.

Redemption has already taken place. It is up to the Second Order Powers and the Aeon  who fell to recognize and accept that redemption in order to complete the mission of the Christ. In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ brought the correcting formula for all of our spirits and souls, each unique and personally formulated to meet our individual needs. The baptism of the Christ washes away the mental and spiritual confusion brought on by the endless war with shadows of the Fall. 

Gnostics are apocalyptic, as are Christians. Gnostics believe that some day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus the Christ is Lord. Repentance and redemption comes harder for some than for others. Some souls take more time to recognize and remember. Ultimately, there comes a day of reckoning, for the Father cannot be denied forever. 

There will soon come a day when the Deficiency ends. On that day, a new economy will unite Heaven and Earth, and all souls will find their joyous place in Paradise. The only forms banished to the outer darkness will be the shadows and phantoms of the Fall, which did not exist within the Father from the beginning. These shadows are not real, and they have no home with us in Paradise.

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If you are interested in reading more about the Gnostic gospel, please read my very simple The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated. I have priced it low so that everyone who wants to know more can afford it.

The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated is available at all online bookstores and also as a kindle ebook.

Aeon Byte Program--Gnostic Roundup 2

Cyd appeared on Miguel Conner's second Gnostic Roundup program on Aeon Byte radio on October 15th, 2020, alongside a few other self-identified Gnostics. We discussed a number of interesting topics, such as some differences between Sethian and Valentinian Gnosticism, and the role of gender and if the aeon's have male and female genders. Miguel shared some of his vast knowledge of histories and fables of the gods and how ancient and modern Gnostics relate to them. Some of the panelists shared their personal enlightenment stories about how they came to discover the God above all gods and how it changed their lives, and Miguel shared how he continues to have his worldview shaken by ongoing revelations of truth. 

This is an unusual and sometimes profound discussion amongst a unique assortment of souls. 

Miguel has asked me not to repost these videos, so if you want to view them, please visit Aeon Byte and become a subscriber to his podcasts. 

Our Aeonic Inheritance

 Our Aeonic Inheritance

According to the Tripartite Tractate, the structure of the Pleroma is described as a hierarchical structure where the spiritual aeons are at the top, the psychical (mental) aeons are in the middle, and the physical (material) aeons are at the base. The material types of the Pleroma must be thought of as forces and powers, not as actual material, for the Pleroma is an ethereal concept that rests outside of our material universe.  The psychical types are similar to the personalities of the gods of various ancient religions—Greek and Roman gods, Egyptian gods, and so on. These types of aeons have well-defined personalities and talents. The spiritual types are called the “spiritual ones” and the “original church,” and it is their job to remain focused on the Father, continuously giving glory. Giving glory to the Father is the method by which the Pleroma remains aligned with the One and functioning within the Father’s will.

These three types of aeons sit together in the hierarchy of the Pleroma. And while we identify the spiritual type as closest to the One, all aeons of the Pleroma are virtuous and good, for they are expressions of all of the traits of the Son, and the One and the Son are good. The aeons of the Pleroma (the ALL, the Fullness, the Totalities) have material counterparts here in our material universe, although they themselves are ethereal potentials with no physical or energetic manifestation. The aeons and their forces and personalities are more akin to thoughts or designs than they are to creatures.

We humans are aggregates of all three types of aeons, fulfilling a version of the adage “As above, so below.” The material part is our physical  structure--the mud and meat informed by the matter-building aeonic forces and powers. We can think of these matter-building forces and powers as the primary forces of our universe, such as electromagnetic energy, gravity, and the strong and weak atomic forces, coupled with the laws of physics and chemistry. All together these material forces and powers build every physical structure in our universe, from sub-atomic particles through stars and galaxies, as well as all of the material building blocks of life forms. The matter formed by these forces will not continue on when the end of this cosmos comes, although the aeonic forces will.

The psychical part of our human bodies is very easy to identify as the psychological nature of our selves—our personalities, our talents, our emotions and minds. Our personal identity mainly resides in the psychical level. Our identities will continue after the cosmos is over, because our identities are fractal composites of the personality aeons. When Jung talks about sub-selves and archetypes, this is what he is referring to.

The spiritual part of ourselves is that part which is often identified as our higher Self—the inner sense of awe of the transcendent. This is the part that turns to prayer and other worshipful activities such as meditation, hymn singing, and religious rituals designed to strengthen that connection with our higher self and communicate with God. This is the portion that keeps us aligned with the Father and the Pleroma—that which faces onward and upward. This part will also continue on as it is patterned after the spiritual aeons.

All three elements of the person--the  material, the psychical, and the spiritual—are part of us, and it is our life task to recognize and merge these fragmented parts into an integrated whole.  

The Tripartite Tractate says that there are people who are mostly physical, people who are mostly psychical, and there are a few who are mostly spiritual. We can observe this through personal experience.

The physical types we call materialists. They generally believe that matter is really all that exists and that consciousness is a only a fleeting by-product of the material brain of humans brought about by chemical reactions. Materialists often work in the sciences, describing the physical universe as precisely as they can. There are even psychologists who are physical types; they tend to believe that humans are simply conditioned from birth to behave the way they do. BF Skinner, the father of behaviorism and discoverer of operant conditioning, is a good example of a materialist psychologist who did not believe in either the psychical or spiritual dimensions.

The psychical types of humans are quite interested in the life of the mind. “I think therefore I am,” as Descartes put it. They may even be solipsists—folks who believe that their mind is the only mind and everything and everyone else in the apparent universe is a projection of their own viewpoint. This position is sometimes called extreme egocentrism.

The spiritual types of humans are those whose primary orientation is upward toward the Father. These are the prophets, teachers, evangelists, hymn singers and composers, and so on. They often discount the importance of the ego self and the physical body, placing emphasis upon the higher Self and the spiritual plane. They are sometimes mendicants or those with a strong streak of asceticism, as was Buddha before his experience of Enlightenment.

In my imagination, the Pleroma sits in its hierarchy like a pyramidal-shaped slime mold. The fascinating thing about slime molds is that they are comprised of single-celled organisms that work as a fully integrated whole, moving as one, simultaneously sharing information and nutrition across the entirety. “All for one and one for all” is their motto. Like the slime mold, the Pleroma is both a singular unit as well as a collection of individuals with one mind, singing one song, dreaming one dream.

The dream of the Pleroma is that place we humans recognize as Paradise. In this dream of theirs, there are the “figures” which preceded us and our world. The Pleroma dreams of our entire cosmos, including everything and everyone in it, with all of the figures imagined in the same manner a human filmmaker imagines the characters and settings of a movie long before the stage is built, characters cast, and the play enacted and filmed. And the way the Paradise is constructed and populated is by the aeons (Totalities)  combining their abilities and talents to make up novel combinations of themselves.

According to the Tripartite Tractate, we are the “living figures” that represent in this material world the figures and forces of the Pleroma, and we are patterned directly from them and we are their “fruit.”

“Not only did the aeons generate the countenance of the Father to whom they gave praise, ... but also they generated their own; for the aeons who give glory generated their countenance and their face. They were produced as an army for him, as for a king, since the beings of the thought have a powerful fellowship and an intermingled harmony.” [Tripartite Tractate, v. 87]

“The fruit of the agreement with him, of which we previously spoke, is subject to the power of the Totalities (aeons). For the Father has set the Totalities within him, both the ones which pre-exist and the ones which are, and the ones which will be. ... He directed the organization of the universe according to the authority which was given him, from the first and according to the power of the task.” [Tripartite Tractate, v. 88]

The way this generation came about is part of Gnostic cosmology. It is said that the best and brightest of the aeons reached for the glory of the Father and attempted to reunite with the One without consensus, leaving behind the rest of the Pleroma. Instead of reuniting with the Father, the aeon fell out of the Pleroma and broke open in another dimension, scattering its components in all directions. It is this scattering of the disobedient aeon that became our cosmos. At first the cosmos was entirely chaotic, arising as it did from disobedience. The Pleroma, in concert with the Father, immediately sent down their forces, talents, and personalities to give structure and order to the chaos. These were all based upon the aeons’ dream of Paradise. In this manner, creation was populated by fruit of the Pleroma.

“Then from the harmony, in a joyous willingness which had come into being, they brought forth the fruit, which was a begetting from the harmony, a unity, a possession of the Totalities, revealing the countenance of the Father, of whom the aeons thought as they gave glory and prayed for help for their brother (who fell) with a wish in which the Father counted himself with them. Thus, it was willingly and gladly that they bring forth the fruit.” [Tripartite Tractate, v. 86]

Our world reflects the multiplicity of the aeons’ dream of Paradise, overlaid upon the consequences of the broken cosmos created by the Fall. Our universe mirrors Paradise and its figures while still possessing the chaos and shadows that arose from the Fall. We creatures here below must contend with the disaster of the Fallen state, yet with a dim remembrance of the Pleroma, the Father, and the Paradise which is our true home.

In order to give more assistance to us, the living figures, in our struggles with the shadows of the Fall, the Father and the Pleroma produced another fruit that was the perfection of the entirety combined with the love and eternal traits of the Father. This one is called the Christ, and it came to our cosmos in the guise of every form and figure, so that every form and figure would recognize it and receive aid, reassurance, and redemption. The plan is for every manifestation of the material cosmos to be inhabited by the correcting information and love of the Christ, thereby eliminating once and for all the Fallen State. At that point, our eternal spirits will return to a new home in Paradise, where there is no death or destruction, no loss, or grief, and every living figure that has existed throughout time will someday call home.

It is our life’s task to integrate the physical, psychical, and spiritual aeons of which we are composed into a single, “truly living” figure. This can only be accomplished with the guiding aid of the Christ to steer our spiritual orientation onward and upward. We call this “giving glory” to either the Christ or the Father, which necessitates a turning away from focus on our isolated egos and preoccupation with our physical forms.

In Gnostic Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth is Christ incarnate. He was a fully integrated human being, fully human, fully God, sent to lead humanity out of our fallen, fragmented state. It is said that on judgment day, every living figure will recognize, remember, and repent, with help from the Christ, that they came from the Father and to the Father they will gladly return. This, of course, is exactly what the aeons who are our parents are waiting for. Waiting to welcome us home.

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 You may read all about this in my very simple book, The New Gnostic Gospel. Please purchase here.

 

Aeon Byte Program Gnostic Round-up 1 Appearance

This blog's author, Cyd Ropp, was a guest panelist last week on Aeon Byte's Gnostic Round-up program with Miguel Conner. The entire program lasted a little over one hour. 

Miguel has asked me not to repost these videos, so if you want to view them, please visit Aeon Byte and become a subscriber to his podcasts. 

Here is a three minute clip from near the end of the program. In this clip, I remind us all that we do not need to read and learn every darned thing that is out there. There is too much to master. Gnosis is self-generated through contemplation and remembrance. We need only to search for the answers within.

In my reading of the Tibetan Book of  the Dead, I noticed that the instructions for the departed soul's escape from the various bardos boil down to this one simple phrase:  "Onward and Upward."  No matter which bardo the soul is stuck in, the solution is Onward and Upward. That's all you need to remember. 

If you find yourself stuck in a strange place, and you are tumbling about under the surface like a surfer who has just wiped out, remember to go Onward and to go Upward. That is always the solution, no matter which particular bardo you find yourself in.

The demons that are grabbing at you are always back and below. Back and below is where the things that cause you to be stuck are. The past and the recriminations are back and below. You do not have to beat them or even to interact with them. All you have to do is turn around and look up. Travel onward and upward.

Archons Making a Full-Court Press for the World--Lay Down Your Fear through Faith

It becomes more and more clear that life has taken a distinctly weird turn to the left into territory usually occupied by apocalyptic science fiction. There is no denying that the archons are making a big power play right now for Earth. Distinctions between vice and virtue, evil and good, materialism and spirit, are being revealed to all. What was once murky and confusing becomes more clear by the day.

As I type this, a world-wide pandemic has locked down humans to their homes. In the name of the pandemic, humans are wearing masks to hide their faces. In the name of the pandemic, humans may no longer shake hands in greeting or come within six feet of each other. In the name of the pandemic, children do not go to school. In the name of the pandemic, small businesses remain boarded up while mega-corporations prosper. In the name of the pandemic, politics as usual has been suspended in favor of protests, riots, and assassinations.

Cataclysmic weather and fires assail the earth. The sky is orange and  thick with smoke. Homes are destroyed.

Are you frightened? There is no need to be. Will you allow me to reassure you?

Most people think the opposite of faith is disbelief. This isn't true. The opposite of faith is fear. The way out of your fear is through the gateway of faith. This is a gateway that every person must pass through on their way to redemption from fear.

Anger will not remove your fear. Blame will not remove your fear. Resistance will not remove your fear. Masks and social distancing will not remove your fear. Only faith will remove your fear.

If you are a religious or spiritually-oriented person, you already know this, deep in your soul. If you are a materialistic or worldly person, you do not realize this truth yet and you reject this advice as hopelessly ignorant and naive. But the fact of the matter is that everyone, every human being on the planet, will come to realize this, and it is a hoop that everyone must pass through. And we all must pass through one at a time, individually.

The good news is this: good is stronger than evil. The One who is above all other distractions, gods, and archons, will win in the end. It is time for you to remember that. It is time for you to remember that you come from Above, and you will return to the One after death. 

Remember, these events shall pass and we will all live happily ever after. 

You may read all about these eternal forces and your home Above in many sources. One good source is my book, The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated, which explains all that you need to know for redemption and freedom from fear.

This book is easy to understand and very affordable.

Onward and upward!

Gnostic Dog Walk Musings--Can Humans Create Life from Scratch?

I've just posted an article over on my  Simple Explanation blog called "We Can't Level Up to Create Consciousness." The article is suitable for the Simple Explanation because it talks about things like "leveling up" and the Simple Golden Rule, and it has a toroidal diagram.  On the other hand, it could have been posted here, to the Gnostic Blog because the Big Answer to my musings turns out to come from the Pleroma and the Father.

So, go ahead and click on the link above and read this article over on the Simple Explanation blog if you are interested in things like artificial intelligence, virus self-awareness, or why humans can't seem to prod lifeless matter or even stem-cells into consciousness.

The Simple Explanation article explains and answers the musings on the following audio, recorded on December 18, 2018.

And don't forget to read my Gnostic Gospel Illuminated book. If you are curious about Gnostic cosmology, this is the best beginner book that simplifies the Gnostic Gospel as presented in the Nag Hammadi collection.

Gnostic Gospel Illuminated Book Preview

Here is an inside look at The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated as I page through it on youtube. You can see the illustrations and simple, understandable style of the book.

This book is available on amazon.com 

or buy it directly from the Gnostic Gospel bookstore on this blog.

A Gnostic Commentary on Bertrand Russell's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

A few days ago my brother shared a thoughtful essay with me, written by Maria Popova, called “The Four Desires Driving All Human Behavior.” Popova’s essay praised Bertrand Russell’s acceptance speech for his 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature. Russell could easily be called the foremost philosopher and all-around intellect of his day. Russell’s acceptance speech, which can be read in full in the book “Nobel Writers on Writing,” is considered one of the finest speeches ever delivered on the human condition.

My brother Bill and I spent some time discussing Popova’s essay and the four points put forth in Russell’s speech. We noted that the topics of the talk covered concepts explained in my own Gnostic studies, which I will now share with you. Ah, if only we could have sat and conversed with Russell face-to-face! Perhaps we shall do so someday in Paradise. In the meanwhile, this article will cover Russell’s points and give you enough Gnostic cosmology to understand my response.

In his acceptance speech, Russell claimed that desire is the primary motivator of all human activity. He then outlined four specific desires that cause people to behave the way they do: acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity, and love of power.

Regarding acquisitiveness, Russell concluded that, “However much you may acquire, you will always wish to acquire more; satiety is a dream which will always elude you.” From my Gnostic perspective, we can never be satisfied with what we have because no matter how much we have it falls short of our riches in Paradise. In fact, this cosmos in which we dwell is actually called “The Deficiency” by neo-Gnostics such as myself. Let me explain.

According to the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi scriptures, we humans, as well as all other lifeforms, were placed here on Earth to bring light and life to the Deficiency. The Deficiency, which is to say our 3-dimensional time-bound, material universe, came about as the result of a Fall from another dimension called The Pleroma, or The Fullness. The Pleroma is the home of the first created entities known as “aeons.”

In order to understand humanity, we must first understand the aeons. In the very beginning, there was only consciousness, known as the Creator, or “The Father.” Then consciousness had a thought, and this thought created an offspring referred to as “The Son.” This Son contained all of the attributes of the original consciousness, but in a limited form—the way a bucket dipped in the ocean contains a sampling of the ocean. The moment the Son arose from the Father, the Son had thoughts of its own. Each thought of the Son was its own discreet slice of the Son, and the sum total of all of these slices equaled the totality of the Son. These slices are the attributes called “aeons.” Some aeons are personalities, some aeons are formulae, some aeons are forces. Together, all of the aeons add up to the original Son, itself a constrained form of the infinite Father.

Prior to the Fall, the aeons of the Fullness sat in perfect equilibrium in their hierarchy of ranks, stations, and names.  As facets of a single entity, they were a congress of one accord, meaning they agreed on everything and they cooperated together while they dreamed a shared dream of Paradise. 

Like the Son of which they were a part, the aeons of the Fullness manifested wisdom, which is the ability to reason with logic and prudence. The aeons also arose with a thirst to seek after the originating consciousness of their Creator and a desire to remain aligned with the Father’s Will. And finally, the aeons were all creative geniuses, able to dream up a fully functioning mental Paradise where whatever they willed in the Father’s name happened. In this manner, they designed a blueprint of our universe.

In their desire to give glory to the Father, that is, to remain aligned with the will of their Creator, aeons of the Fullness followed these three, simple rules:

1. Give glory to the Father, not to the Fullness. Aeons were to remain aligned with the Son and not shift their focus to the Fullness as a whole.

2. Give glory to the Father, not to individual aeons. Aeons were to remain always mindful of the Father and not to give glory to themselves or their talented individual neighbors.

3. Give glory to the Father to the best of your own ability. An aeon was to give glory from its own location in the hierarchy. They were not to sidle up next to an aeon who appeared closer to the Father in order to borrow that aeon’s station to give better glory. Rather, the individual was to develop its own voice and talents.

The highest aeon in the hierarchy of the Fullness carried within itself all of the attributes of all of the other aeons. It was a perfect, fractal representation of the entire Fullness. According to the Tripartite Tractate, this final aeon beheld its own glory and mistook itself for the entire Fullness. This aeon then tragically launched itself out of the Fullness in an attempt to reunite with the Father’s originating consciousness. As this reunification was not possible, the aeon Fell and fractured into pieces. It is these small pieces of the Fallen aeon that seeded our material Universe.

“Thus, the free will with which the members of the ALL had been born caused this one to rush forward to give glory to the Father” on its own.  “And before he had yet produced anything to the glory of the Will and in the union of the members of the ALL, he acted presumptuously, out of an overflowing love, and rushed forward toward that which surrounds the realm of perfect glory.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 76]

In modern terms, we could say that the aeon fell from the imaginal realm into another dimension. Alone in that new dimension, the talents, personalities, and algorithms of the aeon disintegrated and formed the raw ingredients of our material universe.

The Fallen one imagined it could singlehandedly build the Paradise dreamt by the Fullness because it understood all of the plans and possessed all of the necessary talents. However, without the willing support of the Fullness, its constructed Universe fell short of actualizing the Paradisal blueprint.

“What issued from his presumptuous thought and his arrogance had existed from something that itself was deficient; because of that, what was perfect in him left him and went upward to his own” in the Fullness, leaving the “sicknesses” behind in the darkness. [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 78]

“From the faltering and division came oblivion and ignorance of oneself and of that which is.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 77]  Presumptuous thought and arrogance replaced wisdom.

No, we humans are not these blind, fallen phantoms that arose from the broken body of the aeon. We are the offspring of the aeons who remained in the Fullness, sent here to clean up the mess from the Fall. We “Second Order Powers” were sent to Earth to overthrow what had come into existence from the Fall. By sheer profusion of diversity, the cosmos came to be populated with Second Order Powers who each remembered Paradise, the Fullnesses, and their Creator.

Unfortunately, this material realm has the profound effect of causing us Second Order Powers to forget our origins and our mission of redemption. Instead, we find ourselves constantly doing battle with the Deficiency on all levels--physical, spiritual, and emotional--and, due to the Law of Mutual Combat, we have taken on many of the characteristics of the Deficiency, forgetting all about the job we were sent here to do.

That is Gnostic cosmology in a nutshell. I urge you to read my book, The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated," for an easy-to-follow explanation.

Now, back to Bertrand Russell’s acceptance speech.

Regarding acquisitiveness: Because this material plane was created as the result of the aeon’s Fall as it was reaching for the realm of perfect glory, the bits and pieces that form our universe carry within their essence the desire to reach upward for glory. Which is to say, they always want more. And, because these bits and pieces originated within a perfect dream of Paradise, whatever the phantoms build here on this fallen plane fails to satisfy. Likewise, we Second Order Powers, trapped in this Endless War with the Deficiency, have our own dim remembrance of Paradise that causes us to be disappointed in the things we acquire here in this material realm.

Russell’s next human desire is rivalry, which is even stronger than acquisitiveness. Rivalry, as Russell used it, is more than competition—it is the desire to bring ruin upon one’s competitors. We can easily see this desire to destroy the Other in the hateful politics gripping the world today. Said Russell,

“The world would be a happier place than it is if acquisitiveness were always stronger than rivalry. But in fact, a great many men will cheerfully face impoverishment if they can thereby secure complete ruin for their rivals.”

This drive to bring ruin to others reflects, in Gnostic terms, the antithesis of love. Rather than reflecting the abundance of love that first motivated the Fallen one to forget its neighbors in the Fullness and rush upward to glory, the Fall produced shadows of the traits of the Fullness and this aeon, so that the heavenly virtues of the Fullness were inverted and only vices remained here below in the shadows. 

“Those who came into being from the presumptuous thought resemble in fact the Fullnesses of whom they are imitations, though they are phantoms, shadows, and illusions, deprived of reason and light, belonging to this empty thought, being nobody’s offspring.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 78]

Vanity is the next vice addressed by Russell. Popova points out in her essay that our culture’s excessive social media narcissism is a newly enhanced development of Russell’s observations about vanity. As Russell noted,

“Vanity is a motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children knows how they are constantly performing some antic, and saying “Look at me.” “Look at me” is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. It can take innumerable forms, from buffoonery to the pursuit of posthumous fame.”

This vanity, in Gnostic terms, arises from the “presumptuous thought” that drove the aeon’s Fall in the first place. The Fallen one beheld its own beauty and decided that itself was all that mattered. The shadows and phantoms that arose from the aeon’s ashes thought they were the most beautiful things.

“Those who came into being from the presumptuous thought resemble in fact the Fullnesses of whom they are imitations, though they are phantoms, shadows, and illusions, deprived of reason and light, belonging to this empty thought, being nobody’s offspring. . .  In their own eyes, however, they are great and powerful beings, more beautiful than the names [of the aeons in the Fullness], though they are only their shadows.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 78]

It should be noted that the vice of vanity is an inversion of the aeons’ second rule of giving glory, where the aeons were not to give glory to themselves. Vanity is giving glory to oneself instead of to the Creator. The purpose of “giving glory” is to remain centered on the object of adoration. Giving glory to oneself strengthens the ego. Giving glory to the Creator focuses attention off of ego and onto the Originating Consciousness. Giving glory is a virtue; glorifying oneself is a vice.

“In their own eyes, however, they are great and powerful beings, more beautiful than the names [of the aeons in the Fullness], though they are only their shadows.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 78]

Finally, the fourth desire driving human activity is love of power. Love of power is a lynchpin of agents of the deficiency, who always seek dominion over others. This is how Russell describes love of power:

“Love of power is closely akin to vanity, but it is not by any means the same thing. What vanity needs for its satisfaction is glory, and it is easy to have glory without power… Many people prefer glory to power, but on the whole these people have less effect upon the course of events than those who prefer power to glory… Power, like vanity, is insatiable. Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely. And as it is especially the vice of energetic men, the causal efficacy of love of power is out of all proportion to its frequency. It is, indeed, by far the strongest motive in the lives of important men.”

Russell went on to say,

“Love of power is greatly increased by the experience of power, and this applies to petty power as well as to that of potentates.”

So while love of power can easily be recognized in Presidents and the CEOs of corporations, it applies equally well to the petty tyrants and bullies found in every school, business, bureaucratic office, and family. The vice called love of power puts oneself in the position of God and reflects a belief that one’s self is worthy of dominion over others. This is a common delusion of agents of the Deficiency, growing as it does from the root of ego and presumptuous thought.

The Tripartite Tractate puts it this way:

Those of the Imitation do not know the hierarchy of the Fullness, nor do they have assigned roles and places there. Lacking the ALL’s cooperative design, they exist in a state of perpetual disturbance, driven by self-centered ambition, “exalting themselves in lust for dominion, each one of them according to the magnitude of the name of which he was a shadow, fantasizing that he would become greater than his fellows” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 79].

Russell spoke of a few more vices, including an “intoxicating love of excitement” and novelty, which he feared had little outlet in modern society.

“Civilized life has grown altogether too tame, and, if it is to be stable, it must provide harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied in hunting…” 

Russell may have heartily endorsed our videogame and VR entertainments, which allow ordinary people to do extraordinary things, including extreme violence with no harm to others. More than a vestige of the hunter lifestyle, this love of excitement and novelty often plunges us into the worst of vices—the type that start out as just a bit of harmless fun, but wind up tethering the user to deeper and longer incursions into the strange. Aside from ensnaring the unwary into vices such as alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, and anonymous sex with strangers, these indulgences for the sake of novelty and intoxicating excitement are an enormous waste of time and energy in the vain pursuit of a Paradise that is out of reach. They are also corrosive to the spirit of the Second Order Powers and distract from the mission at hand, which is to battle with vice in the Endless War with the Deficiency while bringing love and restoration to the cosmos.

We don’t know where Russell came up with his observations about human desire. It is interesting that    Gnostic cosmology so neatly answers his observations, for Russell was avowedly antireligious, believing that whatever good religion engendered, it did more harm than good. The Gnostics who wrote this cosmology would have begged to differ.

Is White Jesus Racist?

Of all the foolish notions flooding social media right now, this one takes the cake.

If you think this image of Jesus represents oppression, then you are on the wrong track, my friend.

Are you familiar with the expression, "Don't throw out the baby with the bath water" ?  This meme teaches us that there are things that must be retained when cleaning house. Only a fool would destroy the good along with the bad.

I hope you realize that negative emotions like hate, anger, and intolerance cannot build, they can only destroy.

In order to build something good, you must approach the challenge with positive emotions like love, tolerance, and acceptance. Otherwise, no matter what you tell yourself or what others tell you, you are not on the side of the angels.

For a fuller discussion of the topic of Jesus, please read my article called "A Gnostic Perspective of Jesus on the Cross."

Winning the Endless War

My friend Rebekka sent me a voice mail today telling of her appreciation of the Endless War meme as described in my book, The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated. 

"You're so right about the Endless War!" she said. "For everything good, there is something opposing it. Over here you see a beautiful butterfly, and over there a stinging wasp. Here we have a flower garden, and then come the weeds. Here we have good health, and then we are laid low by a virus."

Then she asked, "How are we to handle this Endless War? How can we overcome?  It's everywhere!" 

I thought for  few minutes, and then recorded for her a voice memo that explains how to win the Endless War. Rebekka liked it so much, she encouraged me to write it up as a blog article.  So here you are...

Those of the Deficiency are locked in Endless War with
 Those of the Remembrance 
over resources in the bounded ecology of the Economy.

[If you click on the youtube button below, you will hear the original audio file. My apologies for not embedding pictures with the audio... Just click on the "go" arrow and you'll hear me explain the article below.]

 

?? How do we win the Endless War ??

The quick answer is "Love." Love is the only thing that can win the Endless War. 

The Endless War began because of the Fall, and the Fall was a movement of Ego away from Love. So, all things on this material plane are playing out the dynamics of the Endless War, and it's the Endless War between materialism and immaterialism, between good and evil, between Ego and Love, between powers and principalities--one representing the pre-Fall state, and one representing the post-Fall state. 

The Fall is what brings pain, agony, death, destruction, rust, viruses... the bad, sad things are all the result of the Fall. This place where we live cannot sustain life and love, so we are in a constant battle with death and destruction.  We are the children of the Aeons, and our spirits are directly connected to the perfect Love that is the Fullness of God--the Pleroma and its dream of Paradise. 

We are sadly not powerful enough, any one of us, to win and to stop the Endless War. And so we look to the Savior, to the Christ, the Annointed One, for assistance.  The Christ is a creature that came directly down from the Fullness of God, with its Love bundle intact and unassailable. Evil cannot overcome the Love of the Christ. 

The hard task for the Christ is to save, or redeem, the Fall; it was never the job of the Christ to crush the evil of this world. The purpose of the Christ is Love. For this reason, we are always to return bad with good. Never meet evil with evil. We can only overcome evil with Love. And that is the only way to win the Endless War. That is why it is never a good thing to meet violence with violence. Violence can only be overcome with Love.

The ongoing mission of the Christ is to win back every fallen soul to the side of Love. Every fallen Unit of Consciousness that now sides with evil will eventually recognize God's Love.  The Christ's mission is to redeem the entire Fall.

The Christ bridges the gap between Those of the Fall and the Pleroma, by working through and alongside us Second Order Powers that remember the power of Love.

According to my reading of the Gnostic Gospel, every soul that comes down is to be redeemed by the Christ. Not to be destroyed or sent to Hell, but to be Redeemed and brought back up to the Fullness of God. So, over the course of time, as more and more instantiations of the Fullness come down to this cosmos and populate the Earth, we are doing the job of winning the souls of everything, whatever it is, and bringing it back up with us to the Fullness of God. 

By the end of time, when the Endless War will finally be over, we, with the Christ, will have Redeemed all of the Fallen souls of the cosmos. All will be regathered back up to the Pleroma where they belong. 

Evil is the lack of love. Love is the only true force in the universe. God is Love. What we have down here on Earth is the shadow of Love, or the lack of Love. And so as each piece of shadow finds the light and is returned to Love, then its Unit of Consciousness--its soul--is reclaimed back into the Pleroma.

At the final judgment, the material cosmos will disappear; the Fall will be erased; the Endless War will be won; and every Unit of Consciousness that has ever opened its eyes will be alive back up there in the Pleroma. At that time, we will all be living in a facsimile world known as Paradise. What we have here on this Earth is an evil version of Paradise. But once all the evil is gone and redeemed, it will all be good; it will be pure Paradise. 

The end goal of Redemption is return to the Father's abode--that Paradise dreamed by the Fullness, where there is no death, no disease, no disappointment, and no deficiencies. That Paradise where Christ is King and peace reigns supreme, and there is only cooperation, fellowship, and true love. In Paradise there is naught but life; so all the grass is green, and flowers blossom endlessly, and every soul that has ever lived, lives happily with their friends and families.