Christianity As the Pleroma
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The Black Platonism of David Lindsay
Volume 19 Number 2 Article 3 Spring 3-15-1993 Encounter Darkness: The Black Platonism of David Lindsay Adelheid Kegler Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Kegler, Adelheid (1993) "Encounter Darkness: The Black Platonism of David Lindsay," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 19 : No. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol19/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Characterizes Lindsay as a “belated symbolist” whose characters are “personifications of ontological values.” Uses Neoplatonic “references to transcendence” but his imagery and technique do not suggest a positive view of transcendence. Additional Keywords Lindsay, David—Neoplatonism; Lindsay, David—Philosophy; Lindsay, David. A Voyage to Arcturus; Neoplatonism in David Lindsay This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. -
Gnosticism Gnosticism
Gnosticism Gnosticism (after gnôsis, the Greek word for “knowledge” or “insight”) is the name given to a loosely organized religious and philosophical movement that flourished in the first and second centuries CE. The exact origin(s) of this school of thought cannot be traced, although it is possible to locate influences or sources as far back as the second and first centuries BCE, such as the early treatises of the Corpus Hermeticum, the Jewish Apocalyptic writings, and especially Platonic philosophy and the Hebrew Scriptures themselves. In spite of the diverse nature of the various Gnostic sects and teachers, certain fundamental elements serve to bind these groups together under the loose heading of “Gnosticism” or “Gnosis.” Chief among these elements is a certain manner of “anti- cosmic world rejection” that has often been mistaken for mere dualism. According to the Gnostics, this world, the material cosmos, is the result of a primordial error on the part of a supra-cosmic, supremely divine being, usually called Sophia (Wisdom) or simply the Logos. This being is described as the final emanation of a divine hierarchy, called the Plêrôma or “Fullness,” at the head of which resides the supreme God, the One beyond Being. The error of Sophia, which is usually identified as a reckless desire to know the transcendent God, leads to the hypostatization of her desire in the form of a semi-divine and essentially ignorant creature known as the Demiurge (Greek: dêmiourgos, “craftsman”), or Ialdabaoth, who is responsible for the formation of the material cosmos. This act of craftsmanship is actually an imitation of the realm of the Pleroma, but the Demiurge is ignorant of this, and hubristically declares himself the only existing God. -
Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon
SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA AND THE LEBANON BERNARD H. SPRINGETT SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA AND THE LEBANON SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA AND THE LEBANON • a CONSIDERATION OF THEIR ORIGIN, CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH AND IN- FLUENCE UPON MODERN FREEMASONRY By BERNARD H. SPRINGETT, P.M..P.Z. LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1 INTRODUCTION A surprising amount of scorn and ridicule has been the reception accorded by Freemasons, both in Great Britain and in America, to previous attempts to place on record some very plain proofs that we are justified in saying in our Masonic Ritual that " we came from the East and proceeded to the West." The plain fact that much of what we now look upon almost entirely as Freemasonry has been practised as part and parcel of the religions of the Middle East for many thousands of years, lies open for anyone who cares to stop and read, instead of running by. But it is frequently and scornfully rejected by the average Masonic student, and this seems to betoken an unwillingness to credit Masonry with an existence of more than two or three hundred years at most. It is painful to those who, like myself, take a justifiable pride in the antiquity of Masonry, far exceeding that of any other religion in the world known to mankind, to hear it so frequently condemned as completely legendary. In the following pages I have attempted to bring together, from a very large number of sources, reliable evidence as to the prevalence amongst the inhabitants, ancient and modern, of Syria in general and the mountains of the Lebanon in particular, of various ceremonial rites, manners and customs. -
Gnostic Mysteries of Sex. Sophia the Wild One and Erotic Christianity
ESOTERIC /OCCULT $19.95 U.S. CHURTON $23.95 Can. “Gnostic Mysteries of Sex takes us on a wild ride through the secret, enigmatic and heretical world of Gnostics, medieval troubadours, the visions of Blake, and the coun- terculture of the 1960s—all united in their quest for union with God.” HENRIK BOGDAN, associate professor in religious studies, University of Gothenburg “. here is the radical message of the Gnostics, as shocking and critically important now as it was in the second century—that sex is the gateway of liberation, and the kingdom of heaven is within.” JASON LOUV, author of Generation Hex and coauthor of Thee Psychick Bible Examining every surviving text written by heresiologists, accounts often ignored in favor of the famous Nag Hammadi Library, Tobias Churton reveals the most secret inner teaching passed down by initiated societies: the tradition of sexual gnosis— G higher union with God through the sacrament of sex. Discovering actual sex practices hidden within the writings of the Church’s authorities, he reconstructs the lost world NOSTIC of Gnostic spiritual-erotic experience as taught by initiated masters and mistresses and practiced by Christian couples seeking spiritual freedom from the world. Churton explores the practices of the “first Gnostic,” the historical Simon Magus, and explains the vital significance of “the seed” in Gnostic practice, showing it to be the sacramental substance par excellence. He illuminates the suppressed truth of why the name “Valentine” came to be associated with ennobling erotic love and reveals M profound parallels between sexual gnosis and Tantra, suggesting that gnosis lies at the root of the tantric path. -
Pleroma - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
Pleroma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleroma Pleroma From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Pleroma (Greek πλήρωμα) generally refers to the totality of divine powers. The word means fullness from πληρόω ("I fill") comparable to πλήρης which means "full",[1] and is used in Christian theological contexts: both in Gnosticism generally, and by Paul of Tarsus in Colossians 2.9. Gnosticism holds that the world is controlled by archons, among whom some versions of Gnosticism claim is the deity of the Old Testament, who held aspects of the human captive, either knowingly or accidentally. The heavenly pleroma is the totality of all that is regarded in our understanding of "divine". The pleroma is often referred to as the light existing "above" our world, occupied by spiritual beings who self-emanated from the pleroma. These beings are described as aeons (eternal beings) and sometimes as archons. Jesus is interpreted as an intermediary aeon who was sent, along with his counterpart Sophia, from the pleroma, with whose aid humanity can recover the lost knowledge of the divine origins of humanity and in so doing be brought back into unity with the Pleroma. The term is thus a central element of Gnostic religious cosmology. Gnostic texts envision the pleroma as aspects of God, the eternal Divine Principle, who can only be partially understood through the pleroma. Each "aeon" (i.e. aspect of God) is given a name (sometimes several) and a female counterpart (Gnostic viewed divinity and completeness in terms of male/female unification). The Gnostic myth goes on to tell how the aeon wisdom's female counterpart Sophia separated from the Pleroma to form the demiurge, thus giving birth to the material world. -
Archons (Commanders) [NOTICE: They Are NOT Anlien Parasites], and Then, in a Mirror Image of the Great Emanations of the Pleroma, Hundreds of Lesser Angels
A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES WATCH THIS IMPORTANT VIDEO UFOs, Aliens, and the Question of Contact MUST-SEE THE OCCULT REASON FOR PSYCHOPATHY Organic Portals: Aliens and Psychopaths KNOWLEDGE THROUGH GNOSIS Boris Mouravieff - GNOSIS IN THE BEGINNING ...1 The Gnostic core belief was a strong dualism: that the world of matter was deadening and inferior to a remote nonphysical home, to which an interior divine spark in most humans aspired to return after death. This led them to an absorption with the Jewish creation myths in Genesis, which they obsessively reinterpreted to formulate allegorical explanations of how humans ended up trapped in the world of matter. The basic Gnostic story, which varied in details from teacher to teacher, was this: In the beginning there was an unknowable, immaterial, and invisible God, sometimes called the Father of All and sometimes by other names. “He” was neither male nor female, and was composed of an implicitly finite amount of a living nonphysical substance. Surrounding this God was a great empty region called the Pleroma (the fullness). Beyond the Pleroma lay empty space. The God acted to fill the Pleroma through a series of emanations, a squeezing off of small portions of his/its nonphysical energetic divine material. In most accounts there are thirty emanations in fifteen complementary pairs, each getting slightly less of the divine material and therefore being slightly weaker. The emanations are called Aeons (eternities) and are mostly named personifications in Greek of abstract ideas. -
GNOSIS and NAG HAMMADI Anne Mcguire
12 GNOSIS AND NAG HAMMADI Anne McGuire Introduction Introductory remarks on “gnosis” and “Gnosticism” “Gnosticism” is a modern European term that !rst appears in the seventeenth-century writings of Cambridge Platonist Henry More (1614–87). For More, “Gnosticism” designates one of the earliest Christian heresies, connected to controversies addressed in Revelation 2:18–29 and in his own day.1 The term “gnosis,” on the other hand, is one of several ancient Greek nouns for “knowledge,” speci!cally experiential or esoteric knowledge based on direct experience, which can be distinguished from mere perception, understanding, or skill. For Plato and other ancient thinkers, “gnosis” refers to that knowledge which enables perception of the underlying structures of reality, Being itself, or the divine.2 Such gnosis was valued highly in many early Christian communities,3 yet the claims of some early Christians to possess gnosis came under suspicion and critique in the post-Pauline letter of 1 Timothy, which urges its readers to “avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of falsely so-called gnosis.”4 With this began the polemical contrast between “false gnosis” and “true faith.” It is this polemical sense of “false gnosis” that Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons took up in the title of his major anti-heretical work: Refutation and Overthrow of Falsely So-Called Gnosis, or Against Heresies, written c. "# 180.5 Irenaeus used 1 Timothy’s phrase not only to designate his opponents’ gnosis as false, but, even more important, to construct a broad category of -
Nag Hammadi Codex II in Its Fourth
2 CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . 5 ABSTRACT . 8 DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT STATEMENT . 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 10 1. INTRODUCTION . 11 The Nag Hammadi Codices after ‘Gnosticism’. 11 Order and Themes: Alternative Scripture? . 15 Pachomian Ownership? Arguments from Codicology . 21 Ideological Affinity? . 29 Introducing the Pachomian Sources . 29 Pachomian Ideology and Practice . 35 2. THE APOCRYPHON OF JOHN AS A THEMATIC PROLOGUE . 45 The Significance and Prominence of the Apocryphon of John . 45 The Narrative . 48 Sexual Complexity: Asceticism and Anti-Feminism? . 62 Carnal Union and Spiritual Unity . 64 Feminine Wiles: The Placement of Sexual Desire in Codex II . 67 Sex: Despicable or Distorted? . 72 Knowledge Revealed and Preserved . 77 The Struggle of the Soul . 79 3 3. ETHICS AND PRACTICE: ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE BODY, THE WORLD, AND OTHERS IN THE GOSPELS OF THOMAS AND PHILIP . 83 Defining ‘Asceticism’ . 83 The Gospel of Thomas . 86 Origins of the Text and the ‘Ascetic’ Argument . 86 The Counter Debate . 89 A More Nuanced Position? . 92 The Gospel of Philip . 108 Metaphorical Marriage? The Bridal Chamber . 108 ‘Appropriate’ Sexuality . 114 Social Responsibility and Attitudes towards Other Christians . 127 4. THE DEMISE OF COSMIC THREAT AND REWARD FOR THE DEVOTED: THE HYPOSTASIS OF THE ARCHONS AND ON THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD . 135 The Consequences of Earthly Actions . 135 The Hypostasis of the Archons . 138 Making a Mockery of Malice . 145 Sexuality: The Roles of Eve and Norea . 156 Reinterpreting the ‘Chosen Generation’ . 161 On the Origin of the World . 164 Eschatology Cosmic and Individual . 164 5. UNDERSTANDING AND LIBERATING THE SOUL: THE EXEGESIS ON THE SOUL AND THE BOOK OF THOMAS THE CONTENDER . -
Christian" Gnosticisms Corruption of the Western/Alexandrian Manuscripts
The Dean Burgon Society "Christian" Gnosticisms Corruption of the Western/Alexandrian Manuscripts Pastor David L. Brown, Ph.D. [Source materials include: 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica; Inspiration, Preservation and the KJV by Dr. J. Michael Bates; World Magazine April 29 & May 20, 2006; Early Heresies by Thomas Holland; The Gnostic Discoveries by Marvin Meyer; Jung and the Lost Gospels by Stephan A. Hoeller] >>> http://www.deanburgonsociety.org/Versions/gnosticism.htm <<< INTRODUCTION There is a Gnostic Revival going on today. It has been fueled by the Gnostic fairy tale, The Da Vinci Code, the National Geographic Societies sponsorship, television special and publication of the Gnostic Gospel of Judas and a renewed interest in The Nag Hammadi Codices. With that in mind, I present this paper titled “Christian Gnosticisms Corruption of the Western/Alexandrian Manu- scripts” for your consideration. Please note that the word “Christian” is between quotation marks. By using the quotation marks I am indicating to the reader that I am saying that the “Christianity” of the Gnostics is not really Christianity at all. In fact, the only way that the Gnosticism that I am speaking of can be considered Christian is in the sense that they scrounged words, writings and ideas from Christianity, and then redefined, rearranged, edited and rewrote them to fit their own purposes and to advance their own false teachings. I present this paper to you, so that you will realize that the “scholarly” community is all in a frenzy about the so called Gnostic Gospels, and are in the process of rewriting early Chris- tian History with a Gnostic spin to reflect the findings at Nag Hammadi Egypt and the recently dis- covered Gospel of Judas. -
A Defense of Basilides the False
A Defense of Basilides the False In about 1905, I knew that the omniscient pages (A to All) of the firstvolume of Montaner and Simon's Hispano-American Encyclopedic Dictionary con tained a small and alarming drawing of a sort of king, with the profiled head of a rooster, a virile torso with open arms brandishing a shield and a whip, and the rest merely a coiled tail, which served as a throne. In about 1916, I read an obscure passage in Quevedo: "There was the accursed Basilides the heresiarch. There was Nicholas of Antioch, Carpocrates and Cerinthus and the infamous Ebion. Later came Va lentin us, he who believed sea and silence to be the beginning of everything." In about 1923, in Geneva, I came across some heresiological book in German, and I realized that the fateful drawing represented a certain miscellaneous god that was horribly worshiped by the very same Basilides. I also learned what desperate and admirable men the Gnostics were, and I began to study their passionate speculations. Later I was able to investigate the scholarly books of Mead (in the German version: Fragmente eines verschollenen Glaubens, 1902) and Wo lfgang Schultz (Dokumente der Gnosis, 1910), and the articles by Wilhelm Bousset in the Encyclopedia Britannica. To day I would like to summarize and illustrate one of their cosmogonies: precisely that of Basilides the here siarch. I follow entirely the account given by Irenaeus. I realize that many doubt its accuracy, but I suspect that this disorganized revision of musty dreams may in itself be a dream that never inhabited any dreamer. -
The Gnostic Myth of Sophia in Dark City (1998) Fryderyk Kwiatkowski Jagiellonian University in Kraków, [email protected]
Journal of Religion & Film Volume 21 Article 34 Issue 1 April 2017 4-1-2017 How To Attain Liberation From a False World? The Gnostic Myth of Sophia in Dark City (1998) Fryderyk Kwiatkowski Jagiellonian University in Kraków, [email protected] Recommended Citation Kwiatkowski, Fryderyk (2017) "How To Attain Liberation From a False World? The Gnostic Myth of Sophia in Dark City (1998)," Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 21 : Iss. 1 , Article 34. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol21/iss1/34 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Religion & Film by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. How To Attain Liberation From a False World? The Gnostic Myth of Sophia in Dark City (1998) Abstract In the second half of the 20th century, a fascinating revival of ancient Gnostic ideas in American popular culture could be observed. One of the major streams through which Gnostic ideas are transmitted is Hollywood cinema. Many works that emerged at the end of 1990s can be viewed through the ideas of ancient Gnostic systems: The Truman Show (1998), The Thirteenth Floor (1999), The Others (2001), Vanilla Sky (2001) or The Matrix trilogy (1999-2003). In this article, the author analyses Dark City (1998) and demonstrates that the story depicted in the film is heavily indebted to the Gnostic myth of Sophia. He bases his inquiry on the newest research results in Gnostic Studies in order to highlight the importance of definitional problems within the field and how carefully the concept of “Gnosticism” should be applied to popular culture studies. -
Gnosticism, Transformation, and the Role of the Feminine in the Gnostic Mass of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.) Ellen P
Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 11-13-2014 Gnosticism, Transformation, and the Role of the Feminine in the Gnostic Mass of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.) Ellen P. Randolph Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FI14110766 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Liturgy and Worship Commons, New Religious Movements Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Randolph, Ellen P., "Gnosticism, Transformation, and the Role of the Feminine in the Gnostic Mass of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.)" (2014). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1686. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1686 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida GNOSTICISM, TRANSFORMATION, AND THE ROLE OF THE FEMININE IN THE GNOSTIC MASS OF THE ECCLESIA GNOSTICA CATHOLICA (E.G.C.) A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in RELIGIOUS STUDIES by Ellen P. Randolph 2014 To: Interim Dean Michael R. Heithaus College of Arts and Sciences This thesis, written by Ellen P. Randolph, and entitled Gnosticism, Transformation, and the Role of the Feminine in the Gnostic Mass of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.), having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment.