Of all of the crazy theologies I’ve studied in my life (and yes, there have been many), none have fascinated me more than Gnosticism. When I mention it to people, they usually confuse it with Agnosticism, which is ironic because the two ideologies are so strikingly different. Gnosticim, according to our good friend Wiki, is defined as follows:
“A collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized personal, spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity (sometimes associated with the Yahweh of the Old Testament) who is responsible for creating the material universe. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.”
Overall, this is a suitable definition (sorry not sorry to all you Wiki haters). What many people don’t know is that in the time period right after Jesus Christ, there were hundreds if not thousands of strands of the newly blossoming Christianity. Eventually, a bunch of old white dudes decided the “rules” and formed the Catholic Church, with a major goal being to wipe out the Gnostics. They succeeded. I have met only a handful of people in my lifetime who have known anything more about the Gnostics beyond their “heretic” label.
Let’s get one thing clear - I grew up Catholic. After the wave of priest molestations over the past decades, I threw up a big, fat middle finger to the whole thing and didn’t look back for a very long time. It wasn’t until sobriety that I realized that Catholicism itself wasn’t evil, there were just many fucked up people involved in it - like literally any other system, tradition or organization on the planet. I have a tendency to question if this was the case during the Gnostic purging many centuries ago. Who’s to say the Catholic Fathers knew more than the Gnostics? To me, it doesn’t really matter, because we’ll never really know the true story. Of Jesus, of his teachings, of what the hell that whole thing was. Regardless of what it was, the birth and death of Jesus Christ was one of the most incredible stories/events in history, and I want to know everything I possible can about it. I want to know what the “right” side has to say, and I especially want to know what the “wrong” side has to say.
The main goal of the Gnostics was to achieve “gnosis,” which in this case means spiritual knowledge. That didn’t mean information, it meant a personal, spiritual connection to God. It meant knowledge on a deeper level than that of the intellect, one that was not easy to define or describe. Ironically, it is this exact type of personal, spiritual connection to a Higher Power that I practice in recovery, so my interest was piqued immediately. Gnosticism did not have authority, tradition, or orthodoxy - at the time that it was most prevalent there were probably hundreds of different sects within the theology itself. Interestingly enough, here’s another tie-in with recovery - there are no “leaders,” and it runs solely on community and service. Hmm.
This all sounds great, but then we get into the mythology. Gnosticism has its own mythology (similar to Genesis from the Bible), and it is bat-shit crazy. There are too many characters to remember, entities doing crazy shit, higher gods, lower gods - it’s entirely chaotic. This is what “proper” theologians like to point to when they deem Gnosticism heretical and “born from the devil”. I’ll agree the mythology is way out in left field, but personally, I couldn’t care less about that. Every religion has its own mythology, and every one is insane. There are elements that could be true (I’m open to believing some pretty crazy shit), and there are plenty of elements that are false - across the entire spectrum. What interests me most about Gnosticism is the focus of its message, which to me reads a heck of a lot like Daoism and Buddhism.
Gnostics believed the material world was evil (Buddhism: dukkha), and that salvation came through knowledge of the hidden divinity (Buddhism: nirvana). I don’t know if this world is good or evil or up or down, but I it’s certainly a fascinating take. Many of the Gnostic works read like parables or lessons, and so much of it reminds me of the Dao de Jing. I’ll spare you the intricacies of the dozens of volumes I’ve personally read from the Nag Hammadi (the “Bible” of Gnosticism - kind of), and I’ll focus on the Gospel of Thomas. Of all of the Christian works I’ve ever read, it has to be the most interesting. It’s the Dao in Christian form - let’s look at a few passages…
“The one who seeks should not cease seeking until he finds. And when he finds, he will be dismayed. And when he is dismayed, he will be astonished. And he will be king over the All.”
"Come to know what is in front of you, And that which is hidden from you will become clear to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest.”
“This heaven will pass away, and the (heaven) above it will pass away. And the dead are not alive, and the living will not die. In the days when you consumed what was dead, you made it alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?”
The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said: “Have you already discovered the beginning that you are now asking about the end? For where the beginning is, there the end will be too. Blessed is he who will stand at the beginning. And he will know the end, and he will not taste death.”
“You see the splinter that is in your brother’s eye, but you do not see the beam that is in your (own) eye. When you remove the beam from your (own) eye, then you will see clearly (enough) to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”
“If the flesh came into being because of the spirit, it is a wonder. But if the spirit (came into being) because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has taken up residence in this poverty.”
The craziest part about all of this is that, according to The Gospel of Thomas, these are things Jesus said. To me, he sounds a lot more like Lao Tzu than the Jesus of the New Testament. I’ve always found a deep connection between Jesus and the Dao, most notably when Jesus refers to himself as “The Way, the Truth, and the Life”. The translation of “Dao” is “Way”. So. Freaking. Cool. You never know, maybe Jesus spent his unknown years in the East and learned the secrets of the universe from Daoist monks. We’ll never know if that was the case, but it’s quite an entertaining thought.
I wouldn’t consider myself a “Gnostic” by any means; however, I do search for gnosis each and every day of my life. I search for a deeper connection to a power greater than myself, and that gives me the drive to pursue everything I do in this life with passion and virility. I love looking back on these old ideologies and realizing how incredibly smart and enlightened these people were centuries ago (in many ways, well surpassing us and our technological dogma), and I believe there is so much more beyond the things we can see with our eyes. The best part is, I don’t have to convince you or anyone else of this - it’s simply true for me. I think that’s the moral here - find your gnosis, seek knowledge, always be curious. Pray, meditate, grow. We’re never going to find that “thing” we’re looking for, but we can see signs of the divine all around us if we open our minds and our hearts. The destination is the journey, baby.
This reading was very enlightening and informative. I am going to read more about the Gnostics. Remain open-minded to keep seeking. As events happen in your life, there will always be a shift. It may be very subtle, but it is there. As the shift in perception or outlook changes, so can your spiritual life. Keep walking with a purpose.
Love this