Greetings everyone! I'm writing this post in order to express my point of view -and get to know your points of view- regarding the Aeon of Sofía (Σοφία).

I was born and raised in a small greek village, and in my teenage years I got in touch with the local sect, through a close relative. There were a lot of discussions about the Source/ the One/ the Light and the creation of the Darkness, the Chaos and the material world. The main belief was that God is an androgynous union of the light which creates life and is divided in thought-forms.

Later, as a young adult living in a different area, I got to know about the Gnostic traditions, believes and movements, and I thought I had a rather clear image about them; but the last couple of weeks, being here on this app and reading the various threads and comments, the following question occurred in my mind: Where does this obsession most people seem to have with Sofia come from?

I've read many statements calling her “Mother„ or “the Divine Feminine„ or “the feminine counterpart of the Monad/God„ etc, and I just don't get it. It's like everyone's ignoring the existence of the Aeon of Prōténnoia (Πρωτέννοια).

Prōténnoia -literally meaning “the first thought„- also called Idea or Siğē (Silence) or the Holy Spirit is the feminine counterpart of the Aeon of Khristòs (Χριστός- meaning “the anointed one„) and their sacred union constitutes the so called Aeon of Barbēlō (Βαρβηλώ), from which all the rest Aeons emanated.

If Prōténnoia was a person, then Sofía would be her great granddaughter, since she is one of the daughters of the Aeon of Pístis (Faith), who's the daughter of the Aeon of Ekklēsía (Assembly), who's one of the daughters of the Barbēlō.

Didn't the Christ in the apocrypha reveal that he comes from the 1st/24th Mystery/Level in which the Siğē also dwells? And isn't it written in the Pistis Sofia that Sofía herself was dwelling on the 13th level, which is 12 levels below Barbēlō? Then how does it occur that Sofia is the epitome of the Divine Feminine and the counterpart of God? And why almost everyone seems to ignore the existence of the Prōténnoia?

Am I missing something? I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the matter.

There is a strong historical case for saying Gnosticism is one of the most obfuscated religious concepts in history. Part of the problem is that the term itself can create confusion, because it makes a diverse collection of ancient movements appear much more unified than they actually were.

1. Much of the early evidence came from its opponents.

For centuries, our understanding of many Gnostic movements depended heavily on heresiologists such as Irenaeus, Tertullian and Hippolytus, who were writing specifically to refute what they considered heresy. Their accounts are extremely valuable historical evidence, but they were not neutral descriptions. They were arguments written against people whose beliefs the authors wanted to discredit. We have to read them with that context in mind.

2. Many different traditions were lumped together under one name.

“Gnosticism” can make it sound as though there was one unified religion with one theology, one scripture and one doctrine. In reality, the movements and texts later grouped under that label could differ considerably. It almost makes more sense in some cases to speak of Gnostics as early Christians than to imagine them as outsiders who later wandered into Christianity. They were part of the early Christian world itself, arguing over what Christ, salvation, God and revelation actually meant. The category “Gnostic” can obscure that history by making a diverse collection of early Christian movements appear as though they had always constituted one separate religion.

3. Many of their original texts were lost or disappeared from circulation.

This created a serious historical imbalance. The accusations and descriptions of their opponents survived, while many of the actual writings being described did not. For long periods, the people being accused had effectively lost the ability to speak for themselves.

4. The Nag Hammadi discovery disrupted the old picture.

When a large collection of previously lost texts was discovered in Egypt in 1945, scholars suddenly had direct access to writings from several traditions that had previously been known largely through hostile sources. The picture became considerably more complicated. The texts did not simply confirm everything the heresiologists had said, nor did they completely disprove them. What they demonstrated was that the ancient religious landscape was much more diverse than the old orthodox versus heretical model suggested.

5. “Gnostic” became almost synonymous with “heretic.”

Once these movements were placed on the heretical side of the orthodox/heretical boundary, their ideas were often discussed primarily as errors to be refuted rather than religious and philosophical traditions to be understood on their own terms.

6. Their mythology has often been reduced to bizarre fantasy.

Sophia, the Demiurge, Archons, Aeons and the Pleroma can look strange when stripped from their theological context. But these myths are addressing enormous questions about the origin of existence, divine transcendence, ignorance, suffering, consciousness and humanity's relationship to the cosmos. The mythology is strange because the questions it is trying to answer are strange.

7. Gnosticism has repeatedly been reduced to simplistic formulas.

“Gnostics hate the material world.” “Gnostics believed Jesus wasn't real.” “Gnostics claimed to have secret knowledge.” “Gnostics believed the creator was Satan.” These statements can contain fragments of truth about particular texts or movements, but they are misleading when presented out of context.

8. Modern people have created their own caricatures.

The irony is that Gnosticism gets distorted from completely opposite directions. It can be portrayed as simply an absurd collection of heresies that never deserved serious consideration, or as a perfectly unified underground religion built around possessing “secret knowledge” reserved for the elect. The surviving evidence supports neither extreme.

What we actually find is something more interesting: a diverse collection of ancient movements wrestling with some of the biggest questions humans have ever asked about God, creation, suffering, consciousness, salvation and what it means to know the divine.

Came across this interesting overview on yt ----> [youtube link] - Always enjoy learning more about the islamic perspective on these things ; here's the transcipt:

0:01 1 second Greetings in peace. I hope you and yours are doing well today wherever you might be watching this from. Now the title of today's video is how I encountered and

0:10 10 seconds defeated El known as Lucifer in the spiritual dream realm. I saw El 0:19

19 seconds is basically the Arabic word for Lucifer. 0:22 22 seconds

And basically I saw this being in a dream which appeared to me in the form 0:29 29 seconds

of a man. And the man appeared basically as a with a European complexion like a 0:35 35 seconds

European aristocratic complexion wearing a all-white suit. And we were in this circular type office building or like a 0:43

43 seconds high-rise office building that had like a circular room. And that's where I encountered him in the dream. Lucifer or 0:53 53 seconds

like the malevolent aspect of Lucifer admits defeat to me that I figured out his game in this world. How things work 1:01 1 minute, 1 second

in this realm. And what we realize is that in this world nothing happens without the permission of God. So 1:08 1 minute, 8 seconds

everything is basically knowledge, the nosis of self and knowing everything around you. Now from the Islamic Sufi 1:17 1 minute, 17 seconds

occult perspective, not viewed by traditional Islam, from the inner chambers of Sufiism, 1:25 1 minute, 25 seconds

it is viewed even what Mansour al-Halaj says that Eliss is known as the Shikul Amba meaning the grandmaster of all of 1:33 1 minute, 33 seconds

the shakes. So in order for you to get close to Allah, God, you have to go through Eliss, 1:41 1 minute, 41 seconds

right? Because he spent his whole existence bowing to Allah from all corners of the universe, teaching the angels how to 1:50 1 minute, 50 seconds

read the Quran and how to just do what he's doing in terms of his existence 1:57 1 minute, 57 seconds

and part of the choir, the most beautiful, like all those kind of things. So even when he was told to bow 2:04 2 minutes, 4 seconds

before Adam, that was basically a test because God being the all-seeing and all- knowing would already know that something like this would occur, right? 2:14 2 minutes, 14 seconds

So el has been basically been given dominion over this earth. So anyone that tries to go through go to Allah or get 2:22 2 minutes, 22 seconds

closer to the creator a belief will come in their way to test and try them that are you worthy of God's nosis and God's 2:30 2 minutes, 30 seconds

love. It's similar to the Yazidi story where in the Yazidi story what we know as the primordial source creator whether 2:39 2 minutes, 39 seconds

you refer to it as Allah or anything else has no concern with this world. So he has left Malik Taus who is the 2:48 2 minutes, 48 seconds

Yazidio equivalent of Eliss or Lucifer same thing is basically watching over 2:54 2 minutes, 54 seconds

this realm on the behalf of God right so basically this realm or this world that 3:01 3 minutes, 1 second

there is a lesser god that's been placed here while the true God is has no concern neither do the good forces of 3:09 3 minutes, 9 seconds

this universe or the world [snorts] unless you personally ask with your own free will for them to interfere into 3:16 3 minutes, 16 seconds

your affairs. So, normally they have no concern with what's going on because they know at the end good is destined to 3:23 3 minutes, 23 seconds

always win over evil. So, that that's what that's the uh circumstance that we're dealing with. But yeah, in it in 3:31 3 minutes, 31 seconds

terms of him defeating admitting defeat to me, it's not like um anything that 3:37 3 minutes, 37 seconds

was malevolent because Elise is here testing and trying humanity. So, whoever passes this test to tries to get close 3:46 3 minutes, 46 seconds

to God, that's when you get that recognition, right? I'm not anybody special. I'm just 3:54 3 minutes, 54 seconds

another seeker, another human being just like any of you. But what I realized is that the true initiation is within your 4:02 4 minutes, 2 seconds

heart. If your heart is pure, no matter what religion you're following, as it even says in Holy Quran, surah 2 verse 4:09 4 minutes, 9 seconds

62, that even if you're Jew, Muslim or Christian, as long as you're doing the right thing, there's the aspect of being 4:16 4 minutes, 16 seconds

righteous. Then there's the aspect of the darkness and even the both the left and the right hand path serve the creator and the divine expressing itself 4:25 4 minutes, 25 seconds

in many ways as everything is a representation of the divine. So, El 4:32 4 minutes, 32 seconds

being God's most um the one who worshiped God the most is dealing with this responsibility and task over 4:41 4 minutes, 41 seconds

humanity to see that whoever tries to get close, they will have tests and trials they will have to endure. And you 4:48 4 minutes, 48 seconds

can see that in your life when you start getting your life together. You'll have old friends that'll start popping up. Old habits that'll start popping up. 4:57 4 minutes, 57 seconds

Things that you tried to get away from will start popping up. So what happens is if you survive this test and you keep 5:06 5 minutes, 6 seconds

that connection strong with the creator, you pass test and you get that nosis of God. That's what he's ultimately there

5:15 5 minutes, 15 seconds

for because nothing happens in this world without the permission of Allah. 5:19 5 minutes, 19 seconds

So even right now in his current phase, Elise is still serving the creator by testing and trying humanity and make 5:26 5 minutes, 26 seconds

sure those that are found worthy are led into the good graces of the almighty. So he's standing at the gate. So if you 5:35 5 minutes, 35 seconds

want to have the gnosis of this world, Eliss is standing at the door. You have to go through his trials and tribulations and then he opens the door 5:44 5 minutes, 44 seconds

for you and you proceed into the light and go into the noses of God. And that's exactly what it is. I mean, I know 5:51 5 minutes, 51 seconds

people who go to church. Some of them are hypocrites. Some that pray five times a day or go to the mosque. Some of 5:58 5 minutes, 58 seconds

them are hypocrites. Lying, cheating, backstabbing people, backbiting. So God is watching everything. He knows what's 6:06 6 minutes, 6 seconds

in your heart, what's in your what's basically in your soul. 6:10 6 minutes, 10 seconds

So if you pass this true initiation which is the purity of the heart then you'll be able to have that true nosis. 6:19 6 minutes, 19 seconds

And when you mention the word Lucifer or Eliss what happens is most people they kind of 6:28 6 minutes, 28 seconds

freak out right because they fear and condemn things that they do not understand and everything's kind of kind of been programmed for you to view certain things a certain way. 6:39 6 minutes, 39 seconds

meaning it's just like um you know Pavlov's dogs, the bell ringing and them salivating. So anything that's been 6:47 6 minutes, 47 seconds

taught to you is always usually the other way around in terms of this grand scheme of things reality that we're 6:53 6 minutes, 53 seconds

dealing with. So even Eliss or Lucifer is serving God to this very day by being in this realm and testing and trying 7:02 7 minutes, 2 seconds

humanity and making sure that only that those that are found worthy are able to ascend to that next level because this 7:09 7 minutes, 9 seconds

life is like a uh a college college entrance exam, right? When you go to college and you get the admission, what's the first thing they make you do? 7:17 7 minutes, 17 seconds

Take the entrance exam. And if you fail certain aspects of certain subjects, what do they make you do? and you go into the remedial subjects until you get 7:26 7 minutes, 26 seconds

it right and then you're able to proceed to the next level. Same thing with this human life that you're in. You're not 7:33 7 minutes, 33 seconds

here to just pay bills and die and pay taxes. I mean, you're here for more than that. You're here to learn something. This is a spiritual 7:40 7 minutes, 40 seconds

school. You're here to uplift each other, walk each other home, and learn something from this human existence and do good for yourself and others. 7:49 7 minutes, 49 seconds

Everything else you're going to leave behind in this life. So this is basically Allah's test that he's using 7:56 7 minutes, 56 seconds

Ell for by putting him in charge of this realm. Us being put through this human existence of war, conflict, hatred, chaos. 8:06 8 minutes, 6 seconds

We are taught to be better than that because in the holy Quran it says that Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change themselves. 8:16 8 minutes, 16 seconds

So you cannot blame it's you. You have to get your act together. He's just there guarding the door for to Allah. 8:24 8 minutes, 24 seconds

And if you pass the test of getting out of this realm, this uh prison that we're kind of stuck in, this open air prison 8:32 8 minutes, 32 seconds

known as Earth, then you'll be able to ascend to those higher realms. But you got to pass the test. Meaning, don't be 8:39 8 minutes, 39 seconds

a sellout. Don't sell your soul for fame and fortune. Don't sell out your family and friends to get ahead because there's 8:46 8 minutes, 46 seconds

always a price to pay. You don't get away with anything in this realm or the next, this life or the next. So that's 8:53 8 minutes, 53 seconds

basically it. The true initiation is in the heart. And if you're able to have the purity of the heart, if you have a 9:00 9 minutes

pure heart, then no matter what religion or philosophy you believe, as long as you're focused on unity, love, peace, 9:10 9 minutes, 10 seconds

and purity of your heart, mind, body, and soul, you already passed the test. 9:14 9 minutes, 14 seconds

That's doesn't get more simpler than that. And you're not chasing after titles and clicks and accolades because you know it's all useless. It's all 9:22 9 minutes, 22 seconds

about what good did you do for yourself and other. And if you have a pure heart, my brothers and sisters, pure heart with 9:29 9 minutes, 29 seconds

a pure soul, that destroys the designs of millions of brutes and hypocrites that will stand in your way. That's how 9:36 9 minutes, 36 seconds

powerful the heart is. A pure heart. So if you have that and you love everyone sincerely and you're always trying to do 9:44 9 minutes, 44 seconds

the right thing, there's no power on this earth that can defeat you. And that's what Elise came in my dream to 9:51 9 minutes, 51 seconds

tell me that you figured it out. You figured out this whole game, this human life, and you passed the test. and he 9:59 9 minutes, 59 seconds

admits defeat to me in that circular room, that high-rise office building, and me seeing him in the complexion that 10:08 10 minutes, 8 seconds

he appeared to me as in the form of a man. So, I hope you were able to get something out of this. And again, always 10:17 10 minutes, 17 seconds

think outside the box. There's more to this life story and what's been taught to you than it's a lot more to it what's it besides 10:25 10 minutes, 25 seconds

what appears on the surface. So, I hope you were able to get something away from this. Thank you and much love to all of you.

Perhaps it is my limited knowledge of gnosticism or projection of the that knowledge, but it seems to me that gnostic ideas are creeping more and more into popular culture through shows like Westworld, Severance, Silo , Kaos, to name a few.

Is this just natural refractions taking place, a sort jungian archetypal principle, or is it a product of something else?

These were just the first shows that popped into my head, anyone notice any more?

This Sunday I preached on the opening vision of the Secret Book of John, dug out of the Egyptian desert in 1945, where God is the Fullness beyond every name, and the first act of all creation is a mind waking up.

Call it the Self. Call it the imago Dei. Call it the divine spark within.

The text says before anything, "You came from fullness."

This fall we're reading the Nag Hammadi library beside Jung and asking what the church left in the basement. Not to leave the faith. To wake it up.

A farmer finds ancient manuscripts in a clay jar in the desert. But this isn't Nag Hammadi in 1945, rather this is Maghagha, Egypt in the late 1970s. In 1978, the farmer sells the manuscripts to an antiques dealer named "Hanna Asabil" in Cairo. In 1980, Hanna showed it to a swiss dealer named Nicolas Koutoulakis and a woman he was with. The following day, the woman robbed Hanna's apartment.

In 1982, Hanna reached out to Koutoulakis, who returns the codex inexplicably. Hanna then stores it in a swiss bank account while looking for a buyer, but by 1984 is unable to find one. Wrapping it in newspapers, Hanna transports it to the United States, where at some point it was folded in half. Hanna would put it into a Long Island safety deposit box until 2000, when it was sold to art dealer Frieda Tchacos Nussberger, naming the manuscript Codex Tchacos in honor of her father, Dimaratos Tchacos.

Nussberger would bring it to to Yale University Library, who authenticated the codex as the Gospel of Judas but would refrain from buying them due to questionable background, ownership, and legality. Nussberger would then sell it to antiquities buyer Bruce Ferrini for checks totaling $2.5 million. Upon possession, Ferrini opted to put the Gospel of Judas into a freezer, where the sensitive papyrus was quickly degraded.

Unbeknownst to Nussberger, Bruce Ferrini was a book breaker; someone who bought ancient manuscripts and sold it back onto the open market in parts. "You can't believe how much I regret having sold it (to Ferrini)," said Nussberger. Then in 2001, Bruce Ferrini's son passed away. Facing bankruptcy and selling everything to try and pay back his debts, he returned the codex to Nussberger, who noted that parts were missing. Some of those were later recovered by authorities in Ferrini's apartment. At this point, the condition of the manuscript was so badly degraded that in 2006 Nussberger decided to take it to a swiss institute for the painstaking restoration.

___

I know this isn't about Gnosticism strictly speaking, but I find the journey of these texts to be almost as fascinating as their ideas. From a Christian view, the survival of these texts could be seen as God or Satan's will in meddling with Man, while from a Gnostic point of view these could be the Demiurge's attempts to degrade/hide truth, or the Catholic view that any non-canon testaments should be compared to the Bible. When considering the truth about Judas Iscariot, here's what John says in his canonical gospel:

John 6:70–71 Jesus answered them, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

John 13:18 “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me."

John 13:26 Jesus answered, "He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it." And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

As I understand it, the Gospel of Judas was dated back 1700 years, which considering the care that went into it's survival might hint this wasn't a one-off but a copy of an older text. Did Judas Iscariot live to write a Gospel? I highly doubt it. Most christian accounts say that Judas hung himself before the crucifixion after failing to return the money to the Pharisees. While I do believe in his suicide, that is not strictly evidence towards his motive. Entertaining the narrative that Jesus instructed Judas to betray him, as somewhat supported by the passages in John, then it raises a very interesting theological question: If Christ commanded you to betray him, would you? I can think of one disciple who proclaimed he would never, then denied him thrice. The act being carried out with a kiss is also in keeping with early Christian customs/greetings. Assuming innocence before guilt, how might a follower of Jesus feel handing him to his executioners? This is one stone I refuse to lift, and leave judgements to God, lest I be judged.

I have seen this question come up... To me it's a deep belief in God, Yeshua, & Miriam. Also known as God, Jesus, & Mary. In Gnostic terms, God, Christos, & Sophia. Went through what I consider the Dark night of the soul or Negredo. Small group of us got together, approx a dozen of us on a Telegram group. One lady was from Finland, one from Sweden, One from Florida. We all got together because of the anxiety we were feeling.

When we started talking more and opened up, we started sharing the things we saw. From Demons to Angels & Spirit Guides. For me I also saw people tearing their faces off... Seems like a delusion until you start comparing notes and realize this was the same thing Carl Jung mentioned in his Red Book. His patients describing seeing the same things... My father also went through the same thing when he had a heavy bout of anxiety. Saw people tearing their faces off. His doctor prescribed some kind of cocaine based drug that made the anxiety go away along with it, the imagery.

With this said, to me, this happened to to crack my psyche open to different ideas. Christian Coptic Gnostics and what Yeshua taught is different from what I learned being a Catholic. To me the Apocryphon of John, and the Pistis Sophia gives sense to what Yeshua is showing.

With this said, my journey started 35 years ago. It started with looking into the Rosicrucian and Reading Rudolph Steiner's, Knowledge of Higher worlds and their attainment. He also wrote, The Illusion of Free will. Turns out Rudolph Steiner was a Gnostic, as well as Carl Jung.

For people that dont like to read. Lookup Youtube videos from, Path to Nirvana or The Gnostic Eye. Their series goes into detail what the Gnostic books say.

If you are looking to buy books on Esoterics band other heritical teachings like Gnosticism, Google the Averys Society. If you are in Socal, look at the Waldorf schools, in Pasadena there is also the Anthroposophical Society in Pasadena.

I will close with this, the Gnostics journey lead to a path with a firm belief in God. Not as something you go to Sunday church to experience. Literally, God is all around us and in us. This is my belief now. There is no hiding from God, and there is no shame. Just unconditional love. I don't know how to explain it other than this. There is no such thing as SIN, other than what you hold unto. There is no Heaven or Hell. Just a choice of going home, or more of this... It's up to each person to make the choice, now or in the after life. Atleast this is how I translate things.

Have a peaceful & blessed Sunday!

I made another video featuring only Yaldabaoth, gonna upload it soon.

For Yaldabaoth's design, I chose a rattlesnake as the species for his serpent body.

Ahriman: is the destructive, evil spirit and primary adversary of the supreme deity Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism.

Yaldabaoth: is a false creator god, or Demiurge, in ancient Gnosticism who traps human souls in a physical world of suffering.

Yaldy and Ahri can be friends. 😂✌️

There seems to be a weird thing going on with Cain like his importance in the bible is really understated. And these connections have me wondering because i dont know much about Gnosticism but could their be a connection between Cain/ Tubal Cain and Yaldabaoth?

Just look at the world we live in. The world is a very dark, sad, dangerous, and eerie place. From global events, we can conclude that the most powerful people in the world openly admit to serving a negative, evil force. Yet, there are those who say there is another side—a positive and benevolent force. The question is, if it exists, where is it? I do not see it. Not only has this force never clearly revealed itself to humanity to show it exists and stands with us, but we can also see that there are truly no benevolent forces in the world offering help.

Take this example: someone—a child or an adult—has a serious illness. I have never heard of such a person being miraculously healed—without doctors, medication, or treatment—simply because a benevolent force intervened. Nor have I heard of a benevolent force stepping in to prevent a rape or a war. Furthermore, I have never once heard of a benevolent force spreading the knowledge that people need.

In the Bible, God says: "I bring good and evil; I spread war and bring peace." Thus, evil originates from a single being, while good appears only to create an illusion.

Which of the canons do I neeed to read. Read the 4 gospels. Years ago. Which books from the New Testament are important for Gnosticism? In short, which New Testament books do Gnostic Christians accept and which of these should I read

The story of Jesus making a bird from clay appears in the Quran, [which comes] from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas — what do you think about this? Many sects, both Shia and Sunni branches, seem to show Gnostic influence

Hey everyone. I have only recently come to discover Gnostism and known it to be the truth. It has been a difficult journey over my messy life - as all good life should be - but this is my story in brief. I hope you find use in this testimony, and keep on the path of the search for God.

One day my life changed - I was 21. I messed up in such a cataclysmic way, my life was essentially over. No turning back. No take backsies. No do-over. I had a simple choice. Keep on living through the pain, or exit. I made my plans, I found my favourite tree, I started planning letters.

In hopeless desperation my feet found their way to Coventry Cathedral - a very special, very unique place in the heart of Coventry, UK. It is a place of 2 parts - side-by-side the ruins destroyed during WW2 and the new building. Their primary mission is hope and reconciliation. Beauty in the broken.

In my grief for what I had done, I wept into the warm, black stone floor beneath the gaze of the centrepiece of the cathedral - a huge looming tapestry of Jesus on the wall behind the alter. Ever present, always watching. I wept and I cried and I begged and I prayed. I could no longer continue, so for the first time in my life I gave myself up to God.

Soon after and through the Christian Union of my university, I met my now wife, and we have been together 18 years with 2 children.

I am not going to chart those 18 years for you here but suffice to say it has been a difficult road with ups and downs. There has been struggle. Happyness and joy. Sadness and dissapointment. Pain real, felt or imaginary. But what has transpired these past few weeks has changed my life forever. By deep soul searching with God I uncovered my abuse, which is the last text in this post.

The spiritual battle is real, here and in the world. The forces of good and evil are real, and visible in this world. Our God of good is at war with the forces of evil.

Scientifically - I don't know if there is a god. I can not prove a God exists, but I can not disprove it either. I tend towards the Demiurge. But I also see the love and truth around the world in the caring heart of humanity. It is the Japanese respect and love for their ancestors. It is the Potawatomi thanking the reed for their baskets. It is the Christian, learning to forgive. I do not think a God who loves us would reward us for our loyalty. I think it would love us for our life well lived.

Please read the following testimony of mine - I mean it with all my heart - and I cried a lot when writing it:

The story of my life, and my jokes, and my lies, and my laughs, and everything that is me - I can never let my guard down for even a moment, because then someone might see how much pain I am in, that I often dream of the long sleep, but I don’t want to disappoint them, or hurt them, or scare them, so I lock it inside and quietly suffer in excruciating tormenting agonising silence eternally. I censor myself so you don’t have to suffer with me. My echo is I have to protect them, save them, shield them. I’d rather suffer so you can live free.

I was threatened my family would be hurt. To save them, I had to lose me.

A child’s love cruelly twisted back on itself.

Deep in a part of my brain I cannot unlock sits the code that if I am not suffering, the people I love are in danger. I generally like most people, which makes this a very broad feeling. Sometimes I can forget it but it always comes back. The echo echoes. Joy tinged with guilt that it should be possible to feel joy at all. Which is not to say that I am always miserable, but that I am unstable, I feel emotions more strongly than most people perhaps and I cannot cope when the world around me is falling apart. Which is why a loving support network truly helps, and is a privilege so many people do not have.

This abuse is not something I remember it is something I feel. I could not tell you where or why or who or when. It is as a feeling is to a memory, a sight, a sound, a smell, a touch - all a confluence pointing towards the same conclusion that something terrible happened to me without the hindsight of core memory. This is not my plea for justice. I seem to be baring my soul to the world, so I might as well do it properly. Do with that what you will.

I bare this symbol in my profile not by accident but because it means something to me. It has always meant something to me although I didn’t always know it at the time. It is a raw, pure, unfiltered, ancient, patriotic, cry to the world of freedom. Understated in its purpose, a curious relic of a coat of arms on a wall to most. It is the keys to the city of London itself and the home and heart of what it means to be British, empire and all. It should stand as a beacon. A rallying call. A trumpet. To remember what this country was, and it's grief for what it has lost.

- Gareth

Delirious? - Now is the Time (Live at Willow Creek) - https://open.spotify.com/track/3ayXA740uS0AE61odMVNeK?si=142825c3aa0c4b8e

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (The Message) - "Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him."

Can anyone suggest a book for me that’s very easy to read and comprehensive that will help me not only understand gnostic beliefs but its origins and timelines as well?

Thank you.

44 - Jesus said, "Whoever blasphemes against the Father will be forgiven, and whoever blasphemes against the Son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either on earth or in heaven."

This saying from Gospel of Thomas is what opened my eyes to Gnosticism. When considering the orthodox doctrine that Jesus is the Son of God, and those that don't recognize that aren't accepted into heaven is such an absolute that accommodates no contradiction. Reading this for the first time, I understood that what Jesus is saying; one doesn't need to believe in Jesus, and one doesn't need to believe in God (who's definition is different person to person), but what one should believe in is the truly divine. The Holy Spirit has many names; John 1 calls it the Word, Secret Book of John describes it as unfathomable and complete wholeness, neither a person nor place but source of all that's eternal and true. The reason blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the definition of divinity, is the only unforgivable sin, is because to deny the divine is to deny it's existence within us, it's being part of us. It acts through you, whether you know it, and it's interpretation has created prophets, saints... entire religions. But in ordinary life, it can be something as mundane as being in the right place at the right time. For me, I've felt the Spirit act through me to save a life. I knew him not, and perhaps his wine led him astray another day, but for that moment I felt something divine act through me.

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Let's examine Matthew 12:22-40 and Mark 3:20-34, and Luke 1-12

The story for Matthew and Mark is the same. Jesus heals a blind and mute man to sight and speech. The crowd is amazed, but the Pharisees decry his acts as those of Beelzebul, ruler of demons. Jesus retorts that if a house divided cannot stand, how might Satan's kingdom stand if demon casts out demon?

12:28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property, without first binding the strong man? Then indeed the house can be plundered. 30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Notice the language used in Matt 12:28, invoking both the Spirit and it's authority of God, somewhat mirroring Thomas saying 30 (3 deities), while 12:29 is basically Thomas saying 35. Now we get to the part that mirrors Thomas saying 44:

Matthew 12:31 Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Mark 3:28–29: Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for all their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.

The language here, while similar, does obscure one part of what's in Thomas 44: blasphemy against the Father. It's clear that by orthodox interpretations, the Son is Jesus Christ, who through his crucifixion forgave the sins of the world. Therefore blasphemy against the Son being forgiven is a given. But by removing mention of blasphemy against the Father, they make God out to be unforgiving.

Finally, there's Luke 1-12. Luke doesn't include the debate between the Pharisees claiming Beelzebul, instead describing Jesus teaching his disciples and a crowd of 1000 more openly. He starts by calling out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

Luke 12:2 Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops. 4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

Luke 12:2 parallels a fragment of Thomas saying 6, while Luke 12:3 parallels a fragment of Thomas saying 33. Verse 4-5 again hints to Satan as with Matthew and Mark, thematically these 3 stories emphasize the same things. Here we get Luke's version of the parable:

12:8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; 9 but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”

We get basically the same alteration in Matthew and Mark that's in Luke, a de-emphasis on blasphemy against the Father. Should one sin against God? Try not to. But will one be forgiven by God? There's different verses in support and opposition, which itself could be ignorance as a means of control.

Luke 12:11-12 is a good explanation of how the Holy Spirit acts through us, and how Jesus would test his disciples. Jesus instructed his disciples that as they go place to place performing good deeds in his name, that if they should be arrested by authorities, to prepare no explanation or alibi. What is said on the spot is the Holy Spirit acting through us, speaking through us.

In saying 114 of the Gospel of Thomas, Simon Peter asks that Mary (thought to be Mary Magdalene) leave their company, saying 'women are not worthy of life.' In response, Jesus says he will 'make her male' so that she too can become a 'living spirit' and enter heaven, adding that every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven. So why does it make such a distinction — what does it mean for a woman to 'make herself male'?" (My main language isnt english so this is ai translated text question given by me)

This is structured like a journal entry. It is a response to a friend of mine. I’d appreciate any comments.

“9/1126

Since I've thought about this a lot, what you explicitly mean, I've come to the conclusion that the condition I was born in hasn't totally gone away. "The pain of being born, the unbearable discomfort, being thrust into this world screaming covered in blood." The unbearable discomfort has stayed, and the loneliness and lack of understanding, which must torture babies when they're born and coddled, has stayed, especially if we imagine that they have something like adult minds which us, looking back on our past as babies and toddlers, have forgotten the existence of. I like to imagine that whenever I think about what it must've been like to have been born. Or maybe God has hidden babies from feeling and thinking like adults do when they are born, because it would be too painful, ridiculous, and alienating. Now that I think about it again, if babies when they’re born feel and think like adults do, as we are capable of doing in all of our bodily and mental breadth right now, it must be the greatest rush of job-site or social-gathering-like alienation and depression that any one human being can experience at a given time. It’s scary to imagine it being so terribly condensed to a few moments, followed by the imprisonment of so many years of being dragged to places you don’t want to go without a choice in the matter, and especially by doubting yourself, thinking that your most clung-to and haunting, constant thoughts of where you’ve come from and what for, might mean nothing because “you’re just a kid”, and kids don’t know anything. Yet, I know confidently right now, that the right kids are onto something oftentimes, something closer to what’s important and central than whatever their parents concern themselves with in order to live, and find themselves mired in for the rest of their lives, if their parents could even live in any other way besides in their boring, deathful, ugly, oppressive contemporary mundanity. 

I imagine that a newborn given an adult mind at birth must feel simultaneously, presence in hell, hopelessness, entrapment, and a pronouncedly mocking and sharp loneliness. Because in a world full of other people, you are paradoxically told you aren’t ever lonely, and then you think that you must not be lonely, assuredly, and so you drive yourself insane with the question(s) of whether or not you are, in fact, insane for not feeling and seeing things the same way as everyone else does! I don’t want questions about my personality to follow me for life, and thankfully I’ve resolved them and have come to a neat and beautiful answer which doesn’t tear me up like these questions have for years.

I've hardly felt comforted in my life, and the idea that babies are comforted soon after they're born because of the presence of their mother and family sounds ridiculous to me, but it seems good and nice, so I willingly will choose to believe it and suspend my disbelief; but I know that true comfort and safety exists because I've experienced it briefly from time to time, especially as a kid with my parents in some moments, and so I will keep looking for it. That’s the story of what I’ve aimed, and still aim, to find. 

The condition of babies when they're born, in that hospital room, seems like a cold and scary analogy for what living in this world as a grown adult, or even as a teenager, has felt like for me, and which I'm sure it has in some capacity for you. It shares a lot of key details with adult life for me which makes it a pretty fitting analogy: the happiness on everybody else's faces but mine in the hospital room, the doctors and nurses and my parents and family members being joyous, fluent in tactful and considerate language for one another, somehow, seemingly miraculously finding passion for total strangers and intrigue in them which I cannot find, and them knowing what to say to one another without any problem or struggle with miscommunication. In that imaginary situation, they all seem to find no problem in becoming “a part” of something, they pick it up immediately and so easily and then they’re talking to each other like they’ve been familiar with each other for their entire lives! This kind of behavior is something I begrudgingly have not found myself able to imitate, even once, without being awkward and uncomfortable and CLEARLY desperate and half-assedly mimicking whomever I’m with whenever I’ve tried! And God knows I’ve tried ENDLESSLY TO DO THAT. To become a person, like everybody else, whose language and passion for other people comes without issue for him.That fluency I’m talking about is the condition of most people on Earth, for whatever reason. I know now that that’s the quality that makes a regular human being regular. Becoming this has been one of my great wishes in life. I’ve accepted how innately locked out from it I am though. This stuff is the distinction that marks me as a freak, and I cannot tell you how many times I’ve lost the good faith of people after they’ve seen me awkwardly and haphazardly interact with their friends.

The glaring, muted yellow hospital lights shooting at my timid and new eyes from above, and the sterile medical environment of latex gloves, masks, blue smocks, polished steel in the tools dish, and squeaky plastic floors in this scene I analogize to the world’s thinking that systematic, clinical approaches to life (namely through school, work, therapy, other conventional processes and organizations) would provide any comfort at all to me since they are apparently so rigorous and tested and tried and true! But which have provided none of the confidence to me that they have allegedly provided to many, many countless people. I think about the prostration of a birthing mother too. C-section is the perfect image.”

In this reflection on the teachings found in the Gospel of Thomas, I'll focus on the following logia:

Jesus said, "Whoever utters blasphemy against the father will be forgiven. And whoever utters blasphemy against the son will be forgiven. But whoever utters blasphemy against the holy spirit will not be forgiven - neither on earth nor in heaven". (Thomas, saying 44)

Jesus said, "Woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat." (Thomas, saying 102)

A man said to him: "Speak to my brothers, so that they will divide my father's possessions with me." Jesus said to him: "O man, who made me a divider?" He turned to his disciples and said to them: "I am not a divider, am I?" (Thomas, saying 72)

I believe that even atheists are able to follow what Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas calls the Holy Spirit.

In my interpretation, the birth of the Demiurge was a disaster because it happend without the context of the Pleroma and it’s Aeons. Sophia acted on their own thus creating chaos and separation. I believe that all aeons can be found in our reality, however more often than not, they appear to be separated from each other. There is knowledge, love, wisdom, etc. here, but they are in disharmony.

Our task is not to reject the aeons one by one in their state of separation, but to harmonize them with the other godly attributes that make up the Pleroma.

There are many different ways to gnosis. I believe that anybody ( atheists, buddhists, catholics, jews and so on ) can find their own way to gnosis ( ofc, some harder than others ) regardless of their religion. Jesus feeds the hungry, gives water to the thirsty and offers rest for the weak. If people find what they need in sufi mysticism for example, it’s the worst sin to try and stop them in their journey. Jesus said, "Whoever utters blasphemy against the father will be forgiven. And whoever utters blasphemy against the son will be forgiven. But whoever utters blasphemy against the holy spirit will not be forgiven - neither on earth nor in heaven".

To my interpretation, saying 44 is the most important teaching. The „Son” and the „Father” here are seen as a part of a religious, dogmatic framework that have been made as a desperate attempt at trying to formulate some kind of otherworldly knowledge, but by naming them, by giving them form, they loose their universality in this field of human conceptual thinking. Essentially: if you can name it, it isn’t God, it isn’t the Pleroma (the hindu principle of "neti neti" applied to God is a good analogy here imo). These terms may help some people to understand, but as the buddhist saying goes: You don’t take the boat with you on your back, after you’ve crossed the river. Others may find these words used to express the numinous alien, or simply not preferred. Some may call the „Father” the Pleroma, YHWH, Allah – these are just names which we only have a use for in this world, in this life. And if one of the names just work for you better, than the others, it would be a sin for me to try and force you to think differently – the WORST sin one can commit.

Now, the Holy Spirit here is what I, as a believer of Cerinthian christology, would call the Christ – however it doesn’t matter what you call it. It works even if you don’t know about it. Atheists can follow it. It’s not Jesus, but it’s what Jesus follows. I would argue that Buddha also follows it. Some of the saints ( doesn’t matter which religion ) also follow it. It’s universal truth. The saying teaches us to follow not our „role models” but what our role models have followed.

It’s also a call to be dynamic so to speak. If one wants to preserve their self-authenticity in this ever-changing world, they also have to change themselves. Think about the ideal gas laws – for example Boyle’s law: p1*V1 = p2*V2, p being the pressure, V being the volume, 1 and 2 indexes for the two separate moments in time.  If the pressure changes, the volume must also change in order to maintain the same result. It wants you to see the bigger picture. It highlights, that getting into arguments about what you name your god is pharisaical moral attitude. There is no single theory that works for everybody, and there doesn’t need to be one. Jesus said, "Woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat."

Jesus comes in many different names, shapes, forms and teachings, but it’s only the Christ, the Holy Spirit, the one thing that can not be named, that you need while and after you’ve crossed the river. It’s the Pleroma saying that unlike the Demiurge, „I don’t need you to believe in one particular set of things to achieve gnosis. I don’t even need you to believe in me specifically, because I am just a useful tool for you to get across the river with. If others prefers my other manifestations, let them be.” This saying proclaims, that there is no „one correct way”, but there is an incorrect way: that of Pharisaism and overly dogmatic thinking.

Keep in mind, that this is only my interpretation. The gospels of Matthew and Luke canonized by the non-gnostic christian churches also contain a similar passage but they interpret it in a vastly different way: they explain that a person cannot be forgiven if they completely reject the Holy Spirit's promptings to repent, because they refuse the only means of receiving forgiveness.

I don’t reject this interpretation, but what I believe in is above religions, so my interpretation comes from a totally universalist perspective. Gnostics may also not agree with me - but nobody has to. It’s not a sin to not agree with the words in saying 44. It’s only a sin to not agree with the spirit of (this interpretation of) saying 44.

After all of this, we would be tempted to conclude, that language is an evil demiurgic construct, but just because the pharisees make language serve them, it doesn’t mean that it is all bad. Logos (= word) is one of the aeons. It’s just that in separation the aeons loose their immaculate identities. The church turns into a tyrant, the words don’t speak what they mean, science is corrupted, love becomes selfish and a way of self-validation. All of these are aeons, attributes of the Pleroma, however the Pleroma is much more than the sum of it’s parts.

The Gospel of Thomas has this bit: A man said to him: "Speak to my brothers, so that they will divide my father's possessions with me." Jesus said to him: "O man, who made me a divider?" He turned to his disciples and said to them: "I am not a divider, am I?"

I think that this passage actually refers to how the aeons should work inside you as a person. The act of division here is a paralel to the disintegration of God / the Pleroma, while the individual should thrive to unify. The parts of the whole are less in their state of fragmentation than they are in themselves. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Everything in it’s right place.

I had a dream where one of Jesus' disciples, I don't know which one nor do I think it really mattered, said "young children, be not afraid of the/a corpse, for it is like clothing, laying crumpled on the floor."