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    Living Gnosticism: An Ancient Way of Knowing
    Living Gnosticism: An Ancient Way of Knowing
    Living Gnosticism: An Ancient Way of Knowing
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    Living Gnosticism: An Ancient Way of Knowing

    By Jordan Stratford

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    Twenty-two centuries ago in Alexandria, a sect of philosopher-poets fashioned a myth the strands of which weave through Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Greek philosophy, and inspired the legends of the Holy Grail. Long banished to the realm of notorious heresy, the myths of the Gnostics took root in the fertile imagination of the nineteenth century's artistic movements and esoteric circles, bearing fruit in the daily spiritual practice of thousands today. In 1945, a library of Gnostic writings surfaced form the Egyptian desert, allowing the movement--after 1500 years of propaganda and slander--to speak with its own voice. Rich in imagery, nostalgic in tone, Gnosticism quietly restores Wisdom to her place as a Goddess in Western religion, reveres Eve as the first saint, and acknowledges Mary Magdelene as foremost of the Apostles.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn R. Mabry
    Release dateMar 28, 2016
    ISBN9781944769093
    Living Gnosticism: An Ancient Way of Knowing

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    • 4/5
      Nice overview or gnosticism, thanks for info on cathars, super

    Book preview

    Living Gnosticism - Jordan Stratford

    Apocryphile Press

    1700 Shattuck Ave #81

    Berkeley, CA 94709

    www.apocryphile.org

    Apocryphile Press Edition, 2007.

    Copyright ©2007 by Jordan Stratford

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Stratford, Jordan , 1966–

              Living Gnosticism / by Jordan Stratford.

              ISBN 1-933993-53-7

              1. Gnosticism–Miscellanea

    I. Title

    Printed in the United States of America

    eISBN 978-1-944769-08-6 (Kindle)

    eISBN 978-1-944769-09-3 (ePub)

    Ebook version 1.0

    Author photo: Davin Greenwell

    CONTENTS

    Preface

    I. Know Thyself

    The Gnostic Creed

    Anthem of the Exiled Princes

    II. The Gnostic World View

    A Few Terms

    III. Praxis

    The Alchemy of the Sacraments

    IV. The Liturgical Year

    V. A Gnostic Conversation

    Modern Gnostic Churches

    Further Reading

    Afterword

    Bibliography

    AD REGINA AVIA

    For the Lost Queen

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

    To my family – Zandra, Brendan, Liam, Xochitl, Sebastian, and Monica; to Bishop +Shaun McCann, Rev. Stu Berry, and Rev. Juliana Carnes of the Apostolic Johannite Church for their friendship and fraternity; to Bishop +Rosamonde Miller of the Ecclesia Gnostica Mysteriorum for inspiring me to become a priest and for her ongoing support; to Jeremy Puma of the Palm Tree Garden and Jesse Christopher Folks for their contribution to the Four Point Plane thematic definition of Gnosticism; to Rev. Terje Bergersen of the Ecclesia Gnostica for his longstanding friendship; to Reverend Mother Marsha Emerick+ of the Gnostic Church of Mary Magdalene for her friendship and vision for the Order of Saint Esclarmonde; and to my sister Avielah Barclay for her insight into Judaism and Kabala.

    Scripture paraphrased from James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, revised edition. HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1990.

    Illustrations are from details of various works by William Blake, 1757-1827

    SURRENDER PRAYER

    I have been apart and I have lost my way.

    The archons have taken my vision.

    At times I am filled with Thee,

    but often I am blind to Thy Presence,

    when all I see is this world of form.

    My ignorance and blindness are all I have to offer,

    But these I give to Thee, holding back nothing.

    And in my hours of darkness,

    when I am not sure there even is a Thou, hearing my call,

    I still call to Thee with all my heart.

    Hear the cry of my voice, clamoring from this desert,

    for my soul is parched and my heart

    can barely stand this longing.

    – +Rosamonde Miller

    PREFACE

    Most modern bookstores will offer a dozen or so works on the Gnostics and their Gospels. Each of these texts will leave you with the understanding that Gnosticism is something odd that happened 1800 years ago or so, and that the Gnostics now belong to the realm of historical curiosity rather than religious experience. You are unlikely to encounter the living, challenging tradition that is playing out in the lives of thousands who will meet this weekend for prayer, celebration, debate and community action.

    You’ll read elsewhere that Gnosticism is elitist, misogynist, secretive, and world-hating. But the Gnostic scriptures themselves speak of a philosophy that is universal; reveres Eve as the first Saint and Sophia as a Goddess; is intimate rather than occult; and finds Holy Wisdom under every stone and within every tree. You’ll hear that Gnosticism is dualist, claiming two equal and opposing gods; but Gnosticism has always taught that we are all aspects of an infinite one-ness.

    Most baffling of all, contemporary readers will be told that the word Gnosticism is so vague and contradictory that it never really existed – despite a rich continuum of seekers, history, and scripture. Part of the challenge in studying Gnosticism is that it has never been a monolith, never had a canon of orthodoxy. It has always been less of a set and more of an intersection of overlapping themes. The themes themselves have an elusive, dreamlike quality that presents many challenges for scholars used to tidy classifications.

    Most of the confusion arises from identifying Gnosticism with later, distinct movements: Marcionism and Manichaeanism. While each of these borrowed from earlier Gnostic ideas, they veered dramatically from Gnosticism’s original course – denying gnosis, the intimate understanding of Divinity that is the core of Gnostic experience – and therefore cannot be credibly regarded as part of Gnosticism at all. The distinctions are as sharp as Buddhism from Hinduism; as Christianity from Judaism. Worldly denial, radical dualism, and disregard for the Old Testament can be found in later movements, but not in Gnosticism per se.

    Compare all these contradictions with the abiding reality of Gnosticism; an inclusive, participatory religious context that invites, inspires and nourishes. At the very center of Gnosticism is the enlightened moment of gnosis; an immediate, intimate and unique encounter with the Mystery and our place in it. Many schools of religious teaching in the West have rejected this transformative experience, due in part to the fact that it demolishes both Original Sin and the authority of scripture, setting in their place the Sacred Flame of our kinship with the eternal. Yet Gnosticism has never been extinguished, surviving in the shadows of orthodoxy, flowering throughout the centuries as myth and mysticism. Gnosticism prizes art over polemic, intuition over theology, curiosity over obedience.

    Seeing this contemporary phenomenon, it’s easy to categorize Gnosticism as just another religion, with a core of religious texts, churches, clergy, rites for certain days of the year – and in a very real sense that’s true. But Gnosticism is also a way of seeing; a technique for working with a set of tools that begin with a specific myth; but it does not end there. Gnosticism is ultimately pragmatic, adapting to the spiritual experience and imaginative daring of each explorer. While this book illustrates a picture of contemporary organized Gnosticism, most Gnostics are solitary confreres, contemplating and creating in coffee shops and living rooms. While Gnosticism can express itself via a tradition of incense and candles and sacraments, it is equally expressed in art galleries, in charity, in social action – and in discrete moments of liberating clarity.

    There is in everyone the divine power existing in a latent condition… This is one power divided above and below; generating itself, making itself grow, seeking itself, finding itself, daughter of itself, son of itself – mother, father, unity, being a source of the entire circle of existence.

    – The Great Announcement, quoted by Hippolytus c. 200 CE

    I. KNOW THYSELF

    It seems to me that the only true Christians were (are?) the Gnostics, who believe in self-knowledge, i.e., becoming Christ themselves, reaching the Christ within. The Light is the Truth. All any of us are trying to do is precisely that: Turn on the Light.

    – John Lennon, The Mysterious Smell of Roses

    Twilight. A group of figures, some robed in traditional white albs, most in plain clothes, pace the ancient patterns of the labyrinth in wet grass and silent meditation. Later, inside a small chapel rented from a larger church, yellow, red, blue and green candles are

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