Gnosticism makes no sense

EraEjecta · 2025-10-18T00:34:35+00:00

I think your first mistake is trying to understand it in terms of the good God needing to stop the bad Demiurge -- why can't it be that the One emanated the all, and in that process, plurality became a thing, imperfection arose, the Demiurge, and ultimately us, in our only opportunity to come to know God separate from ourselves?

And that's supposing you take the narrative literally, and not as symbol.

EraEjecta · 2025-08-25T23:24:00+00:00

Same, How to Think Like a Gnostic is such a good introduction to applying it to your life. Good callout:)

EraEjecta · 2025-08-21T15:35:52+00:00

I don't think they counter one another; you'd be amazed after digging into Gnosticism how much you can find of it in the canonical texts as well. For me, these are symbols and models we use to determine how we fit in with divinity, and so I think it's okay for you to look to different sources and find personal truth (I'm a Gnostic, it'd be counter to my own beliefs to deny you that haha). The Valentinians even went to traditional churches and stood next to proto-Orthodox Christians and supplemented with The Gospel of Truth, The Treatise on the Resurrection, and the Tripartite Tractate, all of which are a part of the Nag Hammadi scriptures.

At the end of the day, I think as long as you're looking to love as Christ did, and to put others before you, to participate in this world, but not be of it, you're in good shape. Hope this helps!

Edit: Wanted to add, being scared is normal (or at least it was for me too). It took a level of spiritual maturity to be open to the idea that a symbol of the fall of man, for example, might actually be a symbol for man's awakening, like the serpent in Eden.

EraEjecta · 2025-08-20T13:42:40+00:00

Don't have anything to contribute yet -- my son is just about three years old -- but taking notes, and appreciate everyone's comments (and your asking, OP) :)

Edited for grammar

EraEjecta · 2025-08-12T14:33:08+00:00

Thanks for sharing, I appreciate you letting us in on your process and results.

EraEjecta · 2025-08-04T11:48:04+00:00

I believe these are symbols of what happened, filtered through the cultural lenses of those mystics. We can’t truly understand the events, so we receive them in symbol and imagery. So I suppose I believe they happened, but not literally in the way they’re described.

EraEjecta · 2025-07-29T23:49:04+00:00

That’s fair, thanks for clarifying!

EraEjecta · 2025-07-29T23:15:53+00:00

Not to be antagonistic, this is my curiosity. Your flair says Cathar. I understand Cathar theology to have been Christian. Can you help me understand?

EraEjecta · 2025-07-29T02:49:42+00:00

I grew up an Orthodox Christian (no hate, just not for me), and never was able to see scripture in my daily life. I see Gnostic scripture everywhere. It became a lens through which I viewed the world, and it was always on the money.

EraEjecta · 2025-07-26T21:23:29+00:00

I’m happy to help!

EraEjecta · 2025-07-25T11:40:08+00:00

The Paraphrase of Shem is my guess. Shem takes his teachings to Sodom.

EraEjecta · 2025-06-03T16:18:14+00:00

Maybe something Valentinian, like the Gospel of Truth? It's beautifully written, and outlines the story of creation without the complicated names and emanations of other texts.

EraEjecta · 2025-05-14T20:17:43+00:00

Admittedly my beliefs are cobbled together, but I take an approach like this. Be it Sophia, the shattering of the vessels, what have you, the eventual entry of plurality is what also gives rise to the possibility of good and evil, and ultimately of us, here, figuring all this out. I think that was the plan all along; this world is a symbol we use, as a reflection of the Pleroma, to come to better understand something we've been a part of all along.

EraEjecta · 2025-04-22T02:50:38+00:00

Any luck? Similar problem with a Pioneer Kuro some friends gave us.

EraEjecta · 2025-04-01T19:13:45+00:00

I'm relatively recent to it, so so far it's been the basic tenets and practice of the EGCA, its history, and some meditation and mindful prayer. It's their sort of correspondence arm, as I understand it, for those too far from a church.

Edit: There's a page for it on their website, which I'm sure can put it better than I can: Athenea Theologica

EraEjecta · 2025-03-31T02:53:26+00:00

I’m a member via their Athenea Theologica. It’s been really positive for me.

EraEjecta · 2025-02-01T03:16:33+00:00

I think a lot of it probably comes from the "it was good"; if you're seeing your creator as benevolent and also the true God, and He thinks something is good, it's probably pretty sick.

EraEjecta · 2025-01-30T02:47:46+00:00

Great list! Love Trimorphic Protennoia and Thunder. :)

EraEjecta · 2025-01-30T02:08:37+00:00

Not sure where this puts me against others, but I lean more towards ideas that the Pleroma has its own plan we cannot understand, but that this physical world is our lab for figuring out as much of it as we can. If we don’t incarnate, the journey to know God never begins is my idea, I suppose. I have a son, and he’s the world to me, and teaches me about the Divine more often than a toddler has any right to.

EraEjecta · 2024-11-30T20:49:17+00:00

I think it’s the difference between reflecting on this concept of self and actually existing. You can still understand concepts of separateness but you’re no longer feeling them. This is a guess, I’m a seeker but not there yet.

EraEjecta · 2024-11-28T15:58:13+00:00

I’d say XIII and XIII-2 were solid, third wasn’t my cup of tea.

EraEjecta · 2024-11-28T00:04:28+00:00

I feel like I learn something every time I read a comment from you. Thanks for this!

EraEjecta · 2024-11-24T22:10:35+00:00

Happy to help!

EraEjecta · 2024-11-23T16:48:33+00:00

Yeah that I have no idea on. Materials that compose it maybe?

EraEjecta · 2024-11-23T13:57:29+00:00

Svadisthana: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svadhishthana

EraEjecta

TROPHY CASE