Re: MEGATHREAD: New World Religion
Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:32 pm
Brief introduction to gnosticism, antinomianism and others.
Gnosticism has its roots in kabbalah, which in turn has its origins in previous doctrines which some trace back to Platonism, Egypt and Mesopotamia. It shares the same view as many mystery schools; the universe is a series of emanations; each of them further away from the Monad; the divine absolute source of everything (think of the platonic concept of the "Form of the Good"; a perfect source of all ideas and the further away something is from it, the less perfect it is). In their view, the material world was the lowest plane of existence, created by an evil entity called "the demiurge" (Originally, a platonic idea which wasn't evil; thought to have fashioned the material world by connecting the world of ideas with the material plane).
Since everything emanates from this source, we all have a remnant or divine spark; all is part of this divinity. Our mission is to awaken ourselves to the fact that the world we live in is an illusion (think of the allegory of the cave), release our divine spark (that is, our true nature, which is divine) so that we can return to the source through a process called "gnosis", knowledge; achieved through meditation, fasting, instrospection, etc. During this state of gnosis, practitioners believed they could do magic; since they are one with everything, the barriers of space, time and materiality are overcome. Some sects maintained that once a person achieved this state of "perfection", they could commit sins without actually sinning, since their actions were aligned with divine will.
Some branches of gnosticism associated the god of the old testament, Jehovah, with this demiurge. In their view, man was held prisoner in the Garden of Eden by an unjust and vindictive god, and it was Lucifer, the serpent, who released them from the illusion of the Garden of Eden, by giving them the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. Lucifer means "the light bringer". The serpent, according to Manly P. Hall's "Secret teachings of all ages", represents the individual mind, as well as the kundalini.
In the yoga tradition, the Kundalini is a creative, cosmic energy which we all have at the base of our spine. It must climb through the 33 vertebrae, unfolding the chakras, until it reunites with the divine, opening the third eye, bringing enlightenment and giving the practitioner "siddhis"; supernatural powers.
It is this individual intellect, Lucifer, which must be spiritually enlightened, achieving "Christ consciousness" or enlightenment. Reuniting the individual mind with the universal mind.
Bear in mind that if the demiurge is evil, then the material world is evil as well. If this evil god is Jehovah, the wrathful god of the old testament, then all his commandments and rules must be evil as well. Jesus Christ and the Serpent are thought to be envoys of the real god to rescue humanity from the material prison created by the demiurge. Some state they are one and the same, others say they are two distinct entities.
Therefore, since the commandments and morals were created by a false god, it is acceptable and advisable to disregard them as evil creations which keep humanity away from its true destiny. The traditional notions of good and evil are abolished. This idea is called "antinomianism"; also known as "redemption through sin" (see Robert Sepherh's 1666: Redemption through sin, which is a book on the jewish kabbalist sect of the sabbatean frankists, who believed exactly this)
Gnosticism has its roots in kabbalah, which in turn has its origins in previous doctrines which some trace back to Platonism, Egypt and Mesopotamia. It shares the same view as many mystery schools; the universe is a series of emanations; each of them further away from the Monad; the divine absolute source of everything (think of the platonic concept of the "Form of the Good"; a perfect source of all ideas and the further away something is from it, the less perfect it is). In their view, the material world was the lowest plane of existence, created by an evil entity called "the demiurge" (Originally, a platonic idea which wasn't evil; thought to have fashioned the material world by connecting the world of ideas with the material plane).
Since everything emanates from this source, we all have a remnant or divine spark; all is part of this divinity. Our mission is to awaken ourselves to the fact that the world we live in is an illusion (think of the allegory of the cave), release our divine spark (that is, our true nature, which is divine) so that we can return to the source through a process called "gnosis", knowledge; achieved through meditation, fasting, instrospection, etc. During this state of gnosis, practitioners believed they could do magic; since they are one with everything, the barriers of space, time and materiality are overcome. Some sects maintained that once a person achieved this state of "perfection", they could commit sins without actually sinning, since their actions were aligned with divine will.
Some branches of gnosticism associated the god of the old testament, Jehovah, with this demiurge. In their view, man was held prisoner in the Garden of Eden by an unjust and vindictive god, and it was Lucifer, the serpent, who released them from the illusion of the Garden of Eden, by giving them the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. Lucifer means "the light bringer". The serpent, according to Manly P. Hall's "Secret teachings of all ages", represents the individual mind, as well as the kundalini.
In the yoga tradition, the Kundalini is a creative, cosmic energy which we all have at the base of our spine. It must climb through the 33 vertebrae, unfolding the chakras, until it reunites with the divine, opening the third eye, bringing enlightenment and giving the practitioner "siddhis"; supernatural powers.
It is this individual intellect, Lucifer, which must be spiritually enlightened, achieving "Christ consciousness" or enlightenment. Reuniting the individual mind with the universal mind.
Bear in mind that if the demiurge is evil, then the material world is evil as well. If this evil god is Jehovah, the wrathful god of the old testament, then all his commandments and rules must be evil as well. Jesus Christ and the Serpent are thought to be envoys of the real god to rescue humanity from the material prison created by the demiurge. Some state they are one and the same, others say they are two distinct entities.
Therefore, since the commandments and morals were created by a false god, it is acceptable and advisable to disregard them as evil creations which keep humanity away from its true destiny. The traditional notions of good and evil are abolished. This idea is called "antinomianism"; also known as "redemption through sin" (see Robert Sepherh's 1666: Redemption through sin, which is a book on the jewish kabbalist sect of the sabbatean frankists, who believed exactly this)