A CHRISTIAN GNOSIS
PHILLIP MEDHURST
This is eternal life: to know thee who alone art truly God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
The Gospel according to John, chapter 17 verse 3
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for Robert Medhurst
(Aaron, son of Abraham and Sarah) 1944 2012
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PROLOGUE: GENESIS The Gnosis issued forth, and stood at once Inrank with Forethought, born to mother true, Who by her wish hadhelped to bring him forth. The One whose sight blinds mortal eyewas glad To see effulgent fruit swell on His bough, And He anointedhim with chrism pressed From His own goodness, and from His ownstore Of overflowing virtue's essence, pure. And thus endowed, hewaited on his source, And added to the glory that no eye Can see ofhis progenitor, and His Prevenient grace, the matrix of the All.And Gnosis asked for Truth. The One agreed, And swift on Hisconsent that Truth came forth, And joined the heavenly rank of allwho dwell As mind ineffable. But Truth would speak, And so the Wordthen issued forth and joined The sphere in which Truth lives andmoves and has Its being. And from that Word, imbued with Light AndLife, came what could turn a Word to Deed. By active Word, Sophiacame to be. But she desired a thing exclusive to Herself. Thisthought was not inert, and so It reified: short of perfection,shorn Of that ideal beauty typical Of her who gave him birth, athwarted clone Of one true-born of heavenly gene and stock, Allself-engendered, selfishly conceived. The One had not engaged orwed with her In union divine; no spouse or sire Had courted herconsent, no nuptial bliss Had blessed the product of chasteamity;
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For what she willed was without conference Of family, orconsummation of Conjugal love; concupiscence instead, Withoutrelationship, a fantasy impure, And alien to the hymns its Mothersang When in accord with her pure ancestry. In this her wish cametrue: a monster formed, A snake with lion-jaws and eyes that blazedWith horrid fire of self-will. She cast It out, beyond the zone ofpurity Where he might not be seen by all her peers: From Wisdomborn, in ignorance to dwell. She gave her child a name, as itbefits A ruler who inherits a great power: It is Ialdabaoth,matter's prince. Ialdabaoth strutted forth, and marched From placeto place, far from the place where he Was born. And annexing stillmore he formed Self-glorifying spheres of fire that still Flare onunto this day in heaven's dome. The tyrant raised his hand hisarrogance And masturbat*d, got Authorities, Egged on by fantasiesof unknown realms. And as Sophia's light within him shone And gavehim unique power: because of this He blasphemously called himself agod. So he created seven Angels, each with Powers Sufficient for ayear of days, and all In mimicry of that intuited From what waslong before. But those whom he Begot, those children of theignorance And dark, lacked intimation of the source And principlefrom which all things had come. A week of angels this way rules theworld, For Ialdabaoth, who is Saklas, has
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A multitude of faces, more than all, So he can show himself inany face, Just as he wills. He shares his nature with Themevrything except the pristine power That he drew from his mother,Wisdom: that He would not share. This made him cosmic lord,Conferring as he thought divinity Upon his minion powers. And their"god" Gave each a place to dwell, a so-called "heaven". Their urgeto rule instilled makes them believe That they are gods; but Truthis not deceived: Their bestial natures are revealed to those Whoknow. Their god-like attributes are part And parcel of a fantasydreamed up By Saklas; but illusion will not have Its way exceptwith those who dwell within The dream. The light of Truth willchase away The fog, dissolve its shifting, swirling shapes Whichscare all the deceived like flimsy masks Pinned onto wind-puffedcloaks. Such images Invoke some dread reality, from which They drawtheir fearful influence and power. And so it was with these, forSaklas shaped His schemes upon a kind of memory Of what he hadexperienced in the womb Of what is truly real. And when he saw Theworld he had created all laid out, And gazed upon the panoply whichhe Had spun, enveloping his nakedness, His tongue clapped in hisbell, and said: I am a jealous god. There is no god But me. And soin his stupidity He gave the game away, and told his friends Therewas a God who spurned Divinity The title of this insanejealousy.
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The Mother then became aware of her Deficiency, and how herlight had dimmed. For when she saw her blemishes within The lightof the Pleroma, she then drew Across her face a veil of darkness:she No longer could return her consort's smile Without deception,and be unabashed. Her holy fear caused her to hover at The gate ofTruth, unable to go in. For when her offspring in his arrogance Hadtaken power from his Mother, he Was ignorant of any provenance Andthought her womb was all that there had been. Infatuated with hishandiwork, He placed himself upon a pedestal, An idol tohimself.
And so she turned; And so was heard in her humility. For now sheknew what kind of thing he was, And how he lacked perfection'ssymmetry. Up to her source she raised her tear-filled eyes. He gavethe consent, and so a healing flood Of cleansing holiness washedover her To make her whole; for Providence agreed To supervise herin austerity Within a place of penance set aside Beyond carnalityand snares of sin, Where she could re-acquire her modesty. And thena voice came forth: Behold the Man!' And when the chieftain of thePowers heard He had no inkling of from whence it came. At once,however ignorant or not They were aware to their damnation thatThere was a holy, perfect Source above:
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The Mother-Father, Parents who brought forth All that there is,and whose beneficence Was now displayed in dazzling Anthropos. Ashiver went through Ialdabaoth's world, And rippled through itsfundamental sands. And in the sky the purest element, Transfiguredby the bright epiphany, Revealed that Truth is Beauty, BeautyTruth. And so the carnal gang beheld a light Infuse the cavern ofthe world below. Their eyes were opened, and they saw revealed Theshimmering glory of the Son of Man. The upstart god addressed hisfawning clan: Come let us make a thing like what we saw To givesome aim and purpose to our plans. So each and every one of themthen gave A little something from his psychic pouch, And made anentity from out themselves, Each adding layer on layer of plasticstuff, Along the lines of what they had just seen. Thus areflection creaturely became, And looked just like the soleoriginal The perfect Anthropos. And then they said, Now let us callhim Adam, that his name May light our high road to imperium. And sothis wondrous work, this body came About not yet of flesh, butharbouring A vital force that tapped the secrets of Their universe,their sevenfold harmony, Encapsulated microcosmically In sense anda potential agency. And yet there was something in short supply:The thing had no vocation to fulfil, And thus no will to try, andlay inert.
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No aspiration graced that dawning day. Sophia wanted to retrievethe power Which she had given to her bastard son. In innocence shecame and humbly asked The Mother-Father of transcendent All Who ismost merciful. And He decreed That Gnosis should go down to thatcold place Where ignorance prevails. Elsewhere, within The stonyhearts of all the Powers the weed Of envy sprang. Their flawsexposed by this Wise luminosity, they cast the Man Into a pit,heaped on him all their dung, The heavy execrescence of their days.So Adam came within the mortal sphere, Coiled there and then ofbase material, Engendered from desire within the dark, Enlivened bya soul-less breath, mere air. Thus was our fetter forged, ourdungeon made, By which these bandits now enslaved the Man, Who, inthe darkness, soon forgot the light And grew accustomed to thestench of death. And then Heimarmene was made, so that in time Thecruellest jailer shackled all his being, With an array of manaclesand chains Called times and seasons, moments, ages, dates, Thosefetters from which none could be exempt Outside the All, nor godsnor mortal men, Now doomed to live within a space of time That wasthe past, or will be days to come But never now, the present neverseized, With minds obsessed with what will be and what There mighthave been, with schemes and plans
stretched to
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Infinity, but that eternal now Beyond their ken. And hence theconsciousness Of the Beyond eluded Man again. And furthermore hewas engenderised, By which the husband, stronger than the wife Inlimb, for males might claim a spiritual Domain irrelevant to Truthderived From high authority for Saklas knew He must divide andrule.
So in due course Two sons were born, and Cain and Abel named;And thanks to Saklas, human creatures were Endowed with seed toreplicate themselves, The carnal and the psychic; one inspired Bywind, the other by Sophia's ghost. Meanwhile, within a bower ofLife the Man Called Adam met the Woman Eve, and each Encountringeach within their very core Begot the Son of Man called Seth, theTrue. This son and all his offspring, blessed by those On high, arecalled to dwell in heavens courts, And taught to trace their namesinscribed upon The scroll of Life, while monuments to fleshCollapse, their epitaphs erased. For those Who truly live cannotabide the dark: They must illumine all the catacombs Where theenlightened have been forced to dwell, And lead them to thesunlight up above. Thus shall the righteous gather, and assist Eachother on the way, that true mankind Might find its rightful placewithin the All, And holiness, made whole, might be complete.
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APHORISMS 1. The world is a place of wounds. Wounds to thespirit bleed venom in the soul. Staunch the flow of venom into apoisoned world. 2. Pay heed to the words of those whom men call"Saviour" and "Enlightened" provided that they help you towardsliberation. 3. Beware The Powers. Their subtlety enables them toinvade every corner of the universe, and turn even the most opulentof gifts into an engine of slavery. 4. Beware those who claimdetachment, but are in fact disaffected. Spurned lovers of theworld, they gladly return to her arms if beckoned. 5. Bewareanswers. Beware guides. Beware The Powers, whose gifts are snares.Beware leaders of men. Beware schemes and systems. Beware rewardsand punishments. Beware the world. 6. Suffer much, say little,understand all. 7. The will to power manifests itself inhierarchies, systems, strange terminologies, and all theparaphernalia which gives the pilgrim cause to stumble. Beware such"gnosis" and its occult science. 8. The way to salvation is throughtranscendence of the self. This may be through thought or action.Transcend the will to power and thus find freedom.
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9. In your heart is a hungry worm that grows until your heart isgone, then feeds upon itself. Trust what your heart tells you, yetdeny it. Sharpen your wit, then throw it away. Exercise your mind,then let it be at rest. Welcome the paradox, but do not worship it.Our world was made by Samael. We name the parts with the tongue hegave. His is the Word, but his is not the Truth. 10. Understandingis obscured by the delirium brought on by wealth, power, or worldlybeauty. Those who sit in judgment always find for themselves. SeekThe Spiritual Man, therefore, among those whom the world condemns.The man who turns his back on the rewards of this world must alsobare it to stripes. 11. Bend beneath the blows of The Powers, andso avoid hurt. 12. You sift the dust for tiny nuggets of truth. Butyou stare at the ground because you walk on all fours. Raise yourhead above the earth and look to the stars, where you maycontemplate the Wisdom already known to you. 13. Forgive! know thecause of injurious deeds, or your heart will be a worm that feedsupon itself. 14. Do not suppose that spiritual status is in any wayrelated to worldly accomplishments. Behold the crippled idiot wholeads men to The Truth! Behold the man of intellect and prowess whouses the gifts of nature to extend his sty! 15. There are those whodeny the gods, but few can escape The Powers. Refusing to enter thelabyrinth of
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deception, they bivouac in the vestibule. Rejecting the greatergods of the Temple, they fall prey to the meaner gods of thehearth. Clear the grime from the window and gaze on the worldoutside. 16. Let the mind of Carnal Man be leavened by thepowers-that-be to feed the self. We instead share the simple fareof detachment as we journey together to The Truth. 17. Becompassionate. To understand folly is to forgive. 18. These are not"revelations". These are rather messages from my true self to mytrue self witnessed by the rest of the world. They are Gnosis madeWord, and the waters that are drawn from this well will quench thethirst of many. 19. Sacrifice on the altar of matter is in vain.Yet perhaps Sophia has a place to which her carnal offspring aredestinated. 20. The Gnostic will not run with the herd or the pack;the wrath of The Archons is therefore inflamed. 21. Those who knowsay least. But for those who share in the nature of The One thereis eternity. 22. The Spirit suffers in flesh the enmity of ThePowers. Our souls cry out at injury to the flesh, but theseinjuries dissolve with the flesh that gave them birth. None arevictims of "evil". All are victims of the world.
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23. The fool creates patterns of cause and effect the fat areblessed, the lean are cursed then traces all to "God". But the fatare not praiseworthy; the lean are not to blame. 24. WhenIaldabaoth made the cannibal coil within eternity, it was on thebasis of laws neither right nor wrong. 25. Without map, withoutscrip, without shoes, some arrive before they set out. The land istheirs; they are the kingdom. 26. All things rise from and fallinto the dust, with a beauty that cannot be seized. 27. Decay ispart and parcel of the material world: ideas decay; beliefs decay.These things do not matter to The Spiritual; neither does it matterif, over aeons of time, The Truth is buried. Indeed, at times TheTruth should be prepared for burial. 28. Wisdom can never be seenby all; the quest is in vain. 29. The One can only be perceived bythose who share by their very natures in The Transcendent Reality.30. The Truth is not to be discovered through any personalrelationship for the root of all bonding of separates is carnal.Only pure Knowledge saves: the Knowledge that knows itself byitself, uncontaminated by affection.
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31. There is no appeal to reason here; there is only an appealto Knowledge. Those who know will recognise what they know:argument is unnecessary. 32. The issue is freedom. "Show us the onewho brings freedom", you demand. I can not. Only The One knows TheOne. The One trapped in flesh seeks liberation, and finds a path.The slave dreams of becoming the master. Yet the master is also aslave. The true goal is to transcend the will to power and so findfreedom. 33. For The Spiritual Man "salvation" is not an issue. Thespark can never be lost, though the whole world fall back intoconfusion. The issue is liberation. The means of liberation isKnowledge. 34. Can the unborn child picture its birth? Can TheSpiritual imagine the freedom which will be theirs? 35. No "God"will release his slaves. His chains are subtle. They are forgedwith fear. And the anger of his priests is unbounded against thosewho will not accept his manacles. For the priest is a slave whodreams himself master; awake from all dreams and you will be free.36. Through Knowledge, The Spiritual Man will avoid that whichmakes thickens the prison walls. And he will turn his gaze to hewindow, and the stars beyond, and see what his captors, to theirperpetual rage, will never see. 37. Spurning the vows of thedevotee, they make their pledge to wealth, family and status. Theyhear the roar
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of the beast and serve it. We are called to slay it, and topress on to the gate that leads to Life. 38. Ialdabaoth has amultitude of colours, and can present foliage according to hisdesire. And yet he is a stump. His branches decay, his fruit isrotten. 39. Can all men be saved? The Carnal and The Psychic willalways worship The Archons. (The Spiritual Man may also be seducedalong this path). These powers, including the demiurge, are but thevices of such men elevated to a principle. 40. You entertain adoubt that the alleged powers and the supposed path of liberationexist only in the mind. How can this be so? If the mind of man is aproduct of nature, is it not impressed with the shape of thingsfrom outside itself? Admire The Powers, and spurn them. Neverunderestimate them: their vigour is real. 41. The Carnal, everlimited by their nature, see only idols that may gratify theirmanifold needs. 42. The lips of the messenger are frozen in stone.43. The bellies of The Carnal need leavened bread. 44. Those mostcommitted to the illusion, and who fail to grasp the true nature ofthings, succeed in the eyes of the world. 45. That which overturnsmatter is seen as a destroyer by those in thrall to The Powers. 46.Though there is more than one path, there is only one goal:transcendence of "self".
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47. The Spiritual meets enlightenment as logos, The Psychic asmythos. 48. To leave the womb is to escape a grave. To abandonsecurity is to leave death behind. 49. The slave dreams of becomingthe master. Yet the true goal is to transcend the will to power andso find freedom. 50. The Gnostic "revelation" is provisional acelebration of the riches of The Truth in currency whose valuefluctuates, and much of which is base metal. No-one has a monopolywhen it comes to the manner in which the truth is expressed. 51.The three human kinds exist because of the way that the universehas come about, and not by election. 52. Gems of Truth may belodged in poor settings. 53. Your "good" is self-serving, your"morality" an instrument of prey. 54. The Carnal is the world. ThePsychic perceives a world. The Spiritual knows a prison. 55. Beingorder in matter, Ialdabaoth's is the Word. 56. Notions of "good"are corrupted by consideration of the provisional, the transitory,the self-serving. Yet there is a kind of "good". That which tendstowards The One is "good" because it tends to what is real. 57. Thevirtue of The Spiritual Man is detachment, and this leaves no markfor the eyes of the world to behold.
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The Spiritual Man does not pursue wealth, so all the world seesis poverty. The Spiritual Man does not pursue power, so all theworld sees is weakness. The Spiritual Man does not seek fullness,so the world despises an empty thing. 58. The Spirit is trapped inthis world, and the flesh demands belonging. And so The SpiritualMan chooses his place of belonging on the grounds of compassion.59. There are three paths to the One: the path of action, the pathof devotion, and the path of Knowledge, but the surest of these isthe path of Knowledge. Yet none is strong against idolatry. 60. Ourdetractors accuse us of negativity, of pessimism, of denial. So beit. It is they who refuse to confront the dissatisfaction that eatsat their hearts like a hungry worm. 61. The benighted may not seeThe Light, because their eyes have closed in the darkness. And yetto those who eyes are pierced by The Light he gives power to becomesons of light: the flame already in them grows stronger. 62. Where,then, is healing to be found? The Pneuma is present in the worldnot only in some men, but in the order of events. But to the world,its order is disorder. 63. To side with the Demiurge is to sidewith order. A tyrant is benevolent as long as we enjoy his favour.But the supporter of a tyrant should always be ready to see himselfput to death for the sake of order.
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64. The Spiritual are not hedged by race or by class, by genderor by age; Wisdom does not spring from brain or tongue. 65. Thematerial world is real enough, but that reality is hierarchical.That is, matter is not evil simply inferior. 66. The Truth, likethe royal state, does not reside in the flesh of one person. "Theking is dead. Long live the king!" 67. The criminal and victim areone. The judge must select by caprice, then assert a justice beyondreproach. But the fat are not worthy of praise nor the lean ofblame. The righteous men slain by the oppressor even as he offerssacrifice, or the pilgrim crushed by the falling tower at the holyplace they do not receive their just desert. 68. The world is aplace of deception. This deception is promoted by the angels ofIaldabaoth and their servants, and is expressed in superstitiouspractices: idols and altars and temples and sacrifices andlibations to The Powers. Religious language itself may be astumbling-block in the path of Truth: thus one who hears the word"God" does not perceive what is correct, but perceives deception.It is necessary to turn away from deception in order to be free ofThe Powers; The Spiritual are able to overcome deception withTruth. What do you perceive the emptiness with? Perhaps youapprehend it with The Truth within if there is Truth within. If, onthe other hand, there is no Truth within, then you only see andfeel what your flesh and its psychic servant likes or loathes.
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69. That which overturns matter is seen as a destroyer by thosein thrall to The Powers. 70. The Carnal, ever limited by theirnature, see only idols that may gratify their manifold needs. 71.The true centre of our being resides elsewhere. This is both ourpeace and our restlessness, our stillness and our urge. 72. Thespark can never be lost, thought the whole world fall back intoconfusion. 73. The impulse to order is genuinely divine; theimpulse to worship order is not. 74. The Powers do not change menfor the better. They simply confirm them in their corruption. Thosewho worship The Powers worship their own carnal natures and arecontrolled entirely by instinct. 75. The tyrant is himself aprisoner. 76. The One knows The One. What need has The One to pray?Our wills attend on The One; what need have we to pray? What needhave those whose wills attend on The One to ask for anything? 77.Despair of the world brings hope. 78. Will is the fundamentalprinciple of all independent life. 79. The Psychic may choose TheLight, and because this choice transcended nature, something may bereborn.
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80. Enlightenment is the gift of the few to the many. 81. Thoughthere is more than one path, there is only one goal: transcendenceof "self". 82. Nothing can come between The Spiritual and eventualbliss. 83. To the tribes The Spiritual are of no account; to theleaders they are invisible. 84. Zeal in reform is commendable; holywar is good. But this is not our way, for we are the ultimatesubversive. 85. Some ages may sink into a depravity whichguarantees their eventual extinction in the way of all flesh. 86.It is those most committed to the illusion who succeed in the eyesof the world. It is those who succeed in the eyes of the world whofail to grasp the true nature of things. 87. There is one system,one illusion. It has a demonic beauty, and torments us. 88. God isnot supreme. Miracles do not happen. This is because matter cameinto being before God, and God himself cannot change the iron lawsof the material universe. Because he does not possess the ultimatespiritual supremacy, he is unable to "save" us. 89. A mediator maytake a costly gift to appease a tyrant and win favours from him. Tosuppose that God is such a ruler is a notion unworthy of God or ofHis
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true worshippers, and will attract only those intent on suingthe Deity for favours. 90. There are always those who seek aprofession as mediators. Entry to the Kingdom by those who are itscitizens needs no such mediation and therefore no priesthood. 91.Ialdabaoth is not the ultimate authority. But being order inmatter, his is the Word. 92. None are victims of something called"evil". All are victims of the way the world is the inexorable lawsof nature. 93. True consciousness is a cross to bear: there is nosense of moral superiority to motivate; there is no covenant with apersonal god to inspire; and there is no divine providence tocomfort. Consciousness is an end in itself. 94. In the flesh thegap between saint and sinner is imperceptible. "God" must base hisselection on caprice, then assert a justice beyond argument andreproach. Such is the way of the tyrant Ialdabaoth, himself theprisoner of iron laws. 95. The Spiritual can not be identified byany physical, mental or moral characteristics. And because theworld is irredeemable, there is no point in forming an organisationwhich promotes faith. There can be no scripture, no sacrifice, andno priesthood. 96. Anything experienced is, by its nature, lessthan true reality. The enlightened possess true perspective as partof their nature it cannot be acquired by effort.
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97. If the existence of neither revealer nor revealed can berecognised as authorities higher than the allegedly "supreme"Ialdabaoth, then both, dimly perceived, have to be imported intothe deity. But their subjection makes idols of them. 98. There arethose who say, "We have the keys to salvation. Salvation is easy.Simply do as we say!" There are those who say, "You enjoy a worldlyprosperity. That in itself is a sign of grace. Come and join ourranks, and add to that the assurance of salvation!" There are thosewho say, "Salvation is an amusing game that adds spice to ourcomfortable lives. Come and join us: realise your full potential!"How subtle and persuasive are The Powers! not the dumb idols wehabitually suppose them to be! 99. Those who are supposed to beguardians of spiritual matters the scribes, the teachers, thepriests are no less open to corruption than the infidels. Only thegift of suffering strips such corruption away and raises head andvoice above the edge of the prison wall. 100. The comfort of ritesis a comfort of sleep, where materiality is dreamed as order andjustice. 101. People may use a mediator in their dealings with God,but to do so presupposes that there are two classes of humanbeings, one of which is closer to God. 102. If you pray to God,then it is Ialdabaoth; if he comes to your aid then it is Saklas.103. Knowledge is not the gift of a just god. It is that whichoffers refuge from an unjust demiurge, who
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disposes of his illusory riches capriciously, and leads therecipients to ignorance and eternal night. 104. Knowledge is not agift. It is the right and the burden of those imprisoned yetalready free. 105. We say "Not this" and "Not that", anddissatisfaction eats at your heart like a hungry worm. 106. The Oneis unnamed and ineffable, the source of all being. 107. The One ispure and does not strive, since The One lacks nothing. The One isunnamed, and yearns for no thing. 108. The Carnal and The Psychicwill always worship The Powers, for they are their vices raised toa principle. The Carnal Man who sacrifices his own self for hisfamily or friends does a noble thing, even if he is acting underinstinct. This instinct is indeed a higher impulse than the driveto self-preservation. There is some sense in which nature isrefined by it. It creates a window in matter for the Fullness to berevealed. 109. The Eternal Being's Fullness is by nature apart frommatter, but has become widely scattered and briefly detained in theworld because of an accident. 110. Purity was divided; thus "he"became "they". 111. The One in us perceives beyond mortal ken; thisis "Gnosis".
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112. From The One came the All. Only The One knows the One. Andthose who seek proof of the One need only to acknowledge theiryearning. 113. The utterances of The Spiritual are the Word of TheOne. 114. Transcendence of this world is not an experience open toall. Wisdom derives from a perspective rather than an experience.Hence the quest for induced enlightenment is fruitless. 115. Fortrue Gnostics there is no providence. The Spiritual are trapped andare returning through the aeons by paths of liberation which aredifficult, and known only by themselves. Yet liberation is assured.116. May The One reach out to the knowledge within you and draw youto the ultimate goal. 117. The True Reality is beyond us. This Onecan not be perceived by anything other than The One. The One canonly ever be described in terms of The One. 118. The material worldis real enough, but that reality is hierarchical. That is, matteris not evil - simply inferior. This perspective on the materialworld is related to an insight into the way things have come to beas they are. 119. Myth must negate itself in the telling if idolsare not to be engendered. 120. There are no sacraments. "Salvation"is in Knowledge, a Knowledge that cannot be conferred.
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121. In the first phase survival is all. Ruled by The Powers,whom we name as gods, we seek to bend them to our will by bribesand flattery, by submission or intimidation. Then we createpatterns of cause and effect. Gratification is reward, denial ispunishment: the fat are blessed, the lean are cursed. And we traceall causes to one cause, whom we call "God". Soon we see that thefat are not praiseworthy nor the lean worthy of blame. So ourpatterns become more tenuous: our ancestors were righteous orsinners, or we ourselves in a previous life. But this rightlyoffends a sense of justice, and so we find a second source forevil, or suppose that God's ways are inscrutable to men. And so wewait in vain for the overcoming of the one, or the revelation ofthe other. 122. Nomos is not a cosmic force: human behaviour isaffected by but cannot affect the laws of nature. 123. Suffering isnot caused by transgression, and death cannot be overcome byobedience to law. 124. It is not possible for anyone to state thedestiny of humankind beyond death. But because God is eternal, thatdestiny too is eternal, for true mankind is in the mind of God.Those who seek the truth about their destiny in order to fulfil itjoin their wills with the will of God and may therefore participatein the eternity of the divine nature. 125. The principle whichguides us has no beginning and no end. We are heirs to EternalTruth and Life, and we are trustees of The Way.
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126. If The Powers exist in the mind, were they not put there byThe Powers? The path that leads beyond is a liberation. 127. Theuniverse and events within it are without meaning. There is no goodnews to proclaim. An account of primeval events merely enableswhoever has ears to hear it to derive some comfort fromunderstanding their true predicament in this material universe.128. None are victims of something called "evil". Do not seek toexonerate God by blaming man. When Jehovah manufactured thiscannibal coil within eternity, he made it on the basis of lawswhich had nothing to do with right or wrong. All are victims of theway the world is the inexorable laws of nature. 129. It would benonsense to say that The Carnal Man is "saved" by sacrifice. He hasno "self" to save. 130. Some ages may strive towards understandingin the manner of The Animate Man. Such cultures may becometransfused with enlightenment, but such enlightenment is the giftof the few to the many. 131. The enemy is "in here" as well as "outthere". Mark well how The Powers are at work in our hearts. Admirethem while spurning them. Never underestimate them: their strengthis armed with cunning. 132. The most primitive religion seeks therenewal of nature by fertility. The more advanced religion seeksthe renewal of society by justice. The highest religion seeks thetranscendence of matter by Spirit.
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133. If we cling to these notions of "good" and "justice" wemerely increase the suffering of the self. Leave good and evilbehind with the self, and go to where no thing exists, and yet Allis. 134. There is a question which you dare not ask because youknow it is foolish. Let it be framed for you: "Where is God to befound?" It has been answered many a time by the sages, but heardonly by fools. God is within ourselves. 135. The task is not toestablish systems. The task is to call forth those who share TheGnosis, to summon the invisible community of Knowledge and insightan invitation to all The Spiritual to celebrate here theConsciousness which we always have shared, and always will, that wemay enjoy it together at our Source in greater measure to alleternity. 136. Struggle from the chrysalis of this world and takewing to regions which are intimated only by yearning. Those whoseek proof of The One need only to acknowledge this yearning. Theirdespair is the harbinger of hope. 137. Marriage to the world isprostitution, in which the whor* demands not only a fee, but aretainer for her services, and the husband is client to his ownpimp. 138. Notions of "good" are corrupted by consideration of theprovisional, the transitory, the self-serving. These weave thesticky thread of the illusory reality of this world. Morality maybe an instrument of prey against the freedom of the self.
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139. That which overturns the iron necessity of matter is seenas a destroyer by those in thrall to The Powers. Men of Knowledge,however, are able to read such events as signs which are effectiveto the healing of the spirit. 140. The land is ours; we are thekingdom. What need have we of a king? 142. If we cling to notionsof "good" and "justice" we merely increase the suffering of theself. Leave good and evil behind with the self, and go to where nothing exists, and yet All is. 143. Discourse with one's fellowspiritual beings brings the purest pleasure this world can offer:it is memories of youth and dreams of happy old age. For TheSpiritual Man knows that one day, no matter how long the term ofthe sentence, and how protracted the torments inflicted by thosewho for a day lord it over him, he will return to his home in TheOne, to be lost and found forever in the bliss of union. 144. Threethings are necessary to start out on the path to enlightenment:first, a culture; second, a religion; third, suffering. One is thesoil, one the sunshine, the other the rain. But the seed comes onlyfrom The One. 145. We perceive, we analyse, we interpret, we mould,we subjugate reality to ourselves. And we say that the root of oursystems is "God" a god made in our own image. When we worship thisimage, we worship ourselves.
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146. Where, then, is Truth to be found? I can only tell yousince I can only use words out of falsehood where Truth is not tobe found. 147. The Eternal Being's Fullness is by nature apart frommatter, but has become widely scattered and briefly detained in theworld because of an accident. Those who share The Transcendent showtheir true natures by detachment from carnality and a compassionfor those who suffer false hope about the possibilities of thisworld. 148. The Spirit suffers in flesh the enmity of The Powers.149. Our souls cry out at injury to the flesh, but these injuriesdissolve with the flesh that gave them birth. None are victims of"evil". All are victims of the world. 150. We hear the cries.Ialdabaoth is powerless to overcome the iron laws which lead tosuffering and death. 151. The Enlightened are so by nature. 152.The message is an expression of The Spiritual Man's sublimity.Worship of the messenger shows The Psychic Man's mendacity aidedand abetted by The Carnal Man's stupidity. 153. Transcendence ofthis world is not an experience open to all. Wisdom or"Enlightenment" derives from a perspective rather than anexperience. Hence the quest for Enlightenment as an experienceinduced by meditation is fruitless.
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154. Though there is more than one path to the goal, theultimate aim and end of all true Life is to transcend that illusionwhich we call the "self". The Way is not to give up one's own"self" in order simply to be absorbed into another "self". Religionoffers many such illusory paths. 155. The benighted may not see TheLight, because their eyes have closed in the darkness. 156.Misfortune may be a purgative for the purification of spirit, butpain refines the gold: it does not place it in the heart. 157. Onlythose who know are saved not from pain, but from the deeper tormentand waste of self-delusion. 158. The three kinds of men Carnal,Animate and Spiritual exist because of the way that the universehas come about, and not as a result of some capricious act ofelection on the part of a demiurge. 159. If there is good news tobe brought to the world concerning its redemption, its messengermust speak the same language as the world and be at home with itsways. The Gnostic, however, is a stranger and alien in the world.He can in no way proclaim a message which will enable his hearersto be reconciled to the world. 160. There is comfort, nevertheless,for The Spiritual and only The Spiritual in knowing (or rather,recognising, since he already knows) the cause of his exile, andthe character of his home. Reclining in the walled garden of thegathered, the teacher brings the
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purest pleasure of this world: shared memories of youth anddreams of labours past. The sage brings news of home. 161. Man ismortal, but The Gnosis can never die; man is weak, but The Gnosishas mastery of all that endures. 162. The Gnosis is not hedged byrace or by class, by intelligence, language, gender or age. 163.The Carnal Man is part of the material world. The Animate Manperceives that he is part of this world and seeks either to alteror retain his position within it. To The Spiritual Man, however,the natural world is a prison. But the spark can never be lost,though the whole world fall back into confusion. 164. Carnal Man isignorant of The Supreme Being and will return entirely to matter.Meanwhile, ever limited by his nature, he clings to idols that maygratify his manifold needs. For in him matter is dominant. Thisdominance manifests itself in a preoccupation with the consumptionnecessary to maintain material integrity. His desire to bring orderinto matter is simply an expression of a desire to dominate it.165. The Psychic may remove his self from the centre of things, andby so doing turn his back on the world. 166. Spiritual Man has thecapacity to know fully The Supreme Being, and his ultimate destinyis to enter into complete union with that Supreme Being; forSpiritual Man uniquely within the material universe shares thenature of The Supreme Being.
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167. The prime virtue of The Spiritual Man is detachment, andthis leaves no mark for the eyes of the world to behold. 168. Thedifference between The Spiritual and the non-spiritual is notsimply one of belief: the non-spiritual is actually incapable ofgrasping what The Spiritual is talking about. 169. The insights ofThe Spiritual may be manifest as deeds, utterances or decrees. Theymay be enshrined in histories, codes or rituals. Their form may bepoetic, philosophical or legislative. But beyond all these is theWord of enlightenment which comes from The One. 170. The Carnalseek investment, not beauty. 171. The Carnal Man is subject toIaldabaoth's laws. The Spiritual Man has to overcome the world. ButThe Psychic Man strives actively to promote the principles on whichthe world was founded, and thereby compounds its suffering. 172.The Animate Man who re-orders his universe may become a means forthe Light to shine in the darkness. And because this choicetranscended nature, something of him may be saved for re-birthfurther along the path to The One. 173. The Spiritual Man meetsEnlightenment as Truth and is helped towards liberation. 174. Thosewho sit in judgment always find for themselves. Seek The SpiritualMan, therefore, among those whom the world condemns.
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175. For The Spiritual Man salvation is not an issue. The sparkcan never be lost, thought he whole world fall back into confusion.The issue is liberation. The means of liberation is Knowledge. 176.The Animate Man meets Enlightenment as mythos. This myth may enablehim to shape his life into the pattern of Truth, thus making wayfor the Logos. 177. Those who are heirs to The Truth are notrecipients of some inscrutable "grace": they participate in Truthby nature. The question then is not the root of the creator'scaprice, but how the heirs of Truth became trapped in matter. 178.The gifts given by The Spiritual Man are in themselves their ownproof of value to the discriminating, the recipient possessed ofinbred taste. The Carnal are like the vulgar who need advice on howto furnish their house. 179. It may be that in some way which isbeyond our comprehension the sacrifice made by The Carnal Mancreates a door in matter for the emissary of The Fullness to enter.But those who are non-knowers will get no further than the outerportals; and those who Know are already within the inner sanctum.180. The insights of The Spiritual may be focused into gems whichattract the light, although these jewels may be lodged in poorsettings.
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THE GNOSIS The bringing-into-being of the material universe hasbeen a process of centrifugal departure from the ultimate realityto levels where consciousness is increasingly attenuated. There is,nevertheless, a definite gulf between the realm of consciousnessand that of inert, unconscious matter, which is not the result ofany providential "creation". When a conscious (or "proprioceptive")element is introduced into matter a futile dialectic is initiatedbetween will and matter, which is sinister to the extent that itsubverts pure consciousness's contemplation of itself.Consciousness, although ultimately its higher source, is notproprioception. Proprioception is a process, developed by theevolutionary process, with an end in mind: to sustain a materialsubject by monitoring its surroundings and making changescompatible with the survival of its own perceived integrity. Itsmotive force is will. The will's subject dreams of its successfuldomination of its environment. "God" is self-interest in its mostsuccessful form imaginable "success" being defined by longevity anddomination. He is immortal and omnipotent, and promises power andeternal life to his worshippers. He is essentially the will topower. In the human sphere, intuition of pure "divine"consciousness may reside in the mind of man, but is alwaysco-mingled and confused with, and corrupted by, "intelligence."Intuition is an awareness which, as an aspect of consciousness, isan end in itself; intelligence is a proprioceptive mental facultywhich, although divine in origin, is usually directed towardsmatter and subject to the direction of carnal will. If
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intelligence is to be directed or re-directed towards trueconsciousness, there must first be a true perception. Thisperception is possessed solely by the spiritual man. Intimation ofthe spiritual realm is innate in those who share the spiritualnature. The bringing-forth of order within the realm of matter isapproved of by intuition. It is this approval which enablesrepentance to come about. When the impulse towards order-in-matterre-directs itself towards true consciousness (the Fullness, or"Pleroma") then order can be re-oriented to the transcendence ofmatter. But while the impulse to order is genuinely divine, theimpulse to worship order as an end in itself is not. It is rather aform of idolatry prevalent throughout religion. Because intuitioncannot be denied or negated even as idolatry is being practised,the true end of intelligence is perceived deep within the heart.Because it cannot be denied, it expresses itself in human aestheticactivity. It is as a result of this process that beauty may befound within the material world. History is essentially willseeking to express itself through matter in time; repentance andre-ascent must take the form of a rejection of these carnalelements although asceticism can simply be another manifestation ofthe will to power. Meanwhile, the pneumatic, imprisoned in matter,are not an elect. In "election", a God personally chooses who is tobe saved on the basis of criteria which are inaccessible to boththe elect and to the damned. If that God is supposedly the fount ofall justice then this is a flagrant and self-contradictory abuse ofhis status, and the outrage felt by the creature makes him morallysuperior to his Creator. The wrong is only compounded by ascribingblame to an ancestor (Adam in the Judaeo-Christian
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tradition) who was an individual, morally free agent independentof his descendants. In fact, there is no chosen elect". "TheSpiritual" are what they have been
and always will be without beginning and without end. Theiressential nature is not some-thing created from no-thing, butrather an emanation from The Ultimate, which they mustre-appropriate by anamnesis. Their physical prison has enclosedthem by a primordial accident. The gulf between The Carnal, thecreations of the demiurge, and The Spiritual, emanations from TheUltimate One, is explicable. The existence of a middle order ofhumankind which aspires to so much in organised religion in all itsvarious manifestations, and yet so consistently contradicts itsdeclared ideals, is not so easy to explain. In mythological terms:the demiurge believed himself to be supreme. In order to enlightenhim (and to simultaneously chastise him) the Pleroma had to revealthe spiritual to the material, thereby causing some of the formerto be ensnared and temporarily abandoned by the return of theimmaculate to the Fullness. This was how "The Spiritual" came to bein the world. But the action of a being of spirit, in its desire toenlighten, created something hybrid, both carnal and spiritual, areflection of mind, just as the demiurge was a reflection ofdesire. The Spiritual and The Psychic therefore emanate from thesame source, but are of a different order. Because revelation ofThe Spiritual was a moral act, The Psychic have a moral elementwhich raises them above mere Desire. They are at their best whenthe moral element is combined with Ialdabaoth's impulse to orderand shape; we see them exemplified in
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reforming saints: holy men and women and other "spiritual"leaders. They are, nevertheless, not of the same order as TheSpiritual, who are a seed which grows secretly. The Spiritual cannot be identified by any physical, mental or moral characteristics.They cannot therefore form any identifiable group in human society.Even faith, whether or not it is expressed in a publicly observableritual, can not admit them to "The Company of The Spiritual" in asense comparable to "The Company of The Faithful" in Christianorthodoxy. The Spiritual are perhaps from time to time able torecognise the traits which they have identified in themselves, butthis is no guarantee that what they have perceived is a decisiveindication: the more authentic the trait, the less perceptible itis to the senses. Our senses and perceptions are in any casesusceptible to deception by ourselves and others; and, furthermore,The Psychic will share some of the spiritual characteristics of TheSpiritual. Even if The Spiritual were able to form themselves intosome kind of caucus, they could lay no claim upon the service ofothers - nor, indeed, is there anything they would desire from themin this world. "Church" is therefore not possible. Because thematerial world is irredeemable, there is no point in forming anorganisation which promotes the cause of faith in redemption. Andbecause God does not act in the world as Saviour, there can be noscripture, no ritual sacrifice, and no priesthood. There is noprovidence, no prayer, and no "God". The only sacrifice is that ofThe Spiritual, who suffer in their own flesh the consequences oftheir knowledge of the designs of the Powers and therefore thehostility of The Powers
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towards them. Even Gnostics, if they organise themselves into a"Church", will fall prey to those corruptions which are theinevitable result of admitting people who see entry either as ameans of improving their material situation, or as a way of seekingto extend material "blessings" into eternity, or as a way ofseeking sanction for, or endorsem*nt of, their own superiority,priority or specialness. These are the ports of entry for thedoctrinal vices of an organised Church. The corruption of Truth ismanifold: the development of a sacrificial theology and cultus;schemes involving the purchase of spiritual merit; sponsorship ofreligion in order to promote social stability, or by disaffectedand disenfranchised groups, or by social groups based on race,class or sexuality; situations where association, or whereaesthetic pleasure or expressions of cultural identity areparamount; families or other groups seeking self-aggrandisem*nt bythe material support of shrines; authors seeking personalaggrandisem*nt or profit by publishing projects; issues of controlover endowed assets; the confusion of religion with magic; and theinfluence over the definition of Truth by endowed remuneration allare manifestations of this corruption. Because everyone feels theneed to regard themselves as special, the idea of providence creepsin. The Spiritual, it is believed, are chosen from among the restas part of God's grand design. This elect have not been trapped inthe world as a result of accident or folly: they have been placedthere for a purpose. In short, they are God's chosen instrument inthe salvation of the world. But there is no providence. TheSpiritual are trapped and are returning through the aeons by pathsof liberation which are difficult and known only to
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themselves, even if liberation is assured. Perhaps the doctrineof providence is the authentic expression of the truth about thepsychic (as distinct from the spiritual) order. The revelation ofthe spiritual order was indeed an act of will on the part of abeing higher than the one called "God". The act of volition broughtinto being those called Psychic" for the benefit of The Carnal, butsince The Carnal are not equipped for enlightenment the sacrificeof The Psychic on the altar of matter is in vain. Morality is thepreserve of The Psychic. (For The Carnal, morality is only a fearof an external and punishing authority which keeps their lusts incheck.) When the Pleroma wished to reveal the realm of the Spiritto the Demiurge, it brought into being a higher sentiment. TheCarnal seek to bring order into matter, and Ialdabaoth is aprinciple of order, but this is simply an expression of the will topower. It is only when this purely carnal order-in-matter ismeasured over against the non-material realm that morality is born.If there is a simple knowledge that there is a spiritual realmpresent, and there is an impulse towards it, then the materialrealm will be measured over against the spiritual realm by thosewho experience the impulse. This breeds a profound dissatisfactionwith things as they are in the material sphere. It is thisdissatisfaction which engenders morality and is codified by ThePsychic into Law. The Psychic then extend its provisions to TheCarnal by promoting sanctions, real or imagined. "Conscience" isthe active manifestation in moral decision-making of the innatespiritual nature of some human beings. The spiritual nature of somehuman beings is identical with, and participates in, the nature
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of a Spirit which transcends the material universe; conscienceis therefore attuned to moral principles which transcend behaviournecessary to material well-being. It is the voice of an "alter ego"emanating from a differently-constituted identity. As the voice ofour spiritual nature, it may conflict with the demands of ourcarnal nature. It is seen to be capable of passing judgment on allnotions of deity and all theories of the relationship between acreator and the created order. Since systems are subject to thesame judgment as deities, a systematic theology, or an appeal to ahistorical tradition or divinely-sanctioned authority is out of thequestion. Any such attempt will make a poor imitation of Truth. Ouraim should not be to establish systems. Our aim should be to callforth those who share The Knowledge. This summoning of an invisiblecommunity of insight, this "thing called forth" (ecclesia), is thenearest we dare approach to forming a Church without compromisingThe Truth. Pneumatic Man is, by dint of his physical nature, drawninto the preoccupations of Carnal Man. But because he shares inhigher consciousness he remains aloof from his power-games. He seesthe material organism in context, and appreciates how its behaviouris determined by matter and will. He is therefore detached from"this world", and perceives its dictates as stemming from a lowerorder of reality. For him true consciousness is a burden to bear:there is no sense of moral superiority to motivate; there is nocovenant with a personal god to inspire; and there is no divineprovidence to comfort. Consciousness is an end in itself. Itspossessor is a stranger and alien in the world. He bears no messagewhich will enable his hearers to be reconciled to the world.
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Gnostics do not entertain any idea of "progress". A SpiritualPrinciple is journeying through time and matter without its destinybeing intertwined with them. In this way, we pre-empt thedisillusion which we are heirs-to. Because those who share TheKnowledge did not obtain it by subscribing to a set of beliefs, itmust be said that there is no such phenomenon as gnosticism, to theextent that Truth
is not an ism at all. Hence, if a person can answer Yes to thequestion, Were you with me before the
beginning? then they are Gnostic by nature rather than bybelief. Those who are Gnostic are able to perceive in their ownhuman life the cosmic drama of Sophias repentance and thereciprocal descent of the
Gnosis. As Gnostics, our quest is to find and gather all thosein the physical body who can affirm this Truth. The Truth is,however, obscured by the demands of The Powers that emanate fromIaldabaoth, namely, Gender, Race, Class, Sexual Preference, Wealth,Family and Territory. Every religious system which has hithertobeen known to humankind has been corrupted by these; only TheGnosis in its pure form transcends them. The Gnostic is thereforeindifferent to the acquiescence or non-acquiescence ofnon-Gnostics. Indeed, The Truth may find itself entombed in thepyramid of a religious system, quietly but confidently awaitingresurrection into the light of day. The moral character of thedemiurge is far inferior to that of his supposed creatures. And asfor that Creation, with infinite power could we not have done abetter job ourselves? Hemmed in as we are on all sides by the ironlaws of nature, it is the knowledge of this Truth in the heart ofour hearts which will set us free and the conviction that we belongto something that transcends all of this. Such is ourconsolation.
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A CHRISTIAN GNOSIS Theologians and philosophers of religion whohave reflected on the encounter between Christianity and otherreligions have observed that the challenges produced by the era ofrapid colonial expansion had their analogy in the pluralism of theRoman empire amidst which Christianity was born. The Stoic andAlexandrian principle of the "logos spermatikos" ("the seminalword") was regarded by some as God's gift to the Greeks, and a formof divine revelation. It was possible in the light of thisprinciple for Christians to quote the Prologue of the FourthGospel, which spoke of the incarnate Word as "the true light whichenlightens every man" (John 1:9), and interpret this as meaningthat there were indeed various deposits of truth scattered aroundthe various religions and philosophies of the world, needing onlyto be brought out, made manifest and fulfilled by a Messiah who was"Christus Consummator". Until recently, scholars tended to assumethat apostolic orthodoxy during the pre-Constantinian period waspestered by minor heterodox aberrations. The discovery of papyri atNag Hammadi, only made available in English in the lasthalf-century, shows the extent to which an "alternative"Christianity had developed before its exponents and theirScriptures were ruthlessly suppressed by the newly-establishedChurch in the fourth century after Christ. Christian Gnosticism(the accepted label for the "heresy" of which we speak) took as itsbasis the teaching of Jesus. The pressing question for Gnosticswas: How could the important revelation embodied in his sayings becommended to a sophisticated cosmopolitan civilisation, oftenmorally degenerate,
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but nevertheless heir to an advanced and patently admirablephilosophical legacy like the India in the era of colonialexpansion? The nineteenth-century Hindu reformer Rammohun Roythought that the fables which formed the basis of "orthodox"Christology would cut little ice with educated Hindus. For theGnostics, the problem was the Old Testament. Part of the problemfor Rammohun was the extent to which he should accommodate some ofthe "mythological" material embedded in the New Testament. Gnosticssolved the problem by regarding such mythological material asprovisional as so much grist to the mill of Truth. In other words,the Truth embodied by the teaching of Jesus was not dependent onany symbolic or mythological system even that of the Torah or ofthe Messianic kerygma of the Petrine circle of apostles. TheChristian Gnostics appeared to have an eschatology, but it was oneof destruction rather than consummation. They did not entertain anyidea of "progress". The cosmos was a closed and morally neutralsystem. (I do not believe that Gnosticism in its purest formregarded matter as "evil". Moral dualism was an overlay of theorthodox.) The "spiritual principle" (for want of a more preciseand universally acceptable phrase) was journeying through time andmatter without necessarily seeking to express itself in and throughthese media. In this way, they pre-empted the disillusion which weare heirs-to and anticipated that sometimes harsh realism which isand will be undoubtedly necessary for the solving of our ecologicalproblems and which is so difficult to extrapolate from theJudaeo-Christian tradition encumbered with its central notion ofprovidence.
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The "spiritual principle" which I have mentioned, and which theGnostics called "gnosis", seems at first sight to be identical tothe "spirit" spoken of by the nineteenth-century UnitarianMartineau. But Martineau, working within a framework which isessentially optimistic about human nature and the world, believesthat this "spirit" is present in equal measure in all humankind. Itis simply a matter of furnishing human beings with an authoritativestatement of the truth to elicit an awareness of the spiritualprinciple within them as the necessary preamble to its needs andaspirations coming to expression in worship and philanthropicendeavour. This is the largely implicit assumption in Rammohun'sprogramme of publishing "purified" Scripture from both the Hinduand Christian traditions. But the Gnostics did not believe that the"gnosis" an inherent "knowledge" or "insight" into the true natureof the reality which transcends the cosmos was present in all humanbeings. By an accident of nature which Gnostics were willing toexpress in one way or another in mythological terms includingre-workings of the Adam and Eve myth in Genesis only an unspecifiednumber of human beings possessed the "gnosis". In other words,Gnostics were sustained by an litism wholly foreign to theUnitarian tradition. I sense a deep affinity with the Rammohun Roywhich transcends mere ideas or personality. The Gnostics would havehad ways of explaining this affinity, and why events do not alwaysseem to be on their side, and why the numbers of "enlightened" seemso small. Most of the affinities we possess with fellow humanbeings seldom rise to the level of consciousness. They may beaffinities of class, race, or culture, or temperament. More oftenthan not, they are complex
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co-mixture. If self-interest forms the warp of society, thesemay be said to form the weft. They are deeply rooted in theinstinctive life of the species, even if they are justified orexplained in language which uses moral or spiritual terms.Circ*mstances may occasionally arise in which human minds arebrought into contact with each other through the medium of a commonlanguage without the benefit or hindrance of strong commonaffinities. The affinities may be prevented by geography, or, moreusually, removed by time. Being the very foundation of human sociallife, they may be destroyed by death, even if personality orprinciple survives in written form. It is this latter phenomenonthe survival and manifestation of personality and/or principle whenother affinities are not in evidence which is my enduringpreoccupation. I go back to Jesus of Nazareth. In terms of theusual affinities none of us have anything in common with this man.But his mind is to a limited extent accessible to us in what ispreserved of his sayings in the gospels. What happens when weencounter a person in this way? One possibility is that we do notencounter them as a person at all. Literary remains become theobject solely of scholarly attention, a source for the history ofideas. In this case, personality or principle can barely be said tohave survived at all. This has not happened in the case of Jesus.In his case we have the classic example of the assimilation ofremains to the service of a particular race, class or culture.Since these express themselves in myth, the remains of anindividual may be "mythologised". This did happen in the case ofJesus. Even before his death it appears that his identity was beingassimilated to that of the popular Jewish mythological figure ofthe messiah". Since the myth is
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archetypal, it has endured, and taken the words of Jesus alongwith it. In these circ*mstances, I believe that "personality"becomes dependent on the particular form of the myth in any age.Another possible outcome is that of recognition. Something in themind of the person is not only encountered, but recognised, andrecognised as something valuable, to be cherished. This is not tobe confused with an affinity of temperament. When I read the wordsof Jesus, provided that I can filter out the mythological frameworkthat the Evangelists placed them in, I do not encounterpersonality. What I encounter is "principle", and this transcendsthe common affinities. There may be said to be an "affinity ofprinciple". The problem with Jesus of Nazareth as an example isthat it is has become very difficult, if not impossible, toseparate the man from the myth. And yet I believe that the notionof an "affinity of principle" is absolutely central to religion andwhat is of enduring value in it once the merely human and relativephenomena of class, race and culture have been filtered out.Indeed, if such a concept has any correspondence with an objectiveTruth, it may hold the key to all our futures insofar as itembodies the triumph of universal altruism over tribal interest,and higher reason over animal instinct. Despite some of theuncertainties of the present age, there are still folk who cling tothe notion that if we could strip Christianity of the accretions ofthe ages there is something in the message conveyed by Jesus ofNazareth which is authoritative. To such persons (and I includemyself among them) to say that a
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person is Christ-like is the ultimate compliment, and it is acompliment which I am inspired to pay to Rammohun Roy. I see thesame impulse at work call it "divine" if you will in the lives ofboth of these men. It is a phenomenon which we may witness in thelives of other men and women who we may call "great". I still gloryin the name of "Christian". This is because I admire Jesus ofNazareth. In some ways, I suppose my Christology is fairlyconventional: I am drawn by sympathy to Jesus because he was avictim, and I rejoice that in spite of all, the Truth embodied inhis Word was vindicated. Where I part company with "Christendom" isin my belief that Jesus was as much a victim of the Apostles as ofthe Jewish establishment of the time. The urgent message of theNazarene has been struggling to escape from the mythologicalshackles which Peter and his colleagues loaded it with ever sinceit was delivered.
* * * The Spiritual may very rarely manifest itself in history,although the re-telling of it is inevitably corrupted by worldlyconsiderations. For example, the Passover in around 1500 B.C.E.involved the slaughter of livestock by the Hebrews a slavepopulation in thrall to the Egyptians before leaving the country enmasse. These animals depended on permanent pasturage; theirslaughter was part of a lightening of loads before leaving a landof settled agriculture in the Nile basin and entering the aridwilderness to the east, where life is nomadic and on the edge, andthe comforts and thraldoms of an already ancient civilisation didnot
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then pertain. Such was the result of a genuinely spiritualimpulse. However, when the story was told much later in a differentsetting, itself one of settled agriculture, the culling and ritualslaughter of spring lambs in the context of the Passover storybecame interpreted as a sacrificial substitution for firstborn malechildren, reflecting the priorities of the new society: thesurvival of the new generation, and in particular the children whowere the product of youthful vigour: the firstborn. The sacrificialcultus needed a priesthood (absent at the original Passover) whoslaughtered the spring lambs which could not be supported byexisting pasturage in a purpose-built cultic location: theJerusalem Temple. By then another understanding common amongst allancient cultures came into play: expiation of sin before an angrygod by the offering of the life-blood of animals slaughtered forfood. Thus, in the pesach story the blood of the sacrificed animalsmeared over the doors of the households of the chosen peoplewarded off a destroying angel; that is, the blood was offered toappease a fierce deity. Both of these concepts superimposed overthe original Passover story the idea of a god who, unappeased, willdemand the human sacrifice of the first-born child (as in the storyof Abrahams near-sacrifice of Isaac), and a god who may lose histemper if not placated by the blood of sacrifice present aprimitive notion of what the supreme deity is like: conceptsunworthy of the true God. In other words, the original idea ofrenunciation towards freedom enshrined in the original Passoverritual has been corrupted by the
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concept of a god who doles out rewards such as the survival ofdescendants and punishments for those who do not submit to anunquestioning obedience. In this corrupted religion which developedafter the success of the genocidal war against the Canaanites, thepromised land and its agricultural prosperity
were seen by the writers of the Jewish scriptures as a rewardfor obedience to a supposed covenant between the chosen people andtheir savage god. This
covenant incorporated ideas of ritual uncleanness. By the timeof Jesus, any condition which rendered the victim unclean was seena curse by Jehovah for past sin (either by themselves or theirforbears) along the lines of the theology of divine rewards andpunishments inherent in the Jewish scriptures. Indeed, the conceptof uncleanness linked to punishment justified the genocide of theCanaanites: their idolatry had made them unclean, as had certaincustoms (such as, for example, the shaving of the temples) notpractised by the invading Hebrews. Any action which involvedfraternisation with the Canaanites rendered the perpetratorunclean. In this scheme of things,
well-established in orthodox Judaism by the time of Jesus,individuals prospered because their virtue was being rewarded bygod, and individuals afflicted by an uncleanness such as leprosywere being punished for their own or their familys vices. In duecourse, after the occupation of Canaan, the divinely appointed kingDavid and his descendants became the guarantor of the sacrificialcultus at a central cultic location on Mount Moriah (supposedly thesite of Abrahams near-sacrifice of Isaac) in Jerusalem. Thecovenant then became established with the Davidic king as arepresentative of the people. In
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this capacity, the king himself could be rewarded or punished asa substitute for the people. Hence, after the disaster of theAssyrian and Babylonian invasions, the ideas of punishment of theking and the hope of expiation by him were expressed in the poeticpassages in Isaiah describing a suffering servant whose sufferingscould erase the guilt of those sins of Israel which had led to thedisaster. At the time of Jesus, the Pharisees clearly believed thatthe voluntary suffering of the righteous (such as themselves) couldcontribute to the redemption of the nation. Thus the practice offasting became an important replacement for the festal meals whichtook place in the Herodian Temple, itself unclean as it was withinthe shadow of the Gentile Antonia fortress, and its Holy of Holieswas overlooked by the palace of the Idumaean Herod. Thus, to pointto the true God, a prophet must reject and to re-affirm theprimitive god, the guarantor of the Judaic race and culture, goodJews must incorporate law, covenant, messiah-king, temple,substitutionary and expiatory sacrifices (with their priesthood andtemples) and ritual cleansing. For the Petrine party (led by Peter,John and James) Jesus delivers or is all of these, and the NewTestament was written by the
Petrine party. (And we see in those documents a theology whichis not fully developed: the idea of the risen body of Jesus as thenew Temple in fulfilment of Malachi 3:1. Not enough time had passedbetween the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the writing ofthe Christian scriptures for it to develop. Nevertheless, as anascent theology it required the story of a physical resurrectionof Jesus.) The prophet Jesus rejected all of these cultic trappingsand, before his death, re-affirmed the original meaning of thePassover:
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dependence on The True God in a place (physical or spiritual)away from carnal preoccupations.
* * * The real betrayer of Jesus was Peter. Jesus was a Jewishreformer, the logical outcome of whose teachings found expressionin the teachings of Gnostics which were suppressed by the apostolicheirs of Peter. Peters prime interest was power the power thatderived from being the principal follower of the Messiah and one ofthe twelve leaders of a re-constituted Israel. Unfortunately forPeters ambitions,
Jesus himself never claimed to be the Messiah. And to makematters worse, Peters efforts to promote Jesus as
the Messiah only resulted in Jesuss ignominious death. Peter andhis co-conspirators James and John therefore had to fabricatecertain incidents to legitimise their claims: the raising ofJairuss daughter, the Transfiguration, the Last Supper, the Agonyin the Garden and, above all, the Resurrection. By such stories,attested by three male witnesses, they were able to perpetrate thefiction of a man who had power over death, whose divine authoritywas legitimised by Moses and Elijah, whose suffering and death waspart of Gods plan, and who was vindicated by being raised fromdeath. The story of the betrayal by Judas (ie. Thomas) and thetales of the chastening of doubting
Thomas (ie. Judas) were invented as a polemic against thosedisciples of the party of Judas the Twin (Greek Didymos, AramaicThomas) who dissented from
Peters lies and misrepresentations. What was Jesuss realmission? His aim was to gather
the true Israel. The true Israelites were those who,
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whatever their material circ*mstances, had existed as The Chosenin the mind of God since before the beginning of time. Wealth wasno indicator of righteousness; neither was power. Ritual purity wasno guarantee of salvation, or good works such as fasting andsacrifice. To The True God spoken of by Jesus they counted asnothing. Jesuss own sufferings were meaningless except
insofar as they showed forth the meaninglessness of suffering inthis world for is not true suffering by definition pain withoutmeaning? If you are in pain and you dont know why, you suffer. If,on the other hand, there is a purpose to your pain, then the onlyissue is endurance. The one who cannot endure meaningful pain is acoward. The one who can endure it is brave. The one who endurespain himself in order to reduce the pain of others is a hero. Onlya fool, however, would endure meaningless pain if it could beavoided. One who is God, or is privy to the mind of God, must knowthe meaning (as distinct from the scientific cause) of everything.He should also not be a fool. He therefore willingly embraces painthat has meaning while avoiding suffering. He is brave if the painis great; he is a hero if his pain benefits others; but he is afool if he wills suffering on himself. If the God-Man venerated bythe Petrine Church suffered willingly, he is a fool and God is afool. If he heroically endures pain, he is great, but does notsuffer. The Christ of the apostles can not suffer; in
telling his tale, therefore, it is necessary to multiply thepains he endures: by such sorrows is his heroism augmented aheroism befitting a king. But is it possible to ascribe anotherkind of heroism to Jesus, a heroism that entails genuine suffering?When
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confronted by the meaningless pain of others we make choices asto how we react to it. If we choose not to ignore it we may ascribea meaning to it in order to alleviate our own anguish in the faceof anothers pain.
One sure way of doing this is to see anothers pain as
self-inflicted. The meaning of their pain is that they earnedit; one way or another, by karma or by retribution, they brought itupon themselves. This meaning alleviates our pain in beholdingsuffering,
even as it adds to the pain of those who suffer. Who can acceptthat they have deserved their pain? The sense of a lack of justiceonly adds to meaningless pain, to suffering. But the one who caresabout the suffering of others and why should he, unless he is areal hero? empathises with meaningless pain. He rejects any meaningwhich denigrates the sufferer.
He does what he can to reduce or palliate their meaninglesspain. But in so doing and this augments his heroism he increaseshis own pain, his anguish in the face of suffering, by underminingthe meaning which reduces his own suffering. Jesus took thisstance, which needed to be expressed within the terms of hisJudaism as an end to retribution, a denial of messianicexpectation, and a new sacrifice prior to a destination-lessexodus. Engagement with the suffering of others without indulgingin self-palliative interpretation of it, thereby bringing empathicsuffering upon oneself, is a truly altruistic and selfless stance.(The ultimate test of its altruism is whether the person insolidarity with the suffering can also disengage when this is whatis required to benefit the object of their concern. The person whois not altruistic will often refuse to disengage because it doesnot serve their hidden motive.) By declaring this to be the root ofmorality,
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expressed in the key word agape (love) and
placing it firmly in a religious framework, Jesus and hisprophetic forbears are more than suggesting that the path tofulfilment is trod only through the abandonment of self byimmersion in the plight of the helpless. Morality is in fact themeans by which the self is transcended. Within the terms of hiscontemporary Judaism, the stance adopted by the Galilean rabbirequired three theological innovations which, if allowed to gounchallenged, would have destroyed the foundations of the religionwhatever its sectarian manifestation, whether Pharisaic, Sadducaicor Essene. The first was to sever the connection between pain andsin by declaring a jubilee of divine forgiveness. I believe thatthe jubilee announced by Jesus was unconditional. (Theseven-times-seventh anniversary of the foundation of Herods Templeprobably provided the justification for this.) The condition of arequired repentance was developed by the Petrine faction
after Jesuss death after all, who is inclined to repent? Andwhy? Presumably the inclination and inspiration to do so isdependent on the unfathomable grace of Jehovah. The jubilee wouldin fact have acknowledged that absolution of a debtor is notdependent on the debtors worthiness of absolution. But if Godforgives unconditionally, why is there pain in the world? surelynot because God is tardy, incompetent or sad*stic in not liftingthe sentence of a reprieved felon? If God is not to be decried,then the logical inference is that there is no inevitablecause-effect relationship between sin and pain; or, if there is,God being all-powerful can suspend it at will. A true God need notbe a slave to his own justice. But if
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the unfortunate are not blameworthy, neither are the fortunateworthy of praise a proposition intolerable to the Jewish orthodoxyof Jesuss day. Of course, only a person who had Gods very ownauthority in its fullness could declare such a jubilee such as theMessiah. I do not believe that Jesus claimed such authority, orindeed that he claimed to be the Messiah (except in the imaginingsof the Petrine faction). There is no record of such a claim in thePetrine Gospels apart from the historically suspect story of Petersdeclaration at Caesarea Philippi (after
the equally suspect story of the Transfiguration), and Jesusnowhere uses the title of himself and his mission. This is becauseJesus was not concerned with the issue of authority. He was drivento declare a jubilee as the theological expression of hisover-riding sense of solidarity with the suffering those supposedlycursed by God, and therefore excluded from the community by theirinability to fulfil the obligations of the ritual law. So, ifJesuss pains were embraced deliberately as part
of a divine plan can it be said that the Messiah proclaimed byPeter really suffered? Rather, just as the Israelites slaughteredtheir new-born livestock before leaving Egypt and following Mosesinto the desert, so the true followers of Jesus abandoned themessianic dream that died with the death of Jesus. This is the truemeaning of the pascha effected by the death of Jesus of Nazareth.If Jesus colluded with this sacrifice and we have no way of knowingwhether he did or not then the priest who offered it was not Jesushimself, but Judas.
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The essential message of the Nazarene was corrupted by hisdisciples, and in particular by those who called themselvesapostles; and above all by Peter, James
and John. Their assertion, motivated by a desire for power, thatJesus was the Jewish Messiah sealed his fate (which they blamed onJudas Iscariot), led to the intrusion of the miraculous, andcreated the entity known as The Holy Spirit. These in turn have ledto
the creation of a Church which has all the vices of theinstitutional Judaism which Jesus set out to reform by his wordsand actions. Now that Judaism and Christianity are drenched in theblood of the innocent they can be seen for what they are. The timehas come for those who share with Jesus the nature of the Gnosis todeclare The Truth in its pristine purity.
* * * In the cure of a man with a skin disease (Mark 1:40-45),at a stroke, by word "Be clean!" and by touch, Jesus declares theinvalidity of the taboos which put outcasts beyond the pale ofHoliness. But his compassion simultaneously destroys the Jewishexplanation of personal catastrophe. A disease like leprosy wasregarded as the just curse of God. To say the leper was "clean"would have caused scandal to the orthodox even to Jesus's closestdisciples. Perhaps this is why Mark or his source emphasisesJesus's instruction to meet the requirements of the ritual law. Amore radical explanation would be that his attack on the taboo wasbeyond even the tolerance of Jesus's Jewish disciples, and hisdeclaration of cleanliness was turned subsequently into a healing.But there is no evidence for this speculation beyond Mark's textand it is clearly an interpretation not supported by Mark himself.Jesus' apparent abrogation of the laws of uncleanness
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presented similar problems of interpretation with respect toother incidents. . . . . . . . In the healing of the paralysed man(Mark 2:1-12), it is important to understand the basic assumption:the sick man is paralysed as a result of God's judgement on hissins. The first thing, therefore, that Jesus says is, "Your sinsare forgiven". (It is only to overcome the murmurs of disapprovalthat Jesus goes on to heal the man.) In the Kingdom proclaimed byJesus, a person's previous sins are of no account provided herepents and seeks God's forgiveness. What that person suffersphysically is not related to their individual sin. They deservecompassion rather than condemnation. But what for Jesus wasprimarily a restatement of the significance of individualmisfortune becomes, for Mark, a demonstration of Jesus' divinepower. The call of Levi (Mark 2:13-17) shows the same pattern asthe calling of the other disciples: Jesus sees somebody at theirtrade, and says, "You! Stop what you're doing and come and followme!" But here there is a significant difference. Levi's trade isthe disreputable, almost criminal one of tax-collecting. Not onlywere tax-collectors ritually unclean, because they mixed with thehated foreigner, they were crooked: corruption was built into theRoman system. In countries that have fallen prey to corruption, youhave to give a "back-hander" to the official concerned if you wantanything done, otherwise he will not do his job. That was how thetax-system worked officially under the Roman authorities. It wasassumed that the tax-collector would collect more than was requiredin tax and keep it. He would extract whatever he thought he couldget away with. And the Romans would provide the military force toback up his demands no questions
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asked, as long as they got their taxes. If you were living in acountry where a hated foreigner had invaded and you had some ofyour own people collaborating with the invader, that would be badenough; but when those collaborators actually came and startedsoaking you for money upon threat of foreign soldiers coming roundand assaulting you or throwing you in jail, then you can imaginehow people felt about these people. This is certainly the callingof a disciple with a difference. Mark's audience would probably nothave reacted with the same degree of horrified consternation asthose witnessing the original event: the rift with Judaism wasalready more-or-less complete and many of his readers would havebeen Gentiles. Indeed, Jesus's patent breaking of taboo would havebeen a source of comfort. But there may have been method in Jesus'smadness in calling Levi. One of the things that united all Jewsbeyond the exclusive barriers created by the various factions wasthe necessity of paying the poll-tax levied specifically on Jews bythe Romans in A.D. 6. If you were embarking on a mission to theChosen People in a racially-mixed cosmopolitan area, who better tochoose than someone who knew intimately who it was that continuedto claim allegiance to Yahweh despite the real, financial cost? The"children" needed to be contacted first with an invitation to enterthe Kingdom before the mission was extended to "house-pets" (Mark7:27). Levi may have been a key agent in this mission. Perhapsthere is some connection with this possibility and the ancienttradition that Levi was in fact Matthew, and the author of the most"Jewish" of the four Gospels. The emphasis throughout the story of"Legion", the lunatic (Mark 5:1-13) is on ritual pollution. Theman
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lives in a cemetery, a place of uncleanness. According to theLaw, if you touched a corpse you were made unclean. Those who wereeager to extend and develop the Law said that even if you walkedover somebody's grave, it made you unclean. This is why duringmajor festivals tombs were whitewashed so that they could be seenfrom a distance. The madman in question actually lives in tombs thesort of cave-tomb that Jesus himself was buried in. When thespirits are cast out they go into a herd of pigs an unclean animalof the kind you would expect to find in Gentile "unclean"territory. The whole story is about Jesus going into a situation ofextreme uncleanness. As in the case of the leper, Jesus' originalpreoccupation may have been the Jewish taboos involving "clean" and"unclean", but Mark's main concern is to show the supernaturalpower of Jesus against the forces of evil. The story becomes alsoanother way of expressing the point made in "The Stilling of theStorm": that Jesus has the power to overcome the turmoil in whichMark's Christian audience were finding themselves at that time. Inthe account of the raising of Jairus' daughter (Mark 5:22-24,35-43) Mark has dovetailed two stories to show there is a gapbetween Jairus coming to him and him actually arriving and findingthat the girl had died. No-one would have asked even the greatestof miracle-workers to attend a corpse. There are lots ofinteresting details which might have only come from an eye-witness:the name of the girl's father; Jesus's actual words in the Aramaic;the girl's age; Jesus' instruction after the healing. Inparticular, we are told that Jesus took Peter, James and John withhim into the room. (Everybody would have normally avoided the roomwhere the deceased person was laid as an
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"unclean" zone.) So we can speculate that Mark's Gospel may havebeen based on an eye-witness report of Peter. Those who favour"natural" explanations of the miracles would find inspiration inthe fact that in an eastern climate the whole business of buryingthe dead was accomplished with the utmost speed (see Acts 5:5-10).Perhaps the mourners were mistaken in their hasty belief that thegirl had died! In the story of the healing of the woman with thehaemorrhage (Mark 5:25-34) the hint of euphemism in her trouble maynot be the only reason why Mark seems to be struggling a littlewith this story. For instance, how does Jesus know that he has beentouched? Mark introduces the idea that Jesus feels the powerdraining out of him almost like a battery running down. Likewise,if a woman has some kind of menstrual problem, how does she knowwhen it stops? Mark says, "She had the feeling inside herself . . .." A person who was sick in certain ways might have been triplyafflicted. First of all they might have had the pain of theillness; secondly the illness mi
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