The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

I'm sorry there's been a lack of posting. I've been writing other things, and just haven't had time for profundity or time to write about it. So, I'm gonna ask a question. You can either answer here, or on your own blog if you want. Please list in the comments if you answer it on your blog, so I can either subscribe or just read it. The Question: When you experience gnosis , how do you experience it? And a follow up: Are there actions or thoughts that will trigger this experience for you? And third: Can you trigger it deliberately?

There's a lot of tendency among Gnostics to compare Jesus of Nazareth to the other great teachers and religious founders of history. I was listening to a lecture this morning on Early Christianity, and the lecturer brought up a good point. Lets take the 4 major religions that have identifiable founders: Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity. Islam was founded by Mohammed. He had visions for 40 years, and left a fairly comprehensive social, legal, and spiritual system which was continued by his successors. It has some drift and variation in practice and interpretation, but usually most folks can say that Islam has some consistent characteristics. Islam was the beginning of a nation. Buddhism was founded by Siddhārtha Gautama, the Supreme Buddha. Estimates on the length of his ministry vary, but one number I've seen is 45 years, starting at Age 29. Again, Buddhism has a fairly internally consistent moral, spiritual, and social system, and it was continued by his succe...

I'm not sure what it is, but I notice a lot of preoccupation by gnostic ecclesias with their lineage and origin. I was just reading a couple of foreign language gnostics ( Sucesion Gnostica Apolostica and Plerormon [caution- Loud Dead Can Dance song when you visit]), and I notice that there are long bits about the lineage and ordination of their bishops and how far back they go and etc. I'm not saying the AJC is immune to it, as we've just received a charter from another bishop and have lots of documentation for our own lineages. We do this in the face of Evangelicals who speak to angels , Ministry training from your own home , and other flashy or even stoic preachers who have no lineage or legitimacy other than their ability to preach the word, and MAYBE a degree from a bible college. In the process of our incorporation, we've learned that you don't even need to be part of a wider church to be tax exempt. You simply need to have the word Church in your name,...

So, I'm listening to a lecture on Early Christianity (by Prof. Luke Timothy Johnson of Emory University), and he goes into four possible inadequate definitions of what a religion is. A descriptive definition of religion can be approached from four definitions: Membership in a group, ritual behavior, belief or doctrine, and/or morality. I thought it would be interesting to approach Modern Gnosticism from these angles. membership in a group: This sort of definition is unimportant to Gnosticism. You don't have to be an ethnic group, have been born into it, convert, or even say you are a gnostic. Gnostics tend to be self identifying, and they move into and out of the definition as they please. Gnostics do tend to have a negative identification: I'm not a Christian, I'm not a Jew, etc. It's not universal, but I have found it fairly common. Ritual Behavior Some Gnostics have highly ritualized behavior coming out of the traditional and esoteric sacraments and rituals...

Now, recognize the technique? A slow tearing down, a removal of all hope, a dissolution of the ego. "I can do nothing, Lord, without you." The psalms of the medieval grimoires serve the same purpose. And then, A building up, a granting of power, a force for change in the world. The conjurations of the medieval grimoires show much the same effect. "I am above ye in the Most High." It's the technique the alchemists and magicians of old use. It's classic. The music, the words, everything, just works towards that point. I can feel the change in attitude just from watching it. It's very neat.

For those of you unfamiliar, there is a professor of mathematics at Tulane in New Orleans by the name of Frank J. Tipler . He has the interesting idea that all information will be reconstituted at the Omega point, when the universe collapses back on itself in "the Big Crunch", some 30 billion+ years from now. I was just reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow , by Charles Sheffield, who uses the theses of Tipler's Physics of Immortality as the basis for the resolution of his novel. It's an interesting theory: At the end of time, all information will be reconstituted, grating Omniscience, Omnipotence, and allowing the resurrection of the dead and the bestowal of paradise upon all created beings. He apparently backs up his theories with philosophical writings and high level math. I've read some reviews of POI and POC, which state that it's basically gobbledygook, mostly from the physics end of things. However, it's an interesting thought experiment, and a strang...

http://witchdoctorjoe.blogspot.com/ I have to recommend this site. The author is slowly going through the tarot deck, using it as an ink blot to examine his own psyche. If you've ever wondered what the Tarot is useful for, now you know. I've also added others to the blogroll on the right. Welcome To Jason Miller, Rufus Opus, and WitchDoctorJoe. They're all doing the work(tm) , and they all have valuable insights.

All of a sudden, I have a bit of respect for the Hallmark corporation, who've decided to pursue a developing market rather than blindly pretend it doesn't exist . The people who've given us such holidays as "Sweetest Day" and totally taken over a favorite saint's holiday , are showing us that gay people can by pre-canned sentiments, just like everyone else. While I am ambivalent about the company, I support and applaud their decision.

Jesus said, "Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being. If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death." Now what the heck does that mean? It's often a gnostic assumption that the material world is not important. But, if it isn't important, why does Jesus talk about it so much? He speaks of cleaving the piece of wood, and that he is there. He talks about wherever 2 or more are gathered. He speaks of meeting the material needs of others, and as you do unto the least of these, you do unto me. He speaks of rendering unto Caesar. If Jesus, the exemplar, the Logos, is concerned with the material world, and even gives advice so that the stones (a common symbol of the material in general) will serve you, what are we to make of that? We know that ...

Thereupon one of the priests [of Neith, in Sais, Egypt], who was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children (1), and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but real...

Jeg ser vi har noen lesere fra Norge. Jeg vet kan svært lite norsk. Dette er en Google-oversettelse n . Jeg beklager. Jeg vil prøve å lære mer, og kanskje legge på den litt. Rett min grammatikk dersom jeg gjør en feil. I see we have some readers from Norway. I know very little Norwegian. This is a google translation. I'm sorry. I'll try to learn a bit more, and maybe post in it a bit. Please correct my grammar if I make a mistake.

I was listening to a lecture on Goethe's Faust, and the lecturer talked about how this was a completely new (at the time) conception of the purpose of man. In most previous conceptions in literature and philosophy, the focus of existence was on being. Cogito, ergo sum, as Descartes has so famously said and many have parroted. Faust, in his deal with Mephistopheles, he agrees that the devil can have his soul if he ever once says "it is sufficient" and wants to stay at one spot with one experience forever, or has had enough of experiences. Until then, he wants to continue to have experiences, both good and evil, on and on. Faust wins the bet, because he never stops seeking after new experiences. In Faust , the focus is not on being, but doing. This is an idea that comes out of Romanticism, and which is dealt with in a number of 19th century occult orders, as well as the literature and philosophy of the time. It's no surprise that after the material advocacy of the...

The Gospel of John starts out: εν αρχη ην ο λογος The word λογος Logos, is usually translated as "Word", but I just found out that Logos can also be translated as "The point of a legal case". If two persons are having a dispute, the point of that dispute is indicated by the word Logos. I think it is interesting that, in the Gospel of John, the first statement tells us that Existence has a point. It is the meaning of a dispute. What dispute could it be? The eternal and temporal? The good and the evil? Is it that we live in a world with a purpose, and not a meaningless collection of random events? The full phrase could be translated "In the beginning was the point, and the point was with God, and the point was God." It kind of makes it rather doubtful that we'll ever fully understand the point, doesn't it. Yet that's what the gnostic does. We 'get the point.' We experience the Divine, reach for the Logos, trus...

So, what do you think? Better, or worse?

"I have no more than twenty acres of ground," he replied, "the whole of which I cultivate myself with the help of my children; and our labor keeps off from us three great evils-idleness, vice, and want." - The Turk from Candide, Chapter 30 These are definitely three great evils of the Modern World. They are not sins, really, but evils: want can be inflicted by nature as surely as man, as can vice. It's interesting that all of these evils are personal, and are all stopped with a simple prescription: Work. Work keeps away want, first of all. It also drives out idleness, if you are working at something you enjoy and not shirking your duty. Last, if you're working, you won't have time or energy for vice. The work the Turk is talking about isn't a specific occupation, it's labor with a specific outcome: When you're done laboring, you've got something of value at the end. It keeps you from want, from poverty. It is something that benefi...

Yesterday, we celebrated the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. Two very different characters. St. Paul was intelligent, well written, theologically grounded in Judaism and Greek Logic, and a persecutor of Christianity until he had a Gnostic Experience of the Christ. The First Gnostic, his life changed by a mystic vision. He'd never met Jesus, and so his is the first experience of the Christ we have documented, in such a way. St. Peter was a working man, a fisherman from Galilee, practical, straightforward, not given to philosophizing. A man of his time, a butt for jokes (Jesus did call him a 'rock', after all). He was genuine, loyal, afraid at the end. The practical man looks at death, and sees nothing beyond it. He starts looking after his own skin when the movement seems to die. Yet, in the end, this practical man experiences the impractical. He sees the body gone, sees the Risen Christ, and in a practical way he sets about transforming the world, bringing the ...

One cannot achieve the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel by blindly following the procedures outlined in a book. ... While I certainly do not wish to downplay the importance of [The book fo Abremelin or Liber Samekh ], I must voice my belief that most successful invocations of the H.G.A. are executed by individuals who have not perfomred either of the above rituals. Indeed, I would go so far as to say most K of C'ers have never heard the word Hermeticism, nor would they consider themselves aspirants, initiates, or magicians. Why is the success rate so high among these "non-professional" mystics? Is the macrocosm prejudiced against those of us who study the spiritual road map before starting the trip? In a way, yes, but not because we are too rational or analytical, but because all too often we aren't romantic enough. ... It toes not take a scholar to fall desperately in love. To generate the heat necessary to separate the spirituous earth f...

As a member of the clergy of the Apostolic Johannite Church, I am very happy to post this: It is with a healthy measure of relief and joy that the Apostolic Johannite Church applauds the decision of the California Supreme Court to overturn the ban on same-sex marriages. Throughout its history, the Apostolic Johannite Church has remained committed to the principles enshrined in both Canon Law and its Statement of Principles- making no distinction between heterosexual and homosexual marriages providing they represent sacramental vows of union. Further to this, the Apostolic Johannite Church likewise recognizes the need for and gives its support to civil ceremonies of marriage, recognizing the freedom of choice of all human beings to engage in a religious or secular life as they see fit, celebrating their lives through civil, social and religious tradition. It is our hope that other communities, religious denominations and governments will look upon the example given anew by California, a...

Today, I had a bit of a shock. I'm listening to a book named "Imperium" by Robert Harris, on the way to work. It's the story of the life of Marcus Tullius Cicero, who was a Senator and major orator in the last days Roman Republic. It's not always the most flattering of books, as it's told by one of Cicero's slaves, and the slave seems to view Cicero with a clear eye, for the most part. The shock was towards the middle of the book. Cicero is summoned to the villa of Pompey the Great, along with several other people, notably Gaius Julius Caesar, who would later become dicator of Rome, displacing the republic in favor of a military dicatorship. The thing that surprised me about this meeting, was that an act of terrorism caused a reaction among the military class in Rome. Pirates raided the naval port of Rome (I can't find the name of the city at the moment), and burned 19 ships in the harbor. It was a huge slap, for pirates to boldly attack Roman po...