The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

One of the difficulties I have when talking about gnosis is trying to translate the experiences I have into some form of Communication.  English is wonderful at getting across certain concepts, but sometimes you just need to use another language. Dépaysement French – The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country. This word, to me, explains my base state of existence.  As a gnostic, I am not in my home country.  I am lost, confused, I don't understand the customs, the familiar things I use as touchstones are all strange here.  I'm never quite comfortable.  Enjoyable as things may be, they're never quite right.  I have this feeling of dépaysement, of not being in my home country. Saudade Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” The liturgy of the Ecclesia Gnostica Mysteriorum contains the line "When I am not e

In our last post, we spoke of the Pleroma, and how it contains everything and nothing.  Now, let us speak of creatura, the whole of creation, distinct from the Pleroma, and what exactly it means to be distinct. What is changeable, however, is creatura. Therefore is it the one thing which is fixed and certain; because it hath qualities: it is even quality itself. The question ariseth: How did creatura originate? Created beings came to pass, not creatura; since created being is the very quality of the pleroma, as much as non-creation which is the eternal death. In all times and places is creation, in all times and places is death. The pleroma hath all, distinctiveness and non-distinctiveness. Distinctiveness is creatura. It is distinct. Distinctiveness is its essence, and therefore it distinguisheth. Therefore man discriminateth because his nature is distinctiveness. Wherefore also he distinguisheth qualities of the pleroma which are not. He distinguisheth them out of his own natur