Aeon Byte Inner Sanctum of Gnosis Podcast: Recent Episodes
Aeon Byte Inner Sanctum of Gnosis Podcast
By Robert Conner
Thanks to a recent circular letter to Catholic bishops we may be a step closer to understanding a central mystery of Christianity, the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ! This surely qualifies as the bigliest not fake news to come down the pike in the last two millennia, a landmark revelation that opens an exciting new era in theological transparency. I have little doubt that the implications of this papal epistle will seize the attention of New Testament scholars worldwide.
According to the Catholic News Agency (June 11, 2017) the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament, one of the principalities of the Vatican, has reaffirmed that communion wafers must be made of wheat and must contain at least trace amounts of gluten. The divine science behind this stunning disclosure leads inexorably to the most amazing breakthrough in Christian science since the days of the foremost Doctor of the Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas.
But first a bit of indispensible background. In a passage where Jesus predicts his death, Jesus likens himself to a “grain of wheat” —“Truly, truly, I tell you, unless the grain of wheat [sitos] falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single [seed]…” (John 12:24.) Although sitos had a broad application to grains or bread, when applied to grain consumed by humans it is understood to mean wheat (Montanari, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, 1918) and according to the divinely inspired gospel of John, Jesus His Own Damn Self is the bread from heaven—“For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33, NIV) Following the logic of this heaven-sent recipe, Jesus, the Bread from Heaven, is definitely whole wheat bread, hence the gluten requirement.
Despite the fact that humans have been avidly cultivating and consuming wheat for around 12,000 years, and that grain cultivation is the purported basis for civilization itself, about 1% of the population has a genetically mediated allergy to gluten, a protein component of wheat that has resulted in the well-publicized Ginormous Gluten Panic of recent years. Given the deleterious effects of gluten on a segment of humanity in urgent need of salvation, some Catholics have quite naturally campaigned for gluten free communion wafers. Nevertheless, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament has decreed that Eucharist crackers must contain at least some gluten and once some basic characteristics of gluten are understood, the reason for their decision is as obvious as a frontal skull fracture with brain tissue leaking out.
According to the Apostle Paul, Christians must keep eating Whole Wheat Jesus until His Big Return—“For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26, NIV) The connection between bread and the Lord’s death and resurrection is significant in several ways. When the Lord appeared post mortem to the disciples on the road to Emmaus they did not recognize him until he broke bread with them, a clear allusion to the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic bread—“‘It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how they recognized Jesus when he broke the bread.” (Luke 24:34-35, NIV)
Significantly, the viscoelastic properties of gluten give “elasticity to dough, helping it rise and keep its shape and often gives the final product a chewy texture.” (Wikipedia, look it up!) Jesus’ gluten content is the clearest scientific reason for the post-resurrection retention of his shape and texture, to say nothing of his rising—“Touch me and see! For a spirit does not have shape and texture as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:39, my translation.) The announcement that the Bread from Heaven had risen and had appeared in solid form was therefore a foregone conclusion given its r...
A new book presents the most compelling new findings in the Christ-Myth theory and critically examines its controversial reception by biblical scholars; the extent and reliability of our sources for Jesus; and reveals the surprising history behind Jesus’ evolution. Moreover, we take a historical voyage upon the various streams that united to form Christianity, from the Jewish desire of a spiritual Messiah under the yolk of the Greeks, to the Mystery Religions of Roman times that provided a template for a Cosmic Christ – and everything in between. Our guest also weighs in on the Buzzed Belief debate between Bart Ehrman and Robert Price, as well as the problems with Mythicism today.
Astral Guest — David Fitzgerald, author of Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. I
05/11/2017
Jesus Mything in Action Aeon Byte: Jesus Mything in Action with David Fitzgerald
A unique book has just been published, endorsed by such lauded Gnostic experts as Elaine Pagels, Robert Price, and Lance Owens. It is both a heart-wrenching biography and a penetrating exposition on Gnosticism, full of orthodox deconstruction and dark parody. It is also a Jungian treatise on the nature of fallen men and fallen gods, brimming with the lore of ancient alchemists. In other words, it’s a new Gnostic Gospel. This work focuses on an often-overlooked cornerstone of Gnostic thought: the timeless love story of Christ and Sophia. From the elegant Valentinian myths to the romance of the Red King and White Queen manifesting in tales across the eons — we find how this transcendental story revealed itself in the life of a man and his struggle with family loss; and how it may reveal itself in your life in times when wholeness is the only answer to tragedy.
Astral Guest — Fady Riad, author of The Gospel of Lie: A Grieving Christian Searches the Bible for a New Jesus
05/03/2017
The Timeless Love Story of Christ & Sophia Aeon Byte: The Timeless Love Story of Christ & Sophia with Fady Riad
by Robert Conner It’s clearly impolitic, to say nothing of impolite and impertinent, to ask if Jesus of Nazareth was as barking mad as, say, Pat Robertson, the Baptist Nosferatu, or Jim Bakker with his End Times food buckets, but before you cast the first stone or speed dial the local office of the Inquisition, just hear me out.
Jesus, which is basically Latin for Joshua, was a popular name in Roman occupied Palestine. As you’ll recall from all those wasted hours in Sunday school, Joshua was the Jewish general who led the conquest of the Promised Land, overseeing the slaughter of all the men, women and children in one Canaanite city after another, so naming children Joshua naturally reminded the Romans that the Jews could kick ass as well as kiss ass.
By 66 CE, the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War, the situation in the province of Judea had gotten so completely out of hand that the Roman general Vespasian invaded Galilee to restore the Roman order. When it became apparent to some that the Romans were going to eventually roll the rebel forces up like a rug, a Jewish general by the name of Josephus wisely decamped to the Roman side and eventually produced a history, The Wars of the Jews, our primary source of information about events up to and following the life of Jesus. Vespasian became the Roman emperor after the death of Nero and built the Flavian Amphitheatre, aka the Colosseum, the largest such structure ever raised, to commemorate his reign. His son Titus, who continued the war and destroyed Jerusalem in CE 70 before mopping up the last resistance at Masada, became emperor after his father died and to celebrate his victories built the Arch of Titus, an impressive piece of Roman propaganda that portrayed the Roman legions returning in triumph with sacred items from the Jewish Temple.
In Book Six of his Wars of the Jews, Josephus briefly relates the story of a certain Jesus son of Ananias, a rustic from the hinterlands, who began incessantly proclaiming a series of woes upon Jerusalem several years before the Romans attacked. Regarded by the Jewish leaders as demon possessed, this Jesus was hauled before the Roman governor Albinus and flogged to the bone with whips. Albinus eventually pronounced the wretched man insane and released him. During the siege of Jerusalem, while still preaching judgment on the city, a stone from a Roman catapult struck the unlucky Jesus, killing him instantly but confirming his predictions.
Jesus son of Ananias bears a striking similarity to Jesus of Nazareth, another rustic from the hinterlands—“No prophet comes from Galilee!” (John 7:52)—who likewise pronounced a series of woes on Jerusalem: “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Mark 13:2) Jesus was considered insane by his family and also regarded by the Jewish leaders as demon-possessed: Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons. (Mark 3:20-22) The religious authorities also handed Jesus of Nazareth over to a Roman governor, Pilate, who had him flogged, but this Jesus was crucified rather than released. The similarities between the two Jesuses is anything but coincidental; Jerusalem “was the eschatological centre of the world, the destination of the homecoming Diaspora and of the pilgrimages of the nations, the place of the coming of the messiah...the place of judgment in Gehinnom and the metropolis of his coming kingdom” and as Martin Hengel noted, Jerusalem was also the focus of “eschatologically motivated attempts at rebellion.” (The Pre-Christian Paul, 55-56) Jerusalem, in short, was a well-established crazy magnet.
We seem to live in a time when everything is politicized and politics is sensationalized. Politics is everywhere in western culture except in those places where peace dwells. Citizens want solutions, maybe relief, in the strangest of places that include the past and its Mandela Effect variations.
So why not speculate on what a Gnostic body politic would look like? We might not find exact solutions like the talking-Archons of the news, but the Gnostic way has always been to provide possibilities and let the logos take the keys.
It should be noted that throughout history Gnostics have either been apolitical or on the wrong side of politics. There are two brief exceptions. In the second century, the Syriac and Valentinian Bardaisan became chief advisor to the King of Edessa; while the Prophet Mani in the third century was close to the King of Persia (until the ruler’s death, and then Mani met a gruesome end at the hands of envious Zoroastrian priests). On neither occasion did a church of Sophia or plans for a future CG Jung ashram materialize.
How, then, can we even speculate on a Gnostic government or even political movement? Well, all we have to do is mine their texts and see how Gnostic cosmology would translate into Gnostic civic duty. As above, so below, said Hermes speaking through Apollonius of Tyana (at least according to Philip K. Dick in Valis).
Thus, here are the elements of a Gnostic government or political party: It would be decentralized Tyrants love centralized governments for control and surveillance purposes. In Gnostic writings like the Secret Book of John or the Reality of the Archons, Yaldabaoth creates a legion of Archons to rule over his new but patchwork universe, but he’s in complete control. There’s no question about that. Every move humanity makes lands on his radar and every Archon shares in his essence. As the Nag Hammadi library’s On the Origins of the World states on the Demiurge: Now when the heavens had consolidated themselves along with their forces and all their administration, the prime parent became insolent. And he was honored by all the army of angels. And all the gods and their angels gave blessing and honor to him. And for his part, he was delighted and continually boasted, saying to them, "I have no need of anyone." He said, "It is I who am God, and there is no other one that exists apart from me." And when he said this, he sinned against all the immortal beings who give answer. And they laid it to his charge. On the other hand, the upper realm of the Aeons is about syzygies and angels working in loose teams like some progressive tech company -- with the One trusting that his emanations take care of cosmic business. It’s a good system until a young but ambitious executive named Pistis Sophia decides to move up the ladder… It would be against bureaucracy As mentioned, in Gnostic accounts the Demiurge creates a spanning celestial government. He even puts in charge an Archon for every human body part (the Secret Book of John). The result is an inefficient, wasteful cosmos where men have nipples and the platypus wonders what the hell happened to it. In fact, in my article How the Archons Destroy Your Life, I argue that a chief way the Archons rule is by drowning us in seas of psychic, spiritual, and physical bureaucracies…until they drive us deep into the ocean floors of madness and ignorance. Again, as above, so below. It would be merit-based yet where everyone gets a shot It’s no secret that Gnostic groups were inclusive in their makeup, even portraying Mary Magdalene as a community leader. This vibe is apparent than when the church father Tertullian complains about Gnostics allowing women in leadership positions (Prescription Against Heretics, 41): The very women of these heretics, how wanton they are! For they are bold enough to teach, to dispute, to enact exorcisms, to undertake cures— it may be even to baptize! As for a revolving door government,
by Robert Conner Five thousand years ago, when our species began to commit its fabulously mistaken notions about the world to writing, it barely mattered on a global scale what Homo sapiens knew or believed about anything. The humans that trudged out of Africa bearing their stone tools and scant belongings had neither the numbers nor the technology to inflict much lasting damage on the planetary environment. Admittedly, as their numbers grew and the sophistication of their weapons improved, the balance of power between humans and mega-fauna began to shift—it is possible if not likely that humans contributed to the extinction of North America’s mastodons and mammoths and that climate change did the rest. After all, stampeding a hundred animals off a cliff and then eating parts of one of them is pretty typical resource conservation where humanity is concerned.
It’s estimated that it required the span of time from the emergence of modern humans around 200,000 years ago until about 1800 for the world population of Homo sapiens to hit 1 billion, but within only 200 additional years the global population had topped 7 billion. A cynic might suppose that competition among religious groups helped spur this population explosion and that religious prohibitions on birth control arise less from concern about fetal personhood than from a realpolitik calculation that there is power in numbers.
In that same time span humans unlocked the black magic of fossil fuel, powered an industrial revolution, mechanized the world, and in the process pumped billions of tons of previously sequestered carbon into the atmosphere—burning a single gallon of gasoline produces nearly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. Given its numbers and technology, what humanity knew and what it believed about the world had suddenly started to matter. More importantly what humanity didn’t know had also assumed potentially lethal proportions.
Another hinge event occurred in 1945 when the only species created in the image of God demonstrated its capacity to weaponize nuclear fission. Seventy years later any motivated extremist with sufficient funding can produce a nuclear weapon—or steal one, or buy the ingredients from North Korea—and deliver it to a target population in a shipping container. A group of apocalyptic dimwits could, for the first and perhaps the last time in history, get their grubby god-bothering fingers on a real game changer.
Even worse, any one of God’s many Chosen People could prattle on about scriptures, prophets, Promised Lands, caliphates, Arks, Second Comings and Armageddon while the world ecology died. Or they could deny that a Sixth Mass Extinction was well underway, that oceans were acidifying, or that ice sheets and glaciers were melting because of some arcane pronouncement by their favorite Sky Fairy. Worse yet, they could imagine that provoking Armageddon advanced some divine Master Plan and lest anyone think that no such maniacs really walk among us, allow me to point out that American evangelical support for Israel is largely based on just such a premise—gone are the days when the denizens of the looniverse had to content themselves with merely looting Rome or Byzantium, or fighting with bows and arrows, lances and swords over the putrid religious corpse that is Jerusalem.
In the 8th century, delusions of Muslim world domination effectively ended at the Battle of Tours. In the 21st century, thanks to Facebook and the rest of anti-social media, a powerful tool for recruitment and coordination of religio-political planetary folly has been handed to the jihadis too stunted to develop such technology on their own. Today we need no Pope Urban II to preach crusade to the embeggared and embuggered masses—any fascist may now do so from his basement. While not blowing up priceless world heritage sites, the “Islamic State” uses social media to recruit disciples who drive trucks into crowds or blow themselves up in crowded venues.
One of the most impactful releases in Gnostic studies in years is the recent The Gnostic New Age by April DeConick. As Birger Pearson writes, the book is a “paradigm shift in our understanding of religion, breaking new ground in scholarship on Gnosticism.” I certainly agree with Pearson and have found pleromic insights galore in the work.
One of the pleromic insights is April’s cataloging of Gnostic rites. Spiritual praxis in Gnosticism has confounded both scholars and occultists for generations. What religious/magical rituals did the ancient Gnostics practice? The Gnostic New Age comes a long way in answering this question, specifically for second century Gnostics. The whole mechanics of these initiatory ceremonies will likely remain a mystery—due to the censoring pens of orthodoxy and the mystery religion secrecy of the Gnostics—but a veil has been lifted by April’s scholarship.
As a whole, April writes on the reason for these rituals: Gnostic rites, whatever their form, were meant to be personally therapeutic, to awaken, purge, mature, and integrate the alienated human spirit, the real self, with its transcendent root. The goal was to heal the separation anxiety that had started it all. Usually, divinities from the transcendent world come to earth to assist and teach humans about their predicament and whatever ritual are needed to liberate the spirit. Carl Jung wrote that the Gnostics were history’s first depth psychologists. It appears the Swiss Magician was very right. Creation was nothing more than the trauma of the Alien/Good God’s mind fragmenting as it gained awareness; Sophia falling from an innocent state as she became curious; and the Demiurge trapped in a nightmare of his own making as he became increasingly egoic. And here we are, much like the three.
To find some healing for even those who practice Gnosticism in modern times, here are the four categories of Gnostic religious/magical rites:
Quickening Ceremonies
No, this is not about being a Highlander, but it kinda is. Quickening ceremonies concerned no longer being unconscious, or dead as the Gospel of Thomas puts it. As April writes, “The ultimate concern of the Gnostic is to awaken the divine potential in each of us, to bring our permanent, deep self to consciousness.”
Quickening ceremonies were accepting the Red Pill from Morpheus. It was an incubatory, underworld journey where the initiates were alerted to the reality of the fallen world with the “smack of Hermes’s or Christ’s staff.” Regularly, it was a dialogue where the goddess Forethought called out the Gnostic pledgee, as found in a liturgy in The Secret Book of John. She introduced herself and cried for the initiate to awaken from his or her forgetful sleep (her role was probably spoken by the community leader); then the initiate would respond about being alert and sealed five times with holy water.
A Quickening Ceremony is also found in the Sethian Trimorphic Protennoia, where the goddess urges her children to stir and rise from Hades. It was possible that during these ceremonies the initiates were taken physically to underground, grim journeys as a symbol of rising from the dead.
Catharsis Ceremonies
Waking up is one thing, cleansing your spirit from the maggots of materiality is another. Thus, came Catharsis Ceremonies. The initiate needed to have purged the “delusions and passions that have kept the spirit unconscious for so long.”
The newbie Gnostic, then, needed to face all his or her personal demons, one at a time. These personal demons, of course, were ruled by cosmic demons we know as the Archons. The ritual was meant to “strip away everything that had encumbered and enslaved their true selves in the realm of temporality.”
At its core, the spiritual procedure involved the Gnostic rising through lower heavens and star houses to confront each ruling Archon/angel, armed with magical passwords and prayers. As April writes,
Based on "Cosmogony and Cosmology" by Philip K. Dick Long before the Matrix Trilogy was produced, a lone man’s imagination and/or contact with the Cosmic posited that we live in an artificial construct; this man’s name is Phillip K. Dick, who brought us such masterpieces as Blade Runner. Assuming this imagination was a space which both Phillip and I could share, I “interviewed” him concerning the subject of “Cosmology and Cosmogony” in that very space. The words are those of PKD, taken verbatim from his paper of that title. The questions are mine, but are a mere reflection and framing of these groundbreaking and illuminating ideas . . .
VANCE: Good afternoon Phillip! We're here today to talk about your views about what underlies this universe in which we find ourselves. Some say that what we experience isn't real at all but is some kind of construct. What are your opinions about that subject?
PKD: As to our reality being a projected framework -- it appears to be a projection by an artifact, a computerlike teaching machine that guides, programs, and generally controls us as we act without awareness of it within our projected world. The artifact, which I call Zebra, has "created" (actually only projected) our reality as a sort of mirror or image of its maker, so that the maker can obtain thereby an objective standpoint to comprehend its own self. In other words, the maker (called by Jakob Bohme in 1616 the Urgrund) is motivated to seek an instrument for self-awareness, self-knowledge, an objective opinion or appraisal and comprehension of the nature of itself (it is a vast living organism, intrinsically -- without this mirror -- without qualities or aspects, which is why it needs the empirical world as a reflection by which to "see" itself).
VANCE: Why would this Urgrund bother to construct this artifact? Is the artifact conscious?
PKD: It constructed a reality-projecting artifact (or demiurge; cf. Plato and the Gnostics), which then, on command, projected the first stage of the world we know. The artifact is unaware that it is an artifact; it is oblivious to the existence of the Urgrund (in terms that the artifact would understand, the Urgrund is not, rather than is), and imagines itself to be God, the only real God.
Studying our evolving reality, the Urgrund more and more adequately comprehends itself. It must allow the reality-projecting artifact to continue to project an evolving reality no matter how defective and malshaped that reality is (during its stages) until finally that reality is a correct analog, truly, of the Urgrund itself, at which point the disparity between the Urgrund and the projected reality is abolished -- whereupon an astonishing event will occur: The artifact or demiurge will be destroyed and the Urgrund will assimilate the projected reality, transmuting it into something ontologically real -- and also making the living creatures in it immortal.
VANCE: This sounds a lot like the second coming of Christ in the NT book of Revelation; when do you think this will happen?
PKD: This moment could come at any time, this entrance of the Urgrund into our otherwise spurious projected framework.Zebra, the projecting energetic artifact, is close at hand, but it has occluded us not only to its actions but [also] to its presence. It has enormous -- virtually decisive -- power over us.
Zebra, the projecting energetic artifact, is close at hand, but it has occluded us not only to its actions but [also] to its presence. It has enormous -- virtually decisive -- power over us.
VANCE: What do you think will happen to us when this moment arrives? What will happen to this “framework” you say we live in at that point?
PKD: The prognosis for (fate of) our world is excellent: immortality and the final infusion of reality once it has reached the point of congruent analog to the Urgrund. But the fate of the artifact is destruction (unknown to it). But it is not alive,
I truly enjoyed a recent episode with Andrew Phillip Smith on the Mandaeans, the last remaining Gnostic sect from antiquity. Andrew’s keen research has enriched the field of Gnosticism for decades. More important, I feel the Mandaeans deserve much more attention today, especially due to their terrible plight in Iraq and its brutal proxy wars.
Mandaeism is a living religion bursting with fascinating mythology and magic (and loads of magic realism). I contend this Gnostic religion provides some forgotten gods that could be very useful for today’s culture where imagination, inventiveness, and wonder are evanescing under the crushing gravitational pull of global idiocracy caused by the Archons of this age.
Particularly one god.
The Gnostic Mandaeans
First, let me recap our interview, where Andrew discussed his latest book John the Baptist and the Last Gnostics. As the title says, the Mandaeans are indeed Gnostic, much more than ever assumed before according to the latest scholarship. Here are some of the Gnostic characteristics that permeate Mandaean culture:
A cosmology and cosmogony that could comfortably fit in the Nag Hammadi library or come out of the mouth of the Prophet Mani. A negative view of astrology and fate. An emanation theology that originates with a supreme yet alien God (the Great Life). Powers of darkness that sabotage the soul’s ascent to the Great Life. A concept of Gnosis (Mandaeans, after all, means Gnostic). A view of the Platonic Demiurge that is less than positive.
Furthermore (and just as fascinating), the Mandaeans possess the Gnostic propensity for deconstructing and inverting Abrahamic luminaries (like putting Cain or Judas in a positive role). The Mandaeans go even further, casting Gnostic heroes as villains! Here are some examples found in their sacred texts:
Sophia (called Ruha) becomes a ruthless demon queen terrorizing the cosmos. Jesus is cast as an apostate Mandaean whose magical shenanigans end up destroying Jerusalem, the original home of the Mandaeans.
Like many Gnostic sects, the Mandaeans viewed Moses in a negative light (basically a good fellow who was duped by rebellious angels); but they go even further, rooting for the Egyptians to chase the Israelites off the face of the earth.
All of this is merely a snapshot of Mandaean folklore. I posted the interview with Andrew at the end of this article where you can find much more on these Gnostics including their rituals. Certainly check out Andrew’s thought-provoking, third-eye-opening John the Baptist and the Last Gnostics.
Let’s get to the main event (or worship).
The Coolest and Most Relevant God for Our Age
His name is Dinanukht. As Andrew writes in his book: Dinanukht is a being who is half-man half-book and able to read himself. How cool is that? Forget gods with bestial features or good Caucasian looks! I’ll explain exactly why, but here is a picture of the mighty Dinanukht from original Mandaean art:
According to Mandaean myth, Dinanukht sits by the waters in between worlds reading himself. Now that’s a powerful symbol of education, self-knowledge, and Gnosis in general. This deity doesn’t just navel gaze in eternity, though. In one tale, he battles another half-man, half-book god named Disai (perhaps a symbol for other polemical religious texts). In another story, Dinanukht travels the heavenly realms towards the Great Life, ultimately failing after being thwarted by the seductive Ruha.
Andrew further writes: There is surely no other story in the whole of mythology about a half-man half-book who makes an incomplete ascent of the soul! Dinanukht is not only intriguing but relevant in a time when self-exploration and reading are being strangled by the average Social Media feed or celebrity Instagram photo. Even better, the Gnostic myth can be rebooted by switching Disai into an even worse Archon: The Kindle—representing the ignorance-inducing,
A considerable amount has been written on Philip K. Dick’s interest in Gnosticism, including its influence on his groundbreaking fiction. Much of the interest was written by Philip K. Dick himself, as I reveal in Philip K. Dick’s Own Definition of Gnosticism.
In fact, let me quote Dick on how deeply immersed he was on the ethos of the ancient heretics (from his voluminous The Exegesis, Dick’s personal contemplations on many esoteric subjects): I am too far into Gnosticism to back out. The idea of Jesus opening Adam’s eyes and bringing him to consciousness, the re-linking to the lost primordial state through the Gnosis, the unflinching facing of evil in the world and knowing it cannot have come from (the Good) God — and the Salvador Sylvanus — man as cut off from part of the Godhead. Why the interest, though? Fr. John Garvey explains the reasons superbly in this article: Dick’s paranoid vision is a unique, sad, funny, and—in its strange and sometimes very moving manner—even ennobling way to think about what we are meant to be as humans. In his later work, Dick’s outlook became deeply, even explicitly, informed by a Gnostic sense of the struggle to be fully human. Ancient Gnosticism was, among other things, concerned with the dilemma of humanity trapped in delusion, imprisoned in a world ruled by malign and unseen forces—a recurrent theme in Dick’s work. It's no secret knowledge that Dick’s two main concerns in his stories were to understand the nature of reality and what it was to be a human being—two obsessions that also soak the Nag Hammadi library and other Gnostic writings.
But there is more on Dick’s affinity to the Gnostics, namely the Aeon Sophia (the personified wisdom of the Alien God outcast in the earthly domains). This Gnostic goddess seems to have a special spot in Dick’s often tormented heart, as she did 2000 years ago for the Sethians, Valentinians and other Gnostic schools of thought. I won’t elaborate more, instead quoting from The Exegesis of Philip K Dick (Page 203): It is Gnosticism and Gnosticism alone which denies the patriarchal Jewish-Christian religion and enshrines Sophia as the creator goddess. So says Neumann in the EB. My experience of the lady—it is exactly Gnostic. None else. In my revelations all roads and aspects lead to her; this is Gnosticism.
I’ve seen her, heard her, in many guises, and finally the name “St. Sophia.” Gnostic revelation has broken through into my head in the modern world. I think anyone versed in Gnosticism who read my notes would say, “You’re a Gnostic.” I am not happy about this, but it is so, based on 3-74. Simon Magus lives. Also, it is a thoroughly Greek syncretistic system. I must go where truth (as I’ve experienced) takes me; my experience is of St. Sophia. Well, this is a modified Gnosticism, with Sophia sanctified as Wisdom of Proverbs and the book “Wisdom,” so that it can be made to jibe with the Bible; thus Christ become the female spirit Sophia in a male body, a syzygy. Ah! Yes! This is the complete person! The missing half which Plato wrote about. In Jungian terms, psychological completeness; psychic integration. Not either-or but both-and. At least; the repressed female goddess Prinzip breaks through into Christianity, in a Third Testament or Covenant. Father (OT), Son (NT) and daughter or mother (3rd T). The first emanation from God, according to the OT, so I guess daughter as demiurge (cf. Plato). The Godhead remains behind her; I experienced that; she is the Pantocrator. Ma’at. Or rather Pantocratix. Two aspects differ from Gnosticism: it is Holy Wisdom, not just Sophia; and: she was born before and rejected, which identifies her with Christ, hence the Logos. This restores the cosmological quality to the system, lost in Gnosticism; the creating spirit (universe creating) is holy and good, not fallen (blech). And this maintains Christ correctly as the Redeemer and Revealer. In this passage, Dick veers away from the more negative outlook of th...
