Gnostic Schools – Eternal Wisdom from the Gnostic Schools – Series of two classes, MBM March 1940

Gnostic Schools

(Eternal Wisdom from the Gnostic Schools)

Series of two classes. March 1940

A background course. Background courses are as important as major courses. They are one of the bases for a true understanding of life and the world is to understand something of what these background courses try to give you.

I am going to talk to you about some of the Gnostic schools. There always have been gnostic groups — theosophical groups which had reached the high state of development where they had what, in the Indian tradition is the direct relationship with the Larger. Not, therefore, intellectual knowledge (but) experiential knowledge of the higher worlds. Interest in man and his redemption was seen as only an incident in the Pattern. They specialized in the background.

There is a peculiar logic in our course. A trouble with nearly all religions, especially the Christian, is that it has been too narrow. It has had nothing of what the Gnostics had. The groups from which I shall draw are those who have become known as the Christian Gnostics.

In the period just before and at the beginning of our era the center of the world was around the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Draw a map of the eastern end of the Mediterranean. The draft (?) of what later became Western civilization centered around the eastern part of that sea. The Gnostic groups were around its eastern end.

The Therapeuts were slightly to the west of the River Nile, on Lake Mareotis. They had a colony, or group, surrounding it. The concept of the Therapeuts was that it was of no use to heal the body first; the primary work was the healing of the soul; incidentally the healing of the body.

Around the Therapeuts arose a great conflict of the Church, especially the Roman Church, because until recent years the Roman Church used the Therapeuts as proof that monasteries were customary of the Christians of the first century. . . . Because the Gnostics, or these groups which later were called Gnostics, with the idea that that was a heresy, that these Gnostics had a perspective of life, of Creation, of the Cosmos, in which the pattern of the Christian leader, the Christ in Jesus, was seen as a part of their (the Church’s?) understanding.

They were magi as well as those who came from far countries and were not of the Jewish cult. They, too, had their Word that there would be a great Teacher born. To the early Christians that was anathema.

Christianity could conceive of no Messias, no Teacher, before Jesus; those who were not baptized until somehow or other they could be redeemed. The Gnostics had no conflict about the place of Jesus because they could see that work in the Pattern, as a manifestation of the Christ-force of the Universe. (There was) a burning of Gnostic books, especially the great library of Alexandria. The Church Fathers wrote books on the heresies. The Gnostics were heretics because they could not begin with Jesus.

Common to all these groups is that they were handers-on of an ancient tradition. They were a middle point between the outer tradition and the real secret tradition, which is never passed on except to those qualified, as initiates. As far as you can go in your earnest, sincere studies, is to be found with the help of the Gnostics.

The Trinity You hear about it in the Christian tradition, but in the Gnostic groups the Trinity was a manifestation of a far greater Trinity. The bulk of their thought was not about man and his little troubles and needs. They simplified that as much as possible. They lived a simple life, for a purpose. The attention they thus released they were able to turn to the service of what their teachers passed on to them. The Teachers were a link in the chain of the universal tradition.

Martians, Essenes (The latter played a part even in the pattern of Jesus.)

Simon Magus Wherever a Leader is maligned, if I can redeem some of that maligning I consider it a privilege to do so. (MBM had already mentioned Simon Magus.)

Simon Magus, so reviled in the Christian Bible. He was, and is, a very great Leader, a Gnostic. Is still. But the Christians, in order to malign him, changed his stories. He used allegories, as do all Teachers, all Scripture. He spoke of the woman, Helen, a (or the) prostitute. Prostitute is a mystical word in Scripture, not a woman in the red light districts. It means one who has become, man or woman, involved in the things of the earth, and so have prostituted their soul energies. Wherever we are in ascent we have come through it. Simon Magus did not go about with a priestess. There were other false stories.

Valentinius and Basilides. Valentinius was a great Gnostic. He and Basilides were considered the two greatest exponents of the Gnostic schools of the first two centuries A.D.

Basilides was a pupil of Glaucus, who was a disciple of Luke and Matthew. So they say. Basilides did write books, called The Sayings of Jesus, and that the three Synoptics are based on a book now lost, which was also called The Sayings of Jesus. Most of Basilides’ books were destroyed, because he was, to the Christians, guilty of Heresy.

Cosmogony

(a reference to the Proem of John. “In the beginning…..” MBM asks, In the beginning of what? Implication that our universes (or universe) had been preceded by others, indrawn. GB’s understanding.)

The Beginning (they conceived as) the Seed Mixture, the substance side of the content of all things. The ruler, or master of this is the God Beyond Being. The little circle in the diagram is the Seed Mixture. In the Seed Mixture are three seeds of Sonships. They are called by many other names (in other traditions GB). It is the Source of all.

When the beginning of emanation from the Seed began to take place one of the first emanations was that of the first Son. This is our first Trinity.

The first Son swiftly moved upward to the God Beyond Being, sometimes called the Unknowable God; because he was of that essence.

The second Sonship, the second Seed, also moved outward from that pod, and with him moved an essence that might be called in in Christian language, the Holy Spirit. Not the dove, etc. This quality that radiated out was of a quality different from the second Sonship. . . . . a difference between the Sonship and its radiation, which may be called Spirit. He (Basilides?) says it is like a cup in which unguent has been poured, and then has been poured out. The unguent is the Sonship. Then that has been poured out, but still something of the perfume lingers in the cup. So something of the quality of the second Sonship lingered in this area.

This area spread down to what is known as the Great Firmament, or the Ring Pass Mot. All the great traditions know of this area, except the Christian. This is the world of Universals. And in this world of Universals the creatures, Beings, are known as Aeons, or Eternities. Because they are above time and space and anything we know of as matter. There is matter of different grades from way down in the third dimension to the Firmament. Above the line are the Universals and Aeons. They are the Forces, Beings, Aeons of the Light.

The second Sonship, as it were, moves out like the unguent from the cup. There is differentiation in these worlds. I have marked just one (probably on diagram, which I do not have. GB) Both are known as Cosmic regions but they have their gradations. Something of that we will take up next week.

So the Cosmic begins above the Firmament, the world of Universals, Aeons, the Trinities.

The third Sonship remains within that Pattern, still as a seed. That seed comes down. And it is at this point that the Gnostics assimilated the Christian teachings; or rather, the work of Jesus.

This third Sonship, the Logos, is the line of descent out of the third Seed, which comes down later. Has come out of the world of Universals whenever a Teacher has come.

But the Gnostics, like the Docetae, saw in Jesus and the Christ two different aspects. Because of who Jesus was in stature… Whenever anyone has come as a Teacher the influence of the Logos comes down to the one in earth. Thus the Gnostics were able to accept Jesus as one in whom this had come down. The descent of the Holy Spirit was the time when the ray came down upon them. (referring to the diagram) the reservoir from which all Teachers come.

The writer of the Proem of John was a Gnostic.

This area (of the third Sonship) is not to be seen as a little point, but vast. Like every Sonship, it is at once a son and the father of everything that occurs. The mother(is) this region which we may call the Holy Spirit — the substance, or mother-side. But the mother again has a Son. The Sonship is the beginning of a new line. The Holy Spirit is very difficult to even attempt to describe – these vast regions which belong to the Trinity, Aeons, are the Source from which and with which the Sonship is able to cooperate down below. This line of descent (or has descended) in many places.

Out of that great Seed Mixture came of course much else; but something else important, known as the Great Ruler.

Part of the Gnostic tradition is that the gods so readily spoken of are not the Great God at all. So they saw the god Jehovah as the racial god, not the Universal God. When we begin these studies we tend to take the world beyond in too simple a way, microcosm-like. Therefore is it not reasonable that there are those representative of the different states? Every state has its governor. We have representatives in the Congress. Perhaps there is something to it that the various peoples have had their own leadership.

The Gnostics conceived Jehovah as the God of the Jews, not the universal God. And of course even the early Christians, who were largely Jews, found it devastating to their interpretation regarding Jesus. No wonder the Church Fathers fought. They had to fight on a number of fronts, including the Mithraic religion.

So this Ruler who comes out of the Seed Mixture, the Great Ruler, such a being no words can describe. (he is not one of the Sonships.). This other being, still prior to it, must be greater. It is in this way that the Gnostics, who were disciplined in thought of these things, were able to get a new perspective on life.

Once we have a larger perspective we are not so obsessed with our own tragedy. Christianity is too narrow. What is redemption for. It is empty by itself. For what? Where?

The first Ruler draws out of himself a second Ruler. And these Rulers are below the Firmament. But from here to here (on diagram, don’t have. GB) is very vast indeed.

The second Ruler, the son of the first, strangely enough — yet not strange, was greater than his father. Infinitely more than “father” on the physical plane. It means the emanation went out of the other. Like a nest of cubes, that go out further and further from the source. Emanation. So this second Ruler had his place in the region below the Great Firmament.

That will give us something of the background against which we can watch the processes of evolution.

The third Sonship is still up within the Seed; the planes of the lower world not yet formulated. They are on the mother side. She contains within herself millions of sons.

Gnostic Teachings

Second and last of series on

Gnostic Schools

MBM March 1940

The teachings we are studying are not the Gnosis. That is never taught with words. It belongs to experience, and a high state of being. But these teachings are from a great teacher, at the point of moving out from the secret phase to the world; made accessible to the world.

Virtually all we have of the Gnostic groups of the early centuries is through the Church Fathers; and they made it their business to write refutations of all heresies (that is, what was) not along with the orthodox acceptance of the day. So we are not getting the actual teachings of Basilides (only) a biased second hand.

I am not trying to do justice to the Gnostic groups, but doing some mind stretching. The big contributions they make are that their eyes are primarily on the Immensities, not primarily on man.

First Sonship….. Unitary Spirit marks off a super-Cosmic sphere. The First Firmament marks off the first Cosmic Sphere from the sensible world; i.e. the world capable of being known to the senses — not only the physical senses.

While still in the super world there issued from the Great Ruler… the Demi-Urgos, the Worker in the Midst, whom other great teachings, or backgrounds, call by the name of the Creator God — the supreme being over all that belongs to the sensible worlds — but of course other sense organs than the physical, in a secret teaching.

Below the Firmament is the ethereal world, the sub-lunary spheres and finer celestial areas (?) the Great Ruler has formed. The ethereal spheres are the Ogdoad.

The Demi-Urgos drew out of being a Son greater than himself. Evolution means just that: “The last shall be first . . . . . .with the ideas for manifestation.

In due season — ages – there came forth another Great Ruler, the ruler of the sub-lunary spheres; that is, from the moon downward: the soul downward, as far as man is concerned. The first Great Ruler (ruled) from Spirit to soul. The second great Ruler and the Son he brought forth, from the moon to the earth. The first Great Ruler is an ineffable God; the second is effable. (Rules over) the Hebdomad.

The Hebdomad is based on the Seven. This God we may know. It is this God, says Basilides, whom the Jews of the ancient time knew, Jehovah.

From the lower wing down came the evolutionary world: the terrestrial spheres, and including in them the etheric spheres, the sub-lunary spheres, belonging to the evolution of the soul. The Ogdoad (belonging) to the evolution of spirit, or nous. Beyond, to the Ascent. It took unmeasurable ages to accomplish. Involution completed and evolution, or ascent, begun. The science of soteriology.

In due season it was good that the Glad Tidings should go forth. Don’t mix it with the Gospels. (The concept) was in use long before the Christians used it.

When the period of the involution was accomplished and the evolution, or ascent, was to take place, there moved forth out of the Second Sonship, or the higher realms of the Holy Spirit, or that which its wings held up, a force which began to penetrate all things downward. It was the Gospel, the Good Tidings. It presently reached the Son of the Great Ruler. He eventually conferred to his Father, the Great Ruler.

The Good Tidings was this: that there were reaches above the Firmament….to learn through the Good Tidings that He (Jehovah) was a generable God (probably that he (Jehovah), learned that he was a generable god.) GB. In Christian words, he repented — turned back again to another view of things. That brought about a transformation: that though he was the greatest from there (Firmament) down, there were regions above him. It changed the picture.

Then that Good Tidings descended to the son of the Ruler of the Hebdomad; and he, too, learned of the greater spheres above him. This was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The second Ruler changed in polarization through the Tidings. Described as a flame ……..

So this new vision of Reality, coming down and making the way through all the ages (stages?) – and there are many, many, finally reached through these two regions. (probably Ogdoad and Hebdomad. GB.)

Now comes the part which angered the Christian tradition: This influence came down, sub-lunary, to Jesus, the son of Mary, and as the result of that he was illumined: “The wings of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” — illumined him in the terrestrial spheres. “And the third Sonship, which came down, and the seed of the higher man ascended.) (seems like a quote from Basilides.)

No Gnostic group would think of Jesus as the one recipient of that very great Reservoir. But they saw that he was one on whom such a touch of Illumination came. And that touch of Illumination from above below is the Gnosis. When humanity has reached a certain stage, illustrated by Jesus, the Christ stage in the Christian tradition — the Krishna stage and the Osiris stage, – all races had their names for it — then this influence comes down upon them; perhaps in this flesh, or in another state, and pours upon them that influence, which they are now capable of receiving. You can’t receive what you are not prepared to receive. Jesus was the current example of that, just prior to the time of Basilides.

Everyone therefore is on the way to receiving that accolade. It is a fiery one, for which long, long preparation has to be made. Following the pattern of Jesus, who is a Christ, Anointed from above the Firmament, makes them a hundred percent active for this.

In the beginning, little souls; still turned to earth, sleeping. Then comes the awakening, and little by little as they move up to the Crestos (or Cristos) stage they give a little service; then more and more until their minds are turned to the Larger in the full Crestos pattern.

The Christian Fathers did not want any competitors for the supreme posture of Jesus as the Savior.

“Son of God” a seed out of the Seed Mixture, coming down upon evolving souls when they have reached a certain stage. There we meet a paradox, namely, that you are sons of God and yet you are not. It comes when something is completed and you meet tests adequately.

So with this whole process. When then higher stages are reached, that thing which is inherently for you comes upon you — the stage of the Son of God, though potentially you are it.

Gnosis

MBM has said that the way is from facts, to knowledge, to understanding, to wisdom, to Gnosis.

Gnosis is then for man an ultimate.

She quoted Clement – who said that Gnosis is not born but acquired, demands training, application, abides being infallible through love.

Only the seeds of gnosis are in the soul – to know in the sense of Gnosis would be then to have grown a stature of heart in mind such as has been outlined by MBM for you in the present series. It is to see beyond the phenomenal into the noumenal, and to live by what one sees. To know ideas as reality – such ideas as truth, which is of that which nous sees through the noetic faculty.

Or as it has been said: In Thrice Greatest Hermes – The Gnosis of man is the beginning of perfection. That of God perfected perfection.

It opens only as you are of that stature.

Gnosis is related to spiritual truths

The gnostic is going the way of gnosis, whose end is in being the kingly friend of God. It is the peak of your faculties, the vision of the goal which as livingness for your selves you must achieve.

Nous In Plotinus the 2nd Devine principle from above down. More than higher intelligence more of the nature of spirit.

From below up it may aid us to think of it as mind in its higher reaches, but not mind alone – when,if I may quote MBM again, when the “whole mind is energized to act within the cosmic pattern” stalwart, regal, strong, sweet, farsighted – the goal for which the soul seed is planted in Earth.

The Son of man is a high state, in which the actor is in key with great processes.

The soul assimilated into mind which is spirit.

It culminated in Gnosis, living and knowing which has become powerful, integrated, veridical reality, the way of the mind is always toward Gnosis.

Gnostic Pattern gives the key to the future.

Gnosis — concerned with spiritual sensitivities – the activities of the mind when freed from earth. God can be known.

Chart- see Green Book

Gnosis – Clement – Is not born but acquired – demands application, training, it abides being infallible through Love.

the way is from facts, to knowledge, to understanding, to wisdom, to Gnosis.

Truth – that which Nous sees through the noetic faculty

Gnosis of man is the beginning of perfection – Gnosis of God perfected perfection. Hermes.

It opens to you as you are of that stature.

Gnosis of man is related to spiritual truths. You only have Gnosis by growing up

To clarify ideas concerning the Gnosis “Setting a noed for the Gnosis”

Old heading Philosophy wisdom

Hermetic, Egyptian, Gnostic

Cosmogonies

Old Testament, Kabbalah, Egyptian, Chaldaen, Gnostic, Greek

Pojodag Psychology

Linking of devotion and Gnosis – knowing and doing in the philosophic pattern Way to Gnosis

On Nous

Word for the higher intelligence

Crestos- anointed One – Their relation – that of knowing and being

Reserve the word spirit for the level of nous