Gnosis essentially is the act of distinguishing the psyche, or soul, from the deepest self
The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and
Resurrection
"The experience of Gnosis is a varied phenomenon: your knowing may be
prompted by a moment of utter solitude, or by the presence of another
person. You may be reading or writing, watching an image or a tree,
or gazing only inward. Gnosis, though related both to mysticism and
to wisdom, is quite distinct from either. Mysticism, though it comes
in many kinds, by no means opposes itself to faith; perhaps indeed it
is the most intense form of faith. Wisdom, in the biblical sense, is
allied with the prophetic reception of a God who dominates our world,
which is seen having fallen away his original Creation. Gnosis grants
you acquaintance with a God unknown to, and remote from, this world,
a God in exile from a false creation that, in itself, constituted a
fall. You yourself, in knowing and being known by this alienated God,
come to see that originally your deepest self was no part of the
Creation-Fall, but goes back to an archaic time before time, when
that deepest self was part of a fullness that was God, a more human
God than any worshipped since.
I am very aware that my last sentence requires much unpacking, but it
was designed for that purpose, because Gnosis is entirely the
doctrine of the deep or deepest self. Gnosis essentially is the act
of distinguishing the psyche, or soul, from the deepest self, as an
act of distinction that is also a recognition. You cannot strengthen
your psyche without reacquainting yourself with your original self,
compared to which your psyche is only a remnant, a wounded survivor.
Peter Brown, in The Body and Society (1988), his study of "Men,
Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity," expresses this
succinctly, in an analysis of the Gnostic doctrine of Valentinus:
Even the soul, the psyche, the conscious self, had occurred as an
afterthought. It swathed the lucid spirit in a thick fog of doubt,
anxiety, and passion. The unredeemed lived as in a waking nightmare.
All human thought, even the most profound religious quest, was riven
with uncertainty and misplaced ambition. Only the spirit had a right
to exist. It stirred in the depths of the initiate with a blind,
insistent "ferment," which betrayed its distant origin in the Place
of Fullness. This spirit, the pneuma, was the true person (p. 109).
The issue of all Gnosis (and of every Gnosticism) is indeed "the true
person." We have an addiction, in the United States, that involves
the quest of an authentic self, in oneself and in the other person."
Harold Bloom, Omens of the Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams,
and Resurrection, pages 183-4
Paperback: 255 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Books (October 1, 1997)
ISBN-10: 1573226297
ISBN-13: 978-1573226295
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NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where this topic or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:
www.adishakti.org/www.al-qiyamah.org/
www.adi-shakti.org/ — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/ — Divine Feminine (Judaism)
www.ruh-allah.org/ — Divine Feminine (Islam)
www.tao-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/ — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/ — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/ — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)
