Gimme the lowdown on Gnosticism, Veeky Forums

>Monad/Pleroma, the original source > Aeons, including Sophia, emanations of the source > Demiurge, Sophia's mistake/abortion > material world

Can you give me more detail regarding these terms?

It's Jew/Christian mysticism fan fiction with some pagan elements. Intentionally nebulous and a waste of time.

came here to post this

Christianity itself is fanfiction to Jewdaism, to be honest.

God Almighty -> Jebus Christus .-> Heilige Geist -> Lucifer -> Humans

The Monad is the 'true' God, who is perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, and who is also unknowable.

The Aeons are 'emanations' of the Monad: they are characteristics that proceed from him, and which are sometimes personified for ease of weaving a narrative.

The Pleroma simply refers to the 'fullness' of both the Monad and his emanations, of which Sophia (wisdom) is one. Sophia engaged in the creative act without the consent or approval of the other emanations, and as a result, her creation (the Demiurge) was malformed. Attempting to hide her botched attempt at creation, she hid her offspring away, and as such, this Demiurge grew up ignorant of the Pleroma.

But because he was created by Sophia, the Demiurge retained some creative power, and proceeded to create the universe in a "pathetic" imitation of the Pleroma. The Demiurge created humans, too. At this point, the Monad - according to the mythos - felt pity for the humans trapped inside the Demiurge's simulation, and allowed a divine ember to fall into the Demiurge's world, which enabled humans to be able to free themselves of the Demiurge. The accounts vary, but Christ (Allogenes, Adamas, etc.) was either a messenger sent from the Pleroma or a human who found the way himself to reach the Pleroma.

Hope that helped. Most Gnostic sects have their mythos which varies widely.

Describe the physical appearance of the Demiurge

It's like the Trump Publicist version of Christianity.

> Gnostics: No no, when the bible said that ridiculous shit they REALLY meant [occult babble]

>YHWH: No, I meant slaughter the Children.

A lion-headed serpent.

Why does he look like this?
Also, what would happen to a human who saw the Demiurge?
Is it even possible? Where is he located?

...

That's just the tradition and the Demiurge doesn't exist but if you want people to humor your questions is thataway.

kek

> Demiurge doesn't exist
Than who created the world? Check mate.

how is it a waste of time tho?

sure they complicated things and some seemed kinda schizzo, but the basic premises seem rather sensible, the world is a bad place ruled by bad forces and created by a idiot, the one logical thing to do is find a way out

makes sense

this could all be internalised, so the demiurge becomes a part of us, a kind of internal falsehood that generates our reality, a bunch of ego-complexes and such, it creates the world that we are traped in, realising this, that our reality is a lie created by our internal demiurge, and rejecting it is part of becoming free, another is getting to know oneself, reuniting with the one complete integrated being that basicaly is the true reality within and without

*rips bong*

He is right, Gnosticism make more sense than classic Christianity. It doesn't afraid to take the bullet instead of hiding behind wushful thinking.

>Thread is called "Gimmie the lowdown on Gnosticism, Veeky Forums"
>Faggot user gets buttblasted that I'm asking questions and tells me to go to /x/

If you don't know the answers then just say so faglord. I only inadvertently reminded you of your ignorance, no need to get so triggered.

its suprisingly true tho, contemporary knowledge of our neural functioning confirms this, we generate our own reality, our own experiences, but we do not do this consciously, this is done for us by parts of our brain that are basicaly deaf and blind, information that comes into the system trough our sensory aparatus is just raw material, and only once selectively procesed, almost to the point of corruption does it become elements that our brain compiles into what we percieve as real, interloped with memories and stories, of past things that are no longer and future things that never were, all modified by our dominant subconscious states and functions, emotions and needs and inhibitions and the like, and thats the reality we mostly live in, the illusion we mostly get to work with, the basis on which we interact with each other and our enviroment trough preconditioned repetitive patterns, and so all the bullshit in our lives ensues

so the story of the demiurge kinda seems legit, except in this story youre the demiurge

>Also, what would happen to a human who saw the Demiurge?
>Is it even possible? Where is he located?

Not the user you were replying to, but it does sound like you would be better off going to /x/.

No Gnostic writing particularly mentions where the Demiurge resides, or why he looks as he does, or even what would happen if a human saw him. This is because the Gnostics were - in some sense, like the Buddhists, with their Acinteyya - wholly uninterested in those things that were unrelated to the attainment of 'gnosis'.

They would not have cared about anything concerning the Demiurge or the Archons; their efforts were entirely devoted to learning the mysteries of their respective sect so as to enable them to travel to the Pleroma after death.

>hurr how gum no body haz evr seen le demiurge :DD
>y u no tage me serieally XDDD

>except in this story youre the demiurge

shyamalan.jpg

what about the ones that had orgies and consumed semen and menstrual blood as communion?

Jewish propaganda.

>falling for Christfag propaganda

Idiot

theres a lot out there about gnostic theory, what about their practices?

was it things like fasting, or trance and extasy or did each sect have elaborate secret techniques ala scientology?

were they similar to hermetic practice? like stay still, focus the mind, visualise, run thoughts backwards, etc..?

>what about their practices?

You're asking these questions as if the Gnostic sects were some unified group with standardized rules and uniform practices. In reality, there were many, many sects, each with their own mythos, their own unique practices and view, their own preferred canon. You're going to have to be more specific.

In general, though, Gnostics tended towards asceticism and abstaining from sex, as well as fasting. There are mentions of more libertine Gnostic sects (who believed that, having attained gnosis, and thus having found the way out of the Demiurge's grasp, were no longer bound by such notions as 'good' or 'evil'), but their existence cannot be proven, especially since Church polemicists loved throwing around the "sexual immorality!" charge at everyone they deemed a heretic.

>was it things like fasting, or trance and extasy or did each sect have elaborate secret techniques ala scientology?

Yes, they did have elaborate secret techniques, most of which are lost to us.

>were they similar to hermetic practice? like stay still, focus the mind, visualise, run thoughts backwards, etc..?

I don't believe so. There wasn't much importance on meditation or focusing the mind, or things associated with mysticism or Eastern thought.

>You're asking these questions as if the Gnostic sects were some unified group with standardized rules and uniform practices.

everione knows that

but either its one of those -hinduism dosnet exist its just a misnomer for different religious traditions- things, or there was some reason they were all called gnostic, and considered as a generaly recognisable thing by others around them

but just as they had certain generaly shared beliefs they were recognised by even if not all groups believed all the same things, and how many groups shared similar if differing mythology, so if they had some way of 'ataining gnosis' there must have been some similarities among groups, in the sense that they had to share some basic practices

are there hints at these at least? where did they claim their gnosis comes from, or how did they claim to get to it? im sure they were asked, maybe even put to the question

>so if they had some way of 'ataining gnosis'

Gnosis merely means 'knowledge'. Gnostics were like the mystery religions of their time - you can find salvation if you learn the 'secrets' from the sect. These secrets were taught to members as they advanced through the ranks of the sect.

The secrets could be things like "when you die, you'll appear to go to Heaven - but this is actually just the Demiurge's abode. Tell him to fuck off, and keep on moving". Each sect had its own secrets and cosmology.

'Gnosis' isn't a technique or a state, unlike moksha and nirvana in the Dharmic religions.

Any gnostic sects believe that people are on a mission to become the next messiah consciousness?

youtube.com/watch?v=pDyl1qrpj_Q

michael heiser does a cool introduction into some of the gnostic thought while breaking down the gnostic allusions in the davinci code as a foil.

It was an elaborate excuse for the sons of wealthy merchants and of early clergy in monasteries to spend their entire day reading and justify spending all their money books; and to reassure themselves that their actions were closer to what the divine wants

but then how did their teachers claim to have come about this knowledge of these secrets?

>but then how did their teachers claim to have come about this knowledge of these secrets?

Same as in every other religion or belief system:
>"An agent from the Pleroma spoke to me in a vision/dream and told me of how I was chosen to tell you how to find salvation, so do what I tell you."

OR

>"Here's some writings that I have interpreted, and I know I am correct because I have studied them very deeply - that being said, I know how to find salvation, so do what I say"

and, lastly:

>"It's tradition"

>There wasn't much importance on meditation or focusing the mind, or things associated with mysticism or Eastern thought.

What was of importance then?

Not the same user.

Making your way up the ranks so you would be privy to progressively more occult/classified secrets that would enable you to reach liberation faster.

Almost like Scientology.

Shit, I forgot to attach a bara man picture

Gnosticism basically came out of the early christian tradition of self knowledge. Instead of focusing on Christ as the redeemer or the messiah Gnostics think of Jesus as the revealer and the messenger of a secret wisdom.

If you read through the gospel of Thomas it's pretty clear that it's way different than any of the four gospels in the Bible. Most of the gospels place an emphasis on the death of Jesus and his resurrection. In the case of Mark this is a parable for the plight of the Jews after the first war against the Romans. For Matthew and Luke it's more about Christ as the messiah and there is less emphasis on his Jewish identity.

Gnostics don't really place an emphasis on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Instead they place emphasis on his message and the wisdom found in his teachings. In fact, most of the gospel of Thomas is just a list of wise sayings of Jesus.

But going back to my point about how little emphasis Gnosticism places on the death and resurrection of Jesus, it's important to understand that they viewed him as being so holy that he never actually had a human form. By that thought, Jesus was never crucified.

A lot of early Christians didn't like this because it conflicted directly against their identity. At the time of the 2nd century a lot of Christians were being persecuted for their beliefs and were being executed for identifying themselves as Christians. These early Christians thought of themselves as martyrs and related their own plight with the plight of Jesus on the cross. If you called that plight into question by arguing against the validity of the crucifixion you were not going to find a lot of friends in mainstream Christianity.

>Gnostics develop entire metaphysical system
>Wholly uninterested in the structure of said system

Citation please.
If you weren't autistic and you had a single shred of insight into human nature it would be obvious to you that initiates and others obviously cared about the Demiurge and the Archons.

Hey, fuck you. I've been the only one helping you with your idiot questions, and you still go on about "hurr durr, you're autistic because you don't answer my inane drivel"

Get fucked, cunt. Look it up yourself, you dumb fuck. Fuck you and your shitty thread.