Summer Harvest

1. According to Jesus, the Law can be summarized in one sentence, one “Great Commandment,” as it were: Love God, and Love Your Neighbor As Yourself. These are arguably the same thing. As it happens, Gnosis can also be summarized in one sentence: Know God, and Know Yourself. Whether these are the same thing could be argued all night.

Love is an experience. You can’t describe it. You can’t make somebody have it. There’s no way to put the experience into words.

Gnosis is an experience. You can’t describe it. You can’t make somebody have it. There’s no way to put the experience into words. Love and gnosis have to be had.

2. Christianity is a specific religious tradition. It can be described and defined. It’s been around for quite some time; we have historical and scriptural evidence that this is the case. Christianity is the spiritual tradition that has been established around cultivating Love of God and Neighbor, expressly taught by Jesus Christ and codified in the canonical New Testament.

Gnosticism is a specific religious tradition. It can be described and defined. It’s been around for quite some time; we have historical and scriptural evidence that this is the case. Gnosticism is the spiritual tradition that has been established around cultivating Gnosis of God and Self, expressly taught by various ancient teachers and codified in the Nag Hammadi Library, the Pistis Sophia, the Gospels of Judas and Mary, the Corpus Hermeticum and their correlatives.

3. You can have Love of God and Neighbor without Jesus Christ or the Bible. To have Christianity, however, you need all of these things.

You can have Knowledge of God and Self without Valentinus or the Nag Hammadi Library. To have Gnosticism, however, you need all of these things.

4. And yet, and yet. Gnostics are probably the only individuals in the modern era who, when they present this very simple argument, are told that they are incorrect, that you can have Knowledge of God and Self, and Knowledge of God and Self alone, and have Gnosticism.

There is nothing wrong with having Knowledge of God and Self alone, just as there is nothing wrong with having Love of God and Neighbor alone. These things are, in fact, to be encouraged. They do not, however, religious traditions make.
I apologize if this offends anyone, but it is simply the case.

You cannot be a Gnostic without participating in Gnosticism. You cannot be a Christian without participating in Christianity. You can claim these things as much as you’d like, just as you can claim to be Muslim without having read the Koran and submitted to Allah, or you can claim to be a Buddhist who doesn’t know the Eightfold Path. It doesn’t make it any more true.

5. Because Knowledge of God and Self can be experienced in many different traditions, there is a misconception that Gnosticism is all-inclusive. This is not true. Gnosticism is syncretic. It is tolerant. It is compassionate. But it is not all inclusive.

Gnostics welcome all comers to participate in the community, but inviting a Buddhist to a Gnostic mass does not mean that Buddhism is Gnostic. Finding great spiritual value in the works of Rumi does not mean that Sufism is Gnostic. Just as with any religious tradition, Gnosticism is something to which one must convert. This doesn’t mean that one must formally renounce one’s former religious tradition, but one must formally accept that Gnosticism exists in its own right, and must be willing to participate in the religious tradition on its own terms.

6. Gnosticism is all-inclusive within its own boundaries. We do not know that it has always been, but it is now.

Consider canonical Christianity, with Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism and all of their various splinters and shrapnels and fractal offshoots. Now imagine if all of these splinters and shrapnels and fractal offshoots respected one another, celebrated with one another, Loved God and Loved One Another. Imagine if they respected all other religious traditions in which Love was a component. In a case like this, would this make a Muslim who Loved God and His Neighbor an Episcopalian?

Consider Modern Gnosticism with its many manifestations. These manifestations tend to respect all religious traditions in which Knowledge of Self and God is a component. Does this make a Buddhist who attains enlightenment a Gnostic?

7. You don’t get to be a Gnostic without doing something. You don’t get to read Elaine Pagels and decide “this sounds good, I must be Gnostic!” and stop there. You don’t get to take mushrooms and have a mystical experience and claim “this means I’m Gnostic!” and stop there. You don’t get to spend ten weeks in a Hindu Ashram and claim “I experienced the Onenness that is Brahman, which means I’m Gnostic!” and stop there.

8. Gnostics are taking Gnosticism back! For too long in the Modern Era has it been the maligned and abused mystical catch-all, the term anyone who can use the letter “G” can stick to their spiritual lapel and wield against anyone with whom they disagree. Gnosticism is manifesting once again as a true tradition, a valid tradition that makes its own terms for itself. The Plasmate is rising from the Tomb of the Desert and refining and defining and casting the moneylenders out of the Temple of Gnosis!

This will mean bruised egos. This will mean bitter arguments. This will mean broken misconceptions and purloined translations and guerilla sacraments and doctrinal edicts and statements concerning Gnosticism that are Writ In Stone. This will mean internicine squabbles amongst Gnostics.

This will also mean radically open ecumenicism among Gnostic traditionalists– goddammit, we’re going to love you and include you whether you like it or not. It will also mean a greater sense of identity. It will mean a greater sense of community. It will be difficult, because it will mean Standing For Something in a world that no longer values idealism. But it’s happening, and it’s going to happen. And there’s nothing any of us can do to stop it.