ethereal reads

Finally, after a false start with my booklog, I’ve finished two heady books on the subject of Gnosis and the Jesus Story that I’ve been stopping and starting all summer and early fall. But for me, they were worth the struggle to get through them.

The Jesus Mysteries is the result of intensive research by the authors Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy which proposes a very well-thought out, strongly supported and highly controversial thesis: that the story of Jesus, rather than being an historical life of a flesh and blood man, is instead, the jewish adaptation (in the form of a traditional storytelling technique known as midrash) of an ancient school of thought called The Pagan Mysteries. These pagan myths which form the outer teaching devices of the various Gnostic Mystery Schools found throughout the Ancient pre-Christian Mediterranean who went by many names and shares this common theme as highlight by the authors:

A “Pagan saviour… born of a virgin on the 25th of December before three shepherds,turned water into wine at a wedding,died and resurrected at Easter,and offered his body and blood as a Holy Communion.”

I learned pretty quickly just how controversial a topic this idea is when I posted briefly about this book at my other blog and prompted at least one response advising me that much of the evidence of this highly charged theory has been refuted. I can well understand how this thesis can offend the senses of Christians, especially Literalists and, particularly if taken at face value without giving the admittedly highly controversial book a chance for exploring the topic in greater depth.

But I believe that much of the highly charged response would diminish (at least with the non-literalist branch of Christianity) if it were understood how Jewish Midrash actually works, and most importantly, the original intention as well as the hidden depths within all gnostic mystery schools. And that intention is simply this, and it is one that is based completely on faith and nothing else (and after all isn’t that what faith should be about???): The story of Jesus is larger than life and part of the human experience. Whether he walked this earth in an historical time and place is completely irrelevant because his message, his spirit and his archetype has left the prototypical blueprint for all who wish to live a truly spiritual life.

As a former Roman Catholic and a “born again Pagan” if you will, this book resonated with me completely. In fact it made sense of Christianity for me in a far more complete and holistic way then it ever did before. It filled in alot of the strange gaps and worrisome ideas and passages in the teachings I was given as a child that seemed completely at odds with others; discrepancies and contradictions that previously seemed at best, simply nonsensical and at worst, downright unfathomable.

The book goes more deeply into the idea that all the Mystery School Teachings are encoded in the form of allegorical myths: initiates or psychics learned the story at the level of purification or catharmos through ethical teachings, The second level of initiation or deeper reading and understanding of the teachings involved paradosis or transmission of esoteric philosophy. The ultimate goal is gnosis and gnosis is understanding the part of God that resides within you.

It also describes the reshaping of a Gnostic Mystery School into a Literalist Church, something which as can well be imagined could not happen without a well-orchestrated re-writing of history by the winner.

Finally the book devotes a great deal to explaining the concepts of the early Christian Gnostic Mystery School and dares to imagine a recovery and reshaping of Christianity in a way that fits the spiritual and ethical requirements of a world gone mad in the 21st century and desperately in need of spiritual nourishment and salvation ~ new wineskins for an ancient and potent wine.

Their companion follow-up book Jesus and the Lost Goddess is a deeper dig into the Mystery School teachings and the Christian Myth Cycle. Breaking down the the Psychic teachings and Gnostic themes as well as exploring the three schools of Christian Gnosticism, the Ebionites, The Paulists and the Simonians, fills in areas that were not as extensively covered in the original book. The Christian myth of the fall and redemption of Sophia as incorporated into the archetypes of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, as well as Martha and Mary’s roles as the two levels of initiate awareness, is given special attention this time around and it is a fascinating look at the symbolic evidence of the Goddess presence throughout the teachings.

The striking differences between a literalist and a gnostic approach to spirituality is also fleshed out and convincingly presented as serious food for thought. Two priceless quotes from the second book bring it all home for me:

“Religion is the Devil’s greatest achievement. In the guise of religion he has pulled off his most audacious coup. He has flagrantly masqueraded as God. He has had us bow down and worship him. He has had us commit every type of evil in the name of holiness. He has passed off his bigotry as God’s opinions. He has had us segregate humanity into the ‘ins’ and the ‘outs’, believers and non-believers, the saved and the damned. He has convinced us that God likes us but not them. And convinced them that God likes them but not us. An then, in a stroke of dark brilliance, he warns his faithful flock of sheep: ‘Be sure you do not heed to anyone but me, for the Devil is a wily wolf and he will surely trick you.’ “

“Let’s put this in perspective. If we live to be 80 years old that gives us 4,000 weeks to work life out. And we live in an infinite universe. And every inch is an engima. As the Pagan philosopher Metrodorus says so eloquently, ‘In reality none of us knows anything. Not even whether we know anything or not.’ That is, apart form the Devil’s people. They know for sure. Theodotus writes:

‘Those that are most asleep think they are most awake, being under the power of very vivid and fixed dream visions, so that those who are most ignorant think they know most.’

“When we talk of the ‘Devil’ we are, of course, not expecting to be taken literally. We are talking about a mythical character. But sometimes mythic language is the most powerful with which to make a point. Christ is the uniter and the Devil is his evil brother the divider. It is easy to spot when the divider is at work, because people see themselves as separate from each other and end up suffering needlessly. Selfishness and hypocrisy thrive. Conflicts erupt about irrelevant nonsense. The Good becomes conflated with what is good for ‘us’. Blame is projected unto ‘them’.

Us vs. Them. What We Know vs. What They Don’t. Funny notions if one really believes that God is the Creator of All and as such is part of every creation. I believe that the deepest secret of the second book is this. The deeper we go, the less we know God as a definitive separate entity and the more we discover the part of God that resides within each of us.