Nag Hammadi Codices

[dianna]

http://www.nag-hammadi.com/pics/part2g.jpg

I am absolutely fascinated by the Nag Hamadi Scriptures and have read every one of them several times. Every time I open the book I find something new to contemplate. My mind is continuously blown by these writings -- Anyway, why I am starting this thread is to ask if anyone is well versed in the subject of Nag Hamadi, who would like to discuss it/maybe throw around some questions/really focus on the nuances and some of the lesser known writings. I know there are many experts/scholars who write their opinions, give interviews etc etc, but I would rather discuss questions with people, like myself, who like to give a personal view on what they understand the teachings to be about. Also, I find that sometimes clarity comes through casual conversation as opposed to listening/studying.

For instance, today I am trying to wrap my head around the idea of "The Four Luminaries" of the eternal realm (Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithai and Eleleth) -- that stand before the "annointed" child in the Secret Book of John --- the qualities of the eternal realm are the gifts that the true human, from source, is given (not saying I am right, just saying, without looking up a scholarly article, that is my first impression, or how it hits me)

Also, I find when you read it from start to finish, themes start to emerge (such as non duality) and it starts to jump out at you even in the more obscure/not much discussed writings --- like a ribbon that ties this cache of writings together ---

The version I read is "The Nag Hamadi Scriptures" edited by Marvin Meyer, with preface by James Robinson (I have read Robinson's "Nag Hamadi Library, but I find the Meyer edition to be more user friendly, footnotes etc)

Also, I do not take these teachings "literally" as I am more inclined to think about them in a mythical sense (such as how someone like Joseph Campbell describes the idea of myth)

[chocolate]

Bill started a thread that has quite some thought on that, and not only. You may this thread interesting: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?61859-The-real-Jesus-the-real-Mary-Gnosis-the-Archons-and-the-world-s-first-major-smear-campaign

[dianna]

Bill started a thread that has quite some thought on that, and not only. You may this thread interesting: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?61859-The-real-Jesus-the-real-Mary-Gnosis-the-Archons-and-the-world-s-first-major-smear-campaign

Thanks Chocolate

I did follow that thread a bit --- it was quite interesting ---

I do realize that Nag Hamadi has been discussed here a few times ---

I was thinking more along the lines of discussion with anyone who is well versed in the nuances of the actual text/and maybe the less popular scriptures in the codices (a minefield of information, rarely discussed) --- maybe I could pick their brain --- the big arguments (such as did Jesus exist, when were they written etc etc, why were they hidden, is argued about a lot, and everyone has an opinion, generally based on what some scholar or new age sojourner has come up with) --- I dont really care about that as much as the actual message and what the "gnosis" actually is that is calling to us (us who are actually "truth seekers" and not "belief affirmers" so to speak LOL)

[Crazy Louie]

The Philokalia volumes anyone?

[dianna]

The Philokalia volumes anyone?

What are the Philokalia volumes ... never heard of this

[Crazy Louie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philokalia

[dianna]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philokalia

Wow, and thanks Louie, will definately look into reading this --- much love

[Crazy Louie]

in paper back its not that expensive to buy all volumes - but if you just want to buy one to "come and see" buy volume four and read first.

[Jayke]

Hello dianna, what are your thoughts on the Archons that john lamb lash and jay weidner often discuss? Alien parasites metaphysically feasting on human ignorance or the Gnostics way of teaching us about our shadow self drives, desires and impulses?

I've not been through the Nag Hamadi codices myself but I'll probably buy a copy of the version you recommended.

From what little research I've done on the archons so far I'm inclined to think they're just the shadow aspect of our psyche as Carl Jung made popular. They're described as either an embryonic or reptilian, could this just be referring to the drives and desires that originate from the most primitive structures of the human brain? The limbic system and R complex that control the autonomic unconscious behaviours of our physical body.

What were your most important insights from going through the codices?

[dianna]

Hello dianna, what are your thoughts on the Archons that john lamb lash and jay weidner often discuss? Alien parasites metaphysically feasting on human ignorance or the Gnostics way of teaching us about our shadow self drives, desires and impulses?



I've not been through the Nag Hamadi codices myself but I'll probably buy a copy of the version you recommended.

From what little research I've done on the archons so far I'm inclined to think they're just the shadow aspect of our psyche as Carl Jung made popular. They're described as either an embryonic or reptilian, could this just be referring to the drives and desires that originate from the most primitive structures of the human brain? The limbic system and R complex that control the autonomic unconscious behaviours of our physical body.

What were your most important insights from going through the codices?

Hi Jayke,

John Lash's book "Not In His Image" was the catalyst for my reading the Codices in their entirety (before that I was only familiar with the more popular "Thomas" text because of Elaine Pagels book --- I found Lash's take on the gnostics and archons fascinating and got caught up for a long time on the metahistory website and also the gaian navigation experiment ... some really great information ... if one is careful not to buy into everything he says, as much of it is HIS interpretation (which he will tell you constantly is the ONLY way LOL)

Where I am now with the problem of the archons, after really reading the texts for myself, is that I feel they are separate from us and not from source (I reject the idea of "split source duality"); further they are completely vacuous of whatever it is we have --- what makes us connected to source and they are aware of this, so maybe this is why they need us to stay alive --- I do not agree with Lash's take that they cannot take human form. I believe, right now, that the Archons talked about in Nag Hamadi are actually the psychopaths that walk amongst us, and I do not use the label of psychopath lightly. I think much of the writing in Nag Hamadi warns us about this "other" --- In other words, I think the archons are very real, are hiding in plain sight and are wreaking great destruction on humanity.

I do think you have an interesting point here:


They're described as either an embryonic or reptilian, could this just be referring to the drives and desires that originate from the most primitive structures of the human brain? The limbic system and R complex that control the autonomic unconscious behaviours of our physical body.

I am going to think about this, because it is curious how they are described that way.

The most interesting themes in Nag Hamadi, so far for me is the idea of our being asleep to who we really are. The "awake" "asleep" motif is all over the place ---

Also the "us" and the "other"

Also, the idea that we need to start thinking in terms of the opposite of what we are taught to get closer to the truth or "gnosis", and to question EVERYTHING. I experiment with this all the time and am always having my mind blown LOL
(an example of this would be thinking of the serpent as the good guy in eden) -- the gnostic version of creation is really interesting to me

Also, probably the most important theme for me right now, although it is a very hard concept for me to understand, is the idea of non-duality (sometimes I think I get it, and then I lose it again) --- somehow I know this is key

Anyway, I know something is Key for me in these writings, because rarely am I so fascinated by anything for too long, but I keep getting insights --- and it is not the easiest read for sure (sometimes I have to re-read and very slowly, and also I have a problem retaining the words --- but not the ideas)

[ghostrider]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philokalia

nokodemjon , the first prophet to come to earth , 12 billion years old , the spiritual line that pre-dates earth originating in the Lyra constellation ... The Lyrians became known as the plejaren , they have a representative that is still on earth ... the lineage is Nokodemjon , Isaiah , Ezekeil , Jeremiah , Immanuel , Mohammad , and Beam , Billy Edward Albert Meier , the line of the seven prophets , the seven belts of creation, the seven sisters , the seven prophets , seven is number of completion ... The same spirit form re-incarnating on earth , over and over with the same message , each time it is corrupted by men greedy for power and control ...

[Bill Ryan]

The Philokalia volumes anyone?

Right here (all 1,246 pages! :) ) :

http://projectavalon.net/The_Philokalia_The_Complete_Text.pdf

[william r sanford72]

The Philokalia volumes anyone?

Right here (all 1,246 pages! :) ) :

http://projectavalon.net/The_Philokalia_The_Complete_Text.pdf

rarely do i become irked with this xbox 360..and learned to be grateful despites microsofts intrusions..its better than nothing..is there a another link or suggestion to see these pages without having to download..??so very curious to read em.thank you.william.

[Bill Ryan]

The Philokalia volumes anyone?

Right here (all 1,246 pages! :) ) :

http://projectavalon.net/The_Philokalia_The_Complete_Text.pdf

is there a another link or suggestion to see these pages without having to download..??

Embedded here (if that helps!). File size is 6.7 Mb.

http://projectavalon.net/The_Philokalia_The_Complete_Text.pdf

[Bill Ryan]

-------

(An afterthought :) )
I should also post the Nag Hammadi Library itself!

http://projectavalon.net/The_Nag_Hammadi_Library.pdf (2.7 Mb)


http://projectavalon.net/The_Nag_Hammadi_Library.pdf

[william r sanford72]

Wow.just took abit to upload back on here.thats alotta pages and xbox was a choking.thank you very much.

[Kel_Solaar]

Hi, this is my 1st post. Thanks for having me.

I'm not very familiar with the codices yet but do own them and have read some of them. I will read a bit more and hopefully post again. I've watched a few of the videos on the 'Gnostic NYC' channel on youtube which have some simplified chats on Gnosticsm; so another potential resource for you there.

[Jeffrey]

http://blog.godreports.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Jesus-by-Akiane-Kramarik-768x1024.jpg

Aberametho

[Jeffrey]

Hello Dianna,

I am very much interested in the same thing. I often journal about the hierarchies of spiritual beings described in the Nag Hammadi codices; deciphering and correlating. It goes very deep -- they are metaphors of meaning. The system as they describe it is extremely scientific and symbolic.

You may be interested in reading the sections on the Peratae in the Anti-Nicene Fathers (http://books.google.com/books?id=HjE8AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false). It's worth the research (the book is actually a early criticism of the Gnostics, but certain Gnostic ideologies have been preserved within it's volumes).

Wishing you well on your search, it's been exciting so far!

Thanks,

Vivek

[dianna]

From the Gospel of Philip

Truth and Nakedness (67, 2-9)


Truth did not come into the world naked, but in symbols and images. The world cannot receive truth in any other way. There is rebirth and an image of rebirth, and it is by means of this image that one must be reborn. What image is this? It is resurrection. Image must arise through image. By means of this image the bridal chamber and the image must approach the truth. This is restoration.

or translated another way
Truth did not come into the world naked, it came in types and images...one must enter through the image into The Truth. We learn how to enter the image into The Truth.


Anyone care to comment on this passage?

[sigma6]

if one is careful not to buy into everything he says, as much of it is HIS interpretation (which he will tell you constantly is the ONLY way LOL)

Where I am now with the problem of the archons, after really reading the texts for myself, is that I feel they are separate from us and not from source (I reject the idea of "split source duality"); further they are completely vacuous of whatever it is we have --- what makes us connected to source and they are aware of this, so maybe this is why they need us to stay alive --- I do not agree with Lash's take that they cannot take human form. I believe, right now, that the Archons talked about in Nag Hamadi are actually the psychopaths that walk amongst us, and I do not use the label of psychopath lightly. I think much of the writing in Nag Hamadi warns us about this "other" --- In other words, I think the archons are very real, are hiding in plain sight and are wreaking great destruction on humanity.

Lamb says that the Nag Hamadi was held back for a very long time, and that the translaters have taken a decided Christian slant of interpreting it, that would be akin to Nazi Germans translating the Talmud (sorry meant Torah...lol) during their 3rd Reich... I don't think it would be possible to get an honest interpretation... and that it has parts and pieces missing repeatedly right at critical texts, according to Lamb, that he feels it was tampered with. Which would be consistent with the original suppression and delay in getting it translated and delivered into the public in the first place he contends. Finally the documents have been purchased by a large private corporation... A private corporation??? Clearly something is not right here...

I have been listening to several hours of John Lamb interviews (Ari Koppel,Serena Interview, a couple of Veritas interviews) and he starts to make more sense when you listen to him... It is actually more subtle and complex then the first impression most are talking about... What makes it powerful for me is that derived from the original documents, so the Romans tampering with it is non issue. Boom that simplifies years of interpretation. In fact this is evidence of the degree and veracity of their intention and the extremes they went to, to eliminate this ancient knowledge, a pattern that has been a hallmark of the Roman Vatican system for centuries... and the true reason why mankind has NEVER been able to properly flourish. The Rise of the Roman Vatican Religous control system WAS THE CAUSE of the DARK AGES, that we ARE STILL LIVING in. (...we are just starting to come out of it as we speak...) And of course it begs the question, what could so motivate the original Empire builders to spend so much time, to weave such a huge deception as a "Roman Catholic Church" to murder so many people, destroy entire libraries of wisdom and knowledge, to plunge the world into absolute darkness for centuries for the sole purpose of trying to kill every last individual who wouldn't "submit" to their absolute RULE??? What could be such a threat to an Empire? Whatever it is these documents represent, knowledge that PRE-DATES both Judaism and Christianity. The time of the Alexandria Libraries, the culmination of over 800 years of knowledge (imagine that...) Original documents and history from the Alexandria libraries.

In any event, in many profound ways the "archon" description fits so well as an explanation of the nature and origin of the "alien" phenomena more powerfully and fundamentally then anything I have heard to date. For example it is consistent with the work of Jacques Vallee and Hynek's work, whom I consider to be two of the greatest thinkers on this subject in the field. They were both convinced and the first to seriously propose these entities appear to be inter-dimensional, at a time when this concept was barely even comprehended in the main stream outside of "ghosts" and other "paranormal" phenomena. It also explains their ambiguous nature, why they "lie", the artificial intelligence aspect is powerful in its implications... it explains why they are abducting humans... and still after tens of thousands of years, still trying to manipulate human DNA... Think about it, why would they still be doing this to humans? If they are so superior? I don't believe they have "upgraded" human DNA... I believe that phenomena is happening as per millions of living examples... it is the Sun that is doing it..., According to Lash, Gaia created the Sun, Earth and Moon, the rest was artificially created or modified? by the Archons in service to her bestowing upon them the gift of intelligence... interesting and consistent with certain ideas again in my mind. This "upgrading and downgrading of our DNA could be a function of our our orbital path through the Galaxy. The archons (aliens) being denizens of the solar system for many thousands of years, they would know this... the idea that "they" have done it is another obvious lie... that they are our "keepers" that they put Jesus Christ in place, that they have taken people back in time to see the Crucifiction (another virtual reality simulation based on the input of the observer (tailor made... again...) That they are "us" from the future... This could be the most brilliant lie... and begs too many questions... There is always ONE COMMON DENOMINATOR to ALL these "explanations" they are always ambiguous, unprovable, and play on OUR interpretation. Why were the earliest versions of UFO shaped like "lighter then air machines" (blimps) Again according to the expectations of the minds of the target audience... This fits c0rvo's interpretations... about the bizarre nature of their "self assumption" of superiority. Their only power over humans IS deception. That's it!!!... Once this is discovered, and man's inherent superior status as the true children of God (Sophia/Gaia/Love/Source) They are powerless, and John points this out too. That is how we dispel them. We do in fact have ultimate power over them...

It explains why some people can dispel them in the Name of Jesus and others can't, because of the interpretation in the mind of the believer... If they were truly superior why are they still trying to create a hybrid, in comparison look how far humans have come in only 30, 40 years???? Why are they still trying to figure this out...????

Again, something is clearly not adding up here... (my take anyway) It explains the "black eyed children" (they always "ask" to be invited in... Could this explain why they are so "robotic" the "men in black" are awkward as well (??)... Upon approaching a human point blank, it is as if they don't have enough context to work with when they approach a human, now compare that to when the individual focuses on inviting them... creating a context, expectations, and other interpretations, now they have something to work with... It is true, the observation that it "appears" to be correlated with the expectation and imagination of the observer... with of course the incorrect conclusion that it was just their "imagination"... that is only "half true"...

It does appear they are having difficulty operating completely in the physical realm... in a completely human form. And countless other phenomena. It is changing my world view as I write... And the ones that do come down... tend to be wearing space suits, could that be a material work around? I am definitely going to be investing more into his works in the future... Although I don't think they are the only "players"... this clearly lays out the groundwork that absolute caution and skepticism is the order of the day...

Anyhow getting back to the basic concept of Gnosticism itself... According to Nash , it wasn't supposed to be a religion... It is an alternative to religion... Thus another reason why they (Roman Catholocism) would suppress it... because in fact it is more closer to the Eastern philosophies... (All "Religion" is in fact philosophy, this is so obvious, but like "conspiracies" just another mind block by the cabal controlled and nurtured education/media control system (see Norman Dodd/G Edward Griffin interview) It is known that Eastern philosophy has always contained the key interpretations of the quantum physics, sacred geometry, etc... This isn't by chance ...by comparison Western Roman based "Christianity" is full of hidden secrets, a literary typology of other stories. It's more about Roman politics, Roman legal interpretation, Roman romantic notions of fair soldiers and Praetors, and on and on... All the information, is in secret code... Why is code everywhere in the Roman system... It is all about deception and elitism... Was from day one. What is the characteristic of all Imperial Cultures? DECEPTION!! Who else would give up their sovereignty for the privilege of paying "tribute" to another culture???

Roman philosophy is two sided. One side for the elites and controllers the other side for the plebs. It is a work of sophisticated propaganda, centuries in the making, full of incredible philosophy and history and law. But nonetheless it is a misdirection of more fundamental truths, it was purposely designed to conceal. As a result you have to turn you logic upside down, twisting yourself into knots to rationalize it from the "Plebian" point of view... (but who cares the Plebs are without education, wealth or power anyhow... they are the animals to be enslaved...) In many senses it is down right nonsensical, contradictory, ambiguous... no wonder they call it a mystery... LOL... Once you see it... it is brilliant... And once you apply the true hidden meaning it comes alive in its diabolical multi levels of interpretation... Ultimately Judeo/Christianity/Islam are all about Race Superiority (God's Chosen) The whole purpose of the Romans implementing "Christianity" was to impose a ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT with themselves as the Vicars of God (Christ)

All the death and killing to anyone who would dare see the truth of it... Why non one was allowed to read the text (today the public is just distracted away from reading it... ) All the killing, murdering, burning, strangling, drowning, torturing, flailing, millions and millions and millions of people for century after century after century... Again it is a powerful text if you want to understand the Roman legal philosophical system.

According to Nash (and even some Jews I have spoken to on this, the KJV NT is not original, but it too was contaminated with non Judean Texts that did not originate with the Jews.... that they didn't have the choice but to accept it. This is completely unacceptable as a spiritual text that I want to base spiritual life on, (I can't believe I am saying that!...but I am!) I would however use it in a court as a tool of dissembling the court's jurisdiction using their own legal testaments... (thus why "they" NOW want to do away with it... it has served it purpose, and they want to move to the next level of control... which is what we have been witnessing in the last 100 years) Today they want everyone to submit to their commercial corporate (pyramid of control) contract statutory system... where you are nothing but a VOLUNTARY SLAVE according to RULES and LAWS YOU Don't even understand....

Which is also the reason that I would take it over "Darwinism" or "evolution" since these are words, the definition and meaning which changes every decade, in the same manner, the lawyers keep changing the statutory codes to keep further enslaving every aspect of our lives, until we are literally breaking our backs to pay "Policeman" to beat us, arrest us, tax us, and jail us..." how much more dysfunctional can it get... have you seen the latest?... they want the police to enforce "anti bullying laws" (heavily promoted by none other then Illuminati controlled Lady Gaga... can anyone not see the game here..." and now the Canadian Government is being called out... they are sneaking in more violations of rights (the "other law system" that everyone is abandoning without knowing it...) under they "guise" of "anti-bullying" laws... WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!

Anyhow... ( I rant... this just opens my eyes ever wider and wider...)
Getting back to the Codices...
A couple of main points that I have teased out John Lamb's profound interpretations... He is the only qualified individual so far that has written a non biased interpretation of it's text and I think that I heartily agree with him. The archons are soulless machines, they were given artificial intelligence as an after thought. (Sophia should have destroyed them, but apparently never even considered that at the time) But instead bestowed a level of intelligence upon them and set them to various tasks within our solar system, a material physical (simulated) version of her own creation, as a result he also states one of their characteristics is that they are masters of creating what he calls "virtual reality"... And it is not that they are so evil (that is actually something that we project and create which they then manifest in response...) But it is more that they are without ultimate purpose, without a true origin, and ironically it is they who are more aware of our true origin, and are fascinated and inevitably jealous of spiritual humans because they can never attain our true spiritual sentience and life energy, can never be denizens of the planet earth.

We are directly from the source, which derived from Gaia/Sophia. They don't need to feed on our energy but it is addictive to them. Like sugar to a carb addict. They have survived for untold eons without parasiting or feeding off humans, but they are obsessed with our vibrant life force energy, spirit, emotions, everything that makes us Gaias' children... but they themselves are not directly from source, they were an aberration, a result of Sophia's over indulgence and over involvement, apparently she stepped out of the realm of the core, and in stepping out of the inner core of pure energy of this galaxy, she indirectly created them as a by product, an epi-phenomena of her pure life force energy. And she herself became caught in the more physical elements of the outer core of the spiral arms of the galaxy. The earth was the result. This therefore explains why the earth is unique. Why the earth truly is an experiment. It is the physical embodiment of Sophia. The "god" of this Earth therefore has a very feminine nurturing life giving personality (true Darwinism is a total load of commercial corporate political re-interpretation and was always agenda driven...not surprising when you think about it...) (see my post on "Blind clockmaker (if there ever was an oxymoron...)

According to Lash they can never "live" in earth's environment... can't live in the oxygen and nitrogen environment?... somehow it burns them up or something... fascinating... isn't this consistent with the stink of some aliens, (they are 'burning' up in some sense? and can only maintain a limited presence...) or maybe why they some of them try to maybe live in the bowels of the earth (no air, no light) they use our energy, imagination, information to recreate reality they think that we will accept... to superimpose over the limitations of their existence that they are strenuously trying to hide from us. Thus why they interact differently with different people... think of the old saying... "speak of the devil, and he appears (in the form you expect/create)... and why do they need our permission? (the Roman system is based on a "deception" and manipulation of the concept of Offer and Acceptance, coincidence?)... Why do they need to be "invited"??? ... especially as far as "direct" contact is concerned... I think of Whitley Streiber's experience, and think about Whitley's mind set... he was a master of horror fiction!!! I recall reading the Boston Strangler when he was caught, had said that he was getting messages from some neighbourhood dog!!! Brilliant, who would believe it, except the experiencer...

Also, I don't buy the happy abductee stories right now... they don't add up... if you had "special" children being created... wouldn't that be unusually cruel? would you only want to see your mother or father only 2 or 3 times in your total upbringing? anyhow this has provoked a whole series of different possible interpretations and questions... Lamb presents a lot of present day scientific ideas that are consistent with this Gaia as Sophia concept... It was one interview where he really broke down the idea of the Archons as a form of artificial intelligence that really hit it home... it finally made sense the way he explained it in this one particular interview... (sorry I don't have them, I will find the Ari Koppel, Serena interview... ) the Veritas interviews are tricky because he only gives you the first hours... (might look to see if any 'copies' of the 2nd hr is 'floating' around...) :rolleyes:

[sigma6]

I found this particularly fascinating and insightful... (learning something new day by day... )

Not in His Image
Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief
by John Lamb Lash

A Thousand years of 'Alexandrian pre Christian' knowledge and culture trashed and trampled (and hidden away) under the Roman Military Government... The beginning of the Dark Ages...

Excerpt
- See more at: http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/not_in_his_image:paperback/excerpt#sthash.IiO2EnfS.dpuf
Excerpt from The Murder of Hypatia

On a spring day in the year 415 C.E., a Pagan noblewoman emerged from the lecture hall attached to the great library of Alexandria and called for her chariot, intending to drive herself home. Although there were many educated Pagan women of high social standing and good education in Alexandria in that era, Hypatia, as she was called, was one of the few who owned and drove her own chariot. A familiar sight to the local populace, she often halted her horses and descended into the street to chat amiably with local people, or to debate issues of philosophy with whomever might wish to engage her. Her openness, combined with her kind and elegant manner, won her the admiration and affection of the townsfolk. Hypatia was also active in an official capacity in civic affairs normally dominated by men. “Such were her self-possession and ease of manner, arising from the refinement and cultivation of her mind, that she not infrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates, without ever losing in an assembly of men that dignified modesty of comportment for which she was conspicuous, and which gained for her universal respect and admiration.”1

Hypatia’s beauty was legendary, and equaled only, it was said, by her intelligence. Tall and confident, commanding her chariot with ease, clothed in a long robe and the signature scarf of the teaching class, she must have cut a striking figure in the thriving streets of that most cosmopolitan of cities. No realistic image of her survives.

On that March day in 415, as Hypatia entered a public square near the Caesarean Church where Christian converts were known to gather, she found her path blocked by a menacing crowd. At the head of the group stood a rough-looking man called Peter the Reader who roused those gathered to approach Hypatia and impede her way. “Now this Peter was a perfect believer in all respects of Jesus Christ,”2 a zealous convert who admired Cyril, the Christian bishop of Alexandria. Recently, when a local prefect prosecuted one of Cyril’s protégés for openly attacking Pagan doctrines, Hypatia had sided with the prefect and the man was severely admonished. Cyril had an axe to grind with Hypatia, although he could not afford to look bad in the public eye by acting openly against her. Long after the fateful day, many of the townsfolk wondered if Peter the Reader had not been sent to avenge his master, or perhaps had acted independently, hoping to win the patriarch’s approval. Public opinion held that Cyril, who was on record for calling Hypatia a sorceress, was complicit in the attack.

Peter exhorted the crowd to throw tiles at Hypatia, and pull her from the chariot. Her long robes and scarf proved an advantage to the mob, consisting mostly of rough-handed workmen. They quickly overpowered her by yanking hard on her loose clothing from all sides. Pulled to the ground, she struggled in vain to break free and run. The mass of grappling hands now began to strip off her robes. Members of the local populace stood by helplessly, paralyzed by the horror unfolding before their eyes.

The violence of the mob escalated rapidly, its intensity fed by the raucous shouts of Peter the Reader. He called Hypatia a vile heretic and a witch who beguiled people through her beauty and her teachings, which were nothing but the wiles of Satan. Hypatia protested and cried for help, but a stiff blow broke her jaw. In a matter of minutes, she was on her knees in a pool of her own blood. Crushed under a flurry of blows and kicks, she was rapidly beaten to death. Not content merely to take her life, the mob pounded her naked body to a pulp and tore her limbs off her torso. The number of the attackers, and the ferocity of their assault, made it impossible for anyone witnessing the murder to intervene.

When Hypatia was dead, the attitude of the mob shifted abruptly from outrage to triumph. These men, who were self-declared Christians, immediately began to exalt in what they had done. The frenzy of victory was so acute, it could not be satisfied by the beating and dismemberment of the defenseless woman. As if emanating from their pores, some force of inhuman inspiration electrified the haze of violence that fumed around the murderers. Wild-eyed with excitement, several members of the mob ran to the nearby harbor and scooped up the razor-sharp oyster shells to be found there in abundance. They returned and passed out shells, and Peter encouraged his henchmen to scrap every last morsel of flesh from Hypatia’s bones. When the men were done, they took the scraped bones to a place called Cindron and burned them to ashes.

Wisdom Incarnate

Hypatia (pronounced high-PAY-sha) was the daughter of the mathematician Theon of Alexandria, the last known teacher in the age-old tradition of the Mystery Schools, the spiritual universities of antiquity.* ( *For a definition of Mystery Schools and other special terms, see the glossary.) The year and month of her death are known, the year of her birth is less certain, but 370 C.E. is generally accepted. Thus she would have been around forty-five when she was murdered. Historians have long regarded her death as the event that defined the end of classical civilization in Mediterranean Europe. It signaled the end of Paganism and the dawn of the Dark Ages. (Paganism, the generic term for pantheistic religion in the Western classical world, merits capitalization as much as Christianity.)

Theon was headmaster at the Museum of Alexandria, the place dedicated to the Muses, daughters of the ancient goddess of memory, Mnemosyne. Each of the Muses embodied a “sacred art” such as astronomy, lyric poetry, and history. The nine daughters of Memory presented a model for the curriculum of the Mystery Schools. Museums today are merely repositories of relics from the past, but the Alexandrian Museum was the setting for a wide range of living traditions, truly a center of higher education. The campus spread along the horseshoe-shaped port dominated by its Pharos, the famous four-hundred-foot-high lighthouse that ranked among the Seven Wonders of the World. It included many independent academies dedicated to subjects as diverse as geometry and sacred dance, and training guilds that produced a constant stream of graduates in fields such as sculpture, botany, navigation, herbology, engineering, and medicine. The assemblies and guilds associated with the Royal Library had their own libraries and teaching faculties.

In the year 400, when she was about thirty, Hypatia assumed the chair of mathematics at the university school. This was a salaried position, equivalent to professorship in a modern university. The daughter of Theon was noted for her mastery of Platonic philosophy and her skill in theurgy, literally “god-working,” a form of magical invocation that might be compared to Jungian active imagination, or, more aptly, advanced practices of visualization in Tantra and Dzogchen. Her dialectical powers were exceptional, honed to a fine edge by her mathematical training. When it came to debating ideas about the divine, “Hypatia eclipsed in argument every proponent of the Christian doctrines in Northern Egypt.”3 Her expertise in theology typified the Pagan intellectual class of Gnostics, gnostokoi, “those who understand divine matters, knowing as the gods know,” but she was also deeply versed in geometry, physics, and astronomy.* (*There is no scholarly consensus on the definition of Gnosis or Gnostic. The above is one of several options I propose. See the glossary for definitions of all special terms.) Ancient learning was multidisciplinary and eclectic, contrasting strongly to the narrow specialization of higher education and the sciences in our time. The word philosophy means “love (philo) of wisdom (sophia).” To Gnostics, Sophia was a revered divinity, the goddess whose story they recounted in their sacred cosmology.† (†I propose the pronunciation so-FI-ah for the mythological name of the goddess, as distinct from the common name pronounced so-FEE-ah. The adjective is sophianic. ) To the people of her time and setting, Hypatia would have been wisdom incarnate.

In addition to their religious function, the Mysteries provided the framework for education along interdisciplinary lines. The gnostokoi were polymaths, savants, and prolific writers. From around 600 B.C.E. to Hypatia’s time—a period of a thousand years—they produced the countless thousands of scrolls stored in the Royal Library of Alexandria and other libraries attached to Mystery centers around the Mediterranean basin. Hypatia is known to have written a treatise on arithmetic and commentaries on the Astronomical Canon of Ptolemy and the conic sections of Apollonius of Perga. None of her writings survive, but eight ancient sources describe her murder and her accomplishments; the latter, not always in an approving manner. Cyril, whom popular opinion implicated in her murder, became an important theologian known for formulating the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. He was later canonized by the Church, along with other early Christian ideologues, the so-called Church Fathers, men whose theological polemics and histories of the One True Faith celebrate its triumph over “heretics” such as she.

Hypatia’s accomplishments were not confined to theology and didactics. She was also involved in applied science related to geography and astronomy. Working with a Greek scientist Synesius, who was proud to be called her student, she invented a prototype of the astrolabe, a device later to prove essential in the navigation of the world oceans for the twinned purposes of conquest and conversion.

Pagan Learning

Hypatia’s birthplace was founded by Alexander the Great on January 20, 331 B.C.E.

For the next 1000 years, until the coming of Islam, it would look to the Mediterranean and the wider world. Alexandria’s full title was “Alexandria by Egypt”— not “in Egypt.” It was founded as an entrepôt through which the wealth of Egypt would flow; and within two centuries it would become the “the crossroads of the entire world”: the El Dorado of the Hellenistic Age. . . . In the first century A.D. Alexandrian merchants sailed to South India on the monsoon winds, linking up with the trade to the Ganges, Vietnam, and China; part of the explosion of ideas and contact initiated by the Age of Alexander.4

In Hypatia’s lifetime, her native city was still the greatest cosmopolitan center of antiquity, the undisputable capital of the Western world, commercially, spiritually, and intellectually speaking, but it belonged to an empire teetering on the brink of collapse. She was born around ten years after the initial wave of barbarians, the Huns, poured into Europe, and six years after the Roman Empire was divided geographically between east and west. In her lifetime the Roman legions evacuated Britain, conquered by Julius Caesar four and a half centuries earlier, and the borders of the Empire shook continually from barbarian assaults. In 410, when Hypatia would have been forty, Alaric, chieftain of the Visigoths, captured and sacked Rome, inflicting a mortal blow on the Empire. At that very moment Augustine of Hippo was writing The City of God, a book destined to become a cornerstone of Catholic doctrine. As the Roman Empire shattered and burned, another imperial entity, the institution of the Catholic Church, was rising in its place. A fateful handover of power was in progress.

The Hellenistic era lasted from the death of Alexander in 323 B.C.E. to 30 B.C.E., when Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies, killed herself with the bite of an asp. After Alexander’s death, his empire was divided among three of his generals. The southernmost part, comprising Egypt and Judea (including Jerusalem), became the Ptolemaic kingdom. Culture and custom were uniform throughout all three parts of the empire. “Natives of Galilee and Judea wore the same sort of clothes as were worn in Alexandria, Rome or Athens.”5 The entire southern region, including Palestine, was thriving with Mystery Schools, many of them founded and directed by Gnostics such as Hypatia.6 In the twilight of the Egyptian dynasties, cross-cultural exchange reached a fever pitch, but the death of Cleopatra brought a change of political regime that would permanently darken the skies of learning. Julius Caesar’s arrival in Egypt in 47 B.C.E. completed the shift that had begun in 63 B.C.E. when the Roman general Pompey, Caesar’s greatest rival, had declared Judea a Roman province. The transition from Hellenistic haven to Roman domain affected the entire Near East. In Hypatia’s time, the Royal Library had existed for over seven hundred years, but it fared far less well in the four centuries of the Roman era than in the preceding three centuries of high Hellenistic syncretism.

The Royal Library was founded by a general of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I, as a center of learning for the vast territories united by the Greek language following Alexander’s campaigns. Ptolemy earned the title of soter, “savior,” a title that would later be applied to Jesus Christ, because Ptolemy saved the wisdom of the ancient world. His son, Ptolemy II (d. 246 B.C.E.), commanded that all boats entering the port of Alexandria be searched for scrolls and papyri. Those found were taken to the library and copied, the originals were deposited in the stacks, and the copies returned in their owners. A staff of librarians, scribes, and calligraphers worked continuously to maintain an ever-growing collection that included first editions of Homer and Hesiod, the Greek playwrights, Aristotle, and many others. Ptolemy II proudly claimed a private collection of the 995 best books of all time.

The vast archives of the Royal Library were not limited to Greek-language writings. It stocked works in other languages such as Syriac and Aramaic, and translators labored nonstop to produce Greek editions. One of these works was the Hebrew Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Rendered into Greek, it was called the Septuagint because seventy Jewish scholars worked on the translation. Upon founding the city, Alexander had guaranteed Jews the same rights as other citizens of his empire. In Hypatia’s day, it is likely that five to ten percent of the city’s population were Jews—around 40,000 people.

Ptolemy I had built a massive hall called the Bruchion to house the ever-expanding collections. When it outgrew its capacity, his successor Ptolemy III erected the Serapeum. G. R. S. Mead notes that the Royal Library where Hypatia lectured was the first great public library in Egypt, but not the first in Egypt. Each temple had its own in-house library, and Egypt was a land of many temples. In mainland Greece and in the Grecian colonies around the Mediterranean basin, temple libraries housed large and ancient collections. Since the introduction of secular alphabets to the general public around 600 B.C.E., the adepts of the Mysteries had been pouring out a vast body of writings on every conceivable subject. In 400 C.E. Hypatia had a thousand-year-old tradition of literacy and learning to draw upon when she lectured to her classes.

Modern ignorance of history in general, and of ancient history in particular, makes it difficult to grasp the scope and richness of learning in the Pagan world. Writing in the 1940s, classical scholar Gilbert Highet observed:

It is not always understood nowadays how noble and how widespread Greco-Roman civilization was, how it kept Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa peaceful, cultured, prosperous, and happy for centuries, and how much was lost when the savages and invaders broke into it. It was, in many respects, a better thing than our civilization until a few generations ago, and it may well prove to have been a better thing all in all.

When the Roman Empire was at its height, law and order, education, and the arts were widely distributed and almost universally respected. In the first centuries of the Christian era there was almost too much literature; and so many inscriptions survive, from so many towns and villages in so many different provinces, that we can be sure that many, if not most, of the population could read and write. . . . Expeditions have found papyrus copies of Homer, Demosthenes, and Plato, fragments of what were once useful libraries, buried under remote Egyptian villages now inherited by illiterate peasants.7

In 1945, the year Highet wrote these words (not to excuse the evils of the Roman Empire, but to indicate the social and cultural achievements it harbored), a cache of texts was discovered at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. In ancient times the place of the discovery was named Sheniset, “the acacias of Seth,” indicating what may have been the sanctuary of a Gnostic sect calling themselves Sethians. The Nag Hammadi library, as it came to be called, consists of thirteen leather-bound codices, the earliest example of bound books.* (*On the Nag Hammadi Codices—not to be confused with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which also figure in the argument of this book—see chapter 7 and “Suggestions for Reading and Research.” The Dead Sea Scrolls are discussed in chapters 4, 5, 6, and elsewhere.) These fifty-two documents of fragmentary and muddled content have revolutionized scholars’ views on the origins of Christianity, but the ultimate significance of this rare material, widely assumed to be original Gnostic writings, has yet to be realized.

“Sethian” was the self-designation of some Gnostic groups who participated intimately in the Mystery Schools distributed across Egypt, the Middle East, around the Mediterranean basin, and into the depths of Europe. In The Gospels and the Gospel (1902), theosophical scholar G. R. S. Mead noted that “Gnostic forms are found to preserve elements from the mystery-traditions of antiquity in greater fullness than we find elsewhere.” 8 Mead was among the first English-speaking scholars to translate and interpret Gnostic texts known before the discovery at Nag Hammadi. His view of the centrality of Gnostic teachings in the Mysteries was shared by other scholars of his time, but this connection is categorically denied today.

Specialists such as Elaine Pagels dismiss any link between Gnostics and the Mysteries, due to a perceived lack of textual evidence.9 Pagels’ book The Gnostic Gospels (1979) introduced the Nag Hammadi materials to mainstream readers, but the scholarly specialization it represents has hampered understanding of who the Gnostics were, and why they protested so vehemently against the rise of Christianity. With their connection to the Mysteries denied, Gnostics are condemned to an obscure and uncertain place on the margins of the history of religion. Hence, the true message of the Gnostics, and the full impact of their near-complete destruction, has yet to register on the general public.

If Highet’s assessment of the ancient world is correct, we must wonder: Who devised and directed the institutions of education in antiquity? Who taught the people? Who wrote the books? Who trained the artists, architects, and engineers in the skills required to produce the long-lasting wonders of the classical Western world? In his seminal work on Gnosticism, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, Mead stated that “a persistent tradition in connection with all the great Mystery-institutions was that their several founders were the introducers of all the arts of civilization; they were either themselves gods or instructed in them by the gods. . . . They were the teachers of the infant races.” The initiates, as they were called, “taught the arts, the nature of the gods, the unseen worlds, cosmology, anthropology, etc.”10 Mead’s view is echoed by S. Angus, author of the most cited book on ancient Pagan cults, The Mystery-Religions: “The Mysteries were the last redoubts of Paganism to fall. Prior to that their adherents were the educators of the ancient world.”11

Locating Gnostics like Hypatia in the Mysteries puts ancient learning in a sacred context and points to the Pagan initiates as the educators of the ancient world, but modern scholarship leaves the Gnostics in a void, and totally ignores their centuries-long involvement in classical education.

- See more at: http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/not_in_his_image:paperback/excerpt#sthash.IiO2EnfS.dpuf

[Tintin]

The Philokalia volumes anyone?

Right here (all 1,246 pages! :) ) :

http://projectavalon.net/The_Philokalia_The_Complete_Text.pdf

:bump:

That's a fair bit of reading :)

Now added to the library in its own directory in the event that any supplemental material be found over time :thumbsup:

https://avalonlibrary.net/?dir=The_Philokalia

[meat suit]

This is an incredible thread.. wow, 10 years old..

[shaberon]

10 years old..



It doesn't change much.

The first thing that comes to mind is that it is now thought that Nag Hammadi is not by the Essenes.

Stashing texts is thought to have been relatively commonplace around the destruction of the Second Temple ca. year 70.

Philokalia is evidently an Orthodox text related to Mt. Athos.

Because this is primarily on Hesychasm, then, yes, as far as I know it constitutes a spiritual practice which is not found among the non-Orthodox.

[DNA]

I view reality through a Nag Hummadi lens.

Moloch,,,,Baal,,,,Yehweh,,,,,Aztec Sun God,,,,,The power worshiped by Native America Skinwalker Shamans.
They all demand the same things.
And they all promise the same things.

It would appear the God of this world does appear to be a Yaldaboath type being.
When one gets into the MK Ultra stuff.
The child trafficking stuff, it's a picture of the elite of this world of this time practicing what the elite of all time and all cultures have practiced.

Masons at the highest order are Satanic.
But Satanism is just the foyer into the real structure of Moloch worshiping.

Back in 1880 the Navajo were allowed to elect their own sherif with their own unique version of the law.
Their first Sherif killed 6 people the first year in office.
Their crimes.... practicing the evil shamanic art of the skinwalker which demanded human sacrifice.
When asked how he was able to tell if someone was a skinwalker he said that was easy just look for the richest people in town.
Note I'm paraphrasing from memory but you get the point.