The psychic initiation takes us on a journey from being a selfish individual to becoming a conscious expression of the Oneness of God who naturally expresses love for all. It teaches us to live well in the world by manifesting our essential nature, which is the Good. We presently appear to be partly ‘bad’ because we mistakenly identify with the eidolon, the separate self. In so doing we set ourselves apart from the Whole and become a self-serving somebody competing to achieve what is good for us, not co-operating to fulfil what is good for all. As Plato writes, ‘Attachment to self is the constant source of misdeeds in every one of us.’ Plotinus explains, ‘Evil has its source in self-will.’ For Christian Literalists we are born in sin and need reforming by being made to follow a strict code of shoulds and should nots as laid down by the religious authorities and apparently approved by God himself. Should we fail to live up to God’s expectations, we could well find ourselves spending the whole of eternity suffering horrendous punishments. The approach of the Christian Gnostics is the complete opposite of this. Ptolemy explains our essential nature can’t possibly be damned, no matter what we do: ‘Consciousness cannot be corrupted, regardless of the behaviour it has to pass its time in the company of. A piece of gold does not lose its beauty when it is put into filth, but keeps its own nature, since the filth can’t harm the gold. What leads one to the pleroma is not behaviour but the seed that was sent here as an infant and grows to maturity in this place.’ We don’t get into the pleroma – the Kingdom of Heaven – as a reward for obeying the rules, but by recognizing that this is already the eternal home of our essential Self. We are ‘spiritual not by behaviour but by nature, and will be preserved no matter what’. We are saved not because of how we act, but by being what we are. Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:30:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015