gnostic esoterica

[Mark Kohut]

"The Planetization of the Esoteric". Phrase of the day.

I remember Lindisfarne Books. No planetization, so to speak.

On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 10:24 AM, Allan Balliett <allan.balliett at gmail.com>
wrote:

> To drift further away, here's some info on William Irwin Thompson's now
> defunct Lindisfarne Association
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindisfarne_Association
>
> from Wikipedia
>
> Goals and doctrine[edit]
> The Lindisfarne doctrine is closely related to that of its founder,
> William Thompson. Mentioned as part of the Lindisfarne ideology are a long
> list of spiritual and esoteric traditions including yoga, Tibetan Buddhism,
> Chinese traditional medicine, Hermeticism, Celtic animism, Gnosticism,
> cabala, geomancy, ley lines, Pythagoreanism, and ancient mystery
> religions.[8]
>
> The group placed a special emphasis on sacred geometry, defined by
> Thompson as "a vision of divine intelligence, the logos, revealing itself
> in all forms, from the logarithmic spiral of a seashell to the hexagonal
> patterns of cooling basalt, from the architecture of the molecule to the
> galaxy."[9] Rachel Fletcher, Robert Lawlor, and Keith Critchlow lectured at
> Crestone on the application of sacred geometry, Platonism, and
> Pythagoreanism to architecture.[10] The exemplar of these ideas is the
> Grail Chapel in Crestone (also known as Lindisfarne Chapel), which is built
> to reflect numerous basic geometrical relationships.[11]
>
> Lindisfarne's social agenda was exemplified by the "meta-industrial
> village", a small community focused on subsistence and crafts while yet
> connected to a world culture. All members of a community might participate
> in essential tasks such as the harvest. (Thompson has speculated that the
> United States, 40% of the population could work at agriculture, and another
> 40% in social services.) The villages would have a sense of shared purpose
> in transforming world culture. They would combine "the four classical
> economies of human history, hunting and gathering, agriculture, industry,
> and cybernetics", all "recapitulated within a single deme."[12]
>
> (The "Meadowcreek Project" in Arkansas, begun in 1979 by David and Wilson
> Orr, was an effort to actualize a meta-industrial village as envisioned by
> the Lindisfarne Association. This project received funding from the Ozarks
> Regional Commission, the Arkansas Energy Department, and the Winthrop
> Rockefeller Foundation.)[13][14]
>
> The villages would be linked together by an electronic information network
> (i.e., what today we call the internet). Thompson called for a
> counter-cultural vanguard "which can formulate an integral vision of
> culture and maintain the high standards of that culture without compromise
> to the forces of electronic vulgarization." [15]
>
> According to the Lindisfarne Association website, Lindisfarne's fourfold
> goals are:
>
> The Planetization of the Esoteric
> The realization of the inner harmony of all the great universal religions
> and the spiritual traditions of the tribal peoples of the world.
> The fostering of a new and healthier balance between nature and culture
> through the research and development of appropriate technologies,
> architectural settlements and compassionate economies for meta-industrial
> villages and convivial cities.
> The illumination of the spiritual foundations of political governance
> through scholarship and artistic communications that foster a global
> ecology of consciousness beyond the present ideological systems of warring
> industrial nation-states, outraged traditional societies, and ravaged lands
> and seas.
> Thompson has also stated the United States has a unique role to play in
> the promotion of planetary culture because people from all over the world
> mingle there.[16]
>
> Lindisfarne sought to spread its message widely, through a mailing list
> and through book publications of the Lindisfarne press.[17]
>
> Journalist Sally Helgesen, after a visit in 1977, criticized Lindisfarne
> as confused pseudo-intellectuals, citing for example their attempt to build
> an expensive fish "bioshelter" while overlooking a marsh with fish in
> it.[18]
>
> Allan in WV who hopes that this post doesn't open the door for a
> discussion of the Claymont Society
>
> On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 10:19 AM, Allan Balliett <allan.balliett at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> The Schumaker College has made a bunch of  conference tapes related to
>> William Irwin Thompson available for FREE at mp3s at
>>
>> https://archive.org/search.php?query=william%20irwin%20thompson
>>
>> I don't see anything directly addressing the Gnostics but a lot of
>> lectures on Man and Nature, Man and Industrialism and similar topics.
>>
>> Seems like it's potentially a great find!
>>
>> -allan in WV
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 8, 2017 at 5:29 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
>> lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Gnosis has always been important to me because therein the question of
>>> theodicy can be answered better than with the Lutheran Protestantism I grew
>>> up with. The Gnostic teaching also provided a psychonautic map for
>>> navigating through the psychedelic experience. In recent years, however, my
>>> ways led me to India ... Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha ...
>>>
>>> http://gnosis.org/gnintro.htm
>>>
>>> > ... Gnostics do not look to salvation from sin (original or other),
>>> but rather from the ignorance of which sin is a consequence. Ignorance --
>>> whereby is meant ignorance of spiritual realities -- is dispelled only by
>>> Gnosis, and the decisive revelation of Gnosis is brought by the Messengers
>>> of Light, especially by Christ, the Logos of the True God. It is not by His
>>> suffering and death but by His life of teaching and His establishing of
>>> mysteries that Christ has performed His work of salvation.
>>>
>>> The Gnostic concept of salvation, like other Gnostic concepts, is a
>>> subtle one. On the one hand, Gnostic salvation may easily be mistaken for
>>> an unmediated individual experience, a sort of spiritual do-it-yourself
>>> project. Gnostics hold that the potential for Gnosis, and thus, of
>>> salvation is present in every man and woman, and that salvation is not
>>> vicarious but individual. At the same time, they also acknowledge that
>>> Gnosis and salvation can be, indeed must be, stimulated and facilitated in
>>> order to effectively arise within consciousness. This stimulation is
>>> supplied by Messengers of Light who, in addition to their teachings,
>>> establish salvific mysteries (sacraments) which can be administered by
>>> apostles of the Messengers and their successors.
>>> One needs also remember that knowledge of our true nature -- as well as
>>> other associated realizations -- are withheld from us by our very condition
>>> of earthly existence. The True God of transcendence is unknown in this
>>> world, in fact He is often called the Unknown Father. It is thus obvious
>>> that revelation from on High is needed to bring about salvation. The
>>> indwelling spark must be awakened from its terrestrial slumber by the
>>> saving knowledge that comes “from without” ... <
>>>
>>> For a longer read I recommend "A History of Gnosticism"  by Giovanni
>>> Filoramo.
>>>
>>> Then there's "The Gnostic Religion" by Hans Jonas. The study is the
>>> English version of the dissertation he wrote as a student of Heidegger
>>> whose existential categories from "Being and Time" Jonas uses for the
>>> explication of the Gnostic teaching. This works because there's a genuinely
>>> Gnostic element in Heidegger's thinking.
>>>
>>> Those reading German should also check out the 1031 pages reader
>>> "Weltrevolution der Seele. Ein Lese- und Arbeitsbuch der Gnosis von der
>>> Spätantike bis zur Gegenwart", edited by Peter Sloterdijk and Thomas Macho,
>>> where you'll also find texts from people like Samuel Beckett, Stanislav
>>> Grof or Jorge Luis Borges.
>>>
>>> https://petersloterdijk.net/werk/weltrevolution-der-seele/
>>>
>>> Some ancient source texts can be read in the Nag Hammadi Library:
>>>
>>> http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/books/nhl.pdf
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Am 08.07.2017 um 03:28 schrieb David Morris:
>>>
>>> I never studied Gnosticism.  It always seemed to be negating, but then
>>> so does Zen.  Nothing is real.  The common thread is that our shared
>>> fallen/illusory state is transcendable.  A return is possible via
>>> disciplined practice.  The return is to experience our source, gnosis,
>>> consciousness.  We are not primarily physical beings.  That illusion is our
>>> fallen state.
>>>
>>> All religions have their mystical paths, probably always discovered by
>>> accident by real devotees.  Sufism, Kaballaism, Mystical Christianism, all
>>> sorts of Budism, Hinduism, and Shamanism.  My list is too short.  Their
>>> common thread is personal transcendent experience, not dogma.
>>>
>>> David Morris
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 7:25 PM L E Bryan <lebryan at sonic.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Ah yes. The good old days of 20 years ago when Pagel’s "The Gnostics”
>>>> came out. About the same time William Irwin Thompson’s “the Edge of
>>>> History” came out. It was in the latter I first came across the demiurge,
>>>> Ialdabaoth. Hadn’t thought about old Iald in years. The book is still
>>>> available on Amazon. I wonder if I would still be impressed with his
>>>> eruditeness.
>>>>
>>>> Lawrence
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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