gnostic esoterica

[Allan Balliett]

I need a stronger talisman, it appears.

On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 12:00 PM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've been to Claymont...
>
> Www.innergroovemusic.com
>
> On Jul 9, 2017, at 11:58 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> "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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