gnostic esoterica

[Allan Balliett]

Description

The appearance of Vineland, his first novel in seventeen years, has
rekindled critical debate on Thomas Pynchon. Written before the publication
of the new novel, but remarkably prescient about its themes, The Gnostic
Pynchon is a provocative reading of Pynchon's work.

Where most critics find in Thomas Pynchon a postmodern writer of
indeterministic, relativistic, contingent fiction, Dwight Eddins also finds
a man on a religious quest. Pynchon's quest, Eddins shows, is for some
principle of organic order that will provide an alternative to hopeless
ambiguity, or an equally hopeless choice between total chaos and total
control.

The Gnostic Pynchon is a profoundly revisionist view of one of this
century's most important writers.


On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 1:39 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> https://www.amazon.com/Gnostic-Pynchon-Dwight-Eddins/dp/0253319072/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499621885&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=eddins+on+gnosticism
>
> On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 1:34 PM, Tomas De Minos <tomasdemino at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Gnosticism has experienced a huge surge in popularity these last couple
>> years, owing to public intellectuals like Graham Hancock and psychedelics,
>> I think.
>>
>> I myself read the Nag Hammadi library on a whim back in October. It's
>> become apparent to me that the Jesus was more like Mani and Zoroaster than
>> he was a Jew.
>>
>> e.g. The Water of Life is misunderstood unless it is associated with the
>> Avestan apas.
>>
>> When Jesus mentions Truth, he clearly means Ma'at, Ma, and Satya. Indeed,
>> his Mary is his consort and a manifestation of the feminine deity
>> Sophia/Ayahuasca.
>>
>> As it is said in the Gospel of Thomas, the scribes and the pharisees are
>> holding the keys of Gnosis. Once we unlock the symbols, see Amen as
>> Amun-Ra, Christ as Horus and Osiris, we see Christianity as it was meant to
>> be read.
>>
>> On Jul 9, 2017 12:02, "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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