gnostic esoterica

[David Morris]

B4 the end of GR Slothrop fades away, and that seems related to his
becoming a crossroads.  I think he has found an escape, like nirvana.  Is
that gnosis?

On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 4:06 PM Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:

> At the end of Gravity's Rainbow, Slothrop stumbles into gnosis. He doesn't
> even know he's seeking, or at least what he's seeking. Is there any other
> way? Even with all the preparation, when you recognize it, is it like
> anything you've experienced before? Is it different from your ordinary
> everyday experience? That's always been what Mr. Pynchon is writing about,
> for me.
>
> Www.innergroovemusic.com
>
> On Jul 9, 2017, at 2:51 PM, Allan Balliett <allan.balliett at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> 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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