The Gnostics
Founded primarily on the works of the Ancient Greeks, gnosticism is present in the Jewish Cabala, in Islamic (Chiite) Sufism, and in the dualistic religions from Babylonia and Persia, such as Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism. Gnosticism will be consolidated by Valentinus and Basilides in the 2nd century.
The philosopher Valentinus, born in Greece and educated in Alexandria, moved to Rome around 136 AD. (Initiall)y he shared the same views of duality as Plato and the Zoroastrians, and maintained we can only perceive the presence of God when we’re silent. It’s an intimate alliance that grows with time, a divine inspiration that transcends the instability of the perceived world. After his death Valentinus’ teaching would develop into two schools, one in Rome and one in Alexandria.
Basilides taught in Alexandria around 160 AD. Attracted to the concept of Buddhism he called God “Nothing,” because everything one had to say about him is false. He’s not matter, or essence, or non-essence. Nothing can describe nothing.
Gnostics contend that man is made of flesh, soul, and spirit (the divine spark) and that Christ is an intermediary eternal being, or Aeon, sent from Pleroma to transmit the lost knowledge of mankind’s divine origins. Contrary to Christian doctrine, Gnosticism is based on the concept of duality. To understand and overcome this duality one must reach an inner knowledge - or gnosis.
Disharmony in the world is the work of a tenebrous demigod that separates humans from the light (of knowledge.) Exiled from a place we can’t remember (the source of light, the healing unifier) we search for appeasement in the material world when the true answer lies in the soul. However, for it to manifest itself it first has to be recognized.
Jung links Gnosticism to the alchemist’s quest to turn stone into gold; the soul’s search for the Holy Grail.
"The seat of faith is not consciousness but spontaneous religious experience which brings the individual's faith into immediate relation with God. Here we must ask: Have I any religious experience and immediate relation to God, and hence that certainty which will keep me, as an individual, from dissolving in the crowd?"
Gnosticism is a religious and philosophical movement that started in the late Hellenistic and early Christian period. The term gnosis in Greek signifies “knowledge” and more precisely knowledge that will supply man with insight to the secrets and mysteries of life. These secrets are revealed through initiation, introspection, and purification.
