return to SimonjNugent.com             This page last updated: 17 April 2003 23:16

Flashes of the Vision Glorious

The following are some rough notes that I hope are going to develop into something a little more comprehensive but they've been in my head for so long now that I had to get them out in whatever form.

There is quite a strong "trend" at the moment toward all things alternative and as part of this new-age hodgepodge Gnosticism pops up again and again.  This is an attempt to clarify what exactly this means and, following this, to examine whether something really is "gnostic" or not.

In the following notes, I'm going to concentrate on books first and maybe later films (e.g. "Dark City", "The Matrix").  What is true for books is true for films.

Gnosticism Defined

The mainman of modern Gnosticism is Stephan A. Hoeller and the following list of fourteen points is as good a summary as I've come across for what Gnosticism is all about.  Note that points 11, 12 & 13 seem to apply specifically to Christian Gnostics (or should that be Gnostic Christians) but the rest are applicable across the gnostic spectrum.

1.                 There is an original and transcendental spiritual unity from which emanated a vast manifestation of pluralities.
2.                 The manifest universe of matter and mind was created not by the original spiritual unity but by spiritual beings possessing inferior powers.
3.                 One of the objectives of these creators is the perpetual separation of humans from the unity (God).
4.                 The human being is a composite: the outer aspect is the handiwork of the inferior creators, while the inner aspect is a fallen spark of the ultimate divine unity.
5.                 The sparks of transcendental holiness slumber in their material and mental prison, their self-awareness stupefied by the forces of materiality and mind.
6.                 The slumbering sparks have not been abandoned by the ultimate unity; rather, a constant effort directed toward their awakening and liberation comes forth from this unity.
7.                 The awakening of the inmost divine essence in humans comes through salvific knowledge, called “gnosis”.
8.                 Gnosis is not brought about by belief or by the performance of virtuous deeds or by obedience to commandments; these at best serve to prepare one for liberating knowledge.
9.                 Among those aiding the slumbering sparks, a particular position of honour and importance belongs to a feminine emanation of the unity, Sophia (Wisdom).  She was involved in the creation of the world and ever since has remained the guide of her orphaned children.
10.            From the earliest times of history, messengers of Light have been sent forth from the ultimate unity for the purpose of advancing gnosis in the souls of humans.
11.            The greatest of these messengers in our historical and geographical matrix was the descended Logos of God manifest in Jesus Christ.
12.            Jesus exercised a twofold ministry: he was a teacher, imparting instruction concerning the way of gnosis; and he was a hierophant, imparting mysteries.
13.            The mysteries imparted by Jesus (which are also known as sacraments) are mighty aids towards gnosis and have been entrusted by him to the apostles and their successors. 
14.            Through the spiritual practice of the mysteries (sacraments) and a relentless and uncompromising striving for gnosis, humans can steadily advance toward liberation from all confinement, material and otherwise.  The ultimate objective of this process of liberation is the achievement of salvific knowledge and with it, freedom from embodied existence and return to the ultimate unity
 

Very broadly then, a gnostic is a person who believes that salvation is gained through the acquisition of divine knowledge or gnosis.  This differs significantly from a regular Christian who believes that their own salvation is pretty much out of their hands (they have been damned with original sin when they were born and, paradoxically, all they need to do to be saved is put their faith in Jesus who does the saving for them).

Gnostic Books

There are two obvious ways in which a book can be classed as Gnostic:

1.  The book explicitly deals with characters who are Gnostics ("Hullo, I'm a Gnostic.")

2.  The book contains a Gnostic theme.  In this latter category are so many books that it appears the term "gnostic" is used in a similar way to "postmodern" by the linguistically degenerate.  That is:  "Gnosticism/Postmodernism/(Insert -ism of choice) is...what I like."

Hullo, I'm a Gnostic

The first list is easy, there can be no arguing if a book falls into it or not.  Although to count as a "Gnostic Novel" I guess that there should be more than just a passing reference to a bloke in Chapter 13 who never reappears again.

Some examples that I know about include:

Flicker, Theodore Roszak 

Mysterium, Robert Charles Wilson

Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf, David Madsen

According to Mary, Marianne Fredriksson

In addition to these, CG Jung (who deserves much of the credit/abuse for the current interest in Gnosticism) wrote a faux-Gnostic little number called "The Seven Sermons to the Dead" and Philip K. Dick wrote a book called "Valis", which although nominally a novel is in fact based largely on his own gnostic experiences (check out http://www.philipkdick.com/weirdo.htm for R Crumb's version of these events - weird, yes...but fascinating and very similar to what Jung also experienced). 

Lastly, I need to mention Arthur Guirdham's beautifully deranged books "The Cathars & Reincarnation" and "We Are One Another: Astounding Evidence of Group Reincarnation" which, if I may loosely describe the Cathars as a gnostic movement, can be respectively summed up as "Hullo, I was a Gnostic" and "Hullo, all my friends were Gnostics too". 

Team Gnostic

The others books that I've listed apparently incorporate a gnostic theme.  I haven't read nearly all of them so some of them were suggestions from various sources but I'll try and evaluate the ones I have read.  Maybe, if I get really bored, I can rate each book against the 11 key points listed above and create a Gnostic Top 10. 

Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials Trilogy

Philip Pullman has pulled off something of a masterstroke in his His Dark Materials trilogy.  Never, I suspect, has such a subversive message been made so widely available to the young.  Much of what is in here is deeply and obviously gnostic (to the extent that he was denounced by the Catholic Herald).  However, it does appear that ultimately he is not a gnostic - he simply uses these gnostic themes to effect his Church-bashing (and after all they have a proven 2000 year pedigree in this regard).  Perhaps this ambivalent attitude is what makes him lose the plot so frequently (and so completely when he deals with his concept of "dust").  In spite of this and in spite of his disingenuous attempts to hide his influences, the books qualify for this list and are well worth a read.   

 

David Lindsay's Voyage to Arcturus

Mary Gentle's Rats & Gargoyles

Roger Zelazny's Amber series

E. R. Eddison's Zimiamvia trilogy

C. S. Lewis's _That Hideous Strength_ and _The Last Battle_

"Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges can be interpreted as gloomy modern Gnostics for whom the fallen world is an endless labyrinth of texts and sophistries, without any exit to trancendence."

H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos,

Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers series

Guy Gavriel Kay's "Fionavar Tapestry"

Vilette, Charlotte Bronte

The Master & Margarita  , Mikhail Bulgakov

Almanac of the Dead, Leslie Marmon Silko

Movies:  http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/philosophia/movies.htm

http://www.enemies.com/html/movies/gnostic_sci_fi.html

 

Why Care?

Well, I always wanted to be able to drop "the first people to write science-fiction were the Gnostics" into a conversation.

 

return to SimonjNugent.com