Saturday, February 02, 2008

Review: Living Gnosticism

Gnosticism, says Canadian Gnostic priest Jordan Statford (and blogger), is not a Jewish or Christian heresy, but stands alone, "too heretical for other faiths. . . . the Secret Church of the Holy Grail."

His new book, Living Gnosticism: An Ancient Way of Knowing, defines it as "a pre-Christian religious tradition that fuse Judaism, Greek philosophy, and the Mystery Schools of the ancient world.

"Originating in the intellectual 'café societies' of Alexandria around 200 BCE, the original Gnostics were Greek-educated Jews, living in Egypt, on the doorstep of the Roman Empire. Theirs was the realm of diverse and interplaying cultures, of ideas and imagination. Gnostics unflinchingly explored the borders of myth and archetype, of metaphors and dreams, of creativity and poetic expression."

(Sometimes he makes them sound like beatniks of the ancient Mediterraean.)

Also included are

• A dictionary of Gnostic terms such as archon and demiurge.

• A ritual calendar that starts with Candlemas, equating Bridget with Sophia, both as "goddesses" of wisdom and creativity, and runs through the feast of the apostle John, December 27. (Not real goddesses but "symbol[s] for an aspect of something greater.")

• A question-and-answer section, viz., "Do Gnostics deny the historical Jesus?"

Answer: He is an archetype; "these stories don't need to be historically true to be valuable."

• An introduction to the various Gnostic churches of North America: the Apostolic Johannite Church, the Ecclesia Gnostica, the Ecclesia Gnostica Mysteriorum, the Gnostic Church of Mary Magdalene, the Order of St. Esclarmonde (a Cathar mystic executed by the Inquisition).

It's an excellent introduction to the topic.

There is no original sin in Stratford's Gnosticism; instead there is a story of loss. (I have suggested before that this story underlies the appeal of such fantasies as Anna Anderson's claim to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia.)

All Gnostics are in exile from heaven; they need to be reminded of their divine spark within; they need to be told that "the system" is not the world. And salvation comes not from faith-there is the rupture with orthodox Christianity-nor from works, but through enlightenment, gnosis.

Stratford wants to contrast Gnosticism with the "credal" or doctrinal religions. I think the opposite term to "credal" (following Harvey Whitehouse) is “imagistic” – not dependent on doctrine but on small-scale experience involving all the senses.

Stratford, in fact, wishes to link one of Gnosticism's arms to contemporary Paganism, but I am not so sure of that.

Ultimately there is a chasm between them. Gnosticism cannot be separated from a belief that the world was simply made wrong: "There's that certainty that something is wrong with the universe, and creeping paranoia that (a) this is somehow not the real world and (b) the forces in charge of this world are hiding something secret, something powerful." It is a religion of psychic exile.

By contrast, Paganism allows sacred relationships "with the tangible, sentient, and/or nonempirical," to use Michael York's definition from Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion.

We may say that there is more to the world than This Side (the "nonempirical" part, but we don't reject any of it. The gods pop up everywhere: Aphrodite in a shoe-store window display, as Ginette Paris once said.

Some Pagans may feel alienated (for good cause), but we have no reason to be in exile. This is our world, the parts that you can see and the parts that you cannot.

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11 Comments:

Blogger Copper Asetemhat Stewart said...

This looks interesting.

I tend to think that both Gnosticism and Hermeticism are over-constructed, perhaps becoming discrete "movement" entities only near the end or in the minds of critics and perhaps entirely false constellations.

In many versions of the Sophia mythos, the domain of her falleness is primarily social--the city and her commodification as a prostitute. There seem to have been at least two strands. Similar anxieties and solutions are reflected in Apuleius. I tend to see it as a book-end myth to the one about Enkidu's "fall" in Gilgamesh--via seduction by the urban prostitute.

I think the exilic theme of these stories resonantes deeply with many Pagans because of the social/city reading. I've got lots of uses for the body and nature; none for the city. (I much prefer Apuleius and Eros and Psyche, though).

10:37 AM  
Blogger prairie mary said...

My current "short intervals" book -- I supply the throne room with the two Durrells and never tire of reading them, partly because there are so many that I forget them in the long intervals between coming back around -- is Lawrence Durrell's "Monsieur" which illustrates in narrative form exactly this quote:

"Originating in the intellectual 'café societies' of Alexandria around 200 BCE, the original Gnostics were Greek-educated Jews, living in Egypt, on the doorstep of the Roman Empire. Theirs was the realm of diverse and interplaying cultures, of ideas and imagination. Gnostics unflinchingly explored the borders of myth and archetype, of metaphors and dreams, of creativity and poetic expression."

"(Sometimes he makes them sound like beatniks of the ancient Mediterraean.)"

A nice thing to be reading now.

Prairie Mary

9:32 PM  
Blogger Jordan Stratford+ said...

Thanks for the review!

I would argue that Gnosticism and contemporary Paganism are inextricably linked; the characters of the Celtic Revival which spawned 20th century Paganism were also very much a part of the Gnostic revival. Dion Fortune I think is a good example of this. Gardner was an ordained bishop in the Independent Catholic movement, with direct ties to the French Gnostic tradition.

Thanks again,

Jordan

2:29 PM  
Anonymous Chas S. Clifton said...

Jordan,

It's true that Dion Fortune had one foot in a sort of mystic Christianity (which one might broadly call Gnostic) and one in Paganism.

Likewise, GBG messed with esoteric Christianity before turning to Witchcraft c. 1950, after which we hear no more of the former.

But personalities should not be confused with religions, I think.

5:49 PM  
Blogger Jordan Stratford+ said...

Oh I agree, I'm just saying that in the modern era (past 100 years or so) the movements show a lot of overlap. Which explains why half the congregation in many Gnostic churches identify as Pagan, and the term "Gnostic Witch" is becoming increasingly prevalent.

12:49 PM  
Anonymous Chas S. Clifton said...

Sure, a polytheist can say hello to Sophia.

Of course, were someone to go all Abrahamic on me, I would be gone.

4:31 PM  
Blogger Jordan Stratford+ said...

"Of course, were someone to go all Abrahamic on me, I would be gone."

Ha! You and me both.

I note in Michael York's excellent definition of Paganism he states;

"I argue that any religious perspective that honors the natural as the sacred itself made tangible, as immanent holiness, is pagan"

In my book I likewise identify "immanent pneumatology"; the idea that the sacred is immanent in rock and wood, as a hallmark of classical and modern Gnosticism. It's that recognition of immanence that is the "heaven" from which we find ourselves exiled, when we get caught up in the artificial world of clocks and parking tickets.

Of course our biggest criticism comes from those who say Gnostics are "NeoPagans in vestments"; I've always been fond of that one. ;-)

8:30 PM  
Anonymous Corwin said...

Jordan, I remember that once I wrote in another blog that Neo-Gnostics were "Neo-Pagans in cassocks", I wonder how many people made similar comments elsewhere or it was just me. I still wonder at the many nice and exciting contradictions in your movement, being the "Gnostic Witch" concept one of the most fascinating for its complete disregard of history and theological accuracy. But of course, it is great to know that even modern witches can enjoy the legimitacy of having "valid Apostolic succession". Now that's some pedigree for a true witch.

5:53 PM  
Blogger Copper Asetemhat Stewart said...

Corwin, exchange "robe" for "cassock" and leave "Apostolic" out and the reasons for commonality are obvious. A good many Witches have a lot of ego invested in recently made up lineages and in all practical terms are much more functionally "Apostolic" where it really matters: concepts of legitimacy and power relations. On sexuality the two seem inverse, with healthful balance something that comes more with age than spiritual practice. And they both seem too much concerned with us/them thinking and whatever petty superiorities can be established between minority, fringe communities and religions whose strong point is that they are born of freedom and are of recent coinage.

6:33 PM  
Anonymous Corwin said...

CAS, I agree about their many commonalities, but it is not me who claims "valid Apostolic succession", it is the motto of the Johannite Church itself, as shown in their website and in every paper or blog they publish...

4:06 PM  
Blogger Copper Asetemhat Stewart said...

Oh, I don't doubt that they actually claim apostolic succession. Both Pagans and Gnostics are allowed to be syncretic, and both contradiction and paradox have functional uses and long histories in experiential mysticism. I regard Hinduism as an elder Pagan faith of the same root stock; if it can absorb Jesus and figures like Mansur al-Hallaj, then so can Paganism. Like Hinduism, Paganism seems to be nameable by constellations of characteristics more than by universal characteristics--overlap, not sameness, defines our continuum.

I just meant that claims of apostolic succession aren't any more ridiculous to me than claims of Gardnerian antiquity or concerns about the legitimacy of lodge transmission. It's the surface and not the substance that seems different to me. With the Witch/Pagan worlds so full to the brim with other claims and pairings that seem irrational or impossible, who is anyone to say that someone else's syncretism doesn't fly? More power to it, though I find the idea of shared doctrine or hierarchy distasteful and counterproductive wherever it appears.

12:56 PM  

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