Gnosis, gnostics and paragnosTics.

Few of you will remember the expression "son of paragnost" used in the past – with comic intent – but I see that around (as it was within Freemasonry) we are witnessing an incredible recycling of Gnostic doctrines, in favor (or to give structure ) to the most disparate theories: I notice a presence of Gnostic concepts even within Qanon.

First of all: I am not a Gnostic. I have come across Gnostic groups in the past, when I was dealing with esoteric questions (before I realized that they were the right answer to the wrong question) and I must say that, depending on the type, it is very easy to find both intelligent and stupid people.

Let me explain: no one today can claim to be a Gnostic, at least as much as you cannot claim to practice the Neanderthal religion. The problem is that the Gnostic doctrine is quite ancient, and that it is poorly documented, often mysterious (and if you want to keep a mystery obviously don't write books that anyone can read in bookstores) and initiatic (which means that only a few they know, which does not improve its spread).

There are therefore many types of Gnosticism, which is declined in several sauces (Christian, Jewish, magical, Satanist, UFO, reptilian, etc etc), and although Gnosticism has given the Church a hard time since Roman times, "explain Gnosticism "Is almost impossible because there will be some" gnostic "group that claims the opposite.

However, it is possible to list concepts common to all groups of Gnosticism, as long as they are sufficiently nuanced and imprecise. Before understanding, and then guessing that little applies to many who "sell it", it is better to list the parts that are more or less common to all.

So, since it is a religious belief with a strong philosophical connotation, let's start with cosmology.

Above all and everything is the Pleroma. The Pleroma (which is not ONLY a distributed social networking platform) is a "kingdom", or to put it like the Greeks, a "generation". You will find the word "generation" used in this way, for example, in the Gospels of Judah, which are a clearly Gnostic text: https://www.gospels.net/judas

The pleroma contains the totality of possible power, and of all possible principles. It is literally unknowable in the psychic sense to human beings and also to what you call "God". As it encompasses all principles, Pleroma is both masculine and feminine, but for some reason we like to think of it as feminine. However, there is this "kingdom", or this "generation" that in comparison Paradise is a summer colony at Lido di Spina, and from there (and only from there can something alive come).

From here it gets more confusing. In the sense that "Aeons" come out of the Pleroma, which however are a Greek word, because for example when the texts are in Hebrew then they become Malach (Angels), but they are GREAT angels. The interesting thing is that apparently (but not always) the pleroma always moves TWO pawns, one male and one female. So if Christ comes, Mary Magdalene comes too, and so on.

When two elements do not arrive and we only see one then the Pleroma is not involved, but someone else. And here we begin to talk about their genesis.

In short, the Pleroma begins to create these Aeons, or these Great Angels, always two by two. But at some point something goes wrong. According to SOME Gnostic groups Sofia arrives who, instead of making her own "generation" with her male counterpart, decides to go it alone (according to some Christian Gnostics, Sofia's counterpart is Christ in person but Sofia appears as Mary Magdalene ). Create something that some traditions consider the "Shadow of Matter", that is, something that precedes matter, and from here comes Saklas, the mad, the cruel, the violent, or if you prefer the Demiurge, and creates his "generation ”, Which would be the universe we know. But since life only comes from the Pleroma, then Sofia has time to give life to this "generation", and then when Saklas creates man she frees Adam and Eve from the malignant propaganda of Saklas (who kept them prisoners inside Eden ), telling them to eat the fruit of knowledge and give us a break with Saklas, who is bad, incomplete, angry, violent and a little crazy.

The funny thing is that, (according to Christ in the Gospel of Judas, that is, in a Gnostic-Christian writing), what Christians call God is evil and created the earth for the sadistic taste of sending plagues, floods, and everything . The Demiurge, in fact.

Some of the fundamental teachings of Gnosticism say that "All matter is bad, and only the non-material Kingdom, that is the spiritual one, is good" , therefore that contrary to what one might believe "The Creator of the Material Universe is not the supreme God, but an Inferior Spirit ” therefore “ To reach Salvation, it is necessary to get in touch with secret Knowledge ” therefore “ Gnosticism does not deal with 'Sin', rather only with Ignorance ” , that is, with the lack of“ Logos ”. In Gnosticism the 'Concept of Logos' was widely used. For example, for Philo of Alexandria, the Logos, among his various functions, "puts human minds in order" , "is the just Reason, infallible law source of every other Law", "has the function of being defender of Humanity pervading the World with a manifestation which is in the Angel acting as the Consciousness of Man ”.

From these assumptions, however, the idea of ​​not giving value to matter does not always follow: for example, some Gnostics say that what matters is the spirit but not the matter, so if you are worthy of aspiring to the Pleroma you can commit sins and parties and orgies at will. So it's just matter, who cares.

As if that were not enough, another Great Angel was born, or another being, called Nebro. Nebro takes the darkness and makes us "the generations", that is the "hellish" realms. Here we must then come to an agreement, because according to the pagan Gnostics Nebro had created Hades, while for the Christian Gnostics he had created hell. But you don't go here because your soul dies, unless it can reach the top because you are good Gnostics.

And if you consider that very little is said in the Bible and in the Gospel of Hell, you can understand who Dante got his ideas from.

Of course things are more complicated than that, because the Gnostics are quite arithmetic in doing things. Then, depending on the theory, have TWELVE powers and the Demiurge creates TWELVE angels to reign, or the number six is ​​repeated, or the number seven (if they are Jews) and depending on the type of gnosis you will find very complicated (but regular) schemes, guy

But what happens next? It then happens that time passes, and new things pass, and Gnosticism spreads. Then comes "Christian Gnosticism". So, first of all, obviously there cannot be a Christian Gnosticism because you cannot go to the Pope and say "Look, your God is a furious madman and sooner or later the Pleroma together with Sophia destroy everything and restore it to his place, that is, they reset it, because it is evil ”. The pope does not like to hear these things said. So Catholics and Christians "struggle a little" to accept it: it is not for nothing that there have also been crusades against some Gnostic heresies, which were exterminated.

The problem is that Christian Gnostics believe they are Christians, because for them Christ was sent more or less by the superiors of Saklas, that is, by God (who was that of the old testament, the nice little guy who sends floods and rains of fire), to say that it is not true, and that the truth is above and you worship the wrong god, and only in the Pleroma is there the true divinity to worship, and you can reach it with gnosis , etc. And obviously, since the Pleroma always moves with two principles, masculine and feminine, then in addition to Christ he had in reality also sent his counterpart, which is Mary Magdalene. In fact, both the Gospels of Judas and that of Mary Magdalene are Gnostic: https://www.gospels.net/judas , https://www.gospels.net/mary .

Obviously, depending on the place there was also a pagan / Roman Gnosticism, an Egyptian one, some accuse Plato of being a Gnostic, and so on.

An interesting paragraph should be opened on Nebro, which would be the one who reigns over the underworld and the shadows, which is always a mistake (because generated without a father) but does not seem so evil. For which

The fact that Gnosticism is so confused and convoluted, that is, the classic theory of everything that can be adapted to explain everything, is both its strength and its weakness.

The story of Nebro and Saklas actually explains why "God accepts these things," (even though Saklas sent floods and rains of fire for inconsistent reasons), and thus explains the presence and persistence of evil with some cunning. Evil comes from the Demiurge, that is from Saklas, that is, from what Christians call God, who is essentially an evil entity (according to the Gnostics), an abomination that should not have existed. It offers a hint to the Satanists, because at the end of Nebro nothing is said so bad, except that he has a fucking Real Estate and when he chose his kingdom he chose the worst.

The disadvantage is that with Gnosis you can explain us everything, absolutely everything. If a gnostic goes to China and the party requires him to be consistent with communism, for the gnostic there is no problem in including Mao Tse Tung among the protagonists of cosmic events, poof, you have communist gnosticism.

Do you want to justify UFOs? No problem, Gnosticism arrives and you have those too. Parallel dimensions? Well, we are in the Saklas "generation", but it's not like there aren't others. And so you can find Gnostic concepts within QAnon as well.

The other problem of the Gnostic doctrines is that few know them really well. It takes a lot of studies to say this, in the sense that we are dealing with ancient doctrines. So on the one hand the word "gnosis" seems a philosophical thing, worthy of study, if only on a historical level. So if you have your odd theory and you want to give it dignity, then you can start by saying "as the Gnostics used to say …." and since the Gnostics said everything and the opposite of everything, you will almost seem "serious" people. And so down with the Gnosticism comes everything, from shamans to UFOs, and the Rosicrucians as if it were raining. And Jung. Never forget to put Jung in there.

Ultimately, then, if you hear that something comes from the "Gnostic theory" forget it: to know what a Gnostic theory really is you need a doctorate at the Sorbonne, so certainly you will not meet real "Gnostics" on your way.

But how cool it is to use the word "Gnosis". You find there both interesting ideas, and cabbage ideas, and you have to be the one to understand the difference….