At the climax of Dante’s Inferno, the narrator and his guide, Vergil, make their way to the deepest part of hell in the centre of the Earth. Embedded there is the fallen Lucifer, a hideous, three-headed figure with batlike wings. Each […]
Christianity
True Light of Christ
True religion is based upon the premise that Truth, or the way of life as it really is, cannot be understood by a materialistic approach to life. Questions arising with regard to the materialistic approach and the true spiritual approach […]
The Gnostics: An Interview with Tobias Churton
Tobias Churton is one of today’s most lively and spirited investigators of that underground stream of the Western tradition known as Gnosticism. He first became interested in the Gnostics while reading for a degree in theology at the University of […]
The Gospel of Mary Magdelene
Of all the earliest followers of Christ, none has sparked the level of interest generated by one particular woman – the biblical figure known as Mary Magdalene. Revered as a saint, maligned as a prostitute, imagined as the literal bride […]
Pre-Nicene Christianity
Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller reminds us that “having known him [Richard, Duc de Palatine] for more than twenty years the present writer can attest that this modern Gnostic leader was also profoundly learned in Gnostic scriptures and wished his church […]
The Mystery of Iniquity: Does Evil Exist or Do Bad Things Just Happen?
On June 10, 1991, a cover story appeared in Time magazine on the topic of evil. The author, Lance Morrow, did not argue for a particular thesis and did not reach any conclusions. What he did, however, was in a […]
What in the World is a Gnostic?
Are we witnessing a rediscovery of Gnosticism? To judge from the burgeoning new literature and the increased use of the terms “gnosis” and “Gnosticism” in popular publications, the answer would seem to be yes. Only twenty-five years ago, when one […]
What Do the Lost Gospels Have to Teach?
Over the last century, a number of previously lost and unknown texts have come to light and illumined the origins of the main religions of the West. The most famous include the Nag Hammadi library, unearthed in Egypt in 1945, […]
Rescuing the Bible from Literalism
“The world,” wrote the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, “is the totality of facts, not of things.” So it is, but facts take many forms. The hard-edged events of ordinary reality are only one form, and not always the most important. This […]
The War on the Cathars
The “Cathar heresy” that struck Southern France in the 13th century, and was viciously persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church, remains a pool of interest and intrigue. What really happened, and what did the Cathars actually believe? Wars between nations or […]