Tag: radical gnosis
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The Death & Rebirth of the Self
Ancient myths exercise such great allure that one cannot help wondering what meanings lie behind them. The great psychologist C.G. Jung suggested these myths were projections of the collective unconscious, a universal level of the mind that expresses itself in symbolic and religious forms. By contrast, the French esotericist René Guénon and his school, who…
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Transfiguration
The following by Raymond Abellio was privately released in the 1954 publication Cahiers du Cercle d’Etudes Metaphysiques. It is reprinted here from The Morning of the Magicians: Secret Societies, Conspiracies, and Vanished Civilizations by Louis Pauwels & Jacques Bergier (Destiny Books, 2008) When, in the natural attitude which is that of all “normal” existing beings, I “see”…
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Raymond Abellio: A Modern Day Cathar?
Déodat Roche may not be the only modern Cathar. Another candidate put forward for such a distinction is ‘Raymond Abellio’. Raymond Abellio is the pseudonym of French writer and political activist Georges Soulès. Already, in his choice of nom de plume, there is a direct reference to the solar deity of the Pyrenees, often linked…
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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 faiths are commonplace. Sometimes, the leaders of nations turn against a minority resident within their…
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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 insight can be hard to accept in the positivist world of mainstream Western thought. In…
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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, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in Israel in 1947. The Gospel of Judas is…
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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 used the word “Gnostic,” it was very likely to be misunderstood as “agnostic,” and thus…
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Eros & Gnosis: A Gnostic Study of Human Sexuality
Human beings are not only the funniest monkeys: they are the sexiest ones as well. In many ways we are a species singularly devoted to sex. We talk, write, read, joke and argue about it; we dress and undress for it, and, given favourable circumstances, we perform it regularly. More importantly, and sometimes lamentably, we…
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Humanity, Environment & Spirit
During the last few decades, many people have become justifiably alarmed by the continuing growth of technology. In recent years this has been augmented by the concern over global warming, which may be at least in part caused by human activities. We may observe a certain anxiety arising from such concerns that impels many to…
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A Way to Live: The Path of Self-Knowledge
For all the scarcity in the world, one thing we never seem to be lacking is advice. We’re constantly deluged with exhortations of one sort or another – for diet, exercise, health, wealth, happiness, spiritual illumination. Of course these pieces of advice often conflict. The question then becomes, whose advice do we take? There are…