Welcome to Gnosticism Online, you�re one-stop spot for information on Gnosticism. Who are we? What is it that Gnostics do? How does one join up? These questions will all be answered and more!
What is Gnosticism?
Gnosticism is rooted in the word Gnosis, which means Knowledge in Ancient Greek. Better words to describe Gnosis would be �insight� and �enlightenment (Robinson).� Isn�t that what every religion is after?
The Knowledge we seek is not the traditional, factual knowledge such as mathematics and the sciences. What we seek is experiential knowledge. The kind of knowledge you must experience to understand. You cannot teach it in books or lectures (Hoeller).
We Gnostics follow the teachings of Jesus the Soter (Savior) as well as Seth, the 3rd son of Adam. Jesus being our savior does not mean he is directly our Savior from sin, but from Ignorance. Ignorance leads to sin. He will allow us to reach Gnosis (Miles 30).
What is Our Creation Story?
We believe that there was one True God. He had allowed released some of his essence in order to create the universe. In the process, he created the aeonial beings. These are what some describe as gods that live between the world of humans and The One True God. The lead aeonial being is named Sophia/Demiurgos (Hoeller).
Being made from God�s essence, Demiurgos is not a perfect being. Not knowing of the existence of The True God, Demiurgos saw him/herself as the creator. Therefore, Demiurgos used God�s essence to create the universe in his own flawed image (Stewart 200).
This leads into the Genesis story of The Bible. Most religions believe that the evil in the world is the result of mankind�s decision to eat the forbidden fruit in Eden. We Gnostics believe differently. Because a flawed God created the universe, mankind is also flawed (Stewart 202).
Since everything in the universe is created from the essence of The True God, every human contains a spark of the divine essence (Hoeller).
How do Gnostics behave?
This question is easily answered. There are no printed rules to follow. There are no commandments we follow. We simply look into our divine spark and feel whether or not what we are doing is right or wrong (Robinson).
