Interview with Tau Thomas, Archbishop-Catholicos of the Alexandrian Gnostic Church
March 7, 2008
There is certainly a wider interest in the USA in the general idea of Gnostic spirituality. To what do you attribute this growth of interest?
I think that the desire for a genuine, transformative spiritual experience is central to what it means to be human. We all have the potential to be freer, more alive, and more authentic than we are. We are all potential mystics, prophets, and artists – potentially so much more than  we’ve been conditioned to believe we can be.
The late Robert Anton Wilson, in Prometheus Rising, said, “We are all giants, raised by pygmies, who have learned to walk with a perpetual mental crouch.” The poet William Blake referred to “mind forg’d manacles.” Learning to walk without that mental crouch and breaking free of these manacles is an important part of the process.
The problem is that few religious traditions as they are practiced today teach – or are even aware of - the process of liberation. So people walk around shackled – by cultural conditioning, by fear and repression, by propaganda, by the demands of surviving in what can be a rather brutal and savage system, and, most importantly by their own egos. They walk around in these shackles, often not realizing they are shackled. Too often, religious institutions have become supports for the system of repression, rather than offering tools for liberation.
But something inside us wants to be liberated, and this is what drives people to look into alternative spiritual paths. For years people have turned to other traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, looking for a Path that would answer their deepest yearnings.
Now, thanks to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi writings, the growing number of books about Gnosticism, and the ongoing Restoration of the Gnostic Church, which has led to a growing number of communities, people are discovering this Path, which is both Eastern and Western, hidden right below the surface. This is a tradition which has survived, often underground, for centuries and is the heir, not only of the Gnostics of the early centuries C.E., but of the Mystery Schools of the Mediterranean, alchemists, and the Hermetic tradition.
I think that people have been exposed to a lot of different religious traditions, and they’re looking for something more than a new set of beliefs, more than just re-arranging mental furniture. They’re looking for something that works, a process of real inner transformation, not just religious language and posturing.
Now many people are being exposed to Gnosticism for the first time, and they are finding that right here, just beneath the myths and legends that we’ve grown up with, is the hidden path of Gnosis, a dynamic process of opening yourself up to the Divine within and being transformed by the experience. They’re learning that there is a Knowledge that is more than conceptual, more than merely experiential, but a knowledge that liberates and divinizes.
Interest is growing in Gnosticism because the Spirit refuses to remain hidden. The dynamic, ineffable Spirit that is continually giving birth to the universe wants to be reunited with the same Spirit that burns in the core of each of us. She continues to call out to us by sending flashes of Divine Gnosis that we’ve all experienced. She walks among us and wants to be known. Our task is to respond to the Call with open hearts.
In your view, what are the essential or core teachings of Christian Gnosticism?
Jules Doinel, who was responsible for reviving the Gnostic Church in 1890, taught that the core teachings of Gnosticism are two: the Doctrine of Emanations and Salvation by Gnosis.
By the Doctrine of Emanations, we mean that the Universe has been brought forth by a series of emanations, extensions of the very essence of the Divine. In some way, the Divine is every where. As Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas, “Split a piece of wood, I am there. Lift up a stone and you will find me there.”
The Spirit is everywhere – if we have eyes to see. But there is a system of constructs – both internal and external – that often blinds us to this reality and prevents us from living the life that we are meant to live. Some Gnostics saw this construct as the work of the Demiurge (literally “half creator”). The Demiurge did not create the physical world, but he did create the illusion of separation that keeps us from seeing and connecting to the Spirit that is all around us.
This is an important distinction because journalists and scholars tend to report that Gnostics hated the material world. But we’re not opposed to the world as such; we are opposed to the world system – a system of fear, exploitation, and ego. The Demiurge isn’t the Source of the universe; he is only a half creator. We see him as the personification of everything that separates us from the Divine that is all around us. The flaw isn’t ontological, it’s largely perceptual.
Salvation by Gnosis, in this case, means acquiring the special kind of knowledge that frees us from the bonds of the Demiurge and empowers us to be joined with the ineffable Oneness that is the source of all things. It is knowledge that liberates us from illusion, separation and ego and puts us in touch with who we really are- immortal Children of Light.
One of my favorite explanations of Gnosticism is from the Excerpta Ex Theodoto:
"What makes us free is the gnosis
of who we were,
of what we have become;
of where we were,
of wherein we have been cast;
of whereto we speed,
of wherefrom we are redeemed;
of what birth truly is,
and of what rebirth truly is."
In The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity, Dr. Hans Jonas says:
Gnosis meant pre-eminently knowledge of God , and from what we have said about the radical transcendence of the deity it follows that knowledge of God is the knowledge of something naturally unknowable and therefore itself not a natural condition . On the one hand it is closely bound with revelatory experience, so that reception of the truth either through sacred and secret lore or through inner illumination replaces rational argument and theory. On the other hand, being concerned with the secrets of salvation, knowledge is not just theoretical information about certain things but is itself, as a modification of the human condition, charged with performing the function in the bringing about of salvation.
So Gnosis isn’t just conceptual knowledge, which is why intellectual study alone won’t get us where we want to go. It’s a kind of knowing that is deep inside – it is not just the acquisition of new information, it is the acquisition of a new mode of being.
To me, this is an essential point – we’re not just talking about substituting “Gnostic” language for other religious language.
There was a recent article in the New York Times about how people here in the U.S. change religions very frequently. I don’t think that they really do. What many people do is substitute one set of propositions and observances for another, which is something you can do that without any corresponding internal change. A real change of religion is much more thorough and works on a deeper level - it's much more than just substitution "Buddha" for "Jesus" or "Goddess" for "God."
The knowledge that we’re talking about is deeply personal and transformative; it’s the kind of knowledge that the Apostle Paul talked about when he said, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new kind of being. Old things have passed away; all things have become new.”
In what important ways does Gnosticism differ from what is generally accepted as mainstream Christianity?
I can't speak for other Gnostics, only for our community. To us, one of the most significant differences is how we view salvation. Nicene Christians – Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox – all start with the assumption that people are sinners and that their primary need is for forgiveness. So for them, the crucifixion of Jesus was a blood sacrifice demanded by a God who was offended by sin and demanded death as a payment.
We on the other hand start with the assumption that people are emanations of the Divine. The problem isn’t sin – its ignorance or forgetfulness.  People have forgotten who they are, where they are from. The teacher G.I. Gurdjieff described people in this state is sleepwalkers. Our need, then, is not to be forgiven, but to awaken. Talking about sin is like talking to a sleepwalker about bumping into furniture and walls. The core problem isn’t the bumping into things; it’s sleepwalking.
Our rejection of Original Sin is much more than an interesting piece of theological speculation. Original Sin, the idea that people are inherently flawed, that they are incapable of doing good, that they are basically damned from birth, is a twisted, anti-joy, anti-life control mechanism that continues to have serious consequences today.
Joel Kramer & Diana Alstad, in The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power, broke down the control system this way:
The issue for fundamentalism is how to get people to obey absolute rules
that cannot be obeyed absolutely. There is of course force and fear. But
it is more reliable to have people who want to obey the rules. The easiest
way to do this is to make people feel bad about themselves and then offer
them a way of feeling better. Fundamentalism does this by creating a
worldview of sin and redemption via a moral order whose basic tenets give
these easy answers to life:
1. Why am I here? To get better through obeying the rules.
2. Why do I need to get better? Because a part of you is bad (original
sin) - you're not good enough.
3. What happens if I break the rules? You get punished by a power that is
inescapable. If you have sufficient remorse and resubmit, you may be
forgiven.
4. What happens if I keep the rules? You get rewarded by that same power -
usually after death.
In the same book, there’s a passage which I think beautifully illustrates how this control mechanism works:
"Having good and evil as separate categories made it easier to control people within hierarchies. The external controls of tribalism (group approval or censure, shame, and ostracism) became insufficient for controlling larger groups in which people did not know each other. A dualistic morality where the abstract concepts of good and evil are internalized, coupled with an omniscient God who spies on every act, shifts control to internal mechanisms such as fear and guilt."
Today, the role of omniscient God is also being fulfilled by the omniscient security state, but it’s basically the same principle. The message of Original Sin has been so internalized that works even without the religious language.
Advertisers rely on the same principle of control. They start with the premise that you are somehow flawed or deficient, and that the only way to remedy that is through buying whatever they’re selling. The message is that you’re not good enough, but if you buy this car, or drink this beverage, or spray this cologne on your body, then you will be okay. People laugh at the selling of indulgences, but it hasn’t gone away, it’s just gotten more sophisticated.
We’re not interested in being controlled by fear and guilt, and we don’t think people are Original Sinners – we think that they are godlings in training, who have somehow forgotten who they are and have instead bought into a system of control, fear,  and repression. We’re not interested in repressing, but in unleashing. The trick is breaking out of that system and resuming our training in Divine Bliss. Think of Neo escaping from the Matrix, or Truman escaping from the false world of the set of the Truman Show.
In this context, the Gnostic Church performs two important roles: First, we are accessories to a Divine prison break, and secondly, we are a community for the work of theosis, which is a Greek word meaning “becoming God.”
This means taking responsibility for your liberation and inner work, like a potential godling. As Dr. Wilhelm Reich said in his booklet, Listen, Little Man, (http://www.listenlittleman.com) “Only you yourself can be your liberator!” Of course, we believe that we do have help, in the persons of Jesus the Logos, Sophia the Holy Spirit, and the various saints and angelic beings, as well as in the community and the sacraments.
Our rejection of Original Sin does not mean that we don’t need help. It’s just that we don’t see the Savior as a blood sacrifice for sins. We see the Logos, incarnate in Jesus – and in us - a messenger sent to awaken us, empower us and to show us the way home. Many mainstream Christians tend to look at the story of Jesus as a historical event; we look at it as something that can be lived today. The Christ also dwells within us, and is the Divine self that is connected to the Fullness.
Gnosticism appears to be a huge subject. How would an individual begin to embrace it in a serious manner?
Begin where you are. Ultimately, Gnosis is about connecting to the Divine within you; it’s about becoming who you really are, finding your True Self or True Will.
One of the most important things to do is to begin actual daily practice. Reading and studying about Gnosticism are not enough. Reading has its place, but there’s a tendency to make the whole thing cerebral that is unhealthy and ultimately the opposite of what’s supposed to be happening. Gnosis is a reality to be experienced, not an academic subject to be dissected.
So find a couple of practices that work for you, and start to do them every day, preferably at approximately the same time. A good place to start would be with the daily practice of each (or at least some) of the following:
Lectio Divina
The Prayer of the Heart
Nepsis
Centering Prayer
The Gnostic Middle Pillar
Details of each of the practices, as well as suggestions for additional reading, are available on the “Getting Started” page of our website.
The important thing – maybe the most important thing – is to begin right now, today, with a regular practice and do it every day. You will find that consistency mutiplies the effectiveness of your practice. Figure out what is really doable, and then do it. Every day.
I would also recommend that you try to find a community of people who are interested in the same journey. While it is true that our journey is deeply personal and individual, it is equally true that there is a communal element that is essential. If you’re interested in becoming part of a local church, there are quite a few with a presence online – but try to find one that meets regularly in the real world, not just an internet or paper church.
If there’s not a church in your area, consider starting a study & meditation group – we can help do this if you’re interested – just use the Contact form to get in touch with us.
Expand on the concept of Sophia. If the Logos appeared in, and as, Jesus, why is Sophia necessary?
I can only discuss Her as we have come to know Her in our exerience as a community. Generally, Sophia could be described as the feminine face of God. Of course, the Divine Source is beyond gender or any other concepts, but as the Divine continually emanates we encounter forms that we can hang our concepts on, which make them easier to relate to. That’s why the Gospel of Philip says, “Truth did not come into the world naked, but it came in types and images. The world will not receive truth in any other way.”
In our tradition, we honor the Logos and Sophia as two key aspects of the Divine. The Logos is the expression of the Divine Word, and Sophia is the Celestial Mother, the consort of the Logos.
Think of the Logos as the dynamic word of creation, the “bang” of the Big Bang, the lingam, and Sophia as the Womb that receives the dynamic word and gives it form.
But there is more. Sophia as we continue to encounter Her is not only the Queen of Heaven and Lady of the Stars, she is also the Princess in exile, representing our soul which is longing to make its journey home. This is the source of quite a few fairy tales, where the princess (our soul) waits to be rescued by the Prince (the redeemer, Christ, or our higher self), who will then take her to the home of his parents, the King and Queen (Logos and Sophia), where they will live happily ever after.
So we honor Sophia as the Celestial Mother; we also recognize her as the one who is down here in the midst of everything with us. We call upon her as the Holy Spirit, part of the Trinity, who is our Teacher and Illuminator. We see her in the Dove that descended upon Jesus at his Baptism, anointing him as the Christ. We honor her manifestation in Mary, the Mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene; and other saints and mystics. And we know her as our own soul, in exile and yearning to return to its source.
What is meant by the "true self"?
In the Gnostic Hymn of the Pearl , we read the story of a Prince who is sent from the East (representing the fullness) into Egypt (representing the world).
There he eats the food (buys into the system) and forgets who he is.
Yearning for the return of their son, the King, Queen, and the Prince’s elder brother send the Prince a message that says, in part:
“Call to mind that thou art a Son of Kings!
See the slavery – whom thou servest.
Remember the Pearl,
For which thou was sent to Egypt!”
Think of thy robe,
And remember thy splendid toga,
Which thou shalt wear and with which thou shalt be adorned…”
The Prince awakens, remembers his Royal heritage, defeats a dragon, and returns to the Kingdom with the Pearl (representing his own Divinity).
Each one of us is this Prince. We have been sent into the world with a mission – the discovery of our own inner divinity and reunion with the Divine.
But we have forgotten who we are and why we have been sent. The snares of the system – competition, greed, social conditioning, random imprinting, and most of all the ego – have made us forget who we are.
We call this forgetting amnesis – and the word for waking up, for remembering, is anamnesis, which is the word Jesus uses in the story of the institution of the mass, where he says, “Do this in remembrance (anamnesis) of me.”
So, in answer to your question, “What do we mean by the true self?” we say that you really are a Divine Prince or Princess, that you are made of the same stuff as the ineffable Godhead.
The letter in the story represents moments of gnosis, when we remember who we are. All of us receive these letters – the question is, will we let the message be drowned out by the din of every day life, or will we heed them and begin our journey home?
What does it mean to say that the Resurrection must be experienced in this lifetime?
Our understanding of salvation is that it’s not just something to be experienced after you’re dead. We see it as something that happens here and now. The Gospel of Philip says “Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing.”
The canonical Gospels report that Jesus preached “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Now thanks to 2 millennia of fire and brimstone theology designed to keep people obedient and afraid, most people read this and think it means, “You better clean up your act, because the Big Boss is coming back and he’s pretty mad.”
But it says nothing of the sort. Repent, metanoia in the Greek, means to acquire a new mind, a new consciousness. And the word used for “at hand” literally means “within your reach.”
So the message is: Acquire a new kind of consciousness, transform your mind and the kingdom of heaven is within your grasp. Right here and right now.
This is a radically different message - instead of telling folks to keep their heads down, be obedient and wait for their reward in the next lifetime (which is really convenient for the Ruling Elite who don’t want the people to ask too many questions), the real point is to get people to take responsibility for their transformation, right now.
It is possible to experience the life, liberty, and light of the kingdom in this lifetime. Not that it’s easy – it requires work to shake off the shackles of fear, ignorance, and repression, and it requires real and sustained work to bring out the inner spark of the Divine. This is one of the many ways that Gnosticism differs from the world of self-help and new age seminars. We’re not here to prop up the ego with affirmations and mass-market bromides or to teach you The Secret of how to use visualizations to manifest a new sports car. Puffing up the ego is precisely what is not needed. The realization that you are a Divine being means that it’s time to go to work, to dethrone the ego, to break through illusion and begin to live out of the Divine presence within. It does no good to sell fuzzy slippers to sleepwalkers – the point is to wake up and begin the journey home.
What is meant by the "twin"?
Some scriptures refer to Thomas Didymus as the twin – in fact, both “Thomas” and “Didymus” literally mean “twin.”
In the Gospel of Thomas, he is presented as someone who is initiated by Jesus into secrets that are not revealed to the other disciples. Jesus tells him, “Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."
The point, as I see it, is not whether or not Thomas was literally the twin brother of Jesus. The point is that we’re all Thomas – and we all have a twin, a Being that is Divine while at the same time just like us. The uniting of ourselves with this twin is again referred to in the Gospel of Thomas when it says, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner.” In the Golden Dawn and related traditions, they called this obtaining the “Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.”
Tell us a little about your own spiritual journey?
 I was born and raised in the world of Evangelical Protestantism, but at a very early age grew dissatisfied with the lack of vitality, the absence of any real method of transformation. I remember having these moments of awe and wonder that seemed so much more real than the Sunday hymns and sermons, and I had an intuition that there was a path to connect with this something.
As a teen, I was drawn to Gnosticism by reading Elaine Pagels’ book The Gnostic Gospels; several books by Herman Hesse, including Demian and Steppenwolf; and the works of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.
The lack of any organized Gnostic community made following this path a real challenge, so I wandered around for quite a few years. My path included various detours and rewarding explorations of several different traditions, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Wicca, the Golden Dawn, the Fourth Way, and Vajrayana Buddhism. But there was always something about the Gnostic stories that kept calling to me and eventually drew me to the Work I’m involved in today .
What is the role of the Primate in the Alexandrian Gnostic Church?
First of all, the Alexandrian Gnostic Church is striving to maintain a balance between the recognition of the traditional sacramental roles of bishops, priests, and deacons and the understanding that all of us are contain a Spark of the Divine and should play a role in the growth, development, and mission of the Church. As far as possible, decisions are made by consensus.
The sacramental servant-leader roles are a symbol and image, in the same way that the Eucharist is a symbol – that is, they’re not merely symbols, but vessels through which the Spirit can be made visible and can manifest.
In the mass, normal elements – bread and wine – are set aside, blessed, and are transformed into something different – something that partakes of the nature of the real world beyond appearances. This is a rite which has been practiced, not just by the Christian Church for two thousand years, but by followers of many traditions for millennia.
In the same way, in the consecration of a bishop or the ordination of a priest (or priestess – we ordain people regardless of gender identification), a person is set aside, blessed, and through the laying on of hands becomes someone different, someone who is empowered to represent Christ the Logos and Sophia the Holy Spirit in a special way. This doesn’t mean that they become infallible – the world is full of bishops and priests who bring discredit upon their ordination, and all of us remain flawed human beings. But it does mean that a particular channel of grace has been opened, if the ordinand chooses to be open to it and to work to make it available to others.
One way of looking at Apostolic Succession, by which we trace the office of bishop back to the apostles by the laying on of hands, is a symbol of our connection to an initiatory stream. It’s a vital, living connection to the Catholic Church (catholic literally means “universal”), and symbolically, to the ancient traditions that preceded it and formed it. It’s a way of acknowledging our responsibility to this heritage, and it’s a means of tapping into a spiritual current. Our Church has succession from the Gnostic Restoration churches of Jules Doinel and Bernard Raymond Fabre-Palaprat, as well as from the Coptic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and other mainstream Apostolic Churches.
It’s easy to get caught up in titles, but the value of any office is ultimately in whether or not you are doing the work. Impressive titles and pedigrees don’t mean anything if you never say mass, visit the sick, conduct classes, or do any other work of active ministry. We believe that ultimately the validity of ordination and consecration is proven by service to the Community.
As to the position of the Primate of the Alexandrian Gnostic Church, my roles are several, but the most important are that of steward of the vision of the community and the development of pastoral servant leaders. At the end of the day, the position has no authority beyond what is earned by principled and consistent service. The trappings of the Office serve only to remind that there is something here bigger than one individual, that this is about faithfulness to the community and to a tradition of mystics, poets, priests, and prophets that is older and bigger than any of us.
What is your relationship to the historical Gnostics?
Contrary to historians and religious pundits, Gnosticism never disappeared. The Cathars, the alchemists, the hermeticists, and individuals like William Blake, Giordano Bruno, Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, and others all testify to the continuity of the Tradition. Proving some sort of direct connection between individuals and organizations is difficult, but that really isn’t the main point. The Gnosis has never gone away – how could it?
There are traditions of continuity which we value – through the secret Church of John, for example - but the main point is to see them as an image of the continual burning of the fire of Gnosis.
As to our connection to “historical Gnostics,” meaning the Gnostics of the classical era, they certainly serve as an important inspiration for us. Their writings which have survived play an important part of our devotional life, and they are used in our liturgies and prayers.
But we’re not playing at being reconstructionists - we do not claim to be doing or saying precisely what any early school of gnostics said or did. The widely-varying forms that Gnosis took in 150 C.E. in the Mediterranean were suitable for that time and place, and they reflected the personal struggles and inquiries of specific individuals or groups. We’re never going to succeed in replicating that – nor should we try. A living tradition changes and adapts, acquires new insights and practices as the world around it changes. The worst thing that could happen is for folks to take the Nag Hammadi writings and take a fundamentalist approach with them.
These writings point to experiences and visions of the people who wrote them, and the point as I see it, is to inspire us to our own visions, our own dynamic encounter with the Divine. The Gnostics of the classical era lived in an exciting time when, because of the spread of Greek culture, there was a period where for the first time people could encounter and interact with religious and philosophical traditions outside of their personal tribal or national background. So they wrestled with questions and drew upon a wide variety of sources and traditions, the Mystery religions of Greece and Egypt, Hellenized Judaism, ithraism, Platonism, and others, discarding what didn’t work, and adapting and changing ideas to facilitate their own struggle for liberation.
Real faithfulness to this tradition, then, is much more than just trying to adopt their answers wholesale. As exciting and inspirational as the Nag Hammadi writings are, I’m frankly more excited about people today writing new myths, singing new songs, creating new art, and casting new visions. Our responsibility to this tradition requires that we continue to dance with it, learning some new steps along the way. I think that this is just what the classical Gnostics did.
What is your opinion of the various end-of-the-world scenarios like those popularized by the many books about 2012 or the Left Behind series?
I think this kind of recurring speculation really misses the point.
Take the Book of Revelations, for instance, which has spawned numerous instances of end-of-the-world hysteria. As I see it, the Book isn't about the destruction of the planet at all. The text says that it is the Apocalypse of Jesus, and Apocalypse in Greek (Apokálypsis) means 'lifting the veil."
So the Apocalypse isn't about the end of the world, the European Economic Community, the New World Order, or any of those other things the televangelists try to frighten you with - generally right before they ask for your credit card information.
The Apocalypse is about the unveiling of Jesus Christ. In my opinion, this is an internal process- an alchemical transformation. For a Gnostic, the revelation, or unveiling of Christ is something that happens to us as we begin to live out of the dynamic Christ that is within each of us.
Every few years someone is peddling a new end of the world scenario. Remember Y2K? Unfortunately, we live with a structure driven largely by fear, so this sort of gimmick keeps working again and again.
Do Gnostics eat babies and conduct orgies, as certain early church fathers claimed?
No. It’s important to remember that prior to the finding of the Nag Hammadi writings most of what scholars and the public at large knew about Gnosticism was from the pen of Iranaeus and other so-called heresiologists. Iranaeus was the Bishop of Lyons in France, and was part of the party in the Church that we might call proto-orthodox. He and his associates worked hard to market their version of Christianity as the One True Faith as passed down by the Apostles.
Now the truth is that at the time, there were quite a few varieties of Christianity at that time, including: the Ebionites, who kept the Jewish law and viewed Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, but not as God; Docetics, who believed that Jesus didn’t really have a physical body; Adoptionists, who believed that Jesus became the Son of God at his baptism; the Thomasine communities; the Johannite community; and quite a few more. These groups were cross-pollinating, evolving, competing, and interacting with the larger religious and philosophical world around them.
Iranaeus and his crew attempted to present their views as the only legitimate one, so he wrote a five-volume work called On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis, commonly called Adversus haereses. He was hardly an unbiased reporter. He had a definite agenda, and that was to discredit the Gnostics and anyone else he disagreed with and he didn’t let little things like facts stand in his way. So what you have is five volumes of lies, distortions, and slander. He was sort of like the Bill O’Reilly of his day.
I've often suspected that in addition to his ecclesiastical political agenda, Iranaeus was driven by what Wilhelm Reich called the Emotional Plague.
In the psychological system of Wilhelm Reich, the "emotional plague" exists as a sort of mental disease which spreads throughout societies whose members are genitally blocked, i.e., incapable of genuine, healthy sexual love or expression.
Hating life, creativity and freedom, and terrified that their own frustrated drives could explode uncontrollably at the slightest provocation, victims of the "emotional plague" cope by seeking to control, punish, and censor others who are healthy. - from the Gnostic Friends Network
He was the one who accused Gnostics of doing unspeakable things, and this line was picked up by scholars, who didn’t really have any other source of information about Gnostics until recently. So much of what you hear repeated about Gnosticism today by the media, and even by scholars – that we are elitist, world-hating misogynists – is largely shaped by the smear job penned by Iranaeus and his collaborators.
What is your hope and vision for the Alexandrian Gnostic Church?
Well, Jesus said that we shouldn't hide our light under a bushel, and I don't think that the Light of Gnosis should be kept hidden. For a long time, due to religious and political circumstances, the Gnostic community was forced to function underground – in secret lodges, in solitary alchemical laboratories, in whispered gatherings of two or three, and the development of open Gnostic institutions was impossible.
But we don’t live with the same circumstances today, and we don’t have those excuses to hide behind. It’s time to shake off that mentality and develop a real presence – there are too many people who are seeking for what the tradition has, and we have a responsibility to be visible and welcoming.
We need to build our own institutions, on our own terms – taking what works from forms and traditions we’ve inherited, but not bound by them. We need to make the Community and the Sacraments available regularly and in many more locations than we currently do.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives us an important lesson on this subject:
For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and
immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a fewthings, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
Now, there are several interesting lessons to draw out of this parable, but one of them is that we are not just guardians of a tradition – we are responsible for ministering out of that tradition, for making it visible and interacting with the world. We can’t bury it in the ground and be self-satisfied, thinking we are faithful stewards. Real stewardship means visibly engaging the world around us, making ourselves available consistently to seekers and fellow travelers. Without real work of ministry and service, there's not much to separate a church from the Society for Creative Anachronism.
On a practical level, there’s much to be done. Our parish in the New York/Northern New Jersey area is growing, and soon we’ll be moving into a regular place of worship. Our small community continues our committment to weekly liturgy and study groups, and we’re planning additional public meetings, classes, and seminars. We’ve got new people in formation, preparing to become servants of the growing ecclesia. And we’re hoping to take on some collective work in service to the community, particularly in ministering to the poor, which is an essential part of a Church’s mission.We’re also talking to people who are interested in forming new Gnostic study groups which will hopefully grow to be living parishes, with their own dynamic and their own approach to building the community. There’s a need today for dozens of new parishes, and we are going to do what we can to help make that happen.
We’re working on finalizing our structure for the formation of new clergy and on developing a Foundations Course for inquirers and new members. Both programs involve practice and service, not only academic study. We’re working on new publications that will expand our reach to folks who aren’t close to a Gnostic parish or community.
On a broader level, as a Church we hope to contribute to a greater sense of cooperation among the various Gnostic Churches. We’re committed to working together with all Churches that are part of the Gnostic Restoration – there’s too much work to be done to let pettiness and ego separate us, and there’s much to be gained by pooling our talents and insights.
We’re excited about the growth of the North American College of Gnostic Bishops, which is taking real steps towards developing dialogue and collaboration among various Gnostic Churches. Our Church was just admitted as a member of the College, and we're looking forward to working to build and strengthen its work. And we heartily support the All Saints Accord, which was initiated by the Apostolic Johannite church as a very simple agreement of mutual respect and recognition among Gnostic Bishops. I have also begun collaborating with the group of Congregational Illuminists working with Tau Allen Greenfield, which includes work with the Points Chaud. There’s just too much work to be done to let ego and pettiness prevent us from collaborating. And there’s too much to be gained by pooling our talents, insights, and labor.
Further down the road, we hope to see the development of a visible Gnostic presence – Gnostic retreat centers, a Gnostic seminary, and living and growing parishes with regular masses, meditation, and discussion. Not building institutions for their own sake, but to create space for the Spirit to move and manifest, and to meet the needs of people who are interested in being part of this movement of the Spirit. We’re enthusiastic about the idea of continuing to develop our own culture – music, iconography, and new ways of expressing and experiencing Gnosis. The Restoration of the Gnostic Church is not just a historical event; it is an ongoing process, and we’re excited to be a small part of it.
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