There has been a rash of articles recently, posted mostly by Protestant Christian pundits, claiming that the falloff in mainline church attendance is due to the fact that yoga, tai chi, "spirituality" and the occult are easy, whereas Christianity is hard. Ofttimes Gnosticism is explicitly counted among the easy.
Easy?
Part of the reason I identify as a Gnostic is that firmly around my right wrist is the inexorable pull of the Roman Catholic Church; its solidity, ubiquity, liturgy and aesthetic. I could be so Catholic it's not funny: and not one of those tie-dyed chasuble guitar-Massing Vatican II theowobbly neo-Caths either, but a full-frontal SSPX Tridentine UberTraddie.
A similarly continual but contrary tug around my left wrist is Judaism; its wit, iconoclasm, spiritual literacy, and humanity.
My brain – well it thinks like a Buddhist. I trained it that way; to doubt, and to doubt my doubts, to suspend, detach, examine. and defer always to compassion.
But at the very center of these forces is my Witch's heart; my blood is salty with poetry and sex and lunar magics and imagination. The turning of autumn leaves brings out cravings for bonfires and woad and howling to the Great Mother.
Needless to say this agon, this ongoing negotiation of forces, is for the most part crazy-making, and it's little wonder that in any conversation I undertake I come across as a dilettante bibliophile, with either too much Kerouac or too little; either an overdose or tragic deficit of Aristotle. An ADD-addled molotov-hurling William Burroughs vs. my inner pipe-smoking tweedy Victorian Latin-spouting harrrrumph!er. Easy?
So how do I, personally, equilibriate these opposing forces? By identifying, fighting for, and championing common ground in Her name. Shekhina. The Holy Spirit. Sophia. By the understanding (Gnostics don't have beliefs, we have understandings), as in Theodoto, that what makes us free is the gnosis of who we are, of what rebirth truly is.
And what it is, is work.
Easy. Pffft.
10 comments:
Thanks for introducing me to the greek word agon, which dictionary.com tells me is the root of "agony." It seems quite appropriate to describe this battle of the many energy / impulse systems going on within us all at all times.
Certainly biased by my own experience, it is hard to imagine any other approach to this great adventure than working from the inside outward (once becoming aware of these different energies acting from within).
Great blog. I was recommended this blog by an acquintance and this was the first thing I read. For those of us who have grown up with certain traditions, have tendencies towards others, and have trained ourselves as skeptics (you mention Buddhism, but this could easily be any philosophical inquiry) there is no spirituality that can be considered as "easy". What is "easy" is being told what to do, never questioning, never feeling the pang of your own conscience.
Thanks so much for a really fantastic, insightful post! (I'm particularly entertained by the mental image of the inner pipe-smoking tweedy Victorian Latin-spouting harrrrumph!er.) It really strikes a familiar chord with me.
The orthodox see all their ridiculous rules laid out, and see our lack of rules and regulations, and say to themselves "Oh, they have it easy, they don't have to follow the rules."
On the other hand, the gnostic sees the orthodoxy's rules and says "THEY have it easy - all they have to do is follow rules."
It's hard for the orthodox to look at gnosticism and realize that even though we don't have explicit rules for EVERY LITTLE DAMN THING, we're not just some sort of licentious bunch of libertines. They think that since we don't have laws and rules, we must just do "whatever." But we DO have a behavioral PRINCIPLE, it just isn't worked out into rules - and that's gnosis. People deserve respect and fair treatment because they are parts of our world, therefore a part of our own being, a part of ourselves. We don't have the Law, but we usually would end up behaving in accordance with it anyway. It is said correctly that the Law is given not to the just but to the unjust; for the just have fulfilled the Law in their hearts via gnosis, and need not call it from outside.
>>claiming that the falloff in mainline church attendance...whereas Christianity is hard.
I speak as one raised and braised in Christian fundamentalism in the buckle of the Bible Belt, and indeed it was hard for me. Hard for me to reconcile a mentality of "We're the Chosen, the rest are going to burn in hell" with all the lip-service on love and humility. Hard to be quiet when the sermon was on charitable love, the reading 'give all you have to the poor', but the giant thermometer on the wall claims we need yet another new facility. Hard to pretend I have an inflexible viewpoint for sake of "true doctrine." Hard to sit by idly while things I admired were condemned, namely other spiritual traditions, certain movies, books, ideas, most of all, the natural world. Nowadays when others ask if I believe in Jesus, I tell them I'm gnostic--which I think shuts the proselytism down due to it's intellectual appearance, but use to when others asked, I would tell them I didn't leave the church, I outgrew it.
Beautiful post, Frater.
BS"D
Ameyn to your Ortho comment, Sparkwidget.
& Jordy, you're, like, the Elvis of Catholics - able to converse fluently with the mainstream while that slice of Jew thrown into your brew has you struggling with G@d ("Yisra'el").
having recently slipped out of the fold, I would definitely agree. The easy thing was having my beliefs dictated to me, but now each contemplation is a struggle.
Thank you for a genuinely soul-pleasing website and vignette ("Pulled"). I too (still) feel the pull of Roman Catholicism. The "magic" of Gregorian Chant, the mysticism of of the long-time-gone "Hoc est calixis" etc. etc. The comforting rhythm of repetion of "dona nobis pacem", which was eventually supplanted by more comprehensible, similar repetions (Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy).
And the deep, deep mysteriousness of midnight Holy Benedictions of The Blessed Sacrament...long, long time
(lifetimes really) ago.
But there was so little heart..so little mercy... so little compassion for the frailties of the human condition.
I found a spiritual refuge later in life in the Episcopal Church, and still call myself an "Episcopalian in my heart". The Episcopal path has the heart that I found missing from the RC path...but I still have no conviction in my heart for the "core" of creed...I truly don't find the Jesus story to be credible...fortunately I also do not find this "story" (death & resurrection) to be a necessary (nor even important) component of the "Christian message that Jesus taught.
It was his "cutting thru all the BS" to redefine in 2 simple commands that which God requires of us, and upon which rest"all of the Law and the Prophets"...there and there alone I find the truly important aspectof this man Jesus who was more than a man...perhaps...that much is of no importance.
And now, having just seen the Da Vinci Code (after also having read same) I find renewed in me a long dormant interest in the travails of the Widow's Son... a path I once walked briefly (and for, at the time, purely commercial motivation), I find myself reading about the "secrets" of the brotherhood, and wondering if I "missed something" while on that stroll thru the degrees.
I think that I did. There really does seem to be more than shopworn posturing and repetition in that particular quarter...(though as of yet I know not what I failed to "see" during my earlier years).
At any rate, while reading up on Masonic traditions and origins, I kept having a sneeking suspicion that there was something "very gnostic" about the attitude of the writer's thought processes.
I was very pleased to read your explicit "linking" of Freemasonry to the Gnostic tradition. I am now attempting to rejoin the benevolent brotherhood...to give it ...and myself a second chance.
Thanks once again for this splendid spiritual oasis... a feast for the spirit!
A fantasic read. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts here with us. I read with great interest!
Brightest,
Tara
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