Part of the Casswiki article series Religion
Gnosticism is a group of spiritual traditions usually characterized by the following views:
Strong dualism - The universe is seen as governed by two opposite spiritual forces, the first one being a benevolent spiritual God, the second being a fallen angel responsible for all material creation. The God of the Old Testament is generally considered an evil demiurge and the God of the New Testament the benevolent God.
Belief in reincarnation - The notion is not stressed but is implicit, since reincarnation into the fallen world is simply seen as a likely, if undesirable, consequence of lack of spiritual progress.
A conception of life in the material world as a prison to escape from. The material world is seen as a sort of flawed creation by an incompetent and self-obsessed would be God, a demiurge.
Gnostics have generally not aspired to overt material power or riches and have stressed a modest and honest life and purification and freedom from desires of the world.
Generally pacifistic and tolerant attitude to other systems of beliefs. Not all are ready to leave the world behind, not everyone can become a Gnostic, hence when Gnosticism has been a significant system of beliefs, it has usually coexisted with other practices.
A usually complex cosmology involving multiple levels of being, orders of angels etc., with all ultimately emanating from a common source of creation. Archons of darkness are the minions of the demiurge and rule over the material world and maintain the bondage of humanity.
The idea that gnosis, first hand knowledge of divine mysteries is attainable to the human through earnest personal practice. Maybe as a result of this Gnostics have been often depicted as spiritually proud. Ignorance is seen as the bane of man and the principal factor which keeps man in prison.
Since gnosis is largely a matter of personal unveiling, Gnostics do not generally favor strong dogmatic constructions.
Gnosticism is not strictly limited to the Christian world and era but most Gnostic movements are in some relation to Christianity.
Valentinus, founder of the Valentinian movement in the 2nd century AD is the best known early Gnostic teacher. Manicheans, Bogomiles and Cathars or Albigensians are all Gnostic movements.
The Cathars of Southern France were the most recent case of Gnosticism approaching a mainstream status. The Cathars rivaled the popularity of the Catholic church in many places of provence and Languedoc in the 12th and 13th centuries and were consequently brutally exterminated by a succession of Papal crusades. A problem in the study of Gnosticism is that their beliefs and practices are for the most part known from records left by their detractors, such as the Catholic inquisition.
Mouravieff’s Gnosis series embraces certain Gnostic concepts but is not exactly a representative of Gnosticism in the sense where Valentinianism or Catharism are understood to be. An example of a traditionally Gnostic idea in Mouravieff is equating the God of the old Testament with Absolute III, otherwise known as Satan or Lucifer. Mouravieff makes the point somewhat circuitously, for evident reasons.
In the Bible, certain of the source texts of the New Testament have a Gnostic flavor. Paul the Apostle was clearly familiar with Gnosticism and some of the epistles have a Gnostic flavor. The Nag Hammadi scrolls are considered Gnostic.
The troubadours, travelling bards and poets of the middle ages, may have been influenced by Gnostic ideals. Gnostic ideas are often expressed in symbols of myth rather than in rigorous constructions of theology. We also find the medieval concept of courtly love, an ideal of the troubadours, re-emerging in Mourvieff’s Gnosis series under the name of “polar beings”. An ideal of chaste union between man and woman may have been a Gnostic ideal. Gnostics generally thought that bringing children into the fallen world to ‘feed the moon’ was not desirable. Men and women were generally spiritual equals in Gnostic movements, which was a clear departure from the prevalent medieval practices.
The 4th Way, in general, is not regarded as a Gnostic movement, although it agrees with Gnostic ideas in certain areas. For example the world being a prison which man may escape through hard work and spiritual development is one point of agreement. However the 4th Way does not regard the material world as intrinsically repugnant or a mistake. IT rather is simply the task set before man. Even contrary forces such as the General Law are seen as needful and justified, even required for man’s possible evolution.
The existence of a control system run by non-human forces, the Moon, Matrix, 4th density STS or control system, however one will call it, is another area of agreement between Gnosticism and the 4th Way.
The 4th Way is not dualistic in the Gnostic sense. It is clear that different spiritual forces are at work in the universe. Instead of being seen as inherently twisted or evil, the universe, including its material levels is seen as an evolving living system. Being such, it has a food chain, predators and so forth but this is not a sadistic mistake.
Of the three traditional Ways explicated by Gurdjieff, Gnosticism would come closest to the Way of the Yogi, although there may be some aspects of the Way of the Monk. The Way of the Fakir has nothing to do with Gnosticism, since the Gnostics see the body as sort of a necessary temporary evil and place no great stress on its exercise. Still, the emphasis on knowledge acquired by contemplation lends Gnosticism an intellectual flavor.
The key difference of Gnosticism and the 4th Way is the former’s rejection of the world. While the 4th Way sees this very world as the necessary source of shocks and challenges, the Gnostics would rather withdraw from it.