I'm a Gnostic. No...I'm a Gnostic.

Well it's been 6 months since I entered this crazy little online world of soapbox speeches and know-it-alls. I have a selection of blogs I keep my eye on and even comment on from time to time, mainly my fellow AJC brethren. I learn a lot from these sites about Gnostic praxis...the active application of Gnostic values and ideals upon one's life and worldview in the pursuit of gnosis. But this is where the helpful stuff ends.

I have joined many Yahoo! Groups and have recently left them all. I have participated in many discussion forums but no longer go to any of them. Why? Because, quite bluntly, I have #$%*! sick and tired of defending my thoughts against people have an insatiable need to make themselves feel better about their lives by putting down others. I am done with rambling soapbox speeches, rampant scripture copy/pasting and verbal diarrhea. I am most especially done with the incessant non-stop particularly vicious anti-Religion smear campaigning. So, you don't like churches. Get over it!

In the past months I have heard it all. From people that insist that you can't be a Gnostic if you believe in the teachings of Jesus to people that spout that gnosis is not divine knowledge but in fact it is the logical understanding on the mathematics of the universe. You have the blithely naive that hop from one idea to the other, blindly trying to find something, anything to believe in. You have the obliquely mysterious who seem to think that the more innocuously worded their rhyming answers are, the wiser they appear. You have the dreaded firestarters, the anarchists, the atheists who don't even know what they believe, scientists, and theological philosophers who are perpetually contemplating their navel. And mixed in like so much filler are all the confused and grasping individuals who have no idea where to begin but have a deep need to explore this Gnostic path they read about in the Da Vinci Code.

If it isn't 136 emails on whether Nazareth really was a place, it's 238 emails on the validity of Gnostic apostolic succession. If it isn't 356 emails on the clear and indisputable fact that all priests, Gnostic or otherwise, are just out to aggrandize themselves, it's 156 emails on colourful personal definitions of "my God" by people who are totally and blithely unaware that they are describing the God of their ego, and in no way are touching on the one true Father, the Pleroma. Uh...what's a Pleroma? Aaargh!!

But the granddaddy of them all is the billion and one personal definitions of what gnosis and Gnosticism "is". It seems that every Baptist dissident, perpetually guilty disillusioned Catholic, spiritually inclined atheists or religiously intrigued scientist flock to the brand spanking new banner of "Gnosticism" and claim to make it theirs. It has become a freaking buzzword, with no more content or meaning than Hoola-Hoop™ or He-Man®.

But what is IS, what GnosticISM is, is a 2000+ year old religion (gasp...I said religion) designed to enhance and support the realization of gnosis. It's simple. It doesn't have a monopoly on the concept of gnosis, but it does on the concept of Gnosticism. It's like arguing over the meaning of the word "dirt" or "jelly bean". They have clearly defined and understood meanings that have existed for hundreds, even thousands of years. Just because, in your ignorance or in popular cultures ignorance, you are unaware of what the word Gnositicism represents, that doesn't make the definition of term Gnosticism invalid. This term is unfortunately trending towards the fate of the words "gay" and "faggot". Their original ages old meanings are being distorted or even reassigned by today's popular culturists who feel it is their right and obligation to do what they want whenever they want to without regard to tradition or history as long as it suits their needs of the moment.

But honestly? None of it matters. What others think or do have no bearing on how I live my life or how I pursue gnosis. My path is decided and steadfast.

I just wish I could find a place where ongoing helpful discussions about everyday practices of Gnosticism, Spirituality, Paganism, and Magick happen daily and constantly. I have started a Yahoo! Group called Gnostic Ecclesia in the hopes of encouraging something like this to happen but that will take some time.

Argument and discord commonly lead to dissention and strife. This all leads to suffering. The point of all this is to find happiness and love. Debates are necessary within a community of folks whose goals are similar in the pursuit of a greater Work. But they are destructive between individuals who are as of yet still completely unaware of their own ignorance. I accept my ignorance, and humbly seek a path towards salvation.