Monthly Archives: April 2023

Aeon and the Apocalypse

The Revelation of John stands out as perhaps the oddest document in the compilation of texts known as the Bible. If you have read that compilation, you realize how odd it is to stand out in that crowd. Of the books of the New Testament, its inclusion was the most controversial, and it was notContinue reading “Aeon and the Apocalypse”

Aeons and the Sethian Gnostics

Another group of Gnostics, the Sethians, would contribute another critical concept to the cluster of ideas around the word “Aeon.” Until fairly recently, what was known about their beliefs came from the writings of Irenaeus, a Second Century Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul. The Sethians’ focus was mainly on the period before the Creation NarrativesContinue reading “Aeons and the Sethian Gnostics”

Tuesday Quote

“You never believed in the meaning of this world, and youtherefore deduced the idea that everything was equivalentand that good and evil could be defined according to one’swishes. You supposed that in the absence of any human ordivine code the only values were those of the animal world –in other words, violence and cunning. HenceContinue reading “Tuesday Quote”

Aeon in Gnosticism

In the Second Century of the Common Era, the notion of “Aeon” underwent a critical transformation within the teachings of a Gnostic Christian heresy called Valentinianism. This movement originated with the Egyptian thinker Valentinus, born in 100 CE and educated in Alexandria. He was involved with the Catholic community in Rome. Though none of hisContinue reading “Aeon in Gnosticism”

Logos and Magi

The English word “Magus” comes from a Latinized form of the Greek μάγος magos. The Greeks, in turn, acquired the term from Persian magus. In the 4th Century, the word entered into the Greek vocabulary following their contact with practitioners of Zoroastrianism. The Greeks did not quite understand the Zoroastrian tradition, but what they didContinue reading “Logos and Magi”

No Profane Political Agenda (ii)

The Temple, as you have wisely observed, has no political agenda. It is like Plato’s academy, which sent forth tyrants and scholars, philosophers and generals. We don’t take on the world of what is already conditioned and created, but all of our successful graduates do. We seldom lend our Instrumentality to their purposes, knowing thatContinue reading “No Profane Political Agenda (ii)”