GNOSTICISM / MYSTICISMGnosticism was a contemporary of early Christianity whose demise can be traced to Christianity's efforts to silence its teachings. The Gnostic message, however, was not destroyed but simply went underground. Starting with the first emergence of Gnosticism, the author shows how its influence extended from the teachings of Neoplatonists and the magical traditions of the Middle Ages to the beliefs and ideas of the Sufis, Jacob Bohme, Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, and the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. In the language of spiritual Freemasonry, "gnosis" is the rejected stone necessary for the completion of the Temple, a temple of a new cosmic understanding that today's heirs to Gnosticism continue to strive to create.The Gnostics believed that the universe embodies a ceaseless contest between opposing principles. Terrestrial life exhibits the struggle between good and evil, life and death, beauty and ugliness, and enlightenment and ignorance: "gnosis" and "agnosis." The very nature of physical space and time is an obstacle to humanity's ability to remember its divine origins and recover its original unity with God. Thus the preeminent Gnostic secret is that we are God in potential, and the purpose of bona fide Gnostic teaching is to return us to our godlike nature.TOBIAS CHURTON is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine "Freemasonry Today." He studied theology at Oxford University and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book "The Gnostics," as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore. He lives in England.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1922 Edition.

It is a well-known fact that in the late 6th century Pope Gregory shaped the image of the Goddess in the Gospels, Mary Magdalene, into a penitent adulteress and prostitute-labels more recently abandoned in favor of "devoted follower" and even "Apostle to the Apostles." Conversely, Jesus' image and character were refashioned into a divinely born hero archetype and the body of his Gnostic wisdom teachings redacted and corrupted to support the personification of a Messiah and world redeemer who would fulfill an ancient prophesy and proclaim himself "the way" to salvation. If not accurate, then what was Jesus and Mary Magdalene's true legacy? Ariadne Green offers up the image of Divine Complements who married, had children and whose lives and mission together spanned over sixty years. She traces their journey from Judea and Galilee to the Nile Delta in Egypt, after an aborted crucifixion, and then onto Gaul and Great Britain as the carriers of the Grail. The book reveals a secret identity for Jesus, one known by the Knights Templar and a group of Cistercian monks, who hid clues to a legacy of secrets in La Queste Del Saint Graal. We discover Jesus' authentic teachings survived and became the tenets of Valentinian Gnostics who disseminated them in secret and initiated disciples into a profound mystery-the mystery of the 'bridal chamber'.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1922 Edition.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1897 Edition.