I have looked for this book since I found an excerpt from it on the net over a year
ago, after that 11.September occured and me and my neighbours are somewhat estranged
for being Christians and Moslems in the manner almost we as kids played
Cowboys and Indians. As some people who know me might have guessed, I have a
particular interest in the mysticism and advanced esoterism of Islam (which I got
quite a lot of criticism for calling "Blessed Islam", but those who criticized me
for using that expression failed to see where I was going with my expression; namely,
for the Gnostic (in manner of Sufi "knower"/"lover" of God) - the submission inherent
in the term Islam is based on an insight and understanding whose true impulse is the
positive "Yea", even into the controversies and contradictions of phenomenological
existence; a recognition whose response and impulse is the embrace. This is a deeper
"faith" which shares the power of attraction which Divine Grace and Mercy possess
inherently, so through this "loving knowledge" or enlightened compassion, Man
may participate in the restoration and creation which proceeds from the Will and
Mind of the Most Merciful One. With no recognition, only a dull fear, and with
resistance and a suspicion towards the One - no Gnosis may ever enlighten Man
either, because it lacks the dynamic potency of direct participation.) -
finding
on the Internet is quite a joy for me and I can`t wait to bury myself in his tale
of his covert entry into the forbidden and mysterious sanctuaries of the religion
we still know too little about in the Christian west...
The Gutenberg Project has made the work available in two volumes -
you can find them through these links: Volume I , Volume II
When I turned 18,I was living at an adult boarding school studying practical writing
and painting... I had just began realizing that my worldview were remarkably alike
that of the Gnostics, and that in the muddle of it all, a personal incarnation of
Sophia, Divine Wisdom - were very important. Reading a lot, I discovered the
Russian Poet Alexandr Blok (1880-1921). He figured among the Symbolist circle
which often went under the name The Argonauts, "facing the wrong way" briefly before he began translating his visions into language which even the Marxists could
digest and accept (the cultural revolution/revisionism of the early 20th century Russia
were as intolerant for fancy as the Fascist regime of Mussolini and Hitlers Volkische
national socialism ..but Russia has always loved her bards, with tough love nonetheless)
..of course, after that, his colleagues in Europe could find it hard to find the red thread in his lyricism.. Mikhail Bulgakov, I feel, portrays the dilemma of Blok and his kin, pretty well in the form of the "Poet" in his fable The Master and Margarita.
His most known work in english is his Verses to The Beautiful Lady, which is dedicated to Sophia - yet also towards his wife, which is very much in the spirit of later Troubador mysticism, which touches ground with Sophianism and the Christian Gnosis as well.
Lynn Harvey at www.anthemion.com presents own translated excerpts from Blok`s Verses to the Beautiful Lady
At the Poems of Alexandr Blok homepage you can find other examples of his work.
It has always caused a particular kind of unease in me whenever the faceless majority
has deigned it righteous and on time to proclaim another universal.
With the advent of a soft and cuddly authoritarianism presenting its credentials as being the necessary controlling agent, for the common good -
thinking men and women may indeed find themselves in a predicament worse than a rodent in a glass cage.
If he or she fail to conform to the norm, and even show signs of resistance to the newfound memetic drug being administered in the spiritual equivalent of Kool Aid; all flavour and no nuitritional value - You may take it for granted it is gloriously broadcast to all the world, and particularly directly to the dull synapses of the Mass-man. Having wasted prose on this nervous reaction to the self-evident truths of the crowd, I have assassinated my own character. Consequence is estimated to be infinitessmally small - yet it has presented greater minds than mine with a bill which is well above their ability to pay. One of the debtors, whose fate you may scrutinize and decide you want to join the barking choir after all, and conform now without regret and circumstance - were Soren Kierkegaard. A Nation may be trusted in doing nothing else, but butchering its own prophets,poets and artists...As predictable a treatment is the post mortem installment of the embalmed ghost into whatever derelict mausoleum serves as the national treasury of culture and learning.
Before being deterred thusly, Soren Kierkegaard exercised his human right to dissect the particular reality construct..the so-called world and everything, the beguiling lie which is whispered into the infants ears before they are equipped to hear anything else...
Soren Kierkegaard wrote on this particular topic the following:
There is a view of life which holds that where the crowd is, the truth is also, that it is a need in truth itself, that it must have the crowd on its side.There is another view of life; which holds that wherever the crowd is, there is untruth, so that, for a moment to carry the matter out to its farthest conclusion, even if every individual possessed the truth in private, yet if they came together into a crowd (so that "the crowd" received
any decisive, voting, noisy, audible importance), untruth would at once be let in.
Where the crowd is..a decisive importance is attached to the fact that there
A crowd - not this or that, one now living or long dead, a crowd of the lowly or of nobles, of rich or poor, etc., but in its very concept - is untruth, since a crowd either renders the single individual wholly unrepentant and irresponsible, or weakens his responsibility by making it a fraction of his decision. Observe, there was not a single soldier who dared lay a hand on Caius Marius; this was the truth. But given three or four women with the
consciousness or idea of being a crowd, with a certain hope in the possibility that no one
could definitely say who it was or who started it: then they had the courage for it; what
untruth! The untruth is first that it is "the crowd," which does either what only the single individual in the crowd does, or in every case what each single individual does.
For a crowd is an abstraction, which does not have hands; each single individual, on the other hand, normally has two hands, and when he, as a single individual, lays his two hands on Caius Marius, then it is the two hands of this single individual, not after all his neighbor's, even less - the crowd's, which has no hands.
(Soren Kierkegaard: The Crowd is Untruth at Christian Classics Ethereal Library )
The same site has a lot of english translations of Kierkegaards works in its archives.
William Blake are among several poets and artists who have, from own isionary capacity, expressed the Gnostic attitude to his fellows.
His lines:
"The Vision of Christ that thou dost see is my Visions Greatest enemy." opening the final stanza of the poem The Everlasting Gospel has become ever more pertinent to the raging seas of theological dispute, now happening in the midst of ordinary people- no longer the privilege of clergy and scholars - no longer confined to the halls of academia. Christology is a very complex,variated and dangerous field of "knowledge"; it consists more or less of opinion and contention - one includes a Soteriology, which is to say, a teaching concerning a role of Christ as saviour - another negates it entirely as pertinent;
one includes a Eschatology, a teaching of how the whole world and Time with it, will come to an end.. even considerations of the calculation of day and hour this will occur - another still negates it. One of the Christologies would hold that that particular Christ (since Christos is Greek for "The Anointed", and in context with New Testament hermeneutics that Anointed one in particular is held to be the Messiah/Maschiach of the Hebrew tradition) which is named Jesus of Nazareth - were all his life simply a man - others would negotiate another space, place and role for this Christ which would originate in and with the Father, God - and hold him to be only and first begotten of God, some christologies - notably that of the Jehovahs Witnesses, hold Jesus to be the corporal incarnation of an angel, namely Michael - and in so doing - they follow the pattern of one among a hundred of Christological "heresies" according to the victorious and dominant Church traditions.
Today, theologians and apologists of one or another school - i.e. one or another heresy (which is even true of that heresy which names itself Orthodox, Apostolic or Catholic! Since Haereses means schools of interpretation/discipline..and initially nothing else) - maintain that conformity to their own norm of who and what Christ is, determine whether one person or one denomination are Christian or not. It is, with other words, still not entirely an issue of majority vote who really are Christian - Catholic and Protestant theologians can congratulate eachother for enstranging thousands of believers of their own Tradition who happened to study or read their books, and moreover the selfsame who bothers with these, will find that although they are initiated and instructed according to the best abilities of their so-called betters in their religious community - the contents registered in their thoughts concerning the mysteries or preoccupations of abstract religion, do not add up to neither a
perfectly pious Christian nor indeed a Christian at all.
Blake continues:
Thine
There is an illustration of Nicholas Flamel, a 15th century alchemy of the most obscure kind - which has a crowned serpent crucified on a simple wooden cross.. that image came to mind in the preceeding stanza which reads;
And .. with wrath He did subdue The Serpent bulk of Natures dross....
Till he had nailed it to the Cross
He took on Sin in the Virgins Womb,
and put it off on the Cross & Tomb
The Gnostic Christ, which again is variant to Blake`s Christ - often turns up as a catalyst for a transformation which penetrates down into the darkest and most obscure and lost places.. an mythologem such as Jesus descent and harrowing of Hell, where he more or less clean`s shop and bursts the jailcells of the dark lord of death and endless sleep..arrives in Christendom during the persecution era, where a rebellion against not only Fate which is topical to even the Judaism of the time, but also against Time, Mortality and indeed Nature took place, the fire of this rebellion burns ever still...keeping people who think about the wellfare of the world keen and attentative to believers of every color and orientation who make claim at being Christian.
What occasioned this rant where my finding of
The William Blake Archive Homepage Where you may find electronic versions of a goodly bulk of his work.
There I also found the following;
No man can think write or speak from his heart but he must intend truth.
Thus all sects of Philosophy are from the Poetic Genius adapted to the
weaknesses of every individual.
Which I find to be apropos of my earlier rant of the mind-numbing variety of schools and views and contentions concerning the Mystery person of the Christian religion..Each can only achieve, produce or receive according to the ability and disposition of himself/herself. The concept of fullness not only speaks to singularity in perfection (sic) but also to progression in and through plurality.
The Gnostic Churches of our modern time are usually considered to
have originated in the last decade of the 19th century in France.
As part of his survey of the esoteric orders from that area and
onwards, Milko Bogaard has let the Gnostique site of Philip Garver
, publish his Gnostic Church History, available in three parts. I' d like to add that I am not
entirely convinced that the OTO "family" of Thelemic sacramental congregations... belong to the history of the Gnostic Churches.
Yesterday Jan told me that the site which had replaced our contents
with our own had been closed down by the name-domain services
with which he had his agreement. Due to the stress put upon our
"reputation" by the incident it is unlikely the address will be used
in the future. Jan also informed me that he would get yet another address from the same provider...I take notice of his trust.
It also appears that the person presented as the owner of the
brasilian firm who took over www.bruchion.com for a brief period..
does not appear to exist. I wonder how many fall prey to this peculiar
kind of "domain hacking", and even more I wonder why anyone would
care to indulge in it. I have earlier heard about anti-masonic schemes which
involved A) someone hacking a masonic information webpage B)
replacing the contents with illegal p*rn*graphy and C) announcing
to the world, including authorities, that the Masons were making money
on selling p*rn*graphy on the Internet... Now that several countries
and states appear to want to "control" content and services on the
Internet and initiate legal actions locally based on offseas content,
assassination of character and credibility appears to be very easy
to do... a worrying thought for anyone likely to be targeted by hate
crime.