Good Company

Pagan Blog Project - Week Fiveteen - G #2 – Gnostics

What we know about the ancient Gnostics is that we don’t know much. We know that the people who modern people might call Gnostic never called themselves Gnostic. The word Gnostic might have even been used as a slang. (Kind of like how the people who modern people call Pagan never ever called themselves Pagan.)

Plotinus, who is considered by many modern people to be a premier writer of Gnostic source materials, often wrote about the Gnostics as those goofy radicals down the street. "It is NOT as the Gnostics say..." (Kind of like how modern Pagans often write about “those fluff bunnies”, even though two thousand years ago we might all be seen as fluff bunnies.)

In regards to the Gnostics, we don’t know more than we know. But what I’ve learned about the Gnostics is that they’ve always been misunderstood. We don’t know who they are now and no one knew who they were then. Which translates to me that anything can be Gnostic, nothing is Gnostic, nothing is not-Gnostic. (Which works out really great for me.)

We know that the Sethians in Egypt were considered to be the first Gnostics, about 200 years or so before Christianity. These people were a sect of radical Jews who were probably inspired by Mediterranean (Greek) mystery traditions. And these Mediterranean mystery traditions were probably inspired by the Ancient Egyptian mystery traditions, which were inspired by God Only Knows. But whoever the Gnostics were, they went on to inspire Christianity, the Kabbalah, Masons, The Golden Dawn, Wiccans, modern Pagans, comic book artists, rock songs, books, movies, and a continuing cycle of inspired texts and prophets (Dick, Hesse, Moore, Smashing Pumpkins, ELO, etc.)

What I love about the early Gnostics was that they just wrote stuff all the time, and some of it is crazy. I get the impression that if there is was aspect about their current Gnostic myth that they didn’t like, they just wrote their own. So this means as a modern person reading this stuff it seems confusing and contradictory, but contradiction only need to exist in religion if one is looking at religion from a literal point of view. But when looking at religion as something that is organic, changeable, and evolving, the Gnostic myths make perfect sense, especially from a Universalist point of view.  We’re all on a path towards God, we know that each path is different. We’re all just wandering around on a crooked path and at the center is God. 

So who were the Gnostics and what did they do? We don’t really know. But what I like to think is that two thousand years ago, Gnostics, Jews, Pagans, Christians, atheists, agnostics and whoever else got together in comfy backrooms every once in a while. I’d like to think that they were all friends. That they sat and breathed together, wrote stupid stories about talking snakes and laughing gods, chanted, raised energy, talked about God, shared wine and bread, laughed, told jokes, had ecstatic moments, and afterword, in the words of my Bishop, they sat around in joy and said “how cool was that?!”

My Life Has Been Saved

Pagan Blog Project - Week Five - C #2 – Joseph Cambpell

 

In 2007 I found Joseph Campbell. My brand-new husband was living in a hotel in North Carolina, and I was in Texas, packing up the duplex and thinking about how my life was going to change so completely. (“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”) I’m a huge fan of documentaries, and I like to put them on in the background while I’m doing other things. I found an online video called the Power of Myth, It sounded like something I’d like, so I put it on, cranked up the volume, and put everything I owned into one box after another. 

Joseph Campbell was a folklorist and a scholar. He traveled the world and he gathered myths and stories from all corners of the globe. (“I don't have to have faith, I have experience.”) He wrote about the Hero Cycle and the Hero’s Journey and myths from all over the world. He inspired scholars and entertainers, writers and poets.

I was familiar with the concept of the hero’s journey because of a Greek myth class I had taken. That class was an eye-opening moment in my life, but that was during my pre-Pagan days, so I looked at the Hero’s Cycle with the eyes of an academic. (“The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.”) It wasn’t until after a few years of intense religious and spiritual study that I was ready for the Hero’s Cycle.

That summer, with nothing but me and my boxes and all of my world’s possessions, Joseph Campbell changed my life. 

It wasn’t just learning about how the Hero’s Cycle manifests in myth, but little real world applications blew my mind. The concept that we are all heroes, all the time, on our own hero journey… wow. (“The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here is the place to have the experience.”) I remember at one point I was in my living room and Brother Joseph said something so beautiful and profound and paradigm shattering that I just broke down and cried. 

It wasn’t until listening/watching the Power of Myth that I really began to integrate what I had been studying for all those years, that I was really able to internalize the ideas of interconnectedness, Oneness, forgiveness, cycles, beginnings, endings, integration, and all of these other details. It wasn’t until Joseph Campbell that myth changed from being something to read and think about with my mind, but also something I could feel with my heart. ("Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.”)

I broke down and cried because I realized that I no longer had to reject my Christian background. I didn’t have to be a literalist when it came to religion. It was okay to worship the metaphor. It was okay to indulge in ritual and magic. (“All religions are true but none are literal.”) Joseph Campbell was my introduction into Gnosis and mystic Christianity, which prepared me for reading the Jesus Mysteries later that summer. 

It was Joseph Campbell who prepared me for reading thebible, for reading the Gnostic texts, for eventually earning my ordination into what would eventually become the Fellowship of the Sacred Path. He helped recognize my anger with Christianity, which helped me to forgive Jesus. (“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”)

Over the years I’ve tried to proselytize the gospel of Brother Campbell upon my friends and family, with varying success. And I’m delighted when I’ve encountered friends who have had a similar awakening to their own Hero’s Journey. (“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty 'yes!' to your adventure ”)

I realized I don’t have to be Perseus or Luke Skywalker to have my own Hero’s Journey. We’re all on our own Hero’s Journey all the time. We’re always in this glorious cycle of life, death, rebirth, journeying, underworld travel, dark nights of the soul, etc. (“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That's why it's your path.”) Myth reminds us that we are the heroes! And Joseph Campbell reminds us to follow our bliss, whatever bliss that might be. (“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”) And it will be glorious.

Don't Lose Your Head

Pagan Blog Project - Week Three - B #1 – The Bible

It’s been a while since I’ve “stirred by cauldron” as my friend V likes to say, so let’s talk about the bible.

officially canon

A few years ago I decided to read the bible. I read it for a few different reasons. Western culture is Judeo-Christian, and I wanted to understand that mind-set. I wanted to understand the origins of my contemporary American society. I wanted to understand references made in literature. I think it’s worthwhile to read religious texts from many traditions. I wanted to know what the fuss was about. I wanted to read the bible before I read Gnostic texts. I wanted to have a few things to say when confronted with pushy Christians, but also to be able to carry a conversation with loving Christians, too. I also wanted to say “I did this!” and to be able to brag about it, because seriously, how many people actually read the bible?

So I read it, front to back. It took me a year to read the Old Testament, and a year to read the New Testament.

The Old Testament was often strange, confusing, and aggravating. Reading it was like scrying – you kind of let your mind go blurry and hope you get a clear picture when you’re finished. It was great to have context for the stories I was taught in Sunday school. There’s also a lot in there that we were never taught, mainly the racy stuff like incest, murder, two creation stories, trickery, etc. There’s also a lot of names. And a lot of laws. But there are beautiful poems, too, and prayers, and references to the Goddess here and there, if you know where to look. I particularly like the prayers to Sophia/Wisdom.

13 Blessed are those who find wisdom,      
those who gain understanding,
14 for she is more profitable than silver     
and yields better returns than gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies;     
nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;     
in her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways,     
and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;     
those who hold her fast will be blessed.
(Proverbs 3:13-18)

remind you of anyone?

The New Testament took me as long as the Old Testament, despite how short it is in comparison. I think it took me so long because to me it was so much interesting and useful. Not to say I loved every moment (there’s some great sexism and woman hating in both the Old and New Testaments) but I really like Jesus. What a great dude. I really liked reading about him, because he was genuinely nice and loving and caring and inspired.

Other characters are pretty cool, too. Like Mary and other Mary. Crazy-ass John the Baptist. The Romans and the Devil. I even liked the Apostles sometimes, too, even though I get the Peters mixed up with the Pauls, and I can’t remember the other guys.

It also helped that my husband is a Classicist, so when I’d have a question about a word or a passage, he could take out his Greek New Testament and lexicon and we’d have great discussions about translations and interpretations and those moments are always enjoyable for both of us.

Also, as someone who is deeply interested in Gnosticism and Mediterranean mystery traditions, the New Testament was just more interesting to me. It mentions knowing/gnosis and logos and the word  a lot, which is relevant to my interests. I was interested in the very mundane parables of the bible, as well as the hints at mystery and esoteric wisdom Jesus tries to share with his followers. So, I think since I was more interested in the New Testament, it took me longer because I was paying more attention, whereas the Old Testament was pretty much one big confusing blur.

this is how I imagine it happened

I’m pretty satisfied with my decision to read the bible. I’m very glad I did it. I probably won’t do it again, at least not until I’m done reading the Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are more meaningful and interesting to me personally, anyway.  And I do understand bible references more, but not all the time because there are a whole lot of them. Pretty much all of those things I hoped to accomplish were accomplished, which is more than I can say about other areas in my life.

And no, reading the bible did not convert me back to Christianity. I’m still Pagan, though I’m at a stage in my life when I have reconciled my Christian upbringing, I’m not angry at (most) Christians anymore, and I even forgave Jesus. These were all important steps in the maturity of my spiritual self, and I can honestly say I’m a much happier person than I was when I was confused and angry about Christianity. Though I realize that not all Pagans are okay with the concept of accepting Christianity, that’s their business just as reading the bible that one time is my business. As Brothers Freke and Gandy remind us, it’s not always wise to throw away the baby with the bathwater.  Sure, there’s a lot of shocking and strange and horrible stuff in the bible, but the same can be said for other myths and stories, too. And just as other myths can be lovely, there’s a lot of beautiful stuff in Christian myths, too. And if one can get past all of that nasty, annoying literalism, the bible has some pretty decent stories, allegories, parables, metaphors, archetypes and all sorts of other useful things in it. It is a holy text, after all.

Though honestly, I’d probably recommend that people just skip the bible and go straight to the Gospel of Thomas, because that’s where all the good stuff is anyway!

Christo-what?

I do not identify as Christo-Pagan. In my experience I’m too Christian for the Pagans (this always cracks me up) and I’m way too Pagan for the Christians (not surprising, but disappointing.) 

But, I do identify with those who want to have a relationship with Christ, or those who love aspects of Christianity, church and the bible. My heart breaks with theirs, though, when they go seeking something beyond orthodox and traditional ideas of Christianity and/or Paganism and are only met with rejection and ridicule from other religious communities.

Christianity and Paganism are completely compatible, and there’s no reason that the Christians and the Pagans (and everyone else, for that matter) can’t get together for a meal, a beer, community and prayer.

Christianity has its roots not only in Judaism (which has a rich mystic tradition) but Mediterranean and Egyptian mystery cults. Sure, a literalist interpretation of Christianity has been going strong for two thousand years, but that does not mean that this tradition is void of mysticism or even Paganism - far from it! My advice to those who think that Christianity and Paganism are incompatible – read some history.

Try to understand who the God of the bible is, read his words closely and think about the motives of his commandments. Think about what this would mean to people two thousand years ago, one thousand years ago, and now. Learn the history and the politics of the world two thousand years ago.

Look at the formation of the Catholic church, per-Constantine. Read about the life of Jesus, and then read about the Christ. (Yes, they are different.) Study the creation of the bible as we have it today. Read the Nag Hammadi, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Gnostic texts and those other books that were left out of the bible, and study why they were left out of the bible.

Study Judaism, in particular the mystical traditions, the Kabbalah, and the elements of Goddess worship. Read the Old Testament. Read Plato and Neo-Platonist writers, and read The Golden Ass and the Homeric Hymns. Study Egyptian and Hellenistic mystery traditions and life/death cults.

Christianity and Paganism have been growing side-by-side for over two thousand years. This relationship has been… well, you know how it’s been. But it’s still there. After two thousand years of human civilization, you literally cannot separate Christianity from Paganism, or Paganism from Christianity. Sure, we can try, but two thousand years of tradition is hard to deny.

Even if you practice what you consider to be pre-Christian traditions, we’re in a post-Christian world looking at things with Post-Christian eyes. The influence is there. Now, I’m not saying every single Pagan practice is Christian, or that every single Christian practice is Pagan. I’m saying that nothing exists in a vacuum, and these things influence and inspire one another.

But, in the end, it doesn’t matter if you’re Christian or Pagan (or anything else!) If you’re Christian, be Christian. If you’re Pagan, be Pagan. And if you’re neither or both, then, by all means, follow your heart and intuition and worship in the way that works best for you.

It doesn’t matter, really. Just don’t make blanket statements or pre-emptive judgment calls. Read, think, learn, pray. Stop hating and judging. It’s okay if a witch prays to Jesus. It’s okay if a Christian performs a spell. There are no real contradictions - not after you study and build a frame of reference and a context.

And if you happen to find stuff that seems contradictory, well, that’s life and that’s okay, too. We’re modern people trying to interpret an ancient world, trying to put together pieces of a huge puzzle we’ll never really understand.

Life is full of contradictions, why should religion be exempt? That’s just part of the fun, fulfillment and magic.