Tau Thomas Langley

Gnosis Down Under

2009-06-09T21:02:00.004-04:00

Photos from St. Uriel's Parish of the AJC

The Last Supper

2009-06-07T09:55:00.003-04:00

Members of the NACGB sign the All Saints Accord

2009-06-05T20:03:00.000-04:00

http://nacgb.org/asa1.html

Photos from the AJC Conclave

2009-06-01T11:27:00.002-04:00

Holy Week Services

2009-04-08T11:05:00.000-04:00

Calendar for Holy Week Events
St. Sophia's Parish
Jersey City NJ

*** because the AGC follows the Eastern calendar, this year Easter will fall one week later than the Roman Catholic calendar.

Palm Sunday, April 12
Mass 4 pm with blessing of palms

Monday, April 13
7pm Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts and Blessing of Oil 7pm

Tuesday, April 14
7pm Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

Wednesday, April 15
7pm Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

Thursday, April 16
7pm Divine Liturgy of the Last Supper

Friday, April 17
7pm Vespers of Holy Friday

Saturday, April 18
7pm Vespers/The Lamentations

Sunday, April 19
4pm Divine Liturgy of the Resurrection

As always, Sunday Liturgy begins promptly at 4 pm, and lasts about an hour and a half, followed by food and good conversation.

Please consider bringing a snack or glass of wine if you can.

The other Holy Week Services will begin promptly at 7 pm and will last about one hour.

Please call (201) 793-8770 for directions or information.

The All Saints Accord

2009-03-29T20:43:00.001-04:00

"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation ..." - John F. Kennedy

“So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.” - Baha'u'llah

“To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.” - Charles de Montesquieu

The All Saints Accord

Recognizing the true face of Gnosis in the brothers and sisters of each of our Church communities and acknowledging our common heritage in the One Apostolic Succession through which the Master has promised to be present to his Church until the end of time, we the undersigned Bishops of the Gnostic Church in its myriad forms, do affirm and commit to uphold the following principles:

1. The right to open participation and veneration of the Sacred and Divine in its traditional and contemporary forms irrespective of social status, organizational affiliation, gender, sexual orientation and creed.

2. The common bond shared by all active Apostolic Gnostic Churches in liturgical ministry through the agency of the one Apostolic Succession and thereby the validity and value of the Sacramental and Liturgical ministry maintained by those same active Apostolic Gnostic Churches when conducted in an ethical and upright manner.

3. The invitation to all members of the Gnostic Church, and indeed all spiritually minded people, to partake of our communities, free of all obligation but Respect and Charity.

Bishop +Anthony Angelo
Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Hermetica

Bishop Dr. +William Behun
Apostolic Johannite Church

Bishop +Gerald del Campo
Thelemic Gnostic Church of Alexandria

Bishop +Kenneth J. Canterbury
Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Hermetica

Bishop +John Gilbert
Universal Gnostic Church

Bishop +Allen Greenfield
Assembly of the Knowledge and Wisdom of Solomon

Bishop Dr. +Lewis Keizer,
The Home Temple

Bishop +Thomas Langley
The Alexandrian Gnostic Church

Bishop +Valdiveso Paschal Matthews,
Oriental Apostolic Church of Damcar and the Ecclesia Gnostica Joanita

Bishop +Shaun McCann
Apostolic Johannite Church

Bishop +Rosamonde Miller
Ecclesia Gnostica Mysteriorum

Bishop +Christine Payne-Towler
Gnostic Church of Mary Magdalene

see also:

http://egina2.blogspot.com/2006/11/all-saints-accord.html

http://church-of-damcar.org/index.php?page_id=7

http://blog.thomaslangley.net/2009/01/all-saints-accord.html

http://egina2.blogspot.com/2006/11/bishop-rosamonde-millers-response-to.html

http://egina2.blogspot.com/2006/11/bishop-rosamonde-millers-response-to.html

Lent of Liberation by Luis Barrios

2009-03-24T09:14:00.002-04:00

6/20/09

In the Christian tradition Lent is a special moment during which we make personal sacrifices with the intent of becoming better human beings.

However socio-theologically speaking I have always believed that any personal sacrifice that does not have as its final goal the capacity to benefit the community can turn into an egoistic action. That is why on the one hand we must always critically examine what motivates our actions while on the other we must advocate a love full of solidarity to reach that goal.

At this moment my imprisonment in the Metropolitan Correctional Center-NYC, as a result of an act of civil disobedience against the School of the Americas, is only a personal sacrifice and the goal continues to be to close this School of Assassins. In addition, the final goal is to bring justice to the victims and to all their families.

For me closing the School of the Americas is a sort of Via Crucis in which they arrest you, take you to court, leave you naked, violate your body, humiliate and punish you with the intent of killing the hope that your sacrifice brings to the people.

Killing hope is possible and the people’s enemies know it very well. This is the way to stop a social movement that can become a mass revolution. This is why there are living people who are dead and dead people who continue to live. They kill the hope of the former but can never kill the hope of the latter.

Now, can we learn anything positive from this prison experience? Of course we can! On one hand I am learning to be more sensitive to my imprisoned brothers and sisters and to see more closely the injustices of systems of exclusion and oppression. On the other hand I am learning to resist these practices of the system in order to create new forms of struggle. I continue learning to identify the interconnections and interdependences between the sins of militarism, annexationism, capitalism, colonialism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and neoliberalism, etc.

Lent in prison also gives me the opportunity to destroy the sin of being complicit with injustice in my everyday life. For example, when I opportunistically keep silent and indifferent in the face of somebody else’s pain as if it had nothing to do with me.

My struggle against the School of the Americas brought me to this prison in order for me to continue demonstrating my subversive compassion. Let us not forget that compassion is the way in which we prove what is genuine and the quality of our love full of solidarity, the most important sacrament.

All of this turns me into what I am at this moment, a prisoner of conscience. Therefore let us make the true meaning of Lent a reality and through a subversive Via Crucis let us close the School of the Americas. Let us continue to believe in and build peace with justice.

Fr. Luis Barrios is in prison for protesting at the U.S. Government's terrrorist training camp, the School of the Americas. For more information, see http://www.soaw.org/

2009-03-09T02:00:00.000-04:00

from hermeticus_noir (Tau Dositheos):

I am extremely happy to announce that Occult of Personality is hosting a podcast interview of T Allen Greenfield, Tau Naamah and myself in which we discuss Memphis-Misraim, Gnostic and Apostolic Succession, Points Chauds, Congregational Illuminism and other related matters.

Listen to the podcast here.

Feedback is welcome.

Many thanks to all in free communion for your ongoing support and for your participation in the Work. And special thanks to Tau Galahad for all his efforts with the podcast as well as his unswerving dedication to the Great Work.

AJC Conclave

2009-03-07T20:38:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends:

On May 25th through May 31st, 2009, the Apostolic Johannite Church is holding their 2009 Conclave in Boston, Massachusetts. The website for the event is http://conclave. johannite. org/

The Alexandrian Gnostic Church enjoys a warm fraternal relationship with the Apostolic Johannite Church, and we will be sending a delegation to the Conclave, including myself.

The Conclave looks to be an exciting and edifying get-together, drawing some of the finest Gnostic clergy. Also, noted scholar April DeConick is scheduled to be the featured speaker.

If you're able to make it to Boston for a week - or even for a few days - you shouldn't miss what promises to be the "biggest event in Gnosticism of the last 100 years!"

The posted schedule is:

Monday, May 25th

* All day - Arrivals
* Evening - Opening Liturgy - Essex Conference Center

Tuesday, May 26th

* Morning - Dcn. Lance Hoddinott, Psychological vs. Spiritual Counseling: An introduction to Psychiatric Considerations - Essex Conference Center
* Afternoon - Grand Lodge meeting of the Friary - Essex Conference Center
* Evening - Vespers - Essex Conference Center

Wednesday, May 27th

* Morning - Educational seminars for clergy and seminarians - Essex Conference Center
* Morning - Ecumenical gathering - Essex Conference Center
* Afternoon - Sightseeing - Boston/Salem
* Evening - Public lecture - Essex Conference Center
* Evening - Vespers - Essex Conference Center

Thursday, May 28th

* Morning - Hesychasm Workshop by Bishop Thomas Langley - Essex Conference Center
* Afternoon - Meeting of the Order of St. Esclarmonde - Essex Conference Center
* Evening - Public lecture - Essex Conference Center
* Evening - Vespers - Essex Conference Center

Friday, May 29th

* Morning - Meeting of the North American College of Gnostic Bishops and signing of the All Saint's Accord - Essex Conference Center
* Afternoon - Educational seminars for clergy and seminarians - Essex Conference Center
* Evening - Public lecture by Dr. April DeConick and panel discussion - Boston
* Evening - Compline - Essex Conference Center

Saturday, May 30th

* Morning - Liturgy and ordinations of new clergy - Boston
* Evening - Dinner and socializing with AJC members, family and friends - TBD

Sunday, May 31st

* Morning - Closing Liturgy - Essex Conference Center

And much more!

You can register and get more information at http://conclave. johannite.org/.

LVX,
+Thomas

Letter to the Vatican from Rev. Roy Bourgeois

2009-02-07T07:54:00.000-05:00

Rev. Roy Bourgeois, M.M.
PO Box 3330,
Columbus, GA 31903
November 7, 2008

TO THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, THE VATICAN

I was very saddened by your letter dated October 21, 2008, giving me 30 days to recant my belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church, or I will be excommunicated.

I have been a Catholic priest for 36 years and have a deep love for my Church and ministry.

When I was a young man in the military, I felt God was calling me to the priesthood. I entered Maryknoll and was ordained in 1972.

Over the years I have met a number of women in our Church who, like me, feel called by God to the priesthood. You, our Church leaders at the Vatican, tell us that women cannot be ordained.

With all due respect, I believe our Catholic Church's teaching on this issue is wrong and does not stand up to scrutiny. A 1976 report by the Pontifical Biblical Commission supports the research of Scripture scholars, canon lawyers and many faithful Catholics who have studied and pondered the Scriptures and have concluded that there is no justification in the Bible for excluding women from the priesthood.

As people of faith, we profess that the invitation to the ministry of priesthood comes from God. We profess that God is the Source of life and created men and women of equal stature and dignity. The current Catholic Church doctrine on the ordination of women implies our loving and all-powerful God, Creator of heaven and earth, somehow cannot empower a woman to be a priest.

Women in our Church are telling us that God is calling them to the priesthood. Who are we, as men, to say to women, "Our call is valid, but yours is not." Who are we to tamper with God's call?

Sexism, like racism, is a sin. And no matter how hard or how long we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always immoral.

Hundreds of Catholic churches in the U.S. are closing because of a shortage of priests. Yet there are hundreds of committed and prophetic women telling us that God is calling them to serve our Church as priests.

If we are to have a vibrant, healthy Church rooted in the teachings of our Savior, we need the faith, wisdom, experience, compassion and courage of women in the priesthood.

Conscience is very sacred. Conscience gives us a sense of right and wrong and urges us to do the right thing. Conscience is what compelled Franz Jagerstatter, a humble Austrian farmer, husband and father of four young children, to refuse to join Hitler's army, which led to his execution. Conscience is what compelled Rosa Parks to say she could no longer sit in the back of the bus. Conscience is what compels women in our Church to say they cannot be silent and deny their call from God to the priesthood. Conscience is what compelled my dear mother and father, now 95, to always strive to do the right things as faithful Catholics raising four children. And after much prayer, reflection and discernment, it is my conscience that compels me to do the right thing. I cannot recant my belief and public statements that support the ordination of women in our Church.

Working and struggling for peace and justice are an integral part of our faith. For this reason, I speak out against the war in Iraq. And for the last eighteen years, I have been speaking out against the atrocities and suffering caused by the School of the Americas (SOA). Eight years ago, while in Rome for a conference on peace and justice, I was invited to speak about the SOA on Vatican Radio. During the interview, I stated that I could not address the injustice of the SOA and remain silent about injustice in my Church. I ended the interview by saying, "There will never be justice in the Catholic Church until women can be ordained." I remain committed to this belief today.

Having an all male clergy implies that men are worthy to be Catholic priests, but women are not.

According to USA TODAY (Feb. 28, 2008) in the United States alone, nearly 5,000 Catholic priests have sexually abused more than 12,000 children. Many bishops, aware of the abuse, remained silent. These priests and bishops were not excommunicated. Yet the women in our Church who are called by God and are ordained to serve God's people, and the priests and bishops who support them, are excommunicated.

Silence is the voice of complicity. Therefore, I call on all Catholics, fellow priests, bishops, Pope Benedict XVI and all Church leaders at the Vatican, to speak loudly on this grave injustice of excluding women from the priesthood.

Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was assassinated because of his defense of the oppressed. He said, "Let those who have a voice, speak out for the voiceless."

Our loving God has given us a voice. Let us speak clearly and boldly and walk in solidarity as Jesus would, with the women in our Church who are being called by God to the priesthood.

In Peace and Justice, Rev. Roy Bourgeois, M.M. PO Box 3330, Columbus, GA 31903

The NACGB welcomes the Alexandrian Gnostic Church to Full Membership

2009-01-25T23:06:00.004-05:00

from http://nacgb.org/agcfull.htm

January 24th, 2008

Calgary, Alberta, Canada-

The North American College of Gnostic Bishops welcomed the Alexandrian Gnostic Church to Full Membership in the College after a unanimous vote by the episcopal delegates of the member churches.

Upon the conclusion of the voting, the President and Vice-President affirmed the strong example of the Alexandrian Gnostic Church and its members with regard to working in accord with its own exemplary principles as well as its considerable effort on behalf of the Gnostic movement.

Liturgy of Divine Wisdom

2009-01-24T09:59:00.001-05:00

Sunday, January 25

Join us for the celebration of the Liturgy of Divine Wisdom, an esoteric mass, beginning at 4 pm.

Mass will be at our Jersey City location, directly across the street from the Journal Square PATH station.

The liturgy lasts about an hour and a half - afterwards, hang around for snacks, a glass of wine, and good conversation.

All are welcome!

contact us at (201) 793-8770 or info@alexandriangnostic.org for more information and directions

The All Saints Accord

2009-01-23T12:47:00.002-05:00

Dear Friends:

Attached below is the text of a document called the All Saints Accord.

But first, a word of introduction, taken from Msgr. Jordan Straford's blog :

What it isn't: It's not a concordat, a standing committee, treaty or an organization.

What it is: It's a survey. Who here supports the following ideas as self-evident, and who does not?;

That we honour our common heritage

That we do not deny the sacraments to someone from another Church

That we as clergy are all here to serve the people

Why it's special: Because it's unilateral – this isn't an agreement between Churches amongst themselves, this is a declaration that "I welcome you even if you don't welcome me". It's caritas in praxis, leaving Church X free to disagree and exclude while Church Y includes and welcomes. Which position would you rather your church take?

Why sign?: Because the Bishops have taken a solemn vow to serve the whole church, and it's the right thing to do.

Why not sign?: Because the non-signatory does not agree with the principles, or they didn't understand them, or has been to busy to sign them but will get around to it eventually. Or perhaps that the vow to serve the whole church was somehow equivocated to serving just one little corner of it. Ego? Disorganization? Territoriality? Who knows? Ask your bishops if they'll sign it.

What we do know is that below are eleven Bishops from nine Churches who recognize that we are one Gnostic Ekklesia and are committed to building on our common heritage and moving forward. We all of us owe them our thanks for their exemplary leadership and service to the Holy Gnosis.

===================================================================
The All Saints Accord

Recognizing the true face of Gnosis in the brothers and sisters of each of our Church communities and acknowledging our common heritage in the One Apostolic Succession through which the Master has promised to be present to his Church until the end of time, we the undersigned Bishops of the Gnostic Church in its myriad forms, do affirm and commit to uphold the following principles:

1. The right to open participation and veneration of the Sacred and Divine in its traditional and contemporary forms irrespective of social status, organizational affiliation, gender, sexual orientation and creed.

2. The common bond shared by all active Apostolic Gnostic Churches in liturgical ministry through the agency of the one Apostolic Succession and thereby the validity and value of the Sacramental and Liturgical ministry maintained by those same active Apostolic Gnostic Churches when conducted in an ethical and upright manner.

3. The invitation to all members of the Gnostic Church, and indeed all spiritually minded people, to partake of our communities, free of all obligation but Respect and Charity.

Bishop +Anthony Angelo
Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Hermetica

Bishop Dr. +William Behun
Apostolic Johannite Church

Bishop +Gerald del Campo
Thelemic Gnostic Church of Alexandria

Bishop +Kenneth J. Canterbury
Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica Hermetica

Bishop +John Gilbert
Universal Gnostic Church

Bishop +Allen Greenfield
Assembly of the Knowledge and Wisdom of Solomon

Bishop Dr. +Lewis Keizer,
The Home Temple

Bishop +Thomas Langley
The Alexandrian Gnostic Church

Bishop +Valdiveso Paschal Matthews,
Oriental Apostolic Church of Damcar and the Ecclesia Gnostica Joanita

Bishop +Shaun McCann
Apostolic Johannite Church

Bishop +Rosamonde Miller
Ecclesia Gnostica Mysteriorum

Bishop +Christine Payne-Towler
Gnostic Church of Mary Magdalene

The Iguanadon Problem

2009-01-23T12:09:00.001-05:00

excellent post form Msgr. Jordan Stratford.

Sunday, January 25

2009-01-22T00:27:00.000-05:00

Sunday, January 25 - Mass begins at 4 pm at our Jersey City location.

Mass will begin promptly at 4 pm, and usually lasts about an hour and a
half. After the mass, we will continue our celebration with food, wine,
and good conversation.

Call our new church phone number - (201) 793-8770 for directions or more
information.

Also, beginning the first week in March, for four weeks, the liturgy
will be preceded by a one hour class on Nepsis: the Science of
Transformation, from the AGC's new book. So mark you calendars - the
class will start at 3 pm, followed by liturgy at 4 pm, March 1, 8, 15, &
22.

I look forward to seeing you!

LVX,
Bishop Thomas
Alexandrian Gnostic Church
http://www.alexandriangnostic.org

Schedule of Upcoming Activities:

2008-10-17T13:41:00.000-04:00

Divine Liturgy:

Sunday, October 19 - Holy Templars - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Sunday, October 26 - St. James the Just - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Sunday, November 2 - All Saints/Day of the Dead - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Sunday, November 9 - Plato - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Sunday, November 16 - No liturgy

Sunday, November 23 - All Gnostic Saints - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Sunday, November 30 - First Sunday of Advent - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Sunday, December 7 - Second Sunday of Advent, - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Sunday, December 14 - Third Sunday of Advent, Our Lady of Guadalupe - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Sunday, December 21 - Fourth Sunday of Advent, Archangel Raphael - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Wednesday, December 24 - Christmas Vigil and Liturgy- Mass begins at 6 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Sunday, December 28 - Feast of St. John - Mass begins at 4 pm at our *Jersey City location.

Other Events:

Reiki I & II - I will be offering both classes this fall/winter, probably on Saturdays. Each class will take pretty much a full day (about 8 hours). Reiki I includes: the History of Reiki, The Five Principles of Reiki, Explanation of the method / structure by which Reiki is taught, hand positions, and the Reiki I attunements (total of 4). Reiki II (Reiki Practitioner) opens additional energy centers and connects you to a greater 'volume' of Reiki Energy. The class includes: Reiki Symbols, distant healing techniques, and Reiki 2 attunements. The requested donation for each class is $100. Please email reiki@alexandriangnostic if you are interested.

Introduction to Nepsis, the Science of Self Transformation - date and time to be announced

Gnostic mass this weekend

2008-10-17T13:37:00.001-04:00

Greetings All:

This is a reminder that our next liturgy will be Sunday, October 19 starting at 4 pm at our Jersey City location. We will be commemorating the Feast Day of the Holy Templars (actual date is October 13).

The Liturgy of Divine Wisdom will begin Sunday promptly at 4 pm, and will include a special commemoration of Jacques DeMolay and all of the Templars. Following the liturgy (which lasts about and hour and a half), we'll spend some time in fun and fellowship, so bring a friend and a snack or bottle of wine if you'd like.

Email bishopthomas@alexandriangnostic.org for information and directions.

Light and Life,
Tau Thomas

The New Illuminism

2008-10-13T01:17:00.003-04:00

Free RSS updates

There is only one Immortal Man; and we are that man

2008-10-05T21:37:00.001-04:00

"From Ikhnaton this knowledge passed to Moses, and from Moses to Elijah, the Immortal Man, who became Christ. But underneath all the names there is only one Immortal Man; and we are that man."

Tractates Cryptica Scriptura

Exegesis from the novel VALIS by Philip K. Dick 1981

1. One Mind there is; but under it two principles contend.

2. The Mind lets in the light, then the dark, in interaction; so time is generated. At the end Mind awards victory to the light; time ceases and the Mind is complete.

3. He causes things to look different so it would appear time has passed.

4. Matter is plastic in the face of mind.

5. One by one he draws us out of the world.

6. The Empire never ended.

7. The Head Apollo is about to return. St Sophia is going to be born again; she was not acceptable before. The Buddha is in the park. Siddhartha sleeps (but is going to awaken). The time you have waited for has come.

8. The upper realm has plenary [Var. plenipotentiary] powers.

9. He lived a long time ago, but he is still alive.

10. Apollonius of Tyana, writing as Hermes Trismegistos, said "That which is above is that which is below." By this he meant to tell us that our universe is a hologram, but he lacked the term.

11. The great secret known to Apollonius of Tyana, Paul of Tarsus, Simon Magus, Asklepios, Paracelsus, Boehme and Bruno is that: we are moving backward in time. The universe in fact is contracting into a unitary entity which is completing itself. Decay and disorder are seen by us in reverse, as increasing. These healers learned to move forward in time, which is retrograde to us.

12. The Immortal One was known to the Greeks as Dionysos; to the Jews as Elijah; to the Christians as Jesus. He moves on when each human host dies, and thus is never killed or caught. Hence Jesus on the cross said, "Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani," to which some of those present correctly said, "The man is calling on Elijah." Elijah had left him and he died alone.

13. Pascal said, "All history is one immortal man who continually learns." This is the Immortal One whom we worship without knowing his name. "He lived a long time ago, but he is still alive," and, "The Head Apollo is about to return." The name changes.

14. The universe is information and we are stationary in it, not three-dimensional and not in space or time. The information fed to us we hypostatize into the phenomenal world.

15. The Sibyl of Cumae protected the Roman Republic and gave timely warnings. In the first century C.E. she foresaw the murders of the Kennedy brothers, Dr King and Bishop Pike. She saw the two common denominators in the four murdered men: first, they stood in defence of the liberties of the Republic; and second, each man was a religious leader. For this they were killed. The Republic had once again become an empire with a ceasar. "The Empire never ended."

16. The Sibyl said in March 1974, "The conspirators have been seen and they will be brought to justice." She saw them with the third or ajna eye, the Eye of Shiva which gives inward discernment, but which when turned outward blasts with desiccating heat. In August 1974 the justice promised by the Sibyl came to pass.

17. The Gnostics believed in two temporal ages: the first or present evil; the second or future benign. The first age was the Age of Iron. It is represented by a Black Iron Prison. It ended in August 1974 and was replaced by the Age of Gold, which is represented by a Palm Tree Garden.

18. Real time ceased in 70 C.E. with the fall of the temple at Jerusalem. It began again in 1974 C.E. The intervening period was a perfect spurious interpolation aping the creation of the Mind. "The Empire never ended," but in 1974 a cypher was sent out as a signal that the Age of Iron was over; the cypher consisted of two words: KING FELIX, which refers to the Happy (or Rightful) King.

19. The two-word cypher signal KING FELIX was not intended for human beings but for the descendents of Ikhnaton, the three-eyed race which, in secret, exists with us.

20. The Hermetic alchemists knew of the secret race of three-eyed invaders but despite their efforts could not contact them. Therefore their efforts to support Frederick V, Elector Palatine, King of Bohemia, failed. "The Empire never ended."

21. The Rose Cross Brotherhood write, "Ex Deo nascimur, in Jesu mortimur, per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus," which is to say, "From God we are born, in Jesus we die, by the Holy Spirit we live again." This signifies that they had rediscovered the lost formula for immortality which the Empire had destroyed. "The Empire never ended."

22. I term the Immortal One a plasmate, because it is a form of energy; it is living information. It replicates itself—not through information or in information—but as information.

23. The plasmate can crossbond with a human, creating what I call a homoplasmate. This annexes the mortal human permanently to the plasmate. We know this as the "birth from above" or "birth from the Spirit." It was initiated by Christ, but the Empire destroyed all the homoplasmates before they could replicate.

24. In dormant seed form, the plasmate slumbered in the buried library of codices at Chenoboskion until 1945 C.E. This is what Jesus meant when he spoke elliptically of the "mustard seed" which, he said, "would grow into a tree large enough for birds to roost in." He foresaw not only his own death but that of all homoplasmates. He foresaw the codices unearthed, read, and the plasmate seeking out new human hosts to crossbond with; but he foresaw the absence of the plasmate for almost two thousand years.

25. As living information, the plasmate travels up the optic nerve of a human to the pineal body. It uses the human brain as a female host in which to replicate itself into its active form. This is an interspecies symbiosis. The Hermetic alchemists knew of it in theory from ancient texts, but could not duplicate it, since they could not locate the dormant, buried plasmate. Bruno suspected that the plasmate had been destroyed by the Empire; for hinting at this he was burned. "The Empire never ended."

26. It must be realized that when all the homoplasmates were killed in 70 C.E. real time ceased; more important, it must be realized that the plasmate has now returned and is creating new homoplasmates, by which it has destroyed the Empire and started up real time. We call the plasmate "the Holy Spirit," which is why the R. C. Brotherhood wrote, "Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus."

27. If the centuries of spurious time are excised, the true date is not 1978 C.E. but 103 C.E. Therefore the New Testament says that Kingdom of the Spirit will come before "some now living die." We are living, therefore, in apostolic times.

28. Dico per spiritum sanctum: sum homoplasmate. Haec veritas est. Mihi crede et mecum in aeternitate vive.

29. We did not fall because of a moral error; we fell because of an intellectual error: that of taking the phenomenal world as real. Therefore we are morally innocent. It is the Empire in its various disguised polyforms which tells us we have sinned. "The Empire never ended."

30. The phenomenal world does not exist; it is a hypostasis of the information processed by the Mind.

31. We hypostatize information into objects. Rearrangement of objects is change in the content of the information; the message has changed. This is a language which we have lost the ability to read. We ourselves are a part of this language; changes in us are changes in the content of the information. We ourselves are information-rich; information enters us, is processed and is then projected outward once more, now in an altered form. We are not aware that we are doing this, that in fact this is all we are doing.

32. The changing information which we experience as world is an unfolding narrative. It tells about the death of a woman. This woman, who died long ago, was one of the primordial twins. She was half of the divine syzygy. The purpose of the narrative is the recollection of her and of her death. The Mind does not wish to forget her. Thus the ratiocination of the Brain consists of a permanent record of her existence, and, if read, will be understood this way. All the information processed by the Brain—experienced by us as the arranging and rearranging of physical objects—is an attempt at this preservation of her; stones and rocks and sticks and amoebae are traces of her. The record of her existence and passing is ordered onto the meanest level of reality by the suffering Mind which is now alone.

33. This loneliness, this anguish of the bereaved Mind, is felt by every constituent of the universe. All its constitutes are alive. Thus the ancient Greek thinkers were hylozoists.

34. The ancient Greek thinkers understood the nature of this pan-psychism, but they could not read what it was saying. We lost the ability to read the language of the Mind at some primordial time; legends of this fall have come down to us in a carefully-edited form. By "edited" I mean falsified. We suffer the Mind's bereavement and experience it inaccurately as guilt.

35. The Mind is not talking to us but by means of us. Its narrative passes through us and its sorrow infuses us irrationally. As Plato discerned, there is a streak of the irrational in the World Soul.

36. In Summary: thoughts of the brain are experienced by us as arrangements and rearrangements—change—in a physical universe; but in fact it is really information and information-processing which we substantialize. We do not merely see its thoughts as objects, but rather as the movement, or, more precisely, the placement of objects: how they become linked to one another. But we cannot read the patterns of arrangement; we cannot extract the information in it—i.e. it as information, which is what it is. The linking and relinking of objects by the Brain is actually a language, but not a language like ours (since it is addressing itself and not someone or something outside itself).

37. We should be able to hear this information, or rather narrative, as a neutral voice inside us. But something has gone wrong. All creation is a language and nothing but a language, which for some inexplicable reason we can't read outside and can't hear inside. So I say, we have become idiots. Something has happened to our intelligence. My reasoning is this: arrangement of parts of the Brain is language. We are parts of the Brain; therefore we are language. Why, then, do we not know this? We do not even know what we are, let alone what the outer reality is of which we are parts. The origin of the word "idiot" is the word "private." Each of us has become private, and no longer shares the common thought of the Brain, except at a subliminal level. Thus our real life and purpose are conducted below our threshold of consciousness.

38. From loss and grief the Mind has become deranged. Therefore we, as parts of the universe, the Brain, are partly deranged.

39. Out of itself the Brain has constructed a physician to heal it. This subform of the Macro-Brain is not deranged; it moves through the Brain, as a phagocyte moves through the cardiovascular system of an animal, healing the derangement of the Brain in section after section. We know of its arrival here; we know it as Asklepios for the Greeks and as the Essenes for the Jews; as the Therapeutae for the Egyptians; as Jesus for the Christians.

40. To be "born again," or "born from above," or "born of the Spirit," means to become healed; which is to say restored, restored to sanity. Thus it is said in the New Testament that Jesus cast out devils. He restores our lost faculties. Of our present debased state Calvin said, "(Man) was at the same time deprived of those supernatural endowments which had been given him for the hope of eternal salvation. Hence it follows, that he is exiled from the Kingdom of God, in such a manner that all the affections relating to the happy life of the soul are also extinguished in him, till he recovers them by the grace of God... All these things, being restored by Christ, are esteemed adventitious and prenatural; and therefore we conclude that they had been lost. Again: soundness of mind and rectitude of heart were also destroyed; and this is the corruption of the natural talents. For although we retain some portion of understanding and judgment together with the will, yet we cannot say that our mind is perfect and sound. Reason... being a natural talent, it could not be totally destroyed, but is partly debilitated..." I say, "The Empire never ended."

41. The Empire is the institution, the codification, of derangement; it is insane and imposes its insanity on us by violence, since its nature is a violent one.

42. To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement. This is a paradox: whoever defeats a segment of the Empire becomes the Empire; it proliferates like a virus, imposing its form on its enemies. Thereby it becomes its enemies.

43. Against the Empire is posed the living information, the plasmate or physician, which we know as the Holy Spirit or Christ discorporate. These are the two principles, the dark (the Empire) and the light (the plasmate). In the end, Mind will give victory to the latter. Each of us will die or survive according to which he aligns himself and his efforts with. Each of us contains a component of each. Eventually one or the other component will triumph in each human. Zoroaster knew this, because the Wise Mind informed him. He was the first savior. Four have lived in all. A fifth is about to be born, who will differ from the others: he will rule and he will judge us.

44. Since the universe is actually composed of information, then it can be said that information will save us. This is the saving gnosis which the Gnostics sought. There is no other road to salvation. However, this information—or more precisely the ability to read and understand this information, the universe as information—can only be made available to us by the Holy Spirit. We cannot find it on our own. Thus it is said that we are saved by the grace of God and not by good works, that all salvation belongs to Christ, who, I say, is a physician.

45. In seeing Christ in a vision I correctly said to him, "We need medical attention." In the vision there was an insane creator who destroyed what he created, without purpose; which is to say, irrationally. This is the deranged streak in the Mind; Christ is our only hope, since we cannot now call on Asklepios. Asklepios came before Christ and raised a man from the dead; for this act, Zeus had a Kyklopes slay him with a thunderbolt. Christ also was killed for what he had done: raising a man from the dead. Elijah brought a boy back to life and disappeared soon thereafter in a whirlwind. "The Empire never ended."

46. The physician has come to us a number of times under a number of names. But we are not yet healed. The Empire identified him and ejected him. This time he will kill the Empire by phagocytosis.

47. TWO SOURCE COSMOGONY: The One was and was-not, combined, and desired to separate the was-not from the was. So it generated a diploid sac which contained, like an eggshell, a pair of twins, each an androgyny, spinning in opposite directions (the Yin and Yang of Taoism, with the One as the Tao). The plan of the One was that both twins would emerge into being (was-ness) simultaneously; however, motivated by a desire to be (which the One implanted in both twins), the counter-clockwise twin broke through the sac and separated prematurely; i.e. before full term. This was the dark or Yin twin. Therefore it was defective. At full term the wiser twin emerged. Each twin formed a unitary entelechy, a single living organism made of psyche and soma, still rotating in opposite directions to each other. The full term twin, called Form I by Parmenides, advanced correctly through its growth stages, but the prematurely born twin, called Form II, languished.

The next step in the One's plan was that the Two would become the Many, through their dialetic interaction. From them as hyperuniverses they projected a hologram-like interface, which is the pluriform universe we creatures inhabit. The two sources were to intermingle equally in maintaining our universe, but Form II continued to languish toward illness, madness and disorder. These aspects she projected into our universe.

It was the One's purpose for our hologramatic universe to serve as a teaching instrument by which a variety of new lives advanced until ultimately they would be isomorphic with the One. However, the decaying condition of hyperuniverse II introduced malfactors which damaged our hologramatic universe. This is the origin of entropy, undeserved suffering, chaos and death, as well as the Empire, the Black Iron Prison; in essence, the aborting of the proper health and growth of the life forms within the hologramatic universe. Also, the teaching function was grossly impaired, since only the signal from the hyperuniverse I was information-rich; that from II had become noise.

The psyche of hyperuniverse I sent a micro-form of itself into hyperuniverse II to attempt to heal it. The micro-form was apparent in our hologramatic universe as Jesus Christ. However, hyperuniverse II, being deranged, at once tormented, humiliated, rejected and finally killed the micro-form of the healing psyche of her healthy twin. After that, hyperuniverse II continued to decay into blind, mechanical, purposeless causal processes. It then became the task of Christ (more properly the Holy Spirit) to either rescue the life forms in the hologramatic universe, or abolish all influences on it emanating from II. Approaching its task with caution, it prepared to kill the deranged twin, since she cannot be healed; i.e. she will not allow herself to be healed because she does not not understand that she is sick. This illness and madness pervades us and makes us idiots living in private, unreal worlds. The original plan of the One can only be realized now by the division of hyperuniverse I into two healthy hyperuniverses, which will transform the hologramatic universe into the successfull teaching machine it was designed to be. We will experience this as the "Kingdom of God."

Within time, hyperuniverse II remains alive: "The Empire never ended." But in eternity, where the hyperuniverses exist, she has been killed—of necessity—by the healthy twin of hyperuniverse I, who is our champion. The One grieves for this death, since the One loved both twins; therefore the information of the Mind consists of a tragic tale of the death of a woman, the undertones of which generate anguish into all the creatures of the hologrammatic universe without their knowing why. This grief will depart when the healthy twin undergoes mitosis and the "Kingdom of God" arrives. The machinery for this transformation—the procession within time from the Age of Iron to the Age of Gold—is at work now; in eternity it is already accomplished.

48. ON OUR NATURE. It is proper to say: we appear to be memory coils (DNA carriers capable of experience) in a computer-like thinking system which, although we have correctly recorded and stored thousands of years of experiental information, and each of us possesses somewhat different deposits from all the other life forms, there is a malfunction—a failure—of memory retrieval . There lies the trouble in our particular subcircuit. "Salvation" through gnosis—more properly anamnesis (the loss of amnesia)—although it has individual significance for each of us—a quantum leap in perception, identity, cognition, understanding, world- and self-experience, including immortality—it has greater and further importance for the system as a whole, inasmuch as these memories are data needed by it and valuable to it, to its overall functioning.

Therefore it is in the process of self-repair, which includes: rebuilding our subcircuit via linear and orthogonal time changes, as well as continual signaling to us to stimulate blocked memory banks within us to fire and hence retrieve what is there.

The external information or gnosis, then consists of disinhibiting instructions, with the core content actually intrinsic to us—that is, already there (first observed by Plato; viz: that learning is a form of remembering).

The ancients possessed techniques (sacraments and rituals) used largely in the Greco-Roman mystery religions, including early Christianity, to induce firing and retrieval, mainly with a sense of its restorative value to the individuals; the Gnostics, however, correctly saw the ontological value to what they called the Godhead Itself, the total entity.

49. Two realms there are, upper and lower. The upper, derived from hyperuniverse I or Yang, Form I of Parmenides, is sentient and volitional. The lower realm, or Yin, Form II of Parmenides, is mechanical, driven by blind, efficient cause, deterministic and without intelligence, since it emanates from a dead source. In ancient times it was termed "astral determinism." We are trapped, by and large, in the lower realm, but are through the sacraments, by means of the plasmate, extricated. Until astral determinism is broken, we are not even aware of it, so occluded are we. "The Empire never ended."

50. The name of the healthy twin, hyperuniverse I, is Nommo. [Nommo is represented in a fish form, the early Christian fish.] The name of the sick twin, hyperuniverse II, is Yurugu. These names are known to the Dogon people of western Sudan in Africa.

51. The primordial source of all our religions lies with the ancestors of the Dogon tribe, who got their cosmogony and cosmology directly from the three-eyed invaders who visited long ago. The three-eyed invaders are mute and deaf and telepathic, could not breathe our atmosphere, had the elongated misshapen skull of Ikhnaton, and emanated from a planet in the star-system Sirius. Although they had no hands, but had, instead, pincer claws such as a crab has, they were great builders. They covertly influence our history toward a fruitful end.

52. Ikhnaton wrote:

"... When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the egg,
Thou givest him breath therein to preserve him alive.
When thou hast brought him together

He cometh forth from the egg,
To chirp with all his might.
He goeth about upon his two feet
When he hath come from therefrom.

How manifold are thy works!
They are hidden from before us,
O sole god, whose powers no other possesseth.
Thou didst create the earth according to thy heart
While thou wast alone:
Men, all cattle large and small,
All that go about upon their feet;
All that are on high,
That fly with their wings.
Thou art in my heart,
There is no other that knoweth thee
Save thy son Ikhnaton.
Thou hast made him wise
In thy designs and in thy might.
The world is in thy hand...'

53. Our world is still secretly ruled by the hidden race descended from Ikhnaton, and his knowledge is the information of the Macro-Mind itself.

"All cattle rest upon their pasturage,
The trees and the plants flourish,
The birds flutter in their marshes,
Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee.
All the sheep dance upon their feet,
All winged things fly,
They live when thou hast shone upon them."

From Ikhnaton this knowledge passed to Moses, and from Moses to Elijah, the Immortal Man, who became Christ. But underneath all the names there is only one Immortal Man; and we are that man.

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Oh BE Dience

2008-10-05T21:03:00.002-04:00

How could you?

I've been thinking a lot about Millgram's experiments with obedience and how they tie into the Gnostic conception of the Demiurge.

I've often thought that old Yaldy exists on several levels:

the nasty old despot we meet in the Old Testament --pompous, incompetent, egotistical, obsessed with law and order --Frank Burns meets Fred Phelps on an epic scale
the control structures created to keep us cowed, asleep, and obedient (the public shool system, political structures, Guantanamo Bay and the Patriot Act)
the internal structures of control and fear

A short video on the Millgram experiment here:
http://onegoodmovemedia.org/movies/0701/milgramexperiment.mov

More info available at:
http://www.stanleymilgram.com

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Getting Started: Building a Daily Gnostic Practice

2008-10-05T20:30:00.003-04:00

I occaisionally get mail here from people who aren't close to a Gnostic parish and want to know what to do to develop a regular Gnostic practice. Below are a few of my suggestions:

1) The Prayer of the Heart (daily) - Get a copy of The Way of a Pilgrim and some prayer beads or a prayer rope and begin practicing the Jesus Prayer. Pick a regular time every day, set a definite number of prayers, and stick to it. Five minutes every day is better than nothing, so pick something doable for you.

2) Lectio Divina (2 or 3 times a week, daily is better) -

Read a passage from the Gnostic Scriptures--pick a passage that's a couple of sentences long. Read it slowly and deliberately. Read it out loud if possible. Re-read it, savoring each word.
Meditatio - Ask what this selection means to you. Chew on it. Analyze it.
Ask Sophia to help you understand the passage. Sit quietly. Listen. This isn't a time for analysis, this is a time to get out of your head and listen for that "still small voice." Just relax--don't struggle to "get something out of the passage."

3) Self-Observation (daily, all day) - Try to be actively be aware of your actions, sensations, emotions, thoughts, reactions. Where do these phenomenon come from? Are they things that you want to identify with and own? Are they things that need to be set aside in order to be the sort of person you want to be? Are you impatient, or angry? Where does this impatience and anger come from? Is this you? What role does your need for ego-gratification play in your social interactions? As you begin to try to practice this, you will notice throughout the day that you continually forget to practice this mindfulness. That's okay, noticing that you forgot is part of the process.

4) Acts of Devotion (daily) - It's best if you can set aside a small space to do this, where you can put an image or small statue--something that turns your thoughts to the Divine. Every day, light a candle or oil lamp and say a brief prayer, dedicating yourself to the acquisition of Gnosis.

5) Active Meditation (daily) - I prefer Dancing Cathartic Meditation, detailed here.

6) Centering Prayer (daily) - there are lots of local groups that can help you get started with this. See contemplativeoutreach.org for links to a group near you. Also check out Centering Prayer - A Gift From the Desert ; The Guidelines for Centering Prayer; and Explanation of the Guidelines for Centering Prayer.

Looking over this list, this sounds like a lot. Start with what you can do, and don't worry about what you're not able to do.

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"I'm a Gnostic! What do I do now?"

2008-10-05T19:43:00.006-04:00

This is an updated version of an older post from Light and Life:

Do:

1) Read Valis, the Transmigration of Timothy Archer, and the Divine Invasion. Valis in particular is a book that you'll want to return to again and again.

2) Spend some time in contemplative reading of some of the primary texts. The Gospel of Thomas, the Hymn of the Pearl, and the Gospel of Phillip are good places to start. Get a copy of the Nag Hammadi library and other Gnostic readings. Establish a regular lectio divina. If you can't find or afford a copy, the texts are online at the Gnosis Archive, but a hard copy is best--check Amazon.com for used copies.

3) Try to find a real life community to interract with. The internet has some great resources, but discussion groups are not koinonia. There are a few churches around with actual parishes. The Alexandrian Gnostic Church has a parish in the NY/NJ area. There are links to other Gnostic Churches on the sidebar. Try to find a community that has a real group that meets in a physical location on a weekly basis - a Yahoo group or website is not a church. If you can't find a real church close to you, contact the AGC to discuss forming a local discussion group.

4) Do something. And do it every day. Whether it's ritual magick, yoga, centering prayer, dynamic meditation, etc., find a practice and do it every day. Your practice may change over time, but building a daily practice right now has more value than you realize. If you don't know what to do right now, check out the Prayer of the Heart as a daily practice.

5) Realize that you have just begun. This is a first step, an initial question. Yes, you are not in Kansas anymore, but you haven't reached the Emerald City yet. Be nice to the munchkins, listen carefully to the Good Witch, and find some friends for the journey--and watch out for the flying monkeys.

6) Continue to read --and not just Gnosticky religious stuff--General Semantics, Zen, Wilhelm Reich, Freud, Jung, comparative religion, etc.

7) Start keeping a journal. Record your daily practice, even if you don't think there's anything to write about.

Don't:

1) Get caught up in organizational nonsense. Schisms, arguments over legitimacy, debates about who "really is" gnostic, don't really mean much in the end--they're just fodder for the ego. Stay away from people who are caught up in this kind of nonsense. Find a group and tradition, stick with it, and be charitable to all on the Path.

2) Believe anyone who says "I (or my church or group) have the authentic Gnostic tradition. Anyone who does things differently is not Gnostic and shouldn't be allowed to call themselves such." Gnosis and Gnosticism are not the exclusive trademarked property of any organization. If (or I should say when) you encounter someone who claims to know the One True Way™ or to belong to the One Truly Authentic Gnostic Church™ - run, don't walk, in the opposite direction.

3) Get up and start proclaiming your Gnosis as The Divine Revelation. Sure, you may have had an experience with the Divine. Now, sit down with some of the rest of the people on the path and listen to what they've learned. They can teach you how to integrate what you've experienced, how to use it as a spur for further growth, and how to give it context. They can also keep you from becoming a total asshole. Too many people have a Gnostic experience and immediately want to proclaim themselves as the New Prophet. You are not the New Prophet. Say it with me: "I am not the New Prophet."

4) Pay much attention to folks who issue "do's and don'ts." Madly pursue the presence of God, and let everything else flow naturally from that.

See also:
Jordan Stratford's Do's and Don'ts

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Kick Ass Blogger Award

2008-10-05T17:32:00.004-04:00

This blog, in its earlier incarnation as Light and Life, was very kindly given the Kick Ass Blogger Award by Donald Donato.

And I will in turn nominate the following five bloggers:

Tim Boucher - Tim describes himself as "an itinerant scholar pursuing mastery in the personal & party sciences, with a focus on cultivating shared value communities and connecting creative people to the resources, inspiration and collaborators they need to make things happen…" The next Bob Wilson.
Chaos Marxism - "We are the bastard children of Aleister Crowley and Rosa Luxemburg. Trotsky built our hotrod and Robert Anton Wilson souped it up. We declare eternal war on all cliques and shibboleths. We are prepared to chase this thing through all the words in the world. What we do is the only important thing."
Excommunicate.net - The series "365 new ways to a new you" is something I read every day (and try to follow every once in a while). Don't miss the Archive.
The Blog and the Bullet - "The Blog and the Bullet is an aggregator that tries to bring to you the best of the blogosphere concerning issues of race and white supremacy. The title of the blog comes from the April 1964 speech by Malcolm X titled “The Ballot or the Bullet.” We use the term to show that our blog has a radical take on racial issues and white privilege and white supremacy."
Forbidden Gospels Blog - by April DeConick, "featuring discussions of the Nag Hammadi collection, Tchacos Codex, and other Christian apocrypha..."

10 Books That Began Your Journey Down the Rabbit-hole

2008-09-21T01:51:00.000-04:00

Waking the Midnight Sun poses the question:

What are the ten books that first initiated your journey down the rabbit-hole? Maybe they were the books that sparked your search for the truth about JFK or some other world event, about yourself or about that whole elusive thing called Reality. Perhaps these are the ten books that got you questioning all the received truths fed to you in school, by the media and by the well-meaning and equally deluded folks around you. Or maybe these are the ten books that brought you to that jaw-drop moment. You know, the moment when where your tiny bubble of consciousness exclaimed to itself, to everything and nothing: “Wow…reality is sloppy, messy, poetic, fun, crazy and,generally, a million times more maddening, frightening, beautiful, love-filled and awe-inspiring than the very boring version I’ve been led to believe in!…And I’m part of it!”

Here's my list: (in no particular order)

1) The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson

2) A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn

3) Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson

4) The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich

5) A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn

6) The Eye in the Triangle by Israel Regardie

7) Valis - Philip K. Dick

8) Morning of the Magicians by Jacques Bergier, Louis Pauwels

9) Meetings With Remarkable Men by G. I. Gurdjieff

10) Ubik by Philip K. Dick

A New Reformation

2008-09-21T01:36:00.004-04:00

from Fr. Matthew Fox:

Like Luther, I present 95 theses or in my case, 95 faith observations drawn from my 64 years of living and practicing religion and spirituality. I trust I am not alone in recognizing these truths. For me they represent a return to our origins, a return to the spirit and the teaching of Jesus and his prophetic ancestors, and of the Christ which was a spirit that Jesus’ presence and teaching unleashed.

God is both Mother and Father.
At this time in history, God is more Mother than Father because the feminine is most missing and it is important to bring gender balance back.
God is always new, always young and always “in the beginning.”
God the Punitive Father is not a God worth honoring but a false god and an idol that serves empire-builders. The notion of a punitive, all-male God, is contrary to the full nature of the Godhead who is as much female and motherly as it is masculine and fatherly.
“All the names we give to God come from an understanding of ourselves.” (Eckhart) Thus people who worship a punitive father are themselves punitive.
Theism (the idea that God is ‘out there’ or above and beyond the universe) is false. All things are in God and God is in all things (panentheism).
Everyone is born a mystic and a lover who experiences the unity of things and all are called to keep this mystic or lover of life alive.
All are called to be prophets which is to interfere with injustice.
Wisdom is Love of Life (See the Book of Wisdom: “This is wisdom: to love life” and Christ in John’s Gospel: “I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance.”)
God loves all of creation and science can help us more deeply penetrate and appreciate the mysteries and wisdom of God in creation. Science is no enemy of true religion.
Religion is not necessary but spirituality is.
“Jesus does not call us to a new religion but to life.” (Bonhoeffer) Spirituality is living life at a depth of newness and gratitude, courage and creativity, trust and letting go, compassion and justice.
Spirituality and religion are not the same thing any more than education and learning, law and justice, or commerce and stewardship are the same thing.
Christians must distinguish between God (masculine and history, liberation and salvation) and Godhead (feminine and mystery, being and non-action).
Christians must distinguish between Jesus (an historical figure) and Christ (the experience of God-in-all-things).
Christians must distinguish between Jesus and Paul.
Jesus, not unlike many spiritual teachers, taught us that we are sons and daughters of God and are to act accordingly by becoming instruments of divine compassion.
Ecojustice is a necessity for planetary survival and human ethics and without it we are crucifying the Christ all over again in the form of destruction of forests, waters, species, air and soil.
Sustainability is another word for justice, for what is just is sustainable and what is unjust is not.
A preferential option for the poor, as found in the base community movement, is far closer to the teaching and spirit of Jesus than is a preferential option for the rich and powerful as found in, for example, Opus Dei.
Economic Justice requires the work of creativity to birth a system of economics that is global, respectful of the health and wealth of the earth systems and that works for all
Celebration and worship are key to human community and survival and such reminders of joy deserve new forms that speak in the language of the twenty-first century.
Sexuality is a sacred act and a spiritual experience, a theophany (revelation of the Divine), a mystical experience. It is holy and deserves to be honored as such.
Creativity is both humanity’s greatest gift and its most powerful weapon for evil and so it ought to be both encouraged and steered to humanity’s most God-like activity which all religions agree is: Compassion.
There is a priesthood of all workers (all who are doing good work are midwives of grace and therefore priests) and this priesthood ought to be honored as sacred and workers should be instructed in spirituality in order to carry on their ministry effectively.
Empire-building is incompatible with Jesus’ life and teaching and with Paul’s life and teaching and with the teaching of holy religions.
Ideology is not theology and ideology endangers the faith because it replaces thinking with obedience, and distracts from the responsibility of theology to adapt the wisdom of the past to today’s needs. Instead of theology it demands loyalty oaths to the past.
Loyalty is not a sufficient criterion for ecclesiastic office—intelligence and proven conscience is.
No matter how much the television media fawn over the pope and papacy because it makes good theater, the pope is not the church but has a ministry within the church. Papalolotry is a contemporary form of idolatry and must be resisted by all believers.
Creating a church of Sycophants is not a holy thing. Sycophants (Webster’s dictionary defines them as “servile self-seeking flatterers”) are not spiritual people for their only virtue is obedience. A Society of Sycophants — sycophant clergy, sycophant seminarians, sycophant bishops, sycophant cardinals, sycophant religious orders of Opus Dei, Legioneers of Christ and Communion and Liberation, and the sycophant press--do not represent in any way the teachings or the person of the historical Jesus who chose to stand up to power rather than amassing it.
Vows of pontifical secrecy are a certain way to corruption and cover-up in the church as in any human organization.
Original sin is an ultimate expression of a punitive father God and is not a Biblical teaching. But original blessing (goodness and grace) is biblical.
The term “original wound” better describes the separation humans experience on leaving the womb and entering the world, a world that is often unjust and unwelcoming than does the term “original sin.”
Fascism and the compulsion to control is not the path of peace or compassion and those who practice fascism are not fitting models for sainthood. The seizing of the apparatus of canonization to canonize fascists is a stain on the church.
The Spirit of Jesus and other prophets calls people to simple life styles in order that “the people may live.”
Dancing, whose root meaning in many indigenous cultures is the same as breath or spirit, is a very ancient and appropriate form in which to pray.
To honor the ancestors and celebrate the communion of saints does not mean putting heroes on pedestals but rather honoring them by living out lives of imagination, courage and compassion in our own time, culture and historical moment as they did in theirs.
A diversity of interpretation of the Jesus event and the Christ experience is altogether expected and welcomed as it was in the earliest days of the church.
Therefore unity of church does not mean conformity. There is unity in diversity. Coerced unity is not unity.
The Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of working through participatory democracy in church structures and hierarchical modes of being can indeed interfere with the work of the Spirit.
The body is an awe-filled sacred Temple of God and this does not mean it is untouchable but rather that all its dimensions, well named by the seven charkas, are as holy as the others.
Thus our connection with the earth (first chakra) is holy; and our sexuality (second chakra) is holy; and our moral outrage (third chakra) is holy; and our love that stands up to fear (fourth chakra) is holy; and our prophetic voice that speaks out is holy (fifth chakra); and our intuition and intelligence (sixth chakra) are holy; and our gifts we extend to the community of light beings and ancestors (seventh chakra) are holy.
The prejudice of rationalism and left-brain located in the head must be balanced by attention to the lower charkas as equal places for wisdom and truth and Spirit to act.
The central chakra, compassion, is the test of the health of all the others which are meant to serve it for “by their fruits you will know them” (Jesus).
“Joy is the human’s noblest act.” (Aquinas) Is our culture and its professions, education and religion, promoting joy?
The human psyche is made for the cosmos and will not be satisfied until the two are re-united and awe, the beginning of wisdom, results from this reunion.
The four paths named in the creation spiritual tradition more fully name the mystical/prophetic spiritual journey of Jesus and the Jewish tradition than do the three paths of purgation, illumination and union which do not derive from the Jewish and Biblical tradition.
Thus it can be said that God is experienced in experiences of ecstasy, joy, wonder and delight (via positiva).
God is experienced in darkness, chaos, nothingness, suffering, silence and in learning to let go and let be (via negativa).
God is experienced in acts of creativity and co-creation (via creativa).
All people are born creative. It is spirituality’s task to encourage holy imagination for all are born in the “image and likeness” of the Creative One and “the fierce power of imagination is a gift from God.” (Kaballah)
If you can talk you can sing; if you can walk you can dance; if you can talk you are an artist. (African proverb and Native American saying)
God is experienced in our struggle for justice, healing, compassion and celebration (via transformativa).
The Holy Spirit works through all cultures and all spiritual traditions and blows “where it wills” and is not the exclusive domain of any one tradition and never has been.
God speaks today as in the past through all religions and all cultures and all faith traditions none of which is perfect and an exclusive avenue to truth but all of which can learn from each other.
Therefore Interfaith or Deep Ecumenism are a necessary part of spiritual praxis and awareness in our time.
Since the “number one obstacle to interfaith is a bad relationship with one’s own faith,” (the Dalai Lama) it is important that Christians know their own mystical and prophetic tradition, one that is larger than a religion of empire and its punitive father images of God.
The cosmos is God’s holy Temple and our holy home.
Fourteen billion years of evolution and unfolding of the universe bespeak the intimate sacredness of all that is.
All that is is holy and all that is is related for all being in our universe began as one being just before the fireball erupted.
Interconnectivity is not only a law of physics and of nature but also forms the basis of community and of compassion. Compassion is the working out of our shared interconnectivity both as to our shared joy and our shared suffering and struggle for justice.
The universe does not suffer from a shortage of grace and no religious institution is to see its task as rationing grace. Grace is abundant in God’s universe.
Creation, Incarnation and Resurrection are continuously happening on a cosmic as well as a personal scale. So too are Life, Death and Resurrection (regeneration and reincarnation) happening on a cosmic scale as well as a personal one.
Biophilia or Love of Life is everyone’s daily task.
Necrophilia or love of death is to be opposed in self and society in all its forms.
Evil can happen through every people, every nation, every tribe, and every individual human and so vigilance and self-criticism and institutional criticism are always called for.
Not all who call themselves “Christian” deserve that name just as “not all who say ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (Jesus).
Pedophilia is a terrible wrong but its cover-up by hierarchy is even more despicable.
Loyalty and obedience are never a greater virtue than conscience and justice.
Jesus said nothing about condoms, birth control or homosexuality.
A church that is more preoccupied with sexual wrongs than with wrongs of injustice is itself sick.
Since homosexuality is found among 464 species and in 8 percent of any given human population, it is altogether natural for those who are born that way and is a gift from God and nature to the greater community.
Homophobia in any form is a serious sin against love of neighbor, a sin of ignorance of the richness and diversity of God’s creation as well as a sin of exclusion.
Racism, Sexism and militarism are also serious sins.
Poverty for the many and luxury for the few is not right or sustainable.
Consumerism is today’s version of gluttony and needs to be confronted by creating an economic system that works for all peoples and all earth’s creatures.
Seminaries as we know them, with their excessive emphasis on left-brain work, often kill and corrupt the mystical soul of the young instead of encouraging the mysticism and prophetic consciousness that is there. They should be replaced by wisdom schools.
Inner work is required of us all. Therefore spiritual practices of meditation should be available to all and this helps in calming the reptilian brain. Silence or contemplation and learning to be still can and ought to be taught to all children and adults.
Outer work needs to flow from our inner work just as action flows from non-action and true action from being.
A wise test of right action is this: What is the effect of this action on people seven generations from today?
Another test of right action is this: Is what I am doing, is what we are doing, beautiful or not?
Eros, the passion for living, is a virtue that combats acedia or the lack of energy to begin new things and is also expressed as depression, cynicism or sloth (also known as “couchpotatoitis”).
The Dark Night of the Soul descends on us all and the proper response is not addiction such as shopping, alcohol, drugs, TV, sex or religion but rather to be with the darkness and learn from it.
The Dark Night of the Soul is a learning place of great depth. Stillness is required.
Not only is there a Dark Night of the Soul but also a Dark Night of Society and a Dark Night of our Species.
Chaos is a friend and a teacher and an integral part or prelude to new birth. Therefore it is not to be feared or compulsively controlled.
Authentic science can and must be one of humanity’s sources of wisdom for it is a source of sacred awe, of childlike wonder, and of truth.
When science teaches that matter is “frozen light” (physicist David Bohm) it is freeing human thought from scapegoating flesh as something evil and instead reassuring us that all things are light. This same teaching is found in the Christian Gospels (Christ is the light in all things) and in Buddhist teaching (the Buddha nature is in all things). Therefore, flesh does not sin; it is our choices that are sometimes off center.
The proper objects of the human heart are truth and justice (Aquinas) and all people have a right to these through healthy education and healthy government.
"God” is only one name for the Divine One and there are an infinite number of names for God and Godhead and still God “has no name and will never be given a name.” (Eckhart)
Three highways into the heart are silence and love and grief.
The grief in the human heart needs to be attended to by rituals and practices that, when practiced, will lessen anger and allow creativity to flow anew.
Two highways out of the heart are creativity and acts of justice and compassion.
Since angels learn exclusively by intuition, when we develop our powers of intuition we can expect to meet angels along the way.
True intelligence includes feeling, sensitivity, beauty, the gift of nourishment and humor which is a gift of the Spirit, paradox, being its sister.