gnostic handbook

Chapter One:
WHAT IS GNOSTICISM
Gnosticism as a Form of Perception
What do we mean when we say Gnosticism is a form of perception To truly understand the
Gnostic vision it is important to grasp what Gnosticism is and not to be bogged down in various
historical manifestations of the Gnostic way of looking at things. Gnosis literally means wisdom
but does not mean book learning, even tradition, it is a direct experience of the divine, the flash of
wisdom that is brought when we meet “God” face to face. Certainly Gnosticism has certain key
motifs, certain perennial ideals, which we will examine in the course of this book. However, we
must appreciate that there are “Gnostic” trends in most religious traditions. Whether we are talking
about Odin on the World Tree and his flash of wisdom as he grasped the runes or whether we
are talking on the mystic achieving wisdom after days of penance and fasting, both are essentially
Gnostic. In some ways the best way to appreciate Gnosticism is to use the metaphor of algebra.
Algebra is a branch of mathematics that uses letters etc to represent numbers and
quantities. Algebraic is ultimately from Arabic Al-Jabr – reunion of broken parts.
Pocket Oxford Dictionary.
It may be thought that Algebra has little similarity to spirituality, however, if we consider it more
closely they have much in common. Algebra uses letters to represent actions and numbers, it is a
system of representation and in a sense, symbolism. This is also the case with spirituality. Spirituality
uses symbols to stand for realities, it uses images to represent things that cannot be easily
imagined or explained. The problem is that Algebra is an academic form of mathematics and has
little effect on everyday life while spirituality controls and influences us more than we would care
to admit. Only be removing religious iconography from the realm of the emotions and appreciating
it as a symbol system, as a form of divine algebra can we really understand its nature. The
Gnostic handbook is one application, one representational system for the ancient Gnosis. It can be
seen in many forms and using many symbol systems. Accordingly, it is important to realise the
difference between the representational letter and the thing that is represented, between the essence
and the form. The Institute hence differentiates between its philosophical works (such as
Gnostic Theurgy) and its religious works (such as the Gnostic Handbook).
To give an example, while all Gnostic traditions agree on the universe being in some sense dualistic,
there are many divergent ways of expressing this dualism and even more ways to understand.
Some Gnostic schools have two a true and false God, one the Essence behind all things, the
other a Demiurge or false creators, others see the dualism as relative and only existing between
mans perception (ignorance) and the truth. While all of these “representational” systems are dif-