gnostic handbook

The Gnostic Handbook Page 83
ity there are multiple words in the original Hebrew or Greek, which each offer many possible
interpretations.
Hell on Earth
The term Sheol is used a lot in the Bible and as used in the Old testament can be interchanged
with Grave, Pit, and Abode of the Dead. It is used to describe the state of the dead in relation to
earth. The dead have no consciousness in relation to earth as they have returned to it ! The
Grave or the state of being dead (without consciousness) is used to represent the lack of awareness
the reincarnating soul has of the earth sphere. Time and time again this term is used to refer
to cessation of activity and not in reference to an eternal fire or to any " spiritual realm ".
Hell - First it stands for the Hebrew Sheol of the Old Testament and the Greek
Hades of the Septuagint and the New Testament. Sheol in Old Testament times
referred simply to the abode of the dead and suggested no moral distinctions, the
word Hell as understood today, is not a happy translation.
Colliers Encyclopaedia, 1986 Vol. 12 PG 28.
The Term Hades is the New Testament equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol and therefore has the
same meaning - the Grave or in esoteric terms, the astral plane where a soul resides between incarnations
and returns to earth again and again and again. The general tone of these Biblical
terms are negative, that is, that the process of returning to the grave and returning back to earth
is painful and destructive, from a Gnostic perspective this is certainly true. The other term regularly
used for hell explains this even better, Gehenna (used in the New Testament) has a very
specific meaning and symbolism. It literally refers to the valley of Hinnom and hence can only
be understood in the context of what this valley represented. The Valley of Hinnom was located
outside the walls of Jerusalem and was a large rubbish dump. Fires were triggered by the adding
of sulphur so that the rubbish could be burnt up.
It became the common lay stall of the city, where the dead bodies of criminals
and the carcasses of animals and every other kind of filth was cast..
Smith's Bible Dictionary.
It is such an apt description of the how we experience the darker aspects of our world, into
which we are forced to reincarnate - criminals, carcasses of animals and every kind of filth.
When we die, the body is eaten by animals or burnt by sulphur, or in more modern terms, cremated
or buried and our soul then again must return. This sort of eternal re-occurance, “hell on
earth” is the iconography of Hades, Sheol and Gehenna, it is the real meaning of Hell.