DeConick A.D

215
HELL WALKS AND STAR TREKS
Eden, realizing that Elohim has left her, tries to lure him back with her
good looks and erotic gestures. When Elohim does not return to her, she
falls into despair and grief, acting the angry abandoned spouse. Human
marriages begin to fall apart, following their example. To punish Elohim,
the resentful Eden declares war on the human spirit, which Elohim had
given to human beings, finding all possible ways to make the spirit suffer.
Because of this, the soul and spirit are locked in a perpetual battle with
each other.
Ascent to the Good
On various occasions throughout history, Elohim sends his angel Baruch
as a divine emissary to try to liberate his spirit from its suffering. The final
occasion is Baruch’s visit to Nazareth and the twelve-year-old boy Jesus.
Baruch reveals the cosmic situation to Jesus and asks him to take up the
mission to preach the truth to all people, to show them how to bring an
end to the suffering of their spirits. Jesus must teach their spirits how to
ascend to the Good Father and take their place at his right hand as Elohim
had done. When Jesus was crucified by his enemies, Eden’s angels,
his spirit took up the charge and led the way for all other human spirits to
follow. Jesus’ spirit ascended to the Good Father, leaving his natural body
behind in Eden’s hands, since it belonged to her anyway.
Justin claims to offer initiates ascent to the Good Father along Elohim’s
path, which was revealed by Jesus. What was Justin doing with his
initiates? Hippolytus emphasizes three things in his description of their
mysteries: silence, instruction, and mimicry. Justin insisted that his initiates
swear an oath of silence before he would instruct them about reality
and take them on the sky trek to the Good Father. Hippolytus tells us that
this oath was meant to bind the initiates to secrecy about their Gnostic
catechism and experience. There is likely some truth to this, because it
was commonly known that the initiated were not supposed to divulge the
mysteries to the uninitiated.
But this is not the whole story. Hippolytus goes on to mention that
being initiated by Justin is comparable to going on a long journey, with
stops at an inn to get some sleep. It may be that Justin was training his
initiates for their ecstatic sky trek by teaching them, first and foremost,