DeConick A.D

218
HELL WALKS AND STAR TREKS
their mysteries were revealed to them by Jesus, who came down from
the transcendent world, bringing with him secret knowledge of the holy
way back to the realm of Primal Man (Hippolytus, Refutation 5.10.1).
They called the initiate a teleios (perfect), a person perfecting his or her
spirit (5.7.16–17, 5.8.28–29).
Before the initiation, the initiate had to take a vow of abstinence from
heterosexual relations. This stemmed future incarnations of Perfect Man’s
spirit while also destroying the gendered body. The Naassenes thought
that abstinence was a practice that made them hermaphrodites, new creatures
that no longer played separate male and female roles. By refusing
to participate in heterosexual sex, they became male-female creatures like
Primal Man. Because of this teaching, they were accused by their opponents
of being homosexual (Hippolytus, Refutation 5.7.14–15; cf. Galatians
3:28; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:15, 4:24; Colossians 3:9–10).
Initiation itself comprises three stages: defeating mortality, ascending
through the spheres, and rejoining Adamas in the house of God (Hippolytus,
Refutation 5.8.4). As fledgling hermaphrodites, initiates embark
on the initiatory journey as a paidos (child). At the second level, they
advance as an ephêbos (youth). The mysteries are completed at the third
level, where the youth has grown into an anêr (adult) (5.8.19).
The level of the child is the level of awakening, when the infant spirit
comes to consciousness in the pit of Hades. Ritually, initiates are baptized
in flowing water. This is meant to mimic their origin in the primal waters
(5.7.19, 5.9.21–22). Hippolytus compares this level of initiation to the
Greek Lesser Mysteries of Persephone celebrated at Eleusis; the Naassene
initiate journeys to the underworld along a pathway described as jagged,
cavernous, and muddy (5.8.42–43). The leader of this level of the Naassene
initiation journey is Hermes, the Olympian god who is known in
Greek mythology as a psychopomp, an escort who helps the dead find
their way to the underworld. He is one of the only gods who can journey
back and forth between the realm of the dead and our world.
Hermes carries a caduceus, a special staff around which are entwined
two snakes. In the Naassene mysteries, this staff is identified as the golden
rod mentioned by Homer in the Odyssey (24.2–4), which soothes men’s
eyes and wakes them from their sleep. It also is the shepherd’s rod of
iron mentioned in Psalms 2:9. Hermes uses this staff to awaken and direct
souls to become suitors of Adamas, bridegrooms of the Son of Man