DeConick A.D

67
THE GNOSTIC TRUE MAN
power beyond everything. Only such a direct gnostic meeting between
the human spirit and God can ease the spirit’s suffering, restore its integrity,
and make it fully alive.
The Shamanic Quest
The supreme power beyond all is the God that the Gnostics ultimately
sought in their ecstatic initiations. The closest analogue to such initiations
may be the shamanic soul flight, at least as it was manifested in the Greco-
Roman–Egyptian mystery rites. Yet the Gnostic flights had a very different
orientation than those of the mystery religions that were solely focused on
underworld journeys, such as the Orphics or those devoted to the great
goddess Demeter. They also were different from the heavenly journeys of
the Isiac celebrants or the Mithraic worshippers, since the Gnostics were
trying to get out of the universe and into another world altogether, the
world where the supreme God dwelled. They were not interested in being
transformed into a star or the sun god and charging around the skies in
his chariot. They wanted to travel through the underworld, the sky, and
the constellations but not remain within them.
How did the Gnostics think we go about finding the holy wholly
Other and escaping chaos? In the same way that Truman Burbank figures
he can. You have to journey out of the world. For Truman, this involved
a secret night flight from the pit of his basement through an escape route
in his ceiling, a harrowing boat ride across the ocean to the edge of world,
and the ascent of a blue staircase to an open door in the painted celestial
dome.
The Gnostics were ecstatics, using the same techniques as the priests
who organized mystery initiations, only they fine-tuned them to fit their
own loftier goal to invade the wholly other realm of the holy Other. The
Gnostics used instruction and ritual to take their initiates on virtual cosmic
journeys, beginning with a harrowing of hell.
From there, they invaded heaven, not to check out their future residence
among the stars but to climb through it to the loftiest peak at the
mouth of Draco or some other star portal, where they believed they would
be spit out of the cosmos and into the otherworld of the supreme God.
These journeys were extremely dangerous because the gods encountered
in the underworld and heavens were not to be befriended but conquered.