In 2019, I wrote a book called The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated, and what I am attempting to do in this podcast is talk you through the book so that you will have your own personal and very full understanding of what Gnosis is, and hopefully be able to actually realize Gnosis while you're hearing these podcasts.
You may purchase my original Gnostic Gospel at gnosticinsights.com or any online book dealer.
By the way, what is Gnosis? We keep talking about Gnosis and Gnostic. Gnosis means knowing, and in the Gnostic frame of reference, Gnosis refers to remembering the truth of our existence and our creation, and the creation of the entire cosmos. It is thought that we hold all of this knowledge within ourselves, and we have complete access to the Creator of the universe at any time that we turn our focus on the Creator, and it is this direct conduit to the Creator that gives us what is called Gnosis.
G-N-O-S-I-S, that's a Greek word. Another related word to Gnosis, and this is a big word, is anamnesis. You know the word amnesia means forgetting? Anamnesis means not forgetting. So, the process of coming to Gnosis is a process called anamnesis. Today we're going to talk about the qualities of the All, and how the All became what is called the Pleroma, and the Aeons of the Pleroma.
Many people claim that it's impossible to know or describe the full glory of the transcendent, immortal Father of Consciousness due to our own limitations. I mean, how could limited beings such as ourselves possibly imagine the greatness of the Originator of the universe, much less our place in the grand design? Wouldn't lesser beings reflect a diminished view of God? Wouldn't these lesser beings be limited to offering a tarnished glory that falls far short of the object of their praise? The Tripartite Tractate, which is the book of the Nag Hammadi that I'm working off of, the Tripartite puts it this way.
If the members of the All had risen to give glory according to the individual powers of each, they would have brought forth a glory that was only a semblance of the Father, who Himself is the All.
Thus, creation would have been doomed from the outset to never comprehend the full glory of either the Father or itself. According to the Gnostic gospel, the Father realized this impossibility and so built a helpful workaround meant to aid comprehension: selfless union and cooperation with others in a shared task. Quoting from the Tripartite again,
For that reason they were drawn into mutual intermingling union and oneness through the singing of praise. From their assembled Fullness they were one and at the same time ma...