Gnosis: The Not-So Secret History of Jesus

Christianity originated in mystery schools where the
rites of baptism, annointing, communion, and resurrection led initiates
on a sacred path to inner knowing. But a sadistic emperor, literalist
churches and 2,000 years of bad translations have covered up the
origins of the greatest story yet to be told.

****

Remember your preschool and
kindergarten teachers and how he or she first taught you the alphabet?  It wasn’t long until they immersed you in the
fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic.  The stakes escalated as you went through each
grade.  There was telling time, cursive,
the national anthem, history, fractions, astronomy, and even a little earth
science.  As you progressed through
junior high to high school, you embarked on new adventures involving facts,
dates, and important events.  Basic
algebra turned into quadratic equations, which morphed into trigonometry and
possibly calculus.  Perhaps you went to
college and sat through lectures, labs, novels, tests, papers, and a thesis.  You might have even gone on to do post-grad
work acquiring various degrees or doctorates. 

 

But after
years and years of study, from adolescence all the way into adulthood, did a
heroic teacher or professor ever set down the chalk or turn off the overhead
projector, look your class square in the eye and say something like this?

"Look
guys, we teach you all these things but none of us really know what’s going
on.  Here we are, six billion humans
(give or take), living on a bluish green sphere we call Earth.  We’re a little speck spinning through an
unimaginably vast cosmos, and none of us can even answer the most basic
questions of our lives: Who are we? 
Where did we come from?  Where we
are going?  And what is the purpose of
this fourteen-billion-year experiment we call the universe?”

With all
the cost, time, resources, and energy it takes to put our youth through this
extended learning process, our students invariably come out full of information
but knowing very little.  By and large, there
are gaping blind spots within our educational institutions and academic systems
towards understanding what might be the true nature of this whole thing we call
“reality.” 

Fortunately,
we don’t need to look beyond our own Western tradition to discover a remarkable
model of education that existed during the early days of Christianity.  By undergoing an extraordinary initiation
process, students of the Christian Mystery schools were able to uncover the deepest
mysteries of the universe.  Twentieth century
academics have labeled the seekers and keepers of this wisdom “Gnostics.”  According to the teachers of this sacred
knowledge, we only needed the perseverance, guidance, openness, love, and
spirit (pneuma) to find what we’ve
always (although sometimes unknowingly) been looking for.  And judging from dozens of ancient texts, it
appears that these Christians came to understand the most fundamental wisdom we
could ever obtain in our lifetime -- knowing who we truly are.

The word gnosis means "knowledge through
direct experience or personal revelation." 
It’s not something you can be told from a teacher, minister, or
politician, nor can it be learned from a newspaper or book, or even the global
mind of the Internet.  It’s something you
must experience firsthand. There’s nobody who can do it for you, and there’s
absolutely no exception.  For instance, I
can tell you that Paris is the capital of France.  It has a
population of about ten million people. 
The city boasts wide attractive avenues with some classy old
buildings.  I can tell you all these things
but the only way to truly know Paris is to have actually been there and experienced it
yourself.  The same goes for higher
states of consciousness, or "the kingdom of heaven," as Jesus would
put it.  And it’s the same for knowing
ourselves and our own true nature.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus makes a rather
remarkable promise: "For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed;
nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light." (4:22).1 
According to him, all the secrets and mysteries of God, the universe,
and our own origins don’t have to be guessed at or alluded to, but will
actually be known to us in time.  And
just as importantly, these mysteries would, quite literally, I believe, “come
to light," which is a concept
we’ll be expanding on throughout this book.

According
to many of the ancient Gnostics, most of us are suffering from a chronic case
of cosmic ignorance, which they describe as "forgetfulness,"
"drunkenness," “blindness,” or "sleep."  Their texts say that we are lost in the world
of illusion and have forgotten our origins beyond the material world.  The Buddhists and Hindus call this the veil of
illusion maya; Plato described it as the shadows of the cave, and Neo
mainstreamed the concept when calling it "the matrix" on wide screen
theaters around the world. 

So, who
were these Gnostics, and how were they able to break through this veil to
"wake up?”  There have been a number
of recent scriptural discoveries that reveal the wonderful diversity of early
Christianity.  It was an extremely rich
tradition full of various sects and circles, many of which claimed “secret
knowledge” of our divine origins.  In
fact, evidence points to the popular idea that Christianity comes from very
deep spiritual lineages known as the Mystery schools.  These were ancient mystical initiatory
religions where seekers would pass through various rites of passage as they
matured on their spiritual path.  Those
in the outer circles were taught that the religious stories told to them were historical
fact but as they progressed through the process of inner knowledge (gnosis), they learned that these tales
served as an allegory for their own spiritual journey, mimicking the rites and
rituals they would encounter along the way.

The most
common rites of the Mystery schools play out in the drama of Jesus’ own
story.  There’s a baptism (spiritual
cleansing), a eucharist (communion), an anointing ("Christ" means
"the anointed one"), and the death and resurrection ritual, which the
mature initiate would eventually go through. 
“The Lord did everything in a mystery, a baptism and a chrism and a
eucharist and a redemption and a bridal chamber. […] he said, ‘I came to make
the things below like the things above, and the things outside like the things
inside. I came to unite them in the place.” (The Gospel of Philip)2
 In this passage, we can see a
magical alchemy revealing itself as one passes through the various initiation
rituals.  In 1 Corinthians 4:1,
Paul says, “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God.”3  The apostles word Mysteries appears twenty-two
times in the New Testament.4 
Jesus tells us himself about these secret teachings when talking to the
disciples: 

"You
have been given the secret of God’s imperial rule; but to those outside
everything is presented in parables, so that

They may
look with eyes wide open

but never
quite see,

and may
listen with ears attuned

but never
quite understand,

otherwise,
they might turn around and find forgiveness!" (Matthew 4:11-12)5

As Jesus
constantly reminds us, we aren’t witnessing the here and now correctly, because
if we did, we would see through the fog of illusion and forgetfulness, finding
forgiveness as we remember who we truly are. 
“You examine the face of heaven and earth, but you have not come to know
the one who is in your presence, and you do not know how to examine the present
moment.” (The Gospel of Thomas)6.  Those of us on the “outside” of the Mysteries
have not acquired the necessary inner wisdom to see the greater reality around
us, so we must learn through enigmatic allegories until we complete the various
stages of gnosis.  "Jesus said, “I
disclose my mysteries to those [who are worthy] of [my] mysteries." (Thomas).7  It most likely took much effort and spiritual
discipline to be “worthy” of this esoteric knowledge.

The
Mystery schools were strewn across the lands of the Mediterranean
and are thought to have originated in Egypt centuries before Jesus made his debut in Nazareth.  The
correspondences between Jesus and the Egyptian Mystery god Horus are remarkably
similar.  Horus and his “once-and-future
Father,” the god Osiris, are often interchangeable just as Jesus and his Father
are. Horus is called the "KRST,” meaning the "anointed one,” as well
as the "fisher,” the "good shepherd,” “the "lamb of God,” “the
bread of life,” and “the Word.”8 
He is born to Isis, who is often depicted as a virgin, in a cave on the
winter solstice, where three wise men are shown the way by Sirius, the Eastern
Star.  At the age of thirty, he is
baptized by Anup the Baptiser and then is taken from the desert
of Amenta and tempted by his adversary Set (a precursory to Satan).  Horus leads twelve disciples along a magical journey
where he walks on water, casts out demons, and heals the sick.  At the end of his story, he is crucified with
two thieves, buried in a tomb, and resurrected after three days.9

The
“dying and resurrecting godman” was a prominent feature amongst many other Mystery
religions.  In Greece it was Dionysus; in Syria, Adonis; in Asia
Minor, Attis; and in Persia (and later Rome), Mithras. The similarities amongst these mythic figures are uncanny.
Much like Horus and Jesus, they were born on December 25 (around the winter
solstice) to a virgin in humble surroundings (a manger or a cave) with a star
in the Eastern sky. They grew up to be spiritual masters with twelve disciples,
performing miracles, turning water into wine, giving baptisms and communions,
and then dying for three days before making a glorious comeback. Often, they
were referred to as "the son of the lamb," "son of God,"
"king of kings," "the light of the world," and "the
alpha and the omega." 10

Even if you’ve
never been to church, you’ll most likely recognize the following inscription:
“He who will not eat of my body and drink of my blood, so that he will be made
one with me and I with him, the same shall not know salvation.” 11  This familiar reference to communion doesn’t
appear on a mossy Catholic cathedral but rather on an ancient temple for the
Roman Mystery god Mithras. The Mithraic Mysteries were around centuries before
Jesus hit the religious circuit in Galilee. Here’s a common prayer for their services: “Be good of
cheer, sacred band of Initiates, your God has risen from the dead. His pains
and sufferings shall be your salvation.”12 The Mithraic Mysteries
were spread across the Roman Empire and you’ll find temples in London and even up north at Hadrian’s Wall
where Roman soldiers were stationed. The Vatican itself sits on top of a destroyed Mithraic temple, where
initiates once shared a meal of wine and bread, celebrating their redeemer,
born on December 25th, who died for three days before coming back to life.13 

Rather than rejoicing in
their commonalities, some of the more “Literalist Christians” were bothered by
the similarities of the older Mithraic religion and that of their own.  According to Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy,
authors of The Jesus Mysteries, “Early ‘Church fathers,’ such as Justin
Martyr, Tertullian, and Irenaeus, were understandably disturbed and resorted to
the desperate claim that these similarities were the result of diabolical
mimicry.  Using one of the most
absurd arguments ever advanced, they accused the Devil of ‘plagiarism by
anticipation,’ of deviously copying the true story of Jesus before it had
actually happened in an attempt to mislead the gullible.” 14

In The Golden Bough, world myth expert and
adventurer James Frazier notes problems caused by the similarities between
Attis, the Mystery god from Asia
Minor, and Jesus. "In point
of fact it appears from the testimony of an anonymous Christian, who wrote in
the fourth century of our era, that Christians and pagans alike were struck by
the remarkable coincidence between the death and resurrection of their
respective deities, and that the coincidence formed a theme of bitter
controversy between the adherents of the rival religions, the pagans contending
that the resurrection of Christ was a spurious imitation of the resurrection of
Attis, and the Christians asserting with equal warmth that the resurrection of
Attis was a diabolical counterfeit of Christ.”15  For anyone wishing to pursue the many correspondences
between Attis, Adonis, Osiris, and Dionysus in greater detail, I highly
recommend checking out chapters 29-43 of The
Golden Bough.

The
Mystery schools also had a strong interest in astrology.  Horus was not just considered to be the “Son
of God,” but also the “Sun of God.” In fact, the word “horizon” comes from
“Horus-Sun,” meaning sunrise.  Horus was
the Egyptian god of light, the sun, and the daytime, where he would rule until
his jackal-headed enemy Set (“Sun-Set”) would regain control and bring darkness
back into the world.  This violent drama
of night and day highlighted the dual nature of our universe.  Jesus plays a similar role to Horus as “the
light of the world” surrounded by twelve disciples who are thought to represent
the twelve months of the year, and the twelve signs of the Zodiac.  The sun enters each Zodiac sign at thirty
degrees (30x12=360 degrees).  Thus, the
"Sun of God" begins his ministry at age thirty. 16

Many of
the dying and resurrecting godmen of the Mystery religions are born on December
25th, including, Horus, Tammuz/Adonis, Mithras, and of course, our
Jesus (Christmas).  A spectacular celestial
event takes place on that date.  “The sun makes an annual descent southward until December
21st or 22nd, the winter solstice, when it stops moving southerly for three
days and then starts to move northward again. During this time, the ancients
declared that "God's sun" had "died" for three days and was
"born again" on December 25th. So [Christ]mas really is the Birthday
of the SUN/SON in every way.”17

On this
day, the constellation Virgo (the virgin) precedes the sun’s arrival.  But, the sun’s rebirth and resurrection
weren’t fully celebrated until it reached fruition during the spring equinox,
or what we call Easter today. Given the subtle, yet powerful
spiritual/energetic forces the Mystery schools were working with (which we'll
discuss in greater detail), it’s not
surprising that their mythic heroes were symbolized by the powerful nuclear
fusion process of our glowing sun.  As
we’ll describe later, our own bodies are also be filled with energy centers of
their own, supporting the old alchemist adage “as above, so below.”  The sun’s journey of death and rebirth
reflects our own energetic path to spiritual awakening.

The
classic Zodiac cross bisects the twelve signs within a circle and the sun hangs
“crucified” in the center as it passes through the equinoxes.  Different Mystery school figures represent
different ages of the Zodiac, each of which lasts about 2,150 years. Mithras
kills the bull as we move away from Taurus into the age of Aries (the ram),
then Jesus comes along with baskets full of fish to usher in the age of Pisces.
When the disciples ask where the next Passover will be, Jesus tells two of them
to go into the city and find a man “carrying a pitcher of water” who will show
them a “large upper room” where they can hold the ceremony.  Some Astrologers argue that the water bearer
is Aquarius. When we hear of “the end of the world” in The New Testament,
it actually translates as “the end of the age,” which isn’t that terrifying
when you consider the authors are poetically marking the change in the star
calendar, a time when new energies come in and affect our planet. 18

Given the
astrological significance of the cross, depictions of crucifixion were popular
amongst the Mystery traditions. A famous second to third
century talisman depicts a figure that looks suspiciously like Jesus crucified
on a cross, but is surprisingly labeled “Orpheus becomes a Bacchoi.” Orpheus
was a prophet in the Dionysian Mysteries and a Bocchoi was an
enlightened disciple who had completed the stages of initiation. (The first
depiction of Jesus on the cross wouldn’t show up until at least 200 years
later.) Around the same time as the talisman, a Roman graffiti artist drew a
bizarre picture on the back of a Roman pillar when the authorities weren’t
looking. This ancient “tag” featured a donkey being crucified on the cross,
which just might symbolize the rite of dying to one’s animalistic nature in
order to ascend to the higher Self. This image is reminiscent of Jesus riding a
donkey into Jerusalem, revealing in allegory how we can gain spiritual mastery
over our bodily drives and desires.19

While
we're shedding light on some overlooked history, I'd like to take a look at
what many Christian scholars consider 2,000 years of inaccurate
translations.  Let's start off with that
all-important Christian word "savior."  It's a Greek term, soter, meaning “healer” or “bestower of health,” or “one who makes
whole.”20  In The
Gospel of Thomas, Jesus tells us, “I am the one who comes from what is
whole.  I was granted from the things of
my Father.”21  Throughout The
New Testament Jesus heals people with all sorts of ailments, but what are
his miraculous techniques?  Evidence can
be found when he comes across a woman "with a flow of twelve years,"
who reaches out and touches his garments. 
"The power drain[ed] out of him," for which Jesus turns
around, and says, "Your trust (faith) has healed you." (Mark 5:30-34) 22 
Jesus was most likely using the same power that moves the whole cosmos,
energy.  Like a supreme Reiki master, he
cured people by passing on these higher healing frequencies.  After all, he constantly gives "hands-on
healings" throughout the gospels, often telling his patients’ "be
opened,” which becomes extremely important when cleaning out the energy
channels or opening the body’s energy centers for healing sickness and disease.

To
continue our discussion of centuries old mistranslations, I'd like to tackle the
word "sin."  The term harmatia comes from Greek archery, and
quite literally means “missing the mark.” 23   The
word isn’t riddled with the shame and guilt that you might expect.  It describes those moments when we fall off
target and then need to realign ourselves to get back on the path. 

It’s highly
unlikely that you would go to hell for "missing the mark," or at
least not that place of eternal damnation that we often hear about.  The translation for hell actually comes from
the word Gehena, which refers to the
“Valley of Hinnom,” a place where trash was burned.24  A spiritual master like Jesus understood the
laws of karma and knew that if you do “bad” things, you might, metaphorically
speaking, end up in a fiery trash dump until you figure things out.  How many of us have been in Gehena at some
point in our lives?  And I’m sure for
some, it felt like an eternity. Of course, we could "repent" to
improve our situation, especially since the Greek word metanoia simply means to "change one’s mind" or better
yet, "to have a change of consciousness,"25 which can happen
quite easily when you meet a higher vibrational being like Jesus.

And what
about that fabled goateed guy with the red pointy tail?  The term "Satan" comes from the
Hebrew word for "adversary." 
In our minds and mythologies, we’ve built Old Scratch up to be a wily
demon tempting us into horrible corruption, but those on the path will
recognize our principle adversary to true knowing as the ego/personality
attachment to this world of illusion. 
Some Gnostics called this the eidolon,
which we must overcome in order to experience our higher self.  Once we've accomplished that through the
unfolding process of spiritual alchemy, we can become “redeemed” (apolytrosis),
meaning “released”26 from the attachment and suffering of the
world.  When one "resurrects" (anastasis), they literally "rise
from sleep"27 to become fully awake and aware beings in the
cosmic dream.  The Buddha's ears may be
pricking up, as his name also means "The Awakened One."  Jesus’ "Kingdom of Heaven” and the
Buddha’s "Ultimate Reality” may very well be the same exact thing.

To
explore further, I went back to the oldest Christian gospel ever written.  Many people think it is Mark, written
between 60 and 70 AD, but there’s another gospel even older than that (fragments
predate all The New Testament texts). And it just happens to be one of
the most poetic and compelling spiritual books in the world, right on par with The Tao Te Ching and The Bhagavad Gita.  That’s The
Gospel of Thomas (40 AD).  The text
is known as a “secret sayings gospel” and you'll find many of these sayings
conveniently inserted into the narrative of The New Testament.

The
gospel starts off with a startling promise: "Whoever discovers the
interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."  You only have to read a few lines further to
find another incredible line: “Heaven is inside and outside you.  When you know yourselves, then you will be
known, and you will understand that you are children of the living father.”28

Here
again, we find that forgiveness, heaven, and knowledge of our true self does
not exist in cloud nine far above; it's right here inside us and around us,
just waiting to be explored.  Jesus goes
on to tell Thomas, "I am not your teacher. 
Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling
spring that I have tended."29 
In this gospel, Thomas obtains a similar spiritual mastery as Jesus and
no longer needs our favorite soter for guidance to know the kingdom of
heaven.  As Jesus says later in the text,
“Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become
that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him.” 30  In
this, we find a remarkable spiritual communion uniting Jesus and the initiate
while revealing the deeper mysteries of the world. 

It’s
quite possible that the "bubbling spring" refers to waves of energy
(and the divine information encoded within them) that were passed from teacher
to initiate.  Moving water has often been a symbol of energetic waves and
spiritual transmission.  All we need to
do is look at the rite of baptism, which Jesus does with "fire and spirit”
(energy). Energy transmissions still continue in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism,
shamanism, and Sufism, and judging from the textual evidence, were most likely used
in the Mystery schools of old.

Perhaps
the most mystically complex saying in The Gospel of Thomas is the
following: "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner
like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and
when you make male and female into a single one… then you will enter the
kingdom of heaven."31  In
this passage, Jesus becomes a master alchemist, or yogic guru, advising us on
how to unite the energetic polarities (yin/yang) and natural duality of the
universe in order to discover our divine origins and return home.  It's a mastery that seems logically
impossible, and only the magic of divine gnosis can bring us to the sacred realization
that lies beyond this overwhelming puzzle.

As world
mythologist, Joseph Campbell states, revelation through the union of opposites
seems to be what the Mystery schools were all about:  “transcendent means to ‘transcend,’ to go
past duality.  Everything in the field of
time and space is dual.  The incarnation
appears either male or as female, and each of us is the incarnation of God.
You’re born in only one aspect of your metaphysical duality, you might
say.  This is represented in the mystery
religions, where an individual goes through a series of initiations opening him
out inside into a deeper and deeper depth of himself, and there comes a moment
when he realizes that he is both mortal and immortal, both male and female.”32

Along
with Thomas, an enormously diverse
number of Gnostic gospels and sacred texts describing this type of energetic alchemy
flowed amongst Christian circles, some of which can be read today.  There’s The
Gospel of Mary, Philip, Judas, Secret James, Secret John,
The Gospel of Truth, Act of Peter, Pistis Sophia, Dialogue of
the Savior, Tripartite Tractate,
and the list goes on and on.  If you’re
curious about the best way to sink your teeth into these vast tomes, I suggest
reading Thomas for the wealth of
sayings, then Philip for the sacred
rites and rituals of the Christian initiates, then Mary to prove that a girl can be the top of the class when it comes
to being a disciple.  That will give you
a good base to jump into the dozens of other texts.  If you'd like to bone up on the basic history
and beliefs of the Gnostics, I recommend starting off with Elaine Pagels'
concise academic study in The Gnostic
Gospels, then delve into the rich and expansive The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, and then some
Richard Smoley (Inner Christianity: A Guide to Esoteric Traditions) or
Stephan A. Hoeller (Gnosticism: New Light on The Ancient Tradition of Inner
Knowing).

If early
Christianity was extremely diverse with dozens of gospels and various wisdom traditions
spread across the Middle East, you might be asking, “What happened to change
all this?”  Like many problems in
history, we may be able to pin this one down to the horrors of war.  With the Jewish revolt against the Roman
Empire in 66 AD, the whole of Israel was in violent tumult.  The Romans considered secret or hidden
societies dangerous hotbeds of rebellion and Christians, with their radical
messianic hero figure, found themselves at the top of the list.  When the Romans utterly destroyed Jerusalem
and its Second Temple in 70 AD, leaving one-third of the local population dead,
the Christian Mysteries fractured into pieces as its scattered members joined the
mass exodus out of the country to avoid further persecution.  (A similar tragic situation is happening to
the Mandeans, one of the last remaining Gnostic lineages, who are being
persecuted due to the current war in Iraq). 33

Initiates
were spread far and wide and those who hadn’t experienced the deeper mysteries
and inner gnosis started up “Literalist Churches,” which taught the Jesus story
as historical fact rather than allegorical representation.  The remaining Gnostic circles called these
rigid sects “Imitation Churches,” as they did not teach the real meaning of the
Christian Mysteries -- gnosis of “the Christ within.”  This seems to be the sentiments of Jesus in
the Apocalypse of Peter: “Some who do not understand mystery speak of
things which they do not understand, but they will boast that the mystery of
truth is theirs alone.”34

Literalist
Christianity sprouted up in the Roman Empire, where they encountered a good
deal of persecution from the state’s power structure.  But in a sad touch of historical irony,
leaders of these new Literalist Churches became heretic hunters, attacking
those who still carried the inner teachings of their own religion.35  The author of The Second Treatise of the
Great Seth sums up the situation: “we were hated and persecuted, not only
by those who are ignorant, but also by those who think that they are advancing
the name of Christ, since they were unknowingly empty, not knowing who they
are”.36   

In the
second century AD, Irenaeus, the infamous Bishop of Lyon, wrote the rather
uptight Against Heresies to discredit
those he saw as his Gnostic opponents. 
This work almost single-handedly shaped the Orthodox faith and set forth
nearly 2,000 years of political domination by what would become the Catholic
hierarchy.  Suddenly the word “heresy”
(from the Greek haeresis, meaning
“choosing”) was mainlined and used at will to assail and deny any teachings
that did not fit in with the growing institutions of power.  The drafting of Against Heresies was a serious turning point in the history of
Christianity, the moment when the once more popular inner traditions lost
traction to the growing Literalist Church. 
In his mission to prevent “choosing,” Irenaeus began a crusade to narrow
the diverse wealth of Christian texts to a paltry four stories.37

As the
number of Christians multiplied in Roman lands, a power-hungry Emperor
Constantine switched the state religion to this mass movement, uniting Rome
under “one God, one religion,” and yes, one emperor.  In 325 he oversaw the Council of Nicaea,
where Literalist Church leaders completed Irenaeus' dream of wiping out all
Christian written knowledge to a slim few texts.  This is what we now call The New Testament.

This act
would be the equivalent of free-minded Americans handing over their Declaration
of Independence, The Constitution, the Federalist Papers --
the whole basis of our liberty -- back to King George in England and saying,
“Hey, could you edit these and get back to us?” 
Of course, many of the most inspiring, liberating, and empowering
spiritual texts never saw the light of day in the old boys club back in
Nicaea.  And after completing this long
business trip, the now Christian ruler Constantine celebrated his return home
by killing both his wife and son.  He
then remained unbaptized until his deathbed so that he could continue his
murderous ways and still secure box seats in heaven.38

In 391
Emperor Theodosius passed an edict to close all “pagan” temples and burn their
books.  Christian hordes set out on
murderous rampages smashing all traces of the Mystery traditions from which
their own religion had blossomed.  The
last of the Gnostic circles were annihilated, as were libraries, temples,
texts, and the spiritual gnosis that had been passed down throughout the
ages.  By 410 AD the Roman Empire had
nearly torn itself apart and the Visigoths strolled in to finish the job.  Only eighty-five years after the Council of
Nicaea, the Dark Ages had begun.39

But, as
the old adage states, “Nothing lasts, but nothing is lost.”  In December of 1945, as the world was ending
its darkest and most destructive period to date, an Egyptian peasant named
Mohammed Ali of the al-Samman clan came across an earthenware jar near some
limestone caves.  He feared an evil djin
(genie) might be inside, but eventually opened the jar in hopes to discover
lost riches.  Disappointment set in as
twelve raggedy leather bound codices fell out of the jar.  He had no idea of the priceless treasure
lying at his feet.  In its 1,200 pages, The Nag Hammadi Library contained dozens
of sacred Gnostic texts that had been hidden away for the last 1,600
years.  Mohammed brought them home to his
mother, who kept warm throughout the night by feeding pages of this sacred
library to her fireplace.40

Fortunately,
she didn’t burn most of the texts and the remaining ones can now be enjoyed by
anyone with access to Wikipedia, Amazon, EarlyChristianWritings.com, or your
local bookstore.  The Nag Hammadi Library contains fifty-two texts in all including: The
Gospel of Thomas, Secret James, The Gospel of Philip, The
Origin of the World, The Gospel of Truth, The Exegesis on the
Soul, Secret John, The Three Steles of Seth, The Gospel of
the Egyptians, The Prayer of the Apostle Paul, The Tripartite
Tractate, and The Sophia of Jesus. 
As you can see from these numerous titles, early Christianity was an
extremely rich, open, and inclusive tradition when it came to gnosis.  The Library even includes texts from the Corpus
Hermeticum (Hermetic texts) and Plato’s Republic.

The
miraculous resurrection of these revered texts couldn’t have happened at a
better time.  As the biosphere is being
killed off by humans across the globe, there conversely seems to be a growing awakening
to a greater vision and connection between ourselves and the world around
us.  We are beginning to see the seeds of
a mass transformation of consciousness that may help us find new frontiers of
hope and possibility for helping our planet in crisis.  Today, you’ll find a record number of seekers
practicing the once esoteric techniques of yoga, meditation, Thai Chi, Chi
Gong, Reiki, shamanism, and many other spiritual and energetic disciples.  But while we embark on this noble journey of
personal and social evolution, it's important to integrate the traditions we
grew up with and not just push them away, especially if we want to become
whole. As Jesus says in The Gospel of Thomas, "If you bring
forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.  If you do not bring forth what is within you,
what you do not bring forth will destroy you."41

Regardless
of religious upbringing or current spiritual practices, Christianity has no
doubt played a significant role in all of our lives.  The Judeo-Christian tradition serves as the
underlying operating system of Western thought and civilization itself.  Its influences are deeply embedded in the
architecture of our languages, our laws, our mores, our sexuality, even our linear
Gregorian calendar, profoundly affecting our entire worldview whether we
realize it or not.  The gnosis of these
newly discovered texts provides a mystical bridge between our own unfolding
personal transformation and the cultural forces that ground us and identify us
in our shared reality.  They offer a
place to heal, forgive, and embrace our religious traditions while clearing up
some of the mistranslations and misunderstandings of the past.  Through their teachings, we can see the
commonality between all spiritual traditions and are no longer limited to
looking toward the exotic East for knowledge of the deeper mysteries in
life.  Like Dorothy, we can click our
heels three times, and discover we've actually been there all along.

 

If you're more interested in this topic, you can contact me about hosting one of my "Electric Jesus" workshops.

 

1. New
American Standard Bible, (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1960), http://nasb.scripturetext.com/mark/4.htm.

 

2. James M. Robinson, ed, The
Nag Hammadi Library, revised edititon, (San Francisco: HarperCollins,
1990), 150.

 

3. New American Standard Bible, (La Habra, CA: The
Lockman Foundation, 1995), http://nasb.scripturetext.com/1_corinthians/4.htm.

 

4. Andrew
Benson, The Origins of Christianity and the Bible, (Prudential
Publishing Company, 2000), http://www.egodeath.com/bensonmysteryrels.htm.

 

5. 7. Robert J. Miller, ed,
The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, (Santa Rosa, CA:
Polebridge Press, 1992), 21.

 

6. Robert J. Miller, ed, The
Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge
Press, 1992), 319.

 

7. Robert J. Miller, ed, The Complete Gospels: Annotated
Scholars Version, (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 1992), 315.

 

8. B.A. Robinson, “Parallels
between Jesus & Horus, an Egyptian God,” Religious Tolerance, April 25, 2004, http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm.

 

9. B.A. Robinson, “Parallels
between Jesus & Horus, an Egyptian God,” Religious Tolerance, April
25, 2004, http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5.htm.

 

10. Timothy Freke & Peter
Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999), 1-26.

 

11. Timothy Freke & Peter
Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999), 1.

 

12. Mithraism in History and
Archaeology, http://www.mithraism.erudition.net/append/passage2.htm.

 

13. Timothy Freke & Peter
Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999), 1-3.

 

14. Timothy Freke & Peter
Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999), 5.

 

15.  Sir James George Frazier, The Golden Bough (New York: Macmillan,
1992), chapter 37.

 

16. Dennis Diehl, “The Original
Sun of God,” (Ezine Articles, 2008), http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Original-Sun-of-God&id=93709.

 

17.
Dennis Diehl, “The Original Sun of God,” (Ezine Articles, 2008),
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Original-Sun-of-God&id=93709.

 

18. Peter Joseph, Zeitgeist:
The Movie (2007), http://zeitgeistmovie.com, Part 2.

 

19. Timothy
Freke & Peter Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers
Press, 1999), 52.

 

20. Stephan A. Hoeller, Gnosticism:
New Light on The Ancient Tradition of Knowing, (Wheaton, IL, Quest Books,
2002), 116.

 

21. Robert J. Miller, ed, The
Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge
Press, 1992), 315.

 

22. Robert J. Miller, ed, The
Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge
Press, 1992), 25.

 

23. Richard Smoley, Inner
Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition (Monterey, MA: Bma
Studios), Discs 1-2 on audio-book.

 

24. Nancy Detweiler,
“Hell=Jerusalem’s Garbage Dump,” CrossLeft, 4/07/2008, http://www.crossleft.org/node/6051.

 

25. Richard Smoley, Hidden
Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions, (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books,
1999), 48.

 

26. Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic
Gospels, (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 37.

 

27. Richard Smoley, Inner
Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition (Monterey, MA: Bma
Studios), Discs 1-2 on audio-book.

 

28. Robert J. Miller, ed, The
Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge
Press, 1992), 305.

 

29. Robert J. Miller, ed, The
Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge
Press, 1992), 307.

 

30. Robert J. Miller, ed, The
Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge
Press, 1992), 321.

 

31. Robert J. Miller, ed, The
Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version, (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge
Press, 1992), 309.

 

32. Joseph Campbell with Bill
Moyers, The Power of Myth, (New York: Anchor Books, 1991), 58.

 

33. Timothy Freke & Peter
Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999),
192-207.

 

34. James M. Robinson, ed, The Nag Hammadi Library,
revised edition, (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990), 375.

 

35. Timothy Freke & Peter
Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999),
209-230.

 

36. 34. James M. Robinson, ed, The Nag Hammadi Library,
revised edition, (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990), 366-367.

 

37. J. Michael Matkin, The
Complete Idiot's Guide to The Gnostic Gospels, (Indianapolis: Watermill
Books, 2005) 23-24).

 

38. Timothy Freke & Peter
Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999), 11.

 

39. Timothy Freke & Peter
Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999), 243-251.

 

40. James M. Robinson, The Nag
Hammadi Library (New York: HarperCollins,1990), 22-26.

 

41. Elaine H. Pagels, The
Gnostic Gospels, (Vintage: New York, 1979), 126.

 

IMAGES:

Talisman of Cross: Timothy Freke
& Peter Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press,
1999), on cover and in middle pictures between pages 153 – 154.

 

Donkey on Cross Carving on Pillar in Rome:
Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, The Jesus
Mysteries (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999), middle pictures
between pages 153-154.