Gnosticism is a school of wisdom developed around an interior experience. The word gnosis (Greek origin) means “to know.” This knowledge is not a knowledge as we would typically define it, which is “knowledge about.” Gnosis is an intimate knowledge, knowledge in the sense of being, the knowledge of native awareness – a knowledge through identity or “knowledge of”, interiorly. Gnosticism comes in two major flavors – gnosis outside of a religious tradition, and gnosis within the context of a defined religious tradition. In the latter case, the parent religion may or may not be accepting of the gnostic offshoot (witness the Catholic Church’s branding of Gnostics as heretics down through the centuries), but the gnostic offshoot in these cases very definitely considers itself as belonging to the parent religion. And in recent decades, the teachings of Gnosticism have been more open and available to seekers.

Examples of Gnosticism outside a formal religious tradition include the Greeks of antiquity – Socrates, Plato, and later, Plotinus of the Neo-Platonic school, who first developed the core ideas of Gnosticism, which in later centuries took on more overt Christian characteristics. The Hermetic school developing out of ancient Egypt around the birth of the Christian era is another such tradition. In modern times, the father of depth psychology, Carl Jung, was deeply interested in Gnosticism, seeing its archetypal patterns and motifs and recognizing in them a potent and still-active faculty of the human psyche serving as a bridge between mind and spirit, with myth serving as the language of mediation between the two. Jung went as far as using himself and his personal visionary experiences in 1916 as a Gnostic experiment and followed the principles of active imagination to engage the interior figures and constellations he saw arising from the unconscious. Two principal works of Jung with heavy gnostic overtones include “The Red Book: Liber Novus” and “Seven Sermons to the Dead.” Additional information on C.G. Jung and the active imagination technique is supplied elsewhere on this site. Closely related to Gnosticism is the study and understanding of mythology as the common language of the human psyche in all eras and across cultures; the esteemed mythologist Joseph Campbell was very familiar with gnostic themes and motifs, and it showed in his work in the twentieth century. A summary of his work may be found on the site as well.

Sophian Gnosticism

Sophia Gnosticism in the present day is a form of Christian Gnosticism centered on the mysteries and secret teachings of Jesus Christ. More than just a prescribed set of beliefs as found in most exoteric churches, Sophian Gnostics pursue and subscribe to spiritual growth and experiences in self-realization or enlightenment as interpreted through the form of Christianity, with mystic and deeper understandings of the events of Jesus Christ’s life and their ongoing and present relevance to each individual’s encounters his/her interior Heights and Depths. For example, an event like Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River is understood as not only as a static historical event, but as a spiritual potentiality for each person following a Christian Gnostic path.

What distinguishes the Sophian Gnostic community from others is a full acceptance of the Divine Feminine in the cosmological and metaphysical matrix. Sophia, the divine wisdom principle in archetypal form, is considered the spiritual consort of the Christ and is given her place alongside Christ in the heavens and in the divine drama of the working out mankind’s salvation. Back on Earth and in the historical time stream, Mary Magdalene is considered to be the female counterpart to Jesus of Nazareth. Sophians prize balance and full representation. Whereas in orthodox Christianity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are worshipped and glorified with nary a feminine representative in sight (though some contend the Holy Spirit is a disowned and de-gendered feminine principle), in Sophian Gnosticism, a tetrad is the object of veneration and devotion, including the Father, the Mother (also identified as the Holy Spirit), the Son and the Daughter (or Holy Bride). While many elements of Sophian Gnosticism are quite easily recognized as Christian, Sophian Gnosticism adds and syncretizes new elements and understandings to round out its mystical view of Christ as experienced in the initiate’s internal experience.

The Sophian tradition of Gnostic Christianity is among the lineages that existed prior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library; hence, it is a pre-Nag Hammadi tradition of Christian Gnosticism. Its known history goes back to the late 17th century Europe, when it is said to have existed in Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain, and Italy. Its known history emerges with the dawn of the Rosicrucian enlightenment in Europe, which Gnosticism has been said to significantly influence. However, according to stories told in the tradition, Sophian Gnosticism traces itself back to Saint Mary Magdalene and to the order of St. Michael which is said to have formed around her and her son.

Until the present generation of Sophian initiates, Sophian Gnosticism has been an exclusively oral tradition, passed on mouth to ear from elders and tau of the tradition to their students and disciples. Essentially, the foundation of the Sophian tradition is a Christian Kabbalah; it represents a form of Gnostic Christianity with strong roots in Jewish mysticism. … Jesus was a Jewish teacher and principally taught Jewish disciples. Thus, from a Sophian perspective, if Jesus was a mystic and magician, then the foundation of his teachings would be Jewish mysticism, or what has come to be known as the Holy Kabbalah. […]

Sophia Gnosticism represents the Enlightenment teachings of a living Western tradition that has been embodied and passed on in secret from one generation of Sophian initiates to another for hundreds … of years. It is composed of outer, enter, and secret levels of spiritual teachings and practices, which range from teachings that support a basic spiritual practice and life, to advanced teachings and practices that aim at an actual state of self-realization or enlightenment. At the heart of all Sophian teachings and practices is a direct and personal spiritual experience of the Christos or light-presence within oneself, for it is from this enlightenment experience that the elders and tau of the tradition have formed the teachings and practices, and continue to do so to this very day.

Living Gnosis: A Practical Guide to Gnostic Christianity, Tau Malachi

Further Resources:

The Gnosis Archive – gnosis.org

The Sophian Gnostic Fellowship

The Gnostic Society Library – an extensive online collection of gnostic texts, religious, non-religious, and historical