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Ptolemaic Astral Ascent Mysticism
https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/2020/11/10/ptolemaic-astral-ascent-mysticism/
The basic model of the cosmology used for gnostic ascent through the Aeon spheres to the One.
Video:
THE GNOSTIC WORLDVIEW – A Lecture by LAURENCE CARUANA
Laurence Caruana, May 27, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJBn6ZKrQKo&t=5944s
This visual presentation of the Gnostic Worldview is given in three parts:
I. A Scholarly Introduction – Gnosticism in Context (2:19)
II. The Gnostic Myth of the Creation (42:55)
III. The Gnostic Saviour and the Soul Ascent (1:22:30) <– largely transcribed below
“Filmed at The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art on March 4th 2019, this lecture was given by Academy Director Laurence Caruana, author of several books with Gnostic themes. It is illustrated with works by Visionary artists, both classical (Blake, Michelangelo) and contemporary (Fuchs, Venosa, Alex Grey etc).”
The Gnostic Worldview: The Gnostic Saviour and the Soul Ascent
Transcribed by Michael Hoffman; the segment-portion that is covered here is 95% complete – need 2nd pass to fill-in some 10 missing words.
[1:40:45] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJBn6ZKrQKo&t=6045s —
“… Resurrection or Redemption.
I studied this quite deeply, and in my novel The Hidden Passion, I reconstruct the entire ceremony in the 10th chapter.
And the way it’s reconstructed is, reading the texts carefully and summarized as follows:
After a threefold immersion in the water, which is being baptized three times in a single unction with oil which is chrism, as well as possibly receiving the host, the Eucharist, the initate began the visionary ascent, and this is “the Resurrection”, by renouncing the Archons of the lower Aeons.
And this is called “the Renunciation” in, for example the Gospel of the Egyptians and the invoking of the angels of the upper Aeons again called “the Invocation” in the Gospel of the Egyptians through vocalizations, confessions, charms and visualizations.
We’ll look as at some of those.
I’ll just mention that if you go to any Catholic church today and you participate in a baptism, you will in fact be called up on to renounce the devil as part of the ritual, and invoke the angels as part of the ritual.
This still remains part of the baptism ritual carried on in the Catholic church today.
All of this includes stripping off each of the soul’s garments to pass beyond the Archons’ planetary gateway [he says ‘gateway’, not ‘doorway’ here] and to be recognized which is nearer to kinship by the upper Aeonic beings and this idea of mirroring and kinship.
I’ll explain that in a moment.
The initiate was then called by their spiritual name and so .. naming, and received and image as they were sealed in the watery light of the upper Aeons and this is the sealing where you receive your image,..
then eternally clothed in their garment of light, they experienced a momentary divine union in the mysterious Bridal Chamber.
So that is the visionary ascent.
And let’s begin with imagine you have been baptized 3 times , you have received the unction, you have received the Eucharist, and now the journey begins, the visionary ascent.
And this is the passage through the lower Aeons,
I’m going to quote from the Dialog of the Savior, which is a text which appears in the Nag Hammadi library,
Christ says “I opened the pass, and I taught them about the passage through, when the time of dissolution arrives, the first power of darkness will come upon you.
Do Not Be Afraid.
If you are afraid, it will engulf you, for there is not one among them who will spare you or show you mercy; but look upon the Archon without fear, since you have mastered every word on earth, the crossing place is fearful but you with a single mind, will pass it by.”
And so Christ in fact taught the disciples the names of the Archons, the words necessary to pass through their doorways, and by being able to name a demon, you have power over a demon and you can get past a demon.
But also if you have submitted to those archons in your lifetime, if you practiced too much lust or too much greed, for example, when you … he can push you back down and you will be reborn [into egoic deluded thinking, forgetting eternalism-thinking -mh], and there will be this cycle of … reincarnation, metempsychosis in Greek, where your soul* returns to another existence.
[*soul = bad = the soul =
the freewill-premised, possbility-branching-premised, personal egoic control system.
spirit = good =
the pre-existence-premised, monopossibility, transcendent control system -mh]
And this is what the gnostics believe.
Another way to pass through the archons doorways, was by surrendering a seal, and in a text called the first book of Jeu, you are given actually the seals and the names that accompany the seals.
And so these seals indicate the sign or sigils that belong to each of the Archons.
It’s a bit mysterious, we’re not quite sure what the purpose of these sigils is.
It’s a late gnostic text, so it seemed to involve more of a magical passage through the archons’ doorways, but interesting none the less.
What you see in the middle here is another example of diagrams that appear throughout this book, and it is surprising how much this diagram resembles for example a buddhist mandala.
[which] is a kind of a palace viewed from above, and you can se … steps… we’re going up … ascending one level to the next/next to penetrate deeper in to this inner territory.
So I think theres a strong similarity between… so study mandalas for those similarities.
So those are the seals, also Vocalizations, this is also from the first book of Auoio, and here … ” “I challenge you, …”
[1:51:10]
So once you have managed to pass through the doorways the 7 planetary doorway of the Archons and not be thrown down if you succeed and pass through what they call the Middle [heimarmene fate no-free-will?] where Sophia remains[?] then you can finally enter into the realm of the light, the Upper Aeons.
And in the Upper Aeons, you are bestowed your robe of light.
And there are many references to this; for example in the text called the Trimorphic Protonoia …
Four angels descend and invest you with your robe of light.
Here from the Gospel of Philip, the powers do not see those who are clothed in the perfect light, and they are not able to detain them.
One will clothe himself in this light sacramentally in the union.
So the moment then that you rise up to the upper Aeons and you enter into the presence of the divine and simply being in the presence of the divine … receive this robe of light which … there was a ceremony of the baptism which involves water and that the upper Aeons are a watery light.
Then it’s like this watery light pours over you and becomes this protective garment sealing you and protecting you.
And once you receive the robe of light, as in mentioned in this passage, then the powers, the Archons, will not see you, because you are clothed in the light, and will not be able to detain you when you rise up through their 7 doorways after death.
So the purpose of this ritual was to put on the robe of light to protect you during your lifetime against the archons’ evil influence and to protect you after death as you rise up through the 7 doorways.
This garment of light…. in Theurgy, .. a “soul vehicle“… and in this ‘ocheema’ vehicle you also have this geometrical [sphere?] or shape like a Merkaba vehicle…which will protect you during your visionary ascent thru the different levels of the heavens.
And so you have this similar idea occurring in the Theurgy, in the Merkaba literature which also emerged contemporaneous with gnosticism.
Finally you are met by the angels in the upper heavens.
And what is interesting is that they say that you are recognized by these upper Aeonic beings, and you are recognized because you see yourself as them, and they see themselves as you.
This is the realm of unity, and in the realm of unity there is mutual recognition; there’s this mirroring or [kinship?] that goes on where you see an angel with your face, an angel sees you with its face, and you are in fact mirror reflections of each other.
You see your higher self, you become your higher self, and this is what happens in the upper Aeons.
Finally you enter the realm of the four lights and the 12 Aeons: this is the realm of Mind, and so your spirit reunites with these 12 states of Mind, you experience love, perfection, understanding; you experience grace, you see all of the Forms that constitute the upper Auons.
You remember true memory & afterthought, who you truly are; you see it with this divine perception experiencing [__??] idea peace & wisdom.
So that is the final stage before being reunited with the One in the Bridal Chamber, and the Bridal Chamber is simply an immersion, in complete oneness, as the culmination of this entire ritual of the Soul Ascent. [1:55:55]
The Egodeath theory 