

What is Gnosticism?

Many visitors have requested some basic introductory material explaining Gnosticism. To meet this need we offer these "places to start": two short articles, The Gnostic World View: A Brief Summary of Gnosticism and What is a Gnostic?; and an audio lectures (mp3 format) on the Gnostic concept of Christ: The Misunderstood Redeemer. A reading of the Overview of the Gnostic Society Library collection will also give a useful brief introduction to the history and textual legacy of the Gnostic tradition. For more in-depth reading suggestions visit the Gnostic Society Bookstore—you will find offered there a selection of the best introductory and advanced books on Gnosticism, along with brief reviews of recommended books. And of course just "surfing" The Gnosis Archive will lead to a wealth of information. Blessings on your journey!

A Gnostic Perspective on the Corona Virus Pandemic and Human Suffering

from the Most Rev. Stephan A. Hoeller -- March 25, 2020

Meditations

Take a moment to reflect on a brief meditation and reading from the Gnostic scriptures, selected from this week's Gnostic liturgy. Consider the Sophianic aspect of divinity expressed in the meditation and readings from this month's Sophia liturgy. Sunday homilies delivered by the Most Rev. Stephan A. Hoeller at the Diocesan center are now available in high-quality internet video. Visit the Ecclesia Gnostica YouTube channel for a collection of homilies and lectures (this resource is updated weekly).

The Gnostic Society Library

Video Lectures from the Gnostic Society

Lectures recently presented by Dr. Stephan Hoeller at the Gnostic Society in Los Angeles are now available in video format on YouTube. Visit our page on YouTube to view the currently available presentations. Go to the Gnostic Society page for a schedule of both current and upcoming lectures.

Recent Recommendations from the Bookstore



The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus edited by Marvin Meyer. This is our top recommendation for readers beginning their exploration of the Gnostic scriptures. Over the last three decades the late Dr. Marvin Meyer distinguished himself as a singularly talented translator and commentator on Gnostic traditions. In this collection—the best of several that he has now published—Meyer presents twelve key Gnostic "gospels" in succinct, accurate and highly readable new translations. The book's subtitle claims it to be: "The definitive collection of mystical gospels and secret books about Jesus of Nazareth." Though perhaps not "definitive", we agree this is the best introductory collection available.



Meyer states his goal in these translations is to be "as accurate as possible" while still presenting the texts in "felicitous English." At this he succeeds beautifully. Readers who have labored with the sometimes tortured translations and editorial conventions presented in the original editions of the Nag Hammadi Library published thirty years ago will be amazed at the graceful intelligibility of Meyer's translations. Meyer adds to the collection an overview of our evolving understanding of Christian Gnosticism, and prefaces each of the selected text with an excellent introductory essay. Get the book

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene is one the most surprising and delightful of the rediscovered Gnostic texts. This excellent new print edition of the Gospel of Mary of Magdala by the widely respected scholar Karen King is the best authoritative edition available. It incorporates translations of the ancient Coptic Gospel of Mary discovered in 1896, along with the two small third-century Greek fragments of the text found at Oxyrhynchus. Included is a superb introduction along with extensive commentary on the text and its implications for modern understandings of early Christianity. Highly Recommended. Visit the Gnostic Society Bookstore for more information. Also visit our Gospel of Mary Magdalene page, where we have more information on the Gospel of Mary and a preview excerpt from Dr. King's introduction to her book. The Nag Hammadi Scriptures edited by Marvin Meyer, introduction by Elaine Pagels. This is the epochal 2007 edition of the entire Nag Hammadi library. Dr. Marvin Meyer has done a masterful job in producing a volume that will serve for many decades as the standard source. Scholarly understanding of the Gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi has vastly matured since their original publication as the Nag Hammadi Library in 1977. This new edition fully reflects that refinement in "the scholarly ear" for both the forgotten ancient tongue and the spiritual tradition preserved in the Gnostic Coptic texts. In every possible way, publication of The Nag Hammadi Scriptures represents a milestone in modern understanding of Gnostic tradition. Elaine Pagels, the author and professor who introduced a generation of readers to the Gnostic Gospels, appropriately pens the introduction to this landmark edition. Every student of Gnosticism will want to own this book, but before jumping into the big volume, we still highly recommend a study of some of the briefer introductory readings listed in the Bookstore. Get the book Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, And Politics In The Book Of Revelation by Elaine Pagels. Dr. Pagels gives us another fine study of early Christianity, focusing on the most controversial New Testament text, the Book of Revelation. In her critique of the Book of Revelation, she opens a discussion of the other revelatory texts, the Gnostic texts, that were excluded from the Christian canon. Dr. Pagels looks at the sociology and politics and dogmatics of the age, but it is her discussion of the message of the many alternative Christian texts - the Gnostic texts - that we find most valuable. Listen to the interview with Dr. Pagels on NPR for a fine discussion of what Dr. Pagels was trying to explore in her new work. Get the book

Jung in Love: The Mysterium in Liber Novus by Lance S. Owens Love was the great mystery in C. G. Jung's life. His confrontation with love for a woman and a feminine soul animated the composition of Jung's great Red Book, the book he formally titled Liber Novus. C. G. Jung's relationships with women during these central years of life have generated several commentaries and critiques. But the power and depth of love has figured little in most of the romances about this period patched together by biographers, dramatists, and psychoanalysts. In consequence, a crux experience of Jung's life has been miscast and little understood. Three decades after the events chronicled in his Red Book, C. G. Jung turned to writing a commentary on the still hidden records. In Jung in Love, Lance Owens illustrates how Jung's four last books—his "last quartet" of major works published after 1945—are summary statements about his experiences during the years he labored with Liber Novus. Owens illustrates how in the first volume of this "last quartet"—The Psychology of the Transference, published in 1946—Jung employed a sixteenth-century alchemical text to provide context for what is in fact a statement about his own experience with love recounted both in his private journals and in Liber Novus. Based on long-sequestered documentary sources, Jung in Love offers a balanced and historically contextualized account of Jung's relationships with four women during the years that led him into the visionary experiences recorded in the Red Book: Emma Jung-Rauschenbach, Sabina Spielrein, Maria Moltzer and Toni Wolff. Jung in Love - The Mysterium in Liber Novus was originally published as a chapter in Das Rote Buch – C. G. Jungs Reise zum anderen Pol der Welt, ed. Thomas Arzt (Verlag Königshausen & Neumann, 2015). This German edition is available at amazon.co.uk and amazon.de The monograph English edition of Jung in Love is now also available at amazon.com.

Gnosis Archive Books - Publishing Works in Jungian Psychology and Consiousness Studies

Gnosis Archive Books was established in 2012 to publish and promote scholarly works that enhance the dialogue between Jungian, Gnostic, and humane studies. The writings of C. G. Jung—notably including his extraordinary Red Book—provide critical insights into the experiential tradition of Gnosis. The historian of religion, Giovanni Filoramo, explained: “Jung’s reflections had long been immersed in the thought of the ancient Gnostics to such an extent that he considered them the virtual discoverers of depth psychology ... ancient Gnosis, albeit in its form of universal religion, in a certain sense prefigured, and at the same time helped to clarify, the nature of Jungian spiritual therapy.” More information is available on the Gnosis Archvie Books page.

C. G Jung's Red Book: Liber Novus - Vision, Psychology and Gnosis

This is the book many of us have awaited for decades, and its importance cannot be overstated. During WWI, Jung entered an extended visionary experience that he called his “confrontation with the unconscious.” Based on these visions, he subsequently developed his principal theories of the collective unconscious, the archetypes, psychological types and the process of individuation. Jung focused on transforming psychotherapy from a practice concerned with the treatment of pathology into a means for reconnection with the soul and the recovery of meaning in life. At the heart of this endeavor was his legendary Red Book, a large, leather bound, illuminated volume that he created between 1914 and 1930, which contained the substance of his visions and became the nucleus of his later works. While Jung considered the Red Book, or Liber Novus (" The New Book") to be the central work in his oeuvre, it remained unpublished, and unavailable for study and unseen by the public at large until 2009. The Red Book is best described as a visionary and prophetic work, and not simply as an imaginative literary or scientific document. It is possibly the most influential unpublished work in the history of psychology. Its publication is a watershed that inaugurates a new era in the understanding of Jung’s life and work; it fully reveals the experiential, Gnostic roots of Jung's psychology. Buy the Book

The Red Book: Reader's Edition - No Illustrations In December 2012 the "Reader's Edition" of The Red Book was released - and this edition does NOT contain any of the facsimile images of the original book. There is none of the artwork here, just Jung's translated text, along with Dr. Shamdasani's introduction and notes. So, why purchase a "Reader's Edition"? Because the text of Liber Novus (as Jung formally titled his "Red Book") is really more important than the art. And the size of the facsimile edition makes it physically very difficult to hold in hand and read. See our full review for more information. If you are ready to read Liber Novus, this is the edition to use. But of course, you will want the big book with the images, too! You will also enjoy viewing the video about the digital reproduction of the Red Book (available on YouTube). Visit our C. G. Jung and Gnostic Tradition: Gnosis, Gnosticism and Jungian Psychology section for more information.

Tolkien, Jung and the Hermeneutics of Vision – A Lecture by Dr. Lance Owens

Beginning in the years around the First World War, two extraordinary men were called to take an exceedingly difficult journey of exploration. It was a voyage of discovery, a passage into the world of imagination. For the rest of their lives both men – J. R. R. Tolkien and C. G. Jung – affirmed that their mythopoetic fantasies had led them to something intrinsically real. The figures they encountered in vision spoke with autonomous voices, and the tales they told were entwined with history and human destiny at the perilous threshold of a new age. Jung and Tolkien each struggled in solitude with the hermeneutic challenge of recording their experiences. How does one recount in word and image the tale of a venture into vision? And how does one then interpret this record of an imaginal fact? In this lecture delivered at the California Institute of Integral studies, Dr. Owens examines the private accounts that both Jung and Tolkien scribed about their imaginative experiences – personal writings that remained mostly hidden for several decades after their deaths. What did they "think" they were doing? How did they understand “vision”? What was their “hermeneutics of vision?” And what interpretive approach will we now take to the strange tales of wayfarers who wander in the imaginal world? (Click here for additional information on this lecture, and Dr. Owens' lecture series on Tolkien.)

C. G. Jung: The Red Book, Gnosis and the Gnostic Traditions

With publication of the Red Book, irrefutable evidence is presented of Jung's deep relationship to the visionary and experiential tradition of Gnosis. Throughout his life, Jung publicly and privately affirmed his affinity to Gnostic tradition. We consider it quite possible that future generations will understand Jung as a seminal, prophetic figure heralding a new Sophianic age and a resurgent understanding the timeless traditions of the Gnosis. Gnosis is not a "dead ancient philosophy", but instead a lived and living fact of human experience with ancient roots and a transformative potential for the future development of human consciousness. Jung provides signal evidence of this fact. We have added a section to the Gnosis Archive dedicated to C. G. Jung and Gnostic Tradition: Gnosis, Gnosticism and Jungian Psychology. You will find here a wide range of material to help center your understanding of C. G. Jung and Gnosis. Recently Added -- Photographs of Jung's "Gnostic Ring" – From the late-1920s until the end of his life, C. G. Jung wore on his left hand a ring with a large engraved gem stone with a coiled serpent. This was commonly referred to as Jung's "Gnostic ring." When he acquired the stone and had it mounted into a ring is not clear. However, most photos taken after 1930 show the ring on Jung's hand. Two rare photographs of the ring, front and back, are included. See Jung's Gnostic Ring. We also offer two audio collections of lectures on the Red Book by Dr. Lance Owens; visit the C.G. Jung and the Red Book collection for information on these audio recordings. Dr. Owens' lectures delivered at the C. G. Jung Institute Zurich on "C.G. Jung and the Tradition of Gnosis" are also now online.

The Gnostic Viewpoint: Essays on Contemporary Gnosticism



Genesis and Gnosis

The popular PBS television special "Genesis: A Living Conversation", hosted by Bill Moyers, directed wide attention to the many interpretations of the Book of Genesis. One of the vital readings of Genesis -- the Gnostic reading -- was, however, completely ignored. Explore this balancing perspective in The Genesis Factor, an essay by Dr. Stephan Hoeller.



Lectures from the Gnostic Society

Search the Gnosis Archive

You can search the entire Gnosis Archive for keywords, scriptural phrases, and subjects using our advanced search functions. The Archive contains well over a thousand documents specific to Gnostic studies, including translations all the classical Gnostic scriptures and patristic documents relevant to early Gnostic movements. The search function on the Archive is a major resource for students and researchers.



Gnostic Studies on the Web

This section contains a wide selection of current Sites and Documents dealing with Gnosticism, ancient and modern, available on the Web.



Ecclesia Gnostica

A selection of thoughts and writings from the Ecclesia Gnostica, as well as a schedule of services for the parishes in Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle.



The Gnostic Society

The Gnosis Archive is maintained in association with The Gnostic Society. Dr. Stephan Hoeller lectures every Friday in Los Angeles. For more information, visit the Gnostic Society page, which has the current "Friday Lecture Series" schedule. Note that we are now providing free many of the weekly lectures given by Dr. Stephan Hoeller at the Gnostic Society in Los Angeles in mp3 audio. All of the other weekly lecture are available for purchase. Visit our Web Lecture page for more information.

The Studio



Over the years, we have used "the Studio" to share visionary art that in some fashion strikes us as representative of Gnostic creativity. The present show in the Studio is a remarkable and evocative graphic novel by Scott D. Finch: A Little World Made Cunningly. The Studio is now open. Come in, and take a look around...



The fine art print edition of Scott's graphic novel is available at amazon.com. You will also want to see his other short graphic novel, Form and Deed, also available at amazon.com.