The world-view of a mystic or a gnostic

While scientists all over the world are busy working on to understand quantum entanglement, quantum gravity and the space-time continuum, we mystics or gnostics on the other hand have a problem of our own. According to the doctrine of Emanationism this whole cosmos was originated from the womb of a supreme anthropomorphic God.

How on earth can we reconcile this view with the vast number of distances known to exist between galaxies and our solar system? I always stress and use the word anthropomorphic because God is a person just like you and me. God is personal and you can converse with him.

The Gnostic view of Pleroma cannot be reconciled with the scientific empirical view and that's why statements like this: "What we call empirical reality is only a state of mind" by Bernard D'Espagnat, theoretical physicist, are very appealing to me. We have no other way other than to deny the whole of science and this empirical reality to accommodate the gnostic view of Pleroma in this modern age and time.

I am a Valentinian gnostic and I know that the Pleroma exists which implies this visible cosmos which we call as Kenoma was modeled from it. The problem is not that we have to update our classical notions of space-time in fact the problem lies more in our epistemology or ways of knowing things the way they are (or ontology). Physicists are still not settled in answering whether space is continuous, quantized or a 2d hologram. They have compiled a list of point particles that govern this cosmos which they call as the Standard Model but I am gonna ask the same question which Stephen Hawking asked, Is that a true understanding of the cosmos? I would say no, because according to the mystery religions space and time are anthropomorphic Aeons and without a true understanding of them its not possible to understand how they manifest in our visible Kenoma world.

Each one of the Aeons and including us (homo sapiens) is a Pleroma by itself. Just like a single cell has all the information with in it to encode a full human being (I mean regulation of gene expression in the words of molecular biology) similarly we have the full potential with in us to create an another universe. 

"If you have seen the Father in the real realm you will become the Father" - Gospel of Philip

The Holy Father emanated the Aeons and multiplied himself and entered into these Aeons. The cosmos is nothing but a manifestation of these Aeons which implies the Holy Father is everywhere and in everything. The cosmos is nothing but a playground for the Holy Father. How does this multiplicity of individual souls transforms back again to a unified world soul is one big mystery which the Father alone knows. Anything beyond this is ineffable.

Descent, Search and Ascent - A common theme in mystery religions

"Because of this element of secrecy, we are ill-informed as to the beliefs and practices of the various mystery faiths. We know that they had a general likeness to one another".  

- Ernest William Barnes

Eleusinian mysteries

This is the mystery of mother Demeter and her daughter Persephone who descends to the underworld and her mother Demeter sincerely searches for her daughter and finally she ascends to earth to live with her mother which returns joy, happiness and fertility.

The above myth is nothing but the descend of the soul into this world, searching and suffering of the soul in this world and finally ascension of the soul through the Eleusinian ritual practices. Eleusinianism is the most ancient of the mysteries which was followed by Greeks from time immemorial and was open to everyone for initiation.

Orphic mysteries

Orphics believed that man was made up of an immortal soul which was in bondage with a material body. They established the hierarchy and the origin of the intellectual and the intelligible gods with Zeus or Jupiter as the Demiurgus who fashions the souls of man and seeds it on earth which formed the descent.

Orphism explained the origin of the cosmos through Phanes who originated from the cosmic egg and possessed all the gods in his womb.

"O Mighty first-begotten [Protogonos], hear my pray'r, two-fold, egg-born, and wand'ring thro' the air, Bull-roarer, glorying in thy golden wings, from whom the race of Gods and mortals springs. Ericapæus [Erikapaios], celebrated pow'r, ineffable, occult, all shining flow'r. From eyes obscure thou wip'st the gloom of night, all-spreading splendour, pure and holy light. Hence Phanes call'd, the glory of the sky, on waving pinions thro' the world you fly.  Priapus, dark-ey'd splendour, thee I sing, genial, all-prudent, ever-blessed king, With joyful aspect on our rights divine and holy sacrifice propitious shine." 

- To the Protogonus, the first-born, Orphic Hymns

Pythagorus and Plato were heavily influenced by the Orphic mysteries and his philosophy was completely based on the Orphic mysteries.

Through their Dionysian rituals they searched for the divine spark in them and ascended to heavens.


Mithraic mysteries

Even the mithraic mysteries was based descend and ascension of the soul which was very well depicted in the main iconography of their mysteries, the tauroctony. Mithras Liturgy is a ritual practice where the magician ascends to the solar world passing through various gates in the above heavens and finally meets the supreme Godhead of the cosmos King Helios-Aion-Mithras and receives immortality from him. 

Cautes and Cautopates holding the torch downwards (descend) and upwards (ascension)

Porphyry has more on the subject.

"Caves, therefore, in the most remote periods of antiquity were consecrated to the Gods, before temples were erected to them. Hence, the Curetes in Crete dedicated a cavern to Jupiter; in Arcadia, a cave was sacred to the Moon, and to Lycean Pan; and in Naxus, to Bacchus. But wherever Mithra was known, they propitiated the God in a cavern. With respect, however, to the Ithacensian cave, Homer was not satisfied with saying that it had two gates, but adds that one of the gates was turned towards the north, but the other which was more divine, to the south. He also says that the northern gate was pervious to descent, but does not indicate whether this was also the case with the southern gate. For of this, he only says, "It is inaccessible to men, but it is the path of the immortals."  

........Theologists therefore assert, that_these two gates are Cancer and Capricorn; but Plato calls them entrances. And of these, theologists say, that Cancer is the gate through which souls descend; but Capricorn that through which they ascend. Cancer is indeed northern, and adapted to descent; but Capricorn is southern, and adapted to ascent (note 12). The northern parts, likewise, pertain to souls descending into generation. And the gates of the cavern which are turned to the north are rightly said to be pervious to the descent of men; but the southern gates are not the avenues of the Gods, but of souls ascending to the Gods. On this account, the poet does not say that they are the avenues of the Gods, but of immortals; this appellation being also common to our souls, which are per se, or essentially, immortal.  

It is said that Parmenides mentions these two gates in his treatise "On the Nature of Things", as likewise that they are not unknown to the Romans and Egyptians. For the Romans celebrate their Saturnalia when the Sun is in Capricorn, and during this festivity, slaves wear the shoes of those that are free, and all things are distributed among them in common; the legislator obscurely signifying by this ceremony that through this gate of the heavens, those who are now born slaves will be liberated through the Saturnian festival, and the house attributed to Saturn, i.e., Capricorn, when they live again and return to the fountain of life. Since, however, the path from Capricorn is adapted to ascent, hence the Romans denominate that month in which the Sun, turning from Capricorn to the east, directs his course to the north, Januanus, or January, from janua, a gate. 

- Porphyry on the Cave of the Nymphs

Chaldean (Persian-Babylonian) mysteries

The Chaldean oracles teaches us that there is a solar world which we have to inevitably ascend in order to receive the immortality of the soul. Proclus has more on this subject.

"On this account, it appears to me that Plato delivers a twofold generation of the Sun; one indeed, in conjunction with the seven governors of the world, when he fashions the bodies of them, and inserts them in circulations; but the other according to the enkindling of light, through which he imparts to the Sun supermundane power. For it is one thing to generate the bulk of the Sun itself by itself, and another in conjunction with a ruling characteristic, through which the Sun is called the king of every visible nature, and is established analogous to the one fountain of good. For as this fountain, being better than the intelligible essence, illuminates both intellect and the intelligible, thus also the sun being better than a visible nature, illuminate both that which is visible and sight. But if the Sun is beyond a visible essence, it will have a supermundane nature. For the world is visible and tangible, and has a body. Hence, we must survey the Sun in a twofold respect; viz. as one of the seven planets, and as the leader of wholes; and as mundane and supermundane, according to the latter of which he splendidly emits a divine light. For in the same manner as The Good luminously emits truth which deifies the intelligible and intellectual order; as Phanes in Orpheus sends forth intelligible light which fills with intelligence all the intellectual Gods; and as Jupiter enkindles an intellectual and demiurgic light in all the supermundane Gods; thus also the Sun illuminates every thing visible through this undefiled light. The illuminating cause too is always in an order superior to the illuminated natures. For neither is The Good intelligible, nor Phanes intellectual, nor Jupiter supermundane. In consequence of this reasoning therefore, the Sun being supermundane emits the fountains of light. And according to the most mystic doctrines, the wholeness of the Sun is in the supermundane orders; for in them there is a solar world, and a total light, as the Chaldean Oracles assert, and which I am persuaded is true. And thus much concerning these things."  

- Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato

Pauline mysteries (greatest mystery of all mysteries)

The great Paul of Tarsus echoed the same views in his epistles which was very well understood by the greatest mystic of all time, Valentinus, a gnostic for all seasons, the only one from the western esoteric tradition who had the correct conception of divine and having a mind and vision greater in magnitude than Plato or Iamblichus. Valentinus showed his pneumatic charisma in his seminal work 'The Gospel of Truth' which is the greatest of all the historical mysteries put together.

Gospel of Truth begins by stating the most beautiful truth of all truths that the Father held the perfection of the Aeons within himself, the fact that he deliberately created beings in an ignorant state expecting them to return to him out of love. This ignorance of the knowledge (gnosis) of the Father was the root cause for the origin of this world and all the evil which resides in it.

"And as for him, them he found in himself, and him they found in themselves, that illimitable, inconceivable one, that perfect Father who made the all, in whom the All is, and whom the All lacks, since he retained in himself their perfection, which he had not given to the all. The Father was not jealous. What jealousy, indeed, is there between him and his members? For, even if the Aeon had received their perfection, they would not have been able to approach the perfection of the Father, because he retained their perfection in himself, giving it to them as a way to return to him and as a knowledge unique in perfection. He is the one who set the All in order and in whom the All existed and whom the All lacked. As one of whom some have no knowledge, he desires that they know him and that they love him. For what is it that the All lacked, if not the knowledge of the Father?"  

- Gospel of Truth

This error and fog was nothing to the Holy Father as he knew that error and evil does not exists in him although they exist because of him.

"Forgetfulness did not exist with the Father, although it existed because of him. What exists in him is knowledge, which was revealed so that forgetfulness might be destroyed and that they might know the Father, Since forgetfulness existed because they did not know the Father, if they then come to know the Father, from that moment on forgetfulness will cease to exist."  

 - Gospel of Truth

The process of descent begins with the emanation of Aeons from the Father.

"It was a great wonder that they were in the Father without knowing him and that they were able to leave on their own, since they were not able to contain him and know him in whom they were, for indeed his will had not come forth from him."  

- Gospel of Truth

The search of the Father begins and they find the way through the Saviour - Jesus Christ.

"The Father opens his bosom, but his bosom is the Holy Spirit. He reveals his hidden self which is his son, so that through the compassion of the Father the Aeons may know him, end their wearying search for the Father and rest themselves in him, knowing that this is rest."  

- Gospel of Truth

The process of ascent begins with the help of the gnosis of the Father preached by his son Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

"Since the perfection of the All is in the Father, it is necessary for the All to ascend to him. Therefore, if one has knowledge, he gets what belongs to him and draws it to himself. For he who is ignorant, is deficient, and it is a great deficiency, since he lacks that which will make him perfect. Since the perfection of the All is in the Father, it is necessary for the All to ascend to him and for each one to get the things which are his. He registered them first, having prepared them to be given to those who came from him." 

- Gospel of Truth

What great teachings these are from Valentinus and we all should be indebted to him in helping us to understand the greatest mystery of divine in such simple poetical form rather than accusing him of plagiarizing from Plato who looks so puny in front of a giant like Valentinus. Valentinus molded the mysteries, he formalized it into a coherent whole and gave us the whole picture. As GRS Mead said very few people could ever appreciate the ideal of the man and much less understand it because for that age he was trying to achieve the impossible.

Cracking the tauroctony symbolism of the mithraic cult

The one thing which made me to scratch my head was the tauroctony symbolism in the mithraic cult. I was aware of David Ulansey's astronomical/astrological interpretation (Mithras and the Hypercosmic Sun) but if taurocotony (which encompasses with in itself the entire main message of the mithraic cult) was just about astrology what was the whole point in keeping this knowledge so secret and why call it a mystery if there were no esoteric secrets embedded in their religion? So just like Roger Beck and others I was not entirely satisfied with Ulansey's astrological interpretation and always thought there was something more to it.

As a sun worshiper and as a follower of Helios-Mithras it was a big embarrassment for me that I was not able to crack the hidden mystery behind the tauroctony owing to its unique artefact among all the sun cult religions of the great antiquity. Therefore I decided to extract more information on the subject.

The one thing which everyone have undermined except G.R.S Mead was Porphyry's knowledge on the mithraic cult. Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs. I think Porphyry is right tauroctony actually represents the cosmogony of the mithraic cult. Its a map which provides esoteric pathways to heaven and hell from the cave of mithras which is the entire empirical world or earth. One argument of Porphyry which is most convincing is how he interprets the symbolism of Cautes and Cautopates holding the torch downwards and upwards respectively like mirror images of one another.

"Caves, therefore, in the most remote periods of antiquity were consecrated to the Gods, before temples were erected to them. Hence, the Curetes in Crete dedicated a cavern to Jupiter; in Arcadia, a cave was sacred to the Moon, and to Lycean Pan; and in Naxus, to Bacchus. But wherever Mithra was known, they propitiated the God in a cavern. With respect, however, to the Ithacensian cave, Homer was not satisfied with saying that it had two gates, but adds that one of the gates was turned towards the north, but the other which was more divine, to the south. He also says that the northern gate was |26 pervious to descent, but does not indicate whether this was also the case with the southern gate. For of this, he only says, "It is inaccessible to men, but it is the path of the immortals." 

........Theologists therefore assert, that_these two gates are Cancer and Capricorn; but Plato calls them entrances. And of these, theologists say, that Cancer is the gate through which souls descend; but Capricorn that through which they ascend. Cancer is indeed northern, and adapted to descent; but Capricorn is southern, and adapted to ascent (note 12). The northern parts, likewise, pertain to souls descending into generation. And the gates of the cavern which are turned to the north are rightly said to be pervious to the descent of men; but the southern gates are not the avenues of the Gods, but of souls ascending to the Gods. On this account, the poet does not say that they are the avenues of the Gods, but of immortals; this appellation being also common to our souls, which are per se, or essentially, immortal. 

It is said  that Parmenides mentions these two gates in his treatise "On the Nature of Things", as likewise that they are not unknown to the Romans and Egyptians. For the Romans celebrate their Saturnalia when the Sun is in Capricorn, and during this festivity, slaves wear the shoes of those that are free, and all things are distributed among them in common; the legislator obscurely signifying by this ceremony that through this gate of the heavens, those who are now born slaves will be liberated through the Saturnian festival, and the house attributed to Saturn, i.e., Capricorn, when they live again and return to the fountain of life. Since, however, the path from Capricorn is adapted to ascent, hence the Romans denominate that month in which the Sun, turning from Capricorn to the east, directs his course to the north, Januanus, or January, from janua, a gate.

          - Porphyry on the Cave of the Nymphs

Which makes sense because we have a crab placed near the bull's genitals on the left hand side which represents the northern gate where the souls descend to earth and we all know from astrology that the sign of Cancer which is my birth sign too is represented by a crab and we have a goat placed on the right hand side of the bull which represents the southern Capricorn gate where souls ascend to heaven which is the path of immortals.

Ascension to heaven for the sole sake of achieving immortality is also the main purpose of Mithras liturgy which Meyer Marvin believes belongs to the core tenets of the Mithraic cult and I too believe we should treat this ascension very seriously because even Yajnavalkya who received the fresh portions of the Shukla Yajurveda and the Ishavashya Upanishad from the Sun god, Savitr ascended to heaven and each god starting from god of Earth, god of Water, god of Air, god of Fire, god of Space, god of Sense organs, god of Mind, god of Intellect and finally the god of time whom we call Aion was revealed to him at each of the heavens and only then in the end after the revelation of Aion, Helios-Mithras the ego was revealed to him. Some of the gods also appeared in pairs of syzgies or with their male and female consorts as believed in the Valentinian gnostic sects and is one of the reasons why I believe in Valentinianism so strongly.

The symbols in Tauroctony could mean anything and can be interpreted in any way we want but this interpretation by Porphyry and G.R.S Mead who has shed more light on Porphyry's interpretation (G.R.S Mead, The mysteries of Mithra) seems to be the best esoteric interpretation we have on the subject.

The mystic of Tarsus and the pagan mystery cults

Was Saint Paul influenced by the pagan mystery religions? For me, this is a billion dollar question and the very foundation of Christianity and of its followers depend on it.

St Paul in the early 20th century history of religions. “The mystic of Tarsus”and the pagan mystery cults. After the correspondence of Franz Cumont and Alfred Loisy

As I long argued that Christianity is a mystery religion of Valentinian Christians similarly both these scholars agree with me that Christianity itself became a mystery religion in the hands of Saint Paul. But where they differ from my view is that they believe Paul either unconsciously or deliberately borrowed Pagan doctrines into his form of theology while I maintain that Paul truly received the Pleromic revelation from the Pneumatic Christ and based his doctrines solely from the revelation that he received from the Pneumatic Christ.

The reason why I hold such a view is that Saint Paul knew about the highest revelation of all the mysteries. Saint Paul seems to know more about the deity of Mithras than Julian the Emperor himself who self-proclaimed himself to be initiated into the mystery of Mithraism. Even Julian was aware of the calibre of Saint Paul but he spoke negatively against him because he was irritated and annoyed by the literal interpretation of the Bible enforced upon him by his orthodox Christian teachers when he was young. Julian himself says that Saint Paul surpassed every magician of every place and of every time but accuses him of being a polypus who changes his colour according to circumstances like the polypus changes its colour to match its rocks.

But that from the beginning God cared only for the Jews and that He chose them out as his portion, has been clearly asserted not only by Moses and Jesus but by Paul as well; though in Paul's case this is strange. For according to circumstances he keeps changing his views about God, as the polypus changes its colours to match the rocks, and now he insists that the Jews alone are God's portion, and then again, when he is trying to persuade the Hellenes to take sides with him, he says : "Do not think that he is the God of Jews only, but also of Gentiles : yea of Gentiles also."  Therefore it is fair to ask of Paul why God, if he was not the God of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles, sent the blessed gift of prophecy to the Jews in abundance and gave them Moses and the oil of anointing, and the prophets and the law and the incredible and monstrous elements in their myths? For you hear them crying aloud: "Man did eat angels' food." And finally God sent unto them Jesus also, but unto us no prophet, no oil of anointing, no teacher, no herald to announce his love for man which should one day, though late, reach even unto us also. Nay he even looked on for myriads, or if you prefer, for thousands of years, while men in extreme ignorance served idols, as you call them, from where the sun rises to where he sets, yes and from North to South, save only that |345 little tribe which less than two thousand years before had settled in one part of Palestine. For if he is the God of all of us alike, and the creator of all, why did he neglect us? Wherefore it is natural to think that the God of the Hebrews was not the begetter of the whole universe with lordship over the Avhole, but rather, as I said before, that he is confined within limits, and that since his empire has bounds we must conceive of him as only one of the crowd of other gods. Then are we to pay further heed to you because you or one of your stock imagined the God of the universe, though in any case you attained only to a bare conception of Him? Is not all this partiality? God, you say, is a jealous God. But why is he so jealous, even avenging the sins of the fathers on the children?

- Julian, Against the Galileans

Julian is entirely ignorant of the Valentinian tradition whose leader was Saint Paul of Tarsus. Julian though knew that there were hidden secret teachings associated to stories in the Bible was completely ignorant about the esoteric teachings of Saint Paul and as such none of his criticisms against Saint Paul hold now because we now know that Saint Paul was a gnostic and held beliefs contradictory to the Roman Catholic Church.

But the problem still remains how can Saint Paul who was a convert of Jesus Christ knew more about the mystery cults and the deity and the doctrines of Mithras compared to emperors like Julian who were fully initiated into the mystery of Mithraism and yet looked puny in front of a giant like Saint Paul when it comes to the pagan mystery religions. May be his birth place Tarsus might have had a huge influence on Saint Paul's thinking but still how did he figured out the highest esoteric truth of Mithraism which only the worshippers of Mithras can know.

This problem cannot be solved without taking some extreme positions like either Saint Paul was a priest of Mithras as some of his detractors claimed or he truly received the highest revelation from Christ himself. The former view seems absurd to me because why would a priest of Mithras hide the divinity of Mithras and proclaim Jesus Christ as the first-begotten in place of him.

Its true that the salvation preached by Saint Paul is identical to the salvation that we see in the mystery cults but the reason for that similarity is not because Saint Paul intentionally borrowed pagan elements into his doctrines which as I have shown above is a charge if we are making on Saint Paul we have to admit that he was a priest of Mithras because the kind of doctrines espoused by Saint Paul is not something like how a nut-job can just plagiarize blindly someone's else idea because the pagan mysteries requires one to participate and take part in the rituals to fully understand the mystery behind them and Saint Paul does in no way look like an outside copy cat of pagan mystery cults in fact he looks like someone who has attained the highest mastery of Mithraism.

If we deny the view that Saint Paul was a priest of Mithras which is very unlikely and absurd to believe then how can we account for the similarities between the Pauline doctrine of salvation and the salvation of the pagan mystery cults and other such similarities. The answer to that question is my belief that the Pneumatic Christ or the post-resurrected Christ was sent by none other than King Helios-Mithras himself, the unknowable Holy Father of the Gnostics.

This is the reason why Pauline Christianity is so similar to the pagan mystery cults. It is not because Paul borrowed from it but instead it is because the post-resurrected Christ was actually the son of King Helios-Mithras. There is no wonder why Saint Paul knew so much about Mithraism compared to the fellow initiates of Mithraism.

According to Valentinianism there are two Christs a psychic one at the Kenoma and a pneumatic one at the Pleroma, the psychic Christ was sent by Jehovah, the god of the Old Testament and the god of the Jews, also known as the Demiurge while the pneumatic Christ was sent by King Helios-Mithras, the god of the New Testament and the god of the Gentiles, also known as the unknowable Father of the Gnostics or the representation of the GOOD form according to Plato.

Iamblichus: Taking the Shape of the Gods

Taking the Shape of the Gods: A Theurgic Reading of Hermetic Rebirth
 
This is an another paper like the earlier one Offering to the Gods: A Neo-platonic perspective which shows the supreme wisdom of the Neo-platonic philosopher Iamblichus and how he defends the art of theurgy.

People often misunderstand theurgy as an irrational shallow practice since they normally do not understand the esoteric perspective behind those practices. But Theurgy and Esotericism being a profession carried out by only elite members of a society possessing special interests is intelligible only to those who have special knowledge.

"Theurgic union is attained only by the perfective operation of unspeakable acts correctly performed, acts which are beyond all understanding, and by the power of unutterable symbols which are intelligible only to the Gods"

Iamblichus, De Mysteriis. 2,11

Emperor Julian and the god of the seven rays

Emperor Julian in his Oration upon the Mother of the Gods alludes us to the god of the seven rays in one of his passages.

"But if I should touch upon that unspeakable mystic science which the Chaldaean hath uttered through inspiration, concerning the "god of the seven rays" making souls ascend through him, I shall be speaking of things unknown; yea, altogether unknown to the vulgar, yet familiar unto the blessed ministers of the gods, wherefore I shall now pass it over in silence." 

- Emperor Julian, Oration upon the Mother of the Gods.

Many scholars and researchers believe that the god of the seven rays which Julian is alluding here is Mithras, the Father but I believe that Julian is alluding to the God Jupiter and not to Mithras, the Father. There are many compelling reasons to believe that the god of the seven rays is none other than the God Jupiter which can be verified through comparative mythology supporting my view.

In the Indo-Persian religion of the Aryans the God Jupiter was known as Bṛhaspati and this is what Rig Veda says about this god.

"Bṛhaspati, when first he had his being from mighty splendour in supremest heaven, Strong, with his seven fold mouth, with noise of thunder, with his seven rays, blew and dispersed the darkness."

- Rig Veda, Book 4, HYMN L. Bṛhaspati, Verse 4

As far as I know no other god in the Rig Veda is so explicitly associated with the seven rays except the God Jupiter or Bṛhaspati which adds more weight to my view. Moreover I am also a member of the Julian Society and I asked the same question there and one of the members cited this passage from Proclus commentary on Plato's Timaeus and I quote him.

"Proclus, in his Commentary on the Timaeus (1,34) says, "the educational and judicial section [of the ideal state or, by analogy, the created universe of Zeus] is analogous to the Sun, in whose domain according to the Theologians [the Chaldeans] are Justice , the Upward Leader, and the Seven-Rays ....."  Harold Tarrant, the translator, has a note in this passage that says the scholar Festugiere identifies the last two of this triad with Attis and Mithras respectively.

I don't know if that helps."

Tim

 

If Festugiere is right then Mithras, the Father is under the domain of Zeus which is absurd since King Helios-Mithras is the supreme God of all gods who resides in the intelligible realm and through him all other intellectual gods follow including Jupiter or Zeus.

The Zeus of the Greeks was the same god as the Jupiter of the Romans.

The Romans regarded Jupiter as the equivalent of the Greek Zeus,^[5] and in Latin literature and Roman art, the myths and iconography of Zeus are adapted under the name Iuppiter.

- Wikipedia

Zeus and Jupiter had many of the same qualities as gods. Both of them were the gods of the sky as well as the king of the gods. They were both also married to their sisters: Hera (Zeus) and Juno (Jupiter). Other than being the god of the sky, Jupiter was also the god of light and victory, but Zeus was not. As a result, Jupiter protected the state of war and maintained its peace and well-being even though Zeus didn't.

- Roman and Greek Mythology

King Helios-Mithras is a Sun God of many rays and not a god of just seven rays. The triads in Proclus commentary should be interpreted as the qualities of Zeus or Jupiter and not as three individual gods corresponding to Justice, the Upward Leader and the Seven rays respectively. If one interprets them as qualities of the god Zeus or Jupiter then it adds even more weight to my original claim that the God Julian is alluding to in the above passage is none other than the God Jupiter himself and not Mithras, the Father. Also there is nothing in that passage of Julian which gives us any clue to make us believe that he is talking about the God Mithras here but if you read his previous passages before this passage he was frequently discussing the theology and the nature of God Jupiter.

More evidence supporting my view.

In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus takes the bull-form known as Taurus in order to win Europa. Taurus is also associated with Aphrodite and other goddesses, as well as with Pan and Dionysus. The face of Taurus "gleams with seven rays of fire."

 On the contrary side.

In all of the tauroctony iconography in Mithraism, Sol Invictus/Helios is always depicted as wearing a crown of seven rays. 

May be both Helios-Mithras and Jupiter emit seven rays.

"On this account, it appears to me that Plato delivers a twofold generation of the Sun; one indeed, in conjunction with the seven governors of the world, when he fashions the bodies of them, and inserts them in circulations; but the other according to the enkindling of light, through which he imparts to the Sun supermundane power. For it is one thing to generate the bulk of the Sun itself by itself, and another in conjunction with a ruling characteristic, through which the Sun is called the king of every visible nature, and is established analogous to the one fountain of good. For as this fountain, being better than the intelligible essence, illuminates both intellect and the intelligible, thus also the sun being better than a visible nature, illuminate both that which is visible and sight. But if the Sun is beyond a visible essence, it will have a supermundane nature. For the world is visible and tangible, and has a body. Hence, we must survey the Sun in a twofold respect; viz. as one of the seven planets, and as the leader of wholes; and as mundane and supermundane, according to the latter of which he splendidly emits a divine light. For in the same manner as The Good luminously emits truth which deifies the intelligible and intellectual order; as Phanes in Orpheus sends forth intelligible light which fills with intelligence all the intellectual Gods; and as Jupiter enkindles an intellectual and demiurgic light in all the supermundane Gods; thus also the Sun illuminates every thing visible through this undefiled light. The illuminating cause too is always in an order superior to the illuminated natures. For neither is The Good intelligible, nor Phanes intellectual, nor Jupiter supermundane. In consequence of this reasoning therefore, the Sun being supermundane emits the fountains of light. And according to the most mystic doctrines, the wholeness of the Sun is in the supermundane orders; for in them there is a solar world, and a total light, as the Chaldean Oracles assert, and which I am persuaded is true. And thus much concerning these things." 

- Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato

God is both a murderer and a saviour

I have been concentrating way too much on the concept of Pleroma in my posts and many people might think that I am a dualist. So in order to clear out those misconceptions I am going to unleash the real Kraken in this post. I am concentrating too much on the concept of Pleroma rather than talking about Non-dualism because that's a path of attaining Non-dualism which people have forgotten, very few people take that road to reality nowadays and I emphasized on Pleroma so that people can see and understand how radically different the concept of Non-dualism really is than what you hear from spiritual gurus or from New Age fellows. I stressed on Pleroma so that people can understand the true implications of the idea of Non-dualism.

What if I am going to say to you that Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela are equivalent to Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden and Abu Bhakr Al Bhagdadi?

The former and the latter persons are equivalent to one and another because they are neither responsible for the good and evil actions that they did or committed. Mahatma Gandhi was not a Mahatma and neither was he a great human being and nor Adolf Hitler was a bad human being. Now one might ask how is Adolf Hitler not a bad human being when he was responsible for the death of millions of Jews? This is where the whole world slips. According to the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Valentinianism and the pagan mystery religions we human beings really have no free will, we are not in control of our lives, everything we dream of, think of and possess is not really ours.

Just as the Demiurge secretly moved by Sophia thinks that he acts alone the same also with human beings.

- Excerpt of Theodotus, Valentinian Christian

God is really the demon of Rene Descartes who deceives us into falsely believing that this world is real, that these bodies are ours, deceiving us that the voice which speaks inside us is us, deceiving us into believing that the psyche or the character is what make us who we really are only to wake up to realize to the truth that the dreams which we are chasing all our lives are not truly ours but instead it was someone else's to begin with. Its like we all are being set up to fight, to kill and to love each other without being aware of the fact that none of our thoughts are truly originating from us.

Western psychology has a very loose definition for the concept of Pride or Ego but in the traditional Indian psychology "Ego" is directly identified with God. In fact this is the whole essence of the Gayatri verse that many people chant it blindly today that God is the one who stimulates our thoughts.

• God is the one who makes us commit sins and he is also the one who brings the wrath upon us for those sins.
• God is the one who murders people and he is the one who saves us.
• God is both evil and good.
• God is both heat and cold.
• God is both fire and water.
• God is both love and hate.
• God is both moral and immoral.
• God is both our enemy and our friend.
• God is both omnipresent and he is also omniabsent.
• God is omnibenevolent and he is omnimalevolent.
• God is omniscient and he is omniweak.
• God is the one who sends us to hell and he is the one who sends us to heaven.
• God is the one who makes us cry and he is the one who makes us laugh.
• He is the one who forces us to take revenge upon others and he is the one who makes us to forgive those who do bad to us.
• God is the one who make us commit adultery and fornification and he is the one who makes us be loyal to our husbands or wives.
• God is the one who makes us fall in love and he is also the one who breaks our heart.
• God is the one who brings famine and drought and he is also the one who brings harvest and rain.
• God is the one who implants bombs at Churches, Mosques and at Temples and he is the one who sends aid to those who are killed at those places.

Can you see where am I going with this? To make you guys understand the real message out of this I have to quote the words of a great Quantum Physicist, Erwin Schroedinger who was deeply immersed in the Upanishads and contemplated its true implications.

"Our perceiving self is nowhere to be found with in the world picture because it itself is the world picture."

- Erwin Schroedinger, From Science to God by Peter Russell

Nārada Muni continued: What I referred to as the chariot was in actuality the body. The senses are the horses that pull that chariot. As time passes, year after year, these horses run without obstruction, but in fact they make no progress. Pious and impious activities are the two wheels of the chariot. The three modes of material nature are the chariot’s flags. The five types of life air constitute the living entity’s bondage, and the mind is considered to be the rope. Intelligence is the chariot driver. The heart is the sitting place in the chariot, and the dualities of life, such as pleasure and pain, are the knotting place. The seven elements are the coverings of the chariot, and the working senses are the five external processes. The eleven senses are the soldiers. Being engrossed in sense enjoyment, the living entity, seated on the chariot, hankers after fulfillment of his false desires and runs after sense enjoyment life after life.

Ego is a much more higher concept than Intelligence and the casket of Intelligence by itself cannot do anything without someone from behind stimulating our thoughts and that chariot driver is none other than Ego or God or in terms of Advaita Vedanta, it is Ishvar.

Now are we really in this world picture? Think about it, if none of our thoughts, our inner voice, our tastes, desires, dreams, our looks and characters are not truly ours then is there anything left that makes us who we are.

We all are prisoners of the cave whose souls are caught up in this world and this world is the cave of Mithras, now we have got two choices after realizing this truth, we can take the blue pill and continue to lead our lives experiencing all the pain, joy, sorrow, torments, insults, injustice, abuses, love, hate, kindness and cruelty that life has to offer us or take the red pill and escape from this world and realize who we really are.

There is no doubt that our souls are captivated in this world otherwise what's the whole point of trying to attain salvation. Now many believers of Advaita Vedanata have a false notion that they have already become Brahman or God since Non-dualism insists that "Thou are Brahman or God". They find the view that Brahman is caught up in this world and is being subject to suffering irreconcilable with the view that Brahman is all knowing and all blissful.

If Jiva is Brahman according to Advaita are Advaitics deluding themselves by believing that Brahman is not in bondage with nature (prakrithi)? Doesn't this prove that Brahman is vulnerable to corruptibility of ignorance?

A question which I asked on Quora just to let people know that they have misunderstood Advaita Vedanta if they already thought that they have become God or Brahman since Advaita Vedanta says so.

We must accept the fact that our souls are caught up in this world and we are still in duality and not falsely believe that we have become one with God when we are not truly there yet. Remember, to attain Non-dualism one must ascend to all the higher heavens just like the apocalypse of Saint Paul and how he went high up to the Ogdoad to meet the Holy Father and just like the Egyptian priest in Mithras liturgy ascended to various heavens to finally meet King Helios Aion Mithras in order to receive immortality. That's how crazy the idea of Non-dualism really is, if you think you can attain Non-dualism by meditating silently at the footsteps of the Himalayas then you are wrong. You have to be the next Saint Paul of Tarsus or at least get caught up in some of the higher heavens because only a pure soul can pass over the guardians of the heavens.

Most people are just embarrassed to hold such a view of Non-dualism in this 21st century age, everyone wants to talk about Quantum Physics and science so that somehow it gives them some kind of credibility and more respect to their shitty ideas by mentioning some scientific words and by the invocation of few reputed scientists. Sorry jackasses if you want to attain Non-dualism you need to be the next Dante or the next Carl Gustav Jung, you need to rise up to the Ogdoad and meet the Holy Father in the heavens, that's how crazy it is so don't even imagine in your dreams that you know Brahman or God just by reading a few Upanishads and texts of Shankara and trying to find parallels to it from Modern Physics.

Carl Gustav Jung, the famous psychologist and Gnostic cracked this mystery through his studies of the Nag Hammadi Library which we can verify from his Red Book and the Seven Sermons to the Dead. (The Spiritually dead refers to the orthodox Christians).

                                

Seven Sermons to the Dead

Sermo II

In the night the dead stood along the wall and cried:

We would have knowledge of god. Where is god? Is god dead?

God is not dead. Now, as ever, he liveth. God is creatura, for he is something definite, and therefore distinct from the pleroma. God is quality of the pleroma, and everything which I said of creatura also is true concerning him.

He is distinguished, however, from created beings through this, that he is more indefinite and indeterminable than they. He is less distinct than created beings, since the ground of his being is effective fullness. Only in so far as he is definite and distinct is he creatura, and in like measure is he the manifestation of the effective fullness of the pleroma.

Everything which we do not distinguish falleth into the pleroma and is made void by its opposite. If, therefore, we do not distinguish god, effective fullness is for us extinguished.

Moreover god is the pleroma itself, as likewise each smallest point in the created and uncreated is the pleroma itself.

Effective void is the nature of the devil. God and devil are the first manifestations of nothingness, which we call the pleroma. It is indifferent whether the pleroma is or is not, since in everything it is balanced and void.

Not so creatura. In so far as god and devil are creatura they do not extinguish each other, but stand one against the other as effective opposites. We need no proof of their existence. It is enough that we must always be speaking of them. Even if both were not, creatura, of its own essential distinctiveness, would forever distinguish them anew out of the pleroma.

Everything that discrimination taketh out of the pleroma is a pair of opposites. To god, therefore, always belongeth the devil.

This inseparability is as close and, as your own life hath made you see, as indissoluble as the pleroma itself. Thus it is that both stand very close to the pleroma, in which all opposites are extinguished and joined.

God and devil are distinguished by the qualities fullness and emptiness, generation and destruction. Effectiveness is common to both.

Effectiveness joineth them. Effectiveness, therefore, standeth above both; is a god above god, since in its effect it uniteth fullness and emptiness.

This is a god whom ye knew not, for mankind forgot it. We name it by its name Abraxas. It is more indefinite still than god and devil.

That god may be distinguished from it, we name god Helios or Sun. Abraxas is effect. Nothing standeth opposed to it but the ineffective; hence its effective nature freely unfoldeth itself. The ineffective is not, therefore resisteth not. Abraxas standeth above the sun and above the devil. It is improbable probability, unreal reality. Had the pleroma a being, Abraxas would be its manifestation. It is the effective itself, not any particular effect, but effect in general.

It is unreal reality, because it hath no definite effect.

It is also creatura, because it is distinct from the pleroma.

The sun hath a definite effect, and so hath the devil. Wherefore do they appear to us more effective than indefinite Abraxas.

It is force, duration, change.

The dead now raised a great tumult, for they were Christians.

Sermo III

Like mists arising from a marsh, the dead came near and cried: Speak further unto us concerning the supreme god.

Hard to know is the deity of Abraxas. Its power is the greatest, because man perceiveth it not. From the sun he draweth the summum bonum; from the devil the infimum malum; but from Abraxas life, altogether indefinite, the mother of good and evil.

Smaller and weaker life seemeth to be than the summum bonum; wherefore is it also hard to conceive that Abraxas transcendeth even the sun in power, who is himself the radiant source of all the force of life.

Abraxas is the sun, and at the same time the eternally sucking gorge of the void, the belittling and dismembering devil.

The power of Abraxas is twofold; but ye see it not, because for your eyes the warring opposites of this power are extinguished.

What the god-sun speaketh is life.

What the devil speaketh is death.

But Abraxas speaketh that hallowed and accursed word which is life and death at the same time.

Abraxas begetteth truth and lying, good and evil, light and darkness, in the same word and in the same act. Wherefore is Abraxas terrible.

It is splendid as the lion in the instant he striketh down his victim. It is beautiful as a day of spring. It is the great Pan himself and also the small one. It is Priapos.

It is the monster of the under-world, a thousand-armed polyp, coiled knot of winged serpents, frenzy.

It is the hermaphrodite of the earliest beginning.

It is the lord of the toads and frogs, which live in the water and go up on the land, whose chorus ascendeth at noon and at midnight.

It is abundance that seeketh union with emptiness.

It is holy begetting.

It is love and love’s murder.

It is the saint and his betrayer.

It is the brightest light of day and the darkest night of madness.

To look upon it, is blindness.

To know it, is sickness.

To worship it, is death.

To fear it, is wisdom.

To resist it not, is redemption.

God dwelleth behind the sun, the devil behind the night. What god bringeth forth out of the light the devil sucketh into the night. But Abraxas is the world, its becoming and its passing. Upon every gift that cometh from the god-sun the devil layeth his curse.

Everything that ye entreat from the god-sun begetteth a deed of the devil.

Everything that ye create with the god-sun giveth effective power to the devil.

That is terrible Abraxas.

It is the mightiest creature, and in it the creature is afraid of itself.

It is the manifest opposition of creatura to the pleroma and its nothingness.

It is the son’s horror of the mother.

It is the mother’s love for the son.

It is the delight of the earth and the cruelty of the heavens.

Before its countenance man becometh like stone.

Before it there is no question and no reply.

It is the life of creatura.

It is the operation of distinctiveness.

It is the love of man.

It is the speech of man.

It is the appearance and the shadow of man.

It is illusory reality.

Now the dead howled and raged, for they were unperfected.

Jung is speaking the same thing in terms of Gnostic terminology as what Erwin Schroedinger said that we are nowhere to be found within this world picture and that all the dualities of life is carried out by the supreme God Abraxas.

But do we really have the choice even to take the blue pill or the red pill, isn't it true that even that is preordained by God. Then how can we say that it is by our effort and by our works of the Law that we attained redemption. Did we? Really? This is where the grace of God comes into the picture. Obviously such a God is not worthy of worship who turns us away from him and at the same time brings the wrath upon us for not loving him when we have absolutely no freedom over the choices that we make.

Our only hope and belief is to believe that this God is good and he will free us from this bondage through his grace for us. In fact this is the belief in the pagan mystery religions that God is preparing all of us to make ourselves free from bondage so we must stop weeping for every small things that goes along with our lives.

There is no concept of Devil in the pagan mystery religions and also in the Upanishads and the Vedas. Now in a typical Christian environment all the good things would be attributed to God and all the evil things that happens in one's life would be attributed as done by the Devil. This is not our view, according to us both Good and Evil is carried out by the Supreme God for everything is working according to the Will of The Father and our true self is nowhere to be found with in this world picture.

All our souls have the potential within themselves to become God but the potential in us can only be extracted by God alone through his grace for us, he has to bring us to his feet and he has to make us pray for him and he has to show us the real truth as to who we really are.

Where then is boasting?

Isn't this the death of Ego and the emergence of the truth of Non-dualism that "I am God, God and I are One"?

Cracking the code of the mystery-religions

I'm currently reading the latest 25 books I purchased a week ago, and some library books:

o Hellenistic myths and mystery religions

o The controversy over Copenhagenist quantum mechanics

o Tenseless (illusory) time

o Several ~$85 books on determinism, including in Stoic thought

o Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category

The Gnostics, like the mystery initiates, understood the threat of block-universe fatalism to human freedom, and were motivated mainly by hating such a metaphysically disempowering jail cell of "astrological" cosmic determinism, and by *wanting* and *attempting* to find a way of transcending, in some sense, the frozen space-time cosmos.  

Whether they succeeded, in some sense, at transcending the ego-killing trap of illusory/frozen time is a matter of debate and a matter of investigating the notion of transcendence.  All the hatred and loathing of my block-universe idea exhibited by some contemporary Gnostics only serves to confirm the plausibility of my portrayal of how the ancients had mixed feelings about the Fatalism they perceived and believed in.

I'm not interested in truth per se, but by making sense out of mystery-experiencing.  I'm constructing a simple, consistent model of how our personal power of will and self-control sits with respect to the time dimension, and how the ancients experienced initiation in the mystery religions.  The ancients were concerned above all with the problematic metaphysical aspects of personal freedom.  

We cannot say, with low-level detail, that their myths had only one meaning, regarding our metaphysical freedom or lack of it, or our transcendence of metaphysical unfreedom.  But we can certainly say that the Gnostics and mysteries had one high-level, overarching meaning: grappling with the problematic nature of personal metaphysical freedom.   

Each Gnostic group or thinker, and each mystery tradition, and each myth, may have drawn different conclusions or told the religious story in different ways, but there is one commonality across all this diversity: they all were concerned primarily with the problematic nature of personal metaphysical freedom.  When certain contemporary Gnostics rail against my model of the frozen block universe, they only add support to the above thesis of what concern, what issue, what *problem* unites all the variant traditions of the diverse Gnostic groups and mystery traditions.  

I have cracked the code, penetrated the mysteries, and solved the puzzle, by identifying the question, the problem, what was really at issue.  The way to finally make sense of the various Hellenistic myths in an encompassing way is through reading them as encoded allegories of mystic-state encounters with the problematic nature of personal metaphysical freedom.  Cries by certain Gnostics against the frozen block-universe model only strengthen this thesis.  

o  Is the universe in fact frozen, with time being illusory? 

o  Is our power and freedom a frozen illusion as well? 

o Can we meaningfully transcend such deathly freezing or rock-embedding of the entire time axis? 

o  Is there a legitimate and coherent way that we can, like Mithras, exit from the rock-womb and become legitimately free?  

These are matters for debate and do not overthrow the value of my model of time and personal control, as a fundamental and basic model to consider as a hypothesis and reference point that all initiates must know.  No one should believe that time is an illusion, along with our personal power to author our own future, but *everyone* should *know* this idea as a fundamental hypothesis and point of reference. 

        - Ego death.com - Hellenistic Mystery Religion

Conversion from an Atheist to a Theist

Okay, its a long story but I'll make it short. It all started when I was in my X grade and I was very much passionate about science, actually my love for science started from seventh grade itself where I used to conduct some experiments and brake open my remote car toys and used to see what's inside it or use its D.C motor to build a hovercraft.

When I was in my X grade I bought the educational software CD called The History of Life from the original makers of The History of the Universe and they quickly introduced me on to a load of ideas and thinkers like John Maynard Smith, Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Naom Chomsky, James Lovelock, Charles Darwin, Stephen J Gould, Rene Descartes etc etc. One of the things that they mentioned was that the biggest mystery facing biology today is this.

What is consciousness?

I was young at that time and Richard Dawkin's Selfish Gene theory appealed me very much and I openly declared myself to be an Atheist as none of the religions where making absolutely any sense whatsoever and they were entirely incompatible with science and with evolution by Natural Selection but my mind was not set for Anti-theism.

The History of Life CD-ROM for Windows. Science Educational Software. Core Biology Concepts: Evolution, Genes, DNA, Species, Memes, Natural Selection, Organism Classification, Extinction, Heredity, Origins of Life. Grades 6 and up - Middle school, High school Students. Ideal for use with Interactive Whiteboard.

It was the same time which is in the year 2007 that I joined SFN as I was searching for more information on the Selfish Gene theory over the internet and landed on to their site (Science Forums | www.scienceforums.net) and they had some very good Phd posters who were contributing to the site at that time.

Meanwhile I was trying to find what others are saying about consciousness over the Internet and it was now that I got introduced to Sir Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff with their Orchestrated OR model. I liked what Penrose was talking about  Godel's incompleteness theorems more than his mumbo jumbo Orchestrated OR model and all the microtubules stuff which I didn't liked much. Penrose rocks when he sticks himself with in mathematics where he is the unsung hero. It was hard to swallow his theory all at once at that time.

Consciousness involves Non-Computable ingredients

I knew if I had to have a good understanding of Penrose's theory and his terminologies then I have to at least have a basic knowledge on Quantum Theory and Modern Physics and hence I went to the book store and bought these books.

Quantum Physics: A Beginner's Guide by Alastair Rae

Modern Physics - Serway, Moses and Moyer

As my interests in biology and science grew I again went to Sapna Book Store and bought the Webster World 2005 Encyclopedia CD which I usually used to do as a routine every time my pocket money reached a lump sum. I absolutely loved the scientific articles reported by the Webster reporters in that Australian encyclopedia.

Webster world - Journey into Knowledge

It had all the news of all the scientific advancements that was made till the year 2005 from the Standard Model in Physics to all the Nobel prize works in Chemistry, Physics and Biology along with thousands of scientific advancements from around the world. For example:- The 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Paul D. Boyer and John E. Walker for their work on how the enzyme ATP synthase catalyses the formation of ATP which is well worth reading and I absolutely loved the design solutions of the molecular machinery that was either designed or naturally evolved in living organisms and I decided that I wanted to be a molecular biologist as those articles excited me very much.

 My mind was fully set to take up an Integrated MSc-Phd course in Life sciences and again went to the Book store and bought Cell and Molecular Biology by E.D.P De Robertis and E.M.F De Robertis Jr

Cell and Molecular Biology

As I was researching about molecular biology I came across Hubert Yockey and he was talking about information theory and he came to a conclusion rejecting both Michael Behe's irreducible complexity theory and Intelligent Design and also the strong belief held among evolutionary biologists and Darwinists that the problem of origin of life can be explained by natural mechanisms. According to Yockey there is nothing in the natural physio-chemical system where codes and codons are being used to drive a set of chemical reactions. Yockey thought that the origin of the genome was something which cannot be explained through scientific means and he actually went on to define life as those entities which possessed a genome which can be used to classify living from the non-living. Yockey thought that the continuation of the genome was the very evidence that evolution by natural selection is true and its a fact of nature and the absence of fossils not found by palaeontologists was not such an importance to Yockey.

Information theory and Molecular biology - Hubert Yockey

The more I began to dwell deep into this I realized that it was not enough if a molecular biologist had mastered only chemistry without having any knowledge of information theory, communications theory, automata, programming, networking, artificial intelligence, computer modelling and other stuff. I was convinced that today's molecular biologists had to master all those fields or at least have some knowledge or working principles about those fields and hence I decided to do my major in Information Science which kick started my career in programming which I believe was the best decision of my life because in case you didn't know the world belongs to those who can write code.

What is code?

In parallel I was reading religious literature from our native scholars, some of those books were lying on the shelf which were originally bought by my grand mother and then borrowed by my mother from her. One of the book which caught my attention was Mahadarshana by Devudu Narasimha Shastry, a Sanskrit scholar and a ritualist.

Mahadarshana

Mahabrahmana

Hindu kids normally will not have a strong religious upbringing because we don't go to temples routinely like the way Christians and Muslims go to their Churches and Mosques every week and read the Bible and Quran every now and then.

So religion or being religious was an alien concept for me but just turned some pages to read it out of curiosity and to my surprise these books by Devudu were very interesting and although it is in the form of a dialectic novel every now and then he talked about esoteric and philosophical concepts from the Vedas and the Upanishads and conveyed the wisdom from the mouth of the characters of the novel just like the Socrates and Plato's dialogues.

It is a common practice just like in the ancient days to write a Gospel in someone else's name and obscure the real author from the Gospel. Initially I was not able to comprehend these things as I had no complete background on Hinduism, about its roots and origins. In case you don't know our parents will send us to Christian missionary schools rather than teaching us Sanskrit therefore most of the Hindus are not susceptible for radicalism, our parents should not be blamed for that instead the blame goes to Macaulay who introduced English education in India and undermined the Gurukula system of education. So majority of the Indians are sons and daughters of Macaulay which is a shame. Indian in blood but Christian in thinking.

I didn't give up, I read and read and read, had an strong introspection and contemplation on these concepts then came the irreconcilable contradiction that according to Indian psychology (Samkhya theory) Mind and Brain were two different things which can in no way be conceivable with in the scientific view. Indian psychology not only views the Mind and Brain as separate individual entities it also views Intelligence has a separate physical entity just like Platonic Forms.

But I was aware of Penrose's strong Platonism and his Lucas-Penrose argument was the main big reason that compelled me to take this idea seriously and to go further and experiment on it.

"Here is a summary of the new argument (this summary closely follows that given in Chalmers (1995: 3.2), as this is the clearest and most succinct formulation of the argument I know of): (1) suppose that “my reasoning powers are captured by some formal system F,” and, given this assumption, “consider the class of statements I can know to be true.”  (2) Since I know that I am sound, F is sound, and so is F’, which is simply F plus the assumption (made in (1)) that I am F (incidentally, a sound formal system is one in which only valid arguments can be proven).  But then (3) “I know that G(F’) is true, where this is the Gödel sentence of the system F’” (ibid).  However, (4) Gödel’s first incompleteness theorem shows that F’ could not see that the Gödel sentence is true.  Further, we can infer that (5) I am F’ (since F’ is merely F plus the assumption made in (1) that I am F), and we can also infer that I can see the truth of the Gödel sentence (and therefore given that we are F’, F’ can see the truth of the Gödel sentence). That is, (6) we have reached a contradiction (F’ can both see the truth of the Gödel sentence and cannot see the truth of the Gödel sentence).  Therefore, (7) our initial assumption must be false, that is, F, or any formal system whatsoever, cannot capture my reasoning powers."

The only way I could verify it was to practice Theurgy myself and luckily one day when I went to my grandmother's house a street vendor was carrying books on yoga and I bought a small book with just 20 pages which gave clear instructions on how to perform Yoga.

There were yoga postures for other benefits too but since I was after something esoteric the 12 step Sun Salutations caught my attention and it was in detail with Names of Gods and everything. As I already had a thorough theoretical background insight on the Upanishads and Vedas I knew how to perform the ritual of Sun Salutations.

Yes, many people do Sun Salutations but hardly a few do along with the silent utterances of the mantras in the mind which is used to invoke the gods and purify the subtle body.  I used to do it twice daily morning and in the evening every day for 1 year. I went after the supreme truth, the ultimate truth i.e. to know Brahman and its manifestation.

I was very pure and it was in this period that I had a glimpse revelation of what the Upanishadic seers were talking of, which strangely can be put beautifully in the words of Valentinus, an 2nd century Christian mystic,

It was quite amazing that the Aeons were in the Father without being acquainted with him and that they alone were able to emanate, inasmuch as they were not able to perceive and recognize the one in whom they were

(Gospel of Truth 22:27-32)

O Fosterer, O sole Seer, O Ordainer, O illumining Sun, O power of the Father of creatures, marshal thy rays, draw together thy light; the Lustre which is thy most blessed form of all, that in Thee I behold. The Purusha there and there, He am I

- Isha Upanishad, Verse 15        

The Aeons (gods) were nothing but light rays emanating from his body which is what Saint Paul is saying in Colossians 2:9, "In Christ dwells all the Aeons of the pleroma in bodily form". Yes the Aeons initially existed in the womb of the Father and they still exist in him, this is possible because the Aeons were not anthropomorphic instead they were in the form of light rays emanating from the Father who was anthropomorphic in form. It was just amazing.

Isn't it strange that I worshipped Helios-Mithras and the revelation which I had with him is described in a 2nd century Christian tradition named Valentinianism whose leader was Saint Paul of Tarsus. I cannot sleep every time I think about this.

I was acquainted with Valentinianism only recently and only after I had my revelations. It was piece of cake for me to understand what these Paulinists were saying because I already had the glimpse of Gnosis with me in order to really appreciate the works of this lost innocent tradition.

After that glimpse revelation which gave me so much insightful knowledge of the Platonic relam or Pleroma or Mandala whatever you wish to call it or the intelligible world I continued to do the Sun Salutations. I repeatedly use the word glimpse because I did not received a full revelation just a glimpse and an insight into that revelation.

One day I had this sudden spontaneous movement in my muscles like an electric shock and fell forward in the morning on my yoga mat and I was unconscious for a while and on the same day I fell backward in the evening.

My confrontation with the Pleroma

That's it, once this incident happened I stopped doing my Sun Salutations and returned to SFN after a long time then I met someone there on the discussion forum, got connected and had a Long Distance friendship with her, everything was going fine for a while but ended up being broken hearted for the various reasons which is not appropriate to discuss here. Obviously one can't expect much from a psychic Christian to be fully in Christ and expect them not to sin.

I was hurt, I was in pain and I thought it is right for me to take this pain to Christ since the pain was caused by a Christian so that he can heal me and take me out of this. It was at this time that I got acquainted with Valentinianism and it has been the only joy in my life. May be Christ realized my sincerity and answered my prayers for his help.

That's my story, I started as an strong atheist advocating selfish gene theory thinking that we are robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes and ended up being a Valentinian Gnostic Christian.

I feel I have to take rest now. 

Dr. Einar Thomassen speaks on Valentinus and the Valentinian tradition

Dr. Einar Thomassen is the author of the book The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the Valentinians and he is the first gnostic scholar apart from Elaine Pagels to have made a succinct formulation of the Valentinian system. His doctoral research was made on Tripartite Tractate, a Valentinian text which fully describes the Valentinian view of the cosmos. I really don't have to say anything else as Einar Thomassen has beautifully described our doctrine with his own words and I have nothing to object.

I would just like to add that if there is any Valentinian text that I would always like to keep it with me till my death then it will be the Gospel of Truth. In fact Einar Thomassen said in an another interview, "Not every time he (Valentinus) sat down to write a Gospel (Gospel of Truth) where he was going to throw in all the cosmology, cosmogony and the theogony." If anyone wants to understand the Valentinian system I would highly recommend reading Gospel of Truth because it was probably written by the great Valentinus himself. 

Saint Paul was a Gnostic and the Valentinians were the great Paulinists and what better proof for this theory than the work of Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Paul. Christ will never ever forgive those who persecuted the Valentinian Christians. But as Valentinus himself says we should not take error too seriously because all the evil that humans commit in this world is because they are ignorant of the Father and gnosis is the only way to end human suffering and evil in this world but to receive gnosis you need faith. "No one can receive gnosis without faith." (Gospel of Philip)

While I write this my heart bleeds at the way that these sensitive Christians were burnt alive by the so called orthodox church authorities.