GNOSTIC COMMENTARY ON LUKE
Modified. Originally published in 2017.
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“I baptize you with water (υδορ), but (…) he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost (Paraklêtos) and with fire (pyro or πῦρ)”
LUKE 3:16
Iaonnes baptizes Iesous with water. Iesous will baptize you with the FIRE, but this fire is the higher knowledge, or gnosis. The word of Alaha (Alah) was upon Iochanan bar Zacharia in the Desert, and he came into all the region about the Jordan, proclaiming the Baptism of Repentance for the forgiveness of sins. — Luke, iii. 2, 3, Syriac. Progenies viperarum, quis monstravit vobis fugere a futura ira. — Ioan; Matthew, iii. 7. Having put on a mortal form I entered Jerusalem and speaking with my voice I held meetings, …curing the sick, and when they had gone into the Jordan, I baptized them. — Codex Nasaraeus, II. 301. I indeed baptize you with water unto Repentance; but He that comes after me is more powerful than I. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with Fire! His winnowing shovel is in his hand and He makes clean his threshing-floor. The wheat He will gather into his Storehouse: and the chaff He will burn with Fire not extinguished. — Matthew, iii. 11-12; Luke, iii. 16; Sōd: the Son of the Man, xxiv.
THE BAPTISM BY FIRE ঌ
Is it the FIRE on Mount Sinai that shall raise us up? And PYRO or πῦρ, the intelligible fire of the Ionians? In the theology of Proclus, our fathers taught that the fire is the first principle in “Creation,” and this “Fire Beyond” was in its paternity intellectual and thus Mind. Its triadic power (δυναμις) was diffused through Matter. It was taught that the DEITY is reached through MIND and is nourished by its own power. Thus, man has to nourish this power that is also in them.
This DEITY, the Mind of all Minds, was represented by Seven Powers and geometric figures, from the Monad, the Duad, Triad to the Hebdomad.
All issue from the FIRE in the Great Depth, PLEROMA.
“All things are the progeny of one fire.
The Father perfected all things, and delivered them over
To the second Mind, whom all nations of men call the first.”
— Isaac Preston Cory, The Chaldæn Oracles: Ancient Fragments, Z. Psell. 24.; Plet. 30., 2nd ed., 1832)
On FIREWORSHIP, Heraclitus regarded Fire as Spirit in the fire, as the true Soul of the world. This is the Hindu idea of Agni (Ignis) the Fire as Soul of the world. The unchanging order of all things…has always been, is and will be the Living Fire which is kindled and extinguished in regular succession. — Vestiges of the Spirit-History of Man. The Spirit of God is Fire. In the rite of baptism Water is an emblem of the Spirit. I indeed baptize you in water…He will baptize you in Holy Spirit and Fire. — Luke, iii. 17; Vestiges. Pure Fire was distributed in the Samothracian Mysteries. Purify the house with a torch. — Eurip.; Sōd: the Mysteries of Adoni. The Seven Kabiri are the Seven Spirits of Fire (Kebir or Fire) about the throne of Saturn. — Rev., iv. 5; Sōd. From the Living Water…and from Asata Chita (Ignis Vivus), Nahura (Light) came forth through the power of the King of Light. — Cod. Nas.; Sōd: the Son of the Man.
SIX ROOTS OF THE AEONS IN THE PLEROMA OF THE SIMONIAN SCHOOL AS IN THE “PHILOSOPHUMENA”
Fire (πῦρ)*
Mind (νους) or Heaven (ουρανος)
Thought (επινοια) or Earth (γη)
Voice (φονη) or Sun (ηλιος)
Name (ονομα) or Moon (σεληνη)
Reason (λογισμος) or Air (αηρ)
Reflection (ενθυμησις) or Water (υδορ)
All corresponding to the Seven Sefirot of the Jewish Kabbalah — see G.R.S. Mead, Simon Magus, 1892.
This fire (Agni) was represented under the fire-gods of Phoenicia, Samothrace, and the ancient Babylonians.
The Nasarene Codex gives us Ferho (the Unknown Formless LIFE) and then Seven Aeons as Mano (Rex Lucis), Aiar Zivo, Ignis Yivus, Lux, Yita, Aqua viva, and Yita ipsa. — Norberg, Preface to Cod. Nas.; Sōd: the Son of the Man, Preliminary Chapter.
It was the self-conqueror, who could perceive by means of Self, the abiding SELF or Root Thought. Therein dwells the indestructible, free and beyond the ordinary senses of perception. This closes the teaching on the LOGOS, the “Hidden Fire” (κρυπτός), the ARCHEUS of those that shared the Mediterranean Sea.
THE BAPTISM OF WATER ༄.°
Water ༄.° water symbolizes the lower two stages of the purificatory processes. These stages replenish and regenerate the physical body. The trial by fire was the last stage where it alone could regenerate the inner spiritual man.
LIFE procreated this Son like Himself. And him when begotten He placed in Jordan of living water sprung from LIFE, endowed him with JUSTICE, clothed him with Splendor, covered him with Light, and located him with Himself in His own abode situated above Living Fire. — Codex Nazareus, II. 117; Sōd: the Son of the Man. Before all creatures existed the Lord FERHO (the unknown and formless LIFE), through whom Jordan (the Living Water, the Spirit) exists. The Lord Jordan exists in its turn, Living Water, which Water is the Greatest, and gladdening. But from the Living Water we, Life, have proceeded, and all Genii besides. — Cod. Nas., I. 145; Sōd: the Son of the Man. Go straight to Jordan and baptize you, but your souls baptize! — Codex Nasar., I. 73. Baptizing these with water that will perish, and the living baptism having been perverted… turn away from the living baptism with which thou, O Adam, wast baptized in Jordan of living water. — Codex Nasaraene, II. 109. Himself shall purify (baptize) you in holy Pneuma and Fire. Whose Fan is in his hand, and he shall cleanse his threshing-floor. — Matthew, iii. 11, 12; Sōd: the Mysteries of Adoni. The Water of Bacchus is the Pneuma (the Holy Spirit). Bacchus is the Life-giving Water! Compare John, iv. 14; vii. 38, 39. — Sōd: the Mysteries of Adoni. Purifying with the washing of the water. — Ephes., v. 26. The holy water was the symbol of new life (as in the Mysteries). This is baptism. — Stiefelhagen; Sōd: the Mysteries of Adoni.
The Platonic philosophers hold that Intellect is the very Life of living things, the First Principle… — Proclus; Vestiges. Such is the Mind which is there energizing… in the paternal depth… — Proclus in Timaeus; Vestiges of the Spirit-History of Man. The Light-Principle is ‘Iao the Light and Life-Principle,’ the Logos, ‘the Word of Life.’ The intelligible Light…out of which the souls emanate. — Vestiges. Gnosticism has borrowed much from the traditions and theories preserved in the Sohar. — Franck; Sōd: the Son of the Man. God’s Sophia (Wisdom) hidden in a mystery. The Wisdom which God…pre-ordained before the Aions. — 1 Cor., ii. 7; Sōd. The initiated in the Mysteries of Mithra were baptized. — Tertullian, de Baptism.; Sōd: the Mysteries of Adoni. Justice etc. are a kind of Initiatory purification…whoever shall arrive in Hades unexpiated and uninitiated shall lie in mud, but he that arrives there purified and initiated shall dwell with the Gods! — Plato, Phaedo; Sōd. Ye about to leave your bodies, will not be able to ascend without pure oil… — Codex Nas., II. 281; Sōd: the Son of the Man. The souls issue from the Soul of the World and return to it as sparks to the fire. — Vestiges.
IT is beyond Name and Form.
“Pray not! the darkness will not brighten! Ask
Nought from the Silence, for it cannot speak!
Vex not your mournful minds with pious pains!
Ah! Brothers, Sisters seek
Nought from the helpless gods by gift and hymn,
Nor bribe with blood, nor feed with fruit and cakes!
Within yourselves deliverance must be sought;
Each man his prison makes.”(Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia)
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APPENDIX: PRYSE’S RESTORED NEW TESTAMENT
I indeed lustrate you with Water; but the Fan-bearer is coming, mightier than I, whose sandal-thong I am not competent to unlace: he shall lustrate you with Air supernal and with Fire. In his hand is his mystic winnowing-fan, for the thorough cleansing of his discous threshing-floor; into his granary he will gather the wheat, but with inextinguishable fire he will burn up the chaff. — Restored from Luke iii. 16-17; Matt. iii. 11-12; The Restored New Testament. Came Iēsous then to Iōannēs at the sacred river, his lustral rite to receive. But Iōannēs, trying to dissuade him, protested: “Need have I to receive thy lustral rite, and comest thou to me?” But Iēsous answered him: “I have come to sow Fire in the Earth, and why should I desire thy rite of Water if that Fire were already kindled? But I have yet thy lustral rite to undergo, and O how I am constrained until it is accomplished! Consecrate me now first, for thus ’t is fitting for us to comply with all the holy ritual.” Then the lesser hierophant consecrated him, plunging him thrice into the purifying stream. — Restored from the Synoptics; The Restored New Testament. Iōannēs, as the personified psychic self, purifies with the lunar element, water, and is both divine and human; whereas Iēsous, as the spiritual Self, purifies with the solar fire, and is wholly divine. Initiated into the first degree by the rite of Water, Iēsous becomes a Chrestos, “noble one,” or approved disciple in the Mysteries; it is not until he has passed through all the tests and occult “labors,” and has entered into the fourth degree through the rite of Earth—the mystic crucifixion—that he becomes a Christos, an Anointed King, a full Initiate. — Commentary, The Restored New Testament. The degrees of initiation were thus designated by the sacred elements, the fourth being that of Earth: the Eleusinian Initiates were said to descend into the Earth and be reborn therefrom. The baptism of the Holy Spirit and of fire is the real baptism, the baptism of lustration, or purification, which is the initiation into the Gnosis, the divine knowledge. The baptism in water is only a symbol, a preparation for the true baptism, which is the entrance into the spiritual life. — The Restored New Testament; cf. The Apocalypse Unsealed. The Light of the Logos is identical with the Pneuma, the Breath or Holy Spirit, and esoterically it is the pristine force which underlies matter in every stage… Semi-latent within this pneumatic ovum is the paraklete, the light of the Logos, which in energizing becomes what may be described as living, conscious electricity, of incredible voltage… the regenerative force…the speirema, or sacred serpent-fire. — The Restored New Testament; The Apocalypse Unsealed. This secret body of knowledge will in this work be termed the Gnosis; the word is here used… to denote the higher knowledge… The third degree relates to speculative philosophy… the fourth degree is the direct apprehension of truth by the lucid mind independently of any reasoning process… Proficiency in the noetic contemplation, with the arousing of the speirema and the conquest of the life-centres, leads to knowledge of spiritual realities (the science of which constitutes the Gnosis)… and it culminates in emancipation from physical existence through the “birth from above” when the deathless solar body has been fully formed. — The Restored New Testament; The Apocalypse Unsealed. loannes and lakobos, the twin Sons of Thunder… correspond to the two fire-breathing “witnesses”… the two serpents on the wand of Hermes… the dual currents of the sacred triple fire. The fire-laden cloud, whence issues the voice, shows this to be the lustration of fire. — Commentary on the Transfiguration and Sons of Thunder, The Restored New Testament. The telestic work has for its object to achieve deliverance from reincarnation, and this deliverance is complete and final only when the deathless solar body is formed… The neophyte who has acquired the “purifying virtues”… eventually obtains the power of arousing the speirema, or paraklete… The little scroll is the Gnōsis, imparted to the neophyte by the Initiator—his own Logos. — The Apocalypse Unsealed; The Restored New Testament. Immortal are those who are washing their robes so that they may have authority over the tree of life… Let him who is athirst come; and let him who is willing receive the water of life as a free gift. The pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing out of the throne of the God and of the Lamb. — Restored from the Apocalypse; The Apocalypse Unsealed.
