"He called him Seth, after the manner of the heavenly race in the eternal realms."
- The Secret Book of John
the
Sethians
Finding Light and Life amid the Chaos
Great Invisible Spirit
"The One is the Invisible Spirit. We should not think of it as a god or like a god. For it is greater than a god, because it has nothing over it and no lord above it. It does not exist within anything inferior to it, since everything exists within it, for it established itself. It is eternal, since it does not need anything. For it is absolutely complete. It has never lacked anything in order to be completed by it. Rather, it is always complete in light."
"The One is the immeasurable light, pure, holy, immaculate. It is unutterable, and is perfect in incorruptibility. Not that it is just perfection, or blessedness, or divinity: it is much greater.
The One is not corporeal and it is not incorporeal.
The One is not large and it is not small.
It is impossible to say,
How much is it?
What kind is it?
For no one can understand it."
- The Secret Book of John
"Three powers came forth from the Great Invisible Spirit: the Father, the Mother, and the Child."
- The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit
Father Mother Child
"I am with you always. I am the father, I am the mother, I am the child. I am the incorruptible and the undefiled one. Now I have come to teach you what is, what was, and what is to come, that you may understand what is invisible and what is visible; and to teach you about the unshakable race of perfect humankind."
- The Secret Book of John
"Your souls come from above, from an indestructible light. Therefore the archons cannot approach them, because the spirit of truth dwells in them. And you who have their gnosis of this way live without death among dying people."
- Hypostasis of the Archons
"The seed, those who will receive his name upon the water and that of them all, will fight against the power."
- The Revelation of Adam
"Christ (Divine Autogenes) is a spark of infinite divine light. From that light emerge four lights bearing specific names: a set of beings who appear with surprising frequency in Gnostic accounts of the origin of the world. They seem to have the role of angels and to be individual beings rather than specific characteristics of the divine mind as the other revealed beings were."
- Stevan Davies
"One divine emanation leads to another, conception follows conception, and aeon follows aeon, until the entire divine realm is filled with mental attributes and aeons of light."
- Marvin Meyer
"Since they are aeons, the luminaries are both eternal realms and actors. As realms, they are the dwelling places of four archetypes: Adamas, the heavenly Adam; Seth, heavenly prototype of Adam's son; the heavenly posterity of Seth, prototypes of the Gnostic church on earth; and a fourth group, whose identity varies from tale to tale."
- Bentley Layton
Four Lights (Luminaries):
Harmozel: Grace, Truth, Form
Oroiael: Epinoia, Perception, Memory
Daveithai: Understanding, Love, Idea
Eleleth: Perfection, Peace, Wisdom (Sophia)
The Descent:
The Birth of the Demiurge
"Now Sophia, who is the wisdom of insight and who constitutes an eternal realm, conceived of a thought from herself, with the conception of the invisible spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth something like herself, without the consent of the spirit, who had not given approval, without her partner and without his consideration."
- The Secret Book of John
"Something came out of her that was imperfect and different in appearance from her, for she had produced it without her partner. It did not resemble its mother, and was misshapen."
- The Secret Book of John
"This gloomy ruler has three names: the first name is Yaldabaoth (or 'child of chaos'), the second is Sakla (or 'fool'), the third is Samael (or 'blind god')."
- The Secret Book of John
The Ascent:
"Sophia in The Secret Book of John repents her indiscretion, and the divine realm of fullness hears her prayer of repentance and offers praise on her behalf. Her partner joins her, at last, as she awaits the restoration of the divine spirit she lost -and God lost- through the birth of her child."
- Marvin Meyer
"This begins the process of salvation and models it for all those human beings who will follow. As humans realize their unhappy situation and repent, they too can expect the Spirit to be poured out upon them."
- Stevan Davies
"In Gnostic eyes the final act of the drama is still in progress. A heavenly savior has been sent to "awaken" gnostic humanity, to give them acquaintance (gnosis) with themselves and god, to free their souls from destiny and bondage to the material body, and to teach them how to escape the influence of the malevolent rulers."
- Bentley Layton
Sophia
"Sethian Gnostic thought had its roots in a form of Jewish speculation on the figure and function of Sophia,
divine Wisdom, whom the Jewish scriptures sometimes personified as the instrument through whom
God creates, nourishes, and enlightens the world."
-John D. Turner
Adamas
Seth & Norea
Sethian Gnostics
Links:
"Sethian Gnosticism: A Literary History" by John D. Turner
"To See The Light" by John D. Turner
"Threefold Path To Enlightenment" by John D. Turner
"The Sethians were like many people I know today who are spiritual seekers, who restlessly travel from one religion or spiritual tradition to another in search of wisdom....Of all the Gnostic sects, Sethian Gnosticism had the clearest sense of what constituted true knowledge. The Sethians moved from religion to religion, incorporating what seemed appropriate, forever combining and refining their knowledge."
- Richard Valantasis
"The Sethians understood themselves to be children of Adam and Eve, through Seth. Adam and Eve were the first parents, through whom the divine light is communicated to enlightened Gnostics. Genesis hints that Seth marked a new beginning for humanity after the violence that plagued the relationship of the brothers Cain and Abel."
- Marvin Meyer
"Philo remarks that all lovers of virtue are descendents of Seth, in contrast to the wicked race of Cain. Philo observes that Seth is the seed of "human virtue," sown from God. For Philo all virtuous men are the "race" of Seth. For the Gnostics, in a similar vein, all men of gnosis are symbolically the "race" of Seth."
- Birger A. Pearson
Sethian Gnostic
Praxis:
"The Sethian writings we have reflect a ritual praxis. Two rituals can be seen reflected in them, baptism and the ritual of ascent. The Gospel of the Egyptians is especially important for its prayers associated with baptism and Three Steles of Seth for its prayers associated with the ascent ritual. Sethian ritual certainly involves group activity with a structured religious life. Even so, one can hardly speak of a unified church or sect of Sethian Gnostics. The group of Gnostics that we can extrapolate from our sources differed greatly from one another. Gnostic teachers obviously had a great deal of freedom to introduce innovations in the myths or rituals embraced by them and their followers."
- Birger A. Pearson
"The Sethian gnostic treatises from the Nag Hammadi Library contain not only numerous accounts of visions of the transcendental world and its contents, but also numerous references to baptisms, washings, anointings and sealings, and numerous instances of various prayers, doxologies and hymns mentioning or directed to a rather fixed set of divine beings."
- John D. Turner
"The Sethian Gnostics appear to have held these initiation ceremonies in their lodges or seminaries, using baptism, anointing, prayer, hymn-singing, intonation and contemplation to make these dangerous spiritual journeys. At each level of ascent, these baptisms, anointings and intonations were repeated several times, with the result that the person would experience a gradual transformation of the spirit as it journeyed upward."
- April D. DeConick
- Baptism in Light -
-Meditation, Contemplation -
- Repentance & Psycho-Spiritual Inquiry -
- Prayer, Rhythmic Chant, Praise -
- Amulets & Talismans -
- Dreams, Visions -
- Charity & Service -
"Perhaps you are one of those remarkable people who experience an overpowering realization of the divinity of existence. You suddenly know that everything is divine and that within you lies an ocean of God. Will you know this all of the time and every day? No. You will crest and fall and submerge again into the mundane. The realization of divinity as the be-all and end-all, as the substance of your very self--that within which you live and move and have your being--does not dominate every day, although you wish it would. The ordinary world of aches and pains and approaching death, of trouble, temptation, sin, stress, and loss seems to rule almost all the time. And yet, sometimes you can seize what you seek and see glory everywhere and know yourself to be divine."
- Stevan Davies
"In spite of all the evil, error, and ignorance in this world, people may still come to salvation through insight and awaken to creative thought. It is this human -and divine- capacity for thought that allows human beings to realize the wholeness of enlightened life and to embrace the knowledge and wisdom of God."
- Marvin Meyer
"This relationship is what changes us, they thought. It transforms us, they argued, and transfigures us. The God-Self relationship -Gnosis- was an experience of transcendence, moving us from a state of separation, from the sinful mortal condition, to an eternal spiritual body and life united with God."
- April D. DeConick
"I cast the voice's speech into the ears of those who know me.
I invite you into the high, perfect light."
- Trimorphic Protennoia
If you are interested in
The Sethian Congregational Church
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