Gnosticism (from ''gnostikos'', "learned", from ''gnōsis'', knowledge) is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism (especially Zurvanism), and Neoplatonism.

A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis (esoteric or intuitive knowledge), is the way to salvation of the soul from the material world. They saw the material world as created through an intermediary being (demiurge) rather than directly by God. In most of the systems, this demiurge was seen as imperfect, in others even as evil. Different gnostic schools sometimes identified the demiurge as Adam, Ahriman, Samael, Satan, Yaldabaoth, or Yahweh.

Some Christian gnostic sects inverted traditional interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, leading Jewish-Israeli scholar Gershom Scholem (according to Hans Jonas) to call Gnosticism "the greatest case of metaphysical anti-Semitism." However, some scholars have argued that Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) is Gnostic, and more recent research into Gnosticism's origins reveal influence from Jewish Hekhalot mysticism.

Jesus is identified by some Gnostic sects as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring ''gnōsis'' to the earth.

Among the Mandaeans Jesus was considered a ''mšiha kdaba'' or "false messiah" who perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist. Still other traditions identify Mani and Seth, third son of Adam and Eve, as salvific figures.

The Christian sects first called "gnostic" are a branch of Christianity, however Joseph Jacobs and Ludwig Blau (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1911) note that much of the terminology employed is Jewish and note that this "proves at least that the principal elements of gnosticism were derived from Jewish speculation, while it does not preclude the possibility of new wine having been poured into old bottles." The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths, and the Persian Empire; it continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Conversion to Islam and the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though a few Mandaean communities still exist. Gnostic and pseudo-gnostic ideas became influential in some of the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier gnostic groups.

The term "Gnosticism"

The English term "Gnosticism" derives from the use of the Greek adjective ''gnostikos'' ("learned", "intellectual", Greek γνωστικός) by Irenaeus (c.185 AD) to describe the school of Valentinus as ''he legomene gnostike haeresis'' "the heresy called Learned (gnostic)". This occurs in the context of Irenaeus' work ''On the Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So Called,'' (Greek: ''elenchos kai anatrope tes pseudonymou gnoseos'' genitive case, ἔλεγχος καὶ ἀνατροπὴ τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως) where the term "knowledge falsely so-called" (nominative case ''pseudonymos gnosis'') covers various groups, not just Valentinus, and is a quotation of the apostle Paul's warning against "knowledge falsely so-called" in 1 Timothy 6:20.

The Greek adjective ''gnostikos'', "learned"

The usual meaning of ''gnostikos'' in Classical Greek texts is "learned" or "intellectual", such as used in the comparison of "practical" (''praktikos'') and "intellectual" (''gnostikos'') in Plato's dialogue between Young Socrates and the Foreigner in his ''The Statesman (258e).'' Plato's use of "learned" is fairly typical of Classical texts. The adjective is not used in the New Testament, but Clement of Alexandria in Book 7 of his ''Stromateis'' speaks of the "learned" (''gnostikos'') Christian in complimentary terms. The use of ''gnostikos'' in relation to heresy originates with interpreters of Irenaeus. Some scholars, for example A. Rousseau and L. Doutreleau, translators of the French edition (1974), consider that Irenaeus sometimes uses ''gnostikos'' to simply mean "intellectual", as in 1.25.6, 1.11.3, 1.11.5, whereas his mention of "the intellectual sect" (Adv. haer. 1.11.1) is a specific designation. Irenaeus' comparative adjective ''gnostikeron'' "more learned", evidently cannot mean "more Gnostic" as a name. Of those groups that Irenaeus identifies as "intellectual" (''gnostikos''), only one, the followers of Marcellina use the term ''gnostikos'' of themselves. Later Hippolytus uses "learned" (''gnostikos'') of Cerinthus and the Ebionites, and Epiphanius applied "learned" (''gnostikos'') to specific sects.

The English noun "Gnosticism"

The term "Gnosticism" does not appear in ancient sources, and was first coined by Henry More in a commentary on the seven letters of the Book of Revelation, where More used the term "Gnosticisme" to describe the heresy in Thyatira.

Nature and structure of Gnosticism

The main features of Gnosticism

Gnostic systems (particularly the Syrian-Egyptian schools) are typically marked out by:

{| style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; font-size: 85%; background:#f9f9f9; color:black; width:23em; max-width: 25%;" cellspacing="5" | style="text-align: left;" | "And the Sophia of the Epinoia [...] brought forth. And [...] something came out of her which was imperfect and different from her appearance, because she had created it without her consort. And it was dissimilar to the likeness of its mother, for it has another form.

"And when she saw (the consequences of) her desire, it changed into a form of a lion-faced serpent. And its eyes were like lightning fires which flash. She cast it away from her, outside that place, that no one of the immortal ones might see it, for she had created it in ignorance." |- | style="text-align: left;" | From ''The Secret Book of John'' (long version), Nag Hammadi Library, Codex II, trans. Frederik Wisse. |} # The notion of a remote, supreme monadic divinity, source - this figure is known under a variety of names, including 'Pleroma' (fullness, totality) and 'Bythos' (depth, profundity); # The introduction by emanation of further divine beings known as Aeons, which are nevertheless identifiable as aspects of the God from which they proceeded; the progressive emanations are often conceived metaphorically as a gradual and progressive distancing from the ultimate source, which brings about an instability in the fabric of the divine nature; # The introduction of a distinct creator God or demiurge, which is an illusion and a later emanation from the single monad or source. This second God is a lesser and inferior or false God. This creator god is commonly referred to as the ''demiourgós'' (a technical term literally denoting a public worker the Latinized form of Greek ''dēmiourgos'', δημιουργός, hence "ergon or energy", "public God or skilled worker" "false God" or "God of the masses"), used in the Platonist tradition.The gnostic demiurge bears resemblance to figures in Plato's ''Timaeus'' and ''Republic''. In the former, the ''demiourgós'' is a central figure, a benevolent creator of the universe who works to make the universe as benevolent as the limitations of matter will allow; in the latter, the description of the leontomorphic 'desire' in Socrates' model of the psyche bears a resemblance to descriptions of the demiurge as being in the shape of the lion; the relevant passage of ''The Republic'' was found within a major gnostic library discovered at Nag Hammadi, wherein a text existed describing the demiurge as a 'lion-faced serpent'.Elsewhere, this figure is called 'Ialdabaoth', 'Samael' (Aramaic: ''sæmʻa-ʼel'', 'blind god') or 'Saklas' (Syriac: ''sækla'', 'the foolish one'), who is sometimes ignorant of the superior God, and sometimes opposed to it; thus in the latter case he is correspondingly malevolent. The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named 'Archons', who preside over the material realm and, in some cases, present obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it; {| style="float: left; margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 3em; margin-top: 1em; font-size: 85%; background:#f9f9f9; color:black; width:23em; max-width: 25%;" cellspacing="5" | style="text-align: left;" | [The demiurge] is blind; because of his power and his ignorance and his arrogance he said, with his power, "It is I who am God; there is none apart from me." When he said this, he sinned against the entirety. And this speech got up to incorruptibility; then there was a voice that came forth from incorruptibility, saying, "You are mistaken, Samael" - which is, "god of the blind." |- | style="text-align: left;" | From ''The Hypostasis of the Archons'' or ''The Reality of the Rulers'', Nag Hammadi Library, Codex II, trans. Bentley Layton. |} The estimation of the world, owing to the above, as flawed or a production of 'error' but possibly good as its constituent material might allow. This world is typically an inferior simulacrum of a higher-level reality or consciousness. The inferiority may be compared to the technical inferiority of a painting, sculpture, or other handicraft to the thing(s) of which those crafts are supposed to be a representation. In certain other cases it takes on a more ascetic tendency to view material existence, negatively. Which then becomes more extreme when materiality, and the human body, is perceived as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants;

The explanation of this state through the use of a complex mythological-cosmological drama in which a divine element 'falls' into the material realm and lodges itself within certain human beings; from here, it may be returned to the divine realm through a process of awakening (leading towards salvation). The salvation of the individual thus mirrors a concurrent restoration of the divine nature; a central Gnostic innovation was to elevate individual redemption to the level of a cosmically significant event.

The model limits itself to describing characteristics of the Syrian-Egyptian school of Gnosticism. This is for the reason that the greatest expressions of the Persian gnostic school - Manicheanism and Mandaeanism - are typically conceived of as religious traditions in their own right; indeed, the typical usage of 'Gnosticism' is to refer to the Syrian-Egyptian schools alone, while 'Manichean' describes the movements of the Persia school.

This conception of Gnosticism has in recent times come to be challenged (see below). Despite this, the understanding presented above remains the most common and is useful in aiding meaningful discussion of the phenomena that compose Gnosticism. Above all, the central idea of ''gnōsis'', a knowledge superior to and independent of faith made it welcome to many who were half-converted from paganism to Christianity. The Valentinians, for example, considered ''pistis'' (Greek: "faith") as consisting of accepting a body of teaching as true, being principally intellectual or emotional in character. The age of the Gnostics was highly diverse, they seem to have originated in Alexandria and coexisted with the early Christians until the 4th century AD and due to there being no fixed church authority, syncretism with pre-existing belief systems as well as new religions were often embraced. According to Clement of Alexandria, "...In the times of the Emperor Hadrian appeared those who devised heresies, and they continued until the age of the elder Antoninus."

The relationship between Gnosticism and Orthodox Christianity during the late 1st and the whole of the 2nd century is vital in helping us to further understand the main doctrines of Gnosticism; due in part to the fact that, prior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library, much of what we know today about gnosticism has only been preserved in the summaries and assessments of early church fathers. Irenaeus declares in his treatise "Against Heresies" that Gnostic movements subjected all morality to the caprice of the individual, and made any fixed rule of faith impossible. The whim of the individual being a subject that is of concern when discussing heresy and orthodoxy in relation to spiritual mysticism, such as the mysticism of Henry Corbin, Thelema, and even in fiction such as The Theologians by Jorge Luis Borges in Labyrinths. According to Irenaeus, a certain sect known as the "Cainites" professed to impart a knowledge "greater and more sublime" than the ordinary doctrine of Christians, and believed that Cain derived his power from the superior Godhead. Although a Christian who valued gnosis, Clement of Alexandria, a 2nd century church father and the first notable member of the Church of Alexandria, raised a criticism against the followers of Basilides and Valentinus in his ''Stromata'': in his view it annulled the efficacy of baptism, in that it held no value faith, the gift conferred in that sacrament.

Dualism and monism

Typically, Gnostic systems are loosely described as being 'dualistic' in nature, meaning that they had the view that the world consists of or is explicable as two fundamental entities. Hans Jonas writes: "The cardinal feature of gnostic thought is the radical dualism that governs the relation of God and world, and correspondingly that of man and world." Within this definition, they run the gamut from the 'radical dualist' systems of Manicheanism to the 'mitigated dualism' of classic gnostic movements; Valentinian developments arguably approach a form of monism, expressed in terms previously used in a dualistic manner.

Radical Dualism - or absolute Dualism which posits two co-equal divine forces. Manichaeism conceives of two previously coexistent realms of light and darkness which become embroiled in conflict, owing to the chaotic actions of the latter. Subsequently, certain elements of the light became entrapped within darkness; the purpose of material creation is to enact the slow process of extraction of these individual elements, at the end of which the kingdom of light will prevail over darkness. Manicheanism inherits this dualistic mythology from Zurvanist Zoroastrianism, in which the eternal spirit Ahura Mazda is opposed by his antithesis, Angra Mainyu; the two are engaged in a cosmic struggle, the conclusion of which will likewise see Ahura Mazda triumphant.The Mandaean creation myth witnesses the progressive emanations of Supreme Being of Light, with each emanation bringing about a progressive corruption resulting in the eventual emergence of Ptahil, a demiurge who had a hand in creating and henceforward rules the material realm.Additionally, general Gnostic thought (specifically to be found in Iranian sects; for instance, see 'The Hymn of the Pearl') commonly included the belief that the material world corresponds to some sort of malevolent intoxication brought about by the powers of darkness to keep elements of the light trapped inside it, or literally to keep them 'in the dark', or ignorant; in a state of drunken distraction.

Mitigated Dualism - where one of the two principles is in some way inferior to the other. Such classical Gnostic movements as the Sethians conceived of the material world as being created by a lesser divinity than the true God that was the object of their devotion. The spiritual world is conceived of as being radically different from the material world, co-extensive with the true God, and the true home of certain enlightened members of humanity; thus, these systems were expressive of a feeling of acute alienation within the world, and their resultant aim was to allow the soul to escape the constraints presented by the physical realm.

Qualified Monism - where it is arguable whether or not the second entity is divine or semi-divine. Elements of Valentinian versions of Gnostic myth suggest to some that its understanding of the universe may have been monistic rather than a dualistic one. Elaine Pagels states that 'Valentinian gnosticism [...] differs essentially from dualism'; while, according to Schoedel 'a standard element in the interpretation of Valentinianism and similar forms of Gnosticism is the recognition that they are fundamentally monistic'. In these myths, the malevolence of the demiurge is mitigated; his creation of a flawed materiality is not due to any moral failing on his part, but due to his imperfection by contrast to the superior entities of which he is unaware. As such, Valentinians already have less cause to treat physical reality with contempt than might a Sethian GnosticThe Valentinian tradition conceives of materiality, rather than as being a separate substance from the divine, as attributable to an ''error of perception'', which become symbolized mythopoetically as the act of material creation.

Moral and ritual practice

Numerous early Christian Fathers accused some Gnostic teachers of claiming to eschew the physical realm, while simultaneously freely indulging their physical appetites; however there is reason to question the accuracy of these claims.

Evidence in the source texts indicates Gnostic moral behaviour as being generally ascetic in basis, expressed most fluently in their sexual and dietary practice. Many monks would deprive themselves of food, water, or necessary needs for living. This presented a problem for the heresiologists writing on gnostic movements: this mode of behaviour was one which they themselves favoured and supported, so the Church Fathers, some modern-day Gnostic apologist presume, would be required perforce to offer support to the practices of their theological opponents. In order to avoid this, a common heresiological approach was to avoid the issue completely by resorting to slanderous (and, in some cases, excessive) allegations of libertinism (see the Cainites), or to explain Gnostic asceticism as being based on incorrect interpretations of scripture, or simply duplicitous in nature. Epiphanius provides an example when he writes of the 'Archontics' 'Some of them ruin their bodies by dissipation, but others feign ostensible fasts and deceive simple people while they pride themselves with a sort of abstinence, under the disguise of monks' (''Panarion'', 40.1.4).

In other areas of morality, Gnostics were less rigorously ascetic, and took a more moderate approach to correct behaviour. Ptolemy's ''Epistle to Flora'' lays out a project of general asceticism in which the basis of action is the moral inclination of the individual:

This extract marks a definite shift away from the position of orthodoxy, that the correct behaviour for Christians is best administered and prescribed by the central authority of the Church, as transmitted through the Apostles to the Church's bishops. Instead, the internalised inclination of the individual assumes paramount importance; there is the recognition that ritualistic behaviour, though well-intentioned, possesses no significance or effectiveness unless its external prescription is matched by a personal, internal motivation.

Charges of Gnostic libertinism find their source in the works of Irenaeus. According to this writer, Simon Magus (whom he has identified as the prototypical source of Gnosticism, and who had previously tried to buy sacramental authority of ordination from St. Peter the Apostle) founded the school of moral freedom ('amoralism'). Irenaeus reports that Simon's argument was that those who put their trust in him and his consort Helen need trouble themselves no further with the biblical prophets or their moral exhortations and are free 'to do what they wish', as men are saved by his (Simon's) grace and not by their 'righteous works' (''Adversus Haereses'').

Simon is not known for any libertinistic practice, save for his curious attachment to Helen, typically reputed to be a prostitute. There is, however, clear evidence in the Testimony of Truth that followers of Simon did, in fact, get married and beget children, so a general tendency to asceticism can likewise be ruled out.

Irenaeus reports of the Valentinians, whom he characterizes as eventual inheritors of Simon, that they are lax in their dietary habits (eating food that has been 'offered to idols'), sexually promiscuous ('immoderately given over to the desires of the flesh') and guilty of taking wives under the pretence of living with them as adopted 'sisters'. In the latter case, Michael Allen Williams has argued plausibly that Irenaeus was here broadly correct in the behaviour described, but not in his apprehension of its causes. Williams argues that members of a cult might live together as 'brother' and 'sister': intimate, yet not sexually active. Over time, however, the self-denial required of such an endeavour becomes harder and harder to maintain, leading to the state of affairs Irenaeus criticizes.

Irenaeus also makes reference to the Valentinian practise of the Bridal Chamber, a ritualistic sacrament in which sexual union is seen as analogous to the activities of the paired syzygies that constitute the Valentinian Pleroma. Though it is known that Valentinus had a more relaxed approach to sexuality than much of the Catholic Church (he allowed women to hold positions of ordination in his community), it is not known whether the Bridal Chamber was a ritual involving actual intercourse, or whether human sexuality is here simply being used in a metaphorical sense.

Of the Carpocratians Irenaeus makes much the same report: they 'are so abandoned in their recklessness that they claim to have in their power and be able to practise anything whatsoever that is ungodly (irreligious) and impious ... they say that conduct is only good or evil in the eyes of man'. Once again a differentiation might be detected between a man's actions and the grace he has received through his adherence to a system of ''gnosis''; whether this is due to a common sharing of such an attitude amongst Gnostic circles, or whether this is simply a blanket-charge used by Irenaeus is open to conjecture.

On the whole, it would seem that Gnostic behaviour tended towards the ascetic. This said, the heresiological accusation of duplicity in such practises should not be taken at face value; nor should similar accusations of amoral libertinism. The Nag Hammadi library itself is full of passages which appear to encourage abstinence over indulgence. Fundamentally, however, gnostic movements appear to take the 'ancient schema of the two ways, which leaves the decision to do what is right to human endeavour and promises a reward for those who make the effort, and punishment for those who are negligent' (Kurt Rudolph, ''Gnosis:The Nature and History of Gnosticism'', 262).

Major Gnostic movements and their texts

As noted above, schools of Gnosticism can be defined according to one classification system as being a member of two broad categories. These are the 'Eastern'/'Persian' school, and a 'Syrian-Egyptic' school. The former possesses more demonstrably dualist tendencies, reflecting a strong influence from the beliefs of the Persian Zurvanist Zoroastrians. Among the Syrian-Egyptian schools and the movements they spawned are a typically more Monist view. Notable exceptions include relatively modern movements which seem to include elements of both categories, namely: the Cathars, Bogomils, and Carpocratians which are included in their own section.

Persian Gnosticism

The Persian Schools, which appeared in the western Persian province of Babylonia (in particular, within the Sassanid province of Asuristan), and whose writings were originally produced in the Aramaic dialects spoken in Babylonia at the time, are representative of what is believed to be among the oldest of the Gnostic thought forms. These movements are considered by most to be religions in their own right, and are not emanations from Christianity or Judaism.

''Mandaeanism'' is still practiced in small numbers, in parts of southern Iraq and the Iranian province of Khuzestan. The name of the group derives from the term ''Mandā d-Heyyi'', which roughly means "Knowledge of Life." Although the exact chronological origins of this movement are not known, John the Baptist eventually would come to be a key figure in the religion, as an emphasis on baptism is part of their core beliefs. As with Manichaeism, despite certain ties with Christianity, Mandaeans do not believe in Moses, Jesus, or Mohammed. Their beliefs and practices likewise have little overlap with the religions that manifested from those religious figures and the two should not be confused. Significant amounts of original Mandaean Scripture, written in Mandaean Aramaic, survive in the modern era. The primary source text is known as the Genzā Rabbā and has portions identified by some scholars as being copied as early as the 2nd century CE. There is also the Qolastā, or Canonical Book of Prayer and The Book of John the Baptist (sidra ḏ-iahia).

''Manichaeism'' which represented an entire independent religious heritage, but is now extinct, was founded by the Prophet Mani (216-276 CE). The original writings were written in Syriac Aramaic, in a unique Manichaean script. Although most of the literature/scripture of the Manichaeans was believed lost, the discovery of an original series of documents have helped to shed new light on the subject. Now housed in Cologne Germany, a Manichaean religious work written in Greek, the Codex Manichaicus Coloniensis, contains mainly biographical information on the prophet and details on his claims and teachings. Before the discovery of these authentic Manichaean texts, scholars had to rely on anti-Manichaean polemical works, such as the Christian anti-Manichaean ''Acta Archelai'' (also written in Greek), which has Mani saying, for example, "The true God has nothing to do with the material world or cosmos", and, "It is the Prince of Darkness who spoke with Moses, the Jews and their priests. Thus the Christians, the Jews, and the Pagans are involved in the same error when they worship this God. For he leads them astray in the lusts he taught them."

Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism

The Syrian-Egyptian school derives much of its outlook from Platonist influences. Typically, it depicts creation in a series of emanations from a primal monadic source, finally resulting in the creation of the material universe. As a result, there is a tendency in these schools to view evil in terms of matter which is markedly inferior to goodness, evil as lacking spiritual insight and goodness, rather than to emphasize portrayals of evil as an equal force. These schools of gnosticism may be said to use the terms 'evil' and 'good' as being ''relative'' descriptive terms, as they refer to the relative plight of human existence caught between such realities and confused in its orientation, with 'evil' indicating the extremes of distance from the principle and source of goodness, without necessarily emphasizing an ''inherent'' negativity. As can be seen below, many of these movements included source material related to Christianity, with some identifying themselves as specifically Christian (albeit quite different from the Orthodox or Roman Catholic forms).

Syrian-Egyptic scripture

Most of the literature from this category is known/confirmed to us in the modern age through the Library discovered at Nag Hammadi.

Sethian works are named after the third son of Adam and Eve, believed to be a possessor and disseminator of gnosis. These typically include:

* ''The Apocryphon of John''

* ''The Apocalypse of Adam''

* ''The Reality of the Rulers, Also known as The Hypostasis of the Archons''

* ''The Thunder-Perfect Mind''

* ''The Three-fold First Thought'' ''(Trimorphic Protennoia)''

* ''The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit'' (also known as the ''(Coptic) Gospel of the Egyptians'')

* ''Zostrianos''

* ''Allogenes''

* ''The Three Steles of Seth''

* ''The Gospel of Judas''

* ''Marsanes''

* ''The Coptic Apocalypse of Paul''

* ''The Thought of Norea''

* ''The Second Treatise of the Great Seth''

Thomasine works are so-named after the School of St. Thomas the Apostle. The texts commonly attributed to this school are:

* ''The Hymn of the Pearl'', or, the ''Hymn of Jude Thomas the Apostle in the Country of Indians''

* ''The Gospel of Thomas''

* ''The Acts of Thomas''

* ''The Book of Thomas: The Contender Writing to the Perfect''

* ''The Psalms of Thomas''

Valentinian works are named in reference to the Bishop and teacher Valentinius, also spelled Valentinus. c. 153 AD/CE, Valentinius developed a complex Cosmology outside of the Sethian tradition. At one point he was close to being appointed the Bishop of Rome of what is now the Roman Catholic Church. Works attributed to his school are listed below, and fragmentary pieces directly linked to him are noted with an asterisk:

* ''The Divine Word Present in the Infant'' (Fragment A) *

* ''On the Three Natures'' (Fragment B) *

* ''Adam's Faculty of Speech'' (Fragment C) *

* ''To Agathopous: Jesus' Digestive System'' (Fragment D) *

* ''Annihilation of the Realm of Death'' (Fragment F) *

* ''On Friends: The Source of Common Wisdom'' (Fragment G) *

* ''Epistle on Attachments'' (Fragment H) *

* ''Summer Harvest''*

* ''The Gospel of Truth''*

* ''Ptolemy's Version of the Gnostic Myth''

* ''The Prayer of the Apostle Paul''

* ''Ptolemy's Epistle to Flora''

* ''Treatise on the Resurrection'' (''Epistle to Rheginus'')

* ''Gospel of Philip''

Basilidian works are named for the founder of their school, Basilides (132–? CE/AD). These works are mainly known to us through the criticisms of one of his opponents, Irenaeus in his work ''Adversus Haereses''. The other pieces are known through the work of Clement of Alexandria:

* The Octet of Subsistent Entities (Fragment A)

* The Uniqueness of the World (Fragment B)

* Election Naturally Entails Faith and Virtue (Fragment C)

* The State of Virtue (Fragment D)

* The Elect Transcend the World (Fragment E)

* Reincarnation (Fragment F)

* Human Suffering and the Goodness of Providence (Fragment G)

* Forgivable Sins (Fragment H)

The Gospel of Judas is the most recently discovered Gnostic text. National Geographic has published an English translation of it, bringing it into mainstream awareness. It portrays Judas Iscariot as the most enlightened disciple, who acted at Jesus' request when he handed Jesus over to the authorities. Its reference to Barbelo and inclusion of material similar to the Apocryphon of John and other such texts, connects the text to Barbeloite and/or Sethian Gnosticism.

Later Gnosticism and Gnostic-influenced groups

Other schools and related movements; these are presented in chronological order:right|frame|The [[Sun cross|circular, harmonic cross was an emblem used most notably by the Cathars,

a medieval group that related to Gnosticism.]]

* ''Simon Magus'', the magician baptised by Philip and rebuked by Peter in Acts 8, became in early Christianity the archetypal false teacher. The ascription by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and others of a connection between schools in their time and the individual in Acts 8 may be as legendary as the stories attached to him in various apocryphal books.

* Justin Martyr identifies a Menander of Antioch as Simon Magus' pupil.

Again Justin identifies Marcion of Sinope as a false teacher, but such familiar ideas as they presented were as-yet unformed; they might thus be described as pseudo- or proto-Gnostics. Both developed a sizable following. Marcion is popularly labeled a gnostic, however most scholars do not consider him a gnostic at all, for example, the Encyclopædia Britannica article on Marcion clearly states: "In Marcion's own view, therefore, the founding of his church — to which he was first driven by opposition — amounts to a reformation of Christendom through a return to the gospel of Christ and to Paul; nothing was to be accepted beyond that. This of itself shows that it is a mistake to reckon Marcion among the Gnostics. A dualist he certainly was, but he was not a Gnostic - Depending of course on one's definition of 'Gnostic'."

''Cerinthus'' (c. 100 AD), the founder of a heretical school with gnostic elements. Like a Gnostic, Cerinthus depicted Christ as a heavenly spirit separate from the man Jesus, and he cited the demiurge as creating the material world. Unlike the Gnostics, Cerinthus taught Christians to observe the Jewish law; his demiurge was holy, not lowly; and he taught the Second Coming. His gnosis was a secret teaching attributed to an apostle. Some scholars believe that the First Epistle of John was written as a response to Cerinthus.

* The ''Ophites'', so-named by Hippolytus of Rome, because, Hippolytus claims, they worshiped the serpent of Genesis as the bestower of knowledge.

* The ''Cainites'' are again so-named since Hippolytus of Rome claims that they worshiped Cain, as well as Esau, Korah, and the Sodomites. There is little evidence concerning the nature of this group. Hippolytus claims that they believed that indulgence in sin was the key to salvation because since the body is evil, one must defile it through immoral activity (see libertinism). The name Cainite is used as the name of a religious movement, and not in the usual Biblical sense of people descended from Cain. According to Biblical text, which is our only source of knowledge about the man Cain, all descendants of Cain perished in Noah's Flood, as only Noah's family survived, deriving from the line of Seth.

* The ''Carpocratians'', a libertine sect following only the Gospel according to the Hebrews

* The ''Borborites'', a libertine Gnostic sect, said to be descended from the Nicolaitans

Later groups accused by their contemporaries of being in line with the "gnostics" of Irenaeus. Various later groups were also associated with earlier heretics by their contemporaries:

* The ''Paulicans'', an Adoptionist group of which little is known first-hand, were accused by orthodox medieval sources of being Gnostic and quasi Manichaean Christian. They flourished between 650 and 872 in Armenia and the Eastern Themes of the Byzantine Empire

* The ''Bogomils'', the synthesis of Armenian Paulicianism and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church reform movement, which emerged in Bulgaria between 927 and 970 and spread throughout Europe

The ''Cathars'' (''Cathari'', ''Albigenses'' or ''Albigensians'') were also accused by their enemies of the traits of Gnosticism; though whether or not the Cathari possessed direct historical influence from ancient Gnosticism is disputed. If their critics are reliable the basic conceptions of Gnostic cosmology are to be found in Cathar beliefs (most distinctly in their notion of a lesser, Satanic, creator god), though they did not apparently place any special relevance upon knowledge (''gnosis'') as an effective salvific force.

For the relationship between these medieval heresies and earlier Gnostic forms, see historical discussion above.

Important terms and concepts

Please note that the following are only summaries of various Gnostic interpretations that exist. The roles of familiar beings such as Jesus Christ, Sophia, and the Demiurge usually share the same general themes between systems but may have somewhat different functions or identities ascribed to them.

Æon

In many Gnostic systems, the æons are the various emanations of the superior God, who is also known by such names as the One, the Monad, ''Aion teleos'' (Greek: "The Complete Æon"), Bythos (Greek: ''Βυθος'', 'Depth' or 'profundity'), Proarkhe (Greek: ''προαρχη'', "Before the Beginning'), E Arkhe (Greek: ''ἡ ἀρχή'', 'The Beginning'), Ennoia (Greek: "Thought") of the Light or Sige (Greek: ''Σιγη'', "Silence"). From this first being, also an æon, a series of different emanations occur, beginning in certain Gnostic texts with the hermaphroditic Barbelo, from which successive pairs of aeons emanate, often in male-female pairings called ''syzygies''; the numbers of these pairings varied from text to text, though some identify their number as being thirty. The aeons as a totality constitute the ''pleroma'', the "region of light". The lowest regions of the pleroma are closest to the darkness; that is, the physical world.

Two of the most commonly paired æons were Jesus and ''Sophia'' (Greek: "Wisdom"); the latter refers to Jesus as her 'consort' in ''A Valentinian Exposition''. ''Sophia'', emanating without her partner, resulting in the production of the ''Demiurge'' (Greek: lit. "public builder"), who is also referred to as '' Yaldabaoth'' and variations thereof in some Gnostic texts. This creature is concealed outside the Pleroma; in isolation, and thinking itself alone, it creates materiality and a host of co-actors, referred to as archons. The demiurge is responsible for the creation of mankind, by create he traps elements of the Pleroma stolen from Sophia in human bodies. In response, the Godhead emanates two savior æons, ''Christ'' and ''the Holy Spirit''; Christ then embodies itself in the form of Jesus, in order to be able to teach man how to achieve gnosis, by which they may return to the Pleroma.

Archon

In late antiquity some variants of Gnosticism used the term ''Archon'' to refer to several servants of the Demiurge. In this context they may be seen as having the roles of the angels and demons of the Old Testament.

According to Origen's ''Contra Celsum'', a sect called the Ophites posited the existence of seven archons, beginning with Iadabaoth or Ialdabaoth, who created the six that follow: Iao, Sabaoth, Adonaios, Elaios, Astaphanos and Horaios. Similarly to the Mithraic Kronos and Vedic Narasimha, a form of Vishnu, Ialdabaoth had a head of a lion.

Abraxas/Abrasax

The Egyptian Gnostic Basilideans referred to a figure called ''Abraxas'' who was at the head of 365 spiritual beings (Irenaeus, ''Adversus Haereses'', I.24); it is unclear what to make of Irenaeus' use of the term 'Archon', which may simply mean 'ruler' in this context. The role and function of Abraxas for Basilideans is not clear.

The word Abraxas was engraved on certain antique gemstones, called on that account Abraxas stones, which may have been used as amulets or charms by Gnostic sects. In popular culture, Abraxas is sometimes considered the name of a god who incorporated both Good and Evil (God and Demiurge) in one entity, and therefore representing the monotheistic God, singular, but (unlike, for example, the Christian God) not omni-benevolent. (See Hesse's Demian, and Jung's Seven Sermons to the Dead.) Opinions abound on Abraxas, who in recent centuries has been claimed to be both an Egyptian god and a demon, sometimes even being associated with the dual nature of Satan/Lucifer. The word abracadabra may be related to Abraxas.

The above information relates to interpretations of ancient amulets and to reports of Christian heresy hunters which are not always clear.

Actual ancient Gnostic texts from the Nag Hammadi Library, such as the Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians, refer to Abrasax as an Aeon dwelling with Sophia and other Aeons of the Spiritual Fullness in the light of the luminary Eleleth. In several texts, the luminary Eleleth is the last of the luminaries (Spiritual Lights) that come forward, and it is the Aeon Sophia, associated with Eleleth, who encounters darkness and becomes involved in the chain of events that leads to the Demiurge and Archon's rule of this world, and the salvage effort that ensues. As such, the role of Aeons of Eleleth, including Abrasax, Sophia, and others, pertains to this outer border of the Divine Fullness that encounters the ignorance of the world of Lack and interacts to rectify the error of ignorance in the world of materiality.

Words like or similar to Abraxas or Abrasax also appear in the Greek Magical Papyri. There are similarities and differences between such figures in reports about Basiledes' teaching, in the larger magical traditions of the Graeco-Roman world, in the classic ancient Gnostic texts such as the Gospel of the Egyptians, and in later magical and esoteric writings.

The Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung wrote a short Gnostic treatise in 1916 called The Seven Sermons to the Dead, which called Abraxas a God higher than the Christian God and Devil, that combines all opposites into one Being.

Demiurge

The term ''Demiurge'' derives from the Latinized form of the Greek term ''dēmiourgos'', δημιουργός (literally "public or skilled worker"), and refers to an entity responsible for the creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity. The term ''dēmiourgos'' occurs in a number of other religious and philosophical systems, most notably Platonism. Moral judgements of the demiurge vary from group to group within the broad category of Gnosticism - such judgements usually correspond to each group's judgement of the status of materiality as being inherently evil, or else merely flawed and as good as its passive constituent matter will allow.

Like Plato does, Gnosticism presents a distinction between a supranatural, unknowable reality and the sensible materiality of which the demiurge is creator. However, in contrast to Plato, several systems of Gnostic thought present the Demiurge as antagonistic to the Supreme God: his act of creation either in unconscious and fundamentally flawed imitation of the divine model, or else formed with the malevolent intention of entrapping aspects of the divine ''in'' materiality. Thus, in such systems, the Demiurge acts as a solution to the problem of evil. In the Apocryphon of John (several versions of which are found in the Nag Hammadi library), the Demiurge has the name "Yaltabaoth", and proclaims himself as God:

:''"Now the archon who is weak has three names. The first name is Yaltabaoth, the second is Saklas, and the third is Samael. And he is impious in his arrogance which is in him. For he said, 'I am God and there is no other God beside me,' for he is ignorant of his strength, the place from which he had come."''

"Samael", in the Judeo-Christian tradition, refers to the evil angel of death, and corresponds to the Christian demon of that name, one second only to Satan. Literally, it can mean "blind god" or "god of the blind" in Aramaic (Syriac ''sæmʻa-ʼel''); another alternative title is "Saklas", Aramaic for "fool" (Syriac ''sækla'' "the foolish one").

Gnostic myth recounts that Sophia (Greek, literally meaning "wisdom"), the Demiurge's mother and a partial aspect of the divine Pleroma or "Fullness", desired to create something apart from the divine totality, and without the receipt of divine assent. In this abortive act of separate creation, she gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and, being ashamed of her deed, she wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for him within it. The Demiurge, isolated, did not behold his mother, nor anyone else, and thus concluded that only he himself existed, being ignorant of the superior levels of reality that were his birth-place.

The Gnostic myths describing these events are full of intricate nuances portraying the declination of aspects of the divine into human form; this process occurs through the agency of the Demiurge who, having stolen a portion of power from his mother, sets about a work of creation in unconscious imitation of the superior Pleromatic realm. Thus Sophia's power becomes enclosed within the material forms of humanity, themselves entrapped within the material universe: the goal of Gnostic movements was typically the awakening of this spark, which permitted a return by the subject to the superior, non-material realities which were its primal source. (See Sethian Gnosticism.)

Gnosis

The word 'Gnosticism' is a modern construction, though based on an antiquated linguistic expression: it comes from the Greek word meaning 'knowledge', ''gnosis'' (γνῶσις). However, ''gnosis'' itself refers to a very specialised form of knowledge, deriving both from the exact meaning of the original Greek term and its usage in Platonist philosophy.

Unlike modern English, ancient Greek was capable of discerning between several different forms of knowing. These different forms may be described in English as being propositional knowledge, indicative of knowledge acquired ''indirectly'' through the reports of others or otherwise by inference (such as "I know ''of'' George Bush" or "I know Berlin ''is in'' Germany"), and empirical knowledge acquired by ''direct participation'' or ''acquaintance'' (such as "I know George Bush personally" or "I know Berlin, having visited").

''Gnosis'' (γνῶσις) refers to knowledge of the second kind. Therefore, in a religious context, to be 'Gnostic' should be understood as being reliant not on knowledge in a general sense, but as being specially receptive to mystical or esoteric experiences of direct participation with the divine. Indeed, in most Gnostic systems the sufficient cause of salvation is this 'knowledge of' ('acquaintance with') the divine. This is commonly identified with a process of inward 'knowing' or self-exploration, comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus (c. 205–270 AD). This is what helps separate Gnosticism from proto-orthodox views, where the orthodox views are considered to be superficial. The inadequate take then requires a correct form of interpretation. With 'gnosis' comes a fuller insight that is considered to be more spiritual. Greater recognition of the deeper spiritual meanings of doctrines, scriptures, and rituals are obtained with this insight. However, as may be seen, the term 'gnostic' also had precedent usage in several ancient philosophical traditions, which must also be weighed in considering the very subtle implications of its appellation to a set of ancient religious groups.

Monad (apophatic theology)

In many Gnostic systems (and heresiologies), God is known as the ''Monad'', the One, The Absolute, ''Aion teleos'' (The Perfect Æon), ''Bythos'' (Depth or Profundity, Βυθος), ''Proarkhe'' (Before the Beginning, προαρχη), and ''E Arkhe'' (The Beginning, η αρχη). God is the high source of the pleroma, the region of light. The various emanations of God are called æons.

Within certain variations of Gnosticism, especially those inspired by Monoimus, the ''Monad'' was the highest God which created lesser gods, or elements (similar to æons).

According to Hippolytus, this view was inspired by the Pythagoreans, who called the first thing that came into existence the ''Monad'', which begat the dyad, which begat the numbers, which begat the point, begetting lines, etc. This was also clarified in the writings of Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus. This teaching being largely Neopythagorean via Numenius as well.

This Monad is the spiritual source of everything which emanates the pleroma, and could be contrasted to the dark Demiurge (Yaldabaoth) that controls matter.

The Sethian cosmogony as most famously contained in the Apocryphon ('Secret book') of John describes an unknown God, very similar to the orthodox apophatic theology, although very different from the orthodox credal teachings that there is one such god who is identified also as creator of heaven and earth. In describing the nature of a creator god associated with Biblical texts, orthodox theologians often attempt to define God through a series of explicit positive statements, themselves universal but in the divine taken to their superlative degrees: he is omniscient, omnipotent and truly benevolent. The Sethian conception of the most hidden transcendent God is, by contrast, defined through negative theology: he is immovable, invisible, intangible, ineffable; commonly, 'he' is seen as being hermaphroditic, a potent symbol for being, as it were, 'all-containing'. In the Apocryphon of John, this god is good in that it bestows goodness. After the apophatic statements, the process of the Divine in action are used to describe the effect of such a god.

An apophatic approach to discussing the Divine is found throughout gnosticism, Vedanta, and Platonic and Aristotelian theology as well. It is also found in some Judaic sources.

Pleroma

''Pleroma'' (Greek πληρωμα) generally refers to the totality of God's powers. The term means ''fullness'', and is used in Christian theological contexts: both in Gnosticism generally, and in Colossians 2.9.

Gnosticism holds that the world is controlled by evil archons, one of whom is the demiurge, the deity of the Old Testament who holds the human spirit captive.

The heavenly pleroma is the center of divine life, a region of light "above" (the term is not to be understood spatially) our world, occupied by spiritual beings such as aeons (eternal beings) and sometimes archons. Jesus is interpreted as an intermediary aeon who was sent from the pleroma, with whose aid humanity can recover the lost knowledge of the divine origins of humanity. The term is thus a central element of Gnostic cosmology.

Pleroma is also used in the general Greek language and is used by the Greek Orthodox church in this general form since the word appears under the book of Colossians. Proponents of the view that Paul was actually a gnostic, such as Elaine Pagels of Princeton University, view the reference in Colossians as something that was to be interpreted in the gnostic sense.

Sophia

In Gnostic tradition, the term ''Sophia'' (Σoφíα, Greek for "wisdom") refers to the final and lowest emanation of God.

In most if not all versions of the gnostic myth, Sophia births the demiurge, who in turn brings about the creation of materiality. The positive or negative depiction of materiality thus resides a great deal on mythic depictions of Sophia's actions. She is occasionally referred to by the Hebrew equivalent of ''Achamoth'' (this is a feature of Ptolemy's version of the Valentinian gnostic myth). Jewish Gnosticism with a focus on Sophia was active by 90.

Almost all gnostic systems of the Syrian or Egyptian type taught that the universe began with an original, unknowable God, referred to as the Parent or Bythos, as the Monad by Monoimus, or the first Aeon by still other traditions. From this initial unitary beginning, the One spontaneously emanated further Aeons, pairs of progressively 'lesser' beings in sequence. The lowest of these pairs were Sophia and Christ. The Aeons together made up the Pleroma, or fullness, of God, and thus should not be seen as distinct from the divine, but symbolic abstractions of the divine nature.

History

The development of the Syrian-Egyptian school

Bentley Layton has sketched out a relationship between the various gnostic movements in his introduction to ''The Gnostic Scriptures'' (SCM Press, London, 1987). In this model, 'Classical Gnosticism' and 'The School of Thomas' antedated and influenced the development of Valentinus, who was to found his own school of Gnosticism in both Alexandria and Rome, whom Layton called 'the great [Gnostic] reformer' and 'the focal point' of Gnostic development. While in Alexandria, where he was born, Valentinus probably would have had contact with the Gnostic teacher Basilides, and may have been influenced by him.

Valentinianism flourished throughout the early centuries of the common era: while Valentinus himself lived from c. 100–180 AD/CE, a list of sectarians or heretics, composed in 388 AD/CE, against whom Emperor Constantine intended legislation includes Valentinus (and, presumably, his inheritors). The school is also known to have been extremely popular: several varieties of their central myth are known, and we know of 'reports from outsiders from which the intellectual liveliness of the group is evident' (Markschies, ''Gnosis: An Introduction'', 94). It is known that Valentinus' students, in further evidence of their intellectual activity, elaborated upon the teachings and materials they received from him (though the exact extent of their changes remains unknown), for example, in the version of the Valentinian myth brought to us through Ptolemy.

Valentinianism might be described as the most elaborate and philosophically 'dense' form of the Syrian-Egyptian schools of Gnosticism, though it should be acknowledged that this in no way debarred other schools from attracting followers: Basilides' own school was popular also, and survived in Egypt until the 4th century.

Simone Petrement, in ''A Separate God'', in arguing for a Christian origin of Gnosticism, places Valentinus after Basilides, but before the Sethians. It is her assertion that Valentinus represented a moderation of the anti-Judaism of the earlier Hellenized teachers; the demiurge, widely regarded to be a mythological depiction of the Old Testament God of the Hebrews, is depicted as more ignorant than evil. (See below.)

The development of the Persian school

An alternate heritage is offered by Kurt Rudolph in his book ''Gnosis: The Nature & Structure of Gnosticism'' (Koehler and Amelang, Leipzig, 1977), to explain the lineage of Persian Gnostic schools. The decline of Manicheism that occurred in Persia in the 5th century was too late to prevent the spread of the movement into the east and the west. In the west, the teachings of the school moved into Syria, Northern Arabia, Egypt and North Africa (where Augustine was a member of the school from 373-382); from Syria it progressed still farther, into Palestine, Asia Minor and Armenia. There is evidence for Manicheans in Rome and Dalmatia in the 4th century, and also in Gaul and Spain. The influence of Manicheanism was attacked by imperial elects and polemical writings, but the religion remained prevalent until the 6th century, and still exerted influence in the emergence of the Paulicians, Bogomils and Cathari in the Middle Ages, until it was ultimately stamped out by the Catholic Church.

In the east, Rudolph relates, Manicheanism was able to bloom, given that the religious monopoly position previously held by Christianity and Zoroastrianism had been broken by nascent Islam. In the early years of the Arab conquest, Manicheanism again found followers in Persia (mostly amongst educated circles), but flourished most in Central Asia, to which it had spread through Iran. Here, in 762, Manicheanism became the state religion of the Uyghur Empire.

Neoplatonism and Gnosticism

Historical relations between antique Greek Philosophy and Gnosticism

The earliest origins of Gnosticism are still obscure and disputed, but they probably include influence from Plato, Middle Platonism and Neo-Pythagoreanism academies or schools of thought, and this seems to be true both of the more Sethian Gnostics, and of the Valentinian Gnostics. Further, if we compare different Sethian texts to each other in an attempted chronology of the development of Sethianism during the first few centuries, it seems that later texts are continuing to interact with Platonism. Earlier texts such as Apocalypse of Adam show signs of being pre-Christian and focus on the Seth, third son of Adam and Eve. These early Sethians may be identical to or related to the Nazarenes (sect), Ophites or to the sectarian group called heretics by Philo. Later Sethian texts such as Zostrianos and Allogenes draw on the imagery of older Sethian texts, but utilize "a large fund of philosophical conceptuality derived from contemporary Platonism, (that is late middle Platonism) with no traces of Christian content." Indeed the doctrine of the "triple-powered one" found in the text Allogenes, as discovered in the Nag Hammadi Library, is "the same doctrine as found in the anonymous Parmenides commentary (Fragment XIV) ascribed by Hadot to Porphyry [...] and is also found in Plotinus' Ennead 6.7, 17, 13-26."

Rejection by antique Greek Philosophy

However, by the 3rd century Neoplatonists, such as Plotinus, Porphyry and Amelius are all attacking the Sethians. It looks as if Sethianism began as a pre-Christian tradition, possibly a syncretic that incorporated elements of Christianity and Platonism as it grew, only to have both Christianity and Platonism reject and turn against it. Professor John D Turner believes that this double attack led to Sethianism fragmentation into numerous smaller groups (Audians, Borborites, Archontics and perhaps Phibionites, Stratiotici, and Secundians). gnostics attempted "an effort towards conciliation, even affiliation" with late antique philosophy, and were rebuffed by some Neoplatonists, including Plotinus.

Philosophical relations between Neoplatonism and Gnosticism

Gnostics borrow a lot of ideas and terms from Platonism. They exhibit a keen understanding of Greek philosophical terms and the Greek Koine language in general, and use Greek philosophical concepts throughout their text, including such concepts as hypostasis (reality, existence), ousia (essence, substance, being), and demiurge (creator God). Good examples include texts such as the Hypostasis of the Archons (Reality of the Rulers) or Trimorphic Protennoia (The first thought in three forms).

Criticism of gnosticism by antique Greek Philosophy

As a pagan mystic Plotinus considered his opponents heretics and elitist blasphemers, arriving at misotheism as the solution to the problem of evil, being not traditional or genuine Hellenism (in philosophy or mysticism), but rather one invented taking all their truths over from Plato, coupled with the idea expressed by Plotinus that the approach to the infinite force which is the One or Monad cannot be through knowing or not knowing (i.e., dualist, which is of the dyad or demiurge). Although there has been dispute as to which Gnostics Plotinus was referring to it appears they were indeed Sethian. Plotinus' main objection to the Gnostics he was familiar with, however, was their rejection of the goodness of the demiurge and the material world. He attacks the Gnostics as vilifying Plato's ontology of the universe as contained in the Timaeus. He accused Gnosticism of vilifying the Demiurge, or craftsman that crafted the material world, and even of thinking that the material world is evil, or a prison. As Plotinus explains, the demiurge is the nous (as the first emanation of the One), the ordering principle or mind, and also reason. Plotinus was also critical of the Gnostic origin of the demiurge as the offspring of wisdom, represented as a deity called Sophia. She was anthropomorphically expressed as a feminine spirit deity not unlike the goddess Athena or the Christian Holy Spirit. Plotinus even went so far as to state at one point that if the Gnostics did believe this world was a prison then they could at any moment free themselves by committing suicide. To some degree the texts discovered in Nag Hammadi support his allegations, but others such as the Valentinians and the Tripartite Tractate insist on the goodness of the world and the Demiurge.

Buddhism and Gnosticism

The idea that Gnosticism was derived from Buddhism was first proposed by the Victorian gem collector and numismatist Charles William King (1864). Mansel (1875,) considered the principal sources of Gnosticism to be Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism However the influence of Buddhism in any sense on either the ''gnostikos'' Valentinus (c.170) or the Nag Hammadi texts (3rd C.) is not supported by modern scholarship, but in the later case considered quite possible by Elaine Pagels (1979), who called for Buddhist scholars to try and find parallels.

3rd Century contact with India

Early 3rd century–4th century Christian writers such as Hippolytus and Epiphanius write about a Scythianus, who visited India around 50 AD from where he brought "the doctrine of the Two Principles".

Karl Ritter (1838) suggested that when Cyril of Jerusalem, remarks that one of Scythianus' pupils Terebinthus changed his name to Buddas to escape detection while passing through Judea, and died in Judea from a fall from a rooftop, that this is connected with Buddha.

Also in the 3rd century, the Syrian writer and Christian Gnostic theologian Bar Daisan (154–222) described his exchanges with the religious missions of holy men from India passing through Syria on their way to Elagabalus or another Severan dynasty Roman Emperor. His accounts were quoted by Porphyry (''On Abstinence'' 4:17) and Stobaeus (''Eccles.'', iii, 56, 141). Clement of Alexandria in his ''Stromateis'' distinguishes Sramanas (Greek: Σαρμαναίοι) and Brahmans, without making any gnostic connection.

From the 3rd century to the 12th century, some Gnostic religions such as Manichaeism, which combined Christian, Hebrew and Buddhist influences (Mani, the founder of the religion, resided for some time in Kushan lands), spread throughout the Old World, to Gaul and Great Britain in the West, and to China in the East. Some leading Christian theologians such as Augustine of Hippo were Manichaeans before converting to orthodox Christianity.

Christianity and Gnosticism

The ascetic notion of immediate revelation through divine knowledge sought to find an absolute transcendence in a Supreme Deity. This concept is important in identifying what evidence there is pertaining to Gnosticism in the NT, which would influence orthodox teaching. Main Gnostic beliefs that differ from Biblical teachings include: the creator as a lower being [‘Demiurge’] and not a Supreme Deity; scripture having a deep, hidden meaning whose true message could only be understood through “secret wisdom”; and Jesus as a spirit that “seemed” to be human, leading to a belief in the incarnation (Docetism). The traditional “formula which enshrines the Incarnation…is that in some sense God, without ceasing to be God, was made man…which is a prima facie [‘at first sight’ a] contradiction in theological terms…the [NT] nowhere reflects on the virgin birth of Jesus as witnessing to the conjunction of deity and manhood in His person…the deity of Jesus was not…clearly stated in words and [the book of] Acts gives no hint that it was”. This philosophy was known by the so-called “Church Fathers” such as Origen, Irenaeus, and Tertullian.

At its core, Gnosticism formed a speculative interest in the relationship of the oneness of God to the ‘triplicity’ of his manifestations. It seems to have taken Neoplatonic metaphysics of substance and hypostases [“being”] as a departure point for interpreting the relationship of the “Father” to the “Son” in its attempt to define a new theology. This would point to the infamous theological controversies by Arius against followers of the Greek Alexandrian school, headed by Athanasius.

The ancient Nag Hammadi Library, discovered in Egypt in the 1940s, revealed how varied this movement was. The writers of these manuscripts considered themselves ‘Christians’, but owing to their syncretistic beliefs, borrowed heavily from the Greek philosopher Plato. The find included the hotly debated Gospel of Thomas, which parallels some of Jesus’ sayings in the Synoptic Gospels. This may point to the existence of a postulated lost textual source for the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, known as the Q document. Thus, modern debate is split between those who see Gnosticism as a pre-Christian form of ‘theosophy’ and those who see it as a post-Christian counter-movement.

New Testament scripture was largely unwritten, at least in the form of canon, existing in the practices, customs and teachings of the early Christian community. What largely was communicated generation to generation was an oral tradition passed from the apostles to the Bishops and from Bishops and priests to the faithful through their preaching and way of life. Constantine’s call for unity in the building of the new Roman Church led to his request for Eusebius to produce some 50 copies of manuscripts. These were approved and accepted by the emperor, which later influenced the final stages of canonization.

The best known origin story in the New Testament comes in the person of Simon Magus [Acts 8:9-24]. Although little is known historically about him, his first disciple is said to have been Basilides. Paul’s epistles to Timothy contain refutations of “false doctrine [and] myths” [1 Tim 1:3-5]. The importance placed here, as in most NT scripture, is to uphold the truth since through such knowledge God hopes for “all men” to be saved [1 Tim 2:4]. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians have much to say regarding false teachers (2 Co 11:4), “spiritualists” [pneumatikos—1 Co 2:14-15; 15:44-46] and their gnosis. They warn against the “wisdom of the wise” and their “hollow and deceptive philosophy” (1 Co 1:19; 2:5—NIV; cp. Col 2:1-10; 2:8). The book of Jude also contains scripture exhorting believers to seek the true faith (Jude 3).

The writings attributed to the Apostle John contain the most significant amount of content directed at combating the progenitors of heresies. Most Bible scholars agree that these were some of the last parts of the NT written and as such, can offer the most insights into a 1st century perspective. The writer’s repeated adherence to true knowledge (“hereby we know”—inherent in Jesus’ ministry) and nature seem to challenge other speculative and opposing beliefs.

It is hard to sift through what actual evidence there is regarding Gnosticism in the NT due to their historical synchronicity. The Hammadi library find contains Pagan, Jewish, Greek and early Gnostic influences, further reinforcing the need to tread lightly. The antiquity of the find being of utmost importance since it shows primary evidence of texts that may also have influenced the process of NT canonization.

Judaism and Gnosticism

The ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1906) contains an article "Gnosticism" by Joseph Jacobs and Ludwig Blau which deals only with Jewish gnosticism. Jacobs and Blau cite from Hegesippus and Harnack that many heads of gnostic schools identified as Jewish Christians by Church Fathers, and that that Hebrew words and names of God were applied in some gnostic systems. Jacobs and Blau viewed that cosmogonic speculations among Christian "Gnostics" had partial origins in Ma'aseh Bereshit and Ma'aseh Merkabah.

Gnostic sects anti-semitic?

Gershom Scholem once described Gnosticism as "the Greatest case of metaphysical anti-Semitism", though Professor Steven Bayme stated that gnosticism would be better characterized as anti-Judaism. However, recent research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence, particularly from Hekhalot literature.

Kabbalah

Gnostic ideas found a Jewish variation in the mystical study of Kabbalah. The Kabbalists took many core Gnostic ideas and used them to dramatically reinterpret earlier Jewish sources according to this new system. See Gershom Scholem's ''Origins of the Kabbalah'' for further discussion. The Kabbalists originated in 13th century Provence which was at that time also the center of the Gnostic Cathars. While some scholars in the middle of the 20th century tried to assume an influence between the Cathar "gnostics" and the origins of the Kabbalah, this assumption has proved to be an incorrect generalization which is not substantiated by any original texts. On the other hand, other scholars, such as Scholem, postulated that there was originally a "Jewish gnosticism", which influenced the early origins of gnosticism.

Kabbalah, does not employ the terminology or labels of non-Jewish Gnosticism, but grounds the same or similar concepts in the language of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible). The 13th century Book of Zohar ("Splendor"), a foundational text in Kabbalah, is written in the style of a Jewish Aramaic Midrash, clarifying the five books of the Torah with a new Kabbalistic system which uses completely Jewish terms.

'Gnosticism' as a potentially flawed category

In 1966 in Messina, Italy, a conference was held concerning systems of ''gnosis''. Among its several aims were the need to establish a program to translate the recently acquired Nag Hammadi library (discussed above) and the need to arrive at an agreement concerning an accurate definition of 'Gnosticism'. This was in answer to the tendency, prevalent since the 18th century, to use the term 'gnostic' less as its origins implied, but rather as an interpretive category for ''contemporary'' philosophical and religious movements. For example, in 1835, New Testament scholar Ferdinand Christian Baur constructed a developmental model of Gnosticism that culminated in the religious philosophy of Hegel; one might compare literary critic Harold Bloom's recent attempts to identify Gnostic elements in contemporary American religion, or Eric Voegelin's analysis of totalitarian impulses through the interpretive lens of Gnosticism.

The 'cautious proposal' reached by the conference concerning Gnosticism is described by Markschies:

In essence, it had been decided that 'Gnosticism' would become a historically specific term, restricted to mean the Gnostic movements prevalent in the 3rd century, while 'gnosis' would be a universal term, denoting a system of knowledge retained 'for a privileged élite.' However, this effort towards providing clarity in fact created more conceptual confusion, as the historical term 'Gnosticism' was an entirely modern construction, while the new universal term 'gnosis' ''was'' a historical term: 'something was being called "gnosticism" that the ancient theologians had called "gnosis" ... [A] concept of gnosis had been created by Messina that was almost unusable in a historical sense'. In antiquity, all agreed that knowledge was centrally important to life, but few were agreed as to what exactly ''constituted'' knowledge; the unitary conception that the Messina proposal presupposed did not exist.

These flaws have meant that the problems concerning an exact definition of Gnosticism persist. It remains current convention to use 'Gnosticism' in a historical sense, and 'gnosis' universally. Leaving aside the issues with the latter noted above, the usage of 'Gnosticism' to designate a category of 3rd century religions has recently been questioned as well. Of note is Michael Allen Williams' ''Rethinking Gnosticism: An Argument for the Dismantling of a Dubious Category'', in which the author examines the terms by which Gnosticism as a category is defined, and then closely compares these suppositions with the contents of actual Gnostic texts (the newly recovered Nag Hammadi library was of central importance to his argument).

Williams argues that the conceptual foundations on which the category of Gnosticism rests are the remains of the agenda of the heresiologists. Too much emphasis has been laid on perceptions of dualism, body- and matter-hatred, and anticosmism without these suppositions being properly ''tested''. In essence, the interpretive definition of Gnosticism that was created by the antagonistic efforts of the early church heresiologists has been taken up by modern scholarship and reflected in a ''categorical'' definition, even though the means now existed to verify its accuracy. Attempting to do so, Williams contests, reveals the dubious nature of categorical 'Gnosticism', and he concludes that the term needs replacing in order to more accurately reflect those movements it comprises. Williams' observations have provoked debate; however, to date his suggested replacement term 'the Biblical demiurgical tradition' has not become widely used.

Gnosticism in modern times

A number of 19th century thinkers such as William Blake, Arthur Schopenhauer, Albert Pike and Madame Blavatsky studied Gnostic thought extensively and were influenced by it, and even figures like Herman Melville and W. B. Yeats were more tangentially influenced. Jules Doinel "re-established" a Gnostic church in France in 1890 which altered its form as it passed through various direct successors (Fabre des Essarts as ''Tau Synésius'' and Joanny Bricaud as ''Tau Jean II'' most notably), and which, although small, is still active today.

Early 20th century thinkers who heavily studied and were influenced by Gnosticism include Carl Jung (who supported Gnosticism), Eric Voegelin (who opposed it), Jorge Luis Borges (who included it in many of his short stories), and Aleister Crowley, with figures such as Hermann Hesse being more moderatedly influenced. Rene Guenon founded the gnostic review, Le Gnose in 1909 (before moving to a more "Perennialist" position). Gnostic Thelemite organizations, such as Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and Ordo Templi Orientis, trace themselves to Crowley's thought.

The discovery and translation of the Nag Hammadi library after 1945 had a huge impact on Gnosticism since World War II. Thinkers who were heavily influenced by Gnosticism in this period include Hans Jonas, Philip K. Dick and Harold Bloom, with Albert Camus and Allen Ginsberg being more moderately influenced. A number of ecclesiastical bodies which think of themselves as Gnostic have been set up or re-founded since World War II as well, including the Society of Novus Spiritus, Ecclesia Gnostica, the Thomasine Church, the Apostolic Johannite Church, the Alexandrian Gnostic Church, the North American College of Gnostic Bishops. Celia Green has written on Gnostic Christianity in relation to her own philosophy.

See also

Apocrypha

Buddhism

Christian mysticism

Criticism of Christianity

First Council of Nicaea

John D. Turner

Gnosiology

Gnosis

Hermeticism

Hinduism

Orpheus

Theodicy

Footnotes

References

Books

Primary sources

(in 7 volumes), vol. 1: ISBN 0-674-99484-1

Secondary sources

, translated as

Petrement, Simone (1990), ''A Separate God: The Origins and Teachings of Gnosticsim'', Harper and Row ISBN 0-06-066421-5

External links

Gnostic texts at sacred-texts.com

Religious Tolerance - A survey of Gnosticism

Early Christian Writings - primary texts

The Gnostic Society Library - primary sources and commentaries.

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Gnosticism

Introduction to Gnosticism

Jewish Encyclopedia: Gnosticism

Proto-Gnostic elements in the Gospel according to John

Gnostic version of the Bible and more on Gnostics

Catholic Encyclopedia: Gnosticism

Catholic Gnostics - E. J. Parkinson, PhD

* Category:New Testament apocrypha Category:Nontrinitarianism

af:Gnostisisme ar:غنوصية an:Gnosticismo be-x-old:Гнастыцызм bar:Gnosis bg:Гностицизъм ca:Gnosticisme cs:Gnóze cy:Gnostigiaeth da:Gnosticisme de:Gnosis et:Gnostitsism el:Γνωστικισμός es:Gnosticismo eo:Gnostikismo fa:گنوستیک fr:Gnosticisme fy:Gnostisisme gl:Gnosticismo ko:영지주의 hr:Gnosticizam ilo:Gnosticismo id:Gnostisisme ia:Gnosticismo it:Gnosticismo he:גנוסיס kk:Гностиктер la:Gnosis lv:Gnosticisms lt:Gnosticizmas hu:Gnoszticizmus mk:Гностицизам ml:ജ്ഞാനവാദം arz:الغنوسطيون ms:Gnostikisme nl:Gnosticisme nds-nl:Gnostiek ja:グノーシス主義 no:Gnostisisme pl:Gnostycyzm pt:Gnosticismo ro:Gnosticism ru:Гностицизм sq:Gnosticizmi scn:Gnosticismu simple:Gnosticism sk:Gnosticizmus sl:Gnosticizem sr:Гностицизам sh:Gnosticizam fi:Gnostilaisuus sv:Gnosticism tl:Nostisismo th:ไญยนิยม tr:Gnostisizm uk:Гностицизм ur:معرفت zh:諾斯底主義

Philip Warren Gardiner (born 15 December 1946) is an Australian politician.

Born in Perth, Western Australia, he was a farmer before entering politics; he held a Bachelor of Science (Agriculture) and a Master of Business Administration. In the 2007 federal election, he was the National Party candidate for the safe Liberal seat of O'Connor, coming close to overtaking the Labor candidate on Green preferences and threatening sitting member Wilson Tuckey. In the 2008 Western Australian state election, he was selected as the second National candidate for Agricultural Region in the Legislative Council. He was easily elected; his term began on 22 May 2009.

References

Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:Western Australian National politicians Category:Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council

__NOTOC__

Timothy Freke (born 1959) is a British author of books on religion, mysticism. Freke is perhaps best known for his books, co-authored with Peter Gandy, which advocate a Gnostic understanding of early Christianity and the Christ myth theory , including ''The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?'' and ''The Laughing Jesus: Religious Lies and Gnostic Wisdom''.

Freke also runs experiential seminars in the UK, USA and Europe.

References

External links

Official website

In-depth video interview with Timothy Freke on The Alcove with Mark Molaro

Category:Christ myth Category:Living people Category:British writers Category:1959 births

de:Timothy Freke es:Timothy Freke fr:Timothy Freke ja:ティモシー・フレーク sv:Timothy Freke

name	Carl Gustav Jung
birth date	July 26, 1875
birth place	Kesswil, Thurgau, Switzerland
death date	June 06, 1961
death place	Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
residence	Switzerland
citizenship	Swiss
field	Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Analytical psychology
work institutions	Burghölzli, Swiss Army (as a commissioned officer in World War I)
doctoral advisor	Eugen Bleuler, Sigmund Freud
known for	Analytical psychology
religion	Christian
signature	Carl Jung signature.svg }}

Carl Gustav Jung (; 1875–1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Though not the first to analyze dreams, he is one of the best known pioneers in the field of dream analysis. While he was a fully involved and practicing clinician, much of his life's work was spent exploring tangential areas, including Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts; all of which were extremely productive in regard to the symbols and processes of the human psyche, found in dreams and other entries to the unconscious.

He considered the process of individuation necessary for a person to become whole. This is a psychological process of integrating the opposites including the conscious with the unconscious while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Individuation was the central concept of analytical psychology.

Many pioneering psychological concepts were originally proposed by Jung, including the Archetype, the Collective Unconscious, the Complex, and synchronicity. A popular psychometric instrument, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), has been principally developed from Jung's theories.

Early years

Carl Jung was born Karl Gustav II Jung in Kesswil, in the Swiss canton of Thurgau, as the fourth but only surviving child of Paul Achilles Jung and Emilie Preiswerk. Emilie Preiswerk was the youngest child of Samuel Preiswerk, Paul Achilles Jung's professor of Hebrew. His father was a poor rural pastor in the Swiss Reformed Church, while his mother came from a wealthy and established Swiss family.

When Jung was six months old his father was appointed to a more prosperous parish in Laufen. Meanwhile, the tension between his parents was growing. An eccentric and depressed woman, Emilie Jung spent much of the time in her own separate bedroom, enthralled by the spirits that she said visited her at night. Jung had a better relationship with his father because he thought him to be predictable and thought his mother to be very problematic. Although during the day he also saw her as predictable, at night he felt some frightening influences from her room. At night his mother became strange and mysterious. Jung claimed that one night he saw a faintly luminous and indefinite figure coming from her room, with a head detached from the neck and floating in the air in front of the body. and that resulted in his sometimes patriarchal views of women. After three years of living in Laufen, Paul Jung requested a transfer and was called to Kleinhüningen in 1879. The relocation brought Emilie Jung in closer contact to her family and lifted her melancholy and despondent mood.

A solitary and introverted child, Jung was convinced from childhood that he had two personalities — a modern Swiss citizen and a personality more at home in the eighteenth century. "Personality Number 1," as he termed it, was a typical schoolboy living in the era of the time, while "Personality Number 2" was a dignified, authoritative and influential man from the past. Although Jung was close to both parents he was rather disappointed in his father's academic approach to faith.

A number of childhood memories had made a life-long impression on him. As a boy he carved a tiny mannequin into the end of the wooden ruler from his pupil's pencil case and placed it inside the case. He then added a stone which he had painted into upper and lower halves and hid the case in the attic. Periodically he would come back to the mannequin, often bringing tiny sheets of paper with messages inscribed on them in his own secret language. This ceremonial act, he later reflected, brought him a feeling of inner peace and security. In later years he discovered that similarities existed in this memory and the totems of native peoples like the collection of soul-stones near Arlesheim, or the ''tjurungas'' of Australia. This, he concluded, was an unconscious ritual that he did not question or understand at the time, but which was practiced in a strikingly similar way in faraway locations that he as a young boy had no way of consciously knowing about. His findings on psychological archetypes and the collective unconscious were inspired in part by these experiences.

Shortly before the end of his first year at the Humanistisches Gymnasium in Basel, at the age of twelve, he was pushed to the ground by another boy so hard that he was for a moment unconscious (Jung later recognized that the incident was his fault, indirectly). A thought then came to him that "now you won't have to go to school any more." From then on, whenever he started off to school or began homework, he fainted. He remained at home for the next six months until he overheard his father speaking worriedly to a visitor of his future ability to support himself, as they suspected he had epilepsy. With little money in the family, this brought the boy to reality and he realized the need for academic excellence. He immediately went into his father's study and began poring over Latin grammar. He fainted three more times, but eventually he overcame the urge and did not faint again. This event, Jung later recalled, "was when I learned what a neurosis is."

Jung had no plans to study psychiatry, because it was held in contempt in those days. But as he started studying his psychiatric textbook, he became very excited when he read that psychoses are personality diseases. Immediately he understood this was the field that interested him the most. It combined both biological and spiritual facts and this was what he was searching for.

In 1895, Jung studied medicine at the University of Basel. In 1900, he worked in the Burghölzli, a psychiatric hospital in Zurich, with Eugen Bleuler. His dissertation, published in 1903, was titled "On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena." In 1906, he published ''Studies in Word Association'' and later sent a copy of this book to Sigmund Freud, after which a close friendship between these two men followed for some six years (see section on Relationship with Freud). In 1912 Jung published ''Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido'' (known in English as ''Psychology of the Unconscious'') resulting in a theoretical divergence between him and Freud and consequently a break in their friendship, both stating that the other was unable to admit he could possibly be wrong. After this falling-out, Jung went through a pivotal and difficult psychological transformation, which was exacerbated by news of the First World War. Henri Ellenberger called Jung's experience a "creative illness" and compared it to Freud's period of what he called neurasthenia and hysteria.

During World War I Jung was drafted as an army doctor and soon made commandant of an internment camp for British officers and soldiers. (Swiss neutrality obliged the Swiss to intern personnel from either side of the conflict who crossed their frontier to evade capture.) Jung worked to improve the conditions for these soldiers stranded in neutral territory; he encouraged them to attend university courses.

Later life

In 1903, Jung married Emma Rauschenbach, who came from a wealthy family in Switzerland. They had five children: Agathe, Gret, Franz, Marianne, and Helene. The marriage lasted until Emma's death in 1955, but he had more-or-less open relationships with other women. The most well-known women with whom Jung is believed to have had extramarital relationships were patient and friend Sabina Spielrein and Toni Wolff.

Jung continued to publish books until the end of his life, including ''Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies'', which analyzed the archetypal meaning and possible psychological significance of the reported observations of UFOs. He also enjoyed a friendship with an English Roman Catholic priest, Father Victor White, who corresponded with Jung after he had published his controversial ''Answer to Job''.

Jung's work on himself and his patients convinced him that life has a spiritual purpose beyond material goals. Our main task, he believed, is to discover and fulfill our deep innate potential, much as the acorn contains the potential to become the oak, or the caterpillar to become the butterfly. Based on his study of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Taoism, and other traditions, Jung perceived that this journey of transformation, which he called individuation, is at the mystical heart of all religions. It is a journey to meet the self and at the same time to meet the Divine. Unlike Sigmund Freud, Jung thought spiritual experience was essential to our well-being.

In 1944 Jung published ''Psychology and Alchemy,'' where he analyzed the alchemical symbols and showed a direct relationship to the psychoanalytical process. He argued that the alchemical process was the transformation of the impure soul (lead) to perfected soul (gold), and a metaphor for the individuation process.

Jung died in 1961 at Küsnacht, after a short illness.

Relationship with Freud

Jung was thirty when he sent his ''Studies in Word Association'' to Sigmund Freud in Vienna in 1906. The two men met for the first time the following year, and Jung recalled the discussion between himself and Freud as interminable. They talked, he remembered, for thirteen hours, virtually without stopping'. Six months later, the then 50-year-old Freud sent a collection of his latest published essays to Jung in Zurich, which marked the beginning of an intense correspondence and collaboration that lasted six years and ended in May 1910. At this time Jung resigned as the chairman of the International Psychoanalytical Association, where he had been elected with Freud's support.

Today Jung's and Freud's theories have diverged. Nevertheless, they influenced each other during the intellectually formative years of Jung's life. As Freud was already fifty years old at their meeting, he was well beyond the formative years. In 1906 psychology as a science was still in its early stages. Jung, who had become interested in psychiatry as a student by reading ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' by Richard von Krafft-Ebing, professor in Vienna, now worked as a doctor under the psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in Burghölzli and became familiar with Freud's idea of the unconscious through Freud's ''The Interpretation of Dreams'' (1900) and was a proponent of the new "psycho-analysis." At the time, Freud needed collaborators and pupils to validate and spread his ideas. Burghölzli was a renowned psychiatric clinic in Zurich at which Jung was a young doctor whose research had already given him international recognition.

In 1908, Jung became an editor of the newly founded ''Yearbook for Psychoanalytical and Psychopathological Research.'' The following year, Jung traveled with Freud and Sándor Ferenczi to the U.S. to spread the news of psychoanalysis and in 1910, Jung became Chairman for Life of the International Psychoanalytical Association. While Jung worked on his ''Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (Psychology of the Unconscious),'' tensions grew between Freud and Jung, mostly due to their disagreements over the nature of libido and religion. In 1912 these tensions came to a peak because Jung felt severely slighted after Freud visited his colleague Ludwig Binswanger in Kreuzlingen without paying him a visit in nearby Zurich, an incident Jung referred to as "the Kreuzlingen gesture." Shortly thereafter, Jung again traveled to the United States and gave the ''Fordham lectures,'' which were published as ''The Theory of Psychoanalysis.'' While they contain some remarks on Jung's dissenting view on the nature of libido, they represent largely a "psychoanalytical Jung" and not the theory Jung became famous for in the following decades.

In November 1912, Jung and Freud met in Munich for a meeting among prominent colleagues to discuss psychoanalytical journals. At a talk about a new psychoanalytic essay on Amenhotep IV, Jung expressed his views on how it related to actual conflicts in the psychoanalytic movement. While Jung spoke, Freud suddenly fainted and Jung carried him to a couch.

Jung and Freud personally met for the last time in September 1913 for the ''Fourth International Psychoanalytical Congress,'' also in Munich. Jung gave a talk on psychological types, the introverted and the extraverted type, in analytical psychology. This constituted the introduction of some of the key concepts which came to distinguish Jung's work from Freud's in the next half century.

In the following years Jung experienced considerable isolation in his professional life, exacerbated through World War I. His ''Seven Sermons to the Dead'' (1917) reprinted in his autobiography ''Memories, Dreams, Reflections'' (see bibliography) can also be read as expression of the psychological conflicts which beset Jung around the age of forty after the break with Freud.

Jung's primary disagreement with Freud stemmed from their differing concepts of the unconscious. Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as incomplete and unnecessarily negative. According to Jung (though not according to Freud), Freud conceived the unconscious solely as a repository of repressed emotions and desires. Jung agreed with Freud's model of the unconscious, what Jung called the "personal unconscious", but he also proposed the existence of a second, far deeper form of the unconscious underlying the personal one. This was the collective unconscious, where the archetypes themselves resided, represented in mythology by a lake or other body of water, and in some cases a jug or other container. Freud had actually mentioned a collective level of psychic functioning but saw it primarily as an appendix to the rest of the psyche.

Travels

Jung's first trip outside of Europe was the 1909 conference at Clark University. The event was planned by psychologist G. Stanley Hall and included twenty-seven distinguished psychiatrists, neurologists and psychologists. It represented a watershed in the acceptance of psychoanalysis in North America. This forged welcome links between Jung and influential Americans. Jung returned to the United States the next year for a brief visit, and again for a six-week lecture series at Fordham University in 1912. He made a more extensive trip westward in the winter of 1924–5, financed and organized by Fowler McCormick and George Porter. Of particular value to Jung was a visit with chieftain Mountain Lake at the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico.

Jung spoke at meetings of the Psycho-Medical Society in London in 1913 and 1914. His travels were soon interrupted by the war, but his ideas continued to receive attention in England primarily through the efforts of Constance Long. She translated and published the first English volume of his collected writings and arranged for him to give a seminar in Cornwall in 1920. Another seminar was held in 1923, this one organized by Helton Godwin Baynes (known as Peter), and another in 1925.

In October 1925, Jung embarked on his most ambitious expedition, the "Bugishu Psychological Expedition" to East Africa. He was accompanied by Peter Baynes and an American associate, George Beckwith. On the voyage to Africa, they became acquainted with an English woman named Ruth Bailey, who joined their safari a few weeks later. The group traveled through Kenya and Uganda to the slopes of Mount Elgon, where Jung hoped to increase his understanding of "primitive psychology" through conversations with the culturally isolated residents of that area. Later he concluded that the major insights he had gleaned, had to do with himself and the European psychology in which he had been raised.

Jung made another trip to America in 1936, giving lectures in New York and New England for his growing group of American followers. He returned in 1937 to deliver the Terry Lectures, ''Psychology and Religion'', at Yale University. In December 1937, Jung left Zurich again for an extensive tour of India with Fowler McCormick. In India, he felt himself "under the direct influence of a foreign culture" for the first time. In Africa, his conversations had been strictly limited by the language barrier, but in India he was able to converse extensively. Hindu philosophy became an important element in his understanding of the role of symbolism and the life of the unconscious. Unfortunately, Jung became seriously ill on this trip and endured two weeks of delirium in a Calcutta hospital. After 1938, his travels were confined to Europe.

Political views

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Jung stressed the importance of individual rights in a person's relation to the state and society. He saw that the state was treated as "a quasi-animate personality from whom everything is expected" but that this personality was "only camouflage for those individuals who know how to manipulate it", and referred to the state as a form of slavery. He also thought that the state "swallowed up [people's] religious forces", and therefore that the state had "taken the place of God"—making it comparable to a religion in which "state slavery is a form of worship". From Jung's perspective, this replacement of God with the state in a mass society led to the dislocation of the religious drive and resulted in the same fanaticism of the church-states of the Dark Ages—wherein the more the state is 'worshiped', the more freedom and morality are suppressed; this ultimately leaves the individual psychically undeveloped with extreme feelings of marginalization.

Works

Jung was a prolific writer. His collected works fill 19 volumes. Many of his works were not translated into English until after his death. His best known works are ''Psychology of the Unconscious'' (1912) and ''Psychological Types'' (1921).

Red Book

In 1913 at the age of thirty-eight, Jung experienced a horrible "confrontation with the unconscious". He saw visions and heard voices. He worried at times that he was "menaced by a psychosis" or was "doing a schizophrenia." He decided that it was valuable experience, and in private, he induced hallucinations, or, in his words, "active imaginations." He recorded everything he felt in small journals. Jung began to transcribe his notes into a large, red leather-bound book, on which he worked intermittently for sixteen years.

Jung left no posthumous instructions about the final disposition of what he called the "Red Book". His family eventually moved it into a bank vault in 1984. Sonu Shamdasani, a historian from London, for three years tried to persuade Jung's heirs to have it published, to which they declined every hint of inquiry. As of mid-September 2009, fewer than two dozen people had seen it. But Ulrich Hoerni, Jung's grandson who manages the Jung archives, decided to publish it. To raise the additional funds needed, the Philemon Foundation was founded.

In 2007, two technicians for DigitalFusion, working with the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, painstakingly scanned one-tenth of a millimeter at a time with a 10,200-pixel scanner. It was published on October 7, 2009 (ISBN 978-0-393-06567-1) in German with "separate English translation along with Shamdasani's introduction and footnotes" at the back of the book, according to Sara Corbett for ''The New York Times''. She wrote, "The book is bombastic, baroque and like so much else about Carl Jung, a willful oddity, synched with an antediluvian and mystical reality."

The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City displayed the original Red Book journal, as well as some of Jung's original small journals, from October 7, 2009 to January 25, 2010. According to them, "During the period in which he worked on this book Jung developed his principal theories of archetypes, collective unconscious, and the process of individuation." Two-thirds of the pages bear Jung's illuminations of the text.

Response to Nazism

Jung had many friends and respected colleagues who were Jewish and he maintained relations with them through the 1930s when anti-semitism in Germany and other European nations was on the rise. However, until 1939, he also maintained professional relations with psychotherapists in Germany who had declared their support for the Nazi regime and there were allegations that he himself was a Nazi sympathizer. In his work ''Civilisation in Transition, Collected Works Volume X'', however, Jung wrote of "... the Aryan bird of prey with his insatiable lust to lord it in every land, even those that concern him not at all."

There are writings showing that Jung's sympathies were against, rather than for, Nazism. In his 1936 essay ''Wotan'', Jung described Germany as "infected" by "one man who is obviously 'possessed'...", and as "rolling towards perdition", and wrote "...what a so-called Führer does with a mass movement can plainly be seen if we turn our eyes to the north or south of our country." The essay does, however, speak in more positive terms of Jakob Wilhelm Hauer and his German Faith Movement which was loyal to Hitler. In April 1939, the Bishop of Southwark asked Jung if he had any specific views on what was likely to be the next step in religious development. Jung's reply was:

Jung would later say that: "Hitler seemed like the 'double' of a real person, as if Hitler the man might be hiding inside like an appendix, and deliberately so concealed in order not to disturb the mechanism ... You know you could never talk to this man; because there is nobody there ... It is not an individual; it is an entire nation." In 1943, Jung aided the United States Office of Strategic Services by analyzing the psychology of Nazi leaders.

In an interview with Carol Baumann in 1948, Jung denied rumors regarding any sympathy for the Nazi movement, saying:

A full response from Jung discounting the rumors can be found in ''C.G Jung Speaking, Interviews and Encounters'', Princeton University Press, 1977.

Jung and professional organizations in Germany, 1933 to 1939

In 1933, after the Nazis gained power in Germany, Jung took part in restructuring of the General Medical Society for Psychotherapy (''Allgemeine Ärztliche Gesellschaft für Psychotherapie''), a German-based professional body with an international membership. The society was reorganized into two distinct bodies: # A strictly German body, the ''Deutsche Allgemeine Ärztliche Gesellschaft für Psychotherapie'', led by Matthias Göring, an Adlerian psychotherapist and a cousin of the prominent Nazi Hermann Göring; # International General Medical Society for Psychotherapy, led by Jung. The German body was to be affiliated to the international society, as were new national societies being set up in Switzerland and elsewhere.

The International Society's constitution permitted individual doctors to join it directly, rather than through one of the national affiliated societies, a provision to which Jung drew attention in a circular in 1934. This implied that German Jewish doctors could maintain their professional status as individual members of the international body, even though they were excluded from the German affiliate, as well as from other German medical societies operating under the Nazis.

As leader of the international body, Jung assumed overall responsibility for its publication, the ''Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie''. In 1933, this journal published a statement endorsing Nazi positions and Hitler's book ''Mein Kampf''. In 1934, Jung wrote in a Swiss publication, the ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'', that he experienced "great surprise and disappointment" when the ''Zentralblatt'' associated his name with the pro-Nazi statement.

Jung went on to say "the main point is to get a young and insecure science into a place of safety during an earthquake". He did not end his relationship with the ''Zentralblatt'' at this time, but he did arrange the appointment of a new managing editor, Carl Alfred Meier of Switzerland. For the next few years, the ''Zentralblatt'' under Jung and Meier maintained a position distinct from that of the Nazis, in that it continued to acknowledge contributions of Jewish doctors to psychotherapy.

In the face of energetic German attempts to Nazify the international body, Jung resigned from its presidency in 1939, the year the Second World War started.

Influence

Jung has had an enduring influence on psychology as well as wider society. He founded a new school of psychotherapy, called analytical psychology or Jungian psychology. His theories include:

The concept of introversion and extraversion.

The concept of the complex.

The concept of collective unconscious, which is shared by all people. It includes the archetypes.

Synchronicity as a mode of relationship that is not causal, an idea which has influenced Wolfgang Pauli (with whom he developed the notion of Unus mundus in connection with the notion of non-locality) and some other physicists.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Socionics were both inspired by Jung's psychological types theory.

Spirituality as a cure for alcoholism

Jung recommended spirituality as a cure for alcoholism and he is considered to have had an indirect role in establishing Alcoholics Anonymous. Jung once treated an American patient (Rowland Hazard III), suffering from chronic alcoholism. After working with the patient for some time and achieving no significant progress, Jung told the man that his alcoholic condition was near to hopeless, save only the possibility of a spiritual experience. Jung noted that occasionally such experiences had been known to reform alcoholics where all else had failed.

Rowland took Jung's advice seriously and set about seeking a personal spiritual experience. He returned home to the United States and joined a First-Century Christian evangelical movement known as the Oxford Group (later known as Moral Re-Armament). He also told other alcoholics what Jung had told him about the importance of a spiritual experience. One of the alcoholics he brought into the Oxford Group was Ebby Thacher, a long-time friend and drinking buddy of Bill Wilson, later co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Thacher told Wilson about the Oxford Group, and through them Wilson became aware of Hazard's experience with Jung. The influence of Jung thus indirectly found its way into the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous, the original twelve-step program, and from there into the whole twelve-step recovery movement, although AA as a whole is not Jungian and Jung had no role in the formation of that approach or the twelve steps.

The above claims are documented in the letters of Jung and Bill W., excerpts of which can be found in ''Pass It On'', published by Alcoholics Anonymous. Although the detail of this story is disputed by some historians, Jung himself discussed an Oxford Group member, who may have been the same person, in talks given around 1940. The remarks were distributed privately in transcript form, from shorthand taken by an attender (Jung reportedly approved the transcript), and later recorded in Volume 18 of his Collected Works, ''The Symbolic Life'' ("For instance, when a member of the Oxford Group comes to me in order to get treatment, I say, 'You are in the Oxford Group; so long as you are there, you settle your affair with the Oxford Group. I can't do it better than Jesus.'" Jung goes on to state that he has seen similar cures among Roman Catholics).

Art therapy

Jung proposed that Art can be used to alleviate or contain feelings of trauma, fear, or anxiety and also to repair, restore and heal. In his work with patients and in his own personal explorations, Jung wrote that art expression and images found in dreams could be helpful in recovering from trauma and emotional distress. Jung often drew, painted, or made objects and constructions at times of emotional distress, which he recognized as recreational.

Influences on culture

Literature

Laurens van der Post claimed to have had a 16-year-long friendship with Jung, from which a number of books and a film were created about Jung's life. The accuracy of van der Post's claims about the closeness of his relationship to Jung have been questioned. Hermann Hesse, author of works such as ''Siddhartha'' and ''Der Steppenwolf'', was treated by Dr. Joseph Lang, a student of Jung. This began for Hesse a long preoccupation with psychoanalysis, through which he came to know Jung personally. Joyce's ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' can be read as an ironic parody of Jung's "four stages of eroticism". Jung appears as a character in the novel ''Possessing the Secret of Joy'' by Alice Walker. He appears as the therapist of Tashi, the novel's protagonist. He is usually called "Mzee" but is identified by Alice Walker in the afterword. Jung appears as a character in Timothy Findley's novel ''Pilgrim.'' During the title character's stay at the Burghölzli Psychiatric Clinic in Zürich, Switzerland, Carl Gustav Jung is his therapist.

Robertson Davies' novel ''The Manticore'' is told from the perspective of a man undergoing Jungian psychoanalysis.

Alchemy

The work and writings of Jung from the 1940s onwards focused on alchemy. In 1963 ''Mysterium Coniunctionis'' was first published in the ''Collected Works of C.G. Jung''. ''Mysterium Coniunctionis'' was Jung's last book and focused on the "Mysterium Coniunctionis" archetype, known as the sacred marriage between sun and moon. Jung argued that the stages of the alchemists, the blackening, the whitening, the reddening and the yellowing, could be taken as symbolic of individuation - his favourite term for personal growth (75).

Art

The visionary Swiss painter Peter Birkhäuser was treated by a student of Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, and corresponded with Jung regarding the translation of dream symbolism into works of art. American Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock underwent Jungian psychotherapy in 1939 with Dr. Joseph Henderson. His therapist made the decision to engage him through his art, and had Pollock make drawings, which led to the appearance of many Jungian concepts in his paintings. Contrary to some sources, Jung did not visit Liverpool but recorded a dream in which he had, and of which he wrote "Liverpool is the pool of life, it makes to live." As a result a statue of Jung was erected in Mathew Street in 1987 but, being made of plaster, was vandalised and replaced by a more durable version in 1993.

Television and film

Federico Fellini brought to the screen an exuberant imagery shaped by his encounter with the ideas of Carl Jung, especially Jungian dream interpretation. Fellini preferred Jung to Freud because Jungian analysis defined the dream not as a symptom of a disease that required a cure but rather as a link to archetypal images shared by all of humanity.

Niles Crane from popular TV show Frasier is an adherent of Jung, while his brother Frasier is a Freudian.

BBC interview with John Freeman at Jung's home in Zurich. 1959.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2011/02/face_to_face_john_freeman_and_his_remarkable_guests.html

Music

Peter Gabriel's song "Rhythm of the Heat" from the 1982 album ''Security'', tells about Jung's visit to Africa, during which he joined a group of tribal drummers and dancers and became overwhelmed by the fear of losing control of himself. At the time, Jung was exploring the concept of the collective unconscious and was afraid he would come under control of the music. Gabriel learned about Jung's journey to Africa from the essay ''Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams'' (ISBN 0-691-09968-5). In the song, Gabriel tries to capture the powerful feelings the African tribal music evoked in Jung by means of intense use of tribal drumbeats. The original song title was "Jung in Africa". On the cover of The Police's final album, ''Synchronicity'', which was named after Carl Jung's theory, Sting is seen reading a book called ''Synchronicity'' by Carl Jung.

MGMT's song "Metanoia" features various references to Jung, addressing him as the "mystic referee". Jung is also featured on the single cover in a referee's uniform.

Tool's song "Forty Six & 2" makes references to a wish to experience change through the "Shadow (psychology)" one of the three most recognizable Jungian archetypes.

Video games

The Persona series, a spin-off series of the Megami Tensei series of games, draws from many elements of Jungian psychology as well as various Jungian archetypes.

The PSX game Xenogears and the PS2 series Xenosaga draws from many elements of Jungian psychology, such as the concept of Anima, Animus and the Collective Unconscious.

See also

;Topics

Active imagination

Analytical psychology

Anima and animus

Answer to Job

Archetypal cosmology

Archetypal literary criticism

Archetypal pedagogy

Archetypal psychology

Bollingen Tower

Collective unconscious

Dream interpretation

Individuation

Jungian archetypes

Jungian interpretation of religion

Jungian Type Index

Jung Type Indicator

Keirsey Temperament Sorter

Logos

Logotherapy

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Neo-Freudian

Nekyia

Personality test

Psychodynamics

Wounded healer

;People

Alfred Adler

Jean Shinoda Bolen

Martin Buber – see the Buber-Jung disputations

Joseph Campbell – popularizer of Jungian ideas

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Erich Neumann – developer of matriarchal mythological adaptations of Jungian thought

Joel Ryce-Menuhin - proponent of sandplay therapy

Herbert Silberer

D. T. Suzuki – see An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, for which C.G. Jung wrote a preface

Marie Louise von Franz – Founder of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich

Richard Wilhelm – Translator of the I Ching

Bill W. (Bill Wilson) founder of Alcoholics Anonymous

Victor White (Dominican) - Father Victor White, OP, correspondent and friend,"My white raven".

;Organizations

International Association of Analytical Psychologists

International Association for Jungian Studies

Philemon Foundation

OPUS Archives and Research Center

Notes and references

Further reading

;Introductory texts

Carl Gustav Jung, ''Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice (The Tavistock Lectures)'', (Ark Paperbacks), 1990, ISBN 0-7448-0056-0

Anthony Stevens, ''Jung. A Very Short Introduction'', Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994, ISBN 0-19-285458-5

Anthony Stevens, ''On Jung'', Princeton University Press, 1990 (1999).

''The Basic Writings of C.G. Jung'', edited by V.S. de Laszlo (The Modern Library, 1959)

''The Portable Jung'', edited by Joseph Campbell (Viking Portable), ISBN 0-14-015070-6

Edward F Edinger, ''Ego and Archetype'', (Shambhala Publications), ISBN 0-87773-576-X

Another recommended tool for navigating Jung's works is Robert Hopcke's book, ''A Guided Tour of the Collected Works of C.G. Jung'', ISBN 1-57062-405-4. He offers short, lucid summaries of all of Jung's major ideas and suggests readings from Jung's and others' work that best present that idea.

Edward C. Whitmont, ''The Symbolic Quest: Basic Concepts of Analytical Psychology'', Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1969, 1979, ISBN 0-691-02454-5

''The Cambridge Companion to Jung, second edition'', edited by Polly Young-Eisendrath and Terence Dawson, published in 2008 by Cambridge University Press.

;Texts in various areas of Jungian thought

Robert Aziz, ''C.G. Jung’s Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity'' (1990), currently in its 10th printing, is a refereed publication of State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-0166-9.

Robert Aziz, ''Synchronicity and the Transformation of the Ethical in Jungian Psychology'' in Carl B. Becker, ed. ''Asian and Jungian Views of Ethics''. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999. ISBN 0-313-30452-1.

Robert Aziz, ''The Syndetic Paradigm:The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung'' (2007), a refereed publication of The State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-6982-8.

Robert Aziz, Foreword in Lance Storm, ed. Synchronicity: Multiple Perspectives on Meaningful Coincidence. Pari, Italy: Pari Publishing, 2008. ISBN 978-88-95604-02-2

Wallace Clift, Jung and Christianity: The Challenge of Reconciliation. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1982. ISBN 0-8245-0409-7

Edward F. Edinger, ''The Mystery of The Coniunctio'', ISBN 0-919123-67-8. A good explanation of Jung's foray into the symbolism of alchemy as it relates to individuation and individual religious experience. Many of the alchemical symbols recur in contemporary dreams (with creative additions from the unconscious e.g. space travel, internet, computers)

Wolfgang Giegerich, ''The Soul's Logical Life'', ISBN 3-631-38225-1. A critique and extension of Jungian Theory.

James A Hall M.D., ''Jungian Dream Interpretation'', ISBN 0-919123-12-0. A brief, well structured overview of the use of dreams in therapy.

James Hillman, "Healing Fiction", ISBN 0-88214-363-8. Covers Jung, Adler, and Freud and their various contributions to understanding the soul.

Andrew Samuels, ''Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis'', ISBN 0-415-05910-0

June Singer, ''Boundaries of the Soul'', ISBN 0-385-47529-2. On psychotherapy

Marion Woodman, ''The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation'' ISBN 0-919123-20-1. The recovery of feminine values in women (and men). There are many examples of clients' dreams, by an experienced analyst.

;Academic texts

Andrew Samuels, ''The Political Psyche'' (Routledge), ISBN 0-415-08102-5.

Lucy Huskinson, ''Nietzsche and Jung: The Whole Self in the Union of Opposites'' (Routledge), ISBN 1583918337 Excellent analysis of the highly significant anticipation and influence of the philosophy of Nietzsche on Jung.

;Jung-Freud relationship

Kerr, John. ''A Most Dangerous Method : The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein.'' Knopf 1993. ISBN 0-679-40412-0.

;Other people's recollections of Jung

van der Post, Laurens, "Jung and the story of our time", New York : Pantheon Books, 1975. ISBN 0-394-49207-2

Hannah, Barbara, "Jung, his life and work; a biographical memoir", New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1976. SBN: 399-50383-8

;Critical scholarship on Jung by historians

Richard Noll, The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement (Princeton University Press, 1994); and

Richard Noll, The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung (Random House, 1997)

Anthony Stevens, ''On Jung'' (second edition) includes an appendix where Noll's derogatory claims are refuted.

Sonu Shamdasani, ''Cult Fictions'', ISBN 0-415-18614-5. Critique of the above works by Noll.

Sonu Shamdasani, ''Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology : The Dream of a Science'', ISBN 0-521-53909-9. A comprehensive study of the origins of Jung's psychology which places it in a historical and philosophical context. The author calls this a "Cubist history".

Sonu Shamdasani, ''Jung Stripped Bare'', ISBN 1-85575-317-0. Critique of Jung biographies.

Bair, Deirdre. ''Jung: A Biography''. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 2003.

;Works in the public domain

Carl Jung: ''Forward to the I Ching''

The Association Method Full text article from 1916. Originally Published in the Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology.

On The Psychology & Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena Full text article from 1916. Originally Published in the Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology.

Category:1875 births Category:1961 deaths Category:People from Arbon District Category:ETH Zurich faculty Category:German-language philosophers Category:History of mental health Category:People associated with the University of Zurich Category:Psychodynamics Category:Psychologists of religion Category:Psychology writers Category:Swiss astrologers Category:Swiss autobiographers Category:Swiss Christians Category:Swiss philosophers Category:Swiss psychiatrists Category:Swiss psychologists Category:Symbologists Category:Western mystics Category:University of Basel alumni Category:History of psychiatry Category:People from Rapperswil-Jona Category:20th-century philosophers

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John Lamb Lash (born 1945) is an American author and scholar (comparative mythologist).

He is author of a number of books including ''The Seeker's Handbook: The Complete Guide to Spiritual Pathfinding'' (Crown, 1991), ''Twins and the Double'' (Thames & Hudson, 1993), ''The Hero - Manhood and Power'' (Thames & Hudson, 1995), ''Quest for the Zodiac'' (Starhenge Books, 1999) and ''Not in His Image'' (Chelsea Green Publishing Company , 2006) . His work has focuses on Gnosticism and the myth of Sophia.

See also

Gnosticism

Pistis Sophia

External links

Interviews with Joanna Harcourt-Smith

Official Blog

Lash's article on the relationship between the Archons and The Flyers called "The Topic of Topics" at metahistory.org

References

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Mythographers Category:Comparative mythologists Category:American writers