Am I still Catholic? (part 6: Gnosticism)

12/07/2023

I. From Google research

Gnosticism is a collection of religious ideas and systems that blended in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge above the teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions.

Gnostics tend to believe that there are multiple gods, including a supreme, transcendent god (that is not located within space and time) and an inferior creator god who made the material world. This inferior god is an imperfect divine being and is distinct from the supreme God. By contrast, Christian doctrine holds that there is one God.

Gnostics have also taught the existence of the divine spark in humans. This is the belief that human beings contain a piece of God (the highest good or a divine spark) within themselves.

Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring enlightenment to the earth. Others adamantly deny that the supreme being came in the flesh, claiming Jesus to be merely a human who attained enlightenment and taught his disciples to do the same.

Overall, Gnostics seem to focus on eradication of ignorance, while Christians seem to focus on the eradication of sin.

II. My thoughts and beliefs

Within the emphasis of personal spiritual knowledge are varying degrees of beliefs, since each journey is individual. Most of what I found online, as paraphrased above, is what I currently believe, and is subject to change as I continue my journey. However, I’ve been pretty consistent on my Gnosticism for the last few years and I believe it’s where the ghost beside my bed wanted me to be.

I never believed in multiple gods before reading about this Gnostic belief. However, it makes sense to me in this way. There is a god that created everything and is sitting back to watch his creation. Then there is a lesser god that Christians pray to and worship. This lesser god answers prayers and “interferes” with humanity. Another lesser god is the devil and that’s how we get the battle on earth. The supreme creator god made both and just watches.

Growing up as a church catholic I never thought about the divine spark. However, I did believe that we received a piece of God each week in the Eucharistic. It seems like Gnostics believe that pieces of God are in humans, without the need for the Eucharist. The Gnostic viewpoint coincides with the Hermatic principles that I read in the Kyballion. It’s a legitimate viewpoint that I find myself leaning towards.

As a raised Catholic I believed that Jesus was the son of God. As a newly formed Gnostic-Catholic, I still believe that Jesus was the son if God, but now I’ll specify that He was the son of the Supreme God, not the son if the lesser god. Jesus became incarnate to bring enlightenment to the earth. I also believe that the Catholic leaders have forgotten that and the current Catholic Church isn’t what Jesus meant for spiritual knowledge and enlightenment.

I definitely find myself focusing more on the eradication of ignorance, instead of the eradication of sin, currently. In my younger years I was definitely all about eradication of sin from the earth and was pretty boisterous about it. Now I focus on eradicating my own ignorance which will, hopefully, ripple outward to those around me.