The Order of Ouroboros: The New Movement of Ancient Gnosticism

Ouroboros
The world snake (ouroboros) in the form of an amulet in a Greek magical papyrus of the 3rd century A.D.  The amulet, which is the name and seal "of the might of the great god," protects its owner "against demons, against spirits, against all illness and suffering."  The inscription consists of magical words and signs (inter alia Yaeo) and the formula: "Protect me, NN, body and soul from all injury."



Definitions Click to view H. R. Giger's Crucified Serpent and other images

Gnos·ti·cism
n.

The doctrines of certain pre-Christian pagan, Jewish, and early Christian sects that valued the revealed knowledge of God and of the origin and end of the human race as a means to attain redemption for the spiritual element in human beings and that distinguished the Demiurge from the unknowable Divine Being.

dem·i·urge
n.

Demiurge. A deity in Gnosticism, Manicheeism, and other religions who creates the material world and is sometimes viewed as the originator of evil.

her·e·sy
n.

heresy from a Greek word signifying (1) a choice, (2) the opinion chosen, and (3) the sect holding the opinion. In the Acts of the Apostles (5:17; 15:5; 24:5, 14; 26:5) it denotes a sect, without reference to its character. In Titus 3:10 a "heretical person" is one who follows his own self-willed "questions," and who is to be avoided.

pis·tis1
n.

pistis (Greek), root of: epistimology 1: believing by an "act of will", excluding all evidence to the contrary. 2: willing oneself to believe under threat of imminent and painful extinction or social ostracism. 3: to hold a position as true, against honest identification, in response to the aforementioned fears, or out of presumed inability.

Secret Knowledge of The OuroborosConfused?  Don't worry, it is not any easy concept to grasp.  The purpose of this site is to help newcomers understand the complexity of Gnosticism.  Provided on this site will be various links to Gnostic sites and recommendations for books about Gnosticism.  I have previewed these sites and books and I believe they will help in understanding Gnosticism.  For those who are interested, this site will be home base for a Gnostic group known as The Order of Ouroboros.  For more information about The Order of Ouroboros click on the ouroboros to the left For an overview read the contents below.

I will accept insight from those who choose to provide it.  Post a message in my guestbook or e-mail me at webmaster@ouroboros.zzn.com  I will answer all questions to the best of my ability.


THE ANCIENT GNOSTIC CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT
The ancient Gnostic Christian movement emphasized the quest for understanding, but not a common, mundane understanding; they searched for a higher knowledge, a more profound insight into the deep and secret elements of God. Like other mystics, Gnostics admitted that this saving knowledge cannot be acquired through memorization of phrases or the study of books; nevertheless, like other mystics, they composed numerous documents explaining the nature of spiritual gnosis.

These Gnostic texts proclaim a completely good and transcendent God, whose enlightened greatness is utterly unfathomable and essentially indescribable. Yet this divine Other can be experienced in a person's inner life, for the spirit within is actually the divine self, the inner spark or ray of heavenly light. The tragedy of human existence, however, is that most people fail to realize the fulfillment of the divine life, because of the harsh world that functions as the stage for the human drama.Abraxas

The Gnostics understood this mortal world, with all its evils and distractions, to be a deadly trap for one who seeks knowledge. Moreover, the divine spirit is imprisoned by the passions of the sensual soul and the elements of the fleshly body. Gnostic texts employ various figures of speech to depict the sorry fate of the entrapped spirit: it is asleep, drunk, sick, ignorant, and in darkness. In order to be liberated, then, the spirit needs to be awakened and brought to sobriety, wholeness, knowledge, and enlightenment. This transformation in one's life, Gnostics maintained, is accomplished through a call from God - the God within and without - to discover true knowledge and rest. For Gnostic Christians, the source of the divine call is Christ.

Because of their beliefs, many Gnostics were considered dissidents in the ancient world. They called into question the values of "civilized" society and instead fostered spiritual values and lifestyles. Some radical Gnostics retreated from the world to the solitary life of the monk or the ascetic, and refused to participate in the everyday business of human society. Other equally radical Gnostics flaunted their disdain for conventional human values by disregarding the amenities of polite society and practiced a libertine way of life. Most Gnostics, however, probably led normal lives in society, while engaging in an inner, spiritual quest for God.

Within the church as well, Gnostic believers often advocated a faith and life quite different from what church leaders were promoting. Gnostic Christians challenged the authority of the priests and bishops and suggested that a spiritual, Gnostic life devoted to a spiritual, Gnostic Christ allowed them to approach and embrace God directly: thus, the station and necessity of the church was eliminated. For their stance Gnostic Christians were eventually condemned as heretics in the debates about orthodoxy and heresy that raged within the early church, and most of their books were repressed or destroyed by their triumphant opponents.

Prior to the discovery of The Nag Hammadi Library, there were relatively few reliable sources of information regarding the Gnostics. Much of what was known came from the hostile writings of the philosophers and theologians who tried to silence the Gnostics. And now The Nag Hammadi Library finally allows the Gnostics to speak for themselves and present their theology in a fair and attractive manner.


Nag Hammadi TextTHE NAG HAMMADI DISCOVERY
The discovery at Nag Hammadi was very significant to Gnosticism. Beyond the fact that it contained a wealth of information, it put Gnosis in a new light. It was no longer only portrayed by the accounts of heresiologists and maybe a few surviving documents. For Gnostics it was the single most important discovery of all time. One of the important aspects of the find is that it proved that Gnosticism is not strictly a Christian heresy. Some documents that were found are entirely un-Christian, others contain elements of Christianity and even words spoken by Jesus himself. As for the discovery in itself, it is an interesting one; it was not discovered by archaeologists, in fact local farmers recovered the texts quite by accident.2

In December 1945, a most startling discovery was made. Two Egyptian fellahin [(fel"a-hen'), Arabic for a peasant or agricultural laborer] were digging for natural fertilizer in the Nile River valley at the foot of a most marvelous cliff called the Jabal al-Tarif near the town of Nag Hammadi when they happened to unearth a sealed storage jar. The jar lain buried there in the sand for centuries. One of the farmers, Muhammad Ali al-Samman Muhammad Khalifah tells the story of how he feared to open the jar lest he release a jinn (or spirit) imprisoned within it. After some consideration, Muhammad Ali thought perhaps there was a treasure of gold to be found. Soon, his fear of jinns was overcome by his dreams of gold and he opened the jar. According to Muhammad Ali, indeed, there was gold inside: it flew out of the jar and ascended to the sky, leaving a collection of papyrus books which he threw upon his camel and took home.

The gold that Muhammad Ali saw was probably tiny papyrus fragments. Bits of papyrus, golden in color and glistening in the sun, could easily be mistaken for gold by one who hoped to find treasure. As disappointed as Muhammad Ali was that day, he did find a treasure, more valuable perhaps than any jar of gold: a collection of ancient manuscripts, now commonly referred to as the The Nag Hammadi Library in reference to its town of discovery.

This manuscript discovery consists of thirteen codices, or books, containing some 52 texts, the majority of which were previously unknown. Most of the texts reflect the teachings of a mystical, esoteric religious movement commonly known as Gnosticism (from the Greek word gnosis, "knowledge"). The texts are also, with few exceptions, Christian documents, and thus provide valuable new information about the character of the early church, and about the Gnostic Christians within the church, during its first, formative centuries.


Books
Borders Books and Music

For more books about Gnosticism click the book.



Links

Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge

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