a “helper” – luminous epinoia [“creative” or “inventive” consciousness] which comes out of him, who is called Life [Eve]; and she “helps” the ..
Personified insight (epinoia, from Greek) plays a dominant role throughout the ...
So I had not heard of Epinoia before - it was declared heretical by the church. After finally finishing Elaine Pagel's "Beyond Belief" - I can conclude that the church "founder" Irenaeus was a "control freak" - left brain dominance, hierarchy pusher, basically a Chimpanzee out of control. haha. Quoting Pagels:
But when Adam and Eve disobeyed him, and chose to seek knowledge of the divine Source above, he realized that they had listened to their inner resource, the luminous Epinoia. As soon as the creator-god realized what they had done, he retaliated; first he punished them both, and even cursed the earth itself because of them; then he tried to force the woman to subject herself to the man, saying, “your husband shall rule over you”; and, finally, “all his angels cast them out of paradise,” burdening them with “bitter fate” and with daily chores to make them oblivious to luminous Epinoia.”
I seriously had no idea that the Book of John relied on Jesus having manifested during the Old Testament as the "word" of God and since - according to the Church - the Jews killed Jesus, therefore God had scorned the Jews. This is super creepy stuff. I'm glad I left the church in high school - or at least when my minister asked me to become a minister - I said I don't think you need the church to be spiritual.
I didn't know I was referring to Epinoia. Epionoia is female creative energy that has light but also has a kind of substance to it I think as it is of the body, apparently.
I'm not a "gnostic" either with their anti-body approach but then again I do agree with searching for the light within the body.
So then I was rereading D.M. Murdock's classic tome, Christ In Egypt - someone put it online (pdf).
So Osiris is the Nile while Isis is the fertile land and Horus is the Sun. The Baptism of the water also needs a Baptism by Fire - in Egypt (and in Gnostic early Christianity).
Elaine Pagels emphasizes it was this "second" spiritual baptism by fire that really pissed off the "catholic" church hierarchy that was developing under Ignatius and Polycarp (and their mentor Irenaeus).
So Acharya S. aka D.M. Murdock does a definitive job proving that the Book of John actually was from Alexandria Egypt and was based on Egyptian Logos alchemy. But, the irony being then, that this gnostic book had to become the main tool to be used against the gnostics. So what had been spiritual training now was to be stripped of all its secret meaning - and instead become just a simplistic straightforward story, literalized.
So what got lost was the local ecological connection to the Nile - tied to the water cycles with the Sun and Stars (and the Moon). Instead - well - we are told that humanity is basically evil and so can not redeem itself - and so only by placing full faith in the institution of the Church (now the roman empire)....
Yeah it's actually quite tragic. And so D.M. Murdock also proves that the gnostics actually predated Christianity and the Jewish gnostics relied on hermetic alchemy which itself was ancient. So it's really this ancient alchemy training that interests me. Of course Pythagorean philosophy is tied in.
One of the key Gnostic views is Aeon as time but Aion is also the cerebrospinal kundalini bliss energy - the Snake is also this kundalini bliss energy - the N/om from the original human culture, the San Bushmen.
So D.M. Murdock points out that Jesus was known to the Jews before Christianity as the word Jesus was from the Greek translation of the old testament - so that Yeshua was "savior" as Jesus - and Christ is the "anointed one" just as Lord also means "anointed one." So Anointed really means Jing energy and is therefore the secret of Epinoia.
So in this book the Epinoia is tied to the divine voice as a manifestation that is also the "oil of joy" of Christ
And we know from Daoist alchemy that the voice transmits the jing energy.
“And the Sophia of the Epinoia, being an aeon, conceived a thought from herself and the conception of the invisible Spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth a likeness out of herself without the consent of the Spirit, – he had not approved – and without her consort, and without his consideration. And though the person of her maleness had not approved, and she had not found her agreement, and she had thought without the consent of the Spirit and the knowledge of her agreement, (yet) she brought forth. And because of the invincible power which is in her, her thought did not remain idle, 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.” The Apocryphon of John, para. 25, The Nag Hammadi Library.So then we can think of Epionoia as Yin energy - jing - that needs to be purified and yet it is the foundation of spiritual alchemy training - just as Aion=aeon.
So Metis is closely tied to Epinoia (book google)
So the hearth as the counter-fire is a "dark heat" - this is what I have argued is the lower tan t'ien in Pythagorean alchemy.
I recommend you read Bishop Lightfoot's "Essays on Supernatural Religion." I had to go to the U of MN access center to read this "scholarly" work that was the definitive academic dismissal of the 19th C. "suns of god" thesis you claim has been discredited. Bishop Lightfoot's book was recently reissued though so you can order it if you don't frequent a good University.
To my amazement Bishop Lightfoot admits that indeed the "Ancient Texts" were of spurious origin and of great contention, with the canon gospels not composed till after 150 A.D. Not only that but Bishop Lightfoot is very clear that the Roman Church had a political agenda to attack the gnostics.
I have a masters degree so I know how to check my sources! haha You're just relying on vapid, empty "authority" for your own psychological reasons. Good luck!
Yep I'm back at the U of MN "cavern" for old book storage, reading Bishop Lightfoot's attack on W.R. Cassel's "Supernatural Religion." Lightfoot readily admits that Eusebius was parsing through the writings "of the Ancients" to decide what was authentic or not. Just based on that simple fact alone the spurious nature of the Gospels is evident. Yet Lightfoot argues:
That seems a back-handed strategy at best and at worse a strange way to treat supposedly sacred works. According to Lightfoot the sources for the 4 Gospels are, as per Eusebius:
Considering how much Lightfoot questions the authenticity of Ignatius and others, besides the fact the Eusebius openly was questioning his sources as being not authentic, the origin of the Gospels disappears into a cloud of smoke. There is much speculation about Papias and Irenaeus and Polycarp but that the Roman Church was fighting off the ascetic Gnostics is quite clear.
Robert Price has a new book - he was the main defender of Acharya S. - from academia
he cites her in this new book.
Robert PRice interview - amazing