Knowledge Beyond Belief

Taken from The Jesus Mysteries by Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus writes “Human opinions are toys for children’. The sages of the Pagan Mysteries were disparaging about mere beliefs or opinions; they were interested in knowledge. Plato argued that belief is concerned only with appearances of things, while knowledge penetrates to the underlying reality. The highest level of understanding, he proclaimed, is that knowledge through which the mind becomes unified with the object of knowledge. The Gnostics inherited these Pagan teachings and were also disparaging of pistis (faith) in comparison with Gnosis (knowledge).

Gnosis is not an idea that is open to doubt, but a mystical experience of the Truth which is immediate, certain and completely non-conceptual. Whilst Literalist Christians extolled the spiritual value of blind faith and commanded the faithful not to question that they were told by the bishops, the Gnostic masters, like the Pagan sages before them, taught that through initiation into the Inner Mysteries initiates could directly experience Gnosis and know the Truth for themselves.

For the Gnostics, faith was only a stepping-stone leading to Gnosis. The Gnostic teacher Heracleon explains that first people believe through faith in the testimony of others, but they need to go on to experience the Truth directly. Clement taught :

Faith in the foundation; Gnosis the superstructure. By Gnosis faith is perfected for to know is more than to believe. Gnosis is proof of what has been received through faith.

Like the Pagan sages, the Gnostics taught that all doctrines were merely approaches to the Truth, which was itself beyond words and concepts, and could only be found through experiencing Gnosis for oneself. The Gospel of Philip explains :

Names can be very deceptive, for hey divert our thoughts from what is accurate to what is inaccurate. Thus one who hears the word “God” does not perceive what is accurate, but does perceive what is inaccurate. So also with ‘the Father” and “the Son”, and “the Holy Spirit”, and “life” and “resurrection” and “the church” and all the rest – people do not perceive what is accurate, but they perceive what is inaccurate.

Self Knowledge

The most important injunction on the spiritual path of the Pagan Mysteries was inscribed over the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi : Gnothi Seauton – Know They Self. The Gnosis or Knowledge which initiates of the Pagan Mysteries south was Self-knowledge.

The Gnostic Book of Thomas the Contender likewise teaches :

Whoever has not known himself has known nothing, but he who has known himself has at the same time already achieved Gnosis about the depth of all things.

In The Testimony of Truth Jesus advises a disciple to become ‘a disciple of his own mind’ which is ‘the father of Truth’. The Gnostic sage Silvanus encourages :

Knock on yourself as upon a door and walk upon yourself as on a straight road. For if you walk on the road, it is impossible for you to go astray. Open the door for yourself so that you may know what is.

But what is the self? The Pagan sages taught that every human being has a mortal lower self called the ‘eidolon’ and an immortal Higher Self called the Daemon. The eidolon is the embodies self, the physical body and personality. The Daemon is the Spirit, the true Self which is each person’s spiritual connection to God. The mysteries were designed to help initiates realise that the eidolon is a false self and that their true identity is the immortal Daemon.

From the eidolon’s point of view the Daemon appears to be an independent Guardian Angel. Initiates who still identify with the eidolon, therefore, do not experience the Daemon as their own true Self, but as a spirit guide whose job it is to lead them to their spiritual destination. Plato teaches “We should think of the most authoritative part of the soul as a Guardian Spirit given by God which lifts us to our heavenly home’.

The Gnostic sages taught exactly the same Mystery doctrine. Valentinus explains that a person receives Gnosis from their Guardian Angel, but that this angelic being is actually the seeker’s own Higher Self. In ancient Egypt the Daemon had for millennia been pictured as a Heavenly Twin of the eidolon. This image is also found in Gnosticism. The Gnostic sage Mani was said to have been conscious of having a protecting angel from the age of four and aged 12, to have realized it was his Heavenly Twin, whom he called the ‘most beautiful and largest mirror image of my own person’.

In The Acts of John, John observes that Jesus sometimes held converse with a Heavenly Twin who descended to join him :

When all of us, his disciples, were sleeping in one house, at Gennesaret, I alone, having wrapped myself up, watched from under my garment what he did; and first I heard him say, ‘John go thou to asleep’, and thereupon I feigned to be asleep and I saw another like unto him come down, whom I also hears saying to my Lord “Jesus, do they whom thou hast chosen still not believe in thee?” And my Lord said, ‘Thou sayest well, for they are men.’

The Pistis Sophia relates a charming myth of the child Jesus meeting his own Heavenly Twin for the first time. His mother Mary recalls :

When thou were a child, before the Spirit had descended upon thee, when thou wert in the vineyard with Jospeh, the Spirit came down from the height, and came unto me in the house, like unto thee, and I knew Him not, but thought that he was thou. And he said unto me “Where is Jesus, my brother, that I may go to meet him?”