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I’ve been listening to Stephan Hoeller lectures, as I go to sleep at night. This has given me a pretty good introduction to Hoeller’s brand of gnosticism. I have been assailed (in a way) by gnosticism for over 25 years.

I would buy occult books in my idiot teen years, and one of them was “The Other Bible” which was (to 15 year old Marky) a snoozefest; mainly because there were no spells within to get me laid. Yes, I was a deep one. What the Other Bible had was a boatload of gnostic (Nag Hammadi) scriptures, full of those divine names constructed of mainly O and A. It seemed stupid to me at the time, and gained me nothing re: sex so I shelved it.

When I practiced Siddha Yoga, in my 20′s, gnosticism would rear its head in lectures and classes that I would take… and I would poo-poo it as simply Christianity turned upside down. It seemed unbelievably ridiculous.

When I studied religion at the University of Oregon, and I took an upper division class on Heresy… I was given gnosticism again. This time I had to digest the cosmology, and then present it to the class. Basically I taught gnosticism that day. It struck me as a video game. The soul’s journey after death past guardians, and archons, and demons, and… demiurges… seemed a direct analog of a video game, with it’s creatures, and puzzles and boss battles.

There’s more to it of course. The Matrix trilogy is a pretty good allegory for the whole gnostic thang. The creator deity isn’t “God”. He’s kind of a half simple embarassment (like George W Bush)… accidental offspring of the divine Sophia. This half wit creates our universe, and that explains why the old testament god is such an irrational dickwad.

Anyhoo, since I have grown older and more/less wise/foolish  stumbled across the site of BC Recordings, and their archive of gnostic lectures, by one Stephan Hoeller. They have several, actually a lot, of free lectures, and I nicked them all. I like them. Hoeller is an old man, almost 80, and he has a Hungarian accent, so he sounds exactly like a cartoon psychiatrist, which is strangely apropos because one of the pillars of Hoeller’s gnosticism is Carl Gustav Jung, for whom I have tremendous respect.

So I have a new interest in Gnosticism. Not a belief, but an interest. Belief is the kudzu of the soul, interest is ticklish and fuzzy. So, if you’re interested, take a look at this video, which is simply a lecture of Hoeller’s with a slide show, and see if you dig it. Hail Eris.