What is Gnosis?
Gnosis is the term the Greeks originally used to refer to “ultimate knowledge.” One can acquire this ultimate knowledge through divine inner experience. The experience refers to having close relations with God and filling one’s self with a complete spiritual realm. A Gnostic is one who has had a close experience with God or who has the means through which to have such an experience. Gnosis has been around for centuries and it is said to be the studies that empowered the most relevant religious figures such as Jesus, Buddha, Hermes, Moses, and Socrates to name just a few. All of these religious leaders have taught Gnosis at one time, although it was tailored to the times when it was needed.
One who wishes to study Gnosticism for the purpose of becoming a Gnosis must seek their own Truth, and their own experience. This involves tuning in to their consciousness and blocking out all obstacles, such as their own Ego. Finding the Truth can be obtained through a number of methods including meditation, dream yoga, and many more practices within the Gnosis religion. The four basic elements in the study of Gnosis are Science, Art, Philosophy, and Mysticism/Religion. The student is given tasks by a teacher of Gnosis so that the teacher may see that the student is truly learning Gnosis and that they have the knowledge to apply it.
To truly understand the teachings of Gnosticism, one must realize the divine spark they have within them. Most people don’t realize that they possess this spark due to the false creator keeping the truth of their destiny from them. Under the Gnosis belief, these individuals are tied to the physical world and cannot see what is past it. This attachment to the physical realm is what hinders them in understanding and experiencing Gnosis. Death releases the divine spark and if the individual that has passed has not gone through Gnosticism study, the soul that the spark belonged to will be returned to the physical world.
The achievement of Gnosis itself is what represents salvation to those who study and believe in it. Salvation is not considered to be freedom from any type of sin but rather, the unknowing mind, which results in sin. Simply put, to achieve salvation with Gnosis, one must achieve a state of knowing and understanding their true destiny. However, one cannot achieve Gnosis on their own. They must be guided by a Messenger of Light, teachers of Gnosis.
There is much that has been written about Gnosis and while much of it is true, some of it is also misleading as many don’t understand the true concept of Gnosis. While some think of Gnosis and Gnosticism as two different entities, you simply cannot have one without the other and in many languages and cultures, when you speak of one, you speak of the other.
