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The Gnostic View of Human Beings
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At the heart of every religion is the concept of the human being. After all, is this not the primary function of religion in the first place? The Gnostic religion is extremely private; it is best described as a solitude journey to the truth. There is no means by which one individual may tell another how it is that they may achieve the gnosis. While there are many different sects of Gnosticism, it is fairly agreeable that Gnosticism is intensely private, and these qualities are common throughout.
The Gnostics’ view of the human being mirrors the duality found throughout the religion itself. Part of the human being is produced by the false god (the demiurge) and part is produced by the light of the True God. Thus, human beings are essentially not the product of the material world itself. The human body is composed of both physical and psychic components, both of which are perishable. The spiritual component within each human is a fragment of the divine essence, this is the divine spark.
Humans are generally unaware of this divine spark. The ignorance is the cause of the demiurge and his archons. While they are intent on keeping humanity as “sleep walkers”, awakening from this is possible. However, the human must realize his or her enslavement to earthly things as their enslavement to the archons. Realization of this is not only the product of the individual’s desire for liberation but it is also an act of supernatural assistance.
It has been said that whoever explores the human experience will discover the divine reality. To fully understand the gnostic view of the human being, it is interesting to read about psychologist Carl Jung’s personality theory and how he relates it to Gnosticism.
Not all humans are spiritual (called pneumatics) and are ready for the gnosis. Some humans are materialistic and are still bound to the earth (hyletics). Still others are living mainly in their psyche (psychics) and regard the demiurge as the True God and have literally no awareness of the spiritual world beyond matter and mind. Different sects of Gnosticism regard these types of humans in different ways, the most common and detailed classification is found in Valentinian Gnosticism. |
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