TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information

Book Review: TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information By Erik Davis (Harmony Books 1998, updated 2^nd Ed. 2004)

This book was an interesting ride through the realm of “techno-mysticism”, pop culture, and the history of our mythic engagement with technology. It is a thick tome often overly wordy and at times too poetically hip – but it does provide a rather thorough and detailed examination of the topics. He covers quite a lot of ground. Davis seems to jump around quite a bit then near the end of the book he mentions that he did that on purpose to fragment the info like parsed up html code. There are quite a few memorable quotes here – I will try to find a few for this review.

Early in the book he mentions man as the creator (of technologies) – homo faber, and suggests that all culture is techno-culture. He suggests Hermes as the most appropriate deity-symbol of the technology of communication – the main topic of the book. Of course, Hermes is a trickster:

“As I announced in the outset, technology is a trickster. We blame technologies for things that arise from our social structures, and skewed priorities; we expect magic satisfactions from machines that they simply cannot provide; and we remain consistently hoodwinked by their unintended consequences.”

Hermes is a master of stealth and a thief. He relies on his cunning as tricksters do. Davis sees Apollo as a god of pure science but Hermes as a god of technological innovation whose sacred place is the crossroads (likened to the node of a network). Crossroads, village borders, and household doorways were marked with a herm, a rectangular pole with the head of Hermes atop it often accompanied by an erect phallus. Here offerings were left but also stolen as it was considered good luck to steal them. Later it is thought that the herms became like bulletin boards – places where information was passed along – like communication nodes – thus the word trivia comes from “three roads”. The crossroads or border areas were liminal zones and early trade was ambiguous with the lines blurred between gift, magic, barter, and theft. Later as trade became more institutionalized Hermes became “he of the Agora” and he became patron of merchants. Davis also sees the internet as a liminal crossroads where magic is possible. He notes that the trickery and techno savvy of Hermes are the same impulse. Later, in the Hellenistic city of Alexandria, Hermes would combine with the Egyptian Thoth to become ‘the divine engineer’. Apparently, Alexandria was a city of technological achievements. Here even the popular mystery cults infused with esotericism were technologized with gadgets such as animated statues. One such innovating engineer was named Heron. Apparently, the religious and philosophical pluralism of Alexandria was so numerous that people could be overwhelmed with choices in settling down to a portfolio – a bit like today perhaps. Gods were combined and re-tooled in various ways. The hybrid Hermes Trismegistus is thought to be such a hybrid but was considered to be a man rather than a god. This legendary figure was ascribed technological powers and lived on in later Arabian Islamic Alchemy traditions as the originator of the lineage. An Arabian utopian magical tome called the Picatrix examines some of his attributes. In legend, it was the Egyptian Thoth who brought forth the first big technology, the machine of writing.

Socrates and Plato both wrote of this noting the blessing and curse aspects of the technology of writing. Indeed throughout this book we are confronted with the ambivalence of technology with its pros and cons of both improving and degrading life. Two themes that pervade throughout are utopia and its inversion dystopia. Writing and language have often been associated with magic and has been noted as a form of animism as we ascribe recognized symbolic powers to words. Alphabetic writing allowed for cultural changes, greater self-analysis and information transfer, and more detailed trade accounting. It became the most practical code. Plato was strongly influenced by it and in turn strongly influenced civilization through his writings. The Greek alphabet was the first to capture the nuances of vowels as the previous Canaanite/Phoenician versions stuck with consonants. Perhaps it was the growing prominence of the alphabet and written language dialogue that aided the transition from mythological-based metaphysics to philosophical-based metaphysics. Earlier, in stories among the Mesopotamians and Jews the written clay tablet was a fetishized object of magical power. Clay tablets gave way to papyrus and scrolls and eventually the practical codex (used among the early Christian Gnostics) which became the book. The technology of transmutation, an alchemy of the soul leading to gnosis, pervades the Platonic Corpus Hermeticum, a text from the 2^nd to 4^th century C.E. attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. The later re-introduction of texts like these exposed the new ideas that fueled the Renaissance. Neo-Platonism ruled again for awhile until it was overthrown by the mechanistic view of the universe favored and/or explained by such as Newton, Descartes, and perhaps Galileo. But magic did not disappear. It simply took up new forms to adapt to changing times.

The alchemical fire later became quantifiable energy and as the structure and function of electricity became known it found a new home. The author waxes much about what he calls the “electronic imaginary” exemplified by the synching of external and internal energies. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries electricity and magic manifested in various ways – animal magnetism, Mesmerism, hypnotism, etc. The experiments of Maxwell and Faraday confirmed the presence of “electromagnetic fields”. This formed a scientific basis for a relationship between matter and spirit, a concern of the so-called Gnostic cosmologies of the ancient Hellenistic Middle and Near East. Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists embraced this connection and so a marriage of spiritual theory and speculative science was consummated. This continues into modern times in New Age doctrines. Medical theories based on a “vital power” would also proliferate as well as connect ancient doctrines with very similar ideas. Reich’s “orgonne” energy, Chinese “chi”, and Indian “prana” are a few of many examples. The magic of electricity began to show technological result with the telegraph. Now we could send messages over vast distances in a short amount of time. Marshall McLuhan in his book Understanding Media notes that this is the point where our nervous system began to be externalized but is also the advent of the Age of Anxiety. Indeed the author refers to McLuhan many times in the book and his theme of technology as a double-edged sword. The interplay of thoughts of utopia and dread does some to be a feature of technology and its corresponding anxiety. 19^th century Spiritualism was connected to concepts of electricity early on and continues today in the form of clubs that investigate ghosts and paranormal activity with electronic devices. Then came the fear of electronic surveillance, electrocution of criminals, electronic weapons, the possibility of electronic communication with extraterrestrials, and more electronic utopia as home electricity, telephones, and radio and electronic music were born. Tesla was an electrical genius who invented many things and envisioned others like a resonant universal energy that has yet to happen. He also contemplated the potential for abuse of such powers.

Next we come to the story of so-called Gnosticism, a mystical mix of Christianity with components of Platonism, Hermeticism, and Judaism. There have been several attempts to connect the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts in 1945 to the end of World War II and the potential destruction of earth via nuclear weapons but I see these as mostly speculative apocalyptic nonsense. World events, esotericism, prophecies, discoveries, and conspiracy theory have long been linked in the speculative mind.

Davis refers to the 20^th century as the Mythinformation Age – where was born the recognition of information as power and its subsequent quantification and packaging for sale. In the 1940’s came “information theory”, “an abstract technical analysis of messages and communication.” With its notions of coding, decoding, embedding,  probability, bandwidth, noise, and signal integrity – Information Theory was a “Big Idea” that paved the way to the more efficient and specific detailed signal paths and communication required in the Computer Age. Other Big Ideas like Chaos Theory and Complexity Theory also offer new ways to understand things that may have technological implications. The discovery of DNA and the genetic code in the 1950’s provided further analogy and example of the importance of information in biology. Life processes information.

The Gnostic/Hermetic symbol of the snake swallowing its tail – the Oroboros, is representative of the self-perpetuating cyclicity of nature. It can also represent the feedback loop, a key concept in systems theory and cybernetics. The father of cybernetics, Norbert Weiner, favored process over form, function over structure, as a better engineering model. Thus were blurred the lines between man and machine, between nature and artifice. Cognitive science, AI, complexity theory, and newer functional ideas like the study of networks have built upon the foundation of cybernetics. All of these tend to discover and examine patterns of information. Indeed pattern recognition is a big factor in sensual reality, as it was often necessary for survival. Perhaps there is even a feedback loop between evolving and recognizing pattern. In any case, cybernetics emphasized that both living beings and machines can be analyzed as systems of information flow.

Both Plato and the Gnostics wrote of the demiurge, the creator-god and Gnostic cosmology highlighted his morally indifferent ministers, the archons. These archons later became associated with shadowy figures behind the scenes, especially among conspiracy theorists, UFO cults, and New Age whackos. The Manichaean battle between Light and Dark, Good and Evil, has long been a part of Gnostic thought, and continues in the more paranoid circles. Augustine tried to put such ideas to rest when he declared that all was according to God’s plan and salvation was through God’s grace alone. Incidentally, his revelation came through a bibliomancy, opening a book randomly for divinatory purposes. The Gnostic notion of the Logos, the divine symbol, or Jesus as the great word, certainly suggests the subconscious reverence for the power of language and communication.  

Davis makes an interesting foray into the idea of early America as a place of frontiers to be tamed. He suggests that the American self is a gnostic self and that the new American secular freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights exalt knowledge and freedom over belief and trust in tradition. The works of Harold Bloom and Peter Lamborn Wilson are mentioned. Early American freemasonry was rampant and very influential. In addition to some crazy and totally off-the-mark ideas about ancient cultures, elitism, and conspiracies, there was a spirit of being free from the fetters of exoteric traditionalism. Masons developed an esotericism emphasizing the divine builder, the engineer, as an archetypal model. Davis and others have suggested that it was perhaps this notion that informed the pioneer spirit of Americans. Opportunity and exploration of the vast geographic wilderness was possible. Struggle, longing, and anxiety were often a part of this questing. Later would come the electronic frontiers culminating in the digital and internet frontiers.

Davis gives a history of the early development of computer networking, bulletin boards, and the early internet. Denizens of the net have long sought complete freedom and autonomy from government meddling. John Perry Barlow was the first to describe the net with William Gibson’s term “cyberspace”. In Barlow’s words:

“Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications.”

He also referred to it as a “civilization of the mind.” Jungian Gnostic writer Stephen Hoeller sees the ancient Gnostics as spiritual libertarians, at the time seeking freedom from tyranny. Libertarians tend to abhor social engineering. On the fringes of libertarianism are the anarchists. Hakim Bey’s idea of the “Temporary Autonomous Zone” is an anarchist idea where a temporary space-time is set up outside the realm of societal norms, laws, and consumptive models. The internet also has a bit of this quality. Bey disagrees with Hoeller, and thinks that internet and technology enhance the mind-body split since we commune with ideas in cyberspace. William Gibson’s 1984 book – Neuromancer – predicted the development of the internet and some of its psychological aspects. Mark Dery’s book – Escape Velocity – describes late 20^th century man as Homo Cyber, with the body becoming extraneous.

Davis explores an L.A. subculture called the Extropians who tout extropy, the opposite of entropy and who seek to circumvent the 2^nd law of thermodynamics through technologies such as smart drugs, life-extension strategies, megavitamins, and other cognitive enhancement technologies. They seem to be a more technological and science-oriented type of New Ager without much of the “fluff” but with similar goals. They espouse a philosophy of “transhumanism”, seeking to evolve beyond current limitations. Davis spends several pages exploring the Extropians’ technological utopian fantasies and comparing them to Gnostic and Platonic notions.  Their notions could also be compared to Nietzsche’s uberman. Davis sees most techno-spiritual movements as Promethean. He also gives a sketch of Gurdjieff, considering him very Promethean. He compares and contrasts the more spiritual-oriented Gurdjieffian Work to that of the more materialistic Extropians. Both involve re-programming oneself toward self-realization.

Next he explores early Scientology, which in the beginning was quite technologically oriented. L. Ron Hubbard’s interest in science fiction no doubt shaped the cult. It was only later that the cult became more paranoid and controlling. Scientology was perhaps an early designer cult, with a homemade cosmology. I have always liked such an idea but one needs to keep a sense of humor and be skeptical about the ultimate reality of such things. Concerning technology the question remains – is technology our servant or have we become slaves to technology? I think a bit of both. The advent of hallucinogenic drug use in the midst of a technological society probably really brought things to a head. Drug culture, the human potentials movement, and technology seemed to form a mind-soup of new ways to experience reality. Later, things like biofeedback, brain machines, binaural beats, AI, and virtual reality offered milder psychedelic experiences. Then came the more consumeristic New Age movement with all of its affirmations, optimism, and light.  People like Charles Tart, John Lilly, and Timothy Leary made a study of altered states of consciousness. Davis seems to refer to these modern explorations as the Spiritual Cyborg archetype and cites the work of Gurdjieff, who died in 1949, as a precursor.

The next mutation from psychedelia would be cyberdelia. It even came from some of the same folk working in cahoots with new technologies. Bay Area Grateful Deadheads would network online in the mid-1980’s at a virtual community called the WELL – Whole Earth Lectric Link – founded by Whole Earth Catalog guy Stewart Brand and a friend of Wavy Gravy’s. Hackers may have been precursed in late-night computer labs at MIT among radicalized programmers. Do-it-yourselfers began putting together their own computer components. The late 80’s and early 90’s brought hip digital tech psychedelic mags like Mondo 2000 and eventually Wired (Davis wrote articles for Wired). We were now a technological society empowering and analyzing itself. Anthropologist Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah in his book – Magic, Science, Religion,, and the Scope of Rationality – saw different orderings of cultural reality. He contrasted two different versions, one based on causality (modern scientific techno-societies) and the other on participation (archaic and oral societies). Davis suggests that the fragmentation of modern media technology is bumping us back into a participatory reality of sorts. Walter Ong’s – Orality and Literacy – apparently came to a similar conclusion as did Marshall McLuhan. The domination of the mass media over our lives by trying to secretly influence our imaginations through such things as subliminal advertising and adoption of various values was a big subject in the 70’s up to about 10 or 15 years ago when more “self-programming” became available through expanded TV network availability, internet, social networks, netflicks, etc. We are now able to self-program a lot more than before. Even so, brand names and corporate identities still wield some power.

The advent of “media tribes” such as hackers, fans of various things, and e-groups have allowed people to band together. This is true of several minority interest groups. He has a section on “technopagans”. Indeed the amount of computer presence of pagan folk seemed well and above the actual amount of people that were really pagans. Davis gives a fairly accurate history of modern paganism that penetrates deeper than the norm with some of the more innovative types that often do not get mentioned. Also noted is the recognition of the power of ritual. He quotes Sam Webster who says that ritual is “the principal technology for programming the human organism.” Davis gives mention to everything from Starwood festival to pagan publications to Crowley and even on to TOPY, Thee Temple of Psychick Youth. Techno-pagans, techno-shamans, and techno-animists have popped up along with each new technology. Phillip K. Dick noted the word similarity of animism and animation. One could even see a version of the spirit world existing in the fantasy realms of film, animation, and computer games.

William Gibson’s 1984 book - Neuromancer offers this quote:

“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination … A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system… Lines of light ranged in the non space of mind.”

The dazzling initiatory effects of “virtual realities” can be traced back to the Eleusinian Mysteries and the Orphic cults, says Davis. Ritual theatre designed to re-program has been around for quite a while. Gibson ends up favoring the African and Haitian model of the Voodou loas as most representative of cyber forces, likening them to spiritual forces akin to a kind of set of artificial intelligences. He sees Yoruban-style voodoo as a kind of “street religion” that is eminently practical, flexible, and survival oriented.

Next Davis forays into a comparison of Renaissance Hermetic “memory palaces” as ways to classify and store knowledge, or data. They noted that information is power and that memory (or readily handy data storage) is a key to manipulating information and wielding that power. Computer games have often been at the cutting edge of the “killer apps” and Davis gives an excellent history of the development of gaming from the pre-computer fascination with fantasy, sci-fi, and authors like Tolkien to the early D & D, RPGs, text adventures, and early games like Mortal Combat, Zork, and others. He compares the early games to the images and icons of Dante’s Divine Comedy. These visionary allegories can be compared to Neoplatonic concepts as well. Apparently, part of the adventure of these gaming adventures was in the programming itself, in designing the “memory palaces” that became the virtual worlds. The programmer and the hacker become like gods creating worlds. D & D evolved into the MUD, or multi-user dungeon, which allowed multiple players to co-evolve worlds and characters. Characters and avatars could morph into different forms with different qualities perhaps similar to those in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. As I am not a gamer I am only paraphrasing here. I see these connections but I can’t seem to forget that it is all pretend and maybe that ruins it for me. My younger friends and my son seem to love the modern games but I never got into them. Even in the old days when I tried D & D I could not get past that hurdle.

There is a section about our mythological concepts about aliens and of UFO cults. It was Carl Jung who first suggested that flying saucers were an archetypal part of our mythos. Certainly with sci-fi there is a conjunction of technology and fantasy technology with mythical-style thought. The notions of hidden cabals, secret chiefs, men in black, shadow governments, and unseen aliens certainly recall the ideas of the Gnostic archons as hidden architects. I think that people are affected by the images, scenarios, and fictional styles that are presented to them through pop culture. Much like ancient shamanistic societies we see in our imaginations what we are programmed to see by our available culture. Some quasi-conspiracy theorists like Robert Anton Wilson at least kept a sense of humor and favored clever psychology as a way to stimulate the imagination. Most conspiracy theories are really pretty whacko but there are many clever and thought-provoking sci-fi reality scenarios depicted in books, movies, and other media that bring a sense of “wow”. Sci-fi movies and series like Star Trek and others serve to stimulate the imagination. I think this is good for keeping the mind flexible and open. Robert Anton Wilson advocated such an approach as well noting that it is more healthy to dwell at the crossroads (what Davis calls the excluded middle) than to get trapped in “reality tunnels” of narrow-minded beliefs. However, I think that in the case of some of the more ridiculous alien scenarios one can have a mind that is too open!

There is a section about the Heaven’s Gate cult who committed ritual suicide in 1997 at the arrival of the comet Hale-Bopp thinking their newly released souls would catch a ride on the comet to their home in far out space. I have my own story on this. My good friend came to visit and we were looking on the internet for info about the comet. This was the first year we had internet. We found the website of the Heaven’s Gate cult and marveled a while over the oddity of it. This was the night before their suicide. My friend called me the next day to rant about it. Strangely, he seemed to have a sort of respect for them. As it turned out, six years later he would take his own life in a long-planned ritual suicide.

Apocalyptic cults, prophecy followers, and those who put their faith in ground-zero times like Y2K or even the 2012 BS seem to grow like weed patches. Such paranoia seems fed by medias which can now be self-programmed to some extent. Throughout this TechGnosis journey the interplay of the utopian and dystopian extremes of technology appear. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Orwell’s 1984, and new interpretations of the prophecies of Nostradamus all point to a fascination with technological dystopia. These keep an anxiety about technology. More recently, and Davis does not mention this, there is the realization that global warming and climate change caused by the fossil fuels that powered our Industrial Revolution now threaten the planet. 

Davis notes that:

“Communication continues to attract us partly because it carries within it the seeds of communion: of overcoming loneliness and alienation, and of drawing us together in collective bodies based on compassion, intelligence, and mutual respect.”

Davis then goes on to Christianity, to discuss the Christian concept of spreading the “good news” of the doctrine through what others have called the evangelism meme. Advertisers do this as well and both have been successful simply due to making the doctrine or product very available and keeping it in the faces of the many. By simple statistics a certain percentage will succumb and thus the doctrine grows or the product proliferates. TV and radio evangelism populate the American media to its advantage and as a result a massive amount of even educated Americans eschew well-established science for religious dogma. Neil Stephenson, in his 1992 book Snow Crash talks about “Infocalypse” as the tendency of language and information systems to diverge and complexify. Early on it was the story of the “Babel-Infocalypse” when the Adamic tongue became mixed up and multiple and the archaic participatory way of being gave way to the causal and rational way. Authors like Phillip K. Dick, and historians like Michel Foucault, and others went on to sci-fi the past in their works about the development of language, the significance of past events, and hidden mechanisms of control. Apparently, Dick fancied composing his own theologies and novelizing them for our perusal. Perhaps he searched for meaning in composing his own stories, searching for the Gnostic archons in ideas arising from the mind, overall the most sophisticated of machines yet in his stories they often existed in the machines.

Next he examines the ideas of the Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin. His early ideas of planetary consciousness likely influence the various Gaian Mind ideas as well as countless New Agers and techno-utopians. He referred to the collective matrix of culture and communication as the “noosphere” which cloaked the biosphere itself like a skin. As well as foreshadowing Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis his noosphere foreshadowed the World Wide Web. Teilhard’s idea of the “Omega Point”, a supermind that can overcome entropy or a rapturous convergence of mind and matter, is still popular with optimistic New Agers who often talk about expansion of consciousness, raising the vibratory level, or entering a new evolutionary phase. Indeed many of us wonder about and actively and consciously pursue as best we can some evolutionary goals of our species as we see it. Simply aspiring to go beyond our current limitations is one way. It is likely that our cyber habits have changed us in some ways – the Homo cyber idea. MIT Sociologist Sherry Turkle in her book Life on the Screen thinks that our cyber virtual selves are “fragmented, fluid, and always under construction.” Other ideas of online group consciousness use terms like collective intelligence, collective brain, hypercortex, or knowledge space. Also explored are the surveillance aspects of things like reality TV, talk show tribunals, a 90’s online concept called T-Vision where one could zoom into detailed satellite imagery, and other collective mind type medias.

In a chapter called – The Path is a Network – Davis explores the archetype of the network. Indeed, quite recently the study of networks has been yielding some interesting scientific ideas regarding nodes and networks of networks. He gives an analysis of the Mahayana Buddhist idea from the Flower Ornament Sutra of the Net of Indra where in each eye of the net is a jewel, an infinite amount of them, and in each jewel is reflected every other jewel. This is virtually identical to the idea of holography. This is also another way to describe interdependence and interconnectedness of all things as well as the illusory nature of both time and space as quantum physics verifies. Buddhist awakening or enlightenment has been compared to gnosis. Indeed the Sanskrit word for wisdom – Jnana, or Prajna, has the very same Indo-European root as Gnosis. Buddhism is full of techniques or technologies for overcoming delusion. Mindfulness can be compared to Gurdjieffian work to dissolve the “I”, or ego. Davis explores the logic of Liebniz as a similarly holographic idea in his book Monadology where he talks about souls as nodes of perception called monads that contain within them representations of the whole cosmos. This is effectively a network of perception. Others talk of a network of consciousness. Davis examines ideas in several more books: Sadie Plant’s Zeros + Ones about women and technology and Herman Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game a futuristic sci-fi yarn about a monastic society that plays an associative knowledge game where each connection is a node of a great network. Metaphysics becomes Netaphysics. He examines Terrence McKenna’s idea of the interplay between habit and novelty. Davis notes the power of media tech novelty in the 90’s even though in economic terms it burst in the tech bubble, or dot.com bubble. He also says:

“One of my goals in TechGnosis was to show how, over and over again, technical innovations in modern communications technology open up a crack in social reality”

The temporary euphoria eventually gets re-filled with business as usual, he says, as the novelty wears off back into old habits to use McKenna’s terminology. The more techno-utopian wave of the 90’s, he says, was converted to a dystopian trough in the aftermath of 9-11 as the old habits of paranoia and control returned with a vengeance. Apocalyptic thought and conspiracy theory strengthened with it.

TechGnosis was a great thought-ride but a long one. Perhaps it would have been better in two volumes.

Magpies, Monkeys, and Morals: What Philosophers Say About Animal Liberation

Book Review: Magpies, Monkeys, and Morals: What Philosophers Say About Animal Liberation - by Angus Taylor (Broadview Press 1999)

This excellent book makes a very good attempt to cover all the arguments for and against animal rights and animal liberation. Topics covered include animal experimentation, sport hunting, meat eating and raising, factory farming, and reconciling animal liberation and environmental ethics. Related topics covered are the ethics of cloning and genetic manipulation of animals.

My own views on the subject are intuitive, practical, and are based on compassion and feasibility. This book is mostly about philosophical views and concerns mainly the moral status of animals. Interestingly, the author notes that only recent philosophers have been concerned (in their writings at least) with the moral status of animals. Modern moral philosophers have done much to encourage animal liberation and activism. Australian philosopher Peter Singer popularized the term ‘animal liberation’ in his 1975 book called Animal Liberation. He compared animal liberation to the women’s liberation of the time period and suggested that it is the next step in our moral evolution. Singer sees unjustifiable discrimination against animals as ‘speciesism’, akin to racism or sexism. This notion has been controversial since animals can’t articulate their needs and have obvious differences from humans. Taylor points out that there are differences in the viewpoints of animal liberationists but they do have some common ground:

“Though advocates of animal liberation differ in their particular viewpoints and in the arguments they advance in support of those viewpoints, they agree that animals must no longer be treated essentially as resources for human use.”

He also notes that the animal liberation movement is a bit different than the animal welfare movement in that it seeks to change our fundamental relationship with animals while the animal welfare movement stresses better treatment of animals within the confines of continuing to view animals as resources for human use.

Key to determining the moral status of animals is defining their human-like qualities such as their degree of sentience, or self-awareness, and their ability to experience pain, fear, and suffering. There is much variation and disagreement in this regard. Animal liberationists consider animals as members of the moral community. Others define the moral community differently, often in terms of moral agents – those who are able to make choices based on an understood moral code, which would exclude animals. Others say the difference in moral agency is one of degree, that humans simply have a greater degree of moral agency than animals. Some liberationists, like Peter Singer, are utilitarians, who do not think in terms of rights or duties of a moral community. In light of this Taylor suggests that a better way to define the moral community would be:

“all those whose interests should receive the same consideration of our similar interests.”

Both the utilitarian view and the rights view tend to see the treatment of animals to be based on their interests. Another view, that of the contractarian, regards morality as an agreement but most often excludes the interests of animals, so that the idea of animal liberation is generally disregarded by them. Bernard Rollin notes that each animal has a telos, or intrinsic nature, that should be respected. This intrinsic nature gives them a place in the overall moral community.

There is a quick overview of traditional religious/ethical views on animal. Famed Christian writers, Saint Augustine (354-430) and Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) reiterated the most popular Christian doctrine that animals were put on earth by God for the use of humans. Francis of Assisi (who was influenced by Sufis incidentally) is an exception to this trend as he noted that esteeming animals is a way of honoring God. Nowadays there are a few Christians that promote animal liberation but most do not. It is the same for Judaism and Islam, though Judaism does forbid causing undue harm to animals beyond human or medical needs. Chinese philosophy (Confucianism and Taoism) generally see humans as a higher form of animal so the difference in moral commitment is one of degree and one is encouraged to avoid causing the suffering of animals unless necessary. Indian thought in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism highly values the idea of non-harming (ahimsa). Buddhism and Jainism are credited with the decline of the previously widespread practice of animal sacrifice in India. Vegetarianism is now quite widespread in India and a significant part of spiritual discipline there. In shamanic and other indigenous societies, humans and animals are bonded parts of nature and their relationship often includes sets of behavioral rules that may include respect, offering thanks, not wasting parts of animals used, and aspiring for a natural balance with the animal realm.

Aristotle mentions a hierarchy of beings from mineral to vegetable to animal to human. The Stoics stressed inclusiveness/belonging among rational beings but did not extend that inclusiveness to animals. Some famous Greeks such as Pythagoras, Empedocles, Aristotle’s pupil Theophrastus, and others were vegetarians that felt animals were worthy not to be harmed. Interestingly, Pythagoras and Empedocles considered that animals just might be former humans reincarnated and to kill them would be folly. Porphyry was another that venerated the status of animals. Aristotle, however, considered rationality the specific domain of humans and therefore animals to be inferior and to exist for the use of humans. Aquinas took up this Aristotelian view when he harmonized the teachings of Aristotle with the Church in the 13^th century.

Descartes (1596-1650) favored a mechanical view of nature where animals were devoid of consciousness and at the disposal of humans. This view has apparently persisted as just months ago scientists announced that animals have consciousness! Although some people disagreed with him at the time there are still some now who follow in his footsteps claiming that animals do not feel pain and have no consciousness. Such denial to justify exploitation is rather lame in my opinion. Thomas Hobbes and Spinoza held similar views. One detractor was the self-taught philosopher and poet Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673). She considered the specialized types of sensual knowing of animals. Locke and Hume generally followed Descartes’ view, excluding animals from the moral community. Kant also excluded animals but noted that we do have a duties involving animals, but not duties directly to them. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was the founder of modern utilitarianism. He noticed that much of morality current to his time emphasized the interests of those in power and tended to disregard those not in power. He sought an egalitarian sense of justice and morality based on the egalitarian abilities to suffer among humans (and animals). Since we all feel pain similarly we should all be treated similarly and have similar opportunity to avoid it if possible. He suggested that rights will eventually be extended more to the animal kingdom which was radical for the time. The famed utilitarian John Stuart Mill partially re-erected the barrier between human and animals in regards to duties. The utilitarians as well as Schopenhauer emphasized the commonality of suffering as the basis for the treatment of animals. Schopenhauer was influenced by Hindu and Buddhist thought. I have learned through Buddhist teaching (and common sense reflection) that all beings have a strong tendency to seek to avoid suffering and that is a basis for our commonality. Darwin tied things more to instinct and his theories of genetics. He noted that the difference between humans and non-humans is basically in degree. Though not stated in the book, this idea also occurs in Indian thought in the idea of the three gunas, or modes of material nature, where the hierarchy from mineral to vegetable to animal to human and beyond involves more and more sentience and refined consciousness that is progressively unveiled. Darwin noted examples where animals make tools and display other human-like thought qualities. He considered morality to arise from social instincts. Though Darwin had respect for animals, he could not be called a liberationist. His theories on evolution did, however, provide a new framework for understanding our kinship with animals. The bottom line is that until recently most philosophers have failed to include animals in the moral community even as lesser parts of it.

Regarding the rights of animals the author presents the traditional view that animals cannot have rights and revisionist views that they do. Henry Salt wrote a book in 1892 called – Animal Rights – which concluded that it would be logically inconsistent to ascribe rights (not to suffer) to humans but not to animals. Salt influenced Peter Singer though Singer is a utilitarian and does not think in terms of rights. Tom Regan, in – The Case For Animal Rights – (1982) suggested that all creatures have inherent value, or a life that matters. This may derive from Kant’s notion of humans deserving of respect due to their inherent worth. In any case, having inherent value, suggests that they should be ascribed certain rights. Regan suggests that animals have preferences, or what he calls preference autonomy. Having a life that matters makes them what he calls subjects-of-a-life – who have beliefs and desires, perception, memory, and a sense of the future including their own, feelings of pleasure and pain, and abilities to act in their own welfare and pursue desires and goals. He prescribes these characteristics at a minimum to mammals and possibly more animals. Regan considers the many situations humans are faced with that require choices between one harm and another towards animals and provides principles to determine to most considerate choices in respecting the rights of other creatures. These types of arguments about the best ways to minimize suffering are more prominent in modern discussions about animal liberation. The author provides detailed responses to Regan’s “rights view” from utilitarian, contractarian, and even feminist perspectives. Indeed he provides each of these four ‘versions’ in various manifestations for most arguments in the book. Some feminist philosophers have suggested that our treatment of animals be more emotionally and spiritually rooted as an “ethic of care” rather than a philosophical argument. I can relate to that – seeing the basis for our treatment of animals a bit more intuitively than strictly rational.

Arguments for and against hunting and eating animals follow along the same lines with differences of opinion on whether animals can suffer (duh), whether our killing them has any moral implications for us, and the degree to which we should adopt a reverence for life. Vegans, vegetarians, and those who reduce their meat intake in practice offer a greater reverence for life than those who don’t – generally speaking. Even those who consume meat mindfully and with some remorse and thanks do better than those who casually disregard the life of the animals they consume without thought. The notion that there are people – traditional and modern – so-called rational intelligent people too – who actually think that animals do not feel pain and do not suffer – strikes me and others as patently absurd. Yet such justification views still float about here and there. The argument that I have heard on several occasion typically from Christians is that animals do not have souls.

Some have pointed out that animals often endure more suffering and a more painful death in nature than by the hand of humans. Of course, this is no justification for shortening their lives. Animal welfare laws have worked to reduce the needless suffering brought about by the inhumane practices associated with factory farming prevalent in today’s populated world where demand for meat is high. Some people merely avoid factory farmed animal products which is also commendable in my opinion.

Both Singer and Regan think we have an obligation to be vegetarian but for different reasons. My own opinion is that it should be a choice but I would highly recommend it. The author seems to lean in favor of animal liberation and good treatment for animals but he does present the various arguments without bias.

Sport hunting has been described by some as a spiritual activity. I have even heard it described so. Jose Ortega y Gasset described it this way in his – Meditations on Hunting. He and others feel that it is necessary to kill in order to fully exercise the skills and cunning of hunting that leads to the spiritual experience and that simply stalking animals with a camera is not the same. Others including myself are skeptical. Sure it would be more intense to stalk to kill but seeing this as a necessary human need seems rather ridiculous. The situation with fishing has been described as less troublesome since some consider fish lower on the degree of sentience but this too is quite debatable. Subsistence hunting is probably a different matter since it is not recreational and has a very strong traditional component based much on satisfying hunger and maintaining life. Even so, it is debatable whether (or to what degree) it is necessary these days where such cultures have adopted modern ways. Some have made arguments that “supermarket vegetarians” have caused the death of animals due to farm machinery, loss of habitat, and pesticides. Though this may occur, it also occurs with those that eat meat as well as vegetables. I think there is a difference between directly causing a death by ordering the body product and indirectly through the likely side effects of agriculture.  Livestock raising uses many more resources and land resulting in more habitat loss than agriculture. The few who have justified big game hunting (elk) on these grounds have apparently not considered that few humans could do this before the prey was reduced in numbers significantly. Hunters have also argued that they act as environmentalists providing predation to keep the numbers of prey down. I don’t buy this one as I suspect that increased mating may compensate for that (esp. with deer who are hunted during their mating season) but I am not sure if this is actually the case.

Using and often harming animals in the course of scientific research is another topic of concern. Every year tens of millions of animals are used in such ways and some think that how they are used should be better regulated and harming for questionable benefits should be entirely eliminated. There is considerable debate over what benefits may come about through research where animals are harmed but it is clear to many that there is more harming than benefit. Harmful cosmetics testing and excessive determination of legal dosages for substances are two cases in point. Vivisection is a common practice in research. Anti-vivisection movements began in the late 1800’s. Alfred Russell Wallace, who independently originated the theory of natural selection at the same time as Darwin, believed that vivisection should be abolished as it was often done for trivial reasons and he noticed that it often made experimenters callous and uncaring in their actions. This has been noted and documented with media as well among animal rights activists who have recorded such callousness undercover. Darwin himself was ambivalent to vivisection – seeing it as sometimes useful but often trivial.

Researchers concerned about animal welfare have come up with the three R’s: 1) replacement of animals with alternative methods; 2) reduction in the numbers of animals used – substituting statistical methods; 3) refinement of experiments in order to cause less animal suffering. This is a good trend but unfortunately many researchers are resistant to such mindful concern with animal welfare as they are still influenced by Descartes’ view of animals as machines. I think that overly radical animal rights activists have made the situation worse by overcompensating with property destruction, aggression, and borderline violence. Michael Allen Fox wrote – The Case For Animal Experimentation – with the typical philosophical arguments of animals not being part of the moral community. He noted that their worth has to do with their use to us. Afterwards though (1987) Fox repudiated his statements and changed his views noting that his views were arrogant, complacent, and arbitrary. He said he was influenced by social conditioning and the abstract principles of philosophical argument and that he ignored the influence that feelings and emotion should have in the determination of morality. He now stated that we have an obligation to avoid harm even if the experimentation provides benefits. He now rejects even a costs-benefits approach. Utilitarians like Peter Singer are not quite ready to eliminate a cost-benefits approach as some experimentation may be useful for the greater good of the most sentient beings. There is indeed much skepticism and debate about the actual benefits of animal experimentation. There is also the question whether it is better to do harm than to fail to prevent harm. There are no easy answers. There is the comparison of “definite harms” vs. “possible benefits.”

Another topic in research is genetic engineering and manipulation of animals. While this may have benefits it may also cause undue suffering. A case I can think of is the breeding of domesticated livestock to maximize meat production. This has been done with many animals. Turkeys and pigs come to mind. These animals have been bred and selected for maximum meat production which has also compromised their health and shortened their lifespans. Domesticated turkeys can grow so large that they are not able to walk and often die many years short of wild ones. Some such as Jeremy Rifkin have noted that genetic engineering threatens to devalue living individuals. The issue of transgenic animals – animals whose genetics have been altered by the addition of genetics from other species – also raises some concern. Heart valves from pigs and even a baboon’s heart have been transplanted into humans. Transgenic mice have been used to study diseases. The use of transgenic animals raises the issue of whether we are enslaving them as well. There is variation even among liberationists about the dangers of genetic manipulation. Some manipulation may be beneficial for the animal as well as humans. There is no blanket right or wrong, some argue. Each situation must be weighed individually to determine its potential merits and dangers.

Next we have a comparison and contrast between animal liberationists and environmental ethics. Many arguments and variations are presented. Environmentalists often speak in terms of a systems approach with the overall health of the ecosystem being paramount. This often suggests that keeping up predation of species is good for the ecosystem. The balance of the ecosystem may require the culling of species say some environmentalists. Others suggest a hands-off approach. Some suggest that we should help wild animals and others suggest a hands-off approach to that. I think we have an obligation to help them if we are able – such as taking an animal that has been injured by a car to a wildlife rehabilitation place. Many animals have been rehabilitated in such a way and we have done this multiple times.

Aldo Leopold’s land ethic has influenced environmental philosophy. This is the notion that we should not regard the environment as a matrix of resources to be exploited for our benefit but that we should consider all parts of the environment as members of the biotic community. This may be a nice ideal but the overwhelming most of us still use those resources that are exploited so this cannot be implemented without a certain level of hypocrisy. Even so, Leopold’s notion that the effects of certain actions should be evaluated in terms of their effect on the whole system is sensible and in fact has become the norm in assessing environmental impact. Others give more weight to the individual and suggest a balance between the effects on the individual and the biotic community. J. Baird Callicott elaborated upon Leopold’s view in seeking to reconcile the tension between favoring the individual vs. favoring the whole in terms of social evolution – the group solidarity benefit mentioned by Darwin. Callicott favors traditional and indigenous views of the relationships of humans and the environment. Indeed these are stressed in these cultures. The “way of right relationship” with one’s family members: earth, sky, sun, moon, animals, plants, stones, etc. is an important part of Native American philosophy – as an example. In this way Callicott sought to reconcile the differences in emphasis between animal liberationists and environmentalists while still favoring the environmental approach. Others have accused him and Leopold of “environmental fascism.” Biologist E.O. Wilson notes a long-standing tension between individual selection and group selection among eusocial species such as humans. Anne Warren advocates a compromised approach where the rights of sentient beings trump the importance of non-sentient aspects of the environment while still recognizing their value. Yet she has been criticized for overly emphasizing the rights of humans over animals. Regan on the other extreme favors animal rights over the environmental ethic. Paul Taylor’s view in – Respect For Nature – suggests that all members of an ecosystem have equal value and so deserve our moral consideration. Taylor suggests that conflicts between individuals and the whole need to be prioritized. One priority is the principle of self-defense. Others involve certain conditions overriding others based on circumstances and necessity.

One important question is whether we should intervene in nature or leave it alone. My own answer to this would be that it depends on the circumstances. We are part of nature so intervening in it is part of our nature and so part of overall nature as well. I do not think there are clear blanket answers to every issue – but that each situation requires us to weigh the value of each solution. In this sense philosophy or a set of principles can only be a general guide and not a way to literalize each situation into a “by the book” approach. There are many grey areas that we must tread and sometimes we will fail to do what’s best. Even so, we should strive to do the best we can for the welfare of all of our fellow beings and be ever mindful to not cause needless harm.

In the conclusion, the author notes that there has been a remarkable change among philosophers in recent times to recognize a greater moral status of animals even if there is disagreement about degree. This is perhaps a reason to be optimistic although the same may not be true among the general population as it is among philosophers. I can only hope that we are becoming a kinder and more compassionate people but there is certainly a very long way to go in this regard.

The Gnostic Discoveries: The Impact of the Nag Hammadi Library

Book Review: The Gnostic Discoveries: The Impact of the Nag Hammadi Library  by Marvin Meyer (Harper-Collins 2005)

This is nice non-technical foray into so-called Gnosticism and the history of the discovery and impact of the codices found in the 1940’s in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Meyer is a knowledgeable scholar and seems to have a genuine interest in Gnosticism, or what he seems to call “gnosticizing writings”. There was no official sect or sects called Gnosticism – it is apparently a term applied by the heresiologists though at least one noted that that is what they called themselves. I use the term throughout this review. I also read, enjoyed, and reviewed Meyer’s analysis of Ancient Mystery Cults. The story of the discovery of the codices in a jar buried in the barren sands beyond the black soil of the Nile floodplain is told. Unfortunately the poor Egyptians who discovered it did not right away recognize the potential value of such things, damaging and destroying parts of the ancient texts.

Meyer speaks positively about other scholars of Gnostic movements such as Elaine Pagels, Kurt Rudolph, and Hans Jonas and often passes on their ideas. Prior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts and other Gnostic texts the only information about Gnosticism came from the early Christian heresiologists who presented them as flawed and heretical Christian beliefs. The works of the heresiologists are mainly refutations that are biased and often distort some of the beliefs. Even so, Meyer suggests that a careful reading of them combined with what we now know from discovered and translated texts can be revealing. He lists significant Gnostic figures from the first and second centuries: Simon Magus, Helena, Marcellina, Basilides, Valentinus, and Marcus. Other textual Gnostic sources mentioned include the Askew Codex which contains the Pistis Sophia, the Bruce Codex, Hermetic texts such as the Corpus Hermeticum, and Mandean and Manichaean texts from the Middle East and Asia.

He compares the staunch opposing dualism of Manichaeism to the dualism arising from oneness of the Valentinians. I speculate that this may be due to the Manicheans being closer to the source area of light/dark, good/evil dualism ideas among Persians and likely transferred to Judaism from the time of Cyrus the Great.

Nag Hammadi texts are complemented by equally recently discovered texts found in a rubbish heap at Oxyrhynchus now known as the Berlin Codex. These texts can be classified into various ‘traditions’ says Meyer: the Thomas tradition, Sethian, Valentinian, Hermetic, and others not easily classifiable. Meyer gives many snippets of translated texts, most his own translations from his other books.

Meyer gives an account with a few pictures of the discovery of the texts in 1945 in a desert area beneath a large rock outcrop in Nag Hammadi Egypt. This area is just beyond the black soil of the Nile Valley and into the infertile red desert soil. In an allegorical sense one could say the texts were cast out like the Egyptian god Seth to his red desert as they were cast out of the developing orthodoxy that Christianity became. Meyer notes this and in that sense the Gnostic texts are metaphorically akin to Set as the great outcaste heretic. The texts are in an Egyptian language called Coptic but most are thought to have been translated from Greek. The Gospel of Thomas is thought to have been composed in Syria and the Hermetic fragments in Egypt since they refer to places there. There is an excerpt from Plato’s Republic and the Sethian texts are thought to have Platonic characteristics. Meyer notes some arguments about dating of texts and suggests that those who want to marginalize controversial texts such as the Gospel of Thomas routinely assign it a later date.

Gnosticism was not a specific movement but an aspect of Christianity, Judaism, Hermeticism, or possibly even Platonism that was likely syncretic as a Hellenized and Romanized Middle East was syncretic. Texts classified as Gnostic emphasize ‘gnosis’ or knowledge as the key function of the cult in contrast to redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus. Heresiologists such as Clement and Irenaeus of Lyon referred to the heretics as Gnostics and even said that is what they called themselves. The present day Mandeans of the Middle East refer to themselves as Mandaye, or “knowers” and this may be a related attribution. Meyer proposes the following description of Gnostic religion:

“Gnostic religion is a religious tradition that emphasizes the primary place of gnosis, or mystical knowledge, understood through aspects of wisdom, often personified wisdom, presented in creation stories, particularly stories based on the Genesis accounts, and interpreted by means of a variety of religious and philosophical traditions, including Platonism, in order to proclaim a radically enlightened way of life and knowledge.”

The group of texts that were found buried in the jar at Nag Hammadi may have been texts that were recently cast out since changes to the official orthodox canon were frequent after Constantinian times when different Church leaders came to power. The debates that determined orthodoxy and heresy probably went on for a few hundred years at least. An important event regarding the canon happened in 367 when Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria proclaimed in a letter which canonical texts would be included in the bible and which discarded. This suggests that the Pachomian monks who utilized the texts were compelled to seal them away as inappropriate to the canon.

In a section about wisdom the author presents examples of wisdom veneration from throughout the Middle and Near East – Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Judea, and among the philosophers of Ancient Greece. The Gospel of Thomas and other Thomas texts record wisdom sayings of Jesus which are not unlike the sayings of philosophers. He notes that a few sayings of Jesus survive in a lost text called Q that was probably used to compose the books of Matthew and Luke. The Jesus presented in the Gospel of Thomas does not perform miracles, healings, or prophesies nor does he die for sins and become mystically resurrected. He is not born of a virgin. He is not addressed in this text as the Christ or the Messiah, just as Jesus. Here he is a purveyor of Jewish parables, some cryptic, some a bit shocking, and some quite sensible and even humorous. Some of the sayings are riddle-like and have been referred to as hidden sayings that require interpretation. Meyer makes a good case for dating the Gospel of Thomas to the first century. This is the text that was said to be recorded by Judas Thomas, the twin brother of Jesus. The author notes that the character of Judas Thomas does not seem to match that of Thomas in the Gospel of John. Some sayings of Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas have also survived in Islamic tradition as just that – the sayings of Isa, or Jesus. Al-Ghazali’s Revival of the Religious Sciences is one text where they can be found. The final saying is outwardly anti-woman, saying that women are not worthy of life and need to transform to a male form to enter the kingdom of heaven. Meyer suggests that the interpretation of this may be allegorical with the female referring to the perishable matter and the male referring to the imperishable spirit.

Other Thomas texts in the codex are the Book of Thomas and the Dialogue of the Savior. These are described as Hellenistic Jewish works drawing on Platonic philosophy. Much as in Plato there is emphasis on the notion that people are imprisoned by their own fiery passions or the concept that the body imprisons the soul.

Meyer also notes a contrast between these Gnostic texts emphasizing wisdom and the canonical texts emphasizing the sacrifice of the crucifixion. He thinks that this enhances the historical understanding of Jesus.

Next is an examination of - the Fall and Restoration of Sophia - in the Secret Book of John and other Sethian Texts. This is one key mythos that is characteristic of “Gnosticism” but notably absent in conventional Christianity. Hebrew personifications of Wisdom as Chokmah and Sophia are female. The Gnostic Sophia is entangled in the myth which involves her fall and redemption. This has been revived in a slightly different sense in Aleister Crowley’s notion of the redeemed woman becoming the once despised now redeemed/redeemer Babalon. Early wisdom goddesses of the Ancient World include Inanna/Ishtar of Mesopotamia and Maat of Egypt. In Ancient Greece it was Metis, the first wife of Zeus and their daughter Athena (who rose from the head of Zeus after he swallowed her) who are associated with wisdom. Meyer notes that the story of Sophia in the Sethian Secret Book of John is very similar to the model of the story of Zeus, Metis, and Athena, told by Hesiod. One of the earliest formulators of the doctrine of gnosis is said to be Simon Magus who the heresiologists noted was venerated by the heretics. His place in the canonized biblical tradition was relegated to the status of a cheap and selfish wonder-worker. He travelled with Helena, a former prostitute from Tyre and to both of them are attributed Gnostic texts and indeed Helena may well be a version of personified wisdom as wisdom or the soul (Psyche)  - often depicted as female and there are myths of “Her” spending time as a prostitute during her fallen stage. The folly of Sophia is said to be in trying to imitate the creation of the Father – and Meyer notes this is much like Hera in Hesiod’s Theogony where out of jealousy she tries to create without Zeus.

Another model of the fallen woman is of course that of Eve in the Garden of Eden. In Greek, Eve is Zoe, or life. The Sethians are also called Barbelognostics after Barbelo, the divine mother. Meyer seems to think that the Secret Book of John was originally a Jewish Gnostic text with Greco-Roman elements that later became Christianized. In some versions the goddess emanates as divine forethought (Pronoia, also Barbelo the mother) - the revealer, and insight (Epinoia). Another version has her revealed as the “Trimorphic Protennoia” or Three Forms of First Thought – voice, speech, and word. Her first thought is word, or logos. In the canonized biblical accounts Jesus is the revealer as well as the bearer of the logos. Another section recounts the emanation of the many from the one, the Pleroma from the Monad. Much like Hera forming Hephaistos and Typhon, Sophia forms her deformed and flawed child, the megalomaniacal Yaldabaoth. Sometimes the creation stories are said to be the unfolding of the mind of God and there are many versions of creation around the Ancient World including those recounted in the Qabala and the Chaldean Oracles of Zoraster though those may have been later in their current forms and owe much to Neoplatonism. Not too dissimilar are the manifestations from the Infinite described in the Vedas and Upanishads. The fall of Sophia, much like the fall of Eve can be considered the descent of spirit into the prison of matter. The idea seems to exist in earlier form in Persian dualism with the descent of light and its subsequent fragmentation and the imprisonment of spirit in matter. Valentinian texts suggest two wisdoms: the incorruptible Sophia of spirit and the flawed Sophia of matter. Yaldabaoth the flawed and the Archons become the demiurge(s) that create the world which is also flawed. The origin of evil and the way to subdue it with gnosis is a key theme of Gnosticism and a key complaint of Augustine when he refutes the Manichean Gnosticism he used to practice. Augustine said that Manicheism was overly concerned with the origin of evil.   

Meyer mentions Elaine Pagel’s suggestion in her book Beyond Belief that Epinoia, or insight, is a key concept in gnostic thought. . The idea is that we have an innate capacity to know the divine and as Pagels describes it: “ Eve symbolizes the gift of spiritual understanding, which enables us to reflect – however imperfectly – upon divine reality. The Secret Book of John also seems to have some offspring in Islamic texts including the Shia Um al-Katib, or Mother of Books, though the ideas were changed to reflect the family of Mohammed.

Meyer notes that Sethian Gnosticism is related to Platonic tradition but also that there is a geneaology of the Gnostic descendents of Seth who keep the Adam and Eve mystical tradition alive. Dositheos and his student Simon Magus are part of this Sethian Gnostic lineage. Indeed everyone who follows the teachings is called the offspring of Seth.

Sethians practice baptismal ritual like many Jewish, Christian, and Persian sects of the time. This is to remove the stain of the fall of Sophia rather than the “original sin” of humans recounted in mainstream Christianity. Sophia may be flawed but she is also God and in this scheme it is God that made the mistake, not humans.

Valentinus is described as a mystic. Meyer describes Valentinian Gnosticism as an adaptation of Sethian Gnosticism. He notes that the Valentinians likely described themselves as devoted Christians rather than Gnostics or Valentinians. Apparently, the Valentinians would attend the services of the other Christians but also convene amongst themselves. The main Valentinian text in the Nag Hammadi library is called – The Gospel of Truth. Valentinus was an African born in Egypt, had a Hellenistic education, a was one of the most famous church leaders of the 2^nd century. He was a contender for the bishop of Rome, an equivalent of the pope at that time. His writings were poetic and according to the author, among the most beautiful of any Christian tradition. By the 4^th century there was strife among the sects as orthodoxy and heretical strains were decided and some Valentinian temples were burned. In the Gospel of Truth it is metaphorical “error” that causes the crucifixion and Jesus, nailed to a tree, was called the fruit of the tree, the fruit of the knowledge of the father. This text has several parables that have allegorical interpretations. Valentinians had a particular metaphysical interpretation of the emanation of the pleroma of the divine. First everything came from the divine depth, the bathos. The emanation is arranged into 15 aeons, or divine couples, for a total of 30 or more aeons. Most important are the first two groups of four (the tetrads). According to Irenaeus of Lyon these are the divine couples of: depth and thought (or grace and silence), mind and truth, word and life, and human and church. Owing to the fall of Sophia two other aeons are emanated: those of Christ and the holy spirit. “Christ assists with the restoration of Sophia, but her desire is thrown out of the divine realm of fullness, and it becomes Achamoth, a lower wisdom, from whose passions our world here below is created. Christ is often referred to as the son of Sophia and is thought to represent her incorruptible manifestation.

The Gospel of Phillip is another Valentinian text from the Nag Hammadi library. Regarding the idea that Mary the mother of Jesus was impregnated by the holy spirit the text ridicules the notion: “When did a woman – Mary – ever get pregnant by a woman – the holy spirit?” The Gospel of Phillip also talks about Mary of Magdala (Mary Magdalene) as the companion of Jesus: “The [savior loved] her more than [all] the disciples [and he] kissed her often on her [mouth].” (Meyer does note that “mouth” may not be the right interpretation here). The Gospel of Mary is another Gnostic text that describes the special love between Jesus and Mary of Magdala. The Gospel of Phillip also mentions Sophia as barren, and as the mother of angels.

The healing of the separation of the male and female recounted in the Adam and Eve mythos is part of Valentinian tradition. This re-union occurs in the bridal chamber. This is not just sexual union but a sacrament for salvific union. Meyer notes five main sacraments, or mysteries, identified in the Gospel of Phillip: baptism, chrism, eucharist, redemption, and bridal chamber. It seems likely that Valentinian married couples practiced the mystery of the bridal chamber as a mystical form of sex in order to pass the spiritual seed as the – semen of light. There was also an esoteric version of baptism where one attains spiritual understanding rather than forgiveness of sins. There are similarities here to the methods of sexual tantra and there are those who see the impetus for the tantra of the East deriving from the Near East, particularly the Heiros Gamos (sacred marriage) rites associated with Inanna/Ishtar of Sumeria/Babylonia but this is only speculative as there is no direct evidence thus far. It is far more likely that the Heiros Gamos of Mesopotamia influenced the bridal chamber sacramental rites of the Valentinians. 

There is another Valentinian text from the discovery called – The Treatise on Resurrection. This is an esoteric interpretation of the resurrection – the resurrection of the spirit – that builds on the idea that one must become the Christ and the father. It seems to me that many of the metaphysical ideas in the various Gnostic creation schemes were perhaps part of a more flexible and contemplative Judeo-Christian tradition than the more rigid and dogmatic forms of Pauline and orthodox Christianity.

The last chapter of Nag Hammadi texts explored are those of Hermes, Derdekeas, Thunder, and Mary. These are all other revealers of wisdom. Hermes Trismegistos (thrice-greatest Hermes) is the revealer of the Hermetic wisdom. He is a composite of Greek god Hermes and Egyptian god Thoth, and so is thought to be a mythic figure. The Hermetic text in the Nag Hammadi library concerns the 8^th and 9^th levels (beyond the realms of the seven planets). These may correspond to realms in the Secret Book of John where Yaldabaoth dwells in the 8^th realm and his mother Sophia in the 9^th realm. The text has some similarities to the – Three Steles of Seth. To me this combination of Hermeticism and Gnosticism suggests the syncretic and perhaps non-dogmatic approach of the Alexandrian esotericists who were more cosmopolitan and less sectarian before the mandatory implementation of orthodox Christianity. During the throws of the struggle a mob of Christians burned the magnificent library of Alexandria, perhaps a low point in human culture, and symbolically at least, a harbinger of the Dark Ages. The Hermetic text is clearly Egyptian and prescribes hieroglyphics and typical Egyptian art and magic. There is also a Hermetic prayer of thanksgiving to the Womb and the Father. After the prayer there is a prescription to embrace and share a sacred vegetarian meal. Next is another Hermetic text given by Hermes Trismegistus to the student Asclepius. Here is revealed the mystery of metaphorical sexual intercourse as the communion between gods and people. Here Hermes reveals an apocalyptic scenario for Egypt followed by a restoration.

The next text is called the - Paraphrase of Shem – and is revealed by Derdekeas to Shem. Shem is the son of Noah and father of the Semitic people. “In the beginning, Derdekeas says, there were three primal powers, the light above, the darkness below, and the spirit in between, and somehow the darkness had control of mind:” (text quote follows) “Light was thought full of hearing and word united in one form. Darkness was wind in the waters, and darkness had a mind wrapped in restless fire. Between them was spirit, a quiet, humble light.” After this the darkness stirs which noise surprises the spirit and the uneasy peace ends. Spirit discovers the existence of darkness. Darkness sees that spirit is enlightened and lifts up to partake. The darkness may be similar to Sophia trying to imitate the spirit. This is one of several Gnostic scenarios of darkness and light becoming intermingled. The liberation of the mind of darkness and the light of the spirit is achieved (in a convoluted manner according to Meyer) through the use of sexual weaponry. Darkness ejaculates into nature, the cosmic womb. Derdekeas, the revealer of this text, is the savior of light, and descends to have sex with nature, which itself is a world of sexuality. Here I think we see an attempt at equating metaphysical creation of the world with biological creation/reproduction.

Next we come to the revelation of a female called Thunder. The title of the text is given as – Thunder: Perfect Mind. This consists of “I am” statements and shows a marked similarity to statements attributed to Isis. She identifies herself as Sophia, Eve (Zoe), and Epinoia (insight). Meyer and others connect her to Sethian thought, particularly to Barbelo. One similarity to Barbelo who was sent from above is recounted:

“I was sent from the power

and have come to those who contemplate me
and am found among those who seek me”

In the poetic lines she often invokes one thing then its opposite:

“For I am the first and the last.

I am the honored and the scorned.
I am the whore and the holy.
I am the wife and the virgin
I am <the mother> and the daughter”

“I alone exist,

and I have no one to judge me.
For there are many sorts of seductive sins
and deeds without restraint
and disgraceful desires
and fleeting pleasures that people embrace,
until they become sober
and rise up to their place of rest.
They will find me there,
and they will live and not die again.”

Lastly there is – The Gospel of Mary – which is fragmentary. There are fragments preserved in other codices as well but this is the most complete. There is debate how Gnostic the text is as some consider it more a Stoic text. This is due to the language of the text. The Stoics considered matter to be a thought construct and matter to be intertwined with nature. Gnostics tended to promote the avoidance of the material world as defiled while the Stoics simply guarded against being overly influenced by it. The final message in this text from Jesus to his disciples before he is crucified is that the son of man (child of humankind) is within and that there is no rule to lay down beyond this. As Jesus is leaving Mary speaks to the disciples about the inner journey of the soul beyond the passions of desire, ignorance, anger and such. In the Gospel of Mary we again find that the most favored disciple was this Mary of Magdala: “… in the Gospel of Philip, the Dialogue of the Savior, Pistis Sophis, and a song from the Psalms of Heracleides from the Manichaean Psalmbook – Mary of Magdal receives similar high praise, but in the New Testament gospels her role is limited and her praise is muted.”

“In the sixth century Pope Gregory the Great completed the work of marginalizing Mary Magdalene by equating Mary with the prostitute of Luke 7, and Mary became the paradigmatic repentant whore thereafter.”

So we see fairly clearly that this Mary has been defamed (historically and mythically) and in line with Gnostic mythos she is a woman that should be restored to her proper place.

Meyer notes that there are quite a few Gnostic saviors: Jesus, Derdekeas, Thunder, Seth, Hermes, even Mani – the Iranian “messenger of light.” Mani was a syncretist in the 200’s who combined the teachings of the Hebrews, Jesus, Zoroaster, and later of Buddha. Meyer also acknowledges the influence of Hebrew, Greek, and Egyptian traditions on Gnostic thought. The trinity of Isis/Osiris/Horus certainly influenced the Christian trinity. Later church leaders came to embrace male revealers and church leaders and attack the female Gnostic revealers for their boldness and audacity to perform religious actions!

Indeed, with the murder of Hypatia of Alexandria and the loss of the feminine traditions of the Near and Middle East – long powerful, particularly in Anatolia – we see a degradation and imbalance that darkened humanity yet it can also be said that the unity of tradition and conversion enforced by the sword also allowed for a more homogenous society and all that it entails.

The pre-orthodox Christian world was one of diversity and one might note that the birth of religious wars was at the end of this time and likely influenced the Islamic conversions by the sword that swept the world a few centuries later. Incidentally, the Islamic world inherited pockets of Gnostic-minded practitioners and that became part of later, mostly Sufi and Shia traditions along with Hellenistic and Neoplatonic thought.

Finally, Meyer goes through some even more recent Gnostic texts discovered. Perhaps more will be unearthed in the future and reveal more of the unknown of the religious ideas of this time and place. At the end there is a list of each text in the Nag Hammadi Codex with a description of its contents and character.

This is an excellent overview of the Nag Hammadi library and of so-called Gnostic thought in general by an accomplished author with a genuine interest in the subject matter. Much is revealed especially about the early history of Christianity and more especially about the character of it that was lost to orthodoxy.