The Difference between being a Gnostic and having a Gnostic Outlook

The Modern Phenomena of actual Gnostic Churches and Gnostic Clergy is a striking thing - I must say, I am pleased such things have happened! However, I cannot help but conclude that all who call themselves Gnostics (in the sense of it being their Religion) are somehow either spiritually less evolved than me, or a little silly.

Now, hold on a minute - I have flexibility here ; identifying one's self as Gnostic to others and actually sincerely being Gnostic are two very different things. I give a nod and a wink to all those Gnostic Clergy out there who are not actually Gnostics, they are, rather - Gnostically Minded. Thru the Official label of Gnostic as their Religion, they do a great service to the masses, by providing places of spiritual congregation for fellow Gnostically Minded individuals.

Am I Gnostic Bashing? Well, I don't think so, I'm moreso dissecting what's really happening here. The Ancient Gnostic Religions were overwhelmingly Literalist, they literally believed in the God of the Old Testament as this Evil Monster hovering above the Earth somewhere.

Now, some Modern Gnostics may point out that ancient Gnostics werent considered initiated until they had produced their own Enormous Fictions - well, that was some Gnostic Sects perhaps, and in any case don't you think a lot of these Gnostic Mythos scribblers were on some sort of drug at the time anyway, and therefore just like the Oracles of Archaic Hellenic times, their visions would have been accorded some sort of Divine Authority? Look at the Book of Revelation in the New Testament - most probably created by some shroomed out fellow, and then accorded Divine Authority.

Where I am going with all of this is as follows - the Ancient Gnostics were for the most part Literalists, and more often than not stuck within their own beliefs of their own particular sects (Sethian or otherwise). The Nag Hammadi Corpus was hidden most probably by Pachomian Monks who considered it would have been an awful waste for these wonderful texts to be destroyed by the authorities of Alexandria. The wide selection of texts found all together gives a false impression to many a modern admirer of Gnosticism of some general syncretic, wishy-washy Unitarian Universalist, Rainbow Alliance "oh we dont really believe in all this stuff" view of the Gnostics, in general.

How can a Religion exists that does not Believe in things? This is the point I am driving at here - 21st century people who profess to be Gnostic don't Believe in many things! That minority of Modern Gnostics would do believe in many of the ancient Gnostic beliefs are crack-pots, for the most part!

I am not a Gnostic. I have a Gnostic Outlook. I am Gnostically Minded. This being said, I am happy that there are Modern Gnostic Churches and Clergy, places for fellow Gnostically Minded individuals to congregate, to network.

In a previous post I said that anyone who calls themselves a "Gnostic" is poser. Let me correct that - some are posers. Then some are crack-pots. Then there are a large group who are struggling with the limitations of the English language to express as succintly as possible what they are. And THEN, there are the Good Shepherds, the Gnostically Minded Ones who play the important Archetype of the Heirophant, the Clergy. Gnostic Clergy, May you continue to call yourselves Gnostics, for it is a little white lie that you tell, perhaps even only to yourselves, and that little white lie does humanity inestimable Good. Namaste!