Gnostics creeds

 

The sermon of H. H. + Johannes Bricaud (Jean II) on the occasion of his appointment as Patriarch of the Universal Gnostic Church in Lyon, 1908.

•  We believe in the Divine Archetype [Proarche] and the eternal Progenitor [Propator], in the unending and almighty Being, come forth from the Heavenly Powers into perfect Presence, God in One and Three.
  
•  In the First Aspect of the Trinity [tridyname], the Father, who brought forth all things visible and invisible.
•  In the Second Aspect of the Trinity, the Son, the Divine Logos, in which Christ is revealed, the spiritual and physical Light, true God as his Father and of one substance with Him.
• That the same had appeared on earth in the Person of Jesus, the supernatural Spirit, who came down to us, so that He might join with a soul and a body, to be like us; in the womb of Miriam.
•  That the same since the moment He appeared in Jesus, was consecrated and had suffered.
•  That spoke to us through His mouth and taught us the Gnosis and the true holy life, so that we shall be free from slavery of the Demiurges and their earthly Archons, and as he made our return to the pneumatic World from which we came possible, where He returned after his death.
•  We believe in the Third Aspect of the Trinity, Life, which follows from the Father as from the Son, and reveals itself in the Pneuma-Agion, the Holy Ghost.
•  Who gives us joy in life, and leads us on the Path of Truth and Holiness, who unites all beings, who is worshipped in the Father as in the Son.
•  We blieve in a Pneumatic Universe, immeasureable Church od the Spirit, as old as God Himself, and older than the Material [hylic] Universe, where our globe finds itself as but a colony in the Perisphere, whereon we men descend as spirits.
• We profess the two Baptisms, and the three other Mysteries of the purification and conversion of mankind.
• We await the institution of the Heavenly Kingdom on Earth, and the original state of mankind.
•  And finally the Resurrection of the Dead with Jesus, the Head of the earthly Church; the ascension and establishment of this association in Heaven; the dissolution of the Fallen Spirits, and likewise the dissolution of the Material [hylic] Universe, the work of the Demiurges.
• Amen. Lyons, 1908.

 

Creed of the Église Gnostique de France, Paris 1913

• Marie Chauvel de Chauvigny Esclarmonde (Sophia), from: "Bref Éxposé de la Doctrine Gnostique", Paris 1913. [Allegedly Aleister Crowley wrote his Gnostic Mass in the same year]
• I believe that everything comes from an indescribable, limitless, and formless Universal Principal. It is One in its Essence, threefold in its appearance: Father, Son, Spirit.
• I believe that this Principle is the ultimate Progenitor, that Thought is indivisibly united with Him, and that the Hierarchy of Holy Æons are His attributes which He has brought forth, through which He manifests himself, and proceeding fom him, are one with Him.
• I believe that the Demiurge is the Principle of division and egotism, that it begat all restriction, and is the begetter of all forms and existences; the ultimate Principle, which is in the Demiurge, and which with it is bound to the Universal Spirit, comes directly from the Progenitor.
• [is missing.]
• I believe that the Æon Christ (one with the Holy Spirit) appears to us through the 'Saviour', and that the Saviour in our earthly age is Jesus, from whom the Eternal Gospels were inspired.
• I believe in the mission of this 'Saviour', that it prepares us for the coming of the Helper [Paraclete], which is the Holy Ghost, and that it appears to us through the Virgin of Light.
• I believe that all beings are finally united in the Womb of the Pleroma, where harmony, justice, and grace shall reign in all Aeons.

Aom! T. Esclarmonde S., February 26th 1913. Original: S.-J. Esclarmonde: Bref Exposé De La Doctrine Gnostique, Credo gnostique, 1913

 

Theodor Reuss: Our Fundamental Tenets, 1913

• "God and the world (visible and invisible) are an all all-embracing, immeasureable kingdom (the universe), consisting of the known proto-energy (or power of creation), the universe's positive properties, and the unknown proto-substance (or world-egg), the universe's negative properties; which through contact with itself (spontaneous generation, coition) may generate new worlds and creations that are in principle identical, and continue creating such things. And because of our observation that the universe is a twofold thing, positive and negative (also dual), and that 'life' is only maintained by their union, we describe our observation as dualistic world-view.
• The identity of the creations with the creator lies in the fact that the original power of creation (or power of generation) also dwells in the creations. The ability of the creations to engender further creations of the same sort and breed, through the act of generation (by creation or reproduction) is inherent proof of their (divine) descent from the original creator (or generator). It is in this sense that the words of the Bible are to be understood: 'So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.' "Oriflamme" of July 1913. 

 

 Creed of Reuss and Crowley's Gnostic Catholic Church

• "I believe in one secret and and ineffable LORD: and in one Star in the company of Stars of whose fire we are created, and to which we shall return; and in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in his name CHAOS, the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth; and in one Air the nourisher of all that breathes.
• And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name BABALON.
• And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in His name BAPHOMET.
• And I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Life, Love and Liberty, the Word of whose Law is THELEMA..."
• Re-translation of Reuss': "'Die Gnostische Messe', Aus dem Original-Text des Baphomet, übertragen in die deutsche Sprache von Merlin Peregrinus", 1917. Facsimile in "Der Grosse Theodor Reuss Reader"

 

Creed of Arnoldo Krumm-Heller's Gnostic Mass

• "I believe in Mary, Maya, Isis, or those of lesser renown, in the physical force symbolised in Nature, whose conception and illumination reveals the fertility of Nature.
• I believe in the mystery of Baphomet and the Demiurge.
• I believe in one acknowledged superior Church, supported by pure souls; in the White Hierarchy, represented by the White Brotherhood, and which has its exponents in the Holy Gnostic Church, ruled by Patriarchs, Apostles, Bishops, and Priests.
• Our Law is Love, Life, Liberty, and Victory.
• We have taken the motto Thelema."
•   Arnoldo Krumm-Heller: "Misa Gnostica", no date. Facsimile in the books by P.R. Koenig

 

 Fraternitas Saturni: Juste Cruci Suffixus Est

• "The Light struggles with the Darkness. The Solar Logos fights with the pale demiurge, with Saturn, the lost Son, for the rulership of his realm. Two planets circle our mother-star first in narrow orbits - Mercury and Venus. In esoteric terms they free us from the rulership of Saturn. On the next planet, on our Earth, the battle has been raging for millions of years; it stands at a highly significant intersection within the planetary chain, for the spirit of the Earth is still unredeemed. The outer planets are still servants of Saturn, the Dark Angel. The outcome of this battle is decided in us, in men's hearts."
• (Karl Spiessberger, "Blätter für angewandte okkulte Lebenskunst", Nº 45, 1953).
• "But the desire to serve the highest principle of Saturn brings the most profound knowledge. 'Lucifer' as the Morning Star is not only the great fallen Angel Lucifer, but also the brother of Christ. Saturn in his higher octaves is the embodiment of the deepest lessons of maturity through suffering. And within his darkest portal stands the resolution. Saturnus, the guardian of the threshold, then illuminates with a pale light — distorted — the kindness of Jupiter, when his symbol has turned into a mirror-image."

(Grosche, "Blätter" Nº 48, 1954).