Apocalypse

[Guest guest]

Dear Fire-friends,

Here are a few comments on current apocalypticism, and we can go from there.

I have read several chapters in Edinger, and since I have unfortunately

become a slow reader, you who are interested in this subject will probably

move ahead of me.

What an extraordinary book, Revelation! And dangerous in the hands of those

who understand religion solely as exoteric and literal fact. Here again a

case can be made for the mystics among us to maintain a certain amount of

discretion and even secrecy when discussing their ESoteric experiences.

Jesus himself said that not everyone was able to hear and receive some of his

teachings. IMHO there had to be a secret teaching and that was the

recipient. I'm assuming along with Edinger that of the Gospel and ,

the writer of Revelation, were very possibly the same . If so, as a

follower of Christ would have been a teen-ager and the oral tradition

would have been transcribed by his followers or students when he was very

old, about 90.

In other words, I am wondering if the Apocalypse WAS the secret teaching

about the true inner experience. I understand that corresponded with

Clement of andria and that they influenced each other. andria, of

course, was THE center of learning in the known world. I wonder if

traveled there in the intervening years.

Does anyone see any relationship between Revelation and the Gospel of ?

Since and Clement both talked the language of the Gnostics were they

trying to reach out to the Gnostics? ... To tie them into the mainstream, so

that their ideas wouldn't become as bizarre as they sometimes did? Did these

two teachers fail? And what if there was some contact with Valentinus or

Basilides. If so, was making a case in his gospel that there was still

a necessary value to be placed on the material world.

I have come to view gnosticism as an archetype. I think the gnostic spirit

resides there unconsciously, but that it emerges from time to time especially

when we get fed up with the state of the world. These are things I wonder

about, and I hope I can stimulate some responses here.

Several of us discussed alchemical references in the Scriptures recently and

there are a lot. In the Gospel the many eucharistic references would also be

alchemical, because that's the hidden side of the Eucharist.

Best wishes to everyone,

Gene Baker (OldMrGrace)