FUNDAMENTALS OF THE GNOSTIC CHURCH
by Tau Melchizedek

I am quite certain that most of you who have come to our meeting today have at least a superficial idea of what Gnosticism is or at least have read the texts on our website. So here I will not repeat in detail all this introductory information on the nature of Gnosticism per se.

Now let us first turn our attention to this Church of ours. I am sure questions have come up such as why a gnostic church and what are its functions.What are the fundamental differences between the EGAE and the Church of Rome etc.

Let me first try to state quickly again the central point where Gnosticism differs fundamentally from exoteric and orthodox forms of Christianity. There is a belief in Christ as something coming only from outside of oneself, a religion of faith in the Christos through fixed or static interpretation of the Scriptures, dogmatic doctrine and creed. However, where there exists a belief in Christ as something within oneself - but also relating it to the outside. This is what we can call the Gnosis of the Kosmic Christ. To one who believes the Christ, as something within, as the truth of the soul and Divine self, the Christos is something to be experienced, known and realized inwardly as much as something to be experienced, known and realized outwardly. In this gnostic view, we do not limit ourselves to believing in the Divine incarnation of the Christ in the person of Jesus (Christ), but we actively seek the gnosis of Jesus Christ, which means to incarnate the Christos within ourselves and consciously evolving towards Christhood.

The concept of faith for a Gnostic is very different than that of the orthodox Christian. For us it means a sense of the mystery or an intuition of an experience. Through initiation into this mystery, faith unfolds a higher consciousness from day to day, being drawn from the Truth and Light revealed in one's experience (Gnosis). This faciliates a steady progress from one degree of enlightenment experience to another until complete realization of Christ-consciousness is achieved.

You see now that Gnosis and Gnosticism is based on experiencing things and thus tradition in the gnostic sense differs from orthodoxy. The Gnostic Tradition provides us with methods and examples of spiritual practice and living through which one can achieve gnosis for oneself. Tradition however is not to be equated with a fixed and static doctrine. Rather it is a vehicle for the transmission of a living presence and power and is itself alive. Although tradition, cosmology, myths, spiritual teachings may embody something of the gnostic experiences, they are not the enlightment experience of the Gnosis itself. They are seen as the vehicles for spiritual or mystical experience.
'Come and see....follow me...' said Jesus when he called his disciples. Both suggest a 'knowing' through a direct spiritual or mystical experience. Gnostic initiates understand that it is the experience of a living presence that imparts true Gnosis. For this reason many Gnostic teachers tend to rely more upon an oral tradition than written tradition and on the shared experience that only a more personal relationship can facilitate. Even if there is a written tradition, to fully receive the teachings and initiations of the tradition, one must have an adept or master of the tradition as a close spiritual friend, guide and initiator. Gnosticism represents mainly an inner tradition of secret knowledge orally imparted from apostle to disciple through discourse and initiation.

Rather than through a linear system of initiatory degrees or grades, true Gnostic Bishops should teach and initiate in the Way of what has come to be called "Wild Gnosis" - in a freestyle method that is natural and spontaneous, and that completely interweaves sacred and mundane moments. Teachers use sacred discourse, prayer and mediation, and sacred ritual as vehicles of the gnostic Transmission.Yet, just as often, it may be shared through more casual moments, such as in the midst of a conversation or other seemingly ordinary circumstances. In our Tradition the Light Transmission is most often founded upon an actual discipleship - which is to say a sacred relationship of an Apostle of Light and their spiritual companions. This sacred friendship is founded upon a deep inner and spiritual connection and serves to create the psychic and spiritual resonance through which an actual Initiation or Transmission can happen. A Tau of the Gnostic Tradition is not an intermediary between ourselves and God, yet we receive substantial and helpful transmissions of spiritual energy from a Holy Gnostic Apostle along the way.

Virtually all authentic wisdom traditions that teach the Path to Enlightenment encourage the sacred friendship between a spiritual teacher and student, and encourage the spiritual fellowship provided by community. In this regard the Ecclesia Gnostica Aeterna is no different - holy company gives comfort and is empowering.
A Gnostic teacher and Gnostic circle (or Gnostic Church) serves to encourage and support the spiritual life and practice of the aspirant, and from our participation in a living tradition we receive teachings on the spiritual life and instructions in spiritual practice - the entire aim of Gnosticism, or any authentic wisdom tradition, is the spiritual life and practice; for this is the true foundation of any genuine spirituality and any real progress in the evolution of the soul to Higher Consciousness and Self-realization. Thus, our spiritual life and practice is the essential vehicle of Gnostic Initiation - the Gnostic and Light Transmission that flows from the Risen Christ. If in faith we take up the spiritual life and practice, there is no doubt that through the Grace of the Risen Christ we will experience something of the Truth and Light of Divine Gnosis.

Now let me turn briefly to another topic which I was asked to speak on a bit. Lineages of the Church. I believe many if not most of you have read our material on the Apostolic Succession and also seen some of the lineages listed on the site which we have united in our Church. I do not want to repeat all those lineages and who consecrated whom etc. Sufficient to say at this point is that all the bishops within the apostolic succession believe in powers, empowerments and conferrements passed on through the apostolic succession (about the Apostolic Succession, see other essays on this site). Powers which link us to the Master Jesus Christ and the Apostles directly and thus also to the mysteries of their times and before. One of those lineages is called the Voudon Lineage or more correct the The Gnostic, Templar, and Rosicrucian line. This lineage existed in Europe for decades but came to Haiti and the U.S.A. It kept no written records for fear of the Inquisition, but whose lineage Bertil Persson of St. Ephraim's Institute has been able to verify back to 1726. It was also called the Voduon lineage because it was introduced into the modern times by Lucien Francois Jean-Maine (1869-1960). Jean Maine was Haitian and a leading Gnostic, consecrated into several Apostolic and Gnostic lineages, but he was also a powerful and famous Voudon Docteur and Hierophant of the La Couleuvre Noire.and later founded the OTOA. Thus the lineage from Lucien-Francois Jean-Maine is commonly known as Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis, the Gnostic Spiritual Church and remains one of the truly magical lineages among the wandering bishops. The Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis is very closely linked to the esoteric bodies of the LCN and the OTOA in various ways. The founding fathers of the OTOA as well as leading adepts of the LCN were usually bishops of the EGS and thus these bodies were always infused with Gnostic ideas and ideology - but this influence went both ways and the EGS has always worked in more esoteric ways and transferred more magical energies than other lineages found in the realm of the Episcopi Vagantes. Besides this more magical apostolic lineage and all the commonly known lines of Apostolic Successions, the EGAE possesses an additional number of magical and esoteric Gnostic lineages, like the one from the Abbe Boullan, of which here is not the place to speak.

It is important to remember that later varieties and recensions of Gnostic teachings are present in virtually all transmissions of the Occult tradition in the West. Some of these later variations resemble the original model more closely than others. Clergy, members and other persons interested in the Gnostic Church often possess Martinist, Masonic, Rosicrucian, Theosophical and similar affiliations and dedications. All of these schools of thought, whether they acknowledge it or not, are related not only to each other, but by way of historical and mystical descent also to the matrix of ancient Gnosticism.

Whatever the other interests and dedications of all of us may be, we are true Gnostics. We are Gnostics moreover, not only in the sense of pursuing, or possessing a quality of consciousness that might be called Gnosis, but we are members of a specific tradition. This tradition, the Gnostic tradition, is the one represented by this Gnostic Church.

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