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Eleanor C Merry – The Flaming Door

A Certain aspect of the old Mystery wisdom which continued on into early Christian times was known as the Gnosis. The Christian Gnostic scriptures which have come down to us in the Pistis Sophia tell of the descent or fall of the original "Virgin" - wisdom - into darkness, and its salvation by Christ. It is called Sophia, the Virgin of Light.

There are passages which refer to the power of the Virgin of Light to redeem mankind from the "counterfeiting spirit".

In the Third Book of Pistis Sophia the nature of man is described as consisting of the "power", or spirit, the " soul ", and the " counterfeiting spirit ".

First there is a description of how all these powers are feeble in the body of the new-born child, without "any of them sensing anything, whether good or evil, because of the load of forgetfulness which is very heavy ".

And then how the food of the Earth, being eaten, increases the strength of the three incarnating principles, until little by little " the power and the soul and the counterfeiting spirit grow, and every one of them senseth according to his nature: the power senseth to seek after the light of the height; the soul on the other hand senseth to seek after the region of righteousness which is mixed; the counterfeiting spirit on the other hand seeketh after all evils and lusts and all sins; the body on the contrary senseth nothing unless it taketh up force out of matter."

But there is a fourth principle too, one which is in alliance with the counterfeiting spirit, and this is the "destiny".

The teaching continues (and it is beautiful to read) that the counterfeiting spirit-or rather its effects- becomes, if the soul has not been able to release itself from its influence, the judge of the soul after death in the presence of the Virgin of Light; that is, in the presence of divine Wisdom. But the soul that has freed itself and has absorbed wisdom " becometh a great light-stream, shining exceedingly. It becometh entirely wings of light, and penetrateth all the regions of the rulers and all the orders of the Light, until it reacheth to the region of its kingdom up to which it hath received Mysteries."

The whole content of the Gnosis is really a teaching about the spiritual Universe-as spheres or "Mysteries ", with their corresponding hierarchies of Beings; and the contraction of the spiritual Universe into the being of man at birth; hence of the descent of the Christ, through these spheres to Earth, and His Ascension, or subsequent " expansion ".

He takes humanity by the same path-descending, and ascending. The Gnosis presents the idea of the Cosmic Christ; the same idea, in essence, as was contained in the revelations received in all the ancient Mysteries under other names.

The Eternal feminine is for eversought by the human soul as the only guide to the spirit.