The Return of the Heresy

Amid the conflict between the Orthodoxy and the “Heresy” in a corrupt world, and after the political defeat of the gnostic postulates, the only possible solution for the dissident groups facing the clear danger of disappearance, if they kept their postulates public, was to submerge into secrecy. Their teachings hide and spread beyond the cities throughout all the bordering territories of the Roman Empire: Mesopotamia, Armenia, Greece, Central Europe, etc. The estrangement from the centers of power allows the emergence, development and multiplication of numerous splinter groups of proto-gnostic character (with clear tendencies toward Gnosis, but still not completely gnostic). Most of those groups are known only by the erudites in this matter, and do not have a special importance for those who study the gnostic tradition. But certainly Gnosis never disappears from the main cities of the empire, which continue being the culture medium for later resurgences of the heresies.

Nevertheless, from that moment on, the quiet work of these groups will be publicly recognized as different movements; some of them with greater social character, others eminently initiatic, some secret, others public. Sometimes the civil or ecclesiastical authority recognizes them, other times openly persecuted. Among all of them we should point out the Bogomils, Cathars, Templars, Freemasons and Rosicrucians. To carry out a profound study of each one of these groups far exceeds the pretenses of this chapter. Also a concrete and exact differentiation among them cannot be carried out, not even to accurately date their historical emergence as well as the end of their public work. Some congregations emerge from others. All are connected with the most ancient traditions. Small groups sometimes survive while the main group and its historical-initiatic transcendence has already disappeared. And some of them even coexist in time, with important personages who simultaneously belong to several organizations.

It is certain that, with the clear difficulties that such a work represents, we can find the thread of gnostic continuity marked by the essential aspects of the transmission of the tradition, and consequently, connected with the purest spiritual principles by means of the intimate revelation obtained by each one of the founding and continuing Masters of the esoteric work of these groups. For that, we will use the keys given by Master Samael throughout his entire work, and especially the unveiling of the Gnostic Myth of the Fall of Sophia and the work of the Salvator Salvandus, the Christ; together with the description of the world that we have already studied in previous chapters.

We will observe that the conflict between Orthodoxy and Heresy, far from being over, will reappear, even with more force, according to how evident the degeneration of the Catholic structure would be for the common people. In the same way, repression will be much more severe based on how great the danger was for the degenerate ecclesiastical and civil hierarchies of losing control of the souls and properties (above all the latter).

Before immersing into history and rescuing, before the eyes of the world, the essential principles contained in the different resurgences of the gnostic heresy, some important facts, which marked the development of institutional Christianity, and that provoked many of the later attitudes in relation with these groups, must be highlighted.

543 A.D.

In this date the mortal blow is given to the theories of reincarnation, which still existed in the bosom of the Church. The official excommunication of Origen, the great patriarch of early times, takes place; his books are burnt, and his postulates and followers are also excommunicated.

553 A.D.

The Council of Constantinople. With the participation of all the Bishops, the doctrine of rebirth is formally rejected. Potentiation of human punishments, and consequently potentiation of the divine punishments, with the aim of controlling the individuals, is stressed. “The Last Judgment” is used as a threat and as an instrument of repression. Official dogma: a single life, without any possibility of rebirth.

752 A.D.

Emergence of the Papal States. The Pope Stephan II, after a political conflict with King Astolfo, of the North of Italy, demands military help from Pipino, king of the Franks, to expel Astolfo’s subjects and take possession of their lands. The Pope jus demonstrated. Through this document Emperor Constantine gave in perpetual inheritance his palace, as well as all the provinces, palaces and districts of the city of Rome and Italy, and at the same time the regions of the west. This false document is followed by two terrible wars that had, as a result, the creation of the Papal State of the Church and the beginning of the tradition of the warrior Popes, militaries that would not doubt to defend or to extend their lands and political interests by the hand of the sword and their armies.

It is in this context, in the IX Century, and in the lands that correspond to current Bosnia, where the Bogomil heresy emerges as a new form of Gnosticism.

~ Wise Person