Spiritual Guidance for the Gnostic Minded
This site acts as a home page for my spiritual blog that references Gnostic scriptures (early pre-orthodox Christianity), Apocrypha from various traditions and other esoteric teachings.
Beware that no one lead you astray, saying ‘Lo here!’ or ‘Lo there!’ For the Son of Man is within you. Follow after him! Those who seek him will find him.
~The Gospel of Mary
Latest from the Blog
The Monad Within You
Back in October of this year, I put out a book of original work on LULU titled “The Sunesis Cosmogram”, which features three essays I wrote regarding the Circumpunct Symbol of Freemasonry as well as the three virtues (Hope, Faith and Charity). The main essay of the book is my re-working of the Circumpunct and…
The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple
A few months ago I posted about the Nativity of the Theotokos and references two source materials, the Protoevangelium of James and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. I will do the same for the feast day for the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple, which is on November 21. This feast date commemorates Mary entering…
Culmination of Wisdom
Email for more info
CLICK HERE
Site best viewed on a desktop browser with a resolution of 1920 x 1080
Past BLOG entries:
The Prayer of Mary at Bartos
If you like the North African magic that appeared in the “Book of Mary’s Repose” and the “Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ”, you’re going to love this. I…
Nativity of the Theotokos
September 8 is the feast day of the Nativity of the Theotokos. I realized I never shared the story of the event before, so I…
Irenaeus on Simon of Samaria
I haven’t done a Simon Magus post in awhile (check out my other posts via the “tag” at the bottom of this post), so I…
Syrian Dormition of Mary story
Three years ago I wrote about the oldest known Dormition story titled “The Book of Mary’s Repose” and had did a review of the Ge’ez…
Sayings of John the Baptist from the Ginza Rabba
Sorry for the lack of updates in the past two months. Real life gets in the way sometimes. With this post, I am bringing forth…
An Encomium on St John the Baptist
Another full Coptic tale for you with this post! This particular text is titled “An Encomium on Saint John the Baptist, by Saint John Chrysostom.”…
Mary Magdalene in the Psalms of the Lord Heracleides
Earlier this year I presented a Manichaean Psalm that mentioned Salome. Now I will present you a Psalm involving Mary Magdalene. This Psalm comes from…
The Virgin Mary and the Woman who was about to bring forth
Sorry for the month long departure. I try to post at least twice a month however Lent / Pascha season had my attention, but now…
The Virgin Mary and the Egyptian Priest John
I am digging back into the Ethiopian tradition with this short tale about the Theotokos and her encounter with an Egyptian Priest named John Bakansi…
Jesus sayings in 2 Clement
I wrote previously regarding one of the sayings in 2 Clement and it’s correlation to the Gospel of Thomas, but have decided to do a…
John the Baptist’s family and his death
Here is an interesting tidbit regarding John the Baptist speaking of wanting a wife (and obtaining one, then having children) and on his own death;…
The flying head of John the Baptist
On February 24 and 25 in the Orthodox tradition there are two feast days about discovering the head of John the Baptist (commemorating two different…
Salome built a tower
I have featured Salome on my blog in the past, but wanted to share this Manichaean psalm. There are numerous psalms from the Manichaean faith,…
John the Messiah, Jesus the Deceiver
Today is the feast day of Theophany, which commemorates the baptism of Jesus by John. I present you with a different take on this event.…
Josephus writing about John the Baptist
Those who study Christian history have heard of the Jewish historian, Flavius Jospheus and his mentions of John the Baptist, Jesus and James (brother of…
An alternate version of the Gospel of John
This is going to be my last “John” entry for awhile but this is a really interesting story. Some years back, an English translation of…
Martha in the Pistis Sophia
Martha, sister of Mary (of Bethany) and Lazarus, is a well known secondary character in the Gospels of Luke and John. But has she appeared…
The Mysteries of Saint John the Apostle and Holy Virgin
This particular Coptic tale is quite interesting. It is an ascension text, but then dives into a question and answer narrative. John the Theologian/Evangelist is…
The Repose of Saint John the Evangelist and Apostle
I guess I have Saint John on my mind as I have yet another post on him (and a few more in queue!). My last…
The History of the Death of Saint John the Evangelist
Returning back to the translations of E. A. Budget with another Ethiopic tale, this time in regards to Saint John the Evangelist/Theologian. This translation appeared…
Wisdom and her Daughters
On September 17, it is the Orthodox feast day for Saint Sophia and her Daughters. The daughters being Faith, Hope and Love. Now while these…
Apocalypse of holy John the Theologian
Another Apocalyptic John text that appears in the New Testament Apocrypha Volume 2 (edited by Tony Burke) is titled “Apocalypse of holy John the Theologian”…
First Apocryphal Apocalypse of John
With my last post, I mentioned how there are several “Apocalypses of John” texts out there besides the canonical version. In the book New Testament…
The Revelation of John about Antichrist
No, this isn’t about the book in the canonical Bible, but rather an apocrypha text. In case you are unaware, there are a handful of…
The Martyrdom of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist
Being that June 24 is the feast day (nativity, as his death feast day is later) of John the Baptist, I wanted to bring light…
The Eremitic Life of Mary Magdalene
Here is a short text involving the life of Mary Magdalene after the resurrection of Christ. It survives in quite a few manuscript copies, all…
The Life of Mary Magdalene
Recently I acquired all three volumes of the “New Testament Apocrypha: More noncanonical Scriptures”, edited by Tony Burke. These volumes contain rarely seen apocrypha texts,…
Mary Magdalene: Baptism of water and fire
In a post awhile back I mentioned some newly translated fragments from the oxyrhynchus dig that had been released to the public. These are fragments…
Talking baby Jesus
The past month or so I have been doing a deep dive into the Quran and really enjoy comparing the aspects of various figures in…
The Virgin Mary and the Cannibal of Qemer
Now here is something a bit different! Cannibals have made their way into the apocrypha throughout the years (believe it or not!). This particular tale…
Jesus writes a letter to King Abgarus
One of the shortest but very interesting pieces of apocrypha is the correspondence between King Abgarus and Jesus Christ. I find it fascinating that the…
Discourse on the Arch-Angel Gabriel
In the past month I brought you Coptic tales of Michael and Raphael, now here is one on Gabriel! This particular text is LONG! This…
Comparing translations of Thomas sayings
I mentioned in previous blog posts on how important it is to check out various translations of texts. Sometimes it is not possible but when…
Encomium on the Arch-Angel Raphael
I have another tale for you from the Coptic tradition this time of the Arch-Angel Raphael and his interaction with Saint John Chrysostom. This comes from…
Discourse on Saint Michael the Arch-Angel
With this post, I am bringing you the FULL text titled “Discourse on Saint Michael the Arch Angel”, by Timothy, Archbishop of Alexandria. This apocrypha text…
Jesus sayings in the “Sentences of Sextus”…?
A previous entry on my blog was a sample from the “Sentences of Sextus”, a fragmented wisdom collection that was in the Nag Hammadi library,…
Gospel of Bartholomew (2 of 2)
This is the second post of the Gospel of Bartholomew. What is fascinating about these remaining parts of the gospel is the inclusion of the “fallen…
Gospel of Bartholomew (1 of 2)
Today I present a dialogue style gospel. This is a post resurrection text that mainly involves Jesus speaking to Bartholomew. The gospel goes through various situations including…
(Greek) Gospel of the Egyptians
In the Nag Hammadi library, there is a text identified as the “Gospel of the Egyptians”, but did you know there is another text that…
2 Clement & Gospel of Thomas 22
I love how Gospel of Thomas sayings pop up in other writings and today I am showcasing such an example. Saying 22 from Thomas shows…
The Preaching and Martyrdom of James the Just
With the feast day of James the Just coming up on October 23, I wanted to post some lesser known stories of James. This post…
The Apocalypse of Peter
The Apocalypse (Revelation) of Peter is quite the interesting text. Not to be confused with the “Coptic” Apocalypse of Peter that was found in Nag…
Greater Questions of Mary
Once again, I invoke the writings of Epiphanius (the Panarion) of the Borborites. The lost text I am writing about today is the “Greater Questions…
The Gospel of Eve
Once again I dip back into the Panarion by Epiphanius, this time referencing the lost text, “The Gospel of Eve.” This Gnostic (Borborite) text survives…
The Birth of Yaldabaoth
When I started this blog a few years ago, I had no idea how long I would keep it up. I figured I would eventually…
The Donkey deity
I am currently reading “The Apocryphal Gospels” translated by Simon Gathercole. It features numerous non-canonical texts, some gnostic, some that are not, as well as…
Gospel of the Hebrews
I want to bring attention to another unknown gospel, that being the so-called “Gospel of the Hebrews”. This gospel only survives in fragments and that…
Gospel of the Savior (2 of 2)
To continue on with the Gospel of the Savior, we start at page 108, which continues the narrative from the previous page. This page is…
Gospel of the Savior (1 of 2)
I love finding new “lost manuscripts” that don’t get the publicity they should. Some discoveries make headlines for decades and others barely a mention. This…
Mary Magdalene and the resurrected Christ
With this post, I wanted to compare all the instances where Mary Magdalene meets the resurrected Christ. There have been countless articles / books on…
The Flight into Egypt
Recently I read the “Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew”, which is a text that combines the “Protoevangelium of James” and “Infancy Gospel of Thomas” but bridges the…
Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ: Book of Life (3 of 3)
If you haven’t read the previous two posts regarding the Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ, check them out. Now to the final post! The fifth section starts with…
Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ: Book of Life (2 of 3)
Now we continue with the Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ! Please refer to post 1 if haven’t already. Section three starts “In the Name of the Father, and…
Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ: Book of Life (1 of 3)
This post (part 1 of 3) is about the “Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ: Book of Life”, also known as the “Bandlet of Righteousness” with the subtitle “An…
The Virgin Mary’s Vision of Hell
Here lately I have been going down the rabbit hole of Ethiopic Christianity, particularly the apocrypha texts from that tradition. It has been a fascinating…
Hymn of the Savior
The Apocryphon of John, The Secret Revelation of John, The Secret Book of John…..whatever you want to refer to it, this particular text, next to…
Christ’s descent into Hell
Holy week passed earlier this month and with this post, I wanted to reference the Saturday between crucifixion and resurrection, that being the “Harrowing of…
The Gospel of Sophia
To continue with my OpenAI experiments, this time I wanted to see how well it put together a “Gospel” and I decided to do this…
Mark, Thomas and GPT
To continue with the chat GPT experiment, I decided to cross check the Gospel of Mark with the Gospel of Thomas. Yes, I realize Mark’s…
Matthew, Luke, Thomas and ChatGPT
The buzz lately in the technology world is the artificial intelligence chat bots. I like to play around with new technologies (hence the abundance of…
Missing fragment from the Gospel of Philip?
As I continue down the rabbit hole that is the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, I noticed a fragment that I have read before. While…
Norea, wife of Noah
Norea (Noria) is a figure that pops up in various Gnostic texts. The most popular Norea text is titled “The Thought of Norea” and is…
Two more readings
I have a video clip of two more readings I would like to share. The first reading is from the Gospel of Philip and it’s…
Kollyridianism – Marian worship
Back when I did my posts regarding the “Book of Mary’s Repose”, the book that accompanied that text included a long history of the Virgin…
Know Yourselves….
It has been awhile since I made some text reading vids (per the analytics, they aren’t very popular on the site but I enjoy doing…
Gospel of Thomas 114 & Theodotus
Simon Peter said to them, “Make Mary leave us, for females don’t deserve life.” Jesus said, “Look, I will guide her to make her male,…
An Index to Barbelo
…who am I, the Thought of the Father, Protennoia, that is, Barbelo, the perfect Glory, and the immeasurable Invisible One who is hidden. I am…
An Ode to Sophia
The Acts of Thomas features the popular poem “Hymn of the Pearl”, but also features another poem that does not get enough recognition and that…
The Nativity of Jesus – Expanded Edition
With it being near the time of Christmas, I thought it’d be interesting to see how the story of the Nativity of Jesus plays out…
Crucifixion body swapping
Recently I finished reading “The Gospel of Barnabas” which is an Islamic leaning text about the life and ministry of Jesus. If you are not…
The Temptation of Allogenes
As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a text in the Codex Tchacos that rarely gets spoken of and that is “A Book…
First Apocalypse of James – Tchacos vs NHL
The Codex Tchacos is famous for having the “Gospel of Judas” but what many seem to forget, it actually contained four Gnostic texts! Besides Judas,…
Black Madonna shrine – Pacific, Missouri
It’s been over a month since my last post, and I usually try not to let that happen. Unfortunately in the past month, I had…
Summer Harvest
While we have various Valentinian texts in the NHL, there are fragments that exist elsewhere, usually in the writings of the church Fathers, and are…
A mantra for Barbelo
I like to pick out phrases / paragraphs from various Gnostic texts and put them in a binder for my own personal practice. This binder…
Readings from “Gospel of Truth” & “Gospel of Judas”
Another reading video, this time sections from the “Gospel of Truth” and the “Gospel of Judas”. With the Judas reading, I included some MidJourney AI…
Salome
Last month I posted a blog about Mary Magdalene, which included included a conversation between her and Salome from the Pistis Sophia (Link: https://culminationofwisdom.org/2022/07/20/the-feast-day-of-mary-magdalene-july-22/ ),…
Jesus as a Quiet Guide
Today I present artwork and a reading video of the “Jesus as a Quiet Guide” portion from the “Gospel of Truth.” This particular verse is…
Mary’s Spirit at Dormition
August 15 is the feast day of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. Earlier in my blog, I posted a three part series about one…
The First Source
Here is another post with some MidJourney A.I. generated artwork. For these three variants of “the first source”, I used the opening section of the…
Gospel of Philip – Saying 107 (Bridal Chamber)
With this post, I decided to include my MidJourney A.I. artwork based on saying 107 from the Gospel of Philip as well as a reading…
The Feast Day of Mary Magdalene (July 22)
July 22 is the “Feast Day” for Mary Magdalene, so I thought it would be fitting to post various texts from different traditions. Those into…
Axion Estin
Axion Estin, or it’s translation meaning “It is truly meet”, is the name of a Eastern Orthodox magnification and hymn to the Theotokos (Virgin Mary).…
Barbelo, as envisioned by A.I.
I figured I would share this interesting artwork I was able to put together with the help of AI. Here lately it seems that artificial…
Our Lady of Montserrat
I mentioned before about my visits to the Saint Meinrad Archabbey and encountering the Lady of Einsiedeln. Well, with the school out of session for…
3 short video clips
Out of the recent recordings I did, I thought I’d edit three segments together. The first segment is an excerpt from the Gospel of Thomas,…
Barbelo
Barbelo, the reflection of the source. The first thought. Mother of us all. She is mentioned in numerous Gnostic texts but I wanted to share…
Mary Magdalene Prayer
Here is another short prayer video, this time I read a Catholic prayer to Saint Mary Magdalene. Here is the text of the prayer: Saint…
A Prayer to Our Lady of Einsiedeln
I wanted to try something new with this site. I’ve been experimenting with recording videos of myself reading various scripture, as well as prayers, to…
The Book of Mary’s Repose (3 of 3)
And now the conclusion of the Liber Requiei. The man who’s arms were cut off, wept to the apostles and begged them not to give…
The Prophet Mani
While browsing around on gnosis.org, I noticed they use April 25th as a commemoration for the birth of the Prophet Mani. While April is the…
The Book of Mary’s Repose (2 of 3)
And the story continues….. After Jesus ascended back into the heavens, Mary returned home. Entering the house, it began to tremble on the account of…
The Book of Mary’s Repose (1 of 3)
I have read some oddball apocrypha texts but this may be one of the strangest. Being quite fond of the Theotokos, I’ve been tracking down…
The Unknowable Monad
One of the questions I see in social media groups about Gnosticism regard “God” and what it is like. Various Gnostic texts explain that the…
A Gnostic Hymn
I want to highlight a fragment that is in the Bruce Codex. To me, the Bruce Codex features some of the best Gnostic material available…
The Black Madonna of the St. Meinrad Archabbey
This entry is a bit different than ones I have done in the past. This is in regards to my experience with the Black Madonna…
Simon Magus’ “The Great Announcement”
To continue on my Simon Magus postings, this particular entry includes the only writing attributed to Simon himself! It survives in fragmented form thanks to…
The tomb inscription of Flavia Sophe
This artifact is an interesting piece. It is a tomb inscription of a woman by the name of Flavia Sophe. This stone dates back to…
More Sayings from Simon Magus
“I am the first power, who am always, and without beginning. But having entered the womb of Rachel, I was born of her as a…
The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ
Recently I read the 1894 book, “The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ” by Nikolai Aleksandrovich Notovich, that was supposedly to contain a translation of a…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Culmination of Wisdom 