a comment I made in quility's journal

[novapsyche]

It's my contention that a myth should not be misinterpreted as history. The Bible exists, and the Old Testament was written about people who existed in Jewish history. But the evidence that Yeshua existed is shaky at best. The four gospels were not written at the time of Yeshua's supposed existence; the authorship of them is even in dispute. Then there's the whole political process as to which books were considered gospel in the first place.

The dying and resurrected man is a powerful recurring image in mythologies ancient and modern. The ghost of that idea remains in the Christian rite of baptism, but the symbolic meaning seems to have been forgotten or not effectively transmitted through the ages. The Gnostic in me says that the resurrection occurs in this life; death must be resolved in this life. Baptism isn't just recognizing that Jesus is one's Savior (as a lot of Protestant churches emphasize). To be baptized is to understand death as an illusion; repentance at that understanding occurs (known in the Greek as metanoia), and it is at that point that one becomes a Christian, or Christlike.

Comments

Possibly More Than A Ghost

[melangell.livejournal.com]

I believe that in the Eastern Orthodox litergy of baptism, there are actually words which state that one dies to one's old life and is reborn in the new. There is, I believe, a strong gnostic (though they might not admit it too readily) flavour to much of that litergy (or those litergies I guess.) I'll have to ask my Orthodox friend about it. she's an amazing woman and always likes to discuss things. I'm a pagan and she's a Christian and yet there is, for all that, a meeting of the minds and spirits and you'd be surprised at how often I say something about my path and she says: "Oh yeah! Just like how we do it in my church," or something to that effect. There are some very obscure traditions connected with praying for a person who has passed on as well, having to do with certain days after this person has died. The third day is important, the ninth, and the fortieth. There are these beings called "The Powers Of The Air" I believe, who on the fortieth day, in this tradition, judge the soul of this dead person and there are certain ordeals this person is supposed to go through, and all that sounds like some rite of Gnostic initiation or something. Lots of symbolism there. Ok. I'll shut up now. :)

Taariel