By
Illuminatus Maximus
Eighteen
hundred years ago, the Christian religion was
in a state of chaotic upheaval. The Bible hadn’t
been canonised yet, most important doctrinal issues
were still up for grabs, and nobody could agree
on what Jesus’ message actually was.
One of the most exotic flavours in this seething
cauldron of theological controversy was Gnosticism,
a mystical philosophy whose adherents rejected
the creator god of the Old Testament as an incompetent
fraud.
Instead the Gnostic Christians dedicated their
lives to the search for another god, an elusive
deity secretly hidden within the human spirit.
This quest for the God within took many forms.
Some Gnostics advocated a total rejection of the
world and society, living in the desert as ascetic
monks; others married, worked and played alongside
their neighbours without ever discussing their
spiritual pursuits.
The Gnostics had an intuitive, personal approach
to enlightenment. There was no hierarchy, no code
of conduct and no central governing authority;
the goal was liberation by any means necessary,
not the creation of new orthodoxies.
Misunderstood
Mystics
While
most Gnostic Christians contented themselves with
respectable lives of study and contemplation,
others chose a more direct route.
Often mischaracterised as “libertines” or “devil-worshippers,”
it is the taboo-smashing travelers of this shorter
path who have inspired the most curiosity among
modern researchers.
Taboo
and Transgression
Perhaps
no two human activities are as thickly ringed
round with religious and social taboos as the
twin mysteries of sex and death – the beginning
and the end, the void from which human life emerges
and the gulf into which it disappears.
French philosopher Georges Bataille argues the
religious impulse is identical to erotic
desire for this reason – both strive for the extinction
of individual consciousness, either through the
mystical death of the ego (religion) or the “little
death” of the orgasm (sex).
In Bataille’s view, sexual and religious taboos
provoke their own violation – or “transgression”
– simply by existing, for it is only through the
very human drive to define and then deflower (or
desecrate) states of purity that we loosen the
grip of rational utility and plunge or collapse
into ecstatic communion with the sacred.
Taboo-breaking, in other words, is a profoundly
spiritual activity; whether through religion
(the giddy euphoria of the blood sacrifice), sex
(the anarchic carnality of the orgy) or social
play (the topsy-turvy lawlessness of the carnival).
Madmen, criminals and holy fools throughout the
ages have always sought to tempt fate and “break
on through to the other side.”
Antinomian
Antics
The
notion that the psychological shock caused by
performing forbidden activities can lead to spiritual
awakening is called “antinomianism”. The word
“antinomian” means, literally, “against the law.”
Antinomian sects have been present throughout
human history in almost every culture. Perhaps
the best-known modern example is that of the Aghora
(or “pure ones”), Hindu holy men who practice
necrophilia, cannibalism and even coprophagy (the
eating of feces) in their fierce quest for wisdom.1
Of course, from the Aghora’s point of view, eating
feces is simply God eating God. If everything
is God, then why would he discriminate between
sights, smells and tastes or prefer certain experiences,
substances or actions?
But perhaps he would, for like many antinomian
cults, the Aghora often speak in code. The practitioner
who tells us that he eats his own feces may be
speaking metaphorically of his meditative practice.
Without experiencing his path for ourselves, we
simply cannot know.
As the above example should make abundantly clear,
the antinomian path isn’t for the casually curious,
nor should it be confused with mere hedonism.
It demands absolute discretion, a disdain for
disapproval, and an unshakeable commitment to
an ethic literally not of this world.
Beyond
Good and Evil
Antinomian
mystics have never been concerned with
social status, physical comfort or moral redemption.
Instead, their goal has always been the acquisition
of divine power through mystical merger with the
godhead.
What society calls evil is what violates boundaries
and overflows without limit, blurring the categories
between pure and impure, sacred and profane.
The antinomian heroine deliberately ignores these
distinctions, performing acts that most people
would see as dirty, disgusting or dangerous. Trespassing
on divine territory, she frees herself from society’s
taboos, dissolving shame, fear and judgment as
she opens herself up to the absolute.
With every forbidden act, the soul is enlarged
and strengthened, made more able to receive and
integrate the divine power unleashed thereby.
Antinomianism
in Primitive Christianity
The
antinomian current in Gnostic Christianity came
in two flavours, weak and strong.
The “weak” antinomian ideal held that since the
flesh was just a temporary vehicle for the spirit,
mature Christians could do whatever they pleased
with their bodies. Biblical rules governing diet,
behaviour, dress, sex, etc., were restrictive
and unnecessary distractions intended for the
mundane herd, not the spiritual elite.
The “strong” antinomian ideal was embraced by
those Christian groups we would today call “Short
Path”. Preaching depravity as a positive value,
these urged believers to sin without restraint.
Sex, fear and intoxicants were used to break down
taboos and social conditioning, releasing tremendous
amounts of magical energy while sanctifying the
vilest deeds with a mysterious grace.
The
Deep Things of Satan
The
most infamous Gnostic antinomian of all was Carpocrates,
a second-century teacher from the Egyptian city
of Alexandria whose students prided themselves on their “knowledge of
the deep things of Satan.”2
According to St. Irenaeus, what made Carpocrates’
teachings so especially blasphemous was the idea
Christians had to bribe the Devil in order to
return to God. The Devil would guide the souls
of dead through the afterworld, but only if they
had already paid him in life through the ritualistic
performance of a multitude of “sins.”
The
Jesus Jail Break
Carpocrates
taught that the Earth was a prison planet created
by rebellious angels who had imprisoned human
souls here in shadowy tombs of flesh and bone.
These “angels” were the Rulers, botched copies
of another, higher deity called the unborn god.
Jesus was a normal human being until he remembered
his previous existence as a bodiless soul with
the unborn god outside space and time. As Jesus
grew in knowledge and spiritual clarity, he realised
that laws and institutions (the 10 Commandments,
for example) had been designed by the world-building
Rulers to ensnare and mislead us. The best way
to get over “sins” was to just give into them.
Like water seeking its own level, the soul could
then return to the unborn god, unencumbered by
earthly limits and restrictions.
To the Carpocratians, Jesus was a model of someone
who had achieved total freedom of the soul – and
since the source of Jesus’ power lay in His utter
contempt for the angels’ created universe, anyone
could become greater than Jesus by despising “things
below” even more than He had. For this reason,
some Carpocratians considered themselves equal
to Jesus Himself, while others considered themselves
even more powerful.
The Carpocratians incorporated secret handshakes,
dream interpretation, magic spells and other occult
rites into Christian worship. Having defeated
and risen above the creators and rulers of the
world, the accomplished Carpocratian could now
command these same entities, ruling over the invisible
forces of creation much as they themselves ruled
over the Earth.
Moral prohibitions and taboos seemed to provoke
– rather than inhibit – the Carpocratians. As
heresy-hunter St. Irenaeus explained:
