Kenosis to Gnosis

Think of humanity as being soil of one kind or another. The seeds that are planted in them are underground out of sight of the light, but if the soil is good enough, then that seed will grow and emerge out of that underworld and into the light. Then it will start producing a flower to create a rebirth. If the soil is barren and it doesn't get rain, that seed will go to waste and that soil will be lifeless and not be productive in anyway. The flower is an important symbol in many cultures and occult societies. It always represents the opening up of the soul and being reborn into the light. This is salvation, which means allowing that seed to grow so that it will pierce the veil to the world above and get into the light. In order for a flower to emerge it needs fertile soil and it needs help from above, in the form of rain.  

 

 

The Parable of the Sower is a very good teaching from the Bible, Matthew 18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

 

The Gnostic gospels have passages in them that make it clear that the Gnostics believed that people are living in an underworld right now.

 

The Gospel of Truth, "He labored even on the Sabbath for the sheep which he found fallen into the pit. He saved the life of that sheep, bringing it up from the pit in order that you may understand fully what that Sabbath is, you who possess full understanding. It is a day in which it is not fitting that salvation be idle, so that you may speak of that heavenly day which has no night and of the sun which does not set because it is perfect. Say then in your heart that you are this perfect day and that in you the light which does not fail dwells."

 

The Tripartite Tractate, 8:89, "They acknowledged the light which had come into being as one stronger than those who fought against them. The beings of the likeness, however, were exceedingly afraid, since they were not able to hear about him in the beginning, that there is a vision of this sort. Therefore they fell down to the pit of ignorance which is called "the Outer Darkness," and "Chaos" and "Hades" and "the Abyss."

 

The Interpretation of Knowledge, 10 "

What now is the faith laid down by the master who released him from the great ignorance and the darkness of the ignorant eye? He reminded him of the good things of his Father and the race. For he said to him, "Now the world is not yours, may you not esteem the form that is in it as advantageous; rather (as) disadvantageous and (as) a punishment." Receive now the teaching of the one who was reproached - an advantage and a profit for the soul - and receive his shape. It is the shape that exists in the presence of the Father, the word and the height, that let you know him before you have been led astray while in (the) flesh of condemnation.

Likewise I became very small, so that through my humility I might take you up to the great height, whence you had fallen. You were taken to this pit. If now you believe in me, it is I who shall take you above, through this shape that you see. It is I who shall bear you upon my shoulders. Enter through the rib whence you came and hide yourself from the beasts. The burden that you bear now is not yours. Whenever you (fem.) go ... (14 lines missing)... from his glory [...] from the first. From being counted with the female, sleep brought labor and the sabbath, which is the world. For from being counted with the Father, sleep brought the sabbath and the exodus from the world of the beasts. For the world is from beasts and it is a beast. Therefore he that is lost has been reckoned to the crafty one, and that one is from the beasts that came forth. They put upon him a garment of condemnation, for the female had no other garment for clothing her seed except the one she brought on the sabbath. For no beast exists in the Aeon."

 

In the book called The Secret School of Wisdom, by Josef Wages, it mentions on page 90, in a lecture for the initiation of a candidate for the Minerval degree of the Bavarian Illuminati, that the Illuminati believed that Mankind was living in the abyss and they were in a higher world, "And he to whom this does not seem important, let him sink back into the abyss from which we lifted him for a while." Being enlightened is about existing in a higher world and not living in the pit.