Gnosis

[Celtaur]

I'd like to learn more about Gnosis, and came across this article that ties together Gnosis and Wicca.

As Wiccans, we struggle with the terms with which we identify ourselves. The meaning of the word 'witch' has become diffuse to the point of meaninglessness. The website lists sixteen mutually exclusive definitions of the word. The word 'pagan' has become similarly vague, especially when the word is used to describe contemporary pagan movements.

Gerald Gardner is the acknowledged father of this religion, which was originally said to have been a surviving strain of mankind's oldest faith. Gardner, Sanders, and others relied on the theories of Egyptologist and feminist Margaret Murray. Later, Murray's theories were disproved, as other scholars successfully argued she had not been able to establish proof of an uninterrupted tradition. Aidan Kelly, in Crafting the Art of Magic, produced several successive drafts of Gardner's Book of Shadows, pointing out that genuinely ancient material is not subject to revision. Gardner's apologists were quick to redefine Wicca as a reconstructionist attempt to recover Europe's nearly lost indigenous mysteries. I would like to offer another perspective: that Wicca is actually a recent incarnation of the Gnostic tradition. While not the continuation of an ancient religion, it is the continued preservation of the mysteries underlying all faiths.

Gnostics have never been well-liked among the power elite of any religion, and Gnostic populists have always been particularly despised by both factions. Religious power mongers prefer to cultivate fundamentalism. After all, reducing the sacred teachings to their lowest common denominator and robbing the plebs of its last hope of critical thought, ensures that the coffers of the powerful remain filled while minimizing the risk of the deity running interference. Eliphas Levi, in his book Transcendental Magic: Dogma and Ritual, decried the cruel treatment of Paracelsus and Apollonius, while Machiavelli grimly presented Savonarola's fate as a dire warning of what happens to those who place their faith in God above their fear of the powers that be. All three men led their earthly existences ostracized by society, only to end them in poverty or at the hands of executioners. But if the Son of Man could not win against the Pharisees, what hope dared these noble souls nurture?

Is it any wonder that those who understand the universal truths shared by all faiths choose to keep these secret, in order that they remain safe from the grasp of those who would misuse them? And is it any wonder that those who have sworn to keep the mysteries secret and undespoiled look upon those who proliferate them for personal gain -- or out of prophetic vision -- with scorn? No twentieth century magus was more despised among his peers than Aleister Crowley. His crime was not that he was bisexual or that he was a heroin addict. It was not that he had a flamboyant, perhaps arrogant personality. His crime was that he published the secrets of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn -- and his insistence that it was the birthright of every man, woman, and child to have access to this knowledge.

It's a long article, much more at link

What book did Crowley publish about the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? Is it the book by Israel Regardie?

[brifae]

Book of thoth and his other libers, OTO was based on the same GD teachings
I disagree that sharing info with the noninitiated cattle was his "crime" some say he was worried about losing the info as membership dwindled and nazis destroyed alot of occult knowledge for themselves. His dirty dealings were one and the same as these elite occultists, whose tools are legit, their motivations are not, he worked for the british queen and secret service. Those that keep it secret often misuse the knowledge themselves but i understand somethings are sacred to self other magickal info and empowerment is our human birthright as children of god.

Wicca does not come from gnosticism instead christianity is based on old pagan ideals. Wicca is influenced by judeochrisitan preserved ceremonial magick