An excellent rite for the Elevation of the Deceased, by my good friend and colleague the Rev. Dn. Michael Strojan
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Gnostic Devotions · Online Book of Christian Gnostic devotions
Gnostic Devotions 
The first thing linked to is silly garbage. It is an affront to the Holy Spirit.
Agnosticism on the soul after death does not a Gnostic make.
Your church is no church: it is fraternal occultism in essence, with a thin Catholic veneer. You have no grace and you raise no saints.
Occultism is darkness and spiritual poison. Avoid it. Have nothing to do with it and get further away from those who embrace it.
Paganism is false and man-made religion. Like the modern Gnostic movement.
I am agnostic about one thing: whether I will end up using your Little Office at all.
Honestly Andrew, I have no idea how to respond. I didn’t see anything wrong with his ritual… But for me, it’s a religious obligation to care for the departed — something that I think has been largely lost in our society. That’s why I shared this. I’m not sure how much of this was directed at me, and how much was directed at Michael, since you also dragged my book into it. But I would appreciate it if you didn’t make assumptions about my church, nor my friend’s, based on personal rituals and prayers we compose on our respective blogs. If there’s something you don’t understand, questions are always welcome — but your comments seem to be an attack based on misunderstanding.
The faithless wolf in sheep’s clothing, Strojan, is more who I am criticizing, but you are wrong to enable him. Like the church of Laodicea in Revelations, you have the shallow “love” that embraces all falsehoods. But of course none of you will ever listen to me, because you are not Christians of any kind, but self-willed neopagans. Have fun with that Tarot deck.
I have done much intensive research of ancient Gnosticism as well as the modern hooligans who appropriate the mantle by that name. I have given modern “Gnostic Christianity” every benefit of the doubt to be truly Gnostic whilst being truly Christian. It fails.
Until I can attain to being a good and effective simple Christian, it is moot, vain and proud to strive to be a Gnostic one.
Hi there Andrew! I’m glad that you’re a fan of Bro. Pier-Giorgio’s blog and had so many wonderful things to say about my entry. 🙂 I’m especially flattered that you compared the calibre of my meager work to early community in Laodicea, the same town where Timothy (one of my favorite evangelists) composed his famous epistle. As a matter of course, I wrote the above ritual to help me better grasp the beauty of God’s Creation in its diversity and to help enable people to connect to those they hold dear in their hearts and minds. I would heartily suggest you give it as well as the Little Office of the Sophia a try. They’re both fascinating devotions. If you’d like, I can give you a tarot reading to help discern which you may wish to do first.
Peace Profound.
Of course all religions are man made. They are sets of doctrine, ritual, and dogma, designed to keep us from actually experience the wonder and glory of God. Lucky God in Her Wisdom gave us an innate drive towards spirituality.
(Sorry hit post by accident let me finish that.)
Spirituality, is what draws us closer to God. Religion more often drives a wedge between peoples actual understanding of God and Her Wisdom, placing restrictions on peoples understanding of Her. Saying that it MUST BE THIS WAY, NO OTHER.
God, in Her Glory, encompasses all things, and is all things, She can not be restrained by the dogma that we apply to Her. We are the fish that is in Her the ocean.
See, I don’t go in for the distinction between spirituality and religion. I understand what people mean by that, I just think that the word “religion” is being misused and/or misunderstood. Etymologically, it comes from the Latin “religare”, which means to reconnect, relink, or bind fast. In that sense, I have no problem calling myself religious, because that’s what I’m trying to do — connect with God and return to Him.
I would argue that ritual (with some possible exceptions) is designed to help us experience the wonder and glory of God. Dogma… well, that’s a whole different issue. 😉
However, language evolves and isn’t really connected, and religion is really connected with it’s original meaning(s) anymore. The metaphor of it has changed.
I don’t know, from my own experience, that connotation only seems to have arisen within my lifetime… So it’s not old enough for me to accept as a new meaning. “Dogmatism” seems a lot more descriptive. I also find that with a lot of people who identify as “spiritual but not religious”, they often make things up as they go along, and completely miss out on the over all experience of group worship and the power that goes along with worshiping with a group. Religion doesn’t have to be dogmatic, unfortunately that’s the way it’s become in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
The only people who seem to use the word religion as you describe it are those who believe that Religion = Christianity (which is a relatively modern phenomenon). Most religions of the world and history do not have dogma as you describe it, and so I’m with Bro. Pier-Giorgio here in my understanding of religion in general as means by which people tend to connect with their respective Gods. Religion is tradition, it’s rituals, it’s myth and stories, all of which serve to connect people with the Gods.
“Religion doesn’t have to be dogmatic, unfortunately that’s the way it’s become in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.”
I would say ‘In some forms of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity’. Not every form has totally bought into Dogmatism, though they have dogmas.
That is true, our forms certainly aren’t dogmatic. 😉
Jay, can you name a religion that doesn’t have dogma? With dogma meaning: “an official system of principles or tenets concerning faith, morals, behavior, etc., as of a church.”