A review of "A Life Beyond Change - the Gnostic System of Carpocrates"
Luis Varady is a mysterious personage who has
published a number of e-books on ancient Christian Gnosticism. Or perhaps his
own interpretations of the same. In this short but well-written e-book, Varady
tries to reconstruct the system of Carpocrates, easily the most notorious
Gnostic, accused by his detractors of being an immoral libertine. Carpocrates
is also mentioned in the controversial Mar Saba letter, discovered by Morton
Smith and attributed to Clement of Alexandria, in which Clement hotly denies
the authenticity of a Carpocratian “gospel”, in which Jesus is portrayed as an
orgiastic homosexual. Some believe that the Mar Saba letter is a forgery by
Smith himself, but this doesn't detract from the main point: Carpocrates was
the Aleister Crowley of 2nd century Alexandria!
Varady doesn't buy it, and believe that the mainline Christians have distorted two aspects of the Carpocratian system. One is its anti-authoritarianism and gender equality, directed against the Jewish law and Christianized versions thereof. The other is the peculiar teaching that the souls imprisoned in matter must “undergo all possible experiences” before they can be liberated and return to God. This was misunderstood or misinterpreted by the orthodox Christians as a call to licentiousness. If the soul must undergo all experiences, why not do evil and immoral acts to hasten the process of liberation? Varady rather believes that the Carpocratians practiced advanced forms of magic, including dream-control, and that this ability to control dreams somehow constituted “undergoing all possible experiences”. He also believes that they practiced more typical forms of magic, including conjuring of discarnate entities.
Varady's own perspective isn't entirely clear from this little work. On the one hand, he wants to reinterpret Gnosticism in purely psychological terms as yet another technique to empty the mind. Here, he sounds like a modern Western Buddhist or promoter of Neo-Vedanta. Or is it Neo-Neo-Vedanta? However, his interest in magical practices seem to point in a very different (and perhaps more dangerous) direction. It's not clear which tradition, if any, Varady himself is affiliated with. Perhaps the answer can be found in some other e-book of his. Stay tuned for further developments…
Varady doesn't buy it, and believe that the mainline Christians have distorted two aspects of the Carpocratian system. One is its anti-authoritarianism and gender equality, directed against the Jewish law and Christianized versions thereof. The other is the peculiar teaching that the souls imprisoned in matter must “undergo all possible experiences” before they can be liberated and return to God. This was misunderstood or misinterpreted by the orthodox Christians as a call to licentiousness. If the soul must undergo all experiences, why not do evil and immoral acts to hasten the process of liberation? Varady rather believes that the Carpocratians practiced advanced forms of magic, including dream-control, and that this ability to control dreams somehow constituted “undergoing all possible experiences”. He also believes that they practiced more typical forms of magic, including conjuring of discarnate entities.
Varady's own perspective isn't entirely clear from this little work. On the one hand, he wants to reinterpret Gnosticism in purely psychological terms as yet another technique to empty the mind. Here, he sounds like a modern Western Buddhist or promoter of Neo-Vedanta. Or is it Neo-Neo-Vedanta? However, his interest in magical practices seem to point in a very different (and perhaps more dangerous) direction. It's not clear which tradition, if any, Varady himself is affiliated with. Perhaps the answer can be found in some other e-book of his. Stay tuned for further developments…
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