The perfect void

This review is from: The Wisdom of the Serpent: The Gnostic Trinity of the Peratae (Kindle Edition)

This is a short e-book attempting to interpret the Ophite Gnosticism of the Peratae, one of the lesser known Gnostic sects. Apparently, they are only known from comments made in an anti-Gnostic treastise by Church Father Hippolytus. The Peratae claimed to be Christians, but interpreted the Bible in a somewhat unusual way, claiming that Jesus Christ was the serpent in Eden! Hence, the designation “Ophite”, Ophis being the Greek word for snake. To the Peratea, the snake wasn't a symbol of evil, but rather of resurrection – the snake is “reborn” when it sheds its skin. Other aspects of Peratae cosmology are strikingly similar to Hinduism (both pantheistic and theistic). They also used astrological symbolism.

The author of the e-book, the otherwise unknown Luis Varady, is close to Advaita Vedanta and Zen, and hence see salvation as liberation from the bondage of matter and the illusions of the mind. Instead, we should return to the “perfect void” of pure, primal and unadulterated consciousness. Nirvana? He interprets Gnosticism in a psychological manner and recommends another e-book of his, dealing with meditation.

Personally, I have almost the opposite view of “salvation”: surely, it doesn't entail gazing into a perfect void. (And having the void gazing into you?) How about making the phenomenal world, ahem, perfect? But that's another story, as they say…