The term Gnosticism comes from Greek word »gnosis«, which denotes freeing knowledge. This is not the knowledge in general meaning of the word, which you get with education, studying the books and getting the knowledge out of the books. This is the knowledge, that brings liberation of the human being and the way to this liberation. This is the return to the truth and is completely on the other side of secular and profane. For all occurrences and experiences described and spoken by Gnostics, have the seed in their own life.
Gnostics have existed and exist in all time periods of human existence, however in narrow meaning Gnosticism occurred in time of Christ in east Mediterranean. All these teachings of lost civilizations, through original Christians until today, can be found in an enchanted garden, regardless of tradition, language, religion and time period.
The knowledge that Gnostics sought was knowledge about the nature of human being, god and cosmos. We often come across the gnostic saying, that humans’ gnosis is the beginning and gods’ gnosis is the end of man’s evolution. Unlike secular earthly destiny, Gnosticism teaches celestial and starry destiny of the human being. Gnosis was the secret knowledge, not because Gnostics wanted to hide it, but because gnosis arises solely through the spiritual work on yourself.
The basis of gnostic teachings is that in a human being there is a divine spark, identical to god and at the same time trapped in the material world.
The divine spark in human being has nothing in common with material world, which is the product of lower animalistic forms of consciousness. Out of this, most gnostic teachings are based on dualism that exists between human soul trapped in the body and the same prison – the material world in which she lives.
Getting free from restraints of material world is in most cases possible only by complete awareness and acceptance of material world. This means that Gnostics get to know, experience and master the matrix of material world.
We can say that Gnostic is like a mighty tree, of which treetop stretches to the highest heights of the sky and roots reach the deepest depths of the earth.
