Welcome and thank you for visiting the Aeon Eye. Here, you will find all sorts of musings on philosophy, religion, fiction, writing and other subjects. Enjoy your stay! My name is Alexander Rivera. The Aeon Eye is a blog dedicated to the author’s research and ideas regarding scholarship in theology, including world religions, the Bible, the Apocrypha, patristics, and Fortean good times.
I call this blog, The Aeon Eye, because “aeon” generally means “age” in Greek but also “eternal truth” and is a term that is used heavily in many mystical traditions. The “eye” is in reference to Plato’s Metaphor of the Sun in the Republic in which the mind’s eye is the vessel for “nous” or illumination.
When the mind’s eye rests on objects illuminated by truth and reality, it understands and comprehends them, and functions intelligently; but when it turns to the twilight world of change and decay, it can only form opinions, its vision is confused and its beliefs shifting, and it seems to lack intelligence.
The result from the combination between these two terms should be obvious. I do believe the human eye contains the secrets of the universe.
I also want to say that I am not a Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox (yet), Coptic Orthodox, Seventh Day Adventist. I am also not a Satanist, Luciferian, Theosophist, Republican, Democrat, or any other thing one might fantasize about accusing me of being. I am a follower of the Way of Christ. I believe in the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. I know the truth about the parables, the law, and the mission of Jesus.
If you have any questions, comments, grievances, complaints, suggestions etc, feel free to contact me in the contact section. Please don’t hesitate to comment on any of my articles or express your thoughts directly to me. Please do express your views, even if they contradict mine.
I hope you enjoy it all and please leave some feedback! May the flame of gnosis light a fire under your arse.
PS: If you want to speak to me directly, you may contact me via Skype. My username is alumen8.
ICXC
Thanks.
The Aeon Eye 
Thank you for your work.
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subscribed, thank you for putting all this information together. i know of a similar website, http://www.wedietorememberwhatwelivetoforget.com, which you may find helpful.
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Link shows it expired.
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Pop me a line on sam239 * cornell * edu (replace with @ and .) and I’ll send you the PDF.
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Hey Alex it is kind of funny that you went the blogger route these days but I do the blog thing now for nearly twelve years but I always had a single entry journal so when I e-mailed you I sent the link to the single entry journal I use for my nightmares.
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Extremely interesting and enlightening. Keep blogging!
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Thanks for the interview of Gabreille Faust. And thanks for putting your link on crows nest.
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Alex,
I will be on Miguel Conner’s show this weekend, I believe, talking about The Gospel of Judas and how the scholars have all dropped the ball and keep dropping it. JUDAS is the sacrifice, as a gnostic successor Master in the text. Judas has a vision of his stoning at the hands of the Twelve at 44.25. James the Just was killed (stoned to death in Josephus) by Saul (Paul) in Clement’s Rec. 1:70. He was thrown off the Temple steps like Judas dies, “headlong” (as pointed out by Dr. Robert Eisenman), in Acts 1. There are so many connections to the gnostic apocalypses, First and Second James, and Apoc. Peter, I had to list them all. All inverted like Eisenman said Paul, Mark, and Luke did with the Scrolls Pesherim. If you do interviews, I’d do one.
-Robert Wahler
judaswasjames[at]aol.com
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Hi, Rob. I need to re-read the Gospel of Judas and the other Gnostic gospels you mentioned and I’ll keep your research in mind when I do. Thanks for the comment.
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OK, so, I re-read the Gospel of Judas and your reading of Judas being the one that is sacrificed isn’t supported by the source text. Nor is he some enlightened Gnostic visionary in Sethian/Simonian writings. That’s more a Valentinian innovation. It’s very clear that Judas sacrifices Christ’s counterfeit image or flesh.
“Judas said to Jesus, “Look, what will those who have been baptized in your name do?” Jesus said, “Truly I say [to you], this baptism [56] […] my name [—about nine lines missing—] to me. Truly [I] say to you, Judas, [those who] offer sacrifices to Saklas […] God [—three lines missing—] everything that is evil. “But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”
I really doubt Jesus is telling Judas to sacrifice himself. What the Gospel of Judas is saying that the crucifixion as a blood sacrifice to God is a bad thing, because this inferior god demands animal and human sacrifice. So in the author’s eyes, how can this god who demands blood sacrifice and atonement be the Supreme God? This god is interpreted as Sakla, the Satanic demiurge or archon. So, Judas becomes a tool of the demiurge or a dupe of the archons and has Jesus sacrificed as a sacrificial lamb. Judas represents the growing influence of Catholicism of the time as well as the eucharist, and the Sethian author condemns the Orthodox soteriology and practices in the strongest terms.
But, Jesus uses Judas to trick the archons by destroying the counterfeit flesh of Jesus, thus releasing the spiritual Savior from archonic enslavement. Jesus still uses Judas to ultimately defeat the archons, because rather than destroying the spiritual Christ (which they have no power over), he tricks them into destroying the counterfeit physical form, their own creation, thus releasing the spiritual Christ from the flesh. It’s actually very Pauline and Marcionite in its views on Christ and the Cross. Also, Judas is mentioned in the Concept of Our Great Power in a similar context. The Gospel of Judas reads like a Sethian/Marcionite hybrid writing to me because of its Pauline and Barbelo/Sethian terminology. For example, we do see Jesus elevating Judas above the rest of the apostles and speaks of a hidden God in which “no eye of an angel has seen” which is very Pauline.
Judas is actually only the abortion of Sophia in the Valentinian system. In other words he’s basically a symbol of the demiurge’s regret and return to grace. It’s like he’s the one who makes up for Sophia’s mistake. He isn’t the demiurge. He’s more like Seth, being a replacement for the shitty son Cain. Cain is the demiurge. Judas redeems Sophia by allowing material creation to die. Just like eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge allows Eve to realize she’s naked for Yaldabaoth to perve over.
In the Valentinian system, Judas opens our eyes to the hidden reality that we are not our flesh. The demiurge is stroking his Peter to our misfortune of spiritual entrapment. In the Valentinian system, Judas symbolizes restoration for a Gnostic. Not through inverted hermeneutic as they claim but because in the world he is seen as a traitor and the one replaced. There are multiple ways to view Judas, just like every other character in the OT and the NT. Almost every character in the Bible can be viewed in terms of archetypes and symbols.
The Gospel of Judas isn’t as forgiving of Judas because it’s a very biting and polemical anti-gospel. Judas does serve a purpose in the Gospel of Judas, though, much like the archons do in Sethian cosmology. However, I don’t think he’s a Gnostic visionary or Saint like Marvin Meyer thinks nor do I think Judas is a demon destined for hell like DeConick claims. I think both views are very exaggerated and jump to hasty conclusions. They both jump the shark, frankly. Judas is somewhere in the middle because he is used as a tool by Jesus to trick and betray the archons. Judas still serves a valuable purpose. The Gospel of Judas is too fragmentary to be really certain, though. I do like Marvin Meyer’s latest translation from 2011, though, which adds the later fragments.
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Well, Alex, I can see I’m going to have a hell of a time convincing the Orthodoxy if I can’t get Gnostics like you to see this! Your God is a pretty wimpy God. Jesus said “I and the Father are ONE”, remember? He needs HELP getting out of his physical form? He did say, “I went to another and Holy generation earlier in the text.” So why is it he suddenly needs Judas to help free himself to astral travel? Judas “redeems Sophia” by giving up SELF. Read James: “You will no longer BE James.” He gives up “the man who bears me”, which means himself. Jesus is “born” by his disciples. They have to work up to realizing it by their meditation. Read the first two sections of the gnostic Apocalypse of Peter. For one thing it clearly shows the source of the Gospel inversion of three times nightly denial OF JESUS. It is not Jesus denied (reproved is the word this author uses for ‘denial’) BUT PETER denied. “He [Jesus, in Spirit] has reproved you three times in this night.” Then follows a beautiful description of gnostic, or mystic meditation, just as I do it myself! They listen to the Apophasis Logos *within themselves*. I do this every morning.
You have a lot of missing text in your citation. Part of that is Jesus telling the disciples that they will suffer, but that “no hand of a mortal human will sin against me”. He isn’t talking about himself. He is talking about THEM. He wouldn’t switch so casually back and forth me to them, in answering their question about what will happen TO THEM: “what will those who have been baptized in your Name DO?” They will give up the “earthly man Adam” — their bodies, but no hand of man “will sin against me” (THEM): the “one who bears ME [ — JESUS, within THEM]”!!!
“Jesus” is GOD. He doesn’t “need to trick” anyone! This is all a church invention to hide the successor, James. James is the one in the ‘vision’ at 44.25. Read Clement and Josephus. The church wanted free reign to write the rules without interference from James and Peter. That’s why the canon has them so marginalized and ridiculed. For heaven’s sake: Peter needs a vision of “a heavenly tablecloth coming down” from on high in Luke’s Acts to learn WHAT TO EAT? This, after three YEARS by his Master’s side? This doesn’t strike you as a little preposterous??? The Gospel authors were commissioned to write fables to remove the successors. The Gospel of Judas is the gnostic retort to that.
Stephen is a stand-in for James stoned to death. Eisenman goes into all the details. Judas is James in Acts 1. Eisenman again. I just looked for him in the Gospels. I could tell you all the support for that, which is amazingly fascinating, but I wrote a chapter on it in my book which I would rather call to your attention. You can buy it from Xlibris or Amazon, OR I can email a pdf for FREE to you.
Meyer was closest of scholars, but I talked for two hours with him on the phone before he passed and he didn’t get it either, so you are not alone. Orthodox bias even affected ME. I read the text a dozen times MYSELF before finally realizing what I was reading. Judas sacrifices HIMSELF. “Someone else will replace you in order that the Twelve may again come to completion in their God” has nothing to do with MATTHIAS. If it DID, he would be IN THERE. This is the original gnostic tradition warped by the orthodoxy into a “betrayal” fantasy. Don’t believe it! “Coming to completion IN THEIR GOD” has NOTHING to do with rounding out a handy “Twelve disciples”.
Good grief. This is GNOSTICISM! The Master becomes one with the disciple. letter of Peter to Philip: “I told you that YOU WILL DIE.” There are so many in other gnostic texts, I can’t go over them all. Read Gospel of Philip. And Gospel of Mary. Trimorphic Protennoia, First and Second Apoc. of James. Masters and sacrificing disciples. That’s what it’s all about. They even have the mantra we use. FIVE ‘seals’, same as “five smooth stones in the brook” 1 Sam. 17:40 in the David and Goliath story of mystic overcoming of self. The Bible is gnostic, or mystic, through and through. Exodus, the ‘Flood’, Joshua and Jericho, Jonah and the Fish, Elijah’s ‘chariot’ and ‘mantle’, every detail is mystic allegory. I read a book in our collection (Sant Mat) that says even the Egyptian charioteer’s wheels are symbolic — of desires foiled by the Isrealites’ meditation: the East ‘wind’.
The “region never called by any name” is “Anami Desh” in Hindu and Sant Mat cosmology. The five “combatants” or warriors are the same as Joshua’s “five kings” in Joshua 10, slain mercilessly by Joshua as lust, anger, greed, attachment and vanity. They “wander around” with “the six stars” in gJudas, and will be “destroyed along with their creatures [desires].”
Don’t be fooled by the blood. That is “The New Testament Code”. If you haven’t read Eisenman, get ALL of his books. They are required reading for anyone wanting to understand the New Testament. We have the Dead Sea Scrolls now, thank God. We also have Nag Hammadi/Al Minya. We need to start USING THEM.
Sorry about the caps. Not shouting. Just don’t have italics.
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Yeah, I don’t see this conversation going anywhere. You’re throwing all kinds of stuff at me to see where any of it sticks but I see little validation. I don’t feel the need to engage with your sanctimonious tone here nor do I feel the need to defend my views, in this case. Orthodox bias? That’s rich. But, what do I know? Thanks for the comments, anyway. Peace.
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Jesus only escaped death ordered by the King, was born of a virgin, had twelve disciples, was betrayed and murdered, and ascended to heaven because Romulus and Julius Caesar did. Also, the globe on top of the obelisk by the Vatican once had a globe shaped urn with Julius Caesar’s ashes in it. It had a T shape on it an symbolized the apple of discord and the T shaped ‘world map’ of the ancients. A cross was later placed over it and it was the symbol of power for the ancien’ regime of France. Most of Etruscan, Venetian, and Latin Italy was once part of the French kingdom.
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Eisenmann knows squat about Gnosticism. Also, the oldest tradition regarding Judas’ death is not in the gospel accounts or Acts. He was run over by a chariot and his guts spilt out.
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KJ! Dude! Where have ya been? Judas being chariot roadkill? I wasn’t aware of that. Eisenmann tries to blame Paul for the Gentile corruption of Jewish Christianity, and claims that James the Just, Jesus’ brother, was the sole legitimate heir of Christianity. I’m not sure we should take Eisenmann’s stuff as gospel. 😉
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Papias as quoted by Church Fathers, “Judas walked about in this world a sad example of impiety; for his body having swollen to such an extent that he could not pass where a chariot could pass easily, he was crushed by the chariot, so that his bowels gushed out.” Been busy with work.
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Also, I actually did an interview with Miguel Conner, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXXkEyOLyUQ
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Hi, Alex. I’ll look.
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I listened to nearly all of your interview. We can fill in each others gaps. I want to introduce you to the living Gnostic Master, Baba Gurinder Singh Dhillon. You can meet him in person when he comes to the U.S. from India in the summer (usually) at Fayetteville or Petaluma, depending on which coast you are near. This is no ordinary Master. The Masters all teach Sant May, Surat Shabd Yoga, Hear Sound Union (translated). The line goes back at least to Seth (Genesis 4:26), where “men began to CALL on the Name”. Calling is Yoga, and Name is Word, Shabd, Apophasis Logos, or Gnosis. These Masters are from a line traceable back to at least Nanak (first Sikh Guru). You may know of him. My Master was Gurinder’s predecessor and Uncle, Maharaj Charan Singh (1918-1990). Website: http://www.rssb.org and booksite: Science of the Soul.org.
James was successor to ‘Jesus’ whom I believe was a name-title for Holy Spirit (by Paul).
Some notes:
1. 40 days in the desert is the NT remake of the 40 yrs. Moses wandered, parting ‘water’ (of the Spirit) like Elijah, and Joshua, and Jesus having it flow right out of him.
2. Birger Pearson is orthodoxy incarnate, so is April DeConick! “There MIGHT BE orthodox bias”! Ha. She is Queen Bee. Her Gospel of Judas is to the right of Attila the Hun.
3. “standing one” is present in Gospel of Judas when Judas is “the only one who could stand before Jesus” and look him in the eye. It appears a couple of times.
Dr. Robert Eisenman thoroughly covers this in his work.
4. Now you know where the canon came from: “Know yourself” is “Sacrifice the man that bears me” which got inverted into “woe to him who betrays me” (delivers me, spiritually). The message is now the OPPOSITE of what the Master of the day (JAMES) taught. Jesus, I believe as heavenly redeemer (according to Paul) or as conflation of John and James, is mythic.
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Sorry, “Sant MAT”. Teachings of the Saints.
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Alex,
I’m not “throwing all kinds of stuff at you, sanctimoniously”. Didn’t I SAY *I* have bias??? I’m not excluding myself about orthodox bias. We all have it, even if we don’t see it. The Christian myth is that pervasive and ingrained in our Western culture. If you don’t recognize it, it is *because* you have it. You said *yourself* that “people like April DeConick said there might be an orthodox bias in scholarship”! Why be so defensive? We are all just trying to understand.
We agree on a lot. The “standing one” is a very important thread throughout all these traditions. Paul = “the Small one”. Are you familiar with Douglas Del Tondo, and his “Jesus Words Only”? Jesus Words Only.com is his website and his book is on Amazon. Great guy. I know him personally. He goes into Paul extensively as the “false apostle”. That is part of the title of his book, in fact. You will want to learn all he says about the antinomian Paul. I found your bit about Sethianism attacked in the DSS interesting. I want to know what you know about that. And Simon as “standing one”. Magus as Zoroastrian “Magi” is another point I would like to know more about. We learn from *each other*. The perfect living Masters tradition is my contribution. The Sant Mat Masters (rssb.org) go back at least 500 years in Beas, India, to Nanak, and that is how I came to know ‘Judas’ was really James throughout the NT. That one piece of information alone is crucial to moving our Western cultural awareness forward. I hope everyone makes it their own.
I’m on Aeon Byte now if you want to listen to me and Miguel. I hope you do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYKMAIjxJvM
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