the timboucher experience

The world of online gnosticism has changed a lot in the year and a half or so since I have been loosely involved in it. During that time period I’ve witnessed a lot of permutations of the whole thing. Those of us interested in the topic used to be a lot more far flung, it seems, and it was always a treat (and still is, of course) to find a new person approaching the whole field of inquiry from a totally new direction. (You can check out my gnostic essays from those heady days.)

At some point in the online development of this many-headed beast, my interest began to wane. In large part, I think I became less interested when exploration started turning into codification and the rhetorical battle over what gnosis was, who had it and who ought to have it really reached its peak. Maybe those questions are still “hot” for people today in those circles, but it’s never been theology which has interested me about gnosticism. It has never been the answers it provided so much as the questions and the transformations offered by means of those questions.

I’ve never wanted to be part of a gnostic church or start putting a bunch of crosses before and after my name. But it works for some people and I respect that. Actually, it doesn’t just “work” for some people, but they seem to really enjoy it and find a great deal of value in it. It is something I would like to understand but I feel at this point like I’m an outsider looking into this online gnostic world of reverends and brothers and ecclesiastical excitement. I used to feel right at home among gnostic conversations but somehow they lapped me and I now am left puzzling over what happened.

One interesting development that I have been keeping my eye on is Jeremy Puma’s new online gnostic endeavor, something called the School of Allogenes. I haven’t followed every single wrinkle in the whole thing’s development, but you can check out his original announcement here, along with a follow-up FAQ which clarifies some of it elsewhere.

I understand the development of this “school” as Jeremy’s efforts to take stock in his own considerable experience, and the experiences of the gnostic communities which he has been and is a part of. And from there, to extract the most valuable pieces he has gained during that exploration and look forward to where the path leads next. In that sense, I find the whole thing extraordinarily admirable and it is a process of personal assessment which I too find myself going through.

Others within the ecclesiastical gnostic community seem to have very different views of the whole thing. Some people seem to see Puma’s school of gnostic thought as almost an insult to other more fully-fledge gnostic communities, as though another side path will keep people off the new spiritual super-highway that people are trying to collectively build. My favorite comment on the whole thing comes from Jordan Stratford who said that the whole thing had the appearance of, “Hey, here’s my new instant internet church, and I’m the head holy-hoo-ha for life!”

The theological gnostic aspects of this conversation, I’m sad to say, I’m not that interested in anymore. But I think buried within here are some good gems which we can abstract into a larger sense of personal spiritual exploration. When are you allowed to set up a tent in the wilderness and start “teaching” other people what you’ve learned? How can a bunch of people who are pursuing an intensely personal path get together in a meaningful group setting? How do you do that without detracting from what any of those individuals are doing and without forcing anyone down a path they’re not interested in taking themselves?

It is a thorny issue which I feel like I have been purposefully avoiding, and which I admire others for having the courage to tackle head-on.

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