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| | Ritual in Gnosticism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05) |
 | | Likewise, in the Second Treatise of the Great Seth (NHC VII,2: 56,20-59,18), the revealer undergoes an incognito descent (changing his likeness at each cosmic level), his "third baptism in a revealed image," in which he appears in the form of Jesus in order to defeat the cosmic powers through their ignorant attempt to crucify him. |
 | | While many gnostic groups of the second and third century advocated and practiced a sexual and dietary encratism approaching a true demonization of sexuality, other groups rejected such as practice as ineffective and deceptive, transforming the moral indifference typical of its libertine opposite, free sexual exchange, into sacred ritual. |
 | | The second Stele is directed by the "perfect individuals" to Barbelo as their three-in-one source, the source of all multiplicity, the projected image ("shadow") of the "first pre-existent One," the bestower of divinity, goodness and blessing; the "individuals" petition her to save them by uniting them. |
| jdt.unl.edu /ritual.htm (14385 words) |
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