What was known to early Christians about the crucial Old Testament figurehead named Melchizedek was almost solely written into what would become known, after two long millennia since Jesus lived, as the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, his identity was either kept secret by initiated messianic Jews or by the later Church officials themselves. In Biblical canon, he was "the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High" during the time of Genesis (14:18), worshipful of the Israelite god El'Elyon ("God"). Scant detail was recorded in this canon about his lineage, his people, or any other authorities associated with him or under his command. In that he blessed Abraham, and Abraham paid him tithe, a divine right to rule was conferred to Abraham, whose descendants in as much were then made to respect Melchizedek as their Lord (Hebrews 7:8-11), who was "higher" than they and Abraham himself. What was to later Christians a taunting or sacred mystery regarding Melchizedek's lineage and Order, and in what way he was considered the Lord of Lords, or Most High Priest over the line of David (and therefore in their eyes the incarnate Lord over everyone), caused the Biblically exegetical Paul and Peter to regard him as immortal like God.

In that David wrote about a man becoming "a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:1-7), the apostle Paul assumed that this person must have been of unique divinity - the most potent divinity - which he presumed could only be attributed to the Jesus he decried as having been God in flesh. This was a stance he took and wrote about (Hebrews 7:3, 7:8-11, 7:22-25) only after experiencing a peculiar hallucinatory blindness that caused him to see "a light from Heaven flashing around him" and hear instructions, from a voice claiming to be Jesus, to go to Damascus (Acts 9:3-6), wherein he was healed (an important account I discuss in following paragraphs). This would imply that the Psalm was a prophesy, in that David was Jesus' ancestor. However, Psalm 110 makes no mention of the anointed priest's name, his place in any lineage, or even if he was currently alive, a historical figure, or yet to be born (and therefore a prophesied figure). So, it is pure speculation that Jesus was the priest in the Psalm. None the less, due to Paul's freshly inspired and audacious fervor (Acts 22:14), and due to his influence as one who was converted to Christianity in the middle of his career as a key imperial Roman hunter of Christians, this Psalm went down in history as the most widely proclaimed testament to Jesus' immortality, a proclamation which was backed by Peter (Acts 2:32-35) and then affirmed by Clement I, the first Pope (ordained by Peter) and "fellow laborer" of the Apostle Paul [Atwill pp 38-39], to be the holy and infallible truth.

The true meaning behind the statement that Jesus had become "a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek," and therefore "immortal" like "God" (i.e., El'Elyon) - as Paul and Peter proclaim - would only have been known to those anointed priests in the Aaronic line serving David. This is realized by way of scriptural analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In these texts, Melchizedek is a title meaning "Prince of Righteousness." This title is also used interchangeably with Michael, the "prince of light" (1QM 13:10-11; cf. 1QS 2:20-22; CD 5:17-19) and "the angel of [God's] truth" (1QS 3:24), highest of all of God's princes, implying that "Michael" (actually Micha'el) was either his first name or a moniker for his rank in the Order. The Qumran document 4Q401 "Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice" or "The Angelic Liturgy" (11:3 and 22:3) corroborate that Melchizedek is a character who leads the "El'ohim," which is the name used in canon for "angelic," "divine," or "princely" ministerial beings. It is also the name which the author of the Dead Sea Scroll document 11Q13 or "11QMelch" replaces in Psalms 82:1 with the name Melchizedek, implying that they are the holiest individuals below El'Elyon himself. There is reference in scroll 11Q13, again, to "the men of the lot of Melchizedek" who will be atoned for in the end times. Structuring of the name of each angel, whereby they end with "el," reveals individual rank titles that correspond with the name of the Order (El'ohim), rather than personal names. This gives credence to the idea that "Gabri'el," the 'angel' subordinate to Micha'el who visited Mary to tell her of her coming miraculous conception, was in fact a mortal man just like others in the Order of Melchizedek. In as much, it is most likely the case that David was not referring to Jesus 'the redeemer' (messiah actually translates as "anointed one") when he spoke of "my Lord," who was addressed by the Lord, in Psalms 110:4. Most probably, he was speaking of a priest in his service (or rather a priest who he served) who was ordained in the Order of Melchizedek, likely a descendent of Aaron named Zadok (I Kings 1:34, I Kings 2:35, I Kings 4:2, etc; 1 Chronicles 24:3, Book of Numbers 25:13, Book of Exodus 28:01). Such a priest would indeed be his "Lord," as David, like all in the line of Abraham, owe the Order of Melchizedek their allegiance as aforementioned, and therefore owe any priesthood wrought from said divine blessing the same allegiance. This explicitly denotes that the rank stations/positions of priests in the Order are considered timeless, hence why "angelic" or "ministerial" monikers are referenced as immortal. There would be, then, a certain degree of overconfidence in the men of the lot of Melchizedek that their Order will last through the end of time. But there is most probably another equally intriguing definition of "immortality" at play for the anointed priests of the Order, perhaps not so much in place of, but simultaneously existing with, that given so far.

It turns out that various species of Acacia, the type of wood used most for sacred purposes in the Bible, contain the most potent hallucinogenic substance known to man, that is DMT (Callaway 1988; Rätsch 1998: 28-30; Shanon 2008:58-70); many of these are used without secrecy in Africa, India, and Southern Europe. That being said, there is another plant, more ubiquitously presented throughout the art and literature of Biblical history, whose chemistry is less quantitatively potent but whose effect is still and differentially awe inducing, and quite literally visionary. It is the Amanita muscaria mushroom, found in pine forests worldwide and used through time immemorial by a myriad of cultures (Rätsch 1998: 630-641). Academics have certainly had evidence to propound the divulging of knowledge that it was used by Biblical era figures in years past (Irvin and Herer 2008; Irvin, Rutajit, and Zervos 2009; Rätsch 1998:632), and a publisher of elegantly copied "illuminated manuscripts" has provided the world with the same revelation in stunningly brilliant illustrated 14^th Century scriptural form (© M. Moleiro Editor, www.moleiro.com), revealing that psychoactive mushrooms were considered by certain European monks to be holy (image revealed later in this article). And still, a more recent production from highly educated authors on a private literary and physically investigative endeavor has contributed a great deal more to the knowledge base (Brown and Brown 2016) by describing some widespread Early-to-Middle-Ages painted and sculpted renditions of Biblical characters - including Jesus and Gabri'el - using Amanita mushrooms, throughout Western and Eastern (Byzantine) Christendom.

It is a cross-cultural reality that experiences with Amanita mushrooms do not vary much from a dream-like trance induction wherein the experiencer will lose their sobriety, and either engage actively with visually manifested mentations ("hallucinations"), hear voices and/or natural or unnatural sounds, have Out of Body Experiences (OOBEs), or even undergo what feels like supernatural judgment or empowerment. Experienced shamanic practitioners of any given cultural community are usually those either strong enough in nerve, and/or who prescribe to safety conferring ritual discipline, to endure let alone desire such experiences more than once (Bombaci 2012). Shamans of various cultures, including Horus-worshipping priests of Amen-Ra in Biblical era Egypt (Berlant 2005; Brown and Brown 2016:209-210), consider psychoactive mushrooms to be a sort of agent or spirit of the underworld, or gateway to the numinous realm, which implies that the experience itself is that of death and then rebirth (upon sobering). It can be reasonably assumed that priests in the Order of Melchizedek would hold the same regard (Peoples, Duda, and Marlow 2016; Vitebsky 1995:88-90, 94-95; Winkelman 1996), and deem themselves "immortal" in that they have survived death and know what awaits them, as well as how best to prepare for it and be masters of that realm (through continued ritual practice).

A blaring clue. "Abraham meets Melchizedek" mosaic section with Amanita muscaria mushroom cap displayed prominently in lower right, as a symbolic key for identifying to the initiated what types of "bread" and "wine" were consumed for the consecration of Melchizedek's blessing upon Abraham (roasted Amanita caps lose their red and become tan, and exude detoxified wine-colored liquid - which may or may not indicate that the "wine" was also an Amanita product). Note the focus of the gazing squire behind Abraham on the left: the Amanita cap in grail on bottom right. Notice also the behavior of the servants on the right: one is surreptitiously pouring out wine as he takes a handful of Amanita mushroom, as the other cautiously gazes at the viewer. Circa 13th Century. In Basilica di San Marcos, Venezia, Italia. Image from Public Domain photographic facsimile on Wikimedia Commons.

Relatively, but in speculative interpretation, it might be intuited that the term "scales," used to describe that which fell from Paul's eyes when Ananias of Damascus "healed" him of his hallucinatory "blindness" (Acts 9:18) and then sent him to proselytize, was not to be understood as reference to some physical material or disease (which would be odd by any account, because such a disease is not known of now, and because his military unit did not recount seeing anything wrong with him at all), but rather to the shedding of some experience; that is, it might well be that Paul was intentionally given a rather heavy dose of Amanita extract by a covert Christian sympathizer in his military unit of persecutors in order to conduct a psychological operation to coerce his highly useful religious conversion. After all, the "voice of Jesus" commanded Paul to Damascus where "the Lord" told Ananias to heal Paul so that he could become his "chosen instrument to proclaim [his] name to their kings and to the people of Israel" (Acts 9:15), acting as the 'witness' of "the Righteous One" (Acts 22:14), a title which is alias for Micha'el Melchizedek, as we know, who has indeed been depicted throughout Catholic canon as a winged judge weighing souls on a scale in his role as gatekeeper to Heaven. In as much, Paul was made to believe he was at the gates of Heaven in between life and death. This exegetical interpretation makes sense, and the accusation is far from outlandish, given how "Ananias" was the exact name of 'two' men involved with the orchestration of separate Christianity-bolstering miracles in the Bible - this healing and preaching episode, and then one where he was a non-believer who purportedly died by way of a miraculously Christ-embued life taking power within Peter (Acts 5:5) - and still another man, a Pharisee high priest (likely the true identity of these 'three' men) who helped usher along Paul's eventual martyrdom by the Romans (Acts 23:1, 24:5, 25:5, 27:30) [Bombaci 2017]. Thus, Paul was "blind" because he was literally in hallucinatory limbo, especially because he did not eat or drink anything for 3 days after being drugged (Acts 9:9), and he was then "resurrected" or healed from "blinding" judgment, likely with an antidote given to him by Ananias along with the food he ate which gave back his strength (Acts 9:19). People in the western world might call this psychological warfare today; however, such a fabulation is not uncommon amongst shamanistic and miracle cult groups of various cultures, as theatrics lend supernatural credence to the power of the initiated, allowing them to gain and maintain their status (Vitebsky 1995:120-124).

Yilanli Church of Ilhara Valley, Turkey. Amanita mushrooms held in the hands of the angels Gabri'el, front right, and Micha'el, above (hand not in frame - image more fully revealed in a photograph by Martin Siepmann via AGE Fotostock, website in References Cited). Photo by Mustafa Taskin, permission for use granted by him via direct communication on Flickr, wherein his photo is copyrighted and available for full-frame viewing.

Though Paul's mis/adventure seems to be an aside, it is worth mentioning here because of the way in which immortality was an already acceptable and in fact promoted notion amongst both Pharisee Jews and Roman Emperors. Officials of the former preached that angels, spirits, and resurrection are all real phenomenon (Acts 23:8 - in opposition to beliefs of the Saducees, their Jewish sectarian competition), and 36 of 60 emperors of the latter called themselves diius (the culturally syncretic and Roman term for the highest of Gods) [Atwill 2011:37] all the way through the Papacy whereby Popes are considered the "Vicar" (literally, replacement or stand-in) of Christ. So then, it was apparently no revolutionary event for Christianity to become the official religion of the Roman Empire, but the same can be said for how it would gain more influence than the Judaism of the Pharisees, in that their faith, with its supernatural stances, could yet be defended and compatible with Christianity while Saducees became less favored, and, because the violent messianic Sicarii zealots amongst them, causing war between all Jews and Romans, would be stymied to silence and yet serve to stigmatize Jews as a whole. The Roman Empire would in turn 'graft' itself to the branch or nazor of David (hence the term "Nazorean") and be crowned successor of its lineage [Atwill 2011:219-263] in both Holiness and dominion, wherein all emperors would receive the title of Pontifex Maximus, making each one in rule the high priest "of the Roman religion and the official head of the Roman college of priests - the same title and office that, once Christianity had become the Roman state religion, its popes would assume" [Atwill, p35]. As of modern day, this power has affected billions of people around the world and is recognized by many (including the Vatican's own Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith) as higher in authority than kingdoms and governing establishments alike [Robbins 1999:114-132]. Immortal, indeed - and with sequential rulers that are each living stand-in icons, resurrections as it were, of the original High Priest Melchizedek, while also representing the original Roman diius (Bombaci 2017).

Also easing the appropriation of the visionary religion into official State ministry was the fact that, in many cases, Dionysian and Apollonian worship in Greco-Roman times involved the use of psychoactive Amanita mushrooms, two of which bear the variant names of Amanita regalis (Fr.) "Michael" and Amanita caesarea [Rätsch 2005:632-633]. However, as with elite use in the pre-Columbian world [Rätsch 2005:635], the official sacramental use of these entheogens (a term meaning "generator of God within") was kept secret beyond the enduring period of the Medieval Inquisition in the Old World through public portrayal of them as being dangerous or pagan and therefore heretical [Brown and Brown 2016:152-168]. It would dramatically affect the faith of Christian followers worldwide to be informed that the "bread" and "wine" of the Last Supper were actually psychoactive sacraments of the Order, which would consecrate the conferral of official priesthood upon Jesus' disciples, causing them to "be filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4) and "speak in tongues" after the Ascension on the Day of Pentecost when imbibing it "with Jesus" (Matthew 26:29). "Speaking in tongues," by the Biblical description of the experience, is an adequate term for a phenomenon entirely familiar to those who have imbibed the psychoactive mixture of any entheogen and the tea of Syrian Rue, a revered plant used throughout the Middle East as both medicine and as royal red dye, which contains a hallucinogen-activating chemical, harmine, once called telepathine [Rätsch 2005:425-428, 638-639]. Indeed, "speaking in tongues" is considered an act of the most Holy where the "speaker" gains "all kinds of speech and all kinds of knowledge" (1 Corinthians 1:5) and can communicate directly with God (1 Corinthians 14:2) while being considered insane by onlookers (1 Corinthians 14:23). That the disciples were not actually speaking other languages, but were rather using all kinds of speech, as quoted above, is denoted in Acts 2:13 whereby some onlookers pointed out that the disciples must have been "full of new wine" (KJV).

La Ultima Cena (The Last Supper) mosaic, circa 1388AD, in The Duomo of La Cattedrale di Santa Maria Nuova, presenting perfectly rounded, reddish, and spot-fringed "loaves" of sacrament. Note the hand-veiled manner in which the disciple is receiving the sacrament, symbolic of the white veil on the underside of Amanita mushroom caps; this is common practice with the sacrament (Brown and Brown 2016), and is seen also in the previous image of Melchizedek and Abraham. Public domain photographic facsimile on Wikimedia Commons.

The mixing of wine with spices to increase intoxication is written of throughout the Bible (Isaiah 5:22 & 65:11, Psalm 75:8, Proverbs 23:30), and, as we know it is fallacy that new wine is innately more potent than old wine (in any manner but purity), the onlookers' proclamation implied two things: they were at least novice polyglots whereby they knew that what they were hearing was not actually foreign languages (such as Arabic), and they were also keen to entheogenic intoxication, though the psychoactive effects they were witnessing were perhaps of a "new" or rather unfamiliar type. Indeed, as the Weymouth New Testament translation clarified the Bible for 19^th Century English-speakers, Jesus actually said, in Matthew 26:29, "I will never again take the produce of the vine until that day when I shall drink the new wine with you in my Father's Kingdom," i.e., during entry into and after his "Ascension," i.e., the onset and peak of his entheogenic experience in "Heaven." More to the point, when Peter retorted to the onlookers that he and the disciples were not drunk, as "it was yet early in the morning" (Acts 2:15), he would not have been lying if indeed they had consumed the sacramental entheogenic admixture rather than alcohol, and, his retort therein reveals both his defiance against needing to abide layfolk norms due to his status in sacred discipleship, as well as his fervent belief that there is truly divinity in the rite. The holiest person they knew of had told them at the Last Supper that this new wine was not wine at all, but the "blood" of the new Covenant (Matthew 26:28), while the sharing of the bloodline was symbolic of resurrection or perpetuation of the Priesthood - just as symbolic, really, as the "rebirth" or "awakening" from the entheogenic experience itself. "Drunk" was certainly not the word for their condition. Illuminated is more appropriate. And illumination was exactly the point of the timma in the Dionysian celebrations and the pharmakos in the Eleusinian Mysteries (meaning 'to rub or pound,' and 'drugged wine,' respectively), which were exapted from the Greek pharmacotheon by the Romans for holy communion, the former of these known as being psychoactive and the latter surely containing ergot alkaloids - the precursors to LSD (Muraresku 2020). "To this day all visitors to Saint Paul's Monastery on Mt. Athos in Greece, one of the most important sites of Orthodox [Christian] spirituality, will come face-to-face with a beautiful Greek saying mounted on the wall of the reception area: "If you die before you die, you won't die when you die" (Muraresku 2020:11).

It would likewise be of shocking impact for the faithful today to see the mural painting of the Amanita "sponge" being offered to Jesus upon the cross before his death and resurrection, at the Dark Church in Göreme, Turkey (Brown and Brown 2016:190), or the mural painting of Amanita mushrooms held in the hands of the angels Gabri'el and (probably) Micha'el in the Yilanli Church of Ilhara Valley, Turkey (shown heretofore, but also more fully revealed in the photo by Martin Siepmann via AGE Fotostock, website in References Cited). That Jesus' resurrection was a metaphor, for enlighteningly awe-striking entheogenic experiences and the blessing of being returned therefrom, is further revealed by inter-textual analysis of the contradicting physical Resurrection account as differing between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John:

"the four Gospels each give a different time for the first visit to Jesus' tomb, though they all agree that a character named Mary Magdalene is the first visitor. The four Gospels also contradict one another about whether Mary Magdalene is alone when she first comes to the tomb, and about how many individuals are either inside or outside the tomb when she arrives. [...] Keeping in mind the ancient Hebrew tradition of reading their literature intertextually, it is congruent that the Romans would use this technique for their lampoon. Mistake one another for angels, and thereby delude themselves into believing that their Messiah has risen from the dead." [Atwill 2011:187]

This is elucidated in logistical / schematic literary analysis to be true [Atwill 2011:187-219]. The 'lampoon' Atwill refers to is that whereby the imperial Flavian family outwitted the zealots through clever storytelling to have them believe not only that their prophesied militant messiah was actually a Gnostic pacifist (Internet Sacred Texts Archive 2010), but that he was now deceased though immortally a judge over all who do not abide such pacifist ways, i.e., him being Rome itself, a la the standing Pope, or Vicar of its realm. It is then a sort of taunt about the immortal success of this obfuscation, that the Amanita symbolism would arise as an esoteric clue in plain sight about Jesus' resurrection, i.e. in Christmas festivity via concurrent celebration of Saint Nicholas or "Santa Claus" (Main 2013; Vitebsky 1995:70-73, 82-84) - a purportedly fabled and secular but actually historical Catholic figure thought to be imbued with post-mortem supernatural powers (de Ceglia 2012), and who is most commonly recognized and unfortunately belittled as whimsical rather than truly representational, because of the occulting cultural syncretism that went into creating his story and image. Importantly, Saint Nicholas was integral to the signing of the Nicene Creed that established the modern Trinitarian doctrine and the Catholic Church.

"Scenes from the Old Testament: Genesis," in the 14th century illuminated manuscript called the Great Canterbury Psalter (f. 1r), the original of which was meticulously copied and reprinted by Moleiro (© M. Moleiro Editor, www.Moleiro.com). Note image of El'Elyon ("God") guiding Adam and Eve to the green colored Fruit of the Tree of Life, followed by image of their Original Sin in eating from the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, white-spotted and red in comparison. The visage of the latter is muddled by the 'topiary' illustration style used for all plants, common in art from this time period, making it easy to obscure the Amanita's involvement with Christendom.

"Hildesheim, St. Michael's church - Painted wooden ceiling from about 1230 CE. The painted wooden ceiling of the nave is a rare and beautiful survival, dating from 1230. [...] It depicts the Tree of Jesse (the family tree of Christ). Also pictured are 42 circular medallions of the ancestors of Christ; 40 square or rectangular fields are (...) flanking the central picture panels with representations of the Four Evangelists and their symbols, the Four archangels, the Four Rivers of Paradise and many prophets. The area showing Christ enthroned is the only part that is not original - that section of the ceiling collapsed in 1650 and was remade in 1960" - Petrus Agricola. The mural blatantly depicts Adam and Eve picking the white spots from an Amanita muscaria cap, with the mushroom being identified in association with a coniferous tree or cedar, around which the "talking" serpent is coiled. Amanitas do in fact primarily grow under such trees throughout the world, and, with spore reproduction being unknown before scientific advances, their origins were elusive to historic people, seeming to be from the trees themselves - as fruits. Faithful Reproduction of a 2-dimensional Public Domain artwork* created by Petrus Agricola, accessed from his Flickr.com portfolio.

Amanita sacrament use in the Order of Melchizedek is revealed by murals in various Catholic churches (Irvin and Herer 2008; Irvin, Rutajit, and Zervos 2009), and in a Medieval "Illuminated" Bible called The "Eadwine" or "Great Canterbury" Psalter (© M. Moleiro Editor, www.moleiro.com), of The Temptation of Adam and Eve wherein they are portrayed as eating not "fruit" from a magic tree but from blatant macro representations of Amanita mushrooms. This would imply that Original Sin itself is derived from entheogenic enlightenment, and, in association with its use as the Holy sacrament, that the most disciplined religious use of Amanita - for repeated communication with God that occurred upon their consumption of it, and therefore to receive forgiving divine guidance - is the only path to redemption. Considering that the potent psychoactive substances Boswelia (the active ingredient in Frankincense, an antidepressant/euphoriant), and cannabis (knei bosem in Hebrew, a euphoriant/hallucinogen), were used frequently in a fashion inducing acute exposure for purification and access to the numinous in religious rites of the Old Testament (Shanon 2008:69), the Amanita was therefore but one magical substance in a divine mixture. As regards the botanical identification of knei bosem, the use of Cannabis sativa in Egypt since the time of Moses is indisputable (Rätsch 2005:148), and it was used contemporaneously by people of nearby countries for religious and hedonic purposes as well.

The famous Plaincourault Fresco in the 12th Century Knights Hospitallers' chapel in the Château de Plaincourault historical monument complex. Note that in this representation, the "Tree" of Knowledge of Right and Wrong is in fact not a pine or cedar with Amanita muscaria as its "fruit," but rather it is the mushroom itself (in a cluster). Photo by academically published author Giorgio Samorini (covered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license).

Given the widespread and common nature of ancient entheogenic rites in the varying religions throughout the region, it is apparent what exactly this refers to. Such a premise would explain why the Holy Inquisition was initiated, as the Church was encountering more and more numerous reports of pagan people utilizing entheogens. Hence began the trials of "witches" and "heretics," given that pagans were not typically literate and therefore not considered capable of being as Holy as Church officials - a reality that likely gave these officials the sense that pagans were profaning their Holy Sacrament and therefore also the true spiritual pathway to God itself. This premise would also explain why Jesus is canonized as being entirely necessary for pagans to receive redemption and thence acceptance into Heaven, as his Trinitarian role is the supernatural mediator between God and the people whose descendants bear the mark of Original Sin and therefore displease Him. The trouble with this doctrine is that he is considered immortal by virtue of, or rather, by the original erring interpretive testimony of Luke 1:26-38, purporting that he was the son of God. Through this overall exegetical analysis, we know now the origin of the proclamation of Jesus' immortality as well as the meaning behind holy resurrection. So, the whole Trinity Doctrine falls apart as the dark gaps are thus filled. Or rather, it is a fallacious doctrine that Jesus alone can do the saving or that he is even required for it.

In a 15th Century church of the Knights Templar, Rosslyn Chapel (Scotland), is this stained glass art presented for focus on Saint Andrew on right window panel, wearing Amanita styled robes. Of note, as he was an apostle and the brother of fellow apostle Saint Peter. Photograph copyright by Vic Sharp (www.mistyriver.co.uk), original available for viewing on his Flickr portfolio.

Also in Rosslyn Chapel, is this stained glass window depicting Jesus enthroned as "priest forever in the Order of Melchizedek," wearing regalia fashioned as an Amanita mushroom, with symbolically gold-spotted red robe (rather than white, likely to denote Order status) and white 'veil' below; El'Ohim at his sides. Photo copyright by Vic Sharp (www.mistyriver.co.uk), original available for viewing on his Flickr portfolio.

Emulation of mutually ideal goodness and compassion was the message of Jesus the preacher in the gospel of Matthew. However, the Nag Hammadi texts found in the deserts of Egypt in 1945 added clarity to these teachings via the Gospel of Thomas whereby Jesus is quoted at length on the topic of gnostic self-identification with God. One famous passage is this:

"I am the light that is over all; I am the All. The All came forth out of me; and to me the All has come. Split a piece of wood - I am there; lift the stone, and you will find me." [Logon 77, in Patterson and Robinson 1998]

However, Jesus also said that

"The person old in his days will not hesitate to ask a child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live; for many who are first will become last, and they will become a single one" (Logon 4, ibid), whereby "The one who seeks should not cease until he finds; and when he finds, he will be dismayed; and when he is dismayed, he will be astonished; and he will be king over the All" (Logon 2, ibid).

This is profound, and yet there is another and more truly explicit passage on gnosis:

"If those who lead you say to you: 'Look, the kingdom is in the sky!' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: 'It is in the sea,' then the fishes will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living father. But if you do not come to know yourselves, then you exist in poverty, and you are poverty." [Logon 3, ibid]

And it is a certain poverty that most spiritual people feel when they pray but God does not seem to correspond. As Saint Thomas Aquinas said, "For those with faith, no evidence is necessary; for those without it, no evidence will suffice." In scientific analogy, the Golden Ratio may be a biological truth, but represents a never-ending spiral - an irrational value, the type of which makes us always reach for more knowledge without ever seeing that we could already be holding the penultimate and concise version of it if only we gave more credence to pattern recognition. Of course, we are beginning to do exactly that, in this increasingly AI-imbued epoch. Entheogenic initiatory rites that reveal abstract naturalistic truths and resurrect one into gnostic self-realization can both inspire and reify reverent beliefs and show the path of humanitarian and ecological redemption. They should therefore not be reserved for "the men of the lot of Melchizedek" either now or at the end times should they ever actually come. It is the right of all to be so enlightened.

References Cited

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