Gnosis

An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions

By Dan Merkur

Subjects: Esotericism And Gnosticism
Series: SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions
Paperback : 9780791416204, 387 pages, October 1993
Hardcover : 9780791416198, 387 pages, November 1993

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Table of contents

Preface

Part One: Jung, Active Imagination, and the Gnostic-Alchemical Hypothesis

1. The Study of Mystical Experiences

2. Jung, Silberer, and Active Imagination

3. Theories of Spiritual Alchemy

4. The Alchemical Production of Gold
Part Two: A History of Gnosis

5. Defining Gnosis

6. The Gnostic Journey to the Ogdoad

7. The Recital of the Chariot

8. Muhammad and his Mi'raj

9. Islamic Gnosis and the World of Imagination

10. The Passage of Gnosis to the Latin West

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Traces the use of powerful gnostic visionary techniques from Hellenistic Gnosticism and Jewish merkabah mysticism, through Muhammad, the Ismaeilis, and theosophical Sufism to medieval neoplatonism, and renaissance alchemy.

Description

Gnosis traces the use of powerful gnostic visionary techniques from Hellenistic Gnosticism and Jewish merkabah mysticism, through Muhammad, the Ismaeilis, and theosophical Sufism to medieval neoplatonism, and renaissance alchemy.

Dan Merkur is a Lecturer in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto.

Reviews

"I like the passion and enthusiasm of an author in touch with something real who pursues it with an open mind. Implicit here is the author's seriousness and commitment. He believes his subject makes a difference and he communicates this to the reader. The author's perspective gives some startling and important insights into a tradition that is for the most part unknown and ignored." — Christopher Bamford, Lindisfarne Press