Gnosticism developed alongside Judeo-Christianity over two thousand years ago, but with an important difference: It emphasizes, not faith, but direct perception of God—Gnosticism being derived from the Greek word gnosis, meaning "knowledge."

Given the controversial premise that one can know God directly, the history of Gnosticism is an unfolding drama of passion, political intrigue, martyrdom, and mystery. Dr. Hoeller traces this fascinating story throughout time and shows how Gnosticism has inspired such great thinkers as Voltaire, Blake, Yeats, Hesse, Melville, and Jung. We learn about:

• The Gnostic view of the Divine and the manifest world. Good and Evil, and the essence of the human soul.
  
  
• The Gnostic Christ as the messenger of Light and the guide to sacred mysteries.
  
  
• Sophia, the Gnostic archetype of the Feminine Wisdom.
  
  
• The scriptures, sacraments, and rituals of Gnostic religions much as the Mandaean, holding secret wisdom traced back to John the Baptist; the Manichean, founded by the great third-century Persian prophet, Mani; and the Cathar, the glorious and persecuted movement in medieval southern France.
  
  
• Gnostic Literature and its influence on cultural giants such as Voltaire, Blake, Yeats, Hesse, Melville, and Jung.
  
  
• Gnostic West and East, which constitutes a Gnostic, and how Gnosticism can guide us into the twenty-first century.
  

Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller (1931-Present), is the author of The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead, Freedom: Alchemy for a Voluntary Society, and The Royal Read: A Manual of Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot. He is associate professor of comparative religions at the College of Oriental Studies in Los Angeles, an organization interested in Jungian psychology, the Kabbalah, Tarot, classical Gnosticism, myth, and literature. Born in Hungary, he graduated from the University of Innsbruck in Austria. He resides in Hollywood, California.