#sacred texts

[hermas-mora]

Real dot com slash true…

[arachneviii]

This has been my sacred scripture since I was a small child 🙂‍↕️🙏

[creature-wizard]

Something important for former Christians and non-Christians who are only familiar with Christianity to understand - holy texts do not have to be texts you take as 100% infallible and non-debatable.

A lot of us are used to thinking that holy means infallible and pure. But the actual meaning of the word, even in Christian contexts, is more nuanced than that. For example, the Pope is referred to as "his holiness." This doesn't actually mean that the Pope is considered incapable of sinning or of being wrong. The Pope is considered holy because he is consecrated for a sacred role.

If you'd like, consider The Free Dictionary's definition of "holy." Observe for yourself how many of these definitions do not actually mention infallibility or moral purity.

In other words, a text can be a holy text because it is considered special due to its perceived relevance to spiritual or divine matters, whether or not it's also perceived as infallible. The text can be acknowledged to come from a biased source, and it can be acknowledged that taking these author's biases into account is necessary in order to derive useful insight from it.

It's also possible to acknowledge (or believe, at least) that parts of holy texts are straight up wrong and still consider it holy.

I'd also like to point out that within many pagan tradition, divine beings aren't even necessarily expected to be correct or what you might consider morally pure all the time. They are frequently seen as complicated and capable of error. One could hypothetically read a text believed to contain the words of a god and go, "well, that's just your opinion."

(Also, those of you who are asking "well, why worship them at all, if they aren't perfect?" might as well ask, "well, why send your mother a birthday card if she's not a perfect saint? Why consider your uncle a role model if he's not infallible? Why ask your grandmother for help if she's not omniscient?")

Also, it's not an uncommon belief among some folks that those who receive divine messages often distort them because they project what they want to hear onto them, or interpret them through their own limited understandings. Under this line of thinking, you have to use your own discernment to decide what to take from the text.

Conservative Christians do not get to define what is and isn't a holy text for those of us who aren't conservative Christians, nor how we are allowed to read, interpret, and apply them. If you're out here insisting that we're wrong for doing it differently, you're basically doing the conservative Christians' work for them. If you disagree with these people, why are you volunteering yourself to defend their orthodoxy?

[majestativa]

Clothe yourself with wisdom like a robe, put knowledge on yourself like a crown, and be seated upon a throne of perception.

— THE TEACHINGS OF SILVANUS ⚜️ The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts (Ed. Marvin Meyer), (2009)

[protectyouropacities]

“In the same way your heart feels and your mind thinks, you, mortal beings, are the instrument by which the universe cares. If you choose to care, then the universe cares. If you don’t, then it doesn’t.”

— Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dimension 20

[santmat]

Tips for the Gnostic Spiritual Seeker @ YouTube: Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcast

[zabchan]

for my fellow moana *cough maui cough* fans. this page is a list of texts related to the religion and mythology of pacific islanders. oral histories recorded, English translations of Hawaiian epics, folk tale anthologies, etc.

contains the full text of a book I found particularly helpful in comparing common maui myths across island cultures; Legends of Maui, A Demi-God of Polynesia, by W. D. Westervelt, [1910]

Pretty reliable sources for anyone looking to add authenticity to their moana fics, curious how disney's maui holds up against canon IRL Maui, or just searching for inspiration.

(keep in mind some of these sources are from ye olde europeans with their own inherent biases towards pocs, but as far as I can tell the authors are pretty good about showing their work in terms of crediting native voices & consulting local experts. )

[slippery-domjot-balls]

The Sacred Texts!!!!!

[owl-liberation-now]

this image is apparently not on google anymore and I only found it again because I made it the icon for the family group chat in like 2018

[theweightofdivinity]

Her mind is a papyrus the Nile could not drown…

etched in obsidian thought, soaked in the oil of the ancients.

You will not find it in books.

You will find it in hips that speak in hieroglyphs,

in breath that tastes like incense and omen.

[aethyrmazz]

a person can love you, but they can't satisfy the hunger in your soul.

[thelordofsirius]

"In the analysis of the Egyptian Mysteries, the light of the/ our Arcane knowledge, we find that the corner-stone of knowledge which was actually a wisdom gained through initiation —had its foundation in the certainty that the first great cause for existence itself was spirit; that the first and only element was the Soul, and that this Soul existed eternally and filled infinity.

By the power of its Will, the Soul divided itself into emanations or many separate or individual Souls, and being from God, or part God— its own inherent capacity for creation, the unresting, or eternally restless element of force, was evolved.

Following this came matter which, moving on the ocean of chaos, created form and evolved or established order.

Hence said, with truth—and those seeking to attain the ultimate should remember this saying in all its applications— that "Order heaven's first Law," because confusion or chaos always follows disobedience. He who refuses to obey this Law will be destroyed.

In the order of creation, the fiery particles of matter ascended. It is written that "heaven" is above. To form the luminous bodies, the heavier bodies descended and ultimately separated into earths, seas, plants, animals and, finally, into the entities which became men.

This "earth plane" what we know as "hell," or the temporal — the ever-changing and constantly-suffering plane of existence. the below into which Souls fall to gain wisdom and understanding experiencing both joy and suffering."

Excerpt from - The Mysteries of Osiris or Ancient Egyptian Initiation by R. Swinburne Clymer

Download Full PDF

[creature-wizard]

I am really coming to appreciate how what many people refer to as "spiritual" readings of certain texts is literally just projecting whatever they want to believe on the parts of the text that seem to support their beliefs while ignoring all the parts that don't.

I need people to understand that this is bad methodology because you can convince yourself that nearly any text says nearly anything you want by reading and interpreting it this way. You're not finding objective spiritual truths, you're just bamboozling yourself.

[majestativa]

The Mind that appeared in dark Nature, that was the eye of the heart of Darkness.

— THE PARAPHRASE OF SHEM ⚜️ The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts (Ed. Marvin Meyer), transl. by Michel Roberge, (2009)

[protectyouropacities]

“Doubt cannot be a belief, but it should be a practice.”

— Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dimension 20: Fantasy High Sophomore Year

[goldroses123]

yeah

sacred geometry everything can be found in nature