Gnosis

Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon’s Temple Revealed By Philip Gardiner

I recentl y did a tour of USA radio stations and some TV shows for the launch of Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon's Temple Revealed book and DVD. The first question on everybody's lips was what does Gnosis mean? Well the answer to this is not as simple as man y would think. The term Gnostic comes from the Greek word gignoskein meaning simpl y "to know." It was applied to “one sect of so-called philosopher ’s in the first ages of Christianity.” However this is too simple an answer because we have to first understand what this "knowing" is. The English language all too often fails us in the translation of foreign words, especially the more ancient languages such as Greek and Aramaic. Gnosis in truth means the mystical experience of the Divine within the self. And this is the "knowledge" spoken of in the term Gnosis - that it represents a unique perspective (m ystical) of the Divine (God/Universal Architect/Collective Unconscious) inside us. So what exactl y is this m ystical experience and what scientific evidence is there for it? Well the fact is that from all the research I and others have done it can be pinned down to an electromagnetic, chemical and biological function that erupts in the mind and bod y of the individual following mental and ph ysical actions. The Indian kundalini (coiled one/coiled serpent) is one of the processes our ancestors adopted to access this function. But there is more to this process than a strict scientific act. Just because there are now scientific explanations for the process does not mean that it isn't also a spiritual or higher conscious role of the human mind. James Gardner, a scientific, peer reviewed philosopher recently said that the universe is intelligent at the sub-atomic level and that it acts on a similar method to the DNA feedback loop. This is where the DNA instructs cells how to grow to a certain point and then receives feedback from the cells. The DNA then makes decisions according to the information received and then sends further instructions to the cells how to proceed. James Gardner posits the theor y that the universe itself at the quantum level works this wa y. Now add into this m y own theory that what the m ystic is experiencing when he claims to have gnosis (knowledge of the universe) and a feeling of Oneness to the Divine is in reality quantum entanglement to the particles of the universe and we may actually be finding a way of becoming conscious of the universe itself and feeding information into it and receiving information from it. In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is reported as saying "For whoever does not know self, does not know anything, but whoever knows self, already has acquired knowledge about the depth of the universe." This "knowledge" about the depth of the universe is exactly the same as Gnosis; it is the m ystical experience, the enlightenment. Quantum entanglement is a scientificall y proven element of the sub-atomic world. It is the process whereb y sub-atomic particles actually entangle with each other, passing on and receiving information. Our very thoughts are made up of wave-forms and particles and have been shown to be able to entangle with other individuals. Einstein himself called this "spooky action at a distance" and himself, along

with other quantum theorists actuall y stated that the y disliked the facts because of these peculiar effects. Over the course of several years I have interviewed and written about people who have claimed to have this enlightenment experience and several things are alwa ys reported. Firstly the individual has a feeling of oneness with everything. The y feel like they are totally connected to the universe, to ever ything in existence, as if they are god's themselves and they are somehow entangled to the structure of the universe. Secondl y they have intense feelings of ultimate knowledge; not the kind that we can read about in textbooks, but a deeper and more spiritual understanding of everything. This unique understanding - that there could be a higher goal for mankind, whether collectivel y or individually - evolved into what we now know as Gnosticism. Of course this is a massive oversimplification and we should always take into account the m ystics – those who have experienced what we would call otherworldly emotions or visions. Also, regardless of popular perception, the Christian’s were not the only Gnostics and m ystics. The second question I am asked is how does this relate to Solomon's Temple? Well the fact is that this is the secret of Solomon's Temple, and a great many other unsolved m ysteries. So, let us now tr y our best to comprehend the Temple of Solomon and in doing so, let us walk upon Holy ground, trodden onl y by the initiated. Well, unfortunatel y we are sadl y lacking in any archaeological evidence, regardless of what you read on some literal fundamentalist website. What we are told is that in the 10 t h century BC, the wise King Solomon erected a great Temple to the Lord. Unfortunatel y, if any of this is true, then we actually find that it was a Temple, which encompassed man y pagan religions. According to Professor James Pritchard in his book, Solomon and Sheba (1974, p.35): “.. the so-called cities of Megiddo, Ge zer and Ha zor, and Jerusalem itself were in reality more like villages.. Within were relatively small public buildings and poorly constructed dwellings with clay floors. The objects reveal a material culture which, even by the standards of the ancient Near East, could not be judged sophisticated or luxurious.. The ‘magnificence’ of the age of Solomon is parochial and decidedly lackluster, but the first book of Kings implies exactly the opposite.” We have the same belief stated by David Rohl in his book A Test of Time: The Bible from Myth to History: "Byblos [the home of Hiram] is rich in fine stone buildings from the Bron ze Age. However, when it comes to the Iron Age (which is purportedly the time of Solomon and his ally, Hiram of Tyre) there are no stone buildings at Byblos. How then did Solomon acquire building expertise from Phoenicia if the Phoenicians did not have the skill or resources to build stone structures for themselves?"

In fact and in the bright light of day, what we actuall y have, and what most writers are afraid to sa y, is no evidence whatsoever for Solomon’s Temple as described in the Bible. In fact, we have no evidence for Solomon, other than these peculiar Biblical texts. Neither do we have an y evidence for the Queen of Sheba, or an y of the other characters involved. Instead, there is more depth than could ever be imagined, more meaning than we would dare to believe. John Michell in The Temple at Jerusalem: A Revelation, (Gothic Image) gives us an insight to the real meaning.: “Legends of the Temple describe it as the instrument of a mystical, priestly science, a form of alchemy by which oppositely charged elements in the earth and atmosphere were brought together and ritually married. The product of their union was a spirit that blessed and sanctified the people of Israel.” How right Michell is. The Temple is an instrument of m ystical and priestl y science or even magic. The secret unravels before our eyes the more we learn. You see the true Gnostic, the true disciple or perfect one, must be a man or woman of balance. He or she must unite the two sides of the mind, the male and female principles as the y are called. We are all both male and female and the alchemists used this concept of balance and revealed it in their images of the Hermaphrodite, half man and half woman. Solomon, was no real man, and Sheba was no real woman. Instead the y were symbols of this internal and often external process. The whole stor y of Solomon, Sheba and the Temple, which is the perfectly formed body, both physical and spiritual, is the stor y of our own ps yche. It is an esoteric truth, misunderstood in its exoteric form. It reveals that we can only enter the Hol y of Holies by passing between the opposites, symbolized by the twin pillars, and so the place of connection to the Divine in the self is a neutral state, neither positive nor negative and this is precisel y what quantum entanglement theor y predicts. You see in-order to get our mind into a state of connection we must access the m ystical experience in the neutral states. Let me explain simpl y. The neutral state is the point between cycles. There are a great many cycles in life and they can be shown to be wave forms. Imagine two waves crossing each other and thereby canceling each other out. This is the neutral part of the cycle - where positive and negative collide. This can be equated in the physical world to the point where we are conceived, die and especially go to sleep (or wake up). This point of going to sleep is called the h ypnagogic state and it relates to a specific frequency in the mind in balance which also correlates to the frequency of the natural earth. It is between awake and asleep, between consciousness and unconsciousness and in fact the adepts of the past reveal to us that the y could maintain this position - of being conscious of the unconscious world - via meditation or pra yer (and even drugs). Depending upon ones own state of mind, one would access heaven or hell. For instance if one was not prepared for the process over a period of time and used drugs to access the world of the unconscious then one would more than likely experience hell and proceed down the path of psychosis. My own theory is that this point of balance and access of the

unconscious mind is to see the quantum connection or entanglement to the universe and hence the feelings of oneness and gnosis. Hiram Hiram was the son of a Jewish mother and a Phoenician father and is credited with the decoration of the Temple of Solomon. He was said to have been the “son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali… He cast two bron ze pillars” 1 Kings 7:13-15. We must also note something of interest mentioned in 1 Kings 16: “Then he made two capitals of cast bron ze, to set on top of the pillars. The height of one capital was 5 cubits; and the height of the other capital was five cubits. He made a lattice network, with wreaths of chainwork, for the capitals, which were on top of the pillars: seven chains for one capital and seven for the other capital.” These pillars became known as Jachin, meaning “he establishes” and Boaz, which means “in him is strength” and these are now familiar to most modern Freemasons as central to their own Lodge or Temple. Copies of these can be clearl y seen at the infamous Rossl yn Chapel as we shall discover. But, what is interesting here is the original text about these pillars. Firstl y bronze is used for the capitals, just as bronze is used for the “Brazen Serpent” of Moses and is indicative of the fier y aspect of the serpent as one of the channels in the Kundalini process. Their “heights” were 5 cubits, matching the five hooded cobras seen across India and atop many pillars, although the Bible calls them Lilies, which are symbols of balance an ywa y. Leading up to these capitals then were “wreaths” of “chainwork”, seven on each pillar. Strangel y these chains were “for the capitals,” and so we conclude that these seven levelled chains (coils) were pointing towards the head (capital) just as the serpents of the Kundalini do. There are more real links between Hiram and the serpent. For instance, we noted above that he was of the Tribe of Naphtali. The standard of the Tribe of Naphtali, according to Jewish tradition, is a serpent or basilisk and this could have come from Egyptian origins, as Jewish tradition states that Naphtali was the brother of Joseph, chosen to represent the famil y to Pharaoh. “And now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, Huram [Hiram] my master [father] craftsman, (the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre), skilled to work in gold and silver, bron ze and iron, stone and wood, purple and blue, fine linen and crimson, and to make any engraving and to accomplish any plan which may be given to him, with your skilful men and with the skilful men of my lord David your father.” 2 Chronicles 2:13-14.

Here, Hiram is said to be a son of the Tribe of Dan and even the tribe of Dan had an emblem, which was amazingly also the serpent, this time with a horse. Incredibly there is also a hidden truth and repetitive pattern in this little statement about the real skills of this literary character. Follow this pattern: Hiram is skilled in:1 2 3 4 5 6 7

gold and silver, bronze and iron, stone and wood, purple and blue, fine linen and crimson, and to make any engraving and to accomplish any plan which may be given to him.

Note that there are seven ‘balanced’ elements to the skill of the man who will build the Temple! This is a real clue to the Temple’s secret indeed. According to this book of Chronicles Hiram was a cunning man (a word used for and derived from the serpent) endued with understanding, skilful as we can see in the work of gold, silver, brass, stone and timber. But he was also credited with certain tools, which could pierce stone. Stone, as I show in Gnosis is symbolic of wisdom and foundation. Hiram’s tool therefore pierced the veil or even the ver y root of wisdom. According to the book of Kings the Temple was built of stone (or wisdom) before it was brought to the site. Something like a prefabricated building. It was said by tradition that neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron was used in the building. So how was it built? This in itself is a paradox, which can only be answered by the true secret of the Temple being revealed. According to Rabbinical teaching the prefabrication of the Temple was performed b y the Shamir, a giant worm or serpent that could cut stones (incidentally worm means serpent). Not dissimilar to Norse and Celtic beliefs where Valhalla and Camelot were built with the fire of the dragon and in China where building is aided b y the serpent energ y. This is a universal concept as can be seen in India, where it was the serpentine linked Naga’s of fable who escaped their countr y and took the architectural wisdom abroad. The architect gods, such as Thoth of Eg ypt, are linked strongl y with the serpent wisdom because the y are linked with the building of “Temples of Wisdom” inside our SELVES. The Shamir, according to one legend had even been placed in the hands of the Prince of the Sea (Shamir by Wilhelm Bacher & Ludwig Blau), which of course is symbolic of the Prince of Wisdom.

In essence what we reall y have here is the Temple of Wisdom being built by the serpent and that serpent is none other than that of, or similar to, the internal Kundalini, later to be developed into the Kabbalah. This is a psychological training manual; a method of selfimprovement; a wa y for society to become One; a multi-la yered method of getting closer to the deity which resides in each and everyone of us; a deity, that the ancients saw as being the same in each of us. The whole process repeats again and again throughout the Bible. The Temple is reduced (like the alchemical method) and is remade. Then again and again, until finally the Christ is the Temple which is reduced (killed) and then rises again for the last time. And now, according to the texts, we can all meet with this Christ and we can all have the knowledge. We just need to understand that the true Christ is all and in all. Toda y, following hundreds of years of suppression of this perceived access to the Divine in the self, we are actuall y beginning to see a new scientific, quantum understanding of the highest human thought processes. Could we reall y and trul y be able to access the DNA feedback loop of the universal intelligence? Could we reall y be able to communicate with the One? End Philip Gardiner is the author of The Serpent Grail: The Truth Behind the Holy Grail, the Philosopher ’s Stone and the Elixir of Life, Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon’s Temple Revealed, The Shining Ones: The World’s Most Powerful Secret Society Revealed, Secrets of the Serpent and Proof? Does God Exist? He is host of the Philip Gardiner ’s Forbidden Knowledge Conference UK (FKCUK) and writes columns for various magazines as well as having his own radio show on Nettalkradio. For more information see www.gardinersworld.com