The Universal Gnostic Church: Training for Priests and Priestesses

[ecosophia]

During the years when the Universal Gnostic Church flourished, the Minor Orders were open to anyone who was interested in them, and most church members went through the Gnostic Lessons as an ordinary part of their membership. The priesthood or priestesshood was something else again. It required a serious and sustained commitment to study and practice in the UGC tradition, demonstrated by the completion of a series of tolerably stringent requirements. As explained in the Prospectus, candidates for the priesthood were expected to complete the Gnostic Lessons, to complete the system of training of at least one of the UCG’s affiliated orders, to establish a regular personal spiritual practice, and to engage in systematic reading and study of certain basic textbooks and of at least three holy scriptures, only one of which could be from the candidate’s own faith tradition.

As a bishop in the Universal Gnostic Church I am prepared to ordain candidates who meet these criteria. I am also prepared to consecrate priests and priestesses as bishops in the UGC tradition, provided that they meet the criteria for consecration.  All these requirements are covered in the Propectus. What I propose to discuss here are the practical details.

First, it is not necessary to complete the qualifications for ordination in any particular order. If you are still working on the Gnostic Lessons and one of the affiliated orders, you can begin the reading and study now.  What matters is that you have fulfilled all the requirements before you contact me to come to Rhode Island for your ordination. You will of course need to document your completion of the Gnostic Lessons and the affiliated order, as well as your personal spiritual practice; keeping a regular journal of your practices and experiences is recommended, so that you will have answers to the questions I will ask.

Second, since I don’t expect candidates for the priesthood and priestesshood to move to Rhode Island for the duration of their studies, we will be conducting seminary training online, using Dreamwidth as a venue.  I have created an invitation-only group for seminarians.  In order to join, you must have a Dreamwidth account; a free account is fine.  Once you have your Dreamwidth account, send me a personal message at my Dreamwidth account giving your legal name, date of birth, mailing address, and at least 500 words explaining why you want to be ordained as a priest or priestess in the Universal Gnostic Church.  All these communications will be kept confidential.

Third, the group will be set up to permit discussion of topics relevant to the Universal Gnostic Church. It will be moderated, of course, and there will be specific rules, which will be sent to each person accepted for membership. Violation of those rules will get you suspended or expelled from the group and the seminary program, and no, there is no recourse: my seminary, my rules. This is not a game, nor is it a venue for you to sell things or work out your emotional problems. (The Order of Spiritual Alchemy lessons are meant to help you with the latter.) Imagine that you’re asking to be enrolled in a genuine brick-and-mortar seminary, and the Dean of Students is observing you with the old, cold, bleak expression of someone who has seen every kind of nonsense students get up to and is bored with all of it.

Fourth, one of your assignments will be to post reviews of each chapter of each of the three required books. Yes, you need to review each chapter. The review will be at least 500 words in length and will demonstrate that you have read and thought about the chapter. Please do not simply cut and paste passages from the text—I am interested in your personal understanding of the ideas presented in the chapter, any insights you may have arrived at, any situations in which the material was reflected in your life experience, and the like. I want to know what you think and how you feel about these teachings.

You will also be expected to write a review of each of the sacred scriptures you read. These will cover the entire scripture and will be at least 2500 words in length. Again, cutting and pasting does not qualify; your personal reactions, insights, and reflections are what I want to see, and the goal again is to be sure that you’ve read and thought about the scripture.

Each of your book reviews is to be posted as a friends-only entry to your personal Dreamwidth account, and you and I are the only people who are to have access to it. I will read your review and, provided that it shows that you’ve read and thought about the material, you will get credit for it.

Fifth, when you have completed the Gnostic Lessons, contact me via a Dreamwidth personal message and I’ll ask you some questions to be sure you’ve done the work. In the same way, once you finish your work with the affiliated order you’ve chosen, contact me the same way and be prepared to field questions. So long as you’ve done the work you’ll have no trouble at all answering the questions and getting credit for the work.

Sixth, once you have completed all the requirements, get in touch and we’ll talk about your visit to Rhode Island and your ordination ceremony. You will have to pay all your own expenses for this but there is no other fee for ordination.

Finally, you’ll doubtless have noticed that the training for the UGC does not include instruction in specific kinds of liturgy or religious ceremony, nor does it include instruction in counseling, running a church, or what have you.  This is traditional, and quite deliberate. What forms you want to use in your own religious practice, what services you want to perform for other people (or whether you want to perform services for other people at all), and what else is part of your personal religious path is up to you. Few priests and priestesses of the UGC ever had a conventional church and congregation, though there were exceptions. Most walked unique personal paths in their service to the Divine. Much of what you will be doing during the course of your training for the priesthood or priestesshood is determining exactly what kind of path you feel called to walk.

So there you have it. The door is open. Will you pass through it into the light of the Universal Gnosis?  Only you can decide.

Comments

[jprussell]

I need to do an Ogham reading later this evening to decide whether I will be sending that private message, but a question purely out of curiosity, if I may: why are the chapter and scripture reviews private? Is this just to avoid folks cribbing off each other? To encourage more candid interpretations? Or something else?

Again, not a requirement I have any problem with, just wondering.

Thank you for continuing to pass on these teachings and make these opportunities available, I've benefited tremendously from what work I've done along these lines so far, and I look forward to keeping on in one form or another.

Cheers,
Jeff

[ecosophia]

It's to keep folks from cribbing from each other. Unfortunately that happens all too often these days.

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a particular timeframe in which to do all the work? A year or 2 years or more?

[ecosophia]

The timeframe is yours to choose. Take as much or as little time as you need.

[francis_tucker]

The cutting-and-pasting thing... please tell me that's not from personal experience...


[150-word quote]
I really found this passage meaningful.

[300-word quote]
I really think this is relevant for our time.

[50-word quote]
I think this sums it all up beautifully.


No, that didn't happen for real, did it?

[ecosophia]

Of course it is. Many public schools insist on this kind of rote regurgitation -- that's their idea of education -- and so quite a few occult teachers these days have to say explicitly, "No, we don't want that. We want you to tell us what you think about it." Some students are shocked by that request -- they've been taught never to do that, since thinking for themselves might mean that they get the wrong answer.

I've had to deal with this sort of thing since I started teaching occultism. That's why I ask the kind of questions that are hard to answer by rote: e.g., "Tell me what you experienced during the Sojourner Grade initiation."

[vitranc]

There was a series of events in my highschool days that I still remember fondly.

One year we were doing german poets in our literature class and Rilke‘s poem about a panther was the subject of discussion. We were supposed to analyse the poem by a certain key: motives, themes, …
And then come to the conclusion, that it was an analogy for man imprisonment in an industrial world. A schoolmate of mine argued instead that the poet could just as much have made a visit to the local zoo and described an inhabitant of the cages.
The teacher said that was silly and argued 15 minutes with us about the right interpretation, and at the end settled it with a veiled threat, that this will not fly on a test.
Good; matter settled.
A year latter our german teacher took that same poem, this time in its original. We read it and she asked what it meant. Another of my classmates learned the previous lesson well and regurgitated the correct answer.
„Ok.“ the teacher said. „Does anyone have a different interpretation?“
„But teacher that is the correct interpretation.“
And the teacher went into a rant: „What do you mean the correct interpretation! Have you asked the poet?! Why couldn‘t he have visited a zoo and described one of the inhabitants there?!“
What proceeded was a two lesson break from the program, that included disscussion on literature and its interpretation. :-)
I do not think I give enough credit to my teacher for doing that.

Mood: fondly nostalgic
V

[ladytetra777]

Hi, I'm interested in this, is it okay to message you about online seminary training in the near future?

[ecosophia]

Sure, but unless it's something personal, I'd encourage you to post your question here instead. I've found that for every person who asks a question, there are half a dozen who are wondering about the same thing!

[ladytetra777]

Do you know how you'll want to conduct studies online yet, things like how often you'd want to see writing posts from seminarians?

[ecosophia]

The timing of your reviews of the required reading is entirely up to you. So is how often, or whether, you post to the community. The requirements listed in this post and the prospectus (linked above) are complete; what you see there is what's required, and if it's not mentioned there, don't worry about it.

Language of the sacred scriptures

[milkyway1]

For the sacred scriptures, would it be acceptable to study them in a language other than English, provided that we can reference specific parts of them in our essays so that you will be able to understand what we are refering to? E.g. could I study texts like the New Testament or the Corpus Hermeticum in a German translation?

Milkyway

Re: Language of the sacred scriptures

[ecosophia]

Of course -- you can study the scriptures in any language you like. The book reports should be in English, though.

scripture

[(Anonymous)]

I don't have a faith scripture, so I'm guessing the instructions would be pick any three? Would the old and new testaments count as one or two, and would it make a difference if I was working out of the Tanak for the 'old testament'? I was considering one of the gnostic scriptures as a third.

[(Anonymous)]

On a recent Magic Monday you said something about spiritual traditions that seek wholeness rather than perfection. I'm not familiar with these, are there scriptures you could suggest for spiritual traditions that focus more on wholeness?

[hearthculture]

Reading back over the prospectus, I notice that the Celtic Golden Dawn isn't one of the additional orders. I thought perhaps that this was because it is more tightly focused on ritual magic, whereas most of the other orders seem more focused on occult knowledge, mysticism, and healing. Then I thought that it is based on Golden Dawn magic which is a different lineage than much of what you inherited from John Gilbert. Though I believe the FHR also descends from the GD and involves ritual magic, so I thought I'd check. What's the reason for its exclusion?

(I recognize that for these purposes I could continue on with MOE and OSA work to meet these requirements while also working on CGD.)

I know that reports will need to be submitted through dreamwidth. If I'm working on printed copies and taking margin notes, will there be any need to digitize those or will those notes be solely needed for your interview questions (and to write the papers?)

Thank you for your commitment to reviving these traditions, and for providing alternate paths for those of us with intuitions and inclinations leading off the paved roads.

[forturso]

I have been working on my own through the UGC stuff, and while surfing the web I found the following and it seems similar to the Gnostic Lessons, I figured I would share it if it would help anyone else on their paths.
http://iapsop.com/ssoc/1941__kingsley___liberal_catholic_church_clergy_training_course.pdf