In Reply to: The Gnostic Gospels posted by Perry on June 09, 2004 at 12:57:04:
I read the book about 2 weeks ago and found it quite fascinating. Most fascinating is that many of his facts in the book can be found on the internet as well. It goes along the topic of gnosticism and something pointed out in the book is that history is written by the winners. In other words, when Christianity won out in the Roman world, when (Constantine was it?) 'converted' to Christianity, the Christian version of history won out and took over the then present mind-set and beliefs. And the Christian leaders at the time then decided which books and beliefs should be kept in the Bible and which shouldn't, throwing out the beliefs that didn't support Christianity as they wanted it to be.
I'm no expert on all this, I just find it interesting to read about other accounts and versions of Christianity and its origins.
What about the belief that Jesus had a sexual, maybe even marital relationship with Mary of Magda and possibly fathered a child with her?
As I read more things I find Berg's version of Christianity very gnostic and almost pagan, remember the letters about the goddesses and Priestesses for Love? Reading about ancient religions I have learned that sex was an integral part of many ancient beliefs, that priestesses were used for the purpose of bringing about a spiritual connection between man and god, stuff like that.
Also, if Berg's grandfather was part of the freemasons, it's very possible that he (Berg) was educated in beliefs which are carried by the freemasons, and maybe tried to bring those beliefs into the Family's Christianity? (I can't say though what freemason beliefs are--I just know it's some sort of secretive society).
Berg also believed in the Cathars, Mary having a sexual relationship with Jesus, etc.
I recently wondered too about the Family's old symbol, the harp of David. Anyone remember that one, with the sword and harp, rainbow, crown and stars? I would be interested to take a deeper look at the symbol and see if we can come up with possibly deeper and secret meanings which are not commonly known to normal people.