/lit/ - Literature

>>15713114
It's disingenuous to claim to be a Gnostic as it was always an umbrella term for various Christian sects that existed shortly after the death of the Christ that persisted into the middle ages yet was almost entirely purged by the Catholic Church. We have nothing even resembling a reconstruction of a Gnostic tradition and, baring some new discovery, never will.
Gnosticism was a product of the intermingling of Neoplatonism and Christanity. It's oldest known incarnation would probably be the works of the Alexandrian alchemist Zosimos, who incorporated Christ into his system of pagan alchemical theurgy. The Bible clearly states that God called his Son forth from Egypt, and a plausible theory that Jesus spent those 30 odd missing years as an initiate in the Egyptian mystery schools is just as plausible as implausible.
Gnosticism did midwife two heretical points into Neoplatonic and Christian doctrine, namely that the Demiurge was an evil entity as opposed to the creative principle of Plato's Timeaus, and that matter is inherently evil as opposed to creation being a beautiful manifestation of the One. I posit that matter is not intrinsically evil, just one's view thereof or entanglement in earthly wealth and possessions. This is more in line with the teachings of Christ anyways.
Tldr: Gnosticism as a religion is a larp, study the Greeks and early Christians and understand that Christ was the physical manifestation of the Logos.