Tobias ChurtonGnostic Mysteries of Sex
Sophia the Wild One and Erotic Christianity
Tobias Churton is Britain’s leading scholar of Western Esotericism, a world authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Rosicrucianism. An Honorary Fellow of Exeter University, where he is faculty lecturer in Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, he holds a master’s degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford, and is the author of many books, including Gnostic Philosophy, The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians, and Aleister Crowley: The Beast in Berlin. He lives in England.
Acknowledgments
Introduction The Gnostic Sex Book
Confessio Churtonatis
Part I
THE SEX GNOSTICS
ONE--The “Filthy Gnostickes”
Great Monsters of Heresy
Is an Erotic Christian Religion Really Possible?
The Essential Myth
Androgyny
TWO--Heresy Starts in Eden: The Accusers
The Heresiologists
Clement of Alexandria
Tertullian
Hippolytus
Epiphanius
THREE--How to Be a Superman: The First Gnostic
Sex and Simon
Simon Says--According to Hippolytus
Epiphanius on Simon
FOUR--After Simon, the Deluge
Cerdo
Saturnilus
FIVE--The Dirty People
Sethians, Seed-Gatherers, and Serpent-Worshippers
Hippolytus on the Naasseni
Kundalini Gnostics?
Epiphanius on Barbeliotes and Borborites
SIX--Tantra--Remarkable Parallels
SEVEN--Be My Valentine
EIGHT--A Question of Seed
Senseless and Crack-Brained
Tertullian on the Valentinians
Clement of Alexandria and Theodotus
A New Picture of Valentinian Sex
NINE--The Valentinian Marriage
The Knowledge of the Heart
The Good Spermaritan
TEN--In Search of the Mystery of Prouneikos and Barbelo in Alexandria
Philo of Alexandria (ca. 20 BCE-ca. 50 CE)
ELEVEN--The Lascivious One
The Wild One
Part II
GNOSTIC LOVE AND THE SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION
TWELVE--All You Need Is Sophia
Return to the Troubadours
THIRTEEN--The Golden Riddle
The Golden Ball
The Coy Mistress
The Spherical Art
The Conversion of the Jews
Heaven’s Gate
Thy Heaven Doors Are My Hell Gates
Bibliography
Index
