Month: February 2008

This is the 2nd Sunday of Lent in both the mainstream and alternative (Gnostic) churches. But according to this awesome new Gnostic calendar I am enjoying, Feb. 17 is also a Martyr’s day and also a modern esotericist’s birthday.

Birthday of Charles Leadbeater (1854-1934), Bishop and Institutor of the Liberal Catholic Church.

Day of Martyrdom of Giordan Bruno, Priest & Martyr. 1548 – Feb 17, 1600 “Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it.”

The statue of Giordano Bruno pictured right stands in Mexico City. He seems to be looking into our eyes, we in the future, saying, Listen, listen, if you have an ear. Think, think, if you are drawn. Wake, awake. (I was thinking Giordan or Giordano Bruno’s first name means “Jordan”, as in the sacred river of Judeo-Christianity.)

A hermeticist, esotericist and Gnostic — very much loved by the people for his charismatic street-corner talks –, he was burned at the stake by the church. Jerks. Here’s a cool article, a different picture of him, and a bunch of inspiring quotes of his, over at Jennifer Emick’s exhaustive Alternative Religions archive.

Hail Holy Giordano, Saint in our Hearts, Teacher in the Darkness, baptised in the fire…

–Katia

I went to Seventh Day Adventist schools and boarding schools during all my childhood and teen years. They teach a love for the Cathars big time. Our elementary school teachers made us read stories and color pictures of Waldensian and Albigensian children walking perilous mountain cliffs, hiding from the Inquisition on pain of death, carefully writing out copies of the Bible.

I left the Adventist church as a young adult because they don’t acknowledge the Divine Feminine, but I still have a friendly attitude toward some of their doctrine. I have been studying the Gnostic Cathars more in depth than usual lately and found some old notes I made last year. I realized the Adventists have a lot in common with the Cathars — who were called Waldensians and Albigensians in their day, only the Roman Catholic Church called them Cathars, originally a derogatory term meaning “purists” or “pure ones.”

Here is what I jotted down last year when I realized the uncanny similarity between the SDA’s and Cathars / Waldensians / Albigensians. The SDA founder, Ellen G. White, visited the Cathar / Waldensian valleys area in Europe (Italy and France border area) twice in 1885 to 1887 while she was in Europe. Chapter 4 of her famous book, The Great Controversy, is about these cool heretics. Adventists really really honor heretics!, good for them.

Similarites between Cathars & Adventists. Both Cathars and SDA’s practiced the following things:

Vegetarianism

Distrust of the Roman Catholic Church to the point of calling it and the Pope, Anti-christ & “the Beast”

Sabbath-keeping. See pic of SDA kids at Waldensian stone table room http://npucnewsletter.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/why-not-try-this-learn-lessons-from-the-waldenses/
Proof they were Sabbath keepers see: http://www.sabbathtruth.com/history/sabbath_history12.asp

Bible carrying

“Run to the hills!” teaching

Ascetisism: No adornments of any kind: no steeples, no stained-glass, no crosses, no rituals, no jewelry not even wedding rings. No christenings, no priests. These are all SDA no-no’s.

No swearing of oaths, no killing or soldiering (SDA’s are conscientious objectors in war-time)

* * * *
Adventists teach Waldensians and Albigensians are heretic heroes whom children should revere, study about, and use as role models. The word Cathar was originally an insult of the RCC, so true descendants of the Cathars actually call themselves Waldensians or Albigensians – just like the SDA’s who never used the word Cathars.

The fact that Adventists instill in their children from an early age love of (and affinity to) Cathars and love of Judaism (sabbath keeping) makes you wonder…

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar

http://www.ellenwhite.org/gc1.htm

Lots of groups, evangelicals, especially Baptists, use the Waldensians aka Waldenses to provide themselves with pedigree stretching back to the Apostles. It’s called Baptist successionism. EG White has a chapter in GC about the Waldensians, but she doesn’t claim pedigree thru them, just that they kept the Sabbathkeeping torch alive thru the dark ages. They may not have even kept the Sabbath, but EG White’s limited research concluded they did. She probably read 17th century English author Sir Samuel Morland’s book about the Vaudois, another name for the Waldensians which said they kept the Sabbath.

Those who attempt to establish a pedigree for the Waldenses anterior to Waldo himself often refer to the work of Sir Samuel Morland, a 17th-century English author and diplomat who claimed to have found evidence that verifies the great antiquity of the sect. [4] Morland reproduced documents supposedly from the year 1120, which, he said, show that the Waldenses (French, -Vaudois-) had the scriptures for about forty years prior to the translation that Waldo obtained.

The documents in question, however, show the Bible divided into chapters, and such divisions did not appear before about 1250 or later. [5] The confession of faith produced by Morland makes it appear that the Waldenses held to a strongly Protestant-evangelical theology centuries before Luther. It is now known that this document originated in the 16th century. It contains teachings of Martin Bucer, reformer of Strasbourg, copied almost verbatim. [6]

Despite their usual aversion to Roman Catholic sources, successionists have not hesitated to cite a remark by Reinerius Saccho that the Waldenses movement is ancient,

“for some SAY that it has existed from the time of Sylvester, some from the time of the apostles.” http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/num3.htm