Madness, Illumination and Gnosis in Magic and the Occult

FOUND: gnosis 3: the dark side

Because of this mixture of dark and light, this potential both for madness and for illumination, it is not surprising that mainstream Christians can be fearful and yet fascinated by the several expressions of gnosis in magic, the occult, and the paranormal. Gnosis inevitably calls the seeker out of the usual comfort zones and into the wild woods where ghosts and ghouls lurk at every step of the way…

The issue, at bottom, is madness. Both madness itself and the fear of it. It could be said that madness is actually no more than the uncontrolled fear of the wild woods and what lurks there. Short of that extreme, there is much adventure, much enlightenment, and much romance to be had there.

The woods can nurture much that is good so long as the wanderer therein can avoid going completely berserk, panicking mightily, and irretrievably losing his or her head.