Gnostic Mysteries of Sex

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

“Gnostic Mysteries of Sex takes us on a wild ride through the secret, enigmatic and heretical world of Gnostics, medieval troubadours, the visions of Blake, and the counterculture of the 1960s--all united in their quest for union with God. The reader should not be fooled by Tobias Churton’s inimitable style of writing, because beneath his humor and provocative statements, there’s a profound understanding of one the greatest mysteries of all time--the power of sexual gnosis.”