A Manual for the Gnostic: Doctrines, Prayers, & Practices of the Gnostic Church Paperback – January 24, 2021

It runs though a lot. There’s clearly a lot of work that went into this. You will find a lot of information which is not in any other book about the Gnostic tradition. Highly highly recommended.

Highly recommended for all interested in the authentic Gnostic practice and theory.

Very pleased with my purchase.

I gave it two stars for the decent formatting. Otherwise, I would have definitly given only one star. Here follows why.I have spent over forty years studying and researching the Gnostic canon, and comparing it with early Christianity. Leaving aside the various schisms and offshoots that led to the various denominations that we see in the world today, early Christianity is, in fact, Catholicism.With the above in mind, the "prayers" in this book are simply pre-Vatican II prayers with certain words replaced with either Gnostic words or phrases that describe, or are meant to describe, certain Gnostic-like ideas. (For those who are interested, Vatican II solidified the movement from the Tridentine Mass and tradition Catholic ideas and teachings to the Novus Ordo Mass, which held more secular and modern opinions. The most obvious difference is in the language used by the Church, which shifted from Latin to English)Overall, there is much in the 'catechesim' section that is absolutely wrong. The prayers are, in some places, contradictory = you have to know what you are looking at in order to recognize the discrepencies. And is not the first purpose of any religious adherent, and especially a practicing mystic is beginning their path, to know to WHOM or WHAT they are praying, and why? There are other, additional payers and ideas that appear to be taken from this or that mystic traditon (Martinism, Lutherism, and even some early twentieth century New Ageism) that have been, as with the aforementioned prayers, "gnosticized".There is very little in this book that is truly Gnostic, except for perhaps one or two ideas, a couple of words, and a phrase or two. There is also nothing that cannot be found on the internet.Would I recommend it? No. Would I use it? No. Would I rather have never spent money on it? Yes.