A Short on Gnostic Anthropology - (745)

A Little History

Once upon a time I typed out the following text verbatim from an old flyer that was amongst some of the old papers stored away in the cupboards of the Gnostic Centre that I attend. Sorry I am not sure who wrote it in the end.

Gnostic Anthropology

“Anthropology is, in the modern age, the best means to study man and his origins, what man himself is, and the imprint he has left through culture.

Anthropology has two fields of investigation: one inquires about the origin of life through its theories of evolution, the laws of heredity, the scale of geological time and through the human races, and is called physical anthropology; the second field deals with man, the prehistoric culture of the old and new world, family, society, religion, magic, art and language, and is known by the name of cultural anthropology. We also find a great variety of auxiliary branches that complement the previous ones.

Anthropology, being subject to the observations and alterations of the experimental sciences, has given rise over time to diverse types of anthropology, which often times contradict each other.

This whole long process of the study of man and his origins is ultimately the study of man according to man. Its results will always be contradictory and diverse and will never be able to arrive at a definitive conclusion.

In order to arrive at a complete knowledge of the object of study (man) we depend on an instrument which itself is unknown: the very same man.

If we want concrete and definitive answers about the origin of life, man, the races, and the meaning of existence, we need a distinct study: to study man from the perspective of the consciousness, the study of oneself, and this will permit us to know at the same time the origin of life and the universe. Man is consubstantial with the universe; one is contained in the other.

This axiom is and always will be the basis of philosophy. Why should it be different for science? All the more reason why science should change its methods now that it faces a new challenge: to know the universe of the infinitely small, which is to say, the return to the inner universe.

The new anthropology is the study of man through himself, utilizing the faculties of the consciousness that lie dormant, awaiting the moment to be awakened.

Thanks to Gnostic Anthropology we can know the archetypes of different civilizations in order to arrive at the original source of knowledge common to all ethnic groups, and at the relationship of this wisdom with man and the cosmos.

This is the specific objective that the GNOSTIC ASSOCIATION Samael Aun Weor proposes: to teach the appropriate didactics and dialectics for the study of man and his environment.”

End (745).