A Gnostic Perspective on the Fall and Redemption of Tiger Woods

Everybody is excited over Tiger Woods winning the Masters golf tournament. His victory is a great archetypal story none of us can get enough of--a disgraced fallen hero battles through defeat after humiliating defeat for twelve grueling years, finally coming to his triumphal reentry.

Tiger Woods Triumphs over the Fall
photo credit: https://www.ffgolf.org

Since writing The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated, I can't help but notice the Gnostic mythos enacted through the story of Tiger Woods Masters' win. In Simple Explanation terms, this is  a fractal of a Gnostic mythical tale, one that is played out over and over again in a myriad of forms, but always with the same overall pattern.

This particular Gnostic story involves that aeon often called the "demiurge," but which I refer to as "Logos"--he who was the best of them all. Christians are taught his name is "Lucifer," the Light, for he was a bright and shiny star placed atop the hierarchy of angels.

Logos sat atop the hierarchy of the aeons. He was the final aeon created by the ALL, and he embodied every good and perfect aspect of all the aeons. 

All of the other aeons loved Logos, for he was their youngest and he represented the best of them all. 

In like manner, Tiger Woods was the same type of young talent, representing the best that golf and golfers had in them, and fully in charge of the powers given him by God and by his earthly father.

Logos mistook himself for the Fullness, forgetting that he stood on the shoulders of giants. Ego overcame Logos and he overreached for the heights, stumbled, and fell.

Logos forgot all about his role in the Fullness, and he let personal pride propel him to overreach and fall.

Tiger Woods suffered a similar fall from exalted status. If you are not familiar with his story, you can look up the details elsewhere. What we need to know for our purposes is that Tiger Woods was hailed as a conquering hero from an early age. He was the best and brightest of them all, but only as long as he kept his eyes on the ball, the flag, and the hole. In other words, Tiger was good at his job and this was why he was elevated above the Fullness of the other golfers.

When one is highly talented and given glory by others, they may be filled with pride. Pride cometh before the fall. This is what happened to Tiger Woods. He took his eyes off the prize and quickly stumbled and fell. And, because he was lifted up, his fall was all the more disastrous when it came.

When Logos fell, his true Self broke apart and all of his lovely virtues that had made him so special and beloved shriveled up and became weak little Egoic versions of his prior glory. What was light was now dark. What was strong was now weak. What was virtuous was now vice. The Fullness was shocked and horrified by what their beloved had become. Logos himself was disgusted and ashamed by the condition of his own fallen Ego.

Logos broke apart into dark phantoms of Ego after the fall.

The phantoms born of Logos after the fall are sad, weak, and isolated. They think only of themselves and operate out of a drive for dominion, not duty. And for every virtue of the ALL that exists, there is a corresponding Egoic vice that mimics and mocks the original.

Love becomes lust and marital vows are exchanged for passing pleasures. The body's temple becomes defiled and rather than feed it with nutrition, it is polluted with pharmaceuticals, junk food, soda pop, and alcohol. Devotion becomes obsession, abstinence is traded for indulgence, health is propped up with medicine rather than vitality. Abilities and talents no longer occupy the vessel of their birth, and excellence is replaced with simply trying to survive.

Tiger's fall resulted in his utter, very public, disgrace. He lost his reputation, his wife, his abilities, and his health as he passed through injuries, addictions, hookers, and run-ins with the law. 

Those who are fallen are weak and isolated, blindly struggling to get by.

After the fall, Logos was aghast at what had happened. He was unable to control the monsters he had unleashed. Logos quickly repented and returned to the Fullness for healing. The healing of Logos was begun by his repentance, but it required concentration, prayer, and the effort of All to bring about his redemption.

Logos, the Fullness, and the Father create a Second Order of Powers to correct the deficiency and restore the fallen.

Like Logos, the fallen Tiger struggled to claw his way back from deficiency. The gallery became his Fullness, packed with observant supporters, rooting him on. Months and years of sobriety, surgeries, and hard work replaced the shadow's vices with virtues and Tiger began to shine again.

The redemption of Tiger Woods bore fruit on Sunday, when he won his first major tournament in twelve years. Now his story is the story of redemption from the fall and resurrection from his deficiency. 

When we cheer for Tiger's redemption, let us not forget to give glory to his Father and creator, whose perfection empowers all of our champions, brilliantly illuminating the best and brightest among us.

This has been a presentation of a fractal story of an archetypal Gnostic myth, and one we can all expect to experience from time to time as we repent from our own falls and seek redemption and resurrection from above. 

You can read the entire Gnostic story in one short, easy-to-read book. Please consider buying a copy for yourself and another to share with a friend. 

There is a 6"x9" deluxe edition that sells for $23.45 and a 4"x5" pocket edition only available through my website for only $7.50.

Simple Gnostic Explanation of the Nature of Human Beings

Notice: There is now a separate blog dedicated to the New Gnostic Gospel. You can get there by clicking here. 

The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated has thus far explained the origins of our universe, beginning with the Father and proceeding through the Christ. We need to review the entire run of the Gnostic cosmology to understand the nature of human beings because, in Simple Explanation terms, humans are fractal representations of the entire created universe, so if you understand the cosmology, you will understand humanity. 

We begin with the Father as the initial ground state of undifferentiated consciousness--all knowing and ever present, with no particularities or distinctions. The Father's consciousness feels to us like "love."

The Simple Gnostic Gospel represents the unfathomable Father as a field of pure nothingness.

From the Father comes the first awakened consciousness--the Son. The Son contains all of the attributes of the Father in a diffuse, unnamed state. The Son is represented by a hazy brightness emerging from the field of consciousness.

In the silence of the Absolute, the Father brings forth the first and only Son from its realization of Itself. The Son exists as the Father having a thought. As the Father knowing Its own eternal Self. The Son also feels to us like love.

The instant the Son arose, it brought forth the ALL. 

The ALL emerges as the Son becomes aware of itself as a distinct set of traits. Each ray of the Son becomes a self-aware entity, mirroring individual qualities that form a unity.

The Son is reflected by the totality of the ALL, and they understood who he is, and he is covered by the ALL. The ALL is represented as rays of one sun. The ALL is also known as the "Pleroma."

As soon as the ALL became aware of themselves, they named themselves, which caused them to reorganize into a hierarchy of personalities, ranks, and roles. The Simple Gnostic Gospel depicts this organization as a pyramidal structure where everyone has a unique place and function. No longer a singular entity, the ALL is now a hierarchy of named individuals known collectively as "aeons." The aeons love each other and their places in the hierarchy, and they love their father, who is the Son.

The aeons live in a perfectly cooperative hierarchy where everyone shares a single dream of Paradise. This pyramid of aeons is called the "Fullness."

The aeon at the very top of the hierarchy is assigned various names and genders by different renditions of Gnostic scriptures. The Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi scrolls, which the Simple Explanation uses as source material, calls this chief aeon "Logos." The particular name and gender is irrelevant. I prefer to call Logos "he" and "him" so the Fall is not associated with human women as it so often is.

Logos is the epitome of the Fullness. His singular personality reflects all of the traits and talents of all the other aeons. He is like a favored, golden child. 

Because of the abundance of blessings given Logos, Logos mistakes himself for the ALL and forgets that he is only one of many.

The chief aeon, Logos, mistakes himself for the ALL. He thinks he is all alone up there on the top of the Fullness. His error is called "presumptuous thought."

Forgetting his place in the Fullness, Logos breaks the rules and reaches up to reconnect himself with the Father. 

Logos overreaches and Falls.

Logos shatters from the Fall and abandons the Deficiency he has accidentally created.

The shattered pieces of Logos left behind in the Deficiency behave as the aeons did when they first recognized and named themselves. These broken shadows and phantoms of the traits of Logos and the Fullness are called the "Imitation." A "Boundary" contains the Deficiency. The Deficiency is no longer organized into a cooperative hierarchy. Chaos reigns in limited space.

Logos fell because he forgot his place and proper function in the Fullness. The shadows of the Imitation, left behind by Logos when he fled back to the Fullness, are the Yin to Logos' Yang. Where traits of Logos came from the brightness of the Son and the ALL, Logos left behind darkness and shadows when he fled home. The Deficiency left behind arose from presumptuous thought and overreaching. Therefore, the Imitation is characterized by presumptuous thought and overreaching, i.e., Ego, combined with the opposites of the traits of Logos.

Logos and the Fullness were desperate to correct the Deficiency of the Fall. All together, in Oneness, the Fullness prayed to the Father for healing. Out of their prayer they produced a fruit with all of the good qualities and powers inherent in the Fullness, designed to fit within the Boundary that had been created and to do battle against those of the Imitation. 

The aeons of the Fullness pray to their Father for healing the Deficiency. They produce offspring called the "Second Order of Powers."

This "Second Order of Powers" bears the likeness of the "First Order of Powers" in the Fullness. They are also called "Those of the Remembrance" because they were implanted with a dim memory of the Father and the Son, and a longing to rejoin the aeons in the Hierarchy and their dream of Paradise. They are considered superior to "Those of the Imitation" because they come from noble thought and not presumptuous thought.

"Those of the Imitation" arise from presumptuous thought--Ego. "Those of the Remembrance" arise from noble thought.

Those of the Remembrance are caught in an "Endless War" with Those of the Imitation, due to the "Law of Mutual Combat."

At this point in the tale, we can begin to see human nature emerging. While this Gnostic Gospel Illuminated has been told as a creation story, it is also the story of every human being. In Simple Explanation terms, we humans are fractal interations of the aeons of the Fullness--their "fruit." We have dim memories of a perfect Paradise as dreamt by the Fullness. We have a built-in longing for the Fullness. We barely remember the Son and the Father other than an expectation of feeling Loved. And we are locked into an Endless War with the dark side of our natures and with other people who stand in our way.

"Those of the Imitation" defend and embrace the darkness of the Deficiency, while "Those of the Remembrance" do their best to overcome their "darker" nature and follow the "light." Those of the Remembrance may or may not be "religious" folks, but they do all seek a higher consciousness. Religious folks call this higher consciousness "God," and the memory of the Fullness "Heaven." Those of the Remembrance who are not part of a religious body or the meme bundle of a religion are still "Spiritual" because they do still seek reunification with the One while rejecting the forms of religion. 

Those who hear the "still, small voice of God" but can't quite bring themselves to believe in "fairy tales," are Seekers that wind up stumbling into blogs like this as they search for something to believe in. At some point during this life, each person decides for themselves whether to continue trusting in their own presumptuous Ego, or to heed the call from "above."

The Gnostic call for Redemption goes like this: Because the Second Order of Powers has gotten all gummed up chasing after each other in Endless War, another Fruit was required to bring peace. This time the Fullness prayed to the Father, individually and collectively, for a Champion to end the War. This Champion is called the Christ.

The aeons not only produced a singular Fruit reflecting the Father, but that Fruit also reflected their own individual countenances and aspects from their positions in the hierarchy of the Fullness. In this manner, they "went forth in a form that consisted of many forms, so that the one whom they were going to help should see those to whom he had prayed for help as well as the One who brought it to him" [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 87].

In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ is the correcting algorithm for Second Order fractals that no longer ring true. The Christ replicates all of the qualities of the ALL, that is, the full attributes of the Originating Consciousness in their pure form that existed prior to the Fall, with all confounding memes stripped away. When one accepts the gift of the Christ, one invites a correction to Ego's deluded meme bundle, so the best functioning of the Universal Unit of Consciousness may be reestablished within your self. The Christ also provides a homing beacon to the the Son via a rooted love connection. 

Here's the simplest Gnostic Gospel:

• You admit you are a flawed human being, with an Ego that is self-centered.
• You remember "The Gnosis": that you came from the Father and from the ALL and you wish to return to them.
• You tell your Ego to move aside and make room for the Christ to bring new life from above. This is called "Repentance."
• With Ego off the sub-conscious throne, you are able to give glory to the Father.
• You replace Ego with Love, and you use Love as an open beacon to and from the Father.
• You begin to embrace the qualities of the ALL and stop defending the Imitation. You exchange memes for virtues.
• You are now no longer Fallen, but Redeemed.
• When you die, remember your Father is in Heaven. Look up. Follow the Love. Don't look down.

If you are not Spiritual, and are not a Seeker, you shake your head and mumble something about foolish notions, and either go on trying to be a better person on your own or you get angry and continue to wholeheartedly embrace the Imitation. Those who actually reject the light and prefer the Imitation's earthly memes to what others may call "virtues" have a strong chance of becoming wealthy and powerful within the economy of the Deficiency. But, as they say, you can't take it with you.

This diagram is the probably most concise Gnostic Gospel ever conceived.