[This is extracted from Chapter 3, “The Founding of the New Gnosticism”, in the upcoming 1,044-page second edition of my 1994 book, “The Serpent & the Cross”. This piece is 2,800 words, which is a 15-minute read-time].

Having navigated the previous one hundred and twenty pages, perhaps we are now beginning to appreciate the way that, in the satanic strategy, a myriad of different influences sown in the world-system have converged at key points in history to create the necessary developments in world culture which have been most helpful to Satan’s long-term ambitions. Alongside these streams of thought converging in European culture, there was another important seed sown in seventeenth and eighteenth century thought which was rooted in Rosicrucianism and which made a vital contribution to the cumulative development of the New Gnosticism. That seed involved the concept of a future ‘Golden Age’ on this earth as it is presently constituted.

In this future ‘Golden Age’ idea, or the making of a ‘pseudo kingdom of heaven on earth’, one can see an incipient idea of the New Age Movement/New Consciousness which arose in the twentieth century through the theosophist Alice Bailey (about which more later). In fact, the entire concept of a future ‘Golden Age’ or ‘brotherhood of peace on earth’ is a peculiarly Gnostic and occultic doctrine, rooting the eschatological fulfillment of history within the bounds of present earth history, before the cosmos has been renewed, transformed, and purified into the new heavens and the new earth which is clearly prophesied in the Bible (Revelation 21:1-5).

Cerinthus (c. AD 50-100), one of the most infamous of the ancient Gnostics, actually devised an entire eschatological system which had Christ returning to earth and reigning with His people in Israel for a thousand years. It is worth noting here that there is a vast number of ‘Christians’ today who unwittingly also hold to a thousand-year eschatology which is very similar to that of the Gnostic, Cerinthus, based on an erroneous interpretation of Revelation 20:1-3! [For more details on this, please see the appropriate place in my commentary on the Book of Revelation, which you can freely download here: https://diakrisis-project.com/2025/03/12/second-edition-of-the-essential-apocalypse-is-now-available-as-an-e-book-in-pdf-format/ ].

Irenaeus of Lyon claimed that John wrote his Gospel specifically to refute the Gnostic teachings of Cerinthus. Setting-up the kingdom of heaven on this earth is actually a key neo-Gnostic concept, which has its more recent wellspring in the Rosicrucian influences of the seventeenth century. Frances Yates, former Reader in the History of the Renaissance at the University of London, believed that “The General Reformation of the Whole Wide World” which was presented in the original Rosicrucian manifestos has:

“millenarian overtones; it will bring the world back to the state in which Adam found it, which was also Saturn’s golden age. So, in the Confessio, the second Rosicrucian manifesto, the general reformation is said to presage ‘a great influx of truth and light’ such as surrounded Adam in Paradise, and which God will allow before the end of the world. And…this millennium, this return to the golden age of Adam and Saturn, is said to be assisted by ‘the high society of the Rosicrucians’ who wish to turn all the mountains into gold”. (Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972, p.57).

Thus, the fundamental principles of Gnosticism which we have already recorded came to have a further principle added to them: The idea that human beings can together form a global ‘Brotherhood of Man’ and create ‘heaven’ right here on earth, though only returning to the state of Adam in the Garden of Eden, which is a distinctly retrograde step as Adam’s state was one which always had the potential for a Fall. Joni Mitchell’s 1969 song, “Woodstock”, expressed this Rosicrucian ideal of a return to that Edenic state with the words: “We are stardust (billion-year-old carbon), and we are golden (caught in the Devil’s bargain), and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden”. However, the whole purpose of God’s creative intent has been to reach a state where there is no longer any potential for a fall, for which purpose Christ was sent into this world, and to which end there will be a wholly new creation in a “new heaven and new earth”.

The concept of a future ‘Golden Age’ on earth was, therefore, one of the most significant contributions to the modern revival of ancient Gnosticism on the part of the mysterious Order of the Rosy Cross. It was also reputed to have given birth to Freemasonry:

“Many Masonic historians propose that modern Speculative Freemasonry is deeply indebted to the Rosicrucian movement. Notably, the first recorded speculative Freemasons in England, Sir Robert Moray and Elias Ashmole, were either Rosicrucians themselves or had a profound interest in Rosicrucian philosophy and ideals”. (See https://www.sria.uk.com/masonic-connection/ ).

Indeed, one can go on to say that the blending of millenarian Rosicrucianism with its more secular counterpart Freemasonry in the eighteenth century, formed the primary precursor of what we call the “New Age Movement” today (by which I mean the ‘Maitreyan Transformation’ type of New Age as propagated by the likes of Alice Bailey, rather than the trendy self-indulgent New Age scene where folks go swanning off to Bali and Tulum to look cool as coaches and witchy-woo practitioners).

One of the leading modern New Age gurus, the prolific writer, Peter Lemesurier (formerly of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland), has written a complete book on this idea of the creation of heaven on this present earth. He upholds the seminal importance of this convergence of Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry when he writes:

“In due course the two streams of idealism — the one extravagantly occult [Rosicrucianism], the other more urbanely idealistic [Freemasonry] — were to come together once again in response to an unfulfilled need deep within the human psyche. And the eventual child of the union was to be the modern New Age Movement”. (Peter Lemesurier, This New Age Business: The Story of the Ancient and Continuing Quest to Bring Down Heaven to Earth, Findhorn Press, 1990, p.178).

One therefore cannot ignore the role played by the Order of the Rosy Cross in creating the historical conditions necessary for the belittlement and undermining of biblical Christianity and the extolling of occult ideals to be offered in its place. After having remained out of view for so many centuries, the Ancient Religion rooted in Gnosticism — which was itself rooted in eastern mysticism — was then to burst out of hiding vigorously, as it provided the perfect springboard for the next era of satanic strategy which forms the basis of a later section in this chapter.

So, the notion of an occult-inspired coming ‘New Age’ on this earth as it is presently constituted is no new idea. In fact, the very concept of a future ‘Golden Age’ is a vital part of Satan’s plan, having been spawned by the old serpent in world-history as a counterfeit of the true New Age, which will be a completely ‘new heaven and new earth’, which will happen in a totally-reconstituted cosmos as prophesied in the Old Testament Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22), and vividly portrayed in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 21:1-22:5). Therefore, when anyone — whether a politician, philosopher, religionist, shaman, interfaith advocate, or esotericist — speaks about a ‘Golden Age’ coming on this earth as it is presently constituted, they are liars, false prophets and harbingers of an occult timetable.

The fallen archangel, Satan, as a diligent student of Scripture, knows very well that his future doom, and that of all his followers, is openly revealed within its pages (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 27:1; Revelation 12:12; 20:10). His aim, therefore, in proposing an alternative ‘heaven on earth’, or so-called “Golden Age”, is to lull people into a false sense of security so that they will not realise that instead of that supposed “heaven on earth” there is actually a “wrath to come” from which they must flee (Matthew 3:7, where the ‘wrath to come’ is not only a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 but also to the day of judgement at the end of this age). Because he has no real kingdom of his own to offer, the very best that Satan can do is to attempt to prevent as many souls as possible from entering the true kingdom of heaven inaugurated by the Christ. Thus, he holds out to the people of the world the false hopium of a future “heaven on earth” which he reckons will prove to be a more attractive proposition than the eternal life proclaimed in the Christian Gospel.

In keeping with this ‘dog-in-the-manger’ aim, neo-Gnostic writers have taken the interpretation of biblical prophecy on board in a big way, especially that which relates to their projected earthly millennium (which, as said earlier, is like the spurious ‘millennium’ expected by many Christians due to their misinterpretation of the “thousand years” mentioned in chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation). The Book of Revelation is especially susceptible to this treatment by Gnostics, occultists, and neo-Gnostics, only it is subjected to the most atrocious allegorisation. For example, in a typical neo-Gnostic interpretation of the Book of Revelation, the New Age biologist Peter Russell writes:

“If the Revelation of St. John were to be considered metaphorically as well as literally, ‘Christ’ would symbolise this inner source of wisdom. The dependent and conditioned mode of thought — the ego-mind — would then be symbolized by the “Antichrist”. It is that aspect of ourselves that stands against our inner knowing — it is anti-‘the Christ within’… The good news is that St. John foresees the battle of Armageddon being won by Christ — suggesting that our higher knowing will eventually defeat the Antichrist within. Then Christ’s kingdom reigns. This we might interpret as a world freed from the dictates of our ego-mind, a world in which a liberated mind is the norm rather than the exception… There will, at last, be peace on earth — the inner peace we have been seeking all along”. (Peter Russell, The White Hole in Time: Our Future Evolution and the Meaning of Now, Aquarian Press, 1992, p.178)

In squeezing his psychologized pathway to a ‘Golden Age’ on earth out of the Book of Revelation, Peter Russell has found an interpretation which may be compatible with the mindset of a graduate in philosophy, psychology, and comparative religion but which would have been completely lost on the persecuted Christians of the late first century — or, indeed, of any era. The Apostle John was writing not because of any desire to be “free of the dictates of the ego-mind” in order to tap into an “inner source of wisdom”, but as a “companion in tribulation” (Revelation 1:9), for the comfort of all those among God’s people who suffer persecution because of their willingness to openly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This highly cavalier approach to the Scriptures is yet another perennial hallmark of Gnosticism, whether old or new. When referring to the ancient Gnostics’ approach to the New Testament, the great J.L. Mosheim points out in his superlative two-volume “Ecclesiastical History” that they:

“not only interpreted these sacred books most absurdly, by neglecting the true spirit of the words and the intention of the writers, but also corrupted them in the most perfidious manner, by curtailing and adding, in order to remove what was unfavourable, or to produce something conformable to their pernicious and extravagant system”. (J.L. Mosheim, An Ecclesiastical History, Ancient & Modern, from the Birth of Christ to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century, Blackie, Fullarton & Co., 1827, Vol. I, p.39)

One of the main reasons why this ‘Golden Age’ on earth has always grabbed so many people’s attention is because it represents ‘hope’ in an apparently hopeless world of existential despair (what the existentialists Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre called ‘Le Théâtre de l’Absurde’ ). As this book progresses, we will see this ‘hopium’-based ‘Golden Age’ theme repeated in many guises. For the concept of a ‘Golden Age’ on earth has a compelling universal attraction to Everyman of whatever religion or none. However, is it not somewhat ironic that in spite of the Gnostic view of matter as an intrinsically evil product of the Fall, the promoters of the New Age and ‘Golden Age’ on earth should seek to anchor their “heaven” within the material confines of the universe as it is presently constituted? It seems that they have not considered this glaring contradiction. Contradictory as it is, Gnostics will always seek to “bring down heaven on earth” — this present material earth plane in a fallen cosmos. As Professor Wolfgang Smith so aptly puts it:

“In place of an Eschaton which ontologically transcends the confines of this world, the modern Gnostic envisions an End within history, an Eschaton, therefore, which is to be realized within the ontological plane of this visible universe”. [emphasis added] (Wolfgang Smith, Teilhardism and the New Religion, TAN Books, 1988, p.238.)

Why should this be? Why is it that the Gnostic, neo-Gnostic, or ‘Maitreyan Transformation’ type of New Ager — in spite of his or her belief that humanity is entrapped in coarse matter — will always seek to create heaven right here on earth in the midst of that very coarse matter? Surely, the reason is because it is the earth which is the sole domain of his master, Satan. Since the devil’s defeat by the Lord Jesus Christ, he no longer has any access to heaven and his sphere of activity has been limited to the earth, its immediate environs and the etheric ‘air’ around it. [See Revelation 12:7-9; cf. Ephesians 2:2. This etheric envelope referred to by Paul as “the air” was first referred to earlier in this book in Chapter 2, §1 as the domain of demons, fallen angels who were cast down to the earth as revealed in Revelation 12:7-9 and as predicted by Jesus Himself before He went to the cross, Luke 10:18].

Thus, the old serpent, the devil and Satan, for all his self-styled ingenuity, can never promise a heaven in any other location than on this earth as it is presently constituted! That is the best he can ever offer, although it seems to be enough for all those who are duped by his wiles. This is also the reason for the current neo-Gnostic obsession with the Earth as “The Great Mother”. Today, the “Greens” and ecologists have revived the ancient pantheistic concept of the planet as “Gaia” — the Greek goddess and name for Mother Earth (See, for example, J.E. Lovelock, Gaia, Oxford University Press, 1979), often referred to by polytheists as “the oldest of divinities” (Barbara G. Walker, ed., The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Harper & Row, 1983, p.332). This divinisation of the earth is a classic Gnostic stamping-ground. As the gnostic psychologist, occultist and OSS agent, C.G. Jung has written:

“According to [the alchemist] Basilius Valentinus, the earth (as prima materia) is not a dead body, but is inhabited by a spirit that is its life and soul. All created things, minerals included, draw their strength from this earth-spirit. This spirit is life…and it gives nourishment to all the living things it shelters in its womb” (C.G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957, p.329).

Earth magic, leylines, power points, cosmic portals, nature spirits, the current obsession with the earth and its eco-system — all these ‘woo-woo’ fetishes and sacred cows of the neo-Gnostic are intimately connected with the fact that the sole focus of Satan’s activity in this age is the earth as presently constituted. Although a healthy concern for the environment and its wildlife is a worthy one, and even a biblical one (Genesis 1:26-31; 2:15; Proverbs 12:10; Deuteronomy 25:4.), the true disciple of Christ could never make a god or goddess out of the planet, to avoid idolatry and to set his or her affections on the things which are above (Exodus 20:3-4; Colossians 3:1-3). The grand irony is that in spite of the fact that the Gnostic believes in the inherent evil of matter and his great need to be liberated from entrapment in it, he is forever earthbound until he is released from his bondage to Satan, who is the god of this world and age and under whose power are all those who do not come to Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-4; 1 John 5:19).

So the earth is the full extent of Satan’s haunt, and he makes the most of it, imbuing it with spiritual ‘woo-woo’ for effect, offering there a pretended perfection, peace, and a future ‘Golden Age’, if only people will follow him. However, just as he could not fulfil his promise to our first parents of avoidance of death if they succumbed to his temptation in Eden (Genesis 3:4-6), so he cannot even deliver a ‘heaven on earth’, as history will finally prove (Revelation 18:21).

The promise of a future ‘Golden Age’ on earth offered by Satan and his human acolytes — whether they be Rosicrucian, political-liberationist, neo-Gnostic, New Age advocate or otherwise — will always be a huge confidence trick. For it can only ever be, at best, the cosmic equivalent of a house-party on a sinking ship.

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2025
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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