In any society, there is no more powerful source of values than the relationship between the sexes. It precedes all other assumptions, so central is it to existence. In a
previous post in this series, I observed a trend in the second half of 2015, in which online New Age communities declared an end to the war between the sexes. That redefinition has entered the western media through debates on gender dualism, gender neutrality, gender fluidity and transgenderism. As the trend reaches the mainstream, it marks a huge shift in western values.
The origins of this trend are at least as old as Christianity, if not older, and developed alongside it. For centuries, westerners have been
toying with the
feminine-oriented Christian heresy of gnosticism, which
drew from neo-Platonism - and the masculine-dominated cult of hermeticism, derived from
eastern mystery religions. The
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana must have whole collections devoted to these heresies' periodic resurgences, although they
will not always confirm that. In the 2010s, Christian and post-Christian westerners began to
combine these heresies. That is not difficult, since both belief systems involve a spiritual journey which culminates in a final merger of the sexes. Cross-pollination within western esotericism is not novel, and merely constitutes a
third, enduring strand in the western tradition, opposite
Judeo-Christian religion and Enlightenment rationalism.
What is new is how the dynamics of global connectivity create fertile beds for heretical cult behaviour around gender neutrality, expressed through technology and inside technological spaces. I will not summarize
gnostic ideas here, because I have in
other posts, particularly
this one. Upcoming posts in this series address the hermetic 'practical' application of the gnostic vision and explain the possible real world impacts of this shift in values. But I will start here, inside the blind spot of 2015's technological gnostic worship. A caveat: This post reports on these trends as historical cultural phenomena and not as an indication of my personal opinions on these matters, which are private.
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