1 March 2004
Gnosticism
People seek patterns. We are good at it. Anyone with a little imagination can pretend to see the future in the random fall of a deck of cards.
Sometimes the patterns we see are destructive - vicious circles of self-doubt, for example. In other circumstances, success breeds self-confidence and engenders further success, however unjustified.
We believe in patterns, in our ability to interpret our fragmented world. In the surrealist game Questions & Answers, the process can take on a poetic value, as the response is written without knowledge of the question:
What is equality?
It is a hierarchy like any other.
What is military service?
The noise of a pair of boots tumbling down a staircase.
A further version of the game - If ... - works the same, with the writer of the second part of the sentence unaware of the first part:
If your shadow's shadow visited a hall of mirrors ...
... believe me there'd be trouble.
If children strike their fathers ...
... all young people will have white hair.
I was interviewed this week by the journalist Peter Stanford on the subject of gnosticism. It is a belief in knowledge - the opposite of agnosticism, the 'don't-knows' of spiritual debate. Gnostics maintain that enlightenment is available for all - that we can all 'know'.
We use our senses and our minds to interpret our world. We may not all see the same blue of the sky. Poets may struggle with words and meanings to pin down a thought or a feeling and communicate it whole.
There is room for randomness, for chance, in the Labyrinth.
