An Aquarian “Bible:” A Collection of Mythic, Philosophical & Scientific Texts to Enhance the Mind

This collection came to be when I was working on two different things at once and decided to combine them into one project. The first was a central hub of all my Aquarian Age themed posts into one convenient page. The second was a personalized Biblical canon where I aimed to keep the stories from the Judeo-Christian tradition which are meaningful to me, while leaving out the “dated” stuff I can’t reconcile with a 21st Century morality. (If Martin Luther and Thomas Jefferson could edit the good book, why not I?) Eventually, I decided to merge both undertakings into a big book of texts which I believe everyone ought to be familiar with. I realize there are going to be critics who disagree with including XYZ, or leaving out ABC, but that’s why this is called “AN Aquarian Bible” rather than “THE Aqaurian Bible.” Anyone familiar with the advent of Aquarius knows it’s all about individuality, creativity, technology and decentralization. So if you think there’s a better combination of texts out there, some key piece of wisdom I’m leaving out, or some nonsense I’ve included which drags the project down, then I encourage you to make your collection. I don’t claim to be channeling any divine ethos, merely a passionate intellectual and spiritual curiosity.

This collection is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all philosophy, religion or knowledge–there’s A History of Western Philosophy, A History of the World’s Religions and various science textbooks for that. What I want is to present a relatively concise list of texts which would imbue readers with a baseline of their intellectual and spiritual heritage as well as an appreciation for their ability to think. It’s meant to be a relatively diverse body of work (though admittedly Western-centric) that produces well-rounded, inquisitive minds. I don’t want anyone to walk away feeling the need to believe in a certain dogma, or to follow a strict set of rules. I want them to have a greater self-awareness and perspective. The Age of Aquarius is all about the individual; your mind is the greatest processor in the world, capable of analyzing itself and the world around it and creating a vast array of ideologies. We must foster this divine gift with knowledge and celebrate its limitless potential. With this collection, I want to advance those ideals.

For the most part, I would prefer to let the texts speak for themselves, rather than force my own interpretation of them onto readers. That said, I feel the need to explain why I included certain books of the Bible at all, and why I included some over others. I was raised Catholic and while I’m certainly no expert–it’s not like I’ve read it cover to cover–I know more about the Bible than the average Joe. I know about all the horrifying passages which most people are not familiar with, or make excuses for. I wanted to excise those without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I am not a Christian but I admire the character of Jesus (a few disagreeable lessons and unfulfilled prophecies aside) and in any case, he is indisputably the most influential figure of the Western world. To understand him, at least on some level, is to understand how we got here as a society and how many of our neighbors think.

• I don’t want to include a bunch of Ancient laws which no one ought to hold themselves to in a modern world. Leviticus is the most well known of these, but it’s far from the only offender in the Bible. This, along with the excisions in the second bullet point below, meant the removal of almost all of the Old Testament.
  
  
• I do not think it’s particularly important for modern men, especially non-Hebrews, to be bombarded with hundreds of pages of arcane, semi-mythical Israelite history. In my opinion, to include Exodus, Kings or Daniel means one must also include the Homeric Epics and Aeneid, as well as the Norse sagas. While such a collection would certainly make for a fascinating book of our anthropological history, it’s outside of the scope of this book.
  
  
• When it comes to the New Testament, I removed Matthew and Luke because they are plagiarized copies of Mark, just with various embellishments and insertions of dogma to suit the agendas of their authors. I do not consider them accurate, independent accounts for the life of Jesus of Nazareth, I consider them purposeful distortions written in bad faith. The only valuable material found in them that is absent in Mark are the various sayings believed to be derived from a lost “Q document.”
  
  
• The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas is as close to the “Q document” as we have: it’s just a list of sayings without the ridiculous virgin birth and forced genealogy to David. While it is accused of being a Gnostic text, I have seen evidence indicating that John was as well. In any case, as a non-Christian, I do not find any supposed Gnostic elements to be a hindrance. (And I think those accusations are overblown anyway.) In my personal opinion, Thomas should have been included in the Catholic Bible from the very beginning.
  
  
• I included John because it represents a separate oral tradition that survived in writing. It was not copied from Mark and therefore represents an independent testimony. While almost certainly less accurate than Mark in depicting what a historical Jesus was probably like, it is a more well-written narrative with a more comprehensive theology.
  
  
• I included the Gospel of Philip because it was used by my favorite sects of Gnostic Christians. (The Valentinians and Carpocratians had the best variation of Christianity in my opinion, heretical or not.)
  
  
• I excised all the Pauline Epistles because his teachings blatantly contradict those of Jesus as well as his own brother (James the Just) and hand-picked successor, Peter. In my opinion, Paul corrupted the story of Jesus to suit his own purposes–either the megalomania of creating his own cult, or an attempt to muzzle it into something more palatable to the Romans. He lied to James and Peter about supporting Mosaic Law and deliberately misquotes Old Testament passages to suit his arguments against it. While I have no stake in this religious disagreement between the early Church leaders, I find his actions paint the picture of a nefarious (or at least bad faith) actor rather than a sincere one.

The other most controversial inclusions are almost certainly the biographical accounts of Julius Caesar and my own writing. With regard to the former, I placed Caesar on the level of Jesus and Socrates because I consider them to most influential political, spiritual and philosophical figures of the Piscean Age. They, more than any other in their respective fields, laid the foundation from which we started in Aquarius. And they all died for their efforts. Plus, I hold a far more sympathetic view of Caesar than most due to his progressive policies in office, the impossible situation the Senate put him in and his clemency towards fallen rivals. Caesar is a lighter shade of gray than he gets credit for, in my opinion. He was quite literally a poet, a scholar and a mighty warrior as well as a testament to the heights which a man can rise to, through talent and sheer force of will. With regard to the inclusion of my own writing, I’m not trying to put myself on the same level as my fellow authors in this collection. I’m not as smart or as revolutionary a thinker as them. I’m just concluding this collection with my own personal view of the world, after sharing with you the various ideas which led me there.

Background on the Evolution of Western Religion

Background on the Astrologic Ages Leading to Aquarius

Introduction

We’re all going to die; that was the price of admission. What’s changed in the last few years is that more of us are recognizing this will probably happen sooner than we thought. For some of us, one of the concepts we clung to in order to justify our brief corporeal existence was that we might leave a political, dynastic or cultural legacy of some kind for people to remember us by. What’s changed in the last few years is that more of us are recognizing even the impermanence of such conceited goals in the face of mankind’s collective existential fragility. What good is it to be the best when there’s no one else left to marvel at your accomplishments? Perhaps then, a truly worthy heritage requires a bit of selflessness to ensure a longer period of survival?

In the end, all narcissistic pursuits are in vain. Anything you built will corrode away, anything you wrote will turn to dust on the shelves, anything you did will be forgotten. Empires collapse, buildings fall to disrepair, dynasties decline and individuals rot in the dirt among the filthiest worms. It was all going to happen sooner or later anyway; everyone and everything was made to wither away given enough time, whether that be 100, 1,000 or 1,000,000,000 years from now. Speaking for myself, while I’d have preferred a few more good years going to kink parties, camping trips and the opportunity to take DMT just once, I believe this is the ultimate lesson in life. During our time in the plane of consciousness, the Universe wants us to process the inconvenient truth that everything in it, including ourselves, are inescapably vulnerable and temporary. From the ego death of psychedelics to the looming threat of our own mortality, the message is: “All Things Come to Pass.”

The Sapient beings on this and all other planets who can rise above primitive evolutionary instincts, let go of selfishness and accept their own perpetual insignificance are the true celestial elite.

1. By abandoning pride and allowing themselves to be vulnerable with others, they will be rewarded with trusting, supportive relationships.
   
   
2. By abandoning tribalism and appreciating the diversity of cultures, they will be enriched with new perspectives and practical knowledge.
   
   
3. By abandoning condescension and accepting that they share common ancestors with even the most pitiable man, the weakest child and modest creature, they will see the full beauty of nature. For all our arrogant assumptions about being made in God’s image, destined for greatness, in truth we are no different than bacteria in a petri dish, rapidly approaching our biological carrying capacity and the resulting mass extinction to follow.
   
   
4. By abandoning hubris and accepting that our actions have consequences, we prevent undesirable outcomes for ourselves in the future. That applies to how we treat others as well as systems we do not fully comprehend, such as the environment.
   
   
5. It’s only by abandoning the need to dominate, accepting our own individual limitations and making peace with our neighbors here on Earth that we can utilize limited resources optimally and discover the true splendor of the wider Universe and perhaps meet our fellow Sapients.

It all begins by thinking beyond our own individual wants and needs. It’s not about being bigger or stronger than “the others,” because in the grand scheme of things we’re all equally susceptible to the void beyond our atmosphere’s delicately coordinated protection. Those who can overcome these and other pervasive character flaws are the ones who will get the most out of existence while it lasts, meet the Creator in dignified humility, and answer their admonition with an appreciative “At Least It Was Here.”

Table of Contents

Prologue: Discourse on the Method by Rene Descartes

I. Monologues

Ecclesiastes credited to Solomon
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley
The Joyous Cosmology by Alan Watts

II. Martyrdom of Jesus

The Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of John
The Gospel of Philip

III. Martyrdom of Socrates

Euthyphro by Plato
Apology by Plato
Crito by Plato
Phaedo by Plato

IV. Martyrdom of Julius

Life of Caesar by Plutarch
Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Only the Section about Julius) by Suetonius
The Catiline Conspiracy by Sallust
The Civil Wars by Julius Caesar

V. Morals

24 Theses of Thomas Aquinas
Declaration on the Rights of Man & Citizen by Marquis de Lafayette & Thomas Jefferson
Physiologus (Unknown Author)
The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh

VI. Matrimony

Kama Sutra credited to Vātsyāyana
Song of Songs credited to Solomon
Orphic Hymns credited to Orpheus
Priapeia (Unknown, and Possibly Multiple, Authors)

VII. Manifestation

Ganymede’s Grail
Wandering Shepherd
Metaphysical Meditations
Gaia’s Gardener

Epilogue: Aquarian Pantheistic Existentialism

Post-Script / Apocrypha (?)

Since writing this entry, I discovered Gnosticism and refined my personal beliefs to incorporate some of those elements.

The Sophian Bible