THE ATLAS OF THE ALIEN SPARK

Clement of Alexandria

Clement

nature

The gentlest of the sources. He argued that a TRUE gnostic exists — the mature Christian who knows rather than merely believes — and tried to win the term back rather than burn it. His Excerpts from Theodotus quote a Valentinian teacher at length and with something close to respect.

He preserves the six-question catechism that is the best short definition of gnosis anyone ever wrote, and he proves that the border between "orthodox" and "Gnostic" was, at the time, porous and argued rather than obvious.

Who we were, what we have become; where we were, whereinto we have been thrown; whither we hasten, from what we are redeemed; what birth is, and what rebirth. <span style="color:#8a86a8">(Excerpts from Theodotus 78.2)</span>

rhymes with

sephirahtiferet

whyTiferet mediates and reconciles. Clement is the one figure here trying to hold both sides of a widening split in one hand.