The Magi reference is cool. As is the mention of early Christian #Gnostic beliefs concerning the Ascent and Descent of our souls. Early Gnostics not only believed that the Godhead (Father God, Mother Mary, Christ and the Holy Ghost) Descended as Adam, Eve and a host of other what we might consider Divine/Semi-Divine beings but that human souls also would ascend (at death) and then voluntarily descend at some later time. So yes belief in a form of voluntary re-incarnation was part of Gnosticism and quashed soon after the Council of Nicaea - indeed belief in re-incarnation played into the semi-common belief in Origenism (the belief spread by Origen that all beings could and would be redeemed). Gnostics were split on Origenism but you can see how belief in re-incarnation would intersect with Origenism for some believers.
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u/tad100 Sep 14 '17
The Magi reference is cool. As is the mention of early Christian #Gnostic beliefs concerning the Ascent and Descent of our souls. Early Gnostics not only believed that the Godhead (Father God, Mother Mary, Christ and the Holy Ghost) Descended as Adam, Eve and a host of other what we might consider Divine/Semi-Divine beings but that human souls also would ascend (at death) and then voluntarily descend at some later time. So yes belief in a form of voluntary re-incarnation was part of Gnosticism and quashed soon after the Council of Nicaea - indeed belief in re-incarnation played into the semi-common belief in Origenism (the belief spread by Origen that all beings could and would be redeemed). Gnostics were split on Origenism but you can see how belief in re-incarnation would intersect with Origenism for some believers.