Are We Fallen Angels?
Exploring Gnosticism-the Cathars
Are we fallen angels? According to an early Christian sect that is just the case.
The Cathars shared many beliefs with other groups such as the “Gnostics”, such as shunning the physical world and aspiring for the spiritual. As well as believing in a whole pantheon of gods that make up the “fullness of God”, or “Pleroma”.
They also believed in Christ, and saw him as their savior, placing them under the umbrella religion of Christians. They did, however, differ in a lot of their beliefs about Christ. For example, they didn’t believe that he had a physical body, or died on the cross. (Likely a huge sticking point for most Christians) Basically, they believed that he was a sort of projection of himself into this reality and that he was a messenger from the true God to us, to help us figure out salvation and free ourselves of this physical world.
Most of this lines up with Gnosticism, who weren’t stuck on the idea of Christ being a blood sacrifice to an angry god, but rather a teacher of how to reach enlightenment. Whereas Gnostics believe that we are small pieces of a higher reality, or souls trapped here by the Demiurge, or architect of this physical world; the Cathars believed that the Devil basically rebelled against God, as Christians believe, and took one-third of the angels…
