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In truth they are God, but whilst this is unknown, or a theory only, they experience their own essential identity as a superior being outside themselves. Whilst they think of themselves as a person, they experience God as a Big Person ... In the realization of Gnosis they finally come to know themselves to be indistinguishable from the Mystery of God.
Hylics either don't bother to think about God at all, or have a religious relationship with what they imagine to be the ultimate external authority figure. In the psychic stage of initiation, this gives way to a softer conception of God as a wise parent who nurtures us on our personal journey through life's trial's and tribulations. Picturing God as a big person allows us to have an intimate relationship of love, devotion and friendship with the ineffable Mystery, which could otherwise seem remote, abstract and inaccessible ...
As pneumatic initiates we come to understand our own nature in impersonal terms and so no longer imagine God as a big person, but in impersonal terms such as the One, the Good and so on. As we approach the realization of Gnosis we progressively transcend duality and so all relationship with God is subsumed by the Oneness. There is no longer God and devotee, only the Mystery of God in love with itself ...
