What is the Gnostic understanding of Apostolic Succession?
In the common sense, it verifies a chain of succession from teacher to student since the time of the Christ, linking us directly throughout history. In this same sense, it guarantees that, in spite of our differences in doctrine and understanding, we are all part of the One Church, the body of Christ, and have maintained the proscribed processes for the passing of this succession in a way that could not be questioned by the mainstream with whom we often debate the understandings of Gnosis and Christianity. This is a bestowal of authority as the result of work and study coupled with a recognition of attainment and takes place via cheirotonia – a laying on of hands in which a real ordination takes place. This ordination carries with it the additional responsibility of fulfilling certain functions within the community. In a different sense, we must understand that Gnosis is, at least in part, a state of evolved self-realization to the point that one is divinely ‘illumined’ or ‘liberated’
