In 'The Nuctemeron of Appollonius of Tyana', Jan van Rijckenborgh describes what
happens when we try to make that piece of truth into a belief. He describes the
creation of dogma as one of the three heads of Cerberus, the fearsome dog that
guards the entrance to the underworld. Cerberus keeps us from finding truth,
driving us back into belief though the power of fear. I have paraphrased the
text here:


Another aspect of the Cerberus within you is - dogma. Dogma is a teaching. There
are numerous dogmas or teachings. The Gnosis can be described and defined
dogmatically. Dogma is needed as a starting point when walking in a certain
path. Along with everything else, the great ones of the Spirit also bestowed
dogmas on the world. They gave us a reasoned programme. The Rosycross, too,
brings such teachings, its books explaining them thoroughly. It could not be
otherwise. And the candidate, possessing those teachings, those dogmas, in his
head and in his heart, having also confirmed them in his blood, has donned the
cloak of the dogma completely. Those teachings fill his life. Yet it is in such
circumstances that Cerberus may have a tight hold on the candidate. The
candidate believes he is an exceptional gnostic because his fellow men respect
him highly; the teachings he utters with clarity are wonderfully clear-cut,
soundly thought-out, philosophically enlightened! Yet here the danger looms! A
teaching is a programme and a programme has to be carried out! He who carries
out the programme is infinitely greater than he who merely knows the programme.
A man may not know a great deal about the programme but may be carrying it out
exceptionally well. Accordingly, the danger is that the candidate gets caught up
in dogma. One of the tactics, one of the methods of Cerberus is to cause the
world to get stuck in dogma. And that, precisely, constitutes the decline of
theology, the church in general being a mere dogmatic institution. In one of its
aspects, the original Gnosis came to man as a dogma, as absolutely pure
doctrine. There were people who quenched their thirst with that doctrine,
absorbing it as a nardus; then they embarked on preaching it, while others wrote
books to convey the message to those they could not reach personally. A
subsequent generation continued writing books. Universities and schools arose to
teach those doctrines, and the dogmatists assembled to review, to correct and to
adapt them to the world, to civilisation, to existing dialectical opinions and
desires. Fear distorted the doctrines; they became confused, contradicted one
another, and fell asunder into fragments. And one group asserted: this fragment
is the correct one; another group sought salvation in a second fragment; and so
different schools of thought arose, and with them, dissention. And all the
dogmatic contention of those centuries is in our blood and our serpent fire.
Cerberus has a firm hold on all of us on account of the dogmatic instincts of
our past. Haven't many candidates for the Path of Salvation had a desparate
inner struggle on account of their traditional dogmatic instincts, disagreeing
with the programme and the philosophy of the Gnosis?

In what way can you escape from dogma's hold on you? You can escape by firmly
establishing and carrying out the dogma of your choice with your whole being.
You will then swiftly know whether the dogma is dead or alive, and whether it
wil bring you to the goal to which it states that it is directed. If you do
nothing but merely cling to the dogma without actually carrying it out, only
exchanging one dogma for another now and then, your life will abound in idols.
And you will remain captive in the dungeon with the others. All your dogmatic
expectations will ultimately prove to be useless, and disappointment will engulf
you. Cerberus, your sinful being, will then have conquered for the umpteenth
time.

Learn the lesson, O candidate!
The dogma has been given to you so that you may fulfill it.
Upon your fulfilling it, the dogma passes away.
You yourself will then have become the teaching, having risen above your
Cerberus!


Chris