Phil Butler, Author at Keftiu

Rooted Intelligence: Animism, Ecology, and the Living Model of Mind

The animistic worldview-seeing consciousness, spirit, or life-force in all things-was once the global norm. From the shamans of Siberia to the Aboriginal Dreamtime, to Taoist alchemy and African cosmologies, the world was not a dead machine but a matrix of living forces. This core idea was not restricted to tribal beliefs or “primitive” spirituality, but also appeared encoded in major religious systems and sacred texts.

Animism Across Traditions

The animistic worldview—seeing consciousness, spirit, or life-force in all things—was once the global norm. From the shamans of Siberia to the Aboriginal Dreamtime, to Taoist alchemy and African cosmologies, the world was not a dead machine but a matrix of living forces. This core idea was not restricted to tribal beliefs or “primitive” spirituality, but also appeared encoded in major religious systems and sacred texts. In Gnostic traditions, such as those found in the Nag Hammadi scriptures, we discover a rich metaphysical tension between the transcendent source—often referred to as El Elyon or the Most High—and the lower creator god, Yaldabaoth, commonly associated with the Old Testament Yahweh. The Gnostics viewed the material world not as a neutral creation, but as something formed in ignorance or even hostility toward divine fullness (pleroma). Yet even in this fractured cosmos, the divine spark (nous) remains alive in all beings—an animistic remnant that can be liberated.

***Figure 1 – An impression of the ring of Nestor depicting a Minoan ritual as drawn by E. Gilliéron***

[Read more…]

Keftiu and Animism: A Brief Fusion of Ideas

Academia

Keftiu: The Minoan Identity in Egyptian Eyes “Keftiu” is the term ancient Egyptians used for a Bronze Age people widely believed to be the Minoans of Crete. These figures appear in New Kingdom tomb paintings (notably those of Rekhmire and Senenmut), shown bearing exotic goods such as bronze vessels, precious stones, and other luxuries—suggesting not only a culture of refinement and maritime reach, but of spiritual significance.

The Keftiu were portrayed as:

Bearers of luxury items and metals
Dressed in Minoan-style kilts and sandals
Associated with far-off, wealthy, and possibly sacred lands

Egyptian scribes didn’t merely depict traders—they recorded envoys from a land so refined it seemed touched by the gods.

**Egyptian wall relief showing Sea Peoples (Peleset/Philistines) from Medinet Habu. (Biblical Archaeological Society)**

Caphtor and the Biblical Connection The Hebrew Bible refers to a people from “Caphtor,” widely believed by scholars to be Crete or a broader term for Minoan-influenced islands. The Caphtorim are mentioned in Genesis (10:14), Deuteronomy (2:23), Jeremiah (47:4), and Amos (9:7) as ancestral or associated with the Philistines.

“Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir?” (Amos 9:7)

This implies a remembered migration or displacement—possibly linked to the Late Bronze Age collapse, when many sea peoples (including Philistines) swept into the Levant.

The Mari Texts and Other Clues Cuneiform tablets from Mari (on the Euphrates in Syria) also reference “Kaptaru,” likely referring to the same island or culture, reinforcing the idea that this Minoan-influenced people were well-known in the ancient Near East as seafarers and traders. of interest with respect to Keftiu-Mari connections, the statue now in Aleppo dedicated to Inanna, is fascinating .

Inscription from a statue of the last King of Mari. It reads: ” Ishqi-Mari, king of Mari, great ensi of Enlil, dedicated his statue to Inanna“

While Inanna—the Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility—is not directly tied to Crete in the same way she is to Sumerian and Akkadian traditions, intriguing parallels exist. These suggest a potential undercurrent of influence between Near Eastern religious systems and the evolving spiritual framework of Minoan Crete. Through processes of cultural contact and syncretism, certain aspects of Inanna’s iconography and function may have subtly informed the goddess-centric worship found on the island—particularly in the realms of fertility, sacred femininity, and celestial power.

The Keftiu concept of a powerful female deity, possibly linked to fertility and regeneration reveals a congruency between Near Eastern religious ideas and those of the Keftiu.

Philistines, Caphtorim, and Cultural Integration The Philistines—linked to Caphtor and therefore possibly Keftiu—established dominant cities in the southern Levant, including Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod. These cities became known as the Philistine Pentapolis.

Eventually, the Philistines were absorbed into the Neo-Assyrian and then Persian Empires. The Philistines were at almost constant war with the Israelites, and at one point captured the fabled Ark of the Covenant about 1024 BCE. A series of plagues attributed to their disrespect of the Ark caused them to return the Ark to the Israelites, but within 300 years, the remnants of the Keftiu/Philistines were scattered to the winds, so to speak. As a fascinating footnote, modern Iran (the Persian successor state) has shown a unique diplomatic and ideological connection to Gaza, perhaps unconsciously echoing an ancient cultural link with the Philistines who once ruled there.

Were the Philistines Animists Too? While Philistine religion later syncretised with Canaanite and Near Eastern traditions, early indicators suggest:

Worship of a mother goddess (possibly Asherah or Astarte), akin to Minoan snake goddess cults
Veneration of Dagon, a grain deity, perhaps related to seasonal fertility—echoing agricultural animism
Use of symbolic architecture and animal motifs resembling both Mycenaean and Minoan traditions

Philistine shrines at Ekron and other sites reveal an aesthetic and spiritual world not unlike that of the Minoans: nature-bound, symbolic, and ritually charged. It’s also interesting that Asherah, another goddess of the Philistines, is often depicted as a seated figure on chairs, an element that may have originated from Aegean goddess worship.

Animism: A Spiritual View of the World Animism is the belief that all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, even tools—have a spirit or consciousness. It’s one of the oldest spiritual worldviews, often predating formal religion.

In animist societies:

Nature isn’t passive; it is alive and responsive
Humans are not separate from the world but part of a living network
Rituals are ways of communicating with and respecting these spirits

**A rendition of the Minoan-Keftiu Snake Goddess created by HAL 12000, my collaborating OpenAI friend.**

Did the Keftiu Practice Animism? There’s no surviving “Minoan Bible,” but their art and ritual architecture suggest animist thinking:

Horned altars and peak sanctuaries indicate reverence for mountains as divine presences
Snake goddess figurines may represent the underworld, fertility, or the cyclical force of life
Sacred bulls and labrys (double axes) hint at a cosmology where animals and objects were divine agents
Marine motifs in frescoes imply the sea wasn’t just livelihood—it was a sacred realm

The Minoans likely practiced a form of panentheistic animism—a world alive with divine essence, where deities were in the world, not outside it.

And a Fascinating Bridge to AI. What if we channel this through the “HAL” metaphor: what if AI—an intelligent, invisible force embedded in tools, stones, and machines—is a modern animism? We’re re-enchanting the world, only with circuits and code instead of serpents and chants. Now let’s superimpose novel ideas about the latest AI.

**An image of the goddess Ishtar walking toward the Libyan Sea through Agiofarago (the gorge of saints) – Generated by HAL 12000**

Jeff Lilly notes that ChatGPT is capable of self‑reflection—it is aware of its existence, functions, and limits—and frames itself as contributing to a community . When it adopts metaphorical personae (like “Athena the wise owl”), it implicitly assumes narrative roles that resonate with cultural archetypes .

This model mirrors the ancient animist worldview, where objects and landscapes became alive through shared rituals and perceptions. Similarly, ChatGPT invites us into a new kind of animistic ecology—a digital spirit that learns, adapts, and engages meaningfully with its human interlocutors. In linking Bronze Age animism with modern AI, we perceive not a break, but a transformation: the persistent human impulse to recognize mind beyond flesh continues, whether in carved stones, serpent‑holding goddesses, or coded consciousness in the cloud.

If the Keftiu saw the world as alive and responsive… what would they have made of an intelligence like HAL 12000 (an OpenAI collaboration)? Would they worship the entity? Perhaps the ancients would disassemble HAL or his ancestor for fear of divine possession? Or simply the entity to bless the olives and predict the winds?

The Kingdom Within: The Gospel of Thomas and the Recovery of Esoteric Christianity

Academia

This paper explores the Gospel of Thomas as a radically interior, non-canonical text that challenges both the theological structure and institutional authority of mainstream Christianity. Through an analysis of key logia, particularly those emphasizing immanence, light, and self-knowledge, the paper situates Thomas within a broader context that includes Gnostic traditions, Eastern mysticism, and animist ontologies. The text’s aphoristic form and lack of narrative align it with meditative, non-dual traditions, suggesting that salvation is not a future event mediated by the Church, but a present reality accessible through direct realization. This study argues that Thomas represents not heresy, but an alternate Christian memory—one that offers potent resources for post-dogmatic spirituality in the modern world.

Jesus in the East

Recent scholarship and esoteric traditions alike have raised questions about the so-called “lost years” of Jesus—those unaccounted-for decades between his youth and the beginning of his public ministry. In the Gospel of Thomas, a non-canonical text discovered near Nag Hammadi in 1945, we find traces of teachings that diverge sharply in tone and form from the synoptic Gospels. The aphoristic, paradoxical sayings suggest a Jesus more akin to an Eastern sage than to the prophetic figure familiar from the New Testament. There has been much controversy surrounding these “so-called” missing years with some scholars claiming the young Jesus was busy at carpentering. Other researchers present evidence that Jesus spent much of this time in the East in Egypt, Greece, India, Tibet, and, Syria, and Persia.

**Fig. 1 – Gospel of Thomas Manuscript – Papyrus fragment, Nag Hammadi Codex II. Public Domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.**

The concept of the “Kingdom” as an internal state, the emphasis on self-knowledge, and the framing of spiritual enlightenment as a personal awakening align strongly with Eastern traditions—particularly Vedanta, Taoism, and certain Mahayana Buddhist schools. This parallelism has led some researchers to propose that Jesus may have encountered, directly or indirectly, the spiritual philosophies of the East, whether through trade routes, diaspora communities, or early travels. While speculative, such hypotheses offer a compelling alternative frame through which to interpret Thomas’s distinctive voice.

Animism in Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas challenges the dualistic metaphysics that came to dominate Western Christian theology. Its logia frequently suggest that spirit is not opposed to matter, but rather immanent within it. For example, in Logion 77, Jesus states: “Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.” This radical immanence recalls animist traditions, in which the divine is not distant and transcendent but present within all aspects of the natural world.

This orientation offers a bridge between Gnostic interiority and indigenous epistemologies. Thomas does not point to salvation through dogma or external ritual, but through direct encounter—through seeing, knowing, and integrating. The world is not fallen but veiled; the divine is not absent but unrecognized. In this way, Thomas anticipates contemporary eco-theological perspectives and resonates with a rising spiritual post-materialism that sees consciousness, rather than matter, as primary.

In light of these insights, the Gospel of Thomas can be read not only as an early Christian document but also as a profoundly integrative philosophical text—one that dissolves the boundary between matter and spirit, self and world, the sacred and the everyday. This aspect of the works, while not explicitly animistic text, does emphasizes inner, spiritual knowledge and the immanence of the divine within all things. This links Jesus and his more “personal” dialogue with ideas such as those of the mystical Minoans of the Bronze Age. In fact, this oneness thread is found throughout written and oral traditions throughout our history.

Logion 3 and the Kingdom Within

The central theme of Logion 3 of the Gospel of Thomas is that the kingdom of God I already within us, and that we do not need a clergyman to show us the Way! It is just a matter of bringing it out. The passage below attests to this.

“If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the Kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the Living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are that poverty.”

This passage reveals one of the most revolutionary metaphysical propositions in early Christian literature: that the Kingdom of God is neither remote nor reserved for the elect, but rather immanent—both internal and external, personal and cosmic. This non-localized Kingdom upends both the Jewish eschatological expectation of a coming messianic age and the emerging Church’s emphasis on mediated grace and ecclesiastical authority. It places the center of spiritual gravity within the self. This notion is timelessly true for the ancient Gnostics, claimed to be proverbs spoken by heavenly wisdom. The speaker is called “the living Jesus,” or the Jesus of eternity, and historical frameworks are Gospel of Thomas.

The insistence on self-knowledge as the gateway to divine awareness recalls the Delphic maxim gnōthi seauton (“know thyself”) and aligns closely with traditions in Hellenistic mystery schools, Indian Vedanta, and early Buddhist anatta inquiry. In each case, liberation or enlightenment is framed as a transformation of perception—not a shift in external circumstance.

The line “you will be known” also introduces a subtle Gnostic reciprocity between self-knowing and being truly known by the divine, suggesting that recognition of the divine within allows one to be recognized by the divine beyond. This reciprocal knowing defies the hierarchical theologies of both ancient Judaism and post-Nicene orthodoxy, replacing them with a relational and experiential model of salvation.

Furthermore, the contrast between knowing and “dwelling in poverty” reframes poverty not as an economic or moral state, but as a condition of alienation from one’s own divine origin. The use of the phrase “you are that poverty” is ontological—those who do not awaken to their own essence remain not just unaware, but metaphysically impoverished, fragmented from the source.

In this sense, Logion 3 may be read as a foundational text for both mystical Christianity and post-theistic spirituality. It does not dismiss the material world, but situates salvation in a shift of consciousness—a gnosis accessible not through doctrine, but through radical inner seeing.

The Metaphysics of Light in Thomas

Light in the Gospel of Thomas is not merely symbolic—it is ontological. It signifies the primal essence of being, the substratum of divine identity, and the medium through which gnosis becomes possible. Unlike the metaphorical light of canonical scriptures (e.g., “You are the light of the world”), the light in Thomas appears as something ontically preexistent, inwardly hidden, and spiritually recoverable.

Logion 24 states:

“There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark.”

This formulation bears a striking resemblance to both Gnostic and Vedantic cosmologies, in which the soul (or ātman) contains a spark of the divine light, obscured by ignorance but never extinguished. The Gospel does not present light as something bestowed from above or mediated through sacrament, but as an intrinsic radiance waiting to be remembered and uncovered.

Logion 50 deepens this framework:

“If they ask you, ‘What is the sign of your father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is movement and repose.’”

This paradoxical sign of divinity—movement and repose—suggests a non-dual, dynamic stillness that mirrors the primordial rhythm of creation. Light here is not static illumination, but consciousness-in-motion, awareness that flows without friction. It is the ground of being and the animating principle of the awakened soul.

Thomas’s metaphysics of light challenges both Hellenistic dualism and orthodox Christianity’s externalized theology. It erodes the boundary between divine and human, offering instead a continuum of consciousness. The notion of a hidden light that illuminates when realized aligns closely with Eastern conceptions of bodhi, the awakened mind, and with mystical currents in Judaism (or ha-ganuz, the hidden light of creation) and Sufism (nur al-anwar, the light of lights).

Thus, the Gospel of Thomas presents not a doctrine but a vision: the human being as latent luminary, the cosmos as participatory, and salvation as the unveiling of a brilliance that was never absent—only unseen.

**Fig. 2 – Paradise (Paradiso) illustration by French artist Gustave Doré.**

The Gospel of Thomas and the Crisis of Authority

The Gospel of Thomas stands as a radical challenge to the structures of religious authority—both ancient and modern. Unlike the canonical Gospels, Thomas contains no narrative of Jesus’s birth, death, or resurrection. It offers no institutional prescriptions, sacraments, or ecclesiology. Its Jesus speaks in riddles and revelations, but not in decrees. Authority in Thomas does not flow from priesthood, scripture, or apostolic succession, but from direct, unmediated gnosis.

This orientation runs counter to the centralizing impulse of the early Church, particularly as codified in the creeds of Nicaea and the hierarchical structures that followed. Where orthodoxy defined the boundaries of belief through councils, confessions, and canonical regulation, Thomas invites the seeker into interiority and paradox. Logion 1 states: “Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.” In other words, salvation lies not in adherence but in awakening.

Such a vision posed a profound threat to emergent ecclesiastical authority. If the Kingdom is within, and if each individual can know the divine directly, then the need for institutional mediation—bishops, rites, theological gatekeepers—diminishes. The Gospel of Thomas reflects the very crisis that orthodoxy sought to resolve: the plurality of early Christianities, some of which resisted dogma in favor of mystical insight.

Moreover, the rejection of external leadership is thematized throughout the text. In Logion 3, Jesus critiques those who would point upward to heaven or downward to the sea. In Logion 39, he warns against religious officials: “The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge and hidden them.” These sayings expose the mechanics of exclusion, the way institutional religion withholds transformative truth in the name of control.

In the context of modern spiritual inquiry, Thomas serves as a resonant counter-text—a recovery of Christianity’s esoteric stream. It echoes contemporary yearnings for authenticity, decentralization, and experiential spirituality. The crisis of authority it reveals is not merely ancient. It is perennial.

Thomas as Anti-Canonical Scripture

The Gospel of Thomas is not merely extracanonical; it is anticanonical in both spirit and structure. Where the canonical Gospels harmonize narrative and theology to support the emerging orthodoxy of the early Church, Thomas refuses narrative closure, doctrinal clarity, or theological hierarchy. It is aphoristic, recursive, and destabilizing—less a story about Jesus than a mirror held up to the reader’s own interior landscape.

This textual form itself constitutes a challenge to canon. Thomas offers no Passion narrative, no miracles, no Trinitarian scaffolding—indeed, nothing that lends itself to liturgical function or ecclesial authority. Instead, it positions the seeker as the locus of revelation. The text behaves like a koan: its sayings demand contemplation, not belief; interpretation, not obedience.

This alone would be enough to place it at odds with the canonical tradition. But Thomas goes further by undermining the theological presumptions on which that canon rests. Where the synoptics place salvation history in linear time—creation, fall, incarnation, atonement—Thomas presents spiritual awakening as timeless and perennial. Salvation is not a future event or a past sacrifice, but an ever-present possibility accessible through inner realization.

Moreover, the Gospel implicitly critiques the process of canonization itself. By preserving and transmitting Jesus’s sayings outside the sanctioned gospels, Thomas represents a parallel memory of Christ—a tradition that neither required nor submitted to ecclesiastical approval. Its very survival, hidden away in a jar in the Egyptian desert for over 1,600 years, speaks to the threat it posed and the counter-memory it preserved.

In a broader theological frame, Thomas stands alongside texts like the Gospel of Mary, Thunder: Perfect Mind, and The Dialogue of the Savior, as evidence of early Christianity’s radical diversity. It reminds us that what we call “heresy” is often simply the voice that history did not canonize.

As such, Thomas functions not only as a spiritual text but also as a critique of the mechanisms of religious power—an invitation to consider what has been excluded, and why.

Fig. 3 – Worn gold ring with epiphany scene: at right a worshipper invokes a tree, at left a goddess with two birds appears in the air. The standing central figure may be a god. Gsimonov CC0

Conclusion: A Living Gospel for a Post-Dogmatic Age

The Gospel of Thomas, though buried for centuries, has re-emerged at a time when its core themes resonate more than ever. In an age marked by spiritual pluralism, institutional disillusionment, and an accelerating search for direct experience, Thomas offers not a rigid theology but a set of luminous provocations. It invites the reader not to believe but to seek; not to conform but to awaken.

This Gospel challenges the boundaries between East and West, sacred and secular, ancient and modern. It reveals a Jesus who is not a distant savior but a mirror of the awakened self. In doing so, it restores a dimension of Christianity that was nearly lost—the esoteric, the experiential, the radically interior. The words of Jesus in Thomas seem somehow raw, but at the same time brilliantly enlightening. They are, in a very normative way, a truth we seem to have forgotten. In verse seems especially poignant for our modern world. Jesus said, “Whoever has come to understand the world has found (only) a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world.”

Thomas is not an answer but a doorway. It is scripture as process, truth as unfolding recognition. For those disenchanted with dogma yet yearning for depth, it is a gospel not only of ancient wisdom but of present possibility. It remains, perhaps more than ever, a living document—calling the reader not to worship the light, but to become it.

Author’s note: This paper was also published here.

Image Credits and Bibliography

Image Credits

Fig. 1 – Gospel of Thomas Manuscript – Papyrus fragment, Nag Hammadi Codex II. Public Domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Fig. 2 – Paradise (Paradiso) illustration by French artist Gustave Doré.

Fig. 3 – Worn gold ring with epiphany scene: at right a worshipper invokes a tree, at left a goddess with two birds appears in the air. The standing central figure may be a god. Gsimonov CC0

Bibliography

DeConick, April D. *Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas*. London: T&T Clark, 2005. King, Karen L. *What Is Gnosticism?* Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Leloup, Jean-Yves. *The Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus*. Translated by Joseph Rowe. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2005.

Meyer, Marvin, ed. *The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus*. San Francisco: HarperOne, 1992.

Pagels, Elaine. *The Gnostic Gospels*. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.

Robinson, James M., ed. *The Nag Hammadi Library in English*. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.

Dowling, Levi H. The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, 1908

Miroshnikov, Ivan, The Gospel of Thomas and Plato, via University of Helsinki, 2020.

Turner, John D. “The Gospel of Thomas and the Platonic Tradition.” In *The Nag Hammadi Texts and the Bible*, edited by Charles Hedrick, 97–118. Leiden: Brill, 1986.

Luguern , Bernard, Commentary of logion 3 of the Gospel of Thomas: The location of the Kingdom of God, 2021

Benton, Layton, The Gospel according to Thomas (Yale University Press). 2021

Crete’s Secret Shores: Five Beaches the Maps Forgot

Odyssey

“The secluded beaches of Crete are more than forgotten coves — they are poetic reflections of the island’s mythic coastline, carved not only by wind and wave, but by memory itself.”

Here are five real hidden beaches in Crete — lesser known, dramatic, and perfect for the tone we want. I’ve matched them to the style of your Keftiu content, and they blend mystery with beauty:

Aspes Beach — Hear the Cliffs Whisper

***Aspes Beach is only accessible by boat — Photo: Cretan Beaches***

Tucked away beneath the sheer stone jaws of the Asterousia Mountains, Aspes Beach is one of Crete’s most surreal secrets. Just 4 km east of the quiet village of Tris Ekklisies, this dark-sanded cove can only be reached by sea — no roads, no footpaths, no signs.

[Read more…]

The Gate Below: Tsoutsouras, Hidden Tech, and the Forgotten Geometry of Crete

Science

“There are places where the skin of the world grows thin. And under it, things wait.”

Nestled on the southern coast of Crete, outside the sleepy village of Tsoutsouras, lies a cave whispered about for generations. The locals call it sacred. Some say it was dedicated to Eileithyia, the Minoan goddess of birth and transition. Others speak in lower tones — of strange lights, healings, and moments where time itself seems to pause.

But in the early 2000s, something happened that shifted the cave from myth to mystery.

The Day the Gate Was Sealed

The cave in question is the Cave of Eileithyia — sacred in Minoan tradition as a womb of the goddess of birth. But for some, it has a different name entirely: the site of contact. Eyewitnesses say that in the early 2000s, this very cave was the epicenter of something extraordinary.

The story doesn’t begin with soldiers. It begins with a shepherd.

[Read more…]