...difficult work of forging my own spiritual path, it was Judas’ star that I followed. He leads the way and his light shines on, despite 2,000 years’ worth of efforts to consign him to the darkness.

These interpretations of Judas also invite parallels to the Hanged Man of Tarot - #12, naturally - the haloed figure that A.E. Waite called “the *seeming* martyr,” and that Rachel Pollack describes as carrying the message of independence. That, especially, resonates with me. When I began the...

...as well as the promise of a better world after death in this one, were simply not sufficient at the time of Rome’s violent occupation of Judaea. Dick Gaughan’s “Stand Up For Judas” is a notable example of this interpretation.

youtu.be/lmLlE6JE3EI?...

...the Light-Bringer Lucifer, the Morning Star. And, indeed, among certain followers of the Left-Hand Path, Judas takes on a more Luciferian aspect as a symbol of empowerment and freedom. He is seen as a man for whom Jesus’s “turning the other cheek” and “rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”...

The Gnostic Judas knows what this sacrifice will mean for him, too, having received a vision of his own persecution as a result of the supposed “betrayal.” Nevertheless, he follows through. For this courage, he is called “the star that leads the way,” a designation which always makes me think of...

“You shall be cursed for generations... you will come to rule over them... You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” So says Jesus in the Gospel of Judas, thought to have been written sometime before 180 C.E.

In Gnosticism, far from acting out of selfishness or spite, Judas is portrayed as enlightened among the apostles—the only one capable of freeing Jesus from his mortal body and allowing him to achieve apotheosis.