I totally agree with trusting only yourself ultimately, but I also enjoy reading theory, so here we go...
For wisdom I as a christian tend so seek corresponding sources. Forget the bible. I mean, read it but ignore most of it. I see my holy book as a very narrow selection of teaching, selected by the indeed totally unbiased white(washed) male church fathers, and it is a translation of a translation of a translation.
On the translation part: Did you know that the idea that eve was created as adams "helper" is probalbly a strategic "mistranslation"?
And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.'
-Genesis 2:18 (NKJV)
The original word that is rendered as "helper" -here, but nowhere else- is "ezer kenegdo", which means (difficult to translate) something akin to "to save/rescue or to be strong". The word appears multiple times in the hebrew bible and is usually refering to the lord themself or even to military aid.
You see translation is indeed a problem, if you don't speak the language or like me, you have scholarly friends.
If I don't recommend reading the bible what christian source is there?
I love medieval christian mysticism. I'd like to highlight 3 autors I like:
Hildegard von Bingen
She wrote multiple visionary books where she details visions she recieved directly from god, but she also wrote the "physica" which is a book of medical praxis and "causae et curae" where she details her medical theory which is intertwined with her theology.
Notable about her work is the concept "viriditas", translateable as greenness, green power or life force. It is a force that connects all life with the divine, tho theological interpretation of that concept is disputed and complicated.
Hildegard von Bingen is a saint of the catholic church.
Meister Eckhart
A christian scholast if there ever was one. He was termed (recently be scholars) "the man from whom god hid nothing". He is a very complicated figure and it is disputed if he should even be called a mystic. He wrote his more academic works in latin and I kinda dislike them, but his sermons and some written works intended for the broad public were in german and it is where his spicy stuff is to be found.
His concept of the "Seelengrund" is outstanding. Seele means soul and Grund can mean bottom, ground but also reason. It is usually translated as Abyss. He maintained that the human soul and God have the same "Grund", but he excluded the rest of the creation, on which I disagree with him, but the quest of going inside yourself finding and entering this abyss is to me a vital part of the psychedlic journey. He was tried for heresy, but died (due to natural causes, he was really old) during the trials. Some of his ideas were deemed heretical, but because he unconditionally accepted any verdict before he died, he himself was not condemed as a heretic.
He is regarded as an important christian teacher by various traditions.
Margarete Porète
I feel a deep spiritual kinship to her. She claims in her "Mirror of simple souls" that in absolute love of god and thus union with the divine, the soul itself is annihilated and seizes to exist (kinda sounds like ego death right?). She also hinted at that in this state a human is nolonger able to sin, which the church did not like (heresy of the free spirit).
By this she did not mean that one could then do whatever, but that in union with the divine one could never sin because one seizes to desire anything exept god. In the introduction of her work she states that the book is actually kinda ridiculous, for the knowledge whe wishes to transfer cannot be put into words really. Meister Eckart was probably heavily inspired by her thought.
A truely outstanding woman. She was a beguine, which were basically nuns, but in a decentralized organization who took no formal vows (as opposed to for example Hildegard von Bingen) and therefore they stood outside the authority of the church.
And were persecuted and killed by the church, because popular and independant women? How about no? (said the church)
Porète was killed by the stake on 1.6.1310 in paris, because her work "Mirror of simple souls" was deemed heretical. During her trial she refused retract her work or to give any statment, claiming that her work should be clear and speak for herself.
The church did not want to kill her, since she was very popular, she chose to die for her beliefs.
There is a wealth of transcendental knowledge to be found in christian traditions and some powerful personalities, including women ranging from saints to heretics. It is a history that was "male-washed" but it is there to be discovered.
I went a bit of the rails here I guess... XD