Gnosticism

I try to keep this blog focused on magic more than religion, but there can be such an overlap in the communities that it's hard to talk about one without the other sometimes. One religion that seems to be especially popular among magic users is Gnosticism, which can be a lot of things, but is often considered a heretical form of early Christianity.

I know a lot of us have had bad experiences with Christianity, and I'm not here to invalidate that. But I am here to tell you that this version of Christianity is nothing like what you probably grew up learning. It's actually very similar to Hermeticism in a lot of ways. Hermeticism's "The All" is very much like Gnosticism's "Invisible Spirit." The main difference is that Gnosticism seems to be much more complex.

Maybe you've seen the term "gnosis" around. It's a pretty common word in the magical world. It comes from Greek and means "knowledge," but it's specifically used to mean a higher form of knowledge. A spiritual knowledge. Knowing math is not gnosis. However, knowing that the universe can be broken down into numbers with specific meanings could count as gnosis.

So maybe you can gather that Gnosticism is centered on knowledge. We'll get to that in a while, but first let me try to give you a very basic lesson on the cosmology of Gnosticism. It's worth noting that the stories tend to fluctuate a bit depending on the source, since the Gnostics were more interested in conveying ideas than telling a cohesive narrative, but I believe what I've got for you is the most commonly accepted version. It's also important to tell you that this is all... kind of a metaphor? It's complicated.

The Beginning

Before anything, there was the Invisible Spirit, sometimes called the Monad or Bythos. Bythos is beyond our comprehension, but one way to think of it is like an eternal mind. It's beyond anything we could imagine. It's nothing and everything at the same time. It's peace and rest. I've been saying "it" because it's beyond gender, but it is also called The Father, so I will be referring to it with "he/him" pronouns from now on for ease of communication.

So Bythos is hanging out in the Pleroma (the 'fullness,' a plane of reality outside of our own), surrounded by "spiritual water." He sees his reflection in the water and thinks about it. This "thought" is an emanation that we will now call Forethought (the first thought, before anything else). So you could think of Forethought as a separate entity, but she's still part of Bythos. Forethought is also called Barbelo, The Mother, and Pronoia. We will only call her Barbelo to keep things simple here.

Barbelo asked Bythos to give her some more emanations to hang out with, so Foreknowledge, Incorruptibility, Eternal Life, and Truth started existing. Again, these are all sort of separate entities but also sort of part of Bythos. Think of it like the different facets of a cut gemstone.

Then Bythos "gazed at" Barbelo, but that must be a euphemism for something because she 'gave birth' to The Son, who is also called Autogenes, Self-Generated, Theletos, and Christ.

(So we have a sort of trinity here. Father, Son, and Mother.)

The Son wanted a baby sibling, so he asked Bythos for Mind. Mind was created. Mind wanted Will. Will was created, then Word. All these emanations are called Aeons.

You get the idea. It keeps going like that. Eventually, Wisdom is created. She is also called Sophia. We will call her Sophia because it's a pretty name.

Sophia's Mistake

Each of the emanations had a counterpart/partner/consort. Think of them like a married couple, I guess. They should make big decisions together.

Sophia looked at everything Bythos had done and thought it was super cool, so she wanted to make something, too. But she didn't consult anyone else first. She really was supposed to talk to Bythos and her consort before doing something like this. And... well... have you ever tried to do something for the first time without any advice or help? It didn't turn out great.

Sophia's creation was not what she wanted at all. It was cruel and unintelligent. It was far from a perfect being like the rest of her 'family.' So she did what any loving mother would do: she abandoned her newborn son outside of the Pleroma so no one would ever know about this horrific mistake.

Well, one way or another, Sophia herself is locked out of the Pleroma. So now it's Sophia and her creation just kinda... out here in the wild. Her creation, by the way, is kind of a huge asshole. He doesn't like his mom and the rest of the family. But I suppose it's a generational curse, because he decides he wants to make something, too.

I haven't told you his name. He's Yaldabaoth, which means something like "child of chaos." He's also called the Demiurge. Gnostics equate him with Yahweh. Yeah, that Yahweh. This isn't meant to offend anyone, but it's how Gnostics explained the imperfect state of the material world.

So you likely can guess what happens now. Yaldabaoth creates the material world and everything in it. He was unable to create perfectly spiritual beings like Bythos could. He was too far down the ladder to have that kind of power. So he did his best... I suppose... and that's why our material world has so many problems.

Yaldabaoth made humans, but they were kind of lifeless blobs because he was so far removed from Bythos and lacked the same kind of power. This part is a little hard to pin down. Somehow, Sophia's essence gets trapped inside of humans. This could be Yaldabaoth using her to make his creations work, or it could be Sophia trying to atone for her mistake. Either way, this 'divine spark' from Sophia is what separates humans from other animals. It's what allows us to ask big questions and obtain gnosis. If we learn enough, be it from study, meditation, or any other source, we can eventually have the chance to get back into the Pleroma. Until then, humans are trapped in the material world and many believe they should worship Yaldabaoth, not knowing that there's a greater divinity above him.

There are a lot more stories and a lot more characters, and maybe I'll get into that at some point, but this part of the story is most interesting to me so I just wanted to do a post about it. I highly recommend reading up on Gnosticism if it interests you, too. The Nag Hammadi Library is essential to understanding a lot of this, so check that out. The story I've told here can be found in the Apocryphon of John. You can read all of this and more on the Gnosis Archive.

So... The moral of the story is: don't be afraid to ask for help when you want to try something new, because otherwise you might create an entire universe of trapped souls experiencing pain and suffering for no good reason.

Stay safe!

- me