Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a blanket term for various mystical initiatory religions and sects, which were most prominent in the first few centuries CE. It is also applied to modern revivals of these sects and, sometimes, by analogy to all religious movements based on secret knowledge gnosis, thus leading to confusion.

The Fall

In the Valentinian Gnostic creation myth, Sophia sought the unknowable One. In one account, she saw a distant light which was in fact a mirror image, and thus drifted even farther away from the pleroma.

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Sophia's anguish and fear of losing her life, just as she lost the light of the One, caused confusion and longing to return to it. Because of this longing, the matter (Greek: hyle, U»·) and the soul (Greek: psyche, ÈÅÇ®) accidentally came into existence through the four classical elements fire, water, earth, and air. The creation of the lion-faced Demiurge was also a mistake during this exile; according to some Gnostic sources, the creation of the Demiurge resulted from Sophia trying to emanate on her own, without her male counterpart. The Demiurge created the physical world in which we live, ignorant of Sophia, who nevertheless managed to infuse a spiritual spark, the pneuma, into the creation of the Demiurge.

Related Topics:
Matter - Soul - Classical element - Fire - Water - Earth - Air

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After this the savior (Christos) returned and let Sophia see the light again, bringing her knowledge of the spirit (Greek: pneuma, À½µæ¼±). Christ then was sent to earth in the form of the man Jesus to give men the gnosis they needed to rescue themselves from the physical world and return to spiritual world.

Related Topics:
Spirit - Jesus - Gnosis

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The three sensations experienced by Sophia created three types of humans, linked to the three elements found within all human beings:

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• hylics (bound to the matter, the principle of evil)
• psychics (bound to the soul and partly saved from evil)
• pneumatics, free to return to the pleroma if they achieve gnosis and can behold the world of light. The gnostics regarded themselves as members of this group.

Most Gnostics identified the Demiurge with the God of the Old Testament. They rejected the Old Testament and Judaism and often celebrated those who were rejected by the Old Testament God. Some Gnostics were believed to identify the Demiurge with Satan; This perception contributed to the suspicion with which many Christians regarded them.

Related Topics:
God - Old Testament - Judaism - Satan

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Other Gnostics regarded the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a heroic figure because it wanted to help humanity free itself of the chains of Yaldabaoth. After the Demiurge came to rule over the physical world, Sophia sent a message by way of the Serpent. She gave gnosis to the humans this way, which angered the Demiurge, who believed himself to be the sole creator of the universe and the exclusive ruler of this world. So in the gnostic context, "original sin" was "original enlightenment", and not sin at all. Humans also learned that Seth, the third son of Adam, was introduced to the gnostic teachings by both his father and his mother, and that this knowledge has been preserved throughout creation.

Related Topics:
Garden of Eden - Serpent - Gnosis - Universe - Seth

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