Gnosticism

It is at this point that I must address Gnosticism before moving any further. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word, “gnosis”, which means knowledge. The term “agnostic” is a term that describes those who search for the truth through reason alone. Agnostics argue that what is beyond the powers of reason is beyond the boundaries of human intellect, and unfortunately, Agnostics have forgotten the power of the soul. Gnostics attempt to search for the divine, the unknown, the occult through knowledge, both the outer knowledge of the mind and reason, and the inner knowledge of the soul, the divine spark. Like all other religions, Gnosticism had many disjointed sects, believing a wide-range of things, but the majority, believed in Christ. Many of the Cabalists, followers of Jewish mysticism, did not recognize Christ, but neither do the mainstream Jews. The Gnostics, however, did not view Christ to be the savior of our souls, for they believe our souls to be perfect and do not believe in the concept of “original sin”. No, Christ, according to them, was the savior of our minds. They believed that God was an indescribable essence, much like the Tao or the Force, and that YHWH, the tribal god of the Jews, was the Demi-urge. This being does not have a soul, but has great powers of the mind and body. The Demi-urge fears the potential of humanity, and attempts to keep humanity ignorant, and thus incapable of evolving and moving out of the cave. Our failure is thus not “original sin”, but ignorance and apathy. This being may have other beings that it controls, but who are more powerful than humanity. In this “light”, the Demi-urge can be seen as the fire in the cave, and the workers on the walkway are the archons under the control of the fire. Thus depending on positions of the Fire, archons, and the person, the archons either seem dark and evil or bright and good. In fact, they are neither, they are just pawns.

Gnostics follow two thoughts for creation, a positive one and a negative one. In the positive view, the essence of God split itself and created the universe, and thus the spark of God was within everything. God then created beings, which some could view as angels, to keep order and balance in the newly created universe. These beings do not have a soul, but have great, great power, and became obsessed with power, and subsequently, control. The other version believes that through Self-division, God created woman, a Mother-earth goddess they call Sophia. Sophia, being one step lower than God, realizes his awesome infinitude and worships him. Sophia then tries to be like God, and out of ignorance, creates the Archons, who are led by the archon know as the Demi-Urge. The Archons have no soul, for they were created by Sophia, not God, but they are powerful, and create the universe as a realm to extend their power. Sophia, realizing her mistake, goes to God, apologizes, and then takes the spark of God, in the form of the snake in the Garden of Eden, down to humanity. The archons realizing the magnitude of this, trap Sophia in this earthly realm, banish humanity from “paradise”, and create negative stigmas for both women and the snake as a result of Sophia’s actions. In both versions, they have thus taken control of humanity through various means, monotheistic religion being one of them, and their main goal is to keep humanity from developing its potential, its soul, through ignorance. Regardless of which version you follow, God creates Christ, and sends him down to teach humanity much like the philosopher descends down into the cave to release the prisoners of the cave. Unfortunately, the message of Christ, according to the Gnostics was mutilated by the Archons into another monotheistic religion, another conflict.
I prefer to follow the path of the first creation story, for more than just optimistic, positive attitudes. The number 432, I believe, is the universal calling card of God, the fingerprint of the occult, the rhythmic pulse of the indescribable essence. If this world is an illusion, a projection created by the Archons, then this mystical number of 432 is actually their calling card, their fingerprint, and their pulse. Something within me says this cannot be so. And so, I believe that this reality, this world, this universe is real, and if any illusion exists, it exists as a shadow within the mind, a curtain that blocks us from truly interpreting what we see, hear, and feel. A curtain that some could argue creates a veil that disconnects us from the rest of the Self, from the rest of ourselves, from connecting our miniscule soul to the rest of the vast Self.

In Plato’s Cave, humanity is stuck in one of two places, in the shadows, or in the dualistic world of the fire. The duality is either created by the Demi-urge, or taken advantage of by the Demi-urge, the fire. The fire creates a powerful, but false light on the shadow wall, and its workers, its archons not only sustain the fire, but also cast shadows or illusions onto the wall. This can be seen as your nature-worship religions, belief systems that worship the seemingly random and unknown functions of nature, the shadows of the archons, the shadows of those beings who physically control this realm. When people are released, they see the fire, and they worship the fire for its light has saved them from the unknown shadows. Ironically, though, the fire has not saved them, instead, it was the one that created the shadows to begin with. The fire then mesmerizes humanity with its power, with its “glory”, and demands that the people turn their backs on the “evil” shadows, and instead, focus on the fire, worship the fire, feel the “warmth” of the fire. It is very, very intriguing to consider that YHWH, the Demi-urge according to Gnosticism, actually appears to Moses in the form of a “burning bush”. How ironic. The fire, through its use of duality and visually mesmerizing “light”, controls this world mentally.



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