Founded around 332 BC by Alexander the Great, the city of Alexandria in northern Egypt was for centuries the spiritual cradle of humanity. Quickly becoming an important commercial and cultural center, Alexandria was the capital of Egypt and the residence city of the last pharaonic dynasty, the Ptolemies. In 30 BC, Alexandria was the battlefield of the last battle of the Roman Republic, in which Gaius Octavius defeated Mark Antony, a victory that earned him the title of emperor. On the island of Pharos off the coast of Alexandria stood the seventh wonder of the ancient world, a 135-meter-high lighthouse, on top of which was the statue of the god Poseidon, seven meters tall. The famous Library of Alexandria, the largest in Antiquity, contained 900,000 scrolls. The city attracted crowds of philosophers, mathematicians, poets and doctors. In Alexandria, the foundations of the Julian calendar and modern geometry were laid, and also the cult of Serapis, hermeticism, neoplatonism, neopythagoreanism, Hellenistic Judaism, the sect of the Therapeutae, Christianity and Gnosticism rised. As it was not only the largest Hellenistic center in the world, but also home to the largest Jewish community, in Alexandria the Jewish scriptures were first translated into Greek, called the Septuagint. In the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt lived scholars such as the mathematician Euclid (known as the „Father of Geometry„), mathematician Diophantus (also known as the „Father of Algebra„), Hypatia (philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, considered the „Mother of Algebra„), philosopher Philo (the inventor of Christianity), philosopher Ammonius (one of the founders of neoplatonism), Roman historian Appian, inventor and mathematician Ctesibius, mathematician Heron, physician Herophilus (considered the first anatomist in the world), philosopher Isidorus (one of the last adherents of neoplatonism), mathematician and astronomer Menelaus (who gave his name to a lunar crater), Christian philosopher Nemesius (author of the treatise De Natura Hominis), Pappus (one of the last great Greek mathematicians of Antiquity), theologian Origen Adamantius (one of the fathers of the Christian church), Claudius Ptolemy (mathematician, astrologer, astronomer and geographer) and mathematician Theon (father of Hypatia).
As a result of the numerous combinations of philosophical and religious systems, Gnosticism also emerged in Alexandria, made by the combination of neoplatonism, Christianity and the teachings of the Therapeutae. Gnosticism, whose name comes from the Greek word „gnosis” („knowledge”), does not represent a unitary system, being made of from a variety of generalized belief systems united by the idea that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect demiurge identified with Yahweh, the god of the Old Testament. The main leaders of Gnostic currents were Valentinus, Cerinthus, Marcion, Carpocrates and Basilides, who lived in the 2nd century AD. Dissatisfied with Christianity’s explanations regarding human nature and the existence of evil, they claimed that, in addition to his exoteric teaching, which was shared with everyone who listened to him, Jesus had a secret esoteric doctrine that he only offered to his apostles. For them, that secret doctrine, „gnosis„, is the true essence of Christianity. The Christian Church could not accept the rejection of its teachings, and therefore it classified all schools of Gnostic inspiration as heretical. In the 4th century, Gnosticism was eradicated in the European part of the Roman Empire, its teachers were exiled and their books destroyed. The Marcionites survived in Syria until the 5th century, the Audians until the 8th century in Syria, Iraq and Iran, the Manichaeans in China until the 15th century and the Mandaeans in Iraq and Iran until today. The accusations brought against the Gnostics by the Church are those listed in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyon:
– Rejection of the god of the Old Testament.
– The assumption that the Universe was created by evil angels or an inferior power.
– False Christological teachings.
– Magical practices of the followers.
– Idolatry and other forms of immorality practiced by the followers of heresies.
– The claim by the followers that they had been liberated from obedience to evil angels or the Demiurge creator.
Most of the Gnostic writings were lost over time, destroyed by Christian fanaticism. For many centuries, the only surviving information were mentionings in Against Heresies („Adversus Haereses”) by Irenaeus of Lyons, an early church writer, Father of the Church, Bishop of Lyon and apologist, considered a saint by both Catholics and Orthodox. His five-volume work represented a detailed combat against Gnosticism, especially the system of the Gnostic Valentinus, which was a serious threat to traditional Christianity. The knowledge of the Gnostics came to light with the discovery in 1773 of the Pistis Sophia book and in 1945 of the Gnostic library of Nag Hammadi (Upper Egypt), consisting of 13 books containing 50 texts. Their translation was completed in the 1970s. Only from that moment could humanity get a clearer picture of the secret doctrine of the Gnostics, that „gnosis” shared only with the chosen ones. Although, as Irenaeus noted, „they tell us that this knowledge cannot be presented openly because not everyone is capable of receiving it, since it was revealed mystically by the Savior through parables, to those worthy of understanding it„. Nevertheless, Jesus said in the Gospel of Thomas, discovered at Nag Hammadi: „And nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is covered that will not eventually be revealed” and „Know what lies before you, and then what is hidden from you will be revealed. For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed„.
In Against Heresies, Irenaeus presents the opinions of the Gnostics regarding the appearance of aeons, energetic entities, in an immaterial world. Referring to the Valentinian Gnostics, he wrote: „They say that in the unseen and ineffable heights there exists a pre-existent aeon which they have called Proarkhe, Propator and Bythos, which is described as ineffable and incomprehensible. Eternal and unborn, it remains throughout endless cycles of years in profound peace and silence. It is there together with Ennoia, which they have called Kharis and Sige (grace and silence). In the end, this Bythos determined the sending out of all things from itself and put what it produced into Silence (Sige), just as a seed is put into the womb. She then received his seed and became pregnant, giving birth to Nous, which was equal and similar to the one who produced him, and alone could comprehend the greatness of the Father. They called this Nous Monogenes, and the Father, and the beginning of all things. Along with him, Aletheia was produced, and these four constituted the first-born Pythagorean Tetrad, which they designated as the root of all things. And these are the first Bythos and Sige, and then Nous and Aletheia. Monogenes, understanding why he was made, sent out Logos and Zoe, becoming the Father of everything that existed after him (…) Logos and Zoe, after creating Anthropos and Ekklesia, brought into existence ten other aeons: Bythios and Mixis, Ageratos and Henosis, Autophues and Hedone, Akinetos and Synkrasis, Monogenes and Makaria (…) Anthropos and Ekklesia also created twelve other aeons: Parakletis and Pistis, Patrikos and Elpis, Metrikos and Agape, Ainos and Sinesis, Ekklesiastikos and Makariotes, Theletos and Sophia„. In Valentinian Gnosticism, the first male entity emanated from the Father is the only one who knows him: „they also say that Propator was known only by Monogenes, who was generated from him, that is only by the Intellect, as it is unseen and incomprehensible to all others. And in accordance with their assumptions, only Nous found pleasure in contemplating the Father„. Thus, Nous or the Intellect became the mediator between the Father and the rest of the aeons. According to Irenaeus, the Pleroma of the aeons (the totality of the divine entities) is triadic, being divided into an Ogdoad (which involves the noetic level of thought), a Decad (the pneumatic level) and a Duodecad (the level of the soul). „Secundus claims that the primary Ogdoad consists of a tetrad on the right and a tetrad on the left and teaches that one of these is called Light, and the other Darkness„, Irenaeus wrote. The system of Valentinian Secundus, to which the Bishop of Lyon referred, was inspired by Pythagoreanism.
According to Irenaeus, the Sethian Gnostics believed that a first light, „blessed, incorruptible and infinite„, was the Father of All and the First Man. His Ennoia came out of him, made a son, and this is the Son of Man, the Second Man. Below them is the Holy Ghost and beneath him the elements are separated from each other: water, darkness, the deep, chaos. Above them the Holy Ghost was born, also called the First Woman. The First Humans enjoyed her beauty and gave her light, giving birth through her to an incorruptible light, Christ („the Anointed One”), also called the „Three-Times Man„, the son of the First Humans and the Holy Ghost. She became hot on the left side and Christ belonged to the right side. The power that emanated from the woman through that heat was sprinkled with light and fell from its place, but still possessed that drop of light. She was called Sinistra, Prunicus, Sophia and „male-female„. In the Gospel of Philip, the Holy Ghost is identified with Sophia, the aeon that generates the feminine principle called Achamoth. In Hebrew, the word „spirit” is feminine.
In the Gospel of the Egyptians, discovered at Nag Hammadi, Autogenes is the „Aeon of Aeons„, the „Unproclaimed Father„, the „Self-Born„, the „Stranger„, the „True Aeon” and the „Great Invisible Spirit„. From his living silence emanated three powers: the Father, the Mother (called „the Virgin Barbelo„) and the Son. As in the rest of the Gnostic writings, the aeons multiplied, and „the whole pleroma of lights was very pleased„. After 5,000 years, when the great light Eleleth decided to rule over Chaos and Hades (the Underworld), Sophia came as a cloud and created Sakla and Nebruel. They gave birth to the 12 serving angels who rule over Hades and Chaos: Athoth, Harmas (also called „the Eye of Fire„), Galia, Yobel, Adonais (or Sabaoth), Cain (whom the great nations of men called „the Sun„), Abel, Akiressina, Yubel, Harmupiael, Archir-Adonim and Belias.
Decoding the teachings of the Gnostics, which indeed do not seem to be addressed to the average person, we can say that in an immaterial world or in the „unseen and ineffable heights” there was an aeon, a first „blessed, incorruptible and infinite” light, an energetic entity called Autogenes, „Self-Born„, „True Aeon” and „Aeon of Aeons„, a „Great Invisible Spirit” considered „eternal and unborn„, „ineffable and incomprehensible„, which stood „over endless cycles of years in a deep stilness and silence„. At some point, for unknown reasons, this androgynous being divided himself, its feminine energy becoming a new entity, called Ennoia („Idea”), Kharis („Grace”), Sige („Silence”) or Mother, and its masculine one – the aeon called Proarkhe, Propator or Bythos („Depth”), „Father of All” and „First Man„. Why did it choose to divide itself? To give birth to other aeons. As a form of energy that was both masculine and feminine, it could not conceive on its own. All it could do was to separate its two sides, which could only create life in this way. Which is what happened, according to the Gnostics. Bythos / Propator joined with Kharis / Sige, giving birth to Nous („Intelligence”), Monogenes („Only-begotten”) or the Son. The Father was considered God the Father of Christianity, the Mother – the Holy Ghost, and the Son, Christ, who entered the body of carpenter Jesus, called Seth by the Sethian Gnostics. So that the Son could also procreate, Bythos and Kharis bore him a pair, Aletheia („Truth”). With her, Nous / Monogenes created Logos („Word”) and Zoe („Life”). Much more productive than their ancestors, they had 12 children. The first were Anthropos („Man”) and Ekklesia („Church”), completing the Ogdoad. Then, Logos and Zoe created the Decade, consisting of the pairs Bythios („Depth”) – Mixis („Mixture”), Ageratos („Unaging”) – Henosis („Union”), Autophues („Self-Existence”) – Hedone („Pleasure”), Akinetos („Immovable”) – Synkrasis („Mixture”) and Monogenes („Only-begotten”) – Makaria („Happiness”). Anthropos and Ekklesia also gave birth to the Duodecade, a group consisting of six pairs of aeons: Parakletis („Comfort”) – Pistis („Faith”), Patrikos („Paternal”) – Elpis („Hope”), Metrikos („Maternal”) – Agape („Love”), Ainos („Praise”) – Sinesis („Understanding”), Ekklesiastikos („Ecclesiastical”) – Makariotes („Joy”) and Theletos („Desire”) – Sophia („Wisdom”). In the teachings of other Gnostic sects, some names and even the number of aeons differ. However, the names of these entities or their exact number do not matter much, only those of the main characters.
What are these aeons? Written as „aeon” in Latin and „aion” in Greek, the word originally meant „life”, „vital force”, „being”, „generation” or „period of time”, later translated as „era” or „eternity”. In geology, cosmology and astronomy it is used to denote a period of time spanning billions of years, but generally refers to a very long and indefinite period of time. In Olympian religion, Aion was the god of time and eternity. Philosopher Plato used this word to denote the eternal world of ideas that exists behind the material world. For Gnostics, all aeons are emanations of the first one, Autogenes, eternal immaterial beings and even ideas. For Marcosian Gnostics, aeons are numbers and sounds. Considering their representative names (Depth, Silence, Word, Truth, Wisdom, and so on), we can consider aeons to be principles. The nine entities with whom the Lab 9 group, led by Andrija Puharich, constantly made contact, were said to be the „Nine Principles of the Lord„, the Elohim of the Jews and the aeons of the Gnostics. Ideas, principles, numbers, sounds, emanations… These classifications do not help us much in trying to define them. They are considered emanations of the first aeon, which for the Gnostics was a „blessed, indestructible and infinite” light. Therefore, we can assume that they are immaterial entities, forms of positive energy, some masculine and others feminine, indestructible, with an infinite lifespan. We cannot know what kind of energy they are made of, which we only know it is positive (the aeon from which they emanated was considered a „light„), but we can call them „spirits” in the absence of further details about their nature. And this would still not be satisfactory. Is it possible for these spirits, called „aeons” by the Gnostics, to exist? We have seen that ancient gods and today’s extraterrestrials are ethereal entities, originating from an immaterial world, so the existence of aeons seems possible.
Everything seemed perfect in that world of aeons, where nothing exciting happened, until one day… In Against Heresies (Book I, 2:1-3), Irenaeus wrote that „Sophia was inflamed with passion to embrace her paired aeon, Theletos. This passion was first born among those who were united with Nous and Aletheia, but it passed through the defilement of this degenerate aeon, who committed wickedness under the pretext of love, but it was actually an influence of recklessness, for it did not have, like Nous, a communion with the perfect Father. Her passion lay in her desire to investigate the nature of the Father, for she desired, as they say, to grasp the greatness of the Father. Then she could not attain her end, for it was impossible, and she found herself caught in a mental agony because of the depth and the unsearchable nature of the Father, and because of the love that was born in her she was thrown back upon herself, and was in danger of being absorbed into the greatness of God and dissolved into his absolute essence, until she encountered the power that supported all things, and held her outside the ineffable greatness. This power they called Horos, through which they say she was restrained and sustained (…) and unable to return, she understood that the Father is incomprehensible and she went to her place and changed her passion into reverence for the Father. But others describe the desire and restoration of Sophia thus: they say that as she waited in an impossible state, she brought forth an amorphous substance, which she was able to produce through her feminine nature„. As punishment, Sophia was exiled from that world of light to a place of darkness and emptiness. „Her desires were the substance of the matter from which the world was formed. Due to her desire to return to the one who gave her life, every soul belongs to this world, and even the Demiurge of this world originated from her. All things had their beginning in fear and sadness. From her tears a liquid nature was formed, from her smile everything is shining, and from her anger and astonishment all the corporeal elements of the world were made” (Book I, 4:2). In the Gospel of Truth, the Totality (Sophia) sought the one she emanated from (Bythos / Propator). Not knowing him, turmoil and fear arose, and the Error created matter. Forgetting the Error, which was not revealed, did not come from the Father, from whom Knowledge („gnosis„) came, so that Forgetfulness would disappear. Forgetfulness came into existence because the Father was not known and Knowledge was Christ, whom the Error persecuted. According to the Gospel of Philip, „the Universe came into being because of a mistake. For he who created it wanted to make it indestructible and immortal. But he did not succeed in fulfilling his desire„. For the Sethian Gnostics, Sophia descended into the waters and took on a body for herself, the waters representing the void or the primordial chaos, often called „ocean” by the ancients. All things hurried to attach themselves to that drop of light, and when Sophia conceived a desire for the light above, she left her body and became free. Some Gnostic sects considered another aeon responsible for the appearance of matter, but most of them chose Sophia, the last of the 24 or 30 eons that formed the Gnostic Pleroma.
These accounts only confuse us further, which is perfectly natural, considering that the Gnostic teachings were reserved only for initiates, not for the general public. Therefore, we need to decode them once again. Why was Sophia exiled? Well, the answer is not as difficult as it seems.
According to Gnostic teachings, the aeons were divided into two categories, masculine and feminine, and were capable of reproducing. The first aeon, which contained both genders, divided so that it could procreate. Bythos / Propator / Proarkhe joined with Sige / Ennoia / Kharis and gave birth to the pair Nous / Monogenes – Aletheia. Which, in turn, gave birth to another pair, which also multiplied, and so on, until an Ogdoad, a Decade, and a Duodecade of aeons were created. How can the multiplication of immaterial entities be achieved? As energetic beings, they do not have a form. However, it would help us to understand by imagining that they have a spherical shape, the exact shape that occultists and spiritualists claim spirits have in the material world. Therefore, we can imagine that each aeon was an energetic, luminous globe. To multiply, each energetic sphere partially joined its pair, never totally. In the common portion of both spheres, both energies, masculine and feminine, mixed, and the mixture, in turn, became a new pair of aeons (in which, as with parents, masculine energy was separated from feminine energy). After „birth”, each aeon-sphere became smaller, taking into account that part of the energy from which it was formed transferred to that of its successors. Children did not break away from their parents, all being interconnected, thus becoming emanations of the primordial aeon, Autogenes, each with its own consciousness and personality. Although the Gnostic Pleroma was made up only of pairs, all were theoretically capable of multiplying, but we notice that only the first eight, forming the Ogdoad, succeeded in doing so. The Decade created by Logos and Zoe and the Duodecade born of Anthropos and Ekklesia did not conceive any aeon. Why? Were they incapable, due to their distance from the primordial aeon, or did they not know what to do?
In Against Heresies (Book I, 2:1), Bishop Irenaeus wrote that „Sophia was inflamed with passion to embrace her paired aeon, Theletos. This passion first arose among those united with Nous and Aletheia but passed through the defilement of this degenerate aeon, who committed wickedness under the pretext of love, but this was, in fact, an influence of recklessness, for she did not have, like Nous, a communion with the perfect Father„. From this statement we understand that Sophia also desired to procreate, which is why „she was inflamed with passion to embrace her paired aeon, Theletos„. However, she was incapable of doing so, like the other pairs in the Decade and Duodecade, due to their distance from the Father: „she did not have, like Nous, a communion with the perfect Father„. This means that the connection between aeons and their Father was stronger or weaker depending on their distance from the source, with the Ogdoad being capable of procreation because it was in his immediate vicinity, unlike the Decade and the Duodecade. Being the last aeon, Sophia was at the greatest distance, the connection between her and Bythos / Propator / Proarkhe being much weaker than with the others. However, Sophia either did not know this or did not want to know, being determined to multiply. What was the „wrongdoing under the pretext of love” or the „influence of recklessness” that led Irenaeus to call it a „degenerate aeon„? Sophia attempted to procreate („was inflamed with passion to embrace her aeon pair, Theletos„) using the method described above, but things did not turn out as expected. Being unable to reproduce, when she united with Theletos, Sophia absorbed him. Assimilating her pair, which became a part of her, Sophia became stronger, with a double amount of energy that made her up. Moreover, she became composed of both masculine and feminine energy. While it may seem like a bold idea, if an androgynous aeon can be divided into two different ones, one male and one female, we can consider that this process also works in reverse. The Sethian Gnostics called Sophia Sinistra („Left”) or „male-female„, the latter epithet emphasizing her androgynous nature acquired following the assimilation of her pair, Theletos („Desire”). This failure did not discourage her, but quite the opposite. Being twice as powerful and driven by the desire that was literally a part of her, the one called „Wisdom” concluded that her dream of procreation could only be fulfilled by mating with the Father, the source of life in the Universe. However, things did not go as she hoped for. „Her passion lay in seeking to investigate the nature of the Father, for she desired, as they say, to comprehend the greatness of the Father„, wrote Irenaeus. Meaning to join with Him as she did with her pair, which turned out to be impossible in this case. „Then she could not attain her end, for it was impossible, and she found herself in an agony of mind, because she was unable to fathom the depth and unexplored nature of the Father, and because of the love which was born in her, she was thrown back upon herself, and was in danger of being absorbed into the greatness of God and dissolved into his absolute essence until she encountered the power which supported all things and held her outside the ineffable greatness. This power they called Horos, by which they say she was restrained and sustained„. Therefore, Sophia was about to be absorbed by Bythos „and dissolved into his absolute essence„, just like Theletos, but was saved by the aeon Horos, about which little is known. In the older versions of the myth, Horos (who bears the name attributed by the Greeks to the Egyptian god Haru, Horus in English) was an already existing aeon; only in later accounts he did become one generated on that occasion at the request of the other aeons, who implored the Father to remove the danger that threatened them all. Irenaeus claimed that the aeon who saved the Universe and bound Sophia was called Horos for his role as a separator and Stauros („Cross”) for his stabilizing function. The name Stauros led some Gnostics to identify him with Christ, which match him with the third aeon, Nous / Monogenes or the Son. If in this version Horos / Nous is the one who chained Sophia in the material world, for others „standing in impossible waiting, she brought into being an amorphous substance, which she could produce by her feminine nature„, and „her desires were the substance of the matter from which the world was formed (…) From her tears a liquid nature was formed, from her smile everything is shiny and from her anger and amazement all the corporeal elements of the world were made„, as Irenaeus wrote, who also added: „thus, according to them, three types of existence were constituted: the first, of passions, which is matter; the second, of conversion, which was spiritual; and the third, which was pneumatic„.
Pistis Sophia describes an identical hypothesis, recounted by Jesus to his disciples: „While Pistis Sophia was in the thirteenth aeon, in the realm of all her unseen brothers – that is the twenty-four emanations of the great unseen – it happened that, by the command of the First Mystery, Pistis Sophia looked up. She saw the light of the veil of the Treasury of the Light and desired to go to that place. And she ceased to perform the mystery of the thirteenth aeon and glorified the light from above, which she saw in the light of the veil of the Treasury of the Light. While she glorified the realm from above, all the archons of the twelve aeons below were angry with her because she had ceased their mysteries and because she wanted to go up to be above them all. Because of this, they became enraged with her and hated her. And the great Authades with triple power – that is the third triple power in the thirteenth aeon, who rebelled – did not emanate everything that was purified from his inner power, and did not give everything that was purified from his light when the archons gave their purification, and he wanted to be the master over the entire thirteenth aeon and those below it. While the archons of the twelve aeons were angry with Pistis Sophia, who is above them, and hated her very much, the great Authades with triple power, about whom I have told you, joined the archons of the twelve aeons and he too was angry with Pistis Sophia and hated her very much, because she thought of going to the light above him. And he emanated from himself a great power in the form of a lion. And from the matter that was within it, a multitude of material emanations emanated. And he sent them into the realms below, into the parts of Chaos, so that they may follow Pistis Sophia there and take power from her – because she had thought to go up to the highest place above all, and because she had ceased to perform their mystery, remaining sorrowful and seeking the light she had seen. And the archons who continued or insisted on performing the mystery hated her. And all the guards at the gates of the aeons hated her. Then, by the command of the First Commandment, the great Authades with triple power, who is one of the three triple powers, persecuted Sophia in the thirteenth aeon – so that she may look towards the lower parts, and in that realm to see her power of light in the form of a lion, and covet it, and go to that realm so that her light may be taken from her. After that, she looked down and saw her power of light in the lower parts; and she did not know that this was Authades with triple power, but she believed it was from the light she had seen from the beginning in the high place, which was drawn from the veil of the Treasure of Light. And she thought to herself: I will go to that realm without my partner and I will take the light, and I will create eons of light from it, so that I can go to the Light of Lights, which is the highest of the high” (Chapter 30). We notice in this Gnostic book that the aeons are called „archons„, while the word „aeons” designates the worlds in which the ethereal entities lived. „Thinking these things she left her realm, the thirteenth aeon, and went into the twelve aeons. The archons of the aeons persecuted her and were angry with her, because she thought to have greatness. And she left the twelve aeons and came to the realms of Chaos (the void in which the material Universe appeared) and approached the power of light in the form of a lion to swallow it. But all the material emanations of Authades surrounded her and the great power of light in the form of a lion swallowed all the powers of light from Sophia. And they purified her light and swallowed it, and her matter was thrown into Chaos. In Chaos there was an archon in the form of a lion, half fire and half darkness, that is Ialdabaoth, of whom I have spoken to you many times. When these things happened, Sophia became very weary and that power in the form of a lion began to take all the powers of light from Sophia. And all the material powers of Authades surrounded Sophia at the same time and oppressed her” (Chapter 31). We don’t know who Authades is, the one who set a trap for Sophia to trap her in matter, but it seems to be Horos, who chained her in other Gnostic myths, namely Nous / Monogenes or the Son. The author calls him „the great Authades with triple power, who is one of the triple powers„, which reminds us of the epithet „the thrice man„, given by the Sethian Gnostics to Seth or Christ, that is the same Son. „And Pistis Sophia cried out very loudly, cried out to the Light of lights that she had seen from the beginning, in which she believed and spoke this confession, saying…” (Chapter 32). However, the Father completely ignored her, leaving her imprisoned in the matter that we consider to be our universe.
Although Christianity outlawed Gnosticism, it adopted Sophia’s exile story and assigned it to the made up angel Lucifer. Like the rebel aeon, Lucifer was an entity who planned to dethrone his father, the ruler of the Universe. After a battle with one of his brothers, Michael, the rebel angel was thrown out of heaven and exiled to Earth. Some scholars have noted that the angels of Christianity are copies of the Gnostic aeons. Others have concluded that Michael and Christ are one and the same entity, and in the myths of the Gnostics, Authades / Horos / Nous / Monogenes / Christ is the one who expelled Sophia from the celestial world, imprisoning her in the material one. Since Lucifer and his story are not found in Jewish folklore, on which Christianity bases its doctrine, the story of the rebel angel can only be copied from Gnosticism, being born in the mysticism of Alexandria. Which is easily noticed, by the way.
How was Sophia imprisoned in matter? In Pistis Sophia, when she tried to reach the Father, she was deceived and led into Chaos, where Authades emanated matter that surrounded and chained her. How did he manage to do that? The Universe is made only of energies with various frequencies and vibrations, as physicist Nikola Tesla claimed, and „matter is energy condensed to a low vibration„, as American satirist Bill Hicks claimed. Therefore, we understand that Authades / Horos / Nous condensed a part of his own energy to a low vibration, giving rise to a material body for Sophia, which the Gnostics called the „prison of the fashioned forms„. In Against Heresies, Bishop Irenaeus wroted: „as she stood in an impossible expectation, she brought into being an amorphous substance, which she could produce by her feminine nature” and „her desires were the substance of matter from which the world was formed (…) From her tears a liquid nature was formed, from her smile all things are shining and from her anger and amazement all the corporeal elements of the world were made„, from which we understand that for the rest of the matter in the sensible universe, a part of Sophia’s energy was condensed to a low vibration. Pistis Sophia describes in chapter 31 how this operation took place: „the great power of light with the image of a lion swallowed all the powers of light from Sophia. And they purified her light and swallowed it, and her matter was cast into Chaos (…) When these things happened, Sophia became greatly weakened, and that power with the image of a lion began to take all the powers of light from Sophia„. Sophia „became greatly weakened” since a large part of her, specifically the energy that formed her, was removed and transformed into a material prison. She even said in chapter 32: „My power began to diminish within me. And I am lacking in light„. This punishment undoubtedly had the role of limiting her power; if left alone, she could have tried to attack the Father again, which could have given rise to a universal catastrophe. Kabbalah suggests that a universal imbalance had already occurred; the „vessels” that were supposed to support the overly strong divine emanations were destroyed, causing chaos and a rupture in the Universe, which split in two worlds: the material one and the spiritual one. However, we are facing an obvious exaggeration, considering that the Jewish hypothesis has no support in any other culture of the world, where the catastrophe was prevented in time through the exile of Sophia.
Does the story of the Gnostics match the opinion of scientists about the genesis of the Universe? Surprisingly, yes. For cosmologists, about 13.7 billion years ago, in the primordial void, a point of a special nature appeared, dimensionless but with infinite energy, which emerged from the state of singularity and manifested its enormous energy through a colossal explosion, which continues to this day. What made that particular point come out of the state of singularity was a vibration that came from nowhere, just like the point of special nature. That dimensionless and infinitely energetic point could be the trap set by Authades for Sophia, meaning „the power of light with the face of a lion” that attracted her into the void / chaos. When she approached „the power of light with the face of a lion to swallow it„, he sent the vibration that caused the Big Bang, which was not an explosion in the true sense of the word; simply, Authades’ emanations began to turn into matter around her. Cosmologists say that immediately after the Big Bang, the Universe was contained in a subnuclear-sized sphere, only 10-33 centimeters in diameter, the cosmic egg from which the world appeared, present in the myths of many peoples. Pistis Sophia explains the cosmic sphere / egg after the „explosion”, stating that „all the material emanations of Authades surrounded her, and the great power of light with the face of a lion swallowed up all the powers of light from Sophia„. Then, according to the inflation theory, issued in 1980 by Professor Alan Guth, in a fraction of a second the Universe suddenly expanded, leaving everything perfectly smooth and uniform. In the Gnostic book, Authades’ emanations „purified her light and swallowed it and her matter was thrown into Chaos„. However, cosmologists believe that the material universe continues to expand, which contradicts the hypothesis of the Gnostics. We have seen that matter was created from Sophia’s energy; for matter to continue to appear continuously, after so many billions of years, Sophia would have to be made up of an immense amount of energy that has not been completely consumed in this long time. For Gnostics, Sophia was saved before she was completely transformed into matter, which means that the expansion of the Universe stopped at some point. And if the material world was created as a prison for a single aeon, the immensity of the Universe presented by cosmologists makes no sense. Therefore, the hypothesis presented in the previous chapter, which says that the material universe is only our solar system, enclosed in a sphere made up of the heliosphere and the Oort Cloud, with the rest of the galaxies being only holographic projections, seems more logical. What purpose would the illusion of an enormous universe serve? Without a doubt, its role would be to discourage any attempt by Sophia and those imprisoned with her to return home. For the illusion to be successful, it would be necessary for all entities imprisoned in matter to forget their true nature and the world from which they come. The Gnostics even spoke of the „Error of Forgetting„, which came into being because the Father was not known. For them, Forgetting did not come from the Father; Knowledge came from him, so that Forgetting would disappear. Which means that that „Forgetting” also came from Authades / Horos / Nous / Monogenes, the creator of the material prison.
Chapter 32 of Pistis Sophia claims that after seeing herself imprisoned in a material body, Sophia asked for forgiveness from the Father Bythos: „Lord, Light of the Powers, do not now let me be deprived of my light. For because of you and your light I have been oppressed and shame has come over me (…) Deliver me from the matter of this darkness, so that I do not sink into it, so that I may be delivered from the emanations of the god Authades who have oppressed me, and from their veils. Do not let this darkness engulf me and do not let this lion-faced power swallow up all my power, and do not let this Chaos surround my power (…) Do not turn your face from me, for I suffer greatly. Listen to me and deliver my power quickly„. Only after many pleas and lamentations was Sophia allowed to return to the world of the aeons. For the Gnostics, Sophia was a positive character, often identified with the Holy Ghost, the one who revealed knowledge alongside Christ. For some sects she merged with Christ and together they entered the body of the carpenter Jesus. The subjectivity of the Gnostics makes us doubt at least the part about forgiveness and to read between the lines for the knowledge that „cannot be presented openly, since not everyone is capable of receiving it„, as Irenaeus of Lyon stated. In Pistis Sophia, referring to the emanations that weakened her, Sophia cried out to the Heavenly Father: „Let now, at this time, Light of lights, the darkness and matter which the emanations of Authades have brought, become a snare for them, and let them be caught therein. And reward them and put them to shame, so that they do not enter into the realm of Authades. Let them remain in darkness and not see the light. Let them see Chaos forever and let them not look upward. Let vengeance descend upon them and let your judgment rule over them” (Chapter 32), „Let those who seek to take power from me fall and become powerless. Let those who seek to take the power of light from me be engulfed in darkness and helplessness” (Chapter 35), „Let those who seek to take my light fall and be in darkness. Let those who seek to take my power be brought to shame and return to Chaos. Let those who persecute me and say, ‘We have become lords over her,’ return to darkness” (Chapter 37), „Strike those who have taken my power from me, oh Light; and take the power from those who have taken mine from me” (Chapter 50), „Let darkness descend upon Authades and let the archons of darkness stand at his right hand. And when you judge him, take his power from him; and let the deed which he plotted – to take my power – be taken from him by you. Let all the powers of light be weakened in him and let another with triple power take his greatness” (Chapter 55). Neither Authades nor his emanations were punished in any way by Bythos, much less by being imprisoned in the material world. If divine help did not come, Sophia solved the problem herself by giving birth to a son, named Ialdabaoth and Demiurge by the Gnostics, the latter name being attributed to him by the philosopher Plato.
For the Setian Gnostics, Ialdabaoth also gave birth to a son, Iao. He gave birth to Sabaoth, who had Adoneus, who gave birth to Eloeus, who made Oreus, the father of Astanpaeus. The text On the Origin of the World stated about these entities: „The seven appeared in chaos as androgynous beings (…) they are the seven powers of the seven heavens of chaos„. The Hypostasis of the Archons described in the Trimorphic Protennoia and discovered in Nag Hammadi, adds: „Of course, they thought the Universe was created by themselves, not realizing that they had not recognized their root„. For the Setians, Sophia also gave birth to entities such as angels, archangels, powers, dominions and lords, which drew the contempt of Ialdabaoth because Sophia gave birth to them without anyone’s permission. This did not seem to bother her too much, as she managed to convince her sons and grandsons to fight amongst themselves for power. In Against Heresies, Bishop Irenaeus put forth a slightly different variant, with Ialdabaoth being the one who „generated children and grandchildren without anyone’s permission, angels, archangels, powers, dominions and lords. After they were born, his own offspring turned against him, coveting and fighting for power„. In the Gospel of the Egyptians, Sophia created Sakla and Nebruel, who gave birth to the twelve angels who reign over Hades and Chaos: Athoth, Harmas / „Eye of Fire„, Galia, Yobel, Adonais / Sabaoth, Cain / „Sun„, Abel, Akiressina, Yubel, Harmupiael, Archir-Adonim and Belias. In the 2nd century AD, the Greek orator Publius Aelius Aristides Theodorus wrote in Athens that all beings originated from the head of the goddess Athena, who is recognizable as Sophia. According to Gnostic doctrines, these entities, especially the demiurge Ialdabaoth, considered themselves gods and creators of the Universe.
At this point in the story, one question arises: how did Sophia manage to give birth to someone, given that she attacked Bythos precisely because of her lack of reproductive capacity? This time the answer is not found in the teachings of the Gnostics, but in those of other cultures. For the Sumerians, the supreme deity was An („Sky”), which the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Hittites called Anu or Anum, and he was the supreme source of authority, holding the title of emperor, god of the sky and constellations, father of gods, spirits and demons. The Egyptians called him Ra or Re and matched him with the Sun. In Canaan he was called El, Elqunirsha or El-wa-Elyon, among whose epithets were „Father of Years„, „Father of the Gods„, „Creator of Creatures” and „Eternal Creator„. In Vedic Hinduism he is Dyaus Pitar („Father Sky”), and in Brahmanic Hinduism he is Brahma, the father of gods, humans and demons, the creator of the world. The Greeks called him Uranus („Sky”), the Romans called him Caelus and Coelos and the Japanese called him Izanagi, and in all these hypostates he was the god of the sky. There is no doubt that this entity is the Proarkhe, Propator or Bythos of the Gnostics, „Father of All„, „First Man„, „Self-Begotten„, „True Aeon„, „Aeon of Aeons” and „Great Invisible Spirit„. In many religions, Anu was attacked by his son, Enki, the god of wisdom. The aeon that attacked Bythos is named Sophia, a word that means „wisdom” in Greek, indicating that the Gnostics referred to the same myth found in other religions. In the legends of the beginning of the world, the Greeks called Enki Cronus, the Hittites called him Kumarbi and the Indians called him Shiva. In Hinduism, Shiva cut off one of Brahma’s five heads; Brahma created the gods through thought, so the fifth head represents his creative organ. The Greeks preferred to abandon such metaphors, choosing an expression that everyone could understand, and claimed that titan Cronus castrated his father, Uranus, with a sickle. The Greeks borrowed the myth of castration from the Hittites, who copied it from the Hurrians. In the Hurrian-Hittite Kingdom in Heaven, Kumarbi attacked Anu, who „did not stayed before Kumarbi’s eyes, but escaped from his hands and rose to heaven. Kumarbi rushed after him, grabbed Anu by the foot and hurled him from the sky. He bit his thighs so that his manhood joined with Kumarbi’s intestines, like bronze. When Kumarbi swallowed Anu’s manhood, he laughed and rejoiced„. After informing the rebel that he would give birth to three gods (Teshub, Tigris and Tashmishu), Anu „went into heaven. But Kumarbi hid himself well and spat from his mouth, he, the wise king (like Sophia, whose name means „wisdom”); from his mouth, he spat spit and Anu’s manhood mixed together„. But it was too late; he was really pregnant. By identifying the story of Kumarbi / Cronus / Shiva with that of Sophia, we can understand what really happened. According to Gnostic myths, Sophia has forcibly united with Bythos. During their union, she „woke up caught in a agony of the mind (…) was thrown back onto herself and was in danger of being absorbed into the grandeur of God and dissolved into his absolute essence„, being saved by Nous / Horos, who separated her from the Heavenly Father. For the Hittites and Hurrians, that exchange of energies had an effect; Kumarbi swallowed Anu’s phallus, becoming pregnant, meaning that Sophia managed to unite with Bythos like the pairs of aeons in the Ogdoad, taking in a portion of his masculine energy „just as a seed is placed in the womb. She then received her seed and became heavy„, as Irenaeus described the multiplication of the aeons. In the light of these things, we understand even better the truth behind the myths. Sophia did not attack Bythos to assimilate him, but to be impregnated. With her partner, Theletos, she was unsuccessful in procreating due to both their incapacity. The accidental assimilation of Theletos led to the emergence of desire in her, which pushed her towards sacrilege, attempting to obtain a child directly from the source of life, Father Bythos. This is why the Gnostics spoke of her „passion„, of the love „that was born in her” and of a „transgression under the guise of love„. In human terms, she simply desired a child, which she stated in Chapter 30 of Pistis Sophia, when she told the „power of light in the form of a lion” of Authades, whom she confused with Bythos: „I will create for myself from her aeons of light„.
In the biblical Genesis, where Sophia’s exile is presented as Adam’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, she tasted from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (in the Old Testament, knowledge refers to sexual relations), which made the Heavenly Father express his concern as follows: „Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (3:22). In other words, after she has „tasted” sexual „knowledge„, she should not „taste” from the „tree of life„, meaning not to give birth to a child. Which is what happened, by the way. Trapped in the material world, Sophia gave birth to the Demiurge Ialdabaoth. Who is he?
Professor Jan Zandee claimed that the Demiurge „is a god of inferior rank, to whom Neoplatonism and also Gnosticism attributed the creation of the sensible universe„. In the Gnostic system of Basilides, Abraxas is the Great Archon, equivalent to the Demiurge described by Plato in Timaeus. The name Abraxas is widespread in magical literature discovered in Egypt. In Pistis Sophia, Authades is responsible for the „creation of the sensible universe„, whose emanations turned into matter to trap Sophia, emanations that transformed her „powers of light” into even more matter, „and her matter was thrown into chaos„. As we have seen, Authades was also known as Horos for his role as a separator and Stauros („Cross”) for his stabilizing function, Nous („Intellect”) or Monogenes („Only Begotten”), Seth for the Sethians and Christ („The Anointed One”) for the rest of the Gnostics, being the son of Bythos / Propator / Proarkhe and Sige / Ennoia / Kharis. The Setians believed that Ialdabaoth is Nous, from which the spirit, soul and all things in this world emerged, generating forgetfulness, corruption, misunderstanding, envy and death. For them, the Father shared his greatness with Ialdabaoth when they were in paradise, but the Son became arrogant, thinking himself to be God and the Father. The Chaldean Oracles add that „the Father perfected all things and gave them to his second Mind, which you, all the nations of the world, worship as the first„. We matched Christ with the god of storm, often called Enlil by the Sumerians, Seth by the Egyptians, Vishnu by the Hindus, Zeus by the Greeks, Odin by the Scandinavians and Teshub by the Hittites. In the Kingdom of Heaven, after swallowing the phallus of Anu, Kumarbi gave birth to Teshub, the god of storm, none other than Authades / Abraxas / Horos / Stauros / Nous / Monogenes / Seth / Christ.
How was this „birth” achieved? Considering that Sophia conceived him after her imprisonment, it means she drew him from the spiritual world into the physical world, imprisoning him in a physical body. Exactly what she demanded in the laments of Pistis Sophia, which the heavenly Father ignored: „Let the Light of lights be a curse to the darkness and matter brought by the emanations of Authades and let them be caught there (…) Let them remain in darkness and not see the light. Let them look upon Chaos forever and not look upwards (…) Let those who seek to take my light be cast down and be in darkness. Let those who persecute me turn back to chaos (…) Take the power from those who have taken mine from me (…) Let darkness come over Authades (…) Let all the powers of light be weakened in him, and let another with triple power take his greatness„. It seems that Sophia sought revenge not only on the one who imprisoned her but also on those who helped him, the „emanations of Authades” or „the archons of the twelve aeons” who were angry with her „and bore her enmity„. In the Kingdom of Heaven, she gave birth to three gods, and in Gnostic writings to seven, called by the Setians Ialdabaoth, Iao, Sabaoth, Adoneus, Eloeus, Oreus and Astanpaeus. „The seven appeared in Chaos as androgynous beings (…) these are the seven powers of the seven heavens of Chaos„, according to the text On the Origin of the World. These entities are vaguely mentioned in other cultures as well, such as in Sumerian culture where the seven great Anunnaki of the Underworld are found. According to the Hitat collection, Hermes Trismegistus was one of the seven Watchers with the mission of watching over the seven houses (planets) and he was supposed to carry out the commands of Utarid (Mercury), who was also named after him, as Utarid means Hermes in the language of the Chaldeans. It should be noted that in Mesopotamia, one of Enlil’s numbers, the ruler of the seven aeons trapped by Sophia, was indeed 7. „And thus they were imprisoned in the prison of formed bodies until the end of the age„, says On the Origin of the World, with Sophia’s revenge being complete.
Eight entities (Sophia, Nous / Enlil and the six other aeons) imprisoned in material bodies in our solar system… Could these eight massive bodies be the eight planets (excluding Pluto, which broke away from the Kuiper Belt later)? In all cultures, the planets were matched with divinities. Even today they bear the names of gods from the Roman pantheon. We do not know much about the planets of the solar system, but astrology claims that they generate energies that influence human lives. On the other hand, we have more information available about Earth. Since ancient times, our planet has been considered a living being, a mother goddess named Gaea, Gaia or Ge by the Greeks, Terra by the Romans, Ki or Gi by the Sumerians, Geb by the Egyptians or Devi by the Hindus. If this conception of the ancients was long viewed as a superstition, some 20th-century scientists have proven our ancestors right. In 1970, scientist James Lovelock put forth the Gaia Hypothesis, which was developed by microbiologist Lynn Margulis. This theory states that we should not view the planet as a massive collection of species, but rather as a superorganism that manages to maintain optimal environmental conditions for the existence of all beings within it, through complex chemical processes at the planetary level, which can be compared to the self-regulating processes that occur in the human body. In his hypothesis, Lovelock also emphasized the ability to „self-heal” of the giant organism he named Gaia, just like the ancient Greeks did. Winfried Otto Schumann, a physicist with solid knowledge of chemistry and mathematics, was the first scientist to discover that not only humans have their own bioenergetic field that vibrates at a certain frequency corresponding to the level of life and consciousness of the individual, but our planet have one as well. As early as 1952, he calculated the vibration frequency of the Earth’s bioenergetic field, with the result being 7.83 Hz. Later, this frequency could be effectively measured. Schumann showed that the Earth vibrates at multiple frequencies, which represent harmonics of the fundamental frequency of 7.83 Hz, with a harmonic being an oscillation of frequency equal to an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency of an oscillating system. The values of these harmonics, ranging from 3 to 60 Hz, were named „Schumann resonances” in honor of the physicist who first calculated them. They vary depending on the intensity and configuration of the Earth’s magnetic field, the composition and properties of the atmosphere, as well as the properties of the ionosphere. Reports from researchers at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii (which monitors changes in the atmosphere) prove that between 1955 and 1995, carbon dioxide concentrations varied up and down in a regular, rhythmic pattern, which some scientists interpreted as the „breathing” of the planet.
In a study presented in October 2011, researchers at the University of Maryland in the United States provided new evidence that the Earth is a living organism that breathes, showing that sulfur produced by organisms in the oceans is the key element in all processes on our planet. In addition, astronomers know that the Earth emits sounds that can be heard even from space, produced by movements within the planet, sounds that have been recorded in a cave in the Tibetan Plateau.
Let us also remember the statement of the great physicist Nikola Tesla, who discovered that matter is nothing but condensed energy at a low vibration: „Earth is actually alive, having electric vibrations„. If all of these are correct, our planet can only be the body of Sophia, the mother goddess Gaia / Terra, in which she was imprisoned by Nous / Enlil. And the other planets are the bodies in which she imprisoned the seven aeons as revenge. However, she did not got away unpunished…
If the eight captive aeons are the eight planets of our solar system, what could the Sun actually be? Isn’t it „the power of light with the face of a lion” planted by Authades / Enlil in Chaos „so that she would look downwards, and in that realm to see her power of light with the face of a lion, and covet it, and go to that realm so that her light would be taken away from her„? Isn’t the Sun what Sophia „thought was from the light that she had seen from the beginning on high, which was drawn from the veil of the Treasury of the Light„, that is the Father Bythos? The rays of the Sun were often compared to the lion’s mane in ancient times, which is why the king of animals became the symbol of solar deities. If material emanations from Authades, who was in the spiritual world, sprouted from the Sun, it means that our star also serves as a portal between the two worlds. Due to the fact that several UFOs have been filmed heading towards the Sun, Swiss amateur physicist Nassim Haramein claimed in 2010 that extraterrestrials use our star as a portal that connects to other places in the Universe. In the optical spectrum, sunspots, which are visible when the Sun becomes very active, appear black. Upon closer inspection, one can observe how the surface fire is absorbed into these spots, which are immense whirlpools in the middle of the Sun. Haramein believes that sunspots are actually black holes of varying sizes that, under certain conditions, create vortexes that, once formed, can remain open for weeks or even months. Although Haramein’s theory seems like science fiction, if the Sun is Authades’ trap, then indeed it is a portal between the two worlds. This would also explain the veneration of the Sun in most world religions, as our star is the gate to the world of the gods. And if the Sun is truly the trap-portal of Nous / Enlil, it has another role: to prevent the return to the spiritual realm of those imprisoned in the physical world. Matter cannot survive the proximity of an immense sphere of very hot gas, which has a temperature of 5,500 degrees Celsius on the surface. Even if a body could pass through the surface without disintegrating, by some miracle, in the core of the Sun (which has a temperature of up to 15 million degrees Celsius) over four million tons of matter are converted into energy every second, generating neutrinos and solar radiation. In other words, no prisoner from Sophia’s prison can escape through this very well-closed „gate”, which was not needed before the appearance of the sentient universe. In Pistis Sophia, the rebel descended from the spiritual world into Chaos, the void in which the material world appeared, without using any portal. After being imprisoned in the body represented by our planet, the barrier around our solar system was made up of the heliosphere and the Oort Cloud, with the Sun remaining the only way out. The heliosphere is created by solar wind, a stream of plasma emitted by the Sun (emanating from the „lion-faced power of light„), while the Oort Cloud is composed of planetary debris, which could be that matter „thrown into Chaos” by Enlil’s trap. This confirms the identity of the creator of the material prison.
According to the Gnostics, Sophia gave birth not only to the seven aeons but also to other entities, such as angels, archangels, powers or dominions. Moreover, she gave birth to the flora and fauna of the Earth, which makes her a true mother goddess. If Sophia really existed, we should find her in other religions. Indeed, she can be found, but well hidden.
Namma or Nammu was one of the most important goddesses of the Sumerians, although little known, who belonged to the oldest generation of Sumerian deities, associated with the pantheon of Eridu and magic. In the Enki and Ninmah text, Namma is called „the primordial mother who gave birth to the gods of the Universe„. In Tablet 1 of the An-Anum deity list, she bears the title „mother who gave birth to heaven and Earth„. In the same text she is called „the mother of the god Enki„, who had the idea of creating mankind. In one myth she is also the mother of the goddess Ningikuga or Ninhursag. In an inscription from a temple erected in her honor, King Lugal-Kisal-si described her as „the consort of An„, which brings to mind Sophia’s joining with Father Bythos. Because the name of the goddess Namma / Nammu is written in cuneiform by the same symbol as the underground waters, some researchers have called her the „cosmic ocean„. Her importance in ancient times, before Enki took over most of her functions, is also evident from the name of King Ur-Nammu, the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Apart from some mentions of her name in a few texts, no myth of the goddess has been preserved, as if the gods wished Sophia to remain unknown to humans.
In the areas of Mesopotamia inhabited by Semites, Namma was replaced by Tiamat, the primordial goddess of the ocean and chaos, consort of Abzu / Apsu (from whose name the word „abyss” derives), the god of groundwater. In Babyloniaca, the Babylonian priest Berossus called her Omoroca. The epithet „primordial mother who gave birth to the gods of the Universe” from Enki and Ninmah finds its explanation in Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth, where she and her husband are the first beings to appear in this universe. They give birth to the pair of gods Lahmu and Lahamu, who in turn have two children, Anshar and Kishar, the parents of Anu. After a while, Tiamat and Abzu / Apsu go to war with the young gods, Abzu is killed by Enki and Tiamat by Marduk, who creates the sky and the Earth from her body. In the original Sumerian myth, which Enuma Elish plagiarized, Enlil is her killer.
In India, Aditi was the first Vedic deity, the mother of the gods, the 12 spirits of the zodiac and the gods associated with the planets of our solar system, the Aditya deities („the sons of Aditi”). As the first being and mother of all life forms of the Universe, she was associated with cosmic space. It may seem surprising that not even a hymn is addressed to her in the Vedas, but it was a common practice regarding her, considering that she was only rarely mentioned in other cultures, almost completely absent from myths.
In Brahmanic Hinduism, Shakti is the primordial feminine energy that created the Universe, and Devi is the mother goddess who gave birth to all beings on Earth from her immense womb. Both are different aspects of Sophia. In the trinity formed by the wives of the three great gods of the Trimurti, she appears in three different forms, although all are merely manifestations of her, as some Hindus admit. Sarasvati, the wife of Brahma, is the goddess of the arts, knowledge, music and language. She is in the Hindu pantheon since Vedic times. She is represented as a beautiful woman dressed in white, often seated on a white lotus flower, which symbolizes light, knowledge (or „gnosis” of the Greeks) and truth. She is accompanied by a swan, the symbol of spiritual perfection, and sometimes by a peacock. Lakshmi or Sri, the consort of Vishnu, is the goddess of wealth, love, luck, material and spiritual prosperity, as well as the embodiment of beauty. It is believed that she was born with a diverse range of powers and talents, which she acquired from the other great gods. In Sri Mahalakshmi Ashtakam she is called „Jaganmaatha” or „Mother of the Universe”. In eastern India, she is seen as a form of the mother goddess Devi, the supreme power, the Indian scriptures claiming that all women embody her. Parvati, the wife of Shiva, is the goddess of love, fertility and devotion. She is depicted wearing a red dress and holding various objects in her hands, such as a conch, a lotus flower, a crown, a mirror or a bell. She is considered the mother goddess and the reincarnation of Shakti, the primordial feminine energy that created the Universe.
The mother goddess Coatlicue, the deity of the Earth and death, was very important for the Aztecs, and also feared by them. Her dual nature, as creator and destroyer, is reflected in her dual representation as a fertile mother and a goddess of death who devoured corpses. She was also depicted as Cihuacoatl, the patron of women who died in childbirth, and as Tlazolteotl, the impure and sinful sexual goddess, which reminds us of the „sin” of Sophia, who merged with Bythos. Coatlicue is the mother of the sun god Huitzilopochtli, whom she conceived alone, of the goddess Coyolxauhqui and of the 400 gods of the stars. She was depicted either with a face made of two intertwined serpents or decapitated, with serpents of blood spouting from her neck, wearing a skirt of living serpents that represented the gods born from her womb. She had dirt on her hands and feet because she was constantly digging graves. Because she gave birth to Huitzilopochtli alone, the other gods hated her and conspired to kill her, just as it happened with Sophia, who was not tolerated by the aeons because she gave birth without permission.
The Iroquois tribe in northeastern North America believed that in the beginning there was no land, only an endless and desolate sea. Above, in the sky, there lived a primordial tribe. A woman from that tribe, who was known for her dreams, had a nightmare one night about the magical tree that lit up the sky, with the Sun not existing at that time. At her request, the tribe dug at the root of the tree, which fell into the hole made in the sky. Angry at the loss of the tree, the people of the tribe threw the woman through the same hole, but she was caught by a falcon. Because the woman had nowhere to stand, the birds and animals placed dirt on the shell of a giant turtle until the mound grew and became the planet Earth.
For the Dogon people of Mali, the creator goddess Amma made an egg with four compartments, containing earth, air, fire and water. When the four elements met, seven explosions occurred, leading to the emergence of life. Amma planted a seed in herself that produced twins. One of them, Yurugu, ran away. Amma cut the second one, Nommo, into pieces and scattered him all over the world, thus giving birth to matter in the Universe.
Athena, often called Pallas by the Greeks, was the virgin goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, justice, strategy, mathematics, arts and crafts. Since the 2nd century BC she has been matched with Minerva of the Romans, a copy of the Etruscan goddess Menrva, who in turn comes from Menerwa, the Latin name of Meneswa, the Moon goddess for the ancient Italians. Among her Greek epithets there are „Parthenos” („Virgin”) and „Promakhos” („First Fighter”). It was believed that she was not born naturally, but sprang from Zeus’ head. „When the god decided to create the world with a word, his first thought was Athena„, wrote Saint Justin in the 2nd century. In the same time, the Greek orator Publius Aelius Aristides Theodorus wrote in Athena that everyone has their origin from the head of this goddess. In another version of her birth, Zeus impregnated the oceanid Metis and then swallowed her, with Athena being forced to come out of her father’s head when it was time to be born. Her supernatural birth, different from that of the other deities, indicates her uniqueness.
She also seems to be Nyx of the Greeks (or Nox for the Romans), the personification of night. Present at the moment of the creation of the world, Nyx was a character with exceptional power and beauty, feared even by Zeus. In Hesiod’s Theogony, Nyx was born from Chaos, the primordial void, alongside Erebus („Darkness”). The two gave birth to the first gods (similar to Tiamat in Babylon, Namma in Sumer or the Gnostic Sophia), Aether („Brightness”) and Hemera („Day”). Then, Nyx alone gave birth to other entities, including the twins Hypnos („Sleep”) and Thanatos („Death”), whom Hesiod called „dark divinities, never illuminated by the hot rays of the Sun„.
Hecate was the Greek goddess of witchcraft, crossroads, the Moon and necromancy. In the Chaldean Oracles she was viewed as a ruler of the Earth, the seas and the sky, a savior, mother of angels and cosmic soul of the world, a description that perfectly fits Sophia. „In the midst of the fathers, Hecate’s center revolves„, the Oracles proclaimed. She was one of the main protective deities of the city of Athens, bringing prosperity and blessings to the entire family. The Romans called her Trivia, also considering her a divinity of the Underworld. She was sometimes depicted as a triple deity, holding a torch, a key, snakes, daggers and numerous other objects. Although in some traditions she is the mother of the monster Scylla, she was considered a virgin. For the ancients she was the mediator between the two groups of deities, the Olympians and the Titans, as well as between mortals and divinities. In Theogony, Hesiod wrote that „Zeus, the son of Cronus, honored her more than all the others. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the barren sea. She was also honored in the starry heaven and excessively honored by the immortal gods. To this day, any man on Earth who offers rich sacrifices and prayers according to custom calls upon Hecate (…). The son of Cronus did not wrong her nor take anything away of what was her share among the former Titans; but she holds, as the division was from the beginning, privileges both on Earth and in heaven and in the sea„. Among her epithets there are „Kleidoukhos” („Holder of Keys”), „Trimorphe” („Triple-Formed”), „Soteira” („Savior”), „Phosphoros” („Bringer of Light”) and „Propylaia” („In front of the gate”). Although she was honored by the gods and had „privileges both on earth and in heaven and in the sea„, Hecate is almost completely absent from mythology, as has been the case in other cultures that have mentioned her. Nevertheless, her veneration continues to this day in neopaganism, Wicca and other occult practices.
Hecate of the Greeks (Hekate in original) is the feminine version of the god Heka, the personification of magic for the Egyptians. They were represented similarly, with him strangling two giant snakes and she holding two torches in her hands. „Heka” is the Egyptian word for magic, but translated literally means „Activation of the Ka„, which is the essence of life for the ancient Egyptians. The Coffin Texts claim that Heka existed „before duality took form„, which means that it can only refer to the primordial being, the creator of life in the material Universe, that is Sophia.
Also in Egypt there was Ma’at, the principle of truth, balance, order, law, morality and justice. The oldest mention of her, in the Pyramid Texts, considers her a norm that must be respected by society and nature. As a goddess, she established the order of the Universe at the moment of creation, the movement of the stars, the seasons, the destinies of the gods and mortals, but also took care that the world did not return to the chaos from which it was born. She was depicted as a young woman, holding the royal scepter in one hand and the ankh in the other, with wings on each hand and a feather on her head. In the realm of Osiris, at the judgment of the dead, her feather was the measure that determined the weight of souls. Later, when all the goddesses were assigned a male counterpart, Thoth was considered her husband, and Ra, her father. As a principle, Ma’at resembles „gnosis„, the hidden knowledge of the Gnostics. Also, as a goddess, she is very rarely present in myths, as the Egyptians preferred her more as a principle of truth, justice and balance.
The creator goddess of Sais, one of the oldest Egyptian cities, was Neit, Nit, Net or Neith, who had the epithet of „Lady of the Sky, Leader of Arrows„. She was associated with the unseen and infinite sky, as opposed to Nut, who represented the visible one. From the predynastic era until the 6th Dynasty, she was called the „Opener of the Ways„. She was considered the oldest goddess, „born first, when there were no births„, as noted by George St. Clair in Creation Records Discovered in Egypt from 1898. Archaeologist Flinders Petrie claimed that her symbols were still found in predynastic Egypt. In the 6th century BC, Neith was considered the inventor of births, the goddess of war and hunting. At Latopolis it was believed that she appeared in the primordial waters to create the world; after she brought the Earth out of the waters of the cosmic ocean, she gave birth to 30 gods. Because she gave birth alone, without male assistance, she was called the „Virgin Mother Goddess„. Neith was depicted as a woman wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt, holding a bow with arrows or a harpoon in her hand. Often she carried the royal scepter and the ankh (the symbol of life). Over time she became the personification of the primordial waters of creation, just like Tiamat in Babylon. The Greeks matched her with their own Athena. In an inscription mentioned by Barbara S. Lesko in The Great Goddesses of Egypt (1999), she is called the „unique, mysterious and great goddess who came to exist at the beginning and caused everything to exist (…) the divine mother of Ra, who shines on the horizon„. She is indeed shrouded in mystery, given that she is absent from myths, even though she was the creator of the world, and her only mentioned role is that of mediator in the war between Horus and Seth. It seems that mystery has always surrounded her, as evidenced by an inscription from her temple in Sais: „I am all that has been and all that will be. No mortal has yet been able to lift the veil that covers me„. Considering that she was believed to be the first goddess, the mother of the gods and the Universe, the personification of the primordial waters, we can easily identify her with the Gnostic Sophia, the fallen aeon. Thus, we can assume that we have at least partially lifted the veil that covers her.
Although hidden from mortals, eliminated from myths and preserved only in a few interpretable mentions, Sophia could not be completely forgotten. Behind the veil that covers her, mentioned in the inscription from Sais, she played the main role in the entire history of the Universe, alongside her brother and enemy, Nous / Enlil. Their conflict, which began in the immaterial world of the aeons, continues to this day and probably will last for a long time to come. Which can do no one anything good, given that their first direct confrontation affected the entire solar system and could be considered a genuine „star wars”.
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