Introduction to Gnostic Cosmology

Act I - The All is One

There is an original and transcendental spiritual unity (The First Principal, or God). This Perfectly
Spiritual being did not create the material universe or reality, but the womb (which is called "Barbelo")
and seed (which is called the "Panspermia") of the universe.

Barbelo serves as the active, energetic complement to the God's passive principle of potential form; as
the driving force behind creation, she represents fertility, birth and dynamic growth. If God is
consciousness without separation, timeless and unchanging, then Barbelo is infinite consciousness
overflowing into multiplicity, the mind of God at play with itself. Barbelo was "the first thought". The
concepts of "Father", "Mother", and "Child" are expressions of the first thought. The verbal expression
or product of the first thought is The Divine Self-Origionate, the Holy Spirit, or Anointed (Christ). This is
to be the "blueprint" of the human spirit as we will see later. The fullness of all these apsects is called
"The Pleroma".

God came to emanate a vast manifestation of Luminaries and Aeons (concepts, realms, abstracts,
angels or archangels) through a process of self-realization and refelction called emmision. These Aeons
are "pluralities" or "dualities". One aspect being an androgynous, unified and singular being; and in
another aspect divided into Male/Female entities, egos or personalities. In addition to the Luminaries
and Aeons are other beings that dwell with them. These beings are the origional pool of "souls" or
"spirits". The full mannifestation of God, The Divine Self-Origionate, and the Luminaries and Aeons is
called "The Entirety".

Act II - The Creation of the Material Universe

The manifest universe of matter and mind (psyche) was not created by the original spiritual unity but
by a "craftsman" or "Demiurge" who possesed inferior spiritual powers (compaired to the Aeons) and
who often resembled the arrogant creator-god of the Old Testament Jehovah. The Wisdom of God
(Sophia) was only indirectly involved in the cosmic creation.

An Aeon called Pistis Sophia was the union of Sophia (Wisdom, forethought, femininity, the world
soul) and Pistis (Faith, afterthought, masculinity, the world spirit). Sophia wanted to bring forth a
likeness out of herself as God had done, but God and her consort did not approve of this. Acting alone,
she exercised volition and became a product resembling the primeval light of God. Immediately her will
manifested itself as a likeness of heaven. A veil was created between the Heaven above and the newly
created Heaven below, and Shadow came into existence in a vast watery substance beneath the veil.
The sorrow, grief, and terror of Sophia manifested itself into matter within the shadow. Because of the
invincible power which is in her, her thought did not remain idle, and within the shadow she birthed a
being which was imperfect and different from her in appearance, because she had created it without
her consort or the consent of God.

The newly created spirit in the Shadow (Yaldabaoth, Saklas, Samael, "the craftsman" or "The
Demiurge") saw nothing else, except for water and darkness. And when it was only himself that he saw
then he supposed that it was he alone who existed. It appeared to itself as a spirit moving to and fro
over the waters. The Demiurge saw a vast quantity of Matter without limit; and he became arrogant,
saying, "It is I who am God, and there is none other apart from me!" When he said this, he sinned
against the Entirety. And a voice came forth from above the realm of absolute power saying, "You are
mistaken, Samael." And he said, "If any other thing exists before me, let it become visible to me!" And
immediately Sophia stretched forth her finger and introduced Light into Matter; and she pursued it
down to the region of Chaos. And she returned up to her light; once again Darkness returned to Matter.
The Demiurge was enraged by Sophia's presence and the realization that he was removed from The
Entirety, and used the divine energy he had stolen from her to shape worlds and beings of his own. He
creates "Authorities" or "Rulers" to rule over and take charge of his creations, these are what we
commonly refer to as "Angels", "Demons", "Seraphim", etc...

The Demiurge separated the watery substance to one region, and the dry substance to another region.
And from the watery matter he created a dwelling place for himself and his Authorities. He called it
"Heaven." He further divided Heaven into seven Heavens. From the remaining dry matter he created a
footstool and called it "earth" and placed it beneath the seventh Heaven, furthest from the veil that
seperates his seven heavens and the true. The Demiurge supposed that he made these things of himself,
but he made them after Sophia projected them. He made Heaven without knowing Heaven... he brought
earth to light without understanding earth. In every case he was ignorant of the ideas of the things he
made, as well as of his Mother; and he thought he was entirely alone. The Demiurge was unaware that
Sophia was secretly forming the universe through him. The Demiurge used pre-existing materials and
the blurry blueprints of a higher existance to build this universe to the best of his limited abilities

Act III - The Creation of Humanity

Without a true understanding of the spirit, The Demiurge decides to create mankind. He does this for
three reasons. Primarily as a tool to better understand the nature of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Aeons
who dwelt above him, secondly to understand the power of pure creation which eluded him, and thirdly
for slaves and a source of nourishment for himself and his Authorities. The Demiurge and his Authorities
labored to fasion the form of human being, but it was imperfect and was not animate. They struggled
for some time to animate the human form but could not. Sophia (Wisdom) and the Holy Spirit saw this
and pitied the being, and saw this as an opportunity to recover Wisdom's stolen power from her
offspring. She counseled the Authorities to convince The Demiurge to blow some of his spirit into the
matter to give it animation. He did this and the human form became animate, and his mother's power
left him. The form became perfect, moved, became stong, and shown. The Demiurge and his Authorities
became envious, because they had created him, and through the loss of thier own power the form had
become more perfect, intelligent, and aware then they were.

The Demiurge encased the human form in flesh to disctract it from it's true spiritual nature and then
placed the form in the realm of matter "earth" to further shield it from the true nature of the universe.
Because of the imprisonment of the material form, and banishment to the physical realm, The masculine
and feminine aspects of the first human being "split" or "decoupled" into the physical aspects of "Male"
and "Female". The Male and Female aspects of the human being were called "Adam" and "Lilith". They
were placed in a physical paradise designed to serve as a controled environment and prison for them.
Adam and Lilith began to fight. Lilith refuses to be subservant to Adam and calls upon The Demiurge to
be removed from her slavery to Adam. Lilith abandons her physical form and leaves Eden. Then Adam
was then alone in Eden.
 The Demiurge causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep and removes his Spirit to fasion Eve from it.
Sophia and The Holy Spirit again felt pity, and gave to Eve the gift of the luminous afterthought, which is
called "Zoe" or "Life". And they lived and in Eden for some time. The Demiurge and The Authorities were
enamoured and jealous of Eve, and made attempts to defile her. Sophia mystically entered the serpent,
and by tempting them to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil, taught Adam and Eve about their source,
informing them that they were ultimately of holy origin and not mere slaves of the The Demiurge. Adam
and Eve were then evicted from Paradise for acquiring knowledge or "Gnosis", The Demiurge and his
Authorities sent them to the world we live in now, a grim arena of distraction and toil. No longer could
they play, explore and imagine as they had in the Garden; instead, they would be occupied by worldly
affairs instead of the Holy Spirit.

Act IV - Early Human History

After thier expulstion from Eden, Adam was stricken with grief and would not be with Eve, and they
stayed apart. During this time The Demiurge visited Eve and defiled her, fathering Abel (a just son) and
Cain (an unjust son). Sexual intercourse origionated from the Demiurge and has remained. He sowed the
seed of desire and procreation became an act of corruption. Also during this time Lilith came to visit
Adam and defiled him, and thier union resulted in the "demons" which Lilith birthed. The Demiurge gave
Adam and Eve the waters of forgetfulness so that they may not be reminded of thier nature and begin
to populate the earth. Cain slays Abel, and is cursed to a life of exile. Afterwards Eve gives birth to Seth.
Cain's line are human souls who are forever hidden from Gnosis. Through Seth's line are those human
souls which are capable of Gnosis.

Seth's decendants were becoming wiser and better. Envious and spiteful, The Demiurge and his
Authorites decided to punish mankind with a terrible flood. Noah is told by The Demiurge to build an
ark. Noah's wife, Norea, is the daughter of Eve and a knower of hidden things. Possessing more wisdom
than her husband, she tries to dissuade her husband from collaborating with the schemes of The
Demiurge, and ends up burning down the ark which Noah had built. The Demiurge and his dark angels
then surround Norea and intend to punish Norea by raping her. Norea defends herself by refuting
various false claims they make. Ultimately she cries out for help to the true God, who sends the golden
Angel Eleleth, who saves her from the attack of The Demiurge's dark servants, and also teaches her
regarding her origins and promises her that her descendants will continue to possess the true gnosis.

Man is just a means to and end, and one The Demiurge's objectives is the perpetual separation of
humans from the unity (God). In the cosmos, space and time have a malevolent characteristic and may
be personified as demonic beings separating man from God. Mankind may be personified as Adam, who
lies in the spiritual deep sleep of ignorance, his powers of spiritual self-awareness stupefied by
materiality and gender. For man, the universe is a vast prison. He is enslaved both by the physical laws
of nature and by such moral laws as the Mosaic code. Earthly life is filled with suffering. In order to
nourish themselves, all forms of life consume each other, thereby visiting pain, fear, and death upon one
another (even herbivorous animals live by destroying the life of plants). In addition, so-called natural
catastrophes -- earthquakes, floods, fires, drought, volcanic eruptions -- bring further suffering and
death in their wake. Human beings, with their complex physiology and psychology, are aware not only of
these painful features of earthly existence. They also suffer from the frequent recognition that they are
strangers or aliens living in a world that is flawed and absurd. Human nature mirrors the duality found in
the higher universe. The human being is a spritual soul trapped in a prison of flesh. The being which The
Demiurge has created has both a Spirit (capacity for spiritual consciousness) and a Soul (the
embodiment of the emotional and thinking functions of the personality). The human being is a
composite, the outer aspect being the handiwork of the inferior creator, while the inner aspect has the
character of a fallen spark of the ultimate divine unity. In this way, Man is a crude copy or clone of a
truly spritual being clothed within the inferior building blocks of a material body.

Act V - Subsequent Human History

The fallen sparks of transcendental holiness slumber in their material and mental prison, their self-
awareness stupefied by forces of materiality, physicality, gender and mind. The slumbering sparks have
not been abandoned by the ultimate unity of the True God, rather there is a constant effort that is
directed toward their awakening and liberation. Among the helpers of the slumbering sparks a particular
position of honor and importance belongs to Sophia. She was involved in the creation of the world and
ever since remained the guide of her orphaned human children.

The awakening of the inmost divine essence in humans is effected by salvific knowledge. That is,
having the power or desire to bring salvation. This is called Gnosis. Gnosis is not brought about by belief,
or the performance of virtuous deeds, or by obedience to commandments, for these can at best but
serve as preparatory circumstances leading toward liberating knowledge. Gnosis is achieved when the
Spirit (capacity for spiritual consciousness) and Soul (the embodiment of the emotional and thinking
functions of the personality) are united. Before the awakening, men undergo troubled dreams. Man
does not attain the knowledge that awakens him from these dreams by cognition but through revelatory
experience, and this knowledge is not information but a modification of the sensate being. The
awakening (i.e., the salvation) of any individual is a cosmic event.

From the earliest times of history, messengers of light have been sent forth from the ultimate unity.
The task of these messengers has ever been the advancement of Gnosis in the souls of humans. The
greatest of these messengers in our historical and geographical matrix was the descended Logos of God,
manifesting in Jesus Christ. Jesus exercised a twofold ministry: He was a teacher, imparting instruction
concerning the way of Gnosis, and he was a hierophant, imparting mysteries. The mysteries imparted by
Jesus (which are also known as sacraments) are mighty aids toward Gnosis and have been entrusted by
him to his apostles and to their successors. By way of the spiritual practice of the mysteries (sacraments)
and by a relentless and uncompromising striving for Gnosis, humans can steadily advance toward
liberation from all confinement, material and otherwise. The ultimate objective of this process of
liberation is the achievement of salvific knowledge and with it freedom from embodied existence and
return to the ultimate unity.