http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/Gnosticism

Due to the influence that Gnosticism has had on popular media and Christianity itself in recent decades, an examination of the basic beliefs of the Gnostic worldview would be helpful.

Core beliefs

Gnosticism at no point constituted a monolith, but rather a wide variety of sects, schools, and even religions from a rough period of history (between the first and third centuries AD, with some exceptions) that maintained an at least vaguely similar set of beliefs. These beliefs can be synthesized into four points:

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The material world, that is, the universe we perceive through our senses, is not the true manifestation of existence. Instead, it is a prison, a trap, a dream, an illusion or even a torture chamber made of gross matter that is meant either intentionally or unintentionally to keep us here.

Beyond the material world there is a dimension of non-material existence, often called the Pleroma. This is the place where true existence lies, usually considered to be in a timeless, thoughtless state analogous to the Buddhist experience of Nirvana. If there is a creator god, this is where it resides in, along with its godly light and possible offspring.

Human existence is a mixture of both dimensions. Gnosticism postulates humans were originally spiritual beings or sparks of divine light from the Pleroma who got trapped in the material universe, forming the combination of soul and body we are, and who must endeavor to free themselves and their kin from the misery of matter.

Advertisement: There's only a way to escape the material world and return to the Pleroma, and it is gnosis, that is, a specialized form of experiential knowledge that comes to a human being when they recognize the universe as being a prison. Gnosis usually entails both demonstrating love and compassion and striving to escape from materialism.

Gnostic mythology

Gnosticism was both a religious and an intellectual movement, which pretty much guaranteed the developing of an elaborated, multiculturally-influenced mythology. Although there were dominant currents that codified most of it, most specifically those called Syriac-Egyptian Gnosticism, different groups would hold doctrines that mixed-and-matched or varied from the below list in their own ways. Gnosticism was also highly syncretic, tending to merge with any other religious school it came into contact with, creating a new Gnostic sect of that religion or forming a new religion altogether.

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Gnostic beliefs were dualistic as often as monistic. The former entailed believing in a balance of forces of spirit and matter, a concept loosely similar to the Yin-Yang where the force that ruled the physical world (the "bad" God) was as old and powerful as the force that ruled the spiritual plane (the "good" God). The latter, on the other hand, believed matter and its evil ruler to be an accidental subproduct of spirit and its divine creator, thus inferior to them.

In many Gnostic sects, the "good" God receives the name of the Monad, also known as The One or The Absolute. It is the high source of the Pleroma and its divine light, is hermaphroditic (or asexual) and omnipotent, and goes often accompanied by a pantheon of emanations or minor deities called the Aeons. These are often separated in male and female and gathered in pairs called syzygies, although some texts give also a hermaphroditic aeon named Barbelo as the first and father of all them, inferior only to the Monad.

The most distant aeon from the Monad, a female entity named Sophia (Greek for "wisdom"), fell into error. Some versions say that she tried to emanate a universe without her male counterpart (Sometimes called Theletus, sometimes it was Jesus), others say that she tried to take on the mind of the source in its entirety. Whatever the reason, she fell out of communion with the rest of the aeons and became trapped in the primordial material universe. Some say that Sophia was destroyed and her remnants would become human souls. In any case, although she evokes the figure of Lucifer or a Fallen Angel in role, it's firmly established that Sophia is not evil, neither in intention nor in actions, but rather a victim of herself who is now working for humanity's good and her own atonement.

On the other hand, there is evil in the Gnostic universe. From the matter that solidified out of Sophia's divine power, a false god (the "bad" one) was born, known as the Demiurge or Yaldabaoth, the Gnostic equivalent of Azathoth. The Demiurge then creates the physical universe, which is isolated from the higher dimensions above and elects himself as its ruler. He's accompanied by a myriad of created servants called the Archons, which are identified as the angels and demons of the Old Testament. Some sects specify the archons are actually only six and are rulers of six celestial bodies, with the Demiurge being the seventh and ruling the Earth.

The reason why suffering and evil exist in this world is because it is actually governed by this flawed Demiurge who mistakenly believes himself to be the absolute God and demands arrogantly to be worshipped as such. This is the deity worshiped by many Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam and others) who are materialistic, vicious and not in possession of true spiritual wisdom. He is, thus, analogous to Mahabrahma in Hinduism and some forms of Buddhism, who also mistakenly believes himself to be the ultimate authority while the rest of the gods snigger behind his back. In any case, the Demiurge and his archons manipulate humanity into violence and misery to feed themselves and further their egotistical projects.

There are many versions about how humans came to be. Some say the Demiurge originally created a bunch of soulless apes out of matter, and that Sophia took pity on them and breathed sparks from the Pleroma into them, trapping the sparks in their material bodies but also giving the bodies the capacity for intelligence, hence the evolution of humanity. Others say that the sparks were the destroyed remnants of Sophia herself, imprisoned and tortured by the Demiurge. Sometimes it is considered a reinterpretation of the story of Genesis, with Sophia herself as an equivalent to the serpent or the Tree of Knowledge (her name implies that role) who gave intelligence and souls to the ignorant animals that then became mankind.

Despite the fundamentally anti-Abrahamic nature of Gnosticism, Jesus has a free pass in their teachings, as he's described as come to Earth to spread the Gospel of the True God, which explains the discrepancy between the Old and New Testaments. Their beliefs about his nature varied radically: some believed he was fully divine and his physical form just an illusion, while some believed he was a divine being who temporarily inhabited a human shell and was "freed" at death. Anyways, to show how important he was in their beliefs, he was often considered to be an aeon by itself, sometimes the intended counterpart of Sophia who came too late. With the true knowledge of the universe he imparted, others could hope to achieve freedom from the Demiurge's clutches.

History

It is difficult even to tell where Gnosticism came from, as there is so little information on it. Much of what we know about the Gnostics is fairly fragmentary-few of their original works survive to this day. Furthermore, much of what we have learned about the Gnostics comes from early Christian writings which were critical and/or derisive of these perceived "heretics." Gnosticism was also highly secretive, being practiced mostly by elites who had the leisure time necessary to contemplate its mysteries.

That said, scholarship agrees that Gnosticism was an eclectic mixture of beliefs. It is safe to say that early/primitive Christianity codified most of its basis and that Hellenic currents like Platonism and Stoicism surely had a hand on it, but it might have been spiced up by esoteric Judaic mystic teachings, and considering by that time there was already influence of Asian religions flowing over into the Western world, this has to be counted on too. That goes without mentioning the doctrines that were influenced by Gnosticism and the latter's own revival movements in later ages. Although it is largely (though not fully) extinct today, remnants of Gnosticism can still be found in multiple facets of history and religion.

In comparison with other ancient religions, Gnosticism didn't permeate modern popular culture until relatively recently. When it did, it was largely thanks to one of the mentioned revivals, medieval Catharism, due to its role in some historical conspiration theories about Christianity (most notably Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and the cultural phenom surrounding it). Additionally, some more or less popular pieces of fiction (like The Matrix, Philip K. Dick's works and some selected anime series) would include more essential Gnostic influences in order to achieve a certain philosophic premise. Otherwise, it remains a comparatively obscure historical curiosity.

Gnostic scripture

Because the Gnostics had largely died off as a movement during the Middle Ages, there was no one to preserve their texts through reproduction, and many of their texts were lost through time. Until the 1950s, most of what was known about the Gnostic religion as it flourished in ancient times came from the writings of its detractors-such as St. Irenaeus of Lyons, who wrote a five-volume work Against Heresies in AD 180, explaining what the Gnostics believed and why it conflicted with Christianity. That is, until a remarkable event took place in the Egyptian desert. Two brothers digging for fertilizer in a cave on their way to avenge their father's murder discovered an earthenware jar that contained an ancient book. Before realizing its value, some of the text was used for kindling by the family, but they eventually realized its age and sold it to a collector in Cairo. The manuscripts were split up and traded all over the world. Amazingly, the recovered manuscript contained dozens of books written in Coptic that were still in legible condition. Take a look over here if you'd like to read English translations of the Coptic texts yourself. Standouts include:

The Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene

The Hypostasis of the Archons

On the Origin of the World

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

Subtypes

Simonian

A second-century sect that regarded Simon Magus (the supposedly Evil Sorcerer that butted heads with St. Peter) as its founder. It is believed to have been a syncretic Jewish cult, originally built around John the Baptist, that turned towards Simon and Gnosticism when Christianity became the latest trend, creating in the process a philosophy similar to an earlier form of Valentinianism. They taught about a version of Sophia called Ennoia, a creation of God who had created many angels herself, only for them to rebel against her and create the world to imprison her. There she would have been forced to reincarnate in many female figures through history to receive cosmic Slut-Shaming until God himself descended in the form of Simon to save both her (incarnated in a human named Helena) and mankind.

Cerinthian

A sect founded by Cerinthus (50-100 AD), an early Jewish Christian who learned supposedly angelic secrets in Egypt and opposed the Four Evangelists. He was the first to speak about a world-creating Demiurge and a spirit-like Christ, though he did not consider the former to be evil, but merely ignorant of the true God. His movement ended up becoming more of a curiosity, as it did not seem to have offshoots or direct relation to the posterior Gnostic schools, but it would be influential enough at his day for St. John to write his first epistles only to teach Christians not to follow Cerinthus.

Marcionite

Founded in the 2nd century by Marcion of Sinope (85-160 AD), possibly a disciple to the Simonian Cerdo , Marcionism was a Christian dualist sect. Like the previous, it is not always considered a full-fledged Gnostic movement, as it lacked the Hellenistic flavor of its successors and didn't teach about any kind of gnosis yet, postulating instead that the key to salvation was in the Gospel of Paul. However, its system of beliefs was otherwise almost identical to mainstream Gnosticism, to the point it could be considered just a very Christianized form of it. It might have also helped the figure of Paul the Apostle to become a fan favorite for posterior Gnostics, cementing a recurrent idea that he was unknowingly or secretly one of them.

Valentinian

This tradition was founded in the early 2nd century by Valentinius of Alexandria (100-160 AD), a former Christian bishop who almost became Pope. This and the Sethian sect (which are called together Syriac-Egyptian) pretty much codified the philosophical corpus and popular perception of Gnosticism altogether, their doctrine composing most of what you just read about the Aeons and the Demiurge in the mythology above. However, unlike other Gnostic schools, Valentinianism was deeply optimistic and preached universal salvation of all sentient beings; according to it, even the malevolent Demiurge will eventually be rescued from his ignorance, as all things containing the spark of creation are inexorably moving towards redemption. This school had a European offshoot founded by Valentinus's apprentice, Marcus , in which Gnosticism was mixed with Pythagorean mathematics for extra Mind Screw

Sethian

The other great classic Gnostic tradition, the Sethian school was contemporaneous to the Valentinian, Basilidean, and Marcionite, but it actually descended from older Hellenistic Jewish traditions that might have predated Christianity and Gnosticism themselves. Sethianism told a Darker and Edgier version of the classic story, portraying the Demiurge and his archons as eviler and more monstrous and downplaying Christ's role as savior of humanity in favor of Seth (Adams third son) and Edens serpent, who are agents of Sophia. Naassenes and Ophites, two smaller and weirder Gnostic sects that also venerated the serpent, are thought to be forms or offshoots of Sethianism.

Basilidean

This sect was founded by Basilides of Alexandria , disciple to either the Simonian Menander or a Christian named Glaucias. They apparently believed the universe was created with a war between innocent angels/archons, among which an arrogant Great Archon created the world believing himself to be a god. Unlike other schools, Basilideans believed this conflict had already ended and the Great Archon had already redeemed himself; only the world itself was left in need of enlightening, so Jesus would have been sent by the true God as a spirit inhabiting a body to teach about it. This school was quite secretive, but it was known for practicing elaborate rituals and magic invocations, as well as for introducing the deity name Abrasax or Abraxas (though whether this was a name for the Great Archon or the true God remains unknown).

Manichaean

Founded in the 3rd century by Persian prophet Mani (216274 AD), who was influenced by Zoroastrianism and possibly a former Valentinian named Bardaisan , Manichaeism was a wildly popular religion heavily influenced and based in Gnosticism along with the aforementioned Zoroastrianism as well as Christianity and even Buddhism. So much, in fact, that it covered from Rome to China, contended with Christianity for the spiritual control of Asia Minor and the successor to paganism, and only disappeared when Christianity, Islam, and the Chinese religions ganged up on it from all sides. Its doctrine postulated humanity and the universe were created during a series of battles (or "creations", in a multiple sense) between God and Satan, who would have been actually two opposing and non-omnipotent twin deities. Manichaeans believed matter was mostly neutral instead of evil by itself, but it had been used by Satan to trap sparks of God's light in Adam and his sons, so Jesus Christ and Mani (as well as Zoroaster and Buddha) had been sent to teach them to get free through gnosis.

Mandaean

A religion that still lives today in Iraq, Mandaeans have a blurred history, but their set of beliefs is essentially a localized mixture of Gnostic doctrines (to the point that manda is the word for gnosis in Aramaic). They resemble Manichaeism due to the belief in two opposing dimensions of light and darkness, showing also some monistic flavor by teaching that matter belongs to the dark side, but they differ from most sects by clarifying that the material world, while certainly created and ruled by evil gods (not one, but three  Ptahil, Yushamin, and Abathur), is not an evil prison, but more of a boring waiting room. They also believe John the Baptist was the true prophet sent by the good god, with Jesus Christ being either evil or simply misguided.

Paulician

A Gnostic school created around 650 by Constantine of Samosata . Paulicians were often mistaken for an offshoot of Manichaeism, but this was actually a Berserk Button for them, as they looked down at Mani and his Pagan eclecticism due to Paulicianism's strong Christian heritage (a rather hypocritical sentiment, as Paulicians themselves, rejected many Christian symbols and doctrines themselves). Although they resembled Manichaeans by teaching that there were two opposing deities, the Good Spirit and the Evil Spirit, they ascribed the creation of the material world exclusively to the latter, and thus believed matter was an evil trap Jesus Christ had been chosen (not sent, but chosen, as an "adoptive" son of God) to preach against. Paulicians were theologically tough: their sect survived through History in diminutive communities, and it seems there were some vestigial forms until 19th Century before merging back with Christianity.

The first Gnostic revival movement in the Middle Ages was Bogomilism was created in the 10th century Bulgary (probably influenced by Paulicianism and Marcionism) as a current of both political and religious anarchism, which was finally eradicated in the 13th century by both the Pope and the Ottoman Empire. It was followed by Catharism (from Greek "pure", although it seems they called themselves "Good Men" or "Good Christians" rather than any other title), the second great Gnostic revival school, came to Southern Europe in the 12th century from Bogomilian roots. Cathars became highly influential in France and amassed a fair amount of wealth, castles, and prestige, which eventually made the Catholic Church feel threatened . So, the usual campaign of book burning and priest killing was embarked upon with the usual devastating consequences. Still, the legacy of Catharism lived on, turning through centuries into a fountain of legends and (pseudo)historical theories.

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