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sophiaserpentiaUnlike the Jewish and Christian traditions with which the Gnostic tradition is historically associated, the Gnostics placed a strong emphasis on the female aspects of divine presence. In fact, it is not unreasonable to imagine that the Gnostic emphasis on divine femininity is in part a response to the lack thereof in the Jewish and Christian tradition. It also reflects the influence on Gnosticism of Hellenic and Egyptian mythology and mysticism.
It is not quite accurate to call divine female figures in Gnostic myths "goddesses," since they do not appear to have been specifically the object of worship. Nor is there much to demonstrate that the Gnostics thought of them as anything but mythical or metaphorical figures. They shall herein be refered to as aions, since they were apparently thought of as infinite facets of a multifaceted godhead.
Female aions play important roles in the disruption of the Pleroma and the consequent creation of the material world, and in the process of reconciliation of the material world with the Pleroma.
Whereas the Proarche or divine "Root of All" or Father was described as ineffable and transcendent of all movement and distinction, the divine Pleroma ("fullness") was depicted using a set of 30 aions ("age/realm/infinity") of which 15 were "male aspects" and 15 were "female aspects." In their perfect state, the aions were united into 15 androgynous beings called syzygies.
To understand the relationship between the aions in the Pleroma and the Gnostic idea of divinity, consider that each aion in the Pleroma was described as a letter in the Name of Christ. Further, the aions are said to be components or facets of the personality of Christ.
The configuration of aions in syzygies reflects the Platonic myth (cf. Symposium) of gender as an expression of divided un-wholeness. A syzygy is more than just a pair of things that go together; the elements of a syzygy are perfect and reciprocal mates; for example according to Liddell's lexicon the word could refer to a pair of stars so arranged that as one sets the other rises.
This is important because the imbalance of the material world is depicted as the result of what one being, the aion Sophia ("Wisdom"), attempted to do on her own, without the participation of her husband, Theletos ("Ordained" or "Wished-For"). Sophia, who is the 30th Aion in the Pleroma and thus in a way the "farthest" from the Proarche (the Root of All or "Father"), wished to be closer to the Father and it is this desire for gnosis that was said to have created a dilemma or disruption within the Pleroma by moving things out of balance.
The solution was to remove the unbalanced part of Sophia, her desire, and cast it out of the Pleroma into a void (the Kenoma). This unbalanced part of Sophia is a separate being in her own right, unlike the aion Sophia who, after this "exorcism," returned to her rightful place in the Pleroma. The fallen or lower Sophia is refered to in places as "Sophia Achamoth."
It was within the Kenoma that the Demiurge created the Cosmos. Here is where there is some divergence between the Gnostic sects. The Sethian sect who wrote Pistis Sophia, for example, describe the archons as users and abusers who tricked the lower Sophia into letting them use her creative force to fashion the cosmos. The Valentinian sect described in the Hypostasis of the Archons Sophia as the inspiration for the fashioning of the cosmos and the first humans, later coming to dwell within the clay human figures fashioned by the archons.
Both views reflect the depiction of Wisdom in the late Jewish Wisdom literature, such as the description of Wisdom (Hokmah) in Proverbs, chapter 8, as a demiurgic figure who participated in the creation along with God.
Either way, Sophia Achamoth is the spiritual or pneumatic presence within us that still yearns for reconciliation with the Father.
In some places Sophia Achamoth is refered to as Sophia Prunikos ("Wisdom-Whore"). Christian and Jewish lore both have a special role for the "reformed prostitute;" the Prophet Hosea was ordered by God to marry a whore; legend (not scripture) has it that this was also the profession of Mary Magdalene; and Helen, the wife of proto-Gnostic Simon Magus, was reportedly a whore before her redemption. Other Gnostic texts speak of attempts by archons (some successful, some thwarted) to rape or defile Sophia.
This is a vivid metaphor for the concept of salvation despite lasciviousness; mystical marriage as the salvation of the human soul (called by Gnostics the "Mystery of the Bridal Chamber") was described in The Exegesis on the Soul and in the Gospel of Philip. Christ is called "the bridegroom" and an ancient tradition holds that the Church is collectively the bride of Christ. Since the Pleroma dwells within Christ, the marriage of fallen Sophia and Christ is a metaphor for the reconciliation, into a single syzygy, of the Pleroma and the cosmos: a salvation not just of a select few, but eventually of all things -- the apokatastasis of Gregory of Nyssa.
The first woman, Eve, plays a special role in Gnostic theology as well. Like Adam, Eve takes on super-human or semi-divine characteristics in Gnostic myth. The authors of On the Origin Of the World claim that it is Eve who was the narrator of the haunting "The Thunder: Perfect Mind," a stirring and vivid hymn which depicts the trials of a feminine divine-figure.
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gnosticism
It is not quite accurate to call divine female figures in Gnostic myths "goddesses," since they do not appear to have been specifically the object of worship. Nor is there much to demonstrate that the Gnostics thought of them as anything but mythical or metaphorical figures. They shall herein be refered to as aions, since they were apparently thought of as infinite facets of a multifaceted godhead.
Female aions play important roles in the disruption of the Pleroma and the consequent creation of the material world, and in the process of reconciliation of the material world with the Pleroma.
Whereas the Proarche or divine "Root of All" or Father was described as ineffable and transcendent of all movement and distinction, the divine Pleroma ("fullness") was depicted using a set of 30 aions ("age/realm/infinity") of which 15 were "male aspects" and 15 were "female aspects." In their perfect state, the aions were united into 15 androgynous beings called syzygies.
To understand the relationship between the aions in the Pleroma and the Gnostic idea of divinity, consider that each aion in the Pleroma was described as a letter in the Name of Christ. Further, the aions are said to be components or facets of the personality of Christ.
The configuration of aions in syzygies reflects the Platonic myth (cf. Symposium) of gender as an expression of divided un-wholeness. A syzygy is more than just a pair of things that go together; the elements of a syzygy are perfect and reciprocal mates; for example according to Liddell's lexicon the word could refer to a pair of stars so arranged that as one sets the other rises.
This is important because the imbalance of the material world is depicted as the result of what one being, the aion Sophia ("Wisdom"), attempted to do on her own, without the participation of her husband, Theletos ("Ordained" or "Wished-For"). Sophia, who is the 30th Aion in the Pleroma and thus in a way the "farthest" from the Proarche (the Root of All or "Father"), wished to be closer to the Father and it is this desire for gnosis that was said to have created a dilemma or disruption within the Pleroma by moving things out of balance.
The solution was to remove the unbalanced part of Sophia, her desire, and cast it out of the Pleroma into a void (the Kenoma). This unbalanced part of Sophia is a separate being in her own right, unlike the aion Sophia who, after this "exorcism," returned to her rightful place in the Pleroma. The fallen or lower Sophia is refered to in places as "Sophia Achamoth."
It was within the Kenoma that the Demiurge created the Cosmos. Here is where there is some divergence between the Gnostic sects. The Sethian sect who wrote Pistis Sophia, for example, describe the archons as users and abusers who tricked the lower Sophia into letting them use her creative force to fashion the cosmos. The Valentinian sect described in the Hypostasis of the Archons Sophia as the inspiration for the fashioning of the cosmos and the first humans, later coming to dwell within the clay human figures fashioned by the archons.
Both views reflect the depiction of Wisdom in the late Jewish Wisdom literature, such as the description of Wisdom (Hokmah) in Proverbs, chapter 8, as a demiurgic figure who participated in the creation along with God.
Either way, Sophia Achamoth is the spiritual or pneumatic presence within us that still yearns for reconciliation with the Father.
In some places Sophia Achamoth is refered to as Sophia Prunikos ("Wisdom-Whore"). Christian and Jewish lore both have a special role for the "reformed prostitute;" the Prophet Hosea was ordered by God to marry a whore; legend (not scripture) has it that this was also the profession of Mary Magdalene; and Helen, the wife of proto-Gnostic Simon Magus, was reportedly a whore before her redemption. Other Gnostic texts speak of attempts by archons (some successful, some thwarted) to rape or defile Sophia.
This is a vivid metaphor for the concept of salvation despite lasciviousness; mystical marriage as the salvation of the human soul (called by Gnostics the "Mystery of the Bridal Chamber") was described in The Exegesis on the Soul and in the Gospel of Philip. Christ is called "the bridegroom" and an ancient tradition holds that the Church is collectively the bride of Christ. Since the Pleroma dwells within Christ, the marriage of fallen Sophia and Christ is a metaphor for the reconciliation, into a single syzygy, of the Pleroma and the cosmos: a salvation not just of a select few, but eventually of all things -- the apokatastasis of Gregory of Nyssa.
The first woman, Eve, plays a special role in Gnostic theology as well. Like Adam, Eve takes on super-human or semi-divine characteristics in Gnostic myth. The authors of On the Origin Of the World claim that it is Eve who was the narrator of the haunting "The Thunder: Perfect Mind," a stirring and vivid hymn which depicts the trials of a feminine divine-figure.
crossposting to my journal and crossposting to
gnosticism
