An emailed comment brought up something I feel silly for having missed. Some abuse survivors describe being dissociated from their bodies during rape or abuse -- as if they were outside of their bodies watching from above or outside. This is described explicitly in the Hypostasis of the Archons and it further convinces me that Hyp. Arch. was written by a person who was struggling to make sense of abuse she experienced, and to put it in a context that would help her to transcend it.