Gnostic cosmogenesis continued
Dec. 10th, 2002 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaThe Valentinian teaching described thirty aions at the heart of the cosmos-mind -- what is typically called the Pleroma, or "fullness," of God. Bentley Layton uses the word "entirety." The Pleroma could be imagined as the whole of potentiality, but there is also a sense that it is more of a "totality-generating machine" than the totality itself, like a template or blueprint for all of what could be and could happen.
It is also explicitly stated that the Pleroma exists in stillness and equilibrium, like a perfect crystal. This is its largest contrast with the material creation.
At the heart of the Pleroma are eight aions: The Root (Proarche), Silence, and Intellect have already been described. The Root and Silence also bring forth Truth. Intellect and Truth bring forth the Word (Logos) and Life (Zoe). The Word and Life bring forth Human Being (Anthropos) and Fellowship (Ekklesia).
I want to continue my metaphorical examination of this myth as instruction regarding meditation -- although, like all good metaphors, this is not the only way to read the myth. Myths are powerful because of the myriad and unexpected ways in which they contribute to our understanding of the cosmos.
The Root "seeds" the Silence of the mystic with seeds that bloom into Proper-Mind and Truth. When the mystic uses the new Intellect to contemplate the Truth she now perceives, she is able to discern sacred words and right way of life that help to communicate these truths to others. Through these "holy" words and actions, the mystic is able to draw people into fellowship with one another and with God -- to unite humanity with fellowship.
While critics of the Gnostic teaching have taken the aions to be gods, there is no indication that they were worshipped, prayed to, invoked, or that there was any belief in them as deities. The Valentinians professed the same creeds as mainstream Christians. Even though they were able to largely avoid persecution by participating in the minimal civic pagan practices required of all residents in the Roman Empire, there is no indication that they were polytheists. There is much though to indicate the opposite, that they believed all the aions to be "masks" (or personae) of one God, whose ineffable nature prevents a single characterization.
The Pleroma depicts God as "folded upon itself." Imagine a single person wearing different masks in order to play all the roles in a single drama, running back and forth and switching masks when depicting conversations. Love scenes would be really interesting! But some modern theories suggest that the matter in the universe is really spacetime folded upon itself in certain ways -- just as other modern theories suggest that perhaps all observers in the unverse accomplish the same work as a single omnipresent observer who can see all.
Interestingly, the Gnostic cosmogenesis pre-echoes another modern discovery -- the role of disequilibrium in the evolution of complex forms from simple forms. Sophia ("Wisdom") is described as the 30th aion -- the one who is farthest from Proarche. Her desire to comprehend more closely the nature of Proarche, to achieve a higher Gnosis, is what upset the careful balance of the Pleroma. It is said that her desire was cast apart from her -- she was split in half, one half remaining in the Pleroma, and the other half cast in darkness outside it. This is reminiscent of course of the Greek myth of Persephone, forced to spend half a year with Hades in Tartarus, and able to live the other half "above ground."
The things of nature seek equilibrium. They will tolerate some deviation from it, but deviation from equilibrium provides momentum. Thus the further one gets from the Proarche, the larger the inherent momentum. A critical point is reached, though, where the elements of a system are too far from equilibrium to continue pursuing a state of rest. They will seek instead a new kind of equilibrium, which is when things get really interesting. Once the critical point is reached, the system will undergo a dramatic and sudden change to a much more complex state. The complex state will find its own equilibrium.
The Gnostics appear to have understood this in the workings of nature, because the Pleroma is greatly transformed by its brush with disequilibrium. The drama that is material creation, and its inherent need for "salvation," arise from it.
It is also explicitly stated that the Pleroma exists in stillness and equilibrium, like a perfect crystal. This is its largest contrast with the material creation.
At the heart of the Pleroma are eight aions: The Root (Proarche), Silence, and Intellect have already been described. The Root and Silence also bring forth Truth. Intellect and Truth bring forth the Word (Logos) and Life (Zoe). The Word and Life bring forth Human Being (Anthropos) and Fellowship (Ekklesia).
I want to continue my metaphorical examination of this myth as instruction regarding meditation -- although, like all good metaphors, this is not the only way to read the myth. Myths are powerful because of the myriad and unexpected ways in which they contribute to our understanding of the cosmos.
The Root "seeds" the Silence of the mystic with seeds that bloom into Proper-Mind and Truth. When the mystic uses the new Intellect to contemplate the Truth she now perceives, she is able to discern sacred words and right way of life that help to communicate these truths to others. Through these "holy" words and actions, the mystic is able to draw people into fellowship with one another and with God -- to unite humanity with fellowship.
While critics of the Gnostic teaching have taken the aions to be gods, there is no indication that they were worshipped, prayed to, invoked, or that there was any belief in them as deities. The Valentinians professed the same creeds as mainstream Christians. Even though they were able to largely avoid persecution by participating in the minimal civic pagan practices required of all residents in the Roman Empire, there is no indication that they were polytheists. There is much though to indicate the opposite, that they believed all the aions to be "masks" (or personae) of one God, whose ineffable nature prevents a single characterization.
The Pleroma depicts God as "folded upon itself." Imagine a single person wearing different masks in order to play all the roles in a single drama, running back and forth and switching masks when depicting conversations. Love scenes would be really interesting! But some modern theories suggest that the matter in the universe is really spacetime folded upon itself in certain ways -- just as other modern theories suggest that perhaps all observers in the unverse accomplish the same work as a single omnipresent observer who can see all.
Interestingly, the Gnostic cosmogenesis pre-echoes another modern discovery -- the role of disequilibrium in the evolution of complex forms from simple forms. Sophia ("Wisdom") is described as the 30th aion -- the one who is farthest from Proarche. Her desire to comprehend more closely the nature of Proarche, to achieve a higher Gnosis, is what upset the careful balance of the Pleroma. It is said that her desire was cast apart from her -- she was split in half, one half remaining in the Pleroma, and the other half cast in darkness outside it. This is reminiscent of course of the Greek myth of Persephone, forced to spend half a year with Hades in Tartarus, and able to live the other half "above ground."
The things of nature seek equilibrium. They will tolerate some deviation from it, but deviation from equilibrium provides momentum. Thus the further one gets from the Proarche, the larger the inherent momentum. A critical point is reached, though, where the elements of a system are too far from equilibrium to continue pursuing a state of rest. They will seek instead a new kind of equilibrium, which is when things get really interesting. Once the critical point is reached, the system will undergo a dramatic and sudden change to a much more complex state. The complex state will find its own equilibrium.
The Gnostics appear to have understood this in the workings of nature, because the Pleroma is greatly transformed by its brush with disequilibrium. The drama that is material creation, and its inherent need for "salvation," arise from it.
