The Gnostic Lucifer

Gnosis

First off, what does "Gnostic" mean? The term Gnostic refers to someone seeking "Gnosis". Gnosis is the Greek word for Knowledge. It refers to direct experiential knowledge of divinity. While Gnosticism is not strictly Christian, the manner in which it will be discussed on this site lends itself quite well to Christian symbolism. Also, the form of religious ceremonial which the author has received training and ordination in is similar in many ways to the Catholic Eucharist (aka Mass.) The Roman Catholic Church is the religion in which the author was raised and it has had quite an impact on his spirituality. Therefore, it is useful to make a brief note comparing the Gnostic tradition with the two most prominent forms of Christianity. In Protestant theology, salvation comes to those with Faith. All you have to do is accept Jesus as your Lord and Master and have Faith that he died for your sins and you are guaranteed a place in Heaven. In Roman Catholicism, Faith is important, but you must back it up with Action if you are to have any chance of entering the Kingdom of God. In Gnosticism, Faith and Good Works are only stepping stones to Gnosis. Gnostics, in general, feel that "salvation" is gained through directly Knowing God. This relates to the Merkava tradition in mystical Judaism. The goal of the Merkava practice was to ascend through the various heavens (giving certain passwords and signs to gain entrance) until you reached the Throne of God and looked directly at the Face of God. Ezekiel is believed to have been a mystic from this tradition. The apocryphal books attributed to Enoch also appear to belong to this style of mysticism.

The Demi-Urge

The typical Gnostic cosmologies include an entity they call the "Demi-Urge," who is the creator and ruler of the physical world. The term Archon (pronounced AR-kon) means "Ruler" and refer to the helpers of the Demi-Urge (who is the Chief Archon.) Although the Demi-Urge is the creator and ruler of the physical plane, he is not the God Most High (GMH). Sometimes he is named Samael, which means "Blinded of God" because he thinks himself to be the highest god. Included in these Gnostic cosmologies is a being who is a reflection or image (which implies Light) of the GMH. The Demi-Urge sees this image of a God higher them himself and gets scared. He binds this reflection (which is an entity unto itself, often called "Adam Kadmon" in Qabalistic literature) into his physical creation in an attempt to gain control over it. This was all part of the big plan (which involves a feminine character called Sophia, which I won't go into detail about in this introductory article.) The image of GMH was shown to the Demi-Urge with the knowledge of what would happen. The reasoning behind this plan was that this image of GMH had power over the Demi-Urge. When this image remembered itself, it would overthrow the Demi-Urge from below and establish the Kingdom of God in the physical plane as it was above the realm of the Demi-Urge. According to this cosmology, the Demi-Urge either created the physical universe in a flawed manner, or that he damaged the physical plane when he uttered, "There is no God before me!" In all versions, the Demi-Urge endeavors to keep us ignorant in order to maintain control over us.

Prison Planet?

One notable version of this Gnostic cosmology states that we are to escape this prison. It states that when we die, our spirit rises through the planes in an attempt to reunite with GMH. On the way there it gets trapped by the Demi-Urge and Archons, stripped of it's memories and sent back down into matter. The way out of this is to attain Gnosis, which will endow the Gnostic with the Knowledge that she or he has the power to overcome these Archons and how to do it. This is similar to popular Buddhist thought, where the object is to escape the physical plane of existence. In Tibetan Buddhism, they call this Liberation Through Clear Seeing in the Bardo (Bardo is the "in-between" state after physical death.) However, in Buddhism we can also see a parallel to the earlier mentioned Gnostic goal of overcoming the Demi-Urge not to escape the physical world, but to perfect/repair it. This comes in the form of the Bodhisattva ideal and in the perfect city of Shambhala...

To read the rest of this article, visit my website at:
http://www.jeremycrow.com/informal.html

If you enjoyed this topic, also check out this public lecture I gave in Toronto on the meaning of Lucifer: