Way of the Hermit
Way of the Hermit discusses the Western Esoteric Tradition of Freemasonry, mysticism, Hermetic lore and more. E-mail: info@wayofthehermit.com.
Way of the Hermit
S2E7: The Secret Gospel of John - Part 2
In this episode, David and Gene continue their exploration of the Secret Gospel of John, delving into its complex cosmology and comparing it with Neoplatonic philosophy. They review the discussion from the previous episode that detailed the first phases the evolution of consciousness through the emanations of (1) the Monad (pure undifferentiated consciousness - will), (2) Barbelo (first reflection - thought), and (3) Christ/Autogenes (self-generated awareness - life).
They draw parallels between ancient spiritual concepts and contemporary neuroscience, and discuss how these concepts relate to the modern understanding of consciousness and psychological development. The conversation explores the emergence of the Four Lights from Autogenes and their correspondence to the Four Worlds of Kabbalah, representing different levels of consciousness from spiritual to physical.
This text for this episode focuses on the dramatic turn in the narrative with the appearance of Sophia of the Epinoia and her creation of the Demiurge - a lion-faced serpent representing primal consciousness without higher reasoning. The text details how this "blind idiot god, born of chaos" creates the Archons (rulers) in an attempt to mirror the higher realms, resulting in a distorted reflection of divine patterns that governs the material world.
In this episode, David and Gene (as always) weave together insights from various esoteric traditions, including Masonry, Kabbalah, Hermeticism, alchemy, and Christian Gnosticism, showing how these ancient texts are intended as grimoires or textbooks, detailing sophisticated models for understanding consciousness and human psychological development.
Deep Dive:
Chapters:
- 01:15 Introduction
- 02:29 Review
- 05:32 Neoplatonism
- 10:38 Autogenes
- 14:03 The Four Lights
- 19:06 Pigera-Adamas
- 22:24 Sophia Epinoia
- 25:52 The Demiurge
- 29:09 The Archons
- 33:53 A Jealous God
- 36:52 Conclusions
Resources:
- MiddleChamber.org - Symposium on Masonic Esoterica
- The Nag Hammadi Scriptures
- The Apocryphon of John - Frederick Wisse Translation
- Gnosis.org - The Gnosis Archive
- The Red Book: A Reader's Edition by Carl Jung
00:00 Introduction
Gene: Hey Dave. How’s it goin’?
David: I’m doing alright Gene. How are you doing?
Gene: I’ll be better after a bit more coffee
David: I’m with you on that!
Gene: But I’m doing good.
David: Good. Before we get stared I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!
Gene: Yes. And didn’t we start our podcast on a Halloween?
David: Yes we did. Our very first podcast was on Halloween… three long years ago. But anyway, before we get started, I want to remind everyone that Show Notes, Chapter Markers, and Transcripts for all of our episode are available on our website - WayOfTheHermit.com. And I also wanted say a few things about the 7th Annual Symposium on Masonic Esoterica, that we attended last week.
Gene: Yeah. It was great. It’s always good to see and talk to all those guys.
David: Oh yeah. The talks were great, but I expected that, given who the speakers were.
Gene: Me, too, but I thought the round-table discussion following the presentations, was fantastic.
David: I thought so, too.
Gene: And, they did video the entire symposium, so there should be a DVD available at some point.
David: Right. And I’ve linked to the [MiddleChamber.org](http://MiddleChamber.org) website in the Show Notes for more details.
01:14 Review
David: So, in the last episode, we started discussing the Secret Gospel of John.
Gene: AKA, the Secret Book, or Revelation of John, or the Apocryphon of John.
David: That’s right. All of those are names are for the same book. We also discussed how these Gnostic texts are understood to be about the development and evolution of consciousness.
Gene: And that the creation stories are about the creation of our individual world, our microcosm, our little world.
David: Right. And they describe a process we’ve all undergone, but forgotten, or didn’t have the capacity for remembering. So, with that understanding, Gene would you catch us up on the story so far?
Gene: Sure. The setting of the story is after the death of Jesus. And his beloved disciple John has withdrawn into the desert, full of doubts, because Jesus died without revealing the esoteric meaning of his teachings. John enters a visionary state, and a triple-aspected being appears to him and begins teaching him these mysteries.
David: And last time, the text described three main figures - the Monad, Barbelo and Christ.
Gene: Which form the Gnostic Trinity for the Secret Gospel of John.
David: Yes. And to review what we talked about in the last episode, the Monad is the unnamable unity, the source of everything. And in terms of consciousness, it represents undifferentiated consciousness, pure potential. Which is what you might call, the soil, out of which human consciousness evolves.
Gene: And the first power to evolve was called Barbelo, and I’ll just read part of a selection here from the text. It says - “And his thought performed a deed and she came forth… She is the forethought of the All - her light shines like his light… The first power, the glory of Barbelo… she became the womb of everything, for it is she who is prior to them all, the Mother-Father, the first man, the holy Spirit, the thrice-male, the thrice-powerful, the thrice-named androgynous one…”
David: And I’ll read a quote about the “Immaculate Conception,” it says - "And he (the Monad) looked at Barbelo with the pure light which surrounds the invisible Spirit, and (with) his spark, and she conceived from him… This was an only-begotten child of the Mother-Father which had come forth; it is the only offspring, the only-begotten one of the Father, the pure Light.” This was the “Anointed One”, the Christos. And that’s about where we ended last time.
Gene: Right. And we ended last time on this statement - "And it (Christ) requested to give it a fellow worker, which is the mind, and he (the Monad) consented gladly. And when the invisible Spirit had consented, the mind came forth, and it attended Christ, glorifying him and Barbelo. And all these came into being in silence.”
04:17 Neoplatonism
David: Alright. So, that catches us up.
Gene: It does. So, we counted 1, 2, 3… and maybe to 4? If you count the mind as four?
David: That’s a good summary. The Monad is the One, unity. Barbelo is the first reflection, duality, two. Then Christ forms the trinity, as the One becomes aware of its awareness, a first glimmer of self-awareness. And then, like you said the mind starts to evolve with the powers we talked about last time serving as its archetypal framework.
Gene: Do you want to talk a little about Neoplatonism this time?
David: Yeah, I think we need to. Neoplatonism was founded by Plotinus (or Plot-tynus), who lived in the 3rd century of the common era.
Gene: So, he was a contemporary of the Gnostics, or at least of the concepts in the Gnostic texts.
David: Yes, but there were big differences, the first being complexity. The Neoplatonic system of emanations is simple, there are only four. They also start with Unity, which they call “The One”, pure consciousness or pure thought. Then there is Nous, duality, which they identify as “thought, thinking itself.” Then Psyche or Soul, which has an upper part connected to the One and a lower part connected to the final emanation - the Material World. So, it’s also counting 1, 2, 3, 4.
Gene: But, it also stops there. As we’re going to see as we go on, the Secret Book of John, starts off counting 1, 2, 3, 4… and then - boom! It goes to 4000!
David: Well…
Gene: No, it’s not really that many.
David: Yeah, I know.
Gene: But it does name literally hundreds of spirits and powers.
David: It does. But, you have to remember that this was based on an oral tradition. There was no printing press. Copies of the text were rare, and created by hand.
Gene: Yeah.
David: So, people would memorize these. Think about what it would be like to have to go through each of those names, and remember its place and function in the hierarchy. It amounts to deep meditations on all aspects of your consciousness, from pure thought, all the way down to all of the mind-body connections.
Gene: Right. Later in the text, it actually does name spirits of 365 body parts.
David: But, what’s important is not all the individual names, at least not for our purposes. What is important is what it implies about those function of consciousness. It’s showing how they all fit together in a hierarchy.
Gene: And they also turn it all into a story, with characters like in Macbeth, or some divine soap opera. That was another criticism of Gnosticism by the Neoplatonists. They said that these forces were all good, that the drama isn’t really there, and that by introducing that sort of storytelling, people would get confused - which they did.
David: Yeah. People still think of them as literature, as either fiction or non-fiction, but not as a textbook to work through, which is what it really is.
Gene: So, why do you think the Gnostics wrote that way then, with all the cosmic drama and complexity? Why not just pure mathematical precision and simplicity - you know, 1, 2, 3, 4 and done, like in the Neoplatonic philosophy?
David: I think it’s two different points of view, from above and from below. From above, from a “God’s Eye” perspective, if you will, it’s simple, mathematical. At that level, stars and planets are created and destroyed, there’s no angst. It’s just the laws of physics and nature.
Gene: Just another planet being cleared out along the cosmic superhighway. “Hitchhiker’s Guide”.
David: Yeah. But, it doesn’t look so clean and mathematical from below, from our point of view. It actually does matter if it’s your planet that’s being destroyed then.
Gene: Grab your towel!
David: Right. So, the Gnostic texts show what our consciousness looks like from our point of view, as questioning beings looking upwards for the patterns behind our conscious awareness, which is what all those complex hierarchies are - layers of mental functionality. But, the Neoplatonists just sort of waved their hands and said that all of the archetypes, the Platonic Forms, are in the Nous. They didn’t break that down, like the Gnostics tried to do.
Gene: So, are these Gnostic hierarchies what Jung called the “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious?”
David: Yes, I think so. They are meant to be an attempt to define the patterns that underlie thought and consciousness.
Gene: So, do you want to hear my 50-cent summary of Gnosticism and Neoplatonism?
David: Sure.
Gene: Neoplatonism is a “pie in the sky” philosophy, but Gnosticism gets “down in the dirt”. It tells it like it feels to us, down here in our little world, our microcosm. Where things do feel dramatic!
09:23 Autogenes
David: They do, much of the time. So, where we ended last time was with the birth of Christ, which the text goes on to call, Autogenes.
Gene: I thought that was pretty interesting, the word “autogenes.” “Genes” means “born” or “produced” so it means "self-generated" or "self-created.” It’s life perpetuating itself.
David: And a good symbol for that process, which we’ve talked about before, is the Ouroboros, the serpent swallowing it’s own tail. Because life, as a whole system, perpetuates and consumes itself.
Gene: Yeah. Life feeds on death.
David: It’s also the life of the mind, the circulation, our stream of consciousness, perpetuating and consuming itself.
Gene: I like the Eckhart Tolle quote - "You do not have a life, you are life itself.”
David: I like that, too. And, another thing before we move on, Autogenes is the bridge between the upper and lower worlds. It’s still connected to the One, the divine source, but it also participates in the lower worlds of manifestation, ruling over the Mind which emerges out of it.
Gene: I’ve got a quote about that. It says that “the mind wanted to perform a deed through the word of the invisible Spirit. And his will became a deed and it appeared with the mind; and the light glorified it. And the word followed the will. For because of the word, Christ the divine Autogenes created everything.”
David: It’s interesting here that before this, it said that everything had been created in silence. From this point on though, it is the Word, Christ, Autogenes, who is responsible for the rest of creation. It says that he has a quote-unquote “mighty voice.”
Gene: Which sounds like the Logos in the regular Gospel of John. Everything is made through the Word, or in this case the “mighty voice” of the Autogenes.
David: And that passage lays out a progression of Will, the Monad, producing Thought, Barbelo, which spawns the Autogenes, which is Life. And out of that trinity, the mind arises. Autogenes represents archetypal self-awareness - aware of separateness, but still connected to the source.
Gene: And, that trinity lays out the basic pattern of all creation. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. It’s three things producing a fourth through their interaction. The Tetragrammaton man.
David: Yeah. And speaking of the divine name, here’s another quote from that section - “And he subjected to him (the Autogenes) every authority, and the truth which is in him, that he may know the All which had been called with a name exalted above every name. For that name will be mentioned to those who are worthy of it.”
Gene: That sounds familiar.
David: It does. And to be clear, the reason this name is a mystery isn’t because the letters of the name, or the way you pronounce it, are not known. The reason it’s a mystery is because of what it means.
Gene: You can only know its meaning if you discover it within yourself. Or at least, get as close to knowing its meaning, as you are capable of knowing.
David: That would be the extent that you know yourself - what actually makes you tick.
Gene: Right. What makes us all tick.
12:47 The Four Lights
David: Right. And that is what the next section begins to describe, the mechanisms underlying our consciousness and perception. It says - “through the gift of the Spirit the four lights (appeared) from the divine Autogenes.”
Gene: Those correspond to the Four Worlds of Kabbalah and to the four subtle bodies of man, which in Kabbalah are called Chayah, the highest soul, associated with Atziluth, Neshamah, the divine soul in the world of Briah, the Ruach, the spirit or “wind” of Yetzirah, and the Nefesh, the animal spirit.
David: In the Western Esoteric Tradition, these are called the Spiritual, Mental, Astral and Etheric bodies. They relate to the four worlds that we live in - the worlds of Will, Emotions, Intellect and the physical world.
Gene: And the text goes on to make associations with the four worlds. The highest world, the first emanation of light, it associates with the angel Armozel and the quality of Grace. The second emanation is Perception, ruled over by Oriel. Daveitha is the angel of the third emanation and is associated with Understanding. And the fourth emanation is associated with Prudence and ruled over by the angel Eleleth. These are like the four archangels, or the four beasts around the throne, so to speak.
David: Yeah, those are important, because they relate to the overall structure of the psyche. The four worlds that we navigate, at the same time. It’s like in the Bible, the four beasts pulling Ezekiel’s chariot. All moving in their own directions, meaning their own dimensions, “without turning.”
Gene: Right. Because we can be active in all of those worlds at the same time. Like… we can will or want something, be excited about the possibility of getting it, be worried about not getting it, and be doing the laundry… all at the same time.
David: That’s how we’re organized, at a very basic level. Again, it relates to the “Four-Lettered Name.” That name is our spiritual DNA.
Gene: I like that.
David: And then, the next section relates to the three powers, will, thought, and life operating in each of the four worlds.
Gene: So is that basically like active, passive and transitioning between states? You know, like in alchemy - sulphur, salt and mercury?
David: I think it is. Its like three different modes of each subtle body. So, like in the example you gave - where you said you wanted something, so the Spiritual body, that’s concerned with will, is active. You also said that you were excited about it, so, the Mental body, concerned with emotions, is active. Then you said that you were worried, so the Astral body, the mind, is moving between things, so it’s transitional. And then, finally you said that you were also doing laundry, so the Etheric body is actively moving the body. So those four states form your overall state of being.
Gene: That makes sense.
David: The next part names those 12 different states. It describes 12 lights emerging, 3 in each of the 4 worlds, the three different modalities - active, passive and transitional. And I’ll just read off the lights, which are the 12 qualities of the mind being acquired - in the world of Will, there is grace, truth, and form. In the Mental world, we acquire conception, perception, and memory. In the Intellectual world we gain understanding, love, and idea. And in the physical world, there is perfection, peace, and wisdom.
Gene: I can see the active and passive thing in all of those. Like for the mind you have understanding, love and idea. Understanding is active because it’s a process. Love is fixed because its self-contained. And idea is something that can move between conceptions.
David: Yeah, all of those 12 lights are like that. You just have to think about it. The same scheme is reflected in the zodiac, where you have the four elemental signs in their cardinal, fixed and mutable aspects.
Gene: And the section on the Four Lights ends by saying - “These are the four lights which attend the divine Autogenes, (and) these are the twelve aeons which attend the son of the mighty one, the Autogenes, the Christ, through the will and the gift of the invisible Spirit. And the twelve aeons belong to the son of the Autogenes. And all things were established by the will of the holy Spirit through the Autogenes.”
David: So, it’s saying that these twelve lights, or capabilities, represent the full range of consciousness. They’re a system for representing how our will, emotions, thoughts, and actions find expression. They define the boundaries of our world. The limits of conscious experience.
Gene: And that’s why you find the same system of twelve powers, or categories, symbolized by the ecliptic constellations of the fixed stars, in cultures all around the world.
17:51 Pigera-Adamas
David: That’s right. The next passage discusses the appearance of the quote-unquote “perfect man,” who is the ruler of the first aeon, the highest world. It says - “And from the foreknowledge of the perfect mind, through the revelation of the will of the invisible Spirit and the will of the Autogenes, <the> perfect Man (appeared), the first revelation, and the truth. It is he whom the virginal Spirit called Pigera-Adamas…”
Gene: This “perfect man” is what’s called in Kabbalah, Adam Kadmon, the spiritual archetype of man, or really, all living things. It’s like our shared esoteric anatomy.
David: It’s the “image of god”, referred to in Genesis. And like you said, it’s the spiritual anatomy, all the way down from higher cognitive functions, like forethought, memory and understanding, which we’ve already touched on, all the way down to mind-body connections, how we move body parts, in other words, how we translate thoughts into actions.
Gene: Via angels and spirits.
David: That’s what they’re called here, because they’re not physical… of course they actually do have a physical basis as electro-chemical signals, but, the point is, they don’t have the same constraints as the physical world, at least apparently.
Gene: That’s funny, because the word “angel" comes from the Greek word “angelos,” which means "messenger.” So, they are the “carriers of messages” up and down the chain of command.
David: Angels or demons, psychopomps, or spirits, whatever term is used, they correspond to electro-chemical signaling chains and their functional structures, ultimately.
Gene: That’s cool.
David: It is. So, next, the text names the rulers of the four aeons or worlds, who rule alongside the four lights or angels we’ve already mentioned. Pigera-Adamas is the ruler of the first aeon, Seth rules the second, the “Seed of Seth” rules the third, and, the ruler of the fourth isn’t named.
Gene: But it says that “in the fourth aeon the souls were placed… those who do not know the Pleroma and who did not repent at once, but who persisted for a while and repented afterwards... These are creatures which glorify the invisible Spirit.” What do you think this means?
David: Well, it says that it’s all creatures, because they all “glorify the invisible Spirit,” whether they realize it or not. So, the worlds are, like we said, parts of spiritual anatomy - your energy body, mind, emotions, will. And the souls trapped in the lowest part, are people who either aren’t aware of, or don’t have control of the higher parts. Their minds operate out of the lower levels.
Gene: OK. Those that “don’t know the Pleroma.” They’re not aware of the spiritual world, or don’t have the capacity to comprehend it, or maybe just don’t believe in it.
David: Right. And by repentance, I think it means that you do come to believe in it, that you change your perspective, which leads you to discover higher truths about yourself and the world.
Gene: And then, hopefully, try to align your life with those higher truths.
David: Which would lead you out of the lowest level, stuck in just a world of materiality.
Gene: Back toward the light.
21:09 Sophia Epinoia
David: Yeah. So, all of that was about the organization of the highest world.
Gene: Ah… but, there’s trouble in paradise!
David: You could say that, the next passage says that “Sophia of the Epinoia, being an aeon, conceived a thought from herself and the conception of the invisible Spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth a likeness out of herself without the consent of the Spirit, … and without his consideration… And because of the invincible power which is in her, her thought did not remain idle, and something came out of her which was imperfect and different from her appearance, because she had created it without her consort. And it was dissimilar to the likeness of its mother, for it has another form.”
Gene: So, who is Sophia? I mean, I actually know from other Gnostic texts, but she hasn’t been mentioned yet, she’s just here now, and giving birth.
David: Yeah. That is strange. But I looked up the word “epinoia,” because it calls her “Sophia of the Epinoia,” and “epinoia” can mean a lot of things like thought, conception, intention… but the most interesting definition I found comes from comments on Aristotle, where it was used to mean the process of turning a mental image into a mental abstraction.
Gene: Interesting. So, is that referring to the ability to create and use symbols?
David: Yes, because that is what makes a mind. That circulation of symbols. Symbols, that can lead you up or lead you down. Meaning you can go up into more abstraction, or apply the symbols to a task, like writing, where you ground it into something concrete.
Gene: So, is Sophia an aspect of Barbelo?
David: Yes. She’s like the Daughter of Barbelo, because Barbelo is the first thought, and the Mother of All. But, with the birth of the Autogenes, the mind, it has its roots in the upper world, but it’s about to interact with the lower worlds. So, the power that Barbelo represents has two orientations, one that’s from above, the “god’s eye view”, you talked about earlier. From that perspective, Barbelo stays untouched, virginal… but, another aspect, Sophia, descends, she’s the fallen one, the aspect that gets “down in the dirt,” to use your terminology, the one that interacts with the lower worlds.
Gene: And, another important point is that Sophia decides to have a child on her own. She isn’t told to do it. It’s like the first independent thought, and the first inklings of separateness. Like when a child starts to realize that they are not their mother, that they’re separate, and start to act independently.
David: Yeah, the birth of ego-consciousness, or the point where individual consciousness begins to act on its own. And that’s a good analogy because when we first start to act independently, as a child, we do it without the full understanding of our actions, like Sophia acts without full alignment or understanding of the overall mechanism that she’s a part of.
Gene: Which leads to her… what shall we call it… her “Problem Child?”
24:36 The Demiurge
David: Oh yeah. The text says that “when she saw (the consequences of) her desire, it changed into a form of a lion-faced serpent. And its eyes were like lightning fires which flash. She cast it away from her, outside that place, that no one of the immortals might see it, for she had created it in ignorance. And she surrounded it with a luminous cloud, and she placed a throne in the middle of the cloud that no one might see it except the holy Spirit who is called the mother of the living (meaning Barbelo). And she called his name Yaltabaoth.”
Gene: A lion head attached to the body of a snake. That makes me think of a raging Freudian Id!
David: I think that’s what it is, it’s consciousness and a form, with no mind in-between. Like a snake is, just sort of like a living stomach. It lives to eat. So, the lion headed serpent is primal drives and impulses not held in check by any kind of higher reasoning or social conditioning.
Gene: Yeah. And another thing I wanted to mention about that quote. It reminds me of prophets, like Ezekiel and John. Their visions have glowing clouds, flashing fire and a throne in middle. And now that we’ve been talking about electro-chemical impulses, that’s how I’m seeing the flashing fire in the clouds, in my mind. Like a chain of neurons firing. You know, like the opening scene of “Fight Club.”
David: Yeah, that’s a cool sequence, but, just in terms of symbolism, the clouds represent the things that obscure the higher levels of consciousness from the lower. And the throne, represents a governing principle of that realm, the management function.
Gene: That makes sense. The next part says that the Demiurge has three names - Yaldabaoth, Saklas and Samael. So, there’s the triple-aspected thing again. This time in an unholy trinity.
David: That’s true. One interpretation of the name Yaldaboath is “Child of Chaos.”
Gene: And, when I hear the name Samael, I immediately think of the Christian Devil, because that’s a name associated with him.
David: Yeah, but Samael is usually translated as “Blind God,” which, in this case, refers to the Demiurge’s lack of ability to see the higher realms. And the last name, Saklas, means “fool,” which again is about the Demiurge’s ignorance of the forces above him.
Gene: So, combining all of those names, the Demiurge is the “Blind Idiot God Born of Chaos.”
David: And, I think that’s a good summary of what the Demiurge represents. The last part about the Demiurge says - “And he is impious in his arrogance which is in him. For he said, 'I am God and there is no other God beside me,' for he is ignorant of his strength, the place from which he had come.”
Gene: That’s Exodus 20 verse 5. But it begs a question, doesn’t it? What is there to be jealous of if there are no other gods? You know, he probably shouldn’t have said that. That may raise some eyebrows down the line.
27:54 The Archons
David: And you know it does. The next passage says that the Demiurge "is the first archon who took a great power from his mother. And he removed himself from her and moved away from the places in which he was born. He became strong and created for himself other aeons with a flame of the luminous fire which (still) exists now. And he joined with his arrogance which is in him and begot authorities for himself.”
Gene: The Archons.
David: Yes. Which means “rulers” or “kings,” and the Demiurge starts off by creating 12 of these authorities.
Gene: Which he does, in imitation of the 12 powers in the higher world, that we talked about - the four lights in their 3 modes.
David: Yes, but, it’s like a distorted reflection though, because he’s separated himself from the upper realms.
Gene: So, he’s a flawed, or at least a limited creator. He’s creating his own little kingdom, but from an unclear blueprint or plan.
David: Right. So, the Demiurge creates 12 Archons or rulers, basically for the same purposes that we discussed earlier, except now they’re within his personal realm. And then, the text says that he places 7 kings over the 7 firmaments of heaven, and 5 over the abyss.
Gene: So the 12 archons are divided into 7 rulers over the lower realm of the Demiurge, and 5 over gateway between his world, and the upper realm of Barbelo and the Monad?
David: I think so, even though a couple of the names are different, which I don’t want to go into but, it said earlier that Barbelo was still aware of the Demiurge, that she was the only one who Sophia couldn’t hide him from. So, I think the 5 that it says are over the abyss, are again, a reflection of the original 5 powers of Barbelo. That’s the gateway, or wormhole if you will, on the other side, in the upper realm.
Gene: I like that. So, again, it’s the Demiurge creating according to the divine image, but, taking credit for it, like he’s coming up with it.
David: Yes. It’s because, even though he thinks he’s separate, the divine pattern is embedded in him, too. The next section says that “he shared his fire with them (the archons), but he did not send forth from the power of the light which he had taken from his mother (Sophia), for he is ignorant darkness… And when the light had mixed with the darkness, it caused the darkness to shine. And when the darkness had mixed with the light, it darkened the light and it became neither light nor dark, but it became dim.”
Gene: It’s like the farther you get from the light the more it’s occluded, because it’s a mixed realm. There’s a self and an other, even though it’s unseen.
David: That’s right. But anyway, the text goes on to identify the archons with animals, it says that they have, the faces of a sheep, a donkey, a hyena, a serpent, a dragon, a monkey and a shining fire-face… which are all emblematic planetary associations.
Gene: And it associates those with the 7 days of the week.
David: It does, through the planets. I’ve made a table of all of the names and associations of the lights, powers, angels and spirits mentioned in the Secret Gospel of John. And I’ve put a link to that table of associations in the “Show Notes.” But ultimately, these 7 are associated with the 7 lower sephirah on the Tree of Life and the 7 lower points in tetractys, as we’ve discussed many times before.
Gene: Yeah, we have. But, just to recap, the 7 are supposed to form a complete whole, to encompass all the nuances or colors, like the way light refracts through a prism. Or in music, with the 7 notes of the musical scale.
David: Right. And then finally, in the text, the year is filled out with 52 angels for each of the 7 days of the week, giving a total of 365 angels. So, we’ve got 12 archons for the 12 months, 7 kings associated the days of the week, and an angel for every day. It’s like the Sepher Yetzirah says - the year is reflected in the soul.
Gene: It reflects the pattern of the heavens, the 12 zodiac signs, the 7 classical planets. It’s the world soul. The pattern of creation, but refracted sort of, because it’s in contact with the physical world of matter and time.
32:38 A Jealous God
David: Right. And Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge rules this lower world, the text says that “Yaltabaoth had a multitude of faces, more than all of (the Archons), so that he could put a face before all of them, according to his desire, when he is in (their midst). He shared his fire with them; therefore he became lord over them. Because of the power of the glory he possessed of his mother's light, he called himself God. And he did not obey the place from which he came. And he united the seven powers in his thought with the authorities which were with him. And when he spoke it happened.”
Gene: So the Demiurge is all of the possibilities of self-consciousness. All of the images that we can have of ourselves. All of the masks we wear.
David: Yes. Every possibility of self-consciousness that can be, but the outward expression of it is the ego. The mask that we present to the world.
Gene: Here presented as a false god, who believes that he’s the only one.
David: Right. And another important point is that it says “when he spoke it happened.” Before this, everything was created in silence.
Gene: A voice appears in your head. And when it speaks, things appear. Like I said last time - don’t think of a pink elephant!
David: Right. To think it is to create it in that realm. Anyway, I’ve only got one more quote I wanted to talk about today. It says - “And having created everything, he organized according to the model of the first aeons which had come into being, so that he might create them like the indestructible ones. Not because he had seen the indestructible ones, but the power in him, which he had taken from his mother, produced in him the likeness of the cosmos.”
Gene: That’s what we’ve been saying, the lower world is a somewhat warped reflection, of the architecture of heaven.
David: Yes.
Gene: And I have one more quote, too.
David: OK.
Gene: It says - “And when he saw the creation which surrounds him, and the multitude of the angels around him which had come forth from him, he said to them, 'I am a jealous God, and there is no other God beside me.' But by announcing this he indicated to the angels who attended him that there exists another God. For if there were no other one, of whom would he be jealous?”
David: Yeah. I think that this represents a turning point because it implies that there starts to be some awareness that the god you thought was the highest god, actually isn’t. And I’m not using god there in a religious sense, but I’m talking about the voice that you obey without question.
Gene: The one inside your head telling you it’s you.
David: Right. Do you have anything else?
Gene: Nope. That’s all for today.
35:37 Conclusions
David: Alright. Before we wrap things up, I want to remind everyone about the “Deep Dive” page I created for the Secret Gospel of John that goes into more detail on its relationship to Platonism and Neoplatonism. I’ve provided links to that page, and also to my ongoing breakdown of the spirits and angels in the text, in the podcast Show Notes. So Gene, what are your final thoughts?
Gene: I keep thinking about the Game of Go, and about how, in Go, you have to keep switching between two mindsets. Looking at the individual moves, in terms of position, and then, backing away, and looking at the whole board. If you get lost in the minutia, you get outmaneuvered, but if you don’t pay attention to direct conflict, then you lose your position.
David: That’s the two perspectives we talked about earlier - from above, the “bird’s eye” view, and from below, the nitty gritty, in the trenches view.
Gene: Exactly. But to bring it back around, to understand this material, that’s what I’m having to do. Look at it from a high level, the “big picture” view of it, you know, top down, structured, evolution of the mind. And, it’s cool. Very interesting. But, then I have to stop ask, “Hey… what is this even talking about?”
David: Yeah. You have to at least try to tie it back to something you know, to ground it, so it’s not just a fairy tale.
Gene: Right. So, I’m just saying that if I don’t keep doing that, switching out from the big picture view, and the “what does this mean to me” perspective, I get lost, and my eyes glaze over, and I realize that, you know, “Gene’s not here right now.”
David: Yeah. That’s a good point, and I have to do that, too.
Gene: What about you? What did it make you think about?
David: Mainly, does have to be this complicated?
Gene: Amen to that brother!
David: But I have to keep reminding myself, the original audience of these works was small, educated, mostly committed to a spiritual life, living in a monastery or a religious community. These are deep philosophical works, that were studied by people versed in philosophy and languages. Many of the books were written by people who had mystical experiences, that they felt gave them insights into things about their minds, and the world, that were then, and still are hidden from the vast majority of people. Not because, it’s not written down somewhere, but because it can’t be written down.
Gene: It can only be pointed at, because it’s an experience.
David: Right. For some people, I think that these books, looked at, and interpreted in the right way, can lead them to their own mystical insights or help guide their experiences. But, is it necessary to know all this stuff to have mystical insights? No.
Gene: No, but like you said, for people that have that interest, it can.
David: It can, but it can also be turned into something else. Just look at how these books have been interpreted, and misinterpreted over the years. Somehow, it’s easier to think of it as fairy tales about gods and demons, duking it out in the clouds. than the struggle that goes on inside of yourself. But anyway, it’s fascinating to get down into the nitty gritty details of this book, but man, it’s messy.
Gene: Yeah it is.
David: You do have to keep trying to tie it back to something you can relate to. It’s challenging to try to nail down what they’re actually talking about most of the time.
Gene: It is hard, but it’s worth it, just to make the attempt. It stretches your understanding of who you are, and what you can be.
David: It does. So Gene, what are we doing next time?
Gene: In the next episode, we continue our discussion of the Secret Gospel of John, with the story of creation of man.