1. Introduction

Gnosticism is a term coined for different Jewish and Christian sects (considered heretical by the Fathers of the Christian Church) that shared similar beliefs in which salvation was achieved mainly through secret and esoteric knowledge (Gnosis). Different systems coexisted, with no established homogeneous dogma or practices.

Most of the important preserved Gnostic texts can be found in the Nag Hammadi Library. The Pistis Sophia and the extensive comments of St. Irenaeus of Lyon in his Against Heresies are other important sources of Gnostic myth and beliefs.

Gnostic doctrines spread throughout the world via Manichaeism, while Mandaeism is the only currently surviving Gnostic religion.

Carl Jung was also influenced by Gnosticism through the works of G.R.S. Mead, a Theosophist and H.P. Blavatsky´s private secretary. Blavatsky herself discussed Gnosticism in her book Isis Unveiled²Goodrick-Clarke, Clare (2005). G.R.S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest. North Atlantic Books, p. 8., while her secretary published the first translation of the Pistis Sophia in Lucifer magazine.

Different modern more or less occult Neo-Gnostic groups exist today, with their teachings not always resembling the original ones (e.g., Samael Aun Weor, popular in South America, and his sexual method to unify the male/female polarity).

2. Main Metaphysical Beliefs of Gnosticism

a. Conception of God

Gnostic sects fluctuated between a more or less strict Dualism (e.g., Manichaeism)³The idea that Gnosticism was derived from Buddhism was first proposed by Charles William King (1864) [a]. Mansel (1875) [b] considered the principal sources of Gnosticism to be Platonism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.

[a] In his classic work, The Gnostics and their Remains (1864). Charles William King was one of the earliest and most emphatic scholars to link Gnosticism with Buddhism.

[b] H. L. Mansel (1875). Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries. p. 32. and Monism (e.g., Valentinian Gnosticism, Syrian–Egyptian traditions). The former affirms the existence of an ultimate reality formed by two equally divine entities or forces in conflict. The latter emphasizes that one of those entities, the evil or deficient one, is derived from the other, superior one.

In the second type of doctrinal systems, the superior principle is called the Monad, the One. Other historical names include the Absolute, Aion teleos (the Perfect Æon), Bythos (Depth or Profundity, Βυθος), Proarkhe (Before the Beginning, προαρχη) and HE Arkhe (The Beginning, ἡ ἀρχή).

Hippolytus of Rome, a Christian theologian, thought that the Gnostic view of God was inspired by Pythagoreanism, as they also called the first existent the Monad. For them, the One begat the two (dyad), the two begetting numbers, which begat the point, then lines, the whole of existence following.

“The Monad is a monarchy with nothing above it. It is he who exists as God
and Father of everything, the invisible One who is above everything, who exists as
incorruption, which is in the pure light into which no eye can look. “He is the invisible
Spirit, of whom it is not right to think of him as a god, or something similar. For he
is more than a god, since there is nothing above him, for no one lords it over him.
For he does not exist in something inferior to him, since everything exists in him.
For it is he who establishes himself. He is eternal, since he does not need anything.
For he is total perfection.”

― The Apocryphon of John⁴Wisse, Frederik. The Apocryphon of John. Also in The Nag Hammadi Library (1971). Brill., para. 6

b. On Creation

The Monad, according to Valentinus (whose teachings are the most influential in modern Neo-Gnosticism) is the source of the fullness of the attributes of the Godhead (Pleroma). In Gnostic cosmology, the Pleroma is a transcendent realm of divine light where Aeons (eternal beings) dwell.

Gnosticism adheres to the doctrine of Emanationism, with each Aeon or hypostasis that emerges from the One being progressively more imperfect as the distance from the source increases. Different systems talk of different numbers of emanations (e.g., thirty for Valentinus, three hundred and sixty-five for Basilides, hinting at the totality of time).

As in all systems that follow the doctrine of emanations, the final aim of the initiate is to eventually retrace the gradations of existence to go back to their source, the One.

The first emanated Aeon is, in some texts, the hermaphroditic Aeon Barbelo.⁷Wisse, Frederik. The Apocryphon of John. The Gnostic Society Library.⁸Turner, John D. Trimorphic Protennoia. The Gnostic Society Library.The following emanations are viewed, in turn, as composed of male-female pairings (Syzygies).⁹Turner, John D. The Pair (Syzygy) in Valentinian Thought. The Gnostic Society Library.

Christ was for the Gnostics one of these Aeons, his consort being Sophia, or Wisdom.¹⁰A Valentinian Exposition. The Gnostic Society Library.

c. On the Problem of Evil

As in all systems that believe in Emanationism, the lowest emanation is the most imperfect one. In the case of Gnosticism, this is the case of Sophia, often identified with the Greek Neo-Platonic concept of the World Soul.

In Gnostic creation myths, Sophia emanates by herself, without the involvement of her complementary counterpart. This act of ignorance or defiance results in the birth of the Demiurge (a concept already found in Plato and Neo-Pythagoreanism), concealed outside the Pleroma.¹¹Wisse, Frederik. The Apocryphon of John. The Gnostic Society Library. He is also called Yaldabaoth, Samael (the blind god), Saklas (the foolish one) or even identified with the God of the Old Testament (similar to the Christian heresy of Marcionism). The original flaw that led mankind to its exiled condition, therefore, is not found in creation but in an aspect of the Creator Himself (Sophia/Demiurge).

The Demiurge, finding himself alone and believing to be the highest deity, emanates the Archons (Rulers) and the material world, the last stages of the process of emanation that began with the One.

In general, the Demiurge was conceived as an ignorant and flawed figure at best, and as just plain evil at worst.

He was believed to be the creator of mankind, with humans containing trapped elements of Sophia in them. These trapped elements, being part of the fullness (Pleroma) of the One, implied that humans contain a fragment of God in them.¹³Layton, Bentley. The Hypostasis of the Archons. The Gnostic Society Library.

In some Gnostic creation myths, the response of the Godhead to this chain of events was to emanate two additional savior Aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Christ then embodied Jesus to teach humanity the way to attain the esoteric knowledge (Gnosis) of their hidden divinity in order for them to liberate themselves from this intrinsically fallen plane of existence they now live in.¹⁴Hoeller, Stephan A. The Gnostic World View: A Brief Summary of Gnosticism. The Gnostic Society.

Other Gnostic interpretations of who Jesus was included:

•  He was an enlightened human being and teacher of Gnosis.¹⁵The Gnostic Gospels. Frontline.

•  He was divine but His appearance in this world was illusory (heresy of Docetism).

•  He was a false Messiah who perverted the teachings of John the Baptist, the true teacher (for Mandaeism).¹⁶Macuch, Rudolf (1965). Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic. De Gruyter & Co, p. 61 fn. 105.

d. On Determinism and Free Will

The Gnostics believed that humanity was divided into three classes of people, with their ultimate destiny being more or less conditioned depending on their class:¹⁷339. Pagels, Elaine (1975). The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters. Trinity Press.

• Material (Hylic): the lowest type of humans who only care about the material aspects of life and, therefore, cannot be saved.

• Soulful (Psychic): the intermediate level, capable of achieving knowledge (Gnosis) and being saved depending on how they live.

• Spiritual (Pneumatic): the highest type of human being, unattached and unfettered by this material world. Destined to be saved by the intuitional knowledge obtained through the spark of Sophia present in them.

e. On Liberation from this Prison World

As the latest emanation created by the Demiurge, the physical world was believed to be the closest to darkness and non-existence. As we have previously seen, every time this dialectic between spirit and matter is part of a certain worldview, its path of liberation includes extreme ascetic measures in order to detach oneself from matter as much as possible, because it is conceived as intrinsically evil.

This was the case with most Gnostic sects (e.g., Cathars, meaning “the pure ones”; an ascetical variety of Gnosticism), who followed a strict ascetical life, especially in the sexual and dietary spheres.¹⁸Layton, Bentley (1987). The Gnostic Scriptures. Introduction to “Against Heresies” by St. Irenaeus. SCM Press. Others, however, apparently followed the contrary antinomian view that material actions had no effect whatsoever on their independent spiritual beings and were therefore allowed to reject the common moral law and, in some cases, even abuse matter (e.g., apparently the Borborites, a libertine variety of Gnosticism).

Liberation from confinement in this material prison world was thought to be achieved through the knowledge (not only the faith) that our true identity is a part of the One through the Holy Spark present in us.¹⁹Giversen, Søren; Petersen, Tage; Sørensen, Jørgen Podemann (2002). The Nag Hammadi Texts in the History of Religions. Det Kongelige Danske Vdenskabernes Selskab, p. 157. The Valentinians also believed that achieving this knowledge helped to restore the cosmic order itself.²⁰Holroyd, Stuart (1994). The Elements of Gnosticism. Dorset: Element Books Limited, p. 37.

Salvation was viewed as a cosmic process, not an individual one, achieved through the reabsorption of all the sparks into the Pleroma and the final annihilation of matter. The Gnostic path also included ritual practices and knowledge of the mystical names to use at the moment of death to pass through the detention stations of the rulers of this world. As St. Irenaeus stated²¹Ibid. i. 6, 4., the practice of constant meditation upon the secret of the heavenly union or Syzygia was a common one.²²Bousset, W. (1911). Valentinus and the Valentinians. Encyclopædia Britannica (Vol. 27), pp. 854–855.

3. Relationship of Gnosticism with Christianity, Neo-Platonism and Kabbalah

Even though some early Gnostics such as Valentinus saw themselves as Christians, their metaphysical doctrines were most of the time not only different from those of traditional Christianity but completely contrary to them. In later times, and especially in Neo-Gnosticism, an open confrontational attitude against Christianity predominates.

Gershom Scholem, the influential historian of Jewish philosophy and mysticism, in turn, affirmed the existence of an earlier Jewish Gnosticism that predated the Christian one.²⁸Cohen, Arthur A.; Mendes-Flohr, Paul (2009). 20th Century Jewish Religious Thought. Jewish Publication Society, p. 286:
“Recent research, however, has tended to emphasize that Judaism, rather than Persia, was a major origin of Gnosticism. Indeed, it appears increasingly evident that many of the newly published Gnostic texts were written in a context from which Jews were not absent. In some cases, indeed, a violent rejection of the Jewish God, or of Judaism, seems to stand at the basis of these texts. […] facie, various trends in Jewish thought and literature of the Second Commonwealth appear to have been potential factors in Gnostic origins.”²⁹Scholem, Gershom (1965). Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and the Talmudic Tradition. The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He also noted that several key Gnostic doctrines reappeared in medieval Kabbalah and were used to reinterpret earlier traditional sources. Scholem goes as far as claiming that even the Zohar, one of the most important medieval Kabbalistic texts, used Gnostic concepts to reinterpret the Jewish Bible (Torah).³⁰Scholem, Gershom (1987). Origins of the Kabbalah. Princeton University Press, pp. 21–22.

The influence of Orphism, Neo-Pythagoreanism and Platonism on Gnosticism have also been proposed,³¹Albrile, Ezio (2005), “Gnosticism: History of Study”, in Jones, Lindsay (ed.), MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religion. MacMillan, p. 3534.³²Pearson, Birger A. (1984). Gnosticism as Platonism: With Special Reference to Marsanes (NHC 10,1). The Harvard Theological Review. 77 (1): 55–72. but it is fair to note that Plotinus sharply criticized some of their doctrines, especially their view of the Demiurge as an evil tyrant.

Symbolism in Gnosticism: Gnostic or Sun Cross, serpent motifs and Abraxas/Yaldabaoth (lion-headed serpent) stones, representing the First Principle and the Demiurge, respectively.

Notes

1. Conner, Miguel (2016). Yes, the Gnostics Practiced Sex Rituals (get over it).
2. Goodrick-Clarke, Clare (2005). G.R.S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest. North Atlantic Books, p. 8.
3. The idea that Gnosticism was derived from Buddhism was first proposed by Charles William King (1864) [a]. Mansel (1875) [b] considered the principal sources of Gnosticism to be Platonism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.
   [a] In his classic work, The Gnostics and their Remains (1864). Charles William King was one of the earliest and most emphatic scholars to link Gnosticism with Buddhism.
   [b] H. L. Mansel (1875). Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries. p. 32.
4. Wisse, Frederik. The Apocryphon of John. Also in The Nag Hammadi Library (1971). Brill.
5. Matter, Jacques (1826). Plérome de Valentin, from Histoire critique du Gnosticisme; Vol. II, Plate II.
6. Bousset, Wilhelm (1911). “Valentinus and the Valentinians“. In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 852–857.
7. Wisse, Frederik. The Apocryphon of John. The Gnostic Society Library.
8. Turner, John D. Trimorphic Protennoia. The Gnostic Society Library.
9. Turner, John D. The Pair (Syzygy) in Valentinian Thought. The Gnostic Society Library.
10. A Valentinian Exposition. The Gnostic Society Library.
11. Wisse, Frederik. The Apocryphon of John. The Gnostic Society Library.
12. Litwa, M. David (2021). “The Donkey Deity”. The Evil Creator: Origins of an Early Christian Idea. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-756643-5. OCLC 1243261365. “We see this tradition recounted by several writers. Around 200 BCE, a man called Mnaseas (an Alexandrian originally from what is now southern Turkey), told a story of an Idumean (southern Palestinian) who entered the Judean temple and tore off the golden head of a pack ass from the inner sanctuary. This head was evidently attached to a body, whether human or donkey. The reader would have understood that the Jews (secretly) worshiped Yahweh as a donkey in the Jerusalem temple, since gold was characteristically used for cult statues of gods. Egyptians knew only one other deity in ass-like form: Seth.“
13. Layton, Bentley. The Hypostasis of the Archons. The Gnostic Society Library.
14. Hoeller, Stephan A. The Gnostic World View: A Brief Summary of Gnosticism. The Gnostic Society.
15. The Gnostic Gospels. Frontline.
16. Macuch, Rudolf (1965). Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic. De Gruyter & Co, p. 61 fn. 105.
17. Pagels, Elaine (1975). The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters. Trinity Press.
18. Layton, Bentley (1987). The Gnostic Scriptures. Introduction to “Against Heresies” by St. Irenaeus. SCM Press.
19. Giversen, Søren; Petersen, Tage; Sørensen, Jørgen Podemann (2002). The Nag Hammadi Texts in the History of Religions. Det Kongelige Danske Vdenskabernes Selskab, p. 157.
20. Holroyd, Stuart (1994). The Elements of Gnosticism. Dorset: Element Books Limited, p. 37.
21. Turner, Alice K. (1993). The History of Hell (1st ed.). United States: Harcourt Brace. p. 50.
22. Widengren, Geo. Mesopotamian elements in Manichaeism (King and Saviour II): Studies in Manichaean, Mandaean, and Syrian-gnostic religion, Lundequistska Bokhandeln, 1946.
23. Hopkins, Keith (July 2001). A World Full of Gods: The Strange Triumph of Christianity. New York: Plume. pp. 246, 263, 270.
24. Arendzen, John (1 October 1910). “Manichæism“. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: The Encyclopedia Press, Inc
25. Ibid. i. 6, 4.
26. Bousset, W. (1911). Valentinus and the Valentinians. Encyclopædia Britannica (Vol. 27), pp. 854–855.
27. Irenaeus, St. Against Heresies. i. 30.
28. Cohen, Arthur A.; Mendes-Flohr, Paul (2009). 20th Century Jewish Religious Thought. Jewish Publication Society, p. 286: “Recent research, however, has tended to emphasize that Judaism, rather than Persia, was a major origin of Gnosticism. Indeed, it appears increasingly evident that many of the newly published Gnostic texts were written in a context from which Jews were not absent. In some cases, indeed, a violent rejection of the Jewish God, or of Judaism, seems to stand at the basis of these texts. […] facie, various trends in Jewish thought and literature of the Second Commonwealth appear to have been potential factors in Gnostic origins.”
29. Scholem, Gershom (1965). Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and the Talmudic Tradition. The Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
30. Scholem, Gershom (1987). Origins of the Kabbalah. Princeton University Press, pp. 21–22.
31. Albrile, Ezio (2005), “Gnosticism: History of Study”, in Jones, Lindsay (ed.), MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religion. MacMillan, p. 3534.
32. Pearson, Birger A. (1984). Gnosticism as Platonism: With Special Reference to Marsanes (NHC 10,1). The Harvard Theological Review. 77 (1): 55–72.

Recommended Reading

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1. Against Heresies. St. Irenaeus of Lyon.
2. God, History, and Dialectic. Volume I. Joseph P. Farrell.
3. The Gnostic Gospels. Elaine Pagels.
4. The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity. Hans Jonas (bearing in mind that the title is a bit of a misnomer, since Gnosticism is incompatible with Christianity, even if it borrows the figure of Christ, and was not a unitary religion).
5. The Nag Hammadi Scriptures. Marvin W. Meyer.
   
   
   
   

• 1
  Conner, Miguel (2016). Yes, the Gnostics Practiced Sex Rituals (get over it).
• 2
  Goodrick-Clarke, Clare (2005). G.R.S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest. North Atlantic Books, p. 8.
• 3
  The idea that Gnosticism was derived from Buddhism was first proposed by Charles William King (1864) [a]. Mansel (1875) [b] considered the principal sources of Gnosticism to be Platonism, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.
  
  [a] In his classic work, The Gnostics and their Remains (1864). Charles William King was one of the earliest and most emphatic scholars to link Gnosticism with Buddhism.
  
  [b] H. L. Mansel (1875). Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries. p. 32.
• 4
  Wisse, Frederik. The Apocryphon of John. Also in The Nag Hammadi Library (1971). Brill.
• 5
  Matter, Jacques (1826). Plérome de Valentin, from Histoire critique du Gnosticisme; Vol. II, Plate II.
• 6
  Bousset, Wilhelm (1911). “Valentinus and the Valentinians“. In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 852–857.
• 7
  Wisse, Frederik. The Apocryphon of John. The Gnostic Society Library.
• 8
  Turner, John D. Trimorphic Protennoia. The Gnostic Society Library.
• 9
  Turner, John D. The Pair (Syzygy) in Valentinian Thought. The Gnostic Society Library.
• 10
  A Valentinian Exposition. The Gnostic Society Library.
• 11
  Wisse, Frederik. The Apocryphon of John. The Gnostic Society Library.
• 12
  Litwa, M. David (2021). “The Donkey Deity”. The Evil Creator: Origins of an Early Christian Idea. New York, NY: Oxford University Press: “We see this tradition recounted by several writers. Around 200 BCE, a man called Mnaseas (an Alexandrian originally from what is now southern Turkey), told a story of an Idumean (southern Palestinian) who entered the Judean temple and tore off the golden head of a pack ass from the inner sanctuary. This head was evidently attached to a body, whether human or donkey. The reader would have understood that the Jews (secretly) worshiped Yahweh as a donkey in the Jerusalem temple, since gold was characteristically used for cult statues of gods. Egyptians knew only one other deity in ass-like form: Seth.“
• 13
  Layton, Bentley. The Hypostasis of the Archons. The Gnostic Society Library.
• 14
  Hoeller, Stephan A. The Gnostic World View: A Brief Summary of Gnosticism. The Gnostic Society.
• 15
  The Gnostic Gospels. Frontline.
• 16
  Macuch, Rudolf (1965). Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic. De Gruyter & Co, p. 61 fn. 105.
• 17
  339. Pagels, Elaine (1975). The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters. Trinity Press.
• 18
  Layton, Bentley (1987). The Gnostic Scriptures. Introduction to “Against Heresies” by St. Irenaeus. SCM Press.
• 19
  Giversen, Søren; Petersen, Tage; Sørensen, Jørgen Podemann (2002). The Nag Hammadi Texts in the History of Religions. Det Kongelige Danske Vdenskabernes Selskab, p. 157.
• 20
  Holroyd, Stuart (1994). The Elements of Gnosticism. Dorset: Element Books Limited, p. 37.
• 21
  Ibid. i. 6, 4.
• 22
  Bousset, W. (1911). Valentinus and the Valentinians. Encyclopædia Britannica (Vol. 27), pp. 854–855.
• 23
  Turner, Alice K. (1993). The History of Hell (1st ed.). United States: Harcourt Brace. p. 50.
• 24
  Widengren, Geo. Mesopotamian elements in Manichaeism (King and Saviour II): Studies in Manichaean, Mandaean, and Syrian-gnostic religion, Lundequistska bokhandeln, 1946.
• 25
  Hopkins, Keith (July 2001). A World Full of Gods: The Strange Triumph of Christianity. New York: Plume. pp. 246, 263, 270.
• 26
  Arendzen, John (1 October 1910). “Manichæism“. The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: The Encyclopedia Press, Inc
• 27
  Irenaeus, St. Against Heresies. i. 30.
• 28
  Cohen, Arthur A.; Mendes-Flohr, Paul (2009). 20th Century Jewish Religious Thought. Jewish Publication Society, p. 286:
  “Recent research, however, has tended to emphasize that Judaism, rather than Persia, was a major origin of Gnosticism. Indeed, it appears increasingly evident that many of the newly published Gnostic texts were written in a context from which Jews were not absent. In some cases, indeed, a violent rejection of the Jewish God, or of Judaism, seems to stand at the basis of these texts. […] facie, various trends in Jewish thought and literature of the Second Commonwealth appear to have been potential factors in Gnostic origins.”
• 29
  Scholem, Gershom (1965). Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and the Talmudic Tradition. The Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
• 30
  Scholem, Gershom (1987). Origins of the Kabbalah. Princeton University Press, pp. 21–22.
• 31
  Albrile, Ezio (2005), “Gnosticism: History of Study”, in Jones, Lindsay (ed.), MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religion. MacMillan, p. 3534.
• 32
  Pearson, Birger A. (1984). Gnosticism as Platonism: With Special Reference to Marsanes (NHC 10,1). The Harvard Theological Review. 77 (1): 55–72.