Gnosticism: Ancient and modern

Beliefs & practices

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Gnostic beliefs:

The Nag Hummadi find revealed that there was a broad range of beliefs among the
various independent Gnostic systems or schools. However, the following points are
believed to be generally accurate throughout the movement:

Their Role: They believed that they alone truly understood Christ's message, and
that other streams of thought within Christianity had misinterpreted Jesus' mission
and sayings.
Gnosis: Knowledge to them was not an intellectual exercise; it was not a passive
understanding of some aspect of spirituality. Rather, knowledge had a redeeming
and liberating function that helped the individual break free of bondage to the
world.
Deity: The Supreme Father God or Supreme God of Truth is remote from human
affairs; he is unknowable and undetectable by human senses. She/he created a
series of supernatural but finite beings called Aeons. One of these was Sophia, a
virgin, who in turn gave birth to an defective, inferior Creator-God, also known as
the Demiurge. (Demiurge means "public craftsman" in Greek.) This lower God is
sometimes called Yaldabaoth or Ialdabaoth Jaldabaoth -- from Aramaic words
meaning "begetter of the Heavens." This is Jehovah, the God of the Hebrew
Scriptures (Old Testament). He is portrayed as the creator of the earth and its life
forms. He is viewed by Gnostics as fundamentally evil, jealous, rigid, lacking in
compassion, and prone to genocide. The Demiurge "thinks that he is supreme. His
pride and incompetence have resulted in the sorry state of the world as we know it,
and in the blind and ignorant condition of most of mankind."
Duality of spirit and body: Spirit is of divine origin and good; the body is
inherently earthly and evil. Gnostics were hostile to the physical world, to matter
and the human body. But they believed that trapped within some people's bodies
were the sparks of divinity or seeds of light that were supplied to humanity by
Sophia.
Salvation: A person attains salvation by learning secret knowledge of their spiritual
essence: a divine spark of light or spirit. They then have the opportunity to escape
from the prison of their bodies at death. Their soul can ascend to be reunited with
the Supreme God at the time of their death. Gnostics divided humanity into three
groups:
The spiritual, who would be saved irrespective of their behavior while on earth.
The Soulish, who could be saved if they followed the Gnostic path.
The carnal who are hopelessly lost.
Evil: They did not look upon the world as having been created perfectly and then
 having degenerated as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve. Rather the world was
seen as being evil at the time of its origin, because it had been created by an
inferior God.
Snake: Some Gnostic sects honored the snake. They did not view the snake as a
seducer who led the first couple into sinful behavior. Rather, they saw him/it as a
liberator who brought knowledge to Adam and Eve by convincing them to eat of the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and thus to become fully human.
Snake Symbol -- the Ouroboros: (a.k.a. Ourorboros, Oroborus, Uroboros or
Uroborus) This is:

"... an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and
forming a circle. It has been used to represent many things over the ages, but it most
generally symbolizes ideas of cyclicality, unity, or infinity. ... In Gnosticism, this
serpent symbolized eternity and the soul of the world. 1

Christ: The role of the redeemer in Gnostic belief is heavily debated at this time.
Gnostics seem to have looked upon Christ as a revealer or liberator, rather than a
savior or judge. His purpose was to spread knowledge which would free individuals
from the Demiurge's control and allow them to return to their spiritual home with the
Supreme God at death. Some Gnostic groups promoted Docetism, the belief that
Christ was pure spirit and only had a phantom body; Jesus just appeared to be
human to his followers. They reasoned that a true emissary from the Supreme God
could not have been overcome by the evil of the world, and to have suffered and
died. These beliefs were considered heresy by many non-Gnostic Christians.
Some Gnostics believed that Christ's resurrection occurred at or before Jesus'
death on the cross. They defined his resurrection as occurring when his spirit was
liberated from his body. Many Gnostics believed that Jesus had both male and
female disciples.
The Universe: This is divided into three kingdoms:

1. The "Earthly Cosmos": The earth is the center of the universe, and is
composed of the world that we know of and an underworld. It is surrounded
by air and by 7 concentric heavenly spheres: one for each of the Moon,
Venus, Mercury, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. (Although the planet
Uranus is visible to the naked eye, it was not recognized as a planet in
ancient times.) Within these spheres live demonic, tyrannical entities called
Archons. Beyond them lies Paradise which contains the "Tree of Life", the
"Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil", and the flaming, turning sword of
Genesis 3:24. Beyond Paradise was the sphere of the fixed stars, divided
into the 12 signs of the zodiac.
2. The "Intermediate Kingdom is composed of an inner blue circle of darkness
and an outer yellow ring of light. Within these rings is a sphere which is the
realm of Sophia.
3. The "Kingdom of God" consists of two spheres: an outer one of the
unknowable Supreme God, and inner ring of the Son.