The Gnosticism expresses through medium of myths. Most Gnostic scriptures are myths. The language is poetic and imaginative, therefore some interpretations exist. All agree the Demiurge entrapped the Spirit in the Matter with important consequences for humans.
Gnosticism begins with fundamental recognition that earthly life is filled with suffering. In order to nourish themselves, all forms of life consume each other, thereby pain, fear, and death upon one another. The humans suffer in this violent world that does not make much sense. The Gnostic myths blame the Demiurge for this situation.
The Gnostic God concept is more subtle than that of most religions. The ultimate and transcendent True God is beyond all created universes.
He or It “emanated” from within the substance off all there is in all the worlds, visible and invisible. It is true to say that all is God for all consists of the God’ substance. Some of divine essence had been projected so far from their original source that it changed in the process. All myths refer to Aeons as intermediate beings who exist between the ultimate True God and us.
One of the Aeon beings, Sophia (Wisdom) is of great importance to the Gnostic. Sophia emanated from her a flowed consciousness. The fruit of her desire was something imperfect and different from her. She was ashamed of it and threw it outside of the heavenly realm. This “child” was unaware of his origins and become the Demiurge or “half-maker”.
Demiurge was the creator of the material and psychic cosmos. He created all in the image of his own flow. In doing this the Gnostic believed the Demiurge entrapped the Spirit in the Matter. This is the root cause of the corrupt state of the earthly world.
Despite the humankind contains a perishable physical and psychic component; the spiritual component is a fragment of the divine essence this is the “divine spark” within.
Humans are generally ignorant of the divine spark resident within them. Death releases the divine spark from its lowly prison, but if there has not been a substantial work of Gnosis undertaken by the soul prior to death, it becomes likely that the divine spark will go back into the slavery of physical world.
Not all humans are spiritual prepared for Gnosis. Some are earth bounded, materialistic beings who recognize only the physical reality. Others live largely in their mind (psychics). Such people mistake the Demiurge for the True God and have no awareness of the spiritual world beyond matter and mind.
Gnostic disagreed with the theory the man was sinful by nature, but believed man erred through ignorance; by knowledge man could correct his ways and gain salvation. The special knowledge “Gnosis” was an intuitive or reflexive type of knowledge as one might gain in the study of man’ inner self or soul.
They called this Gnosis or Illuminated Logos because it led to man’ salvation. The Gnosis is the knowledge of transcendence arrived at by the way of inner intuitive experience.
The principal teacher of Gnosis was Jesus; who did not come from the Demiurge but directly from God and the Holy Spirit. The Gnostic claimed Jesus taught them secret knowledge which he did not share with the general congregation of the Church.
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