Gnostics is a general name applied to early schools of speculators, which combined the fantastic notions of the oriental systems of religion with the ideas of the Greek philosophers and the doctrines of Christianity. They nearly all agreed on the points that God is incomprehensible; that matter is eternal and antagonistic to God; that creation is the work of the Demiurge, an emanation from the Supreme Deity, subordinate or opposed to God; and that the human nature of Christ was a mere deceptive appearance.
Certain forms of Gnosticism are mere adaptations of the Persian dualism to the solution of the problem of good and evil; while the pantheism of India seems to have been a pervading influence in others. Simon the magician (Simon Magus), of whom Luke speaks in the Acts of the Apostles, is generally looked on as the first of the Gnostics.
The dogmas of the earliest Gnostics may be reduced to the following heads: God, the highest intelligence, dwells at an infinite distance from this world, in the Abyss, removed from all connection with every work of temporal creation. He is the source of all good; matter, the crude, chaotic mass of which all things were made, is, like God, eternal, and is the source of all evil. From these two principles, before time commenced, emanated beings called aeons, which are described as divine spirits, inhabiting the Pleroma, or plenitude of light, which
surrounds the Abyss. The world and the human race were created out of matter by one aeon, the Demiurge, or, according to the later systems of the Gnostics, by several aeons and angels. The aeons made the bodies and the sensual soul of man of this matter; hence the origin of evil in man. God gave man the rational soul; hence the constant struggle of reason with sense. What are called gods by men (for instance, Jehovah, the God of the Jews) are merely such aeons or creators, under whose dominion man became more and more wicked and miserable. To destroy the power of these creators, and to free man from the power of matter, God sent the most exalted of all aeons, to which character Simon first made pretensions.
The Nicolaitans mentioned in the Revelation of St John, so called from Nicolas, a deacon of the church at Jerusalem, were one of the earliest sects, and are described as forerunners of the Cerinthians. Cerinthus, a Jew, of whom John the evangelist seems to have had some knowledge, combined such reveries with the doctrines of Christianity, and maintained that the most elevated aeon sent by God for the salvation of man, was Christ, who had descended upon Jesus, a Jew, in the form of a dove, and through him revealed the doctrines of Christianity, but before the crucifixion of Jesus separated from him, and at the resurrection of the dead will again be united with him, and lay the foundation of a kingdom of the most perfect earthly felicity, to continue 1000 years.
Carpocrates and the sect of the Ophites (beginning of the 2nd century), to whom the term Gnostic was first applied, saw in the Serpent a wise and good being, and carried to its extreme form the inversion of the biblical story. The later Gnostics have been divided into three schools. The first was the Syrian, founded by Menander, a pupil of Simon. This school emphasizes the conflict between Good and Evil - the Supreme Deity on the one hand, and the Demiurge and his angels or aeons on the other. The second was the school of Alexandria, represented by Basilides and Valentinus; the system of the latter being the most complete and ingenious of all. In that light or plenitude, which all the Gnostics speak of as surrounding the residence of the Supreme God, he has placed fifteen male and as many female aeons. The Supreme God, the Unbegotten, the Original Father, whom he also calls the Deep (Bathos), is the first of these aeons; Thinking Silence was his wife, and Intelligence, a male, and Truth, a female, were their children. These produced The Word and Life, the latter a female, who gave birth to mankind and society. These eight constituted the first class of the thirty aeons.
The second class, of five couples, at the end of which stood the Only Begotten, and the third, of six couples, at the head of which stood the Comforter, were, in a similar manner, descended from Mankind and Society, and consisted, like the first, of personified ideas. The officers of this heavenly state are four male aeons - Horus, who guards the boundaries of the region of light; Christ and the Holy Ghost, who instruct the other aeons in their duties; and Jesus, whom all the aeons of the kingdom of light begat in common, and endowed with their gifts. Man and the world were formed by a demiurge out of matter which was partly material, partly spiritual, partly soul-like. Christ, the Saviour of men, when he appeared on earth had a visible body made of the spiritual and the soul-like substance only. At his baptism the aeonJesus united itself with him, and instructed mankind.
A third school of Gnosticism, whose centre was Asia Minor, was represented by Marcion of Pontus, the son of a Christian bishop, who lived about the middle of the 2nd century. Marcion assigned to Christianity, as the one absolutely independent religion, a complete isolation from the Old Testament revelation, the author of which was, in his opinion, merely a just but not a good being. The true God begat many spirits, among which were the creator of the world, the righteous God, and the lawgiver of the Jews. The last, through the prophets, promised Christ; but Jesus, who actually appeared, and is the true Redeemer, was the Son of the truly good God, and not the Jewish Messiah.
Towards the end of the 2nd century Tatian, a Syrian Christian, adopted Gnostic doctrines, and founded a sect. Bardesanes, a Syrian, and Hermogenes, an African, who, in the reign of the Emperor Commodus, apostatized from Christianity, and established sects, bordered, in their hypotheses concerning the origin of good and evil, upon Gnosticism. There have been no Gnostic sects since the 5th century; but many of the principles of their system of emanations reappear in later philosophical systems, drawn from the same sources as theirs. Research Gnostics
A triad is an association of three kindred or correlated deities. In ancient Egypt, cycles of this type usually arose out of the association with the chief local god of other deities; in some instances the members were deemed to stand in the relationship of father, mother and child. Such were the Theban triad of Amen, Nut and Khons; the Memphite of Ptah, Sekhet and Nefertum; and the Osiris-Isis-Horus triad, which, n the Alexandrian form, comprised Serapis, Isis and Harpocrates.
In Babylonia, triads were derived from early conceptions of a cosmic trinity, such as Anu, Enlil and Ea representing sky, earth and water: and shin, Shamash and Ishtar, representing sun, moon and star. Early Aryan thought moved in the same direction in the Vedic triad of Agni, Indra and Surya, representing fire, wind and sun. out of this emerged the Brahman Trimurti, or three aspects, portrayed as a three-headed image in a famous sculpture at Elephanta, and comprising Brahma, the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Siva the destroyer.
Buddhism adopted the principle in the Triratna, or three jewels, which were at first the Sangha or monastic order, portrayed as a man holding a lotus, the Buddha, and the Dharma, or sacred law.
The Triad Society of China, denoting the union of heaven, earth and man arose in the 18th century and became a powerful anti-dynastic movement. Research Triad
In Egyptian mythology, Amset was son of Horus; guardian of the south. His canopic jar receives the stomach and large intestines of the dead. Research Amset
An amulet is an object employed to protect the wearer, from harmful influences or to attract good fortune, money and the like. Scientific knowledge would suggest that amulets are superstitious nonsense with no basis in fact. However, psychology may indicate that amulets do indeed function, though not quite by 'magic'. Psychologists have long established that that attitude and belief can affect a person. Salesmen chant mantras of success, and believe in their ability. This belief makes them confident and more effective at selling. Former cancer patients who believe they are free from the disease following operations are significantly less likely to redevelop the disease compared to those who believe the disease may come back. There is then a scientific basis for the functionality of amulets. If the wearer of an amulet believes in the power of the amulet, this belief will affect their behaviour, albeit unconsciously, and in turn will improve the immune system to protect against illness, or increase confidence to help attract a mate, or increase confidence and make perception
more positive to allow the wearer to realise 'good luck'. Classic amulets include the Utchat, or 'Eye of Horus'; Ankh; Scarab; The Tau; The Tet; Swastika; Crescent and Hand. Research Amulet
In Egyptian mythology, Hapi was a fertility god and the personification of the Nile. He was son of Horus and guardian of the North. He lived in the cave where the river was born, and his job was not to start or control the floods but to ensure that the waters were fertile. His canopic jar receives the small intestines of the dead. Research Hapi
In Egyptian mythology, Isis (Aset) was the daughter of Nut and Geb and the sister of Osiris, Set and Nebthet. She and Osiris had a dualfunction as fertility gods: she over saw love and union, he was the god of growth. They ruled Egypt as husband and wife; he taught his subjects the rule of law and respect for the gods; she taught them marriage, household management and medicine. After Osiris was drowned and dismembered by their jealous brother Seth, Isis used her medical skills first to impregnate herself with the last drop of semen in her consort's penis, and then to reassemble the corpse and bring it back to life. The first magic worked, and she became pregnant with Horus. But the gods refused to let Osiris return to the world of mortals, and he went to rule in the Underworld, leaving Isis vowing revenge on Set. Instead of fighting him herself, she encouraged Horus to take every chance to try to kill him, and when this proved impossible she arranged for Horus to humiliate and disempower Set. In some accounts this happened when Horus
castrated Set in a duel, fit punishment for Set's crime of cutting off Osiris' penis and throwing it into the Nile. Research Isis
In Egyptian mythology, Seth (Set) was the devil and enemy of Osiris. He was the god of evil and the desert, of storms and chaos. Antelope (symbols of Osiris and Horus) were sacrificed to him. Seth was jealous of his elder brother Osiris, and murdered him, appointing himself king of Egypt. Seth was killed by Horus, son of Osiris, who took the throne. Seth was depicted as part pig and part ass. Research Seth
The Utchat was an amulet representing the eye of Horus and used in ancient Egypt. According to the book of the dead, the amulet should be made of lapis-lazuli or mak stone. However, these amulets have been found made of almost every conceivable material. Traditionally there were two variations, one facing right and the other left, together representing the two eyes of Horus or Ra and Osiris. The Utchat was generally worn around the neck with the intention of deriving strength, vigour, protection, safety and good health from it. Research Utchat
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Gnostics
