Bythos

The **Bythos**, also know as **The One** or **Absolute**, is an emanation of God venerated in various forms of Gnosticism. He is the Supreme Father and the source of all that is right and luminous, in contrast to Yaldabaoth, the source of all evil and darkness.

## Overview

The Messiah describes him as Ineffable and inaccessible to all things and all entities in the universe, being superior to Christ Himself. In contrast to Bythos is Yaldabaoth, also called Demiurge, Saklas and Samael. Yaldabaoth is seen as the God written in the Old Testament, being the creator of the world and the evil ruler of creation, an entity ignorant of the upper sphere and seeing himself as the only true God.

Bythos is responsible for emanating the mother goddess Sophia, which indirectly links him to human souls and, consequently, to the Collective Unconscious, which exists as the embodiment of epiphanies. It would not be absurd to mention that both Bythos and Sophia are, in a way, the primal aspect of the Collective Unconscious, with Bythos being the very mind of the human unconscious.

No wonder, Bythos is called the Will of the Universe, since it is both the consciousness of humanity and the universe itself in its primal state, with only God Himself existing in an even deeper and more abstract layer, which is being the existence itself in its pre-existential state. While Sophia is the Divine Spark, Bythos is the divine essence that unites all soul sparks into one, making all human souls collectively connected, with a sub-aspect of this collective soul being the Will of Humanity. Even seemingly omnipotent beings like Brahman (the embodiment of Ego) are just embodiments of one facet of Bythos.

## Appearance

The Bythos is an incredibly simple aspect, being simple, it is practically impossible to describe in its entirety, as it is practically non-existent. Jesus describes Bythos as being neither corporeal nor incorporeal. Some would describe Bythos as a powerful light encompassing all levels of creation or would describe it as the void of nonexistence. The Bythos is represented as a circle with a point inside it within a two-dimensional plane.

However, Bythos was interpreted as gender neutral, or having both genders, being a hemaphrodite. Since God is all-encompassing, he encompasses both masculinity and femininity. On the physical plane, Bythos manifests itself as a giant eye filled with blood vessels that function as its "tentacles".

## Personality

The Bythos is described by Jesus Christ as an extraordinarily benevolent and incorruptible entity, being described as "the blessed who bestows bliss" and "immeasurable light, which is pure, holy and immaculate". The Bythos is described in the Apocryphon of John as being without quality or quantity, not partaking of goodness, but far surpassing it.

Indicating that he is not just a good being, but is the essence of that which is pure, perfect and holy, the personification of the goodness of the Ineffable and Unknown Father. Indeed, it is implied that there is a great dualism between the Bythos and the Chief Archon, Yaldabaoth, who is seen as the source of evil, darkness and chaos, the Shadow that is left in the absence of light of God.

Bythos is best described as a transcendental unconscious consciousness that is impersonal and embedded in the fabric of creation. Praying to Bythos is the same as praying to the law of gravity, it just doesn't make sense. To communicate with Bythos you don't pray, you meditate, however, you cannot relate to Bythos as you would with an ordinary deity, just touch Him through meditation and feel His transcendental power. You can have a relationship with God but not with Bythos, as that would be a contradiction.

Alongside Brahman, Bythos has been seen to poke into peoples dreams, that have met any of them, as seen when deities walk around creation and meet many people, Bythos immediately intervenes by warning the people that have met him.

## Powers and Abilities

**Angel Physiology:** Bythos possesses the traits, attributes, characteristics and/or abilities of angels, a being connected to and serving Higher Powers. They achieve this either through full or partial transformation into angels, choosing to mimic certain aspects of angelic beings, or simply already being an angel in the first place. Most commonly angels simply manifest wings, an inner glow, and/or a halo, which is the usual form of which angels are imagined, but several kinds of angels are far less humanoid, some ranging from strange to surreal.

**Archon Manipulation:** Bythos can create, manipulate, and destroy archons. They can use archons to perform all kinds of tasks. Archons are the builders of the physical world in Gnosticism. Depending on the source they can be angelic or demonic.

**Archon Physiology:** Bythos with this ability either is or can transform into an archon, mystical celestial beings that are known in Gnostic theology as the several servants of the "creator god", the Demiurge. Archons are also the beings that act as mediums between the human race and their creator which could only be obtained through gnosis. Archons are a species of inorganic beings that emerged in the solar system prior to the formation of the earth. Depending on the source, they can be either angelic, demonic or both.

**Demiurge:** Bythos with this ability either is or can transform into a demiurge, an artisan-like being responsible for the fashioning, shaping, and maintenance of the physical universe, or at least some portion of it. It may clear things to know that in Greek *dēmiourgos* means literally "public worker" and was originally a common noun meaning "craftsman" or "artisan", but gradually it came to mean "producer" and eventually "creator" or "maker". Depending on the system, they may be considered to be either uncreated and eternal or considered to be the product of a supreme entity.

**Demon Physiology:** Bythos possesses the traits, attributes, characteristics and/or abilities of demon, a malevolent spirit usually of Satanic divinity or associated with Hell. They achieve this either through full or partial transformation into demons, choosing to mimic certain aspects of demonic beings, or simply already being a demon in the first place. Most commonly Bythos retains their general form but with some additions; horns, claws, fangs, and tail are common, as are wings, more fit (muscular and/or larger) body and color change (red, blue or black dominate) but there are several kinds of demons who are far less humanoid, varying from strange, surreal or even absolutely horrific.

**Sephirot Empowerment:** Bythos gains access to the various emanations of the Sephirot of the Tree of Life in Kabbalah, allowing them to tap into the primal, undiluted forces of creation and the divine.

## Myths and Legends

Bythos in Gnosticism is a name to refer to the New Testament God and Father of Jesus Christ, besides being the consort of Barbelo, the Holy Spirit. The concept behind Bythos was probably inspired by Plato's idea of ​​the universe being divided into two spheres, one of mind and the other of matter, with the first entity of the universe and responsible for emanating all creation being an impersonal being external to all creation, called the One or Monad.

In some gnostic systems, the Supreme Being is known as the Bythos (Depth or Profundity, Βυθός), the One, the Absolute, Aiōn Teleos (the Perfect Aeon, αἰών τέλεος), Monad, Proarchē (Before the Beginning, προαρχή), Hē Archē (The Beginning, ἡ ἀρχή), the Ineffable Parent, and/or the primal Father.

Prominent early Christian gnostics like Valentinus taught that the Bythos is the high source of the Pleroma, the region of light constituting "the fullness of the Godhead." Through a process of emanation, various divine entities and realms emerge from the One. Arranged hierarchically, they become progressively degraded due to their remoteness from the Father. The various emanations of the One, totaling thirty in number (or 365, according to Basilides), are called Aeons. Among them exist Jesus (who resides close to the Father) and the lowest emanation, Sophia (wisdom), whose fall results in the creation of the material world.

According to Theodoret's book on heresies (Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium i.18), the Arab Christian Monoimus (c.150–210) used the term Bythos to mean the highest god that created lesser gods, or elements (similar to Aeons). In some versions of Christian gnosticism, especially those deriving from Valentinius, a lesser deity known as the Demiurge had a role in the creation of the material world separate from the Bythos. In these forms of gnosticism, the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh, is often considered to have been the Demiurge, not the Bythos, or sometimes different passages are interpreted as referring to each.

## Quotes

*"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. A being can have a relationship with a God but not the Bythos as that would be a contradiction." - Jesus Christ.*

*"I am the will of the universe. I am the whole of it, and at the same time, I am but a single part of it." - Bythos.*

*"The sacred book of the Egyptians about the great Invisible spirit, the Father whose name cannot be pronounced, he who came from the heights of perfection, the light of the light of the aeons of light, the light of the silence of providence and the Father of silence. Three powers came out of him; they are the **Father**, the Mother and the Son, of the living silence, which came from the Incorruptible Father. These arose from the silence of the unknown Father." - Apocryph of the Egyptians.*

*"The Lord of the Universe is not rightly called 'Father' but 'Forefather'. For the Father is the beginning (or principle) of what is visible. For he (the Lord) is the beginningless Forefather. He sees himself within himself, like a mirror, having appeared in his likeness as Self-Father, that is, Self-Begetter, and as Confronter, since he confronted Unbegotten First Existent. He is indeed of equal age with the one who is before him, but he is not equal to him in power." - Eugnostos the Blessed.*

*"It existed before anything other than itself came into being. The Father is one, like a number, since he is the first and the one who is just himself. However, he is not like a lonely individual. Otherwise how could he be a father? For whenever there is a "father", the name "son" comes. But the only one, who is the only Father, is like a root, with tree, branches and fruit. He is said to be a father in the proper sense, since he is inimitable and immutable. Because of that, he is a spinster in the proper sense, and he is a god, because no one is a god to him nor a father to him." - Eugnostos the Blessed.*

## Trivia

* The Bythos, based on all its genderless descriptions, is confused by being listed with male Aeons in the Aeon family tree.
* Bythos is mistaken for Abraxas in some times.