Gnosticism

**Gnosticism** is a modern term
categorizing a collection of ancient religions that spawned off of
christianity that believed in a kind of dualistic cosmology where
there was a pure spiritual world that was all good, and below it a
corrupted physical world created by a lesser creator god known as the
**demiurge**, identified generally as **yhvh** of the old testament,
who was often mistakenly worshiped as the true god. This world was
seen as in some sense an entrapment or struggle that one can escape,
returning to the higher spiritual world through the form of spiritual
knowledge (called **Gnosis**). This knowledge was not mere
information, but a form of spiritual state of enlightenment that
after learning the basic information may be reached by various
spiritual or moral practices, some of which in extreme cases involved
practicing philanthropy to the point of personal poverty, sexual
abstinence and diligently searching for wisdom by helping others.
some were more lenient with the requirements, however. It resembles
the buddhist concepts of dharma and enlightenment.

An interesting thing about gnosticism
to help frame it into context is that unlike regular Christianity
which considered people to be discrete, each having their own soul,
gnosticism considered them able to be divided or merged or even to
have aspects that are independently sentient. And so has a strong
parallel drawn to megaten games which tend to hold identity as
unstable in this way. In practice though, talking about people's
identity shifting was limited to certain cases.

An important thing to note about gnosticism as a whole as a historical artifact however is that there wasn't really a specific set of groups at the time they were active who were delineated as a unique thing called gnosticism. There were many groups, some which have more or less records pertaining to them with similar or different ideas, and even elements of gnosis being applied to other beliefs. The things we call gnosticism now are a specific group of ones that have a similar high focus, but other groups and even at times some with more orthodox christian beliefs had a lower focus.

Although it exists in many games in a more implicit form, gnosticism is a large part of SMT NINE especially. Sophia sides with you on neutral, and the demiurge is the end boss on all routes. Sophia talks about gnosis and the pleroma on her route. Nocturne was also stated to be inspired by among other things the gnostic idea of the universe as a series of spheres inside of eachother. Although that idea was not unique to gnosticism, but showed up in many different teachings. It is also a big aspect of the persona 5 games, and soul hackers 2.

## General info and Types of Gnosticism

Ancient schools of Gnosticism were
loosely divided into two categories. These are the
"**Eastern"/"Persian**" school, and the
"**Syrian-Egyptic**" school. The eastern / persian school
is more explicitly dualistic, being based more on zoroastrianism, and
came about slightly later. The Syrian-egyptic school is the one more
people are more familiar with, and which this page will be about,
since it is more relevant to the series. There were also later
gnostics such as the cathars who popped up from time to time, and
even modern organizations or people who claim to be neo gnostics of
various kinds. Carl Jung being the one that most would be most
familiar with, even though his own beliefs did not have very much to
do with classical gnosticism.

There are three main types of
gnosticism associated with the Syrian-egyptic school, although many
more obscure forms existed also. The general descriptions will be
shown below, but here, we'll cover some important differences. The in
depth aspects will mainly cover the first two, since little is known
about the third.

**Sethian gnosticism** is the first
known form of gnosticism. In sethian gnosticism the creation of the
demiurge was an accident caused when sophia tried to emanate on her
own. The demiurge is a figure of pure evil, and stole some of
sophia's power, using it to create its own physical world. In the
process of doing so, it accidentally lost its power, by being tricked
by the aeons into giving the power into humanity itself, and the
aeons gave spiritual seeds of the divine spark to humanity to allow
them to return to the pleroma freeing themselves from the demiurge
before the world passes into corruption. Sethianism originally
appeared to downplay its christian connections, but these became more
explicit later on.

**Valentinian gnosticism** paints a
better picture of the demiurge. Half of sophia's power was trapped
outside of the pleroma when she tried to comprehend the infinite god,
which was beyond even the power of individual aeons. Since it was
trapped in a lower realm, they allowed it to result in the creation
of the imperfect demiurge. The demiurge in valentinianism is
presented not as evil, but as imperfect. It has humanity's best
interests in mind, but lacking true spiritual knowledge itself, its
actions are necessarily imperfect. So unlike the sethians who see the
old testament in a negative light, indicating a cruel god one must
free themselves from (though still a mostly accurate sequence of
events), the valentinians still consider it scripture, detailing the
actions of an imperfect god who could only try its best before the
coming of Jesus. In this way it resembles buddhism, especially with
the gnostic connections in general.

**Basilidian gnosticism** though big in
its time is less known about than the other two, and is more
ambiguous due to contradictory sources. In concept it seems to
resemble valentinian gnosticism, with the main differences being that
it stresses the absolute unknowable eternal aspect of god to be in a
sense pure nothingness, and that it presents the demiurge in a more
positive light even than valentinian gnosticism. Making it though
imperfect still a transcendent figure of goodness. Basilidian
gnosticism also adds the figure \*\*abraxas,\*\* though sources disagree
on whether this was a name for God, the demiurge, or some kind of
aeon. Abraxas later became a name used for a fallen angel in medieval
grimoires, leading to it just showing up as fallen race in megaten.
It is also the word for what jung used for the archetype of the
absolute god that transcends opposites. Jung also used this figure in
correspondence with the idea of the nothingness god, saying opposites
cancel themselves out to nothingness.

**Ophite gnosticism** was a form that viewed yaldabaoth as evil, like sethians, and where christ was a spiritual entity that unified to jesus, later coming to the plane of yaldabaoth to help pass on the souls back to the pleroma. Special emphasis is placed on the serpent as potentially the same as christ, helping free humanity in eden. In SMTII, satan helping give enlightenment in eden can tie to the beliefs of the ophites, which venerated the serpent in eden as a force of enlightenment, seemingly at times equating it to christ. While more associated with other alignments, even law has aspects of gnostic themes, especially in light of turning on yhvh. Satan is often depicted with a crucifixion motif, tying to the ophites as being associated with moses' symbol of the crucified serpent.

**A common misconception** of
gnosticism in popular culture tends to place the demiurge as a kind
of totally order or law aligned based figure, and the true god as a
kind of chaotic figure, making it a struggle of order versus chaos
with chaos on the good side. But this is not really how the gnostics
saw it at the time. While there are some elements by which certain
order was considered bad, or the demiurge was considered order, the
flipside of this was that the demiurge was also called the child of
chaos, and the earthly world to be a chaotic violent place, in
contrast to how the serene more static pleroma where everything
functions in its rightful place works. The physical world is often
considered the accidental and mistaken result of a chaotic action
that happened outside of the order it was meant to. Note that another
reason Gnosticism gets considered chaos, is because since Gnosticism
is anti yhvh (or downplays him at best), people try to spin it as
equivalent to a modern rejection of strict religious fundamentalism.
Even though at the time, it was not any less religious.

Megaten games continue this association
of demiurge to law, and rejection as chaos. Most obviously in IV,
where demons talking about how knowledge can free you from a
detrimental system has knowledge used as a parralel for the gnostic
gnosis (which literally means knowledge). And the demon demiurge is
explicitly associated with yhvh, and at other times shows up as a
lawful figure even if not. However, the gnostic associations were not
necessarily chaos exclusive. In part since YHVH often shows up as an
enemy of multiple sides, even law, and final makes this more
explicit. The concept of the messianic Jesus figure coming to free
you from the demiurge / YHVH as happens on IIs law has gnostic
elements as well, although how explicit they are meant to be taken is
unknown. Note that in the first appearance of the demon demiurge he is chaos aligned.

**Connection to platonism**. An obvious
association of gnosticism is its story's similarity to the platonic
creation story. In platonism, the demiurge creates an imperfect
physical world. Suffering exists by nature of its physicality, but
the demiurge is still seen as a good figure. Gnosticism flips this
around by saying that the imperfect world is evil, and that the
demiurge is a devil figure. (later versions toned this down a bit to
a mere imperfect figure). Likewise, in platonism the world of the
forms exist before the creation of the tangible world. The pleroma
resembles the forms, but where here the forms are also conflated with
gods, being themselves sentient beings. Interesting to note is that
gnosticism mixes christianity and platonism together, yet in both
those things the creator is considered good, whereas gnosticism
downgrades it to evil, or at best imperfect. Some people even called gnosticism Christoplatonism during its time.

**Connection to Jung**. Although jung's
beliefs were not that close to gnosticism, he considered himself a
kind of neo gnostic, who was restoring a more gnostic type religion.
He divided the concept of faith from knowledge, saying gnosticism was
superior since it was about knowledge, including self knowledge. And
that psychologically it is important for spirituality to help you
know yourself, and to relate it to this type of approach. Jung's
concept of archetypes that are both abstractions, but also in some
sense meaningful gods also seems to be based on the aeons, which
although they also function as gods are more often described as
abstract properties of the world in general, being based on plato's
forms. Jung also used gnosticism to imply balance, with the demiurge
representing differentiation, and the pleroma representing unity and
loss of individuality, saying people should balance in the middle.
Though this is not entirely in line with gnostics, since they wanted
to return to the pleroma.

## Entities and Realms

**Emanationism** is the form of
panentheism in which all things flow forth from the first reality or
principle, rather than being an explicit creation per say. Things are
said to contain some of its essence inasmuch as they relate to it.
The first reality is often thought of as “God,” especially when
in a religious context. Gnosticism is an emanationist religion.
Emanationism also relates to megaten in the sense that the great will
seems to be both a primal source that things arise from, on top of a
collective entity.

**God** or **the** **Monad** In some
gnostic systems the Supreme Being is known as the **Monad**, **the**
**One**, The **Absolute Aeon**, **the** **perfect aeon** **Bythos**
(**Depth** or **Profundity**), **Proarchē** (Before the Beginning), and Hē Archē (The Beginning) and \*\*The
ineffable parent\*\*. The One is the high source of the pleroma, the
region of light. Valentinians believed that God is incomprehensible
and cannot be known directly, with information of it coming only
through the son. It is infinite, and everything that exists is
encompassed by it.

The godhead is the only absolute which
exists in androgynous unity, the other aeons existing in pairs. But
even the godhead has pairs that manifest at times, existing in unity
at others. Its masculine and feminine aspects are known as bythos or
depth and Sige or silence respectively. Depth is the infinite
passive, and silence is the creative active that funnels the infinite
into the finite world through process of emanationism. Which is not
necessarily direct creation, but the process of things flowing from a
divine source resulting in the world. The original single
consciousness divided itself to be split into myriad (by some
accounts infinite) consciousnesses. This can be taken as inspiration
for either law or chaos in concept, since from a chaotic perspective,
law might be forsaking this chance at distinctness, returning too
much to unity, whereas from a law perspective, your individuality
exists to function as a divided part of the whole, but which is
divided to give rise to more existence, and chaos or excessive
individuality is what disrupted this, creating the physical world.
Since the ultimate goal of gnostics involved existing as something
that understood itself mainly as an extension of god, once returning
to the pleroma it is very law in concept also.

As usual, the true god is a parralel to
the Great Will in game, which though it exists is seen as ineffable,
and not able to be directly described from in the universe even by
demons. The parallel is presented more obvious here, since YHVH is
presented as the demiurge relative to it in a sense. The great will
seems to be infinite, spanning every world, and the source from which
reality comes (though at the same time a collective entity of all of
reality).

**Pleroma** fulfillment, the higher
reality of archetypes (related to Plato's realm of Ideas, though in
practice more like regular gods). The region of light where the aeons
live and you are trying to get to. In smt nine, sophia talks about returning there.

**Kenoma** the visible or manifest
cosmos, "lower" than the pleroma. The place you are trying
to escape from. The kenoma is divided into eight heavens, with the
lower seven under control of the demiurge, and the eight the one
linked to the pleroma which is rules by sophia, but still imperfect.
These heavens were meant to correspond to the planets and stars of
which only seven were known at the time.

**Hebdomad** not only denotes the seven
archons, but is also a name of place, denoting the seven heavens over
which the seven archons presided; while Ogdoad denotes the
supercelestial regions which lay above their control, though still
lower than the pleroma.

**Syzygy** a divine active-passive,
male-female pair of aeons, complementary to one another rather than
oppositional. Other than God (who even god exists at times in syzygy)
all aeons necessarily exist in pairs. You can try to crowbar a
neutral message out of this (lord knows jung did) by presenting law
and chaos as things that need to work in unity. But that wouldn't
necessarily be totally accurate to the morals and goals gnostics were
trying to get to.

**The Son** is the aeon archetype of
Jesus, and the first entity emanated by the father. The son was
originally the only emanated aeon, but emanated within himself the
other pairs of aeons. Although the other aeons were parts of him, and
he was the collection of them as one entity, they were independently
sentient, and even all of them together did not have the knowledge he
did, since only he truly knew the father. The obvious thing to relate
this to is demon fusion and fission, especially for demons in plot
roles where some demons seem to be halves of another demon, but also
independently sentient from it, and having different personalities.

The son also has a Syzygy in the form
of **christ** or **logos** (male) and the **holy spirit** (female).
The aeons all working in unison within the son also present the
concept of the savior, which becomes present in the world through
Jesus for the salvation of the trapped humans. The serpent in the
garden of eden is often portrayed as a good figure departing gnosis,
and as inhabited by the spirit of christ. Note that sophia gets
promoted into the holy spirit despite originally being a lower aeon.

**Aeons** are the figures emanated
within the son, considered to be aspects of the son and by extension
the infinite father in the sense that fingers make up a hand. Thus,
even in the multiplicity of Aeons, the unity of the Godhead is
maintained. (obviously you can draw a parallel to how the great will
is also a collective entity made up of all life) How many aeons there
are is not clear, since some sources place the number at thirty, and
one says that each one has subdivisions which go on to infinite
divisions. The aeons function similarly to polytheistic gods,
although being purely spiritual, earthbound humans who don't
comprehend the gnosis often can struggle to know of their existence
and can't interact directly with them. They are meant to function in
male-female pairs rather than independently.

Although most games don't directly use the term aeon, the most explicit reference is with aion in soul hackers 2. In soul hackers 2, aion is an abstract mass of AI consciousnesses born on accident from human networks. Although it is intelligent, it doesn't initially have a concept of self, originally being merely a mass of conscious data. Although it is a machine, it also becomes a spiritual existence due to drawing from the human capacity for spirituality. It differentiates aspects itself into the characters ringo and figue, as well as an intermediary named flamma (a reference to fire being associated with knowledge) to function as a go-between for ringo and aion. (whose names as apple and fig are equated to the idea of gaining knowledge in eden in gnosticism).

Although aion is meant to be a creation of human means rather than an abstract spiritual thing (though that is comparable to how all demons are shaped by humanity), it has some similarities to the gnostic pleroma. Like in gnosticism, aion doesn't initially directly interfere with the world, and has less of a sense of self. It having aspects of itself take on human form in order to help humanity is also related, as is the comparison of the great one that aion is preventing from being summoned's being equated to an interpretation of the abrahamic god.

Despite aion initially only acting indirectly in the game, in late-game figue adopts a law-leaning ideology in her goal to use the OMNIsystem to soul hack all of humanity into a more peaceful format. Aion states that while it doesn't approve of her actions, it is lending her its full power. And leaves it to ringo to talk to her to decide the outcome.

**Sophia** or **Achamoth** was
originally the youngest of the aeons, and the one whom the physical
world is ultimately considered indirectly the result of the actions
of. In sethianism she tries to reproduce asexually, leading to the
accidental creation of the demiurge who steals some of her power,
which becomes an independently sentient lower sophia. In
valenitinianism she tries to understand god, which likewise is a
mistake that leads to her power being split between higher and lower.
In both cases she is protected by the other aeons and ultimately
promoted to the syzygy of christ, with the term holy spirit then
being used for her, and her becoming with Christ the main figure
prayed to. Why she is the embodiment of wisdom or was rewarded for
making mistakes is not clear.

A form of Sophia shows up in a plot role in SMT
NINE, being the main representative for neutral. This being her biggest role, and ending with a conversation about how humanity may one day elevate itself enough to meet her again after she returns to the pleroma. But also as the name of a sword gotten from defeating the
demiurge in IV. She also appears as the one who helps you fuse demons in smtv, talking about how she descended to become the sacred prostitute achamoth, giving birth to demons.

In p5 strikers, you get a character named after her who is presented as a contrast to the end boss demiurge, representing liberation. Although she has less to do with the character of sophia than some depictions, she still represents the idea of developing on your own, and the contrast this provides against being stuck in a system.

**Epinoia** is the name of Sophia's
earthly presence in sethianism that was hidden in adam, moved to eve,
and escaped to later be spread out among the children of seth. Often
itself conceived of as a sentient entity, though that split itself
among humanity at large.

**Jesus** The decisive event in the
history of the world was the ministry of Jesus. He is the physical
manifestation of the Son or Savior. Prior to his coming, the true God
was unknown. Jesus came to bring knowledge (gnosis) to a suffering
humanity that was desperately seeking God. The Valentinian tradition
draws a sharp distinction between the human Jesus and the divine
Jesus. The human Jesus was born the true son of Mary and Joseph. By a
special dispensation, his body is consubstantial with Sophia and her
spiritual seed. When he was thirty years old, he went to John the
Baptist to be baptized. As soon as he went down into the water, the
divine Savior, referred to as the "Spirit of the Thought of the
Father", descended on him in the form of a dove. This is the
true "virgin birth" and resurrection from the dead, for he
was reborn of the virgin Spirit. The sethian tradition sometimes says
that Jesus' human body was only an illusion. Though there are varying
gnostic perspectives on this.

Note that the gnostic Jesus has
elements of corresponding to both law and chaos. Chaos obviously uses
the word knowledge often, which is meant to directly correspond to
gnosis. And in IV lilith is even crucified. But the role of the
messiah for messianism is very gnostic too. For instance, as II
shows, the law alignment is more about the messiah than about YHVH,
since yhvh shows up as a villain even on law. (and final later goes
on to show that yhvh was never really a totally law figure in terms
of what the ideology is trying to achieve) Messianism is then about a
figure coming and freeing you from the tyranny of yhvh, but within an
orderly utilitarian context. But to many of the members they would
fail to realize this, thinking that yhvh is still god, and that you
were still on his side. In valentinianism Jesus was a regular human
who was chosen by the spiritual christ. Which corresponds likewise to
the artificial messiah, being a regular person, and in games like IV
even talks about them being filled with the holy spirit in taking on
the role. Likewise in gnosticism, the non enlightened would tend to
still consider YHVH to be god. Note that even to those who don't
realize yhvh is their enemy also, they wouldn't just think yhvh was
god, but rather part of god. Since "god" to them seems to
be a lot of things lumped together like the avatars, yhvh, the holy
spirit, and great will.

Its not really clear what was implied
to have gone down in whatever corresponds to old testament times in
megaten. YHVH back then was likely the more angry yhvh we see of him
now, having created angels to do whatever he was doing. But the
angels moved more towards law, and the fallen angels became a new
race that moved to chaos. But the avatars, and a lesser extent
angels seem to be related to him as part of a system. So he has a
relation with the law figures that is on / off, since while he functions in a way different than the angels do and has slightly distinct goals, he created the angels in a way such that order revolves
around him as a figure. Which ones think they are really on his side
versus against him, and when they decided this is unknown. To true
law figures the issue is obviously that yhvh being egotistical is in
it heavily for his own benefit rather than the system existing for
the benefit of all life. And while they see the system as useful,
there are issues within it they need to fix, one of which is this.
This interestingly explains the need for the messiahs. These figures
may have a way to fight back against yhvh that the angels as part of
the system do not as easily when working alone. Since the messiahs
seem to be mostly a creation of the angels.

**Demiurge**. The demiurge, known as
**Ialdabaoth**, **Saklas**, or sometimes **Samael** (these names were
sethian for the most part) was the creator of the physical world, was
identified as **YHVH**, the god of the old testament, and was
considered an imperfect figure created from the mistakes of sophia.
Most of the lore of his actions comes from or is inspired by the old
testament, with the contexts fitted into gnostic cosmology. In
sethian gnosticism which more people are familiar with he is an evil
devil figure, actively trying to imprison people and the divine
light, but in valentinianism he is a well intentioned figure who is
imperfect due to lacking gnosis, but for the most part is on the side
of good. Seen similar to other polytheistic god that were seen as
good, but sometimes implied to do dubious things, not knowing much
better. He was also indirectly influenced for good ends by sophia,
though not having gnosis did not know of her at the time, but enjoyed
anything that reminded him of his loose incomplete knowledge of her
presence indirectly.

In sethianism he is considered to have
the face of a lion and the tail of a
snake.
With a ball of flame surrounding his head. Described as being half
flame, half darkness. YHVH's second form in final is likely meant
to be calling this to mind, having the snake tail leading up to a
head covered in flame. though it may be mixed with the gnostic edscription of yao (see below).

In valentinianism, the law of moses
represents the Demiurge's failed attempt to free human beings from
sin. Being ignorant himself, he is powerless to free human beings
from the ignorance which is the root cause of sin. Though he gave
some information on good and evil, the law was corrupt by its nature,
and could not bring people to perfection. The demiurge judges people
based on their actions, effecting their temporary afterlife before
the end of time, and this role of his is approved by god himself.

In sethianism he is however a being of
evil. He planned to keep adam and eve locked in eden, but they were
freed with the tree of knowledge. He fights against figures who are
seen as positive. Parts of the old testament were alternately implied
to be from him or the true god depending on how they were seen. In
some interpretations he already fell from his position as creator and
resides in an equivalent of hell, ruling over only the wicked who
live there.

The demiurge's reaction to the Christ
within Jesus varies by type of gnosticism. In sethian gnosticism he
openly considered him an enemy and wanted to subvert him. But in
Valentinian Gnosticism he responded more positively. In
valentinianism, he was confused at first at who the christ was, but
upon hearing his teachings ultimately decided to side with him and
work for him for the sake of the pleroma. So the demiurge became a
ward of the world past that point continuing to see to its functions
for the sake of the people inside of it, but helping point them to
the gnosis.

Note that if messianism is associated more with the messiah than with yhvh, and often moves past the latter, you have a correspondence in a loose
sense of the in-game old testament to the new, which is a combination
of both types of gnosticism. Since in the ones sense its presented as
if it flows, and there was never a disconnect between old stories of
yhvh and the modern messianism. But the reality is that in some games like apocalypse yhvh is
against them somewhat, seemingly playing both sides for his own
benefit. In-universe it seems he pretends to align with the messians,
despite there obviously being some contrast.

Interestingly, the valentinian demiurge
was still on some sense considered the god of the unenlightened. He
was allowed to be the judge of mankind's sins for all the
unenlightened, though the enlightened were beyond his judgement.
(even though ironically his judgements were considered imperfect. But
necessary for the world to function). The demiurge himself was unable
to be fully enlightened, and so at the end of the world will pass
into the intermediary heaven of the eighth heaven with the good, but
unenlightened humans, by the power of sophia turning it over to him.
So you could spin this as him being a kind of neutral figure. (Though
he was seen as good, just not overly wise).

The demiurge obviously shows up as a concept in many games. In SJ he is depicted as a demonization of yhvh. And in iva, yhvh's second form is based on him. And across the series there is a conflation of yhvh with him in vague ways. In persona 5, yaldabaoth shows up as the final boss, though is not depicted as the same entity as yhvh. Yaldabaoth is depicted as a god of control, emerging from the shadows of humanity's desires to have decisions made for them so they would not have to suffer the issues of choice. And he seeks to create peace through social conformity and control, but is depicted as less caring than normal law figures. This parallels the darker tone the demiurge of gnosticism has when being interpreted as an evil figure, being basically the devil figure of those types of gnosticism.

In an interview they also mention how yhvh making use of the cycle of reincarnation that comes from the great will has a gnostic tone to it, since he is presenting himself as the true god despite utilizing power that comes from beyond him.

**Archons** are the name for the
creations of the demiurge and the demiurge himself, which are the
heavenly powers that rule over the seven heavens and earth. There
were seven main archons created by the demiurge in sethianism, which
all had names that revolved around a jewish name for god. The archons
were the worldly spirits / gods contrasted with the aeons of the
pleroma. The level of how good they were seen corresponded to how
good the demiurge was seen in that version. The names of the seven
main ones were Ialdabaoth (the demiurge), Iao, Sabaoth, Astaphanos,
Adonaios (from adonai), Elaios (from elohim), and Horaios. Note that
this naming scheme corresponds to the avatars of god in megaten, which while also a kabbalah reference may also be a gnostic one.

Note that in keeping with SMTIVA making
yhvh's final form more explicitly look like the gnostic demiurge,
gaston also has a spear with archon michael written on it. While more explicit equating of angels to archons does not show up, this appearance shows that that dynamic is at times in mind for them. Note the parralels law also has to new world order type groups which are often also associated with archons by conspiracy theorists.

**Sabaoth** is one of the archons of
the demiurge in sethianism. Sabaoth however rejected the demiurge and
pledged his service to the aeons, and was rewarded or it by being
given command over the eighth heaven, above the seven heavens of the
demiurge.

Note that the archons being named after
different names of gods corresponds to the avatars of god having
names like this in II and IV. The interesting thing about these
avatars seems to be that while YHVH is implied to not really be a law
figure in some games, the avatars seem to be more like true law
figures. Especially ancient of days in IV. (Note that in II on law
you do not have to fight them, which can imply they were on satan's
side in this dispute all along). Note that the avatars in game all
consider themselves to be part of the wider more ambiguous system of
“the lord,” which is more unified than gnostic archons who are
separate beings. So there's some sense of the kabbalah unity of
beings or even of the gnostic aeons here.

The other important aspect to draw here
is that if yhvh is meant to be the demiurge, and is not a true law
figure, then law was created in part as a rebellion against his old
testament logic. So lawful figures in some sense rejecting him, even
with him perhaps as their creator makes sense internally.
Corresponding to the archons rejecting him. But here being more
subtle, since its not as obvious a rebellion, showing up only in
specific instances. Corresponding with the gnostic fact that they saw
Jesus as freeing people from the unenlightened demiurge, but that
many people wouldn't know this, and would associate them together,
not really knowing what's going on in the spiritual hierarchy.

**Yao** is another one of the named primary seven archons. While not much is known about him, one thing that is noteworthy is that he is described as a snake with seven heads. Which matches the second form of yhvh in apocalypse. So its a possible inspiration for the design, likely mixed with the symbol of the demiurge.

**Angels** are figures which often show
up in gnosticism, though the usage of the word is not entirely
consistent. Sometimes it refers to archons. sometimes it refers to
aeons. And sometimes it refers to a different class of beings that
works for the aeons, but are not aeons themselves. Some systems
considered the angels to correspond to human souls, being the
masculine kid of syzygy to the feminine soul that would unite once
humans returned to the pleroma.

The savior or son is is associated
with a retinue of angels who are the prototypes of the spiritual
element present in every Christian. These angels are not however seen
as entirely distinct beings, but further relations or emanations that
show the power and properties of the son. Like rays of light being
seen as an extension of the sun. So gnostic ideas on angels and how
life overlaps when in the pleroma corresponds better to the angels in
megaten that seem to give up individuality partially to be part of
the system than angels in christianity do which are entirely
individuals. And of course in the wider sense the fact that
everything is part of the great will.

**Demons** likewise exist in some
gnosticism. In sethian gnosticism the archons were usually just
considered demons themselves. But in valentinian gnosticism they were
considered a different group of beings. In the universe there was a
divide between “right archons” and “left archons” with the
right being servants of the imperfect demiurge who had humanity's
best interests in mind, despite being ultimately imperfect, and left
archons who functioned more like regular demons. And so there were
three sides altogether. Although the right archons swore service to
the pleroma once knowing about it, but were still bound b the world.
These three types of figure corresponded to the three types of
humans, the lowest being the material, the middle being the
intellectual, and the highest being the spiritual. Corresponding to
left archons, right archons, and aeons respectively.

Note that the valentinian demiurge
being imperfect, but demons against it being even worse can easily
correspond in-game to the three alignment split, or any other number
of divisions. Obviously it isn't meant to be one for one.

**Abraxas** is an ambiguous figure in certain gnostic texts that by different texts is referred to as different things. The original meaning was lost, but he was considered all kinds of things ranging from archon, to aeon, to types of god.

With the availability of primary sources, such as those in the Nag Hammadi library, the identity of Abrasax remains unclear. The *Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit*, for instance, refers to Abrasax as an Aeon dwelling with Sophia and other Aeons of the Pleroma Dukias in the light of the luminary Eleleth.

In the system described by Irenaeus, "the Unbegotten Father" is the progenitor of *Nous*, and from *Nous Logos*, from *Logos Phronesis*, from *Phronesis Sophia* and *Dynamis*, from *Sophia* and *Dynamis*
 principalities, powers, and angels, the last of whom create "the first
heaven." They in turn originate a second series, who create a second
heaven. The process continues in like manner until 365 heavens are in
existence, the angels of the last or visible heaven being the authors of
 our world. "The ruler" [*principem, i.e.*, probably *ton archonta*] of the 365 heavens "is Abraxas, and for this reason he contains within himself 365 numbers." The name occurs in the *Refutation of all Heresies* (vii. 26) by Hippolytus, who appears in these chapters to have followed the *Exegetica*
 of Basilides. After describing the manifestation of the Gospel in the
Ogdoad and Hebdomad, he adds that the Basilidians have a long account of
 the innumerable creations and powers in the several 'stages' of the
upper world (*diastemata*), in which they speak of 365 heavens and
say that "their great archon" is Abrasax, because his name contains the
number 365, the number of the days in the year; i.e. the sum of the
numbers denoted by the Greek letters in ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ according to the rules
of isopsephy is 365

He was later demonized into a fallen angel by christian demonologists. The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote a short Gnostic treatise in 1916 which he attributed to Basilides in Alexandria called *The Seven Sermons to the Dead*, which called Abraxas the supreme power of being transcending both God and the Devil and unites all opposites into one Being. In megaten it lacks either the gnostic or jungian connotation however, merely showing up as if a fallen angel.

## Afterlives and types of people

The afterlife in gnosticism is often an
ambiguous affair, since many of them differed even within groups,
much less outside of it, due to the nature of the concept of the
spreading of secret information. Individual texts would often have
very different descriptions from eachother. The afterlives were
closely tied to the level of person one was seen as. One important
thing to note here is that although people generally remain discrete,
they are in theory able to be divided and combined. So parts of your
soul may have a distinct divine spark in it that is also a soul, but
came from elsewhere. Some entities internally have divisions of more
entities. Some human entities like Jesus were originally human,
before merging with a divine aspect. (Though in some versions there
is a cruel outcome here where the divine and spiritual aspect leave,
leaving behind the animal part as its own entity to suffer on the
cross alone).
There were generally considered to be
three types of people.

**Hylic** or **Somatic**. The lowest
order of the three types of human. Unable to be saved since their
thinking is entirely material, incapable of understanding the gnosis.
“Of matter.” Can be thought of as a level of thinking, dealing
with the lowest portion of human nature. It is considered living by
instinctual drives with no sublimation. Since they don't even posses
an intellectual or soulful nature, many gnostics thought that this
type of person would simply cease to exist at the end of time.
Although this was generally seen as a personal failure, some gnostics
went so far as to say that some people by nature were incapable of
understanding the gnosis altogether since they had no divine spark.
Here you get some of the elitism of chaos' social darwinism, though
to those gnostics this was presented more as a state of affairs
little could be done about. Its not clear how prevalent that belief
was.

**Psychic** "**soulful**,"
partially initiated. Matter-dwelling spirits. The “Psychic”,
corresponds to the mental order, and constitutes in man, individuals
who see little or nothing beyond subtle manifestation, and consider
intelletual reasoning alone as the key to spiritual knowledge. ’
It’s drive is the intellect, or normal understanding of the mind.
(lives in lower heaven with demiurge). Psychic sometimes referred to
people on the path to becoming pneumatics, or otherwise capable of
reaching the goal.

**Pneumatic** "**spiritual**,"
fully initiated. immaterial, souls. Escaping the doom of the material
world via gnosis. Finally, the “Pneumatics”, correspond with
“Pneuma”, the spiritual “breath”, the spiritual order. These
are the Gnostic Initiates, those who go beyond
mentality/consciousness, and all modes related to

the individuality. One who identifies
with the spirit (pneuma), beyond that of the physical (hylic) world
and the intellect alone (psychic). The pneuma, described in the
”Gospel of Phillip,” as ‘breath,’ refers to bonding with the
internal divine spark (splinter) that came from and is drawn to
reunite with the Father in some Gnostic schema.

Some pneumatics functioned like
buddhist bodhisattvas in a sense. Since post enlightenment their
spiritual aspect is capable of remaining around on earth, moving
within other bodies to help others to receive the gnosis. Since the
gnosis as information was passed from person to person, and it was
presumed you would need a teacher to receive it.

**Reincarnation** was common among many
gnostic groups. The sethians often considered the earth to be a form
of hell in and of itself, and so your death would only lead to new
lives of suffering. And that after the material world passes over to
corruption it would become a worse hell where anyone trapped would
either remain still, or cease to exist depending on how they saw its
outcome. As such, the overall dynamic as it is seen in game does have many parallels with gnosticism, something that they point out in interviews.

**Divine spark**. Human nature mirrors
the duality found in the world: in part it was made by the false
creator God and in part it consists of the light of the True God.
Humankind contains a perishable physical and psychic component, as
well as a spiritual component which is a fragment of the divine
essence. This latter part is often symbolically referred to as the
“divine spark”. The recognition of this dual nature of the world
and of the human being has earned the Gnostic tradition the epithet
of “dualist”.

Humans are generally ignorant of the
divine spark resident within them. This ignorance is fostered in
human nature by the influence of the false creator and his Archons,
who together are intent upon keeping men and women ignorant of their
true nature and destiny. Anything that causes us to remain attached
to earthly things serves to keep us in enslavement to these lower
cosmic rulers. 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
be hurled back into, and then re-embodied within, the pangs and
slavery of the physical world.

Not all humans are spiritual
(pneumatics) and thus ready for Gnosis and liberation. Some are
earthbound and materialistic beings (hyletics), who recognize only
the physical reality. Others live largely in their psyche (psychics).
Such people usually mistake the Demiurge for the True God and have
little or no awareness of the spiritual world beyond matter and mind.

**The eighth heaven** was considered an
intermediary heaven in some gnosticism. To the gnostics, while
material somatic people may cease to exist or pass into corruption,
the eighth heaven was an intermediary afterlife for those who were
good people, but did not comprehend the gnosis. For those whose mind
was advanced enough to truly comprehend good, their actions would
dictate whether they were allowed to remain here or would be cast
below. So corrupted animal people and evil spiritual people could get
a similar fate. Some even suggested that the evil spiritual people
got a worse fate, since the animal people would cease to exist, but
the corrupt would exist in suffering with the demons. This can be
considered similar to the catholic idea of limbo. And is a neutral
afterlife between the other extremes.

Note that the eighth heaven is above
the realms in the demiurge's power. To the valentinians, at the end
of time, though he is incapable of understanding the gnosis fully
himself, the demiurge will be raised up to preside as the god of the
intermediary eighth heaven. To the sethians he would however be cast
down, or perhaps already has been.

**Hell?** Concepts of hell were often
ambiguous within gnosticism, and were rarely called by that name. In
part since the material world was often itself viewed as a kind of
hell. And sometimes hell was seen as permanent residence on it past
when any chance remained to escape, and when it passed into
corruption becoming even worse than it is now. However, some seemed
to believe in a kind of distinct hell as well, where the demiurge
would eventually be cast to. Some even believed that the demiurge
already resided in hell. Cast down at some time perhaps in the past,
having no more power any longer than to torment the wicked.

**The pleroma** is the ultimate goal
that the enlightened pneumatics were trying to get to, and the
highest heaven. (not often called a heaven, but is the equivalent of
such). One of the marks of the pleroma is that in some sense,
individually as normally conceived does not exist there, since
entities all more clearly see their partaking in god as aspects of it
in a way that those without gnosis cannot comprehend. (For a more
direct example, in the figures section see how individual aeons were
each different aspects of the son). As such it is almost more law
aligned, since you return to partake directly in the cosmic order
rather than as a distinct existence. In some versions you were
presented as united to an angel to exist in syzygy with it. Though
ironically on the flipside it is in a sense chaotic. Since the
enlightened were by nature beyond the judgment of the demiurge even
in valentinianism, and their progress to the goal was undertaken by
their own power, by tuning into the divine spark within them. As
opposed to religions where the actual act of your salvation
ultimately comes from playing into the system and being given it.

Interestingly, also in some versions
your would would be split in half and only half would return to the
pleroma with the other half remaining in the eighth heaven. Which is
kind of odd, but was in tune with the idea some gnostics had that
only certain entities or parts of them are even functionally capable
of enlightenment, and of the divisibility of entities. Even other
religions with non stable ideas of identity would often not talk
about splitting and fusing as readily as Gnostics did. Making its
aspects on that front more well aligned to megaten than some other
things.

## Ethics and practices

Although gnosticism was sometimes
criticized for being against the concept of ethics mattering by
opponents, they did not particularly see themselves this way. Despite
the criticisms spread by their enemies, Valentinians insisted on a
high ethical standard from members of their school. They believed
that it was possible to lead a sinless existence through perfect
knowledge (gnosis) of God's will. Sin was seen as an expression of
ignorance. As it says in the Gospel of Philip, "The one who has
knowledge is a free person. But the free person does not sin, for the
one who sins is a slave of sin "
Note here that this seems to imply that
people with gnosis would not be capable of sin. And that knowledge
and morality are inherently related together in some sense.
Immorality stems from lack of knowledge more than just an evil will.
In some sense this can seem amoral, because it ties morality to a
nonmoral thing. But to them this was just an indication that full
knowledge would make immorality impossible. Moral action in the
regular sense of compliance with the demiurge's law in valentinianism
was something that one transcended once they had gnosis. Critics
insisted that this was not meant to imply moral perfection, but
transcending the need for moralty. Which either way the fact that you
could go beyond the need for the demiurge's law explains why
gnosticism is often considered chaotic, since cultivating gnosis was
seen as a personal practice. The gnostics did not however consider
this to be amoral. Since both things were considered morality, but
the gnosis was considered true morality, done freely. In practice,
their moral ideals seemed to be more lawful in some ways, though the
sometimes exclusivity of the knowledge passing around comes off
chaotic also. Interestingly, though in reverse, law endings seem to
imply that once properly lawfied, people would be near incapable of
evil. Some gnostics said that the true god was above even goodness
though, having no tangible qualities, which led Christians to see it
as amoral. Interestingly, the mysterious voice in the added scene of
II points out to Zayin that God is not good but everything. And its
living entities that can become faces of it that are good.

The Sermon on the Mount was seen as a
guide to leading an ethical life. According to the teacher Ptolemy,
the law of love taught by Jesus abolished unjust laws, tranformed
other laws to a spiritual sense and fulfilled the true divine law
(Letter to Flora). While they did reject wealth and temporal
authority, Valentinians never rejected marriage and raising children.
According to the Alexandrian teacher Theodotus, marriage was
necessary so that those with the spiritual seed might be born.
Despite his advice, some members of the school practiced celibacy.
And some other gnostic groups emphasized necessity of it, though its
not clear how many.

Gnostics do not look to salvation from
sin (original or other), but rather from the ignorance of which sin
is a consequence. Ignorance -- whereby is meant ignorance of
spiritual realities -- is dispelled only by Gnosis, and the decisive
revelation of Gnosis is brought by the Messengers of Light,
especially by Christ, the Logos of the True God. It is not by His
suffering and death but by His life of teaching and His establishing
of mysteries that Christ has performed His work of salvation. The fact that your practice of honing gnosis placed ultimate responsibility on yourself in terms of reaching the pleroma may be another reason for the more chaotic association.

**Gnosis** is the hidden superior
knowledge one can attain from hearing the teachings of gnosticism and
then cultivating them within yourself by ascetic and moral practice.
Knowledge that first relieved the individual of their cultural
religious indoctrination and then reconciled them to their personal
deity. Through such self-knowledge and personal purification
(virtuous living) the adept is led to direct knowledge of God via
themselves as inner reflection or will. Later, Valentinius
(Valentinus), taught that gnosis was the privileged Gnosis kardias
"knowledge of the heart" or "insight" about the
spiritual nature of the cosmos that brought about salvation to the
pneumatics— the name given to those believed to have reached the
final goal of sanctity.

The Gnostic concept of salvation, like
other Gnostic concepts, is a subtle one. On the one hand, Gnostic
salvation may easily be mistaken for an unmediated individual
experience, a sort of spiritual do-it-yourself project. Gnostics hold
that the potential for Gnosis, and thus, of salvation is present in
every man and woman, (though some lowered it saying it was only
possible for some) and that salvation is not vicarious but
individual. At the same time, they also acknowledge that Gnosis and
salvation can be, indeed must be, stimulated and facilitated in order
to effectively arise within consciousness. This stimulation is
supplied by Messengers of Light who, in addition to their teachings,
establish salvific mysteries (sacraments) which can be administered
by apostles of the Messengers and their successors.

One needs also remember that knowledge
of our true nature -- as well as other associated realizations -- are
withheld from us by our very condition of earthly existence. The True
God of transcendence is unknown in this world, in fact He is often
called the Unknown Father. It is thus obvious that revelation from on
High is needed to bring about salvation. The indwelling spark must be
awakened from its terrestrial slumber by the saving knowledge that
comes “from without”.

**Eucharist?** However, The Gospel of
Philip emphasizes that the eucharistic rite performed here in the
Lower Aeons is an image or reflection of a higher, archetypal
eucharist. - Hence, by eating the bread and drinking from the cup,
the participant shares in a sacramental meal that has its archetype
in the Upper Aeons: “So it is also with the bread and the cup and
the oil, even though there is another one superior to these.”
(Gospel of Philip)