Ancient Psychedelia: Alien Gods & Mushroom Goddesses
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| The next section is from the Authoritative Teachings and mentions the “immortal food” as well as the “light that shines forth upon her” to which belongs “glory, the power and the revelation”: “Secretly her bridegroom fetched it. He presented it to her mouth to make her eat it like food, and he applied the word to her eyes as a medicine to make her see with her mind and perceive her kinsmen and learn about her root, in order that she might cling to her branch from which she had first come forth, in order that she might receive what is hers and renounce [matter]. … But the rational soul who (also) wearied herself in seeking – she learned about God. She labored with inquiring, enduring, distress in the body, wearing out her feet after the evangelists, learning about the Inscrutable One. She found her rising. She came to rest in him who is at rest. She reclined in the bride-chamber. She ate of the banquet for which she had hungered. She partook of the immortal food. She found what she had sought after. She received rest from her labors, while the light that shines forth upon her does not sink. To it belongs the glory and the power and the revelation for-ever and ever. Amen.” (28) Concepts of the downfall of man appear to come from The Apocryphon of John. I will quote next from the editor of this section, Frederick Wisse: “According to the Apocryphon of John, the fall occurs when Sophia desires to bring forth a being without the approval of the Great Spirit of her consort. Consequently, she produces the monstrous creator-god Yaldabaoth, who still possesses some of the light-power of his mother. Yaldabaoth creates angels to rule over the world and aid in the creation of man; man, himself is fashioned after the perfect Father’s image, which was mirrored on the water. Man comes to life when Yaldabaoth is tricked into breathing light-power into him. Thus, begins a continuous struggle between the powers of light and the powers of darkness for the possession of the divine particles in man. The evil powers put man in a material body to keep him imprisoned, and also create woman and sexual desire to spread the particles of light and make escape more difficult.” (29) This next piece is written in the context of the resurrected savior’s message to John. From the Apocryphon of John: “The teaching [of the savior], and [revelation] of the mysteries, [and the] things hidden in silence, [even these things which] he taught John, [his] disciple. “And when she saw (the consequences of) her desire, it changed into a form of a lion-faced serpent. And its eyes were like lightning fires which flash. She cast it away from her, outside that place, that no one of the immortal ones might see it, for she had created it in ignorance. And she surrounded it with a luminous cloud, and she placed a throne in the middle of the cloud that no one might see it except the Holy Spirit who is called the mother of the living. And she called his name Yaltabaoth.”… “This is the number of the angels: together they are 365. They all worked on it (the body and making of man) until, limb by limb, the natural and the material body was completed by them. Now there are other ones in charge over the remaining passions whom I did not mention to you. But if you wish to know them, it is written in the book of Zoroaster. And all the angels and demons worked until they had constructed the natural body.” |
This obviously implies that the teaching which you are reading from has Zoroastrianism as its origin. The demiurge is the fashioner of the universe in gnostic teachings. The origin is Plato's Timaeus, written c. 360 BC, where Plato presented the Demiurge as the creator of the whole universe. Ophic and Sethian teachings align closely with those of Valentinus which attribute the creation of the world to seven archons whose chief leader was Yaldabaoth. The only lion faced serpent deities we know of in the gnostic pantheon are the Mithra as Zervan Akarana and Cneph (chnoubis) or Abraxas. L: (26f) Zervan Akarana   R: (26d) Abraxas Variation. Steatite c. 100-600 AD Continuing: “And the Archons took him and placed him in paradise. And they said to him, ‘Eat, that is at leisure,’ for their luxury is bitter and their beauty is depraved. And their luxury is deception and their trees are godlessness and their fruit is deadly poison and their promise is death. And the tree of their life they had placed in the midst of paradise. “And I shall teach you what is the mystery of their life, which is the plan which they made together, which is the likeness of their spirit. The root of this tree is bitter and its branches are death, its shadow is hate and deception is in its leaves and its blossom is the ointment of evil, and its fruit is death and desire is its seed, and it sprouts in darkness. The dwelling place of those who taste from it is Hades and the darkness is their place of rest. “But what they call the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is the Epinoia of the light, they stayed in front of it in order that he (Adam) might not look up to his fullness and recognize the nakedness of his shamefulness. But it was I who brought about that they ate. (28) Nag Hammadi, Authoritative Teaching – Edited by Douglas M. Parrott (29) ibid, p. 104 |
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