BASILIDEAN: A Gnostic sect founded by Basilides of Alexandria, who claimed to have received his esoteric doctrines from Glaucus, a disciple of the Apostle Peter. The system had three grades: material, intellectual, and spiritual and it possessed two allegorical statues, male and female. The doctrine had many points of resemblance to that of the Ophites and Cabala.

(See also: BASILIDEAN, Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Nebu (Gnostic-Hebrew) The planetary genius of Mercury in the Ophite Gnostic scheme. The Codex Nazaraeus states that Nebu is "a false Messiah, who will deprave the ancient worship of God," according to Norberg (preface to his trans.)

Also, an alternative spelling of the Assyro-Babylonian god Nebo.

(See also: Nebu, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Iurbo Adonai (Gnostic) Also Iurbo Adunai. Term for Iao-Jehovah, whom the Gnostic Ophites regarded as an emanation of Ildabaoth, the son of Sophia Achamoth. Many Gnostics regarded Iurbo Adonai as the God Moses.

(See also: Iurbo Adonai, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Iurbo Aduna?. A Gnostic term, or the compound name for Iao Jehovah, whom the Ophites regarded as an emanation of their Ilda-Baoth, the Son of Sophia Achamoth - the proud, ambitious and jealous god, and impure Spirit, whom many of the Gnostic sects regarded as the god of Moses. "Iurbo is called by the Abortions (the Jews) Adunai" says the Codex Nazareus (vol. iii., p.13 The "Abortions" and Abortives was the nickname given to the Jews by their opponents the Gnostics.

(See also: Iurbo Aduna?, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Ophis (Greek) Serpent; used by the Gnostic Ophites for Chnouphis, the Agathodaimon (good serpent), emblem of wisdom and of the unending cycles of time and constituting, with Ennoia, the Logos. Its opposite pole is Ophiomorphos [serpent-form from ophis serpent + morphe form]

. The two are represented in the zodiac by Virgo-Scorpio. The serpent before his fall was Ophis-Christos, and after his fall was Ophiomorphos-Chrestos. The Roman Catholic Church identified Ophiomorphos with Michael, and the Gnostics identified him with Jehovah.

(See also: Ophis, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Peratae (Latin) Peratai (Greek) One of the Gnostic bodies or associations, the Naaseni or Ophites, the "Serpent Gnostics," so called because of the mystical prominence of the serpent symbol in their rites and observances.

This Gnostic body is said by scholars to have been founded by Euphrates, who possessed wide astrological knowledge, and because of the teachings which his school followed were they named Peratai -- wanderers, i.e., on this earth of trial and tribulation; or "those of the other side," signifying individuals who regarded themselves as merely wanderers or pilgrims in regions far from their native home, the spirit.

Among other ideas, they held that the celestial bodies in a person's horoscope are the instruments of destiny or karma, which because of causes engendered in other lives bring the individuals to birth on this earth under the destined yoke marked in the celestial spaces by the sun, moon, and planets; and in order to protect themselves from the malignant influence of the genii of the planets they wore serpent sigils or talismans.

C. W. King states that the Ophites were the descendants of the Bacchic Mystae, basing this on the fact that coins of the period bear the Bacchic serpent, which is represented as raising himself out of the sacred coffer, while the reverse side of the coin shows two serpents entwined around torches (Gnostics and Their Remains 225).

(See also: Peratae, Peratai, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Raphael repha'el (Hebrew) [from rapha' to knit together, compose by joining, repair and mend, cure, heal + 'el divinity]

The builder of God, the composer of God; one of the four (later seven) angels stationed about the throne of God; also called Suriel or Suryal. In the vision of Ezekiel, the seer describes the four faces beheld: that of the face of the man is made equivalent to Raphael in the Ophite scheme.

Originally the dragon was one of the four sacred animals, but it was altered to the face of a man (SD 1:127). In the Book of Enoch (ch 20) Raphael is considered as the angel of the spirits of men, and is commissioned to "heal [rebuild or re-compose] the Earth which the angels have defiled."

(See also: Raphael, repha'el, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Naasenians, Naassenes [from Hebrew nahash serpent]

A Gnostic school of the Ophites [from Greek ophis serpent], which regarded the spiritual dragon or serpent as the redeeming power and as a symbol of the intelligence by whose means Adam and Eve received a knowledge of the existence of higher beings than their creator.

The dragon or serpent is an extremely ancient, universal symbol of wisdom and knowledge. Only in Christian times has it become endowed with infernal attributes and used as an emblem of the Evil One. Yet even the Christian scriptures declare that divinity itself can properly be symbolized by the dragon.

(See also: Naasenians, Naassenes, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Hivim hiwwiyim (Hebrew) (from hawah to live, breathe)

Plural of hivi (hiwwi), which mystically signifies a serpent; likewise one of the tribes mentioned in the Old Testament as originating from Canaan (Genesis 10:17), the serpent tribe of Palestine who were ministers to the temples, somewhat like the Levites or Ophites of Israel and Asia Minor respectively (cf IU 2:481).

In ancient America hivim was also used in association with the serpent: the chiefs called Votan, the Quetzalcohuatl or serpent deity of the Mexicans, say:

"I am Hivim": "Being a Hivim, I am of the great race of the Dragon (snake). I am a snake myself, for I am a Hivim" (IU 1:554).

(See also: Hivim, hiwwiyim, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hivim hiwwiyim (Hebrew) (from hawah to live, breathe)

Plural of hivi (hiwwi), which mystically signifies a serpent; likewise one of the tribes mentioned in the Old Testament as originating from Canaan (Genesis 10:17), the serpent tribe of Palestine who were ministers to the temples, somewhat like the Levites or Ophites of Israel and Asia Minor respectively (cf IU 2:481).

In ancient America hivim was also used in association with the serpent: the chiefs called Votan, the Quetzalcohuatl or serpent deity of the Mexicans, say:

"I am Hivim": "Being a Hivim, I am of the great race of the Dragon (snake). I am a snake myself, for I am a Hivim" (IU 1:554).

(See also: Hiuen-Tsang, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Betylos, Baetylus (Latin) (from Greek baitylos meteoric stone)

Also betylus, baetyl, betyles. In Classical antiquity a stone, either natural or artificially shaped, venerated as of divine origin, or as a symbol of divinity. There were a number of these sacred stones in Greece, the most famous being the one on the omphalos at Delphi. Likewise there were the so-called animated or oracular stones. "Strabo, Pliny, Helancius (Hellanicus)

-- all speak of the electrical, or electro-magnetic power of the betyli. They were worshipped in the remotest antiquity in Egypt and Samothrace, as magnetic stones, 'containing souls which had fallen from heaven'; and the priests of Cybele wore a small betylos on their bodies" (IU 1:332). In Persia they were called oitzoe; but their origin was of far greater antiquity, for "Lemuria, Atlantis and her giants, and the earliest races of the Fifth Root-Race had all a hand in these betyles, lithoi, and 'magic' stones in general" (SD 2:346n).

See also OPHITES; ROCKING-STONES

(See also: Betylos, Baetylus, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hivim or Chivim (Hebrew, Jewish).

Whence the Hivites who, according to some Roman Catholic commentators, descend from Heth, son of Canaan, son of Ham, "the accursed". Brasseur de Bourbourg, the missionary translator of the Scripture of the Guatemalians, the Popol Vuh, indulges in the theory that the Hivim of the Quetzo Cohuatl, the Mexican Serpent Deity, and the "descendants of Serpents" as they call themselves, are identical with the descendants of Ham (! !) "whose ancestor is Cain".

Such is the conclusion, at any rate, drawn from Bourhourg’s writings by Des Mousseaux, the demonologist. Bourbourg hints that the chiefs of the name of Votan, the Quetzo Cohuati, are the descendants of Ham and Canaan. "I am Hivim", they say. " Being a Hivim, I am of the great Race of the Dragons. I am a snake, myself, for I am a Hivim’ (Cortes 51). But Cain is allegorically shown as the ancestor of the Hivites, the Serpents, because Cain is held to have been the first initiate in the mystery of procreation.

The "race of the Dragons" or Serpents means the Wise Adepts. The names Hivi or Hivite, and Levi - signify a Serpent "; and the Hivites or Serpent-tribe of Palestine, were, like all Levites and Ophites of Israel, initiated Ministers to the temples, i.e., Occultists, as are the priests of Quetzo Cohuatl. The Gibeonites whom Joshua assigned to the service of the sanctuary were Hivites.

(See Isis Unveiled, Vol. II. 481.)

(See also: Hivim, Chivim, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Python (Greek) The serpent slain by Apollo, who was therefore called Pythius. At one time the world was covered with temples to the sun and dragon: the Ophites adopted it from Egypt, whither it had come from India. It is seen in the story of Bel and the Dragon, of St. George or St.

Michael and the Dragon, of Osiris and Typhon, Krishna and Kaliya, and the Lord God and the Serpent of Eden. The cosmic dragon represents the shadow side of the logos, and the opposition between these two is the so-called war in heaven.

The dual nature of the serpent is seen in Rahu and Ketu, the Dragon's head and tail; and Typhon or Apophis, slain by Horus is also called Set, who is in one of his permutations Hermes, god of wisdom, and whose name likewise is that of the Biblical Seth and Satan.

In initiations the inner enlightened individual had to confront his lower passions, now personified into a veritable astral monster, and to be either its victor or its victim; when victorious he became the spiritual serpent in its other sense of the dragon of wisdom. This double meaning has its correspondence in the fact that snakes shed their skin and reemerge purified, just as the neophyte through training and initiation sheds the Old Person and reemerges from the tests as the New Person.

(See also: Python, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Michael micha'el (Hebrew) Who is as God; one of the seven archangels, in the Old Testament one of the chiefs of the heavenly host, regarded as the guardian angel or celestial patron of Israel. According to one legend, Michael was chief of the four or seven angels who surrounded the heavenly throne.

The Roman Catholic Church regards Michael in much the same light, his festival, Michaelmas, being held on September 29. With the Gnostics, the first of the Aeons, called the savior. In the New Testament Michael leads the angelic host against the Apocalyptic Dragon, repeating the familiar tale of many ancient mythologies. Again, he is the chief opponent of Samael, the principal antagonist of the heavenly host.

Originally, however, both Michael and Samael were as one, both proceeding from ruah (soul), neshamah (spirit), and nephesh (vitality) -- as taught in the Qabbalah (in the Chaldean Book of Numbers).

"Samael is the concealed (occult) Wisdom, and Michael the higher terrestrial Wisdom, both emanating from the same source but diverging after their issue from the mundane soul, which on Earth is Mahat (intellectual understanding), or Manas (the seat of Intellect). They diverge, because one (Michael) is influenced by Neschamah, while the other (Isamael) remains uninfluenced. This tenet was perverted by the dogmatic spirit of the Church; which . . . made of Samael-Satan (the most wise and spiritual spirit of all) -- the adversary of its anthropomorphic God and sensual physical man, the devil!" (SD 2:378).

In Ezekiel's vision of the Cherubim, or the four sacred animals, the angel with the face of the lion corresponds to Michael, as in the Ophite scheme.

(See also: Michael, micha'el, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Stone, Stones There is available numerous testimony as to animated stones, speaking stones, etc. There is the Christ-stone, which followed the Israelites; the Jupiter Lapis swallowed by Saturn; the testimony of Pausanias as to the Grecian worship of stones; the Ophites and Siderites, serpent-stones and star-stones, the former being alleged to have the gift of speech; the baituloi or alleged animated stones mentioned by Sanchoniathon and Philo Byblius; the liafail or speaking stone of Westminster; Pliny's stones which ran away when a hand approached them; the importance attached to stone monuments and rocking stones; etc. (SD 2:341 et seq). Again, we have the vast subject of talismans and of gems with potent properties.

A stone is an organism enshrining a divine spark or monad. The difference between the stone and the man consists largely in the fact that what is expressed in man is latent in the stone. Why then should not the hierophants of genuine magic or occult science have been able to evoke from the stone its latent potencies? Why should not particular stones, like particular plants, animals, or men, possess particular virtues?

Unless modern science is prepared to make of the physical atom a primordial existence, it must seek the origin elsewhere. Physical matter is a concretion of universal light or radiation; but it needs the eye of a seer to perceive what starry virtue lies sleeping in the gem or the talisman; the skill of the magician to known what can be done by placing stones in a particular grouping, perhaps with certain ceremonies, etc.

The word has symbolic uses, as in the white stone with a new name inscribed in it, which is given to him that overcomes in Revelations; the stone that the builders rejected; stones in the Guardian Wall; etc.

(See also: Stone, Stones, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Mano (Gnost.). The Lord of Light. Rex Lucis, in the Codex Nazareus. He is the Second "Life" of the second or manifested trinity "the heavenly life and light, and older than the architect of heaven and earth" (Cod. Naz., Vol. I. p. 145). These trinities are as follows. The Supreme Lord of splendour and of light, luminous and refulgent, before which no other existed, is called Corona (the crown); Lord Ferho, the unrevealed life which existed in the former from eternity; and Lord Jordan - the spirit, the living water of grace (Ibid. II pp. 45-51). He is the one through whom alone we can be saved. These three constitute the trinity in abscondito.

The second trinity is composed of the three lives. The first is the similitude of Lord Ferho, through whom he has proceeded forth; and the second Ferho is the King of Light - MANO. The second life is Ish Amon (Pleroma), the vase of election, containing the visible thought of the Jordanus Maximus - the type (or its intelligible reflection), the prototype of the living water, who is the "spiritual Jordan". (Ibid. II., p. 211.) The third life, which is produced by the other two, is ABATUR (Ab, the Parent or Father). This is the mysterious and decrepit "Aged of the Aged", the Ancient "Senem sui obtegentem et grandevum mundi." This latter third Life is the Father of the Demiurge Fetahil, the Creator of the world, whom the Ophites call llda-Baoth (q.v.), though Fetahil is the only-begotten one, the reflection of the Father, Abatur, who begets him by looking into the "dark water".

Sophia Achamoth also begets her Son Ilda-Baoth the Demiurge, by looking into the chaos of matter. But the Lord Mano, "the Lord of loftiness, the Lord of all genii", is higher than the Father, in this kabalistic Codex - one is purely spiritual, the other material. So, for instance, while Abatur’s "only-begotten" one is the genius Fetahil, the Creator of the physical world, Lord Mano, the "Lord of Celsitude", who is the son of Him, who is "the Father of all who preach the Gospel", produces also an "only-begotten" one, the Lord Lehdaio, "a just Lord". He is the Christos, the anointed, who pours out the "grace" of the Invisible Jordan, the Spirit of the Highest Crown. (See for further information Isis Unveiled. Vol. II., pp. 227, et. seq.)

(See also: Mano, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Serpent One of the most fundamental and prolific symbols of the mystery-language. Its most basic meaning is of the eternal, alternating, cyclic motion during cosmic manifestation.

For motion, which to the physicist and the philosopher alike seems an abstraction, is for the ancient wisdom a primordial principle or axiom, of the same order as space and time, existing per se. Never does motion cease utterly even during kosmic pralaya. And motion is essentially circular: where physics would derive circular motion from a composition of rectilinear motions, the opposite procedure would be that of the ancient wisdom. This circular motion, compounding itself into spirals, helixes, and vortices, is the builder of worlds, bringing together the scattered elements of chaos; motion per se is essential cosmic intelligence. This circular motion, returning upon itself like a serpent swallowing its tail, represents the cycles of time.

This conscious energy in spirals whirls through all the planes of cosmos as fohat and his innumerable sons -- the cosmic energies and forces, fundamentally intelligent, operating in every scale or grade of matter. The caduceus of Hermes, twin serpents wound about a staff, represents cosmically the mighty drama of evolution, in its twin aspects, the staff or tree standing for the structural aspect, the serpent for the fohatic forces that animate the structure.

The serpent is characteristically a dual symbol. In the beginnings of creation two poles were emanated, spirit and matter; and forthwith began interaction between the downward forces of the one and the upward forces of the other. Hermes, Mercury, intelligence, may represent a sage or a thief; the serpentine wisdom may work in every plane of materiality. The perverse will of man may turn natural forces to evil purposes, and thus we speak of the good serpent and the bad, of Agathodaemon and Kakodaemon, of Ophis and Ophiomorphos. A serpent can be a sage or a sorcerer.

The dragon is the eternally vigilant one, guardian of the sacred treasures; but he is the ruthless destroyer of him who attempts to gain by force the riches to which he has not won a title. To gain knowledge, we must know how to tame the serpent which rules the nether worlds, as the Christ refuses to make obeisance to Satan.

The seven sacred planets, or again the seven human principles, form a serpent, often collocated with the sun and moon as making a triad. One form of this spiraling conscious energy, when manifesting in man, is kundalini-sakti, the serpentine power, which in the ordinary person today lies relatively sleeping and performing merely automatic vital functions; but when aroused can ether waft to sublime heights of vision and power or blast like a lightning-stroke.

The power which a serpent has of casting its old skin is analogous to what the earth does at the commencement of each round, and to the clothing of the human jiva with a new body when it enters the womb. Again, the astral light is called a serpent; its lowest strata are dangerous and deceptive, while it extends through all planes up to the highest akasa, the vehicle of divine wisdom.

In early Christianity there arose more than one Gnostic sect using the snake as a symbol, such as the Ophites, which in the vision of certain ecclesiastic Fathers was designated devil worship, or by other uncomplimentary names.

See also NAGA; WORLD-SERPENT

(See also: Serpent, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Mano (Gnostic) In the Codex Nazaraeus, chief scripture of the Nazarene Gnostics, the chief of the aeons, the King of Splendor, from whom shoot forth five refulgent rays of divine light. The Codex describes Mano as the supreme King of Light, the great first one: he who first emanates from Ferho, the unknown formless life, generally equivalent to the Second Logos in theosophy.

"He is the Second 'Life' of the second or manifested trinity 'the heavenly life and light, and older than the architect of heaven and earth' (Cod. Naz., Vol. I, p. 145). These trinities are as follows.

• The Supreme Lord of splendour and of light, luminous and refulgent, before which no other existed, is called Corona (the crown); Lord Ferho, the unrevealed life which existed in the former from eternity; and Lord Jordan -- the spirit, the living water of grace (Ibid. II., pp. 45-51). He is the one through whom alone we can be saved. These three constitute the trinity in abscondito.

• The second trinity is composed of the three lives. The first is the similitude of Lord Ferho, through whom he has proceeded forth; and the second Ferho is the King of Light -- Mano. The second life is Ish Amon (Pleroma), the vase of election, containing the visible thought of the Jordanus Maximus -- the type (or its intelligible reflection), the prototype of the living water, who is the 'spiritual Jordan.' (Ibid. II., p. 211)

• The third life, which is produced by the other two, is Abatur (Ab, the Parent or Father). This is the mysterious and decrepit 'Aged of the Aged,' the Ancient 'Senem sui obtegentem et grandaevum mundi.' This latter third Life is the Father of the Demiurge Fetahil, the Creator of the world, whom the Ophites call Ilda-Baoth . . . though Fetahil is the only-begotten one, the reflection of the Father, Abatur, who begets him by looking into the 'dark water.' Sophia Achamoth also begets her Son Ilda-Baoth the Demiurge, by looking into the chaos of matter. But the Lord Mano, 'the Lord of loftiness, the Lord of all genii,' is higher than the Father, in this kabalistic Codex -- one is purely spiritual, the other material. So, for instance, while Abatur's 'only-begotten' one is the genius Fetahil, the Creator of the physical world, Lord Mano, the 'Lord of Celsitude,' who is the son of Him, who is 'the Father of all who preach the Gospel,' produces also an 'only-begotten' one, the Lord Lehdaio, 'a just Lord.' He is the Christos, the anointed, who pours out the 'grace' of the Invisible Jordan, the Spirit of the Highest Crown . . ." (TG 204-5).

The trinity of Mano, Spiritus, and Lehdaio is equivalent to the Father, Mother, and Son of the Christian system. From one standpoint Mano is comparable also to the Hindu Manu (cf IU 2:229).

(See also: Mano, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

(Note: It is a matter of controversy if these sects had a real succession of ideas or communion with each other, or if they more or less coincidentally had the same basic doctrine.) First, the gnostic sects are often divided into an eastern, or Persian school, and a Syrian-Egyptic school. The Persian school has a more definitive division between light and darkness, whereas the Syrian-Egyptic school is more platonist in character. The latter is the one usually associated with Gnosticism, and the one known to include several Christian e ...

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Gnosticism, Gnosticism - Etymology, Gnosticism - Background and origins of gnosticism, Gnosticism - Theology and cosmology, Gnosticism - The classic gnostic myth, Gnosticism - The Valentinian Gnostic creation myth, Gnosticism - Matter, Gnosticism - Gnostic conceptions of humanity, Gnosticism - Lifestyle, Gnosticism - Gnostic sects, Gnosticism - Sources, Gnosticism - Gnostic texts, Gnosticism - Notable Gnostics, Gnosticism - Gnosticism in modern times, Gnosticism - Gnosticism in popular culture

Read more here: » Gnosticism: Encyclopedia II - Gnosticism - Gnostic sects

Ialdabaoth (Gnostic) (from Shem ilda + baoth)

Child from the egg (of Chaos); the spirit of matter, the chief of the lower 'elohim and father of the six dark stellar spirits or terrestrial angels, and thus one of the lower group of the Qabbalistic Sephiroth, the shadow or reflection on the lower four cosmic planes of the arupa or formless higher Sephirothic range. These emanations from the stellar spirits become darker and more material as they recede in descent from their sources, and are thus properly represented as the seven planetary (and global) genii or rectors.

Ialdabaoth's mother, Sophia Achamoth (wisdom of the lower four of the cosmic planes) is the daughter or manifested reflection of the Heavenly Sophia -- divine wisdom, or the mahat-side of akasa. Therefore Ialdabaoth is equivalent to the Nazarene Demiourgos of the Codex Nazaraeus, which makes him identical with the Hebrew Jehovah, the creator of the physical earth and the material side of the rector of the planet Saturn. He is also identical with Tsebaoth-Adamas, "the Pthahil of the Codex Nazaraeus, the Demiurge of the Valentinian system, the Proarchose of the Barbelitae, the Great Archon of Basilides and the Elohim of Justinus, etc. Ialdabaoth (the Child of Chaos) was . . . the Chief of the Creative Forces and the representative of one of the classes of Pitris" (BCW 13:43n). In the Ophite scheme he is the first of the superior septenate.

As a creative spirit, Ialdabaoth generates six sons (the lower terrestrial angels or stellar spirits) without assistance of any female, and when these sons strive with him he creates Ophiomorphos, the serpent-shaped spirit of all that is basest in matter. When Ialdabaoth proclaims that he is Father and God, and that none is above him, Sophia tells him that the first and second Anthropos (heavenly man) are above him. So Ialdabaoth's sons create a man, Adam, to whom Ialdabaoth gives the breath of life, emptying himself of creative power. Having rebelled against his mother, his production is mindless and has to be endowed with mind by Sophia Achamoth -- a reference to the descent of the manasaputras. The man, thus informed, aspires away from his producer, who thereupon becomes his adversary, produces the three lower kingdoms of beings, and imprisons man in a house of clay (flesh). Ialdabaoth also makes Eve (Lilith) to deprive the man of his light powers. Sophia sends the serpent or intelligence to make Adam and Eve transgress the commands of Ialdabaoth, who casts them from Paradise into the world along with the serpent. Sophia deprives Adam and Eve of their light power, but eventually restores this power so that they awoke mentally. Here there is much the same confusion that surrounds the various meanings of Satan and the serpent.

Ialdabaoth, who is lion-headed or in the form of a lion, represents the kama principle, the false light that draws the soul into matter and struggles against its rise again to spirit. Some Gnostics held that Sophia sent Christos to help humankind when Ialdabaoth and his forces were shutting out the divine light, and Ialdabaoth, "discovering that Christos was bringing to an end his kingdom of Matter, stirred up the Jews, his own people, against Him, and Jesus was put to death" (BCW 14:161).

See also JEHOVAH

(See also: Ialdabaoth, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

(Note: It is a matter of controversy if these sects had a real succession of ideas or communion with each other, or if they more or less coincidentally had the same basic doctrine.) First, the gnostic sects are often divided into an eastern, or Persian school, and a Syrian-Egyptic school. The Persian school has a more definitive division between light and darkness, whereas the Syrian-Egyptic school is more platonist in character. The latter is the one usually associated with Gnosticism, and the one known to include several Christian e ...

See also:

Gnosticism, Gnosticism - Overview, Gnosticism - Etymology, Gnosticism - Background and origins of gnosticism, Gnosticism - Theology and cosmology, Gnosticism - The classic gnostic myth, Gnosticism - The Valentinian Gnostic creation myth, Gnosticism - Matter, Gnosticism - Gnostic conceptions of humanity, Gnosticism - Lifestyle, Gnosticism - Gnostic sects, Gnosticism - Sources, Gnosticism - Gnostic texts, Gnosticism - Notable Gnostics, Gnosticism - Gnosticism in modern times, Gnosticism - Gnosticism in popular culture

Read more here: » Gnosticism: Encyclopedia II - Gnosticism - Gnostic sects