abraxas

(Gnosticism, historical) A transcription of Abrasax.


syzygy

en-noun

syzygy (countable and uncountable, plural syzygies)

From Late Latin sȳzygia (“conjunction”), from Ancient Greek συζυγία (suzugía, “union, yoke, pair”). This word was recognized as English in 1847 (in its astronomical meaning).

der

(Gnosticism) Complementary female–male pairings of the emanations known as Aeons.


eon

eons (plural)
aeon (alternative)
æon (alternative)

From Latin aeon, from Ancient Greek αἰών (aiṓn, “age, era”).

(Gnosticism, usually spelled aeon or æon) A spirit being emanating from the Godhead.


aeon

aeons (plural)
æon (alternative)
Aeon (alternative)
Æon (alternative)
aion (alternative)
Aion (alternative)

(Gnosticism) A spirit being emanating from the Godhead.


Sophia

Holy Wisdom
Sophia
Sophia of Rome
sophia (wisdom)

Chiefly from Latin Sophia, from Ancient Greek Σοφία (Sophía), from σοφία (sophía, “wisdom”), especially in reference to holy or divine wisdom under the influence of Biblical Hebrew חוכמה (khokhmá), to the early martyr St. Sophia, and to many figures of European royalty and nobility. Also used as a calque for the many cognate forms, such as Italian Sofia, Ukrainian Софі́я (Sofíja), Russian Софи́я (Sofíja), Polish Zofia, etc. Doublet of Sofia.

Sofia (alternative)
Sofya (alternative)
Sofiya (alternative)
Sofija (alternative)

(Gnosticism) An aeon (a form of divine being) in the Gnostic tradition.


pneumatic

pneumatics (plural)
pneumatick (alternative)

From Latin pneumaticus, from Ancient Greek πνευματικός (pneumatikós, “relating to wind or air”), from πνεῦμα (pneûma, “wind, air, breath, spirit”), from πνέω (pnéō, “I blow, breath”).

(Gnosticism) In the gnostic theologian Valentinus' triadic grouping of man, the highest type; a person focused on spiritual reality (the other two being hylic and psychic).


psychic

From Ancient Greek ψυχικός (psukhikós, “relative to the soul, spirit, mind”). Earlier referred to as "psychical"; or from Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, “soul, mind, psyche”). First appeared (as substantive) 1871 and first records 1895.

uder

(Gnosticism) In gnostic theologian Valentinus' triadic grouping of man the second type; a person focused on intellectual reality (the other two being hylic and pneumatic).

psyykikko

person focused on intellectual reality (Gnosticism)


Yaldabaoth

/ˌjɑːldəˈbeɪɒθ/

Possibly from ילדא (yaldā, “begetter”) and Abaoth from Ancient Greek Σαβαώθ (Sabaṓth), from Biblical Hebrew צבאות (tsabāʾōθ), plural of צבא (tsābāʾ)

Jaldabaoth (alternative)
Jaltabaoth (alternative)
Yaltabaoth (alternative)

(Gnosticism) The Demiurge or 'False God'. Created when Sophia (one of the lesser aeons) tried to emanate without her counterpart (Christ).


hylic

1820s, from earlier German use; earlier hylical (1708). From Ancient Greek ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē, “matter”) + -ic (“of or pertaining to”).

(Gnosticism) The basest type of man in the gnostic theologian Valentinus' triadic grouping; a person focused on neither intellectual (psychic) nor spiritual (pneumatic) reality.


pleroma

Adam Black
David Don
Wernerian Natural History Society

Learned borrowing from Late Latin pleroma (“(Gnosticism) spiritual universe seen as the totality of the essence and powers of God”), from Koine Greek πλήρωμᾰ (plḗrōmă, “(biblical) perfect fullness”), Ancient Greek πλήρωμᾰ (plḗrōmă, “that which fills, a complement; a filling up, a completing”), from πληρόω (plēróō, “to make full, fill; to complete, finish”) (from πλήρης (plḗrēs, “complete, full”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + -όω (-óō, suffix forming verbs with the sense of making someone be or do something)) + -μᾰ (-mă, suffix forming nouns denoting the result or effect of an action).
Sense 1.1 (“plant”) is borrowed from New Latin Pleroma, a genus name coined by the Scottish botanist David Don (1799–1841) in 1822, from Ancient Greek πλήρωμᾰ (plḗrōmă) (see above) to describe the way the seeds of the plant filled the capsule.
Sense 2 (“state of perfect fullness”) is chiefly used in reference to Colossians 2:9 of the Bible: “Ὅτι ἐν αὐτῶῳ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς (Hóti en autôōi katoikeî pân tò plḗrōma tês theótētos sōmatikôs) [For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form]”.

coinage

There is a way to comprehend the gnostic's giant onion of a world, the concentric circles, with the Pleroma beckoning there, the white heart of light, the source of that primal vision which for a second or two can recapture paradise.

1974, Lawrence Durrell, “Macabru”, in Monsieur (The Avignon Quintet; 1), New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published 1975, →ISBN, page 131:

(Gnosticism, historical) Often preceded by the: the spiritual universe seen as the totality of the essence and powers of God.


archon

From Ancient Greek ἄρχων (árkhōn), a noun use of the present participle of ἄρχω (árkhō, “to rule”).

Their claim to totality is like the cry of the archon Ialdabaoth that he was the Lord of the Universe and that there was nothing beyond him.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 83:

(Gnosticism) A supernatural being subordinate to the Demiurge.


demiurge

demiurges (plural)
Demiurge (alternative)
demiurgos (alternative)
demiurgoi (alternative)
demiurgus (alternative)
demiurgi (alternative)

From Ancient Greek δημιουργός (dēmiourgós, “one who works for the people; a skilled workman, a handicraftsman”) (whence Latin dēmiūrgus, French démiurge), from δήμιος (dḗmios, “belonging to the people, public”) (from δῆμος (dêmos, “the people”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂mos (“people”), from *deh₂- (“to divide”) + Ancient Greek -ιος (-ios), from Proto-Indo-European *-yós (suffix creating an adjective from a noun)) + Ancient Greek -ουργός (-ourgós, “worker”) (from ἔργον (érgon, “labour; task; work”), from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom (“work”)).
No relation with English demi- (as in demigod).

der

The Gnostic Demiurge then assumes a surprising likeness to Ahriman, the evil counter-creator of Ormuzd in Mazdean philosophy. The character of the Gnostic Demiurge became still more complicated when in some systems he was identified with Jehovah, the God of the Jews or of the Old Testament, and was brought in opposition to Christ of the New Testament, the Only-Begotten Son of the Supreme and Good God.

1908, Charles G[eorge] Herbermann, editor, The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, New York, N.Y.: Robert Appleton Company, →OCLC, page 708, column 1:

This was the earnest attempt of a Christian to explain in some detail how God might act using natural law, although his critics noted that such a Creator had more in common with a gnostic demiurge than the transcendent God of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

2003, Richard England, editor, Design after Darwin: 1860–1900, volumes 1 (Metaphors and Metaphysics of Design. Key Statement of the 1860s.), Bristol: Thoemmes Press, →OCLC, page xiv:

Common to all authentic Gnostic schools are teachings on the demiurgos and archons. However, exactly what the demiurgos and archons are in the symbolic and mystical language of the various Gnostic traditions can be very different from one tradition to another. The word demiurgos means "creator of the world," "false creator," or "false god." Archons mean "rulers" and indicate spiritual or cosmic forces associated with the demiurgos. […] [S]ome schools view the demiurgos quite literally as the God of the Old Testament, while others do not view Yahweh as the demiurgos at all.

2005, Tau Malachi, “The Demiurgos and Evil”, in Living Gnosis: A Practical Guide to Gnostic Christianity, Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn Worldwide, →ISBN, page 93:

(Gnosticism) A (usually jealous or outright malevolent) being who is inferior to the supreme being, and sometimes seen as the creator of evil.


pneuma

From Ancient Greek πνεῦμα (pneûma, “wind, breath, spirit”), from πνέω (pnéō, “I blow, breathe”). Doublet of neume.

bor

(Gnosticism) One of three levels of a human being, the spirit, along with the body and soul.


hebdomad

hebdomads (plural)
hebdomade (alternative)

From Late Latin hebdomada (“number seven; group of seven; seven days”), hebdomas (“number seven; seven days; seventh day”), from Ancient Greek ἑβδομάς (hebdomás, “group of seven, especially seven days or seven years”), from ἑπτά (heptá, “seven”) + -ᾰ́ς (-ắs, suffix forming abstract nouns of number from numerals). The word is cognate with French hebdomadaire, hebdo (“weekly periodical”), hebdomadairement (“weekly”), Portuguese hebdomadário (“weekly periodical”), Spanish hebdomadario (“weekly; weekly periodical; hebdomadary”).

cog

When, then, the Great Archon had been orally instructed, and every creature of the Ogdoad had been orally instructed and taught, and [after] the mystery became known to the celestial [powers], it was also necessary that afterwards the Gospel should come to the Hebdomad, in order likewise that the Archon of the Hebdomad might be similarly instructed and indoctrinated into the Gospel.

1868, Hippolytus of Rome, chapter XIV, in J. H. MacMahon, transl., edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, The Refutation of All Heresies, by Hippolytus: […] (Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325; VI (Hippolytus, Bishop of Rome)), volume I, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, […]; London: Hamilton & Co.; Dublin: John Robertson & Co., →OCLC, book VII (Of the Refutation of All Heresies), page 284:

The light came down from the Hebdomad upon Jesus the Son of Mary. That this descent of the light was represented as taking place at the Annunciation, and not merely at the Baptism, is clearly implied in the express reference to the words of the angel in Luke i. 35, "A Holy Spirit shall come upon thee," [...]

1877, Fenton John Anthony Hort, “Basilides”, in William Smith, Henry Wace, editors, A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines: […], volumes I (A–D), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, →OCLC, page 273, column 1:

(Gnosticism) A group of seven world-creating archons (supernatural beings) often regarded as somewhat hostile; also, a term of address for the Demiurge (“a being sometimes seen as the creator of evil”).


Demiurge

/ˈdɛmɪˌɝd͡ʒ/

From Ancient Greek Δημιουργός (Dēmiourgós), see demiurge.

Demiurgos (alternative)
Demiurgus (alternative)

For the rest, we meet in the Demiurge of the Valentinians all the traits of the world-god with which we have by now become familiar and can therefore deal here very briefly

2001, Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion: The message of the alien God, page 191:

(Gnosticism) A prideful, inferior being that creates the material world; frequently identified with the creator God of the Hebrew Bible.


Anthropos

From Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos).

(Gnosticism) The primordial man/humanity.


Pleroma

(Gnosticism, historical) Alternative letter-case form of pleroma (“the spiritual universe seen as the totality of the essence and powers of God”)


Sabaoth

/səˈbeɪˌoʊθ/

From Latin, from Ancient Greek Σαβαώθ (Sabaṓth), from Biblical Hebrew צבאות (tsabāʾōθ), plural of צבא (tsābāʾ).

(Gnosticism) One of the seven chief archons in the Ophite cosmogony.


Cainite

(Gnosticism) An adherent of Cainism, a member of a Gnostic sect that honored Cain and Judas.


Aion

From Ancient Greek Αἰών (Aiṓn, “Greek god or personification, Gnostic spirit”).

bor

Eon (alternative)
Aeon (alternative)
Æon (alternative)

(Gnosticism) Alternative spelling of aeon


Marcion

/ˈmɑː(ɹ)ʃən/

/ˈmɑː(ɹ)ʃʌ̈ʊ̯n/

From Late Latin Mārciōn (from Koine Greek Μᾱρκῑ́ων (Mārkī́ōn, diminutive of Ancient Greek Μᾶρκος (Mârkos, from Mārcus (from Mārs + -cus)))), from Old Latin Māvors and Proto-Indo-European *-kos.

der

(Christianity, Gnosticism, philosophy, history) Marcion of Sinope, 2nd century AD theologian, philosopher, preacher and founder of Marcionism, a Hellenistic Christian religious belief system influenced by Gnostic theology; compiled the first Biblical canon, consisting solely of Greek New Testament scriptures, totally rejecting the scriptural authority of the Hebrew Tanakh adopted as the canonical Old Testament of the Christian Bible


Cainian

(Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism) Synonym of Cainite.


sarkic

en-adj

sarkic (comparative more sarkic, superlative most sarkic)

more sarkic (comparative)
most sarkic (superlative)

(Gnosticism) designating the lowest level of human thought; focused on neither intellectual (psychic) nor spiritual (pneumatic) reality.


Sarkic

Sarkic (comparative more Sarkic, superlative most Sarkic)

more Sarkic (comparative)
most Sarkic (superlative)

(Gnosticism) the lowest state of human thought; the fleshly, instinct-driven level; neither intellectual (psychic) nor spiritual (pneumatic).