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.
Depiction of the demiurge in Gnosticism.
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.
Yaldabaoth as he appears in persona 5.
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.
In IVA Gaston has a spear given to him by the angels with Archon Michael written on it. Signifying a direct declaration that the angels are indeed also archons.
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)