The Archons are those figures who in Gnosticism play the role of judges and controllers of the material world.
In Gnostic theogony and cosmogony the material world is divided by the divine sphere (the Pleroma), an atemporal and dimensionless place pre-existing to everything that represents the totality of God’s powers.
This split arose from an "initial sin", through which a divine emanation stood between the material world generated by it, where man is imprisoned, and a higher and occult God, but, while in the Gnosticism of Iranian origin we witness the eternal and titanic clash between two divinities who put their armies in a former battle, in Egyptian-Hellenic-Jewish one, a minor deity, the Demiurge (the Little Creator), assisted by a series of emanations generated by himself and called Archons, is opposed to the occult God.
The material world, therefore, is nothing more than a speed bump, a creation of the Archons who try to reproduce the perfection of Pleroma through the imposition of rules and the application of laws that, whilst not perfect, aspire to emulate the reality: the universe is the memory of what they once knew.
The Archons are often a mistake made by one of the Powers, partners of the true God in the world of light: in the apocryphal of John the first Archon was born from the Aeon Sophia, a "feminine" emanation of God, and had a bestial look with snake body and lion head .
For this reason, the Archons ignore their true origin and do not know the true God but think they are the summit of the Cosmos and that there is nothing else beyond the celestial spheres over which they rule.
In many currents rooted in Gnosticism the names of God as they appear in the Old Testament -Iao, Sabaoth, Adonai, Elohim…- are attributed to the Archons and when they have a leader, identified with the Platonic Demiurge, it often and willingly takes up the characteristics of the God of the Old Testament, whose jealousy, wrath and negative qualities are emphasized.
The Archons are related to the celestial spheres, especially the seven planets of antiquity: the cosmological system in Gnosticism is particularly complex and there is a clear distinction between the "courts of splendor, the house of perfection" and the worlds of darkness, bound one to the other to form a monstrous labyrinth, in which souls are condemned to wander.
Man, the product of this world, is chained in this cosmic prison by his own body and soul, subject to fate and thus to the Archons' rule.
He lives in the anguish of being in a cage, in the longing for the original dwelling and in the stupor of being at the mercy of hostile demonic forces but has in himself a divine spark, the spirit or Pneuma, prisoner of the Seven Archons'power: the world envelops this spark, suffocating it and confusing it with the deceptions of the flesh and soul.
The True God sends a Messenger– sometimes identified with Christ– to bring the message to the pneumatic men, those who, possessing the divine spirit, were predestined to salvation, to awaken them and lead them to gnosis. This conception of a union of scattered fragments, to return to their home all souls of light, is typical of Gnostic doctrine.
Gnostic eschatology has as its perspective that of the ascent of the soul, freed from the constraints of the world of matter, and of the power of the Archons, towards the Pleroma as well as in the Babylonian astrology the soul ascended through the realms of the 7 planets to reach Anu.
The various Gnostic schools are divided on how to obtain this ascent or reintegration. For some it is necessary to repudiate the things of this world, for others it is necessary to experience what this world offers us.
Origen of Alexandria (Contra Celsum, VI, XXXI), referring to the Ophytic system, reports the seven Archons' names:
- Jaldabaoth (perhaps the Son of Chaos, Saturn, called "Lionface", Leontoeides) was the extreme one, and therefore the supreme regulator, later recognized as the Demiurge for excellence.
- Jao (Iao, perhaps from Jahu, Jahveh, but possibly also from the magic cry iao in the mysteries) is Jupiter.
- Sabaoth (God of Hosts), Jupiter Sabbas (Jahve sabaoth) was Mars.
- Adonaios (taken from the magic tablets) was Venus
- Astaphaios (from the Israeli term for "God"; Adonis for the Syrians, which represented the winter sun in the cosmic tragedy of Tammuz) was the Sun;
- Ailoaios or Ailoein (Elohim, God) was Mercury
- Oraios (Jaroah? or light?) was the Moon
In the Gnostic barbelotian cosmogony they sit on the throne of the seven planets: the celestial spheres, the planets, represent the place from where the Archons exercise their power over creation, and the Gnostic who knows the right words of power can overcome this planetary influence.
“The lawless and hostile Archons who rule this world can be vanquished. It is Christ who is the heavenly redeemer, the Pleroma, the light from the Father, the Illuminator, and like Christ, the disciples also are to become ‘illuminators in the midst of dead men.”
–The Letter of Peter to Philip from The Nag Hammadi Library
Resources related to The Archons overview
- Pax Pleroma Luogo di divulgazione gnostica
- Wikipedia
- Mistericosmici
Cover image by Carabo Spain
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