Could you please do a post on the Archons?
I don’t really focus much on the concept of the Demiurge and the Archons in my practice as much as I did when first finding out about Gnosticism. As a rebellious teen sick of Christianity I remember feeling a wave of “Oh, it all makes sense now! The god of the Bible is really the bad guy who Jesus saves us from!” which I think a lot of Gnostic newbies go through at first, especially after falling out of love with mainstream Christianity - my views have come a long way since then.
For starters, I personally see the Demiurge/Archons as allegorical rather than literal entities, or at the very least personified negative energies similar to as how one might anthropomorphise the positive Aeonic (Divine) energies. This isn’t true for all Gnostics, there’s a pretty wide spectrum of how people view Them, from those who see them a false god (such as Yahweh or Zeus) of the material world to modern literalists who think they are actual invisible aliens controlling us from the other planets in the solar system. Then you get the kind of inbetweeners who have a mix of those views and liken it to how astrological signs have power over different types of people (I’ve found divination and astrology looked down upon in a lot of Gnostic circles for this reason). To each their own, I guess. I liken them more to the dharmic idea of Maya; the illusion of material pleasures and vices that inevitably lead to suffering and distance us from knowing God.
Here’s some of what we read about the Archons in the Nag Hammadi texts, in regards to how their ‘father’ the Demiurge created them:
Here are the seven Authorities’ names and physical forms: First, Athoth with a sheep’s face Second, Eloaios with a donkey’s face Third, Astaphaios with a hyena’s face Fourth, Yao with the face of a seven headed snake Fifth, Sabaoth who has the face of a dragon Sixth, Adonin whose face is that of a monkey Seventh, Sabbataios with a face of flame and fire.These are the seven of the week.These Authorities rule the world. - Apocrypha of John.
Seven appeared in chaos, androgynous. They have their masculine names and their feminine names. The feminine name is Pronoia (Forethought) Sambathas, which is 'Weak’. And his son is called Yao: his feminine name is Lordship. Sabaoth: his feminine name is Deity. Adonaios: his feminine name is Kingship. Elaios: his feminine name is Jealousy. Oraios: his feminine name is Wealth. And Astaphaios: his feminine name is Sophia (Wisdom). - On The Origin of the World.
It’s easy to see by each of their representations that they are connected with the ego. The last one confused me for a long time. How could there also be an Archon called Sophia and how could Wisdom be an archonic force? Is it meant to perverse the real Sophia, the Demiurge’s mother? The closest I’ve come to figuring out is the idea of hording wisdom - of discovering a divine truth and then keeping it to yourself rather than sharing it and using it to help others. This is why true wisdom, Sophia, is aided by the Logos (Word), because the Word helps Wisdom to be understood and shared among the world. That’s my interpretation anyway.
I’ve yet to find a clear definition of the negative forces each archon represents. Jeremy Puma wrote a satirical piece about them in one of his books and even that was pretty vague. They seem very similar to the classic 'Seven Deadly Sins’ - Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, Pride etc.
The Archons are villainous characters in many Gnostic texts, blinding Adam to his true nature, raping Eve in an attempt to take away her divine nature, and just being all around dicks who even the Demiurge thinks go too far at certain points such as when the Archons plan to flood the world but the Demiurge tells Noah so that he might at least have one family surviving from his original creation left. But I don’t really see the Archons, or even the Demiurge, on the same level as say Satan and his Demons. They’re not 'evil’, per sae, but forces of control and subjugation through fear and ignorance. One could call that evil, it certainly isn’t good, I just don’t like throwing the word 'evil’ around. Plus I feel like it creates this paranoid idea of “the Archons are out to get to you!” which is never good.
The only Archon that ever peaked my interest is Sabaoth, who gives a ray of hope to this idea of these 'false gods’ trying to control us and keep us away from God and just being decent people to each other and this world. Sabaoth is supposedly the Archon of war and violence. All the pain and grief caused by those actions are on his shoulders, figuratively speaking. However, when Sabaoth witnesses Sophia (or Zoe) rebuking his father, Sabaoth 'sees the light’ as it were and repents his wrong-doings. He curses his father and swears himself to Sophia, who rewards him by raising him up to the seventh heaven. After this he becomes a friend and paternal guide to humanity. Sabaoth is referred to in the Book of Pistis Sophia as “The Good” and believed to have help Sophia by creating the heavenly soul that inhabited Jesus’ body. Interestingly, Sabaoth is a Hebrew name for God, and I’ve read a few Gnostic speculations that Sabaoth represents the benevolent 'father god’ Yahweh, while the more problematic passages of the Torah (and the New Testament) are due to corruptions by the Demiurge’s forces.
The point of this for me is that even the Archons are not beyond redemption and change for the better. They are internal forces, not external, and we all fall victim to our ego and our selfish desires. But Sophia is our Mother and has promised not to depart from this world until all of us have remembered our true origins, when we’ve discarded all archonic influences and discovered the light inside, so She can take us home.
