The Apocalypse of the Reluctant Gnostics by Stuart Douglas

Author:Stuart Douglas
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780429841033
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

There could be multiple, equally valid, interpretations to this esoteric teaching, and one possible explanation is that the water referred to is the water which reflected, ennoia, the first thought of the divine thinker, the first image of God which, if God is designated male, is his female counterpart. In other words, anyone born of water and Spirit, and who lives as spirit rather than at the level of matter, is the divine child of the Mother-Father.

In the Gnostic tradition the soul clearly has a dual nature: the divine aspect, or the living soul, that comes from the Pleroma, and the material aspect, or animal soul, that comes from the archons. The soul is not considered to be inherently “lower” than spirit, it is simply that in its animal state it exists at a lower level of existence and its task is to elevate itself to the level of spirit, reunite with it, and thus effect a return to the Pleroma. The Reality of the Rulers notes that the archons are weak and that what is only of soul has no power over spirit. There-fore the animal soul, bestowed on humans by the archons, cannot grasp what is of spirit. The text continues that the archons are from below, but the image of incorruptibility—which the archons tried, and failed, to replicate as the animal soul—is from above. The Authoritative Discourse is particularly blunt in regard to the fallen state of the soul. It states that when the soul, originally in a state described as the spiritual soul, was cast into a body, it became the sibling of lust, hatred, and envy, in other words, it fell to the level of the material soul. The body came from lust, and lust came from material substance. Even if as little as a lustful thought enters the mind of a pure soul then that soul has already lost its purity and become contaminated. This is a clear echo of the Christian maxim that “whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28, KJV). The Discourse continues that having left the gnosis of the Pleroma behind, the soul became an animal in the world and fell into a life of bestiality.

If a male/female pair of opposites is to be made out of spirit and soul then it must be made very clear which soul, or which aspect of the soul, is being paired with spirit. Only the living soul, that descended from the adamantine land, or resulted from Sophia blowing life into the first human, is the female counterpart of the male spirit. It is this soul, and this soul alone, which unites with the spirit in the bridal chamber. The animal soul that the first human received from the archons is not the spirit’s counterpart and does not form part of the union with spirit.

A variation on the theme of the dual nature of the soul occurs in The Revelation of Peter which makes a distinction between mortal souls and immortal souls.

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