It is used in christian theological contexts, especially in gnosticism. Carl jungs, the red book, has been studied and embraced by gnostic students. The author describes this having occurred after jesus. Pleroma definition of pleroma by the free dictionary. Things hidden from the beginning of the world would blossom in the signs of the new messianic age.
It describes jesus appearing and giving secret knowledge to john the apostle. Pleroma meaning in bible new testament greek lexicon. Pleroma is also used in the general greek language, and is used by the greek orthodox church in this general form, since the word appears in the book of colossians. The secret book purports to describe an encounter between christ and john. From that point on the message for the plan of salvation is now authorized to be sent from the gentiles, apart from israel. Much gnostic terminology, like the words pleroma and aeon, seems extremely esoteric and abstruse to the average modern reader. You can make your own runes very easily, all you need is. Moe is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in gnosticism, the occult and esotericism. The gnostic valentinus paired the primal father, the word, with mother of the all, who was grace, silence, womb. Gnostic history is such a wild swamp it is a joy to jump in to the swamp buggy of such a philosophical polymath as smith for his guided tour through the mythological jungles of sethianism with their own esoteric identity and the later valentinians who made a valiant effort to ingratiate themselves with roman christianity to the point of nearly capturing the papacy. The second half describes a range of gnostic and gnostic like groups and practices that have left traces over 1700 ensuing years. Life was the formmother of the pleroma and word was the formfather of those manifest within the pleroma.
The secret book of john, also called the apocryphon of john or the secret revelation of john, is a secondcentury sethian gnostic christian text of secret teachings. The pleroma is the fullness of the spiritual world. By remaining chaste, the gnostic refuses to participate in this evil action. Facts like this give us some indication that the more seriously one takes the mythology, the less can one escape paying attention to the exigencies in the gnostic doctrines of the philosophical language and framework. Pleroma is a greek word that has to do with filling or being full, or completing or being complete. The pleroma or divine world fulfils a dual role in the valentinian myth. The world is a creation of the demiurge, which is a flawed spawn of sophiawisdom, which comes from pistisfaith, which is an emanation of the. Gnostic goddess, female power, and the fallen sophia. An aeon is what the gnostics called a divine being who inhabited the pleroma the trinity and the angels, more or less. The gnostic warrior podcast is back for 2020 with your host moe leading you from the darkness into the light with some of the worlds top scholars, authors, masons, and the illuminati. These various groups emphasised personal spiritual knowledge over orthodox teachings, traditions, and ecclesiastical authority. Gnostic creation myth and cosmology written in 1916, some four years after he began his active engagement with the unconscious. Kendall also includes the complete books of ephesians, 1 and 2 thessalonians, 1 and 2 timothy and titus.
You will notice some correlations between the three worlds of gnostic myth pleroma, humansophia and demiurge and the dreamtime mythology below. The cosmology of the pleroma, from greek meaning the fullness that is the totality of divine powers is a mystical teaching of coptic gnostic. Irenaeuss refutation in book ii of the adversus haereses, likewise, moves on a quasiphilosophical level. The pleroma chapter one divisions 5 otherwise named the holy. Many other dyads were born, called aeons, or sacred powers, the last of which was the divine sophia, or holy wisdom. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the secret history of the gnostics. Their scriptures, beliefs and traditions kindle edition by smith, andrew phillip. How well do you know the stories, letters, poetry, prophecies and teaching of the bible.
I found a great book called the secret book of john. Augustine described and criticized the gnostic idea of a realm of darkness adjacent to a realm of the sacred 2014. Greece mythology greek gods and goddesses greek and roman mythology norse mythology greek mythology tattoos poseidon trident poseidon tattoo trident tattoo roman gods. Aug 30, 2014 this pin was discovered by christopher myers. Sophia is both the cause of the evil, material world, and a means to overcome that world. Apr 03, 2019 you will notice some correlations between the three worlds of gnostic myth pleroma, humansophia and demiurge and the dreamtime mythology below. In due course, sophia repented and was restored to the pleroma. According to one gnostic myth the shaping of the material world was the. So i argue, adapting the thinking of hermann detering, in my forthcoming book the amazing colossal apostle signature books rudolf bultmann, primitive christianity in its contemporary setting. As the goddess sophia dreamed, its said that she fell further into the void and awoke within a nightmare as her impact on the outer veil led to. Fullness, an ancient gnostic term adopted to signify the divine world or universal soul. For in him christ dwelleth all the pleroma of the deity bodily. Nov 16, 2017 the apocryphon of john, christian gnostic creation myth animation.
Some people find the gnostic creation myth to be merely bizarre. The sanskrit root shak, to be powerful, also occurs in the shekinah, a hebrew name for the presence of the female divinity who was textually excised from judaic. Facts like this give us some indication that the more seriously one takes the mythology, the less can one escape paying attention to the exigencies in the gnostic doctrines of. Since it was known to the church father irenaeus, it must have been written before around 180 ce.
As a member of the pleroma sophia greek for wisdom represents the means of gnosis. A dictionary of gnosticism is a scholarly yet accessible guide that covers the people, mythology, movements, scripture, and technical terms related to this prechristian western religion. Gnostic mythology if one was to summarize the gnostic worldview, especially the socalled setian, one could say that the essence of it is about humanitys alienation in an imperfect world. It is the high source of the pleroma and its divine light, is hermaphroditic or asexual and omnipotent, and goes often accompanied by a pantheon of emanations or minor deities called the aeons. Jan 02, 2020 the fact that paul uses the word pleroma, which later became a prominent term in gnostic theology, has led some to infer that paul was a gnostic and then, in turn, to try to interpret his writings, especially colossians, in a gnostic fashion. Having resided in the lofty height of the eternal fullness pleroma in the. Irenaeuss refutation in book ii of the adversus haereses, lik moves on a. Doc the holy pleroma the worlds of the immortals the.
What bateson calls the myth of power is the epistemologically false. The variegated world of gnostic mythology is formed starting from this dualistic vision, opposing, in some ways, the pleroma, or world of light and fullness, to our world of darkness, in others, the pneuma, or spiritual reality, to the psychophysical compound created by the demiurge. Apocryphon of john is inconceivable and ineffable, the pleroma greek. The word literally means fullness, from the verb i fill, comparable to which means full. The gnostic myths of sophia also have important gender implications.
Like the dead sea scrolls, discovered two years later, this library of ancient documents dated ad 350 contained texts relating to early christianity that. In virtually all gnostic myths, an intimate relationship exists between the. Jul 24, 2018 bob was my first guest many artemis moons ago, and hes always been a great ally and pedagogue of gnostic thought. Visit the gnostic book store in 1945, near the banks of the river nile, a jar was unearthed which contained one of the richest manuscript finds of modern history the nag hammadi codices. One of the things that set gnosticism apart from the other varieties of early christianity was its astonishing creation myth, an interpretation of the creation myth of genesis that practically turns that old testament text upside down.
The retelling below follows the version in the secret book of john, which is quite representative of the perspective of the classic gnostic school of thought. For convenience, i have attempted to divide this story into four principal acts so as to reflect the same division made within the classical gnostic creation tale. The pleroma is the fullness of the spiritual world, uninfluenced by matter, energy or light. Smith, and he clearly is expert in his summary of their histories. It has the telltail signs of being inserted into the main text, since chapter appears to follow chapter. All about gnosticism and gnostic mythology nirvanic insights. Gnosticism, christianity, and sophia kenyon college. It helps to remember that many things were going on during the rise of christianity in the 2 nd to 4 th centuries. Proponents of the view that paul was actually a gnostic, such as elaine pagels, view the reference in colossians as a term that has to be interpreted in a gnostic sense. According to gnostic mythology in general we, humanity, are existing in this. The spiritual counterpart or higher self of the true self remains always in the pleroma waiting for the reunion.
Jungs gnostic creation myth the creative shadow pleroma and. In other words, you will gain the ability to finally write your own. The complete book of galatians, with an original introduction by r. Pleroma greek for fullness1 is the name the gnostics gave to heaven. Now a gnostic tale, as it were, based on the sacred truths in ancient sources during the manifestation of the christos.
In gnostic writings, the pleroma takes on a technical meaning. This supreme divinity is unmanifested light, the void, the absolute. The secret gnostic book of john is a particularly messy example of gnostic. Jungs gnostic creation myth the creative shadow pleroma. A summary of gnosticism both aeons and archons agree on. For example, as in the myth described by irenaeus, barbelo emerges as the first thought of the transcendent god, and. The apocryphon of john, christian gnostic creation myth. Here you will find the resources to find out who you really are and what reality is really not. Christ was sent from the pleroma to teach gnostics the saving knowledge gnosis of their true identities and was crucified when the demiurge of genesis.
Pleroma occurs twice in this epistle in christological contexts, and an important issue in exegesis is whether or not paul uses a technical, i. It is a wealth of information regarding the search within the physical for spiritual freedom, and through that, the realization of the true essence of god. Gnostic myths portray a realm of darkness outside the pleroma and separated from it by a boundary penetrable only by those who possess gnosis. Shakti is a name for the goddess as the matrix of generative forces that produce and sustain the natural world.
Christ was sent from the pleroma to teach gnostics the saving knowledge gnosis of their true identities and was crucified when the demiurge of genesis discovered that christ the male partner of the feminine holy spirit was in jesus. The creation stories of the valentinians, the other early christian sect or school that can be considered gnostic, still adhere to this same basic model, although many of the. In correspondence to the kabbalah, pleroma refers to the world of atziluth. It describes the introductory portion to the sethian gnostic creation mythology including the concept of the demiurge.
Two of those groups, the cathars and the mandeans, have received separate book length treatments by mr. Everything is within the absolute, but it is the unknowable mystery, except for the one that is an inhabitant of the absolute, a paramatasaya. The main structure of gnostic mythology seems to be the relationship between the highest godunknown godthe one and the demiurge, with many aeons, archons and emanations being created and interacting. Pleroma meaning in bible new testament greek lexicon new. It contains nearly 1700 entries, from aachiaram, an angel in the secret book of john to zostrianos, a thirdcentury gnostic text, and is a reliable reference for the nag hammadi library and other gnostic texts. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. The cosmology of the pleroma, from greek meaning the fullness that is the totality of divine powers is a mystical teaching of coptic gnostic christianity, recorded in the story of pistis sophia, lit. This view on reality was probably arrived by the gnostics through observing all the horrors and misery that permeated the world around them. For more than a decade, this site has been the premiere oracle for bringing ancient mysteries to a modern meaning and leveraging the forbidden wisdom of the gnostics for your liberation in an increasingly fragmented world. Christianity christianity messianic secrets and the mysteries of salvation. There were found twelve books bound in leatherplus eight pages of a thirteenth book.
The word in various conjugations is common in the new testament and is used in a variety of contexts. Space, developed and divided into a series of aeons. Click here for more on the gnostics and the nag hammadi library. The gnostic seers agreed that there was a realm they called the pleroma, where at least some would be in the presence of the divine after death. All aeons sends forth the beginning of all ennoea charis sige. Caillou roche rune stones wiccan crafts asatru thinking day book of shadows pebble art pebble stone arts and crafts. His recent appearance to discuss the gospel of thomas was no exception in imparting rewarding gnosis. It contains nearly 1700 entries, from aachiaram, an angel in the secret book of john to zostrianos, a thirdcentury gnostic text, and is a reliable. The gnostics call god the agnostos theos, the unknowable god. The apocryphon of john, christian gnostic creation myth animation. New testament references to the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven for example, matthew. In many gnostic sects, the good god receives the name of the monad, also known as the one or the absolute. Revelation, however, echoes many gnostic sentiments as well as egyptian, babylonian and zoroastrian concepts and mythology as we will see. The discussion was based on an indepth chapter on the gospel of thomas from his upcoming book, holy fable volume 4.
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