light of nature

The Lumen Naturae in Gnostic Traditions

In his Lecture notes on Alchemy, Jung said that Zosimos, Pseudo-Demokritos, and other early Greek alchemists of the 1-3rd centuries A.D. “…assumed that a divine soul lay sleeping in this prison [of matter]. This idea originated in a Gnostic myth: The Demiurge manifesting himself in matter, through his animating breath. As man is filled with the Pneuma, so matter is filled with the divine essence. Creation has, so to speak, got the Divine Being into difficulties, for he is hung up in matter, bound in her, and he suffers from this imprisonment and must therefore be freed”.[1]

For the Gnostics material existence was evil, and not realizing this was blindness (i.e. the absence of light, unconsciousness). They felt one should strive to realize his true nature as a spiritual being as a “light-man”. The central theme of the Gnostic myth is the creation of a Demiurge, (Yaldabaoth, Ialdaboth and many other names) from the folly of Sophia (“Wisdom”) who wanted to make a “being like the light that first existed” and was thus drawn into imprisoning this light in the material world. I give one version of this myth from a tractate called “On the Origin of the World”, one of the texts found at Nag Hammadi.[2]

After the nature of the immortals was completed out of the boundless one, then a likeness called “Sophia [wisdom] flowed out of the Pistis [faith]. <She> wished <that> a work <should> come into being which is like the light which first existed, and immediately her wish appeared as a heavenly likeness which possessed an incomprehensible greatness, which is in the middle between the immortals and those who came into being after them, like what is above, which is a veil which separates men and those belonging to the (sphere) above.

“Now the aeon of truth has no shadow <within> it because the immeasurable light is everywhere within it. Its outside, however, is a shadow. It was called “darkness” From with it (darkness) a power appeared (as ruler) over the darkness. And (as for) the shadow, the powers which came into being after them called <it> “the limitless Chaos.” And out of it [every] race of gods was brought forth, both [one and ] the other and the whole place. Consequently, [the shadow] too is posterior to the first work [which] appeared. The abyss is derived from the aforementioned Pistis.

“Then the shadow perceived that there was one stronger than it. It was jealous, and when it became self-impregnated, it immediately bore envy…

“Then the bitter wrath which came into being from the shadow was cast into a region of Chaos…

…And when Pistis saw what came into being from her deficiency, she was disturbed. And the disturbance appeared as a fearful work. And it fled [in order to dwell] in the Chaos. Then she turned to it and [breathed ]into its face in the abyss [which is] beneath all of the heavens.

Now when Pistis Sophia desired [to cause] the one who had no spirit to receive the pattern of a likeness and rule over the matter over all its powers, a ruler first appeared out of the waters, lion-like in appearance, androgynous, and having a great authority within himself, but not knowing whence he came into being.

Then when Pistis Sophia saw him moving in the depth of the waters, she said to him “O youth, pass over here,” which is interpreted as Yaldabaoth.” Since that day, the first principle of the word which referred to the gods and angels and men has appeared. And the gods and angels and men constitute that which came into being by means of the word. Moreover the ruler Yaldabaoth is ignorant of the power of Pistis. He did not see her face but the likeness which spoke with him he saw in the water. And from that voice he called himself “Yaldabaoth”. But the perfect ones call him “Ariael” because he was a lion-likeness. And after this one came to possess the authority of matter, Pistis Sophia withdrew up to her light.

When the ruler saw his greatness – and he saw only himself; he did not see another one except water and darkness-then he thought that [he] alone existed. His [thought was] made complete by means of the word, and it appeared as a spirit moving to and from over the waters. And when that spirit appeared, the ruler separated the watery substance to one region, and the dry [substance] he separated to another region. And from the (one) matter he created a dwelling place for himself. He called it “heaven”. And from the (other) matter the ruler created a footstool. He called it “earth”.

…

And he {Yaldabaoth, the First Father} rejoiced in his heart, and he boasted continually, saying to them, “I do not need anything,” He said, “I am god and no other exists except me.” But when he said these things he sinned against all of the immortal <imperishable> ones, and they protected him. Moreover, when Pistis saw the impiety of the chief ruler, she was angry. Without being seen, she said, “You err, Samael, “i.e. “the blind god.” “An enlightened, immortal man exists before you. This will appear within your molded bodies. He will trample upon you like the potter’s clay,<which> is trampled. And you will go with those who are yours down to your mother, the abyss. For in the consummation of your works all the deficiency which appeared in the truth will be dissolved. And it will cease and it will be like that which did not come into being.”

…

I paraphrase the rest of this section: Yaldabaoth, after boasting that he does not need anything since he is a god, finally realizes that an enlightened, immortal man indeed existed before him and he became ashamed. This enlightened, immortal man was an angel called “Light-Adam”. The authorities of darkness tried to create a molded man in their version of the likeness of Light-Adam (because they knew he was greater than they) so that man would think they were the creators. This molded man was called Adam “according to the one who was before him”. But he could not rise (had no soul). However, Zoe (Life-Eve), daughter of Sophia, gave him a soul and instructed him about his true nature. The authorities tried to make her earthbound by defiling her, but she created a likeness of herself and slipped into the tree of knowledge. Abel and others were created from the defiled likeness and mankind came from the children of the molded Adam and his children.

The point of this Gnostic tradition is, in essence, that we should wake up to the fact that we have a light nature – not of this world created by the authorities of darkness as an illusion to hide their shame – but from another one, the world of light. In short: Wake up and see your true (light) nature. A Gnostic text says: “If, then, being made of Life and Light, you learn to know that you are made of them, you will go back to the Life and Light.”[3]

A myth of the origin of the problem of the modern scientist?

Recall that the Demiurge had “a great authority within himself, but did not know whence he came into being”. It is here that I see the parallel with the hubris of modern scientists who thinks that they create theory or notice the new correlation between measured values. These ideas come from the light of nature and rightly God should be addressed as to what he wants us to do with them. The typical scientist wishes to create a body of knowledge encompassing everything but does not know himself, psychologically, or where he came from. His psyche “comes from” the unconscious and he places too much credit on the ego for all knowledge. This is dangerous folly, since the thoughts and urges in the unconscious are dangerous, all the more so when unknown. Yet it is by means of these forces (stemming from the archetypes) from which all knowledge springs.

Of course this is not only the prerogative of the modern scientist. Most of us succumb to thinking that the ego – our consciousness – is everything, and give no credit to the unconscious source of our spontaneous ideas. Thus we behave like the Demiurge of the Gnostics, thinking we (ego-consciousness) possess control. We don’t. Emotional outbreaks, dreams, and creative ideas testify that we are indeed, not the “rulers in our own house” as much as we imagine and automatically assume that we are.

In Gnosticism, this dark view of the world (creation by a folly born of a mood of inflation, rule by a Demiurge who is unconscious of his origin and in his blindness thinks he is the all-powerful creator) can be brightened when each individual sees through this existence to his true nature. I.e. when he makes conscious his true origin (of which the Demiurge is not conscious) which is in the realm of the Light. In becoming aware of who one really is, one achieves salvation from this world and enters the realm of true wisdom and immortality.

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[1]Jung, Lecture notes on Alchemy, p. 45.

[2] From “On the Origin of the World”, translated by H.-G. Bethge and O.S.Wintermute. In: The Nag Hammadi Library in English, J. Robinson, general editor, p 162ff. I have retained the translators’ textual symbols <…>, {…}, and (…) are inserts based on detailed research and comparative readings.

[3] The Poimandres of Hermes Trismegistus, translated in Scott, Hermetica, vol. 1, p. 127. Scott notes that Mind = Light as quoted in Appendix III.