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It was decided that the Second Order Powers would enter the Deficiency one by one, in their full profusion of forms. In this way, the Deficiency came to be populated with Powers from the Fullness.
Second Order Powers and Units of Consciousness
The purpose of this series of podcasts is to share with you the gnosis that I have gleaned from my readings of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts.
These podcasts are coming in order as the cosmology of our universe unfolds, and I think it’s a lot easier for you to understand the material if you follow along in order. The particular book out of the Nag Hammadi that I am using as my primary reference is called the Tripartite Tractate. In 2019, I wrote a book called The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated, where I translated the Tripartite Tractate into modern English in a very, very simple way, and I also illustrated all of the concepts in order to facilitate understanding. It is my hope that as you listen to this information and then meditate upon it, you will come to understand the origins of our universe and our place in it, and also what are the major players at work for both good and for ill, and how does it affect our lives?
So far, we’ve talked about the Father, the Son, the All and the Fullness. We’ve talked about the Fall of Logos, and we have talked about the Deficiency that came from the Fall. Now we’re getting to the good news, which is the plan that was devised by Logos and the Fullness of God in order to redeem the Fall and all that came from the Fall.
So, after the Fall, Logos broke apart, and all of his small parts, which were themselves small copies of all of the originals of the Fullness, because Logos was an entity that contained all of the Aeons inside of it, however they were smaller versions of it. They were fractals of the original Aeons. When Logos reached and fell, he broke apart, and these smaller fractals that constituted his being left him, and they went out on their own.
Logos was horrified by what had happened, and the Nag Hammadi says that the best of Logos returned back to the Fullness, leaving the Deficiency behind. As I explained in the previous podcast, the main reason that this is called the Deficiency is because the parts of Logos were no longer arranged in their hierarchical structure that encouraged cooperation. They all rolled out and became equal to one another, and they were driven by ego and self-centered ambition, because Logos had been reaching for the heights when it fell, and therefore the parts of Logos that separated out from him continued to reach for the heights.
However, because they are not in a cooperative structure of the Hierarchy, they’re all self-centered, they’re all each one reaching for the heights on their own. They have no cooperative arrangement. Logos regretted the Fall, and the phantoms, (these are called the phantoms, these little bits of him that rolled out—phantoms of the Deficiency), Logos regretted the Fall and the phantoms born of the Fall, and regret turned into condemnation of the irrational things he had produced.
Logos wanted their destruction because it was just a horrible thing that was happening. As I said in the last podcast, when Logos beat it back up to the Fullness, the Fullness and Logos did not remain idle, but they cooked up a scheme to bring redemption to the Deficiency. They brought forth what is called a fruit, which is an offspring, in the Fullness with a view to overthrowing what had come into being because of the Deficiency.
These new creatures that were devised are better than the Deficiency because they come from the union of the entire Fullness, whereas the Deficiency came out of a mistaken solo effort by Logos alone. Out of this union of the Fullness and Logos came what are called the Second Order Powers, and these powers are better and greater than those of the imitation because they did not come into being out of ego and out of lack of thought. This new fruit of the Fullness and Logos was fitted purposely into the boundary that surrounded the Fall, and so because they were fitted to live within this boundary, they were able to have a cooperative structure the way the Fullness had a cooperative structure.
But the Fullness’s cooperative structure looks like a hierarchy, and as I described in one of our first podcasts, the Hierarchy is a pyramidal-shaped structure. Now, the Deficiency is not a pyramidal-shaped structure, and in my illustrations, I have a circular boundary around the Deficiency, so the Second Order Powers are fitted to this circular boundary. So they are not in perfect hierarchical arrangement, as is the Fullness, but since they are within a bounded space, they are encouraged to work together. They are in relationship to each other. If it were an unbounded space, it would be infinite and they would all drift apart. They would not be within a cooperative structure or an ecology, as it’s called.
In other words, the newly produced offspring of the Fullness and Logos were patterned after the originals and the Fullness, so they are patterns of Aeons, which is what the entities that live in the Fullness are called, but they are formed to fit within the boundary rather than the Hierarchy. And the way I illustrate this in my book and in my blog is that circular boundary with living cells inside of it. It looks very much like a microscope slide.
And if you go to my Gnostic blog, or if you go to my Gnostic Gospel Illuminated book, you will see all of these illustrations that I’m describing to you. You will see them in their beautiful, glorious color, and maybe they’ll be helpful for you to picture these concepts. I know it’s helpful for me.
So now, quoting from the Tripartite Tractate, verse 83,
Logos sowed in them an inclination to seek and pray to what is glorious and preexistent. He also sowed in them an ability to think about it and a power of reflection to make them realize that something greater than themselves existed before them, but they had not understood what it was. Bringing forth harmony and mutual love by means of that thought, they acted in unity and unanimity, since to unity and unanimity they owed their existence.
More simply put, the Fullness is a cooperative ecology, even though it is made up of an infinite number of entities. They sit in a hierarchical structure where everyone knows their position, place, their power, their job, and they sit and they dream together in unison, because they are a perfect cooperative ecology. The Deficiency is not a cooperative ecology, having arisen from ego.
Now these new Powers, it was put into them to be able to think about the Fullness and the Father, and it was given to them the ability to think logically and to reason. And this is why in my Gnostic Insights podcast I describe things to you and I give you the reason behind it, because you and I are reasonable beings. We don’t only have to seek out exactly what is written. We can use logic and deduction and infer the truth of these things. It isn’t magic, it’s logic. The Aeons and the Fullness are called the First Order of Powers, the Aeons of the Hierarchy, and they gave birth to a Second Order of Powers—that’s the fruit—and it’s called the emissions of the remembrance.
And emissions refers to units of consciousness. They are embodying the originating consciousness, which is called the Father, and the Father begat a Son, which is the perfect and full sampling of the Father. And then the Son begat the Fullness of God, which is all of the Son’s characteristics broken out into those individual variables, or those individual characteristics.
So rather than being an amorphous, infinite being, there are now particularities, each one being a sampling of that great being. And that Fullness is the First Order of Powers, the Aeons of the Hierarchy. And now they have given birth to a Second Order of Powers that were formed to fit into the bounded space of the Deficiency.
In my illustrations I show this as the pyramid of golden orbs that I use to represent the Fullness, and then there’s a little thought bubble coming out of that pyramid, and within that thought bubble is that microscope slide of the bounded space containing cells. Logos and the Fullness produced a Second Order of Powers, patterned after the First Order of Powers that dwelt in the Hierarchy. The Second Order of Powers was named the emissions of the remembrance, because they had been created by the unified will of the Father through union with Logos and the Fullness, and therefore they contained the traits of the Father.
In verse 84, the Tripartite Tractate says,
The powers of remembrance were adorned with the names of the preexistent, whose likenesses they were. The order of those of this kind were in harmony with itself and with each other.
This new order of powers reflected the values of the Son, but it was formed within a boundary rather than a hierarchy, so they had more freedom to assemble themselves into non-hierarchical patterns.
These newly formed beings did not have more substance, nor did they have a greater glory, for they are not equal to the preexistent ones, and those preexistent ones are the Aeons of the Fullness, who came directly from the Son, who came directly from the Father, so they are preexistent consciousness.
It goes on to say,
If on the other hand they were superior to the imitations, the only thing that made them elevated above them was that they were from a good disposition, for they had not come out of the sickness that arose.
Whereas those of the Deficiency arose from the Fall, those of the remembrance—and what they are remembering? They’re remembering that they come from the Fullness and the Father—those of the remembrance arose from the consecrated union of Logos and the Fullness. Those of the Deficiency represent phantoms and confusion, whereas the new fruit, the Second Order Powers represent the virtues of the All. And now a strange and tragic thing occurred.
It turns out that when those of the remembrance came upon those of the imitation, they attempted to overthrow them out of an inherent sense of self-righteousness, because after all, the Second Order Powers are from a consecrated union of the Fullness, and the Deficiency is not. Those of the remembrance knew they were superior to those of imitation, because they were nobler than those previous ones. The Second Order Powers began to fight against the shadows of the imitation, and after all, that was their purpose.
They were put into the bounded space in order to overcome what had come from the Deficiency and the Fall. Because the imitation waged war against the likenesses in the Fullness, the offspring of the Fullness “acted against itself on account of its rage.” That’s what it says.
So the imitation is waging war against the Second Order fruit, and in response, the Second Order fruit begins to act against its own self because it’s so angry about it. But the ones who were in opposition would not surrender due to their own ignorance of what came before.
They believed they were self-engendered and had given birth to themselves, and so they believed they owed nothing to the previous powers, either above or below. [verse 84 of the Tripartite Tractate].
In my illustrations, I depict this never-ending war between us of the remembrance and the Deficiency as the yin-yang symbol, and I am depicting the Deficiency, those little blue balls fitted within that circle, as the downward-heading yin side, and the powers of the remembrance, which now look like living green cells, sitting right against them and going upward as the yang symbol.
Now again from the Tripartite Tractate, verse 84,
The two orders fought against each other, struggling for command with such result that they were engulfed by the forces and material substances in accordance with what is called the Law of Mutual Combat. And they too acquired lust for domination and all of the other passions of this sort. And consequently, empty vainglory pulls them all toward the desire of lust for domination, and not one of them remembers what is superior or confesses it.
So what it is saying here in verse 84 is that even though the Second Order Powers came into this creation with a better disposition because they are patterned directly after the Aeons of the Fullness, when they’re standing there doing war with the Deficiency, they take on the characteristics of the Deficiency.
Violence begets violence. Forgetfulness begets forgetfulness. And forgetfulness is another word for lack of gnosis, because gnosis means knowledge, and the way you achieve gnosis is by remembering where you come from, and that is called an amnesis—amnesia being forgetfulness, and amnesis being remembering.
And so ignorance is the same as lack of gnosis. The Second Order Powers come into creation fully loaded with gnosis, but in the course of doing battle in this never-ending war with the Deficiency, gnosis is forgotten and needs to be remembered again. And that’s the purpose of our Gnostic Insights podcast, to remember the gnosis from above.
Verse 85 of the Tripartite Tractate says,
Because of this their envy, malice, rage, violence, lust, and ignorance ruled, as they were producing various kinds of matter and all sorts of powers.
In my previous podcasts, I have said that the objects that came from the Deficiency, because they are confused, lost, they are not hierarchical, they do not operate according to the Golden Rule wherein they help each other build better, bigger things for the improvement of all—the Deficiency is not able to do any of that. It’s all selfish, it’s all self-driven, it’s all about dominion and power. In other words, there is nothing about the Deficiency that was able to build up into creation, because they can’t create, they can’t work together cooperatively, they didn’t know the hierarchical structure of cooperation. The Second Order Powers do know the hierarchical structure of cooperation, and so they are able to work together and share information in order to level up to the next level and create.
In my Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything blog and the Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything book, I discuss all of this in a non-religious way. It is a science and math-based theory, but it is completely compatible with the Gnostic Gospel. And in the Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything, I identify the basic level of material instantiation as what is called by physicists—quantum foam. And it is this chaotic, roiling, lawless foam that can’t ever level up, it just sits there boiling.
In the Simple Explanation, I coined the term units of consciousness. Here in the Gnostic Gospel, we call them Second Order Powers. These units of consciousness, and the originating consciousness again is the Father, so everything in our creation that is a second-order power is a unit of consciousness, a fractal of the Father. These units of consciousness use the Simple Golden Rule to reach out to one another, hook up with others of their kind, share information and patterns in order to level up to the next level of creation. And everything levels up to the next level of creation. The quantum foam can’t do it because it’s the Deficiency, but now the Second Order Powers, they start coming in with hierarchical structure, and so they’re able to level up.
Here I’m going to drop in a slight change, and it’s this. According to my Simple Explanation Theory of Everything, everything was conscious, including the particles and the molecules. But over the last several years, in discussions with my brother Bill, we have amended that interpretation as it pertains to the Gnostic Gospel. The Gnostic Gospel isn’t quite as pan-psychic as the Simple Explanation Theory of Everything used to be. And according to this Gnostic Gospel, consciousness only proceeds from the Father. Consciousness is a top-down phenomenon.
The Fall wasn’t based upon consciousness, it was based upon ego. Egoic consciousness isn’t exactly the same as the Father’s consciousness, or the Aeonic consciousness. The consciousness of the Father brings love, and it brings life, as well as coherence and all of the virtues of the Father. It brings our DNA and all of the instructions for life, for everything that’s alive on the planet. Whereas the Fall was an outcropping of ego. It wasn’t from the Father’s consciousness, it was egoic consciousness that was self-centered.
Therefore, the quantum foam that came out of the broken bits of Logos were egoic. They were not consciousness from the Father. So, when I first recorded this episode, it was fresh out of the Simple Explanation coming into the Gnostic Gospel, and I went ahead and attributed consciousness to the subatomic particles, the particles, the molecules, and the mineral aggregates, in a bottom-up kind of structure, thinking that they were leveling themselves up once they had a boundary.
But, as I say, in deep conversation and contemplation with my brother Bill, we’ve come to understand that the mud cannot level up from the bottom. And by leveling up, that’s that Golden Rule type of cooperation, where you hold hands with your neighbors, you share information, love, and assistance, and all together you build the next thing up. So, the way the cells hold hands and build the organs, and then the organs hold hands and build the organism. It’s like that. That’s your Golden Rule type of leveling up. The higher the fewer.
How then did the quantum foam level up? Well, this is where we introduce the Demiurge a little bit earlier than we did in the original 2021 episodes. And the Demiurge is the architect of the material universe. The Demiurge is the ego of Logos that stayed behind in the Deficiency when the best part of Logos fled back to the Fullness. So, the best part of Logos—that’s the Aeonic consciousness and the Father’s life and love—went back up into the Fullness. That’s the part of Logos up there that, in cooperation with the Fullness, the Pleroma of the Aeons, creates the Second Order Powers—us—and and sends us down here into creation to bring life and consciousness down below. Well, that implies there wasn’t life and consciousness until we come in.
It’s a very complex subject, and it really took us several years of contemplation to come up with this slight amendment to what this episode talks about. Which just goes to show you that Gnosis is an ongoing process. It’s not like I read the Tripartite Tractate, and Boom! I get it, and now I can write books. It’s not that at all. I get it. I have the basic structure. I have the illustrations, but the nuances continue to develop, and they still continue to this day to develop. My brother Bill and I have conversations on practically a weekly basis that lasts for a long, long time, where we talk about these things, the difference between ego and consciousness, and what that implies.
So anyway, as we will find out in an upcoming episode, there’s this character called the Demiurge, and he is the egoic structure of Logos, but without the remembrance of the Father. He is the ignorant god. He is the god with amnesia, and the god of this material portion of our universe—the hard, slow, muddy parts—that’s the Deficiency. And that is leveled up by the strict controls, by the Demiurge only. He doesn’t remember where he comes from. He thinks he’s God. He thinks everything begins with him. He is the jealous god that thinks that he creates everything, but he can only create the material, because up above, it’s ethereal. It’s not material. So down here, one of the key aspects of the Deficiency is that it is material. It seems to solid. We can’t see through walls down here. So it’s the Demiurge that takes the quantum foam, and using bonds and strings like a puppet master, builds that quantum foam up into the subatomic particles.
And then he makes them join together to become particles, and he makes them join together to become atoms and molecules, and then the molecules join together and become the elements. And the Demiurge is able to organize the material of the Fall, but he can’t make it alive. He can’t give it love, because he doesn’t know love. He can’t give it consciousness, because he’s not a conduit of the consciousness of the Fullness. He does it all by himself, out of egoic power control. Then when the Second Order Powers come in; they’re the ones that bring the consciousness, the life, and the love, and the Golden Rule of cooperation, and everything that’s alive. So that’s the difference between living things and material things. Now, if this is all too confusing, that’s because I’m dropping it in here, and it’s a full episode on its own. But I needed to correct the transcript that I’m sharing with you today.
At this point in our Gnostic cosmology, we are into creation now. That bounded space is the boundary around our universe. Within the confines of my skin, countless units of consciousness of varying levels of complexity work together to keep my body alive and fully functional. At each descending level of complexity, from my governing self unit of consciousness on down through my organ systems, my organs, my cells, my body’s units of consciousness deal with increasingly simpler tasks, even as the material associated with them becomes smaller and more numerous. Remember, the higher the fewer is a basic Gnostic principle. So if you think of your body not as the shape of your physical body walking around, but picture it as a hierarchy as well, picture it the way we picture the Fullness—a pyramid, where the bottom level of the pyramid is the particles that make up your body. And these particles reach out and hold hands and become atoms. There’s fewer atoms than there are subatomic particles. And the atoms reach out and hold hands and become molecules. There’s fewer molecules than there are atoms, etc. etc.
The cells of your body—do you know they say there are as many cells in your body as there are stars in the universe? That’s how complicated your body is. The cells of your body reach out and hold hands and become your various organs and your organ systems. And these all work together and eventually culminate with you sitting at the top. And you think your Self is all alone, but it isn’t. Your Self is sitting on top of this entire mountain, this hierarchical mountain of units of consciousness. That’s the basic Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything which you can read about in depth in my book or on that blog.
This that I’m telling you right now about the mountain of consciousness and units of consciousness, this is my theory, but it’s entirely compatible with what I’m telling you about the Gnostic cosmology that comes out of the Nag Hammadi. One interesting thought about the development of these philosophies is that the Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything came about around 2010. I didn’t read the Nag Hammadi until, what was it? about 2016 or so. So I didn’t derive the Simple Explanation from Gnostic studies. But of course, as I was reading Gnostic studies, I had the Simple Explanation fully formed in my mind, and it turns out that they’re compatible. That’s why I’m sharing them both with you to help you build Gnosis.
It is my hope that every time I share one of my insights with you or one of my illustrations with you, it clears up confusion in your mind. It removes ignorance, which brings Gnosis. The Simple Explanation blog can be found at www.asimpleexplanation.blogspot.com. There are hundreds of articles about consciousness there on A Simple Explanation, but I don’t want you to go down a rabbit hole and get distracted or become confused. The only reason you should be reading these materials is in order to become less confused. Gnosis is lack of ignorance, lack of confusion. So if the Simple Explanation helps to bring you Gnosis, that’s good. Whereas my Gnostic Gospel Illuminated, which you can buy at any online bookseller or go to my blogs and you’ll find it there in my own bookstore, it’s only 49 pages long, and half of those pages are illustrations. So it’s very simple, it’s very clear and direct without any confusing extras added. It’s the kernal of Gnostic thought.
And, of course, since this episode was originally recorded, the entire, in-depth explanation has been written for you in the book, A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel. You can buy it at amazon in all formats—paperback, hardback, Kindle audio book, and ebook, all priced as low as possible to make it easier for you to purchase your copy. Here’s a brief description of the book:
Unlock the Hidden Wisdom of the Gospels With A Simple, Eye-Opening Journey Through Gnostic Christianity
What if the answers to life’s biggest questions were already within you—waiting to be remembered? In her book, A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel, author and scholar Dr. Cyd Ropp invites readers on a revelatory journey through ancient Gnostic teachings that illuminate our cosmic origin, spiritual purpose, and divine inheritance. Drawing from the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi library, Dr. Ropp decodes sacred texts in clear, accessible language—making profound wisdom from early Christianity available to today’s readers.
More than a scholarly work, this book is a spiritual awakening—organized in the order creation itself emerged. It explores:
The path of consciousness from the Father through the Son to all living beings
The divine purpose behind human life
The truth of redemption and our ultimate return to the Fullness of God
How ancient Valentinian Gnosticism reflects the original teachings of Christ
Whether you’re a seeker, spiritual scholar, or curious reader, A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel offers a transformative lens through which to see your place in the universe and your relationship with the divine.
If you find these podcasts helpful, please consider donating to help Cyd cover the cost. And remember to subscribe to Gnostic Insights so you don’t miss a single episode!