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Left and Right
by Cyd Ropp
I noticed something interesting the other day, while I was thinking about vice and virtue. In the Nag Hammadi, vice is referred to as being on the left, and virtue as being on the right. The Tripartite Tractate puts it this way:
To each one he gave a name…. Those belonging to the thought and those of the representation are called “the Right Ones” and “Psychic” and “the Fiery Ones” and “the Middle Ones.” Those who belong to the arrogant thought and those of the likeness are called “the Left”, “Hylic”, “the Dark Ones,” and “the Last.”
The “thought” refers back to the Father’s originating thought—that being what is called The Son. The Son is the thought of the Father, and it is this thought that starts everything. “Those of the representation” are the Aeons and those that come from the Aeons—they represent the values of the Thought, or the Son.
“Those who belong to the arrogant thought” refers to the Fall of Logos away from the original thought. Literally it refers to the departure of Ego away from Reason and Logic. As we have discussed here on Gnostic Insights, “arrogant thought” is another word for “ego.” And here at gnostic insights “ego” is the imitation of the One Self we all embody and share. Ego is the counterfeit embodiment of the Son, or originating consciousness. Ego takes care of the individual rather than the whole. Ego is concerned with personal needs and desires rather than the needs and desires of one’s neighbors.
You can listen to these previous episodes for an in-depth exploration of Ego compared to Self:
Back to the Tripartite Tractate quote—
Those who belong to the arrogant thought and those of the likeness are called “the Left”, “Hylic”, “the Dark Ones,” and “the Last.”
The “likenesses” referred to on the left are the archons of the deficiency that were formed as copies of “the representations” of the Aeons of the Pleroma. So you have Likenesses on the Left, and Representations on the Right. These Likenesses on the one hand and Representations on the other hand, reflect the values of the Left and the values of the Right. This is what distinguishes Gnostic Left from Right. Another word for these ones on the Left is “hylic,” which means materialist. Another word for the ones on the Right is “Psychic,” which in Gnosticism refers to those with a soul. Although here at Gnostic Insights, we would say everyone has a soul, it’s just that hylic humans don’t acknowledge the soul. And, we’ve had a lot of discussions about that; whether or not consciousness, which could be another word for soul, whether or not consciousness is an inherent quality that preexists or whether consciousness is like a by-product of the meat bodies that we wear, or even mathematical nodes in some sort of a grand algorithm. One type of individual has an orientation to the material and personal needs, and the other type of individual has a remembrance of the spiritual realm. They also call the ones on the left “dark ones” and “the last.” And that’s because light is associated with the Father, and after the Fall—the Fall was from the light into the darkness. And the reason that those are called “the last” is simply because they are going to be the last ones to acknowledge the Father, the Pleroma, and the Son, and the Christ. They are going to hold out for their materialist worldview.
So, when I drew up the chart of vices vs. values in my Gnostic Gospel Illuminated book, the archonic values appear on the left side of the page and the aeonic values appear on the right side of the page.
The archonic values on the left are the inverse of the Aeonic virtues on the right. So, for example, if on the Right, the value is loving, then on the Left, the value is hateful and spiteful. If on the Right the value is patience, then on the Left the value is impatience and wrath. Mercy vs. ruthlessness; freedom of will vs. enslavement and coercion; joy vs. depression; truthful vs. lies; prudent vs. reckless; humble vs. arrogance; justice vs. unfairness and capriciousness; temperance vs. gluttony; charitable vs. greedy… you get the point. You can find the entire chart on page 26 of The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated book by Cyd Ropp.
What I noticed the other day, is that Left and Right are also worldwide political patterns. And, whereas the personal labels deal with one’s own life choices, the political labels deal with how the government names and then accomplishes its goals. This morning I looked up differences between the values and methods of the Left and Right political bodies. And here is what I read:
the Left favors while the Right favors
equity equality
constraint liberty
prohibition of hate speech free speech
technological oversight privacy
universal governmental assistance self-determination and responsibility
Bigger Governments Smaller Governments
race and class distinctions color-blind society, one nation under God
relative values depending on circumstances universal absolutes
gender as a social construct biologically determined gender
secular government and society secular government, religious society
greatest threat = environmental collapse greatest threat = evil
all cultures are equal some cultures are superior
What I was wondering about Left and Right, was if the moral values a person holds also determine the political values they hold. And, to a large extent, it appears to me that they do. The social policies of the Left seem to favor exterior control over interior control. The bigger governments favored by the Left not only cost more in taxes to pay for them, they require more coercion to enforce their will in order to get the job done. Big government favors mandates and the use of technology to monitor and compel these mandates. People who disagree with the government’s edicts are denied the right to speak their dissent out loud, and continued dissent can cost forfeiture of their freedoms of movement and association as well. Political prisoners are those people who disagree most strongly with those in power. Any and every tactic is justified if it advances the goals of the Left—lying about the status quo, or about history, or about scientific facts come to mind. In the service of achieving Leftist goals, anything goes. And the further Left you are on the Left-Right spectrum, the deeper and stronger is your affiliation with this “whatever it takes” approach.
On the other hand, the more one tips the scales to the Right side, the more you see values such as freedom of speech and other liberties, smaller government, and more emphasis on privacy, self-determination, and personal responsibility. These values are also in line with the virtuous side of the Left-Right spiritual divide. Of course, there may be wolves in sheep’s clothing, posing as Right types while secretly holding onto Leftist memes and goals. In this case, you actually have Leftists posing as Rightists.
Extremism in either the Left or Right direction both encourage archonic interference in human affairs, as they represent the person’s strong attachment to power and control over self and others. Power and control over humans is much to be desired by the Demiurge and its archonic helpers. Anytime one favors an authority pulling the strings and forcing behavior upon the citizenry, you have Leftist values at play. This is Demiurgic. Inversely, anytime one favors personal responsibility and self-determination, you are embodying Aeonic virtues.
Now, the interesting thing about these Left vs. Right lists is that both sides were established by the Aeon known as Logos. The Tripartite Tractate says that those on the Left are put into ruling positions here on earth, and work in direct cooperation with the archons of the deficiency. They are not evil, but rather they provide order through three means: beauty, threats, and lust for power. Here’s the quote:
“Also over those who belong to the likeness, he set the word of beauty, so that he might bring them into a form. He also set over them the law of judgment. Again, he set over them the powers which the roots had produced in their lust for power. He appointed them as rulers over them, so that, either by the support of the word which is beautiful, or by the threat of the law, or by the power of lust for power, the order might be preserved from those who have reduced it to evil, while the Logos is pleased with them, since they are useful for the organization.”
Those on the Right operate in a different way. Those on the Right carry an active remembrance of the Father and the Pleroma, and this is used to lessen their grip on this material existence. Here is what the Tripartite says about it:
“However, to those of the thought he revealed the thought… in order that they might also bring forth an impulse for diminution from their attraction to evil, so that they might not any more rejoice in the glory of their environment and be dissolved, but might rather see their sickness in which they suffer, so that they might beget love and continuous searching after the one who is able to heal them of the inferiority.”
Both the Left and the Right have a lust for power as a result of the original Fall and the never-ending battle with the material forces of the Demiurge. The Tripartite Tractate also says that both the Left and the Right are respecters of authority and hierarchical chains of command. In other words, neither the Left nor Right promotes anarchy.
“The Logos knows the agreement in the lust for power of the two orders. To these and to all the others, he graciously granted their desire. He gave to each one the appropriate rank, and it was ordered that each one be a ruler over a place and an activity. He yields to the place of the one more exalted than himself… There are kings, there are lords and those who give commands, some for administering punishment, others for administering justice, still others for giving rest and healing, others for teaching, others for guarding.
“Over all the archons he appointed an Archon with no one commanding him. He is the lord of all of them, that is, the countenance which the Logos brought forth in his thought as a representation of the Father of the Totalities. Therefore, he is adorned with every <name> which <is> a representation of him, since he is characterized by every property and glorious quality. For he too is called “father” and god” and “demiurge” and “king” and “judge” and “place” and “dwelling” and “law.”
“The Logos uses him as a hand, to beautify and work on the things below, and he uses him as a mouth, to say the things which will be prophesied.
“The things which he has spoken he does. When he saw that they were great and good and wonderful, he was pleased and rejoiced, as if he himself in his own thought had been the one to say them and do them, not knowing that the movement within him is from the spirit who moves him in a determined way toward those things which he wants.”
This long passage I have just quoted from the Tripartite Tractate is saying that the fallen Aeon known as Logos left behind an imitation of the Father Above in the form of the Demiurge. And it is this Demiurge that puts the Archons in power over earthly rulers. And it is the Demiurge that speaks to the prophets as the voice of God. But the Demiurge is not God, but rather the imitation of the Father above, and the Demiurge does not realize this because it has amnesia of all that came before the Fall.
And, as previous episodes have pointed out, the methods of the Demiurge are not the methods of the Father, and the goals are not the same. For, whereas the Demiurge is all about control of this material world and those of us who reside here, the goal of the Father is about love, remembrance of our Aeonic inheritance and ultimate abode, and redemption from evil. And, whereas the Demiurge requires coercion and the exercise of power and strong control to effect its agendas, the Aeonic side of the divide operates through cooperation and the Simple Golden Rule of working together with information, assistance, and love for the betterment of all. The Left is not evil, so much as it is attempting to instantiate Paradise without benefit of the Aeonic virtues.
So the next time you wonder if you are serving the Demiurge and its archons or if you are serving the Aeons, the Son, and the Father, look to the list of vices and virtues, look to the policies of the Left and the Right, and determine for yourself which path you are on.
