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Never-ending War
By Cyd Ropp, Ph. D.
Copyright 2022; All rights reserved
Welcome back to Gnostic Insights. For the past several weeks we have been revisiting the core concepts of Valentinian Gnosticism as presented in the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi scriptures. The version of the Nag Hammadi I use on this broadcast is the one you can find at gnosis.org. Unfortunately, the edition printed at gnosis.org does not contain verse numbers or any way to reference verse locations. But what you can do, and this is what I do, is use your browser’s “find on page” feature to type snippets of quotations, and that should lead you to the verse I am citing.
Before we head into any new material, let’s go over again some of the gnosis we have been mining out of the Tripartite Tractate. We have covered this part of the story in the past few episodes of Gnostic Insights and now you will hopefully understand it even better as you hear it coming around again.
In the previous episode, we heard how the fallen Aeon named Logos unexpectedly found himself in a new dimension referred to as the deficiency or the imitation. The reason this dimension is called deficiency and the imitation is because it resembles the dreams of the Aeons of the Fullness, but in a knock-off type of inferior form. The imitation is all shadows and mirrors without truth or life.
Logos was horrified by what had emerged from him as shadows and phantoms of his glorious Pleroma. Logos condemned these shadows but was unable to put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. By the way, “putting the genie back in the bottle,” is a fractal of this archetypal story of powers escaping containment, as is the tale of “Pandora’s box” that released evils into the world.
“The Father and the Totalities drew away from him, so that the limit which the Father had set might be established – for it is not from grasping the incomprehensibility but by the will of the Father, – and furthermore, (they withdrew) so that the things which have come to be might become an organization which would come into being. If it were to come, it would not come into being by the manifestation of the Pleroma. Therefore, it is not fitting to criticize the movement which is the Logos, but it is fitting that we should say about the movement of the Logos that it is a cause of an organization which has been destined to come about.”
“The limit which the Father had set” is what we refer to as the Boundary. Previously I have explained that in order for an ecosystem to form, a boundary must be set around a contained space. Containment is required to bring objects into relationship with one another, and this is how systems of organization come about. Scientists in the lab use petri dishes to contain and grow small biological systems; islands contain their own unique lifeforms and ecosystems; and the earth itself is a contained ecosystem at a larger scale.
Again, this verse says that the organization which was to come–that being our material universe–would not come directly from the Aeons of the Fullness manifesting here below. The Aeons were to remain protected in their ethereal purity up above. The manifestation of our universal space and the apparent matter contained within it was caused by the movement of Logos–the Fall. It was the shadows of the Pleroma of Logos that emerged to form this universe. This verse also says that the organization, economy, ecology of our material space was the will of the Father, and we are not to blame it on Logos.
When Logos stopped trying to bully the shadows away, he turned from the presumptuous, egoic thought that had caused it all and began to remember his Self and the Father and his brothers in the Fullness. This remembrance allowed Logos to return home.
“The one whom he himself brought forth as a unitary aeon rushed up to that which is his and this kin of his in the Pleroma abandoned him who came to be in the defect along with those who had come forth from him in an imaginary way, since they are not his.”
When this verse speaks of “the one whom he himself brought forth as a unitary Aeon,” it refers to the Self-concept of Logos as a single Aeon rather than the collection of fractal contents that formed his interior.
This is where I find the imagery of my illustrations to be helpful in conceptualizing these ideas. My illustrations picture the Fullness of the Aeons of God as sitting within a pyramidal shape—a tetrahedron to be precise—with the Aeon known as Logos sitting at the top of that pyramidal hierarchy. Remember, Logos contained within himself fractal copies of all the other Aeons in the Fullness. My illustrations picture Logos as a pyramidal shape that mimics the entirety of the Fullness, placed as the capstone of the Hierarchy.
The “unitary aeon” of Logos is the pyramid that forms his capstone shape–not his interior Pleroma, but the single entity named Logos. You can think of it like the skin of your body presenting yourself as a single, unitary organism, but we all realize our unitary organism is comprised of a Pleroma of countless cells. It was the same with Logos. “As above, so below.”
The Tripartite Tractate goes on to say, “From that which was deficient in itself there came those things which came into being from his thought and his arrogance, but from that which is perfect in him he left it and raised himself up to those who are his. He was in the Pleroma as a remembrance for him so that he would be saved from his arrogance.”
“That which was deficient in itself” was the arrogant thought of his Ego that led to the Fall. “That which was perfect in him” is the One Self shared by all consciousness that remained in the Fullness when the Ego of Logos fell. It was this One Self that called out to the fallen Logos as the first remembrance of the Fullness above.
“Those things which came into being from his thought and his arrogance” were the shadows and phantoms of his fractal contents—those fractal iterations of aeons that Logos had mistaken for the ALL itself. The Pleroma of Logos had existed since his conception as emanations from all of the other Aeons of the Fullness, but the shadows and phantoms of his Pleroma emerged during the Fall. The shadows were the product of his egoic overreach and did not exist from the beginning.
“The one who ran on high and the one who drew him to himself were not barren, but in bringing forth a fruit in the Pleroma, they upset those who were in the defect.”
The “one who ran on high” is Logos, returned to the Fullness above, on high . The “one who drew him to himself” is the Self of Logos who called his fallen Ego to return to its home in the Fullness. It is this newly restored Logos that brought with it the memory of the Boundary and the consequences of the Fall. This sadder but wiser Logos began to produce a new offspring designed to “upset those who were in the defect.” This fruit is called the Second Order of Powers, and it differed from both the original Aeons of the Fullness and the shadows of the deficiency.
The Tripartite Tractate says, “These newly formed beings did not have more substance, nor did they have a greater glory, for they are not equal to the pre-existent ones.” Those pre-existent ones are the Aeons of the Fullness who came directly from the Son and the Father. 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 egoic thought that led Logos to overreach and fall, “those of the remembrance” arose from Logos having the good thought of the Father 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 life that emanates through the Holy Spirit of the Father.
These Second Order Powers were fruited one by one and sent down to populate the space within the Boundary in order to bring life and love into the chaos and confusion. Coming from the top down, the Second Order Powers are filled with the Holy Spirit that confers the consciousness of the Father. These Powers represent all the life-forms on our planet, everything from bacteria through the plants all the way up through the fishes and insects and all of the animals, including humans.
The Second Order Powers are organized according to the Simple Golden Rule. Within each organism, all the various parts of the organism link together and hold hands to share information, love, and assistance to level up, level up, level up, from the cells on up through the organs and organ systems, resulting in a living organism. In this manner all of the organisms on our planet mirror the cooperative spirit of the Aeons above.
“Once he had prayed, he both raised himself to the good and sowed in them a pre-disposition to seek and pray to the glorious pre-existent one, and he sowed in them a thought about him and an idea, so that they should think that something greater than themselves exists prior to them, although they did not understand what it was. Begetting harmony and mutual love through that thought, they acted in unity and unanimity, since from unity and from unanimity they have received their very being.”
We Second Order Powers come from the Fullness above. Logos emanated us with all of the inherent virtues of the Fullness that arise from “harmony and mutual love.” We have a pre-disposition to seek and pray to the Father, and we are born with a thought and idea of the One Consciousness of which we are all a part. We are designed to work together in “unity and unanimity,” which mirrors the Simple Golden Rule. The Simple Golden Rule is the manner by which all creatures grow from a single ovum into extremely complex organisms. It is also the manner by which, on a larger scale, societies have the potential to develop into mutually beneficial, cooperative structures that mirror the cooperation of the Fullness.
As we discussed at length in the previous episode called “The Fall and the Deficiency,” the phantoms are literally the shadows of the fractals of Logos. For every positive trait of the original images of the Fullness, the shadows are their inverse. For every virtue of the Aeons, there is an opposing vice promoted by the likenesses of the deficiency. The Tripartite Tractate says of these likenesses, “They thought about themselves that they were beings originating from themselves alone and were without a source.”
So we can see that the traits of the shadows of the deficiency are diametrically opposed to the traits of the Second Order Powers. In my illustrations I depict this never-ending war between the remembrance and the deficiency as the Yin / Yang symbol. My illustration shows the deficiency as little blue balls fitted into the downward-heading Yin side, with the Powers of the Remembrance, which now look like living green cells, sitting right against them and heading upward in the Yang position. This symbol well represents their dynamic balance within the Boundary.
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 “the good thought,” and the deficiency is not. The tragedy of what occurred next in this unfolding gnostic cosmogeny still affects us today, for no sooner did the Second Order of Powers begin manifesting on the material stage, they found themselves in mortal combat with the shadows of the imitation.
The Tripartite Tractate says that the Second Order Powers “fought against the order of those of the likeness, while the order of those of the likeness wages war against the representations and acts against it alone, because of its wrath.”
“The two orders assaulted one another, fighting for command because of their manner of being. As a result, they were submerged in forces and natures in accord with the condition of mutual assault, having lust for power and all other things of this sort. It is from these that the vain love of glory draws all of them to the desire of the lust for power, while none of them has the exalted thought nor acknowledges 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 engage in 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. 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 recalled.
Verse 85 of the Tripartite Tractate says because of the law of mutual combat, their envy, malice, rage, violence, lust, and ignorance ruled, and they began producing various kinds of matter and all sorts of powers.
In Chapter 6, The Deficiency, we saw that the shadows of the imitation arose in chaos. The imitations are not hierarchical; they do not know the Simple Golden Rule of cooperation with which to help each other build better, bigger things for the betterment 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. The Second Order Powers do know the hierarchical structure of cooperation, and so they are able to work together and share information for the greater good, but due to the law of mutual combat, some have forgotten how.
The verse above tells us that the law of mutual combat brings both parties down to the same level, resulting in vain glory and a lust for power and conquest. As a result of battling in the never-ending war, the Second Order Powers forget about love and harmony and become lost in their lust for power.
Because the imitations of the deficiency waged war against the Second Order Powers, the Second Order began to act against its own Self out of anger. 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 ignorantly believed they owed nothing to the previous powers, either above or below. They lacked the capacity to remember the originating source of consciousness, and they lacked the ability to reason with those of the remembrance.
Before we leave this week’s episode, let me contrast for you virtue and vice. Remember, virtue reflects the traits of the Aeons of the Fullness of God. These are all positive, loving traits because they emanate from the all-good Father. These virtues are all within the capacity of we Second Order Powers, and when we reflect these virtues, we dwell in the joy of the Fullness.
Love is the number one virtue. Patience, generosity, graciousness, mercy, forgiveness, welcoming, respectful, cooperation as opposed to obstructionism, free choice, hopefulness, joyfulness, truthfulness, industriousness, order, prudence–prudence, by the way, means knowing the right thing to do at the right time–logic, charity, kindness, empathy, humility, loyalty, justice, courage, remembrance. These are some of the values of the Aeons that we are able to manifest. You will notice that these virtues are the types of character traits that lead to true loving connections between human beings and other Second Order Powers on the planet.
In opposition to these virtues are the vices of the deficiency:
The most that you can hope for if you embrace the deficiency is an imitation of joy, which we generally call happiness. But, as I believe you know by now, happiness is a never-ending pursuit that our Egos reach for but never attain. “Oh, let’s go here; let’s go there! Let’s buy this; let’s buy that! Let’s eat this; let’s eat that! Hey, let’s do this now; let’s do that!” Everything promises joy. Sometimes you find temporary happiness, but it never fulfills. It never brings satisfaction. Pursuit of material gain always brings more and more desire for more and more material gain.
Here are just a few of the vices promoted by the deficiency that build up our Egos and weaken our spiritual connection to our higher Self:
Impatience, lust, greed, selfishness, cruelty, ruthlessness, anger, resentfulness, rudeness, obstructionism, vanity, narcissism, sloth or laziness, chaos, disorder, thoughtless action, greed, envy, arrogance, fear, confusion, gluttony, lying, treachery, betrayal. We can see that these are the values promoted by our material culture, Hollywood, social media.
The key to gnosis and joy does not lie there. We can only be truly joyful when we act out of love. When we forget our place in the Fullness of God, we operate out of ignorance and are subject to the evil influences of the Fall and the never-ending war. The Fall can only produce misery, fear, rage, and lust–never love; never happiness. No good ever comes from rage; no good ever comes from fear. Vice only brings ignorance and suffering, isolation and despair. When we dwell in vice rather than virtue, our life becomes part of the problem.
In our next episode, we will jump to the solution.