DeConick A.D

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GNOSTIC ALTERED STATES
moment of birth determined a person’s emotional disposition and physical
constitution. In the Gnostic story, this concept was elaborated to include
the fact that the soul and body were created by the dark lords, the rulers
of the planets and stars. The souls and bodies they created were stamped
with their imprint, with whatever attitude the ruler of the planet possessed
at the moment of the person’s birth. The dark lords sealed and owned
what they had created. Each demon owned that part of the human being
and had the power to infect or blight it.
The basic Gnostic story behind this idea is the belief that the transcendent
spirit sinks into denser and denser cosmic materials as it incarnates
in the human psyche and body. This process was understood as a descent
of the spirit from the transcendent realm into the cosmos through various
zodiac gates ruled by the planets. As the spirit sank into the world, it
literally passed through various constellations and planets, receiving along
the way the psychic or soul inclinations of each of the rulers of the planets
and stars.
These inclinations were given to the soul when each star demon along
the way created the soul, part by part. In the Sethian book the Apocryphon
of John, we learn that the soul parts are given by each of the planetary
rulers, including the soul’s bone, sinew, flesh, marrow, blood, skin,
and hair. Each of these soul parts is aligned with a psychic capacity, such as
goodness, intention, piety, tyranny, domination, envy, or wisdom (Apocryphon
of John, Nag Hammadi codices [NHC] II.1 11.23–12.25, 15.14–24;
compare with Apocryphon of John in Berlin Codex 2 48.11–50.2). Lists
of these psychic aspects are found across the ancient Greek and Roman
literature (Gospel of Mary 16.5–12; Corpus Hermeticum 1.24–26; Macrobius,
Scipio 1.12.1–16; cf. Proclus, Timaeus 1.148.1–6, 3.335.12–15; Servius,
Aeneid 6.127; Epiphanius, Panarion 26.9–10).
The body is a similar matter in the Gnostic story. Every part, from
head to the toe, is created by 365 named star demons, according to the
Apocryphon of John. Nothing is left out. There are demons who create
the ears, nose, lips, molars, tonsils, uvula, throat, fingernails, heart,
stomach, spleen, and vertebrae, to name a few in the long list provided
(Apocryphon of John NHC II.1 15.13–19.15). The Gnostic teacher Basilides
agrees. In his system, there are 365 astrological powers responsible for creating
each part of the physical body. Thus, each part of the human body