DeConick A.D

178
GNOSTIC ALTERED STATES
goddess Forethought calls out to her children in whom the spirit dwells.
Forethought shakes up the underworld by destroying the bonds of the
demons that had chained her children there. She awakens and liberates
their spirits from Chaos (Trimorphic Protennoia NHC XIII.1 36.4–26,
40.30–37).
These types of underworld ceremonies are performed to awaken the
spirit from sleep, to make it conscious, to quicken it. Some Gnostic groups
include not only a moment of awakening or quickening but also a trek out
of the underworld, along its rotting, bat-infested paths, guided by a figure
like Hermes. We can only imagine the dramatic sets that may have been
assembled to help initiates experience the terrifying atmosphere of the
underworld. At the end of this underworld experience, Gnostic initiates
find themselves restituted, but with one big difference: they have been
awakened as humans conscious of their spirits, aware of their authentic
God selves.
Catharsis
After the divine potential is awakened, it must be purged through a cathartic
process of emotional and psychic release. This process involves the
purging of the delusions and passions that have kept the spirit unconscious
for so long. The purge takes place through ritual, when the initiate
overcomes each of the dark lords who rule the universe from the celestial
spheres.
In these rites, Gnostics were quite literally facing and overcoming their
personal demons, one at a time. They believed that our souls as well as
our bodies are the reflection of our demons, marked by unruly desires,
egotism, impudence, greed, anger, and deception. Every demon that controls
us has to be purged through a process of ritual demonic defeat. This
process of demonic defeat was conceived as a gradual ascent through the
celestial territories of the demons, where the initiate came face-to-face
with each demon and then vanquished the demon through a powerful
prayer, direct naming, and the display of a potent object.
The rituals that the Gnostics invented and performed were meant to
be cathartic, to strip away everything that had encumbered and enslaved
their true selves in the realm of temporality. These cathartic ceremonies
of initiation were conducted gradually, so that initiates moved slowly, usu-