DeConick A.D

210
HELL WALKS AND STAR TREKS
seal the body of the initiate, who is lying on the ground as if dead. They
smear the flesh of the initiate with oil from the tree of life. This, they say,
separates the initiate’s soul from his or her body.
How does the soul know where to go? Celsus records that this group
of Christians used a particular diagram, a map of the spheres, to assist
them on their soul journeys. Each planetary sphere was controlled by an
archon (ruler), a dark lord of the skies, whose territory, name, and shape
were marked on the map.
The initiatory ceremonies took the inductees up into the realms of the
dark lords, where they overcame the rulers one by one. Each time they
returned, the initiates were granted the form of whatever dark lord they
had overcome. They became lions, bulls, serpents, eagles, bears, or dogs.
This change of appearance may have been staged with masks or costumes.
Because their mysteries involved a gradual astrological sojourn with
levels of achievement, Celsus sees them as quite similar to the mysteries of
Mithras. Mithras worshippers progressively faced the rulers of the planets
and came back sporting special statuses as ravens of Mercury, brides of
Venus, soldiers of Mars, lions of Jupiter, Persians of the moon, sun runners
of the sun, or fathers of Saturn.
We know even more about these Gnostics and their celestial initiation
rite because Origen, the early Apostolic Catholic theologian and teacher
from Alexandria, writes about them in the beginning of the third century.
He identifies them not as Christians but as Ophians (see Rasimus 2009).
This name stems from the Greek word for snake, ophis , which alludes to
their belief that the serpent in Eden was wise and that he spoke the truth
to Eve in the garden.
Origen himself has found a copy of their initiatory map, although it
does not appear to be an exact replica of the diagram that Celsus saw.
Origen’s map contains the names of the dark lords and the actual prayers
that the initiates learned to say to each ruler they encountered in the
spheres of heaven. Origen gives us enough information that we can virtually
reconstruct the secret path that the Ophian Christians believed the
soul took to journey through the cosmos.
A Nocturnal Sky Trek
The Ophian path was a sky trek through particular houses of the zodiac. In
each house, the initiate conquered the ruling planetary dark lord by reciting