DeConick A.D

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SPIRITUAL AVATARS
of God, first learning a catechism about the nature of the transcendent
God and the transcendent realm called Wholeness, and then undergoing a
second baptism, called Redemption (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 3.15.2;
Origen, Commentary on John 6.26; see Thomassen 2011).
Although there were as many variations of this ritual as there were
Valentinian leaders, it remained an ecstatic experience that involved rites
of water and oil. Unlike the baptism that psychic (soulish) Christians used
to purify the soul when first converting to Christianity, this second baptism
was an advanced rite that fully and immediately redeemed the spirit,
making the initiates pneumatic (spiritual) Christians. The first baptism is
identified with John the Baptist’s activities in the Jordan; the latter is identified
with Jesus’ baptism by fire. Jesus’ baptism, the Valentinians thought,
brings initiates into the heavens to sit at God’s right and left hands, just
as the sons of Zebedee had desired, though they were unable to undergo
it (Luke 12:50 and Mark 10:38, quoted in Irenaeus, Against the Heresies
1.21.2; see also Valentinian Fragments NHC XI.2 41.10–11, 21–23).
As part of this rite, the initiate’s spirit ascends through the spheres into
the transcendent realm. This was the shamanic journey that matured the
spirit, growing it from a seed into an angel (Valentinian Fragments NHC
XI.2 42.28–30). The ascent culminates in the experience of sacred union
with God, a union that is envisioned as the spirit’s betrothal to its angelic
mate. This was a regenerative journey for the spirit, when it entered into
the transcendent power beyond all (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 1.21.2,
3.15.2; Gospel of Philip NHC II.3 69.7–8, 70.2–10).
Paul’s ascent, recorded in his second letter to the Corinthians (12:2–4),
both inspired and buttressed these rites, as the Valentinian Apocalypse of
Paul (NHC V.2 18.3–24.7) demonstrates. In this text, Paul ascends gradually
through the various levels of heaven, encountering the rulers in each
of the realms. In the fourth heaven, he witnesses a soul dragged before
the dark lord of judgment, who has the soul whipped for the sins it had
committed. Afterwards, the soul is cast down into a body prepared for it.
In the fifth heaven, Paul witnesses a gang of armed angels with iron rods
and whips in their hands, goading souls on to judgment. He passes on to
the sixth heaven, where he stands before its dark guardian. Paul demands
that the gate to the next level be opened, and it is.
In the seventh heaven, Paul meets the conventional God of the Jews
and Christians, the Ancient of Days as pictured in the book of Daniel,