DeConick A.D

235
SPIRITUAL AVATARS
who is seated on a throne shining brighter than the sun (Daniel 7:9). After
a ritual exchange of words and the display of a powerful sign, the biblical
Lord turns his face down to look at his creation and his minions, whom
Paul has escaped. Because he cannot hold on to Paul, either, the gate into
the Ogdoadic region, the divine world, opens and Paul joins the spirits
who dwell there. It is something of a referendum on Apostolic Catholicism
that the twelve apostles remain with the biblical Lord in his realm
while Paul escapes to the supreme God.
How was this initiation ceremony of redemption actually performed?
According to the scattered references to the rite, it began with incubation,
when initiates reclined on a special couch called a “bridal bed” (Irenaeus,
Against the Heresies 1.21.3). How long they lay there in silence we do not
know. But as the person incubated, words of union were recited by the
congregation leader: “In the name of the unknown Father of the universe,
in Truth the Mother of everything, in he who descended into Jesus, (may
you go) into union, redemption, and companionship with the Powers”
(Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 1.21.3; my translation).
The initiates were smeared with a mixture of water and oil, “the anointment
of mercy” (Gospel of Truth NHC I.3 36.14–20), while the leader
recited a second prayer in Hebrew. Although the words are garbled in
Irenaeus’s account, we can make out that the prayer summoned the invisible
Spirit, asking for protection from YHWH, the God of judgment, and
his militia. The prayer is invoked in the hidden name of Jesus (Irenaeus,
Against the Heresies 1.21.3).
With this, the initiates embark on an ecstatic journey through the celestial
realms, flying past YHWH’s seat of judgment. The initiates’ spirits,
wearing the invisibility helmet of Hades, are invisible to YHWH and his
soldiers (1.13.6). The initiates are snatched up by Sophia and are conducted
into the transcendent realm, where they unite with God and become whole.
In one Valentinian text, the rite of redemption is described as a gradual
ascent by degrees into God’s wholeness, an entrance into silence, where
voice, knowledge, thinking, and enlightenment are unnecessary because
everything is already light (Tripartite Tractate NHC I.5 124.14–25). Some
Valentinian groups performed Redemption again at death as a last rites
ceremony. They reserved for the end of life the ultimate words that would
defeat YHWH, whispering them into the ear of the dying person as his
soul faced judgment.