DeConick A.D

256
SPIRITUAL AVATARS
Hellenistic period, when kings rather than citizens ruled, parrhesia became
the job of the king’s advisors, who were supposed to help him make
sound decisions and prevent him from abusing his power.
Such truth-telling is terrifying for those in power, whose positions and
plans are often threatened. The risk is very real, as Socrates discovered
when he was executed for his bold vision. The same might be said about
John the Baptist’s criticism of Herod. Criticizing Herod’s relationship
with his brother’s wife was risky business that ended badly for John, with
his head on a platter.
What is so remarkable about Valentinus is his insistence that it is the
innate duty of the Gnostic to speak out and tell the truth, which is always
transgressive, always challenging to the status quo. This makes transgression
the heart of being Gnostic. The Gnostic, because the spirit has been
awakened, must tell others what they are terrified to hear.
Imagine Valentinus’s converts going around and saying that the real
God is not YHWH but a transcendent being whom Jesus revealed. Imagine
people’s response when they learned that humans have been enslaved
to false gods since the dawn of the world and have been deceived by these
gods to live a lie. Such transgressive speech would strike terror into all
those who heard it, including the gods, who want nothing more than to
shut off the speech so that their lie can continue.
Sophe’s gravestone shows the terror that Gnostic truth incites, with its
recognition that we live in two worlds but are only aware of one—and
that one is a lie. Sophe is among the redeemed because she stopped buying
into the lies of the creator god. She came to believe that she was more
than her corporeal body and mortal psyche. She came to understand that
reality runs deeper than the physical and mental realms. The real Sophe,
spirit from spirit, transcends this cosmos and its gods. She returns to the
transcendent world, a glorified immortal. She races into the arms of her
lover, the angel who has been waiting for her since the beginning of time.
Embracing her spiritual avatar, Sophe is liberated from the lie.
The Well of Souls
Eywa, the divine God Mother, is portrayed in Cameron’s Avatar as the
divine mind with a physical neural network. This physical network is a
kind of biological internet of nature, which links all species into Eywa’s