THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

I am androgynous. I [am Mother], I am Father since I [cohabit] with myself
alone, and I [copulate] with myself alone (45.2). 34
Atum does not create ex nihilo, but creates from out of the Nun. Plutarch’s Isis
embraces the abyss before the cosmos itself is created and this, too, is from the
ancient Heliopolitan theology, as expressed here in a Pyramid Text:
I was born in the Abyss before the sky existed, before the earth existed, before
that which was to be made firm existed, before turmoil existed (PT Utt. 486,
§1040). 35
While the speaker is ostensibly the masculine Atum, the most important feature of this
system is the emphasis upon the androgyny of the primal creative power, and a
balancing of masculine and feminine energies in each subsequent creative act. The
Memphite Theology recontextualised the above by establishing the creative logos of
Ptah above the procreative Atum. Atum takes on distinctly demiurgic characteristics
in the Memphite view. 36
Finally, Plutarch’s soteriology depicts the soul’s struggle with the demonic
forces of the lower world and it is here that we receive the most plangent
reverberation of the Gnostic mood in describing that moment when the soul attempts
to ascend:
Whilst we are immersed in worldly affairs, and are changing bodies, as fit
vehicles for our conveyance, he lets us alone to try our strength, patiently to
stem the tide and get into the haven by ourselves; but if a soul hath gone
through the trials of a thousand generations, and now, when her course is almost
finished, strives bravely, and with a great deal of labour to ascend, the Deity
permits her proper Genius to aid her, and even gives leave to any other that is
willing to assist. The Daemon, thus permitted, presently sets about the work;
and upon his approach, if the soul obeys and hearkens to his directions, she is
saved; if not, the Daemon leaves her, and she lies in a miserable condition. (De
genio Socratis, 24 37
)
This vision of the sophia figure desperately attempting to return to the heights is at the
heart of a myriad number of Gnostic representations, as it is in the Trimorphic
Protennoia:
When the Epinoia of Light understood (this) she entreated the other Creation in
humiliation. She said, [“Give unto me another existence] so that I will come to
the given Power, lest I exist in an [evil] Order.” [And the] entire [assembled]
34
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol. XXVIII, 422.
35
Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, 173.
36
“This identification of Ptah with cosmic intelligence also puts Atum’s demiurgic qualities
and functions into relief.” Iverson, Egyptian and Hermetic Doctrine, 12.
37
Trans. William W. Goodwin, Plutarch’s Morals, vol. 2 (Boston: Little, Brown and Co.,
1874), 414.