THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

formation of human syzygies, or “heavenly conjunctions” in order to mirror the divine
realm and effect personal salvation. Implicit in both Egyptian and Gnostic theogonies,
is the existence of an androgynous ideal which stands at the very font of the
emanation process. To ascend to this level, to be saved, is to regain this androgynous
state. One must agree with M. Scopello in her assessment of this as an eradication or
fusion of opposites: “Androgyny, in the Gnostic spirit, coincidentia oppositorum, is
the annihilation of all sexuality”. 24
In the Egyptian Gnostic context the pairing finally broken by Sophia is an
obvious disruption of Ma’at, embodying a “Sethian” element of disturber. In a
suggestively ambiguous setting, Sophia plunges into the depths by refusing her
partner; yet this is a result of her desire to “know” the Father, and she therefore
confronts the issue of aeonial ignorance with respect to the Father. The Pleroma is
agitated by her “fall”; even so, one imagines their disturbance to result from the
sudden awareness of their own ignorance The result is a “formless abortion” which
exists as a negative manifestation of the inchoate side of the original Father from
which the aeons proceeded. Thus the qualities contained in this lower formlessness
must be actualised and, although the redemptive intercession of Horos and
Monogenes is successful, the continued presence of the lower realm bespeaks a loss
of innocence and an acknowledgement of the vitality of Evil. The derivation of the
Gnostic “fallen” goddess motif from a number of Egyptian antecedents shall be taken
up in the next chapter in detail.
Sophia is redeemed by the divine emissary and returns to the Pleroma
although she leaves a shadow image of herself behind – the Sophia Achamoth. This
lower Sophia is an equivocal female principle responsible for the creation of the
ignorant Demiurge and evil archons, as well as the creation of the physical world and
mankind through the Demiurge. The Demiurge is seen as the Jewish creator-god
Jahweh who proclaims “there is no god but myself!” While other Gnostic systems
display a strong “cosmic anti-Semitism” in this regard, Valentinian thought, as well as
the system of Basileides, view the demiurge as an ignorant tool who is sooner or later
informed as to the true state of affairs.
Mankind is divided into three groups: the hylics (fleshly types); the psychics
(those with free will); and the pneumatics (the redeemed ones who also operate as
redeemers, like Christ). The question as to whether one is born into one of these
groups, or whether one acquires merits or demerits in the course of a lifetime resulting
in a final assignation has no clear answer. The pneumatics are saved by nature: these
are the Gnostics, hence the charge here of “Gnostic elitism”. The psychics must
choose between salvation and perdition, although in the Tripartite Tractate, an
extensive Valentinian text, even the fallen psychics appear to be saved in the end, and
the orthodox Church falls in this group. The hylics are soteriologically doomed by
nature. There is a foreshadowing of Gnostic elitism in Egyptian thought in the
Instruction of Amenemope dating to the Ramesside period although extant copies
appear much later. This text emphasises an ideal contemplative man, silent and
mindful of a high religiosity. His adversary, “the heated man” is impetuous, filled
with falsehood, with a “faulty heart” (XII17):
He who does evil, the shore rejects him (IV.12)
24
M. Scopello, L’Exégèse de l’Ame: Introduction, traduction, commentaire, NHS 25 (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1985), 121.