THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

hermaphroditic fashion as she likewise contains Power within herself. 29
The
Memphite focus upon utterance releasing the creative thought is apparent here, and of
course the sexual aspects of the gnosis of Simon Magus need hardly be emphasised.
In pursuing these considerations it is apparent that the Chaldean system and
Middle Platonism both side with the Memphite cosmology. Apart from a distinct
disinclination to detail hosts of descending aeons in male-female pairs, however, their
systems find many striking similarities with Gnostic thought in general, and of course
with respect to those Gnostic systems which are more Memphitic, the task is really to
draw out substantial differences. It remains a safe generalisation to say that, systemic
similarities aside, the Middle Platonists were not all that interested in theurgy per se. 30
However, Chaldean and Gnostic applications are coterminous in their cataloguing of
sacred formulae with which to manipulate higher powers. I shall offer only one
example of a Gnostic text which clearly shows theurgic applications.
Marsanes (NHC X,1 27.12-18) engages in a lengthy description of the divine
power of vowel and consonant sounds: “Form by form, they constitute the
nomenclature of the gods and the angels, not because they are mixed with each other
according to every form, but only because they have a good function”. 31
These, “are
commanded to submit... and as they are changed they submit to the hidden gods by
means of beat and pitch and silence and impulse”. 32
The author of this tractate wishes
to impart knowledge about “the generation of the names”(35.6), and “the word of the
hypostasis”(36.21). The cosmos is headed by the “Unbegotten One” beneath which
operates the female Barbelo in the same manner as the Chaldean Hekate. As well, the
“sense-perceptible world” is held in contradistinction to a higher knowledge
possessed by Barbelo. It is the clear emphasis upon using sacred sounds to manipulate
higher powers which puts this Gnostic text in complete accord with the Chaldean. In
conclusion it should be noted that there is also a less enhanced Gnostic theurgy at
work within the Gnostic movement as a whole, and this pertains to the simple
possession of passwords that will allow the soul to ascend past the archons following
physical death. 33
These details are of course quintessentially Egyptian, as found
towards the end of the Saite period in particular, when the Book of the Dead was
regularised as has been mentioned. In the Late Period an increasing number of
magical incantations are used against inimical divinities; this is exceptional in terms
of the number and intensity, however it but perpetuates ancient Egyptian views and is
not in itself a new development. In discussing the Book of the Dead, in this case a
29
Hippolytus, Refutatio 6.18: “For it is from this power that the unique thought came forth and
became two. And he also was one; for having her within him he was alone, but not,
however, first despite pre-existing, but appearing to himself from himself he became
second.” Trans. Catherine Osborne, Rethinking Greek Philosophy, 251.
30
However one can assume that they felt a distinct sympathy for this mode of speculation
given the extensive evidence we possess.
31
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol. XV, 296, 298.
32
Ibid., 29.20 & 30.11.
33
See Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 2 vols., trans. and ed. W.W. Harvey (Ridgewood, New
Jersey, 1965), Book I, Chap. XXI.5.