THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

again that there are others that are not voiced, but make some kind of noise, and
that they, too, have a number. (Philebus 18 b,c.) 47
Likewise Plotinus, in describing the “real-ness” of thoughts and images as
apperceived by the intellects of the ages, states:
The wise men of Egypt, I think, also understood this, either by scientific or
innate knowledge, and when they wished to signify something wisely, did not
use the forms of letters which follow the order of words and propositions and
imitate sounds and the enunciations of philosophical statements, but by drawing
images and inscribing in their temples one particular thing, they manifested the
non-discursiveness of the intelligible world, that is, that every image is a kind of
knowledge and wisdom and is a subject of statements, all together in one, and
not discourse or deliveration. (Ennead V.8, 6-9). 48
Apuleius, in chapter XVIII of The Transformations of Lucius Apuleius of Madaura,
described the initiation of Lucius into the cult of Isis in Rome. An elder priest
proscribes the rites from hieroglyphic scrolls, during which the initiate is led to the
feet of the goddess and is given specific secret instructions that surpass the spoken
word. 49
The creative power of the word in all such reliable and fabulist
manifestations is to be traced back to the Memphite theology in its most potent
expression and, alongside the depiction of various underworld enneads and ogdoads,
the theurgic attempt to manipulate divine powers through sound forms a central
feature of the religious experience expressed in the magical papyri. No spell contained
herein is complete without recourse to sacred sounds and divine names.
In turning briefly to the extant Gnostic texts we note the Pistis Sophia, Books
of Jeu, and The Untitled Text along with seven of the Nag Hammadi tractates employ
sacred sounds. 50
While The Thunder Perfect Mind doesn’t directly employ a
succession of vowel sounds, the focus upon language in a theogonic context perfectly
mirrors the Memphite Ptah describing his act of creation through the word:
I am the sound of the manifold voice, and the word of many aspects....
I am the hearing that is attainable to everything, I am the speech which cannot
be grasped. I am the name of the sound and the sound of the name. I am the sign
of the letter and the manifestation of the division. (14.12 & 20.28-35) 51
Likewise, The Gospel of Truth describes the quintessential Egyptian concern here
47
Trans. Dorothea Frede, Plato, Philebus (Indinapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1993), 11.
48
Plotinus V: Enneads V. 1-9, trans. A.H. Armstrong (Loeb Classical Library, 1984), 257.
49
Lucius Apuleius, The Golden Ass, trans. Robert Graves (1950; Reprint. Harmondsworth:
Penguin Books Ltd., 1986), 231-42.
50
On the Origin of the World (II,5), The Gospel of the Egyptians (III,2), The Discourse on the
Eigth and Ninth (VI,6), The Paraphrase of Shem (VII,1), Zostrianos (VIII,1),
Marsanes(X,1), Trimorphic Protennoia (XIII,1).
51
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol.XI, 236, 250, 252.