User:Raul Branco
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AN INTRODUCTION TO PISTIS SOPHIA by Raul Branco
For over two centuries Pistis Sophia (PS) eluded students and scholars of the esoteric tradition who, for the most part, struggled to no avail to apprehend the important message that it was always felt this text veiled. After all, the book purports to contain esoteric instructions delivered by Jesus to his disciples after his return from the dead. Some scholars, like Jean Dorese , could not hide their frustration at the impenetrable language pregnant with symbolism. Others would just advance broad descriptions of the text, without venturing analytical or hermeneutic comments.
But in recent years new efforts were directed at the interpretation of the text. The author of this article published in Brazil, in 1997, a version of Pistis Sophia with suggested interpretations of the text and a summary of the apparently complex, but actually most profound and coherent cosmology of the work, with the help of some little known notes of Blavatsky, . Other authors have also attempted to interpret that text. It is worth noting that Jan van Rijckenborgh,
a very influential Rosicrucian from the Netherlands, left an unfinished text with the title of Les Mysteres Gnostiques de la Pistis Sophia, by the time of his death in 1968. In 1999, J.J. Hurtak and his wife Desiree Hurtak published a massive book (over 900 pages) of Pistis Sophia with commentaries , while the cabalistic rabbi Jodachay Bilbakh circulated among his students a text called The Gospel of Pistis Sophia, which was made available in Brazil in 2001. The self-proclaimed Gnostic master and member of the Great White Fraternity Samael Aun Weor produced a study in Spanish called Pistis Sophia Develada, explaining all of Jesus mysteries in terms of sexual magic, which was made available after his death by his disciples.
Since the interpretations presented in these books were considerably different, this article tries to highlight the reasons for these differences and their respective implications.
Gnostic Practice
Since the early days of Gnosticism, the existence of a Gnostic manuscript was an indication, some might even say a proof, that the author had attained the Gnosis, namely, that inner knowledge reached under a state of expanded or altered consciousness. Many Gnostic documents were of a cosmological nature, indicating the visions of the author regarding the process of creation, or emanation, as they preferred to say, of the Universe. Given the considerable number of Gnostic authors during the first centuries of our era relating his inner experiences in his own way, “heresiologists” were fond of belittling the profusion of cosmological views among Gnostics. For those familiar with the nature of mystical experiences, those differences would be easily explained by the intensity of the illuminative experience and the personal ability of the Gnostic to translate into words the meaning of his symbolic inner vision. Some Gnostic documents, however, were of a different character. They were the product of Gnostic masters who had reached the highest levels of spiritual realization, and were intended to serve as guides to neophytes in their search for the inner light. They used the time-tested method of writing in symbolic language in such a way as to stimulate the awakening of the intuition. Those texts would provide several hints for the understanding of the inner processes of transformation, and would serve as a guide and facilitator for meditation. The Pistis Sophia manuscript is an obvious example of this kind of text, like the Apocalypse or Revelation in the Bible, and other apocryphal texts such as the Gospels of Thomas and of Philip found in the Nag Hammadi Library. They are intended to force the student to search in the inner recesses of his consciousness for the meaning of the symbols used in the texts and in this way to generate a vibration conducive to a sudden flash of insight. We can safely assume that when those manuscripts were written that many neophytes knew the meaning of the basic symbols used by their masters and were constantly reminded of the law of correspondences. According to this law, all events related to the macrocosm would also apply to the microcosm, namely to man.
The Gnostic texts provide such profound insights on the inner nature of man and their psychological importance that they seem to have provided the foundation for modern psychology as presented by Carl G. Jung. Thus, a myth would have macro as well as microcosmic dimensions, although one of these would generally be the focus for the teaching provided therein. In the case of the Pistis Sophia the inner dimension seems to be the main focus. Almost every entity in the story, i.e., Pistis Sophia, Jesus, the Self-centered one, the Power with a Lion Face, the aeons, etc, can be interpreted as inner aspects of man. The interpretations suggested by Hurtak were, for the most part, based on a different viewpoint. He considered that the personages of the story were separate outside entities. No wonder his conclusions were, for the most part, different from those of the present author. The interpretations suggested by Jodachay Bilbakh and Jan van Rijckenborgh were, in a number of cases quite penetrating, but their difficulty in reconstructing the cosmology of the myth misled them more often than not. The main conclusions of Samael Weor belong to an entirely different gender of literature and are not referred to here.
The manuscript
The document, originally written in Greek and believed to having been lost, was kept by Divine providence in a translation into Copt, the Sahidic dialect of Southern Egypt at the beginning of our era. The codex was brought to England around 1772 and later sold to the British Museum. The complete text was translated into Latin by mid 19th century, by M.G. Schwartze but it was only by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century that it was translated into modern European languages (French, German and English). The best-known English versions were produced by G.R.S. Mead and Violet MacDermot. The text is divided into three major settings. In the first, Jesus is with his disciples after his return from the dead, at the Mount of Olives and, after some time, in the midst of thunder and lighting, he is elevated to the height in the midst of intense blinding light. It is reiterated that his glorious ascension to the height took place on the date of the full moon of Thebet, that is, the full moon of May, when the Wesak Festival takes place. This period is known as the most favorable for inner contacts and initiations. After thirty hours, Jesus returns, surrounded by three robes of light , with a brighter glow than when he had ascended. As an indication of the high initiation he had been conferred , he addresses the disciples, announcing that, “I will speak with you face to face, without parable. I will not conceal from you, from this hour onwards, anything of the things of the height and of the place of the truth. For I have been given authority through the Ineffable and through the First Mystery of all the mysteries that I should speak with you from the beginning until the Pleroma” (chap. 6). The other two settings of the text are the narrative of the story of Pistis Sophia and additional instructions to the disciples in the usual form of dialogue. A wealth of information is provided, including the esoteric interpretation of several parables and public sayings of Jesus and the nature of the mysteries. In view of space limitations, this article will endeavor to provide the main features of the Sophia myth, which is the most profound revelation made directly by Jesus of the pilgrimage of the soul, including the process of salvation or, to use the terminology of the text, the liberation from chaos.
The Sophia Myth
Upon his return from the height, Jesus describes to the disciples the hierarchies of the various planes that he saw as he passed through them on his way up. This long enumeration of spiritual entities is, at first, quite confusing, since nowhere in the text is there any explanation of this terminology nor of the cosmological system into which those entities fit. After several incidents with the entities of the lower planes, Jesus finds Pistis Sophia below the Thirteenth Aeon, her original home. She was alone, without her pair and her brothers, sorrowful and grieving on account of the torments that Self-centered had inflicted on her with the help of his emanations and the twelve aeons. Here we have the heart of the story: Pistis Sophia was at first in the Thirteenth Aeon with her twenty-three brothers and sisters. Once she saw the Light of the Height on the veil of the Treasury of the Light, she started singing praises to that light. From then on the Third Triple Power, who is the Self-centered one, started to hate her and so did the twelve aeons who are below. Self-centered conceived a ruse to trick her, emanating from himself a power with a lion’s appearance and a host of other violent material emanations sending them to the regions below. Pistis Sophia was then led to look below, where she saw the light of the lion-faced power. Not knowing that it was an emanation of Self-centered, she decided to go after it, without her pair, to take its light, thinking that it would enable her to go to the Light of the Height. Once she descended from her place of origin, she was dragged further and further down into chaos, with the emanations of Self-centered and the twelve aeons constantly chasing after her, tormenting her and taking her light away. When she finally saw Jesus surrounded by light, she cried to the Light of Lights and uttered a series of ‘metanoias’. The ‘metanoias’ of Pistis Sophia are the key to her eventual salvation; although they are generally translated as ‘repentances’, the Greek word had the meaning of ‘change of mind’ or ‘inner transformation’. In these thirteen ‘inner transformations’ and subsequent eleven songs of praise to the light, she unfolds her story and reiterates her faith in the light and the longing to be free from the afflictions in chaos and to return to her place of origin. She is eventually released from chaos with the help of her pair, Jesus, acting on the authority of the First Mystery with the assistance of the Archangels Gabriel and Michael.
The symbolism
In all esoteric traditions the most important inner instructions are always transmitted in symbolic language , thus veiling the sacred from the eyes of the profane, while offering a method for training the development of intuition in disciples. With few exceptions, the names used in PS to characterize the different entities and planes have no connections with the Jewish tradition that preceded it nor with the Christian ones that succeeded it. But the symbolism of Pistis Sophia is, in fact, most ingenuous for its simplicity. The unusual terminology used actually provides a peephole through which we can visualize the role played by each entity. These entities, in point of fact stand for the principles of man, therefore, disclosing the psychological system underlying Jesus’ teachings. An additional level of symbolism is built into the text, by means of Gematria, or the numerical correspondence of words, providing the clue for understanding several incidents in the story. Pistis Sophia represents the soul, or more specifically, that part of the soul that incarnates, the part of the concrete mind that is man’s unit of consciousness. Her name is a key to her role: Pistis is the Greek word for ‘faith’. Not blind faith, but faith arising from total conviction of inner knowledge. Sophia is Greek for ‘wisdom’. Thus, her compound name indicates the fundamental principle (faith in the Light of the Height - an aspect of God) that enables her to undertake her mission, namely, the development of wisdom in both worlds (material and spiritual). Her pair is Jesus, a symbol of the triple-natured higher Self, who remained behind in the higher planes when PS descended into chaos. This separation is most informative, because it expresses the split in consciousness between the higher and lower nature of man. Although in its final essence man is one with his divine self, the usual level of man’s consciousness cannot reach the spiritual planes, thus, in the myth, Pistis Sophia and Jesus are presented as separate entities. The role of Jesus is one of the difficult parts to understand in the story in view of our mental conditioning regarding Jesus’ role in orthodox Christianity. In the text we have the term ‘Jesus’ one moment standing for the compassionate Master instructing his disciples and, at another, standing for one of the three aspects of the higher nature of man: the undefiled concrete mind (PS’s pair), the abstract mind (the Savior) and the Buddhic principle or intuition, also called the inner Christ (the First Mystery Looking Without). The First Mystery Looking Within stands for the manifested Universal Spirit, Atma in the Oriental traditions, or God Father, in the Christian. The villain of the story is Self-centered, standing for the personality, a most appropriate name for our egotistic, self-centered, vain and futile “I”, always demanding to be the center of attention, striving for the gratification of the senses, causing, with this behavior, great affliction to the soul. The regents or archons of the aeons are the main allies of Self-centered, and they stand for the emotions and passions of man. Chief among them is the lion-faced power, standing for egoism, the strongest force driving man away from God and into chaos. These evil and dark powers are not so much outer ‘demons’ as they are inner aspects of man. Their role is to seize and hold man’s consciousness on to the strong heavy vibrations of emotions and passions associated with sense gratification and mental delusions such as pride and ambition. Thus, they are described as actively engaged in trying to pull man down, or in the language of the text, in taking away Pistis Sophia’s light. This goes on unremittingly until Pistis Sophia’s final liberation from chaos. While ‘chaos’ is actually a region of the Underworld in PS’s system, the term is used mostly to convey the image of a psychological state, namely that of disorder. Since Pistis Sophia is that part of the mind which acts as man’s unit of consciousness, when it is said that she falls into chaos, what is meant is that she becomes prey to mental disorders which ensue when she is overcome by emotions, desires and passions and becomes conditioned by names and forms, by cultural values and mores - in short by a whole gamut of conditions that represent a virtual prison to a soul incarnated in the world. Thus, PS’s descent into chaos is a symbolic description of man’s entrance into the cycle of incarnation, where he will remain until his mission is accomplished. Moreover, when incarnate man is deprived (or deprives himself) of his inner light he is likely to spend a period after death at the level of ‘chaos’, one of the most unfortunate planes in the afterlife.
The Cosmology
The cosmological system of Pistis Sophia is presented in summary form in the table included below. The major entities are shown in their respective planes and regions, together with their main titles. It should be kept in mind that an entity can be active on her plane and in the regions of planes below it. Thus, Pistis Sophia and the Self-centered, whose region of origin is the Thirteenth Aeon (Left of the Psychic Plane), are seen quite active in the Hylic Plane just below (the Astral Plane). The same can be said of Jesus acting as the First Mystery Looking Without, who is active all the way along the three planes below its original region. PS’s cosmological system is most enlightening, once the terminology is stripped off its mystery. Two clear cut stages are indicated, the unmanifested and the manifestation. When the Ineffable manifests Itself in the process of self-expression to carry out Its purposes It projects from Itself a whole series of entities which are disposed along five planes in increasing order of density. These planes could be called in modern language: Divine (The Mysteries of the Ineffable), Spiritual (Treasury of the Light), Concrete Mind (Psychic Plane), Astral (Hylic) and Physical (Material). The novel feature of PS’s cosmology is that each plane is divided into three regions: right, middle and left. The right is synonym of superior and the left of inferior. The entities of the right have the function of establishing ideals or archetypes, those of the middle of sustaining or ensuring proper conditions and, finally, those of the left are engaged in the implementation of the functions set for that plane. Their roles could be seen as that of father, mother and son, or conversely, as the seed, the earth and the fruit. The unmanifested Godhead is not called God, but simply the Ineffable, the One about Whom nothing is known and Who is infinitely beyond any characterization by man. Within the Ineffable, and as an intrinsic part of His Being, are found the Limbs of the Ineffable, conveying the implicit idea of unity, as occurs with the limbs of a man, which are parts of a whole endowed with specific functions. Among the last members of the Ineffable are the ungenerated, or unbegotten ones, which correspond to the Monads, also referred to in the Vedanta and Theosophy by the Sanskrit term Anupaduka , which actually means ‘without parents’. The highest entity on the Divine Plane is called the Mystery of the Ineffable or the Logos. He is the source of all that exists, visible and invisible, having established the archetype of the whole plan of manifestation. Immediately below him is found the First Mystery, in its double aspects as Looking Within and Looking Without . The First Mystery is the mystery of unity, and its aspect as First Mystery Looking Within is Atma or Spirit, which encompasses and interpenetrates all that exists, providing the divine characteristic of immanence. The First Mystery Looking Without is the vehicle of Atma, namely Buddhi, also known in the Western tradition as the Christ. The Plane below is the Spiritual Plane, Pleroma or Treasury of the Light, which corresponds to the Plane of Abstract or Superior Mind. It corresponds also to our orthodox concept of Heaven, where souls finally liberated from the world find their bliss. The top entity of this plane is IEU, referred to by the titles of Supervisor of the Light and First Man. This last expression actually reveals its role as Adam Kadmon, or the Manu of the Human Race, who is said to have incarnated in order to establish the archetype for the first human race. Also in the right of the spiritual plane is Melchisedec, the Manu of the Fifth Race (the present one), the Great Receiver of Light. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that the Primitive Church revered the figure of Melchisedec as indicated in Hebrews, where it is said that Jesus was ‘made an High-Priest for ever of the order of Melchisedec’ (Hb 6:20). The characterization of that entity in the Epistle is quite similar to that of PS. ‘For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God’. His name means, ‘first King of Justice and after that also King of Salem, which is King of Peace. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life!’ (Hb 7:1-3). Another interesting characteristic of PS’s cosmology is that each plane is a reflection of the planes above it. Thus, the entities of the right in every plane act as delegates of the Logos, unfolding the fundamental model or archetype for its own plane. From this model the process of manifestation takes place, from ideation to creation, at every ensuing plane.
THE COSMOLOGY OF THE PISTIS SOPHIA THE INEFFABLE (unmanifested) The Interior of the Interiors (ADI and ANUPADUKA) THE MYSTERIES OF THE INEFFABLE (DIVINE PLANE) 1rst Space of the Ineffable, or the Mystery of the Ineffable (the One Word or LOGOS) 2nd Space of the Ineffable, or 1rst Space of the First Mystery (ATMA)
First Mystery Looking Within
3rd Space of the Ineffable, or 2nd Space of the First Mystery (BUDDHI)
First Mystery Looking Without
The First Statute
The Five Impressions
The Great Light of Lights
The Five Auxiliaries or Supporters
TREASURY OF THE LIGHT, PLEROMA (HIGHER MANAS) Region of the Right
Ieu, Supervisor of the Light, the First Man
Melchisedec
The Great Sabaoth, the Good
Seven Amens or Voices
Five Trees
Three Amens
Region of the Middle
Twin Saviors (Child of the Child)
Region of the Left
Twelve Saviors with Twelve Powers
PSYCHIC PLANE or MIXTURE (LOWER MANAS) Region of the Right
Sabaoth, the Good
Five Planetary Regents (Saturn, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter) with 360 Powers
Region of the Middle
Small Iao, the Good
Virgin of Light
Region of the Left, Region of Righteousness, Region of the Thirteenth Aeon
The Great Invisible Forefather and his pair Barbelo
The Two Great Triple Powers
24 Invisibles (including Pistis Sophia and her pair)
The Third Great Triple Power, The Self-centered One
HYLIC PLANE (ASTRAL PLANE) The Twelve Aeons
The first six sons or emanations of the Self-centered one
Sabaoth-Adamas, also called the Great Tyrant, the Power with a lion face, Ialdabaoth
The second group of six sons, the Regents of the Inferior Aeons
Providence (Heimarmene) The Sphere MATERIAL PLANE (PHYSICAL PLANE) Firmament (Etheric) World of Men (Cosmos) Underworld: Orcus or Amente, Chaos and Outer Darkness Note: The words in italic are the equivalent modern theosophical terminology. Manas is Sanskrit for Mind.
Interpretation of the Myth
The myth is a highly esoteric version of the soul’s pilgrimage to the distant land, the material world, and its eventual Return to the Father’s House. Pistis Sophia “falls” from her original region, pursuing a mirage, a reflection of the Light of the Height seen down below in the region of the aeons, which is the power of matter. This fall due to ignorance was her “original sin”, but it is said that Pistis Sophia did so at the command of the First Mystery, that is, following an inner urge to comply with the design of the Divine Plan. This would require the process of incarnation, in order to fulfill the final objective of having Spirit manifest fully through matter or, which was expressed in the Biblical injunction, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:48). With a little effort of imagination, we can picture the unit of consciousness of man first venturing down from the mental plane and slowly becoming seduced by the novel vibrations of emotions and feelings, of desires and passions, arising from the gratification of the senses and the ego-massages provided by the feelings of power and status stemming from the illusion of separateness. As Pistis Sophia consents to these vibrations she becomes unraveled by them and, with time and repetition, becomes so impregnated with them that conditioning, or a tendency, is established keeping her a virtual prisoner in chaos. The text leaves implicit that when the unit of consciousness, Pistis Sophia, descends into chaos, it means that man incarnates, that is, assumes the necessary vehicles for manifestation in the material world. This means that, both on the astral and the physical planes, the soul is ‘wrapped up’ with appropriate ‘bodies’ to function in those planes. It will be remembered that the entities of the middle region of each plane have the motherly role of providing appropriate conditions and giving sustenance. Thus, on the astral plane, Providence bequests all the tendencies from past lives which provide recurrent opportunities for the individual to learn all those lessons which were not yet learned. On the physical plane, the middle region provides a physical body for the individual, which is adequate to undertake that type of life, which karma has in store for him. It is noted that Sophia’s story expresses the reality as seen from the Height, that is, from a spiritual vantage point. Thus, when Pistis Sophia complains that the regents of the aeons are oppressing her, trying to take her light away, this might mean that the personality has experienced a heavy, aggressive or unpleasant vibration, such as a tantrum fit, a feeling of hatred, told a lie, etc. But the “oppression of the regents” can also mean, from the point of view of the personality, experiences of immoderate sense gratification that to the man of the world means ‘to enjoy life’ and ‘to have fun,’ but to the soul, seeing reality from the vantage point of the inner light, these pleasures are afflictions for which she will pay dearly. Here is enacted the classical struggle of the forces of darkness against those of the light. Pistis Sophia, the soul, strives to go to the Height, but has to fight every inch of the way, from time immemorial, against the most dangerous forces of evil and darkness, which are those entrenched within her own castle, namely, her emotions, desires and passions under the command of Self-centered, the egotistic, presumptuous and self-serving personality. The plight of Pistis Sophia is often described as her “metanoias,” thirteen in all, followed by another eleven songs of praise to the light. The word “metanoia” is central to the Christian tradition, but its Greek original, metanoia, had a much broader meaning, namely a change in the way of thinking or in one’s mental state. Thus, each ‘metanoia’ is actually indicating that the man is undertaking a mental or inner change, which in turn is reflected in changes of attitude, values and behavior. Since Pistis Sophia’s region is the thirteenth aeon, she must symbolically effect thirteen changes of consciousness or ‘metanoias’, one for each region or aspect of itself. The much heralded Way or Path in all esoteric traditions, though giving a connotation of a physical road is, in fact, this process of inner change. This is made clear in The Voice of the Silence in the statement that: “Thou canst not travel on the Path before thou hast become that Path itself”. This key to the evolution of man, the transformation of the mind, is implicit in the poetic phrase of John of the Cross ‘transcending reason with my thoughts’, and explicit in Paul’s recommendation to the Romans: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Rm 12:2). Not surprisingly, the injunction to transform one’s mind is also the central axiom of Buddhist doctrine. The esoteric nature of Pistis Sophia’s teachings is seen in this fundamental approach to salvation, namely, the change from inside out, and not merely the compliance with a whole series of precepts, as in the Jewish tradition of obedience to the 613 precepts of the Torah. As a matter of fact, this was made clear by Jesus in his public teachings when he said: “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20). Nowhere in Pistis Sophia do we see Jesus preaching any moral code of behavior. What is made clear is that man must renounce to the world and transform his mind if he intends to apply for and to receive the mysteries that will open for him the Inheritance of the Light. While Jesus’ parables and other public teachings often castigates conventional wisdom as expressed by compliance with the Mosaic Law, there seems to be a clear intent in the Pistis Sophia to indicate that Jesus teachings have a link with the Prophets’ tradition. This is done ingeniously by means of “interpretations” advanced by the disciples after each “metanoia” uttered by Pistis Sophia, which in fact are citations from the Psalms of David and the Odes of Solomon. The many metanoias and invocations uttered by Pistis Sophia are indicative of the protracted process of transformation needed to turn a man of the world “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ef 4:13). Each metanoia seems to indicate a stage in the renewal of the mind on the spiritual Path. On closer examination of the metanoias and songs of praise of Pistis Sophia, we notice some turning points and fundamental changes in her situation as she is slowly freed from chaos. These turning points have a parallel with the five major initiations of the esoteric tradition. Her insistent pleas for assistance from the Light of the Height are finally heard and, after her sixth metanoia, her sin of going down into chaos alone without her pair is forgiven and Jesus, on his own account (the power of Manas), leads Pistis Sophia ‘into a somewhat spacious region in the chaos.’ This relative respite from the oppressions of the regents, namely, of emotions and passions, seems an indication of the First Initiation. Once the regents noticed that Pistis Sophia had not been taken entirely away from chaos, they returned with redoubled efforts to afflict her and she continued to utter her ‘metanoias’, meaning, to effect her inner transformation. After the ninth metanoia, her plea for help from the Light is partially accepted and Jesus is sent by the First Mystery (the pure mind reinforced by the power of the inner Christ) to help her to secretly escape from chaos. From then on Pistis Sophia, man’s consciousness, perceives Jesus as a Light shining brightly, probably an indication of the opening of her spiritual vision, or expansion of consciousness arising from the Second Initiation. But the desires and emotions elicited by material things are still felt as the emanations of Self-centered (the egotistic personality) and the powers of the regents (the powers of desires and passions) change form as man conquers the grosser vibrations. After the thirteenth metanoia, Jesus sends, on his own account (the power of Manas), a light-power to assist her and to take her to the higher regions of chaos. The initiation process continues with the fourteenth invocation, when a light-power is sent by the First Mystery (the power of Spirit or the Divine Kundalini), and the two powers meet together and become a great stream of light, forming a protecting crown of light over the head of Pistis Sophia. This seems the glorious description of the stage of illumination reached with the Third Initiation, a stage in which periods of consciousness of unity with God and all beings are alternated with the usual consciousness of duality of the world. Now the joy of Pistis Sophia becomes the central theme of her songs of praise in which she reiterates her determination to remain firm and never stray from the light again. But the powers of darkness do not give up and new and stronger emanations of Self-centered are sent to join the others, which change their appearance, so as to oppress Pistis Sophia and take her back to chaos. After her sixteenth invocation, pleading for help that had been promised, she is saved once again by the stream of light, with the help of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. Jesus (the power of Buddhi-Manas) also goes down into chaos to help Pistis Sophia and he makes her step over the major evil emanation of the Self-centered, a serpent of seven heads. This symbolic ritual seems an indication that her process of liberation is coming to a close. Stepping over the heads of the serpent symbolize the killing of the seeds of evil within man, namely the illusion of separateness. Despite her high accomplishments, the soul is still subject to the affliction of subtle material powers, and Pistis Sophia continues her invocations. Jesus takes her to a region just below the thirteenth aeon, her original place, probably a reference to the Fourth Initiation, which turns the man into an Arhat. . But he warns her that the Self-centered (the personality) is furious with her and will try a last attack by means of two dark and violent emanations to try to take her back to chaos. She is left alone, but Jesus promises to come back to help her if she feels oppressed and invokes his help. And, as indicated, the two dark and chaotic emanations (probably depression and despair) attack in earnest. This seems a reference to the period referred to by the mystics as the Dark Night of the Soul, when man feels alone and abandoned by all and sundry, sinking into a period of depression which might lead to despair, until he is able to renounce his last remaining attachments to the world, namely, his feeling of being a separate “I”, prior to his final and permanent union with God or the Light. With the twenty-fourth invocation finally arrives the moment to take Pistis Sophia permanently out of chaos and into the thirteenth aeon. It might look like an anticlimax, a mere return to her original region. But at this point a most touching surprise awaits the reader. It is said that Pistis Sophia reaches her final liberation at the exact moment when Jesus is at the Mount of Olives with his disciples in the process of being elevated to the Height in the midst of the Light. Thus, we have an indication of the Fifth Initiation, both from the point of view of the glorified individuality, Jesus or the Higher Self, and of the soul finally freed from the prison of the world. At that moment Pistis Sophia is finally reunited with her pair, Jesus, a parallel with the sacrament of the Wedding Chamber mentioned in the Gospel of Philip and the experience of the great mystics at the last stage of “Theosis”, or Union with God.
Hurtak’s interpretations of the Pistis Sophia
Considering the importance of Pistis Sophia, regarded in occult circles as the most esoteric of all documents extant from the Christian tradition, the work of Hurtak in publishing the text in a readable smooth English version, with a useful Glossary and commentaries to the text cannot but be highly praised. His interpretations, however, while certainly useful to the student of Pistis Sophia, are marred by two major shortcomings: (1) the consideration of all participants of the story as “outside” agents, as beings that interact in an outside world, whether of physical or subtle dimensions, and not as aspects, or constituent parts of man; and (2) the fact that he is totally at loss with PS’s cosmological system, as it is made obvious in his introductory remarks “The Blueprint of Pistis Sophia Literature” (pp. XXII to XXVIII) and reiterated in the Figure presented in page 87 (The Structure of the Left), which contradicts much of his cosmological commentaries in the preceding pages. These weaknesses are, of course, fundamental, and mar what otherwise would be a milestone in the protracted effort of so many scholars to make this precious text accessible to the public. His difficulty in sorting out the various parts of the cosmology of Pistis Sophia is understandable, and is common to most other authors including the celebrated scholar G.R.S. Mead, who made the first full translation of the text into English and offered a tentative cosmological structure in his introduction. It was only in the notes of Blavatsky already mentioned, that the author of this article found the clues to unravel the apparently complicated cosmology of the text. For instance, although the “Left” is correctly taken by Hurtak (pg. X) to describe lower realms as compared to the “Right”, he fails to perceive that there is a Left, a Middle and a Right Region at each of the five planes of manifestation in PS’s cosmology. An example of how some of his insightful comments are impaired by his cosmological views might be appropriate. While correctly stating that the many events described in the story should be taken allegorically and not in a context of “literal” space and time, he then writes that ”The grammar indicates that what we are reading is to be seen as taking place in the “present” or even as an “analepsis”, an evocation after the fact of an event that took place at an earlier point in history, about which Jesus came to tell his disciples regarding changes not only on earth, but also in heavens.” (pg. XX). Hurtak insists, time and again, that the Pistis Sophia text belongs to the Sophia tradition. (“In short, the Pistis Sophia is the “gospel” of the feminine Sophia principle. She is the one who by Faith becomes the Bride of Christ, leading by example those of limited understanding to a rebirth and fusion with Christ.” [pg. XXII]). But unlike the texts of the Sophia tradition (for instance, “The Sophia of Jesus Christ” and the reconstituted work of Valentinus, as presented by Hans Jones ) in which the Lower Sophia has as its counterpart the Higher Sophia, in our text the pair and savior of Pistis Sophia is actually Jesus. While Jesus represents the inner Christ and, as such, would represent an alternative symbol for Sophia, the text could be more appropriately placed in the category of pilgrimage of the soul myths, like the Parable of the Prodigal son and the Hymn of the Pearl attributed to Bardesanes. Unlike many Gnostic cosmological texts, Pistis Sophia is not directly concerned with cosmic creation. It takes existing worlds for granted and deals with the process of liberation of Pistis Sophia, the soul of each one of us. Thus, Hurtak’s confusing remarks on PS’s cosmology actually compound the difficulty of students to follow the journey of the soul and the role of the intervening agents in the eternal battle between the forces of light and darkness. Hurtak is correct when he says that the chief focus of Pistis Sophia is salvation, but he trips when he concludes that this is to be acquired by metanoia (pg. XXIV). He actually falls into the trap dug up and enlarged over the centuries by the most unfortunate translation in the Bible and other texts of the original Greek word metanoia as repentance, as for instance in Mt 3:2. The original Greek term metanoia actually meant a thorough mental change, or what we would call today a change of heart, which would have as one of its corollaries repentance for previous wrong doings. But the chief and fundamental idea behind metanoia was the active inner transformation of the individual and not the passive repentance connotation that was taken up by the orthodox Christian tradition. If one reads attentively the thirteen “metanoias” of Pistis Sophia it will become quite clear that they do not express her supposed repentance but, instead, her grief over the loss of her light due to the oppression of the regents, on the one hand, and her longing for the Light of the Height, on the other. While Hurtak, with his Jewish background, is obviously aware of the importance of Gematria as a tool for interpretation of Sacred texts (pg. 41), nowhere in his extensive work he puts to use Gematria for this purpose, in contrast with other authors who availed themselves of the clues provided by numerical correspondence in order to interpret the meaning of some key passages. Thus, he could not know that some of the words of the text for which, in a demonstration of scholarly zeal, he offered the corresponding words in Greek, were not the most appropriate translations in accordance with their gematric correspondences, such as “Treasury of Light” (and the expression “Twin-Savior” (. The Greek words in the original text were probably, with gematric value of 2856, equivalent to two times the value of Pleroma (), and in the case of “Twin Savior”, with gematric value of 1492, equivalent to “He who makes proclamations” () and to “The last Adam” () and also to “4 Logos” (). When confronted with the passage in which Jesus saw his Vesture of Light coming from the east and says: “I found a mystery in my Vesture, written in five words that are like those from the Height: zama zama ozza rachama ozai” Hurtak offers us some transcendental explanation: “These ancient words were not translated in the text but were preserved in the original Greek renderings, for they are not simply words, but energy triggers of Light. Their purpose is to reprogram molecules of flesh into the Vesture of Light” (pg. 78). If he were to make use of Gematria, however, he might be able to provide more insight. “Five words” in Greek is , which has a gematric value of 589, which is also the average value of the 24 Greek words (14142 : 24). The value of “five words” ( = 589) times two equals 1178, which is the gematric value of “Mystery” (. But, the First Mystery “existed from the beginning in the Ineffable before it emerged” and it is also “the last mystery from within”. The reciprocal of the value of the First Mystery (1 : 1178) gives the digits 849, which is the gematric value of Omega (), as well as the value of “One in the Triad” ( and of “The Triad in the Monad” (. Thus, a gematric interpretation shows that the three aspects of the manifested Ineffable make up the Last Mystery. Hurtak’s concern with the proper role of the feminine is laudable, though a bit misplaced in some of his commentaries on the text, as in the following passage: “And it happened, when she sang praises to the region of the Height, that all the archons in the twelve aeons below hated her, because she had ceased in their mysteries”. This passage elicits the following erudite comment from Hurtak: “We are about to embark upon an explanation of why the lower forces continually seek to control the feminine power on this planet. There have been few exceptions: Ruth, Judith, and Esther in the Old Testament, Fatima, St. Hildegard von Bingen, St. Teresa de Avila and other holy women found throughout the sacred writings and scriptures of the world. Also Eve, after the Fall, still retained a limited power to ascend to the gates of Paradise.” And his explanations go on in this vein. But there is another interpretation possible for this passage on the basis the psychological focus for the whole myth that all the personages of the story exist within man. In that case, when consciousness (Pistis Sophia) is directed to the Light of the Height, passions and the other materializing tendencies (the archons in the twelve aeons below her) feel threatened and, allegorically, hate her. It would be impossible, within the scope of a short article, to cover even a significant part of Hurtak’s commentaries on such a long work as Pistis Sophia, as his book runs to some 900 pages. We should not like to leave the impression, however, that all our comments on Hurtak’s interpretations are on the negative side. On the contrary, he has many interesting and insightful points throughout his work. Thus, we would like to close this section on his commentaries with a positive example. After a long passage in which Jesus is describing the turmoil and confusion in the lower realms after his passing through their regions, Hurtak writes: “Jesus speaks of the hierarchy that is in control of this system of things, and of the Forefather who through his triple-power energies which control the power of the gods of the lower spheres, created the fallen experiments. The model of the Forefather who connects with the Triple-powers, the archons, and the Councils which are all celestial copies of the Divine structure of the True Forefather, the True Triple-powers and the True Councils of Light existing in the highest Light Worlds.”
Concluding Remarks
Like the parable of the hidden treasure, the Pistis Sophia is ready to yield to any man or woman who works hard tilling its soil a veritable treasure hoard of esoteric teachings, hidden there by the Master for the benefit of his disciples of all times, and not only for those who followed him during his earthly life in Palestine two thousand years ago. The unveiling of the progressive passage by the soul through the different levels of manifestation by means of ‘metanoias’ (progressive inner changes) provided in the text seems designed to awaken man to the reality of his divine origin and his mission on Earth. Throughout the story of Pistis Sophia, and in the remainder of the book, there are many teachings that might touch the soul of each reader in a different way. In this sense the text is magic. It is designed to work in every sincere heart that is looking with zest and determination for the keys that will enable him to open the Gates of the Kingdom of Heaven. Further work will be needed to explore fully the ‘unveiling of Pistis Sophia’, but it is already clear that its impact will not be restricted to the ‘Gnostic world’, but might well spill over into the esoteric interpretation of the Gospels of orthodox Christianity, since many features of PS’s symbolism are obviously common to other esoteric teachings of Jesus, particularly those of the Fourth Gospel. Some of these implications might be advanced here. The first is that the narratives of Jesus life in the Bible, similarly as in the Pistis Sophia, can be taken as an allegorical presentation of the five stages of accelerated human development, also known as the Great Initiations, described as the birth, baptism, Eucharist, crucifixion/resurrection and, finally, the transfiguration and ascension of Jesus. This topic has been examined extensively by other authors elsewhere and need not be taken up here, except for the Transfiguration that is generally associated with the Third Initiation in the Christian Tradition. This event, according to the Pistis Sophia actually took place after Jesus’ death, when he was at the Mount of Olives instructing his disciples and a light power came from the Height surrounding Jesus with such an intense light, making him shine so strongly that the disciples were obfuscated and could not see him. He was then elevated to the Height in the midst of light rays. It seems that the Gospel narratives misplaced chronologically this Transfiguration event. There is an interesting parallel here with the transfiguration of Moses when he went down from Mount Sinai (the mount symbolizing again an elevated state of consciousness) bringing the Tables of the Law with his face shining because he had spoken to Iahweh (Ex 34:29). To speak with God, in that case, symbolizes the intimate Union with God that made possible for Moses to know the Will of the Lord and then to express it in the form of Commandments for his people. The Third Initiation in the Christian tradition should be represented instead by the Eucharist, the symbol of communion with God, as established by Jesus during the last supper with the disciples (Lc 22:14-20). Communion provides the blessed person with an experience of a state of consciousness of partial union with God; partial in the sense of temporal limitation, as he sooner or later will return to his usual state of consciousness. This nomenclature is in keeping with the sequence of sacraments presented in the Gospel of Philip, the third of which is the Eucharist, as well as with the experience of the great mystics which, according to the monumental work of Evelyn Underhill , have as a third stage a process of illumination or communion with God. Another revealing interpretation of Pistis Sophia is the inner meaning of the expression ‘I AM’ found several times in the text as well as in the Bible. For the orthodox that read the Bible literally, this is a confirmation of Jesus’ divine nature. If, on the other hand, we accept the premise that the Bible, as all Sacred Scriptures including Pistis Sophia, was written as an allegory, in which personages and passages served as symbols to veil esoteric teachings, then Jesus represents the higher nature in man. Thus, when he says in these writings ‘I AM’, he is actually conveying the impersonal truth that the divine in man is that aspect. So, when he says ‘I AM the way’, what is meant is that ‘I AM is the way’, or that the Higher Self or the Inner Christ in man is the way, the truth and the life. Man living in a dualistic world always qualifies his statements about himself saying that he is this or that, but God who is the All needs not any restrictive qualifications, thus He says simply I AM. When He utters I AM, he expresses those divine aspects which we call Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence. We could say that, I AM is the present forever, the consciousness of the eternal NOW. This symbolic expression is also used in the Kabbalah. According to the esoteric tradition of Judaism, the expression I AM summarizes the ultimate essence of what man is able to know of the divine nature. “God is beyond existence. God is Ain - Nothing. From nothing arises Ain Sof, or the Infinite All. From Infinity arises the Will of Ain Sof, called Ain Sof Aur, the Limitless Light. An analogy for the first manifestation of the Will of the unmanifested Existence is a point without dimension. This point of Manifested Existence is the source of all that was, is and will be. It is I AM and in Kabbalah it is called the First Crown, the Ancient.” It is said that: “The Act of Creation occurs, we are told, when a word is uttered. This Word is the first of all sounds heard in Manifested Existence. It is the supreme Name of God: EHYEH, that is, I AM”. We could conclude that Pistis Sophia, like all Sacred Scriptures, is an encoded map of a most precious treasure hoard. If we are able to interpret the symbols used, we will be able to tread the Path and find the precious pearl of gnosis, the key that admits us to the Kingdom of Heavens .