Gnostic tradition says that when the highest God saw what miserable, unconscious creatures these human beings were whom the demiurge had created, who were not even able to walk upright, he immediately got the work of redemption under way:
In a passage in the Acts (17 : 30), Paul reminds the Athenians that they were “God's offspring,” and that God, looking back disapprovingly on “the times of ignorance,” had sent the message to mankind, commanding “all men everywhere to repent”
CW9.2 ¶ 299TRANSFORMATION OF MIND
Because that earlier condition seemed to be altogether too wretched, the(transformation of mind) took on the moral character of repentance of sins, with the result that the Vulgate could translate it as “poenitentiam agere.” The sin to be repented, of course, isunconsciousness
CW9.2 ¶ 299THE GNOSTIC GOD
WITHOUT CONSCIOUSNESS
As we have seen, it is not only man who is in this condition, but also, according to the Gnostics, the,the God without consciousness. This idea is more or less in line with the traditional Christian view that God was transformed during the passage from the Old Testament to the New, and, from being the God of wrath, changed into the God of Lovea thought that is expressed very clearly by Nicolaus Caussin in the seventeenth century
CW9.2 ¶ 299TRANSFORMATIONS OF
THE GOD-IMAGE
These utterances on the nature of the Deity express transformations of the God-image which run parallel with changes in human consciousness, though one would be at a loss to say which is the cause of the other
CW9.2 ¶ 303The God-image is not something invented, it is an experience that comes upon man spontaneouslyas anyone can see for himself unless he is blinded to the truth by theories and prejudices. The unconscious God-image can therefore alter the state of consciousness, just as the latter can modify the God-image once it has become conscious. This, obviously, has nothing to do with the “prime truth,” the unknown Godat least, nothing that could be verified
CW9.2 ¶ 303Psychologically, however, the idea of God's[unknownness], or of the[inconceivable god or god without conception], is of the utmost importance, because it identifies the Deity with the numinosity of the unconscious. The atman / purusha philosophy of the East and, as we have seen, Meister Eckhart in the West both bear witness to this
CW9.2 ¶ 303Jung lays out some of the Gnostic symbols for the universal “Ground” or the divine substance. In CW9.2: par. 306, Jung says:
AL ¶ 0THE FIGURE OF THE
DEMIURGE
Jung: The most important of these images is the figure of the demiurge. The Gnostics have a vast number of symbols for the source or origin, the center of being, the Creator, and the divine substance hidden in the creature. Lest the reader be confused by this wealth of images, he should always remember that each new image is simply another aspect of the divine mystery immanent in all creatures. My list of Gnostic symbols is no more than an amplification of a single transcendental idea, which is so comprehensive and so difficult to visualize in itself that a great many different expressions are required in order to bring out its various aspects
AL ¶ 0THE BASIC IDEA IN
GNOSTICISM
The basic idea in Gnosticism was that a heavenly stuff fell out of, or descended from, or was lured out of heaven into matter, into the dark realm. This heavenly substance then gave rise to the world and to light; it brought about creation because it was living stuff
AL ¶ 0PRIMORDIAL MAN, FIRST MAN,
AND ANTHROPOS
A number of different terms or images were applied to the divine substance. It was often called the Primordial Man, the First Man, the Anthropos (which is the Greek word for “man”). Sometimes it was called nous, or light. One common term for the heavenly stuff was Sophia, the Divine Wisdom. Jung summarizes the Sophia image in CW9.2: par. 307, fn. 33:
AL ¶ 0SOPHIA
Jung: Sophiawho “sinks into the lower regions”She was forcibly held captive by the lower powers.She corresponds to the much later alchemical idea of the “soul in fetters”.“The soul once turned towards matter, fell in love with it, and, burning with desire to experience bodily pleasures, was no longer willing to tear herself away from it. So was the world born ”
AL ¶ 0Jung: In Pistis Sophiashe is the daughter of Barbelo. Deluded by the false light of the demon Authades, she falls into imprisonment in chaos
AL ¶ 0SYMBOLIC IMAGE IMPORTANT
PSYCHOLOGICALLY
A section from that passage in Pistis Sophia gives the feeling of this symbolic image, which is so important psychologically ( G.R.S. Mead, trans., Pistis Sophia, pp. 36f. ):
AL ¶ 0Mead: It came to passthat she [Sophia] looked below andthought to herself: I willtake the light [from that region] and fashion for myself light-aeonsThis then thinking, she went forth from her own region [and went below][And she] came into the regions of the chaos and drew nigh to that lion-faced light-power [which is also called the Self-willed; that is the translation of the term “Authades”. All his emanations] surrounded her, and the great lion-facedpower devouredSophia, and cleaned out her light and devoured it, and her matter was thrust into the chaosThat is Yaldabaoth, of whom I have spoken unto you many times. When this befell, Sophia became very greatly exhausted, and that lion-facedpower set to work to take away from Sophia all her light-powers, andsurrounded Sophiaand pressed her sore. And Pistis Sophia cried out most exceedingly, she cried to the Light of lights aboveand uttered this repentance saying thus: “Oh, Light of lights in whom I have had faith from the beginning, hearken now, 0 Light, unto my repentance. Save me, 0 Light, for evil thoughts have entered into me ”
SOPHIA'S LIGHT
HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY
Sophia has been caught. Her light has been taken over by the lion-faced self-willed power. It is a provocative image, an image of ego development
AL ¶ 0FALL INTO
EGO MANIFESTATION
Any kind of fall from heaven that brings heavenly light stuff down into the lower world, corresponds to a fall into ego manifestation, which is what the expression “self-willed” points to. An example of this image occurred in a dream:
AL ¶ 0Dream:
The Awakening in the Whore House
I descend to the basement of a whore house run by a brutal man. I discover a bruised and battered young woman who nevertheless had a glowing beauty. I kiss her and awaken her. I am overcome momentarily with a sense of compassion for her, for me, for the pathos of the human condition. The tough owner stands at the top of the staircase ( Edinger, The Living Psyche, p. 91 )
AL ¶ 0EDINGER COMMENTARY
This image encapsulates in a single synoptic form the basic task of the whole analytic process: to descend into the unconscious and to rescue or redeem the soul-image that is imprisoned there
AL ¶ 0