DICTIONARY OF EARLY COMMON ERA GNOSTICISM - p7/28
The Nag Hammadi Library, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics

Page 7 - SECTION F

Fate | Father

Fate - In Gnosticism, Fate is determined by great celestial figures and, above all, by the planets that dispense fatality. The sphere of Heimarmene (Fatality) separates the 12 aeons from the terrestrial world.

Fate instigates against Adam (Phos). In pre-Gnosticism, Adam is freed from Fate. Humanity is enslaved by Fate, imprisoned in the chains of the material and the temporal. The physical body is the body of fatality because it is formed from the four elements, fire, water, air, and earth. Humanity longs to escape from Fate and return to its original form and to the spiritual from which it has fallen. Jesus is said to have changed the course of Fate by reversing the rotation of the spheres.

Fatality is inherent in the cyclic Time of the created world. Between the temporal world and the timeless world there is a frontier, a Limit (Horos), which is absolute and impassable. In Chaldaean astrology, after death the soul re-ascends into heaven, escaping at last from Time and Fate. On re-ascent. the soul successively discards the clothing of Time and Fate, the physical body, layer by layer, as it passes by the spheres.

"And he almost regretted that he had created the world." (A Valentinian Exposition, Gnostic papyri)

And that was written after the Crucifixion of Jesus but before World War I, World War II, Hiroshima, Bubonic Plague, Vietnam War, the Holocaust, French Revolution, burning of the Cathars, Spanish Inquisition, Jack the Ripper, the movie "Psycho", Twin Towers, Pearl Harbor, War of the Roses, Spanish Civil War, and the Crusades. Wonder if he has any regrets now?

The Teachings of the FatherFather - The name of God, the supreme divinity existing as the existence that is nonexistence, or negative existence. The supreme divinity is "the one who encircles all spaces while there is none that encircles him." (The Gospel of Truth). In other words, The Uncontained that Contains. Principle of Containment is an ancient philosophy seen on the Phaistos Disk.

He "stretched himself out and it was that which he stretched out which gave a foundation and a space and a dwelling for the universe." He is "unfathomable in his sweetness." "He is the one who projects himself thus, as generation..." "He is the fullness of paternity." He is also shaped like doughnut, according to some Gnostics: "They wear him while he wears them." (The Tripartite Tractate)

The Aeons are silent about the Father, his form and his nature and his greatness. The Father exists in many names. He is a unity, yet is innumerable in his Properties and names.

In Gnosticism, God is undoubtedly a man, and that much hasn't changed about how the Christians and nearly all the rest think about God. Here are nineteen Gnostic names for God that include "Father." Father of All (Barbelognostic); Father of the Universe, First Father, Pro-Father, Father of Himself, Unbegotten Father (Eugnostos); Invisible Father (Gnosticism); Living Father, Kingdom of the Father (Gospel of Thomas); Father on High (Ophite); Immobile Father (Peratean); Nous the Father, Androgyne Father (Poimandres); The Fatherhood (Revelation by Dostheus); Father of the Universe (Sophia of Jesus); Everlasting Father (Sacred Book of the Invisible Great Spirit); Amon-Re, Father of Fathers (Egyptian); Father of Greatness (Kantean); Fathers in the Heights (Manichaean).



NEXT - SECTION G


SITEMAP - HOME

In the Beginning | Subjects

A | Abel | Abraham | Abrasax | Adam | Adamanous | Aeons

          Alchemy | Allogeneous Books | Androgyny | Anthropos

          Archons | Archontici | Astrology, Classical | Athoth

          Audians | Augustine, St.

B | Barbelo | Bardeson of Edessa | Baruch | Basilides | Behemoth

          Book of Archangels | Book of Buried Pearls

          Book of the Cave of Treasure

C | Cain | Cainites | Carpocrates | Cathars | Celsus | Chaos

          Chenoboskion Manuscripts | Christianity

          Cosmogony of the Gnostics | Counterfeiting Spirit

D | Death | Decans | Deir Anba-Palamun | Diagram

          Dragon, Constellation of | Dualism

E | Egypt | El | Elohim | Enki | Enoch

          Enoch, Book of the Secrets of | Essenes | Eugnostos | Eve

          Evil

F | Fate | Father

G | Gnosis | Gnosticism

H | Hebdomad | Hermes | Hermes Trismegistus | Hermeticism

          Holy Spirit | Homer

I | Ialdabaoth | Islam

J | Jesus Christ | John the Baptist | Judaism | Jung Codex

K | Kanteans | Key to Hydromancy | Kukeans

L | Leviathan | Limit-Cross | Luria, Isaac

M | Mandaeans | Manes | Manichaeism | Marcus | Mariamne

          Mary | Matter | Melchizedek | Messenger, Divine | Mithra

          Moses | Mountain of Lights

N | Nassenes | Nicolaitans | Noah | Norea

O | Ogdoad | Ophites | Ousiarchs

P | Paul, Apocalypse of | Perfect, The | Persia | Philo

          Philosophers, Akhmim | Plato | Pleiades | Pleroma | Plotinus

          Porphyry | Principle of Opposites

          Primordial Principles, Three | Pythagorus

Q | Queen of Heaven

R | Right and Left, Places of the

S | Sabaoth | Sacla | Seals | Sephiroth | Seth | Sethians | Shem

          Simon Magus | Sophia

T | Thirteenth Aeon | Tree of Death

          Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil | Tree of Life

          Trees of Paradise

U | Ur

V | Valentinians | Valentinus

W | Wheel of Time

X

Y

Z | Zoe | Zoroaster

Glossary



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