Zoe - The daughter of Sophia. When the impure Archon Samael (Ialdabaoth), was created by mistake by Sophia, he first opens his eyes and sees only dark matter and believes himself to be the one and only god. In his ignorance of the existence of the higher world, he grows proud of his solitude and exclaims he is the one and only god. When a voice answers that he is mistaken, Samael challenges the voice to show itself. He then creates seven androgynous sons to preside over the seven planets, telling them he is the god of the universe. This time Zoe, also called Eve, answers by saying he is mistaken, and breathes upon him. Her breath becomes an angel of fire, who casts Samael into the bottom of the abyss.

Sabaoth, Samael's son, realizes the greatness of Sophia and Zoe and offers them hymns whereupon they raise him up to the seventh heaven above Samael, who smolders with resentment from the abyss. In anger, Samael creates death to reign in the sixth heaven. Death is both male and female with seven sons and seven daughters whose names evoke impure passions and afflictions.

"What now do you think of as spirit?" (The Interpretation of the Gnosis, Gnostic papyri)

Zoroaster - 628-551 BCE, or possibly 1400 or 1200 BCE. Also Zarathustra. The great Persian religious thinker whose philosophy of the one God, Ahura Mazda, inspired King Vishtaspa to power ancient Persia to dominion over Babylon and Egypt. Zoroaster also spoke Hebrew. The Jews claimed he had been a disciple of the biblical Abraham. He wrote Upon Nature and is identified as a prophet with Seth, Balaam, Ezechiel and Nimrod. The Gnostic elevation of Zoroaster to the status of Seth shows their regard for him and their deference to the Persian origin of many Gnostic beliefs.

Zoroaster also taught Dualism, the Three Principles, the Supreme Tetrad, wrote of the Mountain of Lights, and taught that by knowledge of all the higher things, and, by the magical virtue of the corporeal sense, one averts from oneself all the disasters of Fate, particular or universal. The Persian deity Anahita, mistress of the waters that flow from a heavenly source in the region of the stars, is entrusted with the seed (descendants) of Zoroaster. The Zoroastrians whispered their prayers and murmured their texts. Zostrian, the Persian Magus to whom the Book of Zostrian is attributed, is an ancestor, perhaps uncle, of Zoroaster.

"It is a faithful person fond of learning who is the worker of truth." (The Sentences of Sextus, Gnostic papyri)

"May God dwell in your camp, may his Spirit protect your gates, and may the mind of divinity protect the walls." (The Teachings of Silvanus, Gnostic papyri)

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