According to Gnosticism, a heretical form of Christianity that emerged in the centuries following the death of Jesus Christ, God did not create the world. They ascribe different divine origins to existence. Instead, the world was created by a misshapen and evil being called the Demiurge, and because he was imperfect and malevolent, so is... Continue Reading →

In Gnosticism, an early branch of Christianity now mostly considered heretical, Barbelo is the first entity to emerge after God. Clearly feminine based on her name. Barbelo was not born from God but rather emerged from him. God was so great that he had an inexhaustible overflow of thoughts and energy, and she emerged from... Continue Reading →

The Lesser Key of Solomon is another grimoire attributed to the Jewish king Solomon, like the Greater Keys, but probably compiled in the mid-17th century. One of the principal aspects of the Lesser Keys is the Goetia, which is a catalog of 72 demons that can be summoned to do one’s bidding. The term “goetia”... Continue Reading →

In Gnosticism, the “Fall” didn’t happen with Adam and Eve. It happened before the world’s creation, through a mistake made by a heavenly being called Sophia, meaning “wisdom” in ancient Greek. There are many different schools of thought in Gnosticism that have different understandings of Sophia. In some, she is considered the human soul, others... Continue Reading →

Today, most people think of Abraxas as the name of a demon, appearing as the second entry in the Infernal Dictionary. But in early Gnosticism, Abraxas was a divinity, and perhaps even the highest divinity. It was the name applied to the first Archon, who commanded the remaining archons. The archons were beastly but powerful... Continue Reading →

Gnosticism is a form of Christianity that believes that the material world was not created by God, but by an evil “mirror God”. Jesus Christ was the son of the one true God, and he came to the world to teach men how to escape the evils of the material world through gnosis, which is... Continue Reading →