The complete text of Pistis Sophia, trans. G.R.S. Mead - including a full text search engine. Part of a vast collection of materials dealing with Gnosis and.
Table of contents
- Pistis Sophia
- PISTIS SOPHIA
- Pistis Sophia: The First Book of Pistis Sophia: Chapter 1
- Gnostic Scriptures and Fragments
Thence upward and inward he passed to the Second Sphere, shining with a light nine-and-forty times still more intensified, and the powers of that sphere did as them beneath them, and bowed and worshipped and sang hymns to the interior of the interiors. Those of them called the Tyrants, under their great leader Adamas, in ignorance fought against the light; but in vain, for they only expended their strength one against the other, and fell down and became "as the inhabitants of the earth who are dead and who have no breath in them"--that is to say, deprived of the light-spark, like the unknowing among men.
And so He changed the Fate-Sphere, over which they are lords. For by order of the First Statute and First Mystery, they had been set, by Ieou, the Overseer of the Light, all facing the Left, accomplishing their influences. But now they were changed so that for six months they faced the Left and for six months the Right. The Questions of Mary. Hereupon, the Master having invited questions and interpretations of the mysteries He has revealed, Mary Magdalene, who is throughout represented as the most spiritual by far of all the disciples, comes forward, and being granted permission to speak, interprets a passage from Isaiah by the light of the new teaching.
The passage begins with the words: Mary is commended for her intuition, and in reply to her further questioning, the Master explains that all their power has not been taken from these Rulers of the Fate, by the third robe of glory, but only a third of it; so that if the ordainers of the hour chance on the Fate or the Sphere turning to the Left, they will say what is to take place; but if they chance on it turning to the Right they will not be able to prophesy, for He has changed all the influences.
Why the Rulers have been robbed. In reply to a question by Philip, it is explained that this conversion of the spheres has been effected to aid the salvation of souls; otherwise the number of perfected souls would have been kept back from its accomplishment, that is to say, of those who shall be counted in the heritage of the height, by means of the mysteries, and shall dwell in the Light-treasure.
The power of the Rulers is in the matter. In answer to Mary's further questioning, it is further explained how this third part of their power was taken away. It always had been that their power, as it became purified, was gathered back to the higher world by Melchisedec, the Great Receiver or Collector of Light, it being continually liberated by the spheres being made to turn more rapidly, that is to say by the quickening of evolution owing to the influx of Light.
The substance of the Rulers is graphically described as "the breath of their mouths, the tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their bodies"--the matter out of which souls are made. But as their power was gradually taken from them, their kingdom began to be dissolved; the Rulers therefore began to devour their own matter, so that it should not be made into souls of men and so be purified, and in every way strove to delay the completion of the number of perfect souls--the crown of evolution.
So it came to pass that they fought against the great soul of the Master as He passed through them, and so He changed them and their configurations and influences, "and from that hour they have not had the power to turn towards the purgation of their matter to devour it. The Shortening of the Times. Thus had He shortened their times and hastened evolution. The Heavenly journey continued. After these explanations the Master continues the narrative of his heaven journey. She was grieving because of the sufferings brought upon her by Arrogant, one of the three Triple Powers.
Hereupon follows the mystic story of the sufferings of Pistis Sophia. In the beginning she was The Myth of Pistis Sophia. By order of the First Mystery, she gazed into the height and saw the light of the veil of the Treasure of Light, and desired to ascend into that glorious realm, but could not. Arrogant is apparently the conservative power of the "matter" of this Space. He sent forth a great power from his light and other powers from his matter, the reflections of the powers and emanations above, into Chaos; and caused the Sophia to look down into the lower regions, that she might see this power and imagine.
And so in ignorance she descended into matter, saying: The Fall into Matter. But all the material emanations of Arrogant surrounded her, and the light-power of Arrogant set to work to devour all the light-powers in the Sophia; "it expelled her light and swallowed it, and as for her matter they cast it into Chaos. And so Sophia was greatly weakened and beset and "cried out exceedingly, she cried on high to that Light of lights which she had seen in the beginning, in which she had trusted [hence is she called Pistis Faith Sophia], and began to sing songs of repentance," whereby she might be converted or taken back to the Light.
The lengthy incident of the Pistis Sophia occupies pp.
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Hence the Sophia, desiring The Descent of the Soul. Having descended to the lowest depths of Chaos, she at length reaches the limit, and the path of her pilgrimage begins to lead upward to spirit again. Thus she reaches the middle point of balance, and still yearning for the Light, rounds the turning point of her cyclic course, and changing the tendency of her thought or mind or nature, recites her penitential hymns or repentances. Her chief enemy is the false light--presumably the counterfeit spirit of which we shall hear later on--the desire-nature, which is assisted by four-and-twenty material powers, the reflections of the supernal projections, powers or co-partners of the Sophia, the whole looked at from without making an ordering into forty-nine.
The Sophia first utters seven repentances. At the fourth of these, the turning point of some sub-cycle of Its Repentance and Redemption. At the sixth the Light remits her transgression; viz. This perhaps refers to the dawning of the consciousness of the higher ego in the lower. But as yet the command has not come from the First Mystery to free her entirely from Chaos. This may refer to the higher illumination when the consciousness of the true spiritual soul is obtained. Therefore at the conclusion of her seventh repentance, where she pleads that she has done it all in ignorance , through her love for the Light, Jesus, her syzygy without the First Mystery raises her up to a slightly less confined region in Chaos, but Sophia still knows not by whom it is done.
Pistis Sophia
It is only at the ninth stage that the First Mystery partly accepts her repentance and sends Jesus in the form of the Light to her help, so that she recognises it. Her next four hymns are sung knowingly to the Light, and are of the nature of thanksgiving, and of declaration that justice will shortly overtake her oppressors, while at the same time she prays to be delivered wholly from her "transgression"--the lower desire-nature. The Degrees of Purification.
After the thirteenth repentance, Jesus again, of himself, without the First Mystery, emanated a brilliant power of light from Himself, and sent it to aid Sophia, to raise her still higher in Chaos, until the command should come to free her entirely. There are, therefore, as it seems, three degrees of purification from the chaotic elements of the lower nature. Next follows a description of the light-powers, which are to be closely compared with the description of the three vestures of glory in the opening pages of the Codex. Then is the law fulfilled, and the First Mystery in His turn sent forth another great light-power, which joined with that already emanated by the Light, and it became a great light-stream.
This stream was nothing else than the First Mystery Himself looking without, coming forth from the First Mystery looking within. When all this is accomplished the Sophia is completely purified, and her light-powers are reestablished and filled with new light, by their own co-partner of light, that syzygy without whom Sophia in the beginning had thought to reach the Light of lights, unaided, and so fell into error.
But all is not yet over; the final victory is not yet won. For the higher she rises the stronger are the powers or projections sent against her; they proceed to change their shapes , so that she now has to struggle against still greater foes, which are emanated and directed by the subtlest powers of cosmos. Thereupon Sophia is not only crowned but entirely surrounded with the light-stream, and further supported The Final Victory.
PISTIS SOPHIA
Thereupon Sophia sings triumphant hymns of praise on being set free from the bonds of Chaos. Thus is she set free and remembers. Still the great Self-willed one and Adamas, the Tyrant, are not yet entirely subdued, for the command has not yet come from the First Mystery looking within.
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Then shall the Gates of the Treasure of the Great Light be opened and the heights be crossed by the pilgrim. An otherwise unknown Story of the Infancy. In the course of the many interpretations of scripture given by the disciples and women disciples, Mary, the Mother of Jesus "my mother according to matter, thou in whom I dwelt" , who is also.
And Mary answered and said: I seized Him and bound Him to the foot of the bed which was in my house, until I had gone to find you in the field--Thee and Joseph, and I found you in the vineyard; Joseph was putting up the vine poles. Nay [rather] I am expecting Him in this place.
And He that was bound to the bed was unloosed; He embraced Thee and kissed Thee, and Thou also didst kiss Him; ye became one and the same being. At the end of the story of the Sophia, Mary asks: And Jesus answered and said unto Mary: Now, therefore, to what shall I liken them; or what shall I say concerning them? For there is nothing in this world with which I can compare them; nor is there a single form to which I can liken them. Indeed, there is nothing in this world which is of the quality of heaven. Amen, Amen, I say unto you, the four-and-twenty Invisibles are more radiant than the light of the sun which is in this world, ten thousand times, as I have told you before on another occasion; but the Light of the Sun in its true form , which is in the space of the Virgin of Light, is more.
The Master promises further, when he takes them through the various spaces of the unseen world, to bring them all finally into the Twin Spaces of the First Mystery, as far as the supreme Space of the Ineffable, "and ye shall see all their configurations as they really are, without similitude.
And in answer the Master explains the ordering and nature and functions of these great emanations, and how that, at the final time of the completion. But high above all of them the souls of men who have received the mysteries of light, shall take precedence. The "Last" shall be "First. Now, therefore, O Master, concerning the word which Thou hast spoken, to wit, 'All the souls of human kind which shall receive the mysteries of light, shall in the Inheritance of Light take precedence of all the Rulers who shall repent, and all them of the region of those who are on the Right, and the whole space of the Treasure of Light'; concerning this word, my Master, Thou hast said unto us aforetime, 'The first shall be last and the last shall be first,' that is, the 'last' are the whole race of men who shall be first in the Light-kingdom; so also they that are [now] in the space of the height are the 'first.
The Three Supernal Spaces of the Light. The Master then continues in His conversation and tells them of the glorious beings and spaces, of which He will treat in detail in His further teaching, up to the inner Space of the First Mystery, but of those within these supernal spaces He will not treat in the physical consciousness, for "there is no possibility of speaking of them in this world"; nay, "there is neither quality nor light which resembleth them, not only in this world, but also no comparison in those of the Height of Righteousness.
To these supernal realms of the Inheritance shall come those who have received the light-mysteries, The Inheritance of Light. Inheritance of Light; and he who shall have received the Mystery of Ineffable, that man the is Myself. And so on, in great phrases describing the wisdom of the supreme Mystery, who knows the reason of the existence of all things: But the recital of the greatness of the supreme Gnosis is not yet ended, for the Master continues: It is the Gnosis of pitilessness and compassion; of destruction and everlasting increase; of beasts and creeping things, and metals, seas, and earth, clouds and rain, and so on working downwards from man into nature and upwards through all the supernal realms.
Pistis Sophia: The First Book of Pistis Sophia: Chapter 1
But the disciples are amazed at the glories of the Gnosis of this greatest Mystery and lose courage. Whosoever shall renounce the whole world and all therein, and shall The Highest Mystery is the Simplest of All. He who shall come to a knowledge of that Mystery, hath renounced the whole of this world and all its cares. For this cause have I said unto you aforetime: All this, which He now recites simply, naming the great spaces and their indwellers, He promises to explain at length in His further teaching.
He is the Mystery which is in them all; He is the emanation of them all, the re-absorption of them all, and the support of them all. Hereupon follows a recital of the greatness of such a soul. Beginning with the words, "Though he be a man in the world, yet is he higher than all angels, and shall far surpass them all," it recites in the same form all the grades of the supernal hierarchies of beings from angels upwards, and ends as follows:.
He is a man in the world but a King in the Light. And at the great consummation all such men "shall be fellow-kings with Me, they shall sit on My right hand and on My left in My Kingdom. Of the Thrones in the Light-Kingdom. There then follows apparently an interpolation consisting of a quotation from some now unknown Gospel: There are other Logoi.
And Mary thinks that this must be the end of all things and the Gnosis of all gnoses, and so protests: The Saviour answered and said: The Degrees of the Mysteries. Then Mary asks whether those who do not receive the Mystery of the Ineffable before they die, will enter the Light-kingdom. So he who receives the first mystery of the First Mystery shall be King over the spaces of the First Saviour in the Light-realm, and so on up to the twelfth.
The answer is that they are really one Mystery; this Mystery is ordered into twelve, and also into five, and again into three, while still remaining one; they are all different aspects or types of the same Mystery. The two higher mysteries of the three not only ensure the possessor of them, when he leaves the The Boons they Grant.
Gnostic Scriptures and Fragments
If a man "perform them in all their configurations, that is to say when he shall have created those mysteries for himself," they give the power of further enabling him to protect one who is not a participator in the Words of Truth, after his death, so that he shall not be punished. Of course such a man cannot "be brought into the Light until he have performed the whole polity of the light of those mysteries, that is to say, the strict renunciation of the world"; but he will be sent back again into "a righteous body, which shall find the God of Truth and the higher mysteries.
But as for the highest mystery of all, "whosoever shall receive the Mystery which is in the whole The Limbs of the Ineffable. Space of the Ineffable, and also all the other sweet mysteries which are in the Limbs of that Ineffable,. So also for the second Space below this, the Space of the First Mystery looking within; such souls require no apology. But for the third Space, the Space of the First Mystery looking without, each region has its receiver, explanation, apologies, and symbols, of all of which the Master will speak in due course.
Now "a day of the Light is a thousand years in the world, so that thirty-six myriads of years and a half a myriad of years of the world make a single year of the Light. Ye shall find them The Books of Ieou. Hereupon Andrew is in great amazement, and cannot believe that men of the world like themselves can have so high a destiny reserved for them, and can reach such lofty heights. Do ye still not know and are ye ignorant? Know ye not and do ye not understand that ye are all Angels, all Archangels, Gods and Lords, all Rulers, all the great. Of Souls in Incarnation. And ye have been in great afflictions and great tribulations, in your pourings into different bodies in this world.
And after all these afflictions which came from yourselves, ye have struggled and fought, renouncing the whole world and all the matter that is in it; and ye have not held your hands in the fight, until ye found all the mysteries of the Kingdom of Light, which have purified you, and transformed you into refined light, most pure, and ye have become pure light itself. I have torn myself asunder, I have brought unto them the mysteries of light, to purify them, for they are the purgations of all the matter of their matter.
This is followed by a long instruction on the nature of the preaching of the disciples to the world when the Master shall have gone unto the Light. They are to renounce mourning, superstition, spells, calumny, false witness, boasting and pride, gluttony, garrulity, evil caresses, desire of avarice, the love of the world, robbery, evil words, wickedness, pitilessness, wrath, reviling, pillage, slandering, quarrelling, ignorance, villainy, sloth, adultery, murder, hardness of heart and impiety, atheism, magic potions, blasphemy, doctrines of error,--that they may escape.
The Boundary Marks of the Paths of the Mysteries. Some of the sins listed are duplicates from part one of book four, but list different punishments. Cosmology is a primary focus of the Pistis Sophia — learning the structure of the universe and how to traverse it is considered key in these texts, and the cosmology is one of the most complex from any Gnostic text remaining today. Summarizing the cosmology is further complicated because the structure is slightly different in each of its separate books, with certain realms added and removed.
Some scholars have suggested cosmologies encompassing the entirety of the codex; [11] [12] recently an outline has been made looking at the cosmology of each text individually. Generally speaking, the aeonic realms represent the material universe, bounded by the stars and the zodiac. The Midst is the space dividing this region from the upper realms, and is sometimes a waiting space for souls before being allowed to enter the light realms. The goal of the soul is to ascend beyond the aeons and enter the upper realms of light.
This is achieved by receiving the mysteries offered by the group represented by these texts. The mysteries are not explicitly listed in the text; an initiate would most likely have to prove him or herself worthy by living for some period according to the ethical guidelines provided in the texts before undergoing the baptisms and gaining access to the mysteries.
The Books of Jeu are noted as a source of the mysteries; it is probable that the texts found in the Bruce Codex are very similar, if not identical, with these texts. She dwells in the thirteenth aeon, is tricked into leaving her aeon and descending into Chaos, has her light-power stolen, and is not allowed to return to her place until Jesus ascends through the aeons.
She recites many repentances and prayers, and is repeatedly persecuted by wicked archontic beings before being allowed to wait just outside of the thirteenth aeon for restoration. It is noteworthy that she is not a divine being, as portrayed in other versions of the Gnostic myth such as the Apocryphon of John. She is a being of the material aeons, and her restoration is only as far as the thirteenth material aeon. Unlike Ialdabaoth, he is not created by the Sophia figure, and in fact he holds a slightly higher hierarchical position than Pistis Sophia.
His sin is wishing to rule all the material aeons, and he grows jealous when Pistis Sophia chooses to worship the light rather than continuing the ways of the aeons. Authades appears only in the chapters dealing with the Sophia myth; elsewhere Sabaoth the Adamas is the representative of evil in these texts.
Jesus serves as a teacher or instructor, teaching his disciples information about the divine world they will need to progress to a higher state of being, as well as knowledge of the cosmic realms, their inhabitants, and their functions. He teaches the disciples baptismal rites, and instructs them to give these rites to all who show themselves worthy.
He is closely tied to the highest divine being. However, little significance is given to his earthly incarnation — the ritual bread and wine in the baptism is not associated with the Christian Eucharist, and the crucifixion and resurrection play little role. Here, he only gains his true garment and teaches the disciples the higher mysteries eleven years after his resurrection — downplaying versions of Christianity claiming his earlier teachings as ultimate truth. This is the demiurge of these texts. Jeu dwells in the Treasury of Light and organizes the cosmos.
He places the archons and the aeons in their proper places, and assigns powers to the planets, effectively offering a divine origin for astrology. This is particularly noteworthy given the anti-cosmic nature of some other Gnostic groups. Often referred to simply as Melchisedek , this figure also dwells in the Treasury of Light or Place of the Right. His primary role is overseeing transport of light from the lower realms to the higher light realms as it becomes purified.
His subordinates also deliver certain souls out of the punishment regions when believers on Earth pray for them. This role is most widely discussed through extensive interpretations of Psalm This is the primary representative of evil or wickedness in the majority of the Pistis Sophia. He is accused of inappropriate sexual conduct, begetting archons and other beings, and as a result he is imprisoned in the bounds of the zodiac, or the material universe. The manuscript is organized as an introductory manual for a new, potential initiate.
They assert that all of the knowledge imparted by Jesus after his resurrection was inferior to that possessed by this author — only after eleven years did he take up his true garment and tell the disciples the highest mysteries. To a reader who was familiar with other, particularly Gnostic, forms of Christianity, this would have been striking, but might also drive the hearer to want to learn more about these truer and higher mysteries. The third book addresses readers that, having read the previous, want to gain access to these higher mysteries.
It explains the ethical code of conduct required to be considered for initiation, including punishments for particular sins. It also gives some hope to those who find the strict rules daunting, as it outlines conditions for being allowed to receive the mysteries again after slipping back into sin. Up to this point, while the mysteries necessary for salvation from the lower realms have been mentioned, they are not explained — the initiate must prove him or herself sufficiently worthy through right living. The fourth book is then intended for someone about to undergo the first baptism.
Although it contains some moral instruction, it primarily gives explanations unique to this group about how and why the world is the way it is. It provides an outline of what to expect for the first baptism. While it acknowledges that two more baptisms must follow it, these are not described; the initiate must persist on the path and meet the requirements to experience the later rites. The texts show strong signs of knowledge of Sethian Gnostic texts, particularly the Apocryphon of John, as shown by their radical reinterpretation of the Sophia myth, as well as some of the language used in discussing the components of human beings as they are formed to enter the world.
The basis of the underlying system however, has strong Egyptian ties, ranging from descriptions of the solar disc, certain animal-faced deities, the serpent that encloses the world, and decan-stars as astronomical determinants. If the Books of Jeu, which are referenced multiple times as sources of the mysteries, are those found in the Bruce Codex, then they also show close affinity to the Egyptian Book of the Dead with their formulas for ascending through the realms beyond the world.
There are furthermore signs of possible interaction with the Manichaeans , such as solar and lunar imagery, tree imagery, the method of purification and transport of light through different realms, or Book 4's division of the way of the Midst mhte into five regions. It is possible that the authors may have been familiar with the Enochian tradition, as they attribute the Books of Jeu to Enoch, and make reference to knowledge brought by transgressing angels, suggesting themes found in 1 Enoch There are very few signs of influence from proto-orthodox Christianity.
The primary Old Testament references are the Psalms found in the myth of the Pistis Sophia, and the names of a few of the patriarchs who will achieve salvation. The Psalms are used wholly as allegorical vehicles for interpretation of the Pistis Sophia myth.