Pistis Sophia - Region of The Left

Region of The Left

Beneath the place of the mid-region is that of the left, the place of righteousness, the lowest portion of the kerasmos, towards which the penitent souls are tending. It is here that the conflict between the light and the material principle takes its beginning. Here dwell likewise, according to the fourth book, the aoratos deus and his magna dynamis the Barbelo, from whence is derived the blood or corporeity of Jesus, and also the three dii tridynamoi, of which the two uppermost are called Ipsantakhounkhainkhoukhookh and Khainkhoookh (Bainkhoookh) these spirits belong to the 13th Aeon reckoned from below. Underneath this Aeon are the twelve Aeons, of which six are ruled by Sabaoth Adamas, and six by Jabraoth. These produce, by the exercise of the mysterion synousias, ever fresh ministering spirits, in order to extend the circuit of their power. These efforts are, however, opposed by Jeu, the Father of the Father of Jesus. Jabraoth, with his arkhontes, undergoes conversion, and becomes a believer in the mysteries of light, in reward for which he is brought to a higher place, into an aera purum, and before the sunlight, ad meson and intra topous aoratou Dei. Sabaoth Adamas, on the other hand, because he will not abstain from the mysterion synousias, is confined along with his Archontes in the sphaira, or the eirmarmene sphairas, the visible star-heaven in which the twelve spirits of the zodiac have their seat. Over the sphaira Jeu sets five great Archontes, formed out of the light-powers of the right. These are the five planetary spirits—Kronos, Ares, Hermes, Aphrodite, Zeus. Under it he sets 360 other Aeons. The present fixed order of the star-courses is, therefore, originally a punishment inflicted on the Archontes for the misuse of their liberty. Three hundred and sixty Archontes then of the Adamas, having refused to believe in the mystery of light, are assigned a dwelling-place in a still lower region, that of the air (topos aerinos), beneath the sphaira, or on the way of the mid-region, in via medii. Over these are likewise set five Archontes—Paraplex, Ariouth (Aethiopica), Ekate, Paredron Typhon, and Iakhthanabas. Their occupation is to snatch away souls, to entice them to sin, and after death to torment them.

Here, again, the description in the three first books is somewhat different, and carried out into further details. In these also the 13th Aeon stands uppermost in the place of the left region, or that of righteousness. This Aeon is an image of the upper world, and like it contains innumerable spirits. The uppermost one is the magnus aoratos, or magnus propator, with his great dynamis the Barbelo; then follow the three tridynamoi, the third of which indicates by his very name Authades, the intrusion at this stage of finite narrowmindeduess, the desire to exist for itself alone, which is characteristic of finite existence. From the great propator and the two upper tridynamoi proceed twenty-four other probolai aoratoi, which appear to be thought of as syzygies, or Pairs of Aeons. The last and lowest of these is the female Aeon (only occasionally mentioned in the fourth book), Pistis Sophia, whose audacious longing after the thesauros lucis has brought about her separation from her masculine Syzygos, and her Fall out of the World of Light. Below the thirteenth stand the twelve other Aeons (which again are inhabited by innumerable spirits), with their ambitious rule-loving Archontes, among whom is specially named the Adamas magnus tyrannus, known to us from the fourth book, and again below them the Archontes of the eimarmene (the second sphaira) and the sphaira (the prima sphaira, i. e. the first, reckoning from below); further and finally beneath these are the Archontes of the way of the midst, with whom the moira has her seat, and through whom (according to the fourth book) punishments are executed on such souls as are condemned to a second earthly life.