' The Demiurge '...

Demiurge: The Vengeful Old Testament God...

The Demiurge is the name that the Gnostics Christians gave to the Old Testament God, often noted for His vengeance and wrath. The Gnostics did not believe Jesus was teaching about the same God that the Old Testament refers to; instead, Jesus preaches the message of the “Good Father” or the “True Father.

Only in certain books of the Old Testament refer to “God” as “Our Heavenly Father” or the “Good Father”; these books include Isaiah and Psalms. In other Old Testament books, The God considered the Demiurge comes to people saying he is the “god of their fathers. ”

Ironically, the Book of Isaiah is among the books of the Nag Hammadi Library – the Dead Sea Scrolls. It should give everyone something to think about when you realize that the other books discovered were not added to the canonized Bible. In fact, they were quickly declared heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, including the Protestant Churches (the churches who are named for protesting their beliefs and teachings of the Catholic Church). Why was Isaiah the exception to this rule? We do know that Isaiah prophesied the coming of Jesus. Many scholars and Biblical historians also believed that Isaiah was a prophet of the True Father and was proclaiming the end of the Demiurge’s reign.

First, let me say that the concept of the Demiurge is not a dogmatic teaching among Christian Wiccans – actually, the distancing of all forms of dogma is the very thing Wiccans who acknowledge the Holy Trinity is trying to do. Therefore, it is not a necessary concept or belief requirement of any Wiccan of the Trinitarian Tradition. Whether you choose to agree with this concept is up to you . . . however, it does explain alot about the difference in the Vengeful Old Testament God and the God of Love that Jesus proclaimed in the New Testament.

The actual word “demiurge” is an ancient Greek word meaning ‘craftsman’ or ‘artisan’. Plato, in the Timaeus, uses the word for the maker of the universe. Plato says of this maker that he is unreservedly good and so desired that the world should be as good as possible. The reason why the world is not better than it is that the Demiurge had to work on pre-existing chaotic matter. Thus, the Demiurge is not an omnipotent creator. Early Christian philosophers were quick to claim that the Demiurge represented “pagan philosophy’s anticipation of the God of revealed religion.”

In the beginning times of the developing earth and universe, the Gnostic Goddess known as Sophia; She was the personification of the Divine Feminine. Her name is a word which is Greek for “wisdom”, it is not synonymous with the modern name Sophia, (as in Sophia Loren) *smiles*.

There are various versions of Her myth. According to one, Sophia is the active creative force and Her consort is the passive creative force. The male aspect of the Divine is the Unknown but Good God and the Heavenly Father of Jesus. The story goes that Sophia desires to have a child God, but she does not “actively mate with the Good Father in a fashion that we might envision – however, Her thoughts become manifest by accident (after all She Is a Goddess!) – Her thoughts to have a child is infused with Heavenly Light and brings this Child God into being.

The exact means by which this cosmic birth process occurred was and continues to be the subject of much debate among the Gnostic Christians. According to this version of creationism, Sophia’s desire somehow veiled infinity, casting the shadow of heavenly matter (but lacks spirit); He is a shadow of a jealous Heaven and therefore is not pure. The Demiurge emerged from Sophia like a bad reflection or a bad dream about Heaven; The Demiurge is a total parody of the true, Hidden God.

Embarrassed at Her own actions, Sophia then threw the jealous and revolting Godform out of Heaven. After seeing the results, Sophia banished Yaldabaoth from Heaven and gave It independent existence. She did not want the other Aeons (or immortal beings) in Heaven to see Her mistake. Sophia then enters into a cloud and begins to cry for all eternity at Her foolish mistake.

He is called Yaldabaoth, which means “child, pass through to here” or the name Samael, the Blind god or “the God of the Blind. This type of “blindness” corresponds with the Spiritual Mysteries hidden within each of us. This Godform was the arrogant creator-god of the Old Testament. In his arrogance, he spoke of no other Gods – due to His ignorance, He does not even recognizing his own Mother Sophia.

According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition: the Demiurge – (dm´ûrj´´) (KEY) [Gr.,=workman, craftsman], name given by Plato in a mythological passage in the Timaeus to the creator God. In Gnosticism, the Demiurge, creator of the material world, was not God but the Archon, or chief of the lowest order of spirits or aeons. According to the Gnostics, the Demiurge was able to endow man only with psyche, sensuous soul; only the True God could add the pneuma, or the rational soul. This is the “feminine aspect of the Spirit” – the Greek term pneuma, often associated with the Holy Spirit of the New Testament. The Gnostics identified the Demiurge with the Jehovah of the Hebrews. In philosophy, the term is used to denote a Divine Being that is the builder of the universe rather than its creator.

Some Gnostics taught that the world is ruled by evil archons, among them being the deity of the Old Testament, who hold captive the spirit of humanity. They believe that this is the “true Satan”, the Hebrew “ha-satan” or adversary of the True God or the Good Father.

In the Demiurge’s own arrogance and ignorance, He creates the visible world but begins to withhold knowledge from humanity. This is made example, when Adam and Eve are instructed to not eat of the “Tree of Life” and the knowledge of good and evil. At this point, humankind becomes aware of themselves, their own ideas, their own opinions and begins to question the “only God they know” – thus, the anger of the Old Testament God begins and His vengeful tactics of ruling the earth is well documented.