Aeon (Gnosticism)

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Gnostic concepts Adam kasia Adam pagria Aeon Anima mundi Archon Barbelo Demiurge Five Seals Gnosis Kenoma Luminary Manda Monad Ogdoad Pleroma Sophia Uthra World of Light World of Darkness Yaldabaoth
Gnostic sects and founders List of Gnostic sects Proto-Gnosticism Maghāriya Thomasines Judean / Israelite Adam Mandaeism Elksai Elkasaites Samaritan Baptist Dositheos Simon Magus (Simonians) Menander Quqites Christian Gnosticism Apelles Cerinthus Justin Marcion Marcionism Nicolaism Perates Saturninus Syrian-Egyptian Ophites Sethianism Alexandrian Basilides Basilideans Roman Valentinus Valentinianism Marcus Marcosians Florinus Persian Gnosticism Mani Manichaeism Chinese Gnosticism Chinese Manichaeism Islamic Gnosticism Druze Nusayrism Modern Modern schools
Scriptures List of Gnostic texts Texts Nag Hammadi library Pseudo-Abdias Clementine literature Gnosticism and the New Testament Mandaean scriptures Codices Codex Tchacos Cologne Mani-Codex Askew Codex Bruce Codex Berlin Codex Codex Nasaraeus
Influenced by Apocalyptic literature Early Christianity Christology Docetism Paul and Gnosticism Merkabah mysticism Middle Platonism Philo Wisdom (personification)
Influence on Carl Jung Esoteric Christianity Christian theosophy Gnosticism in modern times Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Perennial philosophy Thelema Theosophy (Blavatskian) Western esotericism Rene Guenon Rudolf Steiner
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In many Gnostic systems, various emanations of God are known by such names as One, Monad, Aion teleos (αἰών τέλεος "The Broadest Aeon"), Bythos (βυθός, "depth" or "profundity"), Arkhe (ἀρχή, "the beginning"), Proarkhe (προαρχή, "before the beginning") and as Aeons (which are also often named and may be paired or grouped). In different systems these emanations are differently named, classified, and described (but emanation is common to all forms of 'Gnosticism'). In Basilidian Gnosis they are called sonships (υἱότητες huiotetes; sing.: υἱότης huiotes); according to Marcus, they are numbers and sounds; in Valentinianism they form male/female pairs called syzygies (συζυγίαι, from σύζυγοι syzygoi: lit. "yokings together").

This source of all being is an Aeon, in which an inner being dwells, known as Ennoea (ἔννοια, "thought, intent"), Charis (χάρις, "grace") or Sige (σιγή, "silence"). The split perfect being conceives the second Aeon, Nous (Νους, "mind"), within itself. Complex hierarchies of Aeons are thus produced, sometimes to the number of thirty. These Aeons belong to a purely ideal, noumenal, intelligible, or supersensible world; they are immaterial, they are hypostatic ideas. Together with the source from which they emanate, they form Pleroma (πλήρωμα, "fullness"). The lowest regions of Pleroma are closest to darkness; that is, the physical world.

The transition from immaterial to material, from noumenal to sensible, is created by a flaw, passion, or sin in an Aeon. According to Basilides, it is a flaw in the last sonship; according to others the sin of the Great Archon, or Aeon-Creator, of the Universe; according to others it is the passion of the female Aeon Sophia, who emanates without her partner Aeon, resulting in the Demiurge (Δημιουργός),^[1] a creature that should never have been. This creature does not belong to Pleroma, and the One emanates two savior Aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit, to save humanity from the Demiurge. Christ then took a human form (Jesus), to teach humanity how to achieve Gnosis. The ultimate end of all Gnosis is metanoia (μετάνοια), or repentance—undoing the sin of material existence and returning to Pleroma.

Aeons bear a number of similarities to Judaeo-Christian angels, including roles as servants and emanations of God, and existing as beings of light. In fact, certain Gnostic Angels, such as Armozel, are also Aeons. The Gnostic Gospel of Judas, found in 2006, purchased, held, and translated by the National Geographic Society, also mentions Aeons.^[2]