Archons? (was Re: Prosthetics Fetish...)

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

RICHARD schrieb:

> anyhow, could someone please briefly explain what *Archons* are 

  Briefly: Major Demons. Since the different Gnostic sects show a wide range of 
  cosmologies, it's difficult to give a detailed coherent definition. You may   
  take a look at the original sources [- James M. Robinson (ed.): The Nag   
  Hammadi Library in English. Revised Edition. San Francisco 1988: Harper]. Here 
  comes a passage from Giovanni Filoramo's brilliant study [- A History of 
  Gnosticism. Cambridge/Oxford 1992: Blackwell Paperback. Here pp. 92f.], that 
  gives an outtake of a cosmological myth : 

  "The mother of all the demons, Onorthocrasi, sits in the middle of them; she  
  has no defined limit and is mingled with all of them. She is truly matter,   
  which here has acquired demonic traits. She nourishes the four chief demons:  
  Efememphi, who belongs to pleasure; Iocho, who belongs to greed; Nenentophni, 
  who belongs to pain; Blaomen, who belongs to fear. The special mother of these 
  latter is Estensisonch-Epiptoe. And from each of these demons originate the   
  various passions that unceasingly rend the human body. Ennoia, the Thought of 
  their Truth, is 'the head of the material soul'.
  The demonization of the body could not be more radical or total. In the   
  particular microcosm that man represents, the error and the horror of the   
  formation of the macrocosm are repeated. A hierarchy of demons, servile and   
  ready, is continually at work in everyone's body, transformed into a   
  remorseless inferno in miniature. Far from being a passive, secondary element 
  vis-à-vis the spiritual, the demonic represents an active power, charged with 
  negative energy. Over and above the cosmos, humanity has become the true place 
  where the battle is fought, decisive for every individual, between the forces 
  of good and evil.
  Thus, there is a varied account, if not various accounts, of the formation of 
  Adam's body. He lies prostrate on the ground, incapable of standing up   
  straight. It is now time to animate him. In Gen. 2:7 the Gnostic exegesis   
  finds material for a rich, diversified interpretation that conforms with the  
  presuppositions about the generation of the Demiurge.
  According to the APOCRYPHON OF JOHN, when the Mother decided to take 
  possession of what she had given to the First Archon, she sent him five 
  luminaries to advise him, if he wanted Adam's body to rise, to breathe part of 
  his spirit upon the progrenitor's face. In this way, however, the Mother's 
  power passed from Ialdabaoth to Adam's body. The First Man thus became the 
  instrument with which the Mother (and through her the celestial kingdom) 
  succeeds in tricking the Demiurge. Adam can now rise, shining with light. The 
  Archon Powers realize that they have a made a mistake: they have crreated a 
  being superior to them. Their countermove is to relegate Adam again to the 
  lower regions to be imprisoned in the material body."  
  
                                                  Pneumatically yours, KFL