The Archons

The Hebdomad

Planetary Rulers & Gates of Initiation

Following the description given in the Book of Proverbs, a dwelling place was assigned by the Gnostics to the Sophia and her relation to the upper world was defined as well as to the seven planetary powers placed under her. The seven spheres or heavens were for the ancients the highest regions of the created universe. They were thought of as seven circles rising one above another and dominated by the seven Archons, the Hebdomad.

In Gnostic cosmology, the Archons (Greek: ἄρχοντες — “rulers”) are the governing intelligences or powers that preside over the structure of the material cosmos. Traditionally, they are understood as the seven planetary rulers—associated with Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon—who guard the gateways of the celestial spheres.

To the Gnostic, they are not gods, but cosmic administrators—forces that bind the soul to materiality, and stand between the incarnate human and the divine source.

The term Archon appears in early Gnostic sects such as the Sethians, Ophites, and Archontics, as well as in the Nag Hammadi Library, particularly in texts like The Hypostasis of the Archons, On the Origin of the World, and the Apocryphon of John.

In Hermeticism, while the planetary intelligences were often viewed in a more benevolent or initiatory light, the idea remains that the soul must pass through these spheres—each one shaping and limiting the soul’s powers on its descent and testing it on its ascent.

The Planetary Spheres as Archons

In most Gnostic systems, the seven Archons correspond directly to the seven classical planets:

Each of these spheres imparts qualities to the soul as it descends into incarnation. To return, the soul must transcend them—reclaiming its essence from each domain.

Not Evil, but Enslaving

The Archons are not necessarily “evil” in the conventional sense. They are cosmic regulators—keepers of boundaries, initiatory forces, and tests placed within creation. But from the Gnostic perspective, they hold the soul in bondage—and thus must be overcome.

Their primary sin is ignorance (agnosia). The Demiurge (often Saturn/Yaldabaoth) creates without understanding the fullness of the divine pleroma. The other Archons serve him, shaping a world that imitates the divine, but lacks its essence.

Transcendence and Liberation

The soul, according to Gnosticism and Hermetic philosophy, descends through the planetary spheres to enter a body on Earth. In this descent, it forgets its divine origin and is wrapped in seven veils—each corresponding to an Archon and planetary layer.

The path of ascent—the path of gnosis—requires the soul to pass back up through these spheres, shedding the conditioning, illusions, and karma of each.

This is echoed in Hermetic texts such as the Corpus Hermeticum, where Hermes teaches that the soul must pass through each sphere upon death, giving back the attributes it received:

“And then the human being, stripped of all that came from the spheres, enters the Eighth Heaven.”

— Poimandres

Connection to the Days of the Week

Living in harmony with these planetary archetypes is both an act of magic and resistance. The magician recognizes the Archons as forces to be mastered, not feared.

Inner Meaning

The Archons are not only outer planetary rulers, but inner psychic complexes—layers of ego, desire, fear, and identification. They represent the inherited karmic, cultural, and ancestral structures that condition consciousness.

To overcome the Archons is to liberate the divine spark (pneuma) from its enslavement in flesh and illusion. This is not escapism—it is integration and transcendence.

Related Ideas

• Hebdomad: The sevenfold structure of the Archons.

• Ogdoad: The eighth realm, the domain of Sophia and freedom.

The Archons

• The forces and beings that serve to keep the Matrix going.
• The frequency bands that you must pass on your ascent up the ladder.
• The beings who live in ego, violence, and serve the forces of darkness and help perpetuate human ignorance and fear.

The term Great Archon describes the primordial being responsible for creating the world. This figure is noted for its beauty, strength, and wisdom. Archons are any number of world-governing powers that were created with the material world by a subordinate deity called the Demiurge (Creator).

Archons — primordial planetary spirits (the seven highest Hierarchies corresponding to the Christian Archangels).

Damascius repeats the teachings of the Pagan writers when he explains that: "There are seven series of cosmocratores or cosmic forces, which are double: the higher ones commissioned to support and guide the superior world; the lower ones, the inferior world (our own)." And he is but saying what the ancients taught. Iamblichus gives this dogma of the duality of all the planets and celestial bodies, of gods and daimōns (spirits). He also divides the Archontes into two classes — the more and the less spiritual; the latter more connected with and clothed with matter, as having a form, while the former are bodiless (Arupa).

In a note of Damascius (sixth century) on the Chaldean oracles, we have a triple evidence of the universality of this doctrine, for he says: "In these oracles the seven Cosmocratores of the world, ('The World-Pillars,') mentioned likewise by Saint Paul, are double ― one set being commissioned to rule the superior worlds the spiritual and the sidereal, and the other to guide and watch over the worlds of matter."

"Man must overcome the seven planets and transmute them into soul powers. Their negative forces are the seven deadly sins, which are overcome by a symbolic struggle with demons and dragons and, in turn, are transmuted into seven cardinal virtues. This is the key to alchemy, for from the seven base metals, first spiritualized and brought together as a secret compound, is produced the philosophers stone, the purified soul." ― Manly P. Hall - The Secret Teachings of All Ages