“Yaldabaoth, the blind and ignorant god, the Demiurge, created the world from his own ignorance. He believed himself to be the only god and trapped the divine spark within the material realm, leaving humanity in darkness. Only by transcending his creation can the soul regain its true origin in the Pleroma, the realm of divine fullness.”
"Yaldabaoth stole power from his mother, for he was ignorant, thinking that there existed no other except his mother alone. He became strong, and created numerous realms for himself with a flame of luminous fire which still exists. Seven kings he placed over seven heavens, and five over the abyss. He shared his fire with them, but not the power of the light which he had received from his mother, for he, the first archon, is ignorant darkness. Each of the other archons created seven powers for themselves and each of the powers created angels for themselves."
- apocryphon of John
The seven kings that Yaldabaoth places over the heavens refer to the planetary archons, and their planetary spheres that revolve around the earth are the "seven heavens." To each is assigned a day of the week. The eighth heavenly sphere, beyond these, is the realm of Sabaoth the Good and Just. Beyond this, the ninth heavenly sphere is the place where the Sophia Achamoth [fallen wisdom] is said to be at rest:
"And she was taken up, not to her own realm, but above her son, to be in the ninth until she has corrected her deficiency"
"When the Arrogant One saw the creation which surrounds him and the multitude of angels which had come forth from him, he exalted himself above these and said to them: 'I am a jealous God and there is no God beside me.' By announcing this, he demonstrated to the angels who attend him that there exists another God. For if there were no other, of whom would he be jealous?"
- apocryphon of John
When the invisible Sophia looks down upon the impiety of the chief ruler, she cries out, "You are mistaken, Samael "that is- blind god." Sophia goes on to offer humanity hope in a higher God above the jealous one.
"An immortal Man of light has existed before you and will appear among your modeled forms; he will trample you to scorn as a potter's clay is pounded. At the consummation of your works, all the defects that Truth has made visible will be abolished as though they had never been."
- apocryphon of John
“The god of this world blinds humanity"
- 2 Corinthians 4:4.
“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
- 2 Corinthians 4:4.
"There is no primordial form which he uses as a model as he works. There is no material from which he creates what he creates. Nor is there any substance from which he begets what he begets. There is no coworker working with him; to say anything that suggests otherwise is ignorant.
He is utterly unknowable, inconceivable by any thought, invisible to any eye, untouchable by any hand He alone knows himself, being in himself the Totality. He transcends all wisdom, and is above all intellect, and is above all glory, and is above all beauty, and all sweetness and all greatness and any depth and any height." -The Tripartite Tractate, NHL.
Yaldabaoth represents the lower ego When one is ruled by their lower nature there is chaos and division. They are living in darkness and ignorance.
Seven archonic kings, seven heavens
5 kings over the abyss
Yaldabaoth, otherwise known as Jaldabaoth or Ialdabaoth[a] (/ˌjɑːldəˈbeɪɒθ/; Koine Greek: Ιαλδαβαώθ, romanized: Ialdabaóth; Latin: Ialdabaoth;[1] Coptic: ⲒⲀⲖⲦⲀⲂⲀⲰⲐ Ialtabaôth), is a malevolent god and demiurge (creator of the material world) according to various Gnostic sects, represented sometimes as a theriomorphic, lion-headed serpent.[2][3][4] He is identified as a false god who keeps souls trapped in physical bodies, imprisoned in the material universe.[2][3][4]
After the Assyrian conquest of Egypt during the 7th century BCE, Seth was considered an evil deity by the Egyptians and not commonly worshipped, in large part due to his role as the god of foreigners.[15] From at least 200 BCE onward, a tradition developed in the Graeco-Egyptian Ptolemaic Kingdom which identified Yahweh, the God of the Jews, with the Egyptian god Seth.[16] Diverging from previous zoologically multiplicitous depictions, Seth's appearance during the Hellenistic period onwards was depicted as resembling a man with a donkey's head.[17][18] The Greek practice of interpretatio graeca, ascribing the gods of another people's pantheon to corresponding ones in one's own, had been adopted by the Egyptians after their Hellenisation; during the process of which they had identified Seth with Typhon, a snake-monster, which roars like a lion.[19]
In Gnosticism, the biblical serpent in the Garden of Eden was praised and thanked for bringing knowledge (gnosis) to Adam and Eve and thereby freeing them from the malevolent Demiurge's control.[36] Gnostic Christian doctrines rely on a dualistic cosmology that implies the eternal conflict between good and evil, and a conception of the serpent as the liberating savior and bestower of knowledge to humankind opposed to the Demiurge or creator god, identified with the Yahweh from the Hebrew Bible.[36][33] Some Gnostic Christians (such as Marcionites) considered the Hebrew God of the Old Testament as the evil, false god and creator of the material universe, and the Unknown God of the Gospel, the father of Jesus Christ and creator of the spiritual world, as the true, good God.[36][33] In the Archontic, Sethian, and Ophite systems, Yaldabaoth is regarded as the malevolent Demiurge and false god of the Old Testament who generated the material universe and keeps the souls trapped in physical bodies, imprisoned in the world full of pain and suffering that he created.[2][3][4]
However, not all Gnostics regarded the creator of the material universe as inherently evil or malevolent.[37][38] For instance, Valentinians believed that the Demiurge is merely an ignorant and incompetent creator, trying to fashion the world as well as he can, but lacking the proper power to maintain its goodness.[37][38] They were regarded as heretics by the proto-orthodox Early Church Fathers.
Yaldabaoth is mentioned mainly in the Archontic, Sethian, and Ophite writings of Gnostic literature[4] most of which have been discovered in the Nag Hammadi library.[2][3] In the Apocryphon of John, "Yaldabaoth" is the first of three names of the domineering archon, along with Saklas and Samael. In Pistis Sophia he has lost his claim to rulership and, in the depths of Chaos, together with 49 demons, tortures sacrilegious souls in a scorching hot torrent of pitch. Here he is a lion-faced archon, half flame, half darkness. Yaldabaoth appears as a rebellious angel both in the apocryphal Gospel of Judas and the Gnostic work Hypostasis of the Archons. In some of these Gnostic texts, Yaldabaoth is further identified with the Ancient Roman god Saturnus.[4]
Cosmogony and creation myths
Yaldabaoth is the son of Sophia, the personification of wisdom according to Gnosticism, with whom he contends. By creatively becoming matter in goodness and simplicity, Sophia created the imperfect Yaldabaoth, who has no knowledge of the other aeons. From his mother he received the powers of light, but he used them for evil. Sophia rules the Ogdoas, the Demiurge rules the Hebdomas. Yaldabaoth created six more archons and other fellows.[39] The angels he created rebelled against Yaldabaoth. To keep the angels in subjection, Yaldabaoth generated the material universe.
In the act of creation, however, Yaldabaoth emptied himself of his supreme power. When Yaldabaoth breathed the soul into the first man, Adam, Sophia instilled in him the divine spark of the spirit. After matter, Yaldabaoth produced the serpent spirit (Ophiomorphos), which is the origin of all evil. The light being Sophia caused the fall of man through the serpent. By eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve became wise and rejected Yaldabaoth. Eventually, Yaldabaoth expelled them from the ethereal region, the Paradise, as punishment.
Yaldabaoth continuously attempted to deprive human beings of the gift of the spark of light which he had unwittingly lost to them, or to keep them in bondage. As punishments, he tried to make humanity acknowledge him as God.[3] Because of their lack of worship, he caused the Flood upon the human race, from which a feminine power such as Sophia or Pronoia[40] (Providence) rescued Noah.[3] Yaldabaoth made a covenant with Abraham, in which he was obligated to serve him along with his descendants. The Biblical prophets were to proclaim Yaldabaoth's glory, but at the same time, through Sophia's influence, they reminded people of their higher origin and prepared for the coming of Christ. At Sophia's instigation, Yaldabaoth arranged for the generation of Jesus through the Virgin Mary. For his proclamation, he used John the Baptist. At the moment of the baptism organized by Yaldabaoth, Sophia took on the body of Jesus and through it taught people that their destiny was the Kingdom of Light (the spiritual world), not the Kingdom of Darkness (the material universe). Only after his baptism did Jesus receive divine power and could perform miracles. But since Jesus destroyed his kingdom instead of promoting it, Yaldabaoth had him crucified. Before his martyrdom, Christ escaped from the bodily shell and returned to the spiritual world.