You can listen to the essay below over on my Gnostic Insights podcast, available on most podcast platforms. Or you can listen to it at the Gnostic Insights website at http://gnosticinsights.com .
In this essay, I look at the relationship between gnostic left and right, and political left and right.
Left and Right
by Cyd Ropp
I noticed something interesting the other day, while I was
thinking about vice and virtue. In the Nag Hammadi, vice is referred to as
being on the left, and virtue as being on the right. The Tripartite Tractate
puts it this way:
To each one he gave a name.... Those belonging to the
thought and those of the representation are called "the Right Ones"
and "Psychic" and "the Fiery Ones" and "the Middle
Ones." Those who belong to the arrogant thought and those of the likeness
are called "the Left", "Hylic", "the Dark Ones,"
and "the Last."
The "thought" refers back to the Father's
originating thought—that being what is called The Son. The Son is the thought
of the Father, and it is this thought that starts everything. "Those of
the representation" are the Aeons and those that come from the Aeons—they
represent the values of the Thought, or the Son.
"Those who belong to the arrogant thought" refer
to the Fall of Logos away from the original thought. Literally it refers to the
departure of Ego away from Reason and Logic. As we have discussed here on
Gnostic Insights, "arrogant thought" is another word for
"ego." And here at gnostic insights "ego" is the imitation
of the One Self we all embody and share. Ego is the counterfeit embodiment of
the Son, or originating consciousness. Ego takes care of the individual rather
than the whole. Ego is concerned with personal needs and desires rather than
the needs and desires of one's neighbors.
You can listen to these previous episodes for an in-depth
exploration of Ego compared to Self:
https://gnosticinsights.com/ego-vs-self/
https://gnosticinsights.com/i-am-not-me-the-self/
https://gnosticinsights.com/egos-shroud/
You can find these episodes and more under the CompleteEpisodes tab at the GnosticInsights.com website.
Back to the Tripartite Tractate quote—Those who belong to
the arrogant thought and those of the likeness are called "the Left",
"Hylic", "the Dark Ones," and "the Last."
The "likenesses" referred to on the left are the
archons of the deficiency that were formed as copies of "the
representations" of the Aeons of the Pleroma. So you have Likenesses on the Left, and
Representations on the Right. These Likenesses on the one hand and
Representations on the other hand, reflect the values of the Left and the
values of the Right. This is what distinguishes Gnostic Left from Right.
Another word for these ones on the Left is "hylic," which means
materialist. Another word for the ones on the Right is "Psychic,"
which in Gnosticism refers to those with a soul. Although here at Gnostic Insights, we would
say everyone has a soul, it's just that hylic humans don't acknowledge the
soul. And, we've had a lot of
discussions about that; whether or not consciousness, which could be another
word for soul, whether or not consciousness is an inherent quality that
preexists or whether consciousness is like a by-product of the meat bodies that
we wear, or even mathematical nodes in some sort of a grand algorithm. One type of individual has an orientation to
the material and personal needs, and the other type of individual has a
remembrance of the spiritual realm. They also call the ones on the left
"dark ones" and "the last." And that's because light is
associated with the Father, and after the Fall—the Fall was from the light into
darkness. And the reason that those are
called "the last" is simply because they are going to be the last
ones to acknowledge the Father, the Pleroma, and the Son, and the Christ. They
are going to hold out for their materialist worldview, which will make them
last in line for redemption, by their own choice.
So, when I drew up the chart of vices vs. values in my
Gnostic Gospel Illuminated book, the archonic values appear on the left side of
the page and the aeonic values appear on the right side of the page.
The archonic values on the left are the inverse of the
Aeonic virtues on the right. So, for example, if on the Right, the value is
loving, then on the Left, the value is hateful and spiteful. If on the Right
the value is patience, then on the Left the value is impatience and wrath.
Mercy vs. ruthlessness; freedom of will vs. enslavement and coercion; joy vs.
depression; truthful vs. lies; prudent vs. reckless; humble vs. arrogance;
justice vs. unfairness and capriciousness; temperance vs. gluttony; charitable
vs. greedy... you get the point. You can find the entire chart on page 26 of The
Gnostic Gospel Illuminated book by Cyd Ropp.
What I noticed the other day, is that Left and Right are
also worldwide political patterns. And, whereas the personal labels deal with
one's own life choices, the political labels deal with how the government names
and then accomplishes its goals. This
morning I looked up differences between the values and methods of the Left and
Right political bodies. And here is what I read:
the Left favors while
the Right favors
equity equality
constraint liberty
prohibition of hate speech free
speech
technological oversight privacy
universal governmental assistance self-determination and responsibility
Bigger Governments Smaller
Governments
race and class distinctions color-blind society, one nation under
God
relative values depending on
circumstances universal
absolutes
gender as a social construct biologically
determined gender
secular government and society secular government, religious society
greatest threat = environmental collapse evil
all cultures are equal some
cultures are superior
What I was wondering about Left and Right, was if the moral
values a person holds also determine the political values they hold. And, to a
large extent, it appears to me that they do. The social policies of the Left
seem to favor exterior control over interior control. The bigger governments
favored by the Left not only cost more in taxes to pay for them, they require
more coercion to enforce their will in order to get the job done. Big
government favors mandates and the use of technology to monitor and compel
these mandates. People who disagree with the government's edicts are denied the
right to speak their dissent out loud, and continued dissent can cost forfeiture
of their freedoms of movement and association as well. Political prisoners are
those people who disagree most strongly with those in power. Any and every
tactic is justified if it advances the goals of the Left—lying about the status
quo, or about history, or about scientific facts come to mind. In the service
of achieving Leftist goals, anything goes. And the further Left you are on the
Left-Right spectrum, the deeper and stronger is your affiliation with this
"whatever it takes" approach.
On the other hand, the more one tips the scales to the Right
side, the more you see values such as freedom of speech and other liberties,
smaller government, and more emphasis on privacy, self-determination, and
personal responsibility. These values are also in line with the virtuous side
of the Left-Right spiritual divide. Of course, there may be wolves in sheep's
clothing, posing as Right types while secretly holding onto Leftist memes and
goals. In this case, you actually have Leftists posing as Rightists.
Extremism in either the Left of Right direction both
encourage archonic interference in human affairs, as they represent the
person's strong attachment to power and control over self and others. Power and
control over humans is much to be desired by the Demiurge and its archonic
helpers. Anytime one favors an authority pulling the strings and forcing
behavior upon the citizenry, you have Leftist values at play. This is
Demiurgic. Inversely, anytime one favors personal responsibility and
self-determination, you are embodying Aeonic virtues.
Now, the interesting thing about these Left vs. Right lists
is that both sides were established by the Aeon known as Logos. The TripartiteTractate says that those on the Left are put into ruling positions here on
earth, and work in direct cooperation with the archons of the deficiency. They
are not evil, but rather they provide order
through three means: beauty, threats, and lust for power. Here's the
quote:
"Also over those who belong to the likeness, he set the
word of beauty, so that he might bring them into a form. He also set over them
the law of judgment. Again, he set over them the powers which the roots had
produced in their lust for power. He appointed them as rulers over them, so
that, either by the support of the word which is beautiful, or by the threat of
the law, or by the power of lust for power, the order might be preserved from
those who have reduced it to evil, while the Logos is pleased with them, since
they are useful for the organization."
Those on the Right operate in a different way. Those on the
Right carry an active remembrance of the Father and the Pleroma, and this is
used to lessen their grip on this material existence. Here is what the Tripartite
says about it:
"However, to those of the thought he revealed the
thought... in order that they might also bring forth an impulse for diminution
from their attraction to evil, so that they might not any more rejoice in the
glory of their environment and be dissolved, but might rather see their
sickness in which they suffer, so that they might beget love and continuous
searching after the one who is able to heal them of the inferiority."
Both the Left and the Right have a lust for power as a
result of the original Fall and the never-ending battle with the material
forces of the Demiurge. The Tripartite Tractate also says that both the Left
and the Right are respecters of authority and hierarchical chains of command.
In other words, neither the Left nor Right promotes anarchy.
"The Logos knows the agreement in the lust for power of
the two orders. To these and to all the others, he graciously granted their
desire. He gave to each one the appropriate rank, and it was ordered that each
one be a ruler over a place and an activity. He yields to the place of the one
more exalted than himself... There are
kings, there are lords and those who give commands, some for administering
punishment, others for administering justice, still others for giving rest and
healing, others for teaching, others for guarding.
"Over all the archons he appointed an Archon with no
one commanding him. He is the lord of all of them, that is, the countenance
which the Logos brought forth in his thought as a representation of the Father
of the Totalities. Therefore, he is adorned with every <name> which
<is> a representation of him, since he is characterized by every property
and glorious quality. For he too is called "father" and god" and
"demiurge" and "king" and "judge" and
"place" and "dwelling" and "law."
"The Logos uses him as a hand, to beautify and work on
the things below, and he uses him as a mouth, to say the things which will be
prophesied.
"The things which he has spoken he does. When he saw
that they were great and good and wonderful, he was pleased and rejoiced, as if
he himself in his own thought had been the one to say them and do them, not
knowing that the movement within him is from the spirit who moves him in a
determined way toward those things which he wants."
This long passage I have just quoted from the Tripartite
Tractate is saying that the fallen Aeon known as Logos left behind an imitation
of the Father Above in the form of the Demiurge. And it is this Demiurge that
puts the Archons in power over earthly rulers. And it is the Demiurge that
speaks to the prophets as the voice of God. But the Demiurge is not God, but
rather the imitation of the Father above, and the Demiurge does not realize
this because he has amnesia of everything that came before the Fall.
And, as previous episodes have pointed out, the methods of
the Demiurge are not the methods of the Father, and the goals are not the same.
For, whereas the Demiurge is all about control of this material world and those
of us who reside here, the goal of the Father is about love, remembrance of our
Aeonic inheritance and ultimate abode, and redemption from evil. And, whereas
the Demiurge requires coercion and the exercise of power and strong control to
effect its agendas, the Aeonic side of the divide operates through cooperation
and the Simple Golden Rule of working together with information, assistance,
and love for the betterment of all. The Left is not evil, so much as it is
attempting to instantiate Paradise without benefit of the Aeonic virtues.
So the next time you wonder if you are serving the Demiurge and
its archons or if you are serving the Aeons, the Son, and the Father, look to
the list of vices and virtues, look to the policies of the Left and the Right,
and determine for yourself which path you are on.
