Theletos and Sophia

Sophia is regarded as being the last of the Aeons residing in the Pleroma, while Theletos, also known as Christ or Christos, is her consort who descended to the physical world to bring gnosis to humanity and, in turn, restore Sophia in full to the Pleroma. Many people neglect, however, to see how many times the Sophia/Christ archetype has appeared throughout various mythologies throughout the world. A few such examples of this archetype include Izanagi and Izanami from Japanese mythology, Geb and Nut from Egyptian mythology, Gaia and Uranus from Greek mythology, Marduk and Tiamat from Babylonian mythology, and Anu and Ki from Sumerian mythology.

Izanagi and Izanami are arguably two of the most important deities in Japanese mythology. Izanagi represents the Christ archetype, while Izanami represents the Sophia archetype. Together, they are the personification of the Yin and Yang. When most people think of the Yin and Yang symbol, they think of the duality that it represents; two polarizing forces opposing one another such as God and Satan or Enki and Enlil. It’s also representative of the interdependency between these two forces and how they may actually compliment each other. In the Pleroma, Aeons are created in syzygy pairs, and those Aeons then create in balance and harmony with each other so the Monad can experience more of itself. All of the Aeons are ultimately aspects of the Monad, each representing a different personality trait. Theletos represents “desire” or a “longing for”, while Sophia represents “wisdom”. Sophia gains wisdom through her experiences in the lower realms outside the Pleroma, and eventually desires to become one again with her consort so that she can return back home. Although Theletos is regarded as the masculine Aeon and Sophia as his feminine counterpart, the reality is that they are both extensions of the Monad. Separation is an illusion, and duality does not exist in the Pleroma the way we know it in our physical reality.

In the case of Izanagi and Izanami, they are both, respectively, masculine and feminine divine beings who create the first land. They eventually desire to marry each other, but something goes wrong during the ceremony. Izanami speaks first during their initial greeting before their union, which is considered improper to Izanagi. Their marriage carries on anyway, and they go on to have two children named Ebisu and Awashima. Both children, however, turn out to be deformed and are not considered to be actual gods. In other words, it was Izanami’s mistake (her unintentional disrespect towards her consort) that leads to a distorted creation (her offspring). This sounds very similar to the Gnostic tale of Sophia’s mistake of creating without her consort, leading to the birth of the cosmic distortion known as the Demiurge. “Ebisu” even sounds like “Abzu”, which is where Enki resides; the deep abyss known as the primordial cosmic waters. Like Enki, Ebisu is associated with water and fish.

Izanami corrects her mistake by repeating the ceremony and allowing Izanagi to speak first when they greet each other. Their remarriage is successful and they go on to have more children. Izanami dies while giving birth to one of her children, a fire deity named Kagu-tsuchi. Izanagi is so distraught over his wife’s death that he kills the newborn child. He also cries tears that form the goddess Moaning-river. This may remind some of the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth, where Tiamat is slayed by Marduk and the goddess’ weeping eyes form the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Mesopotamia literally means “the land between two rivers” and is considered to be the birthplace of human civilization. According to the Sumerians, Enki created the Tigris River by filling the river with flowing water.

Once we procure a better understanding of these mythologies, we can connect the dots and form a bigger picture. Following the death of Izanami, her husband journeys into the underworld in search for her. When he finds her, she informs him that it’s too late, as she had already eaten the food of the underworld, expelling her from the realm of the living. This may remind some of the story of Adam and Eve, where Eve eats the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and is subsequently thrown out of the Garden of Eden. After seeing how grotesque his once beautiful wife had now become, Izanagi flees the underworld. Izanami, longing to be reunited with her husband, sends a cavalry to bring Izanagi back to her. Izanagi, filled with horror, pushes a boulder into the cavern that was the entrance of the underworld, creating a separation between the world of the living and the world of the dead, thus eternally separating the two primordial deities.

The concept of a divine masculine figure undertaking a journey to the underworld to rescue his consort is reminiscent of Christ descending from the Pleroma to bring back Sophia from the material realm, also known as the underworld or the Kenoma. In Egyptian mythology, Geb and Nut, the primordial gods who are the personifications of the earth and sky respectively, are tangled together from their birth. They become separated when Shu, the god of the air, pushes Nut into the air where she remains positioned over Geb. As much as they long to be together, the two deities are forced to remain apart.

A similar tale, with the roles reversed, is told in Greek mythology where the primordial sky god Uranus intertwines with Gaia, also known as Mother Earth, and mates with her. This leads to the birth of the Titans, the pre-Olympian gods. However, because Uranus has permanently covered Gaia, there is no place for the Titans to roam, and so they remain trapped inside of their mother. The Titans torture Gaia until she can take no more, and so she creates a sickle out of adamant and gives it to Kronos, her youngest son who was the only one that volunteered to overthrow Uranus. Kronos castrates his father, which frees the Titans and also pushes Uranus away from Gaia. Uranus (the sky) and Gaia (the earth) are then separated with the former arched over the latter, and they have remained apart ever since. It is said that the raindrops that fall from the sky are Uranus’ tears, weeping over his eternal separation from Gaia. Here again, we have another myth of a divine being’s tears falling down to our planet. As above, so below.

Gaia was born from the primordial void, meaning nothing else existed other than chaos in the beginning of time. Gaia therefore bore Uranus who then became her mate, meaning Uranus is both the son and the consort of Gaia. This may remind some of the relationship between Jesus and Mary, with the Virgin Mary being his mother, and Mary Magdalene being his consort. The Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene are both archetypes of the Aeon Sophia, while Jesus is, of course, the archetype of Theletos/Christ. Furthermore, when the primordial god Eros (not to be confused with the younger god Eros who was the son of Aphrodite and the Greek equivalent of Cupid) breathed desire into Uranus, this caused his urge to want to mate with Gaia. As mentioned earlier, Theletos represents “desire” so it is easy to see how Uranus becomes an archetype of the Christ, while Gaia, who uses her “wisdom” by creating the sickle which her son Kronos uses on his father to create the separation between the two lovers, becomes an archetype or Sophia. Was it not Yaldabaoth who led Sophia away from Christ similar to how Kronos separated Gaia from Uranus?

The same Christ/Sophia archetype applies to Anu and Ki. According to Sumerian mythology, Anu (the sky) and Ki (the earth) were once inseparable until Enlil was born, who cleaved heaven and earth in two, creating a separation between them. As I’ve explained in the past, Enlil is a title, and it is a title that Marduk hijacked for himself when he became king of the gods. According to the Enuma Elish, after Marduk slayed Tiamat, he formed the heavens and the earth from her dead corpse, with her tail becoming the Milky Way. The myth of Marduk and Tiamat is the basis for the “order out of chaos” motto, with Marduk representing Order and Tiamat representing Chaos. Christ and Sophia also represent order out of chaos, because it is Christ who descends to the underworld to rescue Sophia from the chaos of the material realm, which therefore restores order to the universe.

As I mentioned in “The Man Who Broke Free,” there is a lower aspect of Sophia that is trapped between the Pleroma and Kenoma in the 8th and 9th heaven. This aspect of her is often referred to as Achamoth, Zoe Sophia, or the Queen of Orion. She also has a consort, who is a lower aspect of Christ. He is known as the King of Sirius and is considered the most high male divinity. This is why in the Quran, it is said that Allah is the Lord of Sirius. In the mind of Allah (Enki/Yaldabaoth), he is the most high divinity, and there is no god other than him. This, of course, cannot be further from the truth. Orion and Sirius were once at war with each other, but supposedly a peace treaty was signed, and the two factions have co-existed since then, with the exception of Enki/Yaldabaoth and the Sirians who rebelled against Orion and “fell” with him down to the material realm, the lowest depths of the abyss.

Will this cosmic fairy tale have a happy ending? Only time will tell.

Justin