* Zostrianos — the aeon Barbēlō is referred to in many places.

The hymns themselves presuppose familiarity with the generally accepted Sethian Gnostic mythical structure as presented in Zostrianos and The Apocyphon of John.

Like Marsenes and Allogenes, the text concerns a vision received by a man named Zostrianos and explains and enumerates, in great detail, the emanations that the Gnostics said are produced by God ( the true, highest, god ), in the Gnostic's esoteric cosmology.

Like Zostrianos, and Allogenes, the text describes a very elaborate esoteric cosmogony of successive emanations from an original God, as revealed by Marsanes.

Similarly to other gnostic literature, Zostrianos says, " Flee from the madness and the bondage of femaleness and choose for yourselves the salvation of maleness.

John D. Turner of the University of Nebraska writes concerning its date: "... one may date Allogenes around 200 C. E., with Zostrianos coming a bit later around 225 C. E.

This final section refers to the mystical ascent of the soul back to the Pleroma within Barbelo described in Zostrianos.

In the Ophite and Sethian systems, which have many affinities with that last mentioned, the making of the world is ascribed to a company of seven archons, whose names are given, but their chief, “ Yaldabaoth ” ( also known as " Yaltabaoth " or " Ialdabaoth ") comes into still greater prominence.

The Gnostics ( see Sethian, Ophites ) believed that God ( the deity worshiped by Jews, Greek Pagan philosophers and Christians ) was really an evil creator or demiurge that stood between us and some greater, more truly benevolent real deity — although there is no reason given why the higher deity is not a creator-god as well, nor why the higher deity allows the realm of the evil demiurge as flawed and unjust to continue to exist.

* Book 1 is a four-part prose text on the salvation process, beginning with the ascension to heaven of Seth, in advance of his father Adam ( compare Sethian Gnosticism ).

However, he is strongly supported by his crew-notably a group of smugglers and Sethian religious fanatics recruited at the little port of Shelmerston ( fictional ) in south-west England.

Sethian is a Finnish progressive metal band, originally formed in 1998 but whose debut album, Into the Silence, was not completed and released until 2003.

Sethian can be compared to For My Pain in that it is a Finnish metal supergroup.

The Secret Book of John ( Apocryphon of John ) is a 2nd-century AD Sethian Gnostic Christian text of secret teachings.

The Valentinian version is more overtly Christianized than the Apocryphon of John which is called the Sethian version.

The Sethian Gnosticism is more Jewish in background and context.

In the Apocryphon of John, a tractate in the Nag Hammadi Library containing the most extensive recounting of the Sethian creation myth, the Barbēlō is described as " the first power, the glory, Barbēlō, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation ".

Unlike other non-Nicenian Gospels, the Gospel of Judas is Sethian in orientation in that Adam's son Seth is seen as a spiritual ancestor.

As in other Sethian documents, Jesus is equated with Seth: " The first is Seth, who is called Christ ".

The main contents concern the Sethian Gnostic understanding of how the earth came into being, how Seth, in the Gnostic interpretation, is incarnated as Jesus in order to release people's souls from the evil prison that is creation.

This myth is typically presupposed by Sethian manuscripts, and occasionally by those of later schools.

The Sethian conception of God is, by contrast, defined through negative theology exclusively: he is immovable, invisible, intangible, ineffable.

The Three Steles of Seth is a Sethian Gnostic text from the New Testament apocrypha.

The text is thought to be from the Sethian sect of Gnostics ( the sect that viewed the biblical Seth as their hero, who was reincarnated as Jesus ).

ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ, which is far more common in the sources than the variant form Abraxas, ΑΒΡΑΞΑΣ ) was a word of mystic meaning in the system of the Gnostic Basilides, being there applied to the “ Great Archon ” ( Gk., megas archōn ), the princeps of the 365 spheres ( Gk., ouranoi ).

The word is found in Gnostic texts such as the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, and also appears in the Greek Magical Papyri.

But no attempt to identify the figures on existing gems with the personages of Gnostic mythology has had any success, and Abrasax is the only Gnostic term found in the accompanying legends which is not known to belong to other religions or mythologies.

Abrasax is invoked in Aleister Crowley's 1913 work, " The Gnostic Mass " of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica:

In many Gnostic systems, the various emanations of God, who is also known by such names as the One, the Monad, Aion teleos ( " The Broadest Aeon "), Bythos (" depth or profundity ", Greek ), Proarkhe (" before the beginning ", Greek ), the Arkhe (" the beginning ", Greek ), are called Aeons.

is to grant the authority to claim communion and benediction of the Gnostic Saints.

The ceremony is performed before a Gnostic Mass and represents a symbolic birth into the Thelemic community.

As far back as the early 2nd century, there is evidence that the codex — usually of papyrus — was the preferred format among Christians: in the library of the Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum ( buried in AD 79 ), all the texts ( Greek literature ) are scrolls ( see Herculaneum papyri ); in the Nag Hammadi " library ", secreted about AD 390, all the texts ( Gnostic Christian ) are codices.

The most well known version is that written by Gerald Gardner, and includes material paraphrased works by Aleister Crowley, primarily from Liber ALThe Book of the Law ( particularly from Ch 1, spoken by Nuit, the Star Goddess ), and from his Liber XV: the Gnostic Mass as well as Liber LXV ( Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente, or the Book of the Heart Girt with the Serpent ), thus linking modern Wicca irrevocably to the cosmology and revelations of Thelema.

The third paragraph is largely written by Doreen Valiente, with some phrases adapted from The Book of the Law and The Gnostic Mass by Aleister Crowley.

Clement rejects the Gnostic opposition to marriage, arguing that only men who are uninterested in women should remain celibate, and that sex is a positive good if performed within marriage for the purposes of procreation.

" In fact, a good deal of the early Christian literature is devoted to the exposure and refutation of unorthodox theology, mystery religions and Gnostic groups.

In the arch-dualist ideology of the various Gnostic systems, the material universe is evil, while the non-material world is good.

Several systems of Gnostic thought present the Demiurge as antagonistic to the will of the Supreme Being: his act of creation occurs in unconscious semblance of the divine model, and thus is fundamentally flawed, or else is formed with the malevolent intention of entrapping aspects of the divine in materiality.

The angelic name " Ariel " has also been used to refer to the demiurge and is called his " perfect " name, and in some Gnostic lore, Ariel has been called an ancient or original name for Ialdabaoth.

Also, several of his criticisms bear specific similarity to Gnostic doctrine ( Plotinus pointing to the gnostic doctrine of Sophia and her emission of the Demiurge is most notable among these similarities ).

Thus, though the former understanding certainly enjoys the greatest popularity, the identification of Plotinus ’ opponents as Gnostic is not without some contention.

Meanwhile there is definite evidence of grimoires being used by certain, particularly Gnostic sects of early Christianity ; in the Book of Enoch found within the Dead Sea Scrolls for instance, there is various information on astrology and the angels.

This Gospel is considered by the majority of academics, including Christians and some Muslims ( such as Abbas el-Akkad ) to be late and pseudepigraphical ; however, some academics suggest that it may contain some remnants of an earlier apocryphal work ( perhaps Gnostic, Ebionite or Diatessaronic ), redacted to bring it more in line with Islamic doctrine.