In the beginning of what we refer to as “Christianity”, there were numerous sects which modern Academic scholarship has decided to classify in an “all in one package” under the brand of “Gnosticism”.
The beliefs of most of these sects are either not known, or fragments survive. While certain of these texts do indeed sound as if they are repackaged Judaism, other sects have an even more cryptic history, which leads many researchers to deny these groups of a “common origin”.
The central Demon the major Gnostic sects followed, was Abraxas. Yet, all the origins of what is referred to as “Gnostic” faiths and specifically the sects that worshiped Abrasax, are nothing else but spiritual knowledge based on Pagan Mithraism.
“In addition, Abraxas was associated with the Mithraic mystery religion of Persian origin, the chief rival of Christianity in Rome in its first 400 years. As did Gnosticism, Mithraism featured a complex astrology and numerology. Numerical values of Mithra’s and Abraxas’ names each total 365.” - The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Abrasax Section.
As many of these early Christian “cults” did not even accept “Christ” as even a historically existing character but rather as a symbolic Solar Myth, nor they used anything in Christianity as literal history.
To them “Christianity” was just a Solar Mythology like so many others, which they explained in their own image and symbolic analysis.
As the “Original” Christian Church was jewish and wanted to remove any sort of postulation of anything spiritual, they decided to destroy these people completely and replace anything with foul materialistic nonsense about a “Jewish Savior” that was from “Israel”. This led the Christian Orthodox Church of the early 2nd century church to kill most of them, or destroy their writings entirely.
Due to this massacre against the Gnostic sects that followed Abrasax, we know few things about them, only centered around the slander Christians did against them. From the few things we know, we cannot be certain these are true.
The hate of Judaic Christians against the “Gnostics” was so great, that they said they were “Worse than Pagans”. To note, the “Iraneus” spoken about here, is actually whom Christians refer to totday as “Saint Iraneus”, a great persecutor of everything spiritual and one of the first Christian bandits and wisdom destroyers.
“As spokesman
for the church of God, Irenaeus insists that those he calls heretics
stand outside the church. All who reject his version of Christian
truth are "false persons, evil seducers, and hypocrites"
who "speak to the multitude about those in the church, whom they
call catholic, or ecclesiastical." Irenaeus says he longs to
"convert them to the church of God" - since he considers
them apostates, worse than pagans.” p 106, [1]
“This campaign against heresy involved an involuntary admission of its persuasive power; yet the bishops prevailed. By the time of the Emperor Constantine's conversion, when Christianity became an officially approved religion in the fourth century, Christian bishops, previously victimized by the police, now commanded them. Possession of books denounced as heretical was made a criminal offense. Copies of such books were burned and destroyed.” p 106, [2]
The origins of the “thoughts” of many of these “heretic sects” were actually Neoplatonic thoughts, and we could not easily dismiss that these sects were in fact worshiping the Demons in disguise, a reality understood too by the early “Church Fathers” such as Iranaeus who focused on destroying them all. Part of this destruction is why this “Iraneus” named below, was crowned as a Saint of the Early Christian Church.
Further on these sects of occultists: “These men, moreover, practise magic, and use images, incantations, invocations, and every other kind of curious art. Coining also certain names as if they were those of the angels, they proclaim some of these as belonging to the first, and others to the second heaven; and then they strive to set forth the names, principles, angels, and powers of the 365 imagined heavens.”, as read in Adversus hæreses, I. xxiv. 5; cf. Epiph. Haer. 69 D; Philastr. Suer. 32
Do note that both of these “Sects” of “Valentinus” and “Basileides” mentioned below, were among the first to be hated and exterminated, despite of the fact that they tried to call themselves “Christians” to avoid persecution or by holding some superficially Christian beliefs that were evidently only a cover to practice the occult. The Gnostic sects were hundreds, with many simply being of enemy ideology, or following confused ideology between Christianity and Paganism.
These texts, for reasons not really “known” by mainstream history were called “worse than Pagans” as seen above.
“A still more remarkable parallel to the later Neoplatonism is afforded by the Christian Gnostics of Alexandria, especially Valentinus and the followers of Basilides. Like the Neoplatonists, the Basilidians believed, not in an emanation from the Godhead, but in a dynamic manifestation of its activity. The same is true of Valentinus, who also placed an unnameable being at the apex of his system, and regarded matter, not as a second principle, but as a product of the one divine principle. It must be added that the dependence of Basilides and Valentinus on Zeno and Plato is beyond dispute.”
Further, the footnote of the above mentions
“The dogmas of the Basilidians, as given by Hippolytus,
read almost like passages from Neoplatonic works.”
To really however understand how much of our history has been perverted, or how much has been lost, we have to delve deeper to discover the reality about the Demon Abrasax. In regards to Abraxas himself, he ended up as an “Evil Demon” as with all the other Pagan Gods who helped and instructed humanity.
“Gnostic name for the demigod who rules the 365th (highest and final) aeon, or sphere, ascending to the unknowable God. Christian demonologists put Abraxas in the ranks of DEMONS. […] The Gnostic Abraxas created the material world and also had demonic qualities. He is the supreme power of being, in whom light and darkness are both united and transcended. Orthodox Christians viewed Abraxas as a demon. In turn, Abraxas became a favorite deity of heretical sects of the Middle Ages.” [4]
This page should give homage to the disciples of Abraxas, who died
and were slandered for his sake, all for wanting to follow the Divine
and become partakers of Demonic knowledge. You will not be forgotten.
Sources/Bibliography:
[1] “The Gnostic Gospels” by Elaine Pagels
[2] Ibid 1, page 21.
[3] Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1911 Version, as seen in WikiSource. The Encyclopedia can be also found online in PDF and scanned form - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Neoplatonism#cite_note-3
[4] The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Abrasax Section.
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