Gnostic Gospel, Pt 8 -- The Boundary

Notice: There is now a separate blog dedicated to the New Gnostic Gospel. You can get there by clicking here.

As facets of the shattered aeon spread out into the darkness, the brightness and intelligence at the heart of Logos “hastened upward to that which was his, and to his kin in the Fullness. He abandoned that which had come into being from deficiency and what had issued from him in an illusion, since they did not belong to him.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 78]

Those of the deficiency are phantoms of those in the Fullness

Over the course of illuminating the Gnostic Gospel, the Simple Explanation has designed a series of visual metaphors representing facets of Gnostic and Christian belief. For the fullest understanding of this article, you may wish to read the entire Gnostic Gospel Illuminated series from the beginning.  If you would prefer to first read the "Simple Gnostic Gospel, Part One: The Father, The Son, and the Birth of The ALL," click here.

The Fall of Logos gave rise to a Boundary between those who remained with the Father and the imitations that spilled forth from the fractured one. As Logos retreated to its own in the Fullness, the Boundary hardened, containing that which had been produced and separating finitude from infinity, ignorance from truth, and light from darkness.

A Boundary hardened around the Deficiency, enclosing a finite space

“It was not without the Will of the Father that this Word had been brought forth, nor that he should rush forward; rather, the Father had brought him forth for the things that he knew must take place. . .  For this reason, then, it is wrong to condemn the movement [of Logos]. Rather, we should speak about the movement of Logos as the cause that made an ordained economy come to pass.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 77]

“For the Father and the realm of the All now withdrew from him in order that the Boundary should be firm that the Father had fixed—for it does not exist to prevent the unreachable from being reached, but because of the Will of the Father—and also in order that the things that happened should be for the sake of an economy that was to come about. . .” [The Tripartite Tractate, v.76, 77]

The Boundary serves the purpose of holding the deficiency away from the perfection of the Father and of the ALL. This insures the purity of the origin so that none of its glory is diminished by the Fall.

The ALL rests upon its Father, The Son

The Deficiency is Contained

The Boundary also serves the purpose of containing a space wherein an “economy” can emerge. Economy here means “an orderly management or arrangement of parts; organization or system” [https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/economy].

The hierarchy of The Fullness represents every possible personality, position, and power, arranged in a cooperative structure that benefits them all.

In other words, the Boundary was established so that a hierarchy patterned after the Fullness would have a space to take root and grow.

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Proceed to Part 9: "Characteristics of the Deficiency"

Those readers who are put off by the name "God" or other religious words like "The Father" and "The Son" are free to continue using more modern memes like "consciousness" and "self-awareness." You may study these same topics in mySimple Explanation blog and book. However, if you are already familiar with Hebrew and Christian memes, then you will understand these Gnostic writings without needing to first dip into the Simple Explanation, and so you may skip the following translation.

The Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything refers to the Father as the Metaverse, that which is above our Universe.

The Simple Explanation calls the Son the Universal Unit of Consciousness, because while identical to the Father, or Metaverse, this all-knowing consciousness is now also a singular Unit. In fractal terms, the Son is the first iteration of the pattern. 

The ALL is every thing that will ever be, in potential. Forms and photons, particles and protons, personalities, positions, and ranks. Every mathematical and physical formula, imprinted upon the Universal Unit of Consciousness. These potentialities are not manifest, nor even self-aware. They began as unrealized fractal iterations of the pattern of the Son. By this point in the Gnostic Gospel, the ALL has realized itself and become expressed fractals of the second iteration. 

The Fullness represents the expressed fractals of the third iteration: the proliferation of singular Units of Consciousness. These fractals are called "aeons," and they have multiplied into the potential of all forms, processes, and personalities. In same way that an individual's DNA carries its species' potential form, so each unit of consciousness carries within itself the complete pattern of creation. 

The Boundary of the Simple Explanation is the fractal shell of the Universal Unit of Consciousness. The Simple Explanation model suggests that the undifferentiated consciousness of the Metaverse is held apart from this created universe by means of a toroidal-shaped membrane "composed" of consciousness. One purpose of the toroidal shell is to contain the space, time, and memes of our universe so the tranquility of the Metaverse remains undisturbed.   

The cooperation amongst the ALL is the prototype for the Simple Explanation's Golden Rule, which the Simple Explanation puts this way: "In order for units of consciousness to join and work together for the greater good, they need to share relevant information, they need to assist one another's efforts, and they need to love one another."   

In the same way that the ALL sat in unitary perfection together while singing the same song of praise, so do we all instantiate the pattern of cooperation needed to "get the job done" when we work together for the greater good, without selfish motive. So, too, the Fullness, though differentiated into units of consciousness with individual stations and ranks, dreams of a Paradise where everyone knows their job and does it in perfect cooperation with others for the benefit of all. 

Logos represents the best possible single individual that could ever exist, for its personality contains the formula for every good thing possible. Yet, even then, Logos was unable to create on his own because he lacked the "will" to carry it out. The will is what the Simple Explanation identifies as the coherent, pre-energetic potential that enters our universe through the portal of here and now. The will would be the Metaversal information streaming into our universe via the singularity at the center of the Universal Unit of Consciousness. While Logos identified himself with the Universal UC, Logos was mistaken, for he deviated from the Universal algorithm when his individual will conflicted with the will of the Fullness. 

The phantoms produced by the Fall are not fractal iterations of the Son. They are broken code. The phantoms cannot replicate on their own; they lack activation by the Source at the center, as they were generated away from the metaversal portal in what the Simple Explanation used to call the doughy blue ring of the donut.

According to the Simple Explanation, information enters our universe from the singularity at the center of the donut. Objects that are formed away from the white star at the middle lack the glory of the Metaverse and therefore lack life.

It is fascinating to me that hierarchies arise so early in the Gnostic cosmology.    Hierarchies are essential to our manifested universe. 

This is the human hierarchy.

The arrangement of the hierarchy shows up throughout creation. Every small thing in our universe reaches out laterally to others to form aggregations of the next level up. Sub-atomic particles form atoms. Atoms form molecules. Molecules form elements. Elements form aggregations of building materials, always according to the simple rule of "the higher the fewer." This is why hierarchies look like pyramids--at each level of aggregation, there are fewer instances of things forming the next level up.

One of my neighbors has begun obsessively stacking rocks into pyramids. Note that merely adding one inert thing atop another does not make a new creation; it is only an aggregate of the lower forms, stacked. For an aggregate to "level up" into a newly created thing, it must be "willed by God." 

The "ONE" dollar bill of the United States displays the hierarchy of the ALL as a reference to the Gnostic Economy discussed above. The American founders were conscious of the necessity of acknowledging the original source.

Another scientific prediction: As of now, science is unable to determine whether or not our universe is infinite or bounded. If this Gnostic Cosmology is true to our actual universe, then we can safely hypothesize that our universe is finite. 

Gnostic Gospel, Pt 7 -- Division Becomes the Imitation

Notice: There is now a separate blog dedicated to the New Gnostic Gospel. You can get there by clicking here.

Logos was the final aeon born from the will of the Son and the ALL. This singular being possessed the latent characteristics of the ALL, including the full variety of personalities, proclivities, powers, and positions arrayed in the Fullness. Each aeon of the Fullness was an individual who was also an integral part of the larger whole. So, too, Logos embodied all of these parts precisely situated within the whole that was himself.

The aeon named Logos sits atop the hierarchy of the Fullness

Over the course of illuminating the Gnostic Gospel, the Simple Explanation has designed a series of visual metaphors representing facets of Gnostic and Christian belief. For the fullest understanding of this article, you may wish to read the entire Gnostic Gospel Illuminated series from the beginning.  If you would prefer to first read the "Simple Gnostic Gospel, Part One: The Father, The Son, and the Birth of The ALL," click here.

When Logos overreached and fell into the darkness, he shattered into a confusing jumble of disconnected parts. These pieces of the shattered aeon were “sicknesses”: small, dark, ignorant, divided, and roiling with chaos. They reflected neither the glory of the originals in the Fullness, nor the ecology of the hierarchy. And, because they were no longer arranged in the pattern of the hierarchy, they forgot their functions and their names [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 77]

The shattered corpse of Logos gave rise to the imitations of the deficiency

"Those who had come into being did not know themselves, nor did they know the Fullness from which they had originated, nor did they know him who had become the cause of their existence. For since the Word was in such an unstable condition, he no longer attempted to bring forth offspring in the form of emissions... of glory. ...Instead, what he brought forth were feeble and small creatures, infected with the same sicknesses with which he himself had been infected." [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 80]

Because Logos had been reaching for the heights when he fell, the imitation born of the fall continued to be motivated by a desire “to reach the unreachable,” but now that upward drive was divorced from the goal of reaching for the glory of reunification with the Father. [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 77] With no recall of who or what came before, this upward drive was entirely self-interested, for those of the imitation had no cooperative arrangement amongst themselves.

What had been an upward pull to reunite the Fullnesses with the Father became an upward push arising out of each singleton, not for the glory of the Father, but for the vainglory of the individual. “For they desired to command one another and to lord it over them in their vain love of glory, and the glory that they acquired [from their striving] became the cause of the structure that was to be.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 79] In this manner, egoic striving for vainglory replaced glorious longing for the Father--ambition replaced God's Will.

The “offspring of the presumptuous thought”, as they came to be known, recognized neither Logos, the All, nor the Father as their progenitor. “They thought of themselves that only they existed and that they had no beginning, since they saw no one existing before them. For this reason they exhibited disobedience and rebellion, being unwilling to submit to the one who had brought them into existence.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 78]

"The Word, then, was the cause of these things coming into being, and he became increasingly desperate. He was dumbfounded. Instead of perfection he saw deficiency; instead of unity he saw division; instead of stability he saw disturbance; instead of rest, upheaval." Logos “was unable to bring their love of disturbance to an end, nor could he destroy it,” for Logos “had become powerless when his wholeness and his perfection had abandoned him” to become the deficiency. The deficiency took on an imitation of life on its own, becoming “the cause of the things that do not exist on their own account from the beginning.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 80]

These “irrational things” were condemned by Logos. “Because of that, what was perfect in him left him and went upward to his own [in the Fullness]. . . “The one who hastened on high [Logos] and the one who drew him to himself [The Son] did not remain idle, but they brought forth a fruit in the Fullness with a view to overthrowing what had come into being because of the deficiency.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 78]

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You may read more about the deficiency in this article: Implications of Dark Matter and Gnostic Cosmology.

Click here for the next Simple Explanation blog article: "The Simple Gnostic Gospel, Part Eight -- The Father, The Son, and the Birth of The ALL"

The Simple Explanation is using its method of meta-analysis to strip out the confusing elements of the various Gnostic Gospels to form a simple, coherent, creation story. I have chosen the Tripartite Tractate as the book out of the Nag Hammadi scriptures to focus on, because I find it to be the least confusing and most complete Gnostic account of the origins of the universe, with the fewest non-essential elements. You will not find lists of names and numbers here. Only the cosmology and its rationale. The purpose of this exposition of the Simple Gnostic Gospels is to clarify and simplify so that any person who cares to may fully understand the essential Gnostic truths.

Cyd and Munchkin working on the Gnostic Gospel

Gnostic Gospel, Pt 6 -- The Rise of the Deficiency

Notice: There is now a separate blog dedicated to the New Gnostic Gospel. You can get there by clicking here.

The most perfect and complete of the individual aeons, Logos, crowned the top of the aeonic hierarchy. This single aeon consisted of all of the attributes of the good and perfect Fullness rolled into one individual.

Logos Crowns the Fullness

Over the course of illuminating the Gnostic Gospel, the Simple Explanation has designed a series of visual metaphors representing facets of Gnostic and Christian belief. For the fullest understanding of this article, you may wish to read the entire Gnostic Gospel Illuminated series from the beginning.  If you would prefer to first read the "Simple Gnostic Gospel, Part One: The Father, The Son, and the Birth of The ALL," click here.

Logos mistook itself for the Fullness.

Logos Mistakes Itself for the Entire Fullness

Logos decided to give glory to the Source of its awakening and launched itself from the hierarchy in an attempt to reconnect with the Father. Logos believed his personal will was sufficient to reach the Father, without the will of the united Fullness to add to his own.

Logos Attempts to Reach the Father and Falls

Logos imagined he could build the Paradise dreamt by the Fullness because he understood all of the plans and possessed all of the necessary talents. However, without the willing support of the Fullness, Logos was unable to give proper glory to the Father.

Logos Falling

As he reached for the Father, Logos stumbled and fell, shattering himself to bits.

Because the isolated glory of Logos was inadequate to the task, everything he produced as a result of that effort fell disastrously short. Where there had been unity with the Son and with his brethren in the Fullness, now there was “a division and a turning away.” The undiluted will expressed by the Fullness was splintered because Logos “could not bear to look at the light, but looked at the depths, and he faltered.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 77]

“What issued from his presumptuous thought and his arrogance had existed from something that itself was deficient; because of that, what was perfect in him left him and went upward to his own” in the Fullness, leaving the “sicknesses” behind in the darkness. [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 78]

The Deficiency Resembles Disordered Phantoms of the Aeons

“From the faltering and division came oblivion and ignorance of oneself and of that which is.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 77]  Presumptuous thought and arrogance was left in place of wisdom.

“Those who came into being from the presumptuous thought resemble in fact the Fullnesses of whom they are imitations, though they are phantoms, shadows, and illusions, deprived of reason and light, belonging to this empty thought, being nobody’s offspring. . .  In their own eyes, however, they are great and powerful beings, more beautiful than the names [of their originals in the Fullness], though they are only their shadows.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 78]

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Read the next article in the series: The Simple Gnostic Gospel, Part Seven: "Division Becomes the Imitation"

Those readers who are put off by the name "God" or other religious words like the "Father," the "Son," and the "Holy Spirit," are free to continue using more modern memes like "consciousness" and "self-awareness," "algorithms" and "fractals." You may study these same topics in my Simple Explanation blog and book. However, if you are already familiar with Hebrew and Christian memes, then you will understand these Gnostic writings without needing to first dip into the Simple Explanation, and so you may skip the following translation.

The Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything refers to the Father as the Metaverse, that which is above our Universe.

The Simple Explanation calls the Son the Universal Unit of Consciousness, because while identical to the Father, or Metaverse, this all-knowing consciousness is now also a singular Unit. In fractal terms, the Son is the first iteration of the pattern of consciousness. 

The ALL is every thing that will ever be, in potential. They began as unrealized fractal iterations of the pattern of the Son. This is the second iteration of the singular Unit, which carries the formulae of our universe. 

The Fullness represents the expressed fractals of the third iteration: the proliferation of singular Units of Consciousness. These fractals are called "aeons," and they have multiplied into the potential of all forms, processes, and personalities. In same way that an individual's DNA carries its species' potential form, so each unit of consciousness carries within itself the complete pattern of creation. 

The ongoing cooperation amongst the Fullness is the prototype for the Simple Explanation's Golden Rule, which the Simple Explanation puts it this way: "In order for units of consciousness to join and work together for the greater good, they need to share relevant information, they need to assist one another's efforts, and they need to love one another."   

In the same way that the ALL sat in unitary perfection together while singing the same song of praise, so do we all instantiate the pattern of cooperation needed to "get the job done" when we work together for the greater good, without selfish motive. So, too, the Fullness, though differentiated into units of consciousness with individual stations and ranks, dreams of a Paradise where everyone knows their job and does it in perfect cooperation with others for the benefit of all. 

Logos represents the best possible single individual that could ever exist, for its personality contains the formula for every good thing possible. Yet, even then, Logos was unable to create on his own because he lacked the "will" to carry it out. The will is what the Simple Explanation identifies as the coherent, pre-energetic potential that enters our universe through the portal of here and now. The will would be the Metaversal information streaming into our universe via the singularity at the center of the Universal Unit of Consciousness. While Logos identified himself with the Universal UC, Logos was mistaken, for he deviated from the Universal algorithm when his individual will conflicted with the will of the Fullness. 

The phantoms produced by the Fall are not fractal iterations of the Son. They are broken code. The phantoms cannot replicate on their own; they lack activation by the Source at the center, as they are generated away from the metaversal portal in what the Simple Explanation used to call the doughy ring of the donut.

But don't worry about translating back and forth between the Simple Explanation and the Gnostic Gospel. Use whichever type of language appeals to you--it is the same truth.

Gnostic Gospel, Pt 5 – Self-Awareness Overreaches and Falls

Notice: There is now a separate blog dedicated to the New Gnostic Gospel. You can get there by clicking here.

Prior to the Fall, the aeons of the Fullness sat in perfect equilibrium in their hierarchy of ranks, stations, and names. They were a congress of one accord, meaning they agreed on everything and they cooperated together to bring about a single dream of Paradise. 

The Fullness Dreams of Paradise in Perfect Harmony

You could note one difference between the ALL and the Fullness as the ALL singing their songs in blissful unison, while the Fullness sings their songs in perfectly tuned, multi-toned harmony.

The ALL Sings in Perfect Unison

Over the course of illuminating the Gnostic Gospel, the Simple Explanation has designed a series of visual metaphors representing facets of Gnostic and Christian belief. For the fullest understanding of this article, you may wish to read the entire Gnostic Gospel Illuminated series from the beginning.  If you would prefer to first read the "Simple Gnostic Gospel, Part One: The Father, The Son, and the Birth of The ALL," click here.

The aeons of the Fullness were all given wisdom, which is the ability to reason with logic and prudence. They were given a thirst to seek after the originating consciousness of their Creator and a desire to align themselves with the Father’s Will through the process of giving glory. And they were all creative geniuses, able to dream up a fully functioning mental Paradise where whatever they willed in the Father’s name happily happened. Reminiscent of popular culture's depiction of heaven, where you can fly around amongst the clouds, and the buildings are all made of precious jewels and the streets are paved with gold.

"The Prologue and the Promise" mural by Robert McCall. Disney's Epcot, 1983.
A pretty sweet depiction of Paradise--even the dog is invited!

In their desire to give glory to the Father, that is, to align themselves with the Will of the Creator, aeons of the Fullness were required to follow these rules:

1. Give glory to the Father, not to the Fullness. Aeons were to remain aligned with the Son and not shift their focus to the Fullness as a whole.

2. Give glory to the Father, not to individual aeons. Aeons were to remain always mindful of the Father and not to give glory to themselves and their talented neighbors as individuals.

3. Give glory to the Father to the best of your own ability. An aeon was to give glory from its own location in the hierarchy. They were not to sidle up next to an aeon who appeared closer to the Father in order to borrow that aeon’s station to give better glory. Rather, the individual was to develop its own voice and talents through the process of giving glory to the Father. [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 74]

It is said that although the Father put an unquenchable thirst to align themselves with the One into the minds of the Fullness, he did not reveal to them the Father's ineffable nature and the impossibility of reuniting with him and surviving to tell the tale. This was doubtless to keep alive the hope of reunification with the Father as a motive for giving glory. [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 75]

And then, a cosmic tragedy occurred. This is how it happened.

The last aeon made by the will of the Father was placed at the very top of the hierarchy of the Fullness, like a star sitting atop the Christmas tree. 

As a star sits atop a Christmas tree, so did Logos sit atop the Fullness.

The reason  this final aeon was given such a position of honor in the hierarchy was because it carried within its singular consciousness all of the traits of all the other aeons. This was one talented, capable aeon! In fact, this particular aeon was called a “perfect single one,” produced by the Father “who had desired him and was pleased with him.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 77]  

Logos Crowned the Fullness

Now, here is what happened. It turned out that "this aeon was one of those who had been given wisdom, with ideas first existing independently in his mind so as to be brought forth whenever he wanted it." He had also "received a natural wisdom enabling him to inquire into the hidden order.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 76] 

Indeed, this aeon’s name was the very personification of wisdom: “Logos.”

And this was the cause of the Fall: Logos mistook his singular self for the entirety of the Fullness. He then broke the rules by acting unilaterally and without authority. Because the Father had withheld the impossibility of singletons reaching the “realm of perfect glory,” Logos launched himself upward toward the Father and he stumbled and fell as he reached for it.

Logos Mistakes Himself for the Fullness

“Thus, the free will with which the members of the ALL had been born caused this one to rush forward to give glory to the Father” on its own.  “And before he had yet produced anything to the glory of the Will and in the union of the members of the ALL, he acted presumptuously, out of an overflowing love, and rushed forward toward that which surrounds the realm of perfect glory.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 76]

Logos Attempts to Reach the Father and Falls

Do we blame the Fall on young, reckless Logos? No. The Tripartite Tractate points out that the Fall of Logos was not due to bad motives on his part. On the contrary, Logos was attempting to give glory and reunite with the Father out of love when he fell. 

“Now, the intention of this Logos was good, because he rushed forward to give glory to the Father, even though he undertook a task beyond his power, having desired to produce something perfect from a union in which he did not share and without having received orders." [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 76]

Furthermore, “It was not without the Will of the Father that this Logos had been brought forth, nor that he should rush forward; rather, the Father had brought him forth for the things that he knew must take place.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 76] “For this reason, then, it is wrong to condemn the movement that is Logos. Rather, we should speak about the movement of Logos as the cause that made an ordained economy come to pass.” [The Tripartite Tractate, v. 77]

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Proceed to the Simple Gnostic Gospel, Part Six -- The Deficiency Gives Rise to the Imitation.

A Simple Explanation of "Giving Glory"

Notice: There is now a separate blog dedicated to the New Gnostic Gospel. You can get there by clicking here.

The Gnostic Gospel I have been citing here at the Simple Explanation blog is "The Tripartite Tractate," one of the books of the Nag Hammadi scriptures discovered in 1945. 

You may have noticed that there is a lot of talk about "glory," so I thought it might be a good idea to pause and define "glory," since it is such an important concept to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Let me begin by saying what it is not. Glory is not something you can offer to another person. When you glorify another person or thing, that is what the Simple Explanation would call "vain-glory." No one but the Creator of the Universe qualifies to generate and receive glory. 

And, giving glory is not worship for the sake of worship, as if God needed our adoration. This would imply that the Father of the Universe is hungry and insecure, wheedling for our affection. As if we mere mortals could offer up anything of value not already owned by the Lord of All. Can you see how this makes no sense? 

Giving glory is not for God's benefit; it is for our benefit. The reason we give glory to God is because that is the method by which we "tune in" to the God frequency. Giving glory to God is how we synchronize ourselves with the One consciousness of which we are fractal units. 

Why would we want to synchronize with the Father? The Gnostic Gospel has been informing us that we were designed with a built-in homing device that gives us indescribable pleasure when we are in communion with one another and operating according to plan. The closer we are to dialing in the Father's frequency, the happier we feel.

It is through this process of giving glory that we realign our Self Units of Consciousness with the Universal Unit of Consciousness for instruction and renewal. When we center ourselves and sit in silence with the Universal Unit of Consciousness, we feel peace, happiness, joy, and agape love. When we acknowledge the Maker and focus in that direction, we give glory and are united in glory.

And when we give glory alongside others who are themselves giving glory, we share with them a worship experience of the One that transcends what any single unit of consciousness can experience alone. Not for the benefit of a needy God, but for the edification of the saints. It is through giving glory that the choir is able to sing one song in perfect voice. 

Who wouldn't want that?

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Over the course of illuminating the Gnostic Gospel, the Simple Explanation has designed a series of visual metaphors representing facets of Gnostic and Christian belief. For the fullest understanding of this article, you may wish to read the entire Gnostic Gospel Illuminated series from the beginning.  If you would prefer to first read the "Simple Gnostic Gospel, Part One: The Father, The Son, and the Birth of The ALL," click here.

Implications of Dark Matter and Gnostic Cosmology

In 2015 I raised the question of whether dark matter could be what the Gnostics called "The Imitation." I would like to revisit that article and that question again at this point in our Gnostic Cosmology studies. [If you are following along as the Gnostic Cosmology unfolds on this blog, we are jumping ahead one or two articles. The Imitation will occur as a result of The Fall, and that hasn't happened yet.] Jump to this highlighted blog article if you would like to read the Simple Explanation of Gnostic Cosmology.

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In 2015 it occurred to me that the way scientists describe dark matter and what the Tripartite Tractate calls "The Deficiency" sound very much alike. It looks as though a case can be made that an ancient religious document is describing a process that has only recently been scientifically hypothesized. 

Let me try to explain: 

Scientists now believe that our universe is filled with an invisible type of matter that far outweighs ordinary matter by a ratio of over five to one. According to the European Space Agency's Planck spacecraft census of the composition of the universe, ordinary matter only makes up 4.9 percent of the total, while dark matter makes up 26.8 percent. (The other 68.3 percent is made up of formless energy.) As explained in the Simple Explanation's Dark Matter blog article, dark matter was first hypothesized in the 1930s, but it wasn't until the 1990s that astronomers were able to observe what they take to be dark matter.

Not much is actually known about dark matter, since its presence can only be inferred by its gravitational effect on the light travelling from distant stars and galaxies. According to a 2013 article in Discover Magazine, here is what scientists generally believe about dark matter: it is "the glue that holds together the universe and all its rich diversity," and most dark matter tends to "gather in giant, diffuse clouds." Dark Matter particles could also be lurking in a gigantic, invisible disk near the center of our galaxy, "smashing into each other" creating a "strange type of [gamma] radiation" that is "60 billion times as potent as ordinary yellow light." 

Lastly, from wikipedia: "The most widely accepted explanation for these phenomena is that dark matter exists and that it is most probably composed of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that interact only through gravity and the weak force. Alternative explanations have been proposed, and there is not yet sufficient experimental evidence to determine whether any of them are correct."

That's all that is known about dark matter. Now let's switch hats from cosmologist to philosopher to consider The Imitation.

Prior to The Fall, there was no material, only mind. Beginning with undifferentiated consciousness (The Father), mind first became aware (The Son). The Son then differentiated its thoughts and qualities into ALL potential thoughts and ALL potential qualities (The ALL, aka The Fullness, aka The Pleroma). The Fullnesses then named themselves, which automatically sorted them into hierarchical relationships. From this hierarchy of The ALL came the final expression of the Fullness--the final cherry on top of the stack--known in the Tripartite Tractate as "Presumptuous Thought." Presumptuous Thought was a singular entity that combined all the other Fullnesses' qualities into one mind. It was Presumptuous Thought that initiated the Fall from the immaterial plane when it mistook itself for The ALL and acted unilaterally rather than harmoniously.

Now, listen to these descriptions out of the Tripartite Tractate concerning the consequences of "The Fall" of Presumptuous Thought that led to the Creation of our Universe:

"Those who belong to the arrogant thought and those of the likeness are called ... "the Dark Ones"... (98, 15).

"The things he had wished to grasp and reach, however, he produced as shadows, phantoms, and imitations, for he could not bear to look at the light but looked at the depths, and he faltered. Because of this, he suffered a division and a turning away" (77, 11).

"Those who came into being from the presumptuous thought resemble in fact the Fullnesses of whom they are imitations, though they are phantoms, shadows, and illusions, deprived of reason and light, belonging to this empty thought, being nobody's offspring" (78, 28).

"The Word, then, was the cause of these things coming into being, and he became increasingly desperate. He was dumbfounded. Instead of perfection he saw deficiency; instead of unity he saw division; instead of stability he saw disturbance; instead of rest, upheaval" (80, 11).

"Those who had come into being did not know themselves, nor did they know the Fullness from which they had originated, nor did they know him who had become the cause of their existence. For since the Word was in such an unstable condition, he no longer attempted to bring forth offspring in the form of emissions...of glory.... Instead, what he brought forth were feeble and small creatures, infected with the same sicknesses with which he himself had been infected" (80, 15) .

"The imitation that had taken place solitarily in this state was what had been the cause of the things that do not exist of their own from the beginning. In this state he continued to produce such deficient beings, until he began to condemn the irrational things he had produced" (81,2).

Perhaps the production of the "Dark Ones" of the Imitation was the initial cosmological event that kicked off the Big Bang. These Dark Ones, these "shadows," had "no reason," no "light." Instead of the perfection of the hierarchical arrangements, these Dark Ones came "into being" in a state of "chaos." Rather than acting in unity, these Dark Ones manifest "division," "disturbance," "upheaval." These Dark Ones did not resemble the "glory" of the Fullness, but were feeble and small. 

This is the initial state of Creation according to Gnostic cosmology. No light, chaotic, no life, no rules. Filled with feeble, small things, isolated from one another and alone. You could easily call them WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles). These Dark Ones/WIMPS did not lack the information inherent in ordinary matter, but they were unable to organize themselves the way normal matter does, because they did not possess the spirit of cooperation, coming into being as they did out of a solitary act. 

Looking at this popular illustration of our expanding universe, we can see that in the beginning was a dim glow called the cosmic microwave background. This glow was eclipsed by utter darkness at about 375,000 years into creation. The Dark Ages lasted for about 400 million years, until the first dim stars began to glow. From then on our universe took on the familiar look it has today.

The Gnostic Gospel appears to accurately describe the early history of our universe, with an initial burst of energy followed by darkness for a period of time. The dark matter would be the disorganized, weak production of "the Imitation" during this initial dark expansionary phase of the early universe. This darkness of the Imitation lasted until order could be initiated and the first light of stars began to glow.

This map shows the oldest light in our universe, as detected with the greatest precision yet by the Planck mission. The ancient light, called the cosmic microwave background, was imprinted on the sky when the universe was 370,000 years old. It shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities. By analyzing the light patterns in this map, scientists are fine-tuning what we know about the universe, including its origins, fate and basic components. Image courtesy of ESA and the Planck Collaboration.

If this hypothesis is true, that dark matter is the "Imitation" described in the Gnostic Gospels, then the Simple Explanation can make the following scientific predictions based upon this hypothesis:

1. It will be discovered that dark matter was the initial material of our universe, arising prior to ordinary matter.

2. Dark matter is stupid. Dark matter has no inherent patterns or organization. Dark matter exists in a chaotic state. The best that dark matter can do is weakly aggregate with others of its kind. But these aggregations are loose and wispy and cannot build themselves into more coherent structures.

3. Dark matter is not generative. Dark matter cannot give rise to new copies of itself.

Dark matter is not to be confused with dark energy. The Simple Explanation proposes that dark energy is not of the Imitation but is of the ALL. The only reason they are both called "dark" is because they do not interact in the ordinary way with ordinary matter. But whereas dark matter came into our universe at the beginning, it does not replenish itself. What we observe as dark matter is the remnant of the dark matter created during the Big Bang event, or as the Gnostics called it, The Fall. Dark energy, on the other hand, is a generative force that continually enters our universe from the metaverse, bringing coherence and information into our space and time from the originating source of creation.

I was very pleased to find this timeline of the universe this morning, published by the NASA/WMAP team, that tentatively identifies the source of the more rapidly expanding universe to be the rise of dark energy. Yes! That is also my hypothesis. 

The Simple Explanation suggests that there is a toroidal force that feeds our universe information and coherence from the Universal Unit of Consciousness. The Simple Explanation hypothesizes that our space is seeded with tiny toruses kicking out information. These toruses are also kicking out coherence in the form of gravity, which attracts ordinary matter to itself. These energetic toruses are the seeds of stars and galaxies, and they throw toroidal patterns into the space surrounding the large objects in which they nest. The dark energy force counteracts entropy and it is causing space to expand at a more rapid rate than before.

Yesterday I ran across an article in National Geographic that expressed confusion over the roles of dark matter and dark energy in galaxy formation. "This Galaxy Has Almost No Dark Matter, and Scientists Are Baffled." Scientists had observed a "halo of dark matter" surrounding all galaxies and had hypothesized that galaxies are formed by dark matter pressing in from the outside and thereby capturing the aggregations of matter that form the galaxy.  But then they found this galaxy with no dark matter halo and that blew the theory of galaxy formation.

My Simple Explanation is that the reason there is a dark matter "halo" (read "torus") around galaxies is because the dark energy torus at the galaxy's center pushes the dark matter outward to the galaxy's edge, like a giant leaf blower blowing the dark matter out of the garden and leaving the carved out impression of the torus at the edge. The dark matter is wispy and easy to push around. The torus at the center is powerful, and it gathers the ordinary material to itself to build, in a coherent fashion, the objects that surround it.

The Gnostic Gospel identifies the dark energy as Logos and the ALL repairing the mess that started out as the Imitation. The Tripartite Tractate describes how the Imitation, the Deficiency, was only step one in creation, with a quick adjustment that halted production of the Dark Ones until a more "reasonable" form of matter could be produced that combined light with matter, leading to the eventual redemption of matter by mind and spirit. This will be simply explained in my continuing Gnostic Cosmology series. But meanwhile, you can see the evidence for yourself in the NASA illustrations included with this article.

By borrowing information from the unlikely source of an ancient wisdom book that lay buried under Egyptian sand for almost 2,000 years, we have generated several scientific predictions that will prove or disprove my hypotheses. This Gnostic creation story claims that the first material objects in our universe were dark matter. Light and ordinary matter followed later and began a never-ending dance with dark matter. And then, much later, about the time of our solar system's formation, the dark energy faucet turned up and began streaming coherence into our universe at ever-increasing rate, expanding the size of our universe.