by Ariel Glad and Wes Penre, October 10, 2020
What is the Physical Universe?
This universe consists of matter. This is a material universe, and when it was created, it was the only one of its kind, and it’s made of energy. Spirit, on the other hand, is not something that could be compared to energy because energy only exists where there is matter, and vice versa. Spirit comes from that “space” which pre-existed before the creation of the Material Universe (or the Demiurge), so Spirit must be non-physical.
Most of us are dividing this universe, the Kenoma, into what is physical and what is not physical. However, everything within this universe is physical—even the astral dimensions. They are just on a different wavelength than the reality we experience while we are in our physical bodies. Energy exists within the astral, so therefore, it’s part of the physical universe.
The Basic Mind Split
In the simplest terms that we can think of, this universe is representative of our Mind, and our Mind has been fragmented into at least two facets of creation – one of awareness and one of ignorance. We perceive ourselves as having a conscious mind – AWARENESS – and a subconscious mind – IGNORANCE. We are also told that we have unconscious mind, but that is something to discuss another time.
The mind, however, works on an awareness scale from significantly expanded awareness to complete ignorance, although it’s up for debate whether there are any absolutes in either direction.
We could also say that Christ is the conscious mind, and the Demiurge is the subconscious mind or the VOID/Darkness. And all of it, from the deepest Ignorance to the highest Awareness is the Divine Mind.
This might be more easily demonstrated in the follow diagram:
We can move up and down on this awareness scale from oblivion (to the right) to more and more awareness (to the left). A human can be anywhere on this scale as he or she increase or decrease in awareness, depending on their choices (see example below).
Both Awareness and Ignorance are spaces for creation, and all things can be categorized and put in either column—Love (awareness/consciousness) and Fear (ignorance/subconscious). The creation of us and the mind that was given to us, which exists within the Divine Mind of the Aeon Sophia (or Spirit) was for the learning purpose of being able to move things out of the subconscious column and into the conscious column. This is how the Demiurge is “unmade” and how Yaldabaoth is “redeemed”. We do it, and we do it within ourselves because both aspects of the Aeon Sophia are within us, and we are within Her Mind, i.e. Her “space” or area of creation.
What is Spirit and What is Mind?
As we have been going through and really pondering on the meaning of the Gnostic texts, and Sophia in particular, we have questioned, “What is Spirit, really?” What is it about us that, according to the Gnostic texts, has the ability to be “perfected?” One conclusion is that the Spirit which passes down to us from our Divine Mother is Her Mind.
If perfection is that within us that can be transformed and achieved (which it can), then this would certainly be the Mind.
Is it possible that we are creations in the Mind of Sophia? If we are still thinking of Sophia as anything less than a Source of Creation and an Aeon, we are really not understanding the breadth and the scope of Her, as we understand it. She is Wisdom and She is Creation. She is this Universal Mind that we are created within. We exist within Her as creations from Her Mind, just like both we and Sophia exist within the Mind of the Monad, aka All That Is.
Can Sophia stand before us in physical form? Absolutely. Can we imagine ourselves in our own minds? Yes. Can we create scenarios that we imagine we are experiencing in our own minds as either daydreams or nightmares, depending on which aspect of our mind is creating the play? Do you exist in your own mind? Yes.
What if this creation, which is existing in ignorance, is literally the manifestation of Sophia’s subconscious mind, and on a smaller scale, that which is hidden in our own human minds, i.e. the human subconscious mind, is at the same time Sophia’s subconscious mind? As above, so below…
Why Shadow Work?
What do we do when we practice “shadow work?” We are confronted with all those negative and low vibrational aspects that we hide away in our subconscious mind, and therefore we become ignorant of them. We, as creations within Sophia’s own subconscious mind, were created to exist within her shadow side so that we can do Her “shadow work.” Possible? The Kenoma is Sophia’s “shadow;” the part of Herself She didn’t want to acknowledge, and which therefore became hidden.
The return home is merely a passage of what was once ignorant from one side to the other; just like what happens to us when we work to resolve our own shadows. Once we become aware of them (“shedding LIGHT” on them), they are no longer hidden, and more of ourselves becomes known to us.
However, for this to work, the human soul group needed to descend all the way down to the deepest layers of Sophia’s subconsciousness to spread Knowledge into this depth of the hidden darkness. We do that by exploring and healing our own subconscious mind, i.e. we transform our own Ignorance into Knowledge, which is where Gnosis comes into the picture.
Nowadays, it is a pretty common thought that we live in a simulation of some type, like a computer game. Well, what is the model for a computer? A mind. This Sims game that so many people compare this reality to, I think would, in comparison, be more accurately described as Sophia’s imagination.
We know that our reality and all realities within this universe are thought-responsive. Where do thoughts come from? The Mind. We are using Sophia’s Mind to create within Her Mind and in every aspect imaginable; every single thing that exists in this “space” is inside of Sophia.
It differs from person to person when it comes to level of awareness. Does this mean that only some people have a Divine Mind? No, the Mind is the same mind in all Spirited humans, and we all have the capacity to open ourselves up to higher echelons of the Divine Mind. But it happens on a gradient scale, and it happens as we heal inside and exchange Ignorance for Knowledge/Gnosis. We are using our Divine Mind whether we are extremely ignorant or relatively aware—it’s the same Divine Mind, working on different frequency levels or in different densities, as it were. Not until the Kenoma is dissolved or integrated and we return to the Pleroma can our Mind be completely Perfected the way it was to begin with. However, even this is a paradox because the most ignorant of us is no less Perfect than if we would operate within the Pleroma—it’s the same Mind coming to use to accomplish different tasks, and depending on what task the mind is currently performing, it will determine the stage of awareness.
Yaldabaoth versus Sophia
Yaldabaoth is Sophia, but Sophia in shadow or Ignorance. We could also say that we humans are Yaldabaoth because he is an archetype and manifestation of Ignorance. When we descended to the Kenoma, we became part of Yaldabaoth’s Mind, i.e. his Ignorance.
It is only the mind that has the capability to gain wisdom. This universe is thought-responsive and the aspect of us that is producing thoughts is the Mind. If the Mind is Spirit, then we have the Mind of Source.
For those of you who are feeling resistance or anger at the thought that your perceived “enemy” (Yaldabaoth) is actually Sophia, and if you feel that SHE is responsible for your suffering, please allow us to help you see this from another perspective. Sophia, the Aeon, isn’t responsible for our suffering; the subconscious mind is responsible for our suffering.
Please go back and review the articles and videos that we have published on narcissism, the inner critic, the inner child, and how emotional abuse creates fragmentation of the mind. This is the reason why we suffer, and when we heal our mind, we perfect our mind, and since our mind is the Mind/Spirit of Sophia, we resolve and correct the ignorance of this schism. The Archons disappear, the Darkness is now in the Light, and we (as creations in Sophia’s Mind and the stepped down one – Yaldabaoth’s mind) perfect this creation – and it all happens within our own minds because this is the Source within us. This is ultimately the Pleroma, God, Source, all of it inside of us.
We have seen interpretations that Sophia’s Creation was a “mistake” because She didn’t create together with Her consort, entering into Her own Creation, which had never happened before, but if we really read the Gnostic texts, it is not true that it was a mistake. The Aeon we call Sophia, which basically just means Wisdom, was emanated by the Monad in Perfection. Thus, Her creation in Her attempt to “know God” was predictable and somewhat predestined by the Monad—She acted in accordance to Her attributes and characteristics. We need to remember that the Monad emanated the Aeons to experience Itself through perceived separation, and for that to work, there must be some parts of the Monad that is Unknown, or nothing could ever be created. Sophia, in her yearning for Divine Wisdom, fulfilled a big part of the Monad’s Plan. She created an entire universe based on Ignorance.
Are You Part of the Problem or the Solution?
As we have been reading about the emanation of the Aeons, we have mistakenly visualized these aspects of God as projections outward, but they are more appropriately related to reflections and extensions inward.
We have both conscious and subconscious mind within us. We are unique!
If we want to know more about ourselves, we don’t look outside ourselves, we look within ourselves. As above so below, and as without so within; this is what Source did.
This is a slight change from our earlier conclusions of projections and emanations, but not entirely, because both exist. It depends on which perspective we are viewing all of this from, and we couldn’t have gotten to this point without the first part.
In all of our intentions, beliefs, wishing, raging, and blame, have we ever considered that by doing this, we are holding space open within this subconscious Divine Creation and preventing Sophia from healing Her subconscious of which we are part? Think about what it takes to heal our shadows. What we do for ourselves, we also do for HER and this is what “unmakes” this fracture of the Divine Mind. It also works in reverse; what we do towards ourselves and others that decreases our awareness, we are also doing to Sophia. If we REALLY want to make all this suffering go away, once and for all, then we need to heal our own minds because our mind is HER mind is the Monad’s Mind. How well does that sit with personal responsibility…?