Quite often when new people come to public talks they ask
about or mention the word Demiurge. I frankly was not really well versed in
what really who or what is the Demiurge. All, that I really knew was that it
can be looked upon by some as negative, that is as the 'bad guy' in the story.
So, in order to remedy my ignorance of the Demiurge, I am
writing this post.
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| Fire as the architect of the Universe. |
The Word – Demiurge
First things first, let’s shine the spotlight on the word; 'Demiurge'.
Demiurge is an English word stemming from the word demiurgus
which is the Latin version of the original Greek
word demiourgos.
It is said that demiourgos in Greek was a common noun
referring to ‘artisan’ or ‘craftsman’. In time though it came to be used as ‘creator’
or ‘producer’. This meaning of the Greek word demiourgos comes from Plato’s work "Timaeus" where the word is assigned to a character who has the role of being the
creator of the material world.
Various other platonic schools such as Neoplatonism and Middle
Platonism hold this version of the Demiruge as being a benevolent creator who
created the material world out of imperfect matter thus making the material
world imperfect.
Master Samael on the Demiurge
Scouring through Master Samael’s works and talks, the
Demiurge is indeed considered to be the creator, but a Divine creator.
Master Samael says that the Demiurge Architect of the Universe
is the Army of the Word, which is a unity and which is also known as the Elohim. He says
that it is the Cosmic Christ that is present in everything created. He also says
that the Demiurge is the Fire! Which creates and organises creation.
As an interesting aside, Master Samael says that the Demiurge
Architect is Adi-Buddha. Which we know resides in AIN SOPH AUR, from which the
Ray of Okidanoch emanates from. Adi-Budha is also the prototype of Kether in the
Absolute. So then, the Demiurge Architect of the Universe is all of our Beings united together as one fulfilling the function of creating.
For Master Samael the Demiurge is something Divine and of the
Absolute. It is the Fire for him, which is Divine and which is redeeming and responsible for creation.
Certainly for Master Samael the Demiurge Architect is not malevolent nor the ‘bad
guy’ of the story of creation.
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| Demiurge often depicted as a serpent with a lion's head. |
Various Excerpts
1.
"The Unmanifest, the Unknowable, is Aelohim. Moses
worshiped Aelohim. The Manifested One, the Second One, is the Demiurge
Architect of the Universe, it is the Fire, it is the Cosmic Chrestos; It is
Vishnu, who can penetrate everything that is, has been and will be. Obviously,
the reason of being of the Manifested Logos is to create and re-create. "
“El Inmanifestado, el
Incognoscible, es Aelohim. Moisés rindió culto a Aelohim. El Manifestado, el
Segundo Uno, es el Demiurgo Arquitecto del Universo, es el Fuego, es el
Chrestos Cósmico; es Vishnu, el cual puede penetrar en todo lo que es, ha sido
y será. Obviamente, la razón de ser del Logos Manifestado es crear y volver
nuevamente a crear.”
2.
“he is the Demiurge of the Greeks, the Platonic Logos, the
Great Principle of Nature vibrating in every atom, making each Sun shudder, it is
the CREATING FIRE of the first instant ...”
“es el Demiurgo de los
griegos, el Logos platónico, el Principio Ingente de la Naturaleza haciendo
vibrar cada átomo, hacienda estremecer cada Sol, es el FUEGO CREADOR del primer
instante...”
3.
“First of all I have to say, emphatically and with complete
clarity, that Quetzalcoatl is not a myth. Unquestionably, Quetzalcoatl is the
VERB, it is THE GREAT WORD, it is the PLATONIC LOGOS, the DEMIURGE ARCHITECT
OF THE UNIVERSE, the CREATIVE FIRE ...”
“Ante todo he de
decir, en forma enfática y con entera claridad, que Quetzalcóatl no es un mito.
Incuestionablemente, Quetzalcóatl es el VERBO, es LA GRAN PALABRA, es el LOGOS
PLATÓ-NICO, el DEMIURGO ARQUITECTO DEL UNIVERSO, el FUEGO CREADOR...”
4.
“Remember, my dear brothers, that there are two Ones. The
First One is AELOHIM; the Second One is ELOHIM; the First One is the
UNMANIFESTED, the UNKNOWABLE, the Divinity that can not be drawn, nor
symbolized, nor burned. The Second One, springs from the first One and is the
ARCHITECT DEMIURGE OF THE UNIVERSE: Fire.”
“Recuerden ustedes mis
queridos hermanos, que hay dos UNOS. El Primer Uno es AELOHIM; el Segundo Uno
es ELOHIM; el Primer Uno es el INMANIFESTADO, el INCOGNOSCIBLE, la Divinidad que
no se puede pintar, ni simbolizar, ni burilar. El Segundo Uno, brota del primer
Uno y es el DEMIURGO ARQUITECTO DEL UNIVERSO: el Fuego.”
5.
M. Obviously! The Ten Sephiroths have to Self-Realize themselves;
and anyone who achieves the Intimate Self-Realization of his Ten Kabbalistic
Sephiroths, BECOMES ELOHIM; that's obvious. But I repeat: One thing is the
Elohim, as part of the Creator Demiurge of the Universe, and another thing is
Adi-Buddha, the Unmanifested.
“M. ¡Obviamente! Los
Diez Sephirotes hay que Autorrealizarlos; y todo aquél que logre la Autorrealización
Íntima de sus Diez Sephirotes kabalísticos, SE CONVIERTE EN ELOHIM; eso es obvio.
Pero repito: Una cosa es el Elohim, como parte del Demiurgo Creador del
Universo, y otra cosa es Adi-Buddha, el Inmanifestado.”
6.
“Christ must give life to our Body, it must develop in our
organism as Living and Philosophical Fire; it must burn in our Consciousness,
that is, in our Soul, and it must shine in our Spirit. Here are the three steps
of the Demiurge Architect, that is, the Fire.
INRI (Ignis Natura Renovatur Integram, Fire renews nature
incessantly).
It is necessary to renew the body by means of Fire; we must
bring the Fire to our Soul and we must take it to our Spirit.
The Fire, descending, shines in our Spirit, becomes fecund
in our Soul and transforms our body; this is the three steps of the Christus in
the seven Regions of this Universe.”
“Cristo ha de dar vida
a nuestro Cuerpo, ha de desarrollarse en nuestro organismo como Fuego Viviente
y Filosofal; ha de arder en nuestra Conciencia, es decir, en nuestra Alma, y ha
de resplandecer en nuestro Espíritu. He ahí los tres pasos del Demiurgo
Arquitecto, es decir, del Fuego.
INRI (Ignis Natura
Renovatur Integram, el Fuego renueva incesantemente la Naturaleza).
Hay que renovar el
cuerpo por medio del Fuego; hay que llevar el Fuego a nuestra Alma y hay que llevarlo
a nuestro Espíritu.
El Fuego,
descendiendo, resplandece en nuestro Espíritu, se hace fecundo en nuestra Alma
y transforma nuestro cuerpo; así son los tres pasos del Christus en las siete
Regiones de este Universo.”
Demiurge and Classic Gnosticism
“Gnosticism presents a
distinction between the highest, unknowable God and the demiurgic
"creator" of the material. Several systems of Gnostic thought present
the Demiurge as antagonistic to the will of the Supreme Being: his act of
creation occurs in an 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. Thus, in such systems, the
Demiurge acts as a solution to (or, at least possibly, the problem or cause
that gives rise to the problem of evil.”
There are various old classic Gnostic myths that go along
the lines of:
“One Gnostic mythos describes the declination of aspects of
the divine into human form. Sophia (Greek: Σοφία, lit. "wisdom"), the
Demiurge's mother a partial aspect of the divine Pleroma or
"Fullness," desired to create something apart from the divine totality,
without the receipt of divine assent. In this act of separate creation, she
gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and, being ashamed of her deed, wrapped
him in a cloud and created a throne for him within it. The Demiurge, isolated,
did not behold his mother, nor anyone else, and concluded that only he existed,
ignorant of the superior levels of reality.
The Demiurge, having received a portion of power from his
mother, sets about a work of creation in unconscious imitation of the superior
Pleromatic realm: He frames the seven heavens, as well as all material and
animal things, according to forms furnished by his mother; working however
blindly, and ignorant even of the existence of the mother who is the source of
all his energy. He is blind to all that is spiritual, but he is king over the
other two provinces. The word dēmiourgos properly describes his relation to the
material; he is the father of that which is animal like himself.
Thus Sophia's power becomes enclosed within the material
forms of humanity, themselves entrapped within the material universe: the goal
of Gnostic movements was typically the awakening of this spark, which permitted
a return by the subject to the superior, non-material realities which were its
primal source”
These myths really depict the ego within ourselves though because
people no longer see the ego within they start to think that the demiurge of
these Gnostic myths is the real creator of the world. But they are wrong, the
Gnostics were referring to the 'ego'.
Why the ‘Bad Guy’?
All because of the false demiurge. There is yes, a false
demiurge architect of the universe, and it is no other than the ego, the ‘myself’
that we all carry within.
What has happened is that people have stopped seeing the ego
in themselves and have attributed this world of much pain and suffering to have
been created by a flawed creator, which they have called the Demiurge. But
really the real Demiurge as Master Samael describes does not have anything to
do with the creator of all of this pain and suffering, of whom the creator is
the false demiurge, which is the ego in us.
Ego as the False Demiurge
As the real Demiurge creates the universe, the material
word, the false demiurge - the ego creates a world as well.
Is not the ego an answer to every occasion of life? Does not
the ego wish through the technology and science of the Anti-Christ, to create a
world separate from the Divine Being in all of us. A world that does not even
need to remember the Divine Being?
The will of the ego works tirelessly to maintain ourselves
in a life separate from our inner Being or the Divine in us and outside of us.
The interesting thing though is who created the ego? And who
maintains the ego? Who managed to create the whole structure of the ego such
that it takes care of every corner of our life? Some force, some intelligence
perhaps? Perhaps the Archons of the Law? Or perhaps ourselves and behind that
our Being? Anyway when the Being decides it is enough, It throws down the false demiurge (the ego) and realises itself.
Summary and Final Comments
So, the word Demiurge comes originally from Greek and means
creator, where it was really Plato that gave the word this meaning.
Gnosis as taught by Master Samael sees the demiurge as the creating
Divine Fire or the Cosmic Christ.
The reason why it is seen in a negative light is because of the
ego which within us fulfils that role of demiurge creating a world of pain and
suffering, and the architect of that painful world is our karma and the ‘myself’,
which is the father of the three furies. Ultimately though our fall created the "I" and the "I" created the false world in which it lives separate and devoid of the Divine Being in us,
End (2577).
