Valentinus taught that just like every other teaching, that the reason why the world is fucked up, or there is deficiency is NOT that we disobeyed the Creator, there was no Original Sin, nothing to be guilty of in our existence. The reason why there is that constant feeling, like 'something is missing' that something we have to journey for, is that in the material creation, there was a lack of integrity; something in the process of creation of all the worlds, and universes, there was a defective flaw.
The flaw was put in place, so we could transcend it and find, value the "LIGHT' from the darkness. You know that it is only through struggle that you learn to Value something. Once again, there was no cosmic guilt to feel, or collective shame in being born, rather, the ignorance of the Divine realm and of the INEFFABLE ONE, was put in place so that, the divine spark in each and every human being could return to unity. All of us have the divine spark, while some, -most- are material dominated, and thus the lowest, -hylics- and have so very, very little, while others have a better chance, and are mental dominated, -psychics-, and they have actual 'free will' or a substantial degree of it. The Pneumatics, well they have a choice too, but, they are guided at birth, and have a certain 'calling' and influence to return to the Divine.
Valentinus did not hold Yahweh, or the Orthodox as the Highest, but rather he or it was, known as the Demiurge, Ildabaoth, also known as Ariel, as the highest, rather, he was just a Psychic Being created of Soul. Soul was merely the tool for the Spirit, or Divine Feminine -Sophia- to return to the Divine.
Ildabaoth, or Ariel, was the Creator God, who created material creation, and said if you do not follow my rules you will be punished. He was not evil or good, just merely a tool for the Spirit to return to the Divine. Since he was, at best Soul, -vehicle for the Spirit-, he did not have awareness of the realm higher than himself. He was arrogant and self aggrandizing. With every creation that he established, under the unknown guidance of Sophia, he would boast and revel in his own created glory.
Divine Femine/Sophia/Spirit/Michele
and Demiurge/Mind/Ildabaoth-Ariel/Soul
See Love, this was a psychological metaphor that the Demiurge, or Ariel, was the mind, Sophia was the heart. Remember while thoughts are akin to Appearance, and Emotions are the representative of Reality, The head is only a tool for the heart to tame, and direct it's love. Love is the highest knowledge, not facts or formulas. The Gnostics used the word, Kosmos, which did not mean 'world' but system. They claimed that Ariel, or mind, created a systemization of rules, laws, and logic. The manner in which the conditional, or time dependent universe that appears, is a self created world that is a reflection of the mind. From the highest to the lowest kosmos, culture, being, one will find the same patterns of mind at play.
The way to salvation according to the Valentinian Gnostics was not following rules and laws established by the Yahweh, or the Demiurge. They were to be followed, but not by blind belief, but morality had to understood as to why it was of importance. It keeps you happy, it leads to joy, one has to understand this by self knowledge or Gnosis. The laws were put in place to keep the psychics, -mental beings-, and the material based, lesser beings, -hylics- under social control, however, it was not through obedience of these laws that would lead to immortality. The Pneumatics, or those who had knowledge of the Universal, Divine, Ineffable SELF, through transformative Experience, understood this at the very level of sensation.
They did not crave material things, nor did they disdain them, they understood the correct ratio of Value.
It was our ignorance of what was to be authentically valued by substituting unauthentic things for them. We make Hermes, Apple, Mercedes the things we need in order to be happy or whole. The Psychic dominated, make ideas, or abstractions the things they cling too. Hycleticism, the sickness of grasping for things, and Psychism, the sickness of grasping for concepts and precepts, was what made our lives so miserable, it was what killed the spirit, soul, Will, and Love in our lives.
Gnosis, was the Uniting the higher with the lower, the spirit with soul, the mind with the body, the subjective with the objective, the U and me. This Unification based on a transformative Experience is what, and the redeeming of the Soul through Effort, Activity, and Work... was what the spirit was. In making an effort, the Spirit was created. However, this ain't true for all. We are not born equal, just equal under Divine Law.
It was through Gnosis, or unifying self knowledge, in which one United Opposites, or dichotomies, created by mind, that one was able to attain the Eternal Abundance of Love, that they were created from.
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The next section, is the the unification of the bride with her bridgroom, in the bridal chamber, and what this meant in meta psychology terms.
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MPR.