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arises in the heart in an intuitive and mysterious manner and therefore is called in at least one Gnostic writing the Gospel of Truth the Aeonology is the ancient and lost art of Gnosis Kardias the knowledge of the heart studying the Aeons or more accurately This is obviously a religious concept that is talking with the AEONs The AEON at the same time highly psychological for the deck of cards are designed to make this process easier to give the user a tool for meaning and purpose of life thus appears to be neither faith with its emphasis on blind belief accessing or summoning the different Aeons and reflecting on them There are and equally blind repression nor works with similar concepts in almost every religion their extraverted do goodism but rather an the Angels and Demons of Christianity interior insight and transformation in short a depth psychological process the Gods and Goddesses of Hinduism the Angels of Islam Devas and Yakshas of Buddhism similar forces are always This lost art of Aeonology was for many millennia a practice to understand present Perhaps one of the most interesting perspectives on Aeonology is this meaning and purpose of life and the potentiality of our full whole that of C J Jung who believed that the selves It was a means to develop and Aeons were very primitive attempts at master our own mind perception understanding human psychology and the forces at play in determining human imagination beliefs and values and in doing so broaden our understanding motivations and behaviors of our own potential and the potential for connection with others This may In the book The Gnostic Jung and the sound particularly self indulgent but Seven Sermons to the Dead by Stephan A Hoeller Quest 1982 this psychological it was in fact quite the opposite The Gnostics believed that the deeper we aspect of the Gnosticism was explicitly got into understanding the many facets explored of our own being so we find deeper and more meaningful connections to Gnosticism may be said to consist of the our communities our Gods and the conviction that direct personal and absolute earth This journey to know ourselves knowledge of the authentic truths of existence ignited the curiosity and courage to is accessible to human beings and moreover explore new experiences in the physical that the attainment of such knowledge must psychological and spiritual world and always constitute the supreme achievement in doing so uncover our individual of human life This knowledge or Gnosis true nature the full potential of our they did not envision as a rational knowledge being Gnostics put all their energies into of a scientific kind or even as philosophical pursuing the spiritual dimensions and knowledge of truth but rather a knowing that Aeonology

arises in the heart in an intuitive and mysterious manner and therefore is called in at least one Gnostic writing the Gospel of Truth the Aeonology is the ancient and lost art of Gnosis Kardias the knowledge of the heart studying the Aeons or more accurately This is obviously a religious concept that is talking with the AEONs The AEON at the same time highly psychological for the deck of cards are designed to make this process easier to give the user a tool for meaning and purpose of life thus appears to be neither faith with its emphasis on blind belief accessing or summoning the different Aeons and reflecting on them There are and equally blind repression nor works with similar concepts in almost every religion their extraverted do goodism but rather an the Angels and Demons of Christianity interior insight and transformation in short a depth psychological process the Gods and Goddesses of Hinduism the Angels of Islam Devas and Yakshas of Buddhism similar forces are always This lost art of Aeonology was for many millennia a practice to understand present Perhaps one of the most interesting perspectives on Aeonology is this meaning and purpose of life and the potentiality of our full whole that of C J Jung who believed that the selves It was a means to develop and Aeons were very primitive attempts at master our own mind perception understanding human psychology and the forces at play in determining human imagination beliefs and values and in doing so broaden our understanding motivations and behaviors of our own potential and the potential for connection with others This may In the book The Gnostic Jung and the sound particularly self indulgent but Seven Sermons to the Dead by Stephan A Hoeller Quest 1982 this psychological it was in fact quite the opposite The Gnostics believed that the deeper we aspect of the Gnosticism was explicitly got into understanding the many facets explored of our own being so we find deeper and more meaningful connections to Gnosticism may be said to consist of the our communities our Gods and the conviction that direct personal and absolute earth This journey to know ourselves knowledge of the authentic truths of existence ignited the curiosity and courage to is accessible to human beings and moreover explore new experiences in the physical that the attainment of such knowledge must psychological and spiritual world and always constitute the supreme achievement in doing so uncover our individual of human life This knowledge or Gnosis true nature the full potential of our they did not envision as a rational knowledge being Gnostics put all their energies into of a scientific kind or even as philosophical pursuing the spiritual dimensions and knowledge of truth but rather a knowing that Aeonology

eschewed the realms of physical and psychological experiences Carl Jung on the other hand felt this framework helped us understand our psyche and he used it to frame his ideas of psychoanalysis For me the Aeonology framework is more than that and I put no judgement or emphasis on each realm AEON maps the landscape of ALL physical psychological and spiritual dimensions and I leave it to the individual to determine for themselves the choices or paths they wish to explore I hope that the AEON cards might push us to explore and expand our understanding of ourselves and our life experiences but there is no reason why it cannot be used to find comfort and reassurance in the realms we are familiar with

eschewed the realms of physical and psychological experiences Carl Jung on the other hand felt this framework helped us understand our psyche and he used it to frame his ideas of psychoanalysis For me the Aeonology framework is more than that and I put no judgement or emphasis on each realm AEON maps the landscape of ALL physical psychological and spiritual dimensions and I leave it to the individual to determine for themselves the choices or paths they wish to explore I hope that the AEON cards might push us to explore and expand our understanding of ourselves and our life experiences but there is no reason why it cannot be used to find comfort and reassurance in the realms we are familiar with

What are AEONs The Aeons are a collection of forces and energies that pre date formalized religion These are not concepts nor ideas they are active principles that exert their energies on us Not from the outside like the stars and planets of astrology or tarot but from within These are spiritual instinctive organic elements that are part of our own being physical psychological and spiritual The definition of Aeon in Greek is life as in the flowing energy that passes through us but this is far from a singular force They are a diverse and complex set of forces that relate to each other in complex ways and were considered to be the closest our inferior minds could come to understanding the powers of God or the Gods These profound and powerful forces that effected our very being comprised a full spectrum of energies that existed within us as a light a divine spark They describe the many sides of our divine potential archetypes if you must to our spirituality and our soul They open the doors to the interpretation of our dreams our visions and our altered states They are our connection to nature our environment and how we learn to find balance and equilibrium with the world around us In many faiths knowing the Aeons used to be an important part of achieving enlightenment understanding that although our material world feels solid definite and tangible it is in fact relative subject to change when viewed from a different perspective The recognition of this illusory nature of material reality was for many a glorious liberation and one that gave practitioners a transcendental sense of wholeness or fullness of being In fact the name they gave to Heaven the place where the divinities lived was Pleroma which literally translates to fullness or wholeness

What are AEONs The Aeons are a collection of forces and energies that pre date formalized religion These are not concepts nor ideas they are active principles that exert their energies on us Not from the outside like the stars and planets of astrology or tarot but from within These are spiritual instinctive organic elements that are part of our own being physical psychological and spiritual The definition of Aeon in Greek is life as in the flowing energy that passes through us but this is far from a singular force They are a diverse and complex set of forces that relate to each other in complex ways and were considered to be the closest our inferior minds could come to understanding the powers of God or the Gods These profound and powerful forces that effected our very being comprised a full spectrum of energies that existed within us as a light a divine spark They describe the many sides of our divine potential archetypes if you must to our spirituality and our soul They open the doors to the interpretation of our dreams our visions and our altered states They are our connection to nature our environment and how we learn to find balance and equilibrium with the world around us In many faiths knowing the Aeons used to be an important part of achieving enlightenment understanding that although our material world feels solid definite and tangible it is in fact relative subject to change when viewed from a different perspective The recognition of this illusory nature of material reality was for many a glorious liberation and one that gave practitioners a transcendental sense of wholeness or fullness of being In fact the name they gave to Heaven the place where the divinities lived was Pleroma which literally translates to fullness or wholeness

Aeonic Syzygies The first articulations of the Aeons occur in descriptions of the origin of the universe a ripple in space that created everything Like light and dark life and death on and off the Aeons emerge in pairs syzygies of uniting rather than opposing forces that are inseparably linked together The Pleroma was balanced and in harmony because these forces were united It wasn t until the creation of the material world by Sophia and the Demiurge that they became separated It is unnatural against divine order that these forces are considered independent but their energy like that of a magnet manifests as an attraction to be reunited For this reason the Aeons were referred to as Male and Female but it is a mistake to consider them gendered in the modern sense They are complementary pairs unions actions and reactions superposed states They are attracted to and desirous of each other They are stronger united than apart but they are neither attracted by similarity nor opposition The male female designation is a metaphor for their complementarity Although we may have encountered each of the Aeons as separate forces and until now considered them independent of each other this is not their natural state It is an illusion and the cause of many of our feelings of incompleteness unbalance wanting desiring dissatisfaction and deficiency Once we understand the forces at play and how they need to be connected so we have the key to finding balance and peace It is only through understanding the relationships between the Aeons and restoring unity that we can transcend our illusory reality and reveal our true reality our true selves so from that moment on the realm of appearance is no longer manifest but rather will pass away in the harmony of unity Gospel of Truth 24 27 25 6

Aeonic Syzygies The first articulations of the Aeons occur in descriptions of the origin of the universe a ripple in space that created everything Like light and dark life and death on and off the Aeons emerge in pairs syzygies of uniting rather than opposing forces that are inseparably linked together The Pleroma was balanced and in harmony because these forces were united It wasn t until the creation of the material world by Sophia and the Demiurge that they became separated It is unnatural against divine order that these forces are considered independent but their energy like that of a magnet manifests as an attraction to be reunited For this reason the Aeons were referred to as Male and Female but it is a mistake to consider them gendered in the modern sense They are complementary pairs unions actions and reactions superposed states They are attracted to and desirous of each other They are stronger united than apart but they are neither attracted by similarity nor opposition The male female designation is a metaphor for their complementarity Although we may have encountered each of the Aeons as separate forces and until now considered them independent of each other this is not their natural state It is an illusion and the cause of many of our feelings of incompleteness unbalance wanting desiring dissatisfaction and deficiency Once we understand the forces at play and how they need to be connected so we have the key to finding balance and peace It is only through understanding the relationships between the Aeons and restoring unity that we can transcend our illusory reality and reveal our true reality our true selves so from that moment on the realm of appearance is no longer manifest but rather will pass away in the harmony of unity Gospel of Truth 24 27 25 6

Male and female form and substance Within each syzygy there are two forces The first the male refers to the form the observable characteristics what the energy materially seems like looks and feels like The second the female refers to the essence the substance of what it truly is metaphysically speaking Like the soul and the spirit these are two perspectives on the same being The soul being the psyche the form the shape and character of our being and the spirit being the pneuma the substance or divine aspect of our being This is perhaps more understandable if we get into specific examples

Male and female form and substance Within each syzygy there are two forces The first the male refers to the form the observable characteristics what the energy materially seems like looks and feels like The second the female refers to the essence the substance of what it truly is metaphysically speaking Like the soul and the spirit these are two perspectives on the same being The soul being the psyche the form the shape and character of our being and the spirit being the pneuma the substance or divine aspect of our being This is perhaps more understandable if we get into specific examples

The Monad Bythos and Sige United The first two Aeons are represented by the Monad card The Monad is the fusing of the first two energies in the universe Both are unknowable unseeable incomprehensible the closest to divinity These two were Bythos and Sige From one eternal Monad all existence has flowed and to this it strives to return But the finite spirits who rule over several portions of the world counteract this universal striving after unity From them the different popular religions and in particular the Jewish have proceeded Perfection is attained by those souls who led on by reminiscences of their former conditions Bythos is the form of this first soar above all limitation and diversity to the pair which means profound and contemplation of the higher unity They despise impenetrable depth Literally the restriction imposed by the mundane spirits sea depth a primeval depth an they regard externals as of no importance and unimaginable void The counter energy faith and love as the only essentials meaning by the substance of this pair is the female faith mystical brooding of the mind absorbed energy Sige silence the nothingness in the original unity In this way they escape the Mother from which everything came the dominion of the finite mundane spirits In the very earliest stages of the origins their souls are freed from imprisonment in of the universe everything started with matter and they obtain a state of perfect repose the form of unimaginable depth space corresponding to the Buddhist Nirv na when everything and nothing This being this they have completely ascended above the world unknowable Father of the Gods was of appearance surrounded with silence nothingness Quoting Salman in Fragments of a and until he had a thought until there Forgotten Faith by G S Mead was a quantum ripple in the universe there was nothing but depth Bythos It wasn t until his Pronoia his intuition his forethought that he fertilized the feminine spirit of silence Sige around him and everything came into existence in an instant The Monad card is the combination of these two primary forces Both the divine masculine Bythos and the divine feminine Sige together as the One

The Monad Bythos and Sige United The first two Aeons are represented by the Monad card The Monad is the fusing of the first two energies in the universe Both are unknowable unseeable incomprehensible the closest to divinity These two were Bythos and Sige From one eternal Monad all existence has flowed and to this it strives to return But the finite spirits who rule over several portions of the world counteract this universal striving after unity From them the different popular religions and in particular the Jewish have proceeded Perfection is attained by those souls who led on by reminiscences of their former conditions Bythos is the form of this first soar above all limitation and diversity to the pair which means profound and contemplation of the higher unity They despise impenetrable depth Literally the restriction imposed by the mundane spirits sea depth a primeval depth an they regard externals as of no importance and unimaginable void The counter energy faith and love as the only essentials meaning by the substance of this pair is the female faith mystical brooding of the mind absorbed energy Sige silence the nothingness in the original unity In this way they escape the Mother from which everything came the dominion of the finite mundane spirits In the very earliest stages of the origins their souls are freed from imprisonment in of the universe everything started with matter and they obtain a state of perfect repose the form of unimaginable depth space corresponding to the Buddhist Nirv na when everything and nothing This being this they have completely ascended above the world unknowable Father of the Gods was of appearance surrounded with silence nothingness Quoting Salman in Fragments of a and until he had a thought until there Forgotten Faith by G S Mead was a quantum ripple in the universe there was nothing but depth Bythos It wasn t until his Pronoia his intuition his forethought that he fertilized the feminine spirit of silence Sige around him and everything came into existence in an instant The Monad card is the combination of these two primary forces Both the divine masculine Bythos and the divine feminine Sige together as the One

Phronesis Logos and Zoe united By comparison the first two Aeons of the material realm the second generation of Aeons are represented by the Phronesis card This represents the Aeons of Logos and Zoe The male of this syzygy is Logos which means word not in the grammatical sense but in the sense of giving your word We tend to know logos as the word associated with logic and reason but the literal translation is that which I say which carries multiple meanings from opinion and expectation as well as consideration and reckoning In the context of this origin story the meaning of logos seems more consistent with the idea of intention will and commitment Logos takes the form of deciding what you will do a plan or in some senses your purpose or meaning I tend to think of it as a private meaning of word rather than the public meaning of speak Word manifests more in action than in rhetoric and as you will see later it is more about how you decide to live rather than who you say you are Personally this also gives much more meaning to me to phrases like The Word of God and In the beginning was the Word which if you buy my translation is less about spoken or written law and more about intentionality and action The counterenergy in this pair is Zoe which means life Again the meaning of this word is slightly different to the modern usage of the word Zoe life refers not to a life force but to the substance of living as in the expression making a living how we spend our time all the things we do all the different aspects of life and living materially Intentions turned into life long values beliefs and commitments to live by It is for this reason that I combined these two forces the primary forces of our being what we intend Logos word and what we do Zoe life into the Phronesis card Phronesis means practical wisdom and was of a particular importance in the ancient times Wisdom was not as philosophical nor academic as we think of it today Wisdom before books schools and other educational establishments came with age and experience It was direct experience rather than received wisdom learned from others As a result it was much more material physical and practical than we think of it today This unique combination of Logos and Zoe implying good experience thinking judgment character and habits In many senses Phronesis might be summed up as mindfulness

Phronesis Logos and Zoe united By comparison the first two Aeons of the material realm the second generation of Aeons are represented by the Phronesis card This represents the Aeons of Logos and Zoe The male of this syzygy is Logos which means word not in the grammatical sense but in the sense of giving your word We tend to know logos as the word associated with logic and reason but the literal translation is that which I say which carries multiple meanings from opinion and expectation as well as consideration and reckoning In the context of this origin story the meaning of logos seems more consistent with the idea of intention will and commitment Logos takes the form of deciding what you will do a plan or in some senses your purpose or meaning I tend to think of it as a private meaning of word rather than the public meaning of speak Word manifests more in action than in rhetoric and as you will see later it is more about how you decide to live rather than who you say you are Personally this also gives much more meaning to me to phrases like The Word of God and In the beginning was the Word which if you buy my translation is less about spoken or written law and more about intentionality and action The counterenergy in this pair is Zoe which means life Again the meaning of this word is slightly different to the modern usage of the word Zoe life refers not to a life force but to the substance of living as in the expression making a living how we spend our time all the things we do all the different aspects of life and living materially Intentions turned into life long values beliefs and commitments to live by It is for this reason that I combined these two forces the primary forces of our being what we intend Logos word and what we do Zoe life into the Phronesis card Phronesis means practical wisdom and was of a particular importance in the ancient times Wisdom was not as philosophical nor academic as we think of it today Wisdom before books schools and other educational establishments came with age and experience It was direct experience rather than received wisdom learned from others As a result it was much more material physical and practical than we think of it today This unique combination of Logos and Zoe implying good experience thinking judgment character and habits In many senses Phronesis might be summed up as mindfulness

The foundations of the Divine and Earthly realms The generations of the AEONS There are two realms represented in the AEON card deck the divine and the earthly These two cards Monad and Phronesis are the only cards that represent a syzygy a union of Aeons within a single card These two cards can be considered the parents of each realm Monad represents everything divine and Phronesis represents everything earthly The remaining cards are all individual separated Aeons as described by ancient texts The Monad the union of Bythos and Sige gave birth to the primary Aeons This first generation of Aeons is the one that connect us most powerfully with both our spirit and our soul They are our closest connection to our truth that divine spark within us These first two Aeons called Nous and Alethia are the most mortally comprehensible aspects of the divine metaphysical realm but they are also the foundations from which we can learn to know ourselves and explore our true nature

The foundations of the Divine and Earthly realms The generations of the AEONS There are two realms represented in the AEON card deck the divine and the earthly These two cards Monad and Phronesis are the only cards that represent a syzygy a union of Aeons within a single card These two cards can be considered the parents of each realm Monad represents everything divine and Phronesis represents everything earthly The remaining cards are all individual separated Aeons as described by ancient texts The Monad the union of Bythos and Sige gave birth to the primary Aeons This first generation of Aeons is the one that connect us most powerfully with both our spirit and our soul They are our closest connection to our truth that divine spark within us These first two Aeons called Nous and Alethia are the most mortally comprehensible aspects of the divine metaphysical realm but they are also the foundations from which we can learn to know ourselves and explore our true nature

Generation 1 Nous and Aletheia Nous is the Greek word for mind both conscious and unconscious Nous really refers to everything that we can know and the Greeks have many words for different dimensions of consciousness although they did not use that word Many of these words are still used today and some important ones are not All are very valuable as we consider the power of our own mind in guiding us imaginative endeavor or the curiosity to discover new external truths in the form of exploration innovation invention hypothesis ideas etc Inherent in the pairing of these two Aeons is the idea that what we know is only a tiny part of a vast infinite world of truths that are possible And while the wealth of our own knowledge and all human knowledge feels vast it is essential that we avoid the conceit of thinking we can know an absolute truth If Pronoia pro before noia thinking refers to all we were ever to discover all truths there would be no mental activity before thought before consciousness room for curiosity exploration and discovery There These include automatic thinking the intuitive self would be no room for learning and new discoveries the unconscious and what the Greeks thought of as In an infinite world how could we possibly know foreknowledge instinct and premonition everything Truth is expansive with every new Ennoia en in noia thinking is the act of thinking discovery for ourselves or new learning comes new conceiving of thinking and meditation and reflection realms of discovery new avenues to explore new ideas to be posited and hypothesized about This same dynamic applies to our mind Equally expansive Epinoia epi with noia thinking refers to equally infinite The more we explore try to know and the power of creative thought with reflection understand our whole self the more is revealed to us consideration design and imagination about ourselves Doorways lead to more doorways Paranoia para without noia thinking Without This is how I see these two Aeons in union Mind thinking irrational thoughtlessness madness and truth everything we can know in tension with everything that is knowable discoverable The infinite Noesis Nous mind sis in action which means thinking reason rationality and logic based thought mental capacity of the mind to imagine experience and deduce things and yet that very capacity gives birth simultaneously to the fact that there remains Noema is awareness of what is thought about A so much more that is yet to be conceived of and specific type of thinking related to mindfulness discovered and explored In the very sense that the Monad by the very act of thinking gave birth Nous therefore refers to all that we can be aware of to everything in the universe so our individual All that we can think of our whole cognition and consciousness Our reason and our logic our creativity minds have this power too not only to think but and imagination our instincts and intuitions and our in doing so bring forth the potential to create new truths new discoveries original thoughts previously madness and delusions Our states of consciousness our memories our dreams our fears and our desires unconsidered Mind and truth are not the same thing but in union our mind defines our truths and the Everything we know everything we know about truths we tell ourselves or seek to uncover define how ourselves and everything we know about the world we conceive of the world around us The Aeon born alongside Nous is Aletheia Alethia is the Greek word for Truth the spirit of all that can be known In Greek the word Aletheia literally means all that is to be revealed Aletheia therefore is the Aeon of both the Truths that we have learned and discovered and all the truths we have still to discover The desire and drive to find truth is such a profound and powerful motivator whether an inner personal or

Generation 1 Nous and Aletheia Nous is the Greek word for mind both conscious and unconscious Nous really refers to everything that we can know and the Greeks have many words for different dimensions of consciousness although they did not use that word Many of these words are still used today and some important ones are not All are very valuable as we consider the power of our own mind in guiding us imaginative endeavor or the curiosity to discover new external truths in the form of exploration innovation invention hypothesis ideas etc Inherent in the pairing of these two Aeons is the idea that what we know is only a tiny part of a vast infinite world of truths that are possible And while the wealth of our own knowledge and all human knowledge feels vast it is essential that we avoid the conceit of thinking we can know an absolute truth If Pronoia pro before noia thinking refers to all we were ever to discover all truths there would be no mental activity before thought before consciousness room for curiosity exploration and discovery There These include automatic thinking the intuitive self would be no room for learning and new discoveries the unconscious and what the Greeks thought of as In an infinite world how could we possibly know foreknowledge instinct and premonition everything Truth is expansive with every new Ennoia en in noia thinking is the act of thinking discovery for ourselves or new learning comes new conceiving of thinking and meditation and reflection realms of discovery new avenues to explore new ideas to be posited and hypothesized about This same dynamic applies to our mind Equally expansive Epinoia epi with noia thinking refers to equally infinite The more we explore try to know and the power of creative thought with reflection understand our whole self the more is revealed to us consideration design and imagination about ourselves Doorways lead to more doorways Paranoia para without noia thinking Without This is how I see these two Aeons in union Mind thinking irrational thoughtlessness madness and truth everything we can know in tension with everything that is knowable discoverable The infinite Noesis Nous mind sis in action which means thinking reason rationality and logic based thought mental capacity of the mind to imagine experience and deduce things and yet that very capacity gives birth simultaneously to the fact that there remains Noema is awareness of what is thought about A so much more that is yet to be conceived of and specific type of thinking related to mindfulness discovered and explored In the very sense that the Monad by the very act of thinking gave birth Nous therefore refers to all that we can be aware of to everything in the universe so our individual All that we can think of our whole cognition and consciousness Our reason and our logic our creativity minds have this power too not only to think but and imagination our instincts and intuitions and our in doing so bring forth the potential to create new truths new discoveries original thoughts previously madness and delusions Our states of consciousness our memories our dreams our fears and our desires unconsidered Mind and truth are not the same thing but in union our mind defines our truths and the Everything we know everything we know about truths we tell ourselves or seek to uncover define how ourselves and everything we know about the world we conceive of the world around us The Aeon born alongside Nous is Aletheia Alethia is the Greek word for Truth the spirit of all that can be known In Greek the word Aletheia literally means all that is to be revealed Aletheia therefore is the Aeon of both the Truths that we have learned and discovered and all the truths we have still to discover The desire and drive to find truth is such a profound and powerful motivator whether an inner personal or

Generation 2 Logos and Zoe Premiere Tetrade As discussed above the two Primary Aeons Nous and Aletheia gave birth to another pair of Aeons Logos and Zoe These Aeons defined how mind and truth manifest externally in the world In Greek this would be known as Praxis or Action Turning acts of the mind thought ideas wills and desires into action in the world and incarceration are de humanizing because our minds are free but our bodies and our ability to act on them our ability to live to them is curtailed With voice we have a life With life our decisions and choices of how we act so we have voice As with all the Aeons the masculine Logos describes the form of this syzygy Giving voice to our mind and truth Having a point of view having a perspective on all that is happening around us This perspective may be unique to us based on the contribution of our unique mind and our unique sense of truths that we have discovered or seek What s critical to understand here is that our Logos our word gives each of us a different voice and with that voice comes a different life What we give voice to defines how we live and how we live defines our voice When our voice is unheard or suppressed by ourselves or others when we conform to norms and societal convention then our sense of living is lost we lose our voice and we lose our sense of being alive When we dwell too much in our mind or in our own truths and do not manifest these in action then similarly our sense of self and our sense of living is equally crushed This is why imprisonment These are the offspring of Logos and Zoe The third generation of Aeons are 5 syzygy pairs known as the Decad meaning 10 of Intelligence These tangible actions born of voice and life show us potential intelligences or ways of knowing our psyche or our spirit pneuma We are all familiar with intelligence as an ability to acquire knowledge and skills but we tend to only think of it along one dimension mathematical or logical as in IQ There are many other intelligences dimensions of acquiring knowledge or skills This generation of Aeons describe such dynamics Generation 3 The Decad of Intelligence

Generation 2 Logos and Zoe Premiere Tetrade As discussed above the two Primary Aeons Nous and Aletheia gave birth to another pair of Aeons Logos and Zoe These Aeons defined how mind and truth manifest externally in the world In Greek this would be known as Praxis or Action Turning acts of the mind thought ideas wills and desires into action in the world and incarceration are de humanizing because our minds are free but our bodies and our ability to act on them our ability to live to them is curtailed With voice we have a life With life our decisions and choices of how we act so we have voice As with all the Aeons the masculine Logos describes the form of this syzygy Giving voice to our mind and truth Having a point of view having a perspective on all that is happening around us This perspective may be unique to us based on the contribution of our unique mind and our unique sense of truths that we have discovered or seek What s critical to understand here is that our Logos our word gives each of us a different voice and with that voice comes a different life What we give voice to defines how we live and how we live defines our voice When our voice is unheard or suppressed by ourselves or others when we conform to norms and societal convention then our sense of living is lost we lose our voice and we lose our sense of being alive When we dwell too much in our mind or in our own truths and do not manifest these in action then similarly our sense of self and our sense of living is equally crushed This is why imprisonment These are the offspring of Logos and Zoe The third generation of Aeons are 5 syzygy pairs known as the Decad meaning 10 of Intelligence These tangible actions born of voice and life show us potential intelligences or ways of knowing our psyche or our spirit pneuma We are all familiar with intelligence as an ability to acquire knowledge and skills but we tend to only think of it along one dimension mathematical or logical as in IQ There are many other intelligences dimensions of acquiring knowledge or skills This generation of Aeons describe such dynamics Generation 3 The Decad of Intelligence

3 1 Bythos and Mixis The Intelligence of Immersion Bythos is a word for depth the deep endless depth of the sea An abyss all consuming In some senses this word means profound as in from the bottom getting to the bottom of things deep understanding and appreciation of complexity Depth of knowledge deeply felt going deep In some ways the idea of Bythos is very singular it is a focus on a singular thing an immersion into a single obsession or falling down a proverbial rabbit hole where there is nothing else that can be considered If this sense of depth is the form of the syzygy then the spirit of it is Mixis the female counterpoint its perfect pairing Mixis is the word for bringing together uniting or in alchemical terms to mix up stir together and to co mingle Mixis is also a reference to sexual intercourse joining and mixing of the sexes When you think of the idea of depth and immersion then of course the power of that understanding or singular obsession is not more of the same The true value of that depth or that foundational understanding is to bring it to other realms Alone it is nothing more than additional depth but when mixed or paired with others brought out of its immersion its value can be found In some senses this continues a theme that we see a lot across the Aeons that singularity is a weakness and needs to be brought together shared integrated and combined Where you have depth of feeling bring in other feelings where you have depth of knowledge combine it with other knowledge where you are into something deep bring in others The balance to depth is not shallowness or superficiality but mixing with other equally deep and profound elements Strong flavors don t pair with bland flavors they come to life when mixed with complementary flavors

3 1 Bythos and Mixis The Intelligence of Immersion Bythos is a word for depth the deep endless depth of the sea An abyss all consuming In some senses this word means profound as in from the bottom getting to the bottom of things deep understanding and appreciation of complexity Depth of knowledge deeply felt going deep In some ways the idea of Bythos is very singular it is a focus on a singular thing an immersion into a single obsession or falling down a proverbial rabbit hole where there is nothing else that can be considered If this sense of depth is the form of the syzygy then the spirit of it is Mixis the female counterpoint its perfect pairing Mixis is the word for bringing together uniting or in alchemical terms to mix up stir together and to co mingle Mixis is also a reference to sexual intercourse joining and mixing of the sexes When you think of the idea of depth and immersion then of course the power of that understanding or singular obsession is not more of the same The true value of that depth or that foundational understanding is to bring it to other realms Alone it is nothing more than additional depth but when mixed or paired with others brought out of its immersion its value can be found In some senses this continues a theme that we see a lot across the Aeons that singularity is a weakness and needs to be brought together shared integrated and combined Where you have depth of feeling bring in other feelings where you have depth of knowledge combine it with other knowledge where you are into something deep bring in others The balance to depth is not shallowness or superficiality but mixing with other equally deep and profound elements Strong flavors don t pair with bland flavors they come to life when mixed with complementary flavors

3 2 Ageratos and Henosis The Intelligence of Intimacy Ageratos means eternal Un aging stable long lasting It is a form that can withstand the tests of time Unchanging In this sense it is anything stable and reliable always present and resilient to external forces The syzygy with Ageratos is Henosis this means a wholeness and togetherness A pairing or a partnership This syzygy reinforces a truth about all of the Aeons that they only achieve permanence through togetherness intimacy over time a marriage if you will As with all of us we come into the world as individuals but that is not our natural state We are unnaturally separated and are driven to find unification alliances friendships and partnerships in order to find harmony and balance This syzygy helps us understand who we are by understanding what attracts us what compels us the others who energize us Nothing is forever if alone All things in heaven and earth need to find their complementary partner or partners to sustain themselves The natural order of the universe is this intimacy evolving union not isolation That is not a once and done state of togetherness but a deepening ever expanding sharing of all of ourselves No secrets no exceptions So just as our knowledge and understanding of ourselves evolves so the intimate knowledge of our partners must also develop in parallel Deepening intimacy brings a strengthening of reciprocity and shared destiny Those who pursue an independent and individual existence will wither and fade over time There is no longevity for selfishness There is no legacy for such an ego

3 2 Ageratos and Henosis The Intelligence of Intimacy Ageratos means eternal Un aging stable long lasting It is a form that can withstand the tests of time Unchanging In this sense it is anything stable and reliable always present and resilient to external forces The syzygy with Ageratos is Henosis this means a wholeness and togetherness A pairing or a partnership This syzygy reinforces a truth about all of the Aeons that they only achieve permanence through togetherness intimacy over time a marriage if you will As with all of us we come into the world as individuals but that is not our natural state We are unnaturally separated and are driven to find unification alliances friendships and partnerships in order to find harmony and balance This syzygy helps us understand who we are by understanding what attracts us what compels us the others who energize us Nothing is forever if alone All things in heaven and earth need to find their complementary partner or partners to sustain themselves The natural order of the universe is this intimacy evolving union not isolation That is not a once and done state of togetherness but a deepening ever expanding sharing of all of ourselves No secrets no exceptions So just as our knowledge and understanding of ourselves evolves so the intimate knowledge of our partners must also develop in parallel Deepening intimacy brings a strengthening of reciprocity and shared destiny Those who pursue an independent and individual existence will wither and fade over time There is no longevity for selfishness There is no legacy for such an ego

3 3 Autophyes and Hedone The Intelligence of Satisfaction Autophyes derives from the Greek phuo meaning to make or to generate To rise up Auto means to do this on your own by itself Selfmanifesting Self determining While the word is more commonly defined as self generating as in asexual reproduction giving birth without a sexual partner that definition hardly makes sense in the context of a syzygy that is clearly partnered It is therefore more likely that the meaning lies closer to self determination knowing your essential self and having the power to manifest that reality In a modern sense we might call this self motivated or being goal oriented Hedone on the other hand refers to enjoyment and pleasure Most often these are sensual pleasures Hedone is different to Macaria or happiness in that it is refers to pleasures that we share with other people rather than happiness for ourselves This is an important distinction for this syzygy as selfdetermining and self pleasuring would feel far too similar to Autophyes to be a meaningful pairing When you understand the meaning of the original Greek words what s interesting is the tension between the two The tension between knowing what you want making things happen for yourself while also recognizing that ultimate satisfaction rarely comes from these lone determinations Pleasure and enjoyment occurs when these pleasures are shared with others Even when you ve created something great achieved something impressive the real satisfaction comes from the pleasure it brings to others not just the pleasure that it brings to you personally Even in art one of the purest forms of personal creation the value of it is rarely in the personal enjoyment of creation but instead the pleasure you get from sharing it and experiencing the pleasure of others from what you have created The same is true of almost all achievements creations and exchanges the making of a thing is only half of the equation While you may think you are creating something for yourself living in service of yourself the truth is that your pleasure in this will be determined by the shared pleasure and enjoyment of others It s not that we should create for others we must create for ourselves but satisfaction comes when we let others share in what we ve uniquely contributed to the world

3 3 Autophyes and Hedone The Intelligence of Satisfaction Autophyes derives from the Greek phuo meaning to make or to generate To rise up Auto means to do this on your own by itself Selfmanifesting Self determining While the word is more commonly defined as self generating as in asexual reproduction giving birth without a sexual partner that definition hardly makes sense in the context of a syzygy that is clearly partnered It is therefore more likely that the meaning lies closer to self determination knowing your essential self and having the power to manifest that reality In a modern sense we might call this self motivated or being goal oriented Hedone on the other hand refers to enjoyment and pleasure Most often these are sensual pleasures Hedone is different to Macaria or happiness in that it is refers to pleasures that we share with other people rather than happiness for ourselves This is an important distinction for this syzygy as selfdetermining and self pleasuring would feel far too similar to Autophyes to be a meaningful pairing When you understand the meaning of the original Greek words what s interesting is the tension between the two The tension between knowing what you want making things happen for yourself while also recognizing that ultimate satisfaction rarely comes from these lone determinations Pleasure and enjoyment occurs when these pleasures are shared with others Even when you ve created something great achieved something impressive the real satisfaction comes from the pleasure it brings to others not just the pleasure that it brings to you personally Even in art one of the purest forms of personal creation the value of it is rarely in the personal enjoyment of creation but instead the pleasure you get from sharing it and experiencing the pleasure of others from what you have created The same is true of almost all achievements creations and exchanges the making of a thing is only half of the equation While you may think you are creating something for yourself living in service of yourself the truth is that your pleasure in this will be determined by the shared pleasure and enjoyment of others It s not that we should create for others we must create for ourselves but satisfaction comes when we let others share in what we ve uniquely contributed to the world

3 4 Acinetos and Syncrasis The Intelligence of Differentiation Acinetos in Greek means unmoved immovable from the Ancient Greek a not kineo I move This is the Aeon of steadfastness and resilience It represents the class of things that are not subject to change or movement So in some senses this includes simply being static and unyielding while in others it represents unalterable and unchanging over time immutable The idea of stability and immovability was a strong theme in a lot of Gnostic texts While it was often applied to objects things forms it was most commonly applied to people or groups of people families and races In this context the meaning of Acinetos is more about resolve or commitment to a cornerstone principle or value It is the righteous person who will never be moved I find this an interesting distinction because of the assumption that the world we live in is constantly shifting and our ideas and thoughts constantly evolve Given this there is virtue in identifying something to ground yourself to In the Pistis Sophia text there is even reference to a song of praise where the Pistis Sophia claims even if all matter hyle is moved kim I will not be moved This is where I find the pairing of this syzygy with Syncrasis interesting Whereas Acinetos means this fixed and foundational element Syncrasis means blended or intermixed In modern use we are most familiar with this term Syncrasis from the word ideo syncrasy your own unique mix or combination of characteristics The power of this intelligence is not to try to change or the transformation of individual elements but rather to discover the energy that is released when different elements are combined Like chemical reactions where each element is fixed in nature but when mixed there is the potential to have great power and effect This is the foundation of alchemical methods creating amalgamations potions and experiments In life and work this is the power of knowing and understanding how we are different and the power of that difference in different contexts in different environments and in different collaborations Being fixed in your form is a strength whose potential is released when mixed and blended with different forms rather than similar In our communities societies and congregations it is this blending this invitation to explore and create different combinations that teaches us about ourselves and our powers We don t need to bend surrender or be moved by our environment or those around us because our true nature is found in differentiation rather than homogeneity

3 4 Acinetos and Syncrasis The Intelligence of Differentiation Acinetos in Greek means unmoved immovable from the Ancient Greek a not kineo I move This is the Aeon of steadfastness and resilience It represents the class of things that are not subject to change or movement So in some senses this includes simply being static and unyielding while in others it represents unalterable and unchanging over time immutable The idea of stability and immovability was a strong theme in a lot of Gnostic texts While it was often applied to objects things forms it was most commonly applied to people or groups of people families and races In this context the meaning of Acinetos is more about resolve or commitment to a cornerstone principle or value It is the righteous person who will never be moved I find this an interesting distinction because of the assumption that the world we live in is constantly shifting and our ideas and thoughts constantly evolve Given this there is virtue in identifying something to ground yourself to In the Pistis Sophia text there is even reference to a song of praise where the Pistis Sophia claims even if all matter hyle is moved kim I will not be moved This is where I find the pairing of this syzygy with Syncrasis interesting Whereas Acinetos means this fixed and foundational element Syncrasis means blended or intermixed In modern use we are most familiar with this term Syncrasis from the word ideo syncrasy your own unique mix or combination of characteristics The power of this intelligence is not to try to change or the transformation of individual elements but rather to discover the energy that is released when different elements are combined Like chemical reactions where each element is fixed in nature but when mixed there is the potential to have great power and effect This is the foundation of alchemical methods creating amalgamations potions and experiments In life and work this is the power of knowing and understanding how we are different and the power of that difference in different contexts in different environments and in different collaborations Being fixed in your form is a strength whose potential is released when mixed and blended with different forms rather than similar In our communities societies and congregations it is this blending this invitation to explore and create different combinations that teaches us about ourselves and our powers We don t need to bend surrender or be moved by our environment or those around us because our true nature is found in differentiation rather than homogeneity

3 5 Monogenes and Macaria The Intelligence of Being Monogenes means uniqueness One of a kind Without peer or in a class of your own Literally it translates as one born which reminds us we are unique just like everyone else Whether it s our DNA our lineage or parentage our personality our life experiences the time we were born to our achievements our strengths or weaknesses we are all different We have different faces different voices different choices that we ve made over our lives some good some regretful Carl Jung might call this the individuation process The journey to a unique and original whole from an undifferentiated seed This is not a journey of improvement or doing what is expected of you it is a journey of enlightenment and self discovery An increasing awareness of the full potential of your physical psychological spiritual and eternal reality You have to work this one out for yourself The syzygy of Monogenes is Macaria which literally translates as she who is blessed And while blessedness clearly means there is some sort of divine protection in the Gnostic sense it also connotes happiness from within This inner happiness is critical in understanding the syzygy of Monogenes and Macaria a pairing of a developed and fullyexplored self and the divine blessing that comes with this I find it interesting that the idea of happiness and blessing in this pairing clearly assumes some form of status or esteem either from yourself or from others The comparative nature in both Monogenes being unique and Macaria being blessed is the clue to why these two Aeons are so complementary At their core these two Aeons inform the individual self the psyche or soul But that is not all There is also a sense that your evolved perfected understanding of yourself brings a deeper appreciation for humanity as a whole and in return that broader community if you are true to yourself will reciprocate with a broader appreciation of you Once again we see symmetry micro macro give take self other inner outer Learning how to be who you are is the only path to learning how to be in the world So although initial impressions might suggest an Intelligence of Being a deep immersion in self might isolate the individual from the world around it instead this syzygy draws the individual deeper into the world The appreciation of your uniqueness gives you the power to make a difference in the world Your understanding of what gives you joy what makes you happy isn t what drives people to self absorption but instead is the energy that drives you into the world to share that joy and opportunity with others

3 5 Monogenes and Macaria The Intelligence of Being Monogenes means uniqueness One of a kind Without peer or in a class of your own Literally it translates as one born which reminds us we are unique just like everyone else Whether it s our DNA our lineage or parentage our personality our life experiences the time we were born to our achievements our strengths or weaknesses we are all different We have different faces different voices different choices that we ve made over our lives some good some regretful Carl Jung might call this the individuation process The journey to a unique and original whole from an undifferentiated seed This is not a journey of improvement or doing what is expected of you it is a journey of enlightenment and self discovery An increasing awareness of the full potential of your physical psychological spiritual and eternal reality You have to work this one out for yourself The syzygy of Monogenes is Macaria which literally translates as she who is blessed And while blessedness clearly means there is some sort of divine protection in the Gnostic sense it also connotes happiness from within This inner happiness is critical in understanding the syzygy of Monogenes and Macaria a pairing of a developed and fullyexplored self and the divine blessing that comes with this I find it interesting that the idea of happiness and blessing in this pairing clearly assumes some form of status or esteem either from yourself or from others The comparative nature in both Monogenes being unique and Macaria being blessed is the clue to why these two Aeons are so complementary At their core these two Aeons inform the individual self the psyche or soul But that is not all There is also a sense that your evolved perfected understanding of yourself brings a deeper appreciation for humanity as a whole and in return that broader community if you are true to yourself will reciprocate with a broader appreciation of you Once again we see symmetry micro macro give take self other inner outer Learning how to be who you are is the only path to learning how to be in the world So although initial impressions might suggest an Intelligence of Being a deep immersion in self might isolate the individual from the world around it instead this syzygy draws the individual deeper into the world The appreciation of your uniqueness gives you the power to make a difference in the world Your understanding of what gives you joy what makes you happy isn t what drives people to self absorption but instead is the energy that drives you into the world to share that joy and opportunity with others

Generation 4 Anthropos and Ecclesia Seconde Tetrade When I created the first Nockwood cards I made a clear distinction between divine and earthly motivations for human behavior Divine forces were the forces of the intangible the things that we could not touch and feel The Earthly forces the ones motivated by the things the people and the environments around us At the time I had not realized that this distinction had its roots across time From Gnosticism through Kabbalah alchemy and even in the psychology of Jung All recognized this primary distinction between the things that inhabit our environment and things that exist on another plane of being whether that be the imagination curiosity the heavens the pleroma the metaphysical and the physical The tangible and the intangible Anthropos means mankind or humanity and represents the physical body that our psyche and soul inhabits His partner in this syzygy is Ecclesia that represents the social forms the collective units of society and community that we also inhabit As the form of the syzygy Anthropos is the idealized human full of capacity and potentiality It can either be an empty vessel to be filled or a full one a complete and whole human being Anthropos is the potential of fullness of being of our true natures This motif is prominent in what Jung called the perennial tubor Anthropos appears in Gnosticism Kabbalah Alchemical wholeness and in many of Jung s writings Jung s three stages of the psyche mirror ancient descriptions of the stages of Antropos Stage 1 being the primordial condition The undifferentiated self Primal self the Hylic or lizard brain Stage 2 comes with separation of self from ego to create differentiation The idea of yourself as separate independent and free Stage 3 the integration of the self and the ego to create an individuated self a sense of your true nature individuation is the most valuable and important thing in life It is the only thing that brings any lasting satisfaction to a man Carl Jung Dream seminars P 289 In its idealized form Anthropos brings the satisfaction that material things cannot satisfy Once the psyche of the self is integrated as Anthropos finds the things that bring meaning and purpose to life so the Syzygy with Ecclesia begins to makes sense Integration of self brings with it integration with others and the world around us As we understand the things that make us whole so we understand our interdependent nature Jung would say individuation is born of integration I might go a step further and say we only understand our true nature when we understand our interrelationships with others Our collective and differentiated body minds and spirits Our infinite potential when we blend and mix them on all levels Ecclesia means gathering and brings the powers that bind us together in blood and honor They are the forces that powerfully unite us into groups Be careful here not to think this means belonging Belonging is a much later concept that came into society 14th century alongside the social idea of ownership and membership Belonging divides us because it pits group against group It rewards homogeneity and sameness rather than difference Belonging is what creates an us and in doing so creates a them and this is not the spirit of Ecclesia Ecclesia is invitation welcoming saying hello It is dignity and respect for all It informs our collaborations shared experience and shared ideals beliefs and goals Our common ground It is not about agreement or righteousness for when we are different we must expect disagreements and opposing views Ecclesia is the power to hold such tensions even rejoice and revel in them In psychological terms Ecclesia it is also the idea of the collective conscious the universal ideas the universal human truths that we share as a society that are hard wired into the way we perceive and understand the world around us All of this needs to be considered when interpreting the cards that are within this Dodecad of material energies

Generation 4 Anthropos and Ecclesia Seconde Tetrade When I created the first Nockwood cards I made a clear distinction between divine and earthly motivations for human behavior Divine forces were the forces of the intangible the things that we could not touch and feel The Earthly forces the ones motivated by the things the people and the environments around us At the time I had not realized that this distinction had its roots across time From Gnosticism through Kabbalah alchemy and even in the psychology of Jung All recognized this primary distinction between the things that inhabit our environment and things that exist on another plane of being whether that be the imagination curiosity the heavens the pleroma the metaphysical and the physical The tangible and the intangible Anthropos means mankind or humanity and represents the physical body that our psyche and soul inhabits His partner in this syzygy is Ecclesia that represents the social forms the collective units of society and community that we also inhabit As the form of the syzygy Anthropos is the idealized human full of capacity and potentiality It can either be an empty vessel to be filled or a full one a complete and whole human being Anthropos is the potential of fullness of being of our true natures This motif is prominent in what Jung called the perennial tubor Anthropos appears in Gnosticism Kabbalah Alchemical wholeness and in many of Jung s writings Jung s three stages of the psyche mirror ancient descriptions of the stages of Antropos Stage 1 being the primordial condition The undifferentiated self Primal self the Hylic or lizard brain Stage 2 comes with separation of self from ego to create differentiation The idea of yourself as separate independent and free Stage 3 the integration of the self and the ego to create an individuated self a sense of your true nature individuation is the most valuable and important thing in life It is the only thing that brings any lasting satisfaction to a man Carl Jung Dream seminars P 289 In its idealized form Anthropos brings the satisfaction that material things cannot satisfy Once the psyche of the self is integrated as Anthropos finds the things that bring meaning and purpose to life so the Syzygy with Ecclesia begins to makes sense Integration of self brings with it integration with others and the world around us As we understand the things that make us whole so we understand our interdependent nature Jung would say individuation is born of integration I might go a step further and say we only understand our true nature when we understand our interrelationships with others Our collective and differentiated body minds and spirits Our infinite potential when we blend and mix them on all levels Ecclesia means gathering and brings the powers that bind us together in blood and honor They are the forces that powerfully unite us into groups Be careful here not to think this means belonging Belonging is a much later concept that came into society 14th century alongside the social idea of ownership and membership Belonging divides us because it pits group against group It rewards homogeneity and sameness rather than difference Belonging is what creates an us and in doing so creates a them and this is not the spirit of Ecclesia Ecclesia is invitation welcoming saying hello It is dignity and respect for all It informs our collaborations shared experience and shared ideals beliefs and goals Our common ground It is not about agreement or righteousness for when we are different we must expect disagreements and opposing views Ecclesia is the power to hold such tensions even rejoice and revel in them In psychological terms Ecclesia it is also the idea of the collective conscious the universal ideas the universal human truths that we share as a society that are hard wired into the way we perceive and understand the world around us All of this needs to be considered when interpreting the cards that are within this Dodecad of material energies

Generation 5 The Dodecad of Matter 5 1 Paracletus and Pistis The Dodecad of are the forces and energies of this secondary world The physical world They are the offspring of Anthropos and Ecclesia so describe our states of being Paracletus takes the form of the helper Someone who gives their time energy voice and actions to support others This could be physical help that provides comfort or aid the verbal support of an advocate coach or councilor or the material support As with the Decad these AEONS are similarly paired of a patron or investor The literal interpretation is Para means to stand alongside to stand with others into complementary syzygies that mirror the divine and Kalein which means to shout out to call to world but these twelve are less conceptual and more In the Jewish tradition the word Paracletus is used tangible While the divine genders separated form and substance so the Aeons of the Dodecad define to refer to angels and prophets and in the Christian tradition this same word refers to the holy spirit who tangible actions and cosmic or universal reactions replaces Jesus after his resurrection and is an advocate and witness but also consoles the disciples Barton John and John Muddiman eds The Oxford Bible Commentary Oxford University Press 2007 987 The mode of action of Paracletus is one of providing help giving generously and doing good Having the interests of others in mind acting not in self interest but acting to the benefit of strangers or others within your community angels were after all divine entities who came to earth to provide such selfless support The partner to Paracletus is Pistis which means good faith and trust Faith in the sense of a positive outcome or to have faith in the good in others In ancient times the word was used to mean trustworthiness more than blind faith Here we see clearly how these material syzygies of the Dodecad work together The male aspect of the pair shows how the pair manifests in action in this case in actions that support or help others Selfless action and service of community The female of the pair shows what is received in return the reaction Thus Paracletus the helping of others is rewarded with the trust and good faith that we might come to expect The male shows what we must give and the female determines what may be born of this what we might receive The dynamic of giving and receiving Reciprocity

Generation 5 The Dodecad of Matter 5 1 Paracletus and Pistis The Dodecad of are the forces and energies of this secondary world The physical world They are the offspring of Anthropos and Ecclesia so describe our states of being Paracletus takes the form of the helper Someone who gives their time energy voice and actions to support others This could be physical help that provides comfort or aid the verbal support of an advocate coach or councilor or the material support As with the Decad these AEONS are similarly paired of a patron or investor The literal interpretation is Para means to stand alongside to stand with others into complementary syzygies that mirror the divine and Kalein which means to shout out to call to world but these twelve are less conceptual and more In the Jewish tradition the word Paracletus is used tangible While the divine genders separated form and substance so the Aeons of the Dodecad define to refer to angels and prophets and in the Christian tradition this same word refers to the holy spirit who tangible actions and cosmic or universal reactions replaces Jesus after his resurrection and is an advocate and witness but also consoles the disciples Barton John and John Muddiman eds The Oxford Bible Commentary Oxford University Press 2007 987 The mode of action of Paracletus is one of providing help giving generously and doing good Having the interests of others in mind acting not in self interest but acting to the benefit of strangers or others within your community angels were after all divine entities who came to earth to provide such selfless support The partner to Paracletus is Pistis which means good faith and trust Faith in the sense of a positive outcome or to have faith in the good in others In ancient times the word was used to mean trustworthiness more than blind faith Here we see clearly how these material syzygies of the Dodecad work together The male aspect of the pair shows how the pair manifests in action in this case in actions that support or help others Selfless action and service of community The female of the pair shows what is received in return the reaction Thus Paracletus the helping of others is rewarded with the trust and good faith that we might come to expect The male shows what we must give and the female determines what may be born of this what we might receive The dynamic of giving and receiving Reciprocity

5 2 Patricos and Elpis Patricos means Father the paternal authority the lawgiver Born of the word Patria that means generations ancestry and descent Patricos also has a strongly sexual meaning Eros the physical sexuality of desire and lust of attraction and sensuality of powerful stimulation and ejaculation giving something of yourself Although the Father is often thought of as the creator of family the patriarch he is not the one who gives birth and herein lies the tension The Aeon of Patricos defines actions that have a strong sense of ownership duty and responsibility but ultimately can t claim any ownership of what has been authored or created All he can lay claim to is the lineage from the past to the future and therefore he tries to exert his influence power and strength over it Patricos is the father s actions taking a strong active and focused interest in what has been born in his name his family his blood and his possessions It is our intuitive instinct for order organization and hierarchy Patricos is therefore responsible for the imposition of moral codes through parents and authority figures Patricos drives us to set boundaries restrictions rules and laws But inherent in this Aeon is also a sense of the futility of such actions The futility and delusion of authority The syzygy of Patricos is Elpis Hope One of the three Christian virtues alongside faith and love the first three feminine Aeons of the Dodecad We all recognize hope as the final healing energy left in Pandora s box From the earliest of times people have always understood how powerful hope can be in healing afflictions and helping us get through times of suffering loss or pain So why are Patricos and Elpis paired in this way In many ways the tension of the father as described as above is the behavior of giving everything you have Being willing to put everything on the line not for yourself but for your family and your legacy this is what Patricos is all about Dedication Commitment to a worthy cause Heroism if you will What you receive in return for such actions such dedication and commitment is hope and only hope There is no guarantee of lack of pain suffering and loss that is after all a father s destiny but what you receive in return is the powerful energy of hope The anticipation of favorable outcomes and future reward that balances the suffering Duty responsibility and a desire for ordered balance is met with optimism and positive expectation

5 2 Patricos and Elpis Patricos means Father the paternal authority the lawgiver Born of the word Patria that means generations ancestry and descent Patricos also has a strongly sexual meaning Eros the physical sexuality of desire and lust of attraction and sensuality of powerful stimulation and ejaculation giving something of yourself Although the Father is often thought of as the creator of family the patriarch he is not the one who gives birth and herein lies the tension The Aeon of Patricos defines actions that have a strong sense of ownership duty and responsibility but ultimately can t claim any ownership of what has been authored or created All he can lay claim to is the lineage from the past to the future and therefore he tries to exert his influence power and strength over it Patricos is the father s actions taking a strong active and focused interest in what has been born in his name his family his blood and his possessions It is our intuitive instinct for order organization and hierarchy Patricos is therefore responsible for the imposition of moral codes through parents and authority figures Patricos drives us to set boundaries restrictions rules and laws But inherent in this Aeon is also a sense of the futility of such actions The futility and delusion of authority The syzygy of Patricos is Elpis Hope One of the three Christian virtues alongside faith and love the first three feminine Aeons of the Dodecad We all recognize hope as the final healing energy left in Pandora s box From the earliest of times people have always understood how powerful hope can be in healing afflictions and helping us get through times of suffering loss or pain So why are Patricos and Elpis paired in this way In many ways the tension of the father as described as above is the behavior of giving everything you have Being willing to put everything on the line not for yourself but for your family and your legacy this is what Patricos is all about Dedication Commitment to a worthy cause Heroism if you will What you receive in return for such actions such dedication and commitment is hope and only hope There is no guarantee of lack of pain suffering and loss that is after all a father s destiny but what you receive in return is the powerful energy of hope The anticipation of favorable outcomes and future reward that balances the suffering Duty responsibility and a desire for ordered balance is met with optimism and positive expectation

5 3 Metricos and Agape Metricos means mother or rather motherhood the one who gives birth and brings all things to life She rules the Spring fertility pleasure feasting and all that delights us The origin here is Sanskrit Matrika which literally means divine mother The divine mother is the energy of natural creation The energy that gives birth to new ideas new concepts and new life Unlike the energy of Patricos the maternal energy is one of inward nurturing feeding and caring If Patricos is the patriarchal authority figure the setter of restrictions the mother is the model of female strength and authority Inner resilient strength rather than physical strength an unmatched commitment and dedication to the growth and development of others steering the ship not through brute force and ignorance but through acceptance and resistance Metricos is the power of transformation through renewal and empowerment rather than through domination and submission The mother has the unmatched magical power to give life but she also has the power to take life away Metricos is both the creator and destroyer She is birth and death The ultimate authority stronger than the male energy Interestingly this Aeon is designated male which once again indicates that that the designation Male Female is not gendered but rather descriptive of their different energies The reason Metricos is given the male designation is that it describes a particular set of actions Metricos manifests in tangible form Creation and destruction giving and taking of life intuitive acts over reasoned acts etc As with Patricos whose energies relate to the physical act of sex Metricos the mother has a strong sexual component but its character relates more to the psychological and spiritual powers of sex and sexuality rather than the physical stimulation and the physical act Which brings us to the pairing of Metricos with Agape the word for love In ancient times there were many definitions of l ove including Eros discussed earlier Agape is the highest form of love the most divine and as such transcends desire and erotic love This type of love includes self love and brotherly love the love of your fellow man and the love between man and God and God and man Agape is universal love an infinite unconditional selfless and charitable love A love above all and inclusive of all loves In the AEON deck Metricos is one of the 6 most earthly cards and Agape is one of the 6 most divine And yet we all seem to intuitively know how interconnected these two things are Both Metricos and Agape are about giving Giving selflessly Of course you can give without loving You can create without love and passion You can have sex without love and tenderness but if you dare to love dare to give a part of your life to that action then the reward is Love A mother gives of herself holds nothing back and the reward for this complete and immersive sense of giving this type of self sacrificing is the bond of Love Similarly if you look where you spend your time your resources your efforts and your attention where you nurture where you give unconditionally to the good of others there you ll find what you love and are rewarded with the sense of love The actions of a mother and the nature of love are one and the same This is the origin of all growth all change all renewal all re generation A father s love protects and maintains establishing the norms setting limits and rules which must be obeyed A mother s love works from within nurturing and growing empowering and ultimately liberating Metricos is the origin of everything in nature and everything alive for everything alive is born Agape is the origin of everything divine for everything divine is created from love

5 3 Metricos and Agape Metricos means mother or rather motherhood the one who gives birth and brings all things to life She rules the Spring fertility pleasure feasting and all that delights us The origin here is Sanskrit Matrika which literally means divine mother The divine mother is the energy of natural creation The energy that gives birth to new ideas new concepts and new life Unlike the energy of Patricos the maternal energy is one of inward nurturing feeding and caring If Patricos is the patriarchal authority figure the setter of restrictions the mother is the model of female strength and authority Inner resilient strength rather than physical strength an unmatched commitment and dedication to the growth and development of others steering the ship not through brute force and ignorance but through acceptance and resistance Metricos is the power of transformation through renewal and empowerment rather than through domination and submission The mother has the unmatched magical power to give life but she also has the power to take life away Metricos is both the creator and destroyer She is birth and death The ultimate authority stronger than the male energy Interestingly this Aeon is designated male which once again indicates that that the designation Male Female is not gendered but rather descriptive of their different energies The reason Metricos is given the male designation is that it describes a particular set of actions Metricos manifests in tangible form Creation and destruction giving and taking of life intuitive acts over reasoned acts etc As with Patricos whose energies relate to the physical act of sex Metricos the mother has a strong sexual component but its character relates more to the psychological and spiritual powers of sex and sexuality rather than the physical stimulation and the physical act Which brings us to the pairing of Metricos with Agape the word for love In ancient times there were many definitions of l ove including Eros discussed earlier Agape is the highest form of love the most divine and as such transcends desire and erotic love This type of love includes self love and brotherly love the love of your fellow man and the love between man and God and God and man Agape is universal love an infinite unconditional selfless and charitable love A love above all and inclusive of all loves In the AEON deck Metricos is one of the 6 most earthly cards and Agape is one of the 6 most divine And yet we all seem to intuitively know how interconnected these two things are Both Metricos and Agape are about giving Giving selflessly Of course you can give without loving You can create without love and passion You can have sex without love and tenderness but if you dare to love dare to give a part of your life to that action then the reward is Love A mother gives of herself holds nothing back and the reward for this complete and immersive sense of giving this type of self sacrificing is the bond of Love Similarly if you look where you spend your time your resources your efforts and your attention where you nurture where you give unconditionally to the good of others there you ll find what you love and are rewarded with the sense of love The actions of a mother and the nature of love are one and the same This is the origin of all growth all change all renewal all re generation A father s love protects and maintains establishing the norms setting limits and rules which must be obeyed A mother s love works from within nurturing and growing empowering and ultimately liberating Metricos is the origin of everything in nature and everything alive for everything alive is born Agape is the origin of everything divine for everything divine is created from love

5 4 Ainos and Synesis The word Ainos means praise as in to speak highly of or to tell positive stories of someone or something The word was particularly associated with rituals of giving thanks and appreciation to the divine When good happens Ainos is the desire to recognize the good give credit where credit is due It is our instinct to reciprocity gratitude and appreciation Ainos is the foundation of almost all pro social behavior of good manners doing unto others etc and is welldocumented in research that shows the strong link between gratitude and our sense of well being But Ainos goes further than simply praising others and giving thanks Ainos is the antidote to the pursuit of material wealth and the desire for things that you do not have It is the mindset of abundance rather than scarcity The mindset of scarcity is one of the fundamental drivers of dissatisfaction and envy It is easy to believe that good things are scarce and therefore that what we have is insufficient This causes us to pursue the things that we do not have and the more you pursue them the more we are reminded of the infinite number of things we do not have By shifting attention from material things that we do not have to the unlimited psychological and spiritual things that we are blessed with and able to develop and explore at no cost it becomes easier to believe that everything we need to be satisfied is right here within us There s no longer a need for pursuit of what we don t have If we can see the value and importance of our infinite mind and spirit we come to understand that there is no shortage of anything only unlimited potential This to me is where the pairing of Ainos and Synesis as a syzygy makes perfect sense Synesis means understanding Things falling into place The revelation of understanding and peace with how things are The word literally translates as the coming together of different entities minds not bodies as that is Mixis Having the humility and flexibility to see things from other perspectives to determine what is really going on That rare and valuable human capacity for empathy to suspend your own perspective for a moment and take time to understand things from the viewpoint of others This is why Synesis is also associated with judgment and good quick decisions The two sides of this syzygy clearly relate to social cognition On the one hand Ainos means to act with gratitude give thanks be thankful for what you have and to be able to step away from the quest for material possessions and appreciate how much can be achieved with what you already have within you and around you On the other Synesis is the more abstract consequence of such behavior a better truer understanding of both yourself and others A deep appreciation of the complex many facets of perception and reality and the realization that the meaning we strive for cannot be found outside of ourselves but instead comes from within us

5 4 Ainos and Synesis The word Ainos means praise as in to speak highly of or to tell positive stories of someone or something The word was particularly associated with rituals of giving thanks and appreciation to the divine When good happens Ainos is the desire to recognize the good give credit where credit is due It is our instinct to reciprocity gratitude and appreciation Ainos is the foundation of almost all pro social behavior of good manners doing unto others etc and is welldocumented in research that shows the strong link between gratitude and our sense of well being But Ainos goes further than simply praising others and giving thanks Ainos is the antidote to the pursuit of material wealth and the desire for things that you do not have It is the mindset of abundance rather than scarcity The mindset of scarcity is one of the fundamental drivers of dissatisfaction and envy It is easy to believe that good things are scarce and therefore that what we have is insufficient This causes us to pursue the things that we do not have and the more you pursue them the more we are reminded of the infinite number of things we do not have By shifting attention from material things that we do not have to the unlimited psychological and spiritual things that we are blessed with and able to develop and explore at no cost it becomes easier to believe that everything we need to be satisfied is right here within us There s no longer a need for pursuit of what we don t have If we can see the value and importance of our infinite mind and spirit we come to understand that there is no shortage of anything only unlimited potential This to me is where the pairing of Ainos and Synesis as a syzygy makes perfect sense Synesis means understanding Things falling into place The revelation of understanding and peace with how things are The word literally translates as the coming together of different entities minds not bodies as that is Mixis Having the humility and flexibility to see things from other perspectives to determine what is really going on That rare and valuable human capacity for empathy to suspend your own perspective for a moment and take time to understand things from the viewpoint of others This is why Synesis is also associated with judgment and good quick decisions The two sides of this syzygy clearly relate to social cognition On the one hand Ainos means to act with gratitude give thanks be thankful for what you have and to be able to step away from the quest for material possessions and appreciate how much can be achieved with what you already have within you and around you On the other Synesis is the more abstract consequence of such behavior a better truer understanding of both yourself and others A deep appreciation of the complex many facets of perception and reality and the realization that the meaning we strive for cannot be found outside of ourselves but instead comes from within us

5 5 Ecclesiasticus and Macariotes Ecclesiasticos is an interesting Aeon in the sense that it is the only one that on first view does not seem to describe a specific thing The word literally means Son of the Church In many interpretations Ecclesiasticos is thought to refer to the priests saints and leaders of the church However none of these direct translations fit the framework of the other Aeons Given the structure the gender and the position within the Dodecad the meaning has to be something that has tangible form a behavior and action It has to be something that can be done in the same way as help praise nurture mother and protect father can be done For this reason I prefer to think of Ecclesiasticos as doing what s right a moral commitment to live to your beliefs and values In some senses this also means righteousness but not in the judgmental sense but more in the sense of inner integrity decency and leading others by example Said another way it is the act of living with a commitment and dedication to your own beliefs and ideals staying true to yourself and living to your truest purest form This interpretation makes it much easier to see how it pairs with Macariotes which means Utopia or place of blessings or blessedness This pairing of Ecclesiasticos and Macariotes describes the dynamic of direct causality between actions and consequences The idea that deeds lead to like effects If y ou live by the sword you ll die by the sword If you conduct yourself fairly then you can expect fairness in return If you live by your values and your beliefs stay true to your own sense of what is right and good then in return you will be rewarded with similar blessings This syzygy is very similar to Karma in many Eastern religions what you give so you shall receive How you are so will your future be

5 5 Ecclesiasticus and Macariotes Ecclesiasticos is an interesting Aeon in the sense that it is the only one that on first view does not seem to describe a specific thing The word literally means Son of the Church In many interpretations Ecclesiasticos is thought to refer to the priests saints and leaders of the church However none of these direct translations fit the framework of the other Aeons Given the structure the gender and the position within the Dodecad the meaning has to be something that has tangible form a behavior and action It has to be something that can be done in the same way as help praise nurture mother and protect father can be done For this reason I prefer to think of Ecclesiasticos as doing what s right a moral commitment to live to your beliefs and values In some senses this also means righteousness but not in the judgmental sense but more in the sense of inner integrity decency and leading others by example Said another way it is the act of living with a commitment and dedication to your own beliefs and ideals staying true to yourself and living to your truest purest form This interpretation makes it much easier to see how it pairs with Macariotes which means Utopia or place of blessings or blessedness This pairing of Ecclesiasticos and Macariotes describes the dynamic of direct causality between actions and consequences The idea that deeds lead to like effects If y ou live by the sword you ll die by the sword If you conduct yourself fairly then you can expect fairness in return If you live by your values and your beliefs stay true to your own sense of what is right and good then in return you will be rewarded with similar blessings This syzygy is very similar to Karma in many Eastern religions what you give so you shall receive How you are so will your future be

5 6 Theletus and Sophia The final pair of the Dodecad are Theletus and Sophia Theletus means to perfect to improve and make better The word is derived from the word Thelo in Greek which means to will or wish for which helps us translate the meaning not as perfection but rather the inner drive towards progress and improvement The aspiration to improve and achieve like an athlete practices to improve their game This is also the drive and the will to be better to do good work to find what we are good at and to keep getting better at it In the original deck of Nockwood cards this card was the card of the Designer and this is a good interpretation of Theletus design as the act of improving crafting re working until a better solution is found The core of the action of Theletus is to always imagine how things could be better Never settling for things as they are rests without willing becomes angry without willing loves without willing If you carefully investigate these matters you will find him in yourself Monoimus Arab Gnostic between 150 210 CE The myth of Sophia is discussed in so many places and is the subject of the ancient text known as the Askew Codex which is in the British Museum Pistis Sophia translates as Faith in Wisdom and underlines the importance of this Aeonic syzygy Without going into the full detail of the myth Sophia was the youngest of the Aeons and because of this was the closest to the border of the Pleroma the nearest to the veil between divine and material She separated from her consort Theletus perfection and tried to create an Aeon but instead created an abortion an imperfection that could not exist in the Pleroma This act of creation without perfection is what caused the creation of the material world an imperfect and deceptive world Sophia and this defective offspring the Demiurge fell into the material physical world in which we all inhabit but not before Sophia was able to infuse a spiritual spark Pneuma into this creation The Demiurge ignorant of Sophia grew in power and claimed to be the one and only God He claimed to be the father of all in the material world and sought to bring humanity under his control and authority In many interpretations this is the origination of the formal Christian Church that claims a similar singular and supreme authority In this story Sophia Wisdom is the opponent of the Demiurge ignorance and her superpower is to awaken mankind to the knowledge and understanding of their inner light and divine origin To liberate them from the deceit of the Demiurge and the distractions of the material world This is where the action and mode of being of Theletus connects so perfectly with the idea of Sophia wisdom This is not wisdom in the sense of acquired wisdom or the wisdom of academic learning This is the wisdom of doing The wisdom of lessons learned in the pursuit of perfection Sophia comes from doing stuff making things trying things you ve never done before The wisdom of Sophia is derived by action experimentation Learning from your failures of course but more importantly using the things that work as a means to work out what you are doing where you might go next not the other way around As you strive to perfection to betterment so you make progress on the journey of knowing and understanding yourself Sophia ignites a sense of meaning within you what you believe in what you think what you are good at and what your unique contribution to the world might be Sophia s is a journey of autonomy and creative will taking a thought an idea an intuition a potentiality an inner This wonderful story is often taken much too literally spark and acting on it creating it forming it willing it It is a story of the powers that exist within us It is into existence Bringing it to life and bringing life to it a story of finding wholeness and fullness of being from within an intrinsic inner light and origin that Abandon the search for God and the creation and other matters can overcome the deceptions of any external selfof a similar sort Look for him by taking yourself as a starting proclaimed divine authorities It s not surprising that Carl Jung saw in this story a core framework for his point Learn who it is within you who makes everything his work in psychology and individuation own and says My God my mind my thoughts my soul my body Learn the sources of sorrow joy love hate Learn how it happens that one watches without willing

5 6 Theletus and Sophia The final pair of the Dodecad are Theletus and Sophia Theletus means to perfect to improve and make better The word is derived from the word Thelo in Greek which means to will or wish for which helps us translate the meaning not as perfection but rather the inner drive towards progress and improvement The aspiration to improve and achieve like an athlete practices to improve their game This is also the drive and the will to be better to do good work to find what we are good at and to keep getting better at it In the original deck of Nockwood cards this card was the card of the Designer and this is a good interpretation of Theletus design as the act of improving crafting re working until a better solution is found The core of the action of Theletus is to always imagine how things could be better Never settling for things as they are rests without willing becomes angry without willing loves without willing If you carefully investigate these matters you will find him in yourself Monoimus Arab Gnostic between 150 210 CE The myth of Sophia is discussed in so many places and is the subject of the ancient text known as the Askew Codex which is in the British Museum Pistis Sophia translates as Faith in Wisdom and underlines the importance of this Aeonic syzygy Without going into the full detail of the myth Sophia was the youngest of the Aeons and because of this was the closest to the border of the Pleroma the nearest to the veil between divine and material She separated from her consort Theletus perfection and tried to create an Aeon but instead created an abortion an imperfection that could not exist in the Pleroma This act of creation without perfection is what caused the creation of the material world an imperfect and deceptive world Sophia and this defective offspring the Demiurge fell into the material physical world in which we all inhabit but not before Sophia was able to infuse a spiritual spark Pneuma into this creation The Demiurge ignorant of Sophia grew in power and claimed to be the one and only God He claimed to be the father of all in the material world and sought to bring humanity under his control and authority In many interpretations this is the origination of the formal Christian Church that claims a similar singular and supreme authority In this story Sophia Wisdom is the opponent of the Demiurge ignorance and her superpower is to awaken mankind to the knowledge and understanding of their inner light and divine origin To liberate them from the deceit of the Demiurge and the distractions of the material world This is where the action and mode of being of Theletus connects so perfectly with the idea of Sophia wisdom This is not wisdom in the sense of acquired wisdom or the wisdom of academic learning This is the wisdom of doing The wisdom of lessons learned in the pursuit of perfection Sophia comes from doing stuff making things trying things you ve never done before The wisdom of Sophia is derived by action experimentation Learning from your failures of course but more importantly using the things that work as a means to work out what you are doing where you might go next not the other way around As you strive to perfection to betterment so you make progress on the journey of knowing and understanding yourself Sophia ignites a sense of meaning within you what you believe in what you think what you are good at and what your unique contribution to the world might be Sophia s is a journey of autonomy and creative will taking a thought an idea an intuition a potentiality an inner This wonderful story is often taken much too literally spark and acting on it creating it forming it willing it It is a story of the powers that exist within us It is into existence Bringing it to life and bringing life to it a story of finding wholeness and fullness of being from within an intrinsic inner light and origin that Abandon the search for God and the creation and other matters can overcome the deceptions of any external selfof a similar sort Look for him by taking yourself as a starting proclaimed divine authorities It s not surprising that Carl Jung saw in this story a core framework for his point Learn who it is within you who makes everything his work in psychology and individuation own and says My God my mind my thoughts my soul my body Learn the sources of sorrow joy love hate Learn how it happens that one watches without willing

Generation 6 Additional characters Within the Aeon deck of cards there are additional important characters of Aeonology These are not part of the formal genealogy of Aeons from Valentinus but they are significant characters in the mythology They are all transitional forces that operate between the realms of the Pleroma the divine realm of light and the material realm of darkness Within these pairings we find representation of the holy trinity The Creator God The Father Demiurge Maker Christ The Son Soter Savior The divine spark The Holy Spirit Pneuma Other forces include Abraxas the invisible spirit Grigori the watchers IEOU Justice the moral force of judicial systems and Nebruel the creator of Chaos 6 1 Demiurge and IEOU The Demiurge the Maker has been described above and was the abortion of Sophia that led to the formation of the physical world Demiurge literally means someone who works for the people or craftsman in essence he is the creator of the known universe the self proclaimed Father and the ruler and deceiver of mankind tricking them into subservience with deceptions and distractions of physical and material existence As the maker of the material world this Aeon is all about making creating producing defining and outlining material parameters With this type of material action and focus on the physical world so comes other material distractions The Aeon of Demiurge is paired with the Aeon of IEOU pronounced Jeu or you and is referenced in The Book of IEOU one of the ancient texts found at Nag Hammadi This female character was described as being responsible for judgments and evaluations not unlike our own lady Justice who oversees the moral force in judicial systems The Book of IEOU describes the rituals and practices that enable disciples to pass from the Realm of Darkness our world not Hell through to the Treasury of Light Enlightenment I paired these two together as an allegory to the illusion of power that comes with creation In creation whether parenthood artistic endeavor leadership or success fame there is a strong need to counterbalance our ego In our illusory physical world it s easy to believe that if we are able to create build and make or accumulate material possessions then we have power over others With production comes control and order With coordination comes instruction and direction Where outcomes are desired or managed so freedoms and liberty might be compromised As in the story of the Demiurge we imagine that as the owner builder or creator it is also our right to bring forth rules and regulations orders and structures that limit the participation and action of others Yet these rules are nothing and often counterproductive As Lao Tzu states The more taboos and prohibitions there are in the world the poorer the people will be the more law and orders are made prominent the more thieves and robbers there will be For me this pairing recognizes the interrelationship between law and freedom that with increased law so comes lawlessness With taboos and commandments so comes sin and evil On a spiritual level as well as a personal one there is no morality without freedom Morality is not about following decrees and rules Morality is born from within from a sense of purpose and a sense of self If our explorations of ourselves require transgression then these are petty delusional and immaterial assertions of false Gods and social conventions then so be it For those who can transcend material concerns and master a deep sense of their true nature then these rules and orthodoxies need not apply

Generation 6 Additional characters Within the Aeon deck of cards there are additional important characters of Aeonology These are not part of the formal genealogy of Aeons from Valentinus but they are significant characters in the mythology They are all transitional forces that operate between the realms of the Pleroma the divine realm of light and the material realm of darkness Within these pairings we find representation of the holy trinity The Creator God The Father Demiurge Maker Christ The Son Soter Savior The divine spark The Holy Spirit Pneuma Other forces include Abraxas the invisible spirit Grigori the watchers IEOU Justice the moral force of judicial systems and Nebruel the creator of Chaos 6 1 Demiurge and IEOU The Demiurge the Maker has been described above and was the abortion of Sophia that led to the formation of the physical world Demiurge literally means someone who works for the people or craftsman in essence he is the creator of the known universe the self proclaimed Father and the ruler and deceiver of mankind tricking them into subservience with deceptions and distractions of physical and material existence As the maker of the material world this Aeon is all about making creating producing defining and outlining material parameters With this type of material action and focus on the physical world so comes other material distractions The Aeon of Demiurge is paired with the Aeon of IEOU pronounced Jeu or you and is referenced in The Book of IEOU one of the ancient texts found at Nag Hammadi This female character was described as being responsible for judgments and evaluations not unlike our own lady Justice who oversees the moral force in judicial systems The Book of IEOU describes the rituals and practices that enable disciples to pass from the Realm of Darkness our world not Hell through to the Treasury of Light Enlightenment I paired these two together as an allegory to the illusion of power that comes with creation In creation whether parenthood artistic endeavor leadership or success fame there is a strong need to counterbalance our ego In our illusory physical world it s easy to believe that if we are able to create build and make or accumulate material possessions then we have power over others With production comes control and order With coordination comes instruction and direction Where outcomes are desired or managed so freedoms and liberty might be compromised As in the story of the Demiurge we imagine that as the owner builder or creator it is also our right to bring forth rules and regulations orders and structures that limit the participation and action of others Yet these rules are nothing and often counterproductive As Lao Tzu states The more taboos and prohibitions there are in the world the poorer the people will be the more law and orders are made prominent the more thieves and robbers there will be For me this pairing recognizes the interrelationship between law and freedom that with increased law so comes lawlessness With taboos and commandments so comes sin and evil On a spiritual level as well as a personal one there is no morality without freedom Morality is not about following decrees and rules Morality is born from within from a sense of purpose and a sense of self If our explorations of ourselves require transgression then these are petty delusional and immaterial assertions of false Gods and social conventions then so be it For those who can transcend material concerns and master a deep sense of their true nature then these rules and orthodoxies need not apply

6 2 Soter and Nebruel Soter literally means savior and is from a Christian perspective Christ The son but in many other religions some that predate Christianity this archetype was well documented Buddha Krishna Horus Mithras Dionysus Saoshyant Li Hong to name but a few The key characteristic of Soter the savior is again a bridge between the divine and the earthly The savior is always born of divinity but is sent to us on a mission to deliver us from pain and suffering that we have created for ourselves In almost all religions there is such a character the bringer of salvation The Soter is always a glorified or perfect version of man unsullied by sin and able to transform himself to our world in order to save us from ourselves From the Gnostic sense the Soter is here to deliver us from the distractions of physical desires and sinful corruptions of our world that prevent us from growing in spirit But this is only half of the story and this is why I paired Soter Savior with Nebruel the Bringer of Chaos an anti Christ figure if you will If Soter represents the light the good in ourselves through which we can find redemption and transcendence then Nebruel represents this dark side of ourselves the darker impulses that cause all our suffering and brings evil into our world In the Christian belief system these malevolent forces are the start of the idea of sin Nebruel is one of the Archons created by the Demiurge to populate and hang out with in his material imperfect and illusory world Think of the Archons as the Demiurge s rebellious and malicious buddies In the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit Nebruel is called the Great Daimon and she is the Bringer of Chaos The word for sin in many of these early texts is the Greek word hamartia which is derived from a word used in archery that means missing the mark While hitting the mark and living up to our full potential has to be our ultimate goal there is an inevitability born of our imperfection that we will not always succeed in this When we fail to hit this mark we do suffer and experience physical psychological and moral distress With knowledge and experimentation comes both wisdom and enlightenment the light side but also chaos loss of direction the dark side We learn from these failures and will grow as much from these transgressions as we do by hitting the mark As Jung states in his essay Aion Whenever the archetype of the self predominates the inevitable psychological consequence is a state of conflict vividly exemplified by the Christian symbol of the crucifixion Redemption does not mean that a burden is taken from one s shoulders which one was never meant to bear Only the complete person knows how unbearable man is to himself In other words if he voluntarily takes the burden of completeness on himself he need not find it happening to him against his will in a negative form The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious or acted upon it happens outside as fate Carl Jung felt the archetype of the Savior of Christ was an analogy of the self but in order to be complete analogy requires a shadow self The idea of a wholeness or the pursuit of our full potential has to be grounded not in faith or some metaphysical speculation but in cognition and actual experience But this presents a paradox If we are to know our true selves our wholeness then we must know and understand not just the light side but also the dark sides of our natures This syzygy represents light and dark Good and bad in union inseparable and tied yoked together You cannot have one without the other We don t tend to think this way but with good actions come bad consequences Bad actions bring good consequences Knowing what you are good at demands learning what you are bad at and vice versa Knowing what feels good inevitably means experiencing things that feel bad or unpleasant We all know and experience this all the time but rarely reflect on the inseparable nature of these two We tend to think of them as independent when they are in fact interconnected

6 2 Soter and Nebruel Soter literally means savior and is from a Christian perspective Christ The son but in many other religions some that predate Christianity this archetype was well documented Buddha Krishna Horus Mithras Dionysus Saoshyant Li Hong to name but a few The key characteristic of Soter the savior is again a bridge between the divine and the earthly The savior is always born of divinity but is sent to us on a mission to deliver us from pain and suffering that we have created for ourselves In almost all religions there is such a character the bringer of salvation The Soter is always a glorified or perfect version of man unsullied by sin and able to transform himself to our world in order to save us from ourselves From the Gnostic sense the Soter is here to deliver us from the distractions of physical desires and sinful corruptions of our world that prevent us from growing in spirit But this is only half of the story and this is why I paired Soter Savior with Nebruel the Bringer of Chaos an anti Christ figure if you will If Soter represents the light the good in ourselves through which we can find redemption and transcendence then Nebruel represents this dark side of ourselves the darker impulses that cause all our suffering and brings evil into our world In the Christian belief system these malevolent forces are the start of the idea of sin Nebruel is one of the Archons created by the Demiurge to populate and hang out with in his material imperfect and illusory world Think of the Archons as the Demiurge s rebellious and malicious buddies In the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit Nebruel is called the Great Daimon and she is the Bringer of Chaos The word for sin in many of these early texts is the Greek word hamartia which is derived from a word used in archery that means missing the mark While hitting the mark and living up to our full potential has to be our ultimate goal there is an inevitability born of our imperfection that we will not always succeed in this When we fail to hit this mark we do suffer and experience physical psychological and moral distress With knowledge and experimentation comes both wisdom and enlightenment the light side but also chaos loss of direction the dark side We learn from these failures and will grow as much from these transgressions as we do by hitting the mark As Jung states in his essay Aion Whenever the archetype of the self predominates the inevitable psychological consequence is a state of conflict vividly exemplified by the Christian symbol of the crucifixion Redemption does not mean that a burden is taken from one s shoulders which one was never meant to bear Only the complete person knows how unbearable man is to himself In other words if he voluntarily takes the burden of completeness on himself he need not find it happening to him against his will in a negative form The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious or acted upon it happens outside as fate Carl Jung felt the archetype of the Savior of Christ was an analogy of the self but in order to be complete analogy requires a shadow self The idea of a wholeness or the pursuit of our full potential has to be grounded not in faith or some metaphysical speculation but in cognition and actual experience But this presents a paradox If we are to know our true selves our wholeness then we must know and understand not just the light side but also the dark sides of our natures This syzygy represents light and dark Good and bad in union inseparable and tied yoked together You cannot have one without the other We don t tend to think this way but with good actions come bad consequences Bad actions bring good consequences Knowing what you are good at demands learning what you are bad at and vice versa Knowing what feels good inevitably means experiencing things that feel bad or unpleasant We all know and experience this all the time but rarely reflect on the inseparable nature of these two We tend to think of them as independent when they are in fact interconnected

6 3 Pneuma and Abraxas As described above Pneuma means spirit or more specifically in the Sophia myth it is the divine spirit that Sophia was able to infuse into the Demiurge s creations This divine spirit is within us but also a light that shines like sunlight through everything in our world Pneuma is paired with Abraxas Magic Abraxas is referenced in many places in the Nag Hammadi texts particularly in the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit The letters in Abraxas refer to the 7 classical planets the days of the week the Pleroma plus the 6 primary Aeons 7 When decoded using numerology the letters in Greek add up to 365 to represent the This Pneumatic spirit sometimes called the Holy 365 powers of the heavens and the number of days Spirit has all of the Aeons within it and connects in a year It s likely that Abraxas is also the ruler of everything to the divine It is made up of all of time something that is both made by man and yet the multiple energies of aeonology and keeps us eternal and universal Carl Jung referred to Abraxas as connected to something bigger than ourselves This the God who is difficult to know and the unlikely likely one is the only card in the AEON deck that the symbol who is powerful in the realm of unreality If Pneuma takes of the Pleroma wholeness on it Pneuma is our the form of our inner spirit then Abraxas represents ability to act on inspiration to strive to reach our full an invisible external power magical transformative potential and the instinct to understand and explore unknowable and yet supremely powerful and the divine It is how we come to know ourselves keep influential Pneuma represents the incredible and our thinking and lizard brain under control so that we knowable power within us that brings revelation might achieve a wholeness of being or wholeness of Abraxas represents the incredible unknowable experience Equally it is how we find our connection powers outside of us that brings with it surprising and to nature our environment and community and in unexpected things it keeps us on our toes doing so find our better natures Pneuma is superior to the primitive laws of the Demiurge the laws of thou shalt and thou shalt not As mentioned above the rules of the lower realms of darkness have no dominion over the divine order of the Aeons Pneuma is the spirit of revelation discovery of personal inner truth and the spirit of enlightenment The true light that lighteth every man

6 3 Pneuma and Abraxas As described above Pneuma means spirit or more specifically in the Sophia myth it is the divine spirit that Sophia was able to infuse into the Demiurge s creations This divine spirit is within us but also a light that shines like sunlight through everything in our world Pneuma is paired with Abraxas Magic Abraxas is referenced in many places in the Nag Hammadi texts particularly in the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit The letters in Abraxas refer to the 7 classical planets the days of the week the Pleroma plus the 6 primary Aeons 7 When decoded using numerology the letters in Greek add up to 365 to represent the This Pneumatic spirit sometimes called the Holy 365 powers of the heavens and the number of days Spirit has all of the Aeons within it and connects in a year It s likely that Abraxas is also the ruler of everything to the divine It is made up of all of time something that is both made by man and yet the multiple energies of aeonology and keeps us eternal and universal Carl Jung referred to Abraxas as connected to something bigger than ourselves This the God who is difficult to know and the unlikely likely one is the only card in the AEON deck that the symbol who is powerful in the realm of unreality If Pneuma takes of the Pleroma wholeness on it Pneuma is our the form of our inner spirit then Abraxas represents ability to act on inspiration to strive to reach our full an invisible external power magical transformative potential and the instinct to understand and explore unknowable and yet supremely powerful and the divine It is how we come to know ourselves keep influential Pneuma represents the incredible and our thinking and lizard brain under control so that we knowable power within us that brings revelation might achieve a wholeness of being or wholeness of Abraxas represents the incredible unknowable experience Equally it is how we find our connection powers outside of us that brings with it surprising and to nature our environment and community and in unexpected things it keeps us on our toes doing so find our better natures Pneuma is superior to the primitive laws of the Demiurge the laws of thou shalt and thou shalt not As mentioned above the rules of the lower realms of darkness have no dominion over the divine order of the Aeons Pneuma is the spirit of revelation discovery of personal inner truth and the spirit of enlightenment The true light that lighteth every man

6 4 Grigori and Epinoia Grigori is the watcher from the Greek meaning those who are awake Grigori is the Aeon of watchfulness but also has the power of to help us see He awakens us and guides us to enlightenment He sees everything we do all our actions and behaviors our rituals and our offerings and if we are not careful he reveals to us when we are deceiving ourselves or being dishonest What s interesting about Grigori is that he like all of us has the choice of whether to stand for good or bad darkness or light Watchers are associated with the four points of the compass and the four elements earth fire water and air They are also associated with the solstice and the equinox The partner of Grigori is Epinoia which literally means with thought or upon though This is a powerful force within us It is the power of imagination creation and manifestation of thought into a thing Our unique human ability to imagine new futures and create our own destiny Praxis Therefore the nature of this syzygy is that both are a form of seeing of cognition and perception Seeing what is real and overcoming illusion and deception Grigori paired with the divine force of imagining of conceiving what could be and the will power to manifest that into reality Epinoia

6 4 Grigori and Epinoia Grigori is the watcher from the Greek meaning those who are awake Grigori is the Aeon of watchfulness but also has the power of to help us see He awakens us and guides us to enlightenment He sees everything we do all our actions and behaviors our rituals and our offerings and if we are not careful he reveals to us when we are deceiving ourselves or being dishonest What s interesting about Grigori is that he like all of us has the choice of whether to stand for good or bad darkness or light Watchers are associated with the four points of the compass and the four elements earth fire water and air They are also associated with the solstice and the equinox The partner of Grigori is Epinoia which literally means with thought or upon though This is a powerful force within us It is the power of imagination creation and manifestation of thought into a thing Our unique human ability to imagine new futures and create our own destiny Praxis Therefore the nature of this syzygy is that both are a form of seeing of cognition and perception Seeing what is real and overcoming illusion and deception Grigori paired with the divine force of imagining of conceiving what could be and the will power to manifest that into reality Epinoia