Every good narrative needs a good villain. In their evocative myths, the Gnostics supplied perhaps the best possible villain: The Supreme Being of the material universe and humanity’s very creator. How do you top that? This antagonist was often associated with the wrathful god of the Old Testament and went by many names: Ialdabaoth, Samael, Saklas, Nebro and, of course, the Demiurge. Instead of the iconic Michael McDonald-looking Caucasian, the Gnostics portrayed the Demiurge as a lion-headed dragon.
Much has been written, beyond the Gnostic texts, on the role of the Demiurge, but not much on why he was depicted with the head of a lion.
Until now.
Ancient coin depicting the Demiurge
A Leontomorphic Antagonist
To start, we should understand that presenting supernatural beings with animal features was not uncommon in ancient times. These days we tend to see angels as Abercrombie & Fitch models with silky wings, but in biblical times supernatural entities were often seen as possessing beast aspects. This portrayal did not mean a god or angel was bestial; it meant the being’s personality corresponded to some animal quality (like Isis being represented as a cow or with a bovine face because of her nurturing aspect—at least according to the ancient Egyptians). The name of a character/creature that is partly animal-shaped is called theriomorphic, and the Demiurge specifically is leontomorphic, or lion-formed.
To understand why exactly the Demiurge owned a lion head, however, we must understand that his image goes back farther (and above) than early Christianity and is part of a cultural vibe of ancient times.
Did Gary Gygax work for the Archons? Found in AD & D Monster Manual
The Ancient Egyptian Origins of the Demiurge
In The Thirteenth Apostledas Really Says
The gods associated with the decans were believed to be very powerful because they did not stand in stations, unlike the constellations. Moreover, unlike the planets, the decans did not move backwards nor could they be eclipsed by the sun.
Deconick explains in her book:
So important were these stars that some Egyptians singled out a favorite one, a decan who was imagined having a snake’s body and a lion’s face with sun rays radiating from his head. They called this decan “Char-Chnoubis,” or “Chnoubis” for short. This god’s image is eventually taken over by the Gnostics in their depictions of Ialdabaoth. So it appears to me that the origins of the Ialdabaoth god, in part, can be traced to this Egyptian decan connected with the house of Leo. Incredibly, Chnoubis was the thirteenth decan in the Hellenistic logs of the thirty-six. According to our sources, Chnoubis is the thirteenth decan, Ialdabaoth is the thirteenth archon.
Ancient social media profile pic of Chnoubis/Ialdabaoth:
The Lion Guardian in Ancient Times
Beyond astrotheology, the lion was considered in ancient times to be a guardian of the underworld or heavenly domains (often these places were one and the same). This is detailed in John Lundwall’s book, Mythos and Cosmos
The astral road was always guarded by always guarded by a ferocious lion. In the ancient world, guardian leonine sphinxes were placed at temples, pyramids, and tombs all across Eurasia.
These lion guardians, like the Archons of the Gnostics, protected metaphysical gates and only allowed access if the traveling soul provided the right password. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a lion guardian explains to the astral traveler:
How can you reach the confines of the sky? Indeed you are equipped with the form of Horus, but you do not possess the Nemes Headdress.
In some texts, the dead must wrestle a lion guardian, much like Herakles does with the Nemean Lion in Greek lore. If successful, the lion guardian would even accompany the soul to the next level!
The guardian lion can also be found in the Myth of Attis, Hinduism, and the Mysteries of Mithras, just to name a few. In fact, in Mithraism, the supreme god Aion was depicted as a lion-headed man wrapped by a coiling serpent.
The Gnostics certainly adopted the lion guardian motif of the ancients, though they portrayed this typology as entirely negative.
Mithraic god Aion, at the Roman Academy Awards.
What the Lion Itself Represents
But did the ancients choose the symbol of a lion as a cosmic gatekeeper? Why not a panther or other predator?
Lundwall explains a prudent reason his book:
The guides to the celestial world are like lions—they rule the plains with speed and intelligence and with their luminescent eyes see through the darkness of night to find their path. What better symbol for the champion of the dark regions of the underworld that the lordly lion?
Furthermore, due to their manes and coloring, lions were often associated with the sun, which in itself means a solar (godly) force.
In Introduction to “Gnosticism”
Some scholars noted that the lion in ancient Greek philosophy represented the irrational passions.
Take that, Mufasa!
The Demiurge stalking Sophia and the Lamb Jesus
Conclusion
The Gnostics never viewed the Demiurge in the noble context of the above quote by Lundwall, but closer to the quote by Lewis. To them, the Demiurge was not a gatekeeper but a warden in the prison that was the World of Forms. He was more human than human, and thus much less than a lowly beast. As a deity, he was nothing more than the misshapen offspring of the Aeon Sophia who stole her power and created a poor copy of the Eternal Realm. The astral road was nothing but a labyrinth of tears.
And what about the dragon body?
That is for another decan, perhaps after the next time you provide a password to or wrestle with a lion guardian in your own travels through the labyrinth of tears.
So desperate to access this book on kindle…alas loved the comparison to the lion headed Demiurge as a warden in the prison or the World as Form, this corresponds quite well to the astrological symbolism of saturn the Titanic father god behind the gods, in the hindu astrological pantheon saturn or sani works like satan in the book of job, “we’re nit in Kansas any more folks” job or man would be nothing if he did not have something to measure himself against, job did not sook when confronted by a demented god nah he just decided to look within himself for the cause of his calamity, that there is the game changer, sensing this as a call to enter into a deeper meditation upon the nature of things…….the author of this book poses the intuitive possibility of ” seeing beyond the howling of wolves” and with isaiah says…..in spite of evidence to the contrary I job form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil, I the unnamable one within all men do all things both good and evil. Having eaten of that tree which was forbidden we alone with mythical JOB and the imaginal jesus can evolve beyond maya’s subtle enchantments.
Very nice article, as per usual.
Let’s not forget the perhaps childishly obvious. Demiurge as corrupt prison warden on the take means he’s an eventual obstacle that must be out maneuvered. A lion headed dragon would pose a very very scary representation of what we hold in ourselves that must be overcome.
Er, as well as he in the literal sense once you punch your eject button because Space Ball 1 has gone from ‘Suck’ to ‘Blow’/physical death.
Time to update the A.I.
What, you mean artificial……….., no dummy ; I mean the Aeon Images.
Bring on : “The Beldam”, as the gatekeeper to the Knowledge of the Heart.
Imagine your rib cage sternum as a huge ‘Beldam Spider’, to frighten away all those who might ‘peekaboo’ their true status, if they were to leave the sanctuary of the temples. Hahahaaaa.
If you have not read the book “Aryan Christ” (The Secret Life of Carl Jung) by Richard Noll, you might find it an interesting read. It’s a secular book intended to discredit him (according to Noll’s detractors), however if one is open minded, it reveals especially interesting interpretations of Jung’s self described dreams and day visions. Spirits either exist or not. I’m not taking a position here. The relevance to Jung and the Mithraic Aion, Leontocephalus, etc. from Chapter 7 “The Mystery of Deification”:
“Only Aryans could receive the sacrament of redemption. Jung often referred to the ancient mysteries as the “secret” or “hidden” or “underground” religions and their social organizations as the secret or hidden churches that kept alive the divine spark from the dawn of creation. This leads us to an obvious conclusion. When Jung became one with Aion in his visionary initiation experience, in his imagination he was not only becoming a full participant in the mysteries of Mithras; he was experiencing a direct initiation into the most ancient of the mysteries of his Aryan ancestors. His new science of psychoanalysis became the twentieth-century vehicle of those mysteries. Most important, as his initiation experience also entailed assuming the stance of the crucified Jesus as he metamorphosed into Aion, Jung thereby became the figure the fueled the fantasies of thousands of Volkish Germans and European and American Anti-Semites at the turn of the century: the Aryan Christ.”
Plus 1 Peter 5:8
The nudge I followed led me to this article answer two questions, one burning question , the other I did not know that I had until I can across the answer in your article. I realized that the answer of the second unknown question was found in your implication in the latter part of your conclusion. A remarkable piece of the puzzle, thank you!
Glad you to be of service, Ralph!
The ancient Sumerian texts show that Enki (Lord of Life) created Adam and Eve, protected them when they were thrown out of the garden by Enlil (God Almighty). Enki loved and watched over them as they developed into the Semitic race (descendants of Shem, Noah’s son). Judah was the final surviving group before the Babylonian Exile and their protector was the lion of Judah. Enki was always portrayed as a serpent (wisdom). In time this became a dragon and developed a lions head symbolising power and protection for his people.
Lion head, Serpent head, Gargoyle head etc…… so much rainwater, bah !
There were first off : Hylics, Psychics and Pneumatics
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Today there are “Historians”, “Wannabes” and Gnostics.
Treat all religious articles and texts as a fun diversion. You do not have too much time to waste in cul-de-sacs.
Your goal is to Know Yourself ; not someone else’s fantasy.
The Lion’s head I believe to be a symbol of the Tribe of Judah. The Cretans were called back then, the ‘Idaeans’ and according to Homer, one of their rulers was known as ‘Idomensus,’ the grandson of the ruler of Knossos. Idomensus was said to have fought side by side with the Achaeans against the Trojans in the Trojan War. The children of Idomensus were, whom Homer had called the royal and warlike ‘Idomen,’ and who we would know of today as the Judeans (Idaeans, Tribe of Judah).
They were named after the mountain on Crete called Mount Ida where their God Zeus was hidden in a cave by his mother, Mount Idathe Greek Titaness Rhea who then placed the infant Zeus in the care of the priesthood of the Curetes (Kuretes). These priests Strabo had written, were also known as the Corybantes, Dactyls, Cabiri, and Telchines which are names that are often used interchangeably with one another. This cave of Zeus sits just above the Plain of Nida on Mount Ida, to the southwest of Knossos. The mother of Zeus was also known in Latin as “Mater Idaea (Idaean Mother).” The name Mount Ida is where the Tribe of Judah had received their name, “the ‘Idaeans,” which is just an earlier spelling of the Judaeans. The reason for this spelling, is because at the time the letter ‘j’ was simply not used.
The Tribe of Judah is where we get the word Jew which is a derivative of the word Judah, referring to a descendant of the Kingdom of Judah, and a Jew was a word that the Romans had used in propaganda to apply to the followers of the old religions and pagan rites of their ancestors that had conflicted with the state approved Roman religion. The Biblical Judah (in Hebrew: Yehuda) is the original name of the Tribe of Judah, which is traditionally symbolized by a lion.
Thanks and well said.
You guys are stuck too late in time. If you will investigate the oldest myths, you’ll find that our current sun was NOT our sun, but the texts said that Saturn was, hanging over the north pole as a brown dwarf. All this is well developed on the thunderbolts.info site, and in multiple videos on youtube. Credit must be given to Velikovsky whose studies pointed out that the ancients were scared scheissless of Venus, who was a rampaging comet until it eventually settled into its present orbit. And this goes back to the EARLIEST sightings and records of the Sumerians and Babylonians.
The scholarly works of Dwardu Cardona, or Ev Cochrane will blow you away. Or, you can stay stuck going round and round with “scholars” who only look at very late, distorted material. Of course, if this is the “product” you peddle, you may indeed not welcome other analyses.
Now to the point: The breakup of the Saturn Sun system led to vast displays of plasma currents in our sky, which went on for millenia. Venus, or Inanna, was said to have a lion’s head. These were plasma electrical emanations. Further, plasma currents in the sky looked like snakes, or dragons. Thus we also have Chinese dragons. Worldwide they tell myths of dragons in the sky.
These events are probably at least 2000 years before the Gnostics. The Egyptians preserved many of the old mythical elements, but eventually everyone forgot the actual events that had been witnessed. Retelling the stories embellished with artistic imaginations continued to cloud the story.
The Gnostics were certainly onto something as a faint race memory (perhaps recovered by use of the right psychedelic sacraments) in that they knew Jehovah and the current system was a post-catastrope world, run by a pissed off sky god who had lost his wife Asherah. We have all been living with the fallout after those great traumas.
The Plenum has an actual referent, not just a metaphysical one. https://isnoshaman.blogspot.com/2016/11/north-half-unnatural-deficiency.html
Miguel, I’ve written you before. Take the time to watch Symbols of An Alien Sky video. When the pieces fall into place for you, then you will have the missing element that grounds gnosis in the How, What, & When Sophia densified down into the Sleeping Beauty we call Gaia.