Recently Duncan was on the Joe Rogan Experience and was talking about Gnostic Christianity and the figure "Abraxas." I am Gnostic Christian and have some information on the subject that I felt that others might find interesting. (I wanted to post it on the JRE message forum, but for whatever reason they will not let me activate an account on that forum. I hope that this will be an equally good place to post the info.)

To start with, I would like to point out that Abraxas is not a “god” in any sense. Gnosticism is a monotheistic religion and we only have one God.

However that being said Abraxas is a confusing figure and I think this is partially b/c many of our texts have been lost, but also b/c ancient Gnostics didn’t always have a consensus about their varying cosmologies (system of gods/angels/demons etc).

Abraxas is supposedly an “aeon” or divine immortal spiritual being. However, to the best of my understanding, Abraxas is either ambiguous or malevolent, which, in the case that he is evil, would make him the only malevolent aeon. Typically malevolent beings are known as archons, which are shadowy demonic rulers.

In Gnosticism we typically believe that the physical world is an illusion and is under the control of these “archons.” The term archon may be metaphorical (i.e. alcoholism, child abuse, political corruption, government in general, etc) or it may also be literal, depending on the believer’s perspective.

Astrology was really big during the second century and that is probably why the letters of Abraxas’s name corresponds with the planets. Some people believed their lives were dictated by fate which was controlled by the stars and planets. Taking that into consideration, Gnostics considered this a demonic system, making the planets/stars archonic rulers. I wish I could remember the text but I remember reading a verse that said something to the effect that: “All men are bound to the fate of the archons (stars), except to those who receive Gnosis (salvation), which is freely available to everyone.” Basically saying that there is no freedom, except for those who truly know God.

Abraxas is bizarrely enough depicted with a chicken’s head. I found a picture of a Roman (if I remember correctly) god with a chicken’s head also. I asked a priest about this and he said that the chicken’s head was simply a symbol of a ruler, or divine ruler, at the time.

Although Abraxas is ultimately probably more of an ambiguous figure I would consider it malevolent for two reasons. #1 Second century Gnostics considered government and rulers demonic/archonic. As I understand this was near the height of when Christians were being murdered by Romans in the coliseum, so government at the time was very oppressive and obviously seemed demonic to Christians. So I think the chicken head showing Abraxas as a ruler definitely points to Abraxas being evil.

#2 Also I think the Abraxas amulet described in April De’Conick’s “The Thirteenth Apostle” is another good indicator Abraxas was evil. She says the figure appears with the names Judas and Yaldabaoth (If I remember correctly). She says people (I’m not sure if these people were Christian, pagan, or what) used to put these amulets in their mouths before a battle and yell the names of the demons on the amulet to summon them for protection. Yaldabaoth is our equivalent to satan so this would also be a very strong indication Abraxas is malevolent.

Considering that Gnostics believed the world is controlled by shadowy demonic rulers (governments especially), it is especially creepy that a government agency would name a surveillance program “Abraxas.” Maybe they just thought it was a neat sounding word, and accidently named it something very ironic, but regardless of the reason, it is a bit unsettling.

Anyways, I hope that was helpful/interesting. If anyone has any more questions about Gnosticism feel free to ask. I enjoy talking about the subject. BTW the Gnostic mass Duncan described sounded pretty cool. I'm a bit jealous, b/c there isn't a Gnostic church anywhere near where I live ;)