Lexiconof the Unseen

A sacred name associated with Basilidean cosmology and also found on ancient magical gems. Its Greek letters have a numerical value of 365. Ancient accounts assign it different roles, so it does not identify one universal Gnostic deity.

Also found as: Abrasax

The subterranean freshwater deep associated with Enki's dwelling and the sources of life. In the Babylonian Enuma Elish, Apsu also appears as a primordial male deity whose waters mingle with Tiamat's.

Also found as: Apsu · Absu

A name for the lower Sophia in certain Valentinian accounts. Her separation, passions, and eventual restoration help explain the formation of the lower cosmos and the spiritual seed within humanity.

The primordial human configuration in Kabbalistic cosmology, especially developed in Lurianic teachings. It expresses an early ordering of divine light and is distinct from the earthly Adam of the biblical narrative.

A wise figure associated with Eridu and the god Ea. In the Adapa story, instructions about heavenly food and drink become central to an encounter with Anu and a missed possibility of immortality.

A divine power, emanation, or realm within Gnostic cosmology. Aeons often appear in complementary pairs and together constitute the Pleroma. The word can also mean an age or an immeasurable duration.

Also found as: Aion · Aeons

Love understood as generosity, care, and spiritual fellowship. In early Christian and Gnostic settings it can describe the bond of a community or a divine quality, rather than only desire or attraction.

Also found as: Agapē

Ignorance or failure to recognize. Gnostic myths often give ignorance cosmic consequences: a ruler who does not know what lies above him mistakes his limited world for the whole of reality.

A condition of not knowing. In discussions of gnosis it describes estrangement from knowledge of divine reality and one's origin; in other philosophical or mystical settings, not-knowing can carry different meanings.

Also found as: Agnōsia

A proposed record of events, thoughts, and experiences accessible beyond ordinary perception. The idea is especially associated with Theosophy and later esoteric movements, which adapted the Sanskrit term akasha, meaning space or ether.

Also found as: Akasha · Akashic record

A historical field of material practices and theories concerning transformation, metals, medicines, and the properties of matter. Religious and symbolic interpretations also developed around it, including images of purification, death, and regeneration.

Also found as: Alchemical

The title and visionary figure of a Nag Hammadi revelation text. The stranger's otherness expresses a spiritual identity beyond ordinary worldly belonging, and the text describes an ascent toward what exceeds thought.

Also found as: Allogenēs · The Stranger

Recollection or remembrance. In Plato it names the recovery of knowledge the soul already possesses. Later spiritual interpretations use the image of remembering to express recognition of an origin or identity obscured by ordinary life.

Also found as: Anamnēsis

The idea of a soul animating or unifying the cosmos, developed in Platonic and later philosophical traditions. It provides a way to understand individual life as participating in a larger living order.

Also found as: World soul

The human or primordial Human. In several Gnostic systems, a heavenly human archetype precedes earthly humanity. The term can name an aeon, a divine model, or the spiritual identity reflected imperfectly in embodied life.

Also found as: Anthrōpos · Primal Human

The position that a religious law no longer binds a person or community. Ancient opponents accused some Gnostics of rejecting moral restraints, but the term should be distinguished from the disciplined and ascetic practices of other groups.

The god of heaven, called An in Sumerian and Anu in Akkadian. He stands among the senior powers of the pantheon and is associated with divine authority, kingship, and the heavenly realm.

Also found as: An · Anum

A collective designation for Mesopotamian deities whose membership and role change across texts and periods. Some sources connect them with the underworld. Ancient-astronaut literature later reinterprets them as extraterrestrial beings, a modern reading of the traditions.

Also found as: Anunna · Anunnaku

Wise, protective figures associated with Ea and the transmission of knowledge before the Flood. Mesopotamian art depicts sages in human, fish-cloaked, and bird-headed forms. Their images served protective and ritual functions.

Also found as: Abgal · Apkallū · Seven sages

A work presented as a secret or concealed revelation, often given by a heavenly teacher to a chosen disciple. The Apocryphon of John is a major example, narrating divine emanation, the emergence of the rulers, and humanity's spiritual origin.

Also found as: Apocrypha · Apochryphon

Release from bondage or captivity. In certain Gnostic Christian communities the word also names a rite of redemption, expressing liberation from the powers governing mortal existence and restoration to a higher spiritual identity.

Also found as: Apolytrōsis · Redemption

Folly, senselessness, or reckless lack of understanding. In an esoteric discussion it can describe thought severed from wisdom. It is a Greek ethical term, rather than the name of a single universally accepted Gnostic doctrine.

An approach to the divine that works through negation: saying what the ultimate is not, because ordinary categories fail to contain it. Gnostic and Platonic texts often describe the highest source in this way.

Also found as: Negative theology · Apophasis

An original model or organizing pattern. In Jungian psychology, archetypes structure recurring forms of experience and imagery. A mythic figure can be interpreted archetypally without reducing all of its historical meanings to psychology.

Also found as: Archetypal

A title for a primal begetter or originating ruler. Gnostic glossaries use it for the Demiurge, identifying him as the progenitor of a lower created order rather than the ultimate source of all existence.

Also found as: Archigenetor

A ruler or governing power. In many Gnostic narratives, archons administer the lower cosmos and obstruct the soul's freedom through ignorance, fate, or domination. Their names, numbers, and moral character vary between texts.

Also found as: Archons

Excellence in fulfilling a thing's nature or purpose. Greek philosophers applied it to character, judgment, and action. In spiritual study it points toward the cultivation of a life shaped by understanding and ethical practice.

Also found as: Aretē

A familiar modern formulation of the relationship between higher and lower orders of reality, associated with the Emerald Tablet. It expresses correspondence across levels of existence and became influential in later occult philosophy.

Training through deliberate restraint, such as fasting, simplicity, celibacy, or sustained contemplation. Different ancient groups used such practices for purification or freedom from attachment. The extent and purpose of restraint varied considerably.

Also found as: Askesis

A subtle vehicle through which a person is believed to experience nonphysical realms. Its nature differs across occult systems, which may distinguish it from the physical body, soul, and other subtle principles.

The interpretation or practice of experiencing awareness as traveling beyond the physical body in an astral vehicle. Esoteric systems describe landscapes, inhabitants, and methods of navigation within this framework.

Also found as: Astral travel

The hero and title of a Babylonian epic concerning divine labor, the creation of humanity, and the Flood. Atrahasis survives through Ea's intervention, linking human vulnerability with a god's protective wisdom.

Also found as: Atra-hasis · Atraḫasīs

The self-generated or self-born One. In the Apocryphon of John, the divine Autogenes is identified with Christ and emerges in relation to Barbelo and the invisible Spirit. Other Sethian writings organize this figure's place differently.

Also found as: Autogenēs · Self-generated One

A name associated with medieval accusations against the Templars and later transformed in occult thought. Éliphas Lévi's nineteenth-century goat-headed image combines opposites and became a widely recognized symbol of esoteric synthesis.

A primordial divine manifestation described as First Thought and as a maternal, androgynous power. Barbelo holds a central place in Sethian revelation texts. In the Apocryphon of John, she and Sophia occupy distinct roles.

Also found as: Barbelos · Barbēlō

Counsel, intention, or will. Within theological language it can describe divine purpose or deliberation, helping express how an intelligible intention precedes an act of manifestation.

Also found as: Boulē

An image of spiritual reunion and, in some Valentinian contexts, a sacred mystery or rite. The Gospel of Philip gives it particular prominence. Its language of union can express the healing of division and restoration of wholeness.

Also found as: Nymphon

Depth: a name for the unfathomable divine source in Valentinian accounts. Often paired with Silence, Bythos conveys the inexhaustible depth from which the aeons proceed, beyond the reach of ordinary comprehension.

Also found as: Bythos · Depth

Earthly or made of dust. In discussions of Gnostic anthropology it overlaps with the material category called hylic, drawing on the image of the human being formed from the earth.

Also found as: Choikos

An adjective meaning good, useful, or kindly. Its resemblance to Christos encouraged ancient wordplay and occasional confusion. The two spellings have different origins, even when religious writers make symbolic connections between them.

Also found as: Chrēstos

The title Christ, meaning anointed. Gnostic Christian texts portray Christ as a revealer who communicates knowledge of the Father and humanity's divine origin. His relation to Jesus, embodiment, and suffering differs between schools.

Also found as: Christ · Christos principle

Purported perception of an object or event without ordinary sensory access. The term is used in psychical research and occult practice; remote viewing is a more specific research approach involving a concealed target.

Carl Jung's proposed transpersonal layer of the psyche, associated with archetypal patterns that exceed individual biography. It offers a psychological framework for recurring symbols in dreams, religious imagery, and mythology.

A group of Greek philosophical and religious treatises attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. They explore divine Mind, the cosmos, spiritual rebirth, and knowledge of God, emerging from the religious and intellectual world of Roman Egypt.

Relationships linking planets, colors, metals, plants, numbers, divine names, and other features of a system. These associations organize ritual and interpretation; their arrangements depend on the tradition using them.

An account of how a world or cosmos comes into being. Gnostic emanation myths, Mesopotamian creation narratives, and philosophical cosmologies offer different answers about origins, order, and humanity's place within them.

A writing technology developed in ancient Mesopotamia using impressions in clay. It was adapted for Sumerian, Akkadian, and other languages. Cuneiform is a script, while the languages written with it have their own grammar and history.

A divine or intermediate power, sometimes understood as a guiding presence or a force shaping destiny. Ancient Greek uses cover a wider range of meanings than the later Christian category of an evil demon.

Also found as: Daemon

The maker or organizer of the visible cosmos. Plato uses the image of a benevolent craftsman; Gnostic accounts range from an ignorant or oppressive creator to a limited, just administrator subordinate to a higher God.

Also found as: Demiourgos · Demiurgos

A land known through trade and texts, associated especially with Bahrain and the eastern Arabian region. Sumerian literature also imagines Dilmun as a place of purity and divine activity, giving it a powerful mythic dimension.

The Sumerian word for a deity. Its cuneiform sign can also function as a marker placed before divine names; the same sign is associated with an, heaven. Reading depends on the word and context.

Also found as: Diĝir · DINGIR

Practices intended to disclose hidden conditions or future possibilities through signs, patterns, or inspired communication. Ancient Mesopotamian omen reading, astrology, and later tarot are distinct examples within this broad category.

A family of views in which Christ's humanity or suffering is understood as apparent rather than fully ordinary. The label covers different positions and should be applied to specific teachings rather than to every Gnostic Christian group.

A position distinguishing two fundamental kinds of reality or opposing principles. Mind–body dualism and religious dualism between cosmic powers address different questions. The word takes its precise meaning from the system being discussed.

A god associated with shepherding, fertility, and Inanna. His fate in descent traditions ties him to the underworld and ritual lamentation. Tammuz is the Akkadian form familiar from later religious traditions.

Also found as: Tammuz

A group-associated spiritual entity or thought-form believed to emerge from shared attention, ritual, and belief. Contemporary occult writers use the concept to describe a reciprocal relationship between a community and the psychic presence it sustains.

Also found as: Egrégore

The unlimited or infinite divine reality in Kabbalah, beyond ordinary qualification. Kabbalistic accounts examine how a differentiated world can arise in relation to this boundless source.

Also found as: Ain Soph · En Sof

The emergence of beings or levels of reality from a prior divine principle. The image is often one of unfolding or overflowing, allowing multiplicity to arise from a source that is not simply exhausted by what proceeds from it.

A short text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, transmitted through Arabic and Latin alchemical traditions. Its compact account of cosmic unity and transformation became especially influential in European alchemy and later esoteric interpretation.

Also found as: Tabula Smaragdina

A major god associated with wisdom, ritual knowledge, fresh water, and skilled creation. His cult center was Eridu. Under his Akkadian name Ea, he often acts as a resourceful protector of humanity in Mesopotamian myths.

Also found as: Ea

A leading Mesopotamian god associated with sovereignty and the ordering of the world, especially at Nippur. His decisions shape human and divine affairs. In Flood traditions he is a central authority behind the catastrophe.

Also found as: Ellil

Thought or conception, sometimes personified as a divine power. Gnostic authors use the language of thought to explain manifestation from an invisible source. Barbelo is described as the First Thought in the Apocryphon of John.

A Babylonian poem whose title comes from its opening words, conventionally rendered When on high. It recounts Marduk's rise to supremacy, the defeat of Tiamat, and the organization of the cosmos and divine order.

Also found as: Enūma eliš · Babylonian creation epic

Reflective thought, conception, or insight. In the Apocryphon of John, luminous Epinoia helps humanity awaken and recover what the rulers cannot perceive. The term becomes part of the text's account of revelation and spiritual assistance.

The goddess who rules the realm of the dead. She is central to the descent of Inanna or Ishtar, where the power of the underworld confronts a deity arriving from above.

Also found as: Ereškigal

An ancient city in southern Mesopotamia, closely associated with Enki and his temple. Literary traditions grant it exceptional antiquity and connect it with kingship, wisdom, and the beginnings of ordered human life.

Desire or passionate love. In Platonic and later mystical traditions, eros can become the soul's longing for beauty, truth, and reunion with its source. Particular Gnostic myths also place desire within accounts of cosmic generation.

Also found as: Erōs

A name transmitted in accounts of Naassene teaching for a lower cosmic ruler, often connected with the biblical El Shaddai. It belongs to a particular reported system rather than a shared name in every Gnostic tradition.

Also found as: Esaldaius

Teachings and practices concerned with concealed, initiatory, or deeper forms of knowledge. Scholars use Western esotericism for a historically connected field including Hermeticism, alchemy, occult philosophy, and modern movements.

Also found as: Esoteric

An umbrella term for proposed acquisition of information beyond recognized sensory channels, commonly including telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. It names a class of claims and research questions rather than one agreed mechanism.

Also found as: Extrasensory perception

The legendary king of Uruk whose stories explore friendship, royal power, grief, and mortality. In the Akkadian epic, the death of Enkidu drives Gilgamesh to seek the survivor of the Flood and the secret of enduring life.

Also found as: Bilgames

Transformative knowledge of spiritual reality and of one's own origin and condition. In Gnostic traditions, this recognition can free a person from ignorance and alienation. It involves understanding that changes the knower's relationship to existence.

Also found as: Gnōsis

A person or teaching associated with gnosis. Ancient writers used the term in several ways; modern scholars also apply it to selected religious movements and texts. Its meaning depends on the community, period, and source under discussion.

Also found as: Gnostikos

A modern umbrella term for diverse ancient movements and writings emphasizing saving knowledge, divine transcendence, and humanity's spiritual predicament. Sethian and Valentinian materials are major examples. These traditions never formed a single church with one fixed creed.

A sevenfold realm or grouping, often connected with the seven planetary heavens of ancient cosmology. In some Gnostic systems it designates the sphere of cosmic rulers below the higher spiritual worlds.

Also found as: Hebdomad

Fate conceived as an ordered chain of necessity, frequently associated with the planetary spheres. In Gnostic and Hermetic accounts, spiritual liberation may involve passing beyond the forces that bind embodied life to this cosmic order.

Also found as: Heimarene · Heimarmenē

Union or unification, especially the soul's union with the One in Neoplatonic philosophy. The term points toward a fulfillment beyond ordinary division between knower and known.

Also found as: Henōsis

The legendary sage combining associations of the Greek Hermes and Egyptian Thoth. Writings attributed to him address philosophy, astrology, alchemy, and sacred knowledge. The name designates a revelatory authority rather than a securely documented individual author.

Also found as: Thrice-greatest Hermes

A Western esoteric adaptation of Kabbalistic materials, combining them with astrology, tarot, alchemy, and ceremonial magic. It developed distinctive correspondences and practices and should be understood alongside its Jewish and Christian inheritances.

Also found as: Qabalah · Hermetic Kabbalah

Religious and philosophical traditions inspired by writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. Ancient Hermetic texts examine divine knowledge and regeneration; later receptions connect this inheritance with alchemy, astrology, and ceremonial magic.

Also found as: Hermetism

Pertaining to matter. Some Gnostic systems use hylic for the material component of a person or a category of humanity dominated by material existence. Its precise meaning belongs to those systems' accounts of creation and salvation.

Also found as: Hylikos · Hyle

A family of positions giving mind, experience, or the mental a fundamental role in reality or its intelligibility. Different forms make different claims about the external world and the relationship between individual experience and ultimate existence.

A collective name for gods, sometimes distinguished from the Anunnaki. In Atrahasis, divine labor and revolt lead to the creation of humans to take over the burden. The groups' relationship changes with the source.

Also found as: Igigu

A powerful goddess of sexuality, warfare, and authority, associated with Venus. Her myths include the acquisition of the me and a descent into the underworld. Ishtar is her Akkadian counterpart, with overlapping and developing traditions.

Also found as: Inana · Ishtar · Ištar

A process marking entry into a religious or esoteric community, level of instruction, or transformed status. Initiation may involve ritual, instruction, testing, and obligations, with significance determined by the tradition.

Jewish mystical traditions exploring divine manifestation, scripture, creation, and religious life. Medieval and later Kabbalistic systems employ concepts such as Ein Sof and the sefirot, developing within the history and practice of Judaism.

Also found as: Cabala · Qabbalah

Emptiness or deficiency, used in discussions of some Gnostic cosmologies for what lies outside divine fullness. It forms a conceptual contrast with Pleroma, rather than a uniformly mapped location across all texts.

Also found as: Kenōma

The Sumerian word for earth or land, also personified in cosmological traditions. Heaven and earth form a fundamental pair in Mesopotamian thought, though Ki's status as a distinct deity varies across the evidence.

Tiamat's chosen consort and commander in Enuma Elish, entrusted with the Tablet of Destinies. After Marduk's victory, his blood becomes part of the account of humanity's creation.

Also found as: Qingu

A Sumerian word with meanings including mountain, foreign land, and, in relevant contexts, the realm below. Its range makes context essential; one English translation cannot cover every occurrence.

A protective divine being. The term is commonly used for the colossal human-headed winged bulls or lions at Assyrian gateways, whose imposing presence guarded royal spaces and proclaimed power.

Also found as: Shedu

A figure whose roles develop across Jewish texts and folklore, including harmful night spirit and, in a medieval account, Adam's first wife. Later occult and feminist interpretations give her additional meanings of autonomy, danger, and resistance.

Word, discourse, account, or reason. Across Greek philosophy and early Christianity, Logos can express the intelligible order of reality or divine self-expression. In Gnostic contexts it may be an aeon or a revealing power associated with Christ.

The great world and the little world. This relationship treats the human being as reflecting structures of the wider cosmos, linking bodily, psychological, and spiritual life with a larger order.

Also found as: Macrocosm · Microcosm

The Great Work of alchemy: a process aimed at transformative perfection, often associated with the philosopher's stone. Later spiritual interpretations use its stages as a language for inner change and integration.

Also found as: Great Work

A living religion with roots in Mesopotamia, sacred texts in Mandaic, and a strong emphasis on knowledge, baptism in flowing water, and the World of Light. John the Baptist is a major teacher within its own distinct religious history.

Also found as: Mandaean · Mandaeans

The religion founded by Mani in the third century AD. It presents a cosmic conflict and mixture of Light and Darkness, with religious life helping release captive light. It developed its own scriptures, communities, and far-reaching missionary tradition.

Also found as: Mani

A Christian movement associated with Marcion, who sharply distinguished the creator and lawgiver from the previously unknown good God revealed by Jesus. Its relationship to the modern category Gnosticism remains a matter of scholarly classification.

Also found as: Marcion

The patron god of Babylon, elevated to supreme authority in Enuma Elish. His victory over Tiamat establishes an ordered cosmos and legitimizes his leadership of the gods.

Also found as: Bel · Bēl

Divine powers, ordinances, or attributes underlying aspects of civilization and existence. In the story of Inanna and Enki, their transfer encompasses institutions, crafts, authority, and capacities that structure human life.

Also found as: Mē · Divine powers

A turning of mind and orientation, often translated as repentance. In spiritual practice it describes a deep reappraisal of one's life and understanding. The transformation concerns how a person sees and lives, as well as what they believe.

Also found as: Metennoia

The One or ultimate divine unity. In Gnostic and Platonic contexts it can designate a source beyond division, form, and ordinary description. The relation between this unity and the multiplicity of beings is a central cosmological question.

Also found as: Monas · The One

The view that reality is ultimately one in some relevant sense, such as consisting of one substance or one fundamental kind. Physicalist, idealist, and neutral monisms explain that unity differently.

A title conventionally rendered only-begotten. In Valentinian descriptions it can designate Nous, the divine Intellect. Other Christian and Gnostic settings apply the title according to their own accounts of divine generation.

Also found as: Monogenēs

Religious cults involving restricted rites or teachings and forms of initiation. Examples include the Eleusinian mysteries and the cult of Mithras. Their practices and promises differed, despite a shared language of hidden revelation.

Also found as: Mystery religions · Mysteries

A culturally significant narrative about gods, origins, human conditions, or the organization of the world. Reading a story as myth focuses on its meaning and function, while leaving room to ask separate questions about historical claims.

A collection of ancient Coptic books discovered near Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. The codices preserve Gnostic, Christian, Hermetic, and philosophical writings, transforming modern access to voices previously known largely through their opponents.

Also found as: Nag Hammadi Library · Codices

A primordial goddess associated with cosmic origins and with Enki as his mother. In Enki and Ninmah she participates in the events surrounding humanity's creation and the relief of divine labor.

Also found as: Namma

The Mesopotamian moon god, particularly associated with Ur and later Harran. Lunar cycles made him important to timekeeping and sacred rhythms. Traditions identify him as the father of Inanna and Utu.

Also found as: Suen · Sin · Sîn

A reported episode associated with a perceived or actual encounter with death. Accounts can involve altered time, unusual clarity, encounters, life review, or a sense of leaving the body, alongside other positive or distressing experiences.

Also found as: NDE · Near death experience

The modern name for philosophical traditions associated with Plotinus and later Platonists. They investigate how reality proceeds from the One through Intellect and Soul, and how a person can return toward the source through contemplation or sacred practice.

Also found as: Neo-Platonism

A deity associated with war, disease, destructive heat, and the realm of the dead. In the story of Nergal and Ereshkigal, his encounter with the underworld queen establishes their relationship as its rulers.

A term associated with crossing and used in astronomical and divine contexts, including connections to Marduk and Jupiter. Its referent depends on the text. The inhabited planet of modern ancient-astronaut narratives is a later interpretation.

Also found as: Nēberu · Neberu

A mother-goddess figure associated with birth and the formation of living beings. Related names and roles overlap in Mesopotamian traditions. She appears prominently in stories about Enki and the creation of humanity.

Also found as: Ninmah · Nintu · Belet-ili

A god associated with heroic combat, agriculture, and royal power. His defeat of Anzu, who seized the Tablet of Destinies, presents him as a restorer of divine order.

Also found as: Ningirsu

Intellect or the faculty of direct intellectual understanding. Philosophers and religious writers can also use it for divine Mind. Nous, psyche, and pneuma have distinct roles in many ancient systems, although their relationships vary.

Also found as: Noûs

The amphibious teacher described in accounts attributed to the Babylonian priest Berossus. Oannes brings knowledge and the arts of civilization to humanity and is connected with the Mesopotamian tradition of primeval sages.

Also found as: Uanna · Uan

A broad label for hidden powers, knowledge, and practices, especially magic, divination, and esoteric philosophy. Occultism often refers more specifically to modern movements that organize these ideas into spiritual or philosophical systems.

Also found as: Occultism

An eightfold structure. It can mean the first eight aeons in a Valentinian arrangement, or an eighth region beyond the seven planetary spheres. In Hermetic ascent, the eighth is associated with a higher level of spiritual participation.

A serpent or dragon consuming its own tail. Across Egyptian, alchemical, and esoteric settings it can express cyclical time, self-renewal, enclosure, or unity. Its meaning changes with the image and tradition in which it appears.

Also found as: Uroboros

An experience in which a person feels located outside the physical body, sometimes with an apparent external view of it. Experiences occur in several settings; astral projection is one esoteric framework for interpreting them.

Also found as: OBE · OOBE · Out of body experience

The view that mentality or experiential properties are fundamental and widespread in nature. Contemporary versions ask how basic forms of experience could relate to the complex consciousness of organisms.

A helper, advocate, or comforter. Christian texts use the title especially for the Holy Spirit, while other religious movements give it additional applications. Its significance comes from the role of assistance, revelation, and spiritual guidance.

Also found as: Paraklētos

The study of phenomena such as reported telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis, and experiences suggesting survival after death. The field examines their evidence, conditions, and possible interpretation.

Also found as: Psychical research · Parapsychologia

The sought-after substance or agent associated with transmuting metals and, in some traditions, restoring health or extending life. Later esoteric readings also treat it as an image of achieved spiritual integration.

Also found as: Philosophers stone · Lapis philosophorum

Faith, trust, or conviction. Gnostic writings can distinguish faith from a fuller spiritual knowledge while still giving it a role in religious life. Pistis also forms part of the name and title Pistis Sophia.

A lengthy Coptic work in which the risen Jesus instructs his disciples about heavenly realms, salvation, and mysteries. Sophia's fall, appeals for help, and restoration form a major narrative within it.

The fullness of divine life. In many Gnostic systems it is the spiritual totality of the aeons, contrasted with deficiency and the lower cosmos. Its organization and relationship to the highest source vary by tradition.

Also found as: Plērōma

Breath, wind, or spirit. Ancient authors use it in physical, philosophical, and religious senses. In many Gnostic accounts, the spiritual element in humanity has an origin and destiny exceeding the body and the ordinary soul.

Pertaining to spirit. In Valentinian anthropology it describes the spiritual element, or those who possess it, in distinction from psychic and material categories. Its fulfillment is associated with knowledge of the divine source.

Also found as: Pneumatikos

The divine revealer in the opening treatise of the Corpus Hermeticum, identifying himself as Mind. He discloses an account of cosmic origins, humanity, and spiritual ascent. Traditional explanations of the name vary.

Also found as: Pymander · Poemandres

The lived practice of an idea or teaching. Religious praxis can include ethical discipline, contemplation, ritual, and communal life. It asks how an understanding takes form in action.

Purported knowledge of a future event that is not explained by ordinary inference or available information. Reports and experiments distinguish it from prediction based on patterns already known.

Forethought or providence. In some Sethian texts Pronoia is a divine presence reaching into the lower world to awaken humanity. The term links cosmic purpose with the activity of revelation and rescue.

An epithet applied to Sophia in some ancient reports of Gnostic teachings. Its interpretation is debated and has included senses such as wanton or impetuous. Its charged language belongs to particular myths and their transmission.

Also found as: Prounikos · Prunicus

A neutral shorthand used in parapsychology for proposed anomalous information transfer or influence, without committing to a particular explanation. It commonly covers extrasensory perception and psychokinesis.

The soul or animating life of a being. Its faculties and destiny are described differently across ancient systems. Gnostic and Platonic writers often distinguish it from bodily matter and from higher spirit or intellect.

Also found as: Psychē · Soul

Pertaining to psyche, the soul. In Valentinian classifications it occupies a position between material and spiritual modes of existence. This ancient use concerns the soul's nature and salvation; the modern sense of paranormal ability developed separately.

Also found as: Psychikos

Purported influence of mind on physical processes without a recognized physical intermediary. Telekinesis usually refers more narrowly to movement of objects, while psychokinesis includes broader proposed effects.

Also found as: PK · Telekinesis

A figure who guides souls across a boundary, especially into the realm of the dead or through an afterlife journey. Hermes and Anubis are familiar examples, each belonging to a distinct religious setting.

A procedure in which a person attempts to describe a distant or concealed target without normal access to it. Research protocols vary, making target selection, blinding, and the evaluation of descriptions important to interpreting results.

Also found as: RV

A name derived from the Hebrew expression for hosts or armies. In On the Origin of the World and The Hypostasis of the Archons, Sabaoth turns away from his father's arrogance and receives an exalted place.

Also found as: Sabaōth

A name for the ignorant creator in several Gnostic texts. Its meaning emphasizes the ruler's failure to recognize the reality above him, despite his claims to power or exclusive divinity.

Also found as: Sakla

A name given to the ignorant ruler in some Gnostic writings and interpreted there as blind god. Jewish and later occult traditions assign Samael other roles, making the textual setting essential to understanding the name.

Also found as: Sammael

A practice of gazing into a surface or medium, such as a mirror, water, or crystal, to receive symbolic images or impressions. Its interpretation depends on the ritual setting and the practitioner's beliefs.

The ten divine attributes or emanations through which Kabbalistic traditions describe manifestation and relation. Their names and arrangements became central to the Tree of Life and were adapted in later Hermetic Qabalah.

Also found as: Sefirot · Sephirot · Sefirah

A scholarly designation for a family of ancient writings and myths in which Seth and his spiritual lineage have special importance. Common figures include Barbelo, the heavenly Adamas, and the divine Autogenes, though individual texts differ.

Also found as: Sethianism

The indwelling or manifest presence of God in Jewish tradition. Kabbalistic texts develop feminine symbolism around the Shekhinah and associate her with particular divine relationships, exile, and restoration.

Also found as: Shekinah

Silence personified as a primordial divine reality, often paired with Bythos. The image suggests what precedes expression, distinction, and speech within an account of the emanation of the aeons.

Also found as: Sigē · Silence

A sign or seal used to represent a spirit, power, or intention. Historical ritual manuals and modern magical practices employ sigils in different ways, from identifying spiritual beings to focusing a practitioner's intent.

Divine Wisdom, frequently personified as an aeon. Her longing, independent action, or crisis helps explain the emergence of a deficient cosmos in several Gnostic myths. Her restoration connects the drama of creation with the possibility of human awakening.

A savior or deliverer. In Gnostic Christian contexts the title often belongs to Christ, whose revelation brings knowledge and liberation. Other ancient religions also applied it to gods, rulers, and rescuing figures.

Also found as: Sōtēr

An account or study of salvation: what human beings need release from, how that release occurs, and what fulfillment means. Gnostic soteriologies often connect liberation with revealed knowledge and recovery of spiritual identity.

A spark. Modern Gnostic writing often uses it for the divine element within embodied humanity. The image expresses the presence of something originating beyond the lower world that can be recognized, awakened, and restored.

Also found as: Spinthēr · Divine spark

A model of embodiment beyond ordinary anatomy, describing vehicles, centers, channels, or energies of spiritual life. Different traditions construct these maps differently; apparent similarities do not make all systems interchangeable.

The ancient cultural and linguistic world of southern Mesopotamia whose cities, literature, and institutions profoundly shaped the region. Sumerian is a language isolate preserved in cuneiform texts, including myths, hymns, laws, and school exercises.

Also found as: Sumerian

Jung's term for a meaningful correspondence between events not understood as causally linked. The concept concerns experienced significance and a proposed acausal relationship, especially between inner states and external occurrences.

The formation or transformation of religious expressions through contact between traditions. Ancient Mediterranean religions drew on overlapping Jewish, Christian, Greek, Egyptian, and other inheritances, producing new systems with their own identities.

Comprehension or the ability to bring things together in understanding. Some Gnostic schemes personify understanding among divine powers. Its role depends on the particular account of mind, revelation, and the aeons.

Also found as: Synēsis

A partner or consort; syzygy is the pairing itself. Valentinian aeons often appear as complementary pairs. The motif of reunion also shapes accounts of spiritual completion and the relationship between a soul and its heavenly counterpart.

Also found as: Syzygy · Syzygia · Syzygies

A mythic object expressing the power to decree destinies and uphold cosmic authority. Its possession and theft drive conflicts in stories involving Enlil, Anzu, Ninurta, Tiamat, and Marduk.

Also found as: Tablets of Destiny

An object prepared or understood to carry a specific protective or operative influence. Its design may use inscriptions, images, materials, and timing drawn from a system of religious or magical correspondences.

A card tradition that began in European games and later acquired occult, divinatory, and psychological uses. Modern esoteric systems interpret its imagery through structured relationships with astrology, the elements, and the Tree of Life.

Purported transfer of information or experience between minds without recognized sensory communication. It is studied through spontaneous reports and experimental tasks, and also appears within spiritual interpretations of human connection.

A religious and philosophical movement associated with Aleister Crowley and The Book of the Law of 1904. Its central concept of True Will concerns a person's deepest course or purpose, developed through its own symbolism and practices.

A word meaning divine wisdom, used in several historical settings. Modern Theosophy usually refers to the movement associated with Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society, combining spiritual evolution, comparative religion, and esoteric cosmology.

Sacred ritual intended to purify, elevate, or unite the soul with divine powers. It became especially important in later Neoplatonism, where material symbols and rites could participate in a greater divine order.

Also found as: Theourgia

A form or entity believed to be generated through sustained thought, emotion, or imagination. Occult models differ on whether it is an independent presence, a subtle structure, or a way of describing directed psychic activity.

Also found as: Thoughtform

The primordial sea goddess of Enuma Elish. After conflict among the gods, she becomes Marduk's opponent; her divided body supplies the structure of the cosmos. Her role belongs specifically to this Babylonian creation narrative.

A diagram arranging the ten sefirot and their relationships. In Hermetic Qabalah, its paths and spheres also organize tarot, planetary, and other correspondences. Distinct versions reflect the traditions and purposes that produced them.

A major city of southern Mesopotamia associated with early urban development, monumental temples, Inanna, and the legendary king Gilgamesh. Its archaeological and literary histories make it central to the study of civilization's beginnings.

Also found as: Unug · Erech

The survivor of the great Flood whom Gilgamesh seeks during his struggle with mortality. He recounts the catastrophe and the exceptional circumstances through which he and his wife received enduring life.

Also found as: Uta-napishti

The sun god, associated with illumination, justice, and judgment. His daily passage across the sky made him a witness to human conduct, and he appears as a helper and arbiter in Mesopotamian literature.

Also found as: Shamash · Šamaš

A family of Christian teachings associated with the second-century teacher Valentinus and his successors. Its myths explore divine fullness, Sophia's crisis, the creator's limited understanding, and the restoration of spiritual beings through Christ.

Also found as: Valentinianism · Valentinus

The arrogant, ignorant creator in several Gnostic myths, often portrayed as a lion-faced serpent. He claims supremacy without knowing the higher divine world. His name's derivation remains debated; Saklas and Samael are associated names in some texts.

Also found as: Ialdabaoth · Jaldabaoth · Yaltabaoth

A monumental stepped structure supporting a sacred precinct or elevated temple. Ziggurats expressed a city's devotion and royal patronage, giving the temple a commanding position within the urban and religious landscape.

The survivor in the Sumerian Flood tradition. After preserving life through the catastrophe, he receives an extraordinary destiny. His story belongs to the wider Mesopotamian family of Flood narratives alongside Atrahasis and Utnapishtim.

Also found as: Zi-ud-sura

Life, sometimes personified as a divine figure or aeon. Gnostic texts connect life with revelation and awakening, and some identify Zoe with a spiritual Eve. Her relationship to Sophia varies between narratives.

Also found as: Zōē