Foundations of Gnosticism

6 articles in this section ⏱ 1 min read
About This Section

Gnosticism rests on six interlocking ideas: the hidden true God, the flawed creator of the material world, the divine spark trapped within certain human beings, the fall of Sophia that started it all, gnosis as the path of liberation, and the Archons who guard the prison. This section covers all six — start with gnosis if you are new.

New here? Start with: Gnosis — The Meaning of Spiritual Knowledge →
The central concept of Gnosticism: not ordinary knowledge, but direct experiential awareness of your own divine origin.
2nd century AD When Gnostic thought peaked
6 Core foundational concepts
52 Nag Hammadi texts discovered 1945
Pleroma The divine realm all concepts connect to

6 Articles in This Section

01 Gnosis — The Meaning of Spiritual Knowledge What gnosis actually is — and why it is not ordinary knowledge. 02 Gnostic Beliefs & Core Teachings The 7 core Gnostic beliefs explained with primary sources. 03 Gnostic Dualism & Anticosmicism Why Gnostics believed the material world itself was the problem. 04 Gnostic Cosmology — A Complete Map The full vertical structure of the Gnostic universe. 05 The Divine Spark — The Fragment of God Within The pneuma: what it is, how it got there, and what it means. 06 What Is Gnosticism? — The Complete Introduction The full beginner's guide — what Gnosticism is, where it came from, and why it matters.

The six pages in this section form the conceptual skeleton of Gnosticism. You do not need to read them in order, but the sequence above is the most logical path: start with what gnosis is, understand the core beliefs, see how dualism defines the Gnostic worldview, map the full cosmos, understand the divine spark, and then step back to see how all of it fits into the broader question of what Gnosticism actually is.

Every other section on this site — Mythology, Texts, Traditions, History — assumes familiarity with these six concepts. Return here whenever a term in another article needs grounding.