PLANETARY SPIRITS

”Ialdabaoth, who corresponds to Zeus in the Orphic and Platonic metaphysics, is called the Demiurgus or Lord of the World.Ialdabaoth gave birth out of himself to six sons who, together with their father, became the seven planetary spirits. These were called the Seven Archons and correspond with the Guardians of the World described by Hermes. Their
names and order according to Origen are as follows:

Ialdabaoth (Saturn)
lao (Jupiter)
Sabaoth (Mars)
Adonaios (Sun)
Astaphaios (Venus)
Ailoaios (Mercury)
Oraios (Moon)
In the Hermetic allegory, the Seven Guardians of the World-the Builders or Elohim of the Jews-were simply manifesters of divine purpose, in themselves neither good nor bad. According to the Gnostics, however, Ialdabaoth and his six sons were proud and opposing spirits who, like Lucifer and his rebels, sought to establish a kingdom in the Abyss which should prevail against the kingdom of God. Hence we find Ialdabaoth crying out triumphantly, “There are no other gods before me!” when in reality he is the least part of the triune godhead and beyond him extends the spheres of the Father and the Son.
In his Gnostics and Their Remains, C. W . King sums up the Gnostic genesis. His remarks are in substance as follows : Sophia Achamoth, the generative wisdom of the world, is lured into the abyss by beholding her reflection in the deep. Through union with the darkness she gives birth to a son-Ialdabaoth, the child of Chaos and the Egg. Sophia Achamoth, being
herself of a spiritual nature, suffered horribly from her
contact with matter and after an extraordinary strug~
gle she escapes out of the muddy Chaos which had
threatened to swallow her up. Although unacquainted
with the mystery of the Pleroma-that all~including
space which is the abode of her mother, the heavenly
Sophia, or wisdom-Sophia Achamoth reaches the
middle distance (the interval between the above and
the below) and there succeeds in shaking off the ma~
terial elements which mudlike have clung to her spirit~
ual nature. After cleansing her nature she immediately
built a strong barrier between the world of the intel~
ligences or spirits above and the world of matter which
stretches out below.”