Introduction - Associated with Gnosis Quite often when new people come to public talks they ask about or mention the word Demiurge. I frankly was not really well versed in what really who or what is the Demiurge. All, that I really knew was that it can be looked upon by some as negative, that is as the 'bad guy' in the story. So, in order to remedy my ignorance of the Demiurge, I am writing this post. Fire as the architect of the Universe. The Word – Demiurge First things first, let’s shine the spotlight on the word; 'Demiurge'. Demiurge is an English word stemming from the word demiurgus which is the Latin version of the original Greek word demiourgos. It is said that demiourgos in Greek was a common noun referring to ‘artisan’ or ‘craftsman’. In time though it came to be used as ‘creator’ or ‘producer’. This meaning of the Greek word demiourgos comes from Plato’s work "Timaeus" where the word is assigned to a character who has the role of being the creator of the material world. Various other platonic schools such as Neoplatonism and Middle Platonism hold this version of the Demiruge as being a benevolent creator who created the material world out of imperfect matter thus making the material world imperfect. Master Samael on the Demiurge Scouring through Master Samael’s works and talks, the Demiurge is indeed considered to be the creator, but a Divine creator. Master Samael says that the Demiurge Architect of the Universe is the Army of the Word, which is a unity and which is also known as the Elohim. He says that it is the Cosmic Christ that is present in everything created. He also says that the Demiurge is the Fire! Which creates and organises creation. As an interesting aside, Master Samael says that the Demiurge Architect is Adi-Buddha. Which we know resides in AIN SOPH AUR, from which the Ray of Okidanoch emanates from. Adi-Budha is also the prototype of Kether in the Absolute. So then, the Demiurge Architect of the Universe is all of our Beings united together as one fulfilling the function of creating. For Master Samael the Demiurge is something Divine and of the Absolute. It is the Fire for him, which is Divine and which is redeeming and responsible for creation. Certainly for Master Samael the Demiurge Architect is not malevolent nor the ‘bad guy’ of the story of creation. Demiurge often depicted as a serpent with a lion's head. Various Excerpts 1. "The Unmanifest, the Unknowable, is Aelohim. Moses worshiped Aelohim. The Manifested One, the Second One, is the Demiurge Architect of the Universe, it is the Fire, it is the Cosmic Chrestos; It is Vishnu, who can penetrate everything that is, has been and will be. Obviously, the reason of being of the Manifested Logos is to create and re-create. " “El Inmanifestado, el Incognoscible, es Aelohim. Moisés rindió culto a Aelohim. El Manifestado, el Segundo Uno, es el Demiurgo Arquitecto del Universo, es el Fuego, es el Chrestos Cósmico; es Vishnu, el cual puede penetrar en todo lo que es, ha sido y será. Obviamente, la razón de ser del Logos Manifestado es crear y volver nuevamente a crear.” 2. “he is the Demiurge of the Greeks, the Platonic Logos, the Great Principle of Nature vibrating in every atom, making each Sun shudder, it is the CREATING FIRE of the first instant ...” “es el Demiurgo de los griegos, el Logos platónico, el Principio Ingente de la Naturaleza haciendo vibrar cada átomo, hacienda estremecer cada Sol, es el FUEGO CREADOR del primer instante...” 3. “First of all I have to say, emphatically and with complete clarity, that Quetzalcoatl is not a myth. Unquestionably, Quetzalcoatl is the VERB, it is THE GREAT WORD, it is the PLATONIC LOGOS, the DEMIURGE ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE, the CREATIVE FIRE ...” “Ante todo he de decir, en forma enfática y con entera claridad, que Quetzalcóatl no es un mito. Incuestionablemente, Quetzalcóatl es el VERBO, es LA GRAN PALABRA, es el LOGOS PLATÓ-NICO, el DEMIURGO ARQUITECTO DEL UNIVERSO, el FUEGO CREADOR...” 4. “Remember, my dear brothers, that there are two Ones. The First One is AELOHIM; the Second One is ELOHIM; the First One is the UNMANIFESTED, the UNKNOWABLE, the Divinity that can not be drawn, nor symbolized, nor burned. The Second One, springs from the first One and is the ARCHITECT DEMIURGE OF THE UNIVERSE: Fire.” “Recuerden ustedes mis queridos hermanos, que hay dos UNOS. El Primer Uno es AELOHIM; el Segundo Uno es ELOHIM; el Primer Uno es el INMANIFESTADO, el INCOGNOSCIBLE, la Divinidad que no se puede pintar, ni simbolizar, ni burilar. El Segundo Uno, brota del primer Uno y es el DEMIURGO ARQUITECTO DEL UNIVERSO: el Fuego.” 5. M. Obviously! The Ten Sephiroths have to Self-Realize themselves; and anyone who achieves the Intimate Self-Realization of his Ten Kabbalistic Sephiroths, BECOMES ELOHIM; that's obvious. But I repeat: One thing is the Elohim, as part of the Creator Demiurge of the Universe, and another thing is Adi-Buddha, the Unmanifested. “M. ¡Obviamente! Los Diez Sephirotes hay que Autorrealizarlos; y todo aquél que logre la Autorrealización Íntima de sus Diez Sephirotes kabalísticos, SE CONVIERTE EN ELOHIM; eso es obvio. Pero repito: Una cosa es el Elohim, como parte del Demiurgo Creador del Universo, y otra cosa es Adi-Buddha, el Inmanifestado.” 6. “Christ must give life to our Body, it must develop in our organism as Living and Philosophical Fire; it must burn in our Consciousness, that is, in our Soul, and it must shine in our Spirit. Here are the three steps of the Demiurge Architect, that is, the Fire. INRI (Ignis Natura Renovatur Integram, Fire renews nature incessantly). It is necessary to renew the body by means of Fire; we must bring the Fire to our Soul and we must take it to our Spirit. The Fire, descending, shines in our Spirit, becomes fecund in our Soul and transforms our body; this is the three steps of the Christus in the seven Regions of this Universe.” “Cristo ha de dar vida a nuestro Cuerpo, ha de desarrollarse en nuestro organismo como Fuego Viviente y Filosofal; ha de arder en nuestra Conciencia, es decir, en nuestra Alma, y ha de resplandecer en nuestro Espíritu. He ahí los tres pasos del Demiurgo Arquitecto, es decir, del Fuego. INRI (Ignis Natura Renovatur Integram, el Fuego renueva incesantemente la Naturaleza). Hay que renovar el cuerpo por medio del Fuego; hay que llevar el Fuego a nuestra Alma y hay que llevarlo a nuestro Espíritu. El Fuego, descendiendo, resplandece en nuestro Espíritu, se hace fecundo en nuestra Alma y transforma nuestro cuerpo; así son los tres pasos del Christus en las siete Regiones de este Universo.” Demiurge and Classic Gnosticism “Gnosticism presents a distinction between the highest, unknowable God and the demiurgic "creator" of the material. Several systems of Gnostic thought present the Demiurge as antagonistic to the will of the Supreme Being: his act of creation occurs in an unconscious semblance of the divine model, and thus is fundamentally flawed, or else is formed with the malevolent intention of entrapping aspects of the divine in materiality. Thus, in such systems, the Demiurge acts as a solution to (or, at least possibly, the problem or cause that gives rise to the problem of evil.” There are various old classic Gnostic myths that go along the lines of: “One Gnostic mythos describes the declination of aspects of the divine into human form. Sophia (Greek: Σοφία, lit. "wisdom"), the Demiurge's mother a partial aspect of the divine Pleroma or "Fullness," desired to create something apart from the divine totality, without the receipt of divine assent. In this act of separate creation, she gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and, being ashamed of her deed, wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for him within it. The Demiurge, isolated, did not behold his mother, nor anyone else, and concluded that only he existed, ignorant of the superior levels of reality. The Demiurge, having received a portion of power from his mother, sets about a work of creation in unconscious imitation of the superior Pleromatic realm: He frames the seven heavens, as well as all material and animal things, according to forms furnished by his mother; working however blindly, and ignorant even of the existence of the mother who is the source of all his energy. He is blind to all that is spiritual, but he is king over the other two provinces. The word dēmiourgos properly describes his relation to the material; he is the father of that which is animal like himself. Thus Sophia's power becomes enclosed within the material forms of humanity, themselves entrapped within the material universe: the goal of Gnostic movements was typically the awakening of this spark, which permitted a return by the subject to the superior, non-material realities which were its primal source” These myths really depict the ego within ourselves though because people no longer see the ego within they start to think that the demiurge of these Gnostic myths is the real creator of the world. But they are wrong, the Gnostics were referring to the 'ego'. Why the ‘Bad Guy’? All because of the false demiurge. There is yes, a false demiurge architect of the universe, and it is no other than the ego, the ‘myself’ that we all carry within. What has happened is that people have stopped seeing the ego in themselves and have attributed this world of much pain and suffering to have been created by a flawed creator, which they have called the Demiurge. But really the real Demiurge as Master Samael describes does not have anything to do with the creator of all of this pain and suffering, of whom the creator is the false demiurge, which is the ego in us. Ego as the False Demiurge As the real Demiurge creates the universe, the material word, the false demiurge - the ego creates a world as well. Is not the ego an answer to every occasion of life? Does not the ego wish through the technology and science of the Anti-Christ, to create a world separate from the Divine Being in all of us. A world that does not even need to remember the Divine Being? The will of the ego works tirelessly to maintain ourselves in a life separate from our inner Being or the Divine in us and outside of us. The interesting thing though is who created the ego? And who maintains the ego? Who managed to create the whole structure of the ego such that it takes care of every corner of our life? Some force, some intelligence perhaps? Perhaps the Archons of the Law? Or perhaps ourselves and behind that our Being? Anyway when the Being decides it is enough, It throws down the false demiurge (the ego) and realises itself. Summary and Final Comments So, the word Demiurge comes originally from Greek and means creator, where it was really Plato that gave the word this meaning. Gnosis as taught by Master Samael sees the demiurge as the creating Divine Fire or the Cosmic Christ. The reason why it is seen in a negative light is because of the ego which within us fulfils that role of demiurge creating a world of pain and suffering, and the architect of that painful world is our karma and the ‘myself’, which is the father of the three furies. Ultimately though our fall created the "I" and the "I" created the false world in which it lives separate and devoid of the Divine Being in us, End (2577).