12/9/2020 The Gnostics and Their Remains: Description of the Plates: Plate F.

e Plates: Plate F. Ancient Egyptian Types Adapted to Gnostic Ideas

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The Gnostics and Their Remains, by Charles William King, [1887], at sacred-
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Plate F

PLATE F.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TYPES ADAPTED TO

GNOSTIC IDEAS.

It is in this class that the influence of Judaism is more strongly

marked than in any other family of these monuments. These gems
were designed as amulets against the power of demons, either
considered specially, or as manifested in the diseases of which they
were the final cause to mankind. But before proceeding further, it
will tend much to the elucidation of this curious subject briefly to
sketch the orthodox Jewish doctrine upon this point. There is no such
thing in existence as a spirit naturally evil, inasmuch as God, being
all goodness, was absolutely incapable of creating evil. Satan is
himself an angel, like the others, and has his own place in the Court
of Heaven; but he is deputed to test, by temptation, the strength of
Man's virtue, since without a struggle there can be no crown. The
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Babylonian Rabbi, Philemon, * having demonstrated this grand truth

to the satisfaction of his numerous school, was surprised the next day
by a visit from this Ange mal entendu, in a bodily shape, who
tendered him public thanks † for the pains he had taken to set his
character in a true light. But, unfortunately, the Demiurgus had
commenced his work by creating so vast a number of spirits, that the
Sabbath-even came upon him before he had made bodies enough for
half of them. These poor houseless beings are not naturally
malignant, but are jealous of their more fortunate brethren, for the
same reason that "the man who has no coat to his back hates the man
that has." They therefore roam up and down the world, ever striving
to force their way into bodies already occupied, where their struggles
with the rightful owner give birth to all the maladies that flesh is heir
to. It is remarkable that the latter belief is universal among primitive
races, however widely separated--the Samoiedes, the Hindoos, the
Red Indians. Something similar, too, may be found in Plutarch's
curious disquisitions on the nature of demons, contained in his two
Treatises upon Oracles.

It is the fashion of our days to believe that the Jews borrowed all
their metaphysical theories from the Platonists of Alexandria; but
whoever has gone deeply into the subject sees good reason to suspect
that both Jews and Greeks had gone, independently of each other, to
a much more ancient source for such traditions.
p. 440

1. The Agathodæmon Serpent, mounted upon a pair of human legs.

A unique variety of the class--the same idea being more usually
embodied in a human figure with head and neck of a serpent; or in a
serpent with the head of Serapis. The long invocation on the field
evidently begins with the name of "Abraxas."

2. The jackal-headed Anubis, an Egyptian sceptre in each hand,

advancing between the Sun and the Moon, the regular emblems of
Eternity. A remarkable specimen of religious syncretism, for the
power of the Pharaonic god is doubled by adding, on the reverse, the
name of Michael, guardian-angel of the Jewish race, between four
stars, which certainly stand for the letters of the Great
Tetragrammaton.

3. Mummy, enveloped in the folds of the guardian Agathodæmon.

The detached letters around (often so found in these gems) seem to
cloak the word "Initia." If so, this may have been a token
(symbolum) given to the neophyte upon his initiation into certain
mysteries: a custom to which St. John alludes, mentioning the "white
stone" with the New Name graven thereon, to be given to him that
overcometh.

4. A Power equipped with double arms and wings, bearing sceptres

to mark his dignity, and carrying on his head the sacramental Table.
The tree-trunk below, with its Five lopped-off branches, had
doubtless a deep mystic meaning, probably the degree of the person
who carried the talisman. Of the most barbarous execution, but

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12/9/2020 The Gnostics and Their Remains: Description of the Plates: Plate F. Ancient Egyptian Types Adapted to Gnostic Ideas

valuable for the name "Baincho" on the reverse: the astral Power,
according to the "Pistis-Sophia," resident in the planet Mercury.

5. Anubis, in one hand the sceptre, in the other the lustral vase,
standing above the open left hand, which Apuleius informs us was
the type of Justice. At his side is the goddess of Truth, her head
formed out of a bunch of ostrich-feathers: under her feet the udder-
shaped vessel carried in the Isiac procession. One deity is invoked by
"Thou art our Father!" the other as "Sun of the Universe!" The letters
in the middle seem to make up the owner's name, "Pia . . ."

6. Anubis, advancing with the sceptre and situla: the legend on the
reverse is unexplained.

7. A talisman, certainly meant to be of mighty efficacy, for it

combines the influences of Anubis, Cnuphis, and Horus with that of
the God of the Jews, rudely cut upon the four sides of a cube of
steaschist.

Footnotes
439:* Or "Polemo," as the Hebrew may equally well be read.

439:† "Kissed his knees" is the expression in the Talmud.

Next: Plate G. Egyptian Types (continued)

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