In the beginning there was only unity, the true God, the Father, the One.

But the

Father wanted to know himself or make an image of himself, and as a result the aeons

were emanated and the Pleroma came into existence. Note that we now have two

things, God and the Pleroma, God and his image, though they still form a connected

unity. But then at the edge of the pleroma, the last of the aeons illegitimately tried to

know the Father, or to explore beyond the Pleroma, and we have the Fall. [As an aside,

if God wanted to know himself and emanated out, is it any surprise that Sophia did the

same? Was Sophias transgression a natural result of Gods own activity? Surely, if the

implications of Gods first act are carried through, the current situation of mankind is a

direct result of Gods action.

Then we have the birth or abortion of a second God, the demiurge, and a world

outside the Pleroma. Are there now two gods? Well, not really. In what way is the

demiurge a God in comparison to the true God? Is this a duality? He may consider

himself to be the true God, and humanity at large might be deceived by him and take

him to be the true God, but in actuality he is no God. From the point of view of

humanity, there is a dualism and a choice; for the pleroma it is merely an unfortunate

accident. To a certain extent. The Pleroma has been ruptured, and there is now an

intelligent, though limited, force outside the Pleroma. But there is no influence of the

demiurge and the created world on the Pleroma. Sophia, or in some versions, the

lower Sophia, is trapped outside the Pleroma.

G.I. Gurdjieff introduced a complex and beautiful cosmology in which the universe is

structured according to two cosmic laws, the law of three and the law of seven. The

law of seven or law of octaves uses the western major scale, with its seven stages and

semitone intervals between Mi and Fa, to describe the development of a process. The

law of three specifies that any new arising or phenomenon needs three aspects.

Gurdjieff termed these Holy Affirming, Holy Denying and holy Reconciling, or the

active, passive and neutralising forces. His pupil J.G. Bennett realised that all of the
whole numbers could be used to describe systems, and described the characteristics

of systems with one term, two terms, three, four terms and on up to 12 terms and

then many-term systems. A single-term system has the property of wholeness, but this

allows us to say little more than that something is itself. Bennett characterised two-

term systems as systems of polarity. They are based on opposition. It requires the

addition of a third element to produce a three-term system. The third aspect brings in

relatedness. It is only through relatedness that any development or reconciliation can

occur.

Dualism is a system with two terms. But where there is only light and dark, or spirit

and matter, nothing happens. Only opposition is possible. It is only when there is some

mixing or relation that the story truly begins. This can be seen clearly in the absolute

or radical dualism of the Manichaeans. Light and dark are co-existent. It is in fact the

darkness that takes the initiative, invading the light and mixing with it. The earth and

humanity, through a variety of stages, emerge as a method of separating the light

from the darkness and liberating the imprisoned light so that it can return, via the

transmitting apparatus of the Milky Way, to the kingdom of light. The earth and

humanity are a third term that introduces action, dynamism and transformation into

the universe. There is clearly a difference between this evolving situation and the

original co-eternal dualism of two competing powers. In absolute dualism there are

two principles contending with each other from the beginning. In moderate or

mitigated or monarchian dualism the second principle appears later. The other

distinctions are whether the dualism is temporary, i.e. light will eventually win and the

darkness disappear, and whether the physical world and matter are seen as a good

creation (cosmic) or an evil creation (anti-cosmic).

As we have seen, the situation is not so simple in what is usually designated the

moderate, mitigated or temporary dualism of the Sethians and Valentinians. In the cut-

down myths of the Exegesis on the Soul and the Authoritative Discourse, there is a

clear choice between two influences: remain in the misery of an attachment to the
body and matter or return to the Father. The options available are very dualistic.

However, there are three elements in the story: the Pleroma, the soul and the material

world.

According to Yuri Storyanov, author of The Other God, the definitive modern work on

dualism, true dualism requires both principles being involved in cosmogony and

anthropogony, the creation of the world and mankind. Without the mixing of these

influences in humanity, nothing happens. In the Hypostasis of the Rulers, Adam

remains inert on the ground until endowed with spirit.

Perhaps duality only arises with the creation of humanity. According to x humanity is

created by the demiurge (the soul) and his archons (the body). The aeons take

advantage of this to endow humanity with spirit, a spark of light from the Pleroma. Do

we now have a duality? No, we have a trichotomy, a tripartite division of humanity into

body, soul and spirit. We have three things, not two.

Without the human drama there is no progress and no relationship. No dualism that

insists on an impermeable divide between good and evil, light and dark (to refer to a

claim in a recent article for a popular audience by Bruce Chilton,

http://www.bibleinterp.com/opeds/chilton5357919.shtml. If that was the case there

could be no story: light and dark would be in opposition and that would be the end of

it. In the absolute dualism of the Manichaeans the whole point of the existence of the

world and humanity is ... See morethat light and dark are mixed and the world is a

transforming apparatus to separate the light from the darkness and return it to its

source.

Sophia and the soul mirror each other. The fall of Sophia is a grander version of the

descent of the soul. Sophia is trapped in matter and Sophia, like the soul, which

typifies humanity, is a mediating force.

What we call dualism is actually a three-term system. There is the spiritual and the

material, or the light and the dark, and then there is the human creation mediating

between the two. Without the mediation or the mixing there is no story. Without the
story there is no role for humanity. Without humanity there is no one to tell the story,

no one to develop the myth, and without the myth there is no dualism.