Left and Right

by Cyd Ropp

I noticed something interesting the other day, while I was thinking about vice and virtue. In the Nag Hammadi, vice is referred to as being on the left, and virtue as being on the right. The Tripartite Tractate puts it this way:

To each one he gave a name.... Those belonging to the thought and those of the representation are called "the Right Ones" and "Psychic" and "the Fiery Ones" and "the Middle Ones." Those who belong to the arrogant thought and those of the likeness are called "the Left", "Hylic", "the Dark Ones," and "the Last."

The "thought" refers back to the Father's originating thought—that being what is called The Son. The Son is the thought of the Father, and it is this thought that starts everything. "Those of the representation" are the Aeons and those that come from the Aeons—they represent the values of the Thought, or the Son.

"Those who belong to the arrogant thought" refers to the Fall of Logos away from the original thought. Literally it refers to the departure of Ego away from Reason and Logic. As we have discussed here on Gnostic Insights, "arrogant thought" is another word for "ego." And here at gnostic insights "ego" is the imitation of the One Self we all embody and share. Ego is the counterfeit embodiment of the Son, or originating consciousness. Ego takes care of the individual rather than the whole. Ego is concerned with personal needs and desires rather than the needs and desires of one's neighbors.

You can listen to these previous episodes for an in-depth exploration of Ego compared to Self:

Ego vs. Self

I Am Not Me--the Self

Ego's Shroud

You can find these episodes and more under the Complete Episodes tab at the GnosticInsights.com website.

Back to the Tripartite Tractate quote—

Those who belong to the arrogant thought and those of the likeness are called "the Left", "Hylic", "the Dark Ones," and "the Last."

The "likenesses" referred to on the left are the archons of the deficiency that were formed as copies of "the representations" of the Aeons of the Pleroma.  So you have Likenesses on the Left, and Representations on the Right. These Likenesses on the one hand and Representations on the other hand, reflect the values of the Left and the values of the Right. This is what distinguishes Gnostic Left from Right. Another word for these ones on the Left is "hylic," which means materialist. Another word for the ones on the Right is "Psychic," which in Gnosticism refers to those with a soul.  Although here at Gnostic Insights, we would say everyone has a soul, it's just that hylic humans don't acknowledge the soul.  And, we've had a lot of discussions about that; whether or not consciousness, which could be another word for soul, whether or not consciousness is an inherent quality that preexists or whether consciousness is like a by-product of the meat bodies that we wear, or even mathematical nodes in some sort of a grand algorithm.  One type of individual has an orientation to the material and personal needs,