Archons and Energies

We have already discussed that the myth we are considering describes reality as a picture arising in the perceiving mind as the result of an “assembly” from “elementary qualities” — units of objecthood — which are called “energies” (Greek “ἐνέργεια,” or, in an Eastern context, “dharmas”). These elementary energies are units of possible existence, primary modes of differentiation through which formless potency begins to acquire the capacity for description.

At the same time, terminological confusion often arises, because in modern discourse the word “energy” more often has a different, physical, meaning and refers to the ability of objects to interact, change, and perform work.

For this reason it is customary to use the plural, “energieS,” when referring to elementary properties of reality, and the singular – “energY,” when discussing measures of interaction. Unfortunately, even this does not always prevent misunderstandings, so it is important in each case to clarify the exact sense in which the word is used.

Now we will consider energies in the first, more ancient, sense, as a “discrete field of objects,” and, apparently, it is precisely these ideas that were echoed in the physical “String Theory,” according to which the basis of reality is conceived as an ensemble of oscillating two-dimensional quantum objects. However, the traditional view adds an anthropic principle to the idea of these “strings,” because, as we said, reality is never separated from the mind that perceives it.

Moreover, the Hermetic and Gnostic worldview asserts that most such representations are far from optimal, since they are generated by a “blind,” “imperfect,” or malevolent being — a demiurge or an Archon.

As we noted, such a state is, in fact, inevitable, because the selection of any one reality inevitably implies the negation or neglect of others; therefore the “Primary Observer” that sets the “grid” of perception is necessarily “blind” — that is, incapable of perceiving fully.

From the standpoint of cosmogony, this “blindness” manifests in the selection, out of the totipotency of the Medium — that is, out of the Interval that contains all possibilities and properties — of those qualities capable of forming a determinate, stable picture, and correspondingly in the omission (the “dropping”) of all properties that such a picture does not require. This is precisely how separate “energies” are drawn from the unified “quantum field” of the Interval — properties and qualities whose perception can create an internally coherent, closed picture: a world.

Thus arises the “set of energies” perceived by seers and grouped by the perceiving mind into a picture of reality. In this sense, Archons are the “creators” of reality: they select from the unified “quantum field” of the Interworld a set of quality energies with which “observers” of lower orders must then “work.” In other words, Archons are principles of selection, forces of differentiation within the totipotent medium of the Interval.

Therefore the “vision of energies” is a direct perception of the “possibilities” available to the mind; it is a “seeing before description,” in which objects have not yet formed but are already “implied.” This is not the perception of “properties” or “emissions” of an already existing reality; rather, it is the seeing of what reality is at its “ground,” as a field of possibilities and not as a set of processes or objects. At the same time, any “I” is such a center of choice — a focus of the mind on certain properties — energies.

Accordingly, a free mind — including the human one — by its very nature is capable of becoming aware of the archontic function and, by transcending it, open itself again to the perception of wholeness. The “enslaving” function of the Archons therefore consists in preventing this expansion, in persuading minds that the perceived reality is the only possible, “true” one. From the Gnostic point of view, the path of liberation thus begins precisely with the expansion of perception: a return from a single determined form of gemarmen to the freedom to choose a multiplicity of potencies.

It is clear that the Archontic function itself is necessary, because without their “filters” the Flow does not coalesce into conscious, structured experience. That is why, from the standpoint of Tradition, boundaries and the forces of differentiation should not be destroyed but made permeable in a controlled way, so that the field of perception is, on the one hand, stable, and on the other, flexible. Accordingly, where such a filter ceases to be a “jailer,” a proper configuration favorable to development arises, in which each world remains a world but is open to the influences of the Pleroma.