We have already seen that Gnostics maintain that the demiurge or creator god is quite an inept and ignorant being, that he ignores the effects that each of his creations will have. He tries things out, progressing in his creations through trial and error. We have also compared the myths regarding the creation of the world with the Big Bang of modern physics. There is an extraordinary book written by Oscar Kiss Maerth, called “The Beginning Was the End” in which is clearly stated the parallel between the Genesis of the bible and modern physics, both positions in perfect agreement.
Gnostics used to say for example that this god is a god who gets tired, who needs to rest on the seventh day and that because of this he cannot be an absolutely perfect god.
Gnostics always maintained that the universe was created by a demiurge, by a perverse and wicked creator. They were always wondering why the universe is so imperfect. It is like this because it was created by an equally imperfect being. It was made in his image and resemblance.
Another interesting thing about the myths of various religions is that the creator isn't creating alone, he says “let us make”, as if there were many creators working together. “Let us make this”, “Let us make that”. The bible says: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. Us,
Us, our. Why? Who are the others? Who else is he creating with?
Saint Augustine in his book “On the Trinity”, skilfully and wittily, says it once very clearly. The creator says “let us make”, in the plural because he is speaking of the three divine persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are three and yet one at the same time. That is why god speaks in the plural. Augustine never returns to this issue. He settles the matter like this once and for all.
For Gnosis, the demiurge is not alone in his task of material creation, forming different worlds, evolutionary processes, beings and entities. In India for example, they call them devas, constructing devas. They are the angels who help with the creation. They are inferior to the creator god but they are with him, helping him. The creator god has delegated many tasks to the creating angels. This was believed in ancient Babylon and the religions of the ancient east. Innumerable creating angels help the creator to develop his plan in the material world or as the Gnostics would say, in the hellish world of matter, which he creates and gives form to.
The creator god is the one in charge, but he relies on an army of helpers, of constructing angel-demons who support him in his creation and carry out his orders. That is why in Genesis the creator is called elohim. The bible story begins in this way: Bereshit bará elohim (“In the beginning the gods created…”), because elohim in Hebrew is plural and means “gods”, “lords”. Gnostics point out that these gods are the demiurge and his constructing angel-demons which in great numbers, millions of them, help him in his task of creation.
Even in systems of thought that oppose Gnosis, those which see the creation of the world as something good, we hear mention of these constructing helpers and their hierarchies, into which they are divided according to their functions. There are modern theosophical texts, like those of Blavatsky and Bailey amongst others, in which we can find out more about their names and duties. The regent of the Earth for example is Sanat Kumara. Changing around two letters gives us his real name: Satan Kumara. A name that is hardly hidden, since human beings still must not know the truth, or the future that the creator has in store for them. It is better then that this character's name is not widely known…for now. Mankind is still not ready for the news that the planet Earth has a regent who is a satan. A satan inferior to the other one, the big one, the main one, the most important one in this created material system, this finite universe which is limited and full of imperfections, which he has managed to create.
In Gnostic myths, these satanic constructors who help the demiurge are represented as monsters.