Those studying the gnostic archons and the anatomy of arrogance
Symbols
FoolThroneSerpentCloud
Mythology Summary
Saklas is the Aramaic-derived name ('fool') that the Sethian tradition gives the demiurge: in the Apocryphon of John and the Hypostasis of the Archons (Nag Hammadi II,1 and II,4) he is Yaldabaoth under another name, and in the Hypostasis the daughter of Sophia rebukes him with 'You have erred, Saklas'. The Gospel of Judas (Codex Tchacos, 2nd century) differs, making Nebro the demiurge and Saklas a second angel who comes out of the cloud with six angels of his own, and it is Saklas there who says 'Let us create a human being after our image.' The variability is the point: the gnostic texts reuse a small stock of names for the powers that made the world.
Modern Practice
Studied rather than worshipped: the figure is a lens on folly that believes itself divine, the error that mistakes a made thing for the maker. Modern writers use Saklas for the inner voice of self-important ignorance, and the texts themselves name him to expose him.