Those examining the law of the world and its makers
Symbols
LionSerpentThe archonsThe seven heavensPrison
Mythology Summary
Yaldabaoth is the demiurge of the Sethian gnostic texts, above all the Apocryphon of John (Nag Hammadi II,1 and its parallels), where Sophia produces him without her consort and he emerges from the waters as a lion-faced, serpent-bodied being who steals her light, makes the archons, and declares 'I am a jealous God, and there is no other god beside me'. In the Apocryphon he is also called Saklas ('fool') and Samael ('blind god'), and the Hypostasis of the Archons and On the Origin of the World retell the same myth with Norea and the serpent of Genesis. The Gnostics did not worship him: he is the false creator whose law holds the divine spark captive, and gnosis is the recognition that undoes him.
Modern Practice
Not a figure of worship: gnostic practice names him in order to see through the structure of the world - the law that claims to be ultimate, the inner voice that says 'I am your god' - and the work is recognition rather than alliance. Modern occultists who use him use him diagnostically, as the tradition's own texts do.