Pleromas-Who, What, Where, When, and How

Welcome back to Gnostic Insights and the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. Boy, am I busy lately. I’m preparing a 10-week course to teach “A Simple Explanation of the Gnostic Gospel” at Southern Oregon University, which begins in a couple of weeks, so I’m busy with that. I’ve also been doing a lot of publishing. I’m waiting to receive the hardback copy of Children of the Fullness, a Gnostic Myth . Once I see that and that it looks good, I can release that book as a hardcopy and hopefully get it into libraries. That’s my ultimate goal with Children of the Fullness . It’s available now, of course, on Amazon for only $9.99 or free on Kindle for $3 if you don’t have a Kindle subscription. So, it’s affordable and it’s really neat. It’s got beautiful illustrations. People like it. It’s very short. Everyone can understand this version of the Gnostic Gospel. Children of the Fullness is the first ever gnostic kid’s book! I have an upcoming appearance on Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio, the YouTube version, and that will be on September 15th of 2025. Miguel asked me to be prepared to discuss the Children of the Fullness book and also the concept of pleromas. So, we’re going to review pleromas in today’s episode. This is from an original broadcast that was in November of 2022, but it always bears repeating. “Pleroma” is a common word in gnostic scriptures, and it has a particular meaning that only relates to the Gnostic Gospels. In fact, we gnostics are expecting to wind up at the end of days in a Pleroma that others usually call “Heaven.” Today, I’d like to take a closer look at Pleromas in order to discover where we all came from and where we will wind up at the end of days. Pleroma is a Greek word for “all that which is contained within a body or organization.” The Pleroma of the Fullness of God is the Pleroma we most often refer to here at Gnostic Insights. The Pleroma of the Fullness of God is the sum total of all the individual characteristics and powers of the originating consciousness of the Father as manifested in the monad known as the Son. Here is how the Pleroma of the Fullness is described in the Tripartite Tractate: “Each one of the aeons is a name, <that is>, each of the properties and powers of the Father, since he exists in many names, which are intermingled and harmonious with one another. It is possible to speak of him because of the wealth of speech, just as the Father is a single name, because he is a unity, yet is innumerable in his properties and names…” This first differentiation of the properties contained in the Son is known as the ALL or the Totalities. The Pleroma of the ALL is pictured as a central star with rays going out in all directions, yet unified without personal identity within the single body and will of the Son. When the Totalities of the ALL become self-aware, they name themselves and sort themselves into the Pleroma of the hierarchy of the Fullness of God. “… the aeon of the Truth, since it is a unity and multiplicity, receives honor in the small and the great names according to the power of each to grasp it – by way of analogy – like a spring which is what it is, yet flows into streams and lakes and canals and branches, or like a root spread out beneath trees and branches with its fruit, or like a human body, which is partitioned in an indivisible way into members of members, primary members and secondary, great and small.” This passage tells us that the aeon of the Truth—which is another word for the Fullness, or Pleroma, of God goes forth by way of fractal branching. You may review the concept of fractals by looking back to the Gnostic Insights episode called, “A Fractal Model of Human Nature,” posted May 18, 2021. which you can find at gnostic insights dot com under the tab, “Complete Episodes Library.” I’m also linking it in the transcript of this episode. The Pleroma of Logos is the sum total of all of the fractals of the Aeons of the Fullness that exist as fractal iterations within the body of the Aeon known as Logos. “This aeon was among those to whom was given wisdom, so that he could become pre-existent in each one’s thought. By that which he wills, will they be produced. Therefore, he received a wise nature in order to examine the hidden basis, since he is a wise fruit; for, the free will which was begotten with the Totalities was a cause for this one, such as to make him do what he desired, with no one to restrain him.” My illustration for the Pleroma of Logos is to show Logos as a miniature copy of the Pleroma of the Fullness of God, sitting at the top of the Fullness. “This aeon was last to have <been> brought forth by mutual assistance, and he was small in magnitude. And before he begot anything else for the glory of the will and in agreement with the Totalities, he acted, magnanimously, from an abundant love, and set out toward that which surrounds the perfect glory…” So, this