‘Gnostic Themes in Superman’

 

Aspects of the ancient heretical religion of Gnosticism are common in movies and video games –from Star Wars to Titanic to The Legend of Zelda.  This year’s reboot of Superman does not deviate from this pattern.

There are many variations of Gnosticism, but the basic features are fairly similar across the board:

-There exists a sacred realm inhabited by a supreme deity (Monad) which exists in a perfect, blissful relationship with the male and female pairs who are emanations of the Monad (aeons).  This perfect order taken altogether is the pleroma.

-The perfection of the pleroma was shattered when one of the aeons, Sophia, chose to create something without the consent of her partner/syzygy, which resulted in a monster, Yaltabaoth (also called the demiurge), that she hid in a cloud.

-Yaltabaoth, thinking himself all alone, believed that he was a deity and proceeded to create the physical cosmos that we know, and set up 365 spiritual rulers (archons) to rule it.

-Sophia took pity on the human beings that Yaltabaoth had created and scattered fragments of the Monad into the bodies of some of them, but because of the materiality of their flesh, they were unaware of the divinity that was within them.

-The Monad sent Jesus to awaken the people to the knowledge (gnosis) of the sparks of divinity hidden within them and of the true nature of the cosmos (matter is evil; Yaltabaoth is a false god), and to lead them up to the pleroma, where all would be reunited as a single, peaceful, and happy whole once again (Peter Burfeind, Gnostic America, Pax Domini Press, United States, 2014, pgs. 22-3).

Turning to the plot of Superman, we see that several of these themes are present.

-The catastrophe on Krypton is the shattering of the pleromic unity.

-Lex Luthor is Yaltabaoth, a monstrous man who seeks to rule over the world, and his minions are the archons.

-Superman and the other metahumans fit the definition of the Gnostics, those special beings who have sparks of divinity within them.  Superman also is clearly the Jesus figure who saves the world from the demiurge (Luthor).

-Lois Lane is the Sophia figure who helps restore the damaged world (Ibid. p. 46).

-Jor-El and Jonathan Kent are symbols of the bad, false god (Yaltabaoth) and the good, true god (Monad), respectively.

Having settled that there are Gnostic elements in Superman and many other productions, why should we care?  What difference does it make that Hollywood, etc., are placing an old religion constantly before our eyes?

Because Gnosticism in overt or covert forms is at the heart of the anti-Christian Revolution happening in the West.

-Gnosticism teaches that the world we live in and all its established authorities and institutions are the result of the actions of an evil being (Yaltabaoth).  Therefore, anything done to overturn and destroy them, including violence, is legitimate (Gnostic America, p. 42).

-Since the world/matter is evil in itself, it is a sin to cause more people to be born into this prison.  Therefore, having children is discouraged, and abortion is praiseworthy (Ibid., p. 60).

-Logos, form, pattern, distinction, etc., are bad; our true existence in the pleroma is one of formlessness.  Therefore, lawlessness and chaos are upheld as ideals for society (p. 43).

-Traditional human sexual distinctions (male-female) are also therefore illegitimate, a repressive restriction/distinction that must be overcome in order to discover one’s ‘authentic self’ (p. 38), whatever letter(s) of LGBTQIA+ that may involve.  All other traditional forms of identity, such as family lineage, national or ethnic origin, religious creed, etc., must also be thrown off in that quest.

-As everything exists in the highest happiness in formless unity in the pleroma, then life in this world will get better the more it approximates to the former.  Thus, a society that forces all its members into an indistinct mass of conformity (socialism/communism) will be upheld as the ideal. (p. 33)

Quite obviously, Christianity is in fierce opposition to this satanic religion.  The Holy Apostles themselves fought against it (St Paul in Colossians particularly and St John in his Gospel and letters), as did their successors, St Irenaeus especially.

Definitive, unchangeable teachings, Christ as God and man, the goodness of the cosmos, and so on:  The Church upholds all of these things.

Fr Athanasios Mitilinaios, a recent holy elder of the Orthodox Church, emphasizes some of these key differences with the Gnostics:

 . . .

The rest may be read here

https://thehayride.com/2025/10/garlington-gnostic-themes-in-superman/

Or here

https://orthodoxreflections.com/gnostic-themes-in-superman-and-why-they-matter/

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

‘Morally Confused Evangelical Protestants Continue to Support the Ukraine and Israel’

 

The nation of Israel can do no wrong.  The government of the Ukraine must be supported forever in its war with Russia.

That sums up the thinking behind some of the major foreign policy preferences of many Evangelical Protestants (EPs) today.  But those views come with a high risk of cognitive dissonance.

Israel first (it could never be any other way, could it?).  EPs never tire of repeating that Israel is the best friend of the US in the Middle East or the even the whole world, that ‘Judeo-Christian’ values and civilization are the greatest, that God loves Israel above every other people, tribe, and country and will never forsake her, and so on.

However, the moral and spiritual life inside Israel doesn’t match the EPs’ imagined reality.  Regarding sexual ethics, Israel could hardly be friendlier to the LGBT ‘community’.  A pro-Israel, pro-LGBT organization called StandWithUs provides a detailed timeline as evidence (PDF, p. 3):

• 1963: Israeli courts rule that sodomy laws should not apply to consenting adults in private.

• 1988: Israel abolishes the decades-old ban on sodomy of any kind.

• 1992: Legislation bars discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplace.

• 1993: The Israeli army adopts a policy of allowing openly LGBTQ+ soldiers to serve in any capacity.

• 1994: The Israeli Supreme Court rules in favor of granting spousal benefits to same-sex couples.

• 1997: The Israeli Defense Minister announces that same-sex partners would be recognized as family members by the Defense Department. The Israeli High Court rules against censoring an educational TV program for teens about homosexuality.

• 2000: The Knesset lowers the legal age of consent for same-sex relations from 18 to 16, and the Israeli Supreme Court rules that lesbians can officially become adoptive mothers of their partners’ children.

• 2004: Israeli courts rule LGBTQ+ couples qualify for common-law marriage and LGBTQ+ couples qualify for full inheritance rights.

• 2005: Israeli LGBTQ+ couples are granted full adoption rights.

• 2006: Israel recognizes same-sex marriages performed abroad.

• 2014: Israel passes a law protecting students from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

• 2015: Transgender Israelis can change their legal gender without undergoing surgery.

• 2021: Israel ends restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men.

• 2022: Former Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Israel’s first openly gay party leader, issues a directive to ban conversion therapy. Israel lifts restrictions on surrogacy for gay and trans couples and single men.

Magic is also prevalent in Judaism:

 . . . Moshe Idel, the preeminent scholar of Jewish mysticism, presented a picture in which magic was a central aspect of Judaism. Magic, he writes in the foreword to the 2004 edition of Joshua Trachtenberg’s Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion, “is a vital form of Jewish spirituality. [Judaism is] deeply informed by magical ways of thinking and manners of action that are conceived to be both effective and licit.”

 

 . . . The rapidly spreading story [about Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination—W.G.] held that 32 days before the assassination, on October 3, 1995, a small group of ten or so fringe national-religious activists, angry at Rabin’s intention to trade land for peace, had gathered outside the prime minister’s home in Jerusalem. It was Yom Kippur Eve—considered the holiest night of the entire Jewish year—and the rabbis, who had fasted for two days in preparation, stood in a circle around two Torah scrolls, blew a ram’s horn and then chanted: “On him, Yitzhak son of Rosa, known as Rabin…we have permission…to demand from the angels of destruction that they take a sword to this wicked man…to kill him…for handing over the Land of Israel to our enemies, the sons of Ishmael.” Known as the Pulsa deNura (“Lashes of Fire”), this ancient Aramaic ritual was first mentioned in the Talmud and then described in greater detail in ancient Hebrew manuals of magic. When performed correctly, the curse was purported to inflict divine wrath on its victims within a year.

 

After Rabin’s assassination, Pulsa deNura quickly became a household phrase. It remains a canonical element of any recounting of Rabin’s assassination; even the official Israeli government biography of Rabin mentions the curse by name.

 

 . . . Which brings us to today. Not only is Jewish magic alive and well, it has also become trendy. In the United States, Jewish witches or “Jewitches” bring a Jewish angle to New Age practices such as astrology, moon rituals and goddess worship. The Jewitches I spoke with explained that they use magical Jewish rituals and charms to address contemporary concerns such as workplace discrimination and wage disparity. Gilah Levin, a Jewitch living in the Bay area, says, “Magic is an important part of my Jewish heritage. We live in troubling times. The ancient wisdom of Jewish magic helps me bring order to chaos.”

 

And perhaps it does more as well. A few weeks ago, I had lunch with my childhood friend Rachel and her new baby daughter. Rachel spent close to 15 years attempting to get pregnant. She tried every known fertility drug and in vitro fertilization treatment multiple times, to no avail. She prayed daily to become pregnant. Finally, early last September, she paid an Orthodox rabbi in Israel to perform a segulah (charm) that he claimed would cure her infertility. Following his advice, on each day of Sukkot, hoping that she was already pregnant, Rachel bit off and chewed the pitom or stem of an etrog in order to ensure a safe delivery. In late October she learned that she was pregnant, and this June, at age 49, she gave birth to a healthy baby. There is no way to know how or why Rachel finally got pregnant. But looking at her glowing face and that of her beautiful daughter, I realized that the actual cause didn’t matter. To me, it was magic.

Dr Michael Hoffman offers some deep insights of his own as it regards the Israel-magic connection.

The Ukraine is much the same.  The Western-sponsored regime in Kiev is very supportive of the LGBT agenda, per Mr Jim Jatras:

 . . .

The rest is at https://orthodoxreflections.com/morally-confused-evangelical-protestants-continue-to-support-the-ukraine-and-israel/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

‘National Guard Deployments Aren’t a Long-Term Solution to Big City Crime’

 

Jeff Sadow makes some important observations at the end of one of his recent essays:

‘The larger question about the deployment is its duration. Sure, it can reduce crime, but unless it goes on indefinitely, its benefits will have to be reaped another way that can be implemented while using the Guard as a bridge to achieving that end state. And this is policy action that really must emanate from the local level. Policy made by Landry and/or the Legislature . . . only can go so far.

‘State policy-makers also can address ancillary environmental conditions that can discourage crime, such as reduced government control of economic relations that would encourage opportunity and policies to improve educational attainment, such as greater choice and more rigor in schooling. But as with public safety policy, it will take a similar commitment by local officials to bring about a permanent reduction in crime.

‘Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem forthcoming from a number of such officials. Until that changes – and perhaps this change starts at the voting booth – the benefits of guard deployment for crime reduction will last only as long as the deployment’ (‘Guard Deployment Must Fit Larger Commitment,’ thehayride.com).

The reduction in crime resulting from National Guard deployments won’t last much longer than the deployments themselves.  Larger societal changes will be necessary.  Mr Sadow mentions improving opportunities for education and economic advancement, but these oft-touted tools of the post-Christian Enlightenment will fail if there is no religious change in the city-dwellers themselves.  That is the main ‘environmental condition that can discourage crime’ and get cities on a better path.

Fallen, sinful mankind generally doesn’t want to work too hard to get the money and possessions he desires.  He will most often take the path of least resistance.  Hence the proliferation of crime.  But when the Grace of God touches the souls of fallen men, they will undertake many difficulties for the sake of drawing near to God and serving their neighbors.  St Moses the Black is an excellent example of this.  He was a notorious criminal but with God’s help he changed completely:

 . . .

The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2025/10/garlington-national-guard-deployments-arent-a-long-term-solution-to-big-city-crime/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!