Abrasax, Abraxas, and the Making of a Modern Gnostic God: Basilidean Cosmology, Late Antique Magical Gems, Nag Hammadi Traditions, and Jung's Reinterpretation
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article re-examines Abrasax (later commonly Abraxas) by separating four historical layers frequently collapsed in modern accounts: Basilidean traditions reported by early Christian heresiologists; late antique magical gems and amulets; appearances of Abrasax in Nag Hammadi literature; and Carl Gustav Jung's twentieth-century reappropriation of the name in Septem Sermones ad Mortuos. It argues that the familiar claim that Abraxas was 'the Gnostic god above God and Satan' is historically misleading because it synthesises materials from distinct communities, genres, and periods. The numerical value 365 is genuinely ancient and connected with Abrasax and Basilidean cosmology in early sources, but the cock-headed, serpent-legged anguipede cannot simply be treated as an uncontested portrait of Basilides' supreme deity. Nag Hammadi texts confirm that Abrasax circulated within ancient gnosticising environments while assigning the name different cosmological functions. Jung, writing in 1916, transformed this inherited name into a modern symbol of the transcendence of opposites. Modern Abraxas is therefore best understood as a layered reception-history phenomenon rather than a single unchanged deity transmitted from antiquity.
Author: Grace, Daniel J.
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213757822
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