»The Real Meaning Behind the Matrix Movies«

It is no secret that the W brothers are followers of the Gnostic faith, which is a belief that the God of Abraham is actually a flawed inferior being called the Demiurge. Demiurge came from the womb of the one true transcendant God's wife, Sophia (knowledge) as a result of her passion to truly know the transcendant God. When born, Demiurge was cast from the Pleroma (heaven and home of the transcendant God). He did not retain knowledge of the Pleroma or the transcendant God. Thus, he believed himself to be alone as the Almighty. He created for himself this universe from existing matter, in his own flawed image. In this universe he created for himself a home, known to us as heaven, followers known as Archons (angels), the earth, and life on earth, so as to amuse and worship him. In humanity exisits a divine spark, a trace of the transcendant God, which wishes to ultimatley return to the Pleroma. Knowing this, the Archons created the circumstances on earth, sin and the like to trap the divine spark (souls) on earth for eternity. Only through Gnosis can a soul attain the knowledge necessary to outwit the Archons following bodily death and return to the Pleroma. Gnosis is attained through the help of Aeons, deities that exist in the Pleroma and momentarily return to earth to help free the divine sparks. The biblical figures like Jesus are Aeons. It is here that the stage is set for the Matrix movies. One misconception is that the Matrix stories are told from the aspect of the human plight. This is incorrect. The actual struggle is within the machines.

The "Real" World: Pleroma

The Matrix: Earth

The Source (big building where the architect resides): Demiurge's Heaven.

Architect: Demiurge or flawed creator. He creates the Matrix to "mathematical perfection", except of course of the anomoly which he cannot get rid of. This exhibits his own imperfection as his model of perfection is imperfect.

Oracle: Barbelo, Demiurge's consort who was born as Demiurge's first thought. As the Demiurge creates his imperfect "perfect" world and is passive in its maintenance, except to "balance the equation" from time to time, Barbelo is his active, energetic, complement. She sees that the Demiurge is flawed and works within his system to break down the barriers that he has constructed to trap the divine sparks. In Reloaded, the Architect told Neo that it was the Oracle who helped him set up the system to control the anomoly to suit his purposes, ie., the role of the One to reboot the Matrix. In Revolutions, she herself stated to Neo that her job was to unbalance the Architect's equation. These two are the Ying and Yang of the universe, working for and against one another at the same time.

For the remainder of the characters, I will be switiching to traditional Christian Biblical names.

Merovigian: Adam, the first man. Merv was described as the "first exile", cast out from the Demiurge's heaven, when he sought and received "too much" knowledge. Gnostic teachings tell us that Sophia manifested herself as the serpent and brought the knowledge that the creator was untrue and that they themselves were of holy origin in Pleroma. Persephone described him as "once like Neo". But once, he had the knowledge, that the Matrix was a barren reality of pain, suffering, and "causation". Emotions such as love and the like are illusions to keep him trapped. He now wishes only to survive, to outlast the Architect. One misconception about this character is that he was an adversary to Neo. He was not. He actually helped Neo along the way (and had a bit of fun in the process). THink about it; HE was holding the keymaker, who was being stalked for deletion by the system agents. HE trapped Neo in the train station, protecting him from Smith's growing power in the Matrix. HE made it possible for Sati's parents to bring her into the Matrix and allow her father to explain much to Neo. HE allowed Neo to be saved when the time was right. And, HE led Smith to the Oracle so as to end her meddling and facilitate the end.

Persephone: Eve, keeper of hidden secrets.

The One of the 5th Matrix (Morpheus' teacher): Seth, the descendants of which are the gnostic followers. His knowledge was passed down from his father Adam and mother Eve. The movies don't elude to a connection between Merv and the prior One, except that Merv "survived" him. However, it is clear that the origin of the human resistance was Morpheus' mentor, as he chose the 2nd door to rebuild Zion, reboot the Matrix, and begin freeing new minds.

Morpheus: Moses, liberator of the Hebrews. Clearly Morpheus serves the purpose as freer of the enslaved human minds.

Neo: Jesus Christ. Christ is viewed by the gnostics as an Aeon sent down from the Pleroma, who takes human form and teaches humanity the secrets of gnosis. He teaches, is crucifyed, and returns from the dead to lead his flock to salvation, do battle with the Satan, and usher in a time of unheralded peace. In the trilogy, Neo is killed by Smith, then an agent, comes back to life to defeat the system, and then fights Smith for supremacy over the system. He is neither human nor machine, but a mixture of both. He possesses super abilities inside the Matrix. He frees more minds in six months than in the prior 6 years. He eventually bucks the traditional role of the One, ending the Architect's control over the system. He subsquently saves the Matrix from Smith and ushers in peace between the machines and humans. Most importantly, he saves the exiled programs from deletion as negotiated by the Oracle at the end of Revolutions, shows the Architect his flaws, and preserves the ability of individuals to attain gnosis or a higher sense of being (purpose).

Agent Smith: Satan, a fallen Archon who wishes to replace the Demiurge as the God of the Universe. In the trilogy, Smith was a fallen "agent of the system" whose job it was to track down and eliminate freed minds and return exiled programs to the source. After being rendered obsolete by Neo, Smith refused to return to the source for deletion. Thus, he became a rogue program whose mission was to destroy the Matrix and take his place as its God. Some believe that he may be the actual good guy, as he tries to bring down the Architect's perfect world. However, he does not wish to free the programs, he only wants to take the Architect's place as ruler over them. Therefore, even though Neo saves him by giving him purpose, he remains Neo's adversary as Neo is attempting to save ALL from the Matrix while Smith wishes to continue the enslavement with him as the leader.

There are more characters that follow this suit, like Cain and Abel (sons of Adam who do his bidding), Seraph (seraphime, a choir of angels or aeons sent to help free the Matrix, Trinity (Mary Magdalene), the Kid (the apostle Paul), and many more. However, my fingers are tired. But after this post, you can get the gist of it.

There's a lot of wackiness in the above post, but I was just reading about this idea of the "demiurge" and found some interesting reverberations to the Matrix.

Especially in this paragraph taken from Wikipedia-

Wikipedia wrote:

Gnostic myth recounts that Sophia (literally 'wisdom', the Demiurge's mother and aspect of the Father) desired to create something apart from the Father to which he did not consent. In this act of separation, she gave birth to the Demiurge and being ashamed of her deed, she wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for him within it. The Demiurge did not see her, nor anyone else, and thus concluded that only he himself existed, he did not know the source of his power and did not know that there was someone above him. The myth is full of intricate nuances portraying the first separation which later turned into the entrapment of the divine spark, Sophia, within the human form. This spark is latent until awakened by a call and the knowledge of one as this divine spark is the beginning of restoration of Sophia as well as gnosis.

Anyone else explored this myth in relation to the Matrix?

Here's a link to the whole Wikipedia article if anyone else wants to read on this topic-

en.wikipedia.org...

Nobody responded to this, but I thought I'd map out where I could see the Matrix and this myth intersecting. So here is that same Wikipedia quote re-written.

Myth recounts that the Oracle (literally 'wise counsel', the mother and an aspect of the Source) desired to create something apart from the Deus Ex Machina to which it did not consent. In this act of separation, she gave birth to the Architect and being ashamed of her deed, she wrapped him in a white room and created a throne for him within it. The Architect did not see her initially, nor anyone else of note, and thus concluded that he was the source of his creation.

The myth is full of intricate nuances portraying the first separation which later turned into the entrapment of the divine spark within a human in the form of the integral anamoly . This spark is latent until awakened by a call. The knowledge of one's containment of this divine spark is the beginning of gnosis.

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Myth recounts that the Oracle (literally 'wise counsel', the mother and an aspect of the Source) desired to create something apart from the Deus Ex Machina to which it did not consent. In this act of separation, she gave birth to the Architect and being ashamed of her deed, she wrapped him in a white room and created a throne for him within it. The Architect did not see her initially, nor anyone else of note, and thus concluded that he was the source of his creation.

Hmm. Oh. You see, I thought when you mentioned Sophia, you meant Sophia Stewart and then you were applying the myth about her child to the Matrix saga. Then I was just thinking how strange it turns out that life imitates art.

But if you're applying that to the Architect, I have to say that this application finds no support from the films. There is nothing I can find that indicated the Architect does not know about his origin or the outside world. The TV's along with his words about Zion (outside world) seems to contradict. Also, where do you get the idea that Oracle was involved with his creation? I'm not saying that this isn't true, but where did you get this?

intell wrote:

where did you get this?

I was reading up on the Wachowski's relationship with Gnosticism and then researching Gnosticism in general. Reading about this concept of the Demiurge I was reminded of the Architect. The Demiurge is a concept of God in some gnostic sects. Here is another (slightly edited) quote from Wikipedia describing him-

Wikipedia wrote:

Gnosticism presents a distinction between the highest unknowable God, and the "creator" of the material world who is called the Demiurge. Many systems of Gnostic thought present the Demiurge as antagonistic to the will of the Supreme God: this sort of Demiurge focuses solely on material reality and on the sense based soul. In this system, the Demiurge acts as a solution to the problem of evil. In the Apocryphon of John (in the Nag Hammadi library), this Demiurge proclaims himself as God.

In traditions where the Demiurge, the "creator God" is seen as an antagonist, the serpent is seen as good. The serpent is the one that brings knowledge, the knowledge that the suppossed creator, the Demiurge, attempts to keep from humanity. The Demiurge wants mankind to continue to exist in his Edinic paradise in ignorant bliss of a world without him.

In this Gnostic mythology, though, humanity refused Eden (they were not simply exiled from it) when they tasted of the fruit of knowledge.

You can see some definite parallels above to the Matrix saga. Just taking the myth a little further I was trying to see where we could go with it.

You're right though, there is nothing in the films to confirm this extension. But if the myth is an influential one to the Wachowski's then it might provide some possiblities for what has come before the trilogies. A little Silmarillion like back story for the series. Just something fun to play with

ps. Sophia Stewart You crack me up intell! LMAO!

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ps. Sophia Stewart You crack me up intell! LMAO!

Hey, you can imagine my reaction when I read your post with that on my mind.

I'm familiar with the Gnostic information, you provided and I remember making the same connection with Archie and the first matrix he made that you did. Hmm. Could be. I remember a thread in the MxO about Zionites representing Luciferians and wearing black as opposed to the Arc dressed in whte in this regard. Very controversial, that was!

I wouldn't put it past the Brothers to throw a little of that into the pot.

Thee Architect wrote:

It is no secret that the W brothers are followers of the Gnostic faith

The Brothers do not adhere to any religious faith. They've been clear about this.