ABSTRACT
In mainstream Christian theology, the doctrine of creation maintains that God, through an act of will, created the universe ex nihilo and, as such, creator and creation is separate. In contrast, Gnostic cosmogony is emanationist in that it sees the universe as coming into being through a process of emanation out of the fullness ex plenitudo of the Great Invisible Spirit. The Gnostic schools of antiquity flourished in the city of Alexandria in Egypt, and the Egyptian religion no doubt provided an inspiration, if not the direct source, for the Gnostic creation myths. The key principle of Gnostic cosmogony is not so much the idea of creation-as-error, but the idea that inherent in the process of the creation of the material world is a profound disruption to divine harmony. Like most Gnostic creation myths, Jung's Gnostic vision, articulated in the Seven Sermons, begins with nothingness. Paradoxically, this nothingness is also the fullness.
