814 GLOSSARY
Pearl Symbol of the soul in the Song of the Pearl and elsewhere.
Perfect Cathar leaders, who must adhere to strict ascetic rules. See also CREDENTES.
Persephone Greek goddess and queen of the underworld, often identified with Kore in the
Eleusinian mysteries. Referred to in the Naassene Sermon.
Peter Petros (Greek), Kefa (Aramaic), "rock"; student of Jesus traditionally connected to
the founding of the church in Rome and the establishment of the papacy. Depicted as
a misogynist in the Gospel of Mary and Gospel of Thomas 114.
Phoebos "Bright one" in Greek; epithet of Apollo, Greek god of wisdom and beauty. Re-
ferred to by Hippolytus of Rome in connection with the Naassene Sermon.
Phoenix Legendary bird that lives for centuries, dies by fire, and rises, renewed, from its
own ashes, according to Egyptian tradition. Referred to in On the Origin of the World
and the Mother of Books.
Pistis Faith; in On the Origin of the World, Sophia Zoe is the daughter of Pistis, or Pistis
Sophia. See PISTIS SOPHIA.
Pistis Sophia Faith wisdom, in the Reality of the Rulers and other gnostic texts. See
SOPHIA.
Place Place of god, a circumlocution for god.
Pleroma Fullness, the sum total of the aeons and emanations of the divine in gnostic texts.
The divine pleroma is thus the full manifestation of the glory of the transcendent god.
Pneuma Greek for "spirit," the immortal divine presence within the world and within
people. In the Paraphrase of Shem, spirit is the primal power or root between light and
darkness.
Pneumatic Spiritual person, person of divine spirit (Greek, pneuma), gnostic. Highest of
three divisions of humanity, especially in Valentinian texts. See also HYLIC, PSYCHIC.
Poimael Heavenly power connected to Sethian baptism in the Gospel of the Egyptians.
The name Poimael resembles Poimandres and includes the common suffix -el ("god").
Poimandres Divine mind that reveals itself in the hermetic text Poimandres. The name
Poimandres probably derives from the Greek for "shepherd (poimen) of men (aner,
nominative plural andres, genitive plural andron)" Another suggested derivation: from
Coptic for "the knowledge of the sun-god Ra" (p-eime nte Re). See Layton, Gnostic
Scriptures, 450.
Priapos Greco-Roman fertility god, famous for his prodigious phallus. Identified with the
Good in the Book of Baruch.
Primal man Heavenly first human in the kingdom of light in Manichaean thought. The
primal man becomes entrapped in the kingdom of darkness, loses some of his light,
and needs to be rescued. See ADAMAS, BARBELO, GERADAMAS, LIVING SPIRIT.
Prince of darkness Transcendent divine manifestation of evil in Manichaean thought. The
prince of darkness produces two demons, Sakla and Nebroel, who create the creatures
of the material world through sexuality.
Prison The body is the prison or tomb of the soul according to a platonic and Orphic
teaching reflected in gnostic texts.
Pronoia Forethought. See BARBELO.
Protennoia First thought; first female manifestation of the divine in Sethian tradition,
specifically in Three Forms of First Thought. Protennoia closely resembles fore-
thought, pronoia. See BARBELO.