Archons (Greek: ἄρχων, romanized: árchōn, plural: ἄρχοντες, árchontes), in Gnosticism and religions closely related to it, are the builders of the physical universe.
Among the Archontics, Ophites, Sethians and in the writings of Nag Hammadi library, the archons are rulers, each related to one of seven planets; they prevent souls from leaving the material realm.
[5] Evidently, from works such as the Apocryphon of John, the Ophite Diagrams, On the Origin of the World and Pistis Sophia, archons play an important role in Gnostic cosmology.
They and their family are looked upon as captives of the angel Manda-d'hayye ('Knowledge of Life'), who pardons them, sets them on chariots of light, and appoints them as rulers of the world.
What tended most to obliterate the sevenfold distinction was the identification of the God of the Jews, the Lawgiver, with Yaldabaoth and his designation as World-creator, whereas formerly the seven planets together ruled the world.
[26] In Mandaeism, the seven planets are generally not viewed favorably, since they constitute part of the entourage of Ruha, the Queen of the World of Darkness who is also their mother (see Mandaean cosmology).
[27][28] The Bundahishn tells us that in the primeval strife of the devil against the light-world, seven hostile powers were captured and set as constellations in the heavens, where they are guarded by good star-powers and prevented from doing harm.
[29] It must be also noted that the Mithras mysteries, so closely connected with the Persian religion, are acquainted with this doctrine of the ascent of the soul through the planetary spheres.
[30] In On the Origin of the World, the archons impregnate the Biblical Eve, an idea probably deriving from the Sons of God in Genesis 6:1–4 or the Book of Enoch.
Presently the syncretism of the later Greek philosophy found room for archons, which appear in Neoplatonism and were claimed to derive from Plato's unwritten tradition.
It may be only an accidental coincidence that about the end of the 2nd century "Archon" was one of the names given by the Platonist Harpocration to the "Second God" of Numenius (Proclus in Tim.