Star of Jesus (with Commentary Part 1)

Gnostic Pixel Art for Christmas Time

This pixel art shows the life and the Gnostic mission of Jesus Christ, showed in eight pictures. This art is the Star of Bethlehem in the shape of the Cross of Light, to show Jesus’s life as a guiding light in this world’s night, as the Star of Bethlehem was a guiding light for the wise men.

This first image is the heavenly Pleroma, with Christ represented as the Cross of Light (with the word “Christos” which koine Greek for Christ). Barbelo is above. Above Barbelo is the One depicted as whiteness with an O to represent its completeness and lack of division.

The art is in black and white for two reasons: The white is the divine light that the One and all below him are made from, and the black is endlessly deep and mystery of the Pleroma.

Here Christ is also emanating the four aeons (Armozel, Oroiael, Daveithia and Eleleth) symbolised as four smaller crosses. You may have also noticed one pixel is falling down: This is Sophia going down, thus starting the mission of Christ to recover her light.

This is the birth of Jesus. Here the Star of Jesus is shown (in a simplified form) as the Star of Bethlehem, to show ehy Jesus was born. The shadowy figure next to the crib is the Virgin Mary bowing her head down. She is alone with Jesus here to emphasise the virgin birth (Joseph is not here) and the emphasise this intimate moment of a mother seeing the newly born apple of her eye.

Around the star is the ichthus symbol, the earliest known symbol for Christianity which was used a secret symbol for other Christians under the persecutions of the Roman Empire. It was a symbol of Christ with the words: “Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour”

This is the baptism of Jesus, with the holy dove flying down from above. In Gnostic thought, it is commonly believed that Jesus’s baptism was the moment that the Christ aeon went down into Jesus, when divinity and humanity were fully united, and when Jesus achieved gnosis.

Here the number eight is repeated (there are eight sun beams, eight wind lines from the dove, and eight streams of water from Jesus). Eight represents new beginnings and new creations, a fitting theme for this piece of art.

There are also thirteen waves on the water, representing the demiurgic world Jesus is rising out of. We must keep in mind in baptism, the power of salvation is solely in the divine spirit over the water, not in the water itself (which is purely there for symbolic reasons).