Primal fall

There had been a catastrophe, a primal fall, which the Gnostics described in various ways.

It began with the primal fall.

The divine light could be discerned even in this dark world, if the Gnostic knew where to look: during the Primal Fall - of either Sophia or the Demiurge -some divine sparks had also fallen from the Pleroma and been trapped in matter.

He recognizes that even after the catastrophe of the Flood human nature remains unchanged (cf. 8:21), 'the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth', and in this myth he sees man still striving after that unattainable equality with the divine which had caused the primal fall.