Juan On Juan | The Archons and Overlords: Spiritually Assessing The Gnosticism Philosophy
Juan Ayala is the host of Juan On Juan, an insightful & hilarious podcast that takes deep dives into a variety of conspiratorial & occult topics. In this "swapcast" we interview each other, and create a fascinating conversation about discerning the Truth of nature & self, in opposition to the "facts" of narrative, history, and fiction. Are we facing archons, egregores, & a Demiurge (oh my!) or Archetypes, thought forms, and our imperial Self?
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In this episode
Core themes
Capital T Truth Versus Facts
Chance opens by separating capital T truth from facts. In his view truth follows nature's template of wholeness, the fractal and the septenary repeating across scales, which is why he reads Plato's idea that all learning is remembering as learning about yourself. Facts, stories and history are human contrivances; he praises Juan's grip on the Jack Parsons story while calling it fact rather than truth. Juan answers with Nietzsche's perspectivism, arguing nobody interprets anything from an unbiased place and that dates and names deserve a grain of salt.
Why Chance Rejects Pop Culture Gnosticism
Asked by Juan about the dark Gnostic worldview, Chance draws a line between the Marty Leeds style of gnosis, where everything is God and you are its reflection, and the pop culture version of a prison planet run by an evil demiurge. He calls simulation theory the same Gnosticism repackaged in materialist form and says the only simulation we are in is the one inside our own head. When Juan asks who is really in charge, Chance offers what he calls his gnarliest conspiracy theory: nobody is.
Juan's Reptilian Overlords as Metaphor
Juan, raised Pentecostal, traces his signature phrase reptilian overlords to his deep dive into Gnosticism, and says he uses it in a metaphorical sense for forces at work in the world. He sketches Gnostic cosmology with Yaldabaoth as a Satan archetype ruling the lower aeons, and calls the sect that saw bodies as traps for angels a very dark view. His own leaning is emanationist: one source radiating out, with hardship, like hunting that keeps an ecosystem balanced, as the universe maintaining order. Chance recommends Pierre Sabak's books on dragon symbolism.
Chance on Archons as Self Made Filters
Chance argues that archons, the demiurge and egregores are real in a sense but hold no power over us. He describes layers of the body, physical, emotional and astral, and the nine chakras he works with, as filters between us and the undifferentiated pleroma. He says all boundaries are self imposed and frames archons as servitors we made and then forgot. Drawing on Abraxas from Jung's Seven Sermons to the Dead, he argues an adversary to existence cannot itself exist. Chance warns that his All Is Self axiom can tip into a god complex, and Juan adds it can excuse reckless living.
Religion, Free Will and Natural Law
Chance says he worships no specific deity but respects Jesus Christ symbolically, reading the name as meaning Jehovah is salvation and Jehovah as a verb for self existing life force, so following Christ means following nature's law. He links spirit with free will and argues there is a moral side to natural law. Juan recalls being told in church that works do not matter, calls the Bible a manual for being a good person, and counters that works matter because they shape how your life goes. Godfrey Higgins and Dylan Saccoccio frame Chance's case that scripture is allegory read as history.
Quotes
“The only simulation that we're in is one inside of our own head, and that we created for ourself, and nobody's keeping you in the simulation. You're doing it.”
“I like connecting the dots. I like when one conspiracy weaves in with the next conspiracy and you see the bigger picture.”
“The bad guy in this entire story is the opposite of existence, so he doesn't exist, which means it's fiction.”
“Just because something bad happened, it doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. It's just the universe itself maintaining order within itself.”
“Nouns don't exist in nature. You see a deer out in the woods, his name isn't Jeff.”
“By faith you shall be saved, your works don't matter. But I'm over here like, I think your works matter quite a lot, because it's going to affect how your life goes.”
“I believe all boundaries are self-imposed. So when we talk about archons, they're like the rulers of the realm. They're the ones that limit us.”
“History is always going to be hearsay. It's always going to be somebody's version of it.”
Juan Ayala hosts "The Juan On Juan Podcast," covering conspiratorial and occult topics, and appeared on InnerVerse discussing Gnostic archons/overlords and the alchemical mystery of the homunculus.
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