n.
In Gnosticism , any of various world-governing powers created with the material world by the Demiurge .
Because the Gnostics regarded the material world as evil or as the product of error, Archons were considered forces of evil. Seven or 12 in number, they were identified with the seven planets of antiquity or the 12 signs of the zodiac . They were thought to have imprisoned the divine spark of human souls in material creation. The gnosis sent from the realms of divine light through Jesus enabled Gnostic initiates to pass through the spheres of the Archons into the realms of light.