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>Because they referenced every five-degrees of the Zodiac, they were considered to be special stars by the astrologers. An important second-century astrological calendar based on this fifth- degree division of the Zodiac is published among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. The year is divided into five-day weeks which are overseen by seventy-two deities who influence, for good or bad, what happens during their reign, including particular illnesses associated with them
>So important were these stars, that some Egyptians singled out a favorite, a decan with a snake’s body and a lion’s face with sun rays radiating from his head. They called this decan, Chnoubis or Chnoumis (Khnum). His image was reproduced on numerous green stone amulets. This is the image that is eventually associated with Ialdabaoth, suggesting that the origins of the Ialdabaoth god are connected with a particular Egyptian decan
>The identification of the archons with the planets, the Zodiacal signs, and various degrees of the Zodiac meant that powers opposing the supreme high God controlled not only what happened on earth, but what happened to the fallen spirit. Although there are many renditions in the Gnostic literature about how this happened in terms of agents, the baseline story is that the otherworldly spirit sinks into denser and denser cosmic materials, until it lodges within a human soul and body. This process was understood as a descent of the spirit through the cosmic realms through various Zodiac gates or along the cosmic pole, the axis mundi. As the spirit sank, it literally passed through various constellations and planets, receiving along the way, the psychic or soul inclinations of each of these beings
