A wide variety of Jewish and early Christian sects having an interest in gnosis, or divine knowledge, and generally holding the belief that there is a god greater than the Demiurge, or the creator of the world.
The doctrines of various religious sects flourishing especially in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD in the Near East, teaching that the material world is the imperfect creation of a subordinate power or powers rather than of the perfect and unknowable Divine Being, and that the soul can transcend material existence by means of esoteric knowledge. The Mandaean religion preserves one system of Gnostic belief.
User Defined Definitions
"a religious orientation advocating gnosis as the way to release a person's spiritual element; considered heresy by Christian churches"