Gnostic Communities:

1. Often operated within regular Christian congregations as "study groups" with "secret knowledge."
2. Practiced special rituals to achieve mystical union with the spirit.
3. Aimed for direct experience of gnosis/knowledge of the Monad, rather than relying on church sacraments or saints.

These diverse groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Generally, in Gnosticism, the Monad is the supreme God who emanates divine beings; one, Sophia, creates the flawed demiurge who makes the material world, trapping souls until they regain divine knowledge. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.[1]

Source: Gnosticism - Wikiwand