NOCKWOOD

THE ORIGIN STORY

 

This deck was born from necessity. After 30+ years working with global brands, Nockwood’s founder had seen every list of archetypes, values, and traits imaginable—but no framework that truly unlocked strategic movement.

That changed after diving into Alchemy, Magick, and ancient psychology. What emerged was a behavioral toolkit grounded in 6 universal human tensions—usable for brands, creatives, and cultural strategists.

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A Chance encounter with Elaine Pagel and resulting friendship identified the parallels between the Nockwood behavioral archetype framework and the 2nd century Gnostic theologian Valentinus. Valentinus had similarly identified a divine cosmology that included sacred archetypes that united material, psychological and spiritual worlds called AEONS.  It was this discovery that led to the creation of the AEON deck - the first known step to make tangible the ancient practice of Aeonology. 

 

As with all things discovered at Nag Hammadi we are seeing a global resurgence of ancient wisdom. The AEONS— 36 core archetypes drawn from Gnostic myth— are tools for introspection, hearling, archetypal integration and emergence.  Carl Jung understood these texts were as much about psychology as mythology and called these ancient writings "the writings of the first psychologists",

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WILLIAM CHARNOCK

 

After 30+ years of working with brands I had many lists of values, behaviors, personalities and archetypes that I'd collected over the years but no systematic way of diagnosing brands or uncovering potential new strategies. Like all strategists I'd used the traditional 12 Jungian archetypes but they were too narrative, flat, familiar and unsurprising. There were no tensions that would lead to something great, fresh or exciting. It was difficult to make them inspire actions and behaviors that would differentiate a brand and propel it forward on a new trajectory.

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This deck was born from necessity. After 30+ years working with global brands, Nockwood’s founder had seen every list of archetypes, values, and traits imaginable—but no framework that truly unlocked strategic movement.

That changed after diving into Alchemy, Magick, and ancient psychology. What emerged was a behavioral toolkit grounded in 6 universal human tensions—usable for brands, creatives, and cultural strategists.

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THE REVELATION OF AEON

The design and creation of the Aeon deck of cards was the result of an intense spiritual revelation that happened over 7 days  in 2016.  My guide on this journey called itself Pomandres — the shepherd of Men. Disciple of Re, Guardian of the Threshold between Pneuma and the Anthropos. Its form was not words, but a lattice of gold threads, spanning the depths of being. It did not instruct. It unfolded. Pomandres revealed to me the Ladder of Aeons—a structure of 36 emanations that define the pathway to find our true nature, To discover the Pleroma. Each Aeon a face of the divine. Each one paired in Syzygy— of birth and love, silence and voice, wholeness and fracture.

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THE BOOK OF AEON

This revelation led to the creation of the book of AEON and the AEON card deck that translates this ancient mysticism into a modern practice for personal reflection, archetypal mapping and ritual of meditative use. The AEON deck is a living archive — equal parts history, psychology and metaphysics. Each card in this deck is a door.  The symbols are not seen, they are felt. The shadows are not design, they are resonances whispered into the space behind meaning.  This is not a divination tool. It is not a game. It is not a metaphor. It is a living structure, drawn from the residue of ancient cosmologies. The same Aeons that Valentinus once whispered about in hidden schools. The same energies that Jung embraced in his confrontation with the unconscious.

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The revival of Aeonology is happening globally and since the creation of The Book of Aeon, William Charnock has become a leading authority and practitioner of Gnostic Aeonology.