The Gnostics taught a basic doctrine that included belief in a transcendent deity, the duality of matter and spirit realms with linkage between them, a Pleroma where the Fullness of God existed, the Demiurge as the creator of the world of matter, a divine spark within each human upon birth, and an awakening through inner self-knowledge that leads to the merging of consciousness back into the Divine. However, certain sects formulated variations in these basic core beliefs.