Lumunous Epionia

The first emanation of the Absolute, and the source of all subsequent manifestation is a female principle, variously referred to as Thought, Providence, Fore-thought or Foreknowledge (in Greek, all these words have female gender), and “Barbelo”.

Gnostic cosmology casts the female creator principle in a dual role. In fact there are two Divine Mothers. The higher one, Barbelo, is the creative Thought of the ineffable Parent, who may also descend for the purpose of salvation of those below. The lower one, Sophia, is the accidental creator of the ignorant demiurge who made the cosmos, but also works to free the divine spirit captured by the demiurge in human form.

In the Apocryphon of John, Barbelo is described as “The first power, the glory, Barbelo, the perfect glory in the aions, the glory of the revelation.” [Nag Hammadi Library]. In the somewhat later external link The Gospel of the Egyptians, the emphasis shifts somewhat. There is not one but three powers are emanated by the “Great Invisible Spirit, the unnameable Parent, the eternal light of the aions.” These are the Father, the Mother (identified with Barbelo), and the Son, each of which is an octet.

Father & Mother God always were.  In other words, no beginning and no end.  No beginnings is always more difficult to comprehend than no end because in your finite lifetime you have beginnings and you do not want to think that there is an end.

So you ask, When did it all begin?"  Did it begin with Big Bang or simply at some incipient moment in time?  No!  Everything within this life or on the Other Side (Heaven) makes circles.  Everything is infinite where means "without end or without any sharp edges to it".  The magnitude of Creation is far beyond most finite minds' wildest dreams or concepts.

Continuing the ‘story’, Epinoia is the very 'first' god. Epinoia gives birth to Sophia who creates us in her image, but not the whole image – that is why the human condition is in the fallen state.  We are barbelo, the first born of Sophia.  This is what the Egyptians called Horus.

  z