Тайната, забранена и преследвана (манихеи, богомили, катари, албигойци, изобщо дуалистичните учения...) през вековете гностическа космогония. Съвсем друг разказ за Бога, за Плеромата и за сътворението на нашия свят:
In the beginning there was only one invisible Spirit perfect, pure, holy, immaculate, ageless and virgin. He was the Ineffable One. He is neither corporeal, nor incorporeal. He is invisible because no one can see him, yet he emanated pure, immeasurable light. He is indestructible and eternal. Jesus revealed whom the real Supreme Being or Heavenly Father (in the New Testament), as the First Aeon, and The God. In this text, he was mostly referred to the "invisible Spirit" or "holy Spirit". In the Gospel of the Egyptians, he is called the "Great, Invisible Spirit". For the sake of convenient, I will call him Father or Spirit.
The Spirit then look in the spring of life, and by the power of His thought, brought forth a feminine being, whose light was like His, and her power was also like his. She was the emanation of Him, His feminine counter-part. She was known as Barbelo, the forethought of all, and the perfect Aeon.
This is the first thought, his image; she became the womb of everything, for it is she who is prior to them all, the Mother-Father, the first man, the holy Spirit, the thrice-male, the thrice-powerful, the thrice-named androgynous one, and the eternal aeon among the invisible ones, and the first to come forth.
The Apocryphon of John
The Spirit bestowed upon her the following five powers:- the image of the invisible Spirit (first man or human), foreknowledge, indestructibility, eternal life and the truth.
From the pure light that emanated from her and surrounding Him, a spark ignited from him and she conceived another pure light the "Only-Begotten Child" of His, or the divine Autogenes as the text called him. The divine Autogenes was the aeon Christ - the "Anointed One".
Like his father and mother, Autogenes (Christ) was pure and holy. Everything the Son (Autogenes/Christ) have done, he work for the glories of his Father (Spirit) and Mother (Barbelo). Here are the Gnostic holy Trinity Father, Mother and Son, like the Orthodox concept of the Trinity Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the three perfect aeons. Actually the Holy Trinity was perhaps conceived by the Egyptian myth, who often grouped gods into three god, goddess and child. Example of this can be shown in the Triad of Heliopolis Osiris, Isis and Horus.
The Autogenes, like other aeons, was androgynous. Therefore, he had a female counterpart of him, which is Mirothoe, according to the Gospel of the Egyptians (GosEgypt).
From the Spirit and Christ, they produced four helpers for Autogenes (Christ), known as the Luminaries or the Light Aeons. Under each light-aeon, there were three aeons, making a total of twelve aeons.
The light-aeon Armozel (or Harmozel) was the first angel, and with him, was three aeons grace, truth and form.
The second light-aeon was Oriel (or Oroiael; possibly the archangel Uriel), with three other aeons conception, perception and memory.
The third light was Daveithai, who was in company of understanding, love and idea.
The fourth light aeon was Eleleth, and with him perfection, peace and wisdom (Sophia).
All four light aeons and twelve aeons served Autogenes (Christ). Christ works on the Spirit's will, while the Spirit works through Christ. Four other beings dwelled with four Luminaries. Pigera-Adamas or Adamas, the perfect human being (Cosmic Man), lived with Armozel. Seth, the son of Adamas, dwelled with Oriel. The Posterity of Seth, or the souls of holy people, lived with Daveithai. Finally, the last aeon known as the Souls, those who are not acquainted with the truth or gnosis until later, dwelled with Eleleth.
It is at this point that the text shifted its focus away from the Triad, to the lowest and the youngest of the twelve aeons Sophia (the aeon of Wisdom).
Sophia and the Demiurge
Most Gnostics see Sophia or "Wisdom" as the most important aeon, after the Autogenes (Christ). Sophia was important, because she set in motion the creation of the material world.
Sophia was a Greek name for wisdom. Another name frequently associated with Sophia, was Pistis or "Faith". Sometimes Pistis was seen as a separate being, where she was seen as the mother of Sophia, but often Pistis was just another name for Sophia. Frequently, various texts used the two name together, as Pistis Sophia, as in the The Hypostasis of the Archons.
Sophia as the mother, should not be confused with Barbelo, the perfect mother. Whereas Barbelo was known as "Forethought", Sophia was equated "Afterthought". Here we see the text is influenced with these names (Forethought/Afterthought), which can be found in Greek mythology, where the Titan Prometheus or Forethought, hero of mankind, was different from his brother Epimetheus or Afterthought, who married Pandora, the first woman who brought suffering to mankind, ending the Golden Age.
Sophia, probably in pride, tried to emulate the invisible Spirit (Father) in producing Barbelo, by created an image of herself. Meaning that she wanted to produce an offspring, without either consort or the approval of her Father (Spirit). As an aeon, she did have the power to do so, but she wasn't perfect like the great Spirit, or like the other two perfect aeons, Barbelo and the Autogenes.
She was horrified when she spawned an ugly, imperfect creature a lion-faced serpent with eyes of fire, whom she called Yaldabaoth.
Sophia cast her offspring out of pleroma, and hid her child within a thick cloud from the other aeons, because of her embarrassment and shame.
Yaldabaoth was the first of the archon ("ruler") and he stole his mother's power, so that she wasn't able to escape from the cloud. Despite gaining Sophia's aeonic power, he was weak, but he was ambitious and power hungry.
Since the archons, including Yaldabaoth, were androgynous beings, Yaldabaoth fathered twelve archons, giving each a bit of his power. They were named Athoth, Harmas, Kalila-Oumbri, Yabel, Adonaiou (or Sabaoth), Cain, Abel, Abrisene, Yobel, Armoupieel, Melceir-Adonein and Belias. Seven archons would rule seven heavens and five in the abyss, which Yaldabaoth and the archons created. Each archon would rule a heaven (or the abyss), and created 365 angels to help them.
According to The Origin of the World, there is an interesting account about his children. Yaldabaoth created a realm, called matter. And from this matter, Yaldabaoth created seven androgynous offspring, like himself, to rule seven realms or heavens of chaos. Each offspring have masculine and feminine names.
His first son opened his eye for the first time, he said "Eee!", so Yaldabaoth called his son Eee-a-o, which is Yao. The second opened his eyes and said "Eh!", so his father called him Eloai, while the third said "Asss!" so he was called Astaphaios.
Sambathas
Pronoia (Forethought)
Yao
Lordship
Sabaoth
Deity
Adonaios
Kingship
Elaios
Jealousy
Oraios
Wealth
Astaphaios
Sophia (Wisdom)
In his arrogance, Yaldabaoth boasted to the other archons that:
"I am God and there is no other God beside me!"
The Apocryphon of John (II 11:20)
Yaldabaoth was weak and ignorant, because he didn't realise that were any power greater than him. He thought he was the First. Yaldabaoth had sinned for saying these words, which was why he was called Samael "the blind god". He has another name Saklas, a name usually assigned to Satan.
According to The Hypostasis of the Archons and On the Origin of the World, it was Sophia, who rebuked him and gave him this name, Samael.
"You are mistaken, Samael"
The Hypostasis of the Archons (II 87:2)
According to The Hypostasis of the Archons, after this boast, he challenged the voice:
"If any other thing exists before me, let it be shown forth to me!"
The Hypostasis of the Archons (II 94:25)
So Sophia stretch forth her finger and brought limitless light into matter and the region of chaos. The chief archon trembled in fear.
When Yaldabaoth and the other archons heard the voice. They sought this voice and traced the voice to the abyss, where the chief archon saw the reflection of his mother in the water. They want take hold of the image but could not. They were ignorant and weak, because they didn't understand that the image was reflected from above.
"I am a jealous God, and there is no other God beside me."
But by announcing this he indicated to the angels who attended him that there exists another God. For if there were no other one, of whom would he be jealous?
The Apocryphon of John (II 13:9-12)
If there are no other gods then why would he be jealous?
It was at this point that Sophia realised what she have done, and repented. She prayed to her Father for her deliverance, and the restoration of the power that her son (Yaldabaoth) had stolen from her. Her light was diminishing, since the theft of her power. She was moving about, back and forth.
It was at this point that the voice of the invisible Spirit was heard, rebuking Yaldabaoth and the archons. They trembled in fear, and saw reflected on the water, the image of God (Spirit), in human form.
