the Barbelo

The monad's thought performed a deed, and she came forth. Now we have that first thought, which is forethought from his mind. She is the forethought, and this is now what the Gnostics are going to call the Barbelo, one of the most important emanations from God, the unknowing, unknowable, infinite, ineffable God. Now there's going to be a series of additional divine beings, and one of these, or the first of these, is the Barbelo. All her light shines like his light, the perfect power which is in the image of the invisible virginal Spirit who is perfect. From this first thought, there then emanate a series of additional emanations, and these are paired aeons. Aeons just means divine beings who emanate from the monad, like forethought, thought, indestructibility, eternal life, truth. They're paired because, in this understanding of the cosmos, each one of these has a gender, and so there's a male and a female together. This shows that the universe not only has total order but is completely balanced.