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| | The First Emanation |
 | | 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". |
 | | 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 (eight-fold). |
 | | But still they are not some-thing separate from her, but rather part of a single whole, the "five-aeon", of which she is the core. |
| www.kheper.net /topics/Gnosticism/first_emanation.html (740 words) |
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