“The father is the One who beholds himself in the light surrounding him, which is the spring of living water, and provides all the realms. He reflects on his image everywhere, sees it in the spring of the spirit, and becomes enamored of his luminous water, for his image is in the spring of pure luminous water surrounding him. The father’s thought became a reality, and she who appeared in the presence of the father in shining light came forth. She is the first power who preceded everything and came forth from the father’s mind as the forethought of all. Her light shines like the father’s light; she, the perfect power, is the image of the perfect and invisible virgin spirit. She, the first power, the glory of Barbelo, the perfect glory among the realms, the glory of revelation, she glorified and praised the virgin spirit, for because of the spirit she had come forth. She is the first thought, the image of the spirit. She became the universal womb, for she precedes everything, the mother-father, the first human, the holy spirit, the triple male, the triple power, the androgynous one with three names, the eternal realm among the invisible beings, the first to come forth. Barbelo asked the invisible virgin spirit to give her foreknowledge, and the spirit consented. When the spirit consented, foreknowledge appeared and stood by forethought. This is the one who came from the thought of the invisible virgin spirit. Foreknowledge glorified the spirit and the spirit’s perfect power, Barbelo, for because of her, foreknowledge had come into being. She asked again to be given incorruptibility, and the spirit consented. When the spirit consented, incorruptibility appeared and stood by thought and foreknowledge. Incorruptibility glorified the invisible one and Barbelo. Because of her they had come into being.

Barbelo asked to be given life eternal, and the invisible spirit consented. When the spirit consented, life eternal appeared, and they stood together and glorified the invisible spirit and Barbelo. Because of her they had come into being. She asked again to be given truth, and the invisible spirit consented. Truth appeared, and they stood together and glorified the good invisible spirit and its Barbelo. Because of her they had come into being. This is the father’s realm of five. It is: the first human, the image of the invisible spirit, that is, forethought, which is Barbelo, and thought, along with foreknowledge, incorruptibility, life eternal, truth. This is the androgynous realm of five, which is the realm of ten, which is the father.”

-The Secret Book of John

Beholds Himself in the Light

The Father who is the true God does behold Himself in the Light because he is Light, and He is the Spring of Living Water, which is an allegorical reference to God’s Grace and God’s Word which flows out from Him like water flowing in a river.

He Reflects on His Image

God doesn’t care about physical bodies or anything material, except as something defective that needs to be repaired. God cares only about spirits, so he reflects only on spirits, and since all spirits come from God and are made in His image, He is always reflecting on His own Image by observing spirits everywhere.

The Father’s Thought Became Reality

God doesn’t create by carving things, painting them, or molding them on a potter’s wheel. God creates simply by thinking of something. As soon as God thinks of a thing, it becomes real. Since our spirits are created in God’s image, we also have that ability to some degree, but few of us are able to use it because we lack belief in such abilities. That is probably fortunate since most people don’t have the wisdom to use the ability to create. There is also the problem of conflicting thoughts. While thousands may be wishing for warmer weather, thousands of others wish for cold. Such conflicting thoughts tend to result in no change happening, which is why manifesting rarely works.

God Creates Barbelo

I think the being called Barbelo in the quote probably represents the first Angel created, although it isn’t clear. The quote isn’t very clear on who it is, but does give her great power. I thought she might represent Sophia or Wisdom, but the quote has Barbelo asking “the invisible virgin spirit” for various gifts and powers, so that sounds more like Sophia. Or it could be that Barbelo is Sophia, and the Invisible Virgin Spirit is the female aspect of God.

The First Human

Things Get even more confusing when Barbelo asks for Truth, and Truth appears, but as a separate entity. It is not clear what being the quote refers to as the first human. What is important, though is to understand that the first human was a spirit. A pure spirit with no physical body. Physical bodies came later when the false god created the realm of matter.

“ These are the hidden sayings that the living Yeshua spoke and Yehuda Toma the twin recorded. And he said, Whoever discovers what these sayings mean will not taste death. Yeshua said, Seek and do not stop seeking until you find. When you find, you will be troubled. When you are troubled, you will marvel and rule over all. Yeshua said, If your leaders tell you, “Look, the kingdom is in heaven,” then the birds of heaven will precede you. If they say to you, “It’s in the sea,” then the fish will precede you. But the kingdom is inside you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty and you are poverty. Yeshua said, A person old in days will not hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and the person will live. For many of the first will be last and become a single one. Yeshua said, Know what is in front of your face and what is hidden from you will be disclosed. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. His students asked him and said to him, Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe? Yeshua said, Do not lie and do not do what you hate. All things are disclosed before heaven. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, nothing covered that will remain undisclosed.”

-The Gospel of Thomas

Hidden Sayings

Even in the traditional Bible, it is made clear that Jesus taught things to the apostles and disciples that were not taught to the general public. So why is St. Thomas (Yehuda Toma is Thomas) putting them in his writings? He can do so because he uses allegory instead of saying things straight out. This was a common practice when spiritual leaders wrote and nearly all the scriptures of the world religions are written largely in allegory.

Will not Taste Death

Thomas says that whoever discovers (or learns) the true meaning of these allegorical sayings will not taste death. What he means by that, is such a person will have an eternal life in spirit, not in the physical body. Physically, we are all going to die, but if we awaken and develop our spiritual faculties before that happens, then we can have eternal life in Heaven.

Seek Until You Find

This is not about seeking random things that entertain or amuse you. Jesus is talking about seeking the hidden truths, the Wisdom that the Gnostics called Gnosis. It won’t be found in any book or classroom. It must be personally experienced by expanding our consciousness until we are able to communicate with the Beings of Light and with God.

Jesus adds that when you do find it, you will be troubled. That may be true for some because the truth regarding God, Heaven, and the life of Spirit is so different then what most expect.

Inside and Outside

Jesus then advises, in an allegorical way, that we should not look in the physical world for Heaven or the Kingdom of God. He then adds that the Kingdom is within us AND without us. That is an important statement. Many have been taught in the past, and are being taught today, that we must look within only to find the truth, but Jesus makes it clear that we must look without as well. He doesn’t say it, but we know that when we look without, we should be looking at the sun, with emphasis on the Spiritual Sun.

Ask a Child

Why does Jesus advise adults to ask a small child the truth? Partly, it is because a small child has not yet learned how to lie, and has not yet been filled with false beliefs. It is also because he is indirectly predicting the time when a small child, Jamil, will come into the world to lead the truly faithful.

What is Hidden

Jesus tells Thomas, “Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed.” What this means is that we must learn to recognize the physical world for what it is: a world of illusion. We look one way and think we see a tree, and in another and think we see a car, but all of those things are illusions. When we get beyond the physical mask of such things, we find something very different. Science is now catching up with the spiritual schools finding that on a subatomic level, there is nothing but energy and potential until it is observed.

“There are certain human beings existing who have evolved the higher powers of cognition in addition to the faculties of reason and feeling. It fell upon them to learn the facts of the higher worlds, and especially of the Mystery of the Christ-event by direct super-sensible perception. From these individuals there always flows into the souls of others as much as was intelligible and good for them.

“The first spreading of Christianity was to take place at a time when the capacity for super-sensible cognition was undeveloped in a great part of humanity. And this is why tradition at that time possessed such mighty power. The strongest possible force was necessary to lead mankind to a faith in a super-sensible world which they themselves could not perceive. There were always those, however, who were able to rise into higher worlds through imagination, inspiration, and intuition. These people were the post-Christian successors of the old Initiates, the teachers and members of the Mysteries. Their task was to recognize again, through their own [spiritual] faculties, what man had been able to perceive through ancient clairvoyance, and through the methods of ascent into higher worlds taught in the old Initiations, and in addition to this, to acquire the knowledge of the real nature of the Christ-Event.”

-Rudolf Steiner

Certain Humans

It is true that there have always been people who were predisposed to seek beyond the limitations of the physical realm for something higher and greater. In the earliest days of man, a majority of people had this ability, but as time went on, humanity became more densely material and less spiritual. This caused us to lose touch with God and the Spiritual realm. We have reached a point now where a large percentage of humanity doesn’t even believe there is a spiritual realm or an afterlife of any kind. We have fallen so low that we must turn now and move back toward the higher dimensions of spirit or be trapped in matter forever.

Higher Powers

What Steiner is calling “higher powers of cognition,” we would call today the development of our spiritual faculties, or spiritual Self. This is our Higher Self, our true Self that is permanent, as opposed to the temporary physical body and brain containing the faculties of reason and feelings.

Learn the Mysteries

It did fall upon those few who could learn the mysteries and awaken their higher self to do so and to teach others to do the same. This is true today, perhaps more than ever before. We are in the Last Times, the times when God is changing the universe of matter back into Spirit. He has been doing it over many years to allow humanity to change with it. He isn’t going to force us to change, though, because he gave us a certain degree of free choice. We must each choose to develop our Higher Self and reach for higher levels of Consciousness until we reach the highest level called Christ Consciousness. While the task is difficult because mankind, in general, has sunk so low into matter, we now have the promised Sun of Righteousness shining down upon us with the presence of God within it. The Light from this sun makes it easier for people to awaken and develop their spiritual faculties, but they still need guidance. That is why the Holy Child, Jamil, was sent into the world to start the new spiritual school of Cosolargy and the new Second Advent Church that will lead us into the new Golden Age of Light.