In many Gnostic belief systems, there exist various emanations of God, who is known by such names as One, Monad, Aion teleos (αἰών τέλεος "The Broadest Aeon"), Bythos (, "depth" or "profundity"), Arkhe (, "the beginning"). In Gnosticism these emanations of God are named as Proarkhe (, "before the beginning") and as Aeons (which are also often named and may be paired or grouped). In different systems these emanations are differently named, classified, and described (but emanation is common to all forms of 'Gnosticism'). In Basilidian Gnosis they are called sonships (υἱότητες huiotetes; sing.: υἱότης huiotes); according to Marcus, they are numbers and sounds; in Valentinianism they form male/female pairs called syzygies (, from σύζυγοι syzygoi: lit. "yokings together").
This source of all being is an Aeon, in which an inner being dwells, known as Ennoea (, "thought, intent"), Charis (, "grace") or Sige (, "silence"). The split perfect being conceives the second Aeon, Nous (Νους, "mind"), within itself. Complex hierarchies of Aeons are thus produced, sometimes to the number of thirty. These Aeons belong to a purely ideal, noumenal, intelligible, or supersensible world; they are immaterial, they are hypostatic ideas. Together with the source from which they emanate, they form Pleroma (, "fullness"). The lowest regions of Pleroma are closest to darkness; that is, the physical world.
The transition from immaterial to material, from noumenal to sensible, is created by a flaw, passion, or sin in an Aeon. According to Basilides, it is a flaw in the last sonship; according to others the sin of the Great Archon, or Aeon-Creator, of the Universe; according to others it is the passion of the female Aeon Sophia, who emanates without her partner Aeon, resulting in the Demiurge () Yaldabaoth,Lit. "half-creator," occasionally referred to as Yaldabaoth, "Son of Chaos". a creature that should never have been. This creature does not belong to Pleroma, and the One emanates two savior Aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit, to save humanity from the Demiurge. Christ then took a human form (Jesus), to teach humanity how to achieve Gnosis. The ultimate end of all Gnosis is metanoia (μετάνοια), or repentance—undoing the sin of material existence and returning to Pleroma.
Aeons bear a number of similarities to Judaeo-Christian angels, including roles as servants and emanations of God, and existing as beings of light. In fact, certain Gnostic Angels, such as Armozel, are also Aeons. The Gnostic Gospel of Judas, found in 2006, purchased, held, and translated by the National Geographic Society, also mentions Aeons.The Lost Gospel – online feature from National Geographic, including Coptic text, English translation, and photos .
Valentinus
Valentinus assumed, as the beginning of all things, the Primal Being or Bythos, who after ages of silence and contemplation, gave rise to other beings by a process of emanation. The first series of beings, the Aeons, were thirty in number, representing fifteen syzygies or pairs sexually complementary. One common form is outlined below:Mead, p. 231.
Tertullian's Against the Valentinians gives a slightly different sequence. The first eight of these Aeons, corresponding to generations one through four below, are referred to as the Ogdoad.Against the Valentinians () Books 7-8. First generation Bythos Βύθος (the One) and Sige Σιγή (Silence, Charis, Ennoea, etc.) Second generation Nous Νοΰς (Nus, Mind) and Aletheia Άλήθεια (Veritas, Truth) Third generation, emanated from Nous and Aletheia Sermo (the Word; Logos Λόγος) and Vita (the Life; Zoe Ζωή) Fourth generation, emanated from Sermo and Vita Anthropos Άνθρωπος (Homo, Man) and Ecclesia Έκκλησία Fifth generation Emanated from Sermo and Vita: Bythios (Profound) and Mixis (Mixture) Ageratos (Never old) and Henosis (Union) Autophyes (Essential nature) and Hedone (Pleasure) Acinetos (Immovable) and Syncrasis (Commixture) Monogenes (Only-begotten) and Macaria (Happiness) Emanated from Anthropos and Ecclesia Paracletus (Comforter) and Pistis (Faith) Patricas (Paternal) and Elpis (Hope) Metricos (Maternal) and Agape (Love) Ainos (Praise) and Synesis (Intelligence) Ecclesiasticus (Son of Ecclesia) and Macariotes (Blessedness) Theletus (Perfect) and Sophia (Wisdom)
Ptolemy and Colorbasus According to Irenaeus,Against Heresies (Latin: Adversus Haereses) also known as The Detection and Overthrow of Falsely So-Called Gnosis I. xii. the followers of the Gnostics Ptolemy and Colorbasus had Aeons that differ from those of Valentinus. Logos is created when Anthropos learns to speak. The first four are called the Tetrad, and the eight are the Ogdoad deities of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon. First generation Bythos Βύθος (the One) and Sige Σιγή (Silence, Charis, Ennoea, etc.) Second generation (conceived by the One): Ennoea (Thought) and Thelesis (Will) Third generation, emanated from Ennoea and Thelesis: Nous Νοΰς (or Monogenes) and Aletheia Άλήθεια Fourth generation, emanated from Nous and Aletheia: Anthropos Άνθρωπος (Homo, Man) and Ecclesia Έκκλησία (see ref. 5 below) Fifth generation, emanated from Anthropos and Ecclesia: Logos Λόγος and Zoe Ζωή Sixth generation: Emanated from Logos and Zoe: Bythius and Mixis Ageratos and Henosis Autophyes and Hedone Acinetos and Syncrasis Monogenes and Macaria Emanated from Anthropos and Ecclesia: Paracletus and Pistis Patricos and Elpis Metricos and Agape Ainos and Synesis Ecclesiasticus and Macariotes Theletos and Sophia
The order of Anthropos and Ecclesia versus Logos and Zoe is somewhat debated; different sources give different accounts. Logos and Zoe are unique to this system as compared to the previous, and may be an evolved version of the first, totalling 32 Aeons, but it is not clear if the first two were actually regarded Aeons.
Sige
In the system of Valentinus, as expounded by Irenaeus (i. 1), the origin of things was traced to two eternal co-existent principles, a male and a female. The male was called Bythos or Proarche, or Propator, etc.; the female had the names Ennoea, Charis and Sige. The whole Aeonology of Valentinus was based on a theory of syzygies, or pairs of Aeons, each Aeon being provided with a consort; and the supposed need of the co-operation of a male and female principle for the generation of new ones, was common to Valentinus and some earlier Gnostic systems. But it was a disputed point in these systems whether the First Principle of all was thus twofold. There were those, both in earlier systems, and even among the Valentinians who held, that the origin of things was to be traced to a single Principle, which some described as hermaphrodite; others said was above all sex. And among the Valentinians who counted thirty Aeons, there were those who counted Bythos and Sige as the first pair; others who asserted the Single Principle excluded Bythos from the number, and made out the number of thirty without reckoning him. Thus Irenaeus says of the Valentinians (I. ii. 4. p. 10), "For they maintain that sometimes the Father acts in conjunction with Sige, but that at other times he shows himself independent both of male and female." And (I. xi. 5) "For some declare him to be without a consort, and neither male nor female, and, in fact, nothing at all; while others affirm him to be masculo-feminine, assigning to him the nature of a hermaphrodite; others, again, allot Sige to him as a spouse, that thus may be formed the first conjunction."
Hippolytus supposes Valentinus to have derived his system from that of Simon; and in that as expounded in the Apophasis Megale, from which he gives extracts, the origin of things is derived from six roots, divided into three pairs; but all these roots spring from a single independent Principle, which is without consort. The name Sige occurs in the description which Hippolytus (vi. 18) quotes from the Apophasis, how from the supreme Principle there arise the male and female offshoots nous and epinoia. The name Sige is there given not to either of the offshoots but to the supreme Principle itself: however, in the description, these offshoots appear less as distinct entities than as different aspects of the same Being.
Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech. vi. 17) makes Sige the daughter of Bythos and by him the mother of Logos, a fable which he classes with the incests which heathen mythology attributed to Jupiter. Irenaeus (II. xii.) ridicules the absurdity of the later form of Valentinian theory, in which Sige and Logos are represented as coexistent Aeons in the same Pleroma. "Where there is Silence" he says, "there will not be Word; and where there is Word, there cannot be Silence". He goes on (ii. 14) to trace the invention of Sige to the heathen poets, quoting Antiphanes, who in his Theogony makes Chaos the offspring of Night and Silence.
Ennoea In the attempts made by the framers of different Gnostic systems to explain the origin of the existing world, the first stage in the process was usually made by personifying the conception in the divine mind of that which was to emanate from Him. We learn from Justin Martyr (Ap. I. 26), and from Irenaeus (I. 23), that the word Ennoea was used in a technical sense in the system of Simon. The Latin translation of Irenaeus either retains the word, or renders "mentis conceptio." Tertullian has "injectio" (De Anima, 34). In the Apophasis Megale cited by Hippolytus (Ref. vi. 18, 19, p. 174), the word used is not Ennoia but Epinoia. Irenaeus states (I. 23) that the word Ennoea passed from the system of Simon into that of Menander. In the Barbeliot system which Irenaeus also counts as derived from that of Simon (I. 29), Ennoea appears as one of the first in the series of emanations from the unnameable Father.
In the system of Valentinus (Iren. I. i.) Ennoea is one of several alternative names for the consort of the primary Aeon Bythos. For the somewhat different form in which Ptolemaeus presented this part of the system see Irenaeus (I. xii.). Irenaeus criticises this part of the system (II. xiii.). The name Ennoea is similarly used in the Ophite system described by Irenaeus (I. xxx.).
Charis Charis, in the system of Valentinus, was an alternative name, with Ennoea and Sige, for the consort of the primary Aeon Bythos (Iren. i. 4). The name expresses that aspect of the absolute Greatness in which it is regarded not as a solitary monad, but as imparting from its perfection to beings of which it is the ultimate source; and this is the explanation given in the Valentinian fragment preserved by Epiphanius (Haer. xxxi. 6), dia to epikechoregekenai auten thesaurismata tou Megethous tois ek tou Megethous. The use of the word Charis enabled Ptolemaeus (quoted by Irenaeus, i. 8) to find in the first tetrad of Aeons, viz., Pater, Monogenes, Charis, Aletheia. The suspicion arises that it was with a view to such an identification that names to be found in the prologue of St. John's Gospel were added as alternative appellations to the original names of the Aeons. But this is a point on which we have no data to pronounce. Charis has an important place in the system of Marcus (Irenaeus, i. 13). The name Charis appears also in the system of the Barbelitae (Irenaeus, i. 29), but as denoting a later emanation than in the Valentinian system. The word has possibly also a technical meaning in the Ophite prayers preserved by Origen (Contra Celsum, vi. 31), all of which end with the invocation .
Nous
Ecclesia This higher Ecclesia was held to be the archetype of the lower Ecclesia constituted by the spiritual seed on earth (Iren. I. v. 6, p. 28). In a Gnostic system described by Irenaeus (I. xxx. p. 109) we have also a heavenly church, not, however, as a separate Aeon, but as constituted by the harmony of the first existing beings. According to Hippolytus (v. 6, p. 95), the Naassenes counted three Ecclesiae.