Sophia is the central pivot of creation and represents the feminine aspect in all things.
She is Wisdom Incarnate, the Goddess of all those who are wise.
Sophia (pronounced sew-fee'ah) in Greek, Hohkma in Hebrew, Sapientia in Latin, Celtic goddess-figure Sheela-na-gigs - all mean wisdom,. The Judeo-Christian God's female soul, source of his true power is Sophia. As Goddess of wisdom and fate , her faces are many: Black Goddess, Divine Feminine, Mother of God The Gnostic Christians, Sophia was the Mother of Creation; her consort and assistant was Jehovah. Her sacred shrine, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, is one of the seven wonders of the world. Her symbol, the dove, represents spirit; she is crowned by stars, a Middle Eastern icon, to indicate her absolute divinity.
Sophia is found throughout the wisdom books of the Bible. There are references to Her in the book of Proverbs, and in the apocryphal books of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon (accepted by Catholics and Orthodox, found in the Greek Septuagint of the early Church).
She is usually associated with wise King Solomon. 1 Kings 4:29-31 tells us that God gave wisdom to Solomon, and that he became wiser than all the kings of the East and all the wise people of Egypt. Wisdom 8:2, 16, 18 tells us that Solomon was seen as married to Sophia.
The Song of Songs - known as Song of Solomon or Canticle of Canticles - speaks of Solomon's marriage to Holy Sophia.
Wisdom 9:8-11 tells us that Sophia instructed Solomon in building the Temple!
The Jews revered Sophia. King Solomon even put Her right in the Temple, in the form of the Goddess Asherah.
After the reforms of King Josiah, there was a threat that the veneration of Sophia would come to a halt - there was even more of a threat when patriarchal Christianity took over the world.
Thanks to her continuing presence in the world and her presence in the Bible, veneration of Sophia continued in the Eastern tradition with the construction of the Hagia Sophia and the Russian Catholic liturgical service to Sophia combined with the assumption of Mary on May 15.
The Russian Orthodox Church has also a school of "Sophiology" to explore the theology of Sophia without contradicting the Russian Orthodox theology.
Yet the Eastern Christians are not the only Christians to venerate Sophia.
Sophia was very likely venerated by early Followers of the Way, and her veneration has survived in the West today in the form of Gnosticism.
Gnostics see her as one of the aeons, one of the quasi-deities who live in the ethereal realm known as the pleroma.
Gnostics believe that she gave birth to or brought about the creation of a negative aeon, who later came to be called an archon, called the Demiurge, creator and ruler of this world.
Gnostics see the Demiurge as the God of the Old Testament, with his strict rules and chains that bind the people of the Earth. Gnostics believe that Sophia and the Father God (not the Demiurge) sent Yeshua to right this wrong. In Gnostic tradition, Sophia plays a very active role in our world.
HOLY MOTHER! Cwater, thank you! I have to give you props on this as it was done in such a short time as well as the very detailed facts, history, and biblical references within this post. Also, easy going format.
But yes, all of this is very true given what we have in front of us today. Now, I as a gnostic and esoteric Christian, I believe of the many forms that sophia has taken as well for example "SophiaGaia" being this physical earth representing her fallen form after the events that took place with the demierge. This gives us the earth goddess aspects. We also have her again representing the holy spirit. I will go over this within the Order of Celestial Templars. All the symbols used today to represent the holy spirit are old goddess symbols for example, the dove and grail and the olive branch. the Greek word for the spirit is in a feminine context giving us belife that the holy spirit is feminine and not masculine. This also holds a place when Yeshuah was baptized and the dove came upon him. This dove was the sophia, holy spirit, and mother goddess giving to him her blessing while the Great God was announcing his blessings to Yeshua.
Mary, to the Gnostics like I, believe that she was the incarnation of the divine feminine, the mother Goddess, the sophia. She wed with Yeshua as they together showed us the way to escape the bonds of the demierge and bring us to the god-form found in Gnosis.
One key element found in the walk of kabbalah is the top trinity. This shows us the direct link to Gnosis as on Binah we have the goddess, on Jachin we have the god, and above them both is the "Divine All". This trinity of masculine and feminine and the "All" is also found seen on the Waite rider tarot card, the lovers. Wisdom and understanding is the way to the Divine Logos. As interesting as this is, wisdom is Sophia and sophia is wisdom.
This is one reason that I walk the path found in kabbalah is that Sophia is the fallen earth. The way to save her and raise sophia back into the union with the "Divine All" is through the cleansing process of reaching our own divine state.
Thanks for your input. As a gnostic I do relate to the points you made. I pray to sophia and the all that is every night. We should strive to incorporate them both if we can. Sophia has been repressed by the catholic church and dogmatic mainstream christian paths which is sad.
So, I as a non-denominational christian have pretty much no idea about this so thanks for helping me learn. My family has a mostly catholic background before my parents so, no wonder I don't hear much about this.
I believe that Sophia is a name for the Holy Spirit which is a part of the trinity. Sophia means wisdom which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. I do not consider Mary the Mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalen to be the same person or of the same essence. They were all present at the same time with Jesus during his earthly ministry. They each had their own roles to play. Mary was Jesus's mother who God chose to be the vessel to bring Jesus to the world as both human and God. Mary Magdalen was a very important woman to Jesus, possibly even His wife. She was there with him throughout His ministry and was the first one to report that He had risen again. The other disciples mainly, Peter were jealous of the closeness Mary Magdalen had with Our Lord. If you read the Gospel of Mary Magdalen, you will see how Peter rebukes her and tries to dismiss her because she was a woman. But it is evident that she was divine by the teachings she shares. Mary Magdalen is one of the Divine Masters. There are several of them. They were special people chosen by God to teach us about the spiritual things. I do believe that Mary, Mother of Jesus is the Queen of Heaven. As a Vincention, today I celebrate with my community the feast day of St. Catherine Laboure who was a Daughter of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. Mother Mary appeared to her and instructed her to have a medal made depicting the vision she saw. This was the beginning of the miraculous medal of Our Lady. The Feast Day of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal was yesterday, November 27th. Mother Mary is crowned with a Crown of 12 stars as the Queen of Heaven. I am not a gnostic. I do believe there is some truth to many of the gnostic gospels especially the gospel of Mary Magdalen. I firmly believe she is one of the divine teachers.
I know this is probably not the answer to this week's topic that was expected from me; but even though I'm an ordained minister and a witch, 2 things that the Catholic Church prohibits, I am still a Catholic and a Vincention by heart.
Well done zinnia! Well done! Even though you are not a gnostic that is quite alright and you have given to us many truths about sophia and both Mary Mother and Mary Magdalene which is impressive in how you have also shown us a clear relation, if any, to each.
This was exactly one of the many answers to this question and yes sophia is an alternative aspect of the holy spirit given from what source you take your information. Well done!
