Known as the Mother of All or simply as Wisdom, Sophia was born of Silence according to Gnostic creation myths. She gave birth to both Male and Female who together created all the elements of our material world.
Female then gave birth to Jehovah in all his emanations. But she also gave birth to Ildabaoth who was known as the Son of Darkness. When humans were created, Sophia loved them all dearly.
Unfortunately, her affection for humans sparked jealousy in both Ildabaoth and Jehovah. Hoping to keep humans weak and powerless, the brothers forbade humans to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Female then sent her spirit in the form of the serpent to teach the humans to disobey the envious gods.
Sophia so desperately loved humans that she decided she would live among them. To her dismay they mostly ignored her. She tried speaking to them. When they turned a deaf ear, she screamed from the tops of the highest walls. Still she was not heard.
In her anguish at being so neglected, she left humans with one last thought: You have denied and ignored me, so will I do when calamity strikes and you call for my help. Only those who earnestly search for me and love me will merit my love and assistance.
There are those who believe that Sophia, so desperate in her desire to relate, later returned to humans in another attempt to bond with them. Sophia is often symbolized by the Dove of Aphrodite, which later became the dove representing the Holy Spirit.
The dove appeared to the Virgin Mary in the form of the Virgin of Light, entered her and conceived Jesus. In this sense, Sophia attempted again, in to form of a man, to be united with the mortals she so loved.
Sophia’s traits include: righteous, wise, loving, communicative, knowledgeable, creative, protective, giving, and truthful. A Sophia woman sees it and tells it as it is; she has no fear of the truth.
She brings meaning to human experience with her gift of understanding “the bigger picture”. Only when you stand back, gaining some emotional distance, can you see that even the most traumatic experiences can be the birthplace of your most treasured strengths. It is only in times of great stress that heroic feats are truly appreciated.
Sophia was also the mother of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Theyare Sofia’s gifts to us, gifts that can overcome the despair, confusion, and suffering that frame human life. Sophia reminds you that clear vision and understanding line the path that leads to the discovery of the meaning of your life.
The evolving cosmology of preChristian Gnosticism taught that from All That Is (having neither gender nor being), emanated pairs of Aeons, or paired lesser beings which are divine powers or natures emanating from Source to play various roles in the operation of the universe. Together these Aeons made up the Pleroma, or "fullness of Consciousness." The lowest and the last of these pairs in the hierarchy was Sophia, which is Greek for "Wisdom," and Christ, which is Greek for "Savior."
Those who wrote the first gospels, both canonical and Gnostic, gave the name Yeshu (Jesus in Greek) to the Christ Aeon and the name Mary Magdalene, or Mariamne Magdal-eder, to the Sophia Aeon.
Sophia was the original female principal, the Goddess. She came first and she came alone. And so soon as She discovered Herself to be separated from Source, Sophia grew fearful and full of anguish. She felt she'd been exiled. She was certain She was lost in this lower, lesser, place...a "copy" of Pleroma. Plato thought this copy benign, but the Gnostics thought it hellish. Wandering through the world of matter created by her own dreadful fear and confusion, Sophia was subject to all the pain and horror the world of matter can and does supply...and all those she met treated her shamefully—most especially males. She became in both meanings of the term, a "fallen woman."
Sophia was exiled for years beyond counting and during those years she endured tribulation after tribulation, always longing to return to All That Is. Eventually, She grew so sorrowful that All That Is took pity on Her and sent out her "other half," her Platonic Double, Her paired Aeon, so that she might once again "see the light." As her paired Aeon and savior, Christ rescued her from the physical world. He gathered Her up into Gnosis (meaning knowledge of the divine) so that she might "remember herself" and return to her home in the "Pleroma."
Sophia's story is a tale of our mortal selves seemingly doomed to wander alone and lost through the world of matter. We don't know where we're going. We don't know why we're here. We don't even know who we really are. We are frightened. We feel abandoned. We push ourselves even further into matter to escape the terrible feeling that we have lost our Home. We do whatever we can to distract ourselves from this fundamental uncertainty.
But Sophia, who is Mary Magdalene, is the Goddess who not only created matter, she lived in it to show us we are not alone in our suffering. And Christ, Her partner and equal, is Gnosis, who comes if we call. He comes so that we know we are much more than we think we are, that we are, in fact, eternal and loved and filled with Spirit, and that we can all go Home again.
It's a beautiful story, a profound story—and it is completely misunderstood by those who "borrowed" it from the Gnostic teaching.
All Pagan godmen have a female Consort who resurrects Him from the grave. Osiris by Isis. Attis by Cybele. Tammuz by Ishtar. Christ by Mary Magdalene. There is always a female divinity mourning a slain god and seeking his body for anointing…and this part of the story is as old as human time. It's very much a part of the myth of the Goddess and speaks of the true worth of the feminine and her part in the dance of reality.
