Sue captured who I envision Sophia to be: "The Divine Feminine (Sophia/Mother God) is returning to collective consciousness, all right. She's coming and it will happen whether we're ready or not."
This icon, with its central figure, Sophia, overlooking my home page, was painted in 2008 by Katriina Fyrlund of Varberg, Sweden. Sophia sits with her feet on the world, Christ overhead, Mary, to her right and John the Baptist to her left. What she's telling us is that each of us shares in her wisdom.
An awesome responsibility.
Who IS Sophia? Really?
She's the Divine Feminine who has been a part of our world from its very beginning.
She's Hagia Sophia.Yes,as in the wonderful domed cathedral-mosque-museum in Istanbul. She's Divine and Holy Wisdom. Hagia Sophia is her Greek name.
Writers of scriptures say she's “More beautiful than the sun. Surpassing every constellation…gently ordering all things.” There are many references to her in the Bible, especially in the Book of Wisdom. In Hebrew, her name is Chokmah. The Holy Spirit. It’s also interesting to note that in Hebrew another word for Holy Spirit is Ruah—a feminine force.
She is everywhere, and has been for a long, long time. Since our world was created, in fact, back when as stated in the Book of Genesis, God says, “Let US make people in OUR image.” She was part of the "Us." But over the years, Sophia’s gone into hiding and for several centuries and the only god the major religions recognized was masculine. Father. Son. Prophet. And all along, she’s been with us as Mother, Daughter, Prophetess.
It's high time we recognized her, don't you think?
Call her anything you like—some call her Buffalo Woman, Isis, Shakti, Kuan Yin. Some call her Mary. Call her anything you like, Marion Woodman says, but call her!
She’s a mystery. A Bridge. A Mistress of Paradox, for she’s found in chaos and in order. She gravitates to verbs… singing, moving, dancing, creating, building, loving.
Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century Rhineland nun envisioned her this way.
Plate 14, Matthew Fox, Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen
“I saw a certain brightness white as snow and like transparent crystal lighting up the…image of a woman. She was shining with a reddish gleam like the dawn from her throat to her breasts…”
Sophia gathers musicians to her, martyrs and strong wise women. Her wisdom makes all things joyous and fruitful.
She represents a strong and inclusive home for creativity. And beauty.
And in this next illustration, in actuality, about 18 feet tall, she reigns over the Iconostasis--the collection of other icons of saints, in the Sophia Cathedral in Kiev.
Plate 19, Thomas Schipflinger, Sophia-Maria: A Holistic Vision of Creation
The cathedral was built in the 11th century by Yaroslav, the Grand Prince of the Rus, modeled his building after Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. This foremost figure is called the Theotokos, Mother of God, marrying Sophia to Mary. In this mosaic, she assumes a praying gesture.
Here's an interesting theological tidbit I picked up, most likely from Rudolph Steiner, at some point in my reading. When Jesus was baptized, he became the Christ. That's what the landing of the "holy spirit" dove was all about in that River Jordon scene with John the Baptist. For 30 years, he was "Jesus," and then, that day at the river, he became "Christ." Man-God. And at the Pentecost scene where the wind whipped through the house where the disciples were gathered after their friend Jesus had left them (but of course Christ was still around and continues to be) Sophia became one with Mary. Woman-God.
That means, to me at least, that both Christ and Sophia are present--everywhere, every minute, and to everyone.
And here she is holding Law Tablets as depicted by Hildegard of Bingen in Divine Works, Vision 10.
Plate 5, Thomas Schipflinger, Sophia-Maria: A Holistic Vision of Creation
This image comes closest, perhaps, to the Sophia who appears in William Paul Young's book, The Shack--the 2007 publishing phenomenon that's now sold over three million copies. His Sophia is extraordinarily beautiful, tall, olive-skinned with chiseled Hispanic features. She's described as being part of the mystery surrounding the female holy spirit figure--a personification of the wisdom of a large African American woman many call "Papa," the Loving Parent figure the main character meets at the Shack.
Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit, paleontologist, biologist, and philosopher, described Sophia as The Eternal, Essential Feminine.
I the beginning I was no more than a mist, rising and falling…I was the bond that held together the foundations of the universe…I am the single radiance by which all is aroused and within which it is vibrant…I open the door to the whole heart of creation…Lying between God and the earth, as a zone of mutual attraction, I draw them both together in a passionate union…I am the Eternal Feminine.
“Hymn to the Eternal Feminine.”
The Eternal, Essential Feminine.
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