Hagia Sophia, Holy Wisdom

HAGIA SOPHIA, HOLY WISDOM*

 “...for the dwelling place of the Divine Bride is in Creation...”

She is called the "wisdom of God," though in fact she is far older than monotheism; she is the feminine dimension of the Divine, almost invisible in the myths of Judaeo-Christianity.

It is said of her that she is the Holy Spirit, the feminine portion of the Trinity which includes the Father and Son. Guide of the human soul, she is both sister and Mother to the Christ, he who is "one with the Father." The Gnostic Christians called her an "Aeon," a facet of female power from which all things originated. The Soul of the World, Anima Mundi, was created from her smile; her orgasm created the Universe and also, parthenogenetically (1), her daughter, Sophia Akhamoth, the Aeon who brought Wisdom to the Etheric plane, that level of manifestation closest to the physical plane of existence. Named Zoe ("Life"), she animated the first man of clay, Adam, by giving him a soul. Her Symbol is the dove, bird of sexual passion.

As Wisdom personified, Sophia, so named by the Eastern Europeans, is the compassionate mother, intervening with the Heavens on humanity's behalf. She softens the  harshness of the biblical Yahweh's rule, as the Shekinah, his female soul and heavenly bride, echoing the South Asian Shakti as the feminine counterpart of the masculine Shiva. Her Hebrew name is Hokhmah, "Wisdom." She is the Greek Metis, mother of Athene and first wife of Zeus.

To the Romans she was known as the Goddess Sapientia, Lady Wisdom, who arose from the sea, breasts spouting red and white wines of enlightenment. Her Egyptian counterparts were Ma'at, who weighed the Human "heart" of the dead against a feather to determine its purity, and later, Isis, the Mother Goddess whose European worship rivalled Christianity for four hundred years. Her sacred number is seven, tying her to the lunar mythologies (seven days being 1/4 of the lunar cycle), and to traditions stretching back to Sumerian times: the gates to the Underworld, the seven sacred planets of the Ancients, the seven colors of the rainbow, the seven energy centres in the body called variously the chakras (Sanskrit), the Asherah or Tree of Life (Semitic), and the Seven Heavens, her dwelling place being the Eighth Heaven (Gnosticism).The biblical House of Wisdom is supported by seven pillars.

           

True to the lunar fashion, Sophia shows herself with both a light and a dark face. Despite Christianity's attempts to eradicate her, she is still present in the two Marys - she who birthed the Christ and she who was his beloved, her female power intact, whom we call Mary Magdalene. Mother Mary has been presented to us as purveyor of the light, while the Magdalene is erroneously interpreted as a "fallen" woman, in part because she had knowledge of the Dark.

In the Wisdom literature of Babylon and Israel, Sophia's dual aspects (her "light" aspect being Wisdom, and her "dark" aspect Folly) impose trials upon humanity in her attempt to lead humans to her path; she is the Law of Life, blending knowledge and love,  thus bringing  us both joy and suffering. She is concurrently transcendent, existing beyond our limitations, and immanent, indwelling in all Nature as its very foundation.   

“Wisdom went forth to make her dwelling

Among the children of men,

And found no dwelling place;

Wisdom returned to her place

And took her seat among the angels.”

Book of Enoch, 1:42

With the evolution of the sky-god concept, and the subsequent loss of status of the Feminine aspect, we lost Sophia as a tangible force. Rather, she became an abstraction, ironically in opposition to her realm of flesh and substance. With this polarization we also lost our respect for the physical realm, our world, and our innate corporeal intelligence, the body-wisdom which is her gift to us. As women, we lost the ecstatic celebration of female sexuality.

Yet whether she is observed as manifest or abstract, Wisdom exists in the all-pervasive silence, in contrast to her masculine counterpart, Logos, the Word. In today's popular psychological terms she can be compared to intuitive right brain functions, accessed through dreams and creative insight, existent in the subtle undercurrent which informs all life, the ground upon which we stand. We are now in a time of re-membering, of awakening to that which we once knew in our profound innocence. We re-member Sophia by reaching back into the depths of our ancient brain; the seat of our emotional responses, memory functions and the master-controller of the autonomic body systems. Our conscious recognition of Sophia awakens within us an erotic response to life, not merely sexual but rather "engaged." Our lives become a sacred dance of Wisdom and Folly in its most exalted expression, that of the Holy Fool.

"The way of Sophia is the way of personal experience. It takes us into areas...[which are] those creative realms to which ordinary mortals are called by right of their vocational and creative skills."  - Caitlin Matthews

                                   

When we venture into the Unknown, into the Dreamtime, into the Void, we approach the sacred realm of the Black or Dark Goddess, who is none other than "veiled" Sophia. In the Western world, we have been taught to fear the Dark, and the reclaiming of the Dark as a place of creative power has been slow to gain recognition again. Therefore, we are likely to look upon the Black/Dark Goddess aspect with some trepidation. Yet there are always those among us who, despite fear or perhaps because of it, are ready to venture into the unknown, and it is these attempts to reach beyond the veil, to expose this "secret" who is Life, which ultimately leads us to the most intimate contact with our own souls. Through the experience of Life's adventures we come to know the Dark Goddess in all her terror and glory. The more engaged we are in the living of our own lives, the more potent, the more rewarding is the knowledge which then, like fruit left on the vine, can ripen into wisdom and truth. We become Priestesses of the Sacred Dance, daughters of Sophia, dancing upon a sacred Earth. We become infused with wisdom, awesome in our potency, in our ability to create, for the world is the product of the creator.

Re-membering Sophia, we become agents of healing, as we recognize the unity that we are, rather than the duality which has been thrust upon us by the divisive and mal-comprehended philosophies we have inherited from our forbears. The dark and light are interdependent; one does not exist without the other, because they create Wholeness.

Copyright, August, 1998, 2003,  Jessica North-O’Connell

*This article originally appeared in Trans-dimension Vista

Bibliography:

Anne Baring & Jules Cashford: The Myth of the Goddess

Janet & Stewart Farrar: The Witches’ Goddess

Susan Haskins: Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor

Caitlin Matthews: Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom

Barbara G. Walker: The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets; The Secrets of the Tarot

Notes:

1) parthenogenesis: to give birth without the aid of a second gender; “virgin birth”