Peace Through Wisdom - Sophia by Pamela Matthews from Pamela Matthews Visionary Art

Sophia comes to us through many different traditions. Her name is Greek and means Wisdom, and it is for Her wisdom that She is revered. In Gnostic Christianity She is called the Great Mother and is considered by some to be the Mother of God. In other traditions, Sophia is the Bride of God, his completion and perfect mate. In Michelangelo's famous painting of the Sistine Chapel, She is depicted as a beautiful woman in Jehovah's embrace. She is also found in the Hebrew Kabbalistic tradition and called Chokmah. She is one of many Goddesses symbolized by the dove, who are seen as bringing humanity gifts of wisdom and grace. In many of the Eastern Christian traditions, Sophia is the Mother of the three Graces: Faith, Hope, and Charity. Some of Her other names include:

Goddess of Heaven - Gnostic
Mother of the Stars and the Hebdomas - Gnostic
Sapientia - Latin
Black Goddess - Gnostic
Asherah - Hebrew
Shekinah - Hebrew
Wise Bride of Solomon - Hebrew
World-Soul - Manichaean
Ennoia - Simonian
 

Sophia can be found in so many places and such a plethora of forms everywhere that Jewish and Christian Mystic traditions have spread and flourished that it is hard to know where to start. Certainly one of the most famous places dedicated to Sophia, or indeed to any Goddess, is the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. Built in the early 4th century CE, it was dedicated to Sophia as the Holy Logos. It was the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity for hundreds of years and was also the site of coronation of all Byzantine royalty. Unfortunately, the fame of this magnificent building led to it being sacked and pillaged several times since it was reputed to hold all the great treasures of the Byzantine Empire. After the conquering of Constantinople by the Ottomans in the 15th century, it was turned into a mosque by Sultan Mehmed but was still dedicated to Sophia as the Ayasofya Mosque. After the founding of the Turkish Republic in the 1930s, it was tuned into a museum and the damage done by centuries of neglect and changing priorities of those in whose care she was left is being undone by a dedicated group of conservators. Currently the only worship allowed within her hallowed halls is that of the staff in a small prayer room built for that purpose. Perhaps one day the world will be able to venerate Sophia in Her multitudinous forms once again in that ancient and beautiful edifice.

Eastern Orthodox traditional icon of Sophia

The Mystic traditions connected to Sophia go back to early Hebrew culture. In the Jewish texts, the books The Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Proverbs all contain references to Her. "Wisdom reacheth from one end to another mightily: and sweetly doth she order all things. I loved her, and sought her out from my youth, I desired to make her my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty. In that she is conversant with God, she magnifieth her nobility: yea, the Lord of all things himself loved her. For she is privy to the mysteries of the knowledge of God, and a lover of his works. If riches be a possession to be desired in this life; what is richer than wisdom, that worketh all things? And if prudence work; who of all that are is a more cunning workman than she?" - Wisdom of Solomon 8:1-6. "Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." - Proverbs 8:1-11. "Wisdom was created before all things, and prudent understanding from eternity. The root of wisdom -- to whom has it been revealed? Her clever devices -- who knows them?" - Sirach 1:4-5. Sophia's veneration in pre-Christian times went underground starting in the reign of King Josiah, but went through a resurgence during Roman times, especially in the Jewish community in Alexandria.

It is through the Jewish community of Alexandria that knowledge of Sophia was preserved and passed on to the early Christians. Many branches of Christianity have venerated Her. In fact, the Russian Orthodox tradition includes a special school of "Sophiology", which studies Her seperate from other theological studies. However, the best-known collection of texts about Sophia is that of the Gnostic tradition. The Gnostics have an entire cosmology that includes Sophia in a very active role. ""And his consort is the Great Sophia, who from the first was destined in him for union by Self-begotten Father, from Immortal Man, who appeared as First and divinity and kingdom, for the Father, who is called 'Man, Self-Father', revealed this. And he created a great aeon, whose name is 'Ogdoad', for his own majesty." - The Sophia of Jesus Christ (from the Nag Hammadi texts). "And Zoe (Life), the daughter of Pistis Sophia, cried out and said to him, "You are mistaken, Sakla!" - for which the alternative name is Yaltabaoth. She breathed into his face, and her breath became a fiery angel for her; and that angel bound Yaldabaoth and cast him down into Tartaros below the abyss. Now when his offspring Sabaoth saw the force of that angel, he repented and condemned his father and his mother, matter. He loathed her, but he sang songs of praise up to Sophia and her daughter Zoe. And Sophia and Zoe caught him up and gave him charge of the seventh heaven, below the veil between above and below. And he is called 'God of the forces, Sabaoth', since he is up above the forces of chaos, for Sophia established him." - The Hypostasis of the Archons (from the Nag Hammadi texts). Other traditions which venerate Sophia include the Manichaeans, the Valentinians, the Simonians, and the Italic School. It also has perpetuated through such mystics as Hildegard von Bingen, Jakob Bohme, and Jane Leade.

The Millenial Gaia by Oberon Zell from The Mythic Images Collection

Gaia, Ge, Mother Earth... She is called by many names and has been since time immemorial. She is our home, our Mother, the source of life. She is a planet orbiting in an elliptical path approximately 93 million miles from a G2 variable star known as Sol. She is all this and more. The name Gaia is Greek and means land or earth. It is by this name that I know Her and love Her, but She has appellations in all languages, ancient and modern. Some of these include:

Kubau - Akkadian
Hepa - Hurrian
Kubala/Cybele - Phrygian
Heva/Eve - Hebrew
Jörð - Norse
Danu - Irish
Papatuanuku - Maori
Pachamama - Quechua
Tonantzin Tlalli - Mexican
Gayatri - Hindu
Phra Mae Thorani - Thai
Spider Grandmother - Dineh
Potnia - Cretan
Tellus Mater - Roman
 

Gaia had temples in all cities and was honored universally. Gaia, as origin of the vapors that enabled divine inspiration, is the first Goddess of Prophecy. She the original deity of the Delphic Oracle, which She later gave to Themis. Apollo later usurped this great office by killing Python, child of Gaia, thereby claiming the chthonic power of prophecy for himself. She also had an oracular temple at Olympia. Gaia was guardian of oaths, and of the oaths men could give, those sworn by Gaia were the most binding of all. "I will have as my best witness the mighty mother of the Olympian gods, dark Ge." - Solon, Fragment 36. Gaia was also the one invoked when offerings were made to the dead in the form of libations poured upon a grave, and the one called upon in prayers to avenge the crime of murder, for the earth was polluted by blood so shed.

From the earliest Greek writings, Gaia arose from the primordial Chaos and birthed her children Ouranos, the sky, and Pontus, the ocean deeps. She created them parthenogenetically then lay with Ouranos to create many other children. "Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Gaia, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros, fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Nyx; but of Nyx were born Aether and Day, whom She conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Gaia first bare starry Ouranos, equal to Herself, to cover Her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And She brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards She lay with Ouranos and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Kronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of Her children, and he hated his lusty sire." - Hesiod, Theogony.

Gaia was depicted in many ways. She was frequently shown as a matronly woman rising from the earth. She is also shown in many mosaics as a full-figured reclining on a couch and clothed in green surrounded by beautiful maidens known as the Karpoi, who are spirits of the grain. Another representation, one Gaia shared with Demeter, was that of a woman seated on a throne wearing a crown of towers. Also, She could be shown as a woman holding a kettle drum.

Gaia rising from the earth, Athenian red-figure kylix C5th B.C., Antikenmuseen, Berlin

Hypatia of Alexandria, image is public domain

Hypatia of Alexandria was a philosopher and mathematician who lived in Egypt during the early Christian Era (Birthdate sometime before 370CE). Daughter of the renowned mathematician Theon, she was educated as few womyn were during her time. Her father was a teacher at the renowned Academy of Alexandria, and she was educated there as well as at various academies in Athens and parts of Italy. Her education included rhetoric and oratory, Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, astronomy and astrology, and mathematics. Eventually she returned to Alexandria where she became head of the Platonist school teaching philosophy and mathematics to people from all over the Roman Empire. She became friends with many prominent Christians of the time who were her pupils and respected her greatly.

Among Hypatia's many accomplishments are the development of a form of astrolabe, which is an astronomical and navigational tool, and a treatise on astrolabes and their use co-authored with her father. Her pupil Synesius, bishop of Cyrene, did credit her with creation of the astrolabe, but they were in use prior to her birth in various forms. Her other accomplisments include:
Authored a commentary on the 13-volume Arithmetica by Diophantus.
Authored a commentary on the Conics of Apollonius.
Edited the existing version of Ptolemy's Almagest.
Edited her father's commentary on Euclid's Elements
Authored a text "The Astronomical Canon"
 

Few accounts of her life remain to us, but we do have her correspondences with her pupil Synesius as well as accounts by another pupil, Damascius. Another good source is one of her contemporaries, the Christian historiographer Socrates Scholasticus. "There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more." - Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History.

Chaucer Astrolabe from the British Museum

As Christianity became more and more prominent in Egypt, there was some political conflicts between Orestes, the Imperial Prefect, and Cyril, bishop of Alexandria. Orestes was known to be friends with Hypatia, where Cyril (later St Cyril in the Christian faith) roundly denounced her on account of her Paganism, her public prominence, and her refusal to defer to men. This conflict, of which she was an unwilling focal point, eventually led to her violent death in March 415. "Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop. Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her by scraping her skin off with tiles and bits of shell. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them." - Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History. Contempory accounts of the assassination by her pupils lay the responsibility for her death at the feet of Cyril. "Such was Hypatia, as articulate and eloquent in speaking as she was prudent and civil in her deeds. The whole city rightly loved her and worshipped her in a remarkable way, but the rulers of the city from the first envied her, something that often happened at Athens too. For even if philosophy itself had perished, nevertheless, its name still seems magnificent and venerable to the men who exercise leadership in the state. Thus it happened one day that Cyril, bishop of the opposition sect [i.e. Christianity] was passing by Hypatia's house, and he saw a great crowd of people and horses in front of her door. Some were arriving, some departing, and others standing around. When he asked why there was a crowd there and what all the fuss was about, he was told by her followers that it was the house of Hypatia the philosopher and she was about to greet them. When Cyril learned this he was so struck with envy that he immediately began plotting her murder and the most heinous form of murder at that. For when Hypatia emerged from her house, in her accustomed manner, a throng of merciless and ferocious men who feared neither divine punishment nor human revenge attacked and cut her down, thus committing an outrageous and disgraceful deed against their fatherland. The Emperor was angry, and he would have avenged her had not Aedesius been bribed. Thus the Emperor remitted the punishment onto his own head and family for his descendant paid the price. The memory of these events is still vivid among the Alexandrians." - Damascius, Life of Isidore.