"A Sophianic Consciousness
We
have seen how the Goddess has been marginalized, denied and ignored throughout
history but also how she nevertheless finds her way of surviving in the most
restrictive ideologies. Sophia's task as an interim or bridging Goddess, has
been a difficult one. She links us to the ancient through the shared symbolisms
of Isis and Mary, as well to the native creation Goddesses of Europe. Present in
the apocryphal incident, in song and story, in the visions of mystics and
philosophers, disguised in both transcendent and earthly images, Sophia comes
into our lives and bids us follow her into the Sophianic
millennium when the
Divine Feminine will no longer be so veiled.
Sophia has been inching her way into popular consciousness throughout the latter
half of the twentieth century. The two world wars and the increasing population
of the world have forced great changes upon Western society. The dismantling of
orthodox spirituality has put into question long-held certainties, soul-loss has
been followed by spiritual quest. Those born in this century are now prospective
citizens in the New Age, an era where spiritual orthodoxy will be replaced by spiritual
adventure, where a greater responsibility for personal behaviour and
environmental awareness will be paramount. It is an era where the Divine
Feminine will lead the way and where women will rediscover and enter
their power . . .
The
scientist James Lovelock, at the suggestion of William Golding, called the earth
Gaia. This simple metaphor, with all its associations with the Great Earth
Goddess, has had a remarkable impact by helping many to re-envisage the earth as
a living being once more. Although many scientists disdain the use of metaphor
because it muddles the scientific stream with philosophic and mystical
ambiguity, the idea of Gaia has inspired many to reform their lifestyle in
accordance with the ecological implications of consumer society upon our
continued existence. Gaia is the World-Soul re-personified as Goddess. Her
groans are now clearly audible in even the most intractable conscience. . . .
For
women, Sophia is a powerful archetype for identification on many levels. She is
every women ever raped, denied her creativity, kept isolated, abandoned or
exiled. She is also potentially within all women who wish to rediscover their
creativity, maintain their integrity, and support justice in the world and in
themselves. She is the strong women who survives in the face of adversity and
rescues her treasures, to display them at a more suitable time. As Sophia
emerges further into consciousness, so will the image of the empowered woman
become apparent in the world. . . .
It
is critically important to women in the West that Deity should have a female
face for they need the comfort, strength, and spiritual support which only the
Divine Feminine can give.
The
Goddess has restored to women their innate pride in themselves. No need, as in
the case of Hildegard, for example, to apologize for being 'a weak woman' —
the standard apologia for all female mystics from Hildegard to Thérèse of
Lisieux. Rather there is the renewed confidence to speak out in the voice of
Sophia who 'speaks her own praises, in the midst of her people she glories in
herself.'. . .
Nothing
is going to delay the Goddess' second
coming, whether in the guise of Sophia or
under any other form. As she emerges so the imbalances of our culture will
inevitably iron themselves out. . . .
The
metaphorical shape of future beliefs will be determined by the needs of the
people who live in that future. We are working towards better integration of the
sexes and that cannot come about until the spiritual values are given justice.
Sophia's androgenity and her extensive repertoire of metaphors exemplifies her
availability to both men and women; for she symbolically reconciles the left and
right halves of the brain — the intellectual and intuitive sides which have
been seen as masculine and feminine. She is both ordered and chaotic, active and
receptive, sequential and simultaneous, defined and diffused — endlessly
reconciling the dualistic factors which polarise our human existence in her own
person.
The
manner in which Supreme Deity has been image as male in Judaism, Christianity
and Islam, has definitely marginalized women. . . . The answer to the
gender-divinity problem is to acknowledge the metaphor of divinity for what it
is — a metaphor, not a confirmation that God is either male or female which
thus gives men or women sole rights to the world. The Divine and the human are
different: we must be careful how we apply our metaphors. So it is that Sophia
is not a Goddess for women or men exclusively. She will give us a totality
of wisdom, if we accept her for both the practical earth wisdom of the Black
Goddess and the transcendent cosmic wisdom of the World-Soul which are equally
available to us.
The
Second Coming of the Goddess
But
for many people the old orthodoxies have been proved hallow and impotent. Many
are no longer interested in inhabiting the ramshackle
dwellings of their
immediate foremothers and fathers who had to shelter under whatever roof they
could find during the exile
of the Divine Feminine. Such people require the
full-blooded assumption of power which only the Goddess can bring. These are spiritually
undernourished people who must gorge themselves on the riches of the
past. But is the diet of past ages still a sustaining diet for today? So much
has changed, ourselves and our society not least. Where do we go for spiritual
nourishment?
The
ways are as various as the men and women who are seeking the ways. Contact with
the Divine Feminine occurs at the level of the sacred and the imaginal. When a
women has once assented to the Goddess in her life, it can never be the same
afterwards. She is eternally committed to a truthful manifestation of her creative
powers. It is by this means that the Goddess comes again. She arises as
spontaneous metaphor with the soul and psyche, though poetry, dance, music, art
and ritual. Life becomes a cyclical round where Sophia finds her true dance
floor.
It
is within the feminine psyche that the Goddess comes again, producing some
astonishing priestesses and mediators who are the voice
of the Goddess incarnate. For, if it is allowable that orthodox spiritualities
have their holy ones, why not also among us? .
The
unfolding of a Goddess
thealogy is happening as I write. The only difference
between this and orthodox theologies is that Goddess spiritually spurns
hierarchy, dogma and doctrine. Within the fluid and simple lines of Sophia's
dance are the future steps of practical spiritual manifestation. The priests and
priestesses of the Goddess of Wisdom address the need directly, not by thinking
twice of giving their time and effort to effect a sophianic solution, but by
passing beyond the boundaries of impossibility and taking the problem to
Sophia's lap.
What
makes this development so interesting is that there are also priests of Sophia
who are very aware that it is through Woman that the Goddess is now speaking.
This may go some way to balance the inequity of the past two millennia.
However,
we need a thealogy with a compassionate womb and courageous guts, which will
squarely address the nature of evil. 'Wisdom renders us invulnerable from
attack' only if we acknowledge her in our lives, it does not mean that we shall
never be challenged or attacked ourselves. The cozy thealogy of 'the Goddess is
on earth and all will be right with the world' cannot be indulged at the cost of
creation's suffering.
The
search for spiritual
consciousness — a common ground from which worship of the
Divine Feminine arises — is a problem which is being immediately redressed.
The making of rituals, liturgies and spontaneous devotions typifies the
expression of the Goddess amongst us. Homes are temples, shelves become shrines,
gardens are places given over to circle dancing, earth-altars, places of meeting
and devotion. . . .
We
stand on the threshold of a Goddess
religion which, by virtue of its membership
and its aim, is non-hierarchical, decentralised, locally-manifest, in many and
various ways. Goddess spirituality addresses directly the problems of our own
world now. Its work of healing, blessing, celebration will never become fixed
because of the spontaneous presence of Sophia in its midst. The liturgies and
practices of orthodox religions which offer children stones instead of bread, or
serpents in place of fish, will find themselves rapidly displaced
unless they invite the invigorating presence of Sophia within them.
The
institution of loose, informal networks and associations such as the Fellowship
of Isis and the Covenant of the
Goddess, each of
which has thousands of members, show the slow beginnings of a trend towards a
re-assimilation of Goddess-based spirituality among us.
The
presence of a Goddess spirituality is discounted by governmental and religious
hierarchies because of its refusal to be pigeon-holed, or perhaps one should
say, dove-cotted! That it is a power to be reckoned with, we can have no doubt.
Those animated by the Goddess, in her many forms, are concerned with all world
problems: economy; justice; racial, sexual and species equality; education;
ecological balance and many other concerns. To acknowledge the Goddess is to
open up immediately to issues which threaten our total existence. For we cannot
deny our common heritage of life which the Goddess safeguards. . . .
The
face of the Goddess is being restored to us in many forms, not least that of
Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom, who has preserved and sustained the Goddess'
ancient love for creation. She is not just
the planet earth or Nature, though some see her so; she also is the Lady of
our physical, creative and spiritual life.
The
New Gnostics
O
Gnostic, O Knower of the unity of Love and Wisdom,
The androgyny of Heaven and earth, and of Nature and Spirit.
O Knower of the Great Goddess, the Great Mother, who calls herself Sophia.
Holy is her name, Sophia, co-creator of all things, earthly and divine.
Divine Love lives with Eternal Wisdom, together as one,
As a child in its mother's womb.
Sophia gathers all of her children.
O Gnostic, to you she calls to fulfil the prophecy,
To manifest the vision of Peace on Earth."
Author's Note:
"I have regretfully traced the Goddess of Wisdom only throughout the
Western European world; to have drawn upon the far more cohesive Goddess
traditions of the East and the native earth traditions of the world would have
doubled this book's length. If the emphasis is loaded for the West it is because
Sophia is more needed and least appreciated here. My purpose is to give Wisdom a
voice, for she calls aloud in the city for her beloved and few listen.
Wisdom
— whether as Black Goddess or Sophia — is a wise mediator who can be
approached, without fear, by both
sexes. This is particularly true as we emerge from the twentieth century into
the New Age of a Sophianic millennium. . . .
As
well as being the most evasive goddess, Sophia is also one of the most pervasive
ones. I have not hesitated to draw upon folk-tradition, legends and mythology,
which pertains to Sophia, being concerned to tell stories which move the soul
towards its destined path — that wise way to which all lovers of wisdom (the
real philosophias) need to find.
Sophia plays, hides, adapts, disguises, brings justice. But though I have
treated her many appearances as a mystic unity, collecting stories and placing
them with lapidary care into their fit shape, it is only to find that they
reorganise themselves when I next look. This may go to show that Wisdom is not
stupid: she knows that my attempt to impose form upon her movements is a doomed
undertaking, and so she turns the kaleidoscope when I'm not looking
In
accordance to her wishes, I have attempted to write with this criteria in mind.
If corners have been cut, and abysses of understanding leaped, then it was only
because she held my hand and assured me it would work. Believe me, I would never
have jumped unless she made me!"
