Up: [[Spirituality]] Course: The Holy Longing - Sharon Blackie Created: 2022-02-08 ### Sophia is Wisdom Sophia means wisdom in Greek. She was never a goddess, always an [[Archetype]], an embodiment first of skill and then of wisdom. Helen tells me that Sophia’s wisdom is in her tears. I don’t really know what that means. Does it mean that it is in our emotional responses, our embodiment of what is in our heart, that we find wisdom? Sophia has been around for centuries. Plato came up with the word ‘philosophia’, meaning love of wisdom. ### Sophia is in Many Religions Many religions embrace Sophia as the archetype of the Divine Feminine, bringing wisdom to us on earth. - Orthodox Roman Catholic Church — She was Hagia Sophia, the Holy Spirit in the trinity. Joanne has explained to me that Sophia represents the feminine principle, the animation of life. That was never explained to her when she grew up Catholic. She didn’t understand what the Holy Spirit was because everything that was explained to her involved only men. - Christianity — Sophia is Mary. - Shakers — Sophia was fourth person of the godhead. - Gnostics — Sophia was a Holy Spirit, maybe a twin of Jesus or maybe his bride. She could be thought of as the soul or as an emanation of the cosmic All. - Wiccans — Some see Sophia as a goddess. She’s in Judaic theology. ### She’s in the Bible Sophia is in the Book of Job, in Proverbs and in a couple of books that are in an unaccepted part of the Bible. Sharon Blackie quotes from all of these. ### In Mythology, Sophia is… Isis in the Egyptian tradition. The Celts saw her as goddess of the land. The king has to marry her in order to ensure that people keep their bargain between the land and the Otherworld. [[Sharon Blackie]] sees her as personification of the [[Anima Mundi]], the living soul in matter. Is this a generally accepted view or Sharon’s? ### Jung’s View [[C. G. Jung]] says that Sophia is the archetype who binds humans to the earth. She is trying to teach us how to be ensouled and in connection to the divine. I don’t understand what being ensouled and connected to the divine has to do with binding us to earth. ### Symbols of Sophia The dove is a [[Symbols]] associated with Sophia. It was used in alchemy texts to represent the soul and therefore Sophia.