Shekinah

Tau Malachi writes:  The following is a traditional invocation of the Holy Shekinah from the Sophian Gnostic tradition:

Invocation to the Holy Shekinah

Kodesh Imma, Kodesh Kallah
Holy Mother, Holy Bride,
We invite you, we welcome you –
Please enter!

Ruach Ha-Elijah (Spirit of the Prophets)
Ruach Ha-Enoch (Spirit of the Initiates)
Ruach Ha-Messiah (Spirit of the Anointed)

Ruach Ha-Kodesh (Holy Spirit)

O Queen of Heaven and Earth
Holy Shekinah:

We open our minds and hearts and lives to you,
And pray you enter and indwell;

Uplift us now into the Bridal Chamber,
Bring us into the embrace of the Beloved,
So that we might put on our Supernal Image,
To shine with Light above and below;

Be the Divine Spirit, inwardly illuminating us with the Living Word
and Wisdom,
And in this way lead us in the path of righteousness,
So that we might be a sign of hope to the people,
In good times and bad;

We pray for the liberation of the people and the land from all darkness;
We pray for the healing of all illness and dis-ease;
We pray for the Divine Illumination of all living spirits and souls!

May all holy sparks be gathered in; May the Divine Light shine forth!

We pray for the resurrection and ascension of this Good Earth;
Amen and amen.

Shekinah: The Presence of Divinityby Rev. Mark Raines

Shekinah - also spelled Shekhina, Shekhinah, Shekina, and Shechina - is known in the Qabalah, an ancient form of Jewish mysticism, as one of the emanations of God and the actual Presence of God. The belief was that one could not see God in Its fullness, but could see the emanation of God, Shekinah. When Moses asked to see God, it was Shekinah that he saw. Shekinah is also the consort, or Bride, of God. As such, she is Mother to us all, just as God is our Father.

In earlier times, God was seen as either dwelling in the clouds or in high places like mountains or very high hills. With the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, and then the construction of the Temple, a part of the Godhead came to dwell in the Ark and then in the Temple. This could not be the male God, the God of the Sky and of High Places. So Shekinah, formerly known as Asherah, a Goddess of Earth and Sea, came to dwell in the Ark of the Covenant and then in the Temple.

Originally it was Asherah who dwelled in the Temple as the Bride of God, His representative there. But after the "reforms" of King Josiah, Asherah worship was forbidden in the Temple. Still, the Jews knew that their Lady was still living there as their Queen and the representative of El, their God. So Asherah evolved. She began to be seen as the presence of God, and less as a separate entity. She became Shekinah, which means something like She who dwells (from the Hebrew shakhan, which means the act of dwelling). However, Asherah did not really change. She was always the representative of Her Husband, just as He was always HER representative. She, an Earth Goddess, was also Queen of Heaven. He, as Sky God, was also Ruler of Earth. This occurred only through Their marriage. So, it was not really that Asherah worship ever changed much within Judaism, or that Asherah Herself changed; only, it was made to look like it had changed to fool the patriarchal priests.

Unfortunately, Shekinah has been all but lost to Christianity. Elements of Her remain in Mother Mary, who was perhaps Shekinah's incarnation. Mary Theotokos, as She is called, actually held the presence of God (Yeshua) within Her. She is known as the Queen of Heaven, but she is the representative of God to us and delivers our prayers to Him, according to Catholic tradition. Her apparitions are much more frequent than the apparitions of Yeshua, and the Father never appears. It seems that She is truly His representative to us, because (as we know) She is His Bride.

The union of Shekinah and El was never more evident than in the Sabbath. She is known as the Sabbath Bride, or the Sabbath Queen. Each week on the Sabbath, God and Goddess, El and Shekinah, act out the Song of Songs. One rabbi called that holy book the "Holy of Holies" of the Bible! Now take a look at this passage from the Zohar (the holy book of the Qabalah), called the Secret of the Sabbath, which tells us all about the Sabbath Queen:

THE SECRET OF SABBATH

The Secret of Sabbath:
She is Sabbath!
United in the secret of One
to draw down upon Her
the secret of One.

The prayer for the entrance of Sabbath:

The holy Throne of Glory is united in the secret of One,
prepared for the High Holy King to rest upon Her.
When Sabbath enters She is alone,
separated from the Other Side,
all judgments removed from Her.
Basking in the oneness of holy light,
She is crowned over and over to face the Holy King.
All powers of wrath and masters of judgment flee from Her.
Her face shines with a light from beyond;
She is crowned below by the holy people,
and all of them are crowned with new souls.
Then the beginning of prayer to bless Her with joy and beaming faces:
Barekbu ET YHVH ha-Mevorakh,
"Bless ET YHVH, the-Blessed One,"
ET YHVH, blessing Her first.

(*ET-YHVH is another name for 'Shekinah' (the feminine Divine Presence). In the Kabbalah, ET stands for Aleph to Tav, like our Alpha to Omega, or A to Z. Here ET refers to the song itself as the ultimate speech, hymn or prayer. According to the notes of Daniel Chanan Matt's translation, this passage from the ZOHAR is recited in the Sephardic liturgy on Sabbath Eve.)

Sources:
1. Shekhina, from Encyclopedia Mythica
2. Wisdom of Shekinah, by WOW Institute (no longer on line)
3. The Secret of Sabbath  From the Zohar, ancient Kabbalistic inspired writings -- zohar.com. Daniel Chanan Matt also uses this verse in his book Zohar, the Book of Enlightenment

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Eema - God the Mother

Who is Eema, and what is Her status in the Christian Church now? This is a question that haunts each one of us, and a question that often goes unanswered. Basically, Eema exists in mainstream Christianity in two forms: the sterilized image of the Virgin Mary, and the watered-down secular image of "Mother Nature." These images do nothing to reflect Her full nature, but we as Esoteric Christians should be thankful for them nevertheless - after all, better that the pistics have watered-down images of Eema than none at all! The other pistic faiths, Judaism and Islam, also have Eema in their faiths - once again, only to a degree. Jews speak of the Shekinah and the Sabbath Bride, and sometimes of Sophia(Chokmah in Hebrew), Goddess of wisdom. Muslims place considerable honor on the figure of Mary but the Muslim Mary is an extremely sterilized, sanitized, de-sexualized puritan character.

Within the catholic denominations - Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism - Eema has continued in the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, as stated, she has been sterilized. She is devoid of sexuality. The early church councils deprived her of all sexuality when they defined her as a perpetual virgin, denied the conception and birth of Yeshua's siblings, and said the Blessed Virgin was above sexuality. So while the catholic denominations do allow for some feminine presence, Her fertility is still very much denied. She is only allowed to give birth to the Son of God, who is also seen as celibate. Celibate God the Father, celibate Joseph, celibate Mary, and celibate Yeshua. It's a wonder that humanity survived the wave of pistic Christian celibacy!

Within the Protestant denominations, there is little evidence of the Feminine Divine. Some Protestant denominations have feminist groups who honor Sophia and the Virgin Mary, but mainstream Protestantism does nothing to honor either of these images of Eema. A few Protestants know Eema as the watered-down, secularized "Mother Nature," but still they recognize Her only as their masculine God's creation and instrument. With only these few exceptions, Protestantism is basically devoid of Eema, Goddess the Mother.

There is one Christian denomination with the possibility of developing an egalitarian theology that includes Abba and Eema: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. Official LDS teaching states that human beings existed prior to their physical birth as spiritual beings, and that we as spiritual beings lived as the divine children of a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother. The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother was taught to a few members by LDS founder Joseph Smith. One of these members was his wife, Eliza R. Snow, who wrote the first public declaration of belief in the LDS Heavenly Mother with the poem, "Invocation - or the Eternal Father and Mother." This is now the hymn, "O My Father." Unfortunately, the LDS is primarily run by men, and those men refuse to go much further with a thealogy of the Heavenly Mother. They cite an absence of scriptural evidence for Her (even though there are numerous references in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon). Citing lack of scriptural evidence is illogical, because according to the LDS, revelation is still coming to their church. The LDS refuses to allow private revelation on the subject however, issuing an order that no LDS member should pray to or about Heavenly Mother to obtain revelation from or about Her. Like most of Christianity, the LDS leadership has rejected Eema. Fortunately, however, there are many members of the LDS who are unhappy with this. Perhaps there will be a revolution in the LDS, which will allow for an egalitarian theology at last.

So we have seen that Eema is struggling to maintain Her presence in the pistic (mainstream lopsided) Christian churches. But what about in Esoteric Christianity?

She need not struggle with us! She is found in many forms within Esoteric Christianity. We see her as Asherah, the great Canaanite Goddess worshiped early on in the Hebrew tribe. We see her as Shekinah, the Feminine Presence of Godhead and Great Mother. We see her as Mary, the incarnation of Shekinah and Mother of Yeshua, the Queen of Heaven and Earth and our Mediatrix. Sometimes we see Her in the images of Sophia and Mary Magdalene, though They are most often associated with the Daughter Goddess. We see Her in Eloah, feminine counterpart of El, present and active at creation. We see Her throughout all time in many forms, but through past, present, and future She will always be simply, Our Mother.

Thanks to Soror Amber Satterwhite for her essay, God the Mother in Mormonism, which gave me much of the information about the LDS and the Heavenly Mother.

And here's the hymn O My Father which is from the poem Invocation - or the Eternal Father and Mother
by Eliza R. Snow

O my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and glorious place,
When shall I regain thy presence
And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation,
Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood,
Was I nurtured near thy side?

For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth;
Yet ofttimes a secret something
Whispered, "You're a stranger here,"
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.

I had learned to call thee Father,
Thru thy Spirit from on high,
But until the key of knowledge was restored,
I knew not why.
In the heav'ns are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me I've a Mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length, when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you.

Song of Creation
by Linda Sillitoe

Who made the world, my child?
Father made the rain
silver and forever.
Mother's hand
drew riverbeds and hollowed seas,
drew riverbeds and hollowed seas
to bring the rain home.

Father bridled winds, my child,
to keep the world new.
Mother clashed
fire free from stones
and breathed it strong and dancing,
and breathed it strong and dancing
the color of her hair.

He armed the thunderclouds
rolled out of heaven;
Her finger flickered
hummingbirds
weaving the delicate white snow,
weaving the delicate white snow,
a waterfall of flowers.

And if you live long, my child,
you'll see snow burst
from thunderclouds
and lightening in the snow
listen to Mother and Father laughing,
listen to Mother and Father laughing
behind the locked door.

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Pneuma - The Holy Soul

[Note:  In this article, Rev. Mark Raines explores the concept of two trinities, one masculine (Holy Spirit) and one Feminine (Holy Soul).

Initiate Stephen Andrew of our Order of the Divine Mother suggests two wonderful books: The Most Holy Trinosophia and the New Revelation of the Divine Feminine by Robert A. Powell, which makes the case that just as there is a male trinity, there is also a female, the "Mother-Daughter-Holy Soul." The author uses the Star of David, as does Margaret Starbird, to illustrate the inter-connectedness -- or sacred marriage -- of these male and female triads.]

So just who is Pneuma? In most places in the Old Testament, She is the Spirit of God,  [Editor adds: "Ruach" in Hebrew, is the term for the Holy Spirit in the OT.  Ruach is a feminine word in the Hebrew language, Pneuma is a neuter Greek word, and Spiritus Sanctus is a masculine Latin term meaning Holy Spirit.  She de-volved from a female entity to neuter and then finally to masculine.] ...Or the Spirit of Wisdom, "Sophia." In the New Testament She is a little more difficult to find, but She is there as well, with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost influencing the followers of the Way as a group. She was there at creation, breathing life into the first humans. She still continues among us, working in our relationships and in our group settings.

Most denominations don't recognize Pneuma, and instead replace Her with the masculine Paraclete. This is a grave mistake, because they can only receive from the Holy Spirit those gifts and fruits which He can give - the individual gifts and fruits. By denying the Holy Soul, They cannot receive the gifts and fruits that help to build and maintain community. Perhaps this is why community and schism is so rampant in the pistic church.

Some denominations, such as Eastern Orthodox, do recognize the Holy Spirit of Wisdom found in the Wisdom of Solomon, though. (Perhaps this is why there hasn't been a schism in Eastern Orthodoxy since the great schism with the Roman Catholic Church). Without knowing it, they are recognizing Pneuma, the Holy Soul, the Spirit aspect of the Trinosophia. Perhaps that is why Eastern Orthodoxy is such a cohesive group, and why those who do leave it for whatever reason usually don't bear too much resentment toward it.

As mentioned with the Holy Spirit, Pneuma has several gifts, fruits, and charismatic gifts. Some of these She co-dispenses to humankind with the Holy Spirit, and some of them only she gives. Here is a list of those gifts and fruits:

THE THREE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SOUL
1. Wisdom
2. Strength
3. Piety

The Gift She co-dispenses alongside the Holy Spirit
- Counsel

THE SIX FRUITS OF THE HOLY SOUL
1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Kindness
5. Mildness
6. Control

THE THREE CHARISMATIC GIFTS OF THE HOLY SOUL
1. Speaking with wisdom
2. Tongues
3. Interpreting tongues

Co-Dispensed Charismatic Gifts
- Healing
- Miracles
- Prophecy

The role of the Holy Soul is group-oriented. She works in our interpersonal relationship and in our groups. When you look at it, the gifts and fruits attributed to Her above generally fit well with groups. Wisdom, strength, and piety are all things that group worship can build up, but counsel can be given by the Holy Spirit to an individual or by the Holy Soul to a group. The six fruits of the Holy Soul are all very group-oriented. Speaking with wisdom, tongues, and interpreting tongues are basically group functions; but the shared charismatic gifts of healing, miracles, and prophecy can benefit an individual or a community. As we look at the gifts and fruits usually attributed to the Holy Spirit, we can see that they can easily be divided among the two biblical forces - the Holy Spirit and the Holy Soul.

Hopefully this essay has helped to explain who the Holy Soul really is. She is the feminine Force that works with the individual. When worshiping together feels really intense, when your group is inspired to do something great together, or when your family is really close knit, this is the work of the Holy Soul. And just as the Holy Spirit has His place as the genetic memory of each person, so the Holy Soul has Her place as the World Soul, the collective unconscious that influences our world on the smallest level. What is interesting is that it truly is as if the two Holy Ones are married - for just as God is King of Heaven and Ruler of the Earth, and just as the Goddess is the Mother of the Earth and the Queen of Heaven...the Holy Spirit finds His place in the World Soul on the individual level as each person in the collective, just as the Holy Soul finds Her place in genetic memory on the group level as the group of ancestors who shared the common faith influencing us today.

Yes, They can be confusing. But if you leave both of Them to inspire you in your group workings and individual prayer time, They will explain (far better than I can) exactly who They are!

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Beyond the Hebrew Bible: The Female Principles of the Shekinah and the Sabbath
from longer web article

The language of Jewish mysticism is erotic language. The mystic's attempts to come closer to divine phenomena through the Sefirot ('stages') are depicted in sexual terminology (as well as in language of light/darkness, letters and numbers). It is therefore not too startling to find, among the imaginative literature of the Qabbalah (mysticism), some fresh treatments of Yhwh's feminine complements. These hark back to biblical notions which are further developed, and with a twist. We shall name two such cases by way of illustrating this point.

According to the Bible, the immanence (Hebrew kabod) of god 'dwells' (Hebrew shakan) in certain parts of the world and among his people. Post-biblical Judaism developed the concept of 'immanence' and that of god's Shekinah, his 'dwelling', alongside it. In the Qabbalah, the Shekinah is the feminine element of the Sefirot, the first of ten such 'stages'. The mystic's ultimate purpose is to recover god's oneness through the reunification of his masculine and feminine elements - the oneness that was damaged by Israel's sins and other factors.

Another divine spouse is the sabbath. In sixteenth-century Safed, a great Qabbalic centre, the sabbath was hailed as 'The Queen' (one of the Hebrew god's appellations would translate as 'The king of the Royal Kings'!). The custom of reciting the Song of Songs for the sabbath became more and more widespread. Another poem cited for it was the biblical passage praising 'the woman (actually, wife) of valour' (Proverbs 31.10-22). In time, the view of the sabbath's matrimonial status spread beyond mystical circles.

The Shekinah of Esoteric Judaism
by John Nash excerpted from Reflections on the Divine Feminine

The Shekinah, first discussed in the Talmud, is the embodiment of divine glory, God’s presence in the world. She was betrothed to the Holy One, Blessed be He. However, she was exiled, lost in the wilderness, and defiled as the result of humanity’s fall from grace. The faithful was charged with finding the Shekinah, adorning her for the wedding, and presenting her to her bridegroom The relationship between the Shekinah and her bridegroom is depicted well in the Qabalah. The Shekinah is associated with the divine emanation of Malkuth, and the Holy One with Tiphareth. In the Christian Qabalah, Tiphareth is identified with Jesus Christ. In both the Judaic and the Christian traditions, the goal of spiritual development is to raise the consciousness from Malkuth to Tiphareth, restoring the Shekinah to her rightful place with the Holy One.

Qabalists insist that all the emanations on the Tree of Life are all divine. In particular, they insist that the physical world is divine. Indeed, the very essence of the Shekinah is an expression of the immanence of God, the Glory of God in the natural world. Her role, in relationship to her bridegroom, finds an echo in many traditions in which the feminine aspect of God is identified with the earth, and the male aspect with the sky. For example, the Essenes spoke of the Heavenly Father and the Earthly Mother. Hindus identify the Brahman as the unknowable Godhead, and mother Maya with physical existence.

Some critics have complained that the portrayal of a goddess as a bride is demeaning: that a bride is somehow inferior to a bridegroom. Significantly, it was the Shekinah who was lost in the wilderness, not the Holy One. However, we may ask why the Holy One never went looking for her. He comes across as a passive, somewhat ineffective figure. For her part, the Shekinah did not abandon fallen humanity but chose to share its suffering, while the Holy One remained aloof. To that extent, the Shekinah served the same compassionate role as the Egyptian Isis, the Tibetan Buddhist Tara, or the Virgin Mary of Christianity.

There is no need to deny that the bride goddesses were, to a great extent, the products of male devotion. The Shekinah was created—or should we rather say discovered—by rabbinic scholars in a society of rigid gender roles. But we must also recognize that the rabbis accorded her the highest honors of their culture. She was adorned, she was beautiful, and she was sought-after. Moreover, the Shekinah was not forced into virginity. Later Qabalistic tradition has the Shekinah and the Holy One united in sexual fulfillment at midnight on the Sabbath. The healthy persona of the Shekinah reflects the principle—stressed in esoteric Judaism—that men and women are incomplete without the other and that both can joyfully and spiritually come together in marital union.

Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom & God's Wife                                      Sophia Prayers & Gallery
By Katia Romanoff (with contributions by young Mark Raines)

Who is Sophia? Literally she is Wisdom, because the Greek word Sophia means "wisdom" in English. More than that, Sophia is the Wisdom of Deity. She has been revered as the Wise Bride of Solomon by Jews, as the Queen of Wisdom and War (Athena) by Greeks, and as the Holy Spirit of Wisdom by Christians. She is known as Chokmah (pronounced HOK-mah with the H being said like -ch in the name Bach) in Hebrew, and Sapientia in Latin.

But just who is Sophia?

Sophia is found throughout the wisdom books of the Bible. There are many references to her in the book of Proverbs, and in the apocryphal books of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon (accepted by Catholics and Orthodox, found in the Greek Septuagint of the early Church). She is Wisdom Incarnate, the Goddess of all those who are wise.

Is it any wonder that Sophia is constantly associated with wise King Solomon? 1 Kings 4:29-31 tells us that God gave wisdom to Solomon, and that he became wiser than all the kings of the East and all the wise people of Egypt. Wisdom 8:2, 16, 18 tells us Solomon was considered to be married to Sophia. One of the many layers of symbolism attributed to the Song of Songs (also known as Song of Solomon or Canticle of Canticles) is that it speaks of Solomon's marriage to Holy Sophia. Wisdom 9:8-11 even tells us that Sophia instructed Solomon in building the Temple!

The Jews revered Sophia. King Solomon even put her right in the Temple, in the form of the Goddess Asherah. However, after the brutal "reforms" of King Josiah described in 1st and 2nd Kings in your Bible, the veneration of Sophia went underground. Josiah slaughtered all her priests and priestesses and destroyed all her shrines and places of worship. But Sophia adherents remained active in the "underground stream" for centuries even while patriarchal Christianity held total sway in the Western World. Thanks to her continuing presence in the world and her presence in the Bible, veneration of Sophia surfaced in the Eastern Christian tradition with the construction of the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Constantinople (now a Muslim museum in Instanbul). The Russian Catholic liturgical service to Sophia combined with the assumption of Mary on May 15. The Russian Orthodox Church has also begun a school of "Sophiology" to explore the thealogy (spelled with an "a") of Sophia without contradicting the Russian Orthodox theology.

Yet the Eastern Christians are not the only Christians to venerate Sophia. Sophia was very likely venerated by early Followers of the Way, and her veneration has survived in the West today in the form of Gnosticism. Gnostics see her as one of the aeons, one of the quasi-deities who live in the ethereal realm known as the pleroma. Gnostics believe that she gave birth to or brought about the creation of a negative aeon, who later came to be called an archon, called the Demiurge, creator and ruler of this world. Gnostics see the Demiurge as the God of the Old Testament, with his strict rules and chains that bind the people of the Earth. Gnostics believe that Sophia and the Father God (not the Demiurge) sent Yeshua to right this wrong. In Gnostic tradition, Sophia plays a very active role in our world.

Sophia and her 3 Daughters, Faith, Hope & Charity (aka Love), Russian Icon on Katia's altar

Esoteric Christianity doesn't typically support the theory of the Demiurge. It believes that creation is inherently good, and as such so is the Creator. However, the Mystery School does look at other theories and myths such as Shaitan (aka Satan or Shatan), the devil, was the ruler of this world and was accidentally given the keys to the Otherworlds by Goddess. He had these keys until the passion, death, and descent into hell of Yeshua, when Yeshua retrieved them and holds them still. Sophia, Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene are three Christian Goddesses, making up a female Trinity.  Both the earthly forms of Mary and Mary Magdalene shared the name Mary, and both in their Heavenly forms share the Hebrew letter Heh in the God-Name YHVH.  So how does Sophia fit into the Godhead?  Wisdom of Solomon, a book in the apocrypha says clearly that Sophia is the Holy Spirit.  There could be a feminine Trinosophia - Mother, Daughter, and Pneuma (Holy Soul).

The Trinitarian/Trinosophia can also fit with the Quaternity. The Quaternity Godhead is made up of four divine beings, Father, Mother, Son, and Daughter. Quaternarians also acknowledge Paraclete and Pneuma as the masculine and feminine essences of Divinity (see our Creed of the Way, in which Pneuma is clearly acknowledged). Perhaps Paraclete is the combination of the two masculine forces, and Pneuma may be the combination of the two feminine forces. This could explain why Paraclete and Pneuma do not have their own letters in the Quaternity, since they may be a combination of the masculine and feminine forces. For more information on the Holy Trinity and the Holy Trinosophia, check out our Restoring the Goddess Lesson E.

Sources:
1. The Sophia Foundation of North America
2. Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom by the WOW Institute.  Originally on www.wowinstitute.org/goddess/hidden/goddess_sophia.html (link no longer works)
3. About Sophia, Hidden Goddess of the West by Brother Leonard

Sophia:  Exile & Return  Excerpt:  Sophia personifies wisdom, an ancient tradition concerned with integrity in the marketplace, politics, and royal court. Because the teachings were rooted in life instead of doctrine, Sophia became problematical and excluded from the religious formulations of monotheism. This manuscript is about exile--Sophia's and our own. I compare Sophia's exile from mainstream religion to the alienation suffered by modern individuals who experience loss, betrayal, and abandonment. What is exiled in today's dysfunctional paradigm is the vital soul, the genius or daemon. When we pay attention to it by taking our life seriously--as a mode of knowledge--we awaken its fire. The vital expresses the integrity and intelligence of the life force, whose awakening turns exile into home--revealing Sophia to be not divine but the source of divine images--the human psyche. While Sophia has been interpreted as divine, goddess or psychological image, she is examined here from several unique perspectives. First, Sophia is developed from the context of modern life and real people, but in conversation with the historical and mythological. Second, the dark side is confronted through analysis of Sophia's "Other" faces, Lilith and Hecate, locating it as the source of individual power and knowledge. Third, it provides modern women with an image of female power that is not based solely on reproduction and mothering but on another aspect of the feminine archetype rarely discussed--the intelligence and cosmic power of the life force. Finally, it introduces the "path of crumbs" which encourages women to direct their own life through recognition of the guidance present in circumstances.

GREAT SOPHIA LINKS:  Read entire article Sophia: Exile and Return

Gnostic Christianity & the Myth of Sophia

Sophia Spirituality, Strong Woman Role Model, Sophia in Proverbs

Have you seen her? Sophia could be the Holy Spirit. Or she has Her own Holy Spirit just as God-the-Father does. Some say Sophia was embodied by Mother Mary, others believe she was embodied by Mary Magdalene.

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Prayers to the Holy Sophia   Top

Sophia!You of the whirling wings, circling, encompassing energy of God: you quicken the world in your clasp. One wing soars in heaven, one wing sweeps the earth, and the third flies all around us. Praise to Sophia! Let all the earth praise her! -Hildegard of Bingen

"Sophia" Copyright Hrana Janto Used by permission of the artist. Notice her wings, her "pregnant" belly

The Creed of the Holy Spirit
(by Unknown author. Please email if you know who wrote this!)

I believe in the Blessed Sophia.
I believe that she is Our Heavenly Father's Beloved Daughter.
I believe our souls dwelled with them in the Beginning, in harmony and love.

I believe that Sophia is the Divine Daughter.
That She lives in all women, and her strength and grace inspires all;
And she has sinned, learnt and is now strong and free.

I believe that Sophia is the Great Mother.
She is the Eema, the image of the hight of our strength;
And she has tutored me along Her Holy Path.

I believe that Sophia is the Holy Soul.
The Pneuma, the inner Crone of death and understanding within me;
And that She will bring completion in my waning days.

I believe that Sophia is the Spirit of God.
She is the Celestial Mother, and unites the Father and Child;
And She has given us knowledge of Their nurturing ways.

I believe in the Aeons, the Spirits, the gods of the Unknown God.
They are ruled by Sophia, they are Her children;
They all come from the Mother and to Her they shall return.

I believe in Reincarnation.
Her soul allows us to cycle throughout the prinsonhosue of matter;
Until we achieve the Liberation of the Light of Her Unknown Source.

I live in duty to restore honour to The Holy Spirit.
In prayer and reverence of all Her rituals;
From the masks of saints and goddesses, to restore honour to the True Queen.

The Hail Sophia Hail Sophia, filled with Light, the Christ is with thee. Blessed art thou among the Aeons and blessed is the liberator of thy Light, Jesus. Holy Sophia, Mother of all Gods, pray to the Light for us thy children, now and in the hour of our death, Amen.

"Sophia - Peace Through Wisdom" © 1985 Pamela Matthews Used by permission of the artist. Notice the world-egg shape around Her

Prayer To The Holy Spirit
Most loving Father of the poor, send your light down from Heaven, your Gift of most splendid gifts, the Light that penetrates all, the Fountain of deep consolation. Come, O Divine Sophia.

Come, Sweet Host of the soul. Give everyone rest from their efforts, respite from their hard labor, be their gentle breeze in moments of fire, the joy that dries up their tears and comforts their sorrows.

Enter the deepest depth of their soul, Oh Divine Sophia, and enrich it. Look at the emptiness within when you are not presence. Look at the power of sin when you do not breathe within them. Water the dry earth of their soul, heal their wounded heart, wash them clean of all dirt, place the warmth of life back within their cold hearts, conquer their uncontrollable spirit, guide them when the way is confusing.

Pour out on your servants your seven gifts according to their faith. In your goodness and blessings give them the strength they need, save all who are looking for salvation, and bless us all with your eternal joy.

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Prayer to Sophia                                                              Top

Savior of the World, Sunny Lady,
Patroness of Powers, Sophia - Wisdom of God,
Invincible Almighty's Hand, Bless the World by the sign of Cross,
incinerate the Hearths of the world fundamentalism,
and erect the City of Saints by the Intercession of the Fiery Hierarchy
of the triumphant Church and crowd of angelic ranks,
save My Land and all the World!

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Faith, Hope and Charity, Daughters of Sophia

O holy and most praiseworthy ones, Faith, Hope and Charity, and wise mother Sophia of these glorious daughters: to you do we now hasten in heartfelt prayer, for what better representation can we have than faith, hope and charity, the three cornerstone virtues, which, bearing their names, ye embodied in fact. We entreat you to shield us, save us and keep us in every sorrow and trouble, because you are good and loveth humankind. We pray that your Mother Sophia's glory, like a sun that never setteth, be with us in our humble prayers; may the Godhead forgive our sins (mistakes) and iniquities (transgressions), and have mercy on us who are forgetful of our Being-ness. Pray indeed for us, ye holy daughters, also unto our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of Man, and the Holy Bride Magdalene, to whom we practice to be present with, together with his Father and Mother, the All-holy, and Good, and Life-creating Sophia, who are from the Everlasting. We join our energy and our consciousness to the Everlasting the combined Godhead, merging with their presence now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen in the Now.

Pictured Left: Faith, Hope & Charity charm very popular charm in the Victorian era and today.

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Prayer to Sophia                                                    Top
Oh,
Great Light,
Hidden within this darkness,
Unlimited Fire,
Brilliant Emanation,
Sapientia Dei,
Beauty and wonder
that fills me like water to a sponge,
Sophia,
Holy Spirit,
Rising Dawn,
Lily of the Valleys,
Tree of Life,
Behold,
You Are Beautiful!

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Hail, Lady of Light

Hail, Lady of Light,
Mystical Lover of my spirit.
Blessed are you, Woman of Wisdom,
and blessed are the gifts you bestow on us your children.

Holy Sophia, goddess who leads to the One God,
fill me with your emptiness,
and darken my spirit with your light,
Amen.

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Salve Regina (Sophia)

Hail, Queen of Heaven,
Mother most merciful,
our life, our sweetness, and our hope.

You lead us on this pilgrim journey,
and to you we cry when we seem mired,
in the pain of exile from our true home.
And, gentle Mother Sophia, you soothe our tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us,
and bring us into the unity of the Pleroma,
with your heavenly consort, our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Mysteries for the Sophia Rosary                            Top

(The last mysteries are taken from the Ecclaisia Gnostic Rosary, the ones before are inspired by the story of Sophia. The original script of the Gnostic Mysteries can be found at: http://www.gnosis.org/library/rosary.htm)

The Mournful Mysteries

1st Mournful Mystery: The Descent: Desiring for the Light, Sophia is overwhelmed by power and falls from Pleroma.

2nd Mournful Mystery: The Aeon's Prayers: The Father and the other Aeons search for Sophia, pleading to the Light to save Her.

3rd Mournful Mystery: The Forsaking: In her anguish, Sophia gives birth to a dark hybrid and abandons Him in despair.

4th Mournful Mystery: The Creator: The hybrid grows and becomes the

Demiurge and steams the elements from Sophia to create the Earth and Mankind for His slaves.

5th Mournful Mystery: The Weeping: Sophia continues her mourning in the lower realms as the Demiurge enslaves man-kind.

The Gracious Mysteries

1st Gracious Mystery: The Blessing: Sophia's daughter Zoë kisses Adam and blesses mankind with Her Holy Soul and encourages the snake to tell Eve to eat the apple.

2nd Gracious Mystery: The Rebuking: The Demiurge proclaims He is the only God and Sophia replies: 'You are wrong, Blind One!'

3rd Gracious Mystery: The Salvation: Finally the Light hears the prayers of the Aeons and Sophia and sends down the Lord Christ to bring salvation to the Soul.

4th Gracious Mystery: The Inspiration: Eema Sophia is mirrored in Mary Theotokis, who gives birth the one who Christ will manifest in, Jesus.

5th Gracious Mystery: The Manifestation: The Divine Daughter, Sophia's Gnosis, is achieved by Mary Magdalene, the High Preistess and consort of Jesus

The Gnostic Mysteries

1st Gnostic Mystery: The Assumption of Sophia: The Christ carries Sophia out of her hells and back to the arms of the Father.

2nd Gnostic Mystery: The Coronation of Sophia: Sophia, The Holy Spirit, is crowned Queen of Pleroma, and seated next to the Father and the 'Son'.

3rd Gnostic Mystery: The Renunciation: The Lord restores honour and reverence the Lady at Her true place on the throne and vows to protect Her and the Kingdom.

4th Gnostic Mystery: The Bride Chamber: The Father and Son combine to form Sophia's counterpart, the Comforter, the King of Glory and they come together in Sacred Union.
5th Gnostic Mystery: The Descent of the New Jerusalem: The new Godhead complete, the Light of the Logos and God has been revealed to the world, the Demiurge and His consorts toppled and all of Earth now under the caring reign of the King of Light, the True God.

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Sophia's Light (A nighttime prayer)                                                   Top

In darkest night, when lights are dim,
and all in sight seems sad and grim,
I find you there, your arms surround me,
your spirit fills me and it grounds me.
I look to you, Lady of Truth,
most ancient One, yet eternal youth,
to keep me safe, protect my heart,
and with the wisdom you impart
fill up my empty mind and soul
so that, my Lover, you can make whole,
all that was broken in this day –
and that is what I ask and pray.

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Closing Prayer to Sophia                                        Top

O Gentle, O Kind, O Blessed Sophia,
Thy children on earth call unto Thee.
We pray Thee, Beloved Mother, to cast forth
thy net of woven starlight.
Fling it wide across the ocean of the universe
to gather us home to the realms of Light.
Amen.

Sharon Cutmore writes:  Several of the above prayers I collected from various sites in dedication to the Blessed Mother that is Wisdom.

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A Gnostic Prayer to Isis-Sophia
by Tau Malachi

Praise you, Mother Sophia;
Praise you, Great Goddess –

Hail to you Aset, Holy Virgin, Mother of God;
You who birth souls to the Infinite and Eternal,
Whose grace is the Light of the Day of Be-With-Us!

Yea though I walk in the day of your mourning,
Yet with your Forethought I behold your joy,
And with your Afterthought I gaze into your heart –
The perfection of Light and Love, Life and Liberty!

Placing lotus blossoms upon your alter, and making offerings of incense and lights;
Envisioning the offering of everything good, in the heavens and on earth,
I worship in your Light-presence and call forth your Light-power,
Send the Opener of the Way before me,
Let the Spiritual Sun shine from within me:
O Mother, give birth to your Holy Child –
Empower me to go forth in the Divine Light!

There is Light and there is Fire, and your Great Spirit passing through;
One Aeon dissolves and another arises, but all is in you as in a Holy Womb –
You, the Portal of All-Worlds; You the Life of All-Worlds: You giving birth!

I pray, Holy Mother, that you might part your veil, that I might see you in all your forms,
And perchance glimpse into the In-between to behold your True Essence;
Such is my prayer, such my inmost heart's desire,
To know you and to love you,
To be at-one with you!

Ave Sophia!

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Three awesome poems to Sophia written by SharOn Alder.                                 Top

In Her Great Love, in Her undying Compassion, Her great Grief and Sorrow, at Her rejection, non-acceptence, not from the personal grief point of view only, but from the effects of Her messages, wisdom, guidance, Her great Labour for Her people and humanity and Mother Earth. Her Soul, encompasing many star systems, wraps Her arms Lovingly Mother Earth. suffucing our Gaia with the gentlest of healing and supportive Love. But She is not separate from Her Essence and Feels all the grief and sorrow and pain of Mother Earth in all her aspects including humanity. Like the scales of Ma'at, that which She feels through Her Compassion which is not Love, She balances out with due measurement of Love.

The Mother of All Creation, Sophia, is Pure Love, and feels and knows not but Love; Pistis Sophia is the Daughter whose Spirit "falls" (down) into and takes embodiment in the material realms, experiencing the pain of the denial of Love as Her Spirit falls into the denser realms, (as Jesus is the embodiment of the Father aspect of Creation.) From Her experiences, Pistis Sophia adds discernment and Wisdom to Love, which otherwise knows no disparity and love's without discretion. So here goes....

SOPHIA WAITS

This Sophia longs for the touch,
Even the merest touch
of her golden gilded consort.
She has searched the highest heavens
and found many a true lover,
And poured ever her infinite bliss
from the diamond studded chalice
of her being.

Some sucked her chalice dry
then placed her in a forgotten corner
until their thirst rose yet again;
Some tossed aside the chalice
only to smash it against the rough stones.

From each lover, indeed,
She has found and rejoiced in parts of her Divinity,
and in agony She pieces them together.
She longs from the four sides of eternity
For Osiris to rise within her yet again.

She who is endless Love waits to be Loved,
Not just for a moment, but Eternity....

Sophia, Waits......

IN THE TEMPLE OF SOPHIA                                               Top

How should I respond when in the Highest of Heavens
they call my name as "Love"?

How should I respond who has experienced endless, boundless Love,
and have been repudiated from this world?

How should I respond when the world I laid
with such Love and Grace is trashed and decimated with war, greed and avarice?

How should I respond, who Am the embodiment of Love,
to see my sisters, daughters and children abused and neglected?

I shall tell you that She Who Is Love indeed is Wailing and Moaning:
The crucifixion of Her Son, know not such pain
As that which spill from Her Heart this day.

How should I respond when the means of this World
have not supported Love in this life,
but have put all else before
Her call to enter the Silence and be embraced in Her Great Love?

How should I respond when those with whom I have shared my Love
still choose the allurements of this mortal world and self-aggregandizement,
Yet leave this body and heart desolate?

How should I respond when those I have chosen have ignored my Call
And Mandate to bring Heaven to Mother Earth?

In the Temple of Sophia, a Wake is Taking place Today:

Tomorrow when the children and women and old folks are fed;
Tomorrow when the needy have clothing, food and shelter;
Tomorrow when the guns are turned to plowshares;
Tomorrow when my daughters are not raped nor choldren beaten;
Tomorrow when we give back to and take care of Our Mother;
Tomorrow when in Her Name there is Rejoicing,

In the Temple of Sophia, A Celebration will Take Place.

c. June 14, 2004, Sharon Alder, Pistis Sophia, "Soaring Eagle'

LAMENTATIONS OF PISTIS SOPHIA

I have given them eyes to see,
and they have not seen.
I have given them ears to hear,
and they have not heard.
I have given them a mind to discern,
and they have not discerned
The Ways of Holiness.
I have given them a Heart,
and they have not loved one another
Or the Holy Mother.

I have given them a bright star
to guide them to the Holy Land,
Yet they have wandered in the Deserts
of Desire and Despair.

And when they came to the Holy Land,
The chosen Ones took with them
The ways of Descecration and War.
The Chosen Ones defiled and laid waste
The Holy cities, the Holy Temples,
The children, the Mothers and the Old Ones;
The Chosen Ones Defiled Her Holy Daughters
And Sacred Land.

From Their Way , who has returned
To the Ways of Sanctity and Holiness?

Who has prepared their Hearts for Her Return?
Who has raised for Her, Her Sacred Temples?
Who has clothed and honoured Her Sacred Daughters?
Who has fed Her little Children?
Who has cared for the aged and the crippled?

Who has purged Her Holy Land from the Ways of War
And laid the Sacred Ground with the Ways of Peace?

Oh Ye children of Man, I say,
Prepare yourselves with fasting and with Prayers

For the Lamentations of the Mother are Great

For Her Temples and Beloved are Naught,
And they See and Behold Her Not.

c. SharOn Alder, Pistis Sophia, October 2005

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Another find from Wynn:

http://www.joycerupp.com/PrayersToSophia.html#springtime

Prayers to Sophia

A Companion to "The Star in My Heart"
Thoughts from the Author.

"...I believe that all our names for the Divine, whether male or female, are inadequate. All these metaphors are our feeble human attempts and projections as we try to draw near to the Mysterious One. Probably the only adequate name for the Holy One is that which was written long ago: "I Am Who I Am" (Exodus 3:14). In order to have a personal relationship, however, it is helpful to name the Divine. "Sophia" has become the best divine name for my prayer. I resonate immensely with her qualities of guidance, truth-bringing, and companionship. She is always with me as I search for the way home, which is what I am consistently doing on my spiritual path.

...As this relationship continually unfolds, she constantly leads me deeper, challenges me to grow freer, and keeps inviting me to be more truly my best self. I know that this relationship is never just for myself. It is out of this affinity with Sophia and my ongoing transformation that I am consistently led outward to the world in which I am to give my life and service.

Sophia always draws me up and outward once I have been led down and inward. It is a cycle that I trust. I do believe that I am a much more compassionate woman for having sat in Sophia's presence...."

Springtime Prayer

O Dancer of Creation,
the earth awakens to an urgent call to grow. In the hidden recesses of my wintered spirit I, too, hear the humming of your voice,
calling me, wooing my deadness back to life.

My soul yawns, stretches, quickens,
as the energy of Spring revives my weariness. I sit with wonder, observing the steady activity of downy woodpeckers and newly yellowed finch. I do so wait with the avid attention of a child's first look, savoring the colors and shapes of earth's loveliness.

As the filtering patterns of early sunlight lift the shades of green in every growing thing, I enter into spring's unlettered words of life. For a while my doubts, anxieties, and worries become like chapters in some ancient book whose text no longer claims my full attention. I am content to sit, watching Spring turn the pages of this animated publication, eager to discover the invigorating story reflected in my own springtime revelation.

Tell me, Wise Awakener,
why is it easier to believe in a stem of new grass, or the opening bud of a fresh purple crocus, than it is to believe in the greening of me?

---Joyce Rupp

Taken from Prayers to Sophia. Copyright 2000 by Joyce Rupp. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Innisfree Press, Inc.

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Sophia
Channeled by Gillian MacBeth-Louthan

I am the She-ness of All that is, I am Sophia. I am the breath of that which you have spoken. I am the breath that is and that is yet to be birthed.

I bring within my words and energies a fulfillment that comes not from the substance of earth, nor from the substance of self. I ask you to taste the sweetness that you are as you kiss the lips of God. I ask you to taste the sweetness that was destined to be your life before you chose the conflict. Come forth into the fullness of your power in this hour of light. Do not wait a fortnight; do not wait another day until the timing is correct in your perceptions. For in the scheme of universal knowledge and the schematics of universal light, there is but this moment. In this moment you need to fill yourself with all that you want to be. Do not talk of what you shall accomplish one day, but fulfill that accomplishment within your mind, within the pictures of your heart and the pictures of your word in this moment, this thought.

In the upcoming time, you will find that many words that you speak will change in enunciation, in meaning, and change in vibration. You will find that as you speak, a gentle hum is heard in your heart as it begins to vibrate with truth so fast that music is created. These are not heart palpitations but the sound of love that hums through the caverns of your being.

I am She that was whispered into existence by the mouth of God. I am sometimes seen as Shekinah, the holy breath, the Holy Spirit. I am feminine of nature, but not always depicted as such. I come forth with the vibration and the teachings of the ancient Magdalenes. You birth a New World on this day by believing. You birth a great white hope that lives so deeply in your cell memory that you have not yet seen it in your world. You birth on this day a completion as you spiral and dance around all layers and faces of your soul and of yourself finally landing in climax within the oceans of your being. I am that which is yet to be found within you. I am the sacred feminine that you seek but do not always see reflected in the mirror of your life. I am the sacred face of the feminine light of God and I come to heal you as I come to birth myself.

The essence of Sophia (Ma-RI) has lived by many names and each one of them you have donned as a costume in the masquerade of life. You came in this time holding an encoding that will be released in these upcoming times. It is that sacred number, that sacred sound, that sacred geometry and color of the Wild Woman untamed Goddess within you that you allowed to be birthed in fullness for me and through me.

It is time for you to celebrate everything about you for every one of you is a strand in the tapestry of my cloak of light. The doorway opens for you to see and to celebrate. Some days the celebration will be in a place of loneliness and other days it will be in a large beautiful group, but it matters not. Your life needs to be a celebration of who you want to be and who you know you are. Strip off the weather coatings that you wear as protection and allow your glorious beautiful self to be seen in the fullness of time. Do not be afraid of your emotions or your angers or your passions. Do not be afraid of your wild hair days.

If you would sound my sound in your heart, it will help you to heal for it comes as an elixir, as an amendment to all the rules of order that you were forced to follow from time beginning. Say my name softly to yourself – Sophia — Sophia – Sophia. Does it not soothe the thorns of your being? For in that sound is a memory and in that memory you are very close to home.

I thank you for being who you are. You have never allowed others to break your spirit even though there were times when you teetered very close to that. Do not allow anyone to take of your heart. You can give it all that you want, but do not let others take your dreams or your desires. Give and give and give. That is the doorway to the greatest healing of all. Invite me into your day, into the morn, into the night. I will escort you into passageways that you have forgotten. Run bare-footed in the temples of your past. Allow me to escort you into all that you are for it is a place of completion that you come home to. I am Sophia as are you.

http://www.thequantumawakening.com/current_newsletter.htm for January 2005