SOPHIA
(Hellenistic - Jewish - Christian)

Wisdom -- God's Female Soul

Sophia, the spirit of wisdom, once represented God's female soul and was the source of his power. She is called the All, the Maternal Being, the Queen and Lady Wisdom. Early Christians believed that Christ and God merged with Sophia (wisdom) as an androgyne -- Sophia, the Mother of All. She has also been called the spirit of light in association with Biblical Mary and Elizabeth.

She is associated with Proverbs 8 and 9 of the Old Testament. Sophia is wisdom.

Her greatest shrine, erected at Constantinople during the sixth century (considered one of the wonders of the world), was the Church of Holy Sophia (Hagia Sophia) meaning Holy Female Wisdom.

SYMBOLS

1. Rose - Sophia, as spiritual whole, forms earth and heaven. Represented in visual form as a flower -- like the scent of a blossom, her spirit always remains attached to the earthly foundation of reality. Her luminous aspect overcomes darkness. In Dante's poem, she is the sacred white rose belonging to the Madonna, the ultimate flower of light revealed above the starry night sky.

2. World disc - She gathers the arts around her, teaches the philosophers, inspires the poets. She bears the world disc, the zodiac, planets, sun and moon.

3. Chalice - She represents the cup of the Last Supper, the mythical Holy Grail, baptism, the return to the Mother -- the spring of life.

Thus, she is represented as a spirit of eternal wisdom -- all knowing, all love, all feminine.