Goddess Sophia

Once upon a time there was a land called Chaos but Chaos was not the first creation. It came out of the land of Shadow (darkness), and out of this came matter.

In this land were many divinities that would leave a legacy of characteristics that would be known as: Faith, Wisdom, Jealously etc. Some of these entities gave birth to others and they would form a big family of divinities.

Early on; Pistis made herself known and her mark would be Faith. She gave birth to Wisdom (Sophia) and the two would often work together. Sophia would become the veil that would separate the heavens from the earth, and mankind from the heavens.

Pistis lived in her realm of light. And she would make visits outside of her realm and check everything out. Well, she realized that Shadow was envious because there was something stronger than it. Matter came oozing out of Chaos and she decided to blow this matter everywhere!

Out of this would appear a ruler or a new prime parent: Yaltabaoth. He would use spirit to create a footstool that he would call earth. He then went on to create all the heavens with the earth. He then had sons and one of them was called: Astaphaios. He created heavens for each of his offspring so there came to be 7 heavens and 7 forces.

Now, each one of his offspring had a female name and a male name. Astaphaios had the female name of Sophia. All of them were androgynous including himself.

But not all was right in this heavenly kingdom. There was an enemy down below and this caused quite an uproar. Hence, Pistis cast this bad character down to Tataros. This led to the heavens and the earth being consolidated through Sophia - Yaldasbaoth daughter.

Yaldasbaoth, creator of this heavens and earth was an arrogant, entitled, and at times; foolish - ruler. This did not set well with Pistis. She scorned him and let him know that there was another being far greater than he.

The irony was his son Sabaoth would become the greater ruler and one that was more righteous. He would be called "Lord of the Forces." All the other divinities were jealous of him because of his light and power given to him by Pistis.

He created his own government or congress, with his own angels with special roles and names. He has a divinity named Jesus Christ sitting on his right side and on the left - his virgin spirit. He sits upon a throne of light within a great cloud that covers him. Sophia (the daughter of Pistis) is the only one with him in the cloud.

Yaldasbaoth the prime parent got really jealous and created death and this begot 7 bad forces who would in turn become a demon realm and its poisonous characteristics, being both female and male.

Sabaoth's team would go on to create female and male forces that would represent 7 good forces.

Hence, good and evil would be part of the Chaos and would divide into many renditions that would be manufactured by man, and would be incorporated in its many maxims of religion and philosophy.

Sophia is the World-Soul; the Anima Mundi. But on a more basic level, she represents the female principle of Nature and the fallen emotional aspect of humanity. The "psychic" or "astral" self.

The word "Astaphaios" is related to "water," IIRC, which is appropriate as water is seen as astral/psychic substance.

That probably didn't make a whole lot of sense.

reply to post by Gillespie



The best thing you can do for yourself is to get a concordance for your Bible.

Strongs is most popular, but I found that Youngs analytical concordance gave me extra information, like that promethius and atlas were rearranged stories based on Noah.

The best book of apocrypha I found was the book of Enoch. I bought Enoch 1, and 2.

I can't tell you anymore than was already said about her.

Originally posted by St Udio
Sophia which equates to wisdom, which is a feminine counterpoint to masculine force/strength

the Sophia was not an actual 'person'...just like Adam was not an individual person...
both were/are whats called Archtypes of the collective conscious-knowledge...

Sophia, imho, became the hebrew 'Lilith', or First-Wife-of-Adam... which was 'driven' from Adams' world-view because of a jealous tribal god.
in as much, the shamanic & pagan spiritual worlds of the early mankind populations became further divided into subsets, like tribal Israelites/Hebrews who were (over time) forceably restructured into a Patriarchaical Heirarchy,
in contrast to the more passive, serene & universal Goddess-Nature cultures which were 'The' universal religion of the times.

Why would she be a completely different apocryphal character when she already appears in the book of Proverbs as herself? So no, not really Lilith. There is, however, a good case for Isis, another purely archetypal character.

Edit: there is also more than one Sophia, and the Gnostics often mix them up. There is the Higher Sophia, and then there is the Lower Sophia, AKA "Prunikos" or "Achamoth". The Lower Sophia can get a bit capricious.

[edit on 14-12-2008 by Eleleth]

Im in agreement...Lilith was not Sophia. Lilith might have been a product from Sophia's offspring which produced products of itself...on down the line...but Sophia is not Lilith nor is Lilith Sophia.

LV

There did seem to be 2 Sophia's: Pistis' Sophia and Yaltabaoth's. They were all divine entities. But I have not heard of her being connected to Lilith.

Sophia (wisdom) evolved from Pistis(faith)...power evolved from wisdom (Yaltabaoth) which came greed and pride...these are characteristics that come with power.

Just as though Christ knew he was of God....but still the Father was greater then he.

I think we are shown 'processes' of how things evolve and become what they are.

Yaltabaoth was 'of' Sophia just as though Sophia was 'of' Pistis...but all are separate in their own right, different then the one they are 'of'.

Just thoughts, not sure if it makes since to others...but that is what I gained from these stories.

LV

reply to post by MatrixProphet


" They were all divine entities. "

I'd say they were FICTIONAL divine entities and nothing more.

Originally posted by toasted
" They were all divine entities. "

I'd say they were FICTIONAL divine entities and nothing more.

Well, on the most basic level, (and I should've mentioned this before) she represents the Shakti force. So I suppose she is as real as you would like her to be.

[edit on 15-12-2008 by Eleleth]

Im not sure I would call a aeon an entity...here is the wili link-it says an age and also says eternity and forever. Isnt a age something that ends? I see these attributes, such as faith, wisdom, power....thoughts of the Monad before any physical existence.



en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Eleleth


I liked that read, Ive just been looking into this kinda stuff recently...here is a snip of the definition it gave...just for the ones that jump over links and dont read them....

"primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that move through the entire universe."

LV

Unrelated but still cool is the Lilith story. I heard something about someone mentioning her being created from the inside out. Adam was present during her creation and the secretions and bodily organs and stuff freaked out Adam and he wouldn't go near her. This is why he created Eve whilst Adam was asleep.

Any one else hear about this?? I think it was written by some historian who had access to some texts that aren't around today. Lots of writings survive in this format.

Kabbalah teaches a understanding that God, controversially, has a feminine side. A small minority of scholars believe the feminine persona of God is Sophia. Others suggest Sophia is a deity in her own right.

But, if we live in a Universe with equals and opposites then - if there is a God - surely a Goddess has to exist too.

Good and Evil.
Christ and Anti-Christ
God and ?