I've changed my mind about Gnosticism (Jesus, Creator, gospel, Kingdom)

[yuvgotmel]

Here is a Classical Gnostic view of Sophia:


Excerpt from: http://www.gnostic-church.org/believe.htm#12

Sophia, or Wisdom, known as the “Great Consort” of the Christ, is the personification of divine wisdom. She has been worshipped throughout much of human history; Mesopotamians knew her as Astarte, Queen of Heaven; Jewish mystics penned tributes to her as the manifestation of Wisdom; Greek mythology personified her in the characters of Athene, Aphrodite, and Artemis; Jesus described her as both a Holy Spirit and the Advocate of human beings in their quest for enlightenment; modern pagans recognize her as the Great Goddess, Mother of the universe. We embrace all these different aspects of her reality. She is the supreme manifestation of the divine bathos and thus the depth of her love, her beauty, her supreme gift of spiritual understanding can never be fully uttered or comprehended. She is the source of all true gnosis and human knowledge. (Canon 12, "On Sophia")

Sophia is Christ’s Great Consort in that she forms a perfect complement to him in the work of salvation. Where Christ became incarnate, Sophia is unincarnate, pure spirit. Where Christ represents the male principle in the spirit, Sophia represents the female principle in the spirit. Where Christ is an active teacher, Sophia is a passive font of wisdom into whose depths we enter in a baptism of love as we move along the path toward gnosis. Where Christ is the new Adam, broken free of slavery to physicality, Sophia is the new Eve. Where Christ is the bringer of light that reveals God's love, Sophia is the dark night of mystical union with that same divine love. Where Christ is a mountain upon which we ascend to touch the face of God, Sophia is a darkened valley that reaches down into the deepest depths of divine bathos. (Canon 13, "On the Complementary Nature of Christ and Sophia")

Some of the titles we use for Sophia in our devotions to her are Queen of Heaven, Gateway of the Pleroma, Spiritual Eve, Mother of All Life, Princess of Light and Darkness, Divine Lady, First Thought, Last Thought, Mistress of the Holy Night, Sovereign Mistress, Great Goddess, Lover of the Spirit, Mother of the Church, Holy Spirit, and Advocate of the People of God. No single title or phrase can sum up the reality of Sophia's great beauty as the source of all human wisdom and understanding through God's love, so we must often speak of her in paradoxes. The mysteries of Sophia’s existence are extolled in the ancient Gnostic poem, “Thunder, Perfect Mind,” where we hear her speak to us, saying, "I am the first and the last. I am the honored and scorned. I am the whore and holy one. I am the wife and the virgin. I am the mother and the daughter. I am the members of my mother. I am the barren one, and the one with many sons. I have had a grand wedding and I have found no husband. I am a midwife and I do not give birth. I am the solace of my own labor pains. I am bride and groom, and my husband produced me." We see Sophia as being represented in some way not only by the feminine Wisdom of the Jewish bible and the "Holy Spirit" of Christianity, but also in the Goddesses of many other religions -- from Hinduism to classical paganism to modern paganism to Native American religion to traditional African religions -- that we view with great humility and joy as representations of the Beautiful One we call Sophia.