A Collection of Songs of Sophia
From a number of sacred texts.
Songs begin at the bottom of the page
and are added in ascending order.
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Song 29
2/7/24
The Great Emanation
She is from [The Ineffable's] image in its Light (Ein Soph Or)
Perfect in power
Image of the invisible perfect Virgin Spirit.
She is the initial power
glory of Barbelo (Pronnoia)
glorious among the realms
glory of revelation.
She gave glory to the Virgin Spirit
She praised him.
for she arose from [The Ineffable].
She is the universal womb
She is before everything
She is
Mother-Father
First Man
Holy Spirit
Thrice Male
Thrice Powerful
Thrice Named
Androgynous eternal realm
First to arise among the invisible realms.
- Secret Book of John (Davies translation)
The Secret Book of John is the most prominent of the Gnostic scriptures, as 4 copies survived the nearly complete erasure of this tradition, more than any other of the early texts. There is not one whole complete and original copy but rather, there are different authors that added to what must have been a more original version. I suspect that even the identification of this text with John is a later addition and that the original was not called this for, as Davies points out, the part about Christ talking to John was a later addition.
The text quoted above is a powerful description of what I've called The Great Emanation, the burst of divine Light consciousness that emerged out of the unknowable, ineffable singularity known in the Kabbalah as Ein Soph. In general, the text identifies this Ineffable as masculine and as the Great Emanation as feminine. As a profound cosmology of creation, this equates with the emergence of Relationship, of Self and Other, one of the most important and significant developments in original creation. The Ineffable was seen by "her" and this poetry may well be describing the first experience of Love.
The Virgin Spirit is a phrase that identifies this Ineffable "Father" whose Emanation arose solely out of "him". She, has a threefold nature; a masculine "Mind", a feminine Holy Spirit (Pronnoia/Barbelo), and the androgenous Anthropos or archetypal divine human form called Adamas in this text. It was this divine form that Sophia sought to build bodily dwellings, here in this world, into which these Beings of Light could inhabit.
The High Holy Sophia is equated with the Holy Spirit aspect of this trinitized Great Emanation, but it is also identified in general as the Great Emanation, the Pronnoia, the Thought which emerged from Mind.
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Song 28
7/20/23
Songs of the Great Emanation, Thought, Pronnoia, Womb of the High Holy Sophia
The Ineffable’s “thought” performed “a deed and she came forth.”
Jesus said, “This is the first thought, his image; she became the womb of everything for it is she who is prior to them all...”
“And Its thinking became a thing. She appeared. She stood in Its presence in the brilliance of the light; she is the power which is before the All.”
“The invisible Spirit (Ineffable-Ein Soph) rejoiced over the light which had come into being, the one who was the first to appear from the primal power, which is Its Pronnoia.”
“She is the spring of the living water.”
- Secret Book of John, Nag Hammadi Library
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Song 27
1/9/23
She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well. I loved her and sought her from my youth; I desired to take her for my bride and became enamored of her beauty.
- From the Old Testament, Wisdom of Solomon, 8:1-2.
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Song 26
St. Paul on Wisdom (Sophia).
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:7)
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:11-13)
The writings of St. Paul span the range from being fully orthodox (the Pastoral letters of Timothy, Titus and Philemon which are not considered authentically Paul) to his supposed esoteric teachings, that Valentinus and Marcion claim were instrumental in the development of their gnostic-leaning versions of Christianity. As Elaine Pagels writes in her The Gnostic Paul, Paul designed his letters (Epistles) cryptically to speak to those who had insight into the deeper teachings and he wrote more generally to those who did not have this but who could gain from a more simplified writing.
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Song 25
The Wedding Song of Sophia
The Maiden is Lights Daughter; On her the Kings’ Radiance resteth. Stately her Look and delightsome. With radiant beauty forth-shining. Like unto spring-flowers are her Garments, From them streameth scent of sweet odour.
The Wedding Song of Wisdom, a title given by Mead, is a fragment in the gnostic Acts of Thomas, describing how St. Thomas broke into song out of dismay while attending the Indian King’s wedding banquet for his daughter.
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Song 24
I was sent forth from the power, and I have come to those who reflect upon me, and I have been found among those who seek after me. Look upon me, you who reflect upon me, and you hearers, hear me. You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves. … I am the one who is honored, and who is praised, and who is despised scornfully. I am peace, and war has come because of me. And I am an alien and a citizen.
- The Thunder, Perfect Mind, Nag Hammadi Library
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Song 23
Listen, O dearly beloved! I am the reality of the world, the center of the circumference, I am the parts and the whole. I am the will established between Heaven and Earth, I have created perception in you only in order to be the object of my perception.
If then you perceive me, you perceive yourself. But you cannot perceive me through yourself. It is through my eyes that you see me and see yourself, Through your eyes you cannot see me.
Dearly beloved! I have called you so often and you have not heard me; I have shown myself to you so often and you have not seen me. I have made myself fragrance so often, and you have not smelled me, Savorous food, and you have not tasted me. Why can you not reach me through the object you touch Or breathe me through sweet perfumes? Why do you not see me? Why do you not hear me? Why? Why? Why?
– The voice of Sophia from “Book of Theophanies”, by Ibn ‘Arabi quoted in Alone with the Alone by Henry Corbin, (1997).
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Song 22
from Trimorphic Protennoia First Thought in Three Forms, Nag Hammadi Codex, ~ 2nd century AD.
Now when the Epinoia (indwelling spark/Sophia) of the Light (Christ) realized that he (Yaltabaoth) had begged him (Christ) for another order, even though he (Yaltabaoth) was lower than she (Sophia), she said, “Give me another order, so that you may become for me a dwelling place, lest I dwell in disorder forever.” And the order of the entire house of glory was agreed upon her word. A blessing was brought for her and the higher order released it to her.
And the great Demon began to produce aeons in the likeness of the real Aeons, except that he produced them out of his own power.
Then I (Christ) too revealed my Voice secretly, saying, “Cease! Desist, (you) who tread on matter; for behold, I am coming down to the world of mortals for the sake of my portion that was in that place from the time when the innocent Sophia was conquered, she who descended, so that I might thwart their aim which the one revealed by her appoints.” And all were disturbed, each one who dwells in the house of the ignorant light, and the abyss trembled. And the Archigenetor of ignorance reigned over Chaos and the underworld, and produced a man in my likeness. But he neither knew that that one would become for him a sentence of dissolution, nor does he recognize the power in him.
[Note: This highly obscure and profound book found in the Nag Hammadi collection (XIII) may have been a sacred text to accompany an initiatory baptismal ceremony, and it is because of this that I am including it as one of the Songs. First Thought refers to the divine feminine aspect of the trinitized emanation known as Protennoia which is associated with the Higher Sophia/Holy Spirit, sometimes called Barbelo. (Ennoia is a figure associated with this “lower” aspect of Sophia). The text refers to three times that this First Thought descended into this mortal material realm. One of these descents came in the form of the Christ Logos who joined with the mortal Jesus. The full text includes reference to five lines that are missing, which is preceded by Christ/Logos saying, “Now behold! I will reveal to you my mysteries…” Some speculate that these lines were excluded on purpose and that it was some magical rite involving “five seals” of the human initiate. I am highlighting this section of the text as a Song of Sophia as it appears to be a rare sacred rendering of the highly obscure drama of the entrapment of Sophia by the “Archegenetor”. It also refers to where the creation of man lies in the scope of this great cosmic drama and how the potential within us, that is far greater than the Archegenetor, “would (eventually) become a sentence of dissolution” for this being.]
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Song 21
Ave praeclara maris stella.
“Hail bright star of the sea.”
Hymn attributed to Albertus Magnus, 13th century Christian scholar and philosopher.
Henry Corbin, Islamic Mysticism scholar extraordinaire, wrote in a posthumously published collection called Jung, Buddhism, and the Incarnation of Sophia; Unpublished Writings from the Philosopher of the Soul (2019) of the profound value of Jung’s Answer to Job which Corbin calls Jung’s “Sophianic” book. “The reign of the Holy Spirit as feminine hypostasis [underlying reality]… and identifying itself with Sophia, is thus the vision of ‘the dawning of a new aeon.’ And this is the answer to Job.” A year after Jung published his book, he wrote to Corbin, saying that Corbin “understood completely” what was occurring in this book. “The book (Answer to Job) ‘came to me’ during an illness, in a fever” Jung wrote to Corbin. “It was as if accompanied by grand music of a Bach or a Handel. I am not an auditory type. Because of that I understood nothing. It was only the feeling of a grand composition or rather a concert that I was attending.” Corbin reflected on the original German text of Jung’s book, “I had mentioned on certain pages the innermost vibration of a Sophianic hymn, hailing the approach of the eternal Virgin that means a new Creation. And I finally confessed to having reread the whole book (Answer to Job) as if it were an oratorio. One day, its score could imprint itself on a Handel of the future and it would end with a choir of soothing alto voices, proclaiming the hymn attributed to Albertus Magnus…: Ave praeclara maris stella.”
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Song 20
The Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic
(The prayer's first section as understood through a Gnostic and Kabbalistic lens)
Abwoon D’washmaya Nethqadash Shmokh Teythey Malkuthakh Nehwey Sebyanach Aykanna D’washmaya Aph B’arha
Biblical version from the Gospel of Matthew 6: 9-13.
“Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
The following translation was drawn from the work of Neil Douglas-Klotz in his book Prayers of the Cosmos and upon his review, he told me that this was kosher according to his own translation.
Abwoon Oh, Source of All! Mother-Father of the Cosmos
D’washmaya With Radiant Light that bursts forth from you
Nethqadash Shmokh We tune our hearts as instruments of your Holy Tone
Teythey Malkuthakh Come quickly! May Your Kingdom within become alive in us. Newey Sebyanach As is your desire, your yearning,
Aykanna D’washmaya May your Holy Light that fills the heavens
Ahp B’arha Be with us, here, now, in all beings.
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Notes: This translation is an attempt to work with the meanings of the words as they relate to the broader proto-Christian, Gnostic system, placing less emphasis on the nuance of Aramaic language translation.
My sense is that the work of Neil Douglas-Klotz (www.abwoon.org), a former teacher of mine at the former Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality in Oakland, has been enormously valuable in breathing into that old familiar prayer the breadth of rich interpretation found within the Aramaic language. However, the theological analysis, I believe, is still somewhat bound by a later “Christainized” and perhaps less original (proto-Christian, Gnostic) interpretation.
Douglas-Klotz’s distance from these proto-Christian and Gnostic themes are illustrated in his book The Hidden Gospel. He defines Sophia as a Wisdom figure primarily based on materials in the Old Testament and barely references the Gnostic Christ's teaching on Sophia.
The work of Lewis Keiser, Ph.D, in his essay The Authentic Meaning of the Aramaic Lord’s Prayer, argues that this prayer is from the late first – mid second century and was influenced by a more Pauline theology that was less specific and more expansive than what was possibly being taught in early first century Palestine. It is this Pauline, Hellenized system, according to James Tabor (Paul and Jesus) and many others, that is the primary theological foundation upon which orthodox Roman Christianity was built. Paul, who had a key influence in the development early Gnostic theology such as with Valentinus and Marcion, ironically may have had the unique opportunity to fold into this emerging “orthodox” version of Christianity, the seeds of these profound (earlier?) gnostic concepts. (Keiser, unfortunately in this article, I think, falls into that ever-so-common trap of seeing “gnostic” as a later corruption of the more original teachings of Yeshua). As a result, there are streams of the esoteric traditions that are found within this Lord’s Prayer, such as with the Kabbalist term Malkuth.
Kaballah and Gnosticism are related, like cousins of Jewish and Christian mysticism. In the Luriac Kabbalah system, the last emanation from the divine, the tenth sefiroth known as the “kingdom” Malkuth, is where the indwelling presence known as Shekinah resides, in this earthly realm though it is made of the stuff of it’s higher form, Hokhmah (Wisdom).
“The Shekhinah is below as it is above. And what is this Shekhinah? Let us say that it is the light that has emanated from the Primal Light which is Hokhmah. And this [i.e., the emanated Light] likewise surrounds everything, as is written, “the whole earth is filled with His glory” [Isa. 6.3]. Quoted in Gersham Scholem, On the Shape of the Godhead. p. 173.
According to Keiser, Malkuthakh invokes the universal principle of sovereignty, and the self authorship of free will.
He goes on to say that this Abwoon (Godhead) “is not a father or a deity, but the ultimate philosophical, metaphysical, causal, and scientific reality—the origin and unity of all. Godhead is the interior guiding intelligence that pervades all energy, matter, and life.” This would correspond to the Kabbalah concept of Ein Soph.
Keiser continues.
“Recently various authors have published what they claim to be the original Aramaic version of the Lord’s Prayer. However, this is not the authentic prayer that Yeshua, the Jesus of history, transmitted to his disciples. It is merely a second-century Syriac translation adapted from the Greek versions in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is used in the modern Syrian churches.
“Although Syriac was a development of Aramaic, the Abbun d’bishmayo or “Our Father Who art in Heaven” is taken from the Diatessaron or harmony of the New Testament gospels translated from the Greek into Syriac by Tatian about A.D. 160–175. In other words, the so-called Aramaic version of the Lord’s Prayer is merely a translation into second-century Syriac of the … Greek version in Matthew and Luke (c. A.D. 85-90). Like all the sayings and parables of Yeshua in the New Testament gospels, the Lord’s Prayer was poorly translated from Aramaic and altered to make sense in terms of the Pauline theology of the gentile churches.” (Keiser)
The significance of all this to the above translation is that, looking at the essential elements of the prayer through the lens of a Gnostic Paul, it opens up, perhaps, an even more profound prayer to the Divine Source and the “place where the light first came to being from itself” (Gospel of Thomas). This Abwoon prayer, as praise and desire for the divine Light emanation, is on par with the equally powerful Gayatri Mantra.
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Song 19
An ancient Zoroastrian version of Sophia and her descent as sparks of light into matter.
The Fravartis are, in Mazdean [Zoroastrian] cosmogony, feminine entities, heavenly archetypes of all the beings composing the Creation of light. … Each being has his fravarti in the heavenly world which assumes the role of his guardian angel. What is more, all the Celestial beings, gods, angels and archangels, even Ohrmazd himself [also spelled Ahura Mazda, Ineffable creation source being of the Zoroastrian system], have their respective fravarti. Syzygies of light, “light upon light.” Ohrmazd reveals to his prophet Zarathustra (6th century BC) that without the concurrence and assistance of the Fravartis he would not have been able to protect his Creation of light against the assault of the counter-creation of Ahriman [who equates with the gnostic demiurge, Yaldabaoth]. Now, the very idea of this warfare is dramatically unfolded when we come to the Fravartis of human beings. In the prelude to the millenniums of the period of mixture, Ohrmazd offered them the choice from which their entire destiny originates: they could either live in the celestial world sheltered from the ravages of Ahriman, or else descend to earth there to be incarnated in material bodies and struggle against the counter powers of Ahriman in the material world. Their answer to this proposal was the yes which gives their name its full meaning, most significantly for our purpose: those who have chosen. In practice the fravarti incarnated in the terrestrial world finally became identified in religious representations purely and simply with soul.
– from The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism, by Henry Corbin, p. 28-29 (1978). This amazing book culls broad themes of creation and emanation from 12th century Iranian sources such as Suhrawardi who sought to revive an ancient Persian Zoroastrian system which has tremendous parallels to the cosmology of the gnostics. Indeed, early gnostics may have been influenced by this oriental teaching as they interfaced with them in the far western reaches of the Parthian empire in Syria, during their earliest stages of gnostic development (first and second century AD). “Any rationalist interpretation would go astray here in reducing this Figure (fravartis) to allegory… By no means is it an allegorical construct but a primordial Image thanks to which a seeker perceives a world of reality which is neither the world of the senses nor the world of abstract concepts.” p. 32. Also, this rare piece of ancient theosophy sheds light on a vital question within gnosticism of whether Sophia “fell” into matter by folly, by accident, or by choice. This material suggests, as embedded in the very name favartis – “those who have chosen” to indicate the these Sophianic sparks came to this material realm by choice.
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Song 18
This Epinoia, leaping forth from him (the Boundless Power), and knowing what was the will of her Father, descended to the Lower Regions and generated the Angels and Powers, by whom the world was made. And after she had generated them, she was detained by them through envy, for they did not wish to be thought the progeny of another. As for himself he was entirely unknown by them; and it was his Thought (Epinoia) that was make prisoner by the Powers and Angels that had been emanated by her.
Referenced by G.R.S Meade in, Simon Magus. Mead notes; “The mystery of Sophia-Epinoia is great indeed, insolvable in is origins; for how does that which is Divine descend below and create Powers which imprison their parents? It is the mystery of the universe and of man, insoluble for all but he the Logos itself, by whose self-sacrifice Sophia, the Soul, is finally freed from her bonds.”
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Song 17
My bridegroom, be comforted. I have engaged myself to you in my highest love, and in my faith [have I] bound myself to you. I shall be with you in all the days to the end of the world. I shall come to you and make my dwelling in you in your internal choir. You will drink from my fountain, for I am now yours and you are mine.
– Boehme, The Way to Christ, I/51, p. 62.
This is from a dialogue that Boehme recorded between the soul and Sophia. Boehme is considered the father of Western Sophiology due to the depth of familiarity he had with this celestial phenomenon through what he claimed were visions of direct illumination from the Holy Spirit and Sophia. From Sophia-Maria, A Holistic View of Creation, by Thomas Schipflinger, Weiser, York Beach, Maine, 1998.
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Song 16
(The Great Emanation (Holy Spirit, called Barbelo in this text) said to Seth, offspring of Adam and Eve)
“O Foreigner, behold how your blessedness resides in silence through which you understand yourself as you really are. And in seeking to understand yourself, withdraw to reality, and you will find it standing at rest and still, after the resemblance of what is really still and restrains all these spiritual beings in quietness and lack of activity."
On the nature of the supernal Light within all “reality”. From The Gnostic Scriptures, by Bentley Layton, 1987. p. 145, Nag Hammadi Codex called, The Foreigner.
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Song 15
Om Bhur Bhuvaha Svaha Tat Savitur Vareniyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi Dhiyo yo nah Prachodeyat
(Dear) God that pervades Earth and Heaven The One God (Goddess) of Light that is The Most High (Universal Source) Oh Divine Luminous Radiant One, Who Flows Like Sacred Waters Ignite our Being with your Light.
Translation:
Om Bhur Bhuvaha Svaha (Dear…) God(dess) of earth (3D?) of the astral level (4D?) of the localized heaven (5D?)
Tat Savitur Vareniyam That God(dess) of Source Light the Greatest.
Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi Luminous Light Divine Radiance, that flows like sacred waters
Dhiyo yo nah Prachodeyat
Internal Spirit Consciousness our (Inspire) Ignite us.
Notes about the chant:
This is my translation of the Tibetan Buddhist Gayatri Mantra based on a few translations. Here we see a clear correlation between this ancient Tibetan Buddhist chant and the cosmology of the ancient esoteric traditions of Chinese Taosism (see The Secret of the Golden Flower), Kabbalah, Alchemy, Sufism as well as the numerous references to the activation of the divine light within the gnostic tradition.
Gayatri is the name of a certain meter of poetry, which is three lines (the first line here is an invocation for the verse), each with eight syllables. There are many gayatri chants but THE Gayatri Mantra presented here is well established as a unique and sacred verse. At the beginning of the chant, the first line is not actually apart of the chant but is rather a traditional invocation of the Divine Name of God, Om or Aum followed by a reference to the first three levels (of seven) of God’s creation. Bhur is earth (third dimension?), Bhuvah astral plane (fourth dimension?) and Svah is a localized heaven (fifth dimension?). This invocation is almost like a Christian version of “Dear God…” said prior to a prayer but in the Sanskrit, there is a call to God who exists here and above.
My favorite rendition of this mantra is from the music duo Rasa.
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Song 14
I hail from the Light and from the gods, Yet I have become as one banished, separated from them. The foes assembled above me And took me to the realm of death.
–Hymn on the Fate of the Living Soul (Parthian) from: Gnosis on the Silk Road, Gnostic texts from Central Asia.
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Song 13
And I hid myself in everyone, and showed [myself] forth in them.
And all acts of thinking desired me and sought me,
For it is I who have imparted image unto the eternity;
They were misshapen, and I changed their forms into (temporary) forms until such time as the entirety should be formed.
It was through me that the sound came to exist.
And it is I who put breath into my own.
And I injected the eternal holy spirit into them,
And I ascended and proceeded into my light.
I [bore fruit] down upon my branch, I sat [in the seed within the] children of the [eternal] light.
And [brought them to] their dwelling place. Amen!
– First Thought in Three Forms or Trimorphic Protennoia, circa prior to AD 350. Nag Hammadi, MS NHC XIII. From Layton, Bentley; The Gnostic Scriptures, 1987. Note: text represents words from the “Afterthought” or the Sophia who extended into the lower worlds from the Higher Sophia (who is known as Thought, Holy Spirit, or Great Emanation.) Interpretation support: “imparted image” – implanted Light. “I changed their forms” – from an original creator god human creation that then was implanted with Sophianic spirit of Light. “sound came to exist” – meaning essential sound as an expression of supernal Light vibration.
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Song 12
The man of light in me has guided me; he has rejoiced and bubbled up in me as if wishing to emerge from me and pass into thee.
Carl Schmidt, Koptish-gnostishe Schriften, I, Die Pistis Sophia, quoted in Henry Corbin, Man of Light in Iranian Sufism (1978)
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Song 11
The Wedding Song of Sophia
The Maiden is Light’s Daughter; On her the Kings’ Radiance resteth.
On the Crown of her Head the King Throneth.
Her Bridechamber shineth with Light pouring forth scent of balsam and sweet herbs.
With Kingly Clothes shall they be clad, and put on Robes of Light.
– from a gnostic fragment, translated by G.R.S. Mead, Echoes from the Gnosis. Notice how similar this is to the ecstatic divine love poetry of Song of Songs.
In his commentary, Mead writes, “…I have taken [this Song] as a subject not so much for its intrinsic merits, as because it affords an opportunity to set forth some information on that great mystery which was in antiquity generally known as the Sacred Marriage.”
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Song 10
Dearly beloved! I have called you so often and you have not heard me, I have shown myself to you so often and you have not seen me.
– The voice of Sophia from “Book of Theophanies”, by Ibn ‘Arabi quoted in Alone with the Alone by Henry Corbin, (1997).
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Song 9
THE MYSTERIOUS FEMALE (Tao Te Ching)
The Valley Spirit never dies It is named the Mysterious Female. And the doorway of the Mysterious Female Is the base from which Heaven and Earth sprang. It is there within us all the while; Draw upon it as you will; it never runs dry.
– from Tao te Ching, chap 6, translated by Arthur Waley, 1934.
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Song 8
[Sophia cries out to her Light of Lights (Christ).]
“‘1. O Light of lights, in whom I have had faith from the beginning, hearken now then, O Light, unto my repentance. Save me, O Light, for evil thoughts have entered into me.
“‘2. I gazed, O Light, into the lower parts and saw there a light. thinking: I will go to that region, in order that I may take that light. And I went and found myself in the darkness which is in the chaos below, and I could no more speed thence and go to my region, for I was sore pressed by all the emanations of Self-willed, and the lion-faced power took away my light in me.
“‘3. And I cried for help, but my voice hath not reached out of the darkness. And I looked unto the height, that the Light, in which I had had faith, might help me.
“‘4. And when I looked unto the height, I saw all the rulers of the æons, how in their numbers they looked down on me and rejoiced over me, though I had done them no ill; but they hated me without a cause. And when the emanations of Self-willed saw the rulers of the æons rejoicing over me, they knew that the rulers of the æons would not come to my aid; and those emanations which sore pressed me with violence, took courage, and the light which I had not taken from them, they have taken from me.
“‘5. Now, therefore, O Light of Truth, thou knowest that I have done this in my innocence, thinking that the lion-faced light-power belonged to thee; and the sin which I have done is open before thee.
“‘6. Suffer me no more to lack, O Lord, for I have had faith in thy light from the beginning; O Lord, O Light of the powers, suffer me no more to lack my light.
“‘7. For because of thy inducement and for the sake of thy light am I fallen into this oppression, and shame hath covered me.
“‘8. And because of the illusion of thy light, I am become a stranger to my brethren, the invisibles, and to the great emanations of Barbēlō.
“‘9. This hath befallen me, O Light, because I have been zealous for thy abode; and the wrath of Self-willed is come upon me–of him who had not hearkened unto thy command to emanate from the emanation of his power–because I was in his æon without performing his mystery.
“’10. And all the rulers of the æons mocked me.
“’11. And I was in that region, mourning and seeking after the light which I had seen in the height.
“’12. And the guards of the gates of the æons searched for me, and all who remain in their mystery mocked me.
“’13. But I looked up unto the height towards thee and had faith in thee. Now, therefore, O Light of lights, I am sore pressed in the darkness of chaos. If now thou wilt come to save me,–great is thy mercy,–then hear me in truth and save me.
“’14. Save me out of the matter of this darkness, that I may not be submerged therein, that I may be saved from the emanations of god Self-willed which press me sore, and from their evil doings.
“’15. Let not this darkness submerge me, and let not this lion-faced power entirely devour the whole of my power, and let not this chaos shroud my power.
“’16. Hear me, O Light, for thy grace is precious, and look down upon me according to the great mercy of thy Light.
“’17. Turn not thy face from me, for I am exceedingly tormented.
“’18. Haste thee, hearken unto me and save my power.
“’19. Save me because of the rulers who hate me, for thou knowest my sore oppression and my torment and the torment of my power which they have taken from me. They who have set me in all this evil are before thee; deal with them according to thy good pleasure.
“’20. My power looked forth from the midst of the chaos and from the midst of the darkness, and I waited for my pair, that he should come and fight for me, and he came not, and I looked that he should come and lend me power, and I found him not.
“’21. And when I sought the light, they gave me darkness; and when I sought my power, they gave me matter.
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– From Pistis Sophia 1:33 (click on link for complete translation). G.R. S. Mead, 1921.
In this section of the Pistis Sophia, The (pre-Roman) Gnostic Christ explains to his disciples (this is probably a later more Christianized version of an earlier text) Sophia’s Song of repentance, after which Mary Magdalene says that she has been moved by her Indwelling Light to recognize Sophia’s lament as an original version of the 69th psalm. “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me…”
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Song 7
Notre Dame Cathedral Paris
…the pure Light-power in Sophia began singing praises. She praised my Light-power, which was a crown around her head, singing her praises thus:
‘The Light has become a crown around my head; and I shall not relinquish it, so that the emanations of Self-Willed [the demiurge] may not steal it from me.
And although all Matters be in turmoil, still I am not distressed.
And although all my Matters are destroyed and remain in Chaos,
those [Matters] which the emanations of Self-Willed saw, still I shall not be destroyed.
For the Light is with me, and I am myself with the Light.‘
Pistis Sophia; I:59. Hurtak and Hurtak, p. 275.
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Song 6
In me there shall be nothing that is not light:
and I was clothed with the covering of Thy Spirit, and I cast away from me my raiment of skin.
– 25th Ode to Solomon
From: The Odes and Psalms of Solomon, by J. Rendel Harris, Cambridge U Press, 1911. p. 69.
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Song 5
Listen, O dearly beloved! I am the reality of the world, the center of the circumference, I am the parts and the whole. I am the will established between Heaven and Earth, I have created perception in you only in order to be the object of my perception. If then you perceive me, you perceive yourself. But you cannot perceive me through yourself. It is through my eyes that you see me and see yourself, Through your eyes you cannot see me.
Dearly beloved! I have called you so often and you have not heard me; I have shown myself to you so often and you have not seen me.
I have made myself fragrance so often, and you have not smelled me, Savorous food, and you nave not tasted me. Why can you not reach me through the object you touch Or breathe me through sweet perfumes? Why do you not see me? Why do you not hear me? Why? Why? Why? For you my delights surpass all other delights, And the pleasure I procure you surpasses all other pleasures. For you I am preferable to all other good things, I am Beauty, I am Grace. Love me, love me alone. Love yourself in me, in me alone. Attach yourself to me, No one is more inward that I. Others love you for their own sake, I love you for yourself. And you, you flee from me.
Dearly beloved! You cannot treat me fairly, For if you approach me, It is because I have approached you.
I am nearer to you than yourself, Than your soul, than your breath. Who among creatures Would treat you as I do? I am jealous of you over you, I want you to belong to no other, Not even to yourself. Be mine, be for me as you are in me, Though you are not even aware of it.
Dearly beloved! Let us go toward Union. And if we find the road That leads to separation, We will destroy separation. Let us go hand in hand. Let us enter the presence of Truth. Let it be our judge and imprint its seal upon our union For ever.
Book of Theophanies, by Ibn ‘Arabi. Quoted in Alone with the Alone by Henry Corbin, (1997). Ibn ‘Arabi was a 12th-13th century Sufi mystic who had a profound revelation of Sophia while in deep prayer in Mecca. Corbin discusses Arabi’s mysticism of Divine Love as a dialectic between 1) the Godhead’s “longing” for his “Hidden Treasure” that became separated from him/her with the emanation and 2) the longing of the essence of this original God/Goddess energy that lies within creation to reunite with the Great Source. The poem above is one expression of this theme that is a reverberation of the great Song of Songs.
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Song 4
My arms I lifted up to the Most High, even to the grace of the Lord; because He had cast off my bonds from me; and my Helper had lifted me up to His grace and to His salvation; and I put off darkness and clothed myself with light, and my soul acquired a body free from sorrow or affliction or pains.
21st Ode to Solomon
From: The Odes and Psalms of Solomon, by J. Rendel Harris, Cambridge U Press, 1911. p. 119.
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Song 3
The anima mundi [soul of the world], guide of Mankind, herself guided by God.
– Carl Jung, 1953
Robert Fludd. The metaphysical, physical, and technical history of the two worlds, namely the greater and the lesser, vol. 1.Frankfurt: J. T. Bry, 1624. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
[I saw this book by Robert Fludd, opened to this page, at an exhibit in 2010 at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, that paid tribute to “The Red Book of Carl Jung: It’s Origins and Influence” in 2010. In the foreword to his 1953 edition of Psychology and Alchemy, Jung included the engraving by English physician and mystical philosopher Robert Fludd (1574-1637), with Jung’s caption “the anima mundi [soul of the world], guide of Mankind, herself guided by God.”
Notice in Fludd’s image that there are nine levels (“aeons”, dimensions, or gateways) between the physical world and the “Light-Land” (as it is referred to in Pistis Sophia), known as the Pleroma (heavenly realm) in gnostic cosmology. In the image of Our Lady seated on the throne of wisdom at the entrance to Notre Dame de Paris (below), there is the nine rung ladder above which is her head reaching into the heavens.]
Central pillar, central west portal, chest level
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
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Song 2
Doth not Wisdom cry aloud in the public places and Prudence put forth her voice in the books of the wise, saying: O ye men, to you I call, and my voice is to the sons of understanding? Understand, ye foolish ones, and make the parable and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their mysterious sayings’ for the wise have used divers manners of speech in making comparison with everything that is upon the earth, and beneath the sphere of the moon they have multiplied parables in this science. For the wise man who heareth [the wise] will grow wiser and understand, and understanding this Wisdom he will lay hold upon her. This is Wisdom, namely the Queen of the South, who is said to have come from the east, like unto the MORNING RISING, [desiring] to hear, to understand, yea and to see the wisdom of Solomon, and there was given into her hand power, honour, strength, and dominion, bearing upon her head the crown of the kingdom shining with the rays of twelve stars, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and having on her garments written in golden letters in Greek, in barbarian (Arabic) script, and in Latin: Reigning I will reign, and my kingdom shall have no end for all them that find me and subtly and ingeniously and constantly seek me out.
From Aurora Consurgens, A Document Attributed to Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of the Opposites in Alchemy, A Companion Work to C.G. Jung’s MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS. Edited with a Commentary by Marie-Louis von Fran, Inner City Books, 2000. p.54-55. (According to von Franz, Aurora Consurgens was allegedly a written transcript of Aquinas’ last talk “on the Song of Songs”, recorded in 1274 just prior to his death. He had had a recent revelation that likely involved Sophia after which he said all his previous writing was like straw.)
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Song 1
“Wisdom sendeth forth her children.”
(Early Gnostic Fragment)
Chartres Cathedral, north rose window
Wisdom quote from G.R.S. Mead, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten. “In the early centuries of Christianity there were in circulation many traditions, legends, and religious romances, called Memoirs, Acts, and Gospels, which contained Sayings-of-the-Lord or Logoi.” The “Wisdom” quote is likely to refer to the theme of Sophia, the fallen aspect of Pronnoia (Thought)/Holy Spirit who, according to Valentinian gnostic cosmology, scattered her sparks of divine light (Epinoia), her children, into the bodies of humanity.