The Blessing of Sophia
Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom has been a soul companion to me for decades. During my formal priestess training she became an integral part of my spiritual mandala and I’ve dedicated my oracular work to her. This year I placed her devotional window in the month of December, which is close to my heart for the return of the light at Winter Solstice and for my own birthday on the 27th. I’ve been slowly working on creating my own invocation of her based on the epic Gnostic poem known as The Thunder, Perfect Mind. This text was recovered from the Nag Hammadi library in 1945, in a singular manuscript written in Coptic (early Egyptian) around the 4th century CE, though the literature itself may have been composed several centuries earlier. It contains a curious amalgam of literary styles and poetic devices that illustrate its provenance from the deeply syncretic cultures of the Near East in the early centuries of Christianity.
In the spirit of the ancient scribes, I have pored over the text (as translated by Anne McGuire, 2000), and redacted, revised, restructured, and recomposed it—with some poetic license—in a manner that reflects Sophia as I perceive her. It may yet evolve further, but I hope you find some beauty, power, and inspiration in these words.
The Thunder, Perfect Mind: Blessing of Sophia
I was sent from the Power;
Think of me and I will appear.
I come to those who call me forth from the Source.
Do not look for me with your eyes.
But seek, and you will find me.
Do not scream for me, longing to be heard;
Listen to the wind, and you will hear me.
Know that I am everywhere through all of time;
And I have come from within you.
Be vigilant! Do not look away.
For I am the first and the last,
I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am the honored and the scorned,
I am the harlot and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin,
I am the mother and the daughter.
I am the bride of many, yet have taken no husband.
I am the midwife, and She who is childless.
I am the quelling of my labor pains,
And I embody all the aspects of my mother.
I am the barren field, and I bring forth many fruits.
I am the bride and her shining consort.
It is I who begot him; he is my offspring.
The Power gave me consciousness in the beginning,
And from me it is embodied on a day of birth.
We are both Lord and Servant to each other.
Our fates are entwined in eternity.
Give heed to me!
See how I own nothing, and yet am rich beyond measure.
Do not scorn me who walks among the outcast,
For I will one day lead them.
Do not abandon me to the Abyss,
For my true home is the Kingdom.
Do not forsake me, and do not fear my Power.
I am the incomprehensible silence and the indwelling thought.
I am the voice of many languages and the utterance of prayers.
I am the Power of my Name.
I am she who is called Life and you have called Death.
I am she who is called Law and you have called Lawlessness.
You have loved me, and you have hated me.
You have desired me, yet kept me chained.
You honor me and you whisper against me.
You have scattered me like ashes and scooped me into your hands like precious salt.
You yearn for
me—godless, scorned, and unlearned as I am,
For the Power of all gods comes from me.
I am Wisdom, Gnosis, and Judgment.
I am ashamed and I am bold.
I am the disgraced and the exalted one.
I am strength and fear; I am merciful and I am cruel.
I am union and dissolution.
Do not forsake me, and do not be afraid of my Power.
I am the gnosis of my seeking, and the finding of those who seek after me.
If you hide yourselves from me, you will be revealed.
When you are revealed to me, I will withdraw from you.
I am the Name of the Voice and the Voice of the Name.
You who are defeated, judge them before they pass judgment against you.
For the judge and partiality exist within you.
The one who molded you on the outside has made an impression of it inside of you.
For what is inside of you is also what is outside of you.
And that which you see outside of you, you see inside of you.
It is manifest and it is your garment.
I am the utterance that cannot be restrained.
I am the perfect Mind and the repose of the Thunder.
Behold, then, the utterances of Power,
And all the writings that have been completed.
Give heed then, all you who listen,
You, spirits who have arisen from the dead,
And those immortal ones who have been sent,
Of the angels who have been sent by my word,
And the gods in their seasons by my command.
The spirits of all humans arise from me,
And it is within me that women exist.
I am the Light and the Power of that which created me.
Despise me not, for I am the one who alone exists,
And there are none who will judge me.
Many are the sweet forms that exist in numerous sins,
And unrestrained acts and disgraceful passions,
And temporal pleasures which are restrained
Until they become sober and run up to their place of rest.
I am Descent, and they rise to meet me there,
And they will live and they will not die again.