Sophia Of The Heights
From A List
Artist Unknown

Aloha and thank you,

I will tell you a little something about myself and my work with Sophia.

How did it all begin?

Through wonder. It was a time of turmoil in my life. I was wondering about the meaning of life and asking, "Is this all there is?"

In 1971 in the New Forest in England a vision of light appeared to me.

It was like Light coming in the form of a female divinity. She said, "I love you. Love me. I am Sophia."

I am of Greek descent. I read and write and speak Greek. I knew Sophia as Wisdom. As in philosophy and in theosophy, etc. etc.

After the vision, I started doing research on "Sophia".

Around 600 BC, Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician, among other things, was the first to call himself a philosopher because he was a lover of wisdom. He also spoke of the transmigration of the soul and was also the first to use the word "cosmos" and the first to deduce the earth as a sphere. I often wonder if his school (and the great library in Alexandria) had not been burned, what other ideas might have passed on to us through Pythagoras.

Lao-tse in China, was at the same time, speaking of Wisdom as the Mother of All Things. Gautama Buddha in India was writing his "Three baskets of Wisdom". Zoroaster in Persia and the Jewish prophets in Israel, Egypt and Babylon were also writing about Wisdom. (The Egyptians had circumnavigated Africa, but these were not internet days, when ideas could be spread so quickly!)

In 1985 - fourteen years after my experience in the New Forest, I picked up copy of Gnosis magazine and wrote Jay Kinney, the following which he published.

"The feminine in Western Spirituality re-emerging in this New Age is the hauntingly beautiful splendor and sacred awe of the spirit of Sophia; the gnosis and wisdom not of some passing age, but an inexhaustible spiritual power, impervious to time, that connects the elect of all ages.

"From a cloud of peace, in a mist of silence, she spans the world to create a synthesis, to unite the opposites, to pervade and permeate all hearts with the inner light of love.

"Sophia is, will be and has always been the elixir of life; the philosopher's gold; the oneness and essence of the physical world-self, the Quinta Essentia..."

Then I received a letter from Caitlin Matthews saying she was writing a book called "Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom - Black Goddess to World Soul" and that the last chapter would be called the New Gnostics and could she write about me in that chapter.

The last ten years have been more about helping people have an experience of Sophia.

Currently I am working on the alchemical aspects. Alchemy being my favorite parts of Jung's work.

I also teach yoga and tai-chi with of course the emphasis on Yin.

In loving Sophia,

Aurora

And -- from a forward of a letter Aurora had written a Johnes (forwarded on July 19th, 2003).

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Erich Neumann's books are among some of my favorites, and needless to say my favorite is the last chapter "Spiritual Transformation: Sophia" in "The Great Mother".

Is it in Arabian alchemy that there is a "tree of the sea" with parallels to the tree of the Sefiroth in the Cabala, the tree of faith in Christianity, the tree of the Bright that is called Brahman in Hindu philosopy or arbor philosophica in western alchemy?

How about Jung's "Mysterium Coniunctionis"? It might shed some light on what you are presently working on.

It seems to me that you love words. I do too. I don't have my reference with me here/now but have you heard the original soph root meant milk and bread?

Also history from the Greek root histor, for finding out, or learned, wise man or historia learned, wise woman?

I am working on quartering the circle.

Currently I am on the big island of Hawaii watching the orchids grow. I do not have a computer or really access to any of my books or works. Hopefully in the next few weeks, I will make it to the west and east coasts and gather my scattered notes, etc. and contact you about the web site.

Thank you again for sharing so much with me. I will write more after I have printed it all out.

"There was something formless yet complete that existed before heaven and earth; Without sound, without substance, Dependent on nothing, unchanging, All pervading, unfailing. One may think of it as the mother of all things under heaven."

Tao Teh Ching

"And as all things proceed from the One, through the meditation of the One, so all things proceed from this one thing, by adaptation. Its father is the sun, its mother the moon, the wind has carried it in its belly."

Tabula Smaragdina

"The child of Wisdom is born in the moon."

Tabula Smaragdina

Wishing you always wings of wisdom,
Aurora