Sofia
Composing on a Mac is weird and awkward. The Mouse is bizarre. Moreover, Im sitting on a stool with the keyboard on my lap, far far from the screen.
Incredibly hot today. Headaches, sore legs and frustration. I can't get my mind round Sofia, city of holy Wisdom, can't grasp or discern a clear picture of it. Maybe I need more time. Very long streets, lots of shops, not enough squares, not enough open spaces.
Lovely yoghurt type drink that I hope will calm my stomach. It looks like milk and you can buy it in pubs.
Wikipedia and Google do not clearly point to any real historical figure called St.Sophia (or Sofia), the Sofia which so many churches in the Orthodox World and this city are named after. So one is inclined, as I am tempted, to conclude that the Sofia referred to is in fact the celestial enity equated with "Wisdom'', or "The Wisdom of Jesus Christ". While in the non-heretical conventional Christian World there's not much to this "Sofia", beyond whetever it is you might think of as Wisdom, when you look at Sofia from a Gnostic viewpoint a true can of worms open up. This Sofia to them is a female manifestation of the Godhead and consort to the celestial Christ, who in a fit of Christ-shunning independence created a flawed, lesser being called laldabaoth, whom she then hid in a cloud. Poor laldabaoth you might think. Well, Indeed. Anyway, according to the gnostics, this cloud dwelling lesser being is none other than the creator of the physical universe, and so more than a little important- at least from our perspective- despite his flaws and limitations.
The appeal of this gnostic myth is that it echoes what Morpheus tells us in the film, The Matrix, that there is 'something wrong with the world'. Just as in the film, so also in reality, what is wrong is that this 'world' is the invention of a malicious and manipulative, or at least ignorant and deluded, agency, and that it is not our true home.
A pleasing corollary to this, one that defends the dignity of we humans (generally a good thing I find), is that we cannot be to blame for the problems of the world in the way mainstream Christian theologians tediously insist we are with their fruity doctrine of Original Sin etc etc etc.
Instead to blame is this cloud dweller, the blind God, the child of Chaos, laldabaoth, and behind him, ultimately (for presumably he didn't ask to be born and to be concealed in a cloud) Sofia herself, the consort, or dare we say lover of Christ (forget the Magdalene, this romance with Sofia was bred from eternity).
And since Sofia is divine this 'blasphemously' puts the blame on the true God him/herself, which of course is something the pomposity of mainstrean Christianity can never stomach. And why should that be we might ask? Because to them God is ultimately all about power, and is the ultimate justification of their own all-too-human power. As below, so above. Power loving priests cannot continue in power if they accept blame or criticism, and so it must be the same, indeed even more so, for the God that upholds and defends their position.
But if God is not about power at all, but instead about love, then God wouldn't mind being exposed to criticism or being vulnerable, and accepting that things might have gone wrong, or even fundamentally be wrong, with the very structure of the universe itself.
But spiritual people will never be comfortable with this idea as long as they cling to their pomposity, I fear.
Incredibly hot today. Headaches, sore legs and frustration. I can't get my mind round Sofia, city of holy Wisdom, can't grasp or discern a clear picture of it. Maybe I need more time. Very long streets, lots of shops, not enough squares, not enough open spaces.
Lovely yoghurt type drink that I hope will calm my stomach. It looks like milk and you can buy it in pubs.
Wikipedia and Google do not clearly point to any real historical figure called St.Sophia (or Sofia), the Sofia which so many churches in the Orthodox World and this city are named after. So one is inclined, as I am tempted, to conclude that the Sofia referred to is in fact the celestial enity equated with "Wisdom'', or "The Wisdom of Jesus Christ". While in the non-heretical conventional Christian World there's not much to this "Sofia", beyond whetever it is you might think of as Wisdom, when you look at Sofia from a Gnostic viewpoint a true can of worms open up. This Sofia to them is a female manifestation of the Godhead and consort to the celestial Christ, who in a fit of Christ-shunning independence created a flawed, lesser being called laldabaoth, whom she then hid in a cloud. Poor laldabaoth you might think. Well, Indeed. Anyway, according to the gnostics, this cloud dwelling lesser being is none other than the creator of the physical universe, and so more than a little important- at least from our perspective- despite his flaws and limitations.
The appeal of this gnostic myth is that it echoes what Morpheus tells us in the film, The Matrix, that there is 'something wrong with the world'. Just as in the film, so also in reality, what is wrong is that this 'world' is the invention of a malicious and manipulative, or at least ignorant and deluded, agency, and that it is not our true home.
A pleasing corollary to this, one that defends the dignity of we humans (generally a good thing I find), is that we cannot be to blame for the problems of the world in the way mainstream Christian theologians tediously insist we are with their fruity doctrine of Original Sin etc etc etc.
Instead to blame is this cloud dweller, the blind God, the child of Chaos, laldabaoth, and behind him, ultimately (for presumably he didn't ask to be born and to be concealed in a cloud) Sofia herself, the consort, or dare we say lover of Christ (forget the Magdalene, this romance with Sofia was bred from eternity).
And since Sofia is divine this 'blasphemously' puts the blame on the true God him/herself, which of course is something the pomposity of mainstrean Christianity can never stomach. And why should that be we might ask? Because to them God is ultimately all about power, and is the ultimate justification of their own all-too-human power. As below, so above. Power loving priests cannot continue in power if they accept blame or criticism, and so it must be the same, indeed even more so, for the God that upholds and defends their position.
But if God is not about power at all, but instead about love, then God wouldn't mind being exposed to criticism or being vulnerable, and accepting that things might have gone wrong, or even fundamentally be wrong, with the very structure of the universe itself.
But spiritual people will never be comfortable with this idea as long as they cling to their pomposity, I fear.
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