Desire is the primal energy, and that energy is erotic: the attraction of lover to beloved, of planet to star, the lust of electron for proton. Love is the glue that holds the world together.
-Starhawk
The multiplicity of Source falls into a spiral of time and space. Western/gnostic mysticism delineates this “fall” as the Fall of Sophia, or Feminine consciousness, with fractals of Her cosmic wisdom descending into physical form. The life pulse of Her original magnitude exists in each of us, as it is never and can never be broken. Her immanent nature, all prima materia, (spirit hidden in matter) resides in the many as well as the one.
Historically, the fall of consciousness is a negative narrative in which the Feminine loses her power and must suffer the consequences of evil doing. The most recognizable culprit of women’s “wickedness” is Eve, who in taking a bite of the forbidden fruit, is forever cursed and banished from paradise. What’s confusing is that she is tempted by a snake-- the universal symbol of wisdom and healing energy. How is this possible?
If we re-envision Eve’s mythic-narrative from a gnostic point of view we can reclaim her as the Progenitrix of human consciousness, the “Mother of All Living.” Eve, or Havah, in Hebrew, can also be translated as "to be and become life." Biting into the forbidden apple, she honors the courageous desire to birth knowledge into flesh (earth realm) rather than remain in the Garden of Eden (spiritual/celestial realm). All potentials once unified with source-creation become uniquely embodied in skin and bone. "The effect of the fall was generation and sexuality. Eve was the gateway of generation" (Matthews, 2001).
Eve's descent becomes the initiatory pathway of making the unconscious conscious. Much like the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, the Queen of Heaven, who chooses to descend down the sevenfold stair to meet her elder sister, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld. In order to remember her true nature she is stripped of false beliefs at every level, she dies to her old self and is transformed by a wisdom that can only be found in death. Rather than despise humanity as inherently shameful or evil, may we too find our soul's journey through life-death-rebirth to be a sacred process of returning back to who we really are.
The ego perceives wisdom as mysterious, veiled or secret, even though it is our divine blueprint. Due to this seeming paradox, our journeys become a mirror image of Sophia's original fall/descension. In order to see beyond the veil of such illusion, we re-experience Her spiral passage as an ascension that includes some type of egoic death in order to know ourselves. As we awaken, our Shakti-feminine fire is said to rise through the seven chakras like a coiled serpent from the base of the spine. According to this perspective, enlightenment is a reunion with all aspects of the Self, Sophia consciousness, and ultimately our Spiritual heritage.
What lies at the heart of this ongoing dance, the rise and fall of the Feminine? I believe it is Sophia's love that endures through it all, and why it's so important to restore Her wisdom now. When the Feminine is exiled within us we are at odds with our true nature. We lose the ability to trust our innermost desires, to commune with Spirit and experience deeper harmony with others and all life. We can certainly see how this distortion plays out in the shadow of our personal and collective consciousness. Especially in times of extreme animosity, fear, and degradation of the Earth Herself, we know we are missing a profound relationship with the soul of our world and the abiding grace of Sophia.
Thank you for biting the seed
For birthing us into being
Great Mother of All Life
Eve, Eve, Eve
Thank you for falling
May we rise in your love
Great Wisdom Incarnate
Sophia, Sophia, Sophia
Sources: Don, Meghan (2016). The New Divine Feminine: Spiritual Evolution for a Woman's Soul.
Matthews, Caitlin (2001). Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom Bride of God. Starhawk (1999). The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess 20th Anniversary Edition.