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The Divine Feminine Ideal

The divine feminine occupied an important place in Gnostic theology. Certain sects of Gnostics eschewed eros (sexual longing to be united with another) in favor of agape (unconditional, self-sacrificing love). They practiced celibacy and aceticism. Those who engaged in lovemaking viewed their female partner as the embodiment of the divine feminine. The Gnostics' God was both masculine and feminine, and created humans in that divine image. Eventually, the concept of the divine feminine all but disappeared, while “the bride of Christ” came to mean the collective soul of the church.

Sophia, the Spirit of Wisdom

The Gnostics, like the Hebrew mystics, believed that wisdom also was a feminine attribute of God. The Gnostics saw wisdom as an Aeon who dwelled in the Pleroma, and they called wisdom by the name of Sophia, the “Mother of All Creation.” In Hebrew, her name was Hohkma; in Latin, it became Sapienta; and in Greek, she was Sophia. Some spiritual seekers called her God's female soul, his creative power or energy, and wisdom. Others claimed that the dove that descended upon Jesus after his baptism symbolized baptism by the Holy Spirit, not male, but female. In the ancient Near East, the dove has traditionally served as a symbol of the feminine and as a sign of baptism in which the soul becomes purified.

Mary Magdalene for many modern women symbolizes the Gnostic idealized divine feminine. She was the first eyewitness to Jesus' resurrected form. She has an important yet brief role in the canonical Gospels, but in the Gnostic texts she is revered. She is called Mariham, Mariam, Mariamne, Miryam, and Mary. Jesus called her “the Woman Who Knows the All.”

In many ancient sacred texts, the personification of wisdom was nearly always female. For example, The Book of Wisdom (a deuterocanonical — or Apochryphal — book, also known as the Wisdom of Solomon), found in the Hebrew scriptures refers to wisdom (the noun is female) throughout as female. She is “resplendent and unfading … and … readily perceived by those who love her” (Wisdom 6:12). In the Secret Book of James (also known as the Apocryphon of James), Jesus refers to himself as the son of the Holy Spirit and says to “become better than I; make yourselves like the son of the Holy Spirit.” The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach , a feminine-gender word; however, in the Greek-language New Testament it becomes pneuma , a neuter noun. The notion that Jesus had one male parent goes against the symbolism of God as “mother” and “father” that existed in certain traditions at the time that the new Christian religion emerged. The Gospel of Philip asserts that whoever becomes Christian gains both “mother” and “father” because Spirit (ruach) is the mother of many. “Wisdom [“mother”] is known by her children” (Matthew 11:19).

Sophia's Fall

The story of Sophia's fall begins with the idea of an original and unknowable First Parent (also known as Godhead, Forefather, Unknowable One, Monad, Root, Logos, All Begotten, First Mystery, and Aeon). The Godhead emanated pairs of “lesser” beings, quasi gods, of which Sophia and Christ were the youngest/lowest pair. These lesser gods with the Godhead made up the fullness of Pleroma (heaven). Following her emanation from the Godhead, Sophia feared losing knowledge and the light of the One. She longed to return to it. In her passion and longing, without either the help of her male counterpart or permission from the Godhead, she undertook the action of “emanating” a being — the Demiurge, a formless entity outside of the Pleroma.

This is the crisis in the story of Sophia. It came about not because of a sexual creational act but because of a masculine/feminine imbalance. Sophia's action disturbed the harmony of the Pleroma. The early Gnostics, as already noted, considered Christ the masculine counterpart of Sophia. The masculine name for Sophia is Lucifer (hêl in Hebrew, which means “shining one”). Some have equated the Demiurge, her offspring, as Satan.

Three types of humans exist in this material world, according to Valentianian Gnosticism. They include the hylics, in which humans are bound to matter (evil), psychics, in which humans are bound to the soul (and only partially evil), and pneumatics, special people capable of attaining enlightenment through gnosis.

Sophia imparted in the Demiurge a divine spark, or pneuma (Greek, meaning “wind,” “air,” or “spirit”). She hid the Demiurge away in a cloud, beyond the awareness of other immortals. Ignorant of Sophia, his “Mother God,” and using the power of Spirit, the Demiurge created the physical world. This caused the divine sparks (or spiritual longing) to become trapped in matter. Sophia's counterpart, Jesus, helps her to again see the light of the Godhead and helps her in understanding spirit.

The Greco-Roman philosophers believed that they could claim wisdom through reasoning alone, but the Gnostics believed that wisdom could only be achieved through inner, intuitive experiential knowing. The Gnostics told their stories in creation myths and in other literary forms. The fall of Sophia and her subsequent restoration to the Pleroma resonates in several well-known fairy tales and myths, both ancient and modern, including Persephone, Orpheus, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.

Salvation Through Gnosis

In Gnostic traditon, Christ helped Sophia to see the light of the Godhead. Christ then left the Pleroma and descended into the world of matter in the form of Jesus. There he imparted his secret knowledge — gnosis — so that humans could turn away from the material world and find their way back to the Pleroma or the Fullness of God. In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul pointed out that Christ's love bestows knowledge that gives the fullness of God. Could the “knowledge” that comes from loving Christ of which Paul wrote be gnosis? Paul addressed the need for unity of the church in Christ. In his letter, he wrote of seven unifying factors: spirit, hope, faith, church, baptism, one Lord, and the one God. Further, he expounded upon the idea that Christ's gifts are meant to lead to growth and renewal and that the light of Christ illuminates various aspects of human life. Although that particular Pauline letter seemed to be a straightforward plea to members of the young Christian church at Ephesus, the Gnostic symbolism is unmistakable. The orthodox early church fathers claimed Paul as one of their own, but modern Gnostic scholar Elaine Pagels suggests that Paul may have, in fact, been a Gnostic whose gnostic views were later covered up by the church.

According to the Gnostics, Jesus also taught them secret teachings that he did not give to the church. The church believed he was born of the Virgin Mary and God, with Joseph serving as his stepfather. But the Gnostics believed that Jesus was actually the offspring of God and Spirit/Sophia and with them made up the Trinity. He entered Mary's body through Mary and Joseph's lovemaking. That Gnostic belief and others caused animosity with the orthodox church that was further exacerbated by the Gnostics' rejection of the need for bishops, priests, and deacons, although they did allow women to serve in church leadership positions. Some scholars have noted that the Gnostics would draw straws to see who would officiate in their church/fellowship/prayer sessions. There was no established hierarchy of leadership. Many refused to make the sign of the cross. They did not believe that Jesus had suffered and died for their sins. They thought that there could be no separation of spirit from matter and, furthermore, that matter was evil. Jesus' suffering was simply a symbolism for the dark condition of humanity.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. — Ephesians 3:17–19

In Judaism, Christianity, and many ancient pagan belief systems, salvation was through faith and good works and through obedience to the will of God. The Gnostics set themselves apart from those other groups. If the Jews were God's chosen people, the Gnostics held a special place as well, as “the people who know” or the gnostikos . Their work on earth was to free themselves from the physical realm of matter. Their salvation came through secret, inner knowledge.

One of the tractates found at Nag Hammadi is titled A Valentinian Exposition (Codex XI, 2), On the Anointing, On Baptism A and B, and On the Eucharist A and B. Religious scholars believe the text to be a secret catechism used as an initiation into gnosis. The early Gnostic Christians viewed transcendence as a central tenet of their faith. They believed that the resurrection of the spirit had already taken place in this evil and alien world. Freedom and salvation came through the secret wisdom of gnosis. Several of their texts held that view of spiritual reality, including the Treatise on the Resurrection, the Exegesis on the Soul, and the Gospel of Philip.

The Hagia Sophia (or Church of Divine Wisdom), built in A.D. 360, celebrated Sophia's attributes of wisdom and light. For over a thousand years, it served as the Cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Forty windows around the dome's base allow light to reflect into the nave's interior. The quality of light has been described by pilgrims as soft and mystical, like a divine presence.

Sophia in the Secret Book of John

In the Apocryphon of John, a text of mythological Gnosticism discovered at Nag Hammadi, Sophia's desire to know the One leads her to emanate the Demiurge (God of imperfect creation) and subsequently causes the disturbance of the Pleroma. After the crisis, the Father of Everything emanates a new Aeon pair, Christos (masculine) and Holy Spirit (feminine), who stabilize the Pleroma and emanate a new Aeon, Jesus. Also, the Aeon Achamoth (lower Sophia) comes into being. So the new Aeon pair is Jesus/Sophia or Savior/Wisdom. Sophia then brings forth the god Psyche. This is a very simplistic way of explaining the complex cosmology of the Gnostics, which includes increasing stratification of heavens and planes of existence, complete with gods.

How does the Apocryphon of John describe the Unknowable God?

The purported author, John the son of Zebedee, offers a metaphysical exposition on the Gnostic creation myth in the Apocryphon of John, describing the Unknowable God as the Monad with “nothing above” who is the father of everything as well as the incorruptible and pure light, into which “no eye can look.”

Using Genesis and Revelation as a basic framework, the Apocryphon of John details humanity's creation, fall, and subsequent salvation. Scholars say that although the early church historian Irenaeus wrote about the teachings found in the Apocryphon of John, he did not know of that particular tractate. However, Irenaeus wrote Against Heresies about A.D. 185, so those particular Gnostic teachings must have already been circulating, and biblical scholars suggest that the Apocryphon of John can be dated prior to A.D. 180.

Sophia as a Message of Hope

Sophia's fall and redemption is also the story of the soul's bondage in matter and subsequent liberation through gnosis. Sophia's story features a message of hope that all of humankind can escape its entrapment in darkness and negativity once an awakening (an inner longing for the return to light and the Godhead) occurs. For a while, Sophia suffers in the bondage of ignorance. Her own light (the divine spark within her) calls her back to the Pleroma. This suggests that each individual soul can also awaken and be liberated. Sophia in The Thunder, Perfect Mind reveals that she is the one called “truth.”

Her essence of oneness underlies all things, even those with the appearance of duality. Although appearing as both light and dark, good and evil, strength and fear, male and female, knowledge and ignorance, and foolish and wise, Sophia remains unchanged. She epitomizes the mysterious and enigmatic embodiment of Divine Wisdom.

During her fall, Sophia wandered around bondage and ignorance. Her search for the Godhead symbolically represented each soul. The Gnostics saw Sophia's fall as the soul's fall from God. The distance between the soul and God brought suffering upon the soul, but suffering produced strength of will in the face of adversity, and that refined character. Ultimately, a strong character and the desire to move toward God inspired hope.

The Thunder, Perfect Mind has been called a “female revelation” that made it unique among all the texts found at Nag Hammadi. It has closest resonance to the Valentinian version of Gnosticism and also the Bible's wisdom hymns. It puts forth paradoxical proclamations, each beginning with the words, “I am.” For example, “I am the whore and the holy one.” Some scholars have defined the female narrative voice in The Thunder, Perfect Mind as the higher and lower Sophia figures or the Eve found in other Gnostic writings.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. — Romans 5:3–5

In their book Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teaching of the Original Christians , authors Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy assert that the main women in the New Testament Gospel accounts, namely Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, symbolize respectively the higher Sophia and the lower Sophia, two aspects of the single character in the Sophia myth. Some Gnostics believed that Mary Magdalene embodied Sophia or Holy Wisdom. She showed an insightful inquisitiveness and understanding of Jesus' wisdom teachings. In one, Jesus explained the origin of the the name Pistis. Jesus noted that in their descent from the immortal world to the corruptible one, Christ and Sophia revealed a brilliant light — the divine soul. Jesus called the light by its male name, Begetter of All Things and by its female name, Begettress Sophia, or Pistis.

Gnostics understood Sophia as the longing for return to the Godhead. The awakening and the thirst for knowledge and its acquisition, according to Gnostic belief, resulted in the realization that a savior was needed. That savior was Jesus. The sacred journey of returning to the Godhead was not made in one leap but in steady increments. The return, however, is the goal of life.

The Pistis Sophia

The Pistis Sophia (Faith Wisdom or sometimes translated as Faith of Sophia) dates to A.D. 250–300 and is one of those Gnostic scriptures that was once thought to have been destroyed by the orthodox early church but has survived. The text suggests that Jesus did not ascend to the Pleroma but stayed on earth for eleven years, teaching his disciples until he had brought their knowledge up to the first level of the mystery. The text explains the falling and rising of the soul, Gnostic cosmology, and desires that must be overcome for one to achieve salvation. Sophia's descent symbolizes the descent of the power of redemption in the divine feminine. Three Biblical female images express this power. They are Eve, the Virgin Mary, and Mary Magdalene.

Patristic Christian leaders in the fourth century banned the Pistis Sophia. The British Museum acquired a copy from a doctor in 1795 who got it from an unknown source. Written in Upper Egyptian Sahidic dialect translated from Greek, the text shows Jesus instructing his disciples in esoteric mysteries, in particular, Sophia's fall and repentance, symbolic of the predicament of individuals.

In the Gospel of Philip, a text that covers the topic of marriage as a sacred mystery, Mary Magadalene is called the “companion” of Jesus. It states that there were three Marys who always walked with him: his mother Mary, her sister (presumably the Virgin Mary's sister or sister-in-law), and Mary Magdalene, “the one who was called his companion.”

Peter Challenges Mary Magdalene

In the Pistis Sophia, Jesus' last teaching takes place on the Mount of Olives twelve years after his death and resurrection. Here, he teaches his disciples (Martha, Matthew, Philip, Peter, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Salome, among them) about many realms of the invisible world. He instructs them in esoteric mysteries. At one point during the discourse, Peter, Jesus' hot-tempered, impulsive disciple (whom some have labeled a mysogynist and others have called tender-hearted), complained to Jesus that he and the other disciples cannot endure Mary Magdalene because she talks too much, depriving them of the opportunity to speak.

Two things are notable about this passage. The first is that Jesus treated his female disciples as equal participants with the men in his discourse sessions. The second reveals Peter's intolerance of Mary Magdalene. Her questioning of the Savior and her ongoing discourse is not to Peter's liking, nor would it have been tolerated by the orthodox Christian fathers who followed Peter after Jesus' death.

Mary Magdalene tells Jesus that she is afraid of Peter, because he threatened her and because he hates her sex. The Pistis Sophia, along with the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of the Egyptians, and the Gospel of Mary, illustrate tensions between these two important disciples of Jesus. The tensions between these two echo outward into the earliest groups of Christians, before the orthodoxy had established itself and ordered the destruction of any texts offering competing viewpoints.

References in Sophian teachings of the holy bride usually mean the presence and power of the Divine (Sophia) as embodied in each human, with Christ as the masculine counterpart. Mary Magdalene has been called the Sophia or “Divine Wisdom” of Jesus Christ.

The conflict between Mary Magdalene and Peter indicates differences in viewpoints and interpretations of Jesus' esoteric teachings by two of his closest disciples. Both of them possessed an understanding of what the Lord had taught them. But Mary Magdalene was a mystic and visionary and Jesus empowered, emboldened, and magnified her while he often rebuked Peter for his brashness and cowardess. Nevertheless, in Peter, he saw a tender-hearted man, someone who was solid and courageous (especially after the Pentecost).

Mary Magdalene spoke boldly and in openess about her fear of Peter. But Jesus made the ultimate promise to Mary when he told her that because her heart was pure and strained toward heaven more than her brother and sister disciples, he would complete her, bestowing upon her all the divine mysteries.

Mary Magdalene as Jesus' Elect

In the Pistis Sophia, Jesus calls Mary Magdalene “blessed.” He praises her spiritual understanding, saying that she is more spiritual than the others. Jesus tells Mary Magdalene that she will inherit the whole Kingdom of the Light. Some feminist theologians believe that Jesus, in his enthusiastic support of Mary Magdalene, intended for her to be his spiritual heir over his ministry. They say that Mary Magdalene occupied a special place in his heart, and that he told her she was blessed beyond all the women upon the earth and would be the “perfection of all perfections.” Some translations say she would be the “completeness of all completions.” Mary Magdalene asked him if she could speak directly and he told her to speak in openess and not be afraid. He told her to ask him any question and he would reveal the answer to her.

According to the Gospel of Mary, after Jesus had been put to death Peter asked Mary Magdalene to share some words or teachings that Jesus had given her but not the others. This indicates that Peter knew that Jesus and Mary Magdalene shared a close, intimate friendship.

Mary Magdalene may have served in many roles in the life and ministry of Jesus, but only her role as the victim of demon possession that Jesus healed and her role as the eyewitness to the Resurrection are recorded in the New Testament Gospels. However, mention is made that she was among a group of women followers who supported Jesus' mission out of their means (finances).

Was Mary Magdalene the leader of a sect of early Christianity?

Some feminist theologians and religious scholars say that she stood out as a likely candidate. In widely circulated early Christian writings, Mary Magdalene was depicted as a mystic, someone close (perhaps closest) to Jesus, who grasped his most esoteric lessons, had visions, and articulated his teachings to others.

According to John's Gospel, after death Jesus chose to appear to a certain woman, his pre-eminent female follower. Her testimony that he had risen inspired hope in the Christians. Her words of comfort turned their minds toward God and away from grief. It would have been difficult to downplay or erase Mary Magdalene's central role in the Resurrection, and, indeed, there are fourteen references to her in the canonical Gospels. But there is no mention of other roles that she may have had, such as leader of one important branch of Christianity, or of her teaching and preaching.