You probably learned that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute whom Jesus forgave. She’s the repentant sinner who washed his feet with tears and dried them with her hair. There’s just one problem: that’s not what the texts say. The Bible never identifies Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. That association came later, in a 6th-century sermon by Pope Gregory the Great, who conflated several different women in the Gospels into a single figure. ...
Before there was a world, there was a mistake. Not a human mistake. A divine one. Made by Wisdom herself. The ancient Gnostics told a story that explains why the world contains both beauty and suffering, why we feel homesick for a place we’ve never been, and why the path to awakening is also the path of return. It’s the story of Sophia. And it might be your story too. ...
This is the third and final post in a series on Sophia. The first covered The Fall of Sophia, and the second explored The Thirteen Repentances. The story has moved from tragedy toward hope. Sophia fell through her solitary act of creation. She suffered in the chaos below, her light stolen, her dignity mocked. She offered thirteen repentances, turning persistently toward the light despite her darkness. Now comes the resolution: Sophia’s restoration to the Pleroma, the divine Fullness from which she fell. ...
In 1945, farmers digging near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi unearthed a sealed earthenware jar containing ancient manuscripts. Among them was one of the strangest and most powerful texts in all of religious literature. It’s called Thunder, Perfect Mind. A voice speaks. She does not give her name. But she speaks in the first person, with authority, claiming identities that cannot coexist. She demands attention. She defies understanding. She shatters every category we use to organize reality. ...