"In the beginning was Sophia, and Sophia was with God, united with the 
Logos."

In the Old Testament book of Proverbs and the apocryphal (extra-Biblical) 
book of Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom is personified as a female figure, one 
who was created before time, who works to create the world and who 
counsels God, sharing the throne as God's beloved. Because of Her role in 
creation, She mediates between God and humanity, coming from God and 
leading those who heed Her advice back to Him

While the importance of the Divine Sophia, Woman Wisdom, has long been 
obscured by the sexist theologians and priests of the patriarchal Church, 
there is currently a resurgence of interest in this mysterious figure. 
More and more thoughtful Christians and Jews are working to return Sophia 
to Her rightful place in the lives of all faithful people. For too long, 
the exoteric Church has failed to heed Her call to renewal. Perhaps, as we 
enter the new millennium, Wisdom's voice will finally ring out over the 
din of self-righteous God-talk and political posturing that so 
characterize our troubled age. Perhaps, it is the Second Coming of Sophia 
that will help to heal the wounds inflicted on our souls, bodies, and on 
our planet Earth by patriarchy.

Margaret Starbird has written an excellent book that clearly shows how 
suppression of the feminine by the church over the last two millennia has 
affected humankind.

(Goddess in the Gospels p. 22)

In worshiping an exclusively male image of God----a "God of power and 
might" glorified in liturgies and creeds of three major world 
religions---our institutions have entrenched a power-oriented value system 
that occasionally nods toward the feminine counterpart, especially if she 
is young and beautiful, but fails to honor her. The wisdom of the 
feminine, the unconscious, the body, the earth, has been "held bound" by 
our current institutions and customs. And we are not even aware to what 
great extent this is true! The subtle balance of the opposite energies has 
been lost for millennia, compounded in this current century with its 
high-technology discoveries and instant communications. 
What kind of world could we live in now if the founders of Christianity 
had acknowledged that the sacred union of male and female, of Bride and 
Bridegroom, once lay at the heart of the Christian message, embodied in 
the intimate relationship of Jesus and Mary Magdalene? 
What would the partnership mandala indigenous to Christianity have done 
for us if it hadn't been broken in the cradle of the new religion? What 
has the model of a "virgin mother" and a "celibate son" done to our 
collective psyche over the centuries?

The phenomenon of the Black Virgin confronts us with the survival of a 
popular heresy that has been a source of great embarrassment to the 
Church. Her origins are shrouded in mystery and the extent of her cult and 
influence has only begun to be known.  There are 302 Black Virgins in 
France alone. The Church has tried to explain away the blackness of these 
images as accidental, the result of candle smoke or exposure to the 
elements. But this does not make sense. If the faces and hands of the 
Virgin and child have been blackened by the elements, why has their 
polychromed clothing not been similarly discolored and why has a similar 
process not occurred in the case of other venerated images. The worship of 
the Black Virgin is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that began in the 
early Middle Ages but has persisted into the present despite opposition, 
often militant, by the established Church. 

The unraveling of the Black Virgin's mysteries leads us to the underside 
of Christianity. Two streams of veneration of the Black Virgin can be 
identified. Both are viewed as heresy by the established Church: One is a 
continuation of the earth-and women- centered Goddess religion; the other 
is the carrier of the esoteric teachings and spiritual practices of the 
Hellenistic period. This diverse group includes the Gnostics, the Cathars, 
the Knights Templars, the Cult of the Holy Grail and the Church of Mary 
Magdalene. The cult of Mary Magdalene, which worships the Black Virgin, 
absorbed many of the esoteric teachings. It is linked to the Black Virgin 
because both continued to hold the female principal sacred and divine.  
The Black Virgins posses great power, the mana of the old goddess of life, 
death and rebirth.  Mana is extraphysical power immanent in and emanating 
from nature, viewed as the embodiment of all forces that produce and 
maintain the order of the universe. This is why they were so threatening 
to the Church. 

Mary's original history had a place for Goddess to live in Christianity. 
She still does today. Bringing Mary back to her rightful place will bring 
balance to the world. The world cries out for the Feminine. The Black 
Virgin, Mary Magdalene and Mary, Mother of Yeshua, are all aspects of the 
Feminine and Goddess.

Suppressing the feminine in both men and women has had serious 
consequences. Since the days of Constantine in the 4th century, when the 
Christian bible was re-written, female roles, such as Mary the Mother and 
Mary Magdalene, were suppressed and minimized. 

The virtuous chaste Mary and the penitent sinner Magdalene provide models 
for human behavior that severely inhibit women from experiencing 
themselves as fully human. Such a polarized view of women presents a 
double-bind for both sexes.  Traditionally the virtuous wife could not be 
sexual; the sexual woman could not be virtuous.  Sex outside of marriage 
is a mortal sin, within marriage an ambiguous blessing.  In addition there 
is a double standard by which women are held morally accountable for their 
sexual activity.  Women's sexuality is viewed as the cause of man's 
continuing temptation.  That women should be punished and suffer for the 
sin of sexuality has been considered God-given justice.

If you would like to learn more about the Goddess, Sophia or Mary Magdalene, 
here are some suggested books:

Starbird, Margaret, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, Bear & Co, Santa Fe, 1993.
 - The Goddess in the Gospels, Bear & Co, Santa Fe, 1997

Powell, Robert A., The Most Holy Trinosophia,  Anthroposophic Press, 2000.
 - The Sophia Teachings, Lantern Books, 2001.

Schipflinger, Thomas, Sophia-Maria: A Holistic Vision of Creation, Samuel Wiser, Inc, 1998

Schaup, Susanne, Sophia: Aspects of the Divine Feminine, Nicholas-Hays, Inc.

Stone, Merlin, When God was a Woman, Harcourt Brace & Co, 1976.

Christ, Carol P, Rebirth of the Goddess,  Routledge, 1997




Tom Sparks
Bellingham, Wa
2004