Fall of Sophia: A Gnostic Text on the Redemption of Consciousness

"I came forth from the mouth of the Most High and covered the earth like a mist. I encamped in the heights, and my throne was in a pillar of cloud. Alone I compassed the vault of heaven and traversed the depths of the abyss. Over waves of the sea, over all the earth, and over every people and nation I have held sway.... Before the ages, in the beginning, he created me, and for all ages I shall not cease to be." (Eccl. 24:3-6, 9) Sophia (the world soul) fell from her place in the heavens to the chaos below. Sophia is among the most haunting and mysterious figures in Western spirituality. She is also one of the great symbols of the divine feminine in world civilization. The personification of divine Wisdom, Sophia is praised in the biblical book of Proverbs as co-creator of the universe with God. In the secret teachings of early Christianity known as Gnosticism, she represents our shared consciousness, trapped in the material world as a result of the Fall. One of the most sublime Gnostic