What We Believe

The Sophian path is a tradition and a group of beliefs.  It is also, first and foremost, a path to enlightenment.  This being said, we recognize that there are other paths and other traditions.  We do not see our path as the path for everyone.  Quite the contrary, our way is certainly helpful for many, but there are other traditions that may be of more help to some.  We value true spirituality and faith. 

 

We also value all beings no matter what their creed, color, gender, sexual-orientation, political persuasion, age, etc.  Our tradition is not one of judgment, but one of tikkune (Hebrew for healing).  We believe in what ever is best for the individual and their path of reunification.  The heart of our tradition is living and practicing a spiritual life.   This entails following the way of Yeshua and Mary Magdalene.  Living a life of compassion while we live out our spirituality.

 

 

Yeshua

At the heart of Gnostic Christianity is the view of Yeshua as a human being who became Self-realized or Enlightened.  We believe he was not born Christ, but became Christed by engaging in spiritual practice and spiritual living.  It is said that Yeshua was the incarnation of a Great Soul and that he had accomplished Self-realization in previous lives. Nevertheless, he had to travel the Path to Enlightenment as any other human being does. In so doing he became a living example of the Path to Self-realization or Enlightenment and was empowered to teach others how to attain Christ Consciousness.

This teaching of Yeshua as a human being who became Self-realized or Enlightened is most important because it means that Yeshua is not separate or apart from everyone but rather represents the Divine Potential that is within every one of us.  Anyone who is willing to apply him or herself to spiritual practice and spiritual living can attain Supernal or Messianic Consciousness. Essentially, what is revealed in Master Yeshua is the true purpose and meaning of human incarnation – the Enlightenment and Liberation of the soul.

Christos

Yeshua was not the only one to embody the Holy Shekinah (Divine Presence & Power).  He revealed the Path to his disciples through which they also might attain Messianic Consciousness. While traditional Christianity teaches that the Soul of the Messiah was exclusive to Yeshua, Gnostic Christianity teaches that others also embodied Supernal Consciousness. We believe that Mary Magdalene and other disciples of the First Circle also embodied these higher levels of consciousness.

In Gnostic Teachings the Christos is a Divine being. Christ the Logos is the Consciousness of Supernal Being and Christ the Sophia is the Energy of Supernal Being. We believe that both Yeshua and Magdalene embody the Christos: he embodies Christ the Logos (the Bridegroom) and she embodies Christ the Sophia (the Holy Bride). Thus, in union, the Divine Fullness of the Christos is embodied.
 

Magdalene

On the one hand, Magdalene is the inmost disciple of  Yeshua, receiving all teachings from him. On the other hand, she is co-preacher and co-enlightened with him, his spiritual consort and wife. Ultimately, she is the direct successor of Yeshua, Apostle of the Apostles. Essentially they complete and fulfill one another.  This being said, her place as enlightened being and Apostle of the Apostles is much more important than whether she and Yeshua were married or not.

 

Concepts of God

In Kabbalah there are three common terms for God that relate directly to our vision.  They are Ain, Ain Sof, and Ain Sof Or.  Ain means “no-thingness”; Ain Sof means the “infinite”; and Ain Sof Or means “infinite light”.

 

The term Ain in Sophian tradition denotes that God is completely beyond our mental faculties.  This is to say that God is neither something or nothing.  One way to look at this is to look into our own consciousness and see where thoughts arise.  They do not appear to have a beginning or an end.  They are no thing.  This points to the idea that our consciousness is the same as the nature of God.  So, to know God, we must no ourselves.

We can understand the nature of God by looking at our own self-hood.  We experience a distinct sense of self, yet when we look inward and go looking for the self, there is no self to find.  Yet, when we turn outward the self seems to reappear.  Thus we can experience God as both personal and impersonal; as immanent and transcendent.    Basically, Sophian teachings constantly remind us that whatever concepts of the ultimate truth we may have, they are not the ultimate truth itself.

 

God the Father and God the Mother

If one looks into the word Spirit in both Hebrew and Greek, one will find that in Hebrew it is actually a feminine word and in Greek it is neuter, having no specific gender association.   This brings the question as to why traditional Christian theologians have decided that the Holy Spirit is male?  Sophian Gnostics consider the Holy Spirit to be feminine and often calls her the Mother Spirit.

 

Sophian tradition does speak of a trinity, but more often of a tetrad consisting of Father, Mother, Son, & Daughter.  This is reflected in the divine name Yahweh which consists of the Hebrew letters Yah, Heh, Vav, Heh.  The Yah is considered God the Father, the first Heh is God the Mother, the Vav is God the Son, and the second Heh is God the Daughter (or Bride).

 

The Father in Sophian tradition is considered the transcendent form of the divine and is the divine name Yahweh, the force of divine power, while the mother is the imminent aspect of the divine and is the divine name Elohim, the matrix of the life-power in many forms.  When we speak of the Father & Mother we are not speaking of a God and Goddess, but of masculine and feminine aspects of the One God, which is both Mother and Father.

 

Mother Mary

In traditional churches, Mother Mary is seen as the Mother of Christ, but not as God the Mother.  She is seen in various ways, but mostly as an intercessor between human beings and God.

 

Among Mystical Christians, the view of Mother Mary is diverse.  Some do not speak of her almost at all while others see her as much more.  In the Sophian tradition she is seen as another image of Christed womanhood.  It is felt that she also reached enlightenment, just as Yeshua and Mary Magdalene did.   In our tradition she is seen as a personification of Mother God.


Scripture

The Scriptures of the Judaic-Christian Tradition are primarily allegorical and yet, they are also historical. They are a Living Myth that reveals the Divine in Creation and the Path of a Conscious Evolution to enlightenment.  There are also historical elements within the Scriptures, shedding light on the culture and times they represent.

 

Gnosis

The term Gnosis is a Greek word that literally means “knowledge”.  Since it is associated with spirituality, some have claimed that the term means “hidden knowledge”, but it is more accurate to define it as “experiential knowledge”. 

 

This being said, a Gnostic is someone who seeks experiential understanding of their spirituality instead of blind faith.  Faith is a good starting point for a Gnostic journey, but it is never the end goal. Gnosticism was first associated with a group of mystical Christian traditions that were centered around the second century AD.  Unfortunately, some scholars have limited the definition to only these groups and have not considered the broader picture of what Gnosticism encompasses. 

 

Since a Gnostic seeks experiential knowledge of their spirituality, the term can be used for many varied traditions around the world.  There is no need to limit Gnosticism to the Christian stream of spirituality.  Most Gnostics would consider Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnostic Christianity, Jewish Kabbalah, Taoism, Toltec tradition, ancient Druidism, Islamic Sufi tradition and many others to be Gnostic.  Unfortunately because of the bias of scholars to consider the term Gnostic to only encompass Christian tradition that was considered heretical during the 2nd Century AD, most of the general public who knows the term believe that all Gnostics are the same.  This is absolutely not the case.  Just as there are many traditional Christian traditions with very wide range of practices and beliefs, there are also a very wide range of Christian Gnostic traditions.  When encompassing all Gnostic traditions into the Gnostic paradigm, it becomes clear that there are at least as many Gnostic streams as there are world religions.

 

Kabbalah

Because Yeshua was a Jewish Mystic, Kabbalah was a major influence on his theology.  Once one begins to study Kabbalah he or she will quickly see the Kabbalistic themes in Yeshua's teachings.  As Christian Gnostics we study a form of Christian Kabbalah that is rooted in an ancient Jewish foundation, but with gnostic themes and paradigms applied.

 

Interior Stars

Interior Stars is the Sophian Gnostic term for what Eastern tradition calls Chakras.  These are energy centers in the body that follow the spine and correspond to our spiritual nature.  If these centers are not aligned and open we can have spiritual, physical, and emotional issues.

 

Other Traditions

As Gnostics, Sophians borrow from other traditions as is useful.  We believe there are many paths and so any teachings/practices that work are borrowed and brought into our practice.