Sophia: (so-FI-uh) (Greek, “wisdom”) The living intelligence of the earth. Central figure in Gnostic cosmology and the Pagan Mysteries. The goddess Sophia from the Pleroma, who by the force of her dreaming came to be metamorphosed into a planetary body, the earth. Her primary substance body is the Organic Light. Adj., Sophianic.
wisdom: (in Greek, sophia, Hebrew, chokhmah. The divine activity of sentient, autopoetic intelligence that informs nature and pervades human potential.
Sophia mythos: The sacred story of the Aeon Sophia in the Pleroma, and how she came to be metamorphosed into the earth. Applied as a tool for guidance of the human species in the Mysteries. Leaves open the question of human participation in Sophia’s correction. May possibly serve as a guiding framework for developing the religious dimension of deep ecology.
Pagan: Member of a society or culture whose primary orientation is to the natural world, the habitat. In the religious sense, panentheism, polytheism, and the animist worldview. In the Pagan sense of life, culture is organically situated in nature.
Paganism: Nature-based and Goddess-oriented religion of the indigenous peoples of Europa.
Mysteries: (from the Greek verb muein, “to be silent,” “shut the mouth” or “speak in a murmur”) Millennial rites of ecstatic communion with nature, the outgrowth of the indigenous, Goddess-oriented shamanism of pre-Christian Europe and the Near East. From 600 B.C.E. on, the Mysteries became the infrastructure for the educational institutions of the ancient world, i.e., centers of literacy and training in the sciences, arts and crafts (i.e., schools).
Mystery cell: A select group (Greek thrasos) of initiates who worked inwardly on certain projects related to human evolution, and outwardly transmitted what they knew through literature, education, and vocational training. Traditionally organized into sixteen members, eight men and eight women (as evidenced in the rosette on the pediment at Eleusis).
Mystery School: An educational center or campus attached to a temple belonging to the network of Pagan Mysteries, consisting of libraries, workshops, gymnasia, and agorae (open spaces for lectures and discussions).
initiate: A guardian of the Mysteries who taught the arts of civilization, the nature of the gods, the unseen worlds, cosmology, anthropology, and so on. Identical with telestes.
telestes: (from Greek telos, “aim,” “end,” “purpose,” “the ultimate thing”; literally, “one who is aimed”) What Gnostics would have called themselves. Self-designation of those who founded and maintained the Mysteries. An initiate endowed with special knowledge in divine matters, the will and work of the gods; hence, an expert on theological and cosmological issues. Plur., telestai; adj. telestic.
Gnosis: (Greek, “knowing of things divine”) The timeless method of cognitive ecstasy. Today, the best experimental basis for the noetic sciences.
Gnostic: (Greek gnostokos, plural, gnostokoi; “one who understands divine matters,” “knowing as the gods know”) Loosely, the Pagan intellectual class. Specifically, initiated teachers (telestai) in the Mystery Schools. Used by Plato for experts in statecraft and social control, or special advisors to the theocrats—a role rejected by Mystery initiates. Used by the Church Fathers as an insult meaning “smartass,” “know-it-all.”
(The above definitions are from: https://metahistory.org/AAA-NEMETA/glossaryNIHI.php)
Excerpts from Overview of the Gaia Mythos by John Lamb Lash:
The Fallen Godess Scenario – The Gaia Mythos – is about Gaia before she turned into the Earth, and how the Goddess came to be the indwelling intelligence of the planet and the mother of all terrestrial species.
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Originally, the Greek mythos was an account of something that happened, a telling of actual events, not a made-up story, a fabrication, or an outright lie. Today we tend to use the word myth pejoratively to indicate something that is not true, or not to be believed. The Gaia Mythos is neither a myth in this sense, nor a mere story such as one finds, say, in a novel or newspaper account. It is not the explanation of the universe entire, like the Big Bang scenario. Rather, it is a site-specific account of something that happened in the particular galaxy where the solar system we inhabit is located. It is, if you will, a metastory, a cosmic narrative with supernatural and mystical aspects. It is not about the origin of the universe, but the special conditions of our planetary system.
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The myth of Sophia’s Fall was taught for centuries in the Pagan Mysteries and recounted in Gnostic writings that survive in fragmentary form. It is distinct from the Judeo-Christian- Islamic story of the Fall (the Genesis narrative), and, in fact, reverses the values and beliefs encoded in that well-known scenario. It leapfrogs over the current scientific myth of planetary creation and evolution. The Gaia Mythos is a close reconstruction of sacred teachings lost to humanity for almost two thousand years.
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The prose poem “Fallen Goddess” is my imperfect attempt to retrieve and restore the sacred history of the Earth that was preserved in the Mystery Schools of the ancient world. In this task I rely on Gnostic materials such as the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC), as well as on passages in the polemics written against the Gnostics. (The Reading Plan with commentaries on the NHC contains large doses of cosmological material relevant to the Mythos.) In developing the Mythos, I also draw parallels to modern science, particularly astrophysics and biology, and, of course, the Gaia theory of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis. All in all, about eight points of Gaia theory are mirrored (prefigured, if you will) in the Sophia narrative.
In other words, this sacred ancient myth about the Goddess Sophia presents a plausible counterpart to current ideas of the living, self- organizing planet we now call Gaia. But the myth goes further than modern theory in that it identifies Gaia with the Aeon Sophia before she became the Earth. It also suggests possible teleological or goal-oriented aspects of human experience relative to the “big story” of Gaia-Sophia.
The telestai (initiates) who maintained the Sophianic vision and taught the Mythos had a profound understanding of teleology, human and natural. In their view, the supreme value of this sacred narrative was to provide a guiding framework for humanity to coevolve with the Earth Goddess. Today, Lynn Margulis speaks of the need for humans to find a “creative niche” in Gaia—a suggestion that is not so far from the telestic or initiated perception of our species’ call to coevolution.
The entire story was transmitted orally, but there is reason to believe that most of it was also written down. It has survived in fragments only. Significant parts of the written form of the story were destroyed. For instance, there is no account of the creation of the moon. However, I believe that my reconstruction is accurate and adequate and will serve as a provisional tool for visionary work centered on the Earth. The Mythos needs to be discussed and developed by those attracted to it. It invites collaboration and creative expansion, but it also requires faithfulness to the core elements, the primary plot. I describe my method and resources for developing the Mythos in Sharing the Gaia Mythos and in the companion essay, Sources for the Gaia Mythos.
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Additional Information: http://metahistory.org/FallenGoddess.php
June 2020 Update: For the complete revised nine episodes of The Fallen Goddess Scenario, known as “The Home Story,” go to https://sophianicmyth.org
Gaian Light 