sophia

[solomon levi]

Alchemists are sometimes called Philosophers, as in the Philosophers' stone.
One interpretation of this word is "lover of Sophia/Wisdom".
Sophia is also called Chokmah in Jewish systems, Logos in some, and Sapientia in latin.

Anyway, I think the whole lore should be studied. The fall and befoulment of Sophia into
the world (and her rescue/resurrection by Christ/Iesous) is a description of the first matter,
something pure and beautiful that becomes enveloped in filth which must be worked
back to purity/white stone and ultimately the Red/Philosophers' stone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(wisdom)#Prunikos

[Aleilius]

something pure and beautiful that becomes enveloped in filth which must be worked
back to purity/white stone and ultimately the Red/Philosophers' stone.

Reminded me of this:

There is a well before the Great White Throne
That is choked up with rubbish from the ages;
Rubble and clay and sediment and stone,
Delight of lizards and despair of sages.

[Aleilius]

It's strange though. Most systems that attempt to expound upon the Tree of Life tend to relate Binah to the woman, and Chokmah to the man.

“This beginning is the Father of all things; the Father of all Fathers; and both are mutually bound together, and the one path shineth into the other — Chokmah, Wisdom, as the Father; Binah, Understanding, as the Mother.”

I definitely see a schism that exists.

[Awani]

http://forum.alchemyforums.com/showt...-Pistis-Sophia

Part of the trinity according to Gnostics = Sophia (wisdom) - Pneuma (soul) - Logos (word)!

Although I never liked the explanation of logos as word... we should clear up that subject... is there no thread on it?

It's strange though. Most systems that attempt to expound upon the Tree of Life tend to relate Binah to the woman, and Chokmah to the man.

I don't know how many times I have tried to clear up the links often hitting the wall when in one tradition something is male and in another female... in fact to clear up all religious systems into one coherent entity is probably a fools game (for example Isis is Virgin Mary, Osiris is Zeus etc...) I've tried but it always gets muddled in the end. Those ancient mystic writer must have been high on something... because they are never consistent. Or perhaps all the blame can be placed on the translators!

[solomon levi]

That "schism" is the language of alchemy and relativity.
The father becomes the mother becomes the son...
This is the same "reason" alchemists talk "confusedly" (to the non-initiate)
about mercury, sulphur and salt.

I've experienced this personally recently and it's hard to talk about.
I understood it as the magical need to change one's name, like Crowley
becoming the Beast, etc.
I'd very much like to change my name to Muse. It's just that I've started a new stage/era
and have a new mind/consciousness that accompanies it.
Solomon levi gave birth to Lucis who gave birth to Serpentrio Arquila who gave birth to Muse.
(for those that don't know, these are names i have used on different websites)
Father, Mother, Son...
This name change is, of course, inspired and not egoic; a true evolution of matter.

I would say Binah and Chokmah, as well as the rest, are trinities and must exhibit all three manifestations
to be truly known. Just as quarks compose protons and neutrons which with the electron become their own trinity.

[Joy]

Hello Solomon.

The black Sophia is an important topic in alchmy . If you know how to read some of the
magical emblems of the Aurora consurgens. you can get pretty close to her.
If you ever meet her on the astral plane, your learn a new understanding ... Joy

[Moshe]

It's strange though. Most systems that attempt to expound upon the Tree of Life tend to relate Binah to the woman, and Chokmah to the man.
I definitely see a schism that exists.

I agree that there is a schism too. I teach the Tree of Life as the right column being female and the left column being male -
with the understanding that the Tree exists in each person. When I teach it this way, it comes totally alive to people, children can understand it.
whereas before, it is something that has to be memorized because it is not intuitively grasped.
There is a way to see The Tree of Life on a big universal level - ie from God's perspective. The Kabbalists of Old have taught it that way,
and I did not attempt to go there, but to rather keep it as a reflection of us, us humans.
and in each person, the female is the source (ie the right column) and the male is the reflection, or boundary of that, reflecting back to her, her true nature,
unknowable to herself, where in between the two, the child is born.

In music, this would be that the female is the root note, the male is the dominant 5th, and the child is created at the harmonic third between them.

I think the Tree of Life was taught as male on the right and female on the left as a distortion, because the rabbi was under the impression that he was the source of truth (ie male)
so he must go on the right side of the tree, which was the source.
When we look at it this way, a lot of wisdom is lost.

[solomon levi]

Philosopher...
Everyone knows this means lover of wisdom/Sophia.
But there are many teachings to this word, many ways to unfold it.
The fall of Sophia is everyone's fall, and this fall is suffering:

suffer (v.)
early 13c., "to be made to undergo, endure" (pain, death, punishment, judgment, grief), from Anglo-Fr. suffrir, from O.Fr. sufrir, from V.L. *sufferire, variant of L. sufferre "to bear, undergo, endure, carry or put under," from sub "up, under" (see sub-) + ferre "to carry" (see infer). Replaced O.E. þolian, þrowian. Meaning "to meekly submit to hardship" is from late 13c. That of "to undergo" (distress, suffering, etc.) is mid-14c. Meaning "to tolerate, allow" something to occur or continue is recorded from mid-13c.

Suffering is a necessary stage of matter. Suffering is related to sulphur/souffre (en francais).
Iron/Fer is the holder of sulphur and the bearer/ferre... able to endure.

Suffering is a stage. Suffering is a necessary stage, I said.
It is not necessary to keep suffering and suffering...
That is due to sleep. It is "necessary" until it isn't.
Who decides that? You do.
How do you decide it? Alignment, vibration, wisdom.

Following is the story from Hypostasis of the Archons:

"And the great angel Eleleth, understanding, spoke to me: "Within limitless realms dwells incorruptibility. Sophia, who is called Pistis, wanted to create something, alone without her consort; and her product was a celestial thing. A veil exists between the world above and the realms that are below; and shadow came into being beneath the veil; and that shadow became matter; and that shadow was projected apart. And what she had created became a product in the matter, like an aborted fetus. And it assumed a plastic form molded out of shadow, and became an arrogant beast resembling a lion. It was androgynous, as I have already said, because it was from matter that it derived.
Opening his eyes, he saw a vast quantity of matter without limit; and he became arrogant, saying, "It is I who am God, and there is none other apart from me". When he said this, he sinned against the entirety. And a voice came forth from above the realm of absolute power, saying, "You are mistaken, Samael" - which is, 'god of the blind'.
And he said, "If any other thing exists before me, let it become visible to me!" And immediately Sophia stretched forth her finger and introduced light into matter; and she pursued it down to the region of chaos. And she returned up to her light; once again darkness [...] matter.
This ruler, by being androgynous, made himself a vast realm, an extent without limit. And he contemplated creating offspring for himself, and created for himself seven offspring, androgynous just like their parent. And he said to his offspring, "It is I who am god of the entirety."
And Zoe (Life), the daughter of Pistis Sophia, cried out and said to him, "You are mistaken, Sakla!" - for which the alternative name is Yaltabaoth. She breathed into his face, and her breath became a fiery angel for her; and that angel bound Yaldabaoth and cast him down into Tartaros below the abyss.
Now when his offspring Sabaoth saw the force of that angel, he repented and condemned his father and his mother, matter. He loathed her, but he sang songs of praise up to Sophia and her daughter Zoe. And Sophia and Zoe caught him up and gave him charge of the seventh heaven, below the veil between above and below. And he is called 'God of the forces, Sabaoth', since he is up above the forces of chaos, for Sophia established him.
Now when these (events) had come to pass, he made himself a huge four-faced chariot of cherubim, and infinitely many angels to act as ministers, and also harps and lyres. And Sophia took her daughter Zoe and had her sit upon his right to teach him about the things that exist in the eighth (heaven); and the angel of wrath she placed upon his left. Since that day, his right has been called 'life'; and the left has come to represent the unrighteousness of the realm of absolute power above. It was before your time that they came into being.
Now when Yaldabaoth saw him (Sabaoth) in this great splendor and at this height, he envied him; and the envy became an androgynous product, and this was the origin of envy. And envy engendered death; and death engendered his offspring and gave each of them charge of its heaven; and all the heavens of chaos became full of their multitudes. But it was by the will of the father of the entirety that they all came into being - after the pattern of all the things above - so that the sum of chaos might be attained.
"There, I have taught you about the pattern of the rulers; and the matter in which it was expressed; and their parent; and their universe."
But I said, "Sir, am I also from their matter?"
"You, together with your offspring, are from the primeval father; from above, out of the imperishable light, their souls are come. Thus the authorities cannot approach them, because of the spirit of truth present within them; and all who have become acquainted with this way exist deathless in the midst of dying mankind. Still, that sown element will not become known now. Instead, after three generations it will come to be known, and it has freed them from the bondage of the authorities' error."
Then I said, "Sir, how much longer?"
He said to me, "Until the moment when the true man, within a modeled form, reveals the existence of the spirit of truth, which the father has sent.
Then he will teach them about everything, and he will anoint them with the unction of life eternal, given him from the undominated generation.
Then they will be freed of blind thought, and they will trample underfoot death, which is of the authorities, and they will ascend into the limitless light where this sown element belongs.
Then the authorities will relinquish their ages, and their angels will weep over their destruction, and their demons will lament their death.
Then all the children of the light will be truly acquainted with the truth and their root, and the father of the entirety and the holy spirit. They will all say with a single voice, 'The father's truth is just, and the son presides over the entirety", and from everyone unto the ages of ages, "Holy - holy - holy! Amen!'"

I can't make anyone understand this, but it's right there for those who can see and hear.
How do you see and hear? Alignment, vibration, wisdom. You see what is equal to your vibration -
that is how it has always been. It's not up to anyone else to do that work for another.
Perhaps we've heard too many stories. Perhaps we believe some Messiah will save us.
Not me. When it says "until the moment when the true man..." that true man is me for me and you for you.
That moment will come when you've cultivated it.
Eleleth means the "Lord of truth" - that is you.
Sophia means "wisdom". That is you.
Samael means "the blind god". That is you.
Every archon is you. No one is doing anything to you but you.
All that you see is you.
Know thyself.
Then all the children of the light will be truly acquainted with the truth and their root, and the father of the entirety and the holy spirit.
They will all say with a single voice, 'The father's truth is just, and the son presides over the entirety", and from everyone unto the ages of ages, "Holy - holy - holy! Amen!'"