Philo-Sophia: Wisdom Goddess Traditions

Philo-Sophia: Wisdom Goddess Traditions, edited by Debashish Banerji and Robert McDermott, Lotus Press (2021), 324 pp.

review by Signe Eklund Schaefer

Can a love for Sophia ‘reduce the enduring threat of nationalism, militarism, racism, and most importantly and urgently, slow the steady decimation of Earth and humanity?’ (p.295)

Rudolf Steiner sought to bring Anthroposophia into the contemporary world, and in the century since he spoke of her and was active developing the Anthroposophical Society, many students of anthroposophy have wondered why he gave the work this name. Sophia can be quickly defined as wisdom, and one can accept anthroposophy as the wisdom of the human being, or even more freely as the human being coming to Divine Wisdom. But who really is this Sophia—the being? Increasingly people are realizing that she cannot be so easily skipped over as an abstract concept.

In recent decades growing numbers of people busy with anthroposophy have been searching to discover more about who Sophia is – and was – and may yet be. Since the fall of 2019 there has been a monthly Sophia study group sponsored by the Anthroposophical Society. Parallel to his participation in this group, Robert McDermott, with his colleague Debashish Banerji, was co-editing Philo-Sophia, Wisdom Goddess Traditions. The book offers an important resource for understanding Sophia through many of her manifestations in different ages and cultures.

The book consists of essays by thirteen scholars, the majority of whom are connected to the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), where both editors are professors. Robert McDermott was president of CIIS during the 1990’s. These writers are practitioners of philosophy – Philo-Sophia – love of wisdom. They present different experiences of a divine feminine spiritual being and collectively raise important questions for our times. A few of the writers are still bound in their academic voices and the language of their particular disciplines which can make it challenging to find one’s way through the many terms, traditions, and myths. But the effort is rewarding. The first section of the six-part introduction is particularly dense, and I am inclined to suggest readers skip it, or at least do not be put off by it. The book offers much of value for those seeking a deeper appreciation of Sophia. As Christopher Bamford says in the Foreword about the various contributing authors:

Absorbing both their individual and collective meanings and intentions, it soon becomes evident that, while each contribution embodies its own unique perspective and has its own task, the collection of the essays, if taken together, presents something greater and in a sense more transformative and revolutionary than the sum of its parts… (p. 3)

The first two essays are by the authors of The Myth of the Goddess – Evolution of an Image (1991), a book that has been for me a most inspiring and comprehensive history of the Divine Feminine throughout time and many cultures. Here in Philo-Sophia Jules Cashford writes of the Egyptian goddess Isis, who was revered for over 3,000 years; and she also addresses the changing images of the goddess as a reflection of evolving consciousness. Anne Baring looks to Kabbalism as a carrier of the ancient stories before the Divine Feminine was banished from the Godhead. She relates that loss to today’s reality:

If we want to understand the deep roots of our present environmental and spiritual crisis, we can find them in the loss of three important elements: the feminine image of spirit, the direct shamanic path of communion with spirit through visionary and mystical experience, and the sacred marriage of the masculine and feminine aspects of the Divine Ground. (p.67)

Further essays look for Holy Lady Wisdom in Anatolia (Turkey), or to the Black Madonna in Monserrat (Spain), or for Our Lady to whom many cathedrals were dedicated in the Middle Ages. She is sought in Russian Orthodoxy and art, especially through the renaissance of Russian Sophiology in the 20th century. Mary is explored in her roles as Mother of God and prophet in various Christian traditions. In the different essays important questions are raised, but it was particularly in the chapters about Mary where I felt so grateful to the depth of insight that Rudolf Steiner brings to the great mystery of her being and her relationship with Sophia. There were times in the book when I wanted the authors to go deeper, to let their questions expand beyond the limitations of their particular traditions.

There are also essays about the wisdom goddesses in West Africa and Asia. In the discussion of the complex Yoruba cosmology, based on the ever-evolving oral tradition of the sacred text Odu Ifa, there is a search for the wisdom of women “that needs to be centered for healing and transformation at this historical moment” while still retaining basic principles of balance and a sense of the Mothers from the beginning of Creation. (p. 157) The dynamic wisdom of the Sky-Dancers in Tantric Buddhism is explored; and so is the figure of Kali as a wisdom deity. This latter essay is not easy to understand with my western mind, but I take to heart that the “wisdom of Kali is difficult to communicate without the gift of poetry” (p.201) and the author tells of the Bengali poet-singers who have invoked Kali in their songs over the years.

The final section of the book addresses contemporary approaches to Philo-Sophia, first from the perspective of interspirituality, and then in the works of C. G. Jung, Rudolf Steiner, and Sri Aurobindo. William Keepin addresses the many parallels in the religions of East and West, as well as furthering the comparison made by Valentin Tomberg between the traditional Christian Trinity and a Sophianic Trinity. In considering what he refers to as a sacred secret—that the Godhead transcends narrow gender divisions—he relates the larger spiritual question to human experience when he states: “It is a tragic irony that religious institutions East and West have sometimes been among the worst offenders in perpetuating egregious gender-based injustice and sexual exploitation – even unto this day—while harboring this sacred secret within their esoteric traditions?” (p.229)

According to Stephen Julich, Jung identifies Sophia with his descriptions of anima, as a personification of the feminine nature of ‘man’s’ unconscious. I was not happy with Julich’s use throughout the chapter of the word ‘man’ instead of human because it is not always clear which he means. He goes on to explore how Jung saw Sophia within the process of the evolution of consciousness and then ends with this timely observation:

Perhaps the symbolic manifestation of the Antichrist in authoritarian and anti-democratic uprisings is the necessary catalyst for the appearance of Sophia in the human soul and for the reconciliation she represents – she who ‘adds the dark to the light, symbolizes the hierogamy of opposites, and reconciles nature with spirit.’ (p.253)

Robert McDermott recalls how Rudolf Steiner spoke of Sophia in her different manifestations through the ages, right up to Anthroposophia, “a being who is charged with helping contemporary humanity to think freely and thereby prepare for the next advance in the evolution of human consciousness.” (p.257) He speaks honestly and humbly about his own path toward Sophia, even suggesting that his essay could be subtitled “A Progress Report.” He further compares the work of four students of Steiner who have had a particular interest in Sophia: Christopher Bamford (Isis, Mary Sophia), Sergei Prokofieff (The Heavenly Sophia and the Being Anthroposophia), Michael Debus (Mary and Sophia), and Valentin Tomberg (Christ and Sophia).

In the final essay Debashish Banerji looks at the presence of the Supreme Goddess in the work of Sri Aurobindo and at his spiritual partner Mirra Alfassa, known as the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and founder of the allied spiritual community of Auroville.

There is a sense of urgency in this book that is clearly articulated in the Afterword, by Robert McDermott:

To the extent that humanity thinks and acts freely and in accord with conscience, Sophia in her various manifestations can (and might) assist humanity both to avoid catastrophe and to build a more divine civilization… How better to understand philo/love than as a force for creativity and evolution? (p.296)

Signe Schaefer was for many years Director of Foundation Studies at Sunbridge College and Co-Director of the Biography and Social Art Program. A founding member of the Center for Life Studies, she is author of I Give You My Word: Women’s Letters as Life Support, 1973–1987 (2020) and Why on Earth? Biography and the Practice of Human Becoming, co-author of Ariadne’s Awakening and co-editor of More Lifeways.