Sophia represents the Divine Feminine aspect of God. She is wisdom and reflects the light of Logos—the Word. To get a visual understanding of an esoteric concept we can picture the sun and the moon. The two represent the solar and the lunar—the masculine and the feminine—Sophia and Logos.When we look at the life of Jesus, we see the manifestation of Logos/the Word in human form. John tells us, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” The Christ power lived in the life of Jesus and He perfectly embodied the masculine principle of God, showing us a loving picture of the masculine aspect of God. He also reflected the feminine aspect in that He perfectly reflected the will of God. He said, “I only do what pleases the One who sent me.”
When we look for the embodiment of the feminine principle, Sophia, we can see it reflected (lunar) in the heart and life of Mary Magdalene. Mary embodies the feminine principle of Sophia and we see reflected in her heart the beauty of redemptive love. Nowhere else in the Gospels can we find the embodiment of the light of redemptive love reflected in the human heart, more than in Mary’s. It is not the only place it exists, of course, but it is in the heart of Mary that we see it take hold and rise up in a flame of pure devotion and love.
Because of this, many people want to see Mary as a “perfect” human being—one who never struggled with sin. In order to appreciate the love and devotion in her heart, they want to strip her of any human experiences with sin. But it is the very experience with the struggles of humanity that perfect Mary’s love towards Jesus. It is through redemption from her struggles that perfect love is born and manifests in her heart.
In this way we can see her being trained and schooled as an Apostle of Christ. This is where the true power of the story of Mary Magdalene lies—it shows the power of redeeming love and the way in which that love draws her into close relationship with the Beloved. It is from this redeemed standpoint that she anoints Jesus for his burial.
It is unclear what specific type of struggles Mary had during her lifetime before her encounter with Logos. There is obviously much of the story that we don’t know. But the interesting factor is the resistance that we find in current literature to see her as both a restored “sinner” and an Apostle of Christ. It’s as if on seeing the love perfected in her heart we want to assume that there was never any struggle with sin and that the stories of her struggle with sin are a conspiracy of the church and have all been fabricated.
But redemptive love is perfected through adversity. It is when we see our need of the Christ power that we submit in love. A heart filled with pride, senses no need, and thus there is no room for love to grow. A heart that is cleansed (seven spirits cast out) is the perfect place to reflect the healing, redemptive, restorative love of the Creator.
This is the power in the story of Mary Magdalene. It is not in possessing a perfect heart that we are drawn to Christ; it is in having a receptive, open heart that we can be filled with redeeming love. This should give us all great hope. We are all in a position to reflect God’s love, glory, and light
Mary’s life models the process of our growth and redemption. We do not have to stumble over whether or not she was a repentant prostitute, or even what the seven evil spirits she was cleansed from represent, these are really irrelevant. What does it matter? The important factor is in understanding and learning from her heart of devotion and how she reflects the beautiful love of Christ.
This is the supreme quality of Sophia, the feminine principle, to reflect the light of Logos. This is what we are all called to do, whether male or female. It is in reflecting the light/Sophia and in doing the Word/Logos that we make manifest Christ’s restorative mission in the world.
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