Third Sunday Before Lent: Septuagesima
Intent: The Gift of Wisdom

Today we are reminded as Gnostics of that Great Master of the Jewish Gnosis: King Solomon. The composer of the Song of Songs, Proverbs and Ecclesiastics. We learn from his great example that we must seek after wisdom passionately:
​
“Wisdom has been my love. I courted her when I was young and wanted to make her my bride. I fell in love with her beauty. She glorifies her noble origin by living with God, the Lord of all, who loves her. She is familiar with God's mysteries and helps determine his course of action. Is it good to have riches in this life? Nothing can make you richer than Wisdom, who makes everything function. Is knowledge a useful thing to have? Nothing is better than Wisdom, who has given shape to everything that exists.”

As Gnostics we know this Wisdom as the Aeon Sophia, the Hagia Pneuma, the third Tridyname of the Holy Trinity. And we are told in the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon that she is “the breath of the power of God, and a pure effluence from the glory of the Almighty; therefore can nothing defiled enter into her. For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspoiled mirror of the power of God, and the image of His goodness.”

Therefore, in many ways Gnostic are true philosophers or “lovers of wisdom.” As the mystic and sophiologist Jacob Boehme put it:

“the noble Sophia draweth near in the Essence of the Soul, and kisseth it in friendly Manner, and tinctureth its dark Fire with her Rays of Love, and shineth through it with her bright and powerful Influence. Penetrated with the strong Sense and Feeling of which, the Soul skippeth in its Body for great Joy, and in the Strength of this Virgin Love exulteth, and praiseth the great God for his blessed Gift of Grace.”

Wisdom is a marvelous gift indeed!

Let us therefore pray as One Gnostic Community and One Universal Gnostic Church that all our souls may be kissed by Her Divine Presence and so embraced shine forth Rays of Her celestial and worldly Divine Wisdom. Amen.

- Reverend Mr. Mathieu Ravignat

---

Holy Wisdom

​Distinct from knowledge, which is the realm of intelligence, information, and learning, wisdom is the use of knowledge in such a way that implies insight, experience, and good judgment.
 
Many religions have teachings about wisdom, and wisdom is often presented as an attribute of spiritual development. In the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, Wisdom is an aspect of God. In the kabbalah of Hebrew mysticism, wisdom (chokmah) is one of the sephirot, or emanations of the Infinite Ein Soph (limitless light).
 
In Christian Gnosticism, wisdom is personified as the goddess Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), associated with the feminine aspect of the Holy Trinity. The aprocryphal book of Sirach (4:11-14) references wisdom as being of a maternal nature:
 
"Wisdom exalteth her children, and layeth hold of them that seek her.
He that loveth her loveth life; and they that seek to her early shall be filled with joy.
He that holdeth her fast shall inherit glory; and wheresoever she entereth, the Lord will bless.
They that serve her shall minister to the Holy One: and them that love her the Lord doth love."
 
 
For the Gnostic, wisdom is also represented as a serpent, the symbol of occult knowledge. The serpent has been associated with Zoroaster, Thoth, Hermes, Serapis, and Jesus, who told his disciples to be "as wise as serpents" (Matthew 10:16). The Upanishads contain a treatise on the Science of Serpents (which is the Science of occult knowledge), and the “Nagas” (Serpents) of esoteric Buddhism are men who have been perfected by their knowledge of the secret doctrines of Buddha. The Ophites, the Gnostic Egyptian sages of the “Fraternity of the Serpent” used a live snake to represent Wisdom, Divine Sophia. [1]
 
How are we to gain wisdom? Consider these qualities: humility, faith, and love.
 
Humility
Socrates said, "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." Humility suggests disillusionment, awakening from our illusions and assumptions about ourselves and the world.
 
Faith
The New Testament Epistle of James (1:5-6) says: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”
 
Love
Attributed to Hermes Trismegistus: “I give thee love, within which the whole summum of wisdom is contained.”
 
In pursuit of Wisdom, the ever-radiant Hagia Sophia, let us cultivate these qualities of humility, faith and love, that through them we might receive more the Holy Wisdom of God.