The Circle of Sophia is authorized by The Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn.  The Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn is a Western Mystery School. Subjects of study include: Egyptian Mysteries, Greek Mysteries, Kabbalah, Mystical Christianity, Hermetic philosophy, alchemy, ritual magic, clairvoyance and astral travel. The Circle of Sophia offers classes, ritual work and support to fellow initiates.



“I am the Wisdom of the Greeks,....
I am the hearing that is attainable
to everything;
I am the speech that cannot
be grasped.
I am the name of the sound
And the sound of the name.
I am the sign of the letter
And the designation of the division.
And I will speak his name”.

(The Thunder, Perfect Mind, 597-599).

Sophia, is the patron of our Circle because she represents our aspirations to accomplish the "Great Work".  Sophia (Wisdom in Greek), is a divine feminine emanation of God described in the Old Testament Wisdom Literature as co-creating the Universe with God. She is a very important figure in most Gnostic texts, especially  those of the school of Valentinus, and is described as essential to obtaining Gnosis or intuitive spiritual knowledge. She also appears in many alchemical texts such as Aurora Consurgens and Atalanta Fugiens, as a woman possessing Wisdom and divine Knowledge. In these works, she is both the alchemical goal and the guide who helps the initiate accomplish the magnum opus of alchemy. Sophia's story is a description and outline of the stages, and processes involved in obtaining Gnosis, and Union with God.

Her story both parallels the plight of mankind whose soul and spirit quest for wholeness; and also provides a roadmap for how man can find and join with his divine nature and obtain liberating salvific Knowledge. Sophia first resides in the fullness of the pleroma in perfect happiness with her heavenly twin or divine archetype. She seeks after the highest Light of the Father of whom she is a part. She makes supplications to this Light and becomes fully enlightened. She then ceases to do perform the mysteries of the twelve aeons below her. Beings of these lower aeons then scheme together to create a false light below her that she mistakes for the same light of the Father. She leaves her heavenly twin and seeks after the false light below and experiences a "Fall". Then in her weakened and divided state, she is attacked by the rulers of the lower Aeons and the lion-faced power devours her Light. She then enters a state where she feels exile from her true home and unity with her divine archetype. She begins to make supplications to the Light beings in the highest Aeon. Finally her pleas are heard and Light power is sent down to her so that she can break free from the grips of materiality and ascend back to her true heavenly home in the pleroma. Here she unites with her divine archetype and is whole once again. 

The concept of "the Fall" is also echoed in Sophia's connection to the sephira of Chokmah (Wisdom), directly above the abyss on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Sophia's energies are pivotal to crossing the abyss associated with the pseudo-sephiroth of Da’ath (Intuitive Knowledge), and she is even referred to as an “Initiate in the Knowledge of God” in the Wisdom of Solomon (8:3-4). 

Sophia also shares much in common with the Judaic Shekhinah.  The Shekhinah is the feminine emanation of God and the link through which man must cleave to become close to God in Kabbalistic literature.