Sophia
Wisdom, Hagia Sophia
Wisdom as a feminine figure beside God.
Sophia: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In Answer to Job Jung followed Sophia, the Wisdom of the Old Testament who was with God “in the beginning of his way,” and read her remembrance as the turning point of the drama: God’s recollection of his feminine counterpart, which leads toward the incarnation. In the Gnostic myths he studied, Sophia falls into matter and longs to return.
He read her as the feminine principle of wisdom and relatedness that the masculine image of God had left aside.
Sophia: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The eighth chapter of Proverbs, the Wisdom of Solomon, the fallen Sophia of the Valentinian Gnostics, the church of Hagia Sophia, the heavenly Sophia of Jakob Böhme.
From the Sources
In Proverbs 8 Wisdom says that the Lord possessed her in the beginning of his way, before his works of old, and that she was set up from everlasting, before the earth was.
“The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 8:23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.”
The King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 8:22-23 (Wisdom speaking, as from 8:1). King James Version, Project Gutenberg eBook #10. The text, read in part
The Catholic Encyclopedia says that in most Gnostic systems the Aeon Wisdom, Sophia or Achamoth, plays an important part and in some sense seems to represent the supreme female principle.
“In the greater number of Gnostic systems an important role is played by the Æon Wisdom — Sophia or Achamoth. In some sense she seems to represent the supreme female principle”
J. Arendzen, Gnosticism, The Catholic Encyclopedia, 'Sophia myth'. The Catholic Encyclopedia; New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909 (New Advent web text). The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- Answer to Job (1952), CW 11
- “Gnostic Symbols of the Self,” in Aion, CW 9ii
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Soul.
Also among Spirits and Mediators
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Sophia.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/sophia.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Nearby in the alphabet: The Skull: Death remembered, and what outlasts the flesh. Solutio: Dissolved back into the waters. The Spear: The wound that pierces, and the wound that heals. The Sphere: Wholeness in three dimensions, with no beginning and no end.