destinies of various name
There are who separate the eternal light
In forms of man and woman, day and night;
They cannot bear that God be essence quite.
Existence is as deep a verity:
Without the dual, where is unity?
And the ‘I am’ cannot forbear to be;
But from its primal nature forced to frame
Mysteries, destinies of various name,
Is forced to give what it has taught to claim.
Thus love must answer to its own unrest;
The bad commands us to expect the best,
And hope of its own prospects is the test.
And dost thou seek to find the one in two?
Only upon the old can build the new;
The symbol which you seek is found in you.
—Margaret Fuller, from “The One in All”
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She Was Always There
Sophia as a Story for Our Time
Signe Eklund Schaefer
“Who, or perhaps what, is she?” Signe Schaefer poses this question as she leads us into a heartfelt exploration of the great mystery that is Sophia. Her book does not take an academic or theological path but one that is personal and full of warmth and genuine interest in discovery that goes toward living reality, well beyond mere names and fixed ideas. As Schaefer says, she decided to “forego the idea of a straightforward narrative and instead interweave musings, poems, saved quotations, and other assorted notes from my many years of living with questions about and to her.”
The author tells us,
“Questions of inner growth, of spiritual striving, of how to bear the suffering in the world without going under, and perhaps most of all, of how to love, often present themselves surrounded by veils. In acknowledging a question, the veil may begin to shift. Our questions matter; bringing them to consciousness, exploring them with others, waiting with an open heart for the spirit to speak—this is the ongoing work of unveiling.”
Sophia is rightly seen as the living, moving being of universal wisdom and the archetypal feminine, but Schaefer helps us to see her as more—as an expression of what humanity must rightfully become.
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
—Arundhati Roy
Also by Signe Eklund Schaefer
Why on Earth?
Biography and the Practice of Human Becoming
Life today poses many questions, both in our personal lives and in our participation in nature and the broader culture. We often focus on the outer needs for social, political, technological, or environmental change. However, can we really meet the challenges around us without also attending to our inner life and to our own evolving biography as it reflects and informs the outer world?
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The Calendar of the Soul
Rudolf Steiner
Translated by Hans Pusch and Ruth Pusch
Rudolf Steiner's collection of fifty-two meditative verses—presented here in both English and German—were first published in 1925, shortly after Steiner's death. These verses, representing the weeks of the year, begin with Easter week and offer thoughts that help one find a deeper relationship with the spiritual forces at work throughout the year.
From the Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner
Universal Spirituality and Human Physicality
Bridging the Divide: The Search for the New Isis and the Divine Sophia
Translated by Mathew Barton
16 lectures given in Dornach, Bern, and Basel, Nov. 26–Dec. 26, 1920 (CW 202)
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But in our time the Isis legend must find another kind of fulfillment. In a higher sense, we cannot lose the Osiris given us through Christ, but we can lose, and have lost, a Christian understanding of the figure who stands beside Osiris. We have lost Isis, the mother of the Saviour, the divine wisdom Sophia. And if the Isis legend is to be renewed, it cannot be for us any longer in the old terms—of Osiris being killed by Typhon-Ahriman, of him being carried away on the flood waters of the Nile, and found again by Isis, of his hacking to pieces by Typhon-Ahriman, and his burial in the earth. No. We must certainly rediscover the Isis legend, the content of the Isis mystery, but we have to form this from true imagination in a form that befits our era. We have to cultivate understanding of eternal cosmic truths again . . .
—Rudolf Steiner, from a lecture given December 24, 1920, in Universal Spirituality and Human Physicality: Bridging the Divide: The Search for the New Isis and the Divine Sophia (CW 202)