Sophia's Fall
The story of Sophia's fall begins with the idea of an original and unknowable First Parent (also known as Godhead, Forefather, Unknowable One, Monad, Root, Logos, All Begotten, First Mystery, and Aeon). The Godhead emanated pairs of “lesser” beings, quasi gods, of which Sophia and Christ were the youngest/lowest pair. These lesser gods with the Godhead made up the fullness of Pleroma (heaven).
Following her emanation from the Godhead, Sophia feared losing knowledge and the light of the One. She longed to return to it. In her passion and longing, without either the help of her male counterpart or permission from the Godhead, she undertook the action of “emanating” a being — the Demiurge, a formless entity outside of the Pleroma.
This is the crisis in the story of Sophia. It came about not because of a sexual creational act but because of a masculine/feminine imbalance. Sophia's action disturbed the harmony of the Pleroma. The early Gnostics, as already noted, considered Christ the masculine counterpart of Sophia. The masculine name for Sophia is Lucifer (hêlêl in Hebrew, which means “shining one”). Some have equated the Demiurge, her offspring, as Satan.
Three types of humans exist in this material world, according to Valentianian Gnosticism. They include the hylics, in which humans are bound to matter (evil), psychics, in which humans are bound to the soul (and only partially evil), and pneumatics, special people capable of attaining enlightenment through gnosis.
Sophia imparted in the Demiurge a divine spark, or pneuma (Greek, meaning “wind,” “air,” or “spirit”). She hid the Demiurge away in a cloud, beyond the awareness of other immortals. Ignorant of Sophia, his “Mother God,” and using the power of Spirit, the Demiurge created the physical world. This caused the divine sparks (or spiritual longing) to become trapped in matter. Sophia's counterpart, Jesus, helps her to again see the light of the Godhead and helps her in understanding spirit.
The Greco-Roman philosophers believed that they could claim wisdom through reasoning alone, but the Gnostics believed that wisdom could only be achieved through inner, intuitive experiential knowing. The Gnostics told their stories in creation myths and in other literary forms. The fall of Sophia and her subsequent restoration to the Pleroma resonates in several well-known fairy tales and myths, both ancient and modern, including Persephone, Orpheus, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty.
