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“God’s desire…always precedes that of the soul, arousing its desire and will and drawing them towards him.”[19] 

“He meditated with his bride Sophia and his first offspring was born, an androgyne. His male part is named the Son of God. His female part, the Sophia, Mother of the Universe. Her name is Love; the son is Christ since he derived power from his Father, who created angels from spirit and light.”[20]

Portal 2

From Eve to Sophia: Reclaiming a Gender-Honoring Creation Story

Invitation

I look at the creation story of Adam and Eve as a myth, which is a good and necessary tool for our collective consciousness. Yet we also must acknowledge that the Genesis myth was created by patriarchy. Not so good. Myth is vital to our psyches; we need myths to awaken us to truths that we instinctively know but can’t see. I love this quote from Sue Monk Kidd in her book The Dance of the Dissident Daughter that “a myth is something that is true on the inside but, it is not true on the outside.”[21]

Richard Rohr says it this way: “Myths are not historical fact, but invariably they are spiritual genius.”[22] They orient us to time beyond time, they give us epic perspective, they ground our collective spirit and, in doing so, they heal us. The problem I have with the Genesis creation story is its originators: Only patriarchy could take such a potentially life-affirming story and turn it into a narrative of blame, shame, domination, and death.

What Was Lost

What few modern Christians know is that there is another creation story; in fact, there are many creation stories because each culture has their own. But there is another Christian creation story from Gnosticism that was banned, hidden, and vilified because it was too mystical for the patriarchy. The Gnostic gospels are more mystical from what we have been taught in western Christianity, and from that perspective, they feel foreign to us. But like all myths, we know that it’s true on the inside. The Gnostic creation story offers a necessary corrective to the narrative we’ve been given, and to utterly cast them out has had far reaching and painful effects.

When we look at the creation story of Genesis 1 and 2, what were these irremediable effects on women?

Interpretating Eve as the central cause of humanity’s fall has been used to justify the subordination of women, labeling females as morally inferior, which leads to prohibiting women from leadership and offices of power. Stereotypes about women have been preserved because Eve is still depicted as a symbol of seduction and temptation. Women are seen as inherently deceptive or morally weaker than men, and this has created narratives about women needing male authority to "protect" them from error.

There are many cultural consequences when we look through the lens of archetype, a very typical symbol that appears in the unconscious of all people. Think of the femme fatale where women are seen as a downfall for men. Women have been labeled as prone to evil, and this has led to many cultural disasters such as the witch hunts and trials, where thousands of innocent women were tortured and murdered because of patriarchy. Finally, we can’t forget the objectification of women that pervades our culture and undermines our inherent value outside of the bodies we inhabit.

But perhaps the greatest damage of all is the perversion of our own inner narratives about who we are personally and collectively. We have been forcefully given a doctrine of lies telling us that we are fundamentally flawed, lesser than, and even evil. Patriarchy has decided that they can name who we are and put us in a spiral of unworth, guilt, and shame. This deception makes us prove ourselves over and over again. The outcome of this is that we see our sisters in the same way that we see ourselves, and we treat them the same way we treat ourselves… bringing judgment and comparison into the very relationships that need our nurturing support.

So, while the damage is extensive, it is not irreparable. What we need is a mystical metanoia, an ancient Greek word (μετάνοια) meaning “changing one's mind,” may refer to: Metanoia (psychology), the process of experiencing a psychotic “breakdown” and subsequent, positive psychological re-building or “healing.”[23]

Yes, that’s right. The psychotic breakdown we are in dire need of is to break free which means— “to stop being affected by something that limits what we can do”[24] and limits what we believe about womanhood—from the influence of patriarchy. There is healing available to you! Sophia is our divine mother, and she is calling us to herself.

Mystery is what women are made of and that is terrifying to the patriarchy.

What Is Found

This excerpt was intended to be a prelude to the canonical Gospel of John:

The prelude to the Creation Myth from the Secret Book of John

In the beginning, there was only the One, the father, who is

illimitable, since there is nothing before it to limit it,
unfathomable, since there is nothing before it to fathom it,
immeasurable, since there was nothing before it to measure it,
invisible, since nothing has seen it,
eternal, since it exists eternally,
unutterable, since nothing could comprehend it to utter it,
unnamable, since there is nothing before it to give it a name.[25]

These beautiful verses echo the first verses in the gospel of John in the Bible. Chapter 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”[26] I share this with you because I want you to see the poetry used to communicate truths about God, truths that only poetry can express.

I’d like to give you a taste of the Gnostic creation story found in the book called The Sophia of Jesus Christ. Here is a summary.

God the Father gives rise to a host of spiritual beings who populate Heaven (which the Gnostics call the Pleroma, the “Fullness”), including a divine Mother and Christ. One of the last of these beings to emanate from the Father is Sophia—an emanation of divine wisdom that we traditionally call the Holy Spirit.

Adam is created by an inferior demigod to serve him, and Adam does not have the sacred immortal light; the demigod does not have this light himself and so he cannot impart it. Sophia sees Adam’s travails and has mercy on him.

I entered the midst of the cage which is the prison of the body. And I spoke saying: “He who hears, let him awake from his deep sleep.” Then Adam wept and shed tears. After he wiped away his bitter tears he asked: “Who calls my name, and from where has this hope arose in me even while I am in the chains of this prison?” And I answered: “I am the one who carries the pure light; I am the thought of the undefiled spirit. Arise, remember, and follow your origin, which is I, and beware of the deep sleep.”[27]

We can equate the deep sleep with our ability as beloved children to forget our own divine nature as discussed in Portal one. This world can make it so easy to also forget how deeply cherished we are by our divine Father/Mother.

Sophia awakens the comatose soul in Adam, and after animating Adam, she sends her daughter Zoe to become Eve, and Eve then assists Adam in finding the truth. Eve offers the truth of Adam’s essence in the form of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. At this point in many of the Gnostic renditions Sophia becomes the serpent who gives the fruit of knowledge to Eve for the spiritual awakening of Adam to the true God, no longer keeping him entrapped to the god of the material world. The gift of the Serpent was consciousness.

After the day of rest, Sophia [literally, “wisdom”] sent Zoe [literally, “life”], her daughter, who is called Eve, as an instructor to raise up Adam.… When Eve saw Adam cast down, she pitied him, and she said, “Adam, live! Rise up upon the earth!” Immediately her word became a deed. For when Adam rose up, immediately he opened his eyes. When he saw her, he said, “You will be called ‘the mother of the living,’ because you are the one who gave me life.[28]

To the Gnostics, this was an act of deliverance and cast Eve as a true savior.

Doesn’t this creation story feel so completely different? Doesn’t it speak to our self-worth as women? All along we have believed a lie that we were to blame for the entrance of sin into this beautiful world, but that was not true. Even more, we were created to be the one who comes alongside Adam to wake him up to his own divine light within. This transformative creation story redeems the ill cast upon women and elevates us to the nobility and virtue that God intended all along. We need this fresh perspective and narrative to right-size our sense of self and restore the community of women in this world.

The controlling 4th century church became increasingly oppressive to women, even labeling them “occasions of sin.”[29] The Gnostics disagreed and raised women to equal status with men, announcing Sophia as “in a sense, the handmaiden or wife of the Supreme God, making the soul of Adam her spiritual offspring.”[30] The writers of these gospels knew the power and value of the feminine soul because they worshipped Sophia as the feminine divine. The term Goddess is sometimes used to describe the feminine dimension of God.

It is profoundly ironic that all of womankind has been blamed for what Augustine interpreted as humanity’s “original sin.” But in the Gnostic account, Eve was a heroic emissary of Sophia, having been sent to help Adam in the face of the tragedy of the loss of his divine image. Adam and Eve were created to carry the divine footprint of the Mother / Father into the world and bless humanity together, which we will discuss this in a later portal.

This is the truth we must reclaim.

Write Your Story

Take some time now to reflect upon your experience with the patriarchal creation story in contrast with the Gnostic story. Write your responses to these prompts in your journal.

·      What have you personally lost because of the scapegoating of Eve?

·      What do you feel needs to be recovered in your journey toward the strength of Eve and the wisdom of Sophia?

Meditation

Start the video that leads you to the second portal. When you arrive at Sophia, envision yourself entering the image and sit in quiet contemplation. You are welcome to stop the video and sit with the image.

·      Let a word arise in the stillness and locate that word in your body.

·      When the music ends, write down your word and where it resides in your body.

Take as much time as you need to hold what has been given, and when you are ready, the third portal awaits.

click for Portal 3: From Inferiority to Equality…

(c) 2025 Kellie Wilder Daley. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Top image by Meinrad Craighead. "Mechthild of Helfta," 1981. Copyright Amy Dosser. meinradcraighead.com. Used by permission.

For footnotes, click here.