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An Encounter with the Divine Feminine as Seen through a Christian Esoteric and Jungian Analytic Perspective.

Research Question:
What are the transformative implications for women’s engaged contemplative spirituality with the return to consciousness of Sophia, the Divine Feminine?

  • Presuppositions /Assertions – Aim

The assertion of this study is that a contemplative, meditative, prayer experience with the Divine Feminine, known in Christianity as Sophia, will engage a process of awareness that results in transformation, both individually and collectively. This transformation, it is asserted, may impact the tensions between the masculine and feminine energies positively, resulting in a sense of personal and collective peace; other desirable and undesirable outcomes are possible. It is also asserted that, when the feminine principle comes to be central in daily awareness and praxis, then an insight-based transformation must occur; aesthetical and ethical insight that does not lead to change is incongruent.

  • Original Study / Contribution

This is an original study in that reviewing Sophia through both the lenses of Jungian depth psychology and the Christian Esoteric tradition is a unique departure. Using the poetry of the Song of Songs as a portal to the Divine Feminine and interviewing women about their mystical experiences of Sophia/the Divine Feminine, is also original. The author of this study hopes to make a critical contribution to contemporary Sophiology.To my knowledge, in academic work, no one has critically linked the study of meditation as a mode of access to the Divine Feminine in the lives of contemporary women.

  • Background and Personal Goals

Part of the purpose of this dissertation is to further my work in contemplative prayer, the energy models and exceptional human experiences encountered, and teaching of the Divine Feminine so that publication, teaching and training via course work may be offered to students and the general public. I came to the work of Sophia and contemplation through my own spiritual journey and my own struggle to identify positively and creatively with the feminine archetypes. This process deepened my own personal understanding of the Divine Feminine; orienting my own experience in psycho-spiritual work with others in a way that respects women’s experience of the Divine Feminine. I am engaging in this study so my teaching work will be given a critical foundation.

  • Why this study?

The study came out of personal experience when I was a visiting scholar on sabbatical at St. Benedict's Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota. I had decided to leave my psychotherapy practice of fifteen years for a year and participate and study contemplative prayer and energetic healing modalities with the Benedictine sisters. I had seen the power of the silence in my own life over several previous years and observed how it had brought healing to clients in my practice. Little did I realise for that year at the monastery or until some years later that the silence is the portal to all that is and to the Divine Feminine.

At the monastery, I became quite ill and was not able to write as regularly as I had hoped. While in my office one morning, I looked out of my office window and instead of the 'normal' view of the university campus I saw a corn field with dried stubble from harvesting. Across the field walking towards me was a beautiful woman with long red hair. She wore a long white robe and held a clear glass orb in her out-stretched hands. Her countenance radiated with a golden light. As she approached me, I must have been standing in the field as well, although I was not aware of this for the many weeks that this experience repeated itself. Never did I, at that period of time in my life approach her or take the orb. I did not know for several years after this appearance who she was or what information she sought to impart to me.

When I came to a fuller understanding of these appearances, I cannot really remember. I returned to Chicago to resume my practice and entered into a series of trainings with several mystical teachers, one of whom was a Buddhist Rinpoche. Through these trainings I learned that we have guides who are with us throughout time. During these times of deep meditation, I understood that the red-haired woman was Mary Magdalene. Even as a young  girl growing up in fundamentalism, I had felt closeness to her. At earlier times in my life I would have had visions of the Christ.

How did I come to the knowledge of the connection between Christ, Mary Magdalene and Sophia? As in anything else, our journey in life is step by step, bit by bit, but gradually I gained awareness of the Feminine and Divine. Some of my women clients had left a church or Christianity altogether feeling alienated and yet looking for some connection to the Divine. As a result, I discovered Sophia, the Wisdom literature, and through visiting Ireland became more aware of the Celtic heritage to the Great Mother.

At the monastery I developed a form of group therapy which integrated contemplative prayer and group therapy, which was very helpful to many clients in Chicago. I eventually taught the model for Master’s degree students in Pastoral care at Loyola University in Chicago. My experience sets the stage for this Christian Esoteric, Jungian interpretation of the auto-ethnographic, hermetic study of women's stories from Chicago, Ireland and France.

The research study is to focus on the women's stories of their mystical experiences of the Divine Feminine, so it seems only fitting in this introduction to mention one of the women who I interviewed in France. She has a special gift to share of the Divine Feminine visiting her and sharing that love with the world.