Saturday, January 18, 2014

The Goddess Appears ~ an interview with Aurora Terrenus by Lona Lyons

The Goddess Appears An Interview with Aurora Terrenus

by Lona Lyons



Part I: 1971-1991

 

"I am the Word which came from the mouth of the Most High. Like a fine mist, I embrace and cover the whole earth. The sanctum of my home was in heaven; my throne was in a culmination of clouds. Alone I did circle the sky and pass through the depths of the abyss. The waves of the sea, the whole earth, and every people and nation were in my influence and power. Come and draw near to me, you who love me; and live on my wealth. Before the beginning of time, I was; and I shall remain forevermore. I will fulfill my prophecy of peace and bequeath it to all future generations. Once again I will make peace shine brighter than the dawn, and not one will not see the light."

~ Sophia of the Bible

 

 

Lona: Something happened to you over twenty years ago in England. (Summer, 1971) How did it all begin?

Aurora: Through wonder. It was a time of turmoil in my life. I was wondering about the meaning of life and asking, "Is this all there is?" In the times of your greatest need, when you are in the first phases of your spirituality, something comes to you from another dimension that no one has ever defined or explained and it is a wonder. Over 20 years ago, my husband, my children and I were camping in the New Forest in England. It was very pristine. There were wild horses and a mare had just given birth to her colt nearby. At 4 o'clock in the morning I got up to check on the colt and a vision of Light appeared to me.

Lona: Can you describe it?

Aurora: It was like Light coming in the form of a female Divinity. She had wings like an Angel and defied gravity. It was the most wonderful feeling because it verified something that I knew. I knew there had to be a Divine Feminine and it was confirmed by Her. She said, "I love you. Love me. I am Sophia."

Lona: Was Her voice an audible tone, or something you heard in your head?

Aurora: I still don't know. I know that this image of Divinity is something that we project and it's something outside of us and inside of us. I know that it's the integration and coming together of all that we're striving for.

Lona: How long was She with you the first time?

Aurora: Very briefly. She left me like She found me, but the sky was all lit up. She was instantly gone.

Lona: What did you do after Sophia left?

Aurora: I woke my husband and children and told them that I had just had a vision of the most incredible being of Light that identified Herself to me as Sophia. I had great faith and peace in this being, who is Queen of Heaven, the Mother of all beings. I needed to know more about Her but I wasn't apprehensive. I just needed to have the remembrance of that vision and become one with Her.

Lona: Did you wonder, "Why me?"

Aurora: I did wonder. I grew up in a Greek Orthodox tradition. My father was a Greek immigrant and my great-grandfather was a priest and scholar who was brought over from Greece. The mother church of Christendom was in Constantinople (now called Istanbul). It was the mother church of the Orthodox and the Catholic and was called, Hagia Sophia, which means, "Holy Wisdom", or "Sacred or Divine Wisdom'' in Greek. In church, the priest would say, "Stand and attend Holy Wisdom, stand and attend" (Hagia Sophia). I used to ask my mother, "Who is She?"

After the vision, I started doing research on Her. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician, was the first to call himself a philosopher because he was a lover of wisdom. He was the first to speak of the transmigration of the soul, which is one of the forms of renewal or rebirth or resurrection. That was astonishing to me because he lived in about 300-400 B.C. At the same time, it was one of the bloodiest times in Chinese history, and King Wen and his son, Duke Chou, were working with the I Ching, also known as the Chinese Book of Wisdom. All great spiritual teachers have understood that our rebirth is spiritual. The rebirth is with Love and Wisdom. Love is the androgynous male principle and Wisdom is the androgynous female principle.

Lona: Are you saying that, traditionally, when we think about the Supreme Being, God, that what has been left out of our awareness is the Goddess, the counterpart?

Aurora: Yes, the feminine face of God.

Lona: What has been the impact on us?

Aurora: Rather than dwell on the negative, I would like to state the positive effects of Her. She is the Healing Spirit, the Comforter. She is the mind of all yogis. She is the spirit of Christ. She is the Spiritual Motherhood of the Rebirth. Acknowledging Her and understanding the integration of Wisdom as a symbol of the Self in our path reconnects us with all the things that are of importance: vision, poetry, heart, feeling and intuition. Nothing needs to be said about the value of Wisdom. In the Eastern traditions, I found eight paths to Wisdom along with the masculine and feminine deities that seem to be lacking in Western Spirituality. In the Greek Bible, it says, "I Sophia was there when the Heavens were created." In English, it says, "Wisdom stands at the gates of the city and speaks, 'Come to me, my children'."

Lona: Please trace your experience with Sophia over the last 40 years. What happened next?

Aurora: Many synchronistic events. I started documenting the feelings and thoughts that were emerging and I found myself having a communion and dialogue with Sophia. When I finished my morning meditation, I would spend an hour or two just jotting down my thoughts. My book, The Shroud of Sophia, started as a stack of papers that were dialogue with Her. At the same time, I was looking for Her everywhere. The first book I found was Carl Jung's Memories, Dreams and Reflections, which mentioned Sophia. Through reading the Bible, I began to understand that She was in Western Spirituality, but she had been shrouded - a secret. At that time, I traced Her back to Heraclitus, about 400 B.C. Solomon wrote of Her in "The Song of Solomon", (or whoever the author of Proverbs was). The Nag Hammadi (Gnostic Gospels) which were discovered in 1945, have Sophia, Godfather/Godmother. I came upon Erich Neumann's book, The Great Mother. The last chapter is titled, "Spiritual Transformation: Sophia." Hermes' invocation was to Sophia: "Holy Wisdom, children of Wisdom, rejoice there is no death." There was a chant, "Holy Wisdom, have mercy on us."

From 1971, when I had the first vision, until 1985, I was virtually alone in my search. If I went to a priest or talked to someone, they would say it was heresy. They would say, "Divine Wisdom is not a feminine spirit. Divine Wisdom is androgynous." I would say, "I agree, but so is Love, and still you say, 'he', and I'm a 'she'. I can't identify with that." This is a treasure I've found that the world should know about. It's very important for the human psyche because without this symbol of hope and unity of the Divine Feminine, I don't see how we're going to get into our wholeness and our Oneness. When you think about the fact that the most popular books in the patriarchal world are about abuse and addiction, it's apparent that something is missing. She is the giver and the gift of Wisdom. She is the Way. She is immortality, greater than any earthly treasure. When I use the "She", that seems to offend some people. It should actually be a Revelation.

In 1985, I found out about a meeting of 350 scholars at Occidental College of Religious Studies. The door was closed for lack of space, not for lack of scholars, to come and talk about the spirit of Sophia. There is considerable documentation and verification of more than one person having this vision of Sophia, the Divine Feminine Spirit. Caitlin Matthews is the author of a book entitled Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom, The Divine Feminine, From Black Goddess to World Soul. She has traced Sophia from the scholarly approach back through history to the present day. (Look for me in there too.)

Lona: What do you know about other people seeing the vision?

Aurora: I went to San Jose, California to a bookstore and while there, I asked them if they wanted a copy of my first book about Sophia. The book buyer said, "I don't know what you mean." I said, "If you have a metaphysical or religious or insprational part of your bookstore, you will want a book about Sophia." As I said that, I looked up on the shelf and there was a book with Sophia in the title: Sophia, the Future of Feminist Spirituality. It was written by three Methodist ministers. In the book, they said that Sophia was the Holy Spirit and might be equal to Christ. In their talks and workshops, the idea of having a Feminine Divinity to identify with had helped abused women. I went home and called one of the authors. I asked him, "How did you come upon Sophia?" He said, "For 20 years, I studied Her from the scholarly approach. Then I had a vision and now I'm in communion with Her everyday." He told me that he and his co-authors were going to be teaching a class on Sophia at Claremont Theological School.

Lona: What was your experience of Sophia while you were writing The Shroud of Sophia?

Aurora: I was feeling Her presence and She continues to come to me in the form of vision. Sometimes I want to say, "Turn around right now, you can see Her." She's always been my friend in time of need.

Lona: Is She here now?

Aurora: She's here. Do you know that feeling when you get the chills because Spirit is moving you or calling you?

Lona: Do you actually see Her now?

Aurora: Yes, I see Her in you.

Lona: Describe that.

Aurora: Imagine the most beautiful woman in the world, who is Wisdom incarnate, leaving the realms of Love and coming to earth. Can you imagine the reception She would have? I cry because I know it happened. I know that She has come to earth many times and has many manifestations. She's in all of us. She's the Spiritual Mother. Solomon says, "In Her right hand are riches, in Her left hand is honor." She comes with true inheritance, the immortality of each soul. The word for psyche in Greek is "soul". In the beginning, when people were distressed and didn't know the meaning of life, they went to a psychic healer, which would have been the equivalent of what we now call a psychiatrist. The psychic healer was the priestess or priest and would treat you if you were in distress and had lost your soul. It was very common among Native American tribes and ancient traditions. In other words, it meant that you had lost contact with your empowerment. So the priestess or the priest would take you to the temple. When the Spirit appeared, you were healed. It was like a vision quest.

The Pistis Sophia, which is one of the lost books of the Bible, means Faith in Wisdom or Faith in Sophia. The story, which is thousands of years old, is that She is on earth, locked in matter and it's up to us to let Her out. Our bodies are matter, and She's the spirit locked in us. One can't say that this is just for women and children because they need Angels, fairies or goddesses. Three-fourths of my mail comes from men.

Lona: What do the letters say?

Aurora: My correspondence includes letters from royalty, priests, ministers, nuns, Jungian analysts, prisoners, artists, corporate presidents, students, scholars and many others. Here are some excerpts from letters that came from all over the world: ~"Thank you for introducing me to the spirit of Sophia. She comforts me in the homeless shelter." ~"Thank you for Sophia of the Bible. It has helped me overcome my fear of death." ~My Sister the Unicorn has given me a view of what peace could be and I am reconciled with my terminal illness." ~"The Shroud of Sophia has made me proud to be a woman in what has always seemed to be a man's world. ~"Thank you for introducing me to Sophia. I have searched for Her and couldn't find Her. Now She seems like an old, dear friend, reaching out with love for me. It seems I have known Her forever and only by Her name have I been able to acknowledge Her."

Lona: What is important for people to understand about Sophia?

Aurora: Sophia is Divine Wisdom. She is the symbol of Self, a symbol of wholeness and Oneness. She is the Divine Feminine of the androgynous unity of Love and Wisdom. Without Her there is no symbol of wholeness of the Divine Feminine in the human psyche. We need that image in order to have an integration or synthesis of opposites, the coming together of the male and female of the Divine and the earthly. We need a recognition that there is a Divine Feminine. It's not only logical and rational; it's the feeling/intuitive side of our hearts that is crying for this.

There is a myth of Antaeus, which means "besought with prayers." He was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Gaia, the earth. All his strength came from touching his mother, the earth. I think that our strength comes from touching the Mother, the earth and the Mother, the Spirit. We're withering and dying in our souls without this nourishment, comforting, and healing of the Spiritual Motherhood. In the Native American traditions, there's a legend in the Cherokee Hills of Georgia that when an Indian is buried in his mother, the earth, and his body returned to her womb, then his spirit rises. We are the spiritual children of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom and our rebirth, renewal resurrection, or transmigration of the soul, is that connection. Anytime we're down and out, that Spirit is going to come. The alchemists say, "Even in your darkest hour, rejoice, because in the darkness, and the deeper the darkness, the closer you are to the Light." That is the Light of Wisdom.

Think about the myths of heroes and heroines. They go off and find the treasure. It's not the heroes and heroines that don't find the treasure that we hear about. It's the ones that come back from the depths of the dragons. They had to fight. Not only do they seek it, they pull out the sword, the country is restored and the grass grows green again. Sophia is the heroine of the holy tradition. She keeps the secret of Wisdom.

Lona: I think about my own orientation of God as the Source of All That Is, and that everything is composed of that One Energy. Where does Sophia fit into that?

Aurora: God is the One Energy and It's the Divine Energy. It's the androgynous Energy, because God is All Things. Where Sophia fits in is that She is the complement in the composition of the androgynous unity. We have heard for thousands of years of the androgynous unity of God, the Oneness of God, but we've only heard of the andro, the male part. The gynous is the female or feminine face of God. Therefore, our whole image of God is changed. Now we have a softened image of God as Love and Forgiveness. In these 2000 years since the birth of Christ, we've dwelled on the masculine. There's a secret that's been pushed back. How much power does She have that the patriarchy is so afraid of Her being revealed to the masses? She is androgynous and masculine. The union produces the new anthropos - the new person - the spiritual rebirth.

Lona: What does Sophia continue to say to you?

Aurora: She told me to come here and talk to you.

Lona: How would you describe your relationship with Sophia and what role does She play in your life?

Aurora: She's the Guide and Protectress.

Lona: How are you aware of Her Guidance?

Aurora: Usually through manifestation or some synchronistic event or miracle, something that I can't deny. I've learned to depend on Her because She's my Higher Self, as She is anyone's Higher Self. Maybe for some people it would be instantaneous, but for me, it's taken time.

Lona: I'm sure that you've been in awe a lot of times in all these years. What are some of the things that leave you in awe?

Aurora: One of the main things is Her re-emergence through the people who are following Her, seeking Her, and coming out with works about Her. So many scholars and philosophers and mystics have come to know Her as their spiritual Mother. There is a hypnotherapist in Atlanta who uses my books in her therapy. She works with abused families and she gives The Shroud of Sophia to the men becausee they can relate to metaphor and the symbols. She does the healing with them through symbols and the idea of the Divine Feminine aspect in the women they live with.

Lona: What is the relationship of Sophia to the widespread phenomenon of self-hatred?

Aurora: She's the harmony and the balance we lack. If we could be our True Selves, we couldn't hate. We would be love and compassion and understanding. Self-hatred is lack of understanding of the powers we have, and what we are responsible for, and what is beyond our power that we have no control over. I think we have the image of the Divinity and then, all of a sudden, we're hating ourselves becausee we let something happen that we thought all along shouldn't have happened; we think we could have controlled it. And the truth is that it wouldn't have happened if we could have controlled it. I've learned to imagine, or image Wisdom's Light, because that's how She appeared to me. In your darkness, or in your self-hate or self-doubt, what is it that you're hating? You're not hating your True Self, because your True Self is beauty and compassion, Love and Wisdom. You are the wholeness, the holiness and the Oneness that you have always been. That is your True Self. In the ancient days we would have taken you to the temple if you would cry for help. But when you get in the trenches or the grips of that, sometimes you can't cry for help. That's why it's so important that we have this direct experience of the Divinity within ourselves. In the ancient days, the pain was recognized as a loss of soul. If you hate yourself, it means that you have lost communion with the Divinity. You're just a leaf on the earth, you're being trampled on and abused. You're lost, confused, and what are you lacking, like Humpty Dumpty, that would put you back together again? Your soul emanates from within and fills you, so the more you are in contact with the Spirit, the more you're becoming a being of Light. When you are radiating, nothing can cover that Light. The Light's going to shine through the darkness and that's how Wisdom relates. Where Wisdom reigns, there can be no conflict. Hate is a conflict, a separation, a lack of understanding, a lack of wholeness, a lack of holiness, as is anguish or despair. Shine the Light of Wisdom when those times come. Learn to image Her as the Light.

Imagine this: You have a Great Spirit Mother and you are Her child and She loves you when you are in need. You're down here all alone; that's how you come in and that's how you go out. You need Wisdom in life and you need Wisdom in death. You need the bridge that's going to take you over into the land of the immortal ones. You know those god and goddess stories of the mortals seeking immortality? Really, that's us, playing them out. She lives within you, this Queen of Heaven, this Great Goddess, this Spiritual Mother who knows the answers to all the questions of life. Take Her your problems She's on Her throne in all Her power and all Her glory and you can just feel the burden fall away. You have Her promise of Life, you are a reflection of Her beauty, you are seeing the Goddess face-to-face and you are the Goddess. She's your Mother. You're beginning to grow into the spiritual woman that you are and have always been. Let Wisdom shine in the darkness. Always call on Wisdom. Always call on that Light because there is no reason for you to hate yourself. We weren't put here to judge. We were put here to emanate the Light of our Divine Spiritual Parenthood.

Lona: You said you started a church with priests and priestesses.

Aurora: I've started a non-profit organization called The Holy Order of Wisdom. It's a Wisdom school and there are priests and priestesses. We have certain ceremonies that we perform, for example, a Crowning Ceremony. It is a reconsecration of your wholeness and Divinity. The crowning is the crown of Love and Wisdom, which is the crown of victory. It's always been a symbol of the complements: harmony and peace; wholeness and holiness; compassion and understanding; beauty and enlightenment; courage and grace; purity and goodness; immortality and androgyny. It's a symbol of the Divinity of your being and the Spirit in matter.

Here is the invitation that is the beginning of the Crowning Ceremony that we do in church: "This is the coming together of opposites and the highest manifestation is when Heaven and Earth meet. I would like for you to be a priestess/priest in the Holy Order of Wisdom. This requires no more than what you have always been ~ beautiful, holy and whole in Spirit and Soul. So Wisdom will give you wings and Truth will set you free, and Love will return the Kingdom-Queendom that is your true inheritance. Amena." (Amena is a derivative of an Arabic word and means, "to make complete".)

It doesn't have to be with a church, just the body and the soul, the temple of your body. Our first responsibility is to ourselves, to become holy and whole. It's so wondrous to me because Sophia is a gift in my life. She just appeared. I don't know why, but She has saved my life many times. After all these years, I still had to go through a windshield in an automobile accident to understand, but now I understand.

One of my friends said that he'd never heard me say anything about the person who hit me in the two years of my recovery from the automobile accident. I didn't want to sue and I wasn't angry. I saw that the other driver wasn't looking and she hit me head-on. I had an out-of-body experience as I went through the windshield. The sun was out and I knew that it was a beautiful day to die. When I came back, there was stillness and peace and silence, right there on the road in the shambles. I'd already made up my mind that I was going to follow this path and not worry. You know how you sort of hesitate about who you tell what you're doing? After the accident, I understood even more that is my path and I have come back to tell everybody, ready or not, willing or unwilling. The incredible thing is the number of people who love this idea and whose lives have changed.

My daughter has a friend whose father was killed in a motorcycle accident. She had just made a reconnection with her father for the first time in 17 years and a month later, he was killed instantly. She was very distressed and she wrote to tell my daughter about it. My daughter didn't know how to respond because this girl had been in a mental institution at one time because of her father's abandonment. My daughter sent her The Shroud of Sophia. The girl read the book over and over for 3 days and then called my daughter and said, "This book has healed me, this idea of the Divine Feminine. It's given me the understanding that I was lacking."

One time, I was in Atlanta at a New Age Fair. Some young men had a gorgeous, black abalone shell that I wanted. I asked them if they would be interested in trading it for some of my books and they agreed. The next day, one of them approached me with a box in his hand. He told me that they had met a Shoshone Indian in Oregon named Lone Eagle. They made friends with him and learned that he lives on a reservation nine months out of the year making jewelry, and for three months, he goes out and travels. When Lone Eagle visited them on their farm in Tennessee, he gave them the box which was now being given to me. Long Eagle told them they were going to meet a very spiritual woman who would talk to them about things that they hadn't heard about, but would know about. "I know of her," Lone Eagle said, "through my spirit guides, and when you meet her, I want you to give her this box." Inside was a pair of beautiful, white feather earrings. Wherever I go I say, "Lone Eagle, I love you."

One day, a woman was cutting through the center of the New Age Fair to get to her hotel room. She saw me standing there with the books and she said, "Sophia has been appearing in my meditations for 3 years and I didn't know who or what She was. Just the name has been appearing. What does it mean? I was told to read a book that I was supposed to find." She lived in Alabama in a spiritually desolate place. I told her about Wisdom and I said, "Take these books because I really don't know of any other books on Sophia." She said, "I don't have any money so I'll send off for them." I insisted that she take them as a gift. She cried and said that nobody had ever given her anything like that. About 4 hours later a man came up to my booth and introduced himself to me as her husband. He said, "I went back to the hotel room just now, and for the first time in 3 years, I found a new woman. I can't begin to tell you what this means. She's been living so isolated and alone and now knows the meaning of what's going on."

In Birmingham I had a display of my books. A girl came over and put her head on the table and started crying. She said, "I had an experience of a Spirit talking to me during my meditation and I said, 'You can't leave me without a name!' And the Spirit told me Her name was Sophia."

"Behold, God and Sophia are with you. You are the children of Light. Every tear will be wiped from your eyes. There shall be no more death; nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, for the holy order of Sophia is here. Behold, all things are made new! Behold, A New Beginning!" Sophia of the Bible