O Gnostic, O Knower

of the unity of love and wisdom,

the androgyny of heaven and earth,

nature and spirit.

O Knower of the Great Goddess,

the Great Mother

Who calls Herself Sophia.

Holy is Her Name.

Sophia, co-creator of all things

earthly and divine.

Divine Love lives with Eternal Wisdom

together as One,

as a child

in its mother's womb.

Sophia gathers all of Her children.

O Gnostic, to you She calls

to fulfill the prophecy,

to manifest the vision

of Peace on Earth.

                          In Search of The Phoenix


Ancient and modern myths tell of the magic and mystery
of the transforming powers of a magnificent, mystical,
mythological bird that could or could not exist, or be.

Spanning continents, cultures and eons of time, the phoenix
has long been a rich and complex symbol of human nature and an image of the human soul graced with extraordinary qualities and abilities that could be called divine and the phoenix alludes to degrees of perfection, vitality and power that are found inside the human heart and mind.

Inside the human heart I have seen a death come from despair.  A heat like no other come from anger.  A chill like no other come from fear.  A joy that invigorates the nerves and a comfort that comes from hope and love near.

Since I was young I have seen rape and killing and war; and friends and loved ones die and no one has been able to tell me why.  Not knowing whether to join my laughing or weeping friends, I began the journey that has no end.

I heard of this fabulous bird that has the powers to cast out disease and ease human sorrow and pain; whose feathers constitute a glorious medicine to make the old young again.

I spent a fortune, endured every hardship, travelled the world in search of a bird with qualities reflecting the human soul that could or could not exist much like the philosopher's gold.

Among other things, the phoenix is a symbol of wholeness, completion and androgyny, equal parts of male-female so it can be called he or she.  For our purposes here we will refer to the phoenix as she.  And it will be your task, to remember that 'she' includes 'he'.

The phoenix, the Queen, the Empress of all birds is said to have gifted the world with the musical scale.  Seven notes divided into two tetrachords corresponding to masculine and feminine elements by repeating the note of origin to bring the world to one again.  Her songs of heavenly proportions and propensity are of such sweetness that they bring tears to a heart of stone and anyone that hears her sing never feels alone.

On the edge of a branch, high in a tree, in the sun's full light, the phoenix builds her nest of fragrancy with aromatic twigs of cinnamon, frankincense and myrrh and it becomes her funeral pyre on the first nite that the moon disappears.

The sun sets the nest on fire and the phoenix sits and waits until it burns itself to ashes in the flames.  For three nites no one can see the moon or the nest of the phoenix burning high in the tree.  A nest built as a sacred altar becomes through purification her victory.  On the fourth nite when the moon reappears, a new phoenix emerges from the ashes.

A luxurious plummage of crimson, deep purplish red feathers gives the phoenix her name.  Her wonder working properties and her virtues give the phoenix her fame.

It is truly wondrous what the phoenix can do.  The phoenix can live for a thousand years and more.  She has the ability to always exist, to choose when to die and to recreate herself and to regenerate.  The phoenix has long been a spiritual symbol of the synthesis of the life force of human nature and fate.

It's a sacred art to know when life closes and to have a secret way to restore a new existence or so great sages say.  It's amazing to be known and loved even though you may or may not exist.  But truth without proof is the theme of the myth.

There is only one phoenix living in the world at one time.  It is unique and one-of-a-kind.  I searched the world for one feather and the question is still open.

Is there a bird named Phoenix?  Is it possible or impossible?  Is it believable or absurd?  Who in the world has ever seen such a bird?

@2003 Aurora Terrenus

Taoderf:   "Why do you think you had a vision of Sophia?
                   Do you think you would have had it if you hadn't    
                   heard the word Sophia growing up?"

Aurora:  "As I have said, I speak and write Greek and I did
               attend a Greek Orthodox Cathedral with my parents
               when I was growing up.  The priest would come out
               of the vestibule and raise both arms to the heavens
               and announce to the congregation. 
                'Aghia Sophia, orthe kai akousame.' 
                'Holy Sophia, stand and attend.'
               I would ask my mother, 'Who is She?'
               And my mother would say, 'Sophia is Wisdom.  He
               is asking us all to stand and attend 'Wisdom'.

               But at the same time, people all over the planet have
               had and are having visions of Sophia or some sort of
               manifestation of
               Sophia and never really thought about the word.  I
               do know most people do know that philosophy is 'love
               of wisdom' and theosophy is 'divine wisdom'.

               The summer of 1951 when I was nine years old, I
                went to Greece with my family.  The ship stopped in
                Pompeii and I saw the devastation of a volcano and
                then when we got to Greece, I saw the devastation
                of World War II.  It did make quite an impression on
                me.  I saw starving people and bombed buildings.

                If Love is all there is, or if Love is the answer, I
                did wonder how people would come to that realization
                without wisdom.

                When I was in Greece again in 1961, my father's
                 family told me how their house had been occupied
                 by German generals.  My father had purchased the
                 ex-mayor's mansion for his parents and the German
                 generals took it over except for one room that my
                 grand-parents stayed in and were allowed garden
                 visits for one hour a day.

                 Also, when the communists took over, the commanders
                 and troops would gather all of the men in the village,
                 and line them up.  One day they would shoot every
                 other man, the next time, maybe every seventh man,
                 and so on. 

                 There are also the stories of the women of the villages,
                  that would sing and dance off the cliffs to their deaths,
                  not to be raped by the conquerors.  (The beginning
                  of the spiral dance?)

                  When Sophia appeared to me in the New Forest
                   in 1971 something deep in my heart resonated
                   with 'I knew you had to be a beautiful feminine
                   spirit.'

Sophia Re-Emerging For Me....

New Forest, England ~ Summer Solstice ~ 1971

Sophia re-emerged for me brighter than the noon day sun.

"Now it was the darkest hour before dawn, the hour, they say when only the wise can see;
That a sense of awe did awaken and mystify me.
Descending from a throne, on a pillar of clouds, in royal splendor ~

An image of feminine divinity, I did see and I fell in love with Her beauty as I saw face to face the most magnificent symbol of the spirit of solace and grace. 

"Instantly.  Totally.  Inescapably.
Indescribable, immeasurable, unconquerable and impervious to time, was this beauty of the Love above all loves, that connected her heart and mine.

And in the silence of her reflection, of what was, and is, and forever more will be;
I felt the power of the Queen of Enchantment, Herself unchanging, fill me from within, make me new, and Love did consume and conquer me."


quotations from 'My Sister the Unicorn' @1988 by Aurora Terrenus

island lady

                                      Island Lady

After a head-on-collision that totalled my car and almost totalled me, I was resting in bed trying to read "The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation" when I opened to a page that said, "forget everything that you have ever read."  So I closed the book and began meditating during my prescribed periods of rest.

Excruciating pain kept me from resting peacefully but I continued my meditations.  During my meditations, a beautiful island lady, old and full of years, appeared walking on a solitary silver sand beach with the ocean softly lapping away her footprints in the sand.

I did not know her; I only knew that whenever she appeared, she lifted me in body and spirit.

A year and a half later, still in pain, I was walking on a deserted beach in Hawaii.  As I turned to return home, I noticed one path of footprints in the sand and they were my own.

Ancient Hawaiian legend says if you step into the footprints of another, you may get their karma.  So usually when I walked on a beach with footprints, I would dodge the footprints.

But this day, as I turned, I stepped into my footprints on the beach and in a magical moment I knew they were the footprints of the island lady that I had seen walking in my meditations.  Now I was the island lady walking on the beach ~ she and I were one ~ and I was healed. 

Great Mother of Peace Prayer

On our altar we have a Peace Candle.
In the daily lighting of this candle, we offer this prayer:

O Great Mother of Peace,
in the names of your children
and the children of your children,
We light this candle.
In reverence, in honor,
in gratitude and in remembrance of you.

O Holy Mother, O Spiritual Mother
of the Divine Spark of Light
that you reflect and ignite in our souls,
Be here now.

We are called the Peacemakers,
Blessed are our ways.
We are known as the true children
of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom,
your spiritual children on Earth.

O Holy Mother, gather all of your children
and grace us with Peace on Earth now.

In extinguishing the candle:
O Holy Sophia,
May the sacred smoke from the fire
cover the earth like a mist,
May all people and nations
be under your influence and power
So that we might understand
the true meaning of love
and fulfill our dreams for Peace on Earth now.
Amena.*
c. 1990. Aurora Terrenus
The Holy Order of Wisdom
(Also included in John Matthew's book, "Paths to Peace")

Amen is a Hebrew word that means 'truly'.

Amena is an Arabic word that menas 'to make complete'.

Because we feel that it is the divine feminine that is lacking

to make the world complete, we use Amena at the end of our prayers.

"Called 'Hypatia' .. a towering abstract sculpture of a nude woman is cut from slabs of steel and shows the outline of a graceful woman with full breasts.  It is named after a female mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher of ancient Alexandria.  A placard on the statue notes that Hypatia was murdered by people 'who considered her one of the defenders of paganism and the Classic era, but she was actually a victim of fanatic ideologists."
The sculpture of Hypatia is in the "Library of Alexandria, a gleaming, modern facility that opened in 2002 a short distance from the site of its Ptolemaic predecessor, the most significant library of ancient times."
National Geographic, May 2012
A footnote to "IS LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH?"