A Return to Wisdom: Sophia, Pluto, & the Healing of the World Soul

 “Sophia was with God before the creation of the world, herself the mother of all good things, is the source of newness and growth.” (Prov.8, Baruch 3, Wisdom 7).

As many astrologers have commented, yesterday’s new moon was a particularly potent one, a seed moment that set the scene not only for this lunar cycle, but the cycles within cycles of the great cosmic turning.

Since much has already been said about the Pluto, Sun/Moon conjunction, I turn my attention to an aspect in the chart that speaks to me, and that I believe is significant.

In the new moon chart, asteroid Sophia forms a tight conjunction with oscillating Black Moon Lilith by 1 second. That’s about as close a perfect conjunction as you will get. Sophia and Black Moon Lilith also form a trine with the Sun & Moon at 2° Leo, and a sextile with Pluto at 2° Aquarius.

Sophia is shining a light on the alchemical process of renewal within the collective soul. As a symbol of the fallen and the reascending soul, Sophia fights against the demiurge for the right of humanity to become spiritually conscious. It is Sophia who finds us wherever we may be on this journey through life, and gently begins to lift the veil. She finds us in the farthest reaches of the wilderness, and entices us back to a soulful and authentic life. She is the Soul Whisperer, calling us back to life… “the mist of Sophia spreads all over the earth”. Sophia cares not how far you have fallen for she too has fallen.

Sophia-Lilith: This powerful feminine conjunction forms an opposition with Uranus at 0° Gemini, a trine with Neptune/Saturn, and a Quintile to the lunar south node.

Mercury ruled Gemini is retrograde at 13° Leo, conjunct Dark Moon Lilith by 2 seconds. There are tight Lilith conjunctions in the seed mix of this new moon.

There is no coming to light without first descending to the darkness.

From an evolutionary astrology perspective, Pluto represents the intention of the soul throughout lifetimes. I think of Pluto as the light of the soul contained within the darkness of the world. It is the story of Sophia, the fall from the light of the monad, the supreme and unknowable God, into the density and suffering of matter, and then back again.

In Gnosticism, Sophia is a feminine figure analogous to the soul, she is the syzygy (corresponding opposite) of Jesus, the bride of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Sophia and the other aeons (they always manifest in pairs), make up the Pleroma- the spiritual abode of God and the totality of the divine powers and emanations.

Sophia is said to have conceived without the involvement of her male partner, or the approval of the Father, and in an act of parthenogenesis, gives birth to the demiurge, a flawed creator deity who is responsible for creating the material world.

In Sophia’s misguided attempt to create without her counterpart, she transgresses the laws of the pleroma and is thereafter destined to repeatedly fall into matter, lost to the light of the Father, and the Logos.

Psychologically speaking, Sophia’s descent can be read as the soul’s fall into a purely material and egotistical existence, untethered from the eternal light, and true nature of the soul.

How many of us have forgotten our true nature and been hijacked by the concerns and obsessions of the fearful or negative ego, vying for superiority and thinking it knows best?

On this new moon, Sophia-Lilith is in an opposition with Uranus, which I think speaks as a warning to the Promethean spirit and the seemingly unstoppable will to power of humanity. Sophia serves as a caution against becoming too embroiled in the artificiality of the master model that seeks to dominate nature, severed from the wisdom of the Mother, and the Father.

In its attempt to be wise on its own, the ego, cut loose from divine grace, is lost in the wilderness. In other words, when our beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world are severed from our soul’s fullness and our connection with the divine, we are lost to the truth of who we really are.

We fall asleep, lifetime after lifetime, and ten thousand times within each lifetime before we remember and wake up to who we are.

It is the ego that can lead us astray and it is also the ego that can lead us back to wholeness. By integrating the shadow, and our lunar qualities, the soul returns to the fullness of itself. Finding the light of Sophia in matter and coming home to our truth is the restitution of the soul. Once the ego is returned and integrated it becomes an ally and an aid to the higher self. The fact that Pluto is opposite the Sun and Moon- our creative potential for self-actualisation, and our unconscious and habituated mind- this new moon offers great possibilities for all aspects of the self to merge into wholeness.

Pluto reflects the intentions and design of the collective soul onto the two luminaries, the Sun and Moon, so that its intentions may be known and included in the rebirth.

Sophia-Lilith, as well as being in a trine with the Sun/Moon, also forms a sextile with Pluto. Both the trine and the sextile aspect are harmonious and beneficial. Sophia, as always, is working to redeem the human soul.

Let’s look at the archetypes of Sophia and Lilith. In some ways there are obvious parallels, both Lilith and Sophia are cast from the heavenly realm, Sophia from the Pleroma, and Lilith from the Garden of Eden, or further back in Mesopotamian mythology, she is cast out from the temple of Inanna.

Sophia is the 13^th aeon, and like the 13^th fairy in the fairytale, The Rose Thorn, is rejected from the party. Both Sophia and Lilith’s exile comes as a self-initiated transgression. In the case of Sophia, she wanted to create without her male counterpart, and Lilith refused to mate with Adam on account of his desire to take the superior position. It could be said, then, that both feminine archetypes have turned away from the spiritual superego and set out on their own, getting lost to the id. A code has been trangressed, but it is through the contravening of this code that everything is eventually restored to its proper place, and order is reestablished out of chaos.

Part of what is being reset at this time may be further seen in the nodal axis square to Venus in the new moon chart. In evolutionary astrology squares to the nodal axis generally represent a skipped step in the evolution, in this case the collective evolution. What have we collectively missed in our relationship and understanding of Venus?  In what ways have we failed to incorporate the image and the archetype of Venus and all that she represents?

Dark Moon Lilith in an exact conjunction with Mercury in its retrograde motion, may be offering an opportunity to incorporate aspects of the dark feminine, or the dark side of the moon, into consciousness. Again, this speaks to the need to integrate the shadow and bring to light what has been hidden or obscured by the ego.

Mars at 21° Virgo conjunct the south node 20° Virgo offers a release of karmic baggage, and closure on an outmoded past. Mars imbues us with the necessary drive to act and make changes. It may be time to really let go, once and for all, of soul denying ways of being. The ego may not like it; however, I feel that for many of us, we are beyond the point of return. We are collectively being called-and each of us individually- to rise and claim the truth of our being.

Finally, Sophia is erotic, she has a desire to merge not only with the light of the Father but with all aspects of life. She does not judge, and she does not separate, she is the holy one and she is the whore. She knows that our descent into matter, into the clutches of the demiurge, and the negative separate ego, no matter how it plays out for us, is what our soul needs to navigate our way back to the truth of our divinity.

This blog was written one day after the July new moon, when Pluto at was at 2° Aquarius, conjunct my natal Sophia, also at 2° Aquarius.

If you would like an astrological chart interpretation using the asteroid goddess placements as well as the traditional planets, send me a message, I’d love to explore this with you.