Many ancient schools of thought maintain that the Highest God is unknowable, but there are aspects, emanations, or faces that we might come to know in some form. Among those forms we find Sophia, holy wisdom. Some have considered her the female face of God, others a divine feminine bride or twin of Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Gnosticism offers almost as many interpretations as there were Gnostic sects, from a Sophia who is the great mother and giver of life to a Sophia who has wilfully fallen from the true God and begotten the evil Demiurge who created this world.

To me, she is an approachable, knowable aspect of the Highest. When I pray to the One, the benign Presence that sometimes reaches back towards me and envelops me takes the shape of Sophia—and this is how I experience her.

This painting was done digitally, using techniques inspired by how Greek Orthodox icons are painted but with some deviations to produce a slightly less stylised image.