Notes on Sophia Pistis
When I started this painting I thought that I was painting a Gnostic "symbolic"
or "mystery" painting. And maybe I did, but from the moment that
I had finished it I recognized this painting was also an "anima" painting.
The anima is a Jungian term for the feminine aspect found in all men, as
the "animus" is
the masculine aspect found in all women. From an archetypal view this painting
encompasses many of the femine archetypes: the Great Mother, the fertile
mother, the chthonic feminine in the guise of Medusa, an avenging feminine
(tiger), the pure feminine (swan) and a female puer aeternus or Kore (the
maiden or young lady).
From the Gnostic point of view "Sophia (wisdom) which is called Pistis
(faith) wished to create a work alone, without her consort. And her work
became an image of heaven so that a veil exists between the heavenly and
lower realms (aeons). And a shadow came into being beneath the veil, and
that shadow became Matter and it was projected apart"
Nag Hammadi Codices II; 4.94
Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis 1977