Sophia of Canterbury
“Sophia herself is not fourth to the Holy Trinity, but rather is the matrix of the divine creative power and as such is the bride of Logos or bridegroom. She, along with the logos, is intermediary between humanity and God, is the creative power through which all things came to be, and thus is also the spiritual effulgence through whom humanity returns to the paradisal and eternal worlds. Thus for the theosophers she is not a mythological being so much as a tincture, an illumination. She illuminates and transmutes man in a mystical marriage that is an inexpressible experience”
Sophia of Canterbury - oil on canvas 2017
Sophia of Canterbury was inaugurated into the Chapel at Canterbury Christ Church University on the Summer Solstice in 2017. Later in the year in the exhibition Sophia and Sacred Geometry, Sophia of Canterbury was exhibited at the Christian Community Church in Forest Row East Sussex. On both occasions Judith Way gave an introductory talk about the relevance of the painting within a Christian context, and the symbolic intent that guided the creative process. Sophia Of Canterbury can travel to any sacred location where she is welcome. She represents the invitation to perceive symbolically and the fluid nature of wisdom that can transcend fixed localities. The overarching wish in painting her; enshrined in an empty niche of Canterbury Cathedral, was that wisdom can take her place again within modern Christianity and a fertile space of faith and gnosis flow freely.