Sophia's Time
Dear Wise One,
Sophia’s Spirit is present throughout all of a woman’s life.
But if I had to choose one time She makes a full-court press
into a woman’s consciousness
I would say it’s between the ages of fifteen to twenty-five.
Those years are a sacred time in a young woman’s life.
It is a time when a teenage girl’s brain and heart and body
all are straining to glimpse who she is.
They are years in which a girl
tries to express her innate Idealism.
The feeling from her preteen years that
‘something marvelous is going to happen’
is now ripening into an expectation of Reality
through her Idealism
And indeed, something wondrous can happen and should happen.
Even her physical brain cooperates with her aspiration
by stabilizing newly formed neural pathways
which will support her desire for
depth and meaning in her life.
Author Robert Bly writes that the
‘Spiritual Charka’ opens around the age of fifteen
with the expectation that
‘Something wonderful is going to happen to me’
Richard Rohr calls this moment a
“Window of Transcendence”
It is a time when the brain and heart of a teenage girl
are looking for something great to happen to her;
something amazing for her to become;
something wonderful for her to do.
It’s actually Transcendence she is looking for.
She is looking for the depth of herself
and the breadth of her life’s contribution to the world
and the connection with the Goodness that calls her forward.
To step through that Window of Transcendence
a young woman needs
to be loved well with kindness and respect.
She needs opportunities and challenges.
and most importantly she needs
relationships with Sophia-Mentors in her life.
Those mentors can be
her mother, family members, a coach, teacher, group leaders
any mature wise-woman model available to her.
These mentors also can be Historical Figures
that catch her admiration or
Fictional Heroines whom she meets through books.
Without this kind of support, nurturing, and wisdom-models,
a young person can slide into deep disappointment,
feeling that the greatness they had hoped for will not happen.
Because their disappointment is so deep,
They could latch on to anything that gives them a sense of significance.
The good news is that if a girl
has both mature models and enough nurturance
during these years
the idealistic worldview takes off in her for the rest of her life.
She can keep growing into higher levels of development and consciousness.
She can become a leader, a visionary, a wise-woman mentor.
More importantly she can become a
Light to herself and those around her
and offer the Sophia qualities of love, respect, kindness
compassion and wisdom to others and her own life.
I tell you these things because the importance of this period
of time in a girl’s life cannot be overstated.
If you are a teenage girl
Seek these things out:
Demand respect
Find wise-women models
Refuse to accept unkind treatment.
You are a pearl of Great Price
and deserve to be treated as such.
If you are an adult fortunate enough to have a
fifteen to twenty-five-year-old girl in your life,
I hope you will become (or continue to be)
the Sophia-Spirit of love and a wisdom-model for her
and treat her as the Treasure she is.
You will make an invaluable contribution to the world
and will give a priceless goodness to your teenager.
Love to you,
Sophia
PS: Bly, Robert & Marion Woodman. The Maiden King: The Reunion Of Masculine And Feminine, 1998.