Philosophy is a Lover of Sophia

The word philosophy comes to us from ancient Greek:
Philo, meaning love, and sophy, meaning wisdom.
At its root, it’s not a dry system of logic or a rigid academic pursuit; it’s a love affair with wisdom.

But we often forget that Sophia – the word for wisdom – is feminine.

She’s not just an abstract concept, but a deeply ancient, archetypal presence. In Hebrew texts, she is Chokhmah, the spirit who was “with God in the beginning.”

In Gnostic gospels, she’s the fallen spark of divine knowing, seeking restoration. In early Christian mysticism, Sophia is the very embodiment of divine insight…

A feminine face of God:

And yet over centuries, as philosophy became systematized, institutionalized, and masculinized, Sophia was slowly written out. Wisdom lost her face, her voice, her depth. Rationality became king, and intuition, her domain, was sidelined.

But true philosophy is not just logos, it is womb and word.

It doesn’t just ask us to think, but to feel the roots of our thoughts. To listen to the wisdom that arises from the dark soil of the unknown, the very place all growth begins.

Just as a child is formed in the womb, nourished, protected, unseen,
it’s in the darkness of contemplation that true insight is conceived.

Just as the seed rests in the earth before it blooms,
Wisdom incubates in silence before it blossoms into form.

The feminine aspect of philosophy – the intuitive, relational, nonlinear, soul-tending part – has long been silenced. But without her, philosophy becomes brittle. Detached. A tower of intellect with no ground beneath it.

In fact, the very roots of epistemology, the study of knowledge, reflect this balance (or imbalance). The Greeks often attributed gnosis, inner knowing, to the feminine, and techne, structured knowledge, to the masculine. But over time, techne was prioritized. Gnosis was dismissed. And so was Sophia.

Yet we’re returning.

A new wave of thinkers, teachers, writers, and seekers remember what was forgotten: that wisdom isn’t conquered, it’s received. And it speaks in many voices, not just the loudest.

To philosophize is not just to debate, but to dwell.
Not just to reason, but to receive.
To sit at the threshold between the mind and the soul and learn how to listen again.

Philosophy is not just the love of wisdom.
It is the return to Her.