Tricia McCannon - Return of the Divine Sophia: Healing the Earth through the Lost Wisdom Teachings of Jesus, Isis, and Mary Magdalene

This book is dedicated to my mother,Carolyn Hayes McCannon,who has tirelessly supported me withthe beauty of her spirit.She embodies all of the best qualitiesthat a mother can have:wisdom, patience, love, and understanding.

It is also dedicated to my two sisters, who have each played a role in my own search for Truth as they have followed their own spiritual callings.

Finally it is dedicated to Shasta, and to all of the mystics, masters, priests, priestesses, shamans, and medicine men and women who, throughout the centuries, have kept the great spiritual Mysteries alive so that we, in our time, can benefit from their sacrifices and teachings, and reclaim our true divinity while still living in this world.

RETURN OF THE DIVINE SOPHIA

This book reveals the unique place of the Isis tradition and the true purpose and significance of Mary Magdalene. Thoroughly researched and very readable, this book draws the reader into the fascination and deep symbolism of this subject: a wonderful book to enjoy and treasure.

STUART WILSON, COAUTHOR OF POWER OF THE MAGDALENE

Tricia has done it again. She writes for a new time, and the glorious homecoming of Sophia, the wisdom of the essential feminine essence. Travel with this world renowned teacher to the heart of the mysteries of the quantum field where the great masters dwell and return with newfound knowledge, purpose, clarity and love.

ALAN STEINFELD, FOUNDER OF NEWREALITIES.COM

I strongly recommend a close reading of Tricia McCannons book. Her personal journey reveals the suppression of the divine feminine aspect within the worlds religions and may well point the way to a more truthful, equitable, and peaceful future.

JIM MARRS, NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR

This book is a revelation for the soul and the missing link to help us end the dark agendas of the patriarchy. It is an incredible and brilliant piece of work. Read this book!

LAURA EISENHOWER, FOUNDER OF COSMIC GAIA SOPHIA SEMINARS

This powerful and transformative book is the proverbial cracking of the Cosmic Egg. Incredibly well researched and emotionally moving, this book has the power to bring us all to a new paradigm for world healing.

COLIN TIPPING, AUTHOR OF RADICAL FORGIVENESS

A remarkable initiation into the Wisdom Circles of the Divine Feminine. From the first chapter I was hooked. An outstanding contribution to the field of spirituality and personal enlightenment.

ROBERT PERALA, AUTHOR OF THE DIVINE ARCHITECT

Tricia McCannon uses the powerful synthesis of personal revelation and scholarly research to create a gateway for personal contact with the Divine. Simply called, it is the eternal story of the Sacred Feminine.

PETER CANOVA, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF POPE ANNALISA

Through this book we find the missing piece of the Divine Feminine that can heal us, awaken us, and transport us to a higher reality. Brilliant!

BURGE SMITH-LYONS, AUTHOR OF
CONVERSATIONS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Masterfully written, this book guides the curious reader gently along the authors own exciting spiritual journey, from traditional Christianity to the evolution of Homo luminous, our next stage in the course of evolution.

DAVID RYBACK, PH.D., ABPP, COAUTHOR OFDREAMS THAT COME TRUE

Tricia McCannon writes in the true spirit of the Divine Feminine, which reverberates through every chapter of her entrancing book. To travel through her words is a deep pleasure.

PETER ROTH, FOUNDER/DIRECTOR OF THE HEART RIVER CENTER FOR INTUITIVE HEALING

This book is a journey into the deepest meaning of the Christ story, the lost wisdom teachings of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and the true meaning of the Path of Mastery. It holds you spell-bound from beginning end!

JENNIFER WALTON, PH.D., PSYCHOLOGIST AND FILM PRODUCER

Acknowledgments

No one ever takes a journey of this magnitude without standing on the shoulders of others great in stature. While the list of those who have paid the price for remembering the ancient paths of illumination are too numerous to name, in this generation I wish to acknowledge the legacy of Lady Olivia Robertson and her scholarly brother, Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, who began the modern day movement of the Fellowship of Isis in Clonegal, Ireland, many decades ago. I had the chance to be initiated by Lady Olivia in her castle while she was still alive, and she was a powerful voice for the remembrance of the Great Mother in our times. Along those lines I also wish to honor the courage of historians Barbara Walker, Merlin Stone, Riane Eisler, Jennifer and Roger Woolger, Monica Sj, Barbara Mor, Andrew Harvey, Anne Baring, and Z. Budapest. Your discoveries about the true nature of human history have changed the world.

I wish to also thank my beloved illustrator girlfriend, Sylvia Laurens, who has spent many long hours listening to me read and believing in this work; my steadfast roommate Pam Iams, who spent many nights preparing dinner while waiting for me to come down from my attic office and eat; my fellow priestess, Nicki Scully, who recommended Bear & Company so warmly; and my terrific agent, Devra Jacobs, who is a joy to work with. I would also like to thank the great staff at Inner Traditions and Bear & Company: Jon Graham, my acquisitions editor, whose vision for world enlightenment is vast and wide; Meghan MacLean, Jeanie Levitan, Jessica Wimett, and Diana Drew, each of whom are part of my wonderful editing team; and finally Peri Swan for the wonderful cover design of the book. My heartfelt thanks to all of you! your professionalism, support, and optimistic spirits make birthing a book of this magnitude a sheer joy!

And finally, I thank my teacher, Shasta Zaring, whose insights are a prominent part of this narrative. Shasta Zaring is a priestess and the Keeper of the sacred space of the Goddess Garden Atlanta, a temple of the Goddess in contemporary times. She creates Womens Intertribal Medicine Wheel Circles, Moon Circles, and Sisterhood Circles. She can be reached at: www.goddessgardenatlanta.com.

Introduction

Today, perhaps more than any other time in human history, we are seeing the rebirth of a unity consciousness that incorporates many ancient streams of knowledge with the desire to write a new destiny for the human race. This rekindling of ancient wisdom with modern-day mysticism is being brought about by the quest to bring a deeper meaning into a world that appears to have lost it; a fast-paced, materialistic world that seems to be obsessed with violence, death, and killing. Perhaps one of the reasons this resurgence is needed is that we can see how badly the world needs balance. We feel it personally in the stress of our daily lives, the imbalance of our relationships, and the ecological crisis of the Earth herself.

Yet in the midst of this chaos a new kind of human being is emerging, a being that I call Homo luminous; a man or woman of inner light who may perhaps be the next step in our evolution as a species. These are people who yearn to create the type of world where war, pollution, and struggle are things of the past; who have an innate sense of the sacredness of life and are committed to finding a way back to it. If you are reading this book, you may be one of these people. As forerunners to this more enlightened kind of human, we seek to move past the distractions in our outer world to find a more eternal truth. We want to transcend the chaos of our heavy-handed politics, our materially coopted media, our patriarchal religions, and the dysfunctional patterns of our relationships that have been handed down by our families. We are people who search for the beautiful, the true, and the eternal. These luminous human beings know that in order to bring a new and better world into being, we must somehow align ourselves with these more eternal principles, if the world we are living in now is ever to heal.