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Date: April 17
Time: 2pm Eastern
Admission: $25
This course will be conducted through Zoom, ensuring a convenient and interactive learning experience for everyone. Additionally, to accommodate the diverse schedules of our participants, all classes will be recorded. These recordings will be made available to all participants, providing the flexibility to engage with the course material at your own pace.
This 90-minute lecture explores Sophia, tracing her appearances through philosophy, early religious texts, alchemy, art, literature, and contemporary spirituality. We will encounter her in many forms—as divine Wisdom, the World Soul, the Holy Spirit, the Mother of God, and a feminine embodiment of knowledge and creation. We will follow Sophia into the alchemical tradition, where Wisdom becomes intertwined with the mysteries of nature, matter, transformation, and the divine feminine. From there, we will bring her story into the present, asking where Sophia might be found now and how this ancient figure of Wisdom continues to emerge in the contemporary imagination.
The lecture will end with a meditation that moves us from the study of Sophia into an encounter with her. We will create a space to invite her presence into our own consciousness—to listen for the feminine voice of God, make ourselves receptive to Wisdom, and ask how Sophia might wish to reveal herself to each of us now. This is an invitation to encounter Sophia not as a fixed figure of the past, but as a living presence whose story is still unfolding.
Eliza Swann, also known as Emerald, is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and alchemist whose work explores mysticism and its relationship to contemporary arts practice. In 2014, they founded Golden Dome, a nonprofit art school for mystics dedicated to experimental creative education. Swann is the author of The Anatomy of the Aura (St. Martin's, 2020) Green Mary (Cosmic Dog House Press, 2024), and The Alchemical Imagination (Weiser/Red Wheel). They have published essays in BOMB, Momus, Contemporary Art Review LA, and many anthologies. Their work has been supported by the Warhol Foundation, the LA Department of Cultural Affairs, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, and others. They currently serve on the faculty of Pratt Institute, where they teach alchemy.
Image: Sophia (detail), icon from St. George Church in Vologda, Russia. 16th century. Public domain.
Date: April 17
Time: 2pm Eastern
Admission: $25
This course will be conducted through Zoom, ensuring a convenient and interactive learning experience for everyone. Additionally, to accommodate the diverse schedules of our participants, all classes will be recorded. These recordings will be made available to all participants, providing the flexibility to engage with the course material at your own pace.
This 90-minute lecture explores Sophia, tracing her appearances through philosophy, early religious texts, alchemy, art, literature, and contemporary spirituality. We will encounter her in many forms—as divine Wisdom, the World Soul, the Holy Spirit, the Mother of God, and a feminine embodiment of knowledge and creation. We will follow Sophia into the alchemical tradition, where Wisdom becomes intertwined with the mysteries of nature, matter, transformation, and the divine feminine. From there, we will bring her story into the present, asking where Sophia might be found now and how this ancient figure of Wisdom continues to emerge in the contemporary imagination.
The lecture will end with a meditation that moves us from the study of Sophia into an encounter with her. We will create a space to invite her presence into our own consciousness—to listen for the feminine voice of God, make ourselves receptive to Wisdom, and ask how Sophia might wish to reveal herself to each of us now. This is an invitation to encounter Sophia not as a fixed figure of the past, but as a living presence whose story is still unfolding.
Eliza Swann, also known as Emerald, is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and alchemist whose work explores mysticism and its relationship to contemporary arts practice. In 2014, they founded Golden Dome, a nonprofit art school for mystics dedicated to experimental creative education. Swann is the author of The Anatomy of the Aura (St. Martin's, 2020) Green Mary (Cosmic Dog House Press, 2024), and The Alchemical Imagination (Weiser/Red Wheel). They have published essays in BOMB, Momus, Contemporary Art Review LA, and many anthologies. Their work has been supported by the Warhol Foundation, the LA Department of Cultural Affairs, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, and others. They currently serve on the faculty of Pratt Institute, where they teach alchemy.
Image: Sophia (detail), icon from St. George Church in Vologda, Russia. 16th century. Public domain.
