Wisdom is sometimes that ghost of ourselves peeking alongside in the peripherals of our mind. When we look directly at it, the reflection or echo disappears and then when we focus straight ahead to the matter at hand, it is back with us, guiding us like that angel and demon of old. Wisdom is that co-pilot that evolves over all the times we've become lost, the navigator of our souls we find along the way guiding us toward that city of awareness sitting atop that hill we strive for. 

Sophia is the word for wisdom in ancient Greece, combined with Philos we get Philosophy, a community of peers that shares a love for wisdom. It is not something we find on our own, but rather the journey through our world. Acquired through experiences that are more often failures than successes, knowledge is aged like fine wine in the proper environment. 

In the Gnostic tradition, Sophia is seen as a Goddess, the companion to Jesus representing the feminine aspect of the divine. To some she is the Mother of the Universe, or even God. She represents the cultivation of the mind and the creation, fall, and redemption of the material realm. 

She sits in this painting at center surrounded by both the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching (Book of Changes) and the 64 Codons in the DNA molecule, symbolizing the Evolution of both Body and Mind. Through the Chaos we develop and rise above into the form of ourselves. 

For a long time, maybe 10 years or so, I struggled finding the face. No matter how hard I tried she remained hidden to me, unwilling to reveal herself. Then, sadly, came the day the Olivia Newton John passed and through the afternoon rewatching he lexicon of film and music, in the ending of Xanadu I found the face for this piece. By the end of the night she was there, memorialized. And Xanadu, or Shangdu, was fitting, the Upper Capital of Kublai Khan in Mongolia revered for is wisdom, luxury, and idyllic aesthetic. 

What is it that makes us wise? Is it experience, time, or study? Experimentation on what is and what is not? Age? Do we have the rights to declare our own wisdom, or is it something that is attributed to us by our family, community, and peers? One good sign of wisdom, is the questioning of one's self. Wisdom is an ongoing adjustment between an awareness in ourselves and how we reflect and are recognized amongst the people that define our home.