Our Lady Sophia: Mother of the Universe.

We are immediately struck by the title, as well as by the form of this diagram. Naturally, we associate virginity with sexual ignorance, but this troubles us because we intuitively know that there is more to this. But what? To understand virginity, we must understand sofia. This is a Greek word and is the female personification of wisdom. It is also an important gnostic concept. Therefore, let us begin our inner journey by considering the gnostic scripture, Thunder-Perfect Mind. In this document the speaker refers to herself amongst other things, as "virgin" and "wisdom". In fact, she refers to herself as a series of pairs of opposites, including masculine and feminine. The paradoxical and contradictory nature of the description indicates that virginity is a concept that relates to a spiritual integrity that is beyond our ability to comprehend, let alone describe. This point is confirmed by the gnostic scripture, The Secret Book According to John, where the light of the "first power" is described as the image of the "perfect invisible virgin spirit". From this virgin spirit comes the "self-originate" and subsequently, "wisdom". Hence the sexual connotation of virginity is our imperfect attempt to grasp the metaphysical concept of self-origination. Truly this has to do with wisdom and not with ignorance.
Let us look at the figure in the diagram. She is crowned with 12 stars and her face shines like the sun. She is also pregnant. We are reminded of the woman and child in the Apocalypse of John, ch 12 v 1,2. In the diagram, around her neck, is a pendant of 12 circles polarized as two groups of 6. Above the crown, are the symbols of mercury and the sun. These are balanced by the symbol of vitriol just beneath the virgin’s pendant and breasts. Normally, the sun is attributed to the Heart chakra and mercury is attributed to the Crown chakra. However in this diagram the sun and mercury are conjoined and vitriol is at the centre, where the sun should be. What does this mean? In Latin vitriol is an acronym that reads: Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem; "visit the interior of the earth, in rectifying, discover the hidden stone". In the diagram, vitriol is at the spiritual center of the virgin and we can infer that the hidden stone has been rectified because the sun and mercury are conjoined. We shall see more of the stone later. Moreover, the symbol of vitriol is just above her womb, her biological center, where she bears the Christ child. She is the virgin who gives birth by self-origination. This is wisdom about the virgin that cannot be grasped by left brain intellect.
How do we know the virgin bears the Christ child? On her right arm is written: "out of Eternity comes the [cruci]fied". In the gnostic scheme, the kosmic Christ comes from the Aeons. This is a Greek word and means "Eternities". We can infer that Christ is crucified on the 4 elemental cross of Nature; that is, the cross of Fire, Air, Water and Earth. How do we know this? Both the child and the world are nourished by the virgin’s milk. This divides into 4 streams: water, blood, white, red. In turn these 4 streams are associated with the 4 elements. Note the polarities of water/blood and white/red. In alchemy, these are the white and red tinctures and refer to the silver/gold of the Below and the moon/sun of the Above. Thus by his crucifixion, Christ unites the Above and Below.
In the center of the 4 streams and the 4 elements is a large circle with Latin inscriptions that mean "Divine Instrument" and "Let there be Nature". This is the Christ nature acting as the Quintessence for both the Above and the Below. It is also a transformation line between the Virgin of Wisdom above and Mother Nature below. The virgin is also the mother giving birth by self-origination. Thus the 4 streams are the potential and the 4 elements are the actual. This is wisdom indeed.
Below this point are 3 concentric circles culminating in a central chaos. Into this center pour the 4 streams of virgin’s milk in their transformed nature of the 4 elements. The Above finds expression in the Below. Counting the central chaos, there are 4 concentric circles with 12, 8, 4 and 1 sphere, from the outside into the middle. What can this mean? First, from kabala we know that in the beginning, God withdrew from Himself and left a spiritual vacuum. Secondly, He projected a spark of Himself into the void. Thirdly, there appeared the Tree of Life and 4 levels of reality. We can infer that the 4 concentric circles are the 4 levels of reality and that the symbols within them, give us the clue to their nature.
Let us begin with the Divine Instrument of Nature and all the spheres directly beneath it. The first one is the sun with a Latin inscription that reads, "masculine seed, form of father". Immediately below is the moon described as "matter of mother". Around her are tiny suns and moons that we might infer are her children, because of the inscription uniting her and the sun that tells us she is pregnant. These are kosmic forces that are pictured in the next sphere below as a sun surrounded by the 4 elements and described as, "mechanism of world". Between the "mother" and the "mechanism", are references to the "Golden River of Paradise" that is the "Philosophers’ Fountain". From the Fountain come "four main waters growing from one root". These are the 4 rivers that flow out of Paradise. Immediately below is the central chaos with the 4 elements arranged as the cross of matter, the same cross upon which the kosmic Christ is crucified.
What does all this mean? The vertical spheres culminating in the central chaos, are the 4 levels of reality, the Above, reflected in us, the Below. If we can establish this internal structure as a dynamic and balanced relationship between the masculine and feminine, then we can control the 4 elemental forces that constitute our being. If we control the elements, we have free will. If we do not, then we are subject to these forces which we know as karma. We are subject to the Wheel of the Law. Is that what the concentric circles symbolize?
We looked at the 4 vertical spheres as a unit because they are all connected by the lines of relationship emanating from the 4 elemental streams above them. What about the other spheres? Let us take each circle in turn and look at the spheres that comprise it. There is an interesting left/right and top/bottom polarity in all of the circles.

The outer circle of 12, is structured as 4 x 3, like this: