The Goddess Sophia and Her Soul-Mates

By Paul E. Dinnis

“The Goddess Sophia And Her Soul-Mates.” 50 ancient Gods, Goddesses and Deities met recently in Athens, Greece. Some were famous “native heroes and heroines” known from Greek mythology of old, but some were from other climes – Persia, Arabia, Scandinavia, North and South America, Israel, Asia, the Pacific, and Indonesia.

These Deities were joined by 125 current college students and young persons from all areas of our globe. Not unexpectedly, exchanges of opinions as to the current conditions of our 21st Century varied greatly.. In many of the discussions, the contrasts between viewpoints of the young and the perspective of the Ancient Ones, were utterly remarkable.

Sophia and her fellow Deities had especially arranged this “conclave,” in the manner that they periodically had met down through the ages of history. Their goal: to seek ways to influence Modern Mankind to take appropriate action world-wide, in order to avoid annihilation by nuclear warfare.

Was this “convention” dull and deadly? Far from it! There were sparkles aplenty as colorful characters voiced creative comments!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul E. Dinnis
• Release date: Mar 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9780983301028

Paul E. Dinnis

Paul E. Dinnis is an octogenarian native of Nebraska and a graduate of the University of Nebraska. In War II he was an officer in the U. S. Marine Corps, serving in Hawaii, Guam and Japan (no combat). After marriage in New York in 1951, he and his wife moved to Florida (in 1954) where he pursued a career in journalism. Editor and co-founder of a weekly newspaper, Chamber of Commerce president, Public Information Officer of one of nation's largest public school systems during the school desegregation era. He is a decades-long member of the United Methodist Church and served many years as a Sunday School teacher. He was a member and officer for several "meaningful years" somewhat recently in a local interfaith coalition.

Book preview

SOPHIA AND HER SOUL-MATES

IS A REVISION OF

OUR CRITICAL CHALLENGES WORLD-WIDE

by

Paul E. Dinnis

Smashwords Edition

* * * * *

Published on Smashwords by:

Emlane Publishing

P.O. Box 622

Mango, FL 33550

http:emlanepublishing.com

Copyright (C) 2010 by Paul E. Dinnis

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-0-578-06823-7

CONTENTS

Preface

Part I - In Athens

The Invite

A Goddess At My Side

College Kids, Wild Ideas

Lunch-Punch

Nuclear Threat: So-So?

Coffee & Sophia

Part II - Another Try

Repeat Performance?

The Why Of It

Puns, etc.

ABC Basics

Pele's Up-Womanship

Let's Do It!

Do it . . . More!

Aha!

2nd Cup . . . With Sophia!

Part III

Hiroshima Picture

Row TogetherPoster

No Nukes Sample Petition

Q's and A's

Part IV -- Backward Looks

Reaching

The Volcano Gods

Praire Fire

Recapping

Glossary of Deities & Gods

About the Author

Preface

No matter how dreadfully serious the discussions on any subject might be, it is important that balance in the opinionating is achieved and maintained.

Faith and Reason frequently exists as an imbalance realization. Regretfully. Because a bias to Reason should not preclude one's turning to Faith. A person with strong Faith should not refuse to indulge in Reason.

But there are other important ingredients to any meaningful debate. Among them are mutual respect of individuals and their comments, careful and honest reviews of the past, and realistic views of the future.

And, there is room for light banter . . . irony . . . even humor.

All of the above are items which should be basic, even if the topics are those

of even deadly importance in our Day and Age - the perils that are inherent in the very existence of nuclear weapons in various nations.

We here address the issues of those perils, and our aim is to help Tame the Beast - our term for the threat of nuclear annihilation. Our approach is unusual: we rely on fiction in early pages, and on reality in the latter ones.

The fiction portion deals with an alleged Council of Deities and Gods meeting recently in Athens, Greece - a gathering supposedly echoing similar sessions in ancient times, as recorded in the Bible's 82nd Psalm.

College students attend, and humor and solemnity both surface. And, scholarly works are cited for consideration.

Part I

In

Athens

Conference held Summer, 2009, Athens, Greece

Deities

Adonis (Greek)

Al-Lah (Islam)

Al-Uzza (Islam)

Baal (Canaanite)

Brahma (India)

El (Canaanite)

El Shaddai (Hebrew)

Hermes (Greek)

Lotan (Sumer/Babylon)

Marduk (Sumer/Babylon)

Priam (Greek)

Ra (Egypt Sun God)

Shiva (India)

Vishna (India)

Yahweh/Jehovah (Judaism/Christian)

Zeus (Greek)

Mother Goddesses

Anat (Canaanite)

Aphrodite (Greek)

Inanna (Sumer/Babylon)

Ishtar (Babylon)

Isis (Egypt)

Manat (Islam)

Sophia (Greek Goddess of Wisdom)

Ratu Kidult (Indonesian Sea Goddess)

Sapu Jagat (Indonesia Ogre)

Dewa Ratu Gede Pancering Jagat (Local Indonesian Deity)

Emanations (gods)

Ansher (Sumer/Babylon)

Anu (Sumer/Babylon)

Apsu (Sumer/Babylon)

Ea (Sumer/Babylon)

Kishar (Sumer/Babylon)

Lahamn (Sumer/Babylon)

Lahmu (Sumer/Babylon)

Mummu (Sumer/Babylon)

Tiamat (Sumer/Babylon)

Attending A Special One-Day Session With The Deities Were Humans:

Young adults, including college students - from 40 nations of the world.

The Invite

My journalistic assignment had me headed toward the Mid-East, to be re-freshened on situations so I might then have more info, more perspective, to help empower political authorities on how, hopefully, steps could be taken toward achieving peace for all.

En route, however, I would indulge in a stop-over in Athens, to be exposed for the first time to the storied and magnificent architectural wonders of ancient Greece. So, here I was, in a famous hotel, and enjoying some casual moments sipping a cocktail in the hotel lounge.

A nice-looking lady at a nearby table looked over, and I - quite innocently - raised my glass in a gesture of hello to her. And she, quite as innocently - I am sure - responded with a like raising-of-her-glass hello.

Just as innocently, we then sat at her table and conversed. Yes, I was a writer, on assignment. And she was a member of a religious organization, here for an international meeting of religion Big-Wigs (her term), from around the world. Also here for the meeting were young people who, she explained, were concerned about religion matters, too.

Would I like to be her guest, on the morrow, at what she termed would be a confab of the gods? (What an understatement of the morrow's meeting that would be!) Mightily intrigued, of course, I accepted her invitation. On the second day, the youths would join them for discussions.

We met for breakfast the following morning, and she proceeded to inform me fully about the confab which would begin about ten o'clock, in the hotel's large ballroom. What she told me struck me as being outlandish, out-of-this-world, a fantasy, and surely evidence of insanity.!

But, yes, I would go with her to the confab. It would be an unusual experience the likes of which I had never had - surely it would be some sort of a psychological delusion.

My new acquaintance thereupon gave me information about what would take place at the confab. I could not fully comprehend what she was telling me, and - to be honest - I felt a good bit of compassion for her obvious relation to unreality!

Perhaps the easiest and plainest manner to report what the lady informed me about, would simply be to enumerate them separately:

1 -- The Deities and the Gods of our world, down through the centuries, had periodically, every century or so, convened to compare their respective efforts of helping mankind cope with life, and to learn from each other.

2 - The Deities, Gods, Goddesses and gods meeting here, today, would include Hermes from ancient Greece, Yahweh from Israel, Ra from Egypt, and a number of other prominent religion figures.

3 - These Deities, etc., as holy figures, normally did not have bodies such as humans. But here, today, they would appear as humans, each wearing clothing with their name prominently emblazoned thereon, to make possible easy identification.

4 - Absolute equality would exist in deliberations. Each participant would regard all fellow confabbers as equals, granting them full respect even though perhaps at times disagreeing with them.

5 - My friend identified herself as Sophia, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, whom she self-described as having been existent forever, before and after her prominence in ancient Greece, and later being referred to in such Old Testament (Jewish) literature as the Book of Proverbs.

6 - This Day One of the confab would involve only the Big-Wigs, no humans other than myself, to be present. I was to witness, only; I was not to speak out, not to voice any opinions.

Why me? Sophia, whom I will subsequently refer to (in a measure of respect) as Miss Sophia, or (more in a manner of personal familiarity) as Queen Sophia, explained that her colleagues simply had become aware of the modern phenomena of Public Relations, were enamored with its possibilities, and decided to experiment with having me (Little Me!) present.

7 - Day Two would be different, with an agenda which would be a first for the Council of Deities, as Miss Sophia began to term her associates' meetings.

This Day Two would feature the Deities, but would include in its audience a hundred or so young people- college students and others - from nations in all of the continents. These youth would be invited to speak honestly about their beliefs or non-beliefs, about their concerns for their individual and social community futures, about improving the well-being of all people in all cultures of the world.

Yes, this too, was to be a public relations effort, Miss Sophia said.

8 - What would the Council hope to gain from these two meetings, I quite incredibly asked of Miss Sophia?

A number of things, she said. Mostly, pertaining to the public awareness and understanding of the roles the various respective Deities and Gods function in, as they hope to influence desirable good behavior in individuals.

This era is critical, she calmly asserted, Mankind needs our help now as never before!

A Goddess At My Side

I made my way to the hotel ballroom fifteen or so minutes before the session was to begin. Was I apprehensive? Of course I was! However, long tables were set up in rectangle configuration for the seating of delegates, and I began to consider that this thing might be for real, after all.

I was quite awed as individual after individual wandered in, some alone, some with a group of their fellows, and took their places. I could easily note their identifying placards.

Miss Sophia arrived, too, but she sat down alongside of me. We were positioned not at the table, but close to it, probably so I would be privy to what was transpiring and what was spoken.

Would I understand what was being said, and how relative the comments that might be made to current conditions as well as to historical situations? Miss Sophia quietly explained that she would answer questions I might have, and provide info on nuances to conversations that might take place.

The session was called to order, and the Deity who presided was - fittingly so - none other than Hermes, the Ancient One of Greece. He quickly cited several main topics he hoped would be discussed fully, hopefully that the deliberating might lead to improvements for mankind throughout the Planet Earth. These topics included:

a - The awareness of Deity in the scheme of how man can cope, has diminished greatly throughout earth. How to stop this trend and correct it?

b - The threat of nuclear war which could escalate and annihilate mankind.

c - Seek ways to make the power of prayer more understandable and thereby provide an effective means for individuals to experience meaningful relations with The Almighty Creator.

d - The continuing discoveries into erstwhile secrets of life by scientists, are threatening some traditional religious beliefs of many persons. How to adjust and seek religion approval of scientists' efforts must be addressed.

e - The impact of technological advances are so tremendous, that the importance of man's relationships with fellow man and with The Almighty, threaten the continuance of the well-being of the human race.

f - The current warnings of global warming perils.

I had not thought to bring my tape recorder, and I immediately regretted it. However, I've acquired superb shorthand abilities, so I readied my notebook and pen, confident that I could capture important comments accurately.

Queen Sophia's presence at my elbow proved to be invaluable. Mr. Hermes (I use the Mister as a matter of respect) spoke about that first item on the agenda, the importance that the entire world populace be aware of Deities and their functioning.

That is authentic Hermes, the Queen whispered, but it is 'old hat,' to use your slang. He said those same words back in 1900 BCE and in 300 AD, to the Councils.

This suggested to me that concerns and problems and challenges evidently have changed little during the centuries, and that the on-going work load the Deities had to bear, have changed little, too. I wondered if comments and conversations might prove it, as Mr. Hermes continued.

Hermes: I would like all of you to give your thoughts about the topics we should discuss tomorrow when we meet with the young people. Remember, that they are coming here from all over the world, and that we will have some very great opportunities to influence, through them, trends of thought in the matured adults in their nations so that, hopefully, improvements in their living patterns and their social patterns will be improved.

One youth may have a bias for the Faith one of our Council members, and thus express views reflecting that Faith. Another youth may be biased against other Faiths, and be quite unaware that good exists in them. We must be sensitive in recognizing bias.

So, I want us to meet this challenge of offering a wide range of topics to discuss, with all of you individually taking part and expressing your opinions freely, so that our time spent with the young people will be exciting for both them and for us, and that it will be a time when the new knowledge they may acquire will broaden their outlooks.

Now, let's get your input. Where do we go from here?

Goddess Anat: I think we should assume that these young people are quite intelligent. Many have had college training. We should respect that, and avoid trying to educate them about any one Faith. Let the general and specific comments we all make, combine to give them a new sense, perhaps, of a spirituality that is of a shared nature of equality.

Brahma: Good point. And, avoid suggesting that one Faith is superior because it was conceived earlier in history than, say, another Faith.

Zeus: Along that line of thought, I do not think it is necessary to place any emphasis on the geographic location or the nation which gave birth to any Faith.

Baal: How generous of you, sir. I respectfully disagree. It is important for people who live in far parts of the world, to learn about where a new Faith they have acquired came from, and what the conditions may have been that helped give birth to that Faith.

Ra: Exactly. I doubt that followers of Judaism can fully appreciate their Faith if they have little knowledge of where and how it originated.

Yahweh: Yes, yes! Thank you.

Baal: There are other reasons why the geographic territorial aspects are important. An example was our relationship with Judaism centuries and centuries ago. The Jews became militarily stronger than us Canaanites. We felt quite equal in our Council of Deities meeting. I do not want to be critical, but it soon became apparent that our colleague, Yahweh, rather assumed leadership, and seemed to dominate us. The social and political affairs of our area of the Levant were affected after that.

Yahweh: If I, in fact, became the leader, there must have been