Wisdom is a woman

Around the year 2000 I had an intuition for a book, a novel, which would have as basic tone the sensualism. This is a way of thinking, in which the fundament of being is seen, in the knowledge that we can gather through our senses. Rudolf Steiner described twelve ways of thinking, in relation to the twelve constellations, the signs of the zodiac. The well-known philosophy of the materialism belongs to the sign cancer. Sensualism belongs to the sign lion. In the intuition of the book that I was going to write I recognized two sides of the sensualism, a more materialistic and a more spiritual side. And thus two sisters, twins, were born who developed in a very different way. The book became the title: Wisdom is a woman ... but it doesn't mean that all female people are wise:

‘Is there a concept that is more difficult to describe than love? To find an answer to the question: ‘What is love?’ is as difficult as answering the question: ‘Who actually is it, whom I refer to as I?’
Love and the I…. These are the most important values in life. The one originates from the other but they are still in contradiction with each other.
True love makes one forget one's own I, yet love streams from the I. Does love exist, or is it in essence always self-love?

True love is only possible on the solid foundation of wisdom, which precedes love. With wisdom one finds self-knowledge and is able to distinguish between self-love and unselfish love, between erotic love and love for the true being of the other person.

Not all women are wise, but wisdom has a feminine form. She lives as a quality in men and women who seek her. She is there to reshape every human intellect into a wise sureness – if one asks her, if one loves her, if one seeks her.

In ancient Egypt she was called Isis, the Greek sought her as Sophia, and she appeared in a human form as Maria… that is how Christians know her.

She pours herself out in every soul that goes through catharsis, purification. Each purification, however slight, gives wisdom – wisdom is a woman.'


'A woman was sitting on a bench in the spring sun. The apple tree cast a shade, because of which she constantly moved over a little. It was too chilly to think of the cool of the shade as pleasant. She looked over to the hills. In the distance was a farm; people would be living there – otherwise there was nobody to see. On Sundays it was always busy here; people often went for a walk. South Limburg on a Thursday afternoon… seemed deserted.
She shivered. Deserted. One could feel so intensely lonely. What is a human life? You have a body, and from the moment – sooner or later – that you become aware of the temporary nature of it, there is the prevailing question: what is a human life? Is it only the body that is born and is determined by ambient conditions? What does dying mean then? If you observe what is inside you, very honestly and fearlessly, shouldn’t you admit that there is nothing else inside you than what you have ever taken in with your senses? Is it not consistent to think… that with the dying of the body also the ability to observe and experience dies? If only there would be something to find, somewhere in our experience, that does not come from the senses…'

The other sister....:

'On a bench in the spring sun a woman was looking at the waves on the beach. A heavy wind was blowing that made the waves roll over high. She got up and walked down the stairs, to the beach. She looked for a chair behind glass, away from the wind. She felt her ripe body with pleasure, which always drew the attention of men. She liked these looks of pleasure and she always looked right back. Insecurity? She was not familiar with that weakness. She hated weakness and laughed at all men and women for it. Everyone – except her twin sister, who was the most insecure human being she knew. No, she might be the most secure… you just did not know with her. She was reserved, that she was….'

The novel has been published in English recently.

 
ISBN 9789075240009Wisdom is a woman by Mieke Mosmuller