Patristic Hesychasts from earliest times bore witness to the vision of wisdom in uncreated light, which is wisdom’s revelation of the glory of the Name. Wisdom was often spoken of in connection with uncreated light, radiant as if ‘clothed with the sun,’ and the beauty of her holiness was said to pass all description. The kiss of her embrace pierced hearts with her gaze, dissolving seers into light. Her presence transfigured saints, extinguishing the dark heaviness of worldly distraction. Her glory opened hearts to the remembrance of God, shattering oblivious forgetfulness. Her stillness silenced them with her whisper: ‘ ‘I AM,’ is God’s Name, turn and see. God sees God in the midst. I am ‘I AM,’ God’s Holy Name, awakening thee to light.’ The embrace of wisdom, awakening the heart, turned distracted minds right round, causing confusion to dissolve and division to release. The gaze of wisdom is enough to awaken hearts to realms of uncreated light, unveiling the glory of the age to come. Wisdom sees in uncreated light, knowing glory that unveils the presence of ineffable completeness, dispelling the obstructions that conceal God, releasing the delusions that superimpose apparent incompleteness.
Saints whisper with wisdom’s whisper of awestruck wonder, never divulging the mystery of the Name in idle gossip. Rarely named in written texts, the secret of the Name was handed on in stillness, as if it were too important to be spoken of in ordinary conversation. Wisdom’s uncreated radiance was communicated, nonetheless. It was wisdom herself that communicated her glory with ineffable speech, not in words of fact or fiction. The Spirit of Truth bore witness to the import of wisdom’s ineffable speech, unveiling wisdom’s inexpressible glory. Silence rests in peace since it was in silence that wisdom was revealed. The Beloved Disciple was the Co-companion of Christ whose wisdom she received in silence. When, occasionally, she spoke, contention sometimes intervened, yet hearts were illumined. She wept when some of her brethren refused to receive what she said. What could she do? She gazed into wisdom’s gaze, remaining silent in her glorious stillness. Despised and rejected, much as Christ, her beloved, had been despised and rejected, her vision of wisdom was suppressed. Her tears of wisdom were the tears of Christ in her, weeping over Jerusalem, weeping over Rome, weeping over Byzantium.
The holy sevens of the Fourth Gospel and Book of Revelation were wisdom’s answer to her seven demons, freeing her from all trace of their confusion, liberating her from the effect of their divisive desolation. The radiance of her uncreated light generated many sevens, each of which denoted completeness in different ways. Her wisdom Odes sung of the joy and delight of the Name unveiled, but were suppressed. instead of being our Christian Psalms and Song of Songs, they were neglected for nearly two millennia. Was her uncreated light so bright that it had to be quenched? Or was her gender alone enough to quench her wisdom in a patriarchal world? Not quite, because the Migdala was there, first to witness resurrection even in the canonical gospels, present at the empty tomb for all to see. The Migdala herself did not point to herself but to wisdom, and wisdom did not flaunt herself, but hid with Christ in God. Wisdom remains hidden without the ‘eye’ that sees, without wisdom’s ‘eye’ of the heart that turns and sees. Ignorance cries ‘gnosticism,’ so as to condemn her presence, but her gaze was no heresy, but the Spirit’s Truth, bearing witness to glory. Sins against the Spirit quench wisdom until hearts turn and wisdom sees. When right glory is restored, wisdom is gratefully received.