Simon's Obsession with Sophia in Lies of P
I had been wanting to write this one for a while, and then I forgot what exactly this was supposed to be. Reading books on religion and theology, I have learned, cripples my mind. I do wonder, however, if it's because these books tend to be so dry. But I digress.
Having read Simon Magus, the Gnostic Magician; Pistis Sophia, and Nag Hammadi Scriptures, I have a much better understanding of the relationship between Simon and Sophia (not that it wasn't hard to parse before). Then, because of the DLC, there came even more I wanted to read about the Alchemists, but then the notion began to balloon into something too huge to make a coherent post. Now that I remember what this topic was supposed to be, I can write it! All three of these books are very dense and dry, so I'm relating to the best of my ability.
Due to the nature of the material, I'd like to make a few disclaimers:
I am not an expert on Gnosticism, Christianity, or religion. It's all based on the interpretation of what I've read and maybe some anecdotal knowledge. I'll refer to Gnosticism as such and Christianity as modern or orthodox for sake of clarity.
There's going to be discussion of sexual assault relative to the topic.
You're free to interpret relationships as you like, but this one will be from a familial/platonic perspective regarding Sophia and P's relationship and a very toxic relationship between Simon and Sophia.
For sake of brevity, I will only touch on some topics (because you don't know how much there is in these books and my head was hurting).
Spoilers for both Lies of P and Alice: Madness Returns will be discussed in this post.
Sophia Monad, the Blue Fairy
From The Adventures of Pinocchio, Sophia is the representative of the Blue-Haired Girl/Blue-Haired Woman/Fairy with Turquoise Hair. The Blue-Haired Girl is really a fairy that finds Pinocchio hanging from the Big Oak and takes care of him first as a sister, then as a mother, and for a moment, is a blue sheep (which is actually attributed to Veronique per the name and description of her costume and mask). In Pinocchio, the Blue Fairy is the driving force of Pinocchio to actually be a good boy albeit still so easily succumbs to temptation of being a jackass. She makes Pinocchio promise to be good so that she can be a good sister to him, then later on the Isle of Busy Bees, she pleads the same but as a good mother.
Sophia is also a blatant reference to Pistis Sophia in Gnosticism, where she is also named Wisdom, the other side of Logos*, and depicted as the Left (as opposed to Logos' Right) to God. Her father is Valentinus Monad (or, in legend, the founder of Valentinian Gnosticism + Monad, or oneness), and her mother is Isabelle Monad (who is a reference to Barbelo, Sophia-Epinoia and will potentially be covered in a later post).
(*Sophia exists in a syzygy with Logos (Christ), but the relationship is platonic and a means to create complete/perfect beings. The Nag Hammadi Scriptures has shifting depictions of Logos and Sophia--as spouses, as two concepts of the same being (male/female), as completely independent, etc. The depictions depends on which sect the mythology is stemming from.)
In Gnosticism (described partly in Pistis Sophia but across other myths in Nag Hammadi), Sophia decided that she wanted to create a being without her male counterpart Logos. She thus becomes the virgin mother to the evil and malformed Demiurge (the "False God", or for perspective, the God that modern day Christians worship). In her folly, the Demiurge and all of his sons trap Sophia in the abyss (Hades) and steal her powers so that she cannot return to her aeon (also called Sophia). When Jesus is resurrected, he tells his disciples (especially Mary Magdalene) of the task to rescue Sophia from her torment and as she prays and begs to the true God within the Monad (that is, Beyond perfection where the true God exists without beginning and without end) to save her.
Bonus: There are at least two other Sophias and three sisters of Pistis Sophia: Sophia-Epinoia (aka Barbelo), Zoe-Sophia (daughter of Pistis Sophia and kind of a badass), Sophaia, Saphaia, Saphaina (Pistis Sophia's three sisters).
At the same time, Sophia Monad is likened to the Virgin Mary (Jesus's mother) as we know her in Orthodox Christianity, specifically referencing Michelangelo's La Pietà but holding P in her left hand.
And, to be discussed in a later post, Camille (Carlo's mother) building the Saintess of Mercy Statue, which is a modified version of La Pietà.
Simon Manus, the "Leader" of the Alchemists
Simon Manus is the representation of the Dogfish (Shark) in The Adventures of Pinocchio and a direct reference to the figure Simon Magus, a "magician" in Gnosticism (and depending on the account, a swindler). In legend, Magus told people how he could read minds and create other miracles like bringing a dead boy back to life. There were some the believed him and saw him as a being on par with Jesus Christ while most others knew that he was, to put it bluntly, full of shit. Some people incorrectly attribute the foundation of Gnosticism to him (related to other materials yet to be read), and he briefly appears in the New Testament attempting to bribe the apostles into giving him the power to deliver the Holy Ghost unto people.
In G.R.S. Mead's translation of Simon Magus, the Gnostic Magician, Magus had traveled to Tyre where he found a prostitute named Helen. He bought her freedom and praised her as the "first Thought of [his] Mind" and that she was the mother of all things. She had suffered every kind of indignity and, in some accounts, was the reason that the Trojan Horse entered Troy and led to the city's fall. Magus and Helen were considered king and queen, god and wife among their followers (Simonites), being depicted as Zeus and Athena (the sun and moon) but must never be referred to as such.
Magus did develop his own philosophy, which is some variation and melding of Christianity and Hinduism (the Bhagavind Gita). I haven't read the Bhagavind Gita yet (and probably won't for a little while), but let this serve as a little window into the belief system of the Simonites.
Additionally, in my relation of The Divine Comedy to Lies of P, it was shown that Simonites (those that commit simony) are damned to the Inferno. As mentioned before, Magus tried to bribe the apostles for power--this is where the word "simony" reportedly came from.
There are additional bits to Simon Manus, but I have not read my material on it yet. That part is deserving of its own post.
In Lies of P, Simon at the very least can read minds as a result of the experiments performed on him by his father. Other miracles like resurrecting the dead don't seem to be part of his character, but he commands attention and rose to the top of the Alchemists in Krat in reasons related to the aforementioned additional details. I will, however, also point out that Simon is another depiction of the Creature from Frankenstein, as a parallel to P and the Nameless Puppet.
There is a detail that is pointed out in a note found in the Town Slums before reaching the Malum District. In Scribbles of Slum Resident, someone mourns the death and transformation of their brother into a Carcass. They saw the blue hair in Simon's cane. It's from that blue hair that Simon can also use some of Sophia's powers.
Sophia's Power: Manipulation of Time
When the game opens, Sophia is calling out to P and her blue butterfly awakens P. It becomes evident throughout the game that Sophia is different from the other refugees in Hotel Krat; only P and Gemini talk to her. She can teleport to places from Hotel Krat to the Grand Exhibition and to the Black Sand Beach. By the time P meets her on the beach, it's now known that Sophia has essentially been astral-projecting herself with what little power she has left.
Sophia's power is the ability to manipulate time using Ergo. In Nag Hammadi Scriptures, she gives some of her power to Adam-Light, which "created great lights and all the stars and placed them in the heavens to illuminate the earth and indicate times and moments by signs, that is, years, months, days and nights, as well as minutes and all the remaining moments." In the game, this idea is related to the idea of stars and the Stargazer, and especially of the Moon Phase Pocketwatch.
But that's not all. In another myth in the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, Exegesis of the Soul, the Soul (feminine) recasts the story of Sophia in a more personable narrative. Ergo is the crystallized version of the soul (time + memory), begotten from those that succumb to Petrification Disease (which doubles as a version of the Philosopher's Stone). Sophia is also a Listener, one who can hear and converse with Ergo, and one that the Alchemists seek to recreate the Gold Coin Tree (in Simon Magus, the gold-colored "Tree of Life"). Symbolically, Ergo can be knowledge (gnosis) in its physical form, so Sophia and other Listeners' might be thought to be approaching or at perfection.
In her plight, Sophia grants a portion of her power to P via the pocketwatch so that if he dies, time can rewind and he'll be brought back to life (something kind of like quantum immortality, but that's a whole other concept for discussion of quantum physics lol). Sophia can also "activate" the Ergo that P collects to strengthen him. These two powers operate as two systems in the game itself, so amazing job with Narrative and Design to fit them in such context.
These miraculous powers can only be something so coveted by Simon Manus, which presumably is why he takes Sophia's hair. But, now, how and why did he do that?
Simon's Obsession with Sophia
How did Simon come to know Sophia? In Overture, once P arrives at the aftermath of the massacre in the Rose Estate, the Cradle of Truth, the Monad hidden within the Pleroma Forest, many documents can be found that paint a picture of Simon's actions. Most of this I'll skip over, pointing to main details that pertain to this topic:
Simon was Valentinus' right hand man.
Events transpire, and Simon takes over the Alchemists.
Simon is in close proximity of both Sophia and Lea, though Lea leaves the Rose Estate.
In Sophia's Diary, Sophia explains what has happened with the Petrification Disease, and she ends the page mentioning Simon having invited her to the harbor. She declined to go with him because she is suspicious of why he would have her meet him when shipments for supplies weren't due yet.
Somehow, Sophia does end up in Simon's clutches given that she is found dying (and turning into a tree? Her torso looks like tree roots and spider webs) in a bird cage in the Arche Abbey. Perhaps, Simon had her kidnapped.
When P first arrives in the Relic of Trismegistus after the attack on Hotel Krat, Gemini makes a remark about sensing someone was dragged through there. At first, the player would think that he's talking about Geppetto because of the events that had just happened, but perhaps he's actually talking about a far-off memory of Sophia being dragged away. And Sophia guides P, through a web of lies and half-truths, to find her at the Abbey.
Simon's ultimate goal is to be the One to Devour God. Ascension, immortality, achieving ultimate gnosis--these are the goals of the Gnostics mentioned in the books. It's an obsession among the Alchemists, with Simon leading them all to this pinnacle. But to accomplish what he wants, he needs a way to manipulate Ergo, and what better way to do that than by using a Listener herself?
Next to Sophia's birdcage is a desk of diagrams and an antler crown from one of the elite Carcasses fought at the Cathedral. The diagrams are of dissections, the woman in the drawings looking similar to Sophia. On the other side of the birdcage, Simon has a mounted Blue Morpho Peleides with the caption, "My blue fairy", which carries a reverent but possessive tone. A picture of Sophia before she becomes the Woman with Turquoise Hair (from experiments) is above the desk of diagrams. Overture provides a Monad family portrait where Sophia can be clearly seen:
EnvArt does it once again, where the specific juxtaposition of Sophia's portrait when she was alive and healthy and the anatomical diagrams and notes of dissection right next to Sophia's decaying body (specifically from under her breast down which looks hollowed out like Miquella's Haligtree in Elden Ring) show that Simon knowingly and seemingly callously had this done to her. Additionally, the antler crown is positioned in a way that looks like a female pelvis with a uterus, highlighting a procreational component.
In Nag Hammadi Scriptures, notions of rape and overall promiscuity are stated, particularly of Eve in a modified version of the The Original Sin and the Soul (Exegesis of the Soul). Specifically in Exegesis, the Soul (feminine) also has a womb. The Soul gleefully and foolishly exposes herself (her womb) to sin, and as punishment and as a rite to purification and penance, the Soul's womb is turned inside-out to prevent sin (Note: it was not fun reading this part).
In any religion, sex/rape and birth are major points, with Gnosticism being no different. The macabre scene dressed on this desk then would suggest that Simon at least had thought about Sophia bearing a child from him. Now, remembering that someone specified that Simon had a lock of Sophia's hair in his cane, there's an additional idea (thanks to a friend): Locks of hair are used in magic of many cultures as well as are a symbol, particularly in period/Victorian stories and custom, of love and memory and engagement when given.
Image from Bond and Grace
Sophia was not romantically interested in Simon (for obvious reasons), and there would be no reason to give a lock of her hair to him. For him to have her hair, it symbolizes what the desk insinuates. Simon likely did force himself on Sophia at some point while she was in his captivity.
Simon's obsession and treatment of Sophia actually reminds me of the reveal in Alice: Madness Returns. Alice realizes the truth had been in front of her from the beginning of her time out of the asylum. Dr. Angus Bumby had been obsessed with her sister Elizabeth and tried to court her. Elizabeth refused Angus' advances, stating she was disgusted by him. In rage and continuing in his spiral to have Elizabeth no matter what, he broke into the Liddell mansion, locked himself in Elizabeth's bedroom and raped and killed her, and then burned the house down. The fire killed everyone but little Alice, but she had no idea what she had seen or heard that night. Bumby had tried to make her forget since she held the last bit of evidence of his crimes in her mind.
Simon Manus, A Version of the Demiurge
Another symbol towards the source inspiration, Simon can be considered a representation of the Demiurge in addition to Simon Magus's purporting of being a god among men. He becomes a false god, hell-bent on consuming and establishing him as the true deity to usher ascension and reaching immortality. Sophia's son the Demiurge, as stated in Pistis Sophia and in Nag Hammadi Scriptures, entrapped and tortured Sophia in the abyss and stole her powers with the help of his many demon sons. Trapping Sophia, trapping Wisdom; Simon thought he could achieve gnosis.
Where P finds Simon Manus' Confession, there is a small table where Simon has left his cane with the blue hair and another picture of Sophia. This book denotes a parallel of himself to the Demiurge.
Sophia's calls to P, and the way that she guides him and begs for him to put her out of her misery, lines up with Pistis Sophia's prayers to be saved by Logos. Sophia's song "Shadow Flower" expresses this in the flavor text; it's not a love song as much as she is pleading and longing for P to get her out of the hell that Simon has made for her:
Translation of the lyrics suggest the same plea to be removed from hell, with "Garde moi dans ton cœur" within the context of the song sounding literally what P should do: Take Sophia's Ergo into the P-Organ to protect her from Simon.
Simon, however, misinterprets Sophia's choosing of P as a romantic gesture when it wasn't necessarily romantic (after all, Sophia guided P to her for the purpose of freeing her, and Sophia was close to Carlo when he lived at the Rose Estate, so naturally she could depend on him). It's even possible that Simon saw Sophia as his "Helen" when she wasn't. In any case, Simon is blinded by this false love and uses that as a lens in his downfall. As he dies, he regretfully professes that he truly did love Sophia, which his tone is somewhat ambiguous despite this.
One last tidbit is the similar names between Simon and Sophia. Simon Pistris Manus, in which "Pistris" is Latin for "sea monster, whale, shark, or sawfish". As stated before, Simon is the Shark that eats Pinocchio and Geppetto. Ironically, "Pistis" as in Pistis Sophia is Ancient Greek for "Faith, Trust". P (and you, the player) immediately trust in Sophia, so when she reveals that she had been lying to bring P to save her, it feels somewhat like a betrayal. But we all love Sophia, so it's okay :D
Conclusion
Reading the books related to Sophia and Simon puts the relationship between the two characters in a bit of a new light for me. Though not entirely related to each other, The Adventures of Pinocchio sort of pits the Shark against the Blue Fairy in symbolism of danger and safety in respect to Pinocchio in the ocean near the Isle of Busy Bees. But in the books Pistis Sophia; Simon Magus, the Gnostic Magician; and Nag Hammadi Scriptures, the relationship is far darker. There is obsession and so much pain, and Sophia's suffering is made worse realizing that Simon had hurt her to her very soul. She was desperate for someone to save her, and her Savior ended up being the memory of the gloomy boy that just happened to be dropped off at her estate.
There is a lot covered in all three books (and many more that I am not going to read such as Gospels sold separately from the three I have). There will be even more once I start to dig more into Thelema and Rosicrucianism and Hermetism...my head is already hurting. I did not go in-depth in everything here for that reason. I do encourage reading the material yourself on the Reading List should you feel interested to do so.
