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Written by Giselle Castillo
Birth - each soul slips into a new reality from the womb alone and in time will die and fall into another new reality alone - rebirth. In each life, a new lesson is learnt. According to Wiccan theology, when the Divine Truth of Nature is reached, the soul achieves release from the wheel of reincarnation where it can remain in a spiritual
dimension (Raven Grimassi, The Wiccan Mysteries). In Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder allows readers to witness the unraveling of the circle through the alienation of Sophie Amunsden and gives us a glimpse of the "spiritual" dimension.
"Who are you? Where does the world come from?" Along with these questions came a tidal wave of alienation and Sophie was submerged in a sea of confusion, like being baptized into a new world. With these questions, Alberto Knox, Sophie's philosophy instructor, rekindled the innate faculty of wonder within Sophie that had already begun to burn out. Sophie reacted as any fourteen-year-old girl. Completely confused, she crawled into her secret den in the garden, which she later compares to the Garden of Eden as "…my own little paradise". The den symbolizes a comfortable ignorance zone where she is alone and sedated with the illusion of secure, familiar surroundings. And so, she was cornered by the perils of isolation with nothing to do except face the adventure that was presented to her. Sophie came out of her "den" and was blinded by the light of reality. Ironically, her surroundings became surreal due to the new realization of the metaphysical world in contrast to artificial nature of her corporal reality.
Sophie had to use her lessons on philosophy to unravel the mystery of Albert Knag and his daughter Hilde - a battle between two realms of consciousness much like dream vs. reality. When I was younger, I was afraid of falling asleep. I thought I might enter another life, and realize that while I thought I had been living, I was merely dreaming. In the same way, Sophie's life had been a "dream" and with this new level of consciousness, she had now awakened to "reality". However, Sophie had only begun to realize that she was merely a character in a book and Hilde was the reader.
Sophie may have failed to transmit her enlightenment to her mother and friends but her experiences were an involuntary form of communication to Hilde through the book,
Sophie's World. In childhood, my innovative imagination also led me to question the nature of characters in books: "What if they are real, and as I'm reading about their lives, other beings are reading about mine?" Most people would dismiss these questions as products of a child's imagination run wild: We are living in the present, not in a dream and our lives are not being recorded in books for beings in another realm to read…or are they?
We could very well be characters in a great story. If we compare ourselves to Hilde, this notion might become clearer. The significance of Hilde Knag mustn't be forgotten. Through
Sophie's World, Hilde also began a journey through philosophy. And, much like Sophie, she is communicating vicariously through the novel to the reader. Major Albert Knag uses Sophie Amunsden's course on philosophy to teach Hilde about it and in the same way, Jostein Gaarder utilizes Hilde's study of philosophy to educate the readers about that subject. And so, we are all part of the circle.
When Sophie and Alberto attained the Truth, they released themselves from the circle and entered the spiritual dimension where time does not exist. Along with this ultimate triumph comes a new meaning to alienation. Once one has reached this end, all illusions of companionship are sacrificed so that he/she is in complete isolation with the Truth.
"When we can no longer identify with who we are with what we do, then what remains is who we truly are." -Raven Grimassi,
The Wiccan Mysteries
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