...the goddess (Earth, choice, experience, eternal, pagans)

[arcanum]

I think that when it comes to higher truths and things that belong to the realm of god,we like to personalize it and make them comfortable and familiar.i know the issue of gender regarding god/goddess in quite old and has in recent years become an important issue,especially among feminists ,neo pagans, and witches.I really think that there is no gender when it comes to the divine in actuality but only in manifestation.I think the deity/deities transcends gender and to think otherwise is naive.but it does manifests itself in definite male and female manifestations,examples of this principle are all around us.It's nice to think of a smiling male god looking down on us or a beautiful goddess with wings bestowing her gifts upon us...but i think it's all just wishful thinking on our part and that the human trait of converting things we don't understand into things we feel comfortable with and want them to be is demonstated in this whole goddess thing.

[Student of X]

Originally Posted by arcanum

I really think that there is no gender when it comes to the divine in actuality but only in manifestation.

Agreed.

I think the deity/deities transcends gender and to think otherwise is naive.

When eternal, formless, transcendent divinity manifests as a deity, the manifestation often has a gender? Is that what you're saying?

[arcanum]

Originally Posted by Student of X

Agreed.

When eternal, formless, transcendent divinity manifests as a deity, the manifestation often has a gender? Is that what you're saying?

yes in the sense that when higher manifests on the lower often gender is reflected in that manifestation.nature itself demonstrates this in the masculine and feminine principles it demonstrates.one example would be things that grow from the earth demonstrate the feminine aspect and people often associated such principles with a fertility goddess.

[Guitar's Cry]

Just out of curiosity, why'd you decide to post this in the Christian Wicca forum? Not that it doesn't work, just curious if you only wanted Christian Wiccans to respond, which may be difficult, because there are few here.

[arcanum]

Originally Posted by Guitar's Cry

Just out of curiosity, why'd you decide to post this in the Christian Wicca forum? Not that it doesn't work, just curious if you only wanted Christian Wiccans to respond, which may be difficult, because there are few here.

true...i don't know actually,i really didn't have a target audience i guess

[Guitar's Cry]

Originally Posted by arcanum

true...i don't know actually,i really didn't have a target audience i guess

Okay! If you'd like, I can always move it for you, but it's your choice.

I personally find that the divine need no specific gender, but through our human experience of it, we color the divine with these terms.

In the same way, the concept of "God"--as the pinnacle of divinity--is defined by each individual. It's light through the prism.

[ecnal]

The Divine is where both the feminine & masculine flow from. Images of Gods & Godesses are useful in that they help to reveal deep truths about spiritual reality using symbolism. That said, I feel that a feminine revelation of the Divine is more all-encompassing than a male one in that the masculine issues out of the feminine. The yin-yang is a symbol that illustrates the dynamic unity of the masculine & feminine principals. But the symbol itself if usually in the form of a circle, which is rperesentative of the Womb.