male devotees

[dragon]

I am a devote of the Goddess energies. I am very much interested in seeing us treat all feminine aspects as we want to be treated.

[Sylvan]

Welcome to RF!!

[Ketoujin12]

Originally Posted by hindupridemn

Is anyone else a male devotee of the Goddess? Many people find it strange that they find out I am devoted to a female deity when I'm male. They are even more suprised when they find out I'm not gay or a feminist.

Hindupridemn,

I applaud you and find nothing strange in a non-gay, non-feminist male worshipping a female representation of God-head. Personally, though I have my own quibbles with theism of all kinds being something closest to a Theravada Buddhist (or at least a sympathizer thereof), throughout my life I've felt aesthetically drawn far more to female cosmological figures than male ones.

Whenever I'd get dragged to a church by some extended relative as a kid I always loved gazing upon the visage of Mary for instance. Obviously I know Christians consider her a mediatrix and not a divine figure but given the historical antecedents to Mary in the pagan world - Ma Rhea in Phrygian lore and Our Lady of the Waves (Isis) I still rank her among female divine representations typologically.

I always thought that the Virgin's much more welcoming in her posture and visage to the devotee than the image of the crucified Christ who always struck me as hirsute and rather sinister-looking as did his apostles who were always portrayed as grave and unsmiling.

The Orthodox version of Mary as Theotokos with her arms spread wide in welcome for everyone is also wonderful as well I think. Such compassion.

Within Sanatana Dharma I've always liked the image of Kanya Kumari and Radha.

Isis and the Magna Mater are also wonderful representations of the concept of divinity being tender in their aspect. I suppose it's all very primordial as most of us have either had (or wanted) a loving mother so it's natural for us to desire worshipping a tender God-head in that loving, maternal form.

Like you, Hindupridemn, I am happily male as well but I find no issue with your chosen representational object of worship - quite the contrary - I wonder why more people, males and females, are not similarly attracted. It seems far more intutive and understandable to me than the opposite.

Of course, I don't even feel that I'm gazing upon a woman as such when I look upon images of these representational figures, nor am I putting women collectively up on a pedestal and considering them inherently holier, better, more spiritual, etc by doing so as I know we humans of either sex all have feet of clay and mental and moral defilements and ignorance within us. I merely conceive of these figures as anthropromorphic stand-ins for something infinately more complex than human minds can visualize but simply prefer the image of a loving mother.

Best,

Gunnar

[Sylvan]

Grace Cathedral's Mary Magdalene:



When I first saw this image in person after completing the inner and outer labyrinths I fell to my knees in what I can only relate to as pure awe of the divine.

[Ketoujin12]

Originally Posted by Sylvan

Grace Cathedral's Mary Magdalene:

When I first saw this image in person after completing the inner and outer labyrinths I fell to my knees in what I can only relate to as pure awe of the divine.

Sylvan,

A very nice image indeed...and quite alluring. I can well imagine why you were so powerfully inwardly struck by this pictoral vision of Mary Magdalene.

Thanks for sharing one of your favorite images of a feminine representation of the divine or at least of great sanctity.


Best,

Gunnar

[Sylvan]

Thanks. If you are familiar with the history of Grace Cathedral, particular with Bishop James Pike who finished the construction during his Bishopric, it takes on a certain resonance. Bishop Pike was a restless seeker who in the early 60's turned on the ecclesiastical world to the scriptural implications of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other gnostic texts. His desire to write and preach about such unorthodox subjects (not to mention divorcing his wife and wanting to marry his secretary*) got him the boot, whereupon he goes to Israel and dies in the desert after only taking two bottles of coca-cola with him.

Here is an interesting blog post about him.

It all kind of came together. Sophia installing herself in a cathedral under the disguise of the Magdalene. I highly recommend seekers of all faith near or visiting the Bay Area to make a pilgrimage there and study well the walls, floors, and ceilings.

*Which given the context of Episcopalian's Anglican lineage seems like it wouldn't be an issue...

[Ketoujin12]

Originally Posted by Sylvan

Thanks. If you are familiar with the history of Grace Cathedral, particular with Bishop James Pike who finished the construction during his Bishopric, it takes on a certain resonance. Bishop Pike was a restless seeker who in the early 60's turned on the ecclesiastical world to the scriptural implications of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other gnostic texts. His desire to write and preach about such unorthodox subjects (not to mention divorcing his wife and wanting to marry his secretary*) got him the boot, whereupon he goes to Israel and dies in the desert after only taking two bottles of coca-cola with him.


It all kind of came together. Sophia installing herself in a cathedral under the disguise of the Magdalene. I highly recommend seekers of all faith near or visiting the Bay Area to make a pilgrimage there and study well the walls, floors, and ceilings.

*Which given the context of Episcopalian's Anglican lineage seems like it wouldn't be an issue...

Sylvan,

Thanks for the info and the link. James Pike sounds like a fascinating individual and though many of his social stances are pretty conventional in both Anglicanism - at least among those of the more liberal variety - and wider Western secular society now his religious ideas, from what little I've been able to gather online thus far, are still quite unorthodox which makes him even more compelling a figure to me. His connection to Philip K. Dick is fascinating and that fact gives Dick an added depth to me too. I always liked his books, having read "The Man in the High Castle" in college, now I'm even more intrigued.

It would be good to get a firmer grasp of Pike's particular formulation of Gnostic ideas. I've been doing quite a bit of reading of Pagels, Hoeller and Mead on the subject - as well as on-again-off-again reading of the Pali Canon, and have been thinking about getting a copy of the Nag Hammadi gospels. Since most people interested in Gnosticism up to the time of Pike's death were merely working from often incomplete translations of the Bruce and Askew Codices and the Pistis Sophia I imagine his views corresponded more to a respect for or acceptance of the Gnostic cosmology of Pleroma-demiurge-archons than an exploration the Gnostic "Chrestos" as found in the Gospels of Thomas, Judas, and the Apocrypha of John but I dont' know for sure.

One thing is for sure, I've always deeply respected people whose desire for truth and truly intellectual open and honest minds lead them away from rigid adherence to man-made institutions - be they religious or secular - toward a genuine search for reality for its own sake. James Pike, like others of his same cast of mind seemingly, necessarily chose open-minded seeking over the compromised comfort of going through the motions of obedience to a Church whose conceptions he, in the end at least, could never reconcile himself with in light of his yearning for knowledge and his own inner transformation.

NIrad Chaudhuri once described his own intellectual life by asserted his own personal credo that (I am paraphrasing) "Seeking of knowlege without being bound by constructed world-views." I think it could apply to Pike and many others as well.

Grace Cathedral seems like a fantastic place to visit.

Interestingly enough, despite the relative theological liberalism of the Anglican Church, particularly in the West today, Gnostic concepts are still quite alien to many adherents of that tradition. My uncle who is a social worker and is a great admirer and adept of Jung - who was, as you might know, quite interested in Gnostic concepts - and a liberal Anglican, was talking with me about religion once when we got into the Valentianians and other Christian Gnostics. My uncle, while sympathetic with some of the ideas, did not seem to know very much of their known pedigree or their doctrine or import.



Thanks again,


Best,

Gunnar

[ChaoticCreature]

Originally Posted by hindupridemn

Is anyone else a male devotee of the Goddess? Many people find it strange that they find out I am devoted to a female deity when I'm male. They are even more suprised when they find out I'm not gay or a feminist.

I am a male devotee of the Goddess. Though I am bisexual, and I guess you could also consider me a feminist. Though they are not the reasons why I am.

[Shuddhasattva]

What I find hard to understand is why should being a male devotee be remarkable?

[Quintessence]

Originally Posted by Shuddhasattva

What I find hard to understand is why should being a male devotee be remarkable?

It's not, but it's statistically less common. Neopaganism in general is a bit slanted towards women, but particularly the Goddess movement. These demographics may have changed since the last of Berger's census work, though.