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The Divine Feminine

Manoah

Member
I just posted this in a reply, but I am afraid it will be buried without response in a DIR.

When I belonged to a new believer's (interdenominational Christian) discipleship group back in 1991, I had posed the question of feminism to the leader, who told me a few memorable things:

1. God created man AND woman in "his" image; in other words, it takes both genders to reflect God.

2. Descriptions of the Holy Spirit allude to the divine feminine: the dove, the hovering over the waters of creation like a hen incubating eggs, the "Shekinah" (presence of God) being a feminine form in the Hebrew.

3. El Shadai, an early name of God in Genesis has been translated as "Mountain Dwelling" as well as "Breasted One."

Any additions or objections?
 

David T

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
I just posted this in a reply, but I am afraid it will be buried without response in a DIR.

When I belonged to a new believer's (interdenominational Christian) discipleship group back in 1991, I had posed the question of feminism to the leader, who told me a few memorable things:

1. God created man AND woman in "his" image; in other words, it takes both genders to reflect God.

2. Descriptions of the Holy Spirit allude to the divine feminine: the dove, the hovering over the waters of creation like a hen incubating eggs, the "Shekinah" (presence of God) being a feminine form in the Hebrew.

3. El Shadai, an early name of God in Genesis has been translated as "Mountain Dwelling" as well as "Breasted One."

Any additions or objections?
I think the "holy spirit" is another way of alluding to the divine femine as well.. At least textually it is. Disregard what is taught totally.

I like to say christianity the church or community was founded by a woman and taught by men. No wonder there is confusion!!!! In both cases male and female....
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
I just posted this in a reply, but I am afraid it will be buried without response in a DIR.

When I belonged to a new believer's (interdenominational Christian) discipleship group back in 1991, I had posed the question of feminism to the leader, who told me a few memorable things:

1. God created man AND woman in "his" image; in other words, it takes both genders to reflect God.

2. Descriptions of the Holy Spirit allude to the divine feminine: the dove, the hovering over the waters of creation like a hen incubating eggs, the "Shekinah" (presence of God) being a feminine form in the Hebrew.

3. El Shadai, an early name of God in Genesis has been translated as "Mountain Dwelling" as well as "Breasted One."

Any additions or objections?

Aside from the Biblical references to the masculine, for what reason would God would have any gender at all?
 

74x12

Well-Known Member
I just posted this in a reply, but I am afraid it will be buried without response in a DIR.

When I belonged to a new believer's (interdenominational Christian) discipleship group back in 1991, I had posed the question of feminism to the leader, who told me a few memorable things:

1. God created man AND woman in "his" image; in other words, it takes both genders to reflect God.

2. Descriptions of the Holy Spirit allude to the divine feminine: the dove, the hovering over the waters of creation like a hen incubating eggs, the "Shekinah" (presence of God) being a feminine form in the Hebrew.

3. El Shadai, an early name of God in Genesis has been translated as "Mountain Dwelling" as well as "Breasted One."

Any additions or objections?
IMO the Shekinah is the hiding or veiling of God's glory. No flesh can look on God and live. The Shekinah is the visible cloud that hides the glory of God so that no one is consumed when He appears. However, it's common for people to mistake it(the cloud) for being God Himself.

This is why when Solomon saw the Shekinah cloud of God fill the temple; he remembered what God had said about dwelling in thick darkness. The cloud hides God's glory.

1 Kings 8:12
Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

And when Jesus ascended up "into glory" He was received by a cloud out of their sight.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
The universe doesn't exist to serve us. Giving gender to the divine is human arrogance in that we think something has to be like us for us to relate.
I'm not sure how you got "the universe exists to serve us" out of what I said. I'm just saying that it tends to be easier to relate to and form relationships with something you can conceptualize, even a non-human animal. Then there are instances of people having experiences with deities and they have appeared to them in masculine or feminine (or animal) form, too.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
It's bending things to suit us rather than letting them be as they are.
You're not understanding what I'm saying. You're not doing anything to the universe. The universe is uneffected. If I choose to view God as a Mother who gives birth in order to form a meaningful relationship with God and to venerate Her, that doesn't mean that God is literally a woman who gives birth out of a vagina. Rather it's a metaphorical way of viewing God in a way that you understand and is special for you. I know God is beyond all duality, including gender. But that's hard for us to understand so we chose the form of God we are most comfortable with, while having the knowledge that that is ultimately a metaphor.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
In the Dharmic tradition, the Divine Mother is celebrated by such figures as Ramakrishna:

I wept before the Mother and prayed. “O Mother, please tell me, please reveal to me what the yogis have realized through yoga and the jnanis through discrimination.” And the Mother has revealed everything to me. She reveals everything if the devotee cries to Her with a yearning heart. She has shown me everything that is in the Vedas, the Vedanta, the Puranas, and the Tantra.”

Sri Ramakrishna on the Divine Mother - Kali Mandir in Laguna Beach
 

Brickjectivity

wind and rain touch not this brain
Staff member
Premium Member
I just posted this in a reply, but I am afraid it will be buried without response in a DIR.

When I belonged to a new believer's (interdenominational Christian) discipleship group back in 1991, I had posed the question of feminism to the leader, who told me a few memorable things:

1. God created man AND woman in "his" image; in other words, it takes both genders to reflect God.

2. Descriptions of the Holy Spirit allude to the divine feminine: the dove, the hovering over the waters of creation like a hen incubating eggs, the "Shekinah" (presence of God) being a feminine form in the Hebrew.

3. El Shadai, an early name of God in Genesis has been translated as "Mountain Dwelling" as well as "Breasted One."

Any additions or objections?
I think its great to clarify whenever possible that gender does not affect our value as people, but I think its not useful to attempt to give a gender to justice, to love or to righteousness. These things are spiritual. This is one of the reasons I think its a mistake to equate Jesus with God in public prayers or to equate the Father with God in public prayers, and I hear people do this all the time. I think it confuses people. If we pray to the Father in Heaven, what we are doing is claiming to be heirs with Christ. The two things are one and the same and do not change the nature of God nor make God a male. I think in public prayers people should make it clear so as not to confuse that they are claiming to be heirs as peacemakers, that they are not viewing God as a male. In reality they are taking maleness away from God, removing that idea which was from the pagans who assigned gender to the gods. God is spirit. Christians claim to be heirs in Christ, and there are not males or females in Christ. In ancient times inheritance came through fathers, and that I suggest is why the term Father and not Mother was used.

To me feminism should mean that young women are taught to educate themselves and to see themselves as co-preservers of culture and knowledge, because they are. Every free person, particularly every free woman, is only free because they had mothers and grandmothers who worked for it. Its up to women to continue to value education, even though it competes with family. Its easy for them to think "Hey all I am going to be very busy raising a family, so I don't need a high school education. I don't need to learn a foreign language...etc" Its also easy for men to express the opinion that daughters are needed for work and for rearing children and shouldn't be spared for education. Maybe it doesn't look like it today, but its easy for the world to go to hell very quickly when nobody is actively educating girls.

I do not think feminism needs to enforce particular choices. It just needs to enable women to know about them. I don't think its wrong to expect men to hold a door. That is a woman's choice. I don't think its wrong for a woman to want to spend her life rearing children and being married.

The way I see it Christians are not Jews, however Christians ought to pick up on how things have always worked. The man is responsible to make sure all of the children are educated. He is the peacemaker in the home, so it falls to him. Nevertheless women have to do their part, and sometimes they will have to fill in. Somebody has to keep the fire going.
 

Bear Wild

Well-Known Member
I just posted this in a reply, but I am afraid it will be buried without response in a DIR.

When I belonged to a new believer's (interdenominational Christian) discipleship group back in 1991, I had posed the question of feminism to the leader, who told me a few memorable things:

1. God created man AND woman in "his" image; in other words, it takes both genders to reflect God.

2. Descriptions of the Holy Spirit allude to the divine feminine: the dove, the hovering over the waters of creation like a hen incubating eggs, the "Shekinah" (presence of God) being a feminine form in the Hebrew.

3. El Shadai, an early name of God in Genesis has been translated as "Mountain Dwelling" as well as "Breasted One."

Any additions or objections?

1. Does that mean that god looks like a human and if human does god look more like a female or male?

2. Doves are both male and female. How do you know the dove hovering was a female. It may have been male and would object to the reference of being female.

3. The Paps of Anu near Killarney Ireland show the divine female in Ireland. Anu or Danu was the mother of the Irish gods and goddesses from the pre-Christian era. Anu is a clear representation of the divine female.
 

Manoah

Member
I guess for me the divine provides many expressions for our understanding and experience of... the divine (it get's awkward without pronouns, for example, although G-d has some aspects of personality). Father shows a truth, mother shows a truth, the Force shows a truth, the sun shows a truth, the 8 arms on a picture of Shakti show a truth, and so on. On the other hand, making the picture = G-d leads to distortion, and maybe that is part of the prohibitions of idols in Israel.

The dove speaks to me of feminine characteristics of gentleness and peace rather than the image of Mars a more masculine image of wrath and war. I like that an aspect of God is nurturing, still, receptive, and peaceful. I was taught that the hovering in creation was like birthing...
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
We are big on 'Divine Mothers'. Of course, there is one big one but hundreds of smaller ones too. And Many festivals to celebrate her (including two nine day periods (Navaratras - one generally in April, the other in October).
 

GoodbyeDave

Well-Known Member
I can't really comment on the original post, but certainly gods are experienced as male or female. They manifest to us in forms we understand, so that necessitates gender and they mostly seem to have consistent choice. As for the Creator, if there is one, I'm not sure that anyone has actually experience them.
 

wellwisher

Well-Known Member
I just posted this in a reply, but I am afraid it will be buried without response in a DIR.

When I belonged to a new believer's (interdenominational Christian) discipleship group back in 1991, I had posed the question of feminism to the leader, who told me a few memorable things:

1. God created man AND woman in "his" image; in other words, it takes both genders to reflect God.

2. Descriptions of the Holy Spirit allude to the divine feminine: the dove, the hovering over the waters of creation like a hen incubating eggs, the "Shekinah" (presence of God) being a feminine form in the Hebrew.

3. El Shadai, an early name of God in Genesis has been translated as "Mountain Dwelling" as well as "Breasted One."

Any additions or objections?

Men are more visually orientated, while women are more verbally orientated. This is reflected in how the brain is most commonly used in men and women. Men tend to use the brain more front to back and back to front, while women use the brain more side to side. This results in men making more use of the occipital and frontal lobes, which are associate with vision and imagination, respectively. Women use the temporal lobes on either side of the brain, which are connected to language, symbolism and hearing.

Interestingly, the Christian sign of the cross; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit touches the forehead for Father; frontal lobe, touches the solar plexus/heart for the son; vertical alignment to the Father. It then touches the two shoulders for Holy Spirit; temporal lobes, side to side. In terms of brain function it associates the Holy Spirit with the feminine principle. This was done centuries before we could do brain scans.

When men and women marry and bond in love, their complementary brain functions forms the sign of the cross. This allows men and women to cross program each other; learn from each other, to become a team that is more than sum of its parts.

The Son being associated with the heart and solar plexus has a connection to the occipital lobe. This can be explained by how memory is written in the human brain. When memory is created emotional tags are added to the sensory content as ti is written to the cerebral matter. Our memory has both content and emotional tagging. This is useful to the animal. If they see something that is already in memory, it will trigger the memory and associated feeling tag. This feeling allows the animal to react without having to think. It is very efficient. If the food object has a good feeling tag, they eat; trust. The connection to the occipital lobe, symbolizes sometime like natural masculine instinct that reacts to the moment. Jesus is often referred to as the second Adam.
 
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