Where does this notion of the Divine Feminine come from? Is the question of the Divine Feminine simply a current fad? A silly notion of even sillier feminists? Or could it possibly have deep and ineradicable roots in the tradition itself?
However much we mock the idea, the truth is, ironically, that every major spiritual tradition on earth carries within it, at its very center, in its ancient core, an awareness of the Divine Feminine. In Hinduism, Shakti -- the great mother, the feminine principle -- is seen as the sum total of all the life-giving energy of the universe. She is the source of all. In Buddhism, Tara is seen as the perfection of wisdom, and in Buddhism, wisdom is life's highest metaphysical principle! Tara is considered the light and the prime source of Buddhahood and so of all Buddhas to follow.
And in the Hebrew scriptures -- the ground of the entire Abrahamic family, Jewish, Christian and Muslim -- the spiritual foundation on which you and I stand -- the God to whom Moses says, "Who shall I say sent me?" answers not, "I am he who am;" not "I am she who am;" but, "I am who am." I am Being! I am the essence of all life, I am the spirit that breathes in everyone: the source that magnetizes every soul. I am the one in whose image all human beings, male and female, Genesis says clearly, are made. "I am" is, in other words, ungendered, unsexed, pure spirit, pure energy, pure life. And that assurance we have, note well, on God's own word: "I am who am."
Let there be no mistake about it: woman or man, man or woman -- the full image of God is in you: masculine and feminine, feminine and masculine godness. Hebrew scripture is clear, and the Christian and Islamic scriptures, as well. God is neither male nor female -- God is of the essence of both and both are of the essence of God.
Actually, lest we be fooled by our own patriarchal inclinations to make God in our own small, puny, partial male images, the Hebrew scriptures are full of the female attributes of God. In Isaiah (42:14) the Godhead, "cries out as a woman in labor." To the psalmist (131:1-2) God is a nursing woman on whose breast the psalmist leans "content as a child that has been weaned." In Hosea (11:3-4) God claims to be a cuddling mother who takes Israel in her arms. In Genesis (3:21) God is a seamstress who makes clothes out of skins for both Adam and Eve. And in Proverbs, God -- she, wisdom, Sophia, "raises her voice in the streets," "is there with God 'in the beginning,'" (8:22-31) "is the homemaker who welcomes the world to her table" (9: 5) shouting as she does, "Enter here! Eat my food, drink my wine." Clearly, after centuries of suppressing the female imagery and the feminine attributes given in scripture in order to establish the patriarchy of lords and kings and priests and popes and power brokers as the last word and only word of every failing institution in humankind-no wonder we are confused about who God is. But God is not! Scripture is clear: God does not have -- and clearly never has had -- an identity problem. Our images of God, then, must be inclusive because God is not mother, no, but God is not father either. God is neither male nor female. God is pure spirit, pure being, pure life -- both of them. Male and female, in us all.
From Joan Chittister's chapter "God our father; God our mother: in search of the Divine Feminine" in the recently released, "Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership: Where Grace Meets Power" (Sky Lights Paths Publishing).
Gadadhara Pandit Dasa: Radha: The Feminine Nature of God
Goddess - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Look at Gen. 1 and 2.
The Spirit has no body or mind
The Spirit has no Sex, not male or female
The Spirit has no sexual relationships
The Spirit has no time or space
I agree
Peace & Blessed Be! BB
Will my children, if by my saying to them "don't worry, I'll be like a lion to protect you" make them think I'll be an actual lion or act like a lion? It is obvious it will be the latter. In the same manner God explains his qualities to us using the mother's affection and love for her child as examples. God know that after carrying a child for nine months most mothers will kill to protect that child. All the best attributes of both the father and mother are personified in God and that is why He should be more to us that anyone or anything.
No human has ever see God and therefore no one can say what He is. However, considering the headship principle, that the man (the masculine one) is put at the head, God is to be viewed in this light, as male since both He and Jesus are placed at the head of the woman. The headship arrangement is: God=Jesus=man=woman=children as shown at 1 Corinthians 11:3.
When King David talked about the true God he always respectfully addressed Him in the masculine. We should follow his example.
Romans 8.
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Luke 24:39:
"See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: feel me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you behold that I have."
Exodus 33:20:
"And he (God) added: "You are not able to see my face, because no man may see me and yet live."
Recognizing the fact that God is invisible, a person would not need to use any idols in his worship of the true God since He can hear your prayer and see if you act in harmony with it.
Tomb inscriptions dating to 800 BCE in Sinai have been found and translate as “Blessed be Uriyahu of Yahweh and save him b from his enemies by his Asherah” and “I bless you by Yahweh and his Asherah”. The ancient Hebrews commonly mixed Caananite practices with monotheism.
Ephesians 4
3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all
You can think of GOD the Father and Devine Mother as to Spirits in Christ Consciousness while in body. But the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost is but one Spirit it has no body or Flesh so how can it have Sex. If fact to become Christ Conscious a body must over come Sex.
(Weren't expecting that whole rebirth thing someone might have mentioned, were ya, 'conquerors?' :) )
You should come visit us on Zandor. We're all tri-sexual, with yellow block heads and three different kinds of genitalia.
Talk about a good time!