Introduction
There have been many efforts on the part of humanity to define the Divine “Life Force” that shapes and imbues our universe with its indwelling presence. For example, there have been copious amounts of discourse about whether this “Force” has a gender, and if so, whether it is male or female. Although commonly misunderstood, my own Catholic tradition allows for a multi-dimensional approach to the topic, taking into account the broad view of cultural conceptions, historical contexts, and divine revelations.
Before we begin, it might be a good starting point to remember that God is far above and beyond any human attempts at description and categorization. As with the purely spiritual beings traditionally called angels, it is reasonable to conclude that the fullness of the divine outpouring and groundwork of reality is unable to be compressed into a physical, binary gender role. Since human beings, both male and female, are made in the image and likeness of God by virtue of their creation, it is also reasonable to see both men and women as carrying inherent attributes within them that are a part of the nature of God.
George MacDonald wrote that from God comes both “the strength of man and beauty of woman,” fusing the utility and ascetics that define the balance of world in which we live. Conversely, it can be said that God is also seen in the uniqueness of feminine strength and masculine beauty. The Divine Force, singularly responsible for bringing forth the universe from the depths of nothingness, is also profoundly sexual, in the purest sense of the word, merging love and creativity to bring forth new life. In God, we see elements of both the life-giving seeding of man and the life-giving birthing of woman, sanctifying our understanding of the procreative act as it unfolds in nature.
Unfortunately, history and culture have a way of shaping and sometimes shrinking the popular imagination in matters beyond the worldly sphere. Judaism and Islam, both of which flourished in the harsh desert landscape of the Middle East, tend to depict God decidedly in the masculine as their righteous warrior king. For patriarchal societies such as their own, this was in keeping with their comprehension of the world and the lens through which they naturally viewed their first interactions with the divine law giver. In time, much of this imagery would be passed down to Christianity, to become a staple of European Christendom.
The Sacred Feminine in Pre-Christian Tradition
However, other peoples, such as the Druidic Celts, believed that spiritual wisdom was the realm of feminine intuition. Priestesses, witches, and wise women were seen as oracles of the divine who worked with the universal magic coursing through nature and walked between natural and supernatural worlds. The world itself was seen as a manifestation of the Mother Goddess, with every geological aspect of the earth forming some contour of her body. Underground springs and wells were seen as the free-flowing life-blood of the goddess, sacred portals to the spirit world where offerings would be made to local deities. This custom is evocatively preserved in the story of King Arthur’s sword being given and received again by the Lady of the Lake. This was one of the highest forms of tribute, since the forging of metal into weaponry was equated with sacred alchemy and considered to be a pseudo-magical work.
Acknowledging the sovereignty of the goddess, the chieftains and high kings of Celtic lands would be expected to ceremonially and spiritually “mate” with the land, sealing his sacred bond in order to reign over the people and maintain the balance of masculine and feminine forces. If he failed to uphold this vow, the fitness of things would be upset and chaos would surely end his reign. When all was said and done, the goddess was the wielder of every king’s fate, be he ever so proud. A Wiccan chant, reflecting the connection between water and the divine feminine, makes this abundantly clear: “We all come from the goddess and to her we shall return/ Like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean…”
This Indo-European style Paganism, extending into modern Wicca, also has explored a belief the duality of the Divine, made manifest by “The Forest Lovers” or “The Lord and Lady of Nature”, according to the “Witches’ Rune.” It is the mating of these male and female aspects of the divine which is said to bring about the fertility of earth in the spring and summer months, as celebrated on the Celtic festival of Beltane (meaning “bright flame” for the fires lit in celebration) when the masculine and feminine energies are brought into equality and alignment. The May Goddess, also known as the Lady of the Land, is believed to join hands with the Horned God, also called the Green Man, and make the greenwood their marriage bed. In the pagan past, their union would be re-enacted by the men and the women on Beltane night to ensure the fertility of the land.
Many customs associated with Beltane, including the maypole lived on in traditional celebrations of May Day. They were Christianized during the conversion of Europe and came to be strongly associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary. To this day, statues of Our Lady are commonly crowned during the month of May, hearkening back to the appointing of a “May Queen” from among the maidens of the village during the festivals of old.
One of the personification of this feminine divinity among the Celts was Brighid, a triple goddess associated with the fire of the hearth (fertility, childbearing, healing, and domesticity), the fire of the forge (metalwork, craftsmanship, weaving, embroidery, and the just execution of the law), and the fire of inspiration (poetry, song, storytelling, history, and the preservation of culture). She is peace-weaver, gold-bender, and keeper of the flame. She is commonly depicted as integral to the earth, her three faces gazing down from the hills, symbolizing the three phases of life (maiden, mother, crone) or alternately as the red-eared, white cow, giving nourishing milk to starving souls. The song “Brighid’s Kiss” says of her:
“Brighid of the sunrise, rising in the morning, rising in the springtime, breathing o’er the land/See you in the soft cloud, see you in the raindrop, see you in the winds of change blowing through the land/You, the red-eared, white cow nourishing the people, nourishing the hunger, souls longing in our land/Bird that is unfolding, now the time’s upon us, only have we eyes to see your epiphany.”
Like the mythological Oak and Holly Kings who rule over different parts of the year, the aspects of Maiden and the Crone present in Brighid also take turns ruling as the seasons. This ties in to the interrelational aspects of fertility and death, showing that the maiden and the hag are natural cycles that go hand and hand, always brought to fullness through rebirth. The maiden is imprisoned for the length of the winter, when the crone, carrying her lantern, rules over the barren land. The prayers of the people were said to free her youthful spirit, causing the crone herself to return to her maiden form. In celebration, gifts would be cast into wells and ribbons hung on trees in honor of her maidenhead on the festival of Imbolc (meaning “ewe’s milk”, for it is the time of year when sheep become pregnant).
When Ireland was Christianized, another Brighid would arise. According to tradition, she was a saintly abbess and wonder-worker who founded a monastery at Kildare (Cill Dara, “church of the oak”) on the site of a previous pagan shrine to the goddess Brighid, and became the leader of a group of consecrated virgins who tended an eternal flame. She is probably best known for the unique cross design which legend says she wove out of rushes as she sat at the bedside of a dying Irish chieftain and told him the story of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. As a convert herself, she came to personify all that was good in both the old and new Celtic spiritual traditions. She has been called “Mary of the Gaels”, and was said to have traveled through time and space to serve as a midwife to the Blessed Virgin Mary and suckle the infant Christ Child. Some even see her as a reflection of the divine feminine energy present in the goddess Brighid, with a mission on earth to assure that Ireland transitioned from a Pagan society to a Christian one with minimal bloodshed. In keeping with this, certain legends portray the goddess Brighid adopting the Christ Child as her own and rearing Him to reign over her people in Ireland as High King.
On the other side of the world from the British Isles, a prominent manifestation of female divinity in Taoist and Buddhist tradition is found in Kwan Yin, the Mother of a Thousand Faces, goddess of love and compassion. According to legend, she was once the daughter of a brutal Chinese warlord who sought to arrange a marriage for her, but she refused to comply unless she might marry a healer who dedicated his life to diminishing the sufferings of the people. When her father refused what he considered to be an utterly outlandish request, she ran away to a Buddhist monastery. While there, she became a master of meditation and a bender of elements. But her father, in a rage, ordered the monastery to be razed and his daughter be executed for her disobedience. Miraculously, however, she was able to repel and diffuse the flames with her own hands. The arrows that were fired at her turned around and swords that struck at her shattered. Finally, one of the soldiers strangled her with his bare hands.
Once dead, Kwan Yin felt compassion towards her killer, and agreed to take on the soldier’s negative karma, descending into the underworld to bear his sentence. Yet even in the bowels of the darkness, she began to play and sing beautiful music. As a result, flowers began to grow, light returned, and the souls of the oppressed were liberated. The Lord of the Underworld, understandably distressed, banished her from his realm. She returned to earth, this time transformed into a supernatural tigress that dwelt upon a high mountain. But one day news came that Kwan Yin’s father had fallen deathly ill, and the only thing that could save him was an elixir made of tiger’s eyes. In an unparalleled gesture of self-sacrificial compassion, when the hunters came to search for her, she offered herself to them freely and was slain for the use of her eyes.
When her father had been cured, and learned of the strange story, his heart was finally melted, and he repented of the heinous crimes he had perpetrated. He had a temple erected to his daughter’s memory upon the mountain, and Kwan Yin’s soul went to become one with the Buddha. Though her purity meant that she was worthy of the bliss of Nirvana, she was overwhelmed by the cries of the suffering creatures of earth, and decided to remain between the worlds to aid all sentient beings in need until all were freed from suffering.
She is often invoked to restore balance and harmony and feed the soul with kindness and mercy. She is known for appearing in dreams to those in need of spiritual healing, and is described as “She Who Hears the Cries of the World.” Another title she bears is “The Jewel of the Lotus”, that fairest blossom which springs forth from the deepest mud and symbolizes the unfolding of wisdom. In light of her ability to transform even the underworld, this is a fitting tribute to the fragrance of compassion to transform any suffering and the power of goodness to redeem any evil. In keeping with Buddhist practice, her six syllable mantra is commonly chanted in Sanskrit: Om mani padme hum (“Praise be the jewel within the lotus”), seeking spiritual enlightenment through her example of redemption through forgiveness.
Countless other variations of divine femininity can be found across the cultural expanse, including the Mother Goddess Gaia from Greek mythology, who is often represented in modern New Age and environmentally conscious spiritual circles as a pregnant woman bearing the earth in her belly. She is seen as a figure of female continuity, that “circle of women” that goes on through a woman’s bodily cycles, from mother to daughter, joined together forever through the sacred portal of the womb. To the Christian mind, this cannot help but stir up images of Mary, patroness of all women who bear the seed of new life within them through pregnancy. This being as it is, it is fitting that Mary’s Greek title as Theo Tokos or “God-Bearer”.
The Sacred Feminine in Judeo-Christian Tradition
From my own Catholic (and I would add universalist) perspective, depictions of the divine feminine across the grand sweep of time and space are both fascinating and quite frequently edifying to obtain a more nuanced view of the attributes of God. However, there are still two key points which orthodox Christians must acknowledge within their own tradition: firstly, that Jesus Christ is the incarnate God-Man, the Second Person in The Blessed Trinity, who took on a human nature and an accompanying male gender; and secondly, that He repeatedly referred to His Father in the masculine, as beautifully and tenderly demonstrated in both The Lord’s Prayer and the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
For all that these points may seem to imply, I believe it is profoundly wrong for men to feel any sense of superiority over women on this account. God is God, outside of our boxes, capable of hovering the divine presence over all peoples of the earth in different forms to different extents. If it had been according to divine plan, the Christ might just as well have come among us in the feminine. However, I as a Christian woman am fully content that He came in the masculine. While I make no pretense to understand the mind of God, there are some very valid reasons that come to mind as to why this makes the most sense.
First, the ancient Jewish society from whom the Messiah was destined to come forth was predominately patriarchal and would most likely never have been able to accept such a revelation from a woman. Their sacred prophecies all spoke of the coming of the Son of David and the Prince of Peace, reestablishing a stable reign and continuing the royal legacy of their deposed earthly kingship. But second, and perhaps more importantly, there is deep theological significance in God incarnating as a man…or should I say the Man.
The story of the Incarnation starts when the Holy Spirit overshadows the Blessed Virgin Mary as the ultimate life-giving force. This can be interpreted as the Masculine embrace of the Feminine, mirroring human sexuality in the spiritual plane, as experienced by many mystics such as Catherine of Sienna and Teresa of Avila, in which God becomes the “lover” of the soul. In this light, all our souls are to some extent feminine in that they are loved into new life by the masculinity of the Christ, the New Adam, who restores our human nature, wounded sorely by sin, through grace. He is the Hound of Heaven pursuing us, even into our deepest depths, to bring us home to Himself, as depicted in the famous poem by Francis Thompson:
Is my gloom after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
‘Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.’
This is also brought to the fore in the concept of the strength of the masculine laying himself down to death on behalf of the beauty that is the feminine through Christ’s death to ransom humanity, acting as a lover pouring out his strength to ransom his beloved. This is the crux of the chivalric ideal, and the Church is portrayed as a lady, not unlike the lady who watches her son suffocating on the tree, and who is given to the beloved disciple as a mother and help of all Christians, “now and at the hour of our death”. It also reflects the inverse attributes of female strength standing strong as male beauty is stripped and shattered upon the cross.
But on the other hand, Jesus was also known to make reference to His own attributes with decidedly feminine comparisons: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37)
This is reminiscent of yet another verse, this time from the Old Testament which, although it came forth the largely patriarchal ancient Israel, still tended towards feminine language when trying to describe the devotion and mercy of God: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15)
From a Catholic sacramental viewpoint, there is a certain feminine element of the Eucharist, the bread and wine believed to be transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ during the consecration at the height of the mass. Mary is also mystically present there, as she is the one who fully gave her flesh and blood to Christ, who had no human father. Some believe this to be corroborated by the Shroud of Turin, which is said to reveal human cells only deriving from the female, though the image is that of a male.
Beyond that, the act of Jesus giving us His flesh and blood for our nourishment found at the Eucharistic Table can also be seen as a form of mothering. Indeed, some Bible verses make it sound strikingly similar to the breastfeeding, particularly in the injunction, “This is My Body. Take and Eat.” An even more direct reference runs as follows: “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” (1 Peter 2:2)
Also, in Christian art, the symbol of the mother pelican piercing her breast to feed her young has commonly been associated with the sacrifice Jesus made by shedding His blood for humanity. After all, it has been said that a mother’s love is strong enough to carry all the world; surely this also could include bringing that world into being and sacrificing oneself on its behalf?
While on the subject of life-giving blood, it is women who prepare for new life through their menstrual cycles. Although this natural occurrence within the female body tends to viewed as something embarrassing or shameful, making women unclean or imbalanced, many indigenous cultures take another view entirely and celebrate the coming of a girl’s first cycle with various rituals and festivities. It is a sign that the Circle of Life shall continue forward into the future. Equally so, Christians believe that the shedding of Christ’s blood enabled us to be reborn through sacrificial love and sanctifying grace that we might know life in abundance.
Touching upon another sacrament, Baptism is often made to be analogous with birthing waters: “Unless a man be born again of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:1, 5). Catholic teaching also affirms Baptism by Blood and Baptism by Desire, meaning that this imparting of grace is not constricted merely to a formula, but also grounded in intent and action. This can be found either in the shedding one’s blood through martyrdom (either for Christian faith or perhaps for the sake of “the least of these”, laying down one’s life out of self-sacrificial love) or by living with sincere intent towards seeking out the truth and living a life according to the principles of love and virtue. As with baptismal water, are not women often associated as both the source of life-giving blood and the object of life-stirring desire?
St. Julian of Norwich sums up her own thoughts on both the mothering and fathering aspects of the divine in beautiful Trinitarian language that also captures the masculine power of Christ contained within the feminine power of Mary:
“This fair and lovely word ‘mother’ is so sweet and so kind in itself that it cannot truly be said of anyone or to anyone except of Him and to Him who is the true Mother of life and of all things. To the property of motherhood belongs nature, love, wisdom, and knowledge, and this is God. For the almighty truth of the Trinity is our Father, for He made us and keeps us in Him. And the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, in whom we are enclosed. And the high goodness of the Trinity is our Lord, and in Him we are enclosed and he in us. So our Lady is our mother, in whom we are all enclosed and born of her in Christ, for she who is mother of our saviour who is mother of all who are saved in our saviour; and our saviour is our true Mother, in whom we are endlessly born and out of whom we shall never come.”
There is also a long-standing tradition of referring to Holy Wisdom in the feminine. In Hebrew she is called Chokhmah, in Greek Sophia, and in Latin Sapientia. In the Old Testament, she is referred to as an object of meditation: “Happy is the person who meditates on Sophia, who reflects in one’s heart on Sophia’s ways and ponders her secrets, pursuing her like a hunter, and lying in wait on her paths.” (Sirach 15:20–22)
Sophia is described as being present at the beginning of creation, a beautiful figure who proceeds forth from the Holy One before the first dawn arose: “When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When God established the heavens, I was there playing before Him all the while” (Proverbs 8:24, 30).
Not unlike the Magnificat of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who might accurately be called the true-born daughter of Sophia, this feminine personification of divine wisdom invites the humble of heart to share her table: “She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, ‘Let all who are simple come to my house!’” (Proverbs 9:2-4)
Sophia is described as a mother, a teacher, a counselor, a fine mist, more precious than jewels, and the tree of life. She is “the breath of the power of God, a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty, a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God and an image of His goodness.” (Wisdom 7:25–27)
She is said to seek us out in order to bring about spiritual transformation, yet she is also a figure of sacred mystery. We ourselves are called upon to seek her from within: “The first person did not finish discovering about her nor has the most recent tracked her down; for her thoughts are wider than the sea, and her designs more profound than the abyss” (Sirach 24:28–29).
In a similar vein, the medieval mystical writings of the Jewish Kabbalah make reference to the Shekinah, which means the indwelling of the presence of God in this world, and is decidedly feminine in depiction.
Interestingly, Leonard Nimoy created the Vulcan Salute for Mr. Spock from Star Trek based on a hand gesture used during the rabbinic blessing, when the Shekinah is said to pass through the synagogue. He later embarked upon a photography project controversially involving nude women models holding Jewish ceremonial objects to highlight the presence of the divine feminine with Kabbalist writings as its reference point.
The Kabbalah itself describes the Shekinah thusly: “There are two aspects to the female…one when she is contained initially in the male, and the second when she is separated from him and he gives her the crown of strength….” (‘Ets Chayim 10:3)
According to the Kabbalist version of creation, En Sof is the Source of all things, both everything and nothing, full of potential yet nothing manifested, with no beginning and no end, neither masculine or feminine, but still both at the same time. In order for the creation process to begin, En Sof had to withdraw from Itself to allow the potential to actualize, a contracting process dubbed Tsimtsum. As this withdrawal place, the Shekinah remained to become a primordial vessel through which the essence of En Sof could flow and concentrate to such a degree that the energy of creation burst forth in the Big Bang. She became the birth canal of the universe and the soul of God present to all creation, and in a sense, the soul of the world itself.
Even when Humankind fell from grace and was banished from the Garden state of union with God, the Shekinah is said to have stayed with humanity, self-sacrificially keeping us sustained through all our exiles, even though her soul was “shattered” in grief at being further separated from her spouse En Sof. It is commonly thought that the richly romantic “Song of Songs” is an allegory for this tragic separation and prophesied reunion. It is the driving desire of the universe that the two lovers should be brought back together as one, but this can only happen with our involvement, since she very truly is inside of us and makes up parts of our soul.
This hearkens to the concept of Tikkun Olam, “healing the land” or “building for eternity”, a responsibility of humanity to go beyond the self to help heal the souls of others and of all creation in preparation for the great reunion with the divine, and the coming back together of the bride and bridegroom in mystical ecstasy. The Shekinah embodies the qualities of patience, persistence, stillness, and restraint, just as a woman waits for gestation and pregnancy to take its full course before the baby can be born, and a woman mediates the birth as a midwife. When we purify our souls from the sinful dross of our being, she shows us her face and promises that renewal is at hand.
This perspective allows for God to be manifest both beyond us (referred to as “He”) and within us (referred to as “She”). It further demonstrates that we, as a people, are not God, but that we are godly, and this should bring us hope, comfort, and joy. God is present to us as both men and women, and we bear the divine image as a composite whole beyond our gender through the dignity of our humanity. As Genesis 1:27 relates: “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.”
The Struggle of the Sexes
All this having been considered at length, I believe there is ample enough room within a Catholic theological framework to appreciate both masculine and feminine elements within the Triune Godhead. The main point is not so much the genders of the persons as the relationships between them, the flow, the dance, the water-wheel of grace. Indeed, Fr. Richard Rohr uses a unique resolution, saying that the persons of the Trinity, in their conscious forms and manifestations, might be seen as masculine and the spaces in between them, consisting of pure unconscious movement and relational energy, might be seen as feminine. Perhaps the uncomfortable tension projected onto male and female presence is not to be found within God at all, but rather within the rocky gender relations within our own flawed society. It is probably a social stigma more than any substantial theological conflict.
As a result, many spiritual seekers will teeter to extremes in their interpretation, either claiming that any reference to the divine feminine is “heretical”, or alternately striking out against any male depictions of God to be oppressive. Needless to say, I view both positions to be lacking in full-bodied spiritual scope. Perhaps this is the key to moving forward from the wounds of the past in both religions and societies alike. We should be able to explore both aspects of the divine as well as we should explore those elements within ourselves. Both men and women are capable of good and evil behavior, both capable of falling prey to power struggles, and both can become significantly destabilized without the presence of the other. The tendency for men to be more physically impulsive and women more emotionally impulsive means that both are in need of stability found in the other, and in a divine homing device that brought us all into being.
That having been said, it is true that a distorted image of what it means to truly “be a man” has all too often prevailed throughout the course of history. There are many stereotypes which are foisted onto us by our culture, making masculinity synonymous with toughness and even violence. This is commonly projected through visible gestures such as guzzling down alcoholic beverages, inhaling tobacco smoke, or engaging in blood sports. They are discouraged from expressing softer emotions, demonstrating visible affection, wearing certain colors, or doing anything that might make others accuse them of being effeminate.
Unfortunately, men are too often encouraged or even lauded for abusing the strength of their bodies and turning their protective instinct into aggression. The life-giving force is transformed into self-gratifying gluttony that can tyrannize and dehumanize the feminine, physically, mentally, and spiritually as well as shaming her if she fails to live up their perverse expectations of her “true purpose”. It has resulted in the male suppression of female autonomy and self-determination, particularly in education and the marketplace. It emphasizes a one-dimensional view of women, claiming that they exist solely to serve the needs of men and bear children. But what a woman always wants, and what a woman is truly owed, is her own sovereignty. This is the answer of such questions proffered in Arthurian riddles. Only after the knight realizes this will he ever win the love of his lady.
Women defy stereotypes and are multi-faceted in their attributes, abilities, callings, and dreams, as reflected well by various recent icons from popular culture. Wonder Woman, based on the goddess Diana from Greek mythology, demonstrates both her unmatched fighting prowess as an Amazon and her deeply intuitive empathy for those suffering the human cost of war. Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games also shows the path of a female soldier, adapting a type of nurturing toughness to survive the gladiatorial arena and the field of battle without losing her humanity. Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings combines her destiny to defeat the witch king with a willingness to be healed through the love of another, equally scarred by trauma. Lily Evans Potter from Harry Potter demonstrates the depth of mother’s love, which lives on in her son’s very skin after she sacrifices her life for him, and in doing so, paves the way for the overthrow of the dark lord Voldemort.
There are many other examples of multi-dimensional femininity from history, literature, and cinematography that show women are more than capable of saving the day in their own right and shining their own unique light on a troubled world. But sadly, all too often the glow has been smothered by those who refuse to see, either pressuring women to be submissive and demure or by making them feel that they must become the same as men in order for them, their talents, and their counsel to be taken seriously.
A folktale from the Lincolnshire fens tells how the lady moon fell down into the bog, and her light was drowned out for many years, making it a terrible place indeed. The moon has long been a symbol of womanhood, the subtle, sacred light in the contemplative darkness, the inner secrets of knowing and being based on the cycles of waxing and waning, both in body and spirit, the mysteries of maiden, mother, crone, life, death and rebirth. The bog, the black heart of the underworld, tries to swallow up the light of womanly freedom and giftedness. But it too is made of the moist and sticky center that resides within the feminine genius, sustaining what it might otherwise entomb. And in this story, it is the men of the land who set out to rescue the lady moon, and free her from the bog to return to her throne in the night sky, lighting their land once more.
The real proof of manhood is not that of suppressing the other, of a proclivity for smoking or drinking, or an embrace of violence, but rather is grounded in true strength, the same strength of the men who freed the moon from the bog. The truth remains that the single strongest thing that exists is love and the compassion that flows forth from it. It is the purest form of that which God is, and it is the necessary seed from which all other virtues grow, as well as the pinnacle of the mountain which we all should strive to climb. To love in a world too often full of hatred is the truest test of our humanity. This is what determines the soul to be the warrior, for this power always comes from within and is not merely worn on the sleeve for show.
This brings to mind one of my favorite television heroes, Kwai Chang Caine from the Buddhist-inspired classic series Kung Fu. Soft-spoken, humble, and empathetic, he is a Shaolin priest and herbal healer who defies many of the stereotypes about proving one’s manhood through vulgar displays of highhanded arrogance or an insatiable lust for conquest. Nevertheless he proves to be the pinnacle of physical and mental strength. Not only is he skilled in the martial arts, which he uses for the advancement of justice and in defense of himself and others in need, but he is also able to bear the brunt of insults and prejudice with amazing resignation. For him, the art of Kung Fu is not merely a physical activity, but rather an outward manifestation of a spiritual training in self-control. To him, the soul was always the essence of his identity as a warrior.
His strength is most often revealed through gentleness, enabling him to tread on rice paper without tearing it and walk among serpents without rousing them to attack. Out of respect for all life forms, he is a vegetarian, and to keep his mind clear, he drinks no alcohol. And yet in all these things, he comes off as profoundly masculine. Indeed, when asked what he is, he often simply responds, “I am a man.” In the areas of gentle strength, sacrificial resignation, and pure masculinity, I cannot help see Kwai Chang as a Christ-like figure.
With this perspective, it is much easier to embrace the masculine aspects of God as well as the feminine, bringing both into their proper balance through a dance of polarity where the essential power is found in the movement itself. We see male and female for what they were meant to be, not bent by a warped, misogynistic, power-hungry perspective. In addition to being about bodily constructs, gender shapes our interior identity and unearths our own unique charisms. That is why, according to Catholic practice, to perform rites in persona Christi remains the prerogative of a male priesthood in keeping with Jesus Christ being male. This is fairly straightforward with no additional connotations needing to be drawn.
The Sacred Feminine in the Life of the Church
This is not to say that women should somehow viewed as being on a lower plane in Church life, and where this sort of thinking has been advanced, either as a past or present-day premise, restitution and reinterpretation is in order. We should not be locked down by historical normsthat inhibit evolution in areas of gender equity, creating harmony between the sexes so that the gifts they are given may flow in equal proportion in the life of the Church. Indeed I believe that the more women who are introduced into administrative and apostolic roles the better. The subject of deaconesses is an expansive avenue to be explored, for example, and I am hopeful that other positions and avenues will be opened going forward.
But even from a historical perspective, Christianity has had many women within its ranks who have molded, melded, and mothered their Church in truly powerful ways. Indeed, women have always been the spiritual intuitive ones, with roots sunk down deep with fullness of intention, willing to moisten the ground with their blood, sweat, and tears if need be. But our ways are all our own. Men might battle dragons with their weapons of metal, but women will tame and transform them through our weapons of spirit. Men might seek after the Holy Grail, but women are always the ones who guard it, as they guarded the magical cauldron of old.
According to Catholic doctrine, the only person aside from Christ himself to be completely full of grace and free from sin was Mary, Mother of God. Her self-emptying love and sincere humility caused her to be exalted as Queen of Heaven and Earth, blessed among all women and the most highly honored member of the human race aside from the God-Man Jesus Christ.
Many even consider her co-redemptrix of humanity because of her uniquely intimate sharing of the suffering of her Son on the cross. This emphasizes not just that she is “meek and mild”, but that she is also a woman of courage and stamina, not unlike her predecessors from out of Jewish tradition such as Deborah, Esther, Judith, Rahab, and Ruth.
Her apparitions throughout the world have revealed her to be a royal, a prophetess, a guide, and a mother. She is the one who causes pillars to be transported, houses to levitate, roses to bloom in winter, healing waters to flow, and the sun to dance. But more importantly, she brings a call to prayer and repentance, to conversion and cleansing, as well as the extension of compassion upon the suffering of the world. In a vision, she told St. Faustina: “I am not only the Queen of Heaven, but also the Mother of Mercy.”
Furthermore, Church history has had no shortage of powerful female saints, mystics, visionaries, theologians, warriors, and soul-shakers of every stripe, the likes of St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Brighid of Kildare, St. Brigid of Sweden, St. Clare of Assisi, St. Hildegard of Bingen, St. Julian of Norwich, St. Hilda of Whitby, St. Teresa of Avila, Mechtild of Magdeburg, St. Joan of Arc, St. Bernadette Soubirous, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, St. Faustina Kowalska, and St. Teresa of Calcutta, just to name a few. This does not even begin to delve into the plethora of female martyrs from the early Church, such as St. Agnes, St. Cecelia, St. Agatha, St. Philomena, Sts. Felicity and Perpetua, and countless others who became symbols of a stalwart commitment to keeping their hearts pure for the presence of the divine and an unshakable faith that their brutal deaths would be transformed into rebirth and resurrection through the Blood of the Lamb.
And how can we possibly overlook the singular witness of the holy women who followed Our Lord while he traveled the length and breadth of Judea, especially Mary Magdalene, a disciple in Jesus’ inner circle and the first to bear witness to his resurrection on Easter Sunday? Called “The Apostle of the Apostles”, many believe she not only shared a deeply mystical union with Christ, the same type as shared by many saints such as Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi, but also that she embodies the relational, intuitive, particularly feminine aspect of the entire Christian experience, a flowing liquid ointment that heals wounds and light lamps through her profoundly intimate Christ encounter. The apocryphal Gospel of Mary Magdalene said that “He knew her completely and loved her faithfully.” As a Christian woman, tradition reveals a multi-faceted picture of her as understanding, independence, and faithfulness throughout her life.
It is their relationship and interaction which may be seen as a manifestation of that relational motion which is characteristic of the feminine aspect of the divine, and indeed characteristic of resurrection itself. Just as the mystics wrote of their relationship to Christ as being between “the Lover and the Beloved”, in a deeply spiritual sense, so it is all the more fitting for Mary Magdalene, who truly was present to Jesus while he walked the earth. This would be a form of Anam Cara, that inner or soul friendship which is sadly looked down upon between men and women in our tabloid sensationalist and unhealthily over-sexualized culture. But perhaps this type of bonding between the feminine and the masculine is exactly what society needs to grow past our dehumanizing polarization and mutual distrust of the other.
Through the inner workings of initiation, introspection, preparation, and direct knowing, Mary Magdalene is believed to have sought union with the Divine, “choosing the better part” by opening herself to his wisdom teachings and embracing her beloved’s bloody feet beneath the cross. She finds her God through sensitivity and sensuality, in the truest spiritual meaning, through a holy embrace of revelation through the senses. She represents the feeling world, in discovery, loss, and renewal. Mary Robins writes of her connection to Christ:
May the wine of the Divine Feminine
be created in you,
as it was in Christ,
as it was in Mary of Magdala.
Her beloved died.
Her desire for Him,
and her newly healed self,
descended to ferment.
May the wine of the Divine Feminine
flow through you,
as it flowed through Christ,
as it flowed through Mary of Magdala.
She knew Him still
in her own separateness,
and from her depths
new wine rose.
May the wine of the Divine Feminine
send you forth,
as it helped send Mary of Magdala.
They touched for a moment –
companion lovers –
and she is free to tell
‘Love is risen.’
Unfortunately, it is a tragic truth that inferiority has been projected onto women in Christian countries in past ages. This included the misappropriation of the Genesis Creation narrative, falsely emphasizing Eve’s apple and role as temptress over the wider analogies of humanity’s capacity for destructive pride and breeding an almost phobic attitude towards female sexuality as something provocatively dangerous and inherently evil. It also hung upon the dated social structures appealed to within the letters of St. Paul and other epistles, as opposed to recognizing them within their proper historical context and moving on with a broader vision from them.
Scripture should not be read in a static manner, but within the context of the Holy Spirit moving us ever forward within our own time. For example, the injunction “husbands, love your wives; wives, obey your husbands” might now be viewed from our own evolved perspective on equality within marriage to mean that husbands and wives should mutually love and respect one another. But unfortunately, sacred texts have all too often been used as fixated templates or literalist manuals in every detail.
Oftentimes, this obsessive perspective contributed not only to the suppression of human rights but also the persecution of women who were deemed not to fit into prescribed gender roles. Some of the most infamous past atrocities to come forth from the patriarchal gridlock include the witch hunts, burnings, and hangings, not to mention a bizarre fixation with cats, which were superstitiously associated with dark witchcraft, otherworldly powers, and demonic activity. Like women, they were viewed as the “other”, who prowled the darkness of the night beneath the midnight moon, and therefore, were thought to pose a threat to the powers at hand.
But for all that, the Christian world has come a long way in returning to what it was always supposed to be about: unity in diversity. After all, it was St. Paul who also wrote: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 3:28)
While both men and women are called to live the fullness of the Christian life with both strength and love, we each have our own unique ways of revealing it. We share so much, and yet there is still that priceless Yin and Yang factor which enables us to find equilibrium in each other’s company. That’s why it’s aptly said that behind every good man there is a good woman, and vice-versa. As biological and emotional nurturers, women have an amazing transformational power. We glory in the interpersonal. At the same time, good men have the capacity to bring out the best in women and honor their whole person, bringing foundational stability and coalescing the many threads of vision.
This complementarity is also found in Catholic teaching on the theology of the body, brought to a heightened awareness by the writings of Pope John Paul II. It maintains the goodness and beauty of male and female sexuality alike when allowed to develop with tenderness and sensitivity and exercised interpersonally within the proper context of genuine love and ideally within a lifelong, sacramentally sealed marriage with reverence for its life-giving potential. With this vision in mind, the only way to transform rape culture is to cultivate nurturance culture, which is always an act of circular self-giving on the part of men and women alike, raising their children to follow the same path.
Conclusion
Perhaps the question of “male or female” should best be answered “the best aspects of both, and far beyond either.” Interestingly, this balances the different aspects of human interaction with the divine rather well. The divine feminine is meant to be sought after by a mystically male humanity, like the Celtic kings who mated with her and the great heroes who chased her, like Rhiannon, Welsh goddess of horses and the moon, riding across the countryside faster than any mortal steed might go, only stopping for Prince Powell when he abandons his pride and requests it graciously of her. The divine masculine, on the other hand, is meant to pursue and embrace a mystically female humanity, as the Hound of Heaven and the Christological lover, bringing to the fore the Catholic mystics who underwent the path of a sacred marriage with God, accomplished within.
Perhaps we, as humanity, both seek after and are sought after in turn, being purged by the Fire of the Holy Spirit (which could be seen as more masculine) and nurtured by the fruits of the Holy spirit (which could be seen as more feminine). Maybe it is for us to learn how to balance our own souls in the cultivation of both male and female elements, so that we might have greater appreciation for and union with the divine presence in our religious practice.
Using a final analogy, God may be like the Japanese understanding of a samurai’s sword, infused with the strengths and beauties of men and women equally, a manifestation of both efficiency and artistry, believed to contain the essence of the soul. And like that sword, each one of us, male and female, has been forged over the fires of love to reflect that incomparable image and likeness. It is our eternal destiny to draw closer to our source through our own unique gifts, hero/heroine journeys, and pilgrim paths.
But when all is said and done, these attempts at explaining the unexplainable are ultimately exercises in perception of a God who is beyond any labels humanity may be capable of devising. We use analogies, a diverse array of them, many of which have their own unique worth and validity, and yet we much never worship them. They are only as much worth as they are able to put our spirits in touch with their source. While revelation, tradition, and mysticism can all lend us glimpses of the Ultimate Reality, in the end, perhaps it is the mystery of the Divine that is the most poignant reality. If it were not so, God would not be God.
Thanks for an interesting blog post, Rosaria. We grapple with simlar issues. I’ve haven’t gone into such depth as yourself in my recent article on the same subject, but here it is anyway, from my perspective as both a Druid and a Liberal Catholic. In our tradition we leave the question of the gender of the Trinity alone but make up for it to some extent by further exaltation of Our Lady : http://templarpriests.weebly.com/the-world-mother.html
One small point so far: Being a Jew depends on the mother being a Jew, not the father. I was told this by a Jewish friend in regard to her half sister who had the same father.
Depends on which Jewish movement. Reform acknowledges Jewish-ness through the paternal line. Conservative and Orthodox are matrilineal only.
The divine do not have genders…it is a biological thing which the divine have no need of.
As a non-theistic animist I probably have little to add to any thoughts about the gender of someone else’s god, other than to say that my concept of gender (a cultural construct closely tied to an individual’s understanding of themself) is non-binary and fluid, unlike sex (a function of biology) (although not always so readily binary either). Many human cultures seem, as far as I know, to adopt a more or less primarily binary model of gender, roughly in line with sex, but there are many that recognise genders (third, fourth and more) outside of that… some a mixture of the usual binary distinction and some simply ‘other’. In some of these cultures, the variant genders can be associated with shamanic/priestly/spiritual intermediary roles and spiritual action.
Remember though, God is not the highest being in the world, but “Ipsum esse subsistens”; the subsistent act of “to be” itself. That is according to Thomas Aquinas. Being does not have a gender.
If I remember the bible bits correctly then: “God” made man in his image and then made woman from a rib bone of man. I did find it interesting how this article talked every point but that one. Happily I am polytheistic so I get gods and goddesses.
I think if you asked most Christians, the answer to that would be that “man” simply is a stand-in for all humanity. As a Catholic, I do not take the Genesis story of Creation to be scientifically literal, but rather metaphorical for various spiritual realities. That God is portrayed making man out of dust and woman from man is symbolic to be of our interconnectedness to nature and our interconnectedness to one another.
Heirophant.
Why would a spirit possess gender? The point of gender is sexual reproduction, strictly a biological function. That is not true in the spirit world.
A very thoughtful article. And it fits in with much of what I learned as a Catholic. As for the Leonard Nimoy part, most people I know regarded the Full Body Project as beautiful and affirming (wonder why the author didn’t like it). I cannot limit God(dess) to one gender. We ARE made in His/Her image and as the Divine has no actual gender, I believe the Divine manifests in ALL genders, male, female and everything in between. We believe what makes sense to us according to our cosmologies. Not believing the same as another person does NOT make you a heretic. (yes, someone actually called me that recently!)
With regards to the Leonard Nimoy project, I guess it does kind of depends on perspective, but I felt it could have been taken the wrong way. As in, a bit pornographic. A lot of people took it that way at the time, it seems. I think he could have tried to make the same point through other means, to be honest…
Interesting!!! *thumbs up*
I think to limit God to a gender is suggestive of limited thinking on our part, and in part has been responsible for an awful lot of sexism within organised faiths and society, something we ought to be ashamed of really. I prefer these days to consider God as Lord. God surely can contain that which we would refer in our dualistic nature as Mother and Father??
Jesus calling God Father was to do with his social and cultural surroundings, but not because women were lesser beings. In the Jewish family the Father was responsible for the spiritual well being of the family (an aspect set up in Torah). Jesus called God ‘Father’ because God needed to be seen as the one responsible for the spiritual well being of his people. Just as an aside, there were numerous female Rabbis around before, during and after the time of Jesus. There is one particular female Rabbi from the time just before Jesus who is still deeply respected and is quoted in the Talmud. It was not so much of a male dominated society as the Western church has made out over the past 1,500 years. The Apostle Paul also used women to preach.
And yet Jesus called God “Father’….
Because he lived in a patriarchal society where women were considered possessions. To address God as female simply wouldn’t have been done in that culture. Doesn’t mean we can’t grow and change our understanding of God, just as we no longer consider women in that light – at least most Christians don’t.
We can never change our understanding of God, as God never changes. We can’t say that God set things up in a certain way, and then make a ‘man mad assumption’ that God changed his mind. Avellina’s articles is extremely adept at making accurate and factual theological points about the nature of God’s divinity.
I begin by rejecting the idea that the divine can realistically be understood in any number of persons fewer than infinity. There is no One God, no Two Gods, but an uncounted (if not uncountable) number of beings.
Within that host there are a somewhat smaller number of beings who have become the real and immediate allies of mortals. These, I think, are beings that like humans, that may have shaped or sparked us in material nature, and who don’t mind appearing in human forms. Lore tells us that these beings appear as both male and female, in their variety.
Since I hold that there’s no such thing as “creator god” I don’t worry about its gender. I address the gods and goddesses as I find them.
I assume that the material world is a machine built on a plan that exists in the spiritual world. Likewise I assume that one can know what the spiritual world is like by extrapolating by metaphor from the material world. Thus I think that, gender, being so prevalent in matter, there must be an equivalence in the spirits.
On another level I think that spirits who like humans like to appear as humans, and humans have gender.
If your family has a spirit that you have encountered, you will discover that it includes all manner of being(s) within it that manifests in all manner of ways. In a sense, that spirit is the deity for your family and it represents a first conscious awareness for its members. Is it a creator deity for virus and other organisms? Probably not, but there seems to be a sort of mathematical theory of limits as one approaches creation that implies there is a first spark lurking in there somewhere that is to be found within everything and every time. I recommend asking your family spirit about this origin of things when you are next in communion with it.
As far as I know there are no pregnant spirits. Biology is the study of LIFE. Spirits are not living beings and do not possess organs, blood or bodily systems. I suppose they can appear however they want to appear, but that isn’t what they are.
Spirits may not “be” anything in particular like meat beings.
I see no reason to be literal. If a spirit finds the metaphor of pregnancy and birth valuable, it will be pregnant and bear forth.
We’d be hard-pressed to describe what a chair “really” is, much less a spirit.
I’ve never seen a pregnant spirit… or a pregnant chair, for that matter.
I understand that within most Pagan pantheons, there are both overtly male and female deities. However, broadly speaking, many Pagans also acknowlege some type of “ground of reality” or “universal essence” which either is manifested for brings forth the pantheon. This usually is considered to be a more impersonal life force, and therefore naturally has not gender. However, for Christians, since we do believe that the “Life Force” is personal, and took up a human nature and walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ, the subject of gender becomes more complex. Hence, my reason for writing hte article.
Ladies sleeves hung long like this to show their station of husband in length. Men’s sleeves were usually more square n straight down. Besides the chain coming down the back of the circlet…not crown. Is a female design..
This article gave no defining boundries outside of cultural distinctions so I am left with the same answer I started with and that is follow your heart. This exploration didn’t lean one way or another or give an argument for one or the other still leaving the reader with a personal choice to make. What makes YOU feel comfortable when worshipping deity?
My point more or less was that I believe the divine to be above and beyond gender, and yet that the best aspects of both men and women make up the attributes of that being.
if Love does not know gender, why should other aspects of life?
And yes, while I do agree Love transcends gender (as does our common humanity), I think our gender differneces can be a really beautiful thing in the way we interact with one another. They are a gift, adding to the diversity of the world.
The one who first entered our relm so to speak was Sophia goddess of Wisdom, who alone kinda begat the god who was the archetect of our universe through his mothers will, & then said I made thisall, have no other gods before me. Then th christians made it easier by eliminating the begining.
I think Source is beyond gender, but just as humans emanate from Source and take gendered forms, so do the deities. I don’t think of gender as limited to masculine and feminine, though, either in humans or in deities. I’m nonbinary myself, and there are several deities who can also be seen in that way. I think it’s important to honour deities of all genders so that people of all genders can see themselves reflected as fully as possible in the Divine.
My view is, we will never know the truth. We have to choose our own path. This reading was a synopsis of beliefs and stealths and movements. Hormones and body structure dictate our necessities. Praying, Gods and Goddesses are not born with us, we are taught that. Care for the hungry, the hurt and the old. Nurture the earth so it will nurture you. If you watch nature, it shows you what is right. If there is something greater than us, why do we need to exploit it?
It is my view that our bodies, our needs, our promptings to do good, the world of nature, all point to that infinite reality – the groundwork of reality itself – in question. While we might not know all the answers, contemplating the myseries of divine is a matter of entering into a relationship of that Great Fire. We are like sparks that came forth from that fire. Surely it is natural to see our own nature, and look beyond. That is not exploitation; it is a love story.
Beautiful. A love story.
With all due respect, I think you are flirting with the occult with this article, and the website that’s posting it. If you want truth read the thousands of texts passed down for thousands of years. God created Adam in His likeness. God is our Father. No further discussion needed. 😉
For the record, this article was approved and accepted by the St. Austin Review as acceptable by Catholic standards.
That doesn’t always mean it’s solid Catholicism… at the “fellowshipoftheking” site, there’s a link to something called “ink and fairydust” and the article uses pagan references to explain how people have come to think that God could be considered “feminine”… referencing druids, “Mother Goddess” and “Gaia”. I agree with Cruze Lee – we have enough of our Catholic tradition and texts to reference for our search for the “Divine Gender” (and really, does it matter whether God is male or female? He’s God). There are “Catholic retreat centers” who teach yoga, and have people walk labyrinths… all new age things we should not be promoting especially at a “Catholic” retreat place. Just because something says it’s Catholic doesn’t mean it’s following the Magesterium or the Catechism, or in line with Truth.
Jennifer, please feel free to explore “Ink and Fairydust” (www.inkandfairydustmag.com) and you will find that it is a lovely e-zine put together by a delightful bunch of young Christians who love fantasy. As for the references to Gaia, etc., they were merely meant to show the broad spectrum of belief within different cultures. I made no comment as to their validity whatsoever. I also included a hefty amount of scriptural quotations etc. to make my point that Catholics are welcome to acknowlege attributes of God that are more commonly associated with the feminine. As for Yoga and Labrynths, they are complex practices which many Catholics have different opinions on. The same applies to martial arts, etc. Some feel that used within a Catholic worldview, they can be acceptable and even helpful to Catholic life (e.g.. some people do find that walking in a circle is helpful when praying their rosary, etc.) These practices have not been condemned by the Church outright, and should be viewed judiciously with suitable caution but also with a realization that the subject is still an open one for Catholics and people are bound to have different opinions, experiences, etc.
GREAT article, and so well written! Well done, Rosaria Marie!
Good article explaining that God is above and beyond our binary definitions of gender because of his divine nature. I don’t tend to think about it too much because at the end of the day, God is God in whatever form. However, this was a well-considered analysis. 🙂
An interesting article. As it said at the start the Divine (God) has no gender. The article had some good points, but was, as is often the case, slightly ill informed when it comes to the Jewish understanding, as it seems to have the Christian view of Judaism, like much of Western thought.
I will try here to make some points which might help clarify:
In the article it says “In Judaism, the People of Israel received revelation from God in a distinctly male persona”, and “The Holy Spirit overshadows the Blessed Virgin Mary as the ultimate life-giving force, the Masculine embrace of the Feminine”. These two points seem fair when you only know the English translation of the Christian bible from a Christian perspective. I, however, have also studied Judaism and understanding what we call the ‘Old Testament’ from a Jewish perspective.
Firstly, and most importantly Hebrew is a gendered language. Meaning that each word has a gender, just like French. The gender determines in what way the thing related to the word is understood. Why is this important? Because the word in Hebrew for the Holy Spirit, Ruach, is a female word. From a Jewish perspective, the Spirit of God, The Holy Spirit (in Christian terms) is female. Jesus and Mary would have understood this. So rather than the Male embracing the female at the conception, it is the Female of the Trinity bringing the life of the womb and placing it within Mary.
There are also other aspects of the feminine of God in the Hebrew language, to show that the Jews understood that God was able to be seen as both male and female, but I won’t go into them here.
Jesus calling God Father was to do with his social and cultural surroundings, but not because women were lesser beings.
In the Jewish family the Father was responsible for the spiritual well being of the family (an aspect set op in Torah). Jesus called God ‘Father’ because God needed to be seen as the one responsible for the spiritual well being of his people.
This means, just a little p.s. that the Christian Trinity is Father, Son and Feminine – more like a family unity that a bunch of men in charge!
That’s how I’ve come to see it – Spirit as Sophia, guardian, protector, emotive and empathic, nurturer and comforter…feminine, not female. In the same way, God the Father is creator, sustainer, powerful, provider…masculine but not male.
Thank you for such an interesting insight which happens to fit with my thoughts about the Holy Spirit and which I think brings real value to our understanding of the relationships within the Trinity, albeit probably limited understanding. I think there is a real value in seeking to look beyond a stereotypical gender association to God, and perceiving both that which we would call Male and Female within the Godhead I believe to be very helpful.
Hi, David. With regards to the Holy Spirit, I do see the point you are making about the feminine aspects of “Holy Wisdom” and the Spirit of God being referred to in the feminine. However, simply because a language has certain gender classifications for words, that would not necessarily mean the thing in question is of that (or any) gender. For example, even if a word like “house” or “ship” were a gendered word…it wouldn’t make the house or ship have a gender. Certainly, I would agree the Holy Spirit has female attributes, but I also see masculine attributes present as well, thus when the Holy Spirit “overshadowed” Mary, she was not a mere vessel something was imiplanted inside. She fully participated as mother, with God acting as father. Also, since both the Father and the Holy Spirit have no bodies, no genders can be strictly applied to them. Jesus, because of His human nature, is the only one to whom a gender can strictly and logically apply.
I agree, God transcends all gender rules. They were just invented so humans could connect with the divine more easily.
In the Greek of the New Testament, the term used for Spirit (πνεuμα) in gender neutral – neither masculine nor feminine.
True, though the original wording in Hebrew and Aramaic are feminine.
Interesting. I believe gender is a social construct & for that reason it shouldn’t be taken that seriously. There’s people with no gender or people who lives in the body of the wrong gender & even people with two genders. It’s a construct & we shouldn’t be asking which one is more divine than the other. They’re just labels!
Hi, Venise. Thanks for reading and commenting. I believe that gender is a blessing, and is a very special part of our identity as human beings. As for sexual attractions/feelings, things get rather complicated, needless to say. However, it is natural for male and female to be drawn to one another for complimentarity, both physicially and spiritually, as it were. Hence, even though I believe God is spiritual and therefore does not have a gender, so to speak, there are attributes of both male and female within the divine nature. And needless to say, all people, no matter their gender or sexual feelings, are called to Love both their Divine Source and their fellow living beings as their highest calling.
Transgender humans were considered as divine because being one. Christians have separated the world into two parts, male and female, which is a non sense. They see angels as no having gender but humans as being male or female and that’s it. So they don’t consider humans as possibly divine. And that is a non sense.
The reason why we see angels as having no genders is because they are spirits without bodies. However, humans do have bodies, and except in extremely rare cases, these bodies do mark us out as male or female.
Interesting piece from a Catholic,though it still indulges in gender stereotypes.Whereas most men and women are not two polar opposites but rather to borrow a word from behavioural analysis on a spectrum. I can think logically read a map, understand the offside rule.
But I don’t see a Supreme Deity as male, not even neuter nor yet as a Duo.We say as above so below.What happens in Nature?It is only a Female that can reproduce from herself,without a partner,not a male. As life evolved, sexual reproduction led to genetic variety, avoided mistakes occuring in all those genetic copies.But older species even now reproduce of themselves.As as Jurassic Park reminds us in an exaggerated way,even change sex to create young.So when asked about my Deity,I always say ,the Mother, all others proceed from her.I think too,that the Abrahamic God (Allah,Yhwh )got somewhat above himself rather than any Satan, but that’s an idea for another day.
Hi, Jacqueline. Thanks for reading and commenting. I too agree, and did mention in the article, that men and women share many things in common, and are both called to strength and love. However, I still do treasure the Ying and Yang factor that is also a part of men and women that enables us to contrast and compliment one another. These are not hardline descriptions, but fluid ones depending on circumstances and personalities, but that very special difference is, to my mind, a great gift. As for a Supreme Deity, I think complimentarity again comes into play here. Except in rare instances, most nature does reveal this complimentarity between elements that enables balance and wholeness. Feminity without masculinity would be somewhat incomplete, just as masculinity without feminity. With regards to God, I believe it is more a matter of attributes (spiritual realities) than actual gender (a physical, human reality). As for Yhwh, I do not believe Him to be simply another desert god among others, but ultimately the way in the Jewish people experienced the Supreme Being above all others. Hence, I believe He was the same Source of which we are speaking. That they experienced this Being in a distinctly male persona should not discredit the experience. Perhaps this Being realized that a male persona was the only way they could culturally accept this very special divine/human interaction.
Yes, I agree the Mother appears in many different forms that are appropriate to the time/place.I doubt a female incarnation would have gone down sell with nomadic middle Eastern Tribes in the 7 century! Although earlier incarnations in Iraq include Inanna and Ishtar. And Jesus by the same extension was sent to the gentiles.
I have always wondered why we have ‘Mother’ Nature? There does seem to be a lean towards a partnership throughout history. Whether this is physical, metaphysical is another question.
Maybe because nature nurtures us and provides life-sustaining nourishment in her (or its) bounty, like mothers do by bearing and then breastfeeding their children? Men nurture and nourish too of course, but in a less direct way, at least during the most critical stage of life. There are many wonderful fathers in the world but none of them can nourish or sustain human beings in the womb.
Mind you every culture has its own interpretation. Ancient Greeks split nature into the land as female and the sky as male, Ancient Egyptians had it the other way around. We have Father Time, and Pan and the Green Man and things like that.
These are really interesting points, as it is true that nature seems to be more a mix of the male and the female elements. Again, we have these elements of seeding and birthing, protecting and nourishing, etc. I personally do see nature as something shot through with both elements of the Divine creativity, a magic set in place by the Great Magician who is able to infuse it with both the masculine and feminine attributes we recognize. Of course, in mythology, there is the idea of the Green Man as well as Elen, the female variant. Perhaps these are whispers of this understanding found in the old myths and legends.
Wow. Lots I could say on this. I don’t have an opinion. I believe in masculine and feminine energy. not all are conscious and have woken up. there is both masculine and feminine in all. good/bad, light/dark. I believe in Christ consciousness. Spirit lives in and thru me. I came from religion and 12 step recovery. there can be abuse in religion. a lot come to recovery with issues of God. We call it in there Higher Power and some see God as female. I think the best partners have both masculine and feminine. loving and kind and yet a man to be a man and attracted to women. this is what is coming up. i am spiritual and energetic due to tons of healing. i don’t fit in a box. So many terms for God in the Bible. Creator, I am. I believe I am of God and God is in me. I don’t put a gender on it. I have left recovery. Christ consciousness is loving, humble, genuine, meek. I went to catholic school-have my opinions. won’t share. My views have evolved over time due to healing and being weaned into things. No pain, no gain.
Both. I talk to them everynight & ask for things for my children.
Indeed, I find it comforting to acknowlege both the masculine and feminine attributes of the Divine and the way that effects my own spiritual life.
The Divine is laughing at our stupidity! God/ The Divine is male and female in equal measure and neither in much greater measure…
Definitely: The Both.
From the article: “the People of Israel received revelation from God in a distinctly male persona. For a patriarchal society such as their own, this made perfect sense to their understanding of the world.” If God wanted to be known as anything other than male, He would do so. Jesus who is also God, is also male. When you attempt to blur the lines, and talk in a “spirit” sense, it can lead down heretical paths. The early Church fathers covered this – I don’t time to do a search right now. Also, I’d like to mention – and this is just personal – this site seems to be like an ad. A website can be covered in beautiful images and yet once you scratch the surface there are foundation issues. It is good for young adults & homeschoolers to have a media writing outlet, but they need to also look deeper before publishing. I understand their draw to Tolkien and his parallels with Catholicism. I will let our Admin decide if she wishes this page to be almost daily promoted. I will now step away from this discussion because I can see it getting very heated very quickly. Pray before posting all. 🙂
Elizabeth Myers: Whether or not you agree with what I said, none of it crossed lines with Church teaching. I have had this article reviewed by mutliple individuals of good Catholic standing, all of whom concurred upon this point. I repeatedly acknowleged Christ’s masculine nature, etc. and further explained the Catholic reasons for the male priesthood associated with it. I do my best to share posts from our website that have appropriate application to Catholic life, spirituality, practice, etc. and do not share random spam. As for “scratching the surface” of our site beneath our graphics work, you will find that we do not permit ANYTHING that directly conflicts with Catholic doctrine. Clearly this has been acknowleged by the fact that we have received enddorsements and contributions from high-ranking Catholic authors, including Dr. Peter Kreeft, Joseph Pearce, John C. Wright, Joanna Bogle, Bradley J. Birzer and the late Jef Murray. We take our work seriously as a Catholic magazine to remain orthodox, but we also welcome new forms of expression and serve as open forum for dialogue with all sorts of people who may be encountering Catholicism for the first time in a long time through our magazine.
First of all thank you for sharing your ideas. As you are writing about your interpretation of Catholic ideas, these are of course your own, and you are as entitled to them as I am my own views on any notion of divinity.
I would say though that I found your comment about the Pagan understanding of the Divine Feminine somewhat simplistic, and somewhat limited, being merely one tiny facet (and not entirely accurate either) of a much larger whole. I appreciate however that you might not want to dwell on the various approaches that pagans, to use the word in it’s umbrella meaning, have towards the divine.
In my opinion, humanity creates gods and goddesses, and, for me, that includes the deity of the Abrahamic faith systems. Deities rise and fall over centuries or millennia in line with cultures, customs, and people. In a few thousand years, if humanity is still around, the religious and spiritual landscape of this planet will look very different once again. I don’t see anything wrong with that, each culture, each civilisation responds to the demands on it and creates their deities with those demands and needs in mind either consciously, or sub-consciously.
I will, if pushed, use the definition pantheist for myself, though tend not to worry about labels, and even pantheists isn’t quite right.
I don’t believe in a single Creator god, though I do work with and honour certain deities as representations and archetypes (though not those from Abrahamic faiths, nor from cultures with which I am unfamiliar). A sense of positive belonging to, and very much being part of the universe and the web of life on this mudball.
I choose to regard the universe with awe, reverence, feelings of belonging and a recognition of tremendous power, beauty and mystery. I do not need collections of tribal myths, preachers or gurus to interpert these feelings and experiences to me
I think that many pagans are basically pantheists, using the god/essess and spirits of paganism as a metaphoric way of expressing their reverence for the universe and nature. I enjoy the use of symbols and archetypes to work with in order to make sense of the universe and, if you like, nature.
Others are polytheists, others, as Adam said above, non-theistic animists, I’ve come across panentheists and agnostic pagans, it doesn’t matter, these are all labels to define using mere language, what makes our souls and spirits soar and engender a feeling of rightness.
Greetings, Red, and thank you for commenting. Since there are so many variants of Paganism, I mostly was focusing on a very specific Celtic type in which the land was viewed as the body of the mother goddess, as well as briefly mentioning the worship of Gaia. I certainly do not claim to be an expert on the many forms of Paganism, and am learning something new every day, but I believe that the specific elements I referenced were accurate within their specific context. What I have noitced among quite a few Pagans (certainly not all) is that there tends to be some type of undercurrent and/or overarching “ground of reality” which the pantheon either springs forth from or manifests in different forms. Some would simply refer to that as “The Universe” or “The Web of Life” or “The Song of Creation” or “They Wyld Hunt” or “The Chasm” or “The Life Force”, or what have you, but I suppose it could be called the glue that holds together all things. Perhaps, as in Asian tradition, it could be referred to as “all that is and all that is not.” In that, I find some similarity to my own understanding of the Divine in a variety of ways. More often than not, such things seem to lay in the distant background of various forms of Paganism, and yet are still there holding up the whole.
The god of the bible has no gender. For a deity to have the power that christians claim (all-powerful, all knowing, eternally existing) a gender is not logical or possible. I don’t know of any pagans who claim their gods have always and will always exist. None claim their god holds supreme power over everything. Not a big deal for them to have a gender. We’re not trying to claim they have supreme power.
Why either/ or…why not both/and? I use both terms for God interchangeably (all the while knowing that God is bigger than either term.) God is both Mother and Father. I wish the Church at large could see that. It irks me to be told that God has no gender…only for the person who just told me that, to turn around and use exclusively male languages and images for God. Female imagery for God is found repeatedly in Scripture and is every bit as valid and (Scriptural) as Male imagery….
Any attempt to give a gender to The Divine is to shrink down it into a manifest form that our wee little brains can understand. We have a hard time comprehending infinity so make it fit the pattern of Mommie or Daddy i.e. force it into a psychological familiarity of our own species binary parental forms. Whether God or Goddess, this kind of anthropomorphism reduces the mystery to a fixed nature that is vastly limited compared to a concept such as the Tao. The Divine needs no gender but can assume either at will, we should see it as gender-fluid at least.
To me it does not matter; God just is…
Indeed, to me it is also of more importance that God is the essence of reality than any gender box that might be used for categorical purposes. That having been said, I appreciate the multi-faceted attributes of the divine, which both men and women can find commonality with.
Exactly…my feelings precisely!
This is a very interesting and thought provoking piece. The whole blog is worth following.
Amen.
I call God “Michelle” 🙂
The Divine is ” THAT which births itself”. It is beyond gender but has a latent ” female” energy. It is the womb – all encompassing. One of the most limiting aspects orthodox Christian belief is the attribution of maleness to the Divine. It just IS. If we called IT -” great Mother’ does it reduce it or diminish it? No. If we get hung up on words we lose sight of the power of it. remember the story of Moses on the mountain. “I Am that I Am”. The Divine is not a thing that can be named, but a process that we can only hope to describe. To name it…is to kill it. To name it is to create division and separation. Yes – if we trace our Celtic Christian understanding back to the Jewish Wisdom tradition, we can adopt this same concept. Unknowable, without name.
Good stuff. Worthy of pondering. See also, “… the two primary changes that I’m suggesting are the inclusion of “and Mother” (which many congregations are already doing) and “and Earth.” Those two changes alone would help billions of people realize that our faith is seeking to remain viable and relevant. Over half of the people on the planet are female and any Christian leader today jolly well better acknowledge that. If there’s an Abba, there’s an Amma. Long gone are the days when one could say “but male words such as he and his are ‘gender neutral in English’ and therefore women (and men) shouldn’t have a problem with seeing the Divine only referred to with male terminology.”
From “Let’s Change the Lord’s Prayer – Again” http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogerwolsey/2015/05/lets-change-the-lords-prayer/
Roger Wolsey, author, “Kissing Fish: christianity for people who don’t like christianity”
Greetings, Roger, and I appreciate your reading and commenting on the post. However, I do not think women (and I speak as one) should have any problem with the way the Lord’s Prayer stands as it is. This is the way Christ addressed God, as His Father; altering Christ’s words to be “inclusive” is not, in my opinion, going to be conducive to the situation. As for any gender inclusive additional terms for God, I would leave that in the hands of the Church to decide and clarify upon. Again, it is already an accepted point that God is beyond our gender boxes, while still acknowledging that the masculine and feminine attributes the Divine Being posseses. Much of this has to be do with the fact that human being are looking back at God in the reverse; God gave us genders, but He is not us. Even so, referring to God as “He/Him”, the gender neutral, does not bother me in the least. Again, I would be interested in seeing what the Church might do with regards to adding any new forms of address, but in the end, I believe such things are in the hands of the magisterium.
I hope that no one really consider s it a good idea to change the words of Jesus. Whilst we are at it,then let’s change the Gettysburg address and the speeches of Winston Churchill.
We can never change our understanding of God, as God never changes. We can’t say that God set things up in a certain way, and then make a ‘man mad assumption’ that God changed his mind. Rosaria’s articles is extremely adept at making accurate and factual theological points about the nature of God’s divinity. The article is excellent. This could be used as apologetic evidence time and time again 🙂 Excellent.
Keith, the Gospels are the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as guided by the Holy Spirit. Christians believe the entire Bible to be inerrant, i.e. free of error in the scriptures original versions. However, the entire Bible was written by a group of very human authors. The only way in which fallible humans could have written so much inerrant text would have been for them to have been inspired by God (or more accurately, inspired by the Holy Spirit). This is certainly the understanding of the Roman Catholic Church which is founded on Peter (to whom the keys were given to bind and loose on Earth). This is also the belief of all Western and Eastern Rites. Beyond this, it is extremely rare for any Christian denomination to state otherwise. Just for reference the Catholic Church does not use ‘copies of copies of copies’ when the Gospels and Epistles are read at The Divine Sacrifice of the Mass. The Bible (or Cannon of Scripture) was compiled under the authority of Pope Damasus I in 397AD. In the Roman Catholic Church the texts have been translated into the vernacular, but have hardly changed since the original Cannon was compiled. I can’t comment on denominational churches who have their own translations, and I have heard often differ greatly in some cases.
But we don’t have the actual words of Jesus. We have copies of copies of copies of variant recollections written down years after the fact in a language Jesus never spoke. At best, we have the gist of what he said, as understood by the community of faith 30 or more years after his death and resurrection. When it comes to scripture, it pays to be modest in our claims and humble in our interpretations.
Enyore, FYI, the Lord’s Prayer(s) that are said in churches today are not the same as the words that Jesus said in the Gospels. Look it up for yourself. They’ve already been changed.
Making the argument for expressing the divine as female seems old hat to me, even in the Catholic circles that are the blog’s intended audience. (BTW she seems to miss one of the premier “God as mother” biblcal passages out in her article). From this pagan’s POV, she stereotypes pagan beliefs with a heavy hand. She is also stuck in the old polarity of male/female that many (?most) modern pagans, of all religions, are shedding in favour of a recognition that gender goes well beyond that simplistic concept. 🙂
Hi, Alexa. Actually, the magazine has a pretty diverse audience at this point from across the religious specturm, as evidenced by the sheer amount of comments from the Pagan community. Further, juding from all the controversy and conflicting opinions, I really don’t think the subject has become “old hat” by any means, and is certainly worth discussing. I do not believe I ever indicated it was my intent to go into depth about the wide diversity of Neo-Pagan beliefs, but rather focused modestly upon the Celtic Pagan tradition of seeing the land as the body of the Goddess, and mentioning Gaia and The Lord and Lady of Nature in passing as examples of the divine feminine worshipped in different cultures. As far as gender goes, the concepts of male and female, as grounded in biology and identity, still have a long shelf-life, and in my opinion, always will . I would be most grateful to have the Bible verse you mention indicating God as mother brought to my attention.
I have to admit that any focus on the (Irish) Celtic Pagan tradition of the land as the body of a goddess (is it not a specific goddess rather than any goddess?) was lost to me, as it was only one among a few referrals to pagan concepts. I don’t think the concept arises in other Celtic pagan cultures, does it? The duothistic God/Goddess concept is 20th century, of course, and so (I think) is the heavy concentration on Gaia. Most pre-Christian pagan religions – including the Irish Celtic variety – tended to reflect a number of views of the feminine.
Even if one concentrates on a direct with the land (which does not exist for many gods) then there’s a whole muliplicity of expression, many of which are very exciting. For example, within Heathenry there is the hint of Freyja expressing the hidden things of the land, through jewellery (wealth from mining) and magic. In the Classical religions there is the female as that which connects with/cleanses the underworld via the Persephone myth. And as the rescuer (Hekate, the heavenly maiden) in the same myth.
Much of the discourse in paganism is now beginning to swing around to non-binary expression of gender and how they are reflected in modern pagan rituals and religions. Of course, many people will prefer binary to diversity. And, where monotheism is the paradigm being pushed against, it’s porbably a good deal easier to begin with a simple binary then the whole spectrum.
Two comments with different but complimentary content, so two posts. A person might like one but not the other (or think dead wrong twice in a row – feel free!)
The verse that informs me about this is the question put to Jesus about the woman married and widowed many times. When asked whose wife she would be in heaven, Jesus replies “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” It’s just one of several examples relating that gender is a physical thing for physical reproduction in a physical world – it simple doesn’t exist in Heaven. By extension, I would argue, that gender exists only for physical purposes and not for ay divine ones – for example, for Pastors. So, I see no barrier to women as Pastors because the physical distinctions of our temporary bodies have no relevance at all on spiritual matters. Gender distinctions are for making babies – and that’s all they are for.
Which brings us to the question of the Father. First, we need to start by abandoning any physical meaning: Jesus was not born of Mary and God the Father but of Mary and God the Holy Spirit. On that point, the Bible is pretty clear and plain.
So: what is all this “Father” thing, if it’s not physical? We need to understand God the Father in a spiritual sense. “What does this mean?”, as Martin Luther might say. Curiously, my own father is a really good example. You see, he wasn’t my father in any physical – he was my step-father. And yet, he was the only father I ever knew in this world.
Now, I am not saying I was too young when I lost my earthly “father” to remember him. I was 16 when that person died but only a few months old when my mother left after being beaten. This later person, technically a “Step-father”, was the only father I ever knew. “Step-father”! How alien, how utterly untrue that word is to me! He was the person who loved me, brought me up, taught me to love the Lord, encouraged and supported me many years. He was the person who prayed for me and over me. No – the blood of Robert Corliss does not flow through my veins: his love does. That is what being a father is about. That is what our heavenly Father is to all of us – and each of us! – today.
David is right. The whole point of God the father is that we ‘actually have a father’. The other faiths do not have a father figure. They may have a male figurehead, but not a father figurehead. Islam forinstance is sometimes considered a ‘hard’ religion by some theologists, because Ishmael was disinherited and ended up not having a father. The character of the Ishmaelites (who eventually became Islam) was hard and harsh in character, because of the eventual lack of a father figure. This unique character has permeated in to the Islam religion. The very fact that Christianity is unique and has a father figure, is what gives it its character. We have a father to guide us. In this case we have a father to guide us to Christ, His son.
Your article is quite good. From my own perspective, God encompasses everything, so I think that he runs the whole Gambit of gender. I think that he is both male, female, androgynous, gender-fluid… whatever Expressions that are , he/she/it/they contain. I love your points about how Jesus was male because of the time period that he was in. It would be interesting if hypothetically he was a woman next time. That would confuse a lot of people XD
Wow, there have been a lot of interesting comments on this! I’m sorry I haven’t been able to weigh in on the conversation more completely, but I have been reading through the comments with interest With regards to my own position: I would like to just make clear that I do not consider myself to be a “progressive Christian”, but rather, to paraphrase Pope Francis, “a faithful daughter of the Chruch”, and I would identify myself to be an orthodox Catholic, without leaning too far left or right in perspective. As such, I am not a “Celtic Christian”, in the sense of that being something “other” than Catholic, but rather I am a Christian in union with the Holy Father in Rome who appreciates Celtic mysticism in the same tradition as the Celtic saints.
Thank you!
To me God obviously has no gender being not of this world. No one I know considers this very controversial except those who seem to want to make some kind of political point. There are much more controversial and relevant issues to deal with.
I agree God does not have a gender as in male and female. However, he has related to us exclusively as a male, and we need to respect HIS wish to do so.
I think these questions will fall away when we meet him. But as Mr. Bryan Keith Hardee noted, I am reluctant to treat God’s previous expression of himself as entirely accidental. There were goddesses on the market in the Middle-East. It’s not as if the idea was impossible to Semitic peoples.
We are so finite in our thinking…we act like gender is something that belongs to us and we can do whatever we please with it i.e., change it into something that is other than male or female. But we need to remember God is the possessor of all things and that includes gender…On the other hand, I think about Jesus who will be glorified as a Man forever…what will that make me a glorified women? I don’t know, but It doesn’t matter to me…what matters to me is that I will be with Him forever…in the light of eternity gender is such a small matter…
Excellent. And the Church is the Bride of Christ, which includes all us guys, so….
He has preferred to be known to us in our relationship through Jesus as Father.
The Divine has no sexual identity. We humans give both masculine and feminine attributes to God because we use our own perspective in our attempts to describe our experience of the Divine.
I remember when I was a young child..about 8 I think and I was reading a Children’s Bible…many of you may know the very Large Brown HB with gorgeous illustrations…anyway I started pondering on the nature of God and came to this conclusion: God is neither male nor female and he is both! Perhaps this is why Jesus said you must be like a child…To this day I hold the same simplistic belief but understand it better now. Gender is physical but much of what is considered feminine and masculine is of a spiritual nature therefore of God.
This is a beautiful post and the blog is definitely worth following. 🙂
We don’t have to strive to fulfill a role. We are who we are.
To take a moment here is almost annoying. To call Him ‘It,’ is our, disrespectfully-neutral, alternative. ‘She,’ -is the other. To imagine reproductive-gender, attributable to Our Loving Maker Who exists beyond time -before time- is shameful-ludicrous. Of course my words have no influence on those, doing so. It’s focusing a tree, ignoring the forest. There used to be an expression, ‘…if they found a brain in the street -they’d play with it.’ Oh, maybe we should consider if He is also confused in His gender? Or, do human lives matter? What else? Where do they keep the air-sickness bags?
In American society, I have never yet encountered anyone who pushed for goddess-worship, who DID NOT then also proceed from there to Hindu-related “Everything is everything else” pantheism.
I find this a very fascinating new mythological understanding of the place of blood in Christian thinking.