The Divine Feminine
Why can’t I wake up on a Sunday morning, have my coffee, and think about normal shit? Football, politics, maybe even the impending work week. I think that’s what most people do.
Instead, my first thoughts of the day, as I poured my Café Bustelo and my cat twirled around my legs, were about God’s consort and my wife’s cycle.
I know, I know, but you’re already here, so you might as well keep reading. At least you get to click out of here; I live like this. So, have some sympathy.
Patriarchy
Despite all my best efforts, I still retain some of the programming of my youth. At some level, I will always be a “white male from the American south.” And with that comes certain innate behaviors that surprise even me. For example, the word patriarchy elicits an immediate eye-roll. But then I catch myself and turn it all around to question why.
It’s an exhausting process, all of this undoing.
The impetus for this entire train of thought is, I’m loathe to admit, a TikTok video. There’s this woman, Britt Hartley of “No Nonsense Spirituality”, who started popping up on my page. All hail the algorithm. Her tagline is, “Spiritual director & nihilism coach - specializing in tools for the void.” That alone is enough to make me starry-eyed.
She’s my buddy now; she just doesn’t know it.
Anyway, I can’t be arsed to go back and find the exact video, but she mentioned something about the inherent patriarchy of Abrahamic faiths and the feminine aspect that is conspicuously ignored.
It was a minor epiphany for me. It’s kind of obvious when you dig into it.
The Retcon
Back in the day, long before the rise of strict Israelite monotheism, Asherah (also known as Athirat) was widely venerated across the ancient Near East as the wife and consort of El, the high god of the Canaanite pantheon.
From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a Vatican cover-up away to Elohim and Yahweh.
Inscriptions discovered at ancient desert sites like Kuntillet Ajrud in the Sinai Peninsula and Khirbet el-Qom (dating back to the 8th century BC) contain blessings invoking "Yahweh and his Asherah.” She was associated with fertility and creation, the generative aspect from which life springs.
As the ancient Israelites transitioned toward state-sanctioned centralized monotheism, they condemned her worship and encouraged an iconoclastic campaign to erase her from the community consciousness.
Fast forward to today, we have a global religion that is both patriarchal and ignorant of its own roots.
Writing this, it occurs to me that Catholicism kind of snuck a little back in with its Marian devotion, but that’s a rabbit hole for which I am woefully unprepared.
The Reality
Today, when Christians speak of Jesus, they will often praise qualities like his compassion, empathy, and gentleness. One could argue that those are traditionally feminine qualities, to which a Christian would likely reply, “Well, he’s the best of both male and female qualities; completely human and completely divine.”
Britt made an interesting point about this. You know who also embodies all of those characteristics? Literally every woman she’s ever known.
Christians dance and sing about a Near Eastern apocalyptic cult leader and failed messiah who allegedly bled for them. But guess who else did? Your mother.
Every month, women literally shed their blood for the life of others.
I’ve never thought of it like that. But if we stop looking up to an imagined deity and bring our eyes back down to earth, where we actually live and die, we can see what we’ve done.
We’ve taken the obvious reality, the often dirty and painful truths of existence as male and female, and offered them up to a capricious deity. And in doing so, we conveniently stripped them away from women, while retaining some of the glory for ourselves.
They must be subservient; they were created from man; they must not speak up in church.
It’s all an ugly retcon. It was never meant to be like that. It makes me think the pagans and New Agers, with their goddesses and Mother Earth and the like, are ahead of the game.
Instead of hiding behind old myths that inflate your ego and give credence to your superiority complex, consider who it is that actually bled for you. Think of life, of growth, of new creation, and be open to the feminine.
Selfishly, there’s a kind of freedom in recognizing that the burden of patriarchy is imaginary. I’m not in charge of anything; I’m not above anyone. We’re just different aspects of this relentless creative force.
A Quick Buddhist Note
Avalokiteśvara, the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, is represented as both male and female. As an enlightened being, she transcends regular human gender distinctions.
A famous story tells of Amitabha Buddha granting them eleven heads with which to hear the cries of the suffering. Upon hearing these cries and comprehending them, Avalokiteśvara reaches out to them, but their arms shatter. Once more, Amitabha Buddha comes to their aid and gives them a thousand arms with which to save all sentient beings.
Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu.
Namu Amida Butsu.