“Today on many levels, we are witnessing an immense longing for the mature feminine at every level of our society—from our politics to our economics, in our psyche, our cultures, our patterns of leadership, and our theologies, all of which have become far too warlike, competitive, both mechanistic and noncontemplative. We are terribly imbalanced.” Father Richard Rohr

I have been a devotee of the Divine Feminine for a very long time now. When I began my journey almost forty years ago, there were few people who could conceive of the idea of the Sacred Feminine. Today there are more and more people who are openly and joyfully claiming Her presence in their lives. As institutions crumble around us, the voice of the Divine Mother is becoming louder than ever – and people are beginning to heed the cry. Her voice doesn’t call for the destruction of the masculine principle, as some people fear, but rather calls for a balance between the energies of the masculine and the feminine.

For too long, God has been pictured as the judgmental, bearded MAN in the sky, who rains down retribution on a sinful, lost world. He is out there, separate and apart from us. He is a conqueror and an exploiter of those who don’t believe in him. He is jealous and punishing. This view of God has permeated our cultures, world-wide, and has led to untold atrocities committed in the name of God. It is the ultimate patriarchal view of the world. And in this view, there is no place for a sacred and divine feminine.

Before patriarchy, the Divine Feminine was the ultimate source. Shakti, Sophia, Shekinah, Inanna, and other goddesses (in various world pantheons) created the universe and were the ultimate mystery. Goddess was the seed of divine power, the beginning and the end of everything. The energy of the feminine divine was generally creation, fertility, growth, compassion, and wisdom, not judgement and destruction.      

In ancient and indigenous cultures, god and goddess were intertwined. Shakti and Shiva, Isis and Osiris, Inanna and Dimuzid, Sophia and Yahweh, Hera and Zeus. There was a tradition of the hieros gamos or sacred marriage, which recognized the necessity of both the feminine and masculine for the health of the community. In these pairings was the essence of balance and of wholeness. The sacred child (Christos) came from the joining of the sacred masculine and the sacred feminine.  It took both.

Over the centuries, Christianity evolved into a patriarchal structure in which there was no room for the divine feminine, especially in Protestantism. Although there are many feminine metaphors for God in the scriptures, these were somehow ignored, and God became male. Never mind that there are many scriptures where God is depicted as giving birth or gathering her chicks. One of the creation stories is this simple passage from Genesis, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27. To me this verse implies that both the masculine and the feminine are the creative force. If we are created in God’s image as male and female, then the Divine also has characteristics of both.

While I truly believe that the Divine Source is neither male nor female, it is important to bring back the concept of the Divine Feminine. First, because the name God conjures up the masculine in most people’s minds; secondly, because the masculinization of God is weaponized against women; thirdly, because it is important that women and other gendered people be able to see themselves in the Holy; and lastly because it is imperative that we bring balance back into the world.

It is important for us to value both the male and female, to balance the inner and outer journey, the light and the dark, the active and the receiving. Banishing the patriarchal view of the world with its skewed emphasis on hierarchy, conquest, and dominance and bringing in a more nuanced and compassionate way of being which honors the earth and promotes wholeness will bring the balance that is needed to bring abundant life for all.

Barbara Garland
February, 2023