Thank you so much, Harold. So glad it resonated! I hear you (about the "He is risen" language). Truly, I advocate for balance but we can't have balance without the liberation of the feminine divine! ☺️💖
Totally! People raise their eyebrows when I use "she" at times to describe God... not sure there is an easy answer to the "non-binary" possible reality of God's existence... Jesus was a "he" yet he stood for women like a warrior! Thank you again for your insightful post. harold
Harold, I love your openness, and I think the discomfort people feel when you use "she" for God is worth considering. Genesis 1:27 tells us God created humanity in God's image—"male and female he created them." Both are named as reflections of the divine, not just the masculine. And if woman is drawn from the side of man, then wouldn't Jesus' body contain both? If he is the fullness of God—Alpha and Omega—then he is also she (non-binary before the term). What's worth questioning is how we arrived at a theology that so confidently genders the infinite as half of the whole. The Hebrew Ruach—God's Spirit—is a feminine noun. Wisdom, Sophia, is personified as female throughout Proverbs. These aren't marginal texts—and yet the tradition let the feminine names for God grow quiet, through centuries of men controlling which texts were preserved, which were canonized, and which were buried. I sometimes wonder whether the divine feminine was silenced precisely because it's rooted in embodiment, in earth, in the relational—qualities patriarchal systems have always needed to subordinate. We were told the sacred lives above and apart from the body. But what if it's been in the soil the whole time?
You're doing something brave by using "she." I think the discomfort it provokes is a signal for change, not a warning to stop. 🌙✨💖🙏
Love your post! So on target in the midst of all the "he is risen"... Thank you, Michelle! harold (Posted your poem on my FB page. Love it!)
Thank you so much, Harold. So glad it resonated! I hear you (about the "He is risen" language). Truly, I advocate for balance but we can't have balance without the liberation of the feminine divine! ☺️💖
Totally! People raise their eyebrows when I use "she" at times to describe God... not sure there is an easy answer to the "non-binary" possible reality of God's existence... Jesus was a "he" yet he stood for women like a warrior! Thank you again for your insightful post. harold
Harold, I love your openness, and I think the discomfort people feel when you use "she" for God is worth considering. Genesis 1:27 tells us God created humanity in God's image—"male and female he created them." Both are named as reflections of the divine, not just the masculine. And if woman is drawn from the side of man, then wouldn't Jesus' body contain both? If he is the fullness of God—Alpha and Omega—then he is also she (non-binary before the term). What's worth questioning is how we arrived at a theology that so confidently genders the infinite as half of the whole. The Hebrew Ruach—God's Spirit—is a feminine noun. Wisdom, Sophia, is personified as female throughout Proverbs. These aren't marginal texts—and yet the tradition let the feminine names for God grow quiet, through centuries of men controlling which texts were preserved, which were canonized, and which were buried. I sometimes wonder whether the divine feminine was silenced precisely because it's rooted in embodiment, in earth, in the relational—qualities patriarchal systems have always needed to subordinate. We were told the sacred lives above and apart from the body. But what if it's been in the soil the whole time?
You're doing something brave by using "she." I think the discomfort it provokes is a signal for change, not a warning to stop. 🌙✨💖🙏
Agree 100% with you! h