Christian Guilt & the Devine Feminine

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2003
Christian Guilt & the Devine Feminine
14
Tue, 09-26-2006 - 12:05am

Technically I'm an ex-Catholic (though I still hold the religion in esteem) who recently (last 10 years) became more in tune with the Devine Feminine and the Goddess. I realize I've had a relationship with her my whole life, although the Catholic church only recognizes her divinity through the mother of god (rather than as mother god).

I'm raising my two year-old son to recognize God and Goddess and when we say prayers it's always to both entities. And I'm noticing that I feel incredibly guilty doing it. I feel the critics in my head saying there isn't a Goddess and that I'm opening my son to criticism and teasing by teaching him such an unpopular concept.

Anyone else go through these feelings?

Erica

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Tue, 09-26-2006 - 9:40am

Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving!


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 09-26-2006 - 10:16am

I didn't feel so much guilty, but a bit awkward about it.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Tue, 09-26-2006 - 1:01pm

Ahhh, yes, I am familiar with the "Catholic guilt." ;)) I was lucky to have a grandmother who I swear was half Pagan. She was an avid gardener, putting up veggies and fruit and making jams/jellies, and using food and herbs for healing. She had a deep reverence for the Earth, and she expressed her Sacred Feminine beliefs through intense worship of the Virgin Mary, in Catholic tradition. I think that for my grandmother, Mary was the Goddess, albeit hamstrung and and weakened of Her powers by patriarchal Catholicism.

I left the Catholic church in my college years and did some serious spiritual seeking in my 20s. I explored and practiced Zen. I was an agnostic for many years. Then my daughter began asking about the Goddess, and we started to study, and it was only then, after so very many years, that I realized why Christianity in general, and even Zen, did not nurture the whole of me. They lacked the Sacred Feminine. It was like coming Home spiritually to read and learn of Wicca and Goddess worship. I began to finally feel WHOLE.

There was guilt and fear, knowing active prejudice is out there for those following a very minority religion. Lack of respect is only a small part of the need for protection and caution. I don't feel guilt now, though, after so many years worshiping the Goddess and God. Now I just I feel WHOLE. :)

Gypsy



Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



iVillage Member
Registered: 10-16-2003
Tue, 09-26-2006 - 5:18pm

Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to share your stories. It makes me feel a greater part of a common community.

Erica

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2003
Wed, 09-27-2006 - 12:51pm
I'm Christian and I thought that God doesn't have a gender. He's has both masculine and feminine attributes. We are all made in His image, both men and women.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2002
Thu, 09-28-2006 - 12:13pm

You know that's something very interesting because as far as i remember, ther eis no mention of God being a man in the bible, but we call God HIM. And I think that is reinforced with the idea that in the bible it is said that God created man first.

As a kid I remember asking my mom once " How does God look like? " and my mom to say "No one knows because he has no face" and I then asked "Vut then how come we know he is masculine???" My poor mom was speechless here.

I grew up feeling more confortable with the notion of a "it" ultimate divine power that manifest itself in both the feminine and masculine in precise forms. While my sis prefered a Zeus like looking God with a long beard...before she decided there was no god in this world and could not stand the idea of having an entire universe in the hand of only one man...she turned to science. But I think we both were disturbed by the teaching of our church saying God was a HE and created Adamn to his image and then women as a play toy for Adamn not to feel bored in Eden :-)









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Registered: 03-19-2002
Thu, 09-28-2006 - 12:22pm

That thing about Sophia the holy spirit is very interesting!

In Hinduism ther is a Goddess of knowledge, she is called Saraswati and is considered a wise one.
In fact the 3 godesses are all very powerful and bear the attributes of things we would consider very masculine in the west.
Lakshmi is the goddess of material wealth and prosperity, Saraswati holds the key of knowledge and wisdom, and Shakti (who is often refered as Kali or Durga) is the essence of feminity in all it's puissance and force...a woman in Hinduism has two equally powerful sides, she can nuture and protect and be equally destructive and must be kept happy.

While in Christianity women take the second place behind men and their divine aspect is so subtle that many churches failed to recognize her as anything but the original sinner because she ate the fruit of knowledge...so very subtely knowledge is linked to women in the bible but it somehow took a negative aspect...I wonder why.









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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 09-28-2006 - 3:56pm

The Bible doesn't outright say 'God is a male,' but it constantly refers to the 'Father' and 'Lord' which are intrinsically male titles.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2002
Fri, 09-29-2006 - 12:25am

Exactly what I pinpointed as a child LOL God is not described as masculine and is supposed to be genderless, but all the terms used in the Bible are masculine and reinforce the idea that God is a He. So at the age of 6-7 when my mom told me that no one knows how god looks that really sparked in my mind LOL because if no one knows how come he is the "Father" "Lord" "creator" (this word has a gender in french) and refered as "He" every other pages :-) This was simply not logical to me LOL.

I was belonging to a calvinist protestant community and Mary is not recognised there, all we were exposed to was God Father of Jesus son of God who had 12 MALE disciples, and in ancient testaments we heard of Adamn, David, Abraham, Abel, Moses...women were always a background thing or in the case of Eve, the sinner the bad girl...it was not really women friendly religion.









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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-31-2006
Sun, 10-01-2006 - 6:31pm
<< in both Judaic and in early Christian though, the Holy Spirit was Feminine.>>
Wow, I'd never heard that! Funny, I had always thought of HS as a graceful, floaty woman in my mind.
In regards to whoever was talking about God always being referred to as a "he" in the bible, I have for a long time thought that we need a neutral pronoun in our language. I think it would be cool to adopt the word/sound om as that new word. He, she, and om.

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