The Feminine Divine

[Guest guest]

The Feminine Divine

 

" The feminine divine is an integral part of Yoga. In Christianity

She is slowly moving out from her meek and mild image as Mother

Mary, and finding more support in new feminist theology. When I

speak of Divine Mother I expand on Mother Mary to include the

feminine side of humanity and to acknowledge her as the manifest

creation of our reality. One of the ways I recognize Divine Mother

is as a serpent. I see Her as the snake who appears in the Garden of

Eden but also as the Kundalini serpent regarded as feminine coiled

symbolically at the base of spine. The Kundalini system is a path to

higher consciousness. In Christian terms the Kundalini is the Soul.

 

I am both an ordained minister and a practitioner of Yoga. I serve

the United Church in southeastern BC, making bridges between the

common elements of Yoga and Christian teachings. I encourage people

to actively engage in their faith journey and to find the Christ

within themselves and others. Because I see little hope for the

sustenance of Christianity in our post-Christian era as presented by

the traditional mainline church, I bring forward the feminine aspect

of the Divine. The church has left Her out of the dance and

patriarchy has denied Her unique partnership for too long. "

 

Louise Skibsted, www.ascentmagazine.com/

[Guest guest]

, " jagbir singh "

<adishakti_org wrote:

>

> The Feminine Divine

>

> " The feminine divine is an integral part of Yoga. In Christianity

> She is slowly moving out from her meek and mild image as Mother

> Mary, and finding more support in new feminist theology. When I

> speak of Divine Mother I expand on Mother Mary to include the

> feminine side of humanity and to acknowledge her as the manifest

> creation of our reality. One of the ways I recognize Divine Mother

> is as a serpent. I see Her as the snake who appears in the Garden

> of Eden but also as the Kundalini serpent regarded as feminine

> coiled symbolically at the base of spine. The Kundalini system is

> a path to higher consciousness. In Christian terms the Kundalini

> is the Soul.

>

> I am both an ordained minister and a practitioner of Yoga. I serve

> the United Church in southeastern BC, making bridges between the

> common elements of Yoga and Christian teachings. I encourage

> people to actively engage in their faith journey and to find the

> Christ within themselves and others. Because I see little hope for

> the sustenance of Christianity in our post-Christian era as

> presented by the traditional mainline church, I bring forward the

> feminine aspect of the Divine. The church has left Her out of the

> dance and patriarchy has denied Her unique partnership for too

> long. "

>

> Louise Skibsted, www.ascentmagazine.com/

>

 

 

Shekinah: The Presence of Divinity

by Rev. Mark Raines

 

Shekinah - also spelled Shekhina, Shekhinah, Shekina, and Shechina -

is known in the Qabalah, an ancient form of Jewish mysticism, as one

of the emanations of God and the actual Presence of God. The belief

was that one could not see God in Its fullness, but could see the

emanation of God, Shekinah. When Moses asked to see God, it was

Shekinah that he saw. Shekinah is also the consort, or Bride, of

God. As such, she is Mother to us all, just as God is our Father.

 

In earlier times, God was seen as either dwelling in the clouds or

in high places like mountains or very high hills. With the

construction of the Ark of the Covenant, and then the construction

of the Temple, a part of the Godhead came to dwell in the Ark and

then in the Temple. This could not be the male God, the God of the

Sky and of High Places. So Shekinah, formerly known as Asherah, a

Goddess of Earth and Sea, came to dwell in the Ark of the Covenant

and then in the Temple.

 

Originally it was Asherah who dwelled in the Temple as the Bride of

God, His representative there. But after the " reforms " of King

Josiah, Asherah worship was forbidden in the Temple. Still, the Jews

knew that their Lady was still living there as their Queen and the

representative of El, their God. So Asherah evolved. She began to be

seen as the presence of God, and less as a separate entity. She

became Shekinah, which means something like She who dwells (from the

Hebrew shakhan, which means the act of dwelling). However, Asherah

did not really change. She was always the representative of Her

Husband, just as He was always HER representative. She, an Earth

Goddess, was also Queen of Heaven. He, as Sky God, was also Ruler of

Earth. This occurred only through Their marriage. So, it was not

really that Asherah worship ever changed much within Judaism, or

that Asherah Herself changed; only, it was made to look like it had

changed to fool the patriarchal priests.

 

Unfortunately, Shekinah has been all but lost to Christianity.

Elements of Her remain in Mother Mary, who was perhaps Shekinah's

incarnation. Mary Theotokos, as She is called, actually held the

presence of God (Yeshua) within Her. She is known as the Queen of

Heaven, but she is the representative of God to us and delivers our

prayers to Him, according to Catholic tradition. Her apparitions are

much more frequent than the apparitions of Yeshua, and the Father

never appears. It seems that She is truly His representative to us,

because (as we know) She is His Bride.

 

The union of Shekinah and El was never more evident than in the

Sabbath. She is known as the Sabbath Bride, or the Sabbath Queen.

Each week on the Sabbath, God and Goddess, El and Shekinah, act out

the Song of Songs. One rabbi called that holy book the " Holy of

Holies " of the Bible!

 

http://northernway.org/shekinah.html

 

 

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Shekinah (alternative transliterations Shechinah, Shekhina, Shechina) is the

English spelling of the Hebrew language word that means the glory or radiance of

God, or God resting in his house or Tabernacle amongst his people.

 

It is derived from the Hebrew verb 'sakan' - 'to dwell'.

 

The Greek word 'skene' - dwelling - is thought to be derived from 'shekinah' and

'sakan'.

 

The term is not used in either the Old or New Testaments, but both are full of

references to God coming in glory.

 

The Shekinah is held by many to represent the feminine attributes of the

presence of God.

 

Compare it to the 'shakti,' the female energy of Hindu gods.

 

The nearest Christian concept to the Shekinah is that of the Holy Spirit.

 

- Wikipedia

 

 

--------------------------

 

From Encyclopedia Mythica

 

Judaism is a monotheistic religion, strongly connected to a patriarchal God

-Yahweh. It may surprise many people to discover that a goddess was associated

with Judaism from its conception, and continued to play an important part, in

various forms, to the present. The goddess is best known as Shekhina, a Talmudic

term describing the manifestation of God's presence on earth.

 

While the Bible does not mention the name Shekhina, she is nevertheless bound to

extremely old traditions, and closely relates to the ancient goddesses.

Particularly significant is the Canaanite goddess Ashera who, at the beginning

of the Israelites' settlement in the land of Canaan, was often referred to as

Yahweh's Consort.

 

The literature also calls her the " Holy Spirit " which, in Hebrew, is also a

feminine form. The feminine nature of the Shekhina is so easy to establish in

Hebrew, because the gender of the subject plays an important role in the

sentence structure.

 

In English, you can say " The Glorious Shekhina returned to bless us " without

mentioning gender.

 

In Hebrew, both verbs and adjectives have a male or female forms, and many names

suggest gender to anyone who understands the language. The simple sentence above

indicates three times that the Shekhina is female, and the fact sinks easily

into the consciousness of the reader.

 

From the first covenant, Yahweh presented an image of a harsh, daunting God. His

character almost demanded the birth of an entity like Shekhina. Also, He could

not be seen by human eyes, and only a few prophets heard His voice. Yet almost

every religion shows that human nature seeks intimacy with a deity.

 

The manifestation of a loving maternal entity, ready to defend her people even

from God Himself, brings a feeling of comfort that a paternal, invisible entity

like Yahweh cannot bestow upon His worshipers.

 

Shekhina represented compassion in its purest form, and despite being,

officially, the female side of God, she was visible and audible as a feminine

entity in her own right.

 

A beautiful being of light, whose most important function was to intercede with

God on behalf of her children. Such an entity had to come into being to soften

the harshness of the original Judaism.

 

But how did such a complex entity develop? It started with the changing of God's

dwelling. During Biblical times, people assumed God dwelled in the clouds. When

the Israelites built the desert Tabernacle, and later, Solomon's Temple, Yahweh

descended in a cloud and dwelt there.

 

The word Shekhina, in Hebrew, is derived from the Biblical verb shakhan, meaning

" the act of dwelling " but taking the feminine form. Therefore, at the beginning

of the Talmudic era, the word Shekhina meant the aspect of God that dwelt among

people and could be apprehended by the senses.

 

http://www.crystalinks.com/shekinah.html