(HSS): Shekinah: The Voice of Wisdom

[Guest guest]

Dear Jagbir,

 

This is for upload to the HSS.

 

thanks,

 

violet

 

 

 

 

Shekinah: The Voice of Wisdom

 

There were different schools of Kabbalah. Some saw the Shekinah as separated

from the godhead, in voluntary exile on earth, describing her as a daughter cut

off from her mother, and as a widow, until she is able to return to the divine

ground, having gathered to herself all the elements or sparks of her light that

had been scattered throughout creation during the process of emanation. The

blackness of the Shekinah's robe, inherited perhaps from the black robe or veil

of Isis (who was also called " The Widow " during her search for Osiris), is the

darkness of the mystery that hides the hidden glory of her Light.

 

Another strand in this tapestry of the Divine Feminine in the Hebrew tradition

are the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament (of which the greater part were

mysteriously lost), written down from the fourth to the first centuries B.C.,

after the end of the Captivity in Babylon. The Shekinah comes to life in the

passages where Wisdom (called Hokhmah in Hebrew, or Sophia in Greek) speaks as

the Holy Spirit calling to humanity. She tells us that she is immanent in our

world, with us in the streets of our cities, calling to us to awaken to her

presence, to obey her laws, to listen to her wisdom, promising her blessing if

we can only hear her voice and respond to her teaching. These magnificent

passages transform the voice of the Shekinah, speaking as Divine Wisdom, from

abstract idea into presence, friend, and guide. She speaks as if she were here,

in this dimension, dwelling in the midst of her kingdom, accessible to those who

seek her out. Widowed because of her voluntary separation from her spouse, she

is unknown and unrecognised, yet working within the depths of life, striving to

open humanity's understanding to her justice, her wisdom, and her truth.

 

She says that she is with her beloved from the beginning, before the foundation

of the world, speaking from the deep ground of life as the hidden law that

orders it, the craftswoman of creation. She is the intelligence within nature,

the animating energy of the cosmos; rooted in tree, vine, earth, and water and

active in the habitations of humanity. She is the principle of justice that

inspires all human laws. She is the invisible spirit guiding human

consciousness; a hidden presence longing to be known, calling out to the world

for recognition and response. To those like Solomon, who prized her more highly

than rubies, she becomes their wise and luminous guide.

 

The Divine Feminine

Andrew Harvey & Anne Baring - Conari Press

Berkeley, CA

ISBN 1-57324-035-4 (hardcover)

Pgs. 94-95