My beloved partner and I also celebrated our third anniversary together a couple weeks ago. I randomly found her on Facebook, saw her profile pic in a lesbian group thought she was adorable, and asked her to be friends. It was a few months later before I got the nerve to chat with her. We had instant connection, eerily similar lives, many common interests, and became fast friends. We lived hundreds of miles apart, and met a couple months later. I remember grabbing her hand at the airport, the feeling I still get today - click- we just fit together like puzzle pieces. I know this sounds sappy, and too good to be true, but it is the real deal. I have never been so loved. She knows me, like no one ever has, and she appreciates the real me. I am so fortunate to have found her, and I truly cherish our lives together. So how does this relate to a post about Goddess, dear readers? My lover knows my true essence, and she can see it even when I cannot. This is a blessing beyond measure! This is also my experience with the Divine Source - Goddess.
I was raised in the typical kind-of-Christian house of most Americans, Catholic in my junior high years with a couple very important exceptions. I led a very mystical magical private life starting as a small child and my mother encouraged me to question, always. I was sent to the principal's office at my Catholic school several times during religion class. The priest teaching our class was an older man, openly despised women and resented questions from a girl. I asked questions anyway, not out of spite, but out of genuine curiosity and an attempt to understand my religion. My questions were considered blasphemy , and although today I might be allowed to ask the question in religion class, the answers would be the same. Women cannot be priests. Gay people are sinners. Children after the age of seven are sinners and must confess to a priest before receiving communion. Using birth control is immoral, but having too many children that you are unable to care for is not. "But where does Jesus say this?," I plead as I am shoved out of the class into the hall, silenced. I am still asking the same questions, and I will no longer be silenced. As a seventeen year old, with by my thirteen year old sister, we refused to stand down as the only protesters at an Operation Rescue rally. We did not expect to be the only protesters, we thought at least NOW would be at the rally, but apparently they were at another larger city on the tour. I saw the looks of horror as some of the familiar church ladies filed out past us, having listened to an hour of anti-woman hate speech from Randall Terry, the leader of the radical anti-abortion group. We were harassed, called names, and intimidated by a crowd of people, high on hatred. We stood there silent, alone, with our signs - testament to the strength of the women we would become. I remember a couple of large men, saying as the crowd thinned, "They are tough, I wish they were on our side." That was never going to happen; and after seeing the people I knew and hearing how much I was hated just for being there, I never went back to church!
I could write for days about the church, and the fact that some of my friends still sit there, even though they don't believe in many of the church tenants. They tell me, that almost all of their young Catholic women friends use birth control, support a woman's right to choose, have sex before marriage, and believe in gay rights. They don't understand that their silence is permission. Nothing will change, unless the people insist upon it, or leave! I believe that the recent war on women, as if it were ever not a war, will translate into women voting many of these power-hungry macho bigots out of office. I am hopeful that all this recent sickening legislation curtailing the rights of women is just desperate men in their death throes, clutching their religious books with bloody claws in a final battle of the culture wars. Sometimes women just need some extra proof that our freedom is in jeopardy before we will act! We have lots of it lately. With their religious dogma, and that is all it is, there is little to nothing Jesus-like in any of these debates; they pound their chests on talk shows, and turn red and cry fake tears for innocent babies not-born, or born of sinful "abusive" single mothers. Many of us see through the side-show antics to the truth. This discriminatory language of religious fervor is spewed by legislators, while they munch on Viagra, quote the Bible, and introduce bills around the country that dismantle womens rights to our bodies, take away our choices, and turn the sacred act of sex into a pornographic blame game. These are attempts to suppress women to their very core!
I recently read that in 2009 former president Jimmy Carter had left his Baptist church of 66 years after many years of trying to effect change on their policies of discrimination. "This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries." The entire piece is excellent- linked below!
Jimmy Carter is a man of great faith and intelligence. He is an example of a Christian that looks at the teachings of Jesus, as models of behavior; unlike the small-minded men who use their religious clout to subdue thought, and shove women to the back pew. This is not entirely the fault of men. Women allow it!
So I ask you, what does God look like? Is He a bearded white man sitting on a cloud in the heavens passing judgement and doling out gifts and/or trials to his followers? According to the Christian Bible we were made in His image. We were? Which ones among us? Perhaps we should question how is this image supposed to make us feel? Small, different, not good enough, sinful, dirty, shamed, apart from - in fact this is how much of the vile things being preached by the Christian right are supposed to make most of us feel.
I have been an activist for women's rights, lesbian rights, reproductive freedoms, and peace for years - screaming on the street corners, outraged at the injustice everywhere. I still am, but the difference for me now is balance. I felt alone, mad, afraid and depressed before I started paying attention to my inner longings for connection. I started listening to the voices inside of me, my tender spirit crawling out from under years of oppression and acceptance that I was different from, and less than. I now believe that the only way to change anything, is to change yourself. I still scream on the occasional street corner, but my focus now is helping women to find their power, change the unjust from the inside out. The possibilities are endless!
So here is where women's spirituality is increasingly important. What if God looks like me, and you, and every other creature of the planet? What if we don't require a man to ration out our penance, or a wafer, to connect us to the Divine? What if God is really Goddess, or has no gender at all? What if God is both immanent, transcendent and bigger than anything a mere human can imagine? What if we choose to honor the sacred spark in everything - The Divine Feminine, Goddess, in all Her many aspects? This is what I choose to do.
We are all connected, within the elements earth, air water, fire and Spirit. There is no separation from, only our inability to remember that we are all of the Divine. If women were respected as Goddess, not just by men, but by each other, what would the world look like? I imagine love, honor, peace, and beauty, understanding, nurture and intelligence. I envision, empathy and intuition, appreciation and respect of all our differences as aspects of the Source of All. Most importantly women would be trusted! This seemingly simple concept remains elusive, and Oh how the whole world suffers for it.
Through my blog I have been coming out of the broom closet, if you will. I have cleared out the cobwebs and clutter and am prepared to say what is on my mind regarding the connections between organized religions and oppression of any kind. I believe that women, making up the majority of people in the world have the power to change it. Perhaps if we start seeing each other as Goddess, sacred creatures made in Her image, we will feel more empowered; for we are known to Her - Universal Creatrix Mother of All. She sees our very essence! The part that becomes hidden from us through a lifetime of oppression, and abuse. She has always been here with us, and beyond us, all encompassing love. We can uncover our sacred essence if we seek Her, the Goddess within!
I wrote the following revision the other night, with memories of Catholicism fresh in my mind. The Lord's Prayer was stuck on a loop in my head, so I changed it. I mean no disrespect, but I think maybe this could be interchanged with the original version in churches every other week, to be more inclusive to women! Maybe I will contact a priest and ask him! :D
The Divine Mother Prayer
Our Mother whose body is Earth
Hallowed be thy 10,000 names.
Thy Queedom come, our wombs be one
As women, let us Remember!
Give us each day food to nourish
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we strive to heal ourselves and the planet.
Lead us unto Your many pleasures
And deliver us from oppression.
For Thine is the wisdom, the power and the beauty
For ever and ever!
So mote it be!
revised by ~Heather Kohser 2012 (copyright)
