— Sacred Mother (feminine); the Seer, the Seen and the Seeing.
— The Knower; the Measurer (masculine)
— "For Whom all creatures are born." Taittiriya Upanishad 3. 2

Sri Lalita Sahasranama
(Sri Lalita Sahasranama, C. S. Murthy, Ass. Advertisers and Printers, 1989.)

"The Goddess is the great Sakti. She is Maya, for of her the maya which produces the samsara is. As Lord of Maya she is Mahamaya.  Devi is avidya because she binds, and vidya because she liberates and destroys the samsara. She is praktri and as existing before creation is the Adya Sakti. Devi is the Vacaka Sakti,  the manif4estation of Cit in Praktri,  and the Vicya Sakti or Cit  itself. The Atma should be contemplated as Devi. Sakti or Devi is thus the Brahman revealed in the mother aspect (Srimata) as creatrix and nourisher of the worlds. Kali say of herself in Yogini Tantra: "I am the bodily form of Saccidananda and I am the brahman that has emanated from brahman."

K. K. Klostermaier, Hinduism: A Short History
(K. K. Klostermaier, Hinduism: A Short History, Oneworld Pub., 2000, p. 211.)

>>>more at http://www.adishakti.org/kitab_al_munir/book_of_enlightenment.htm

 [ send green star]

The Qur'an confirms that little knowledge is given to the Muslims concerning His Ruh (Holy Spirit or Adi Shakti). Allah had already revealed that the Trinity was a false conjectured doctrine. Any attempt to explain His Ruh would have only confused the illiterate desert dwellers, and even smack of hypocrisy and falsehood as "there were quite a number of idols or gods worshipped among the Arabs, and sura 71.23 bears witness to this. There is also that surprisingly frank account in the Qur'an of the occasion when the Prophet apparently made somewhat of a concession to paganism in reciting sura 53.19-20 concerning Al-Lat, Al-'Uzza and Manat, the goddesses of the Sun, of Venus and of Fate respectively. . . However, it is obvious that idolatry was rife at the time of Muhammad. He was not going to have an easy time convincing his people of the existence of one true God. Worship of Al-Lat was extremely widespread, and her means "the goddess." "

 [ send green star]

Fulfilling the Torah of Moses in the Shekhinah and the Asherah

"She so pervades this lower world ...
that if you search in deed, thought and speculation,
You will find Shechinah
for there is no beginning and no end to her."
Rabbi Joseph 13 th-century.

The path of the seed, the male principle of the godhead is preserved in its ancient form - El the masculine progenitor of the Elohim of Abraham, who coupled withthe ancient moon god Yaho is manifested in the dyad of the Kabbalah, alongside the Shekinah - the 'Blessing of the Deep' to whom Miriam gave a song of thanks after the crossing of the waters, and the Asherah - the 'Blessing of the Breasts and Womb' the Garden of Israel. The Path of the Seed is the very Elohim in its quantum-mechanical form.

                      http://paganandproud.bravepages.com/Skekhinah.html

Shekhinah (שכינה - alternative transliterations Shechinah, Shekina, 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'.) This noun form of this Hebrew term is not used in the Hebrew Bible, but it is full of references to the glory of God. In classic Jewish thought, the Shekhina refers to extraordinary manifestation of divine spirituality at given times and locations, to the effect that, while Man is in proximity to the Shekhina, the connection to God is more readily perceivable by Man.

The Shekinah is held by many to represent the feminine attributes of the presence of God, based especially on readings of the Talmud and the Kabbalah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekinah

 [ send green star]

My exhibit is about celebrating the devine feminine. Read the Eco Art press release

Royce!

 [ send green star]

I personally am not well taught in the Divine Feminine (but I'm learning!), and I appreciate all the research and information that you all seem to be willing to share on the subject.  It appears to me, just over the last year or so, that I have seen a huge emergence of people coming forward on the subject and a noticeable embracing of the ideals, whether people are Pagan, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, or any other religion for that matter.  The empowerment that the Divine Feminine can instill in women seems to be boundless and it's heartening to see it.  There's still a lot of work to be done, but it's a start.  My heart is singing with the thought of our new woman Speaker of the House.  History has been made ladies and gentlemen and I for one am in a celebrating mood!!!!!!!!  Goddess Bless you all and look forward to learning from you all in the future!

Colleen

 [ send green star]

... with unabashed enthusiasm the stereotyped, feminine divine within:

I celebrate…
giggling like a school girl
sounding like a mom
nagging like a wife
crying like a woman

I celebrate…
the prude and the bitch
the gossip and the wallflower
the shrew, the virgin and the whore

I also celebrate…
the lover,
the healer,
the warrior,
the peacemaker,
the friend,
the mentor,
the sister,
the daughter,
the mother.

I embrace and take in all of these a parts of me. By embracing them, I make them mine. By taking them, I take control of the feminine divine within.

http://www.avalon.net/~anima_lu/poetry.html#wintersolstice

 [ send green star]

Dearest Donna and all group members.I like-this is a discussion filled with erudite and informative posts and more importantly, a lot of thought.I have been away from home  since November with few opportunities to participate, but am really enjoying reading all the new posts.Well done.there don't seem to be a lot of overt Goddess loving women like myself in Texas, thought the feminine energy is strong here and awareness is increasing exponentially to what it

was say in 1984 when I was first introduced to  Goddess as a  personified presence in my life though I had always known and felt her heretofor nameless presence.Wouldn't you know, it was a man who taught me to recognize the Goddess in my life, a young former student activist and  scholar named Lee who was persuing a degree in religeon and philosophy from The University of Texas. He gave me a pioneering book by Jewish talmudic Scholar Raphael Pati called "The Hebrew Goddess" that I think was written in the 1950s. Fascinating and much a buried treasure of a book.I highly recommend it if you can find it.It has a great version of the story of Lilith right from the Talmud.

I hope you can stick around for a while. I just came across a concept where the female aspect of diety is named "Azna". I believe it is based on a recently popular book. Anyway, I will post it here or on another thread...

Blessed Bee

 [ send green star]

Dear Donna,

I'm sorry for the very late reply here, I don't know how I lost track of this thread.  Anyways, I need to correct you, Radha is NOT mortal.  She is as much a dvinity as Krishna.  She is the expansion of Himself, His energy.  She does not exist without Him, and He does not exist without Her.  It's a complex relationship, not to be understood on any material platform, and I'm not quite sure I understand it fully.  It is  a transcendental loving relationship.  Not to be equated with love on this planet in any form.  But She is not mortal.

I wish I could explain it better 

 [ send green star]

Brenda, the dance video is exquistely beautiful. I feel so honored to have seen it.

Subhadara, thanks for the correction. I totally understand what you are saying--we are all incomplete without Krishna. Here is a thread you may want to contribute to which has a little info on and an lovely image of the Divine Couple: Hindu Goddesses

 [ send green star]

I have family that are staunch christians and I try not to visibly cringe when they address the creator as he, him, his. (I have even found it hard to banish this within myself.) When I am there I just try to go along and deep inside I know my truth. In Catholicism there is an opportunity to worship the feminine via the Virgin, in terms of a humanized form. I think the best one could do in christianity is to worship what is refered to as the 'holy spirit' which is discussed above. in judaism the same is call shekenah. other than that, i am guessing that they way times are changing there are probably some christian churches that address the godhead as an entity that is both sexes, or neither but i don't know of any offhand. maybe others can help.  and yes, we love both aspects if we love our creator, don't we? this group is just to bring to our attention that we do have a holy mother, as well as a holy father. growing up christian i always knew that was missing and shunned that religion even as a child... wish i could be of more help...

 [ send green star]

 - admits that the Hebrew word for "spirit" (ruach) is feminine, meaning that for the 1st Century Christians - who were largely operating in the Aramaic world (Paul's churches were tiny in comparison) - the Holy Spirit was a feminine figure. It was lost in the translation from the Hebrew into the Greek, and then it was changed to a masculine gender when it was translated from the Greek into the Latin.

Finally, Jerome's theological bias leads him to believe the distinction of gender is unimportant. He believes there is no gender in God, therefore, it does not matter whether God is referred to as a "he" or a "she" or an "it", presumably. With many centuries of misogynist behavior by Christian leaders behind us, I think it does matter. We are not allowed to change one "jot or tittle" of the Law, and if God is represented as a being encompassing both the masculine and feminine genders, then we are foolish to hide that fact in our translations of the Sacred Text.

The third argument which can be offered is the example of early Christian leaders in how they handled this doctrine. In his Homily on Jeremiah 15, the learned Origen argued the case that the Holy Spirit was Christ's mother. In a more practical application, Methodius - also a leader with an impeccably orthodox reputation - states directly that the family is meant to reflect analogously the blessed Trinity:

[T]he innocent and unbegotten Adam being the type and resemblance of God the Father Almighty, who is uncaused, and the cause of all; his begotten son [Seth] shadowing forth the image of the begotten Son and Word of God; whilst Eve, that proceedeth forth from Adam, signifies the person and procession of the Holy Spirit.

- Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6, p. 402

The Didascalia, a 3rd Century clergy manual, commanded the churches that, "the deaconess should be honored by you as the Holy Spirit is honored". Thus, officially confirming that the role of the Holy Spirit is of a feminine nature.

It should be emphasized that we are not saying that the Holy Spirit is a woman. Neither is God the Father a man. We are made in God's image. God is not made in our image. We must maintain a theistic perspective, rather than a humanistic one. The Holy Spirit is not married to the Father, nor is She His wife in any human sense of the word. Rather, marriage is a creaturely reflection of the glorious unity which exists within the Trinity. As long as we remain loyal to the Ecumenical Creeds, we will not go astray with this doctrine.

In conclusion, we affirm that it is not impious, nor does it in any way diminish the deity of the 3rd Person, to address the Holy Spirit as a "She" rather than as a "He". While we do not favor the call for a gender neutral Bible, we do believe that a new translation of the Scriptures is in order - under the supervision of the Desposyni - which will correct the Latin biases which have been carried over from the Vulgate.

Supporting evidence that the Holy Spirit is Feminine
http://www.grailchurch.org/sophia.htm

*I will tell you a story of an experience I had once with a very young Baptist minister at my grantmothers chuch who was so tapped into holy spirit and I felt it so strongly that I actually got 'saved' and did the baptism which made my granny really happy. All I can say is that this is the energy that runs through the veins of life and by working on cleansing our your sacred temple you will be much more in tune with it. It is there for all.

 [ send green star]

http://www.grailchurch.org/doctrine.htm

and by all means, read the Da Vinci Code for it's historical info...

 [ send green star]

For a thorough and compelling review of the "destruction" the Goddess, you might read:

"The Alphabet Versus the Goddess," "In Search of the Lost feminine," The Chalice and the Blade," Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine," Goddesses and The Divine Feminine," "Hindu Goddesses" and "The Return of the Mother."

Blissed be, Ani  (Goddess at Play )

 [ send green star]

It is in Ireland as well, if you look at the early Christian churches you will see the Sheila NaGig. She is a border goddess, she is always portrayed as a woman with her legs spead as in labour. She is the gateway, both life and death.  Kind of like the Calliach or Kerridwen.  But if you look at modern Irish Catholosism or even the Protestant peoples women are very subjugated.  The men still repect their wives, but with in the religion women are not viewed well. 

I know women today who buy into the Eve story, that she is the cause of all the pain in mensus, of course on another rant, most people discount Lilith, first wife of Adam, mentioned in Genesis, as (now I can't remember the exact quote) together he created them, man and woman he created them out of the earth..  But mind you I was raised as a Jew, so.... there ya go.

 [ send green star]

I read once in a book by D'arbois de Jubanville, that the root of the word God came from the Indo-European Gut-Hom. As a composite word it enclosed both feminine and masculine roots. The problem is that the mantras Hom is still used today as a spiritual portal, so how about the other half of the root? How about Gut? We know that the word god is rooted from Gut so should we conclude that we are prying to a feminine entity when we pronounce the word God? I thought you'd be interested...