All the major faiths affirm that we are made in God's image. Scriptures common to Christian, Muslim, and Jew specify that both the male and female are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). We have not really absorbed that truth until we become able to name the Holy One in ways that can also appropriately name ourselves, whichever sex we are: God-She, Mother, Great Woman, as well as God-He, Father, and Lord. The primal male experience of identity is, "I am different than my source", which translates to the spiritual insight, "I am not like God" and leads to an emphasis on the transcendence of God as the Absolute Other. This is a valid and profound theology. However, God-Feminine is not so much an object of veneration as She is the Universal Subject; not so much a You to relate to as a Self to be. She manifests in each moment when you recognize, "I am She: I am That". Such recognition is not merely a mental affirmation, but is experienced by your whole being.
For many people, the word goddess suggests instead a distantly revered feminine figure, either an actual woman (as in Hollywood "sex goddess") or an ideal image of unattainable femininity, as distant as the patriarchal God, but of feminine gender. Such a "goddess" is not God-Feminine as revealed from the perspective of the Divine Womb. God-Feminine is loved and revered close up; "goddesses" are venerated from afar.
Sometimes the feminine presence of the Holy Spirit can be strongly felt. One evening, I was moved to open my eyes and look at the faces of each woman in our spiritual circle. When my gaze came to rest on one of them, I declared, "You are the Christ! You are She, The Living Christ ". This was a startling perception. I was familiar with the idea that we "meet Christ" whenever we respond with compassion to someone in need, whether by offering a cup of water to the thirsty or housing for the homeless. However, I had taken that as but a lovely figure of speech. Now here I was, seeing not a needy stranger as the Christ, but my friend, and not figuratively, but actually. The words "Christ, She" came naturally to my lips in that moment, even though until then I had equated Christ with the man, Jesus.
Since that time, I have come to understand such experiences as glimpses of the fact that we each bear the image and likeness of God as our true identity. This is who we are, as God conceives us to be in the Divine Mind and Womb. If we were to be our real selves, we would literally incarnate God in our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual being.
The Christ is any person who lives out his or her true identity in the image of God. Jesus was fully and perfectly Christ because he was perfectly and fully himself. Exactly as such, he incarnated God. Churches that refuse to ordain women priests and ministers on the grounds that Jesus was male have not yet grasped what this man witnessed: the Christ is the Divine One incarnating, not solely in Jesus, but at any moment and wherever revealed to us in human form.
Present-day male fascination with the female breast differs from religious veneration of God Feminine in the same way that infatuation differs from reverent awe. Infatuation is obsessional longing for a lost part of oneself that has become projected onto another -- whether onto another person or even onto one's idea of God. Reverent awe arises when we contemplate some characteristic of God and acknowledge ourselves to be in likeness, rather than projecting that attribute solely onto God.
The primal female experience of identity is, "I am like my source ". The gestative mode of femininity translates this awareness to the spiritual insight, "God is everywhere roundabout me", or "I live in God". The exertive mode of femininity translates the awareness, "I am like my source" into the spiritual insight, "God is the Birther perpetually bringing forth likenesses of God-self". Each "likeness" is a birther in its turn, too, breaking itself open to reveal God anew. This is sacramental immanence.
Both the feminine sacramental way and the phallic transcendent approach to the Holy One are valid. However, depending on which orientation predominates, we will experience either the God-Feminine or God-Masculine identity of that One in daily spiritual life. Washing dishes might be experienced either way. If I am religious in the "phallic manner", I might sacralize washing dishes by considering myself to be doing them "for the Lord" or "to the glory of God". The task becomes sacred by consecration to an exterior "other" who is known aside from the task.
If I am religious in accordance with the feminine sacramental way, then it is within the task itself being done for itself that all at once I may experience God. Washing this cup or that plate becomes a sacramental act at the moment I engage intimately and solely with it. There is no need to dedicate it to an extrinsic Lord, for the Slayer-Birther is intrinsically present. Such a sense of sacramental immanence results in every moment becoming sacred, every act liturgical. The distinction between secular and religious becomes irrelevant.
The sacramental experience of seeing God by seeing each thing as itself leads to a sense of the singleness of God, self, and world. Every object, action, and event, including myself, is discovered to be a likeness of God, a birther of the Divine Presence here and now. The confession of faith issuing from the sacramental immanence of the exertive womb is not only "Thou art the Christ" and "You are She", but also "I am She". Knowing "You are She" and "I am She" is the basis of profound atonement, the essence of the holy, healing work of Jesus Christ.
AMAZING GRACE
Amazing grace! How sweet the voice
That named and set me free!
I once was nameless; Now, rejoice:
I know God -- I am She!Her grace is present everywhere.
She's here in you and me.
Compassion, wisdom, peace, and care
Define our dignity.Before God formed me in Her womb,
I was already known.
My life is woven on Her loom.
By name She calls me home.By grace, I learn to know my strength
By grace, no more to fear
The Light and Dark, the heights and depths
Of Love incarnate here.Amazing grace! How sweet the voice
That named and set me free!
I once was nameless; Now, rejoice:
I know Her -- I am She!
This article was excerpted from
"Uniting Sex, Self & Spirit"
by Genia Pauli Haddon
About The Author
Genia Pauli Haddon, Ph.D. is a retired minister of the United Church of Christ and a depth psychotherapist with degrees in biology, religion, and counseling. The above was excerpted with permission from "Uniting Sex, Self & Spirit" by Genia Pauli Haddon, ?1993, published by Plus Publications Box 265, Suite 936, Scotland, CT 06264. 800-793-0666. Amazing Grace is by Irene Levine, Genia Pauli Haddon & Linda DeMarco. ?1988. Reprinted with permission from "Uniting Sex, Self & Spirit."
