One of our ordained ministers was asked to perform a wedding ceremony that honored the Divine Feminine (Mother-God) alongside God. He likes the idea of balance, likes the spiritual beauty of a God that goes beyond gender, but worries the wedding is already slightly unusual because it is already an interfaith wedding. A Rabbi and a minister will both be officiating (we ordain Rabbis too, but in this case just the ordained minister is from our seminary \/ church). Our new reverend fears the other clergy, the wedding guests, and maybe even the wedding party(!) may flip out if God’s Wife is written into the ceremony.<\/p>\n
This reminded me of a recent forum discussion on Asherah, Sophia, God-the-Mother mentioned in the Bible. So I sent it to him – and decided to post it here.<\/p>\n
Someone had asked the forum: Please correct me if I’m wrong – But wasn’t Asherah, in Jewish theology, God’s wife? In other words, depending on the theology, Sophia’s equivalent?<\/p>\n
Poet, Sophiologist and Bishop Wynn Manners replied:
\nThere might be a few (very radical!) contemporary Jewish theologians who may
\ntake that view (it’d be great stuff to *share* here, if it exists!) — but it’s
\nreally *archeology* that is proving that Asherah was considered Yahweh’s wife
\nfor a period of time in Jewish history. Certainly the Yahwist *priests* didn’t
\nso-consider Her — nor the prophets & writers of the Old Testament (thus all
\nJewish theology rooted in *those* writings wouldn’t consider Her to be God’s
\nwife).<\/p>\n
From Raphael Patai’s *The Hebrew Goddess* page 41 (in the Avon paperback
\nedition, published August 1978, copyright 1967, 1968 by the author) —<\/p>\n
“It is on this note that we take leave of the Biblical Asherah, this elusive yet
\ntenacious goddess to whom considerable segments of the Hebrew nation remained
\ndevoted from the days of the conquest of Canaan down to the Babylonian exile, a
\nperiod of roughly six centuries. In the eyes of the Yahwists, to whom belonged
\na few of the kings and all of the prophets, the worship of Asherah was an
\nabomination. It had to be, because it was a cult accepted by the Hebrews from
\ntheir Canaanite neighbors, and any and all manifestations of Canaanite religion
\nwere for them anathema. How Asherah was served by the Hebrews we do not know,
\napart from the one obscure and tantalizing detail of the women weaving ‘houses,’
\nperhaps clothes, for her in the Jerusalem Temple.<\/p>\n
“Yet whatever her origin and whatever her cult, there can be no doubt about the
\npsychological importance that the belief in, and service of, Asherah had for the
\nHebrews. One cannot belittle the emotional gratification with which she must
\nhave rewarded her servants who saw in her the loving, motherly consort of
\nYahweh-Baal and for whom she was the great mother-goddess, giver of fertility,
\nthat greatest of all blessings. The Hebrew people, by and large, clung to her
\nfor six centuries in spite of the increasing vigor of Yahwist monotheism. From
\nthe vantage point of our own troubled age, in which monotheism has long laid the
\nghosts of paganism, idolatry, and polytheism, only to be threatened by the much
\nmore formidable enemy of materialistic atheism, we can permit ourselves to look
\nback, no longer with scorn but with sympathy, at the goddess who had her hour
\nand whose motherly touch softened the human heart just about to open to greater
\nthings.”<\/p>\n
Personally i view Asherah, Inanna, Isis, Shekinah, Eloah, etc., as all being
\naspects of, faces of Sophia — partial revelations of Her into time, within the
\ncontext of the degree that those *seeking* Her were able to understand Her —
\nwithin the parameters of their cultures, beliefs, perceptions & expectations (as
\nwith visions of the Virgin Mary). Obviously those who made of Her an
\n“abomination” had the *least* understanding!<\/p>\n
Clearly the ancient Jews — in the time span mentioned by Raphael Patai, didn’t
\nknow *Her* as “Sophia” (a Greek word, not a Jewish word). i believe that belief
\nin Asherah brought many ancient Jews to the degree of understanding that they
\n*had* (about the one some of *us* call Sophia) at that time — Her qualities of
\nfruitfulness, motherliness, & mother-love, for starters — & *maybe* much-much
\n*more* — if writings of the Asherah believers survived (probably highly
\nunlikely) & should ever surface.<\/p>\n
Personally i *praise* the Divine Wisdom of Solomon in his service to Goddess —
\nstanding *against* the blasphemies & abominations of the Yahwist priests against
\nGoddess, in his *supporting* the presence of an image of Asherah in the
\nJerusalem Temple to *help* people make connection with Her Divine Spirit —
\nwhich existed from *before* the Beginning of Earth and the Heavens!<\/p>\n
And personally i think the Yahwist priests’ *own* idolatry of an abstract mental
\n*conception* of the Divine (as with too many Christian & Islamic idolators) has
\nwrought *far* more evil against farfar more people than worshipers of idols of
\nstone & wood & metal have ever wrought across all of human history! <\/p>\n
~~wynn<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Sophia-Mother-of-the-All\/332599176773679# <\/p>\n
* * * * * * * * * * * *<\/p>\n
Margaret Starbird shared her Sophia (her wisdom!, in other words) as follows:<\/p>\n
“Sophia” is the Greek word for Wisdom. According to Peter Kingsley’s
\nanalysis in “The Dark Places of Wisdom,” the Greek philosophers
\nPlato and his followers decided that it was took too much time and
\ntrouble to “incubate”–meditate, dream, inspiriation (body wisdom)–the Divine
\nSophia, so they decided to use “Logos” (reason and rational thought
\nas their guiding principle. The didn’t bother to change their name
\n(philosopher=”lover of Sophia”) when they made this switch to a
\npreference for masculine modes of thinking and being, but they abandoned “Sophia,”
\ndenigrating the “feminine” (intuition, inspiration through dream and
\nvision)–<\/p>\n
The timing of this switch is very important. In the next generation,
\nAlexander the Great, a pupil of Plato’s disciple Aristotle, conquered the whole
\nknown world – all the way to India – including Israel. The Greeks superimposed
\ntheir culture on the Jews, who had a strong “Wisdom” tradition (Ashera\/
\nAstarte) indigenous to their land. Thousands of little figurines of Ashera have
\nbeen found buried in Israel, attesting to her prominence and popularity
\nthere.<\/p>\n
The “wisdom books” and apocrypha of the Hebrew Scriptures attest to
\nthe Jews’ love for Sophia, but gradually, under the influences of Greek
\nmores and culture superimposed on their nation, their strong
\nconnection to her was weakened.<\/p>\n
I think Jesus’ ministry was, in part, an attempt to reclaim and embrace
\nthe denigrated (abandoned) Sophia (embodied in his relationship with
\nMary Magdalene)…and that their union was the cornerstone of the
\nChristian movement, reclaiming the connection of Israel (as Bride) with
\nYahweh (eternal Bridegroom of Israel. Jesus and Mary Magdalene were
\nseen as the “incarnation” of this principle of “sacred partnership.”<\/p>\n
One passage of Scripture in particular comes to mind: Sirach 24 extols
\n“Sophia”–her gifts and treasures. A copy of this book survived the
\nsiege at Masada, the last out-post of the Zealot movement, attesting to
\ntheir inclination to venerate “Sophia”\/Wisdom–even as they took up
\narms to defend their nation against the foreign tyranny and brutality of
\nRome.<\/p>\n
In any case, I agree with Raphael Patai that “Ashera” was one of the many
\ngoddesses who embodied the “Sacred Feminine” aspect of Wisdom,
\ncalled “Sophia” in Greek and in Hebrew texts translated into Koin\u00c3\u00a9 Greek
\nin the late second century BCE.<\/p>\n
peace and well-being,
\nMargaret
\n“The Woman with the Alabaster Jar”
\nwww.margaretstarbird.net<\/p>\n
* * * * * * * * * * * * *<\/p>\n
Professor Mary Ann Beavis posted to the forum as follows:<\/p>\n
Sophia is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Hochmah (Divine Wisdom), often personified as a woman in the Jewish Wisdom Literature (both Hebrew and Greek). Asherah was a Canaanite-Hebrew Goddess worshipped by both Israelites and non-Israelites. To my knowledge, the cult of Asherah (wife of YHWH) was erased by post-exilic times, and the figure of Lady Wisdom in the Jewish scriptures is a re-emergence of the Goddess in another form\u00e2\u20ac\u201done of many Goddess figures associated with Wisdom (Athena, Isis, Sarasvati \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6).<\/p>\n
* * * * * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of our ordained ministers was asked to perform a wedding ceremony that honored the Divine Feminine (Mother-God) alongside God. He likes the idea of balance, likes the spiritual beauty of a God that goes beyond gender, but worries the wedding is already slightly unusual because it is already an interfaith wedding. A Rabbi and … Continue reading God-the-Mother, Asherah, Sophia, God’s Wife<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217,43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ordained-ministers-priests-rabbis-clergy","category-sacred-feminine","category-what-sunday-school-wont-teach"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":712,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions\/712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernway.org\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}