The White Wolf Considers The Feminine

Obviously, having noted that my spiritual journey had neglected the feminine, I had to stop and think about what this meant. If it meant anything at all. The first thoughts being whether there was a relevance to this concept. Would God have a gender? Would it serve a purpose?

What made the genders different? Particularly beyond aesthetics and reproductive functions that would be irrelevant to a being possessive of the power that has been attributed to God.

After all, men and women are equal, right? Of course not. You pick two men and any one subject and one of them will prove superior. The same is true with women or mixed company. This is just on the individual level though. Still, there are marked differences between men and women. Physical, mental and psychological factors that are keyed to the different genders. (Now don't start some feminist rant on this. I haven't stated better or worse, but those differences are there.) The question is whether the attributes offered to either gender become relevant on a God level.

The physical and reproductive qualities are obviously not relevant to God. The psychological factors might be, though. So this was something I then had to pursue. What relevant differences would there be in attributing an alternate gender to God?

First and foremost came the impressions I got from the commonly used term "father" for God and the difference in using the term "mother." This might influence my personal comfort level or impression, but was there something deeper? Something that would more generally influence? Barring the question of who actually gave birth, are there different roles here? There are.

Regardless of how much a man loves the child that he has sired, few will actually be maternal. They will be protective. Mothers are also protective of their children, but it is in a different way. I am not sure I could fully explain what the maternal reaction would be, but it is there. You can see it and feel it. Even in mothers of adopted children, so it isn't merely a knowledge that the child grew within you.

Of course this is only one amorphous issue, but one that gave me pause. This was the first clearer definition I had of what was missing. The church was not maternal. The love of a father for his child could be felt at points within the church, but not of a mother. The mother figure had been removed.

So this leads me to start considering and investigating my faith experience based on this. Had this lack been part of what had started me thinking about this? How serious of a point was this?

I sat back and reflected on one of the tenets of my Christian upbringing. He created them in his image. Male and female he created them. I realized that in this might be an insinuation. One that should be read anyway. If God created man and woman in his image, are there parts of them that can be found in each of them? Futher, as far as I am aware, all multi-celullar organisms have male and female entities. If God's power to otherwise effect things wasn't limited (a whole other question altogether) why would they have been created male and female? What purpose did genders serve in the master plan?

Time to back pedal for a moment. Why was the God of the Christian church assigned a male gender to begin with? In the desert, God said "I am." No gender there. In fact, there is no gender assignation until Jesus says, "Our father, who art in heaven...."

Is there a designation from Jesus here that God is in fact male? Probably not. One must consider the culture within which this message was being delivered. Would people accept the concept of God being female, even if it was true? Doubtful. Still, there is no clear designation here, nor any indication that God is required to have a gender.

So I can't define why God needs to have a gender at this point. How about any indication of what gender God might be based on our environment? Look at the creation to see a glimpse of the creator. This was a lot more enlightening.

Are there any particular benefits that one gender has over the other? Benefits that might hint at the gender of the deity creating them? One came to mind. The human female is the only creature on our planet with an organ that serves absolutely no purpose other than pleasure. (If any of you women reading this don't know what I am talking about, I am sorry for you. If any of you men don't know what I am talking about I am sorry for your women.)

Was this, then, definitive proof that God was in fact female? Hell no. But it is fun to point out. So searching further. Any other benefits males or females have over each other? Anything that would point to one gender or another? Anything men or women specifically do that the other gender can't?

Men can pee standing up, and write their names in the snow. Actually, I have known a couple of women who could accomplish the same, but that is a different story. Somehow I doubt this has any particular spiritual relevance. Women can give birth.

Now this one actually struck me. Such that I was forced to sit up and give this further thought. (I am being a poor narrator. I recall at the point that this occurred to me I was laying on the couch on my front porch, smoking a cigarette.)

Women could carry a child for nine months. Nurture it inside themselves as it grew, and then bring it forth into the world. If our existence had any significance at all, the continuation of our existence through our offspring would be equally important. So women were entrusted with the role of nurturing, bringing forth and raising offspring. This had to be important. It went back to the maternal thing.

Surely, then, if gender was important to a higher power, this would be a key indicator. This train of thought seemed to point to the possibility that so many Christians were wrong. That God wasn't the Father. She was our Mother.

And on the wind there was regret.

"And he was getting so close, too..."