Considering the Godhead in Masculine/Feminine Terms

“A Special Note about Gender:  God has no gender.  The masculine/feminine duality of personality is a human attribute.  And yet, God is both masculine and feminine, for God is All.  As All, God is both as personal as you and as impersonal as ‘It’ or ‘Principle.’  Human beings can relate more intimately to a personal God than an impersonal one, and so ion his lifetime Jesus created the idea of ‘God the Father,’ which casts God as a loving presence, and humans as part of a Divine Family.  During Jesus’ time, the culture could only accept a masculine figure; and ever since much of the world has related to God as masculine in both imagery and in language.  I grew up in a Catholic society in which God was universally referred to as ‘He.’  That tradition is reflected in the first three books of Choose Only Love.

“In Book IV, however, God more fully revealed Herself:  ‘Until now, God Himself, in His infinite knowledge, wanted to show Himself in the world as Father, as well as the love that He is.  But from now on She wants to show Herself as Mother, not only as wisdom.  The ‘feminine’ of God will come to light more and more every day.’  Thus the reader will notice that the language of the final four books in this series reflects both the masculine and feminine natures of God.”  – from Sebastian Blaksley, receiver of Choose Only Love.  Passage is from Choose Only Love, Bk. 7, introductory material.

The explanation about gender, you will note, quoted above, comes from Sebastian and is here quoted from Book 7.

Traditionally, Christianity has used the masculine gender, as did Jesus 2,000 years ago.  Now we are encouraged to think of God in broader terms, knowing (as I think Jesus knew, too) that God is bigger than one gender.  In the more inclusive way that God is dealing with us now, we are encouraged to try to see His/Her grandeur, that the God we worship is not to be seen in anthropomorphic terms.

We tend to see God in our own image, but that somewhat misstates the case.  We are told in the Genuis that God created us in His image—not the reverse.  So we are encouraged to try to think in “God terms,” and of course this attempt asks a lot of us.

The Mother God will be seen by us as a gentler version, for most of us carry warm feelings toward the one who birthed us and cuddled us in her arms.  The mother/child bond has been seen as the most significant of all our relationships.  And Book 7 of Choose Only Love recognizes this significance.

Ask God to show us how to think of the Godhead.  See if what Sebastian says here in his reception of Choose Only Love finds a place in our hearts. 

Gentle Mary

The words of the feminine are literally heard in a different way. Mirari

I think the reason that the words of the feminine are heard differently is because we remember our mothers, the first evidence of love we ever encountered.  A mother nurtures in a soft way, a way that invites reciprocation.  There is a special mother-child bond that is unlike anything else we will encounter in our lifetimes.

If this bond is not well-formed or is broken, we have scars.  This is how important maternal love really is.

Women speak differently from men, regardless of how hard a man might try to be nurturing.

This is the advantage that women have in this new era.  Women’s voices are ready to be heard now.  Mirari tells us this.  We are ready to BE more often than DO, for the way of Mary is to “be.”  May we ask in the privacy of our thoughts what this means for our world, and respond as we come to understand.

A Natural Way

You may even begin to envision the feminine as the acceptance of all that is natural, and a rejection of all that is unnatural. It is very akin to “accept the new, deny the old,” but the tone of it is different . . . literally.  Mirari

Mari Perron’s experience is that it is Mary of Nazareth who is speaking to her in Mirari.  Mary’s emphasis on the feminine is easily explained, because she is coming from being a woman.  The word about “natural” suggests to me that the female is more likely to be close to nature in her assessments.  After all, it is she who births the next generation.  And that is about as close to nature as one can get.

The tone of the feminine IS different—warmer, more all-embracing, sometimes more loving even.  Our small bit of testosterone is not enough to provoke aggression, at least not usually.

Turning to the feminine in experiencing God is a radical idea.  But we all know intuitively that He/She is both genders.   Our patriarchal society has limited our viewpoint.

Ask what the feminine in God can lead us to discover.  After all, ask to see God’s loving, present in our world in a new way.

Living Extraordinary Lives

This is to be a quiet movement at the borderline. A movement that gently normalizes the extraordinary as ordinary, as natural, and as a return of the feminine.  Mirari

Mary here seems to say that we can live extraordinary lives as naturally as the sun rises every day.  A Course of Love says something very similar about “extraordinary” lives, that when ordinary people are seen to be living in an extraordinary way that others will be encouraged to do likewise.

Mary goes farther, though, to say that extraordinary can become the norm.  We are allowing the feminine to rise in importance in our world, and it is the mother/wife/sister/daughter in cooperation with men, too, who will accomplish much in this new world.  It is natural to women to be nurturing, and now we can see that women are going to nourish things that have been out of reach before.

Ask what we—both women and men—can say and do today that will make a lasting difference in our world.  We need meaningful change, reconciliation with our brothers and sisters, loving attitudes to inform all our ways.

Be among the pioneers.  There is room for all.

Masculine and Feminine

“As the ego has become threatened and allowed the coming of guidance, males and females both have begun to work with the parts of themselves over which the ego has the least control.  For males this has most often meant a turning away from the intellectual realm, which was ruled by the ego, to the realm of feelings.  For females this has most often meant a turning away from the feeling realm where their egos held most sway, toward the intellectual.  (Treatises of A Course of Love:  Treatise on the Art of Thought, 9.12)”

Affirmation:  “I would listen to guidance today, to speed Christ-consciousness.”

Reflections:

1 – Men vs. Women

An instructive passage, this one makes a distinction between how men vs. women will approach the coming of salvation and Christ-consciousness.  And, of course, some men and some women are already blended between the intellectual and the feeling.  Men may turn more toward the feeling side of their natures, and women may turn more to the intellectual.  But there are no hard-and-fast rules.

2 – Where Does the Ego Rule?

We need to think about what parts of ourselves are held less by the ego.  Where does the ego still rule, more often than not?  If it is in the mind (the intellectual), we need to turn to the heart (feelings).  If it is in the heart (feelings), perhaps (in an interpretation), we do not have to turn aside totally from the heart–because ACOL has led us to the heart–but we need to think more of the mind (the intellectual).  In my opinion, this second option is far less common, for our minds has generally always held sway.  Jesus seems to say this in the first volume of A Course of Love, when he asks us to turn to the heart rather than to the mind.  And, as we know, he ultimately counsels a blending of heart and mind to what he terms “wholeheartedness.”  This blending is what we are ultimately seeking.

3 – Ego Undone

But in the meantime, we take the easy route.  We choose to turn to that side over which the ego has held less influence.  And then we expand throughout our minds and hearts, so that the ego is totally undone.

4 – Easy?

Is it easy to undo the ego?  It is not easy, but it becomes easier as we progress.  We realize that in the nature of things, the ego is constantly being undone.  No egoic joy is not paid for by tears of pain.  And we recognize that we don’t want to live like this.  Ever again.

5 – Jesus

So we do as Jesus encourages.  We add our own feeble efforts to God’s stronger efforts to undo the ego.  We encourage every glimpse of the Self that we experience.

6 – Walk Smoothly

And then we are walking, smoothly and effortlessly, along the path to greater freedom, let loose from the ego’s stranglehold.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I have a good day today.  When stress comes, may I know how to turn aside from all agitation.

Be with me as I consider my balance of the masculine and the feminine.  And may I let the ego go.

Amen.