Western women have been excluded from the deity quest for thousands of years, since the end of Goddess worship in the west. . . . [I]f one purpose of deity is to to give us an image we can become , it is obvious that women have been left out of the quest, or at least have been forced to strive for an oppressive and unobtainable masculine image. . . . Discovering [that deity was female] gave me a tremendous sense of relief. I felt her blessing touch me for the first time. I felt a great weight drop from me. I could actually feel my last prejudices against my own female mind and body falling away.
~ Drawing Down the Moon by Adler
3 comments:
I think that I can understand what you're saying. I'm a Deist myself, so the deity that I believe in is neuter with regard to gender. That said, if Jesus is the only true role model, then, yeah, women are left out of the equation. (There is a minor Christian tradition in some circles, though, in which the Holy Spirit is feminine, meaning that the Holy Trinity is God the Father, the Holy Ghost the Mother, and Jesus the Child. However, the Holy Spirit is awfully amorphous and sort of glossed over in the Bible.)
While I'm not a Pagan (I just can't believe it's true) I do find it very appealing that the religion integrates deities of different sexes. You can get more stories that way, and that's what I like most about any religion.
I can totally identify with what Ms. Adler is saying here. DDTM is a great book!
That about sums it up. If women aren't the deity, this is the ultimate in male supremacy. If you're not on the receiving end of being excluded from deity, then this doesn't make sense.
Think of the use of "he" as generic. Let's change the universal to "she" and see how men like it.
Adler and Drawing Down the Moon, one of the great ones!
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