C3/CCC Sermon Transcript for March 2, 2008
“'Dancing with the Divine Feminine"
By Ian Lawton

“Why did God create Eve?”

Well, after creating Adam, She stepped back, scratched her head, and said, “I can do better than that.”

Our topic today is the divine feminine. There has been a surge of interest in feminine imagery for God. Maybe this interest follows on naturally from the huge gains in gender equity in the world in recent decades. Or is there gender equity? It has been said that women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think, “Damn, I’m good looking!”

I think it’s more likely that the surge in interest in the divine feminine parallels the surge of interest in earth-centered spirituality and people taking responsibility for their own spiritual life rather than being told by the church how to be spiritual. The realization of divine power within and between goes hand in hand with a restoration of divine feminine imagery.

Divine Feminine and Gender Equity

The timing of this renewed interest in the divine feminine couldn’t be more perfect. It’s not just about gender equity, although this is part of the issue. In a nation where the gender of the presidential candidate is still a talking point, we haven’t yet arrived at gender equity. In a world where women earn only 75% of the wages of men for equivalent work, we haven’t yet arrived at gender equity.

But an exploration into the divine feminine suggests that the issues run a lot deeper than gender equity. Gender issues are inter-related to issues of poverty, age, class and racism. Even in wealthier nations women are 40% more likely than men to be living in poverty. Elderly women in America are 60% more likely than elderly men to be living in poverty. Gender is also not color blind. Just up the road in Muskegon Heights, 49% of households led by a single African American woman are living in poverty.

In the 1890s Anna Julia Cooper noticed as she stopped at dilapidated train stations that there were often two dingy sheds on the platform. One had a sign that read “For Ladies” swinging over the door and the other had a sign that read “For Colored People”. Anna says she never knew which door to open.

The times have changed, and the platforms have improved, but the inequity still exists. It’s often hard to know which inequality to address first. The divine feminine, manifesting as Sophia, is able to see the connections between issues and act in such a way as to address the root cause of all inequality.

The issues run even deeper still than racism and poverty. Until people are liberated from dependence on the male, white interventionist God, and the feminine is restored in the psyches of both women and men, then gender equity will be a forlorn hope.

Divine Feminine and the White Male God

Remember what Celie said in The Color Purple: "When I found out that God was white and a man I lost interest." Celie was a poor, uneducated black woman, who was sexually abused by the man she believed to be her father. Celie is not alone. As long as Christianity emphasizes a white, male puppeteer God who favors the privileged, then many, many people will lose interest.
God is one of the names given to the mysterious source of Life. How could this be limited to male imagery and understanding? God is all and in all. This includes all living and non living matter, all gender and sexuality, all past and all future possibilities.
As long as religions and denominations argue over whose God is bigger and meaner, then people will lose interest in this God. When the divine feminine is suppressed for long enough, an unhealthy form of masculine God predominates, and the results are frightening.

This real life radio transcript from the Unites States Chief of Naval Operations, in October 10, 1995, captures the problem well:

Station No.1: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid a collision.
Station No.2: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.
Station No.1: This is the captain of a U.S. Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.
Station No.2: No, I say again, you divert YOUR course.
Station No.1: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER ENTERPRISE. WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE U.S. NAVY.
DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW! , '
Station No.2: This is the Puget Sound lighthouse. It's your call.

Doesn’t that sound like any number of religious arguments over whose God is mightiest? That’s the stuff of religious wars, and territorialism.

Divine Feminine and Yin/ Yang

God is one and undivided, manifesting as the perfect balance of masculine and feminine energy. Religions and cultures through the centuries have sought ways to communicate this yin/ yang God.
In the Tao Te Ching it is written:

            “The Tao is One.
            From the One comes yin and yang;
            From these two, creative energy;
            From energy, ten thousand things,
            The forms of all creation.
            All life embodies yin
            And embraces yang,
            Through their union
            Achieving harmony.”

The yin-yang principle isn’t what we would generally call a dualism. It is, rather, an implicit unity manifesting as whatever balance is appropriate and necessary to the situation.

So it is with the masculine and feminine expressions of God. They aren’t opposites; rather they are complementary parts of a whole. Over the next few weeks, I will explore some of the complementarities of masculine and feminine. Keep in mind that these are not necessarily gender traits, biological or cultural. They are not the ideals that men or women should be aspiring to. They are two sides of the same divine coin. The healthy person should be manifesting yin and yang, feminine and masculine in appropriate balance. The healthy community, nation and planet should do the same.

The Divine Feminine and Logos/ Sophia

Consider the search for meaning in this context: The seeking after meaning is the yang or masculine part of the equation, and the embodiment of wisdom is yin or feminine.

A rabbinical story tells of the moment Adam first opened his eyes:

Adam looked at creation, and said to God, “This is utterly fantastic!”
“I know”, said God.
“But tell me”, Adam asked, “what is the meaning of it all?”
God, taken aback, replied, “You mean it has to have meaning?”
“Of course”, Adam answered.
“Well, I am sure you will think of something”, God said, and sauntered off.

In biblical language, the search for meaning is Logos. It is an embodiment of enquiring, systematic, left brained, language driven meaning. In biblical language, wisdom is Sophia. It is one with the moment, unself-conscious, appropriate, right brained, dancing, mystery, love filled, skilful means.

Logos without Sophia is dry. It tends to be unfeeling and barren. It can be evangelical and ruthless, moralistic and judgmental.
Sophia without Logos is purposeless. It drifts without direction. It can be relativistic and wishy-washy.
They need each other. Of course, the Logos has been hugely overemphasized for centuries in Christianity, so we definitely need some more Sophia. But the ideal would be to bring back Logos and Sophia in harmony.

Divine Feminine and Activism

Consider activism in the context of yin/yang balance. Effective activism is a combination of strategic planning (yang) and inner motivation (yin). All the yin in the world without effective action is useless to the planet. You can “be the change” all you want, but if you don’t do anything then nothing will change. On the other hand, effective action that is not internally driven will run out of steam before long. It won’t be sustainable.

Consider the ecological movement. In recent years, discussion about global warming has shifted to speaking about high-tech hopes for change. In 2006, President Bush stated that, "America is addicted to oil. The best way to break this addiction is through technology."

That’s half the story. America is not addicted to oil. America is addicted to consuming oil. The solution to addiction is self-mastery and awareness. There’s the other half of the story. Technology without self awareness will be a band aid solution. It won’t be sustainable. At the same time, technology utilized with self-awareness will be an important part of the solution.

Now, keep in mind that environmentalism has been predominantly a feminine preoccupation. Women have tended to be more closely associated with earth nurture, and with 90% of women identifying themselves as the primary shoppers for their households, and with 68 % of American consumers having gone green, it's safe to say that women are leading a quiet revolution in green consumerism.

What would it take for environmentalism to take eco-justice to the next level and become a combined yin and yang effort?
Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield lists the masculine qualities as aggression and risk-taking and calls for their reclaiming. "Manly men defend their turf, just as other male mammals do," he writes.  From this perspective, yang eco-justice would display a loyalty to the earth with a sense of ownership of the turf. This could be part of a response to environmentalism, but on its own might not be sustainable. In fact, it could be part of the problem with humans feeling a sense of entitlement to use the earth for their own means.

Maybe the combination of yin/ yang, feminine and masculine, in terms of the ecology would be interdependence rather than independence.

The Turtle as Symbol of Divine Feminine

The turtle has long been considered a representation of Divine Mother in Native American spirituality. The turtle is close to the ground, and has the ability to draw in and nurture self, then emerge from the shell when all is safe. The turtle moves patiently, always knowing the right time and never hurried by the pressures of life.

In the 1990s, a 12-pound hawksbill turtle crawled up to die on a Honolulu beach. An autopsy showed that 1/4 of its weight was plastic. Its intestines contained beads, a comb, a golf tee, toy wheel, rope, balloon, part of a plastic bottle, a plastic toothpaste cap, the top of a plastic medical syringe, baggies and a plastic flower. The living turtle had become a trash barrel.

The turtle was full of all the wonders of yang or masculine technology. Yet the image of the toxic turtle reminds us that our technological expertise has outpaced our inner mastery. Until we have an expanded inner vision, the type of vision that comes from a realization of divine feminine, an inner vision of balance and interdependence, our outer visions and technologies will not be sustainable.

So many of us carry around toxic images of God like a turtle full of trash, until it chokes us, clogs us up, and we either have to abandon religion, or risk having our spirit choked & poisoned. No wonder people are suspicious of religion.

It doesn’t have to be that way! Reclaim the balance of feminine and masculine in your conception of God and worlds of possibility for wisdom and appropriate action will open up in your life. Consider your own manifestation of divine feminine and divine masculine. Are you living a healthy balance of yin/ yang, active and receptive? Seek an inner revolution. Be like the turtle- go down and in, then at the right time and with skillful means go up and out. Become active and effective in the world.

As a community, let’s be like the turtle. May we balance feminine sensitivity, acceptance, welcoming, cooperating, and interdependence with masculine clarity of purpose, risk taking, setting ambitious goals and moving toward them, without shrinking back.

When you embody divine mystery is at its harmonious best, there is no thought. It comes naturally. You are simply one with the situation and know what is appropriate and wise in the moment. This is the dance with the divine feminine!