“The Angel of Healing” by Aeoliah
“The Holy Spirit’s themes are communication, mediation, universal law, blessings, change, health, purity and truth. Her symbols are light. In both Gnostic and Hebrew writings, the Holy Spirit is a female force. In New Age vernacular, She is seen as white light energy. The Holy Spirt pours upon people to communicate divine missives, including messages of well-being and blessing. She also mediates on our behalf with other facets of the divine, using order, universal law, and wisdom as a force for positive change.
Shavuot, or The Feast of Weeks, in Jewish tradition centers around the return of Moses from Mount Sinai bearing the Ten Commandments and the promises made by God for a home ‘flowing with milk and honey.’ Consequently, suitable edibles today include dairy products and anything sweetened with honey to internalize divine promises for your life. To know what those promises might be, ask the Holy Spirit to show you: pray and meditate. Visualize a a sparkling white light pouring over you. Write down any insights, images or phrases that come during this time. Don’t be surprised if you get words in a different language. This is glossolalia (tongues) and may reveal secrets about past lives through the languages represented. If you don’t have time for meditation, at least burn a white candle today to honor the Holy Spirit and Her spiritual gifts.”
(Patricia Telesco, “365 Goddess: a daily guide to the magic and inspiration of the goddess”.)
“Sophia” by Hrana Janto
“Among the most ancient Jews and Christians it was understood that the Holy Spirit is female. The earliest gospel, Mark, states that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove. The word for ‘dove’ in Greek is peristera, and it carries the feminine gender. The Hebrew word ruach meaning ‘Spirit’ is also feminine. The Hebrew phrase Ruach Elohim is used throughout the Old Testament for ‘Spirit of God.’ [1]
This entry is going to be a little different from the others. There was SO MUCH information on the internet to go through that it was impossible (for the purpose of this blog) to sum it up to put together and write an entry. Instead, I included this very informative video explaining how the original biblical languages (Hebrew and Aramaic) described the Holy Spirit as being female and how today’s popular and widely accepted mistranslated versions of the Bible hide and deny the Truth.
As usual, I’ve also included some suggested links (some of which include their own suggested links to aid your own research).
Suggested Links:
Goddessgift.com, “Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom“.
The Holy Spirit-Shekinah, “Sophia: Lost Goddess of Wisdom“.
The Holy Spirit-Shekinah, “The Holy Spirit: the Christian Goddess“.
Hurtak, J.J. The Pistis Sophia, “The Holy Spirit: The Feminine Aspect of the Godhead“.
The Nazarene Way, “Wisdom of the Goddess“.
Romanoff, Katia. Esoteric Theological Seminary, “Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom & God’s Wife“.
Spiralotus. The Order of the White Moon, “Shekenah“.
Spriritbride.org, “Is There a Christian Goddess?”
Spiritual Adventures, “Sophia, Holy Spirit, Wisdom of God“. (This blog has a huge “Lists of Interest” and “Sites I Recommend”…happy researching!)
Wikipedia, “Sophia (wisdom)“.
I’ve tried making this argument before and the reactions were… less than hospitable. The best rebuttal to Holy Spirit as Female actually made sense, though I disagree. I give it to you here, not word for word but paraphrased as best I can remember:
If we are discussing the Holy Spirit then I will assume we are working within an otherwise Christian framework. Since we accept that children can not be concieved without male energy as well as female, yet we are told that Mary was a virgin, the other required energy must have been male. Since the Holy Spirit was the Divine being associated with Mary’s conception of Jesus, the Holy Spirit must be a male essence.
Like I said, the argument makes a LOT of sense. However, more accurate translation of the Aramaic language reveals that yes, the Holy Spirit was referred to as female. This makes the conception of Jesus by the Spirit even more unusual. This is the point at which I tend to twitch and have a headache…
I really do like my grandmother’s view of the Christian God. She’s a Catholic but also a mystic, though I doubt she’d describe herself as such. She said to me that God is a perfect Being, encompassing maleness, femaleness and otherness in equal portion and that it really doesn’t matter which pronouns we use. Considering the logic-snafu that would otherwise be created, I can work with that!
Those are some really great points you mentioned. Here are some other points to ponder on that I would’ve liked to have included in this entry “from early Christians:
-The primordial consciousness permanently exists as three: Father, Mother, and Son.
-The Holy Spirit is the mother of all living.
-Elchasai asserts that the male is the Son of God, and that the female is the Holy Spirit.
-Christ sits on a throne at the right hand of God, and ‘On God’s left sits a Virgin on a throne, the Holy Spirit, and she praises him. Seven virgins are at her command.’
The seven virgins are apparently a reference to the seven spirits of the Holy Spirit mentioned by the Prophets. The Gnostics called the primordial Goddess ‘Mother,’ ‘Virgin,’ ‘Womb,’ and ‘Voice.’ Indeed, there are so many Gnostic sources that clearly assert that the Holy Spirit is female that space does not permit me to quote them all, but I have listed the remainder in this footnote.
Early Catholic circles were no exception. They also declared the femininity of the Holy Spirit, calling her ‘Sophia,’ which is the Greek name for Divine Wisdom personified as a woman.
-The Logos, who is the Son, was always with the Father. Sophia also, who is the Spirit, was in God’s presence before anything was created.
-The Trinity is God, his Logos, and his Sophia.
This was before the Virgin Mary replaced the Holy Spirit as the primary symbol of female divinity in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches – something that did not happen until several hundred years after Jesus walked the earth.
[This is the part that I’m not so thrilled with, as it almost sounds disrespectful and condescending] As for the Virgin Mary, she was not the real biological mother of Jesus. Mary was only a womb into which he was placed after he was conceived. The real mother of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself testifies to this effect, as did his early followers:
‘My Mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one of my hairs and carried me to Mount Tabor…My mother, my true mother, gave me life…’
-People say Mary got pregnant by the Holy Spirit, but they are wrong. Since when has a woman procreated with another woman? Mary is a virgin [but we all know the real meaning of the word “virgin” from back in that time period]. Nothing had sex with her.
This idea is corroborated by Luke, where the angel says to Mary,
-‘The Holy Spirit will come to you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, that holy one to whom you shall give birth will be called the Son of God.’
We have all heard that the Holy Spirit came to Mary, but who is this other character named the ‘Most High?’ Translated into Hebrew, the ‘Most High’ is Elyon, who is mentioned many times in the Old Testament, and in the English Bibles is translated consistently as the ‘Most High.’ Elyon is a derivative of El, the Father-God of the ancient Hebrews and of their Western Semitic kinfolk.
In other words, it was God the Father and the Holy Spirit who conceived Jesus Christ. The ‘biological’ parents of Jesus are the other two members of the Trinity. Mary had nothing to do with it. Rather, her womb was merely used to incubate Jesus after conception. God did this in order to deceive the hound of hell, the princes of the pit, and the archons of Abaddon into believing Jesus was more human than he really was, so that when he descended into the underworld to preach the gospel to the dead, Abaddon would believe he was only a dead man, and fail to recognize him as a living God. Thus Jesus was a Trojan horse in hell who ‘led captives out of hell and gave gifts to human kind – for what does it mean that he ascended but that he first descended?’ As the Apostle wrote, ‘The gospel was preached to the dead.'” (http://www.jesusbelievesinevolution.com/JBE348-351.pdf , sources are in the footnotes)
Now, that’s some interesting info to ponder on…if I were Christian, yet still interesting even though I’m not. Pretty damn blasphemous and heretical for those who’ve been brainwashed, institutionalized and had the “fear of God” instilled into them in one way or another to keep them from thinking outside the box or using reason or logic; to follow blindly without questioning the patriarchal power and authority that resides over them. I can understand why they’d be hostile and I feel sorry for them, truly. To admit that there maybe a co-creator, a FEMALE co-creator, would dismantle and bring the patriarchy crumbling down.
I also really like your Grandmother’s explanation of God. It’s when we constantly refer to G-d as “He” and completely disregard the “She” that I have a huge problem with. When I was in Catholic Sunday school, I thought the exact thing your Grandmother did, and to some extent, still do. I brought this theory of mine up to my Sunday school teacher and she had asked me if I’d read the “Celestine Prophecy”; which I hadn’t and I’m not sure what the connection is. I still haven’t read it, but maybe I should.
I’ve had a number of people ask me if I’ve read that. I have a copy. I’ve picked it up and leafed through it idly, but I’ve never sat down and read the thing. The testimony of Jesus regarding his “true mother” is not a piece I’m familiar with. Perhaps it is from a Gospel not considered canon by the Catholic Church? I personally really like the Father-Mother-Son as the Trinity. It seems complete in a way the God-as-only-Father does not.
I really like the artwork and paintings in your blog. Just a small contribution of art from the 12th century, helping to prove the point that the Holy Spirit is indeed feminine
Most people are surprised to see, that the iconography of a 12th century German church contributes to the argument that in the Trinity the Holy Spirit is feminine. The fresco hidden in the 12th century church in Urschalling celebrates this:
http://www.celtoslavica.de/imago/_Urschalling.html
Here the central figure, the Holy Spirit is clearly a woman. Observers however point out, that what makes this depiction really unique is that the folds of the robes in the middle of picture are a beautiful representation of the female vulva.
That’s wonderful! Thanks for the share! 🙂
Hello, it is good that you recognize that God isn’t just male, but what about Jesus? It’s by His name that my life and many other peoples lives around me have been changed, and it is by His name have I seen the mute people speak, broken bones shift and restore themselves in people’s bodies, and lame people get out of wheel chairs. It’s by His blood that I was redeemed and freed from addiction to lust, demonic oppression, and pornography. I believe that the Word of God is the ultimate authority to existence and that He is the Word made flesh, and follow Him, because He has shone His love to me. I do believe that the Holy Spirit is the femininity of God, but I also believe that Yahuveh is the Most High. I don’t follow Him just based off what other people told me, or what I read on the internet. I talk with Him and He listens, and tells me what I need to hear so that I can be closer to Him. It is wonderful to know the love of a mother, but we are also very incomplete without the love of a Father. This is why the people of my generation are overall rebellious, selfish, cold, not knowing how to love. It’s why the males are strung out on drugs, or in prison, disconnected and apathetic toward their own children, and why females disrespect themselves and willingly receive the abuse of the males who do not know love. When the love of a Father is disconnected, everything goes to hell…literally. That’s why Jesus is who He is. He reintroduces us to the love of the Heavenly Father, and restores our identity of children of God. Which is why me and my friends see miracles frequently, without the use of anything but trust that Jesus is moving through us and speaking with authority in His name. Be careful with taking in knowledge from everyone else except the One who loves you the most. Don’t forget your Father please, or you will miss out on the greatest life, filled with joy, walking in shalom (completeness) that you could ever have in this life and in the life to come. God Bless.