Rumination of the Goddess kind
Feb. 24th, 2007 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eumeliaI decided to get rid of the Spiritual Filter, because it's not something I'm ashamed of and not something that should be restricted from people who read this LJ.
For your convenience it is under the cut.
Many... well a few months ago, I wrote about my intention to try and combine my old-time religion (Agnostic Judaism) and my actual spiritual beliefs (Shamanistic Paganism).
With the current state in which I find Judaism that isn't going to work. I simply can't accept Judaism as it is today as the basis for my spiritual practice, it's too constrictive, too anachronistic, even with it being an evolving religion that keeps historical tradition, it has completely negated the female aspects of GD.
Like many Jews I try not to use GD's name in vain, mainly in writing which is why I don't write the whole word, only in fiction do I use the whole word.
But the Jewish GD is one I have a hard time wanting to spend time with, I'm Agnostic, because I have no way of proving or disproving the existence of a deity. A deity exists out of the power of belief and faith, it's a beautiful thing, and throughout my albeit short life, I have gone from Believer to Atheist and back again, though a few years ago I came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter, if GD truly exists or not. The GD of which I speak, is unfortunately not mine. The GD of my people is a shadow of what the divine should be, because the concept is a direct reflection of the believers and most of the believers, at least in Israel, are out of touch with what I consider truly holy, or more the point, what should be considered equally holy.
In Judaism there is the a concept known as the Shechina or Shekinah, the spelling varies in English though in Hebrew it is written as שכינה, which comes from the root שכן which is literally translated as "to dwell". And the Shekinah is considered the presence of GD of Earth and thus considered merely a tiny piece of the universal GD of Judaism. This is the transformation that occurred over thousands of years where for reasons I still do not fully understand, the female principal was shushed, quited down and made mute. But seeing as they couldn't kill the spirit of their women, since they, ya know, ensured the continuity of their sons (their daughters weren't as important, obviously), the GDess remained in the silenced, almost negligible role as being GD on Earth, though not really, just a little bit.
It used to be that GD the celestial father and GDess the earth mother were equal, with different functions, same as between Human men and women, different but ultimately equal. Something shifted, but the balance tilted and the GDess was lost, silenced, still there but not heard which is worse than killing Her and making the body disappear at least then we wouldn't know any better and Ignorance is Bliss and all that Bullshit.
So Judaism as a Spiritual path is not good for me, though an identity, culture and mindset I can't get rid of it, that instilled paranoid criticism and guilt that we are not as good as our Makers (parents, GDs, whoever) wanted us to be.
It would seem that the more I think about, the more towards the female principal I go. Which I can't say is really surprising, I always felt more connected to Artemis (Greek Goddess of the hunt, nature, moon and girl children) than to any other deity.
I even have a figurine of her on my shelf, she's very beautiful.
I suppose it's back to Goddess Worship for me.
For your convenience it is under the cut.
Many... well a few months ago, I wrote about my intention to try and combine my old-time religion (Agnostic Judaism) and my actual spiritual beliefs (Shamanistic Paganism).
With the current state in which I find Judaism that isn't going to work. I simply can't accept Judaism as it is today as the basis for my spiritual practice, it's too constrictive, too anachronistic, even with it being an evolving religion that keeps historical tradition, it has completely negated the female aspects of GD.
Like many Jews I try not to use GD's name in vain, mainly in writing which is why I don't write the whole word, only in fiction do I use the whole word.
But the Jewish GD is one I have a hard time wanting to spend time with, I'm Agnostic, because I have no way of proving or disproving the existence of a deity. A deity exists out of the power of belief and faith, it's a beautiful thing, and throughout my albeit short life, I have gone from Believer to Atheist and back again, though a few years ago I came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter, if GD truly exists or not. The GD of which I speak, is unfortunately not mine. The GD of my people is a shadow of what the divine should be, because the concept is a direct reflection of the believers and most of the believers, at least in Israel, are out of touch with what I consider truly holy, or more the point, what should be considered equally holy.
In Judaism there is the a concept known as the Shechina or Shekinah, the spelling varies in English though in Hebrew it is written as שכינה, which comes from the root שכן which is literally translated as "to dwell". And the Shekinah is considered the presence of GD of Earth and thus considered merely a tiny piece of the universal GD of Judaism. This is the transformation that occurred over thousands of years where for reasons I still do not fully understand, the female principal was shushed, quited down and made mute. But seeing as they couldn't kill the spirit of their women, since they, ya know, ensured the continuity of their sons (their daughters weren't as important, obviously), the GDess remained in the silenced, almost negligible role as being GD on Earth, though not really, just a little bit.
It used to be that GD the celestial father and GDess the earth mother were equal, with different functions, same as between Human men and women, different but ultimately equal. Something shifted, but the balance tilted and the GDess was lost, silenced, still there but not heard which is worse than killing Her and making the body disappear at least then we wouldn't know any better and Ignorance is Bliss and all that Bullshit.
So Judaism as a Spiritual path is not good for me, though an identity, culture and mindset I can't get rid of it, that instilled paranoid criticism and guilt that we are not as good as our Makers (parents, GDs, whoever) wanted us to be.
It would seem that the more I think about, the more towards the female principal I go. Which I can't say is really surprising, I always felt more connected to Artemis (Greek Goddess of the hunt, nature, moon and girl children) than to any other deity.
I even have a figurine of her on my shelf, she's very beautiful.
I suppose it's back to Goddess Worship for me.
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Re: Several thoughts on the subject
Date: 2007-02-24 03:19 pm (UTC)Also, the Hewbrews were slaves for a number of generation in Egypt which are very egalitarian in their theology, I mean Isis and Nephtys and Nut, are just as important as Ra, Osiris and Horus.
The Hebrew language is male, its default usage of pronouns are male, making it very, very clear that maleness precedes femaleness which is the exception and the "Other".
Re: Several thoughts on the subject
Date: 2007-02-24 03:48 pm (UTC)Also, another possibility is that Judaism became non-tolerant as a counter to these egalitarian theologies- Judaism is full of borders between in-group and out-group.Take Kosher for example- it creates a border on the one of most basic of social activities: the people you can eat with.
Re: Several thoughts on the subject
Date: 2007-02-25 05:32 pm (UTC)Basically, saying that one deity is as (or more) important as another deity is more a matter of in what time and place you are discussing them.