Rumination of the Goddess kind

[eumelia]

I 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.

Comments

[asatruteacher.livejournal.com]

Hmmm a few points. I know in my faith, we have strong goddesses and don't apologize for them being powerful. If you look at Greek and other Med cultures, you'll find that most of the powerful femal deieties are portrayed as being shrill, (Hera) or men-hating (Artemis/Diana) or evil (Hecate).

In the northern tradition, Freyja, who gets first choice of the battleslain before even Odin, is one of our most beloved Goddesses by men and women. (She was so beloved that the early church did everything in its power to wipe out even her rune). Skadi, challenged the Gates of Asgard itself over the death of her father.

As for the Earth being feminine, there are some suggestions that our Earth Goddess Nerthrus is simply Njord (a God of Fjord's and the sea) who turned himself female in order to bear Freyr and Freyja.

Frigg has more knowledge of whatis to happen than even the Allfather, and has on more than one occassion turned the tide of battle against her husband's wishes.

Perhaps you should look to the Northern Gods before you decide on a virgin Goddess who has a history of hating and killing men.

Danny

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I like the Eddas and Sagas of the Northern Gods, but never felt as connected to them as I did with the Greeks and the Egyptians. I don't know why, I suppose it's because I like in a med country and that was the culture I was exposed to.

Artemis has been a part of my life since I was little girl, I never considered her virginity anything other than the fact that she preferred the company of women to men, and as for hating them, I also never felt she hated me, she loved her brother Apollo (who was very much a misogynist, if we look at the way he treated his the women he pursued like Daphne and Cassandra). And Acteon was a hunting companion of hers, it was when he stepped into her space was when she punished him.

The Earth is feminine to me because I always thing of Gaia when I think of the Earth.