May 15--The Sacred Feminine

There is grace in the sunrise, in the light of a new day.  --Mary Davis

    This is "food for thought" from the Richard Rohr Daily Meditation from May 12:

Novelist Sue Monk Kidd describes why cultivating an image of the Sacred Feminine is so important, particularly for women raised within Christianity:  

A young girl learns Bible stories in which vital women are generally absent, in the background, or devoid of power. She learns that men go on quests, encounter God, and change history, while women support and wait for them. She hears sermons where traditional (nonthreatening) feminine roles are lifted up as God’s ideal. A girl is likely to see only a few women in the higher echelons of church power.  

And what does a girl, who is forming her identity, do with all the scriptures admonishing women to submission and silence? Having them “explained away” as the product of an ancient time does not entirely erase her unease. She also experiences herself missing from pronouns in scripture, hymns, and prayers. And most of all, as long as God “himself” is exclusively male, she will experience the otherness, the lessness of herself; all the pious talk in the world about females being equal to males will fail to compute in the deeper places inside her.

When we truly grasp for the first time that the symbol of woman can be a vessel of the sacred, that it too can be an image of the Divine, our lives will begin to pivot…. Internalizing the Divine Feminine provides women with the healing affirmation that they are persons in their own right, that they can make choices, that they are worthy and entitled and do not need permission. The internalization of the Sacred Feminine tells us our gender is a valuable and marvelous thing to be.

    I grew up with the "big scary male God." Having had a good relationship with my father, I realize that I tend to think of God as a "sugar Daddy." My concept of Something Bigger continues to develop, without modern-day religion, and that's a good thing. I am forever grateful to the 12-Step program for giving me permission to live within and connect with a Higher Power that works for me. 

        Leta

The entertaining sign of a local Wichita liquor store