God/dess: Genders

Yet more comments that I posted over at Unmasking the Goddess. These in response to this post right here. I just can't seem to help myself.

"I believe God got it right in Eden when he put a Woman and Man in charge, together. That, I believe, should be our goal, neither elevating nor denigrating one sex over the other."

And Goddess worshippers believe this as well. Separation is not an idea that is embraced. Instead, there is an idea of Oneness that we believe the Goddess embodies. She is both male and female.

The idea of engendering God is something people do to connect with something that is basically hard to comprehend. The concept of God is huge. The human brain is not even capable of grasping the idea of infinite space, let alone the vast concept of God.

I think everyone has pictured God with human qualities before. Though we may believe God is a being beyond gender - or a being that contains both sexes - we do not imagine God as a hermaphrodite or as an androgynous or asexual being.

The ideas behind masculine and feminine represent metaphors that people can relate to and connect with. And, in my opinion, as long as one is reaching to understand the true nature of divinity what should it matter what tools are used to relate to that deity? You see, I believe your God is the same being as my Goddess. We just invision them differently. I believe there is only one being seen by the people of the world in many different ways.

And these comments were in response to this post on feminism being a dirty word.

Given the supplied definition of feminism, shouldn't everyone be a feminist? It's a shame there even needs to be a word for this since it should simply be natural for women to be seen as equal to men.

In Goddess communities I have struggled with the idea of feminism. I have always felt that I didn't want something that seemed so wholly politically motivated to describe my spiritual beliefs. Instead, I believe the Goddess teaches us about Oneness that overcomes gender.

Chai is Goddess

I'm grateful for chai tea - more specifically what we call chai lattes. I have taken to no longer paying a lot of money for them at various cafes - starbucks included - and started buying my own chai mix to drink at home. I have also found a great site with chai recipes that you can make yourself.

Perhaps this is a little frivolous, but I decided to look up what chai actually means. In India it simply means tea but in Hebrew it is the word for life. I thought that was kind of cool. What an interesting metaphor. Chai is sweet, flavorful, milky, soothing, luxiourous, and comforting... at least to me. Wouldn't it be lovely if life was always that simple as well?

So, I was thinking there should be a Goddess of Chai. Afterall, there is a Goddess of Coffee. Well, I think that Goddess would also be considered the Goddess of any Caffenated Beverages. Perhaps I have found my Chai Goddess then.

Anyway... I am grateful for this little pleasure and how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy it whenever I wish. I hope every day that I can always find things to be grateful for... no matter how small. My mother always says it's the little things in life that matter - like playing with the dogs and hearing my daughter laugh. I think Mom knows a thing or two.

Color Meanings Across Traditions

I was at work the other day and spoke to a man who was buying purple paper to use for church signs. In my quirky way I questioned him a little and he said that this color was a good liturgical color to make signs with. I thought it odd that purple would be a color associated with Catholic services, though I did remember priests wearing purple and the altars cloths having purple on them at various times when I had attending Catholic masses. The conversation went on to include the other colors and the man briefly gave me the meanings behind them all.

Purple
Catholic's Interpretation: A sombre color used during lent - the time before Easter, meaning the people are supposed to be refelecive during this time.
My Interpretation: A color associated with the supernatural world or psychic influences. Also, a color I think of when picturing old ladies. In older times only the king was allowed to wear purple. When I mentioned this to the Catholic man he thought that would make sense seeing as how Jesus was "King".

White
Catholic: Used during the high holiday of Easter and Christmas.
Mine: This made sense seeing as how white automatically symbolizes purity and peace. I also see this color as a symbol of the Maiden, beginnings, a clean slate, and insight.

Red
Catholic: I don't remember the complete explanation of this one, but I recall it being symbolic of blood.
Mine: I also associate red with blood, specifically the blood of the Mother, the blood of life, etc. It symbolizes birth to me, in conjunction with the Mother aspect, as well as warmth, compassion, love, protection. Overall, I would use the word passion to describe this color - meaning to me that it could be representative of any extreme or powerful emotion.

Green
Catholic: Used during the "normal" times were his words.
Mine: An extremely sacred color very closely associated with the complete All-Goddess aspect. Fertility, life, the earth, completion, oneness.

Black
Catholic: We did't get a chance to discuss this color.
Mine: The Crone, death and transformation, wisdom, etc.

Below is a definition of the liturgical colors of the Catholic church that I found on the internet. I find this a very Pagan concept, personally - though I am not surprised by that in the least. What would Pagan's use as "liturgical" colors? I know there are some trads that already use colors at certain times of the year. Is your tradition one of them? What do the colors mean to you and your tradition?

Liturgical Symbolism

The variety of liturgical colours in the Church arose from the mystical meaning attached to them. Thus white, the symbol of light, typifies innocence and purity, joy and glory; red, the language of fire and blood, indicates burning charity and the martyrs' generous sacrifice; green, the hue of plants and trees, bespeaks the hope of life eternal; violet, the gloomy cast of the mortified, denotes affliction and melancholy; while black, the universal emblem of mourning, signifies the sorrow of death and the sombreness of the tomb.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04134a.htm

NOTE: How interesting that the liturgical colors of the Catholic faith are the main colors of importance in Goddess Religion/Paganism. Hmm... Interesting, but again not surprising.

Darn it! I Missed This.

The sunrise at Newgrange was broadcasted live via web feed this year. I am so upset that I missed it. No worries, I will be sure to remember this year. It must have been very cool and the next best thing to being there in person. I will do that one day though. What a fascinating site by the way.

There is also a live feed of Maeshowe on the Orkney Islands. Thanks to Paul of Evoking the Goddess for sharing these wonderful sacred sites to those of us who can't visit just yet ourselves.

Earth as Goddess: Comments

Yes, I am back and I know it's been forever. I could go on and tell you the stories of my life over the past few months, but I suppose I would rather keep those details private. Let's just say my focus needed to be on my personal life and my family. I think a person should know when to move focus between aspects of their life, and the Goddess led me where I needed to be at that time. So... to jump right in I have some comments about a post I just read over at Unmasking the Goddess.

First go ahead and read the post entitled The Earth as Goddess. It's an older one from September, but I've been out of the loop for a while and I'm catching up. :)

My comments:

If I may be so bold, I would like to explain something. Most Pagans (capital P like Christians) believe that there is no separation between nature and the Goddess (capital G like God). Just as you may admire a beautiful sunset and see the glory of God, Pagans see the Goddess in all things - very especially nature. The personification of the earth or nature is simply a form of myth and metaphor and not to be taken literally. It would be silly to think that all Pagans believe the earth is genuinely a human woman with god-like powers named Gaia. Gaia is a Greek myth once used to explain creation and the workings of our planet. Gaia, in fact, was the Greek word for earth. So, lets bring this down to Gaia for goodness sake, and avoid sensationalizing a serious religious topic.

Sincere Blessings, Grian

Do you agree or disagree? Let's discuss and debate this topic and get some opinons flying about the internet.