There are also beautiful “world-parent” myths where creation emerges from a man and a woman. And there is Mother Earth – Pachamama to the Incans, Gaia to the Greeks, and Terra to the Romans – who is the keeper/giver of life, fertility, power, and wisdom.
From Chinese culture, we have the goddess, Nuwa, who created people from the dust of the earth. In Native American traditions, there is the Grandmother who gave her life so the people could have corn and Grandmother Spider who stole the sun so the people could have light and warmth. But you can also take the next step and share stories of creator-women who are integral to the world as we know it. In the Abrahamic traditions, all those things are attributed to a God who is male, so you can start by replacing all those instances of “he” and “his” with a more gender-neutral world. You’ll be amazed by the depth and breadth of their ideas. Ask how the stars ended up in the sky, why the oceans move, or how fish got their fins.
Kids have a lot to say about how the world came to be. Citations and website URLs can be found at the end. If we want to change that, we need to start with the stories. Teaching the usual faith-based narratives results, almost automatically, in a male-centric view of the divine. Waiting until the teenage years or later to teach about the divine feminine means we miss an early, age-appropriate window of opportunity. Boy-girl categorization structures are among the first schemas to develop in children, and by the age of five, kids are using those categories to develop gender scripts that cluster and categorize all manner of behaviors. Developmental research shows that by the age of three, kids begin to self-identify as a boy or a girl and start labeling toys as being most appropriate for males or females. We need to buck prevailing tends and do so when kids are young. Instead of bemoaning the fact that yet another generation of young adults remains unfamiliar with herstory, we need to move our attention front and center to the divine feminine. So interfaith teachers need to get in gear. The myths and legends are there the child-friendly packets are not. Teaching the divine feminine to kids requires both effort and ingenuity.
28 address to Congress, the light of the divine feminine is hiding in plain sight, waiting to be lifted up and illuminated. Like the women of the Democratic party who increased their visibility by wearing white to Donald Trump’s Feb. But if you seek her out in the world’s religions, you’ll find the divine feminine very much does exist. Only a small minority of religions remain blameless. The divine feminine is often veiled to the point of total banishment. Frankly, there’s solid evidence to support the claims. Queen Esther, the heroine of Purim, is never described in terms of divinity, but her role in the miraculous deliverance of her people give Jews young and old an annual festival to honor women leaders with readings of the Esther story, gifts of food, acts of charity, and a great feast – it’s a very teachable tale!ĭuring my years of interfaith work, however, I have heard accusations of overbearing patriarchy leveled at nearly every major faith tradition. The recent celebration of Purim – one of the most entertaining holy days in Jewish culture – provides an opportunity to reflect on the ever-present, but somewhat elusive nature of the divine feminine.
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