The Gender of Divinity

The Gender of Divinity

Many religious and spiritual traditions describe God with a specific gender. For example, although there are those who worship Mother Mary, Christianity is dominated by a Father God. A lot of modern Hinduism is also directed at male deities like Shiva or forms of Vishnu.

Some modern faiths speak in terms of a Father-Mother God, likening it to a personal choice or a genderless or androgynous divinity.

What this is leaving out is direct experience. When the means to direct experience is lost, traditions devolve into systems of belief. This has happened repeatedly throughout the ages.

However, the divine can be directly known. This first arises in one of 2 ways:
The Impersonal is genderless being, pure existence. Words like She or Father are meaningless although It may also be unsuitable. Hence words like That.

The Personal is our highest ideation of divinity, usually in a form we can relate to. Our personal highest ideal may appear as a masculine or a feminine figure.

Direct experience can happen well before awakening but really flowers in the God Consciousness and further refinement stages if that’s being cultured. In Refined Unity, there is that potential for God Realization.

How our mind might favour a style of divinity may or may not match what later flowers from a deeper reality. This isn’t something driven by the mind. It arises out of our affinity with  specific styles of being.

As we go deeper into Brahman, we leave behind form and duality. Gender becomes a near meaningless distinction. Yet when we go still deeper beyond the beyond and discover pure Divinity, there is a tendency to shift back to gender again. Not because of duality but because of how we relate to an effulgent, all-giving Divinity.

In most cases, it seems people are inclined to see pure Divinity as Divine Mother. This is because of the nature of the direct knowing. Also we know the Shakti’s before we know the power. It would not surprise me to find some who relate to the source of the source as masculine though. But usually they’re referring to an expressed aspect of the divine.

Each of us are unique combinations of laws that emphasize a style of experience of the world that fills in yet another puzzle piece in the wholeness of Being.

Don’t try to figure it out in advance. Instead, allow it to unfold as it is.
Davidya

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4 Comments

  1. Jim

    Thanks – pretty deep dynamics here. Regarding a highest ideation of Divinty, in this life I began with God and then that differentiated over time into aspects like Shiva, Vishnu, Saraswati, and Ganesh. Now any ideation of Divinity (aside from those I work with directly) as *The Source* is simply all loving, all supporting, and all nourishing, ever giving birth to Creation. It is too feminine to be masculine, and too masculine to be feminine.

  2. Thanks, Jim
    The way it often unfolds to the experience is:
    – a recognition of the profound intelligence and order in the world around us and/or within.

    – a sense of divinity thats somewhat impersonal. Not experienced directly but “sensed.”

    – the experience of subtle forms or aspects of the divine. This leads us into the core or primary ones called the pancha devata or 5 primary forms which I’ve described elsewhere. How those appear to us may be similar to Vedic descriptions but may be quite different.

    – the unfolding of a relationship with the divine. We relate via our own highest ideals. That may take a personal form and may be one of the 5 or some other form. It may take a more impersonal nature yet be very intimate.
    (this happens in the GC and Refined Unity stages)

    – God Realization at the peak of Unity setting the stage for Brahman.

    – what may be a more impersonal phase or a different personal relationship.

    – the unfolding of pure Divinity. This can be quite intimate also, but in a more universal way, for lack of words. It is even more directly embodied.

    In a balanced process, this will unfold with the stages in consciousness but for many at the moment, there is little of the divine showing up until much later in the process, if at all.

    Also, the journey for this or that person will vary widely in emphasis. For example, there may be no buildup with a sudden awakening to Divinity. Or a big crescendo and loss with the Brahman shift. Or a slow build, etc etc.

    What you describe is a variation on 2 into 3, then further along. We’ve talked about some of the other points like God Realization at other times.

  3. Julian

    Thanks David another interesting post. The adventure continues after awakening indeed. I tend to see Divinity as you mention as Divine Mother, because it feels like that i.e. a nurturing essence/presence yet as you write there are further levels to go….I look forward to shifting into them.

    1. Hi Julian
      Yes, each level brings it’s own sense of self and reality. That changes our sense of the Divine too. What is once the highest soon becomes secondary as still deeper layers unfold. Quite the adventure!

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