For me, the reason seems very much societal-cultural, as you have said, wil.
In various cultures, at various times, the Sacred Feminine has been revered as the Supreme aspect of Deity. To me, this is an equally valid observation, and we could just as well refer to God the Mother. I must admit, however, that I am a long way from *realizing* this balance in practice!
I think the conditioning of several thousands of years has shifted our focus to such a point that we are extremely lopsided in our spirituality ... at least in terms of the Judeo-Christian or Abrahamic focus on the Divine Masculine. Jehovah, which is one way to render the unpronounceable YHWH, is supposed to mean something like 'male-female,' as but one instance of the
Elohim - a plural word anyway, not singular.
The Jewish tradition probably speaks to this more directly, but one thing seems clear: In most of the world's traditions, the Feminine is exalted equally with the Masculine, speaking from a strictly human point of view. There is even the occasional shining example of the focus on a Divine Mother, as in Sri Aurobindo's teachings, as well as the reverence given to Mary by the Catholic Church.
Note that in the Egyptian, as well as the Greek mythologies, female deities are often portrayed in equally prominent roles as male deities. The Roman counterparts, Minerva for Athena, Juno for Hera, continues this recognition, but it seems to me that as Egyptian religion yielded to Greek, and Greek finally to Roman, there was a definite if gradual shift toward a focus on the masculine more so than the feminine. Does anyone else seem to intuit, or feel this transition?
Also, should the Mithraic cult of Sol Invictus have superseded Christianity (as it nearly did), I think the focus on a
male or masculine Deity would have been equally likely. The tradition would simply have stemmed from a different line of world cultures, or religions. And even as things have turned out, Mithraism is a HUGE influence in Christianity, almost even forming its backbone I would say. Again,
male male male!
If the Chaldean-Mesopotamian-Hebrew religious traditions were evolving along similar lines, might this suggest some kind of external force at work? I don't mean to overlook the insight you've already provided, wil, I'm just curious about how the male-centric society evolved to begin with (a good question for several other threads, I imagine) ... and I'm not satisfied with the typical *Cave man Ugg hits cave woman Ugga with the club and says come make babies* theory.
Yeah, sure, this has something to do with it, but to put this in slightly more feminist terms,
how did men come to be in charge, anyway?
My own belief, since I think the Stars (and planets) have a tremendous amount to do with
why religion is as it is ... is that most likely there have been some overwhelmingly, tremendously
masculine energies at work, affecting and conditioning our concept(s) of Deity. Boil this down, and it's not only kinda practical, logical and obvious, it's irrefutable - doncha think?
Not that Venus doesn't figure in, but err - it's MARS.
Think: God of WAR, conflict, mmm - humanity's experience for about as long as history records, mmm - IRON, metals, weapons (also tools, technology, but not the SKILL to use them, this is Mercury, also Venus) ... and even the symbol of the planet itself, a PHALLUS??? Ah well, the lingam is an ancient holy symbol and icon in Hinduism, but even Siva has a CONSORT!!!
I am posting this midday on Wednesday, though if there is a moderator delay, I'm not sure when it might show up. Please note, however, that I composed it and left it sitting in the browser for about 24hrs. Only wil's post was there when I started, the 2nd post appeared as I was composing, then I just now refreshed to see what China Cat and others had said. My jaw dropped. I love synchronicity.
~Zag
