The Divine Feminine

So much of our languaging about the Divine is centered on maleness that it is easy to lose the feminine representation of the Divine. Especially in my tradition, Christianity. Over and over

God is God, not Goddess,
Father not Mother
Abba not Amma
Adonai not El Shaddai

It is sad. The imagery is there but centuries of patriarchy have taken the feminine away from the church. I won’t let that happen on my watch! On my personal altar, I have a feminine depiction complete with candle. It sits alongside my traditional Christian imagery, my little otter, and my favorite poetry book, “Women in Praise of the Sacred.”

I have a photo of her below. And I have to tell you, it was fun doing a photo shoot with little Gaia! I love her and the orange candle that she holds. Orange is the second chakra, feminine, creative, joyous, adaptable! We all have a little Gaia within.

But now, I will share one of my favorite poems from my favorite book with one of my favorite symbols.

Evening Star who gathers everything
Shining dawn scattered –
You bring the sheep and the goats,
You bring the child back to its mother.

-Sappho, 7th c. BCE

What image of the Divine calls to you? Where do you find images that inspire? What sits upon your altar?

Amen? Amen!

Shalom,

Notes on photo: Using my computer for the backdrop of gold sparkly stuff, I put saran wrap on the computer screen, put Gaia on a board covered with fabric, propped some flashlights so she had the lighting she needs, and snapped photos from a bunch of angles! This was a fun project!

Author: Jamie Dedes

Jamie Dedes is a Lebanese-American poet and free-lance writer. She is the founder and curator of The Poet by Day, info hub for poets and writers, and the founder of The Bardo Group, publishers of The BeZine, of which she was the founding editor and currently a co-manager editor with Michael Dickel. Ms. Dedes is the Poet Laureate of Womawords Press 2020 and U.S associate to that press as well. Her debut collection, "The Damask Garden," is due out fall 2020 from Blue Dolphin Press. View All Posts