Goddess figures have abounded world wide and at every stage in history. Many are tied to creative and generative powers, Wisdom, accessibility, Presence, and more. In all cultures, the prominence of Mother or the Goddess waxes and wanes depending on group needs, and especially when authoritative, declarative, military, masculine powers take the fore. Yet, even during these times, each culture features groups of people who in some way keep her dearly needed presence alive. Such is the case in Mormonism, with many continuing to seek the divine feminine, most often in the figure of Heavenly Mother but in others, as well.
This episode, the first of a two-part discussion about the feminine divine, features three wonderful panelists, Kristen Rogers-Iversen, Kathryn Knight Sonntag, and Britney Hartley, who share their journeys with Mother, and with nature, the earth, embodiment, motherhood, and more. Each brings unique perspectives and questions to the forefront. The conversation here focuses on their longings, quests, research, deep dives into symbols of the divine feminine, such as the Tree of Life, personal and communal spirituality, mysticism, and faith journeys that require us to find balance between the feminine and the masculine. We also learn why they have chosen the forms or approaches they have when writing or presenting about their quests. It’s a wonderful, vulnerable, at at times challenging and wistful discussion.
Please listen in!
__________
Links to books by the authors and other things mentioned in the podcast:
Kathryn Knight Sonntag, The Tree at the Center (By Common Consent Press, 2019)
Kathryn’s website: https://www.kathrynknightsonntag.com/
You can also follow her here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KnightSonntag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knightsonntag/
Kristen Rogers-Iversen, Interwoven: Junipers and the Web of Being (University of Utah Press, 2017)
Brittney Hartley, Mormon Philosophy Simplified: An Easy LDS Approach to Classic Philosophical Questions (2019)
Peggy Orenstein, Boys and Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity (Harper, 2020)
RadioWest episode with a great summary of the book’s themes
The female divine is the same as the masculine divine. What they once called the Sophia of God. In the beginning our intelligence that was not created or made consisted of light and truth. God has a fullness of light and truth. For the entire First Estate we were not sexual beings. We each had our respective sphere of light and truth, some greater than others. In our second estate the man and woman of Genesis One are commanded to multiply and this creation they finish by Genesis Two. This is the spiritual conception of a male and female who continue the seeds ‘Out of The World’. Now Satan and his 1/4rd refuse to continue to the sexual assignment of the continuation of the Seeds. WHY? Because of their will to rival God for supremacy. And to do so they needed to keep their respective fullness of light and truth rather than surrender to sexual assignment that requires each to leave off the opposite intelligence to rightly support either the male of female designation from the conceptions of the man and woman who were commanded to multiply and replenish. (the resistance inherent in leaving off a portion of who we are to discipline our identity to male or female is precisely why the sexual confusion reality of the physical world manifests to one degree or another.
For the purpose of understanding the Female Divine you need to realize that God has a fullness of light and truth. That means he is not a sexual being. He in fact has a complete fullness have retained both the male and female aspects of intelligence. That fact is manifest in the Christ ministry (suffering to bring forth the spiritual conception of the children of God) of God as they continue on their eternal round of a course. Each of the three will serve in turn at each station of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost as they continue their one eternal round of a course. In John 5:25 Jesus testifies that the Father has life in himself. and gave unto the Son to have life in himself. I interpret this as meaning that they are without father and without mother having neither beginning of day nor end of years…..(Hebrews 7:3) Again in John Chapter 5, Jesus affirms that he does what the Father did before, just as Joseph Smith spoke to in the King Follett discourse. See John 5: 19-20. Further on in John chapter 6:62 Jesus adds to the mystery by saying “What and if ye shall see the son of man ascend up to where he was before?” Which agrees with Joseph Smith that Jesus treads in the tracks of his Father in inherits what the Father had before. (King Follett Discourse)
So we have God who has life in himself and neither a father or mother, which manifest that he has a fullness of light and truth and not a sexual being. He was never assigned by way of the seeds. All three have life in and off themselves. That is the distinction between us and God. That is a fundamental break from adolescent theology of those who purposefully sought to Druidize the Restoration and kill of the Smiths and introduce polygamy, a female divine, multiple mortal probation, becoming big G Gods, and through education become the elite of all things worldly. This they did to draw the Northern Europeans who who came by the thousands to the New Druidism of the betrayers of the Restoration. Which is why it is all about empire building and wealth and forcing subjection to man and not teaching people to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ and be born of God and made each a prophet or prophetess.
No doubt I have exceeded already the capacity of ‘Mormons’ to hear. So it has been with me more than fifty years.