“We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can’t have both.

Not at the same time.” Brene Brown, PhD

Creating Balance with the Divine Feminine

Creating Balance by Integrating

the Divine

Feminine

The fact is that there has been a long history of

the battle of the sexes – patriarchy and

matriarchy. And often for good reasons. But in

Zion, I believe that the masculine and feminine

is balanced.

We can create balance by integrating the divine

feminine —

“Make whole”

Creating is a godly quality. The Gods create – it’s the first sentence in Genesis:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

“And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth.”

“So the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them.” (Abraham 4:27)

The divine feminine is hidden in most ancient

records -- not to protect her, but through the

manipulation of texts to obscure her importance.

This will be reversed in Zion.

“The closest a woman deity comes to speaking and displaying complex agency in the Bible is in Proverbs 1-9, which presents the figure of Wisdom (hokma), remarkable for her unabashedly female voice and her disruption of roles.” (Crawford, p. 14)

“In Proverbs 3:19-20 she is the means by which Yahweh created the world, and likewise chapter 8 speaks to the role of (“Lady”) Wisdom in creation:

‘The LORD acquired me at the beginning of his work/the first of his acts of long ago,/Ages ago I was poured out/at the first, before the beginning of the earth’ (8:22-23)

And further, ‘when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker’ (8:29-30 NRSV)

(Crawford)

This creative aspect of Lady Wisdom may be connected with the (grammatically feminine)

spirit (rûªḥ ʾĕlōhîm) in Gen 1:2 that moves on the face of the waters.

(Crawford)

Genesis 1:2

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the

deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And the earth, after it was formed, was empty and desolate, because they had not formed anything but the earth; and darkness reigned upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of the Gods was brooding upon the face of the waters.” Abraham 4: 1-2

BROOD:1. To sit on and cover, as a fowl on

her eggs for the purpose of warming them and hatching

chickens, or as a hen over her chickens, to warm and protect

them.

2. To sit on; to spread over, as with wings; as, to sit brooding

over the vast abyss.

The Goddess Nut swallows the God Re (the Sun) every evening, and bears him again every morning.

(Nut Chapel, Dendera, Egypt.)

Goddess Nut"O my Mother Nut, stretch Yourself over me, that I may be placed among the imperishable stars which are in You, and that I may not die." Nut was thought to draw the dead into her star-filled sky, and refresh them with food and wine: "I am Nut, and I have come so that I may enfold and protect you from all things evil."

Isaiah calls those who serve as proxy saviors “foster fathers” and “nursing mothers.” These minister to lower levels, acting as kings and queens first in a spiritual sense – by ministering salvation to God’s people – and second in a political sense, in the millennial age.

Each gender is unique and indispensible; neither duplicates the other. People often depict a woman’s role in terms of the phases of the moon. Much of it such as nurturing and extending comfort, is hidden and unseen.

A man’s role resembles the phases of the sun. In his descent he dies so that he might rise again and beget new life. Reflecting that idea, ancient Near Eastern kings were called the “sun” of their peoples.

(Gileadi, Isaiah Decoded, p. 203)

“The first embrace, the aspasmos, is that which the mother of life gave to the first man as he separated himself from her in order to come down to the earth to be tested. She wishes him luck and hopes he will be able to carry on, covers him with love, etc. as they embrace, as he separates in order to come down to the earth for testing. [When he returns] He comes to the gate finally …The first person to embrace him was the last person to embrace him as he left. It was his Heavenly Mother.”

(Hugh Nibley,Lecture 4, Pearl of Great Price)Adolphe Jourdan (1825-1889) A Mother's Embrace.

As early as 1839, Joseph Smith told Zina Diantha Huntington

that she would see her recently deceased mother

again on the other side of the veil, and “more than that, you

will meet and become acquainted with your eternal

Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven.”

When Zina in astonishment asked ‘And have I then a

Mother in Heaven?’ The Prophet replied, ‘You

assuredly have. How could a Father claim His title unless there were also a Mother to

share that parenthood?’ (Susa Young Gates as quoted in Do We Have A Mother in Heaven? Kevin

Barney)

Eve Creates Balance as the Divine

Feminine

Adam and Eve “came on purpose to fall. They fell ‘that man might be; and man is, that he ‘might have joy’. They ate of the tree of mortal life, partook of the elements of this earth that they might again become mortal for their children’s sake. They fell that another world might have a probation, redemption and resurrection.”

(The Women of Mormondom, p. 180)

“God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is.”

(William Blake, Natural Religion)

According to the Gospel of Philip and the Apocalypse of

Adam –

“Adam and Eve were united in celestial union before the

creation of the world, but upon descending to the earth,

became separated, with death entering into the scene. Christ came to earth ‘for the express

purpose of bringing them together in eternal life. Thanks to him those who are united in the Bridal Chamber will never

more be separated.’” (Nibley, p. 104)

And who wants to upset this balance – Satan. And so we

have a continual battle of the sexes so to speak – matriarchy vs patriarchy in this telestial

kingdom.

Adam and Eve“The perfect and beautiful union of Adam and Eve excited the envy and jealousy of the Evil One, who made it his prime objective to break it up. He began by making both parties self-conscious and uncomfortable…

• "Satan Watching the Caresses of Adam and Eve" — William Blake (1757-1827); William Blake's illustrations of "Paradise Lost", 1808.

“Ho, ho,”said he, “you are naked. You had better run and hide, or at least put something on. How do you think you look to your Father?”

They had reason to be ashamed, because their nakedness betrayed their disobedience. They had eaten of the forbidden fruit.

But Satan wanted to shock them with his pious show of prudish alarm—he had made them ashamed of being seen together, and that was one wedge driven between them.”

(Hugh Nibley, Old Testament and Related Studies,p. 88)

“The woman thou gavest me and commanded that she should stay with me: she gave me the fruit and I did eat.” She led, he followed. Adam comes to her defence – “you commanded her to stay with me, what else could she do but take me along with her?”

(Nibley, p. 92)

Curses“God puts a curse upon both Adam and Eve (and the Serpent for that matter). Adam is cursed to toil and bring forth food by the sweat of his brow, and

“Eve’s curse consists of three parts:

• her birth pains will be severe,

• she will desire her husband, and

• he will rule over her.”(Crawford)

Brigham Young and early LDS women, believed that the curse would one day be lifted.

In the blessing that Emma wrote out for herself (because Joseph asked her to do it, as he was being taken to Carthage jail) – Emma pleads, “I ask, my Heavenly Father that through humility, I may be enabled to overcome the curse which was pronounced upon the daughters of Eve.”

In 1907, Emmeline Wells said, “We believe in redemption from the curse placed upon woman. If you ask why we tell you it is a part of our religion and we are working to bring it to pass.”

(Boyd Jay Petersen, p. 163, Eve in the woman’s Exponent)

The Curse on both Adam and Eve may be removed when Zion is built – when the curse on the land will be removed: D&C 61:16-17:

And it shall be said in days to come that none is able to go up to the land of Zion upon the waters, but he that is upright in heart.

And, as I, the Lord, in the beginning cursed the land, even so in the last days have I blessed it, in its time, for the use of my saints, that they may partake the fatness thereof.

No patriarchy or matriarchy in the garden or in Zion – they work together. “-archy” means always to be first in order, to be number One.

(Nibley)

Sarah Creates Balance as the Divine

Feminine

Sarai leaves Haran with the souls that she and Abram had gathered

converted.“And Abram took Sarai his wife, and

Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go

into the land of Canaan;” (Genesis 12)

“And the souls that they had gotten in Haran” refers to the proselytes: Abraham converted the men and

Sarah the women.

(Jewish traditions from the Midrash Rabbah )

(Traditions About the Early Life of Abraham, compiled by John Tvedtnes, Brian Hauglid, John Gee p. 102)

“And I, Abram, dreamed a dream during the night of my entering the land of

Egypt. I saw in my dream one cedar tree and one

palm tree, [a very beautifu]l one, and

huma[n] figures came and tried to chop down and

uproot the cedar in order to leave the palm by itself.

But the palm restrained (them) when she said, ‘Do not chop down the cedar,

for both of us are from o[ne r]oot!’ And the cedar was left alone thanks to

the protection of the palm and was not [chopped

down].”(Genesis Apocrophon)

I woke up from my dream in the night, and said to Sarai, my wife, ‘I have (just) dreamed a dream, [and I] am afraid [on account of] this dream!’ And she said to me, ‘Tell me your

dream that I might know (it), and so I began to relate this dream to her. [And I revealed] to [her the meaning of that] dream, and I [said, ‘… …] for they will seek to kill me, but you

they will spare [… …] this, every favor [do for me] in every where [we are, say] of me that “he is my brother,” and I will remain alive by your protection and survive thanks to you.’

[… … ‘they will try] to remove you from me and to kill me!’

And Sarai wept over my words that night. [… … … …] and Pharaoh Z[oan … … …] Sarai to go to Zoan [with me, for she was v]ery [careful] with her person so that no [one] would

see her […]. But after those five years, three men who were princes of Egypt [came … …] of Pharaoh Zoa[n] about my affairs and about my wife, and they presented [me numerous gifts and aske]d m[e to teach them] values, wisdom, and truth. So I read in their presence

the the words of [En]ochhttps://clas-pages.uncc.edu/john-reeves/course-materials/rels-2104-hebrew-scripturesold-testament/translation-of-1q-genesis-apocryphon/

Abram’s Counsel to Sarai (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)

“Three agents reported to Pharaoh ‘singing the praises of Sarah’s beauty…mentioning that ‘with all her beauty there is much wisdom in her’ (G.A. XX7) lauding her ‘goodness, wisdom, and truth’ even above her other qualities… Her beauty had already caused a sensation at the customs house, according to a famous legend of the Midrash. If nothing else her blondness would have attracted attention among the Egyptians.

Pharaoh sought the hand of Sarah [Sarai], the true princess, in order to raise up a royal progeny by her. Upon a royal bed identical in form with the [royal] altar…, she too prayed for deliverance and was rescued by an angel…”

(Nibley, ERA, Apr 1970)

The Lord commanded Abraham – to ask his wife for this. But Abraham did not command Sarah. No one commanded Sarah – the whole thing is left up to her as a matter of choice. It is she alone that is being tested on the lion couch. He explained the situation to her and it was her choice to do this. And he did not like the idea at all – “And I wept, I Abram, with grievous weeping” (GA)

According to the Midrash,”Abraham made himself of secondary importance…he really became subordinate to Sarah.” (Midr Rab 40:4) Everything was done for her sake: “the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah”

(Nibley)

At God’s command, Abraham humbled himself to ask Sarah as a favor to declare herself to be his sister, eligible to marry another and thus save his life. This is only part of the deference that Abraham had to make to his wife, and it left no place for his male pride.

Sarah, on the other hand, with equal humility, went to Abraham confessing God’s hand in her childlessness and actually begging him to have children by another woman. Can one imagine a greater test of her pride?”

(Nibley)

Sarah

And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. (Genesis 16)

“And Abraham journeyed…and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?”

(Genesis 20)

Everything indicates that Sarah was a princess in her own right – they wanted to raise a royal lineage thru her. Sarai means “Princess of her own people” according to the Midrash, and Sarah means ”princess of all people” and before she ever married Abraham she was well-known by the name of Jiska, “the Seeress” either because she had the gift of prophecy or because of her shining beauty or both”

(Nibley)

“Abraham and Sarah kept the whole law … not by compulsion but with delight” (Midrash)

Why is it we never hear of the God of Sarah Rebecca and Rachel, but only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

The answer is given in Abrham 2:22-25, where Abraham obeys a direct command from God, though he is free to reject it if he will, while Sarah receives it as the law of her husband, being likewise under no compulsion. It is indeed the God of Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel to whom they pray directly, but they covenant with him through their husbands. – when the man and woman are joined together and are called by one name, then the celestial favor rests upon them…

(Nibley)

It is an example of the vassal king relationship and protection covenant.

Abraham keeps the law of God, and Sarah chooses to keep Abraham’s request. They

both are delivered. Sarah delivers Abraham from death by the Pharaoh, and

then Sarah is delivered from creating a new lineage with Pharaoh when the angel of the Lord comes to her rescue – at the request of not only Sarah, but Abraham. Together they save each other through

their difficult trials.

Hannah

“Hannah’s role is probably most strongly confirmed by the deliberate manipulation of the Hebrew texts concerning her activity.

The Hebrew text of the books of Samuel is notoriously corrupt, with the witnesses of the Septuagint (LXX) and Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q51=4QSamuela) providing strong evidence of such.

Some of the textual corruption is clearly accidental, but some appears to be the result of one or more scribes taking strong issue with the implication that Hannah exercised priestly agency.”

(Crawford)

9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord.

10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.

11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life…

12 And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth.

13 Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.

14 And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.

15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.

(1 Samuel 1) (Walters manuscript W.106, circa 1250)

“Hannah had authoritative agency: naming, vowing, sacrificing, dedicating… Rather than circumscribing Hannah’s power, maternity leads her to exercise authority in reference to her existence as a woman. Her example provides a foundation for imagining female priesthood power in a way that does not collapse gender difference.”

(Crawford)

In the Masoretic (Hebrew) text (MT), on which virtually all modern translations are based, the line in 1 Sam 1:23 that originally read,

• “Only, may the Lord establish that which goes out of your [Hannah’s] mouth,” as it is in LXX and 4QSama, the text was changed to “Only, may the Lord establish his word.”

(Crawford)

MT has removed three notices about Hannah in the presence of the Lord (1 Sam 1:9, 14, 18) and added the clause to verse 9 that she had been drinking.

• “In verse 18 LXX, Hannah leaves Eli and goes to her quarters connected to the Temple to have a ritual meal with Elkanah. Donald Parry points out that these quarters (liškâ in Hebrew) are otherwise only connected to males, including priests and Levites; this was probably omitted deliberately from MT.

• Hannah probably originally also said in 1:8, “here am I” (so LXX), as only males do elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible (including, famously, her son), and overwhelmingly in contexts of divine apparition.”

(Crawford)

Eliza R. Snow

But where was woman, ‘when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy?’ (Job 38)

Where was Zion? Where the bride? Where was woman?

Not yet created; taken afterwards from the rib of Adam; of the earth, not of heaven; created for Adam’s glory, that he might rule over her.

So said not Joseph [Smith.]

Joseph was gifted with wonderful memories of the “eternities past.” He had not forgotten woman. He knew Eve, and the he remembered Zion. He restored woman to her place among the Gods, where her primeval Genesis is written.

Woman was among the morning stars, when they sang together for joy, at the laying of the foundations of the earth.

In the temple, both of heavens and the earth, woman is found. She is there in her character of Eve, and in her character of Zion. The one is the type of the earth, the other the type of heaven; the one the mystical name of the mortal, the other of the celestial woman.

The Mormon prophet rectifies the divine drama. Man is nowhere where woman is not. Mormonism has restored woman to her pinnacle.

Presently woman herself shall sing of her divine origin. A high priestess of the faith shall interpret the themes of herself and of her Father-and-Mother God!

(The Women of Mormondom, p. 176 -177)

Dec 16, 1857 WW wrote a letter to Miss E. R. Snow:

– “Many an hour has Joseph spent in gloom and sorrow because of Fals

Brethren and wicked men. Even the hearts of the saint were so barred by

fals tradition that He could not unbosom his soul in the House of His Friends. This caused him pain. Then thou dist comfort him. Thy friendly

thoughts and acts and words inspired by Gods Eternal truth was like a flaming shaft. Thou launch by a

female hand, that hand was nerved by faith and power that it pierced the

walls of Darkness fear and death and gave the Prophet Joy…Thou hast been a true friend and comforted the heart

of Joseph, Hiram, Brigham, Heber, Willard, Jedediah, Thy Brother Lorenzo

and thousands of the saints. I need not name them. Thy words and testimony will live and speak in flames of Holy fire to inspire and

hearts of Prophets apostles and holy men of god to noble deeds, …God

bless thee noble muse.” (Waiting for World’s End, p. 209 -210)

Phoebe Woodruff

“1854 Feb 3 – As my son Wilford (age 13) was to commence this morning to begin to officiate in the priests office by going through the ward to visit the house of each member in company with Brother Ross in the capacity of teachers I called my family together for the purpose of Prayer and Dedicating my son unto the Lord. His father and mother laid hands upon his head and Dedicated him unto the Lord.

The following is a copy of the Blessing bestowed upon his head:… Wilford in the name of Jesus Christ and by virtue of the Holy Priesthood I lay my hands upon your head and seal upon your head a Fathers blessing and seal upon you the priesthood of Aaron which you have received and also to dedicate you unto God…”

(From the journal of Wilford Woodruff, in Waiting for World’s End, p. 159-160)(Image: ca1850, Wilford and Phoebe, about age 41 or 42)

The 144,000

“Among the 144,000 were men and women. Our powers were equal. There was no difference.

Women were High Priestesses, and men were High Priests, and

we worked side by side.”

(Visions of Glory)

Brene Brown, Phd. Daring Greatly

You may not have signed up for a hero’s journey, but the second you fell down, …

suffered a disappointment, …[messed] up, or felt your heart break, it started. It

doesn’t matter whether we are ready for an emotional adventure— hurt happens. And it happens to every single one of us. Without exception. The only decision we get to make is what role we’ll play in our own lives: Do we want to write the story

or do we want to hand that power over to someone else? Choosing to write our own story means getting uncomfortable; it’s

choosing courage over comfort.

“There was a beautiful consistency and a deep mystical meaning in the words of the old Jewish prophets when personifying Zion as the woman—the

woman of the Lord’s choosing, for the earth’s joy” (Women of Mormondom)

Revelation 12—

 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

“Man is about to take on the nature of God…For according to Blake’s radical reading of the Gospel,…Man himself — not merely Jesus, but every man and woman — is potentially endowed with divine glory and even divine power…(H. Fisch, Presence)

(Image: The Lord Answers Job from the Whirlwind, 1826 William Blake)

© Copyright 2016 Deila Taylor