Robert Graves wrote that there were three aspects of the Goddess (Divine Feminine). Contemporary Wiccans would also add the sexual aspect of the feminine.
They would also criticise the apparent lack of a crone (wisdom) and the sexual aspect in conventional Christianity.
However, in Orthodoxy, they have the festival of the Myrrh-Bearing Women - the women who anointed the body of Christ after his death; and they have the Holy Wisdom herself, Hagia Sophia, an energy of God, I think. They also have Salome (one of the Myrrh-Bearing Women), who I think was a midwife according to tradition. And of course they have a deep reverence for the Theotokos.
One of the functions of the midwife is also as layer-out - the one who tends the body after death. That's the role that the Myrrh-Bearing Women were performing - and is associated with the Crone in Wicca.
Add to that Mary Magdalene as the Bride - the sexual aspect - and you have the full set.
Maiden - young Virgin Mary
Bride - Mary Magdalene
Mother - Mary Theotokos
Midwife - Salome
Layer-out - The Myrrh-Bearing Women
Wisdom - Sophia
Update 5-3-2008: the Pope has just slammed the door in the face of feminist Catholics
3 comments:
Excellent Post. Found you by accident but glad I did. I'll add your Blog to my Blog roll.
Sue x
I am an Indian hindu so have lived with "mother goddess all my life..
again in every form, mother, wife, lover, sexual energy, fertility
very nice blog
Welcome Sue and Ritu.
I too have celebrated the Goddess for most of my life :) It's just surpising to find every one of Her forms in Christianity.
Post a Comment