The Divine Feminine

The third wave of feminism was characterised by a decrease in emphasis upon separatist strategies and by an increased awareness of women-loving women and women of colour and the problematisation of the concept of gender (Juschka, 2001: 568). This development was reflected in theology and the study of religions by feminist scholars engaging with queer theory.

The resurgence of interest in goddesses was a significant feature of the resurgence of Paganism (Hutton, 1999) There is also a move among some Christian feminists to refer to ‘Mother God’.

Whilst it seems logical for feminists to honour the divine feminine, a goddess, or goddesses, this can be problematic if there is assumed to be one God and one Goddess (as is often the case with popular books on Wicca). A single divine essence without gender, or including all possible genders and sexualities, or an assumption that there are many deities, some of whom might be queer, is relatively unproblematic from a queer perspective; but the idea that there is one God and one Goddess excludes the possibility of their being queer, can lead to heteronormativity, and is sometimes used to justify homophobia among Pagans.

However, many lesbians find the idea of a single Goddess attractive, sometimes because they have been molested by men (Foltz, 2000), sometimes because they do not feel the need for ‘balance‘ (Rose, undated).

The divine feminine is still not widely accepted in Christianity, although it is widely considered to be a defining feature of Paganism, belief in it being one of Three Principles of the Pagan Federation. It is very important to feminists and lesbians, although some queer-identified people might prefer the androgynous divine.
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Foltz, TG (2000). Sober Witches and Goddess Practitioners: Women’s Spirituality and Sobriety. Diskus, 6: 1. [online] Available from: http://web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/diskus/foltz.html Accessed 3-5-2007

Hutton, Ronald (1999), The Triumph of the Moon: a history of modern Pagan witchcraft. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Juschka, Darlene M., ed. (2001), Feminism in the Study of Religion: a Reader. London and New York: Continuum.

“Mama Rose” (undated). Why go Dianic? http://www.iit.edu/~phillips/personal/philos/dianic.html Accessed 3-5-2007

about the project

So far the project is framed around the question, "Is it meaningful to talk about queer spirituality?" (to which my answer is a resounding Yes). The reason I am asking the question is that some LGBT people reject the notion of a queer or LGBT spirituality because it sounds too much like essentialism; but because there is a distinctive queer experience, there is a distinctive queer theology and spirituality - not because LGBT people are inherently more spiritual, or only in the sense that people who occupy the role of outsider often have a shamanic quality about them (but the "outsideness" could be due to any aspect of the self, not just sexuality). As a bisexual, I do believe that spiritual androgyny is a desirable quality, as people who are stuck in one gender role are trying too hard to be normal, and it would be good if we all started just being ourselves and not worrying about conforming to gender roles; but then not everyone sees it that way.

Anyway, I am trying to identify distinct themes in queer spirituality, looking at Christianity, Paganism and some occultism. So far I have identified an interest in darkness (especially among LGBT Christians), receptivity and nature; justice and liberation; heroes and martyrs; finding the Queer in the Divine; finding the Divine in the Queer; the spiritual benefits of coming out. I am looking at LGBT art and writing, including blogs.

the damage caused by homophobia

Just found this leaflet, "If I told you" via QuakerPagan. It's a collection of essays by LGBT college students. Make sure you have a box of tissues handy.

to all you gays and lesbians here at Gordon, who I’m sure will pick up this collection of essays as eagerly as I will, and will probably try to read it as nonchalantly, hi. I wish we knew each other, because we would probably all be a lot happier and healthier if we had a support system. Hopefully someday, even here at Gordon, we will.

The contributor goes on to suggest an experiment for straight people to help them understand what it's like being in the closet:

So here’s my experiment for you: Spend a day, in your head, imagining that people look on straight people the way they look on gay people, and adjust your behavior accordingly, to keep anyone from finding out where your desires lie.

Stop yourself every time you are going to comment aloud on the merits of the opposite sex. And when you are only thinking it to yourself, imagine that your whole life people have told you that the thoughts you are thinking are evil and hellbound. If you have a significant other, spend a day without them. Don’t contact them in public, or let anyone know how much you love them. Don’t let anyone know if you are thinking of entering into a committed, monogamous relationship with them (being gay means having to specify up front that your relationship will be committed and monogamous), and don’t let anyone know how safe and accepted and loved—how whole—their presence makes you feel. Because if people knew, who knows what they would say or how they would treat you from then on.

But don’t try this experiment for more than a day, because you will probably start to feel lonely, depressed and isolated, and there’s no need for that. You’re straight.

the other Jesus

(a bit like the Black Madonna)

• Expressions: faces of Jesus
• The Black Arts Movement (PBS)
• What does Jesus look like? (New Black Magazine)
• King of Peace: Jewish Jesus
• Jewish Jesus
• Jesus in Chinese Art
• Gay Jesus by Becki Jayne Harrelson
• Pierre et Gilles' Jésus d'Amour
• Pierre et Gilles' Jésus-Christ
• Christa
• Gallery of images on JesusInLove.org

Well, obviously Jesus wasn't blond, or auburn-haired, but must have looked Jewish - "a brotha of colour" as the expressions website puts it. But there is a time-honoured tradition of portraying deities and holy people to look like oneself, so why not a Black Jesus? If you can have a white Jesus (and he obviously wasn't white), then why not a Black Jesus, a Chinese Jesus, a Queer Jesus, even a female Jesus?

I have a black Tammuz and Ishtar that I made years ago. I made them because Tammuz and Ishtar were brown-skinned, and to honour all people of colour.

hard-boiled rationalists and woolly holists

Those hard-boiled rationalists who assume that all Pagans must be nutters (like the tiny handful of reburial extremists who want to rebury all human remains) are themselves being irrational by assuming this. A moment's thought (or even Googling) would reveal that there is a broad spectrum of Pagan views on this issue, as on many other issues. Most religions have a broad spectrum of views, in fact, so why should Pagans be any different? I agree that reburial extremists are nutters (why aren't they putting the same amount of energy into campaigning against climate change, for gods' sake?) but that's no reason to tar all Pagans with the same brush.

Examples:

• Dieneke's Anthropology Blog - "Let's hope that scientists and politicians around the world stand firm against this kind of muddle-headedness." (and take a look at some of the comments)
• Fat man on a keyboard - "More madness"
• Green Bamboo - "Never let it be said that rationality ever had anything to do with religion" (though in a reply to my comment, the author seems to have moderated his views somewhat)

The kind of people who are advocating reburial regardless of any archaeological value of the remains are out-and-out holists. All is one to them — time, space, matter and spirit — there is no acknowledgment of context or other viewpoints.

The kind of people who lump all religionists together as a bunch of loonies are hard-boiled materialists and rationalists who assume that the only truth is scientific materialism. These are the kind of people who are so amoral that they pursue knowledge without regard for the suffering it may cause.

I reject both these extremes.

new address for respect conference proceedings

www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/ourpractice/respect/

podcast interview with me

Alun Salt interviewing me in a podcast about the issue of human remains

• via the History News Network blog
• via the ClioAudio blog

in which I rant extensively about compromise and why it's such a good idea. Also, did I mention how much I think archaeology has contributed to contemporary Paganisms? I may have mentioned it once or twice...

It was nice that the interviewer (Alun Salt) decided to do the interview because he read the Guardian article and thought, surely this can't represent the views of all Pagans, as he knows a few Pagans and realises how diverse we are.

some Pagan LGBT articles

• Gay Paganism: A Celebration (articles on Witchvox)
• Lou Hart (2005), Magic is a many-gendered thing, http://www.philhine.org.uk/writings/flsh_gendered.html
• Gay Pagans, Gay Witches
• New Flesh
• Sodomy & Sorcery
• Babalon
• Between Mirrors by Yvonne Aburrow (originally published in Queer Spirit, now The Bezoar.) - reflections on polarity, duality, sexuality and gender (October 2000)
• GayWitch
• Radical Faeries
• Androgyne: The Union of Opposites Within (An Internet Study)
• Spirit Matters IV:Ten Queer Spiritual Roles by Tom Moon
• Q-Spirit
• Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit
• The Homosexual Agenda and The Protocols of the Elders of Sodom by Hal Duncan
• About.com GLB page
• The Bisexual Pagan mailing list home page
• White Crane Journal - gay spirituality, wisdom, culture
• White Crane blog - gay spirituality, wisdom, culture
• Links to LGBT Pagan groups

sweet Jesus

• Controversial chocolate Jesus exhibit canceled - CNN
• Chocolate Jesus exhibit canceled - BBC

What's wrong with the chocolate Jesus? Is it that his genitals are showing? Or is it that he is made of chocolate? OK, so it is milk chocolate - should have been dark chocolate, but hey. Also it's perhaps somewhat ambivalent that the sculpture appears to depict the crucified Christ, rather than the sweet Jesus image, but Christians have been saying for centuries that he is the source of all sweetness, so why not. Maybe the Catholics who complained are worried that someone is going to eat the sculpture, but don't they eat the body of Christ in the communion ritual?

Buddhists make holy images from butter. Pagans revere naked gods (some are so ithyphallic it makes your eyes water) and goddesses. Queer Christians celebrate Jesus in love. When the male disciples rebuked Mary Magdalene for pouring perfume over Jesus' feet, he praised her and rebuked them. I think he'd feel the same way about this. It's a sensual thing. There's even a song by Tom Waits called Chocolate Jesus.

Some of Cavallaro's other work is quite disturbing, particularly the stuff he does to perfectly harmless pillows. It's clearly meant to disturb, to make you think. Just because something disturbs one's sensibilities, that's no reason to ban it or make death threats against the artist. It's interesting that a Catholic spokesperson said "They would never dare do something similar with a chocolate statue of the Prophet Mohammed naked with his genitals exposed during Ramadan." No, because Muslims would make death threats... It's almost as if Muslim extremism is encouraging or licensing other forms of extremism, and there is a climate in which it will eventually become impossible to do or say anything for fear of offending someone. There was a documentary recently about the controversy that surrounded The Life of Brian, which speculated (probably correctly) that the film couldn't have been made in the current climate of fear.

New project: gay spirituality

Some interesting blogs on gay spirituality:

• Queer mythology: the divine twins
• Rising Up Whole: Spirituality and the queer community
• Christ, The Gay Martyr: Doin' Time In Gay Man's Hell (Part Two)
• AbsolutGaY: Was Jesus gay? (nope, he was bisexual)
  
• RevThom: Sermon: "The Godly Erotic" (Delivered 2-11-07)
• Isaac Stolzfuts' Journal - an 87-year-old ex-Amish gay man
• White Crane - A Journal Of Gay Spirit, Wisdom & Culture
• Gay Spirituality & Culture
• A Prayer in the Dark by Nathan Foster - a reflection on darkness and receptivity from a gay Christian

All saved to interesting_blogs LGBT religion on del.icio.us

finding a compromise

My new article has now been posted on the Honouring the Ancient Dead website:

Finding a Compromise – Keeping Places

in which I propose that keeping places would be a good compromise solution for the controversy over what to do with ancient human remains, so that archaeologists could still have access to them, but they would be in a sacred space, consecrated by Pagans. I also put forward some cheaper compromise options which might be a bit more realistic.

UPDATE 3-3-2008: The article has now been removed from the HAD website, so I have posted it at http://pagantheologies.pbwiki.com/Finding-a-compromise

UPDATE 29-5-2008: Ah, apologies to HAD, it turns out that they had merely moved the article, so it is available from their articles page.

my personal view

I personally think that the archaeological value of human remains is equally as important as their spiritual value, and I think the archaeological insights we can gain from them contribute to their spiritual value.

I think that the spiritual, artistic, and archaeological views of the remains should be given equal consideration. This implies to me that a compromise solution is the best one.

But in any consideration of the responsibilities we owe to the dead, perpetuating (or restoring) the memory of them is just as important to many people as respecting the integrity of their burial, and I think archaeology contributes massively to restoring the memory of the ancient dead.

I also think that there are other issues we should be worrying about right now, like climate change, the war in Iraq, nuclear proliferation, and so on.