PAGE TWO
As for contemporary Christianity we may wonder what became of the Divine Couple of Solomon? While Asherah and Yahweh are no longer venerated in any temple worldwide, a masculine over-representation of Divinity has clearly become the norm. Is it a typical case of sexist discrimination, to use a very modern expression? You decide. More surprising, perhaps, is the apathy of modern Christians --male and female alike-- in noticing the absence of a Companion alongside the Heavenly Father.
The advent of Jesus Christ has somewhat changed the game regarding the solitary God. The vision of a Holy Trinity has emmerged. By empregnating an immaculate woman ("without sin") with His Holy Spirit, the heavenly Father --first Person of the Trinity-- has exalted her as the Mother of God-the-son -- the second Person. Raising womanhood to such a lofty status had never been seen before Christ, all abrahamic traditions combined. Indeed Superman can't compare to 'the Mother of God", a role that the Virgin Mary continues to play through the various marian apparitions occuring around the world. The eariest one was Ou Lady of Guadalupe in 1531, the most famous being Our Lady of Lourdes (1858) and Our Lady of Fatima (1917). In modern times our "Ladies" have been seen by tens of thousands around the world --in Asia, in Africa, in South India, in the Middle-East, in South America, and in the United States. If you think such apparitions are spun by collective allucinations (also called mass delusion) of crowds of Christians, think again. In August 2000 in the Egyptian city of Assiut, over one million Muslims saw a Virgin Mary standing above a church. Although the event has been extensively strutinized and documented in the press and in hundreds of videos over a period of several months, the Western media chose to ignore it. Perhaps they preferred to relay news about wars than cover an event that united millions of people in prayer. The apparition of Assiut was not an event against anyone but for everyone.
In the Quran Mary is mentoned more times than in the New Testament. She is the woman chosen above all others. When the muslims saw that Lady of light above the church of Assiut, she was no foreign icon to them --they saw their own Mariam.
As for contemporary Christianity we may wonder what became of the Divine Couple of Solomon? While Asherah and Yahweh are no longer venerated in any temple worldwide, a masculine over-representation of Divinity has clearly become the norm.
Juno & Jupiter (by Gavin Hamilton)
Hera & Zeus (in the Parliament of Austria)
Magdalen & Christ (after the resurrection)
Radha & Krishna, in mystical Union
PAGE FOUR
Yet Catholics don't worship Mary. When they're asked to explain this, a common answer is, "We pray to her, but only worship God in person." The Eastern Orthodox hold a similar view, --"Her position gives her incredible influence. We hold her in high esteem and give her the reverence she deserves as the bearer of God." Finally, Protestants, while honoring Mary with folded hands, have always been opposed to even praying to her, an act they only reserve to the Holy Trinity.
Each to their own. A point of interest is that Mother Mary's clout has considerably increased --among Christian followers, and beyond-- on account of Our Lady's various apparitions. In recent times more people pray to her and indeed worship her, to the point of calling her "Spouse of the Holy Spirit." This is a first, but it carries natural authority if she was indeed impregnated by the Holy Spirit.
Could Mary be the human incarnation of the erternal feminine, the Divine Consort, the Taoïst Yin counterpart of the Yang? The question is
As for the nature of the love that unites the heavenly Father and the earthly mother of Jesus, no Christian church has ever addressed it. Some theologians have preferred to sidestep the question by suggesting that God is beyond all gender considerations ; questions of gender are considered to be solely human. According to these theologians, while the concept of "God the Father" may seem eminently masculine, it is merely a figure of speech intended to make the concept accessible to us. Just like the phrase "God made man in his own image," which many interpret as being a metaphor. In this case, questions like "In whose image would woman be made" are mute points.
The spouse of the Holy Spirit?
In a more literal sense, the image "God the Father" poses a real problem. Where can we find a Mother Goddess who, before being Mother, is Eternal Consort? This may seem complicated, but is it really? Not if we insist that the God of Love is the first among all beings to experience a loving union with his feminine counterpart.
.PAGE THREE
Is it a typical case of sexist discrimination, to use a very modern expression? You decide. More surprising, perhaps, is the apathy of modern Christians --male and female alike-- in noticing the absence of a Companion alongside the Heavenly Father.
The advent of Jesus Christ has somewhat changed the game regarding the solitary God. The vision of a Holy Trinity has emmerged. By empregnating an immaculate woman ("without sin") with His Holy Spirit, the heavenly Father --first Person of the Trinity-- has exalted her as the Mother of God-the-son -- the second Person. Raising womanhood to such a lofty status had never been seen before Christ, all abrahamic traditions combined. Indeed Superman can't compare to 'the Mother of God", a role that the Virgin Mary continues to play through the various marian apparitions occuring around the world. The eariest one was Ou Lady of Guadalupe in 1531, the most famous being Our Lady of Lourdes (1858) and Our Lady of Fatima (1917). In modern times our "Ladies" have been seen by tens of thousands around the world --in Asia, in Africa, in South India, in the Middle-East, in South America, and in the United States. If you think such apparitions are spun by collective allucinations (also called mass delusion) of crowds of Christians, think again. In August 2000 in the Egyptian city of Assiut, over one million Muslims saw a Virgin Mary standing above a church. Although the event has been extensively strutinized and documented in the press and in hundreds of videos over a period of several months, the Western media chose to ignore it. Perhaps they preferred to relay news about wars than cover an event that united millions of people in prayer. The apparition of Assiut was not an event against anyone but for everyone.
In the Quran Mary is mentoned more times than in the New Testament. She is the woman chosen above all others. When the muslims saw that Lady of light above the church of Assiut, she was no foreign icon to them --they saw their own Mariam.
In August 2025 in Lourdes, Charles-Raphael Payeur, Bishop of the Catholic Church of Quebec, asserted at a seminar on the Marian conception that, "A woman can hardly do better than to be raised to the position of "Mother of God,”.
In context to this article, however, let us make the following observation: the Virgin Mary has never been considered on an equal footing with God, as a Goddess would be. She was married to Joseph, a carpenter. Unlike Yahweh the modern Holy Father has no consort. Elevating a woman "to the threshold of the Divine" is certainly unprecedented and the Roman Catholic Church has distinguished itself from other Christian institutions by exalting a mortal being to such a postition.
PAGE FIVE
Should they not share the conjugal love of which they are the Source? This is unacceptable to the defenders of the Divine Couple, in whose image the human couple is made. For them, the time has come for "In His image" to become "in THEIR image," Because what man is in the image of God, woman is... in the image of the Goddess. It would be that simple.
Suffice it to turn to the Divine Couple of Vaishnavism. In the Vedic conception, quite simply, God and Goddess love each other tenderly, even passionately. Are you surprised? Think about it. if we humans are endowed with such a sweet privilege as erotic love, how could our Source not be? “On earth as it is in heaven!” Can this logic be dangerous. I can. Imagine an infant's carefree intrusion into its parents’ bedroom during their moment of passion. "Mummy and daddy are fighting! What will become of me?" To be sure, the parents' must avoid such intrusion at all cost. And so would the Divine Couple with us, Their unwitting human children. Apart from rare spiritual authors like Salomon, Teresa of Avila and Jayadeva, exceptionally rare authors have ventured in describing intimate moments between God and His Goddess. What matters here is that such revelations exist. Why? Because as there is an inner instinct in the innocent child to feel the reciprocal love that unites its parents, the wise can relate to everyone's inner desire to enter a fraction of God's ultimate mystery.
In Vaishnavism, one of the three major Indian traditions, the intimacy of Radha and Krishna is expressed in poetry. Passionate embrace is descibed (up to a point); it is reserved for the initiates and is safely coded. The custom is for the faithful to rejoice in just 'knowing" that God and Goddess love each other “madly.” It is also legitimate for those wishing to enter into such mysteries to make a connection between their experience of physical love in human life and the sublime exchanges within their Divine Source.