Purpose Statement

Exploration -> Experience -> Feeling -> Awareness -> Understanding -> Transformation -> Liberation

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

The Feminine Face of God

So my Rabbi challenged me to describe the feminine face of God. I spent a perplexed week or two looking outside myself. I thought about Hesse's Goldmund. I thought about Fromm's descriptions of matriarchal archtypes. And then I read this brilliant poem by Rumi (pronoun gender adjustment by me):

I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Her not.
I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Her was there.
I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not.
With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation.
Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.
Turning to philosophy I inquired about Her from ibn Sina but found Her not within his range.
I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court.
Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Her; She was nowhere else.

In a flash, I had the (obvious) answer - My task is to describe my anima. The vocabulary will come from Hesse and Fromm and Jung, but the essence of what I will say is from the experience of my feminine self.

So, an essay is forthcoming. Working title = Meeting Annie Maher.

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