Mary and the Divine Feminine

A thought has been circulating around in my mind, and I decided that today, which is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on the church calendar, is the day to pin it down.

It starts with a memory.

I remember walking with my dad on a tour of the International Bible Society in Colorado Springs when I was a teenager. Down a long hall were hung various souvenirs, or items that helped tell their history of Bible translations. I don’t remember much about it, honestly, except for one framed Bible that was hung on the wall that had a hole drilled in it.

Our tour guide explained that a while back they had put out a translation that was trying to be more accurate to the original languages when it came to gender pronouns. It’s tricky hopping from one language to the next, as the next language might not have words as specific as the original. For example, Greek has several specific words for ‘love’ while English has one general word – so very specific concepts when translated can become more general.

I digress. The translation was taken by many, he explained, to be a sign that the Bible Society was ‘skewing left’ and trying to put out a ‘gender neutral’ Bible. A particularly angry patron had drilled a hole in the Bible and sent it to them as a vivid image of what he thought of that translation. While telling us about this he added, ‘You know, in Aramaic the word for the Holy Spirit is feminine. But can you imagine the uproar if it was translated that way?’ 

That always stuck with me. The creation account, of course, is clear that men AND women were created in the image of God, and if that is the case, then femininity is a reflection of that image. But since much of the Bible speaks of God in terms such as ‘Father’, and Jesus was obviously a man, it’s easy to forget that the Divine Essence isn’t just male. 

Which brings us to Mary. The account in the gospel of Luke has the angel telling Mary that she would bear God’s son. When she asks how this would be, he explains that ‘the Holy Spirit will come upon you’. Somehow this account sounds and feels very different with idea of the Holy Spirit representing the feminine nature of God. As if Mary was enveloped in the essence of God’s… motherhood… and that’s how she was empowered to become the mother of God.

I believe women are made in the image of God…. So why does that feel scandalous?