Women and Their Divine Power: to bless and to heal in humanity's name...
The divine presence of Our Heavenly Mother is not a subject most Christians comfortably address. And while the LDS theology accounts for Her existence, for the most part we seem to be following the same trend of treating all things divine feminine as a taboo issue.There is a palpable yearning for Her Power and Presence reflected in our art and blog discussions, yet in the official doctrinal discourses we either avoid talking about Her altogether or send perplexingly mixed messages that truly make “reason stare”.
And all the while She’s been there, glowing in Her Grace and Majesty, though unrecognised in plain sight, like the Tree of Life in Lehi’s vision, loving and nurturing, though ruthlessly excluded, photoshopped out of the divine Family Portrait of humanity (1).
Relationship with Heavenly Mother
Prohibiting communication with Our Heavenly Mother is like telling a missionary of the olden days he can’t talk to his Mom on the long awaited Mother’s Day. “You can’t talk to her, kid!!! She ain’t available. Try again around Christmas…” She might be there, but we can’t bring ourselves to speak to Her and recognize Her Impact, Presence and Influence. Goodness forbid, we let Her pour Love into our lives and hearts! Who could possibly need such a thing?!?! Are we afraid to find out that She is equally powerful, caring and loving, intelligent and sovereign, as Father? How much longer shall we demand that She remain veiled and …silent?!?!
Priesthood vs. Power
Turning a blind eye to Our Mother’s Presence and Power has distorted our perception of our own identity and capacity for the divine. It has put women in a place of passive inaction, of waiting to be acted upon. A crawl space of “mothers who know” their proper place, and know it all too well (2)…
Yet the power to act in the name of the Lord has been within us, dormant like a seed, awaiting for our nurturing and for being transplanted into a space with ample room and plenty of Light to grow.
Any woman who has been to the temple and experienced as much as initiatory knows that women CAN, DO and HAVE BEEN laying on hands to pronounce and seal blessings WITHOUT being ordained to a priesthood, either Aaronic or Melchizedek. Yet their authority is not questioned, nor the validity of the ordinances they have been performing…This simple fact stares us in the face, unapologetically, undeniably, poignantly... What we do with it is our choice and decision.
Nurturing, sustaining life, restoring to good health, physical or otherwise, are integral to the divine role of women. Shall we continue to divorce it from God’s power? Set it aside, for fear of overstepping bounds or violating some dictates of a handbook?
All women, married and single alike, can count on one thing: that a day and a time will come when they will find themselves with no “priesthood holder” to call on to bless those in need of healing or comfort. The reality of that is sobering! Who will bless your husband when no one but you can? Who can invoke the Powers of Heaven to heal a sick child, if your husband is away? Who can command darkness to depart in the Lord’s name, when it is just you and the Lord?
The time for directives, instruction manuals and permissions from the pulpit is behind us, like water under the bridge, although the invitation to personally discern how this power might be used has been long extended (3). We all find ourselves on the aforementioned bridge with just the Lord, Father and yes, Mother by our side, as They ALL teach us what and how we should do.
A Common Practice
In the narratives of scripture, all too tightly lodged in the grip of masculine authority , the presence of women, let alone their power to act in God’s name, has been meticulously erased. The historical evidence of existing women who have unashamedly stood,upheld by God, resounds back to us like a faint, distant echo. Our memory of the Old Testament figures like Esther, Zipporah, Asseneth, Deborah, each utterly bold and empowered in their respective circumstances, is weak, perhaps due to the conditioned assumption that what happened back then no longer applies. As if to suggest that God’s perception or expectation of us, women, has somehow changed. And has it? Can it?
Another thing we have become ignorant and oblivious to is not as far removed from us in history and is at the very foundations of our church and religion. It was common practice for unordained women to lay their hands on the sick and afflicted during the time of Joseph Smith.
Already at his time some questioned the right and “authority” of women to lay hands on the sick. In response Joseph said that “ all that believe whether male or female had the promise of casting out devils and healing the sick”(4). He elaborated by explaining :“ There could be no more sin in any female laying hands on the sick than in wetting the face with water”.(Ibid) Thus the only requirement for ministering unto those in need is not the priesthood, but Faith. Nothing else…Simple. Beautiful. Empowering.
Balance
The subtle ways in which our theology and culture have been off-setting the Universal balance of the divine femine and masculine energy necessary for Ascension and for the coming forth of a vibrationally New World can be imperceptible. The patriarchal domineering status quo is millennia old and has become the norm. Our very language reflects it, whether we recognize it or not… Thus the word marriage literally means to become “husbanded” (from the French mari, meaning husband). No term for becoming “wifed” has been coined, at least not in English (5).
The New Wine calls for new paradigms, attitudes, understanding and perception. In the space of the New the Yang doesn’t overtake the Yin,doesn’t dictate. The two compliment each other side by side, not one barely visible behind the other, incapacitated by a seeming “lack of authority”.
Everyone knows that the best time to consecrate the oil is not in the chaos of an emergency, either bleeding unstoppably into our lives or limping into it on a broken bone, unfailingly on a weekend or when the men of our lives are unavailable. Bringing balance into the patriarchal dominated order of things is our responsibility. No one will or can do it for us. Just like no one could ever teach us to go through labour, learn to nurse, break a child’s fever, not overcook a pot roast. This learning is too experiential. The need to confidently step into and exercise this Power is burgeoning like a bud! We can let it blossom or nip it, as it were…
More important than addressing the immediate needs of those around us, as women naturally tend to, is the simple fact that the Lord’s Kingdom is one of Oneness, where Each is a Servant to All. Thus being empowered to serve, heal and bless and being on equal footing with All is a necessary condition to being a part of this emerging society and world. It is a Law we can conform to and move forward. Or remain small and disempowered, helplessly caught in the current of our current vibration.
Restoring the masculine and feminie energies, both within and without, to an equilibrium is paramount for all healing, if healing and blessing of humanity is what we truly desire. Giving all glory and all our Love to the Father is wonderful. But there is no need to give Him sole custody of our Souls with a living Mother there. Who could better heal the Inner Child, comfort, console? The Elohim don’t violate our Agency. But when invited, They can and do, through a combined, balanced and Powerful effort, joined with ours, turn sorrow into Joy, undo dis-ease and piece together Peace to create a Heaven on Earth!
1.For more on the presence and symbolism of Heavenly Mother in Lehi’s dream, see Nephi and His Asherah by Daniel C.Petersen. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol9/iss2/4/
2. “Mothers Who Know”, Julie B. Beck, October, 2007
4.Rough stone Rolling, Bushman, 447.
6.In Russian the word to get married literally means ‘to get behind a husband’, another fun linguistic tidbit of telestiality :)
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