This is in response to the Goddess creation myth I received from the Goddess-Christians mailing list. My response actually covers from Creation through everything but Revelations. (If you want that interpretation, email me.) These are MY beliefs, and were typed out without any editing, in stream-of-thought, so let me know if you don't catch a connection or something. Again, my beliefs, my opinions. See how true they fit. 100% Equal Goddess-God...Jason M. Collins
How about this?:
In the beginning, there was the Light. For that matter, there was always the Light. The Light is the Ineffable. The Light is all things real and all possibilities, mind and consciousness and Spirit itself.
The Light, being of beyond infinite love, since infinite is such a limiting word for the Light, decided to share that love with a Child.
And thus the Spirit of Light was born. This Child has all the attributes of the Parent, in smaller terms, as any Child does. This Child was created Infinite, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnibenevolent, and Perfect.
The Child loved the Parent fully, as the Parent loves the Child infinitely. Yet the Child was created of Spirit, and was Spirit. The Child was all Spirit, but not All Light. So the Child is the Light that came from the Light, or the Light from the Light. Yet this Child of Spirit grew lonely as there was nothing and no one else of spirit. So the Child asked the Light what to do, and the Light responded, "The One shall become Two."
And thus were born the Goddess and God, the Feminine and Masculine. And they praised the Light, and Loved the Light. So the Goddess and God played with each other (No dirty thoughts now!) like any other children do, but eventually wanted to play with something. So they created the Realm of Spirit (Heaven).
They created all the Angels and demons and all the beings of energy in the world. Just like children, they played through their emotions, and did not know any wrong or evil. Yet they created protagonists and antagonists, and they took turns playing each.
The God and Goddess were having so much fun with this creation, that they started specializing according to their nature. The Goddess created faeries and pixies and all sorts of protective, nurturing spirits. While God created a group of "Archangels" to have fun with.
Then the Goddess and God joined together (in the Pagan way!) and together created the entire universe in a Big BANG! (What a Beltane!) And then they shaped the worlds, and populated it with all sort of creatures.
Then the Goddess and God thought, "What if we created a being of Spirit, like our Angels and Fae, but in physical form? Would they eventually learn of their true nature?" Being curious Children of the Light, they breathed life into the first humans, forming them from spirit and then matter.
They were well pleased, and thus watched them learn and grow over lifetimes and centuries and millennia. And solar systems were formed and collapsed, and They created new beings on new planets, always with Love.
By this "time", the Goddess and God were quite wise in watching the beings they created, energy and matter. The Light did not change, but the Goddess and God grew to know these mortal forms of spirit well. They decided, "We shall not stop until every being of matter has realized he/she/it is of Spirit". So then they brought life to Earth.
By this time, the Archangels that God had created were already feeling a little neglected. Most of them enjoyed helping God guide "His" people back to Spirit. Yet not all of them did.
Archangel Lucifer was asked by God to serve Man. Lucifer said he was better than them and that he would not. So God said, "Ok. You don't like Man. Do you love me?" Lucifer said, "Yes, with all my heart". So God said, "I am curious. I want to know if Man truly loves me, or does so because he feels he must. Go into the world, and try to persuade Man from loving me. You have no power over them, except what they believe. They shall enter the world in Flesh and Spirit, yet not know of flesh." And Lucifer agreed.
Meanwhile the Goddess was busy with her tree faeries and water faeries and witches, having a wonderful time, when she spotted a snake in the garden.
There were Adam and Eve, possibly the first on Earth, maybe not. Definitely not the first anywhere. Eve wandered over to the Tree of Knowledge, where the serpent waited.
The serpent said, "Eve, there is no Goddess. There is only One God. And that God loves Adam more than he does you. He is stronger than you. Let him take care of you." And Eve was confused. Then Adam came along, and the Serpent said, "Adam, There is only One God, and that God is Wrathful." Adam said, "God is not Wrathful, and Eve told me of a Goddess, who created all things feminine." The serpent replied, "But Masculine is better. The feminine must subjugate herself to you. There is no Goddess."
Eve and Adam said, simultaneously, "That is not true. We were created from One. THEY told us so."
The Serpent saw that he was going nowhere. Neither of them would be torn from their love for the God and Goddess that easily.
Then the Serpent had a brilliant idea. An insidiously brilliant idea. He asked Adam and Eve, "Which is better? This fruit or that fruit?" They both looked at the Serpent quizzically. "Which one tastes better?", said the Serpent. The Serpent offered both fruits to Adam and to Eve, and they both liked a different fruit. So the Serpent said, "Which one is better?" Adam said, "I like them both, but I like this one better." And Eve replied inversely. The Serpent insisted, "No, which one is absolutely better?"
Adam and Eve thought silently for a moment. The Goddess and God have been speaking to them through their hearts all this time, but the Serpent's strange words were beginning to confuse them, and they were beginning to doubt. Eve said, "Neither of them. Everything is as it should be." Adam nodded affirmatively.
"WRONG!", said the Serpent. You are newcomers to this life. I've been here a very long time, slithering on my stomach. Everything has a place, and everything is either good or bad, better or worse. So one of you two has to be right about which fruit is the best and the other must be wrong. That's how this place works.
Being innocent, pure, but still very new, Adam and Eve were a bit naive, and wondered if the Serpent was right. Then the Serpent said, "You both say there is a God and a Goddess, right?" They both nod yes. "Then let's see who answers the challenge. If God responds, then Adam's fruit is best. If the Goddess responds, then Eve's fruit is best." They nodded, not knowing the Serpent was laying a trap for them.
The Serpent proclaimed, "God and Goddess, hear me. Which fruit is better? Adam's or Eve's?" Lightning struck from the sky, and a loud thunder, but it was only close enough to cause a fruit to fall from one of the two trees they were standing by." The Serpent then said, "This is the fruit of Adam, and there is no other, therefore the Goddess does not exist, and that his fruit is best."
Eve's head droops down low, and Adam looks solemn. The Serpent continues, "Let me tell you what God expects of you. He told me himself."
As the concept of "Good", "Bad", "Evil", "Better", and "Worse" were fed into the minds of Adam and Eve, their energy vibrations became lower and lower until they could not see themselves as Matter AND Spirit, but just Matter, just Flesh.
So instantly they became aware that they were naked. And they were ashamed, because the Serpent had told them about such things as indecency. So then God looks for them, finds them, but sees them trying to hide. He asks, "Why are you hiding from me?"
They reply, "We're naked." He asks, "Who told you?" Adam says, "The Serpent." God smiles. The first stage towards Reunion is complete. He smiled at all his creations that were good. Lucifer was good for tempting them, and they were good for being led into their necessary growth, for they had not free will before, but now they do. And they believe in right and wrong. He smiles, not showing it. He says, "You are aware now that because the Serpent deceived you, you will have to face something called Death."
Adam asks, "What is death?" God says, "Do you really want to know?" Adam shakes his head lightly. God says, "You see that scorpion beside you. Step on it hard." Adam does so. "It does not move. What did I do to it?" God says, "You have ended its life. It was very poisonous, so had you not, it would have ended yours."
"Eve, She who is Nameless grants you a precious gift. Yet it comes with a heavy price. It is called childbirth. It will allow you to have children. You must grow your own food now. The land will no longer support you. Your consciousness has become too full of lack. Things shall remain as they are until you remember what you have forgotten, and forget what you have learned." God then "leaves".
Eve asks, "What did that last part mean?" Adam replies, "I don't know. Who is "She who has no Name"? The Serpent says, "Nobody. Nobody at all."
So the story goes as you are familiar with it, up until the time of Moses. God plans a little "coincidence", and instead of being killed, Moses is rased by the Egyptians. Everything continues to the point where Moses goes up to get the stone tablets.
God indulges their quest for how he wants them to live. Yet He sees that the Goddess's simple crede "An Harm Ye None, Do What Ye Will" isn't enough for these guys. He also sees that they are worshipping idols made from their own imagination, that have nothing to do with Oneness or Love. So, knowing that the Goddess and He were One, but Two, and knowing that they would not understand that yet, he sent them the 10 commandments.
And thus Judaism is born. After a few centuries, or maybe a few hundred, God saw that they took His rules way to far, misunderstood some, and added a few of their own. So he consulted with the Goddess as to the best plan. They needed a Prophet that would show them the way to God. But they needed more than that, and so God and the Goddess put their plans into action.
Jesus came to teach in the cities of Judea, and many other places. Along the way, he gather many disciples, and a few special Apostles, including Judas Iscariot, Thomas Judas, Thomas the Twin, Peter Simon, Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, a few others, and especially Mary Magdalene.
Jesus saw the radiant spirit in Mary the first time he saw her, though she did not see it herself, so he made sure to ask her to join his group, and, led by Spirit (of the Goddess), she did.
Jesus loved Judas Iscariot like a brother, and likewise for Judas. Judas would do anything for Jesus, anything to save his life. Unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on how you look at it), that is exactly what he did. Judas' attempt to have Jesus committed into an Asylum for his own good lead to what Jesus wanted all along. A chance to prove that the God and Goddess loves mankind very dearly. After Jesus' resurrection, Jesus explains the Mystery of the Ineffable to his disciples, and the first one to understand is Mary Magdalene. You see, there is one difference between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Jesus was the physical form of God, son of the Light, coming into the world having some remembrance (if not full) of who he actually is.
Mary Magdalene was the physical form of the Goddess, daughter of the Light, coming into the world not remembering who she is.
This is why Jesus said, "And greater things shall ye do than I have done."
Which is harder, achieving what Jesus did while knowing, or achieving what Mary did while not knowing? See why God loves us so much?
Jaedreth Blaiddgwyn Brandu
aka Jason M. Collins
Please be sure to visit Jason's site, Jaedreth's Spiritual Center. He will be adding more to this story in the future and will include links to anyone who wishes on his site. You will be spiritually blessed when you visit his web home!
ASHERAH: The Lord God's Lady?
The goddess Asherah was the consort of El ("god"), the supreme god of Canaan and father of the popular Baal. In the Bible her name often appears as ha asherah, meaning "the" asherah. In such instances the reference is not to the goddess but to a symbol of her, an object (in the plural asherim) that was apparently a sacred pole, tree, or group of trees (hence the translation "groves") at Israelite sanctuaries or "high places" as well as by altars of Baal. The erecting of asherim was among the "evil" deeds of kings like Ahab and Manasseh, and cutting the things down was a regular chore of "right" kings like Hezekiah and Josiah.
The presence of Asherah or her symbol at places where Yahweh, the biblical God of the Hebrews, was worshipped raises the question of whether the Canaanite goddess was considered also to be the consort of Yahweh. We know from references to "the sons of God" (Gen. 6:1-4; Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7), "the host of heaven" (1 Kings 22:19), "angels" (Gen. 19:1; Ps. 103:20), and God's statement "Let us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26), that Yahweh was not alone in his heaven. We know also that Yahweh supplanted the Canaanite El to the extent that God's other names in the Hebrew Bible include El, El Elyon ("God Most High"), El Shaddai ("God Almighty"), and the (originally) plural form Elohim (as in Gen. 1:1). But did Yahweh take El's woman too?
The answer may well be found, appropriately enough, in some graffiti, inscriptions dating from the eighth century B.C.E., found on walls and storage jars at two sites, Khirbet el-Kom and Kuntillet Ajrud, in Israel. (See Dever's Recent Archaeological Discoveries and Biblical Research.) The graffiti includes blessings such as "I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and by his asherah," and "I bless you by Yahweh of Teiman and by his asherah." Does this mean by Yahweh and by his goddess? Or is it saying "by Yahweh and by his sacred pole"?
All we may safely assume at this point has been well put by the French epigrapher Andre Lemaire: "Whatever an asherah is, Yahweh had one!"
Author Unknown