Ah bugger, I specifically flagged this thread so I could catch up on it (which I have done), and since it
was in Belief & Spirituality I had not the slightest reservation about making my humble opinion known. I'll be darned if I'm going to walk on eggshells now, just because the discussion has degraded into scripture-picking, casuistry and an all-out defense of
tradition, willy-nilly.
The best I can do, in light of the fact that the thread has been moved,
twice, is to T.H.I.N.K. before I post.
(
thanks, wil)
I notice that in all this discussion no one has made reference to even the
least of the Mysteries of Christian teachings, in terms of actual
content, by pointing out that the TWELVE whom and which came to constitute Jesus' immediate Apostles
historically, have a far greater significance in terms of the Heavens above!
What do I mean by this? First off there are the
Twelve Astrological Houses, known and studied for thousands of years before Christian times, but equally accepted
then as now as factoring significantly in all earthly events. And of what do these
Twelve Houses consist? Four sets of THREE (signs) on the one hand, or three sets of FOUR, depending. The latter are three crosses, known as the
mutable (or earthly) cross, the
fixed cross (or that of the Soul), and the
cardinal cross (or that of the Spirit).
Esoteric Christianity, especially of the Gnostic variety, will also make reference sometimes to
12 sets of Aeons, or Syzygies, one of the latter consisting of Jesus and Sophia ... though other schemes will admit of as many as 30 Aeons, or as few as 20. Whom and what are the Aeons? They are the great PAIRS of Masculine-Feminine POWERS, or Potencies,
the `Powers that Be' as we sometimes term Them, Whose responsibility is the governance and guidance of all affairs in the more mundane spheres of existence ...
to wit, the
earthly realms.
And if we wish to explore a bit more, we will find in Esotericism a recognition of the same
Primoridal Masculine-Feminine Potency as shown through the Syzygies, acting upon or within
all twelve of the Spiritual Schemes (or Planetary Evolutions) of our solar system. The fact that science has yet to detect life beyond Earth notwithstanding, these Schemes have been known for thousands of years even in many
exoteric religious teachings.
What is the point? That
the Divine masuline and feminine are to be found
everywhere in Cosmos, though not necessarily in quite the same form(s) (or in form at all) as we might be led to expect ... based on our geocentric or anthropomorphic tendencies.
(see below)
Just as there is a central
triplicity of spiritual powers, or aspects, which Christianity calls the `Holy Trinity,' and which other religions equally recognize (name me a religion and I will show you
its `Holy Trinity'), this same Heavenly Archetype -- Universal and all-pervasive -- finds its mirror accordingly and directly in Christ's
central three disciples, Peter, James and John.
Of course originally the Christian understanding of the Trinity did not proceed in the same order as is currently accepted. The order, until shifted by the Roman Catholic Church, was
Father, Mother (or Holy Spirit, accepted de facto as Feminine) and Son. Cosmogonically, the Holy Spirit consists of the mother, wife and daughter of the Son (
An Encylopedic Theosophical Glossary). To continue:
In Christianity, the Son is said to be God made manifest in a particular man; the Holy Ghost is the divine spirit which works in all men and brings them into conformity with the image of the Son or Christ. (ibid)
And to paraphrase, again from the Theosophical Glossary --
The Holy Ghost is the spiritual ray proceeding as from the Cosmic Christ, passing down from the most spiritual to the most material of worlds and penetrating all hierarchies of beings [both Angelic and `human'] in its course, therefore likewise influencing and guiding the human mind when [the Holy Ghost is] accepted into the soul.
"[The Holy Ghost] is equivalent to the Light of the Logos, daiviprakriti, the Gnostic Sophia, the Qabbalistic Shechinah (or perhaps Sephirah), the Mother of the Ogdoad, and in Indian thought the feminine sakti." (ibid)
What else, from the Heavens above, is mirrored upon our Earth,
directly into the ORIGINAL Christianity -- untainted by
tradition (which necessarily interprets what it does not understand, thus imposing its own meaning and interpretation), or by the rulings of a quorum?
Notice that Christ has a
Beloved Disciple, who is
closest to Him and in whom He is able to confide moreso than in all the rest. In esoteric symbolism this Disciple represents the Logos in its very earliest manifestation,
BEFORE the initial Trinity had yet come into expression in the
as-yet-uncreate(d) Cosmos, or Pleroma. This Beloved was one of the central three (the Trinity) and in Christ's own day would have thus signified, to some, the
Father.
As mentioned above, the Apostles can be viewed as sets of three, sets of four, perhaps even sets of two ... as well as in terms of their Individuality. As to the latter, Christian commentators have not failed to pick up on the symbolism, and fortunately have ventured into the world of Virtue as they point out some of the Soul qualities which each of the Twelve supposedly displayed. It almost does not matter whether any of these historical men (assuming, for the moment, that they actually existed) were truly as they have been described. To understand and accept that they were a) quite human, as are we all, and b) quite capable of becoming
more than human, again as are we all, is perhaps what matters most. And what better way to try and grasp more about this latter process of
Becoming than to try and imagine the potential which Christ Jesus was able to see within each disciple ... and to recognize how the same
humanity which He shared with them, also overlapped (as it does within each of us) with their greatest spiritual Potential, or
Divinity?
As I was typing up this post, I came across dozens of Wiki articles, and as many entries from more esoteric sources, but because I find this
one, rather brief article most relevant to the topic at hand, I would like to link it, here:
Heavenly Mother - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
You see, this post
really is about why women, both within Roman Catholicism as well as within other branches of Christianity
should be - not simply
allowed to become priests, but WARMLY ACCEPTED and EMBRACED as one of the most
VITAL, yet missing elements which some of these Traditions have need for, if they are to continue. I have tried to show (briefly even) that the
Divine Feminine is something which originated even
prior to `DAY ONE' ... considering the implications of this statement
from a mainstream Christian perspective. Narrow thinking may not recognize or understand GOD, the supposed
INVENTOR of all Potential and thus
of all ... as containing - even from MOMENT ONE - both the SEED, the growth and the OUTCOME of all possible future `
gendering' ... but this does not change things even for a moment. It merely means that a future
AHA! has yet to dawn.
The same
Creative Spirit that hovered upon
these proverbial waters (Earth's), producing in time from
non-gendered and androgynous stock, a gradually
gendered and physically distinct SINGLE RACE of beings ... will one day, far into our future, resolve the present distinctions -- both
physically and psychologically ... though I daresay this will not be to the satisfaction of those who currently hold to misogynistic or misandrist tendencies and lines of thinking.
When all is said and done, I find it rather embarrassing - even quite humiliating - that the staunch defense of supposedly
traditional Christianity (with its built-in misogyny, supersitition, creedalisms and emphasis on a
male power-structure & earthly hierarchy) ... all stems from a dead-letter rendering of the purely SYMBOLICAL or symbological tale of Adam, Eve and the Garden of Eden. If it weren't for the creative yet wily imaginations of MEN, dating especially to the times of
Hypatia of Alexandria, though both before and afterward, we might otherwise have a reasonable understanding of the actual intent of the whole Garden of Eden myth. Instead, we have such foolishness as the actual notions,
as literal as can be, of ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN, ONE pretty much MASCULINE GOD-FIGURE, ONE SNAKE, ONE TREE and one, all-condemning act of
disobedience (yes, that theme
does figure in rather heavily, doesn't it?) ... whereby EVE SOLD HUMANITY SHORT, and pretty much
fubar'd us all here on Planet Earth, FOR ALL TIME!
Only owing to
God's great Mercy and Powers of Forgiveness, expressed via the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth (bloodily stoned, nailed to a cross, or what-have-you ... each
death story again being interpreted
in the dead-letter, not surprisingly), does it become possible for the
faithful believer to take steps toward a
vicarioius atonement and one day return -- to the
Eden-like conditions of innocence and heavenly Grace.
Nevermind what is wrong with the latter mangling of Christianity's original teachings, message and methodology for attaining
Salvation ... this thread is about WHY WOMEN SHOULD (perhaps) BE ALLOWED TO BE PRIESTS. Why should they? Pretty simple, actually. If it's good enough for God, it seems it oughtta be good enough for us! If WOMAN, in her
Heavenly status (as an original PERSON of the Holy Trinity) was good enough to be paired up with the Father, along with the Son, then you'd better come up with a
pretty convincing argument for bumping her down a notch once the original androgynous races of Earth humanity came to be divided.
And the Roman Catholic Church has done just that. Change the teachings, change the assumptions,
dump the alternate versions and label them taboo, heretical, blasphemy ... and you can pretty much make woman into a
devil and a demon if you want, or anything in between.
And thus it has been done ...
When we ask the question WHY we proceeded from a much earlier
androgyny to
gender division, I find a long, interesting list of reasons ... not the least of which includes a scientific response about the method of reproduction of the species (which still, currently pertains), but which moves on to include mention of perhaps THE MOST BASIC interpersonal relationship here on Planet Earth, and which also has a fair bit to do with aesthetics, the discovery and definition of Beauty, and
certainly also the true, Heavenly Bliss.
Amazing the short-sightedness of those early, Catholic missionaries who, upon beholding the most
sublime Yab-Yum of Hindu and Buddhist sacred artistic depictions, understood (because they PROJECTED) only
pornography, blasphemy and sacrilege. In fact, what greater evidence of our gross misunderstanding of the sacred function and mystical significance of sexuality (and thus also of gender-disctinction as a
Divinely-ordained development) ... than Puritanism (stemming from the Cathari, with their focus on the
dark underbelly of Gnosticism), MALE-controlled prostitution (brothels,
`pimping') and the current obsession with pornography, in every form imaginable, yet catering
overwhelmingly to the MALE?
Hmm, methinks that
somewhere, somehow, the Heavenly Perfection got
bent a little on its way down into even an
approximate reflection upon Earth!
Yes, this goes without saying, but what many folks continue to deny is that the greater disservice has been wrought, for thousands of years upon
women, yet justified - of all things -
because it is GOD'S WILL!?!
Oh yes,
back to the Bible to prove and underscore such ignorance! Yet
this, they will one day find is the greatest
Catch-22 of all! How quick to run to a
`holy' scripture for a defense of
tradition, while never questioning the possibility that
all those suppressed `heretical' teachings, all of the Gnostic groups numbering in the dozens during the early days of Christianity ... never questioning that
EVEN ONE of these
alternate interpretations of Christ's Teachings might contain some tiny portion of Light to shed on the very wishes of Christ Himself for the future of His Church!!!
What a shame that many people still choose (consciously, intentionally, obstinately) to close a blind eye, turn a deaf ear, to the Wisdom that predates Christianity, that
co-existed with Christ Jesus, and which has been given to Humanity
since the times of Christ, via other religions, other systems of belief! True, these folks are none the wiser for this choice, but the greater sorrow is the divisiveness which continues, and the
not-so-holy wars which still claim lives by the thousands, all stemming back to a
stubborn insistence that
"only my view is the (most) accurate one."
Please note, for those of you who did read the
original article (dated July 18th), a survey accompanying the article queried whether readers felt women
should or
shouldn't be priests, or were
unsure. The response?
70% voted YES - 3544 votes
26% voted No - 1342 votes
4% voted unsure - 180 votes
Inasmuch as numbers decide, the yeas outnumber the
nays by 3 to 1. And in the last analysis, though some of the Bible-thumping may make a few folks feel better about their
scriptural awareness, one,
resounding message is being communicated to the Catholic Church,
IRRESPECTIVE of tradition, convention and
status quo:
EVOLVE ... or crumble.
Thank GOD people are finally seeing the Light!
