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To: alt.magick.tantra From: catherine yronwodeSubject: Re: Gods vs Goddesses Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 17:08:27 -0800 NameOfMe wrote: > > gooroo wrote: > > > Isn't it weird that calling yourself a Tantric God has a different > > connotation (other than the obvious gender difference) to calling > > yourself a Tantric Goddess? The term "Goddess" seems to be more down > > to Earth, realistic and reachable than the term "God", and a lot > > less arrogant. Apart from the valid male/female energetic gender > > difference explanation, I think that this is due to feminism's head > > start. I don't agree with this: to a woman such as myself, there seems little difference. I find it arrogant (but harmlessly so) to call oneself either a god or a goddess. I happily accept, however, the appellation "goddess" when it has been applied to me, and i in turn have applied the appellation "god" to several of my male partners, both in play (calling one ex-partner "The Insect God" when he wore some funny-looking insectoid welders' goggles) and in ecstatic revelation (as with the man i love). > Goddess tends to evoke imagery of grace and beauty. To you. To me, the images evoked are ambiguous -- bloody Kali, for instance is not all that graceful or beautiful in a conventional sense, although to those who love her, she is delightful. Likewise, while you may not find the term "god" evocative of grace and beauty, i find it equally ambiguous -- Zeus is not graceful or beautiful, Lord Siva is. > Due to the popularity of Christianity and similar religions, the word > god is associated with omnipotence. I think not -- for you, maybe, but not for me. > The only popularly known religion with goddesses is that of the Greeks > and Romans, "The only popularly known religion" with female deities is some ancient Mediterranean religion???? What about contemporary India? You are unfamiliar with world religions and somehow you received a passing knowledge of ancient religions of the Mediterranean -- but we are not all as you. Look to ancient Sumer, ancient Egypt, and above all, to present day India, where MILLIONS of people -- right now! are worshipping the goddesses Kali, Durga, Parvati, Sati, Radha, Lakshmi, and so forth. Check out Japan's contemporary forms of Kami-worship, in which there are both gods and goddesses -- and the leader of them all is the Sun-goddess. > and none of their goddesses were omnipotent. Study some more religions: in Japan, the creatrix Sun-goddess Amaterasu is as close to omnipotent as JHVH is to the Jews. > Perhaps we should just use the terms male tantrika and female tantrika > to avoid any connotations brought by the proselytizing religions (or > rather religion; mostly just Christianity) which surround us in our > everyday lives. Well, i agree with you here. I think there is something both meaningless and smug among those who claim be gods or goddesses in usenet, outside the context of a ritual or sacred practice of some sort. It is as if they seek to affirm their sense of power, but cannot do so without taking on the role of a deity, even when they are not actually being worshipped. This is not unique to alt.magick.tantra, of course. People take on a variety of pompous names and screen-identities in usenet to express their desire to establish and/or re-formulate their identities. Some seem to regard the internet as a forum for role-playing games ("You have entered the domain of the Cosmic Mage-Muffin -- Journey onward at your own risk, O Hapless Wanderer!") and other see it as a venue for the creation of a guruistic cult ("Swami Machonanda is is a Master of the Occult Tantric Precepts of Inner Body Working"). But, as with any other public marketplace of ideas, the key words must always be "caveat emptor." catherine yronwode, bride of Siva :-) Sacred Sex: http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredsex.html check out news:alt.lucky.w for discussions on folk magic and luck
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