Is god male or female? The big monotheistic religions use male language: god is He, not She.
Of course, god is beyond sex, or rather, before sex. He or She is not of the dualistic world. The English language, though, does not leave us many options. God could be an ‘It’, which would probably be the most accurate word to use. Can we revere It though? Can we feel the sublime beauty in It? Can we worship It? Can we surrender to It?
No, it seems we have to perceive god somewhat in our own image. Even if we don’t go as far as an old man with a big grey beard, sitting in the clouds, still we seem to need to think of god as having some rather human characteristics. Are those characteristics those of a father? Or are they more those of a mother?
Many feel god as a protector and and as a mentor, someone to turn to in times of need, for guidance, for spiritual assistance. These attributes could be seen as masculine, the protection of a virile young man combined with the wisdom of an old man. But since when has wisdom been restricted to men? And which mother does not protect her children?
My feeling is that, if god has to be addressed as He or She, then She is the more appropriate term. For is it not in the womb of She that we have come into being? Indeed, do we not actually abide there now, even whilst we feel ourselves to be walking freely on this beautiful Earth? Are we not nourished throughout our life, by an umbilical cord that is never cut? Is not our very lifeblood infused with Her goodness, in the great placenta from which life itself flows?
