A feminist work in progress.

Most of recorded human history is the story of one archetype — the masculine — not merely dominating, but also discounting the values of, the other — the feminine. It’s particularly ironic to note the suppression of the feminine in religious history, given that the basis for most religions is God’s all-embracing inclusion and love of all creation. As the poet Jane Hirshfield says about God’s egalitarian spirit, “the numinous does not discriminate…infinitude and oneness do not exclude anyone.” But indeed, the feminine voice has been excluded in most religious traditions to the point where spiritual myths, images, and structures are primarily masculine. Even more harmful than their mere exclusion, feminine values have also been deemed inferior, even dangerous, in patriarchal cultures. Backed up by our earliest religious myths, from Adam and Eve, to Prometheus and Pandora, the message has been insidiously clear: feminine values are manipulative and untrustworthy, bound by the suffering of the earth, controlled by the dark side of the moon, and more related to the animals than to the angels.