Democracy July 9, 2009

Feminine Gender of the Holy Spirit April 9, 2009

In the most ancient of the rare Old Syriac copies, the Siniatic Palimpsest, from the 4th or 5th century, found in the Covenant of St. Catherine in the Sinia by Mrs. Anes Lewis and transcribed by Syriac Professor R.L. Bensly of Cambridge University in 1892, the words of Jesus in John 14:26 read:

“But She—the Spirit-the Paraclete whom He will send to you-my Father-in my name—She will teach you everything; She will remind you of that which I have told you.”

Grammar Confuses the Nature of the Holy Spirit September 10, 2008

Much of the confusion among English-speaking peoples (and in English translations of the Bible) regarding the nature of the Holy Spirit centers on the Greek language’s use of gender pronouns. Greek, like the Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian and others), uses a specific gender for every noun. Every object, animate or inanimate, is referred to as being either masculine, feminine or neuter.

A noun’s gender is usually arbitrary and has nothing to do with whether it in reality refers to something masculine or feminine. For example, in French a book, livre, is referred to in the masculine sense, as a “he.” In German, a girl, mädchen, is referred to in the neuter sense, as an “it.” By contrast, in English, nouns that aren’t specifically masculine or feminine are referred to as “it.”

In the New Testament, the words used most often in reference to the Holy Spirit are a mixture of masculine and neuter. The Greek word parakletos is translated “Comforter” or “Helper.” The comforter that Christ promised He would send to the disciples in the 14th, 15th and 16th chapters of John is a masculine word and thus would be referred to by the pronouns “he,” “him,” “his” and “himself” throughout those chapters. However, this is strictly a grammatical tool and not a statement on the nature of the Holy Spirit.

The other word used most often of the Holy Spirit is the Greek word pneuma. It is translated as “breath” or “spirit” and means breath, breeze, wind or spirit. It is the root of our modern word pneumatic, meaning pertaining to or operated by air or wind. Pneuma is a grammatically neuter word and thus should be referred to in English by such neuter terms as “it,” “its” or “itself.”

The translators of the King James Version, influenced by the Trinity doctrine, generally mistranslated pronouns referring to pneuma as masculine rather than neuter. There are a few exceptions in the KJV in which the translation was properly handled, such as Romans 8:16: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”

Later English translations of the Bible, following the lead of the King James Version, translated references to the Holy Spirit as masculine, thus it is almost always referred to as “he” or “him” in modern versions. GN

– Scott Ashley–

The Divine Light July 12, 2008

“It is exactly the beginning of parousia in the holy souls, the beginning of the revealing at the end of times, when God will be disclosed to everyone in this distant Light.”

“The most magnetic of all religious symbols is the light, the light that radiates everywhere within and without — the light that never was on land or sea. Great mystics have realized the Peerless One in the form of Light. Moses saw the burning bush and received the word of God. The Upanishad seers saw It as Jothi Aham — the Splendor in the self.” – Hinduism Today

“The Bible is seen to be full of terms about light. Lossky tells us that “for the mystical theology of the eastern Church these are not metaphors, rhetorical figures but words expressing a real aspect of godliness.” “The godly light does not have an abstract and allegorical meaning. It is a data of the mystical experience.” The author then referred to “Gnostics”, the highest level of godly knowledge [that] is an experience (a living) of the noncreated light, where the experience itself is the light: in lumine tuo videbimus lumen (in Your Light we shall see light.)”

Eternal, endless, existing beyond time and space, it appeared in the theophanies of the Old Testament as the Glory of God. The Glory is “the Uncreated Light, His Eternal Kingdom.” Being bestowed to the Christians by the Holy Spirit, the energies appear no longer as external causes but as grace, as inner light.” Makarius the Egyptian wrote: “It is . . . the enlightenment of the holy souls, the steadiness of the heavenly powers” (Spiritual Homilies V.8.)

“The godly light appears here, in this world, in time. It is disclosed in the history but it is not of this world; it is eternal, it means going out from the historical existence: `the secret of the eight day’, the secret of the true knowledge, the fulfillment of the Gnosis . . . It is exactly the beginning of parousia in the holy souls, the beginning of the revealing at the end of times, when God will be disclosed to everyone in this distant Light.”

Dan Costian, Bible Enlightened

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“Cultivating the Awareness of the Light Within

The heart and mind can find peace and harmony by contemplating the transcendental nature of the true self as supreme effulgent light

From the Yoga Sutra of PATANJALI, second century B.C.

Patanjali is often called the father of yoga because he was the first person to codify and write down yoga practices. In this meditation instruction, he is telling us to let go of all distracting sights, smells, and sounds and meditate on our spiritual nature, our luminous true self. He is telling us to look inside and experience the radiance within.

All cultures, peoples, and religious groups through all times have talked about the phenomena of light in the context of the religious or mystical experience. Those who have seen visions of holy beings typically see them surrounded by white light. People have always described going to the light, finding the light, being called by the light, dissolving in the light. We read about light in The Egyptian Book of the Dead as well as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Men, women, and children who have had classic near-death experiences vividly describe arriving in a place of white light; they speak of themselves and others as being bathed in white light.

Prior to being described as the light of any religion, light was just light. Light is a part of the primary source material. Later, as the history of mankind developed, the concept of light became institutionalized; it was then interpreted according to cultural and religious beliefs. Pure light thus became light of God, light of truth, light of Buddha, light of Jesus, cosmic light, and ocean of light depending upon where you were born and what you were taught.

Light, however, is constant. It is fundamental energy.

The New Testament, referring to John the Baptist, reads: “He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light that all might believe through him.” Later Jesus says, “Put your trust in the light while you have it so that you may become sons of light.”…

British mystic George Fox, who founded the Quaker religion, used the term “inner light” to describe our ability to personally experience God within ourselves. He himself had such an experience, which left him with the lifelong conviction that everyone can hear God’s voice directly without mediation by priests or church ritual. This is the central tenet of the Society of Friends.

According to Buddhism, all beings are imbued with a spark of inner divine light. In describing our original Buddha-nature, we use such phrases as innate luminosity, primordial radiance, the unobscured clear natural mind, and the clear light of reality…. The Jewish mystics use similar words when they speak of the inner spark or the spark of God. The Koran, referring to man, talks about the little candle flame burning in a niche in the wall of God’s temple.

Almost inevitably a spiritual search becomes a search for divine or sacred light. By cultivating our inner core, we search for this light in ourselves as well as the divine.”- Lama Surya Das, Awakening to the Sacred

“We are now Sahaja Yogis but we were ordinary human beings. We had no Light within us. Now the Light comes within us and we see the Light then what do we become? We have to become the Light itself. Christ was the Light. He did not have to become. We have to become the Light. And now you have to guard on the way this Light might get disturbed, might be reduced or maybe completely extinguished.

So carrying on yourself with this Light first thing you should know that if you see the Light is not proper means you are not the Light. You have to become the Light. When you are the Light, then in that Light you can easily see how your mind works, what ideas it gives, what affects your mind while you’re ascending. Is this the worry or is this the responsibility that you have? Or is this from the bad habits you had, that there is an impediment in your growth as a spiritual personality?

So you have to guard yourself all the time and see for yourself how you are progressing. It’s a very beautiful journey — very, very beautiful journey.”

Sri Mataji Nirmala Devi Rome, Italy — April 11, 1993

Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, 1989, p. 49-50. July 11, 2008

“A second characterization of the divine Mother describes her as Holy Spirit. The Apocryphon of John relates how John went out after the crucifixion with “great grief” and had a mystical vision of the Trinity. As John was grieving, he says that:

The [heavens were opened and the whole] creation [which is] under heaven shone and [the world] trembled. [And I was afraid, and I] saw in the light . . . a likeness with multiple forms . . . and the likeness had three forms. [14]

To John’s question the vision answers: “He said to me, `John, Jo[h]n, why do you doubt, and why are you afraid? . . . I am the one who [is with you] always. I [am the Father]; I am the Mother; I am the Son.” [15]

This Gnostic description of God — as Father, Mother and Son — may startle us at first, but on reflection we can recognize it as another version of the Trinity. The Greek terminology for the Trinity, which includes the neuter term for spirit (pneuma) virtually requires that the third “Person” of the Trinity be asexual. But the author of the Secret Book has in mind the Hebrew term for spirit, ruah, a feminine word; and so concludes that the feminine “Person” conjoined with the Father and Son must be the Mother. The Secret Book goes on to describe the divine Mother:

. . . (She is) . . . the image of the invisible, virginal, perfect spirit . . . She became the Mother of everything, for she existed before them all, the mother-father [matropater] . . . [16]

The Gospel to the Hebrews likewise has Jesus speak of “my Mother, the Spirit.” [17] In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus contrasts his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, with his divine Father — the Father of Truth — and his divine Mother, the Holy Spirit.”

(14. Apocryphon of John 1.31-2.9, in nhl 99; 15. Ibid., 2.2-14, in nhl 99; 16. Ibid., 4.34-5.7, in nhl 101; 17. Gospel to the Hebrews, cited in Origen, comm. jo. 2.12.) (14. Apocryphon of John 1.31-2.9, in nhl 99; 15. Ibid., 2.2-14, in nhl 99; 16. Ibid., 4.34-5.7, in nhl 101; 17. Gospel to the Hebrews, cited in Origen, comm. jo. 2.12.)

Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, 1989, p. 49-50. Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Vintage (September 19, 1989) Language: English ISBN-10: 0679724532 ISBN-13: 978-0679724537

Brings up questions of what might have been…, November 24, 2002 By M. Nichols (San Francisco, CA United States)

Elaine Pagels is a first-rate religious historian– currently a professor at Princeton– and “The Gnostic Gospels” is her best known work, examining the contents of “secret” gospels written after the death of Jesus which were rejected from canonization and therefore are largely unknown to Bible-reading Christians.

What is most interesting to consider is just how different Christianity might be today if additional writings had been included in the Bible. One theory as to why they weren’t was that early bishops wanted only gospels written by Jesus’s apostles included in the Bible, although subsequent scholarship has proven that none of the Gospels’ authorship is certain. Among the rejected, the Gospel of Thomas is probably the best known, and it is fascinating in its non- literal approach to Christ. Jesus is described as telling his followers that the Kingdom of God is not a realm (Pagels concludes that it is closer to an altered state of consciousness) and makes comments that place him closer in philosophy to the Buddha than to St. Paul.

A lot is covered in just 180 pages — Pagels gets credit for being among the least self-indulgent writers around. She lays down the facts and then lets the reader mull over them. No matter what your beliefs, you will benefit from reading this book.

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Outstanding scholarly work, April 11, 2007 By Gaetan Lion

Originally written nearly 30 years ago, this book remains a must-read on the subject. Elaine Pagels is a renowned scholar with a Harvard Ph.D. in religion. She directly studied and translated some of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts in the early seventies. Her related research represents the foundation of this book. She later became a Princeton professor. She wrote several seminal books on Christianity. Her lifelong work has significantly advanced our knowledge of early Christianity.

Each chapter focuses on a specific tenet of Christianity and stresses the differences between Gnostic and orthodox Christians. While the orthodox Christians believe in the physical reality of Jesus’ resurrection, the immaculate conception of Jesus, and martyrdom; the Gnostic Christians interpret the resurrection in a spiritual way (not a literal one). They also do not believe in the Immaculate Conception. And, they reject martyrdom as a fanatical practice not reflecting Jesus’ teachings.

The Gnostic Christians don’t believe in the orthodox Christians’ hierarchy. Gnostic Christians believe each of us has direct access to God. And, that orthodox bishops and priests represent unwanted obstacles to this access. Additionally, Gnostic Christians do not exclude women as the sexes are equal in front of God. They even revere God as both the Father and the Mother. Also, they don’t consider Mary Magdalene to be a woman of ill repute, but instead an equal if not a superior to the twelve apostles.

For Gnostic Christians, the overarching factor is how much gnosis (knowledge) a believer has. This also entails wisdom and maturity. Gnosis is means knowledge based on empirical firsthand experience in Greek. It entails self-knowledge or “know thyself” a key concept in Greek philosophy (Aristotle, Plato, Socrates). For Gnostic Christian this concept is so important that knowing self ultimately leads to knowing God. Thus, there is no separation between God and the individual. This underlines the drastic difference between Gnostic and orthodox Christians. The author mentions that this concept leads to Gnosticism having a significant influence on modern Existentialism.

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Should be read by anyone who considers him/herself Christian, December 8, 1998 By jcw@princeton. edu (JW) (Princeton, NJ)

The Gnostic Gospels is a truly mind-liberating, eye-opening piece of historical analysis that I would recommend to anyone, especially those from a “Christian” background. It addresses the fact that our knowledge of modern Christianity is based on four gospels in the New Testament that lay the foundations for Christian doctrine, i.e., that Jesus’ resurrection be understood literally, that the Trinity consists of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and that one is “originally” sinful and must accept Jesus as his/her savior. This modern doctrine, in my opinion, leads to self-denial and an “easy way out”- overly simply explanations which lead to close-mindedness. In my experience, mass religion has little value- it is one’s personal philosophy and individual spiritual development that I think is essential for one to be truly religious and spiritually alive.

For this reason the Gnostic Gospels struck me profoundly. It revealed the fact that these four Gospels (selected by the orthodox church to institute this religion) were among SCORES of gospels about Jesus’ teachings, some of which are very likely to be more historically accurate than those found in the Bible. This alternative philosophy and teaching of Jesus encourages bringing out one’s true self and coming to know oneself in order to get close to God. It speaks of God as both masculine and feminine. In a sense it resembles Buddhism. More importantly, I believe these gnostic texts (which weren’t discovered until 1945 in Egypt) contain a truer, more meaningful message that can be applied to an individual’s life.

This book has reconciled me with Christianity, for I agree with – and try to learn from – many of the Gnostic teachings. Unfortunately, as these teachings encourage one to ask questions and go one’s own way (rather than blindly accepting what society preaches), it was impossible for the church to institutionalize Christianity without selecting only certain, “easy answer” texts which allowed the church to legitimize the Bishops’ authority over people.

Above all, Pagels’s study demands that we reconsider our interpretation of history and realize that what we know of as “Christianity” remains very limited. Anyone even slightly interested in religion should read The Gnostic Gospels; its uncommon ability to help us de-provincialize ourselves requires only one essential tool: an open mind.

The Holy Spirit: The Feminine Aspect Of the Godhead July 10, 2008

The Holy Spirit: The Feminine Aspect Of the Godhead J. J. Hurtak, PhD, The Academy For Future Science

“There is currently much talk of “feminine issues,” particularly in social and political contexts. This growing awareness of gender- related matters was not something ignored by the early Church and the writers of ancient religious texts. As we see in this article by Dr. Hurtak, the notion of femininity played an extremely important and significant role in the thinking and belief system of the intertestamental authors. Far from being the overbearing patriarchal advocates as they are often portrayed, more recent findings reveal an innate sensitivity and appreciation for the feminine aspect of Divinity than has been previously suspected. For this reason, this particular article becomes a meaningful and insightful contribution to the current discussion of the role of the female in modern times. Once more we find a rich and profound history reshaping the future even as it unfolds before our eyes.

A new response to the “image” of the Holy Spirit is taking shape quietly in scholarly circles throughout the world, as the result of new findings in the Dead Sea Scriptures, the Coptic Nag Hammadi and intertestamental texts of Jewish mystics found side-by-side the writings of the early Christian church. Scholars are recognizing the Holy Spirit as the “female vehicle” for the outpouring of higher teaching and spiritual rebirth. The Holy Spirit plays varied roles in Judeo-Christian traditions: acting in Creation, imparting wisdom, and inspiring Old Testament prophets. In the New Testament She is the presence of God in the world and a power in the birth and life of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit became well-established as part of a circumincession, a partner in the Trinity with the Father and Son after doctrinal controversies of the late 4th century AD solidified the position of the Western Church. Although all Christian Churches accept the union of three persons in one Godhead, the Eastern Church, particularly the communities of the Greek, Ethiopian, Armenian, and Russian, do not solidify a strong union of personalities, but see the figures uniquely differentiated, but still in union. Moreover, the Eastern Church places the Holy Spirit as the Second Person of the Trinity with Christ as the Third, whereas the Western Church places the Son before the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls the Holy Spirit was known as the Ruach or Ruach Ha Kodesh (Psalm 51:11). In the New Testament as Pneuma (Romans 8:9). The Holy Spirit was not rendered as “Holy Ghost” until the appearance of the 1611 Protestant King James Version of the Bible. For the most part, Ruach or Pneuma have been considered the spiritual force or presence of God. The power of this force can be seen in the Christian church as the “gifts of the Spirit” (especially in today’s tongues-speaking Pentecostals) . The Holy Spirit was also a source for Divine guidance and as the indwelling Comforter.

Likewise in Hebrew thought, Ruach Ha Kodesh was considered a voice sent from on high to speak to the Prophet. Thus, in the Old Testament language of the prophets, She is the Divine Spirit of indwelling sanctification and creativity and is considered as having a feminine power. “He” as a reference to Spirit has been used in theology to match the pronoun for God, yet the Hebrew word ruach is a noun of feminine gender. Thus, referring to the Holy Spirit as “she” has some linguistic justification. Denoting Spirit as a feminine principle, the creative principle of life, makes sense when considering the Trinity aspect where Father plus Spirit leads to the Divine Extension of Divine Sonship.

The Spirit is not called “it” despite the fact that pneuma in Greek is a neuter noun. Church doctrine regards the Holy Spirit as a person, not a force like magnetism. The writings of the Catholic fathers, in fact, preserve the vision of the Spirit encapsulating the “peoplehood of Christ” as the Bride or as the “Mother Church.” Both are feminine aspects of the Divine. In the Eastern Church, Spirit was always considered to have a feminine nature. She was the life-bearer of the faith. Clement of Alexandria states that “she” is an indwelling Bride. Amongst the Eastern Church communities there is none more clear about the feminine aspect of the Holy Spirit as the corpus of the Coptic-Gnostics. One such document records that Jesus says, “Even so did my mother, the Holy Spirit, take me by one of my hairs and carry me away to the great mountain Tabor [in Galilee].”

The 3rd century scroll of mystical Coptic Christianity, The Acts of Thomas, gives a graphic account of the Apostle Thomas’ travels to India, and contains prayers invoking the Holy Spirit as “the Mother of all creation” and “compassionate mother,” among other titles. The most profound Coptic Christian writings definitely link the “spirit of Spirit” manifested by Christ to all believers as the “Spirit of the Divine Mother.” Most significant are the new manuscript discoveries of recent decades which have demonstrated that more early Christians than previously thought regarded the Holy Spirit as the Mother of Jesus.

One text is the Gospel of Thomas which is part of the newly discovered Nag Hammadi texts (discovered 1945-1947). Most are composed about the same time as the Biblical gospels in the 1st and 2nd century AD. In this gospel, Jesus declares that his disciples must hate their earthly parents (as in Luke 14:26) but love the Father and Mother as he does, “for my mother (gave me falsehood), but (my) true Mother gave me life.” In another Nag Hammadi discovery, The Secret Book of James, Jesus refers to himself as “the son of the Holy Spirit.” These two sayings do not identify the Holy Spirit as the mothering vehicle of Jesus, but more than one scholar has interpreted them to mean that the maternal Holy Spirit is intended.

So far in Western traditional theology, the voices advocating a feminine Holy Spirit are scattered and subtle. But for them, it is a view theologically defensible and accompanied by psychological, sociological, and scientific benefits of recognizing “the new supernature” developing within vast consciousness changes happening in the human evolution.

The German theologian Jürgen Moltmann, a well-known thinker in mainline Protestantism, says “monotheism is monarchism.” He says a traditional idea of God’s absolute power “generally provides the justification for earthly domination”- – -from the emperors and despots of history to 20th century dictators. Moltmann argues for a new appreciation of the “persons” of the Trinity and the community or family model it presents for human relations.

According to Professor Neil Q. Hamilton at Drew University School of Theology, the Gospel of John shows us how “the Holy Spirit begins to perform a mothering role for us that is unconditional acceptance, love and caring.” God then begins to parent us in father and mother modes.

A Catholic scholar, Franz Mayr, a philosophy professor at the University of Portland, also favors the recognition of the Holy Spirit as feminine. He contends that the traditional unity of God would not have to be watered down in order for scholars to accept the feminine side of God . Mayr, who studied under the renown German theologian Karl Rahner, said he came to his view during his study of the writings of St. Augustine (AD 354-430) who saw that a significant number of early Christians must have accepted a feminine aspect of the Holy Spirit such that the influential church father of North Africa castigated this view. St. Augustine claimed that the acceptance of the Holy Spirit as the “mother of the Son of God and wife-consort of the Father” was merely a pagan outlook. But Mayr contends that Augustine “skipped over the social and maternal aspect of God,” which Mayr thinks is best seen in the Holy Spirit, the Divine Ruach Ha Kodesh. St. Jerome, a contemporary of Augustine’s, and two church fathers of an earlier period, Clement of Alexandria and Origen, quoted from the pseudopigraphic Gospel of the Hebrews, which depicted the Holy Spirit as a “mother figure.”

A 14th Century fresco in a small Catholic Church southeast of Munich, Germany depicts a female Spirit as part of the Holy Trinity, according to Leonard Swidler of Temple University. The woman and two bearded figures flanking her appear to be wrapped in a single cloak and joined in their lower halves showing a union of old and new bodies of birth and rebirth.

In conclusion, we are living at a time of profound and revelatory discoveries of archaeology and ancient spiritual texts that point the way to the future. Christ, himself, was said to have female disciples as disclosed in Gnostic literature and recent archeological findings of early Christian tombs in Italy. A beginning has been made to reclaim “the Spirit” of the Ruach found in the mountain of newly discovered pre-Christian texts and Coptic-Egyptian texts of the early Church . It is becoming clear in re-examining the first 100 years of Christianity that an earlier Christianity was closer to the “Feminine Spirit” of the Old Testament, the Ruach or the beloved Shekinah. The Shekinah, distinct from the Ruach, was seen as the indwelling Divine Presence that activated the “birth of miracles” or the anointed self. Accordingly, the growth of traditional Christianity made alternative adjustments of the original position of the “birth of gifts” as Christendom compromised for the privilege of becoming an establishment.

The new directions of spiritual and scientific studies are showing that it is now possible that the Holy Spirit, Ruach Ha Kodesh, can be portrayed as feminine as the indwelling presence of God, the Shekinah, nurturing and bringing to birth souls for the kingdom. Spiritual insights recorded in the Book of Knowledge: Keys of Enoch carefully remind us that we are being prepared to understand that just as the Old Testament was the Age of the Father, the New Testament the Age of the Son, so this coming Age where gifts are poured forth will be the Age of the Holy Spirit.”

J. J. Hurtak, PhD, The Academy For Future Science

The Christian Goddess July 1, 2008

“Many theologians and scholars believe the Holy Spirit written as, Pneuma in Greek every time it appears in the New Testament, is a feminine being. Note that Pneuma is a neuter word in Greek, but in Hebrew the word Ruah (Spirit) and in Aramaic the word Shekinah (Presence) are feminine words and imply a feminine divine presence. The Holy Spirit is possibly a Christian Goddess, not a mysterious invisible member of an all-male Trinity “club.” Or more provocatively, maybe there is a Feminine Trinity of God-the-Mother (Sophia and Mary?), God-the-Daughter (Mary Magdalene) and Goddess-the- Spirit-Presence (Shekinah, Ruah). The Holy Spirit appears at Yeshua’s baptism in the form of a dove. The dove has long been a symbol of the Goddess in the Ancient Near East, and was never used to symbolize any male Being or God.

We must also look in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, and consider the Goddess Sophia. Her name means “Wisdom.” She is the Goddess of Wisdom referred to repeatedly in scripture as the wife of God-the-Father. See Proverbs, Song of Songs, (also called Song of Solomon) in the Hebrew Bible, and see the Book of Sirach and the Book of Wisdom in the Apocrypha found in the center of any Catholic Bible.

Here is an excerpt from “The Decline of the Feminine and the Cult of Mary In Greco-Roman Christianity” , probably because of the dangers of Gnosticism, the biblical images of God as female were soon suppressed within the doctrine of God. God as Wisdom, Hokmah in Hebrew, or Sophia in Greek, a feminine form, was translated by Christianity into the Logos concept of Philo, which is masculine and was defined as the Son of God. The Shekinah, the theology of God’s mediating presence as female, was de-emphasized; and God’s Spirit Ruah, a feminine noun in Hebrew, took on a neuter form when translated into Greek as Pneuma.

The Vulgate translated Ruah into Latin as masculine, Spiritus. God’s Spirit, Ruah, which at the beginning of creation brings forth abundant life in the waters, makes the womb of Mary fruitful. In spite of the reality of the caring, consoling, healing aspects of divine activity, the dominant patriarchal tradition has prevailed, resulting in seeing the female as the passive recipient of God’s creation; and the female is expressed in nature, church, soul, and finally Mary as the prototype of redeemed humanity. Because God as father has become an over literalized metaphor, the symbol of God as mother is eclipsed. The problem lies not in the fact that male metaphors are used for God, but that they are used exclusively and literally. Because images of God as female have been suppressed in official formulations and teaching, they came to be embodied in the figure of Mary who functioned to reveal the unfailing love of God.”

The Christian Goddess www.northernway.org/goddess. html