What differentiates the Father and Mother aspects of God?
I’ve attempted an explanation many times and the task remains beyond me.
Then I happened upon an exchange with the Divine Mother that I’d forgotten about. She offered her explanation.
For those who may not know, the Divine Mother is not an ascended master, not a galactic being, not even a goddess or a seraphim.
She is the Father when the Father creates a dream world in which “he” decides to become active. When viewed as active, when moving upon the face of the waters, so to speak, ancient sages, and the Mother herself, have called God “the Divine Mother.”
Or Shakti, Kali, Royal Glory, the Holy Spirit, Hagia Sophia, etc. She’s known by many names. (1)
He isn’t known. He is unknowable. She is all that can be heard, seen, felt, and in other ways known.
***
The avatar, Sri Ramakrishna, explains how he sees the situation between them:
“When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive — neither creating nor preserving nor destroying — I call Him Brahman [Formless God] or Purusha [Supreme Being], the Impersonal God. When I think of Him as active — creating, preserving, and destroying –, I call him Sakti [Energy, the Mother] or Maya [Illusion] or Prakriti [Creator], the Personal God.
“But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The Personal and the Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman [Heavenly Father] are one.” (2)
Later he describes processes at the highest level of existence. He leaves it to us to apply the male/female principle to the rest of creation.
“Brahman … first manifested as a twin principle — half man and half woman — just to show that It was both Purusha [Supreme Being, Formless God] and Prakriti [Creator in form]. Descending a step lower, It separated into Purusha [divine male] and Prakriti [divine female] as distinct entities.” (3)
I won’t take his comment further, but there’s much to be said about it on another occasion. There is the derivation of gender.
Here, in the marvellous passage that follows, the Mother herself makes the differentiation. I think of it as one of the cookie crumbs leading out of the forest. It’s not the only one. There are more clues ahead. This is just a version of the Truth, suited to our comprehension and interests.
Steve Beckow: [Mother,] many of our listeners don’t know who it is I’m speaking to — not really. They may sense that you exist, but they know nothing of your nature.
And by saying that we have a “Divine Mother” they probably suspect that I’m implying that we have a “Heavenly Father” as well. But they don’t know what makes you different, even though of course you are also the same.
Of you, Lao-tzu said, ‘Nameless indeed is the source of creation. But things have a mother, and she has a name.’ Could you help us by saying what unites and separates you from the Father, please?
Divine Mother: What unites and separates us from what you think of as the Father and Mother is simply energy and love. It is a differentiation that we have decided upon — well, chosen, created — long, long ago, outside of time, outside of what you even conceive of as creation. It is the ability to move in and out of form. It is the ability to create and to co-create. It is the ability to be silent and to be of sound, of vibration, of movement, of sweetness.
If you were to think of the Father in terms of what you will come to understand, you would think of the Father as complete stillness, still point. And in fact so often when we urge you to go to that place, it is that union that you are seeking with the Heavenly Father, with that complete sense of simply being.
I am the creative force throughout this universe, throughout the multiverse, the omniverse, but we source each other. We source each other’s energies and we move as one and yet separate and distinct.
And you say, “Well, Mother, how can this be?” And I would say back to you, “How can this not be?” For it is that perfect balance. It is the way in which we bring forth plans, discoveries, creations, universes, galaxies, humans. It is the way in which you come to know and to have an experience of One, and with me and through me, of the One as well.
So that is the explanation I offer you. (4)
Not only will we probably never hear a more succinct explanation, but we have the comfort, if I’m correct, in having heard it directly from Source.
In order to realize God completely, we’re invited to see the relationship between the Formless God and God with Form as that between a Father and a Mother. The birth of the cosmic Child – that’s us – makes it a Trinity. We’re tasked with knowing the ultimate identity of all three.
We discover that many human processes – conception, gestation, and birth are one example – reflect divine processes, and are meant to do so. We find out that we’ve been tasked with the job of uncovering a great mystery, reflected in the enduring question “Who am I?” The Trinity reflects three stages of enlightenment. (5)
***
The Mother herself has introduced herself to us. In what previous generation might this have happened? This generation has the benefit of hearing how the Divine Mother herself puts the matter. For me that’s like going directly to the one who knows.
If we’re to build a cross-cultural, interdimensional spirituality, a new map of heaven, each piece of the puzzle like this becomes important. And nothing reassures the scholar in me more than to have confirmation of the correctness of the piece directly from the maker of the puzzle.
Ronna Herman had a moment like mine – on the very same subject too – when Archangel Michael confirmed a piece of the puzzle for her. She wrote:
“When Archangel Michael told me that our Father/Mother God were not two separate Beings, but one unified BEING with two sets of individualized qualities, virtues and aspects, I was amazed and overjoyed. At the universal level of consciousness, there is no division, no opposition.” (6)
Confirmation of matters that lie at the very fundaments of knowledge is exciting.
Footnotes
(1) “See on the Nature of the Divine Mother or Holy Spirit” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/the-nature-of-the-divine-mother/on-the-nature-of-the-divine-mother-or-holy-spirit-2/
(2) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Nikhilananda, Swami, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 32.
(3) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Anon., Life of Sri Ramakrishna. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1977; c1924, 382.
(4) “The Divine Mother: Come to Me as I Come to You – Part 1/2,” Oct 17, 2012, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2012/10/17/the-divine-mother-come-to-me-as-i-come-to-you-part-12/.
(5) The sight of the Child or Christ or Atman occurs when the kundalini energy reaches the Fourth or Heart Chakra. Hindus call it spiritual awakening and Buddhists, stream-entering. It appears as a discrete Light, for whom enlightenment comes as a Light.
The sight of the Mother occurs when the kundalini reaches the Sixth or Brow Chakra. It’s commonly called cosmic consciousness. It appears as a light suffusing creation.
The sight of the Father occurs when the kundalini reaches the Seventh or Crown Chakra. It’s commonly called Brahmajnana (God Realization), Kevalya Nirvikalpa Samadhi, etc.
Beyond it is the stage of enlightenment called Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi, a permanent heart opening, which is commonly known as mukti or liberation from the need to be reborn. It is the culmination of our Ascension.
(6) Ronna Herman, “The Mystery of the Vesica Piscis,” Oct. 2012, at https://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/mystery-vesica-piscis.