"What if..."
To my understanding, there are many gods, and possibly many levels of gods (as in "they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there" D&C 132: 19) on the way up to becoming a God the Father or God the Mother. Whether there's all separate universes or if it's divvied up by planets or star systems or galaxies, I don't know--I don't wanna get into those particulars--but assuming that the whole "as man is, God once was; as God is, man may become" idea that we base a lot of our beliefs on is true, there's a truckload of deities in existence somewhere out there, here or in other realms/planes/what have you. And we're told that once you receive your immortality after judgment, you're not going to die anymore.
But what if... we've misinterpreted or misunderstood.
I have no citations to back me up here, these are just the ideas running around in my head, but... what if the reason we don't hear about or worship Mother anymore--and haven't for thousands of years--is that... She died? Or was killed? We assume all gods must be good, but what if they're not? What if the greater reality is more like the drama and warfare of the ancient pantheons, where gods and goddesses are born, live, and die or are otherwise defeated with a fair amount of regularity? The logic of "there can be no Father without a Mother" would still hold true, because She helped create us in the past. As far as I know, all official Mormon theology regarding Her has been strictly logical; I've never heard of a Prophet--even Joseph--specifically saying, "There is a living, embodied Goddess, too."
So what if she just isn't there anymore, and we literally cannot get in touch with her or hope to bring her back into acknowledgment in our faith?
Sometimes I deeply dislike the speculative parts of my brain.
EDIT: I feel I should clarify. This post is not a response to the lack of Mother-ly references in General Conference. I've had these thoughts spinning around in my head for a few weeks now, perhaps a month, and I felt the need for the cathartic purge before they could fester any more.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
3 comments:
Thank you for wanting to leave me a message. I hope you've found something I've said edifying, and you'll extend the same to me. Please be positive, I'm not here to argue, but rather to just have a place to write things that I find spiritually uplifting, or share my own ponderings on matters of faith. Thank you.
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Here's another idea that once popped into my head. Assuming there are many gods out there, what if Heavenly Father is the God for us in this world and Heavenly Mother is the Goddess of her own other worlds? So, maybe there is a Heavenly Mother, but she's a goddess to other beings. And maybe her beings don't know much about or worship a Heavenly Father. Just another speculation without any citations.
ReplyDeleteHuh! I hadn't considered such an idea, that they each have their own "projects", related but not intermingled (at least with regards to our world.) Another interesting conjecture!
ReplyDeleteUm, I'm strictly confused, these thoughts have never crossed my mind. I sincerely believe and hope, that we are all immortal, I do believe that spirits can die though, so maybe that is not far fetched, its just. I honestly don't believe she is dead, I can't not with how much I see of her in my life. She isn't dead. She is just dead to us, that we don't speak of her. I believe that Each God and Goddess has their own planets and does things under their own agency, and I do not believe that God and Goddesses are jealous of each others work, because they have theirs to do. I don't believe that Gods and Goddesses have separate but equal projects, just as I don't believe that Men and women one earth have separate but equal roles quite frankly. I think one is interedependent on the other.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do believe that why we barely hear of her is that the Prophets have not been asking the questions. They have consulted the scriptures, not found her and been very content with not finding her, because that would be HUGE and it would probably change the face of the Church forever. I personally believe that they as mortal men could be as shortsighted as we as mortal women are. That they are focused so much on Temples and Family history work, they really don't talk about it.
I have heard about Joseph Smith having a vision of the Father, then of the Father and Mother, then of Father, Mother and son. This has been something I have considered.
Now as for your thought, it is interesting, but I do not feel that is the case.