The Gender of God

A poet whose blog I read just posted this wonderful haibun. (Go on, read it; it’s quite short and truly delightful.)

I fell in love with it.

But then, a little while later, I had the thought that it would have been even more perfect if she’d said ‘Praise God’ instead of ‘Praise the Lord’. The word Lord is clearly male, whereas I like to think of God as female.

Of course, many many people all over the world – probably the majority – believe that God is male, as the widespread book religions* teach. But a substantial number believe that God is female – or that God encompasses all genders and much more besides, whilst they personally prefer to focus on the female or Great Mother aspect. (This latter is my own position.)

Well, it’s obviously a bit much to expect that devout Christians will stop equating ‘Lord’ with God, or that the devout of any other book religion will allow their Deity to be more gender-inclusive. So, if that seems to some of us to be selling God very short, it’s up to us to find our own words.

It’s seldom necessary to make huge changes. I do use the word Goddess sometimes, but ‘God’ works for me too. In my mind ‘God’ is all-encompassing and can be interpreted as ‘Goddess’ if I choose to focus on that aspect. In fact I see the words ‘Goddess’ and also ‘Deity’ as being similarly all-encompassing. (Sometimes I say 'the Universe', giving it this same meaning, way beyond the physical universe. But that's a bit tricky, as I might sometimes refer, in another context, to the physical universe.) The reality of God, I believe, is so vast as to be far beyond our understanding. Paradoxically, each of us can have a personal relationship with the Deity – and to do that, it helps to focus on one aspect we can relate to.

‘Praise God’ works for me.


*The books: E.g. the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Vedic texts, the Buddhist sutras and shastras…. (
Individuals have written books about the Pagan or earth-based spiritual paths, but they are not ‘have to’ books of laws to be obeyed; they are not regarded as the sacred words of God which emanated from the Deity even though written down by people.)

Leaving it up to the Universe

... can be the way to go.

Three and a half years ago Andrew and I moved from one town to another and realised we'd need to find a new doctor. There are a number of medical centres in this town. We chose the best one for us by pendulum. Then, when we tried to use the same method to find the best of the doctors listed at that practice, we got that they were all equally good. So we decided to let the Universe choose. Next time we needed to consult a doctor, we just fronted up and took who we were given, trusting that it'd be the right one.

We got Dr S, a young man who'd only just started at the practice — so of course was not on the list we'd been investigating. He was great. So much so that a couple of years later he had become very hard to get to see! However he was always our main doctor, and he looked after us very well. In my experience he was the only doctor Andrew ever completely trusted. Andrew had a deep suspicion of the medical profession, and sooner or later would say, 'I dont think he knows what he's doing' — about every doctor except this one. I'm glad he remained our doctor to the end of Andrew's life.

It was a blow when he recently announced he was leaving the practice and going into hospital emergency work in order to spend more time with his young family. General Practitioners work very long hours! I couldn't blame him, but who would I go to now? There was the doctor we used to use as second favourite; very kind, very efficient, but rather conservative. There was the new young woman I saw once when she was the only one available. Nice, but nothing special. I couldn't get excited about any of the prospects.

Dr S had been in another profession before deciding to become a doctor. I dont know if it was those years out in the world that made him more human and less arrogant, but he was down-to earth, open-minded, approachable, and clearly regarded his patients as being on an equal footing with him.  He really listened. You felt you were having a discussion with him about your symptoms and your care, not merely submitting to grand pronouncements being made. The first time we met him, I said, 'We're a bit New Agey' and he didn't turn a hair. It transpired that he wasn't sure about chiropractic, for one thing, but was open-minded enough to revise his opinions in the light of facts I gave him about our treatments. ('Who can I start training now?' I nearly said jokingly with my goodbye.)

Today I needed to visit a doctor, and again decided to leave it up to the Universe as to who I'd get. Now I feel a bit like I did years ago, when a landlord wanted his house back and we were devastated because we'd loved the place — but almost immediately found a new home so spectacular that we forgot all about the one we were leaving.

Today I was given an appointment with an open-faced young Irish charmer who'd just joined the practice, a perfect delight to meet. He shook my hand, listened attentively, was both direct and considerate, and made me feel that we were having a discussion as equals. Oh yes, a very promising replacement for Dr S. We didn't get into any talk of complementary therapies etc., but he's Celtic, which is a hopeful sign, and he's young enough to train, lol.

Afterwards he shook my hand again and told me he'd be very happy to look after me in future, if I wished. I beamed back at him and assured him I'd be very happy to have him look after me.

Note: Leaving things up to the Universe only works if you really do trust the Universe to look after you. Once you decide to hand something over, you just don't worry about it any more, and don't try to tweak it or influence it. It's a case of, 'Don't push the river, it flows by itself', or, 'Let go and let God.'  It's worked for me so often by now that I have no problem feeling confident and just trusting — which doesn't stop the joy when yet again things work out for the best.  What I have learnt is that the Universe comes up with better solutions that I could.