This is a portion of an ongoing series which seeks to chronicle the occult, magickal and mystical alchemy roots of the transgender and postgender movements from secret societies and mystery religion sources. I have chronicled these in the Postgender Androgyny, Hermaphroditism & Beyond section.
Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote the following in Woman, Church and State (1893 AD), chap. I, “The Matriarchate” notes the following within the context of “The ancient Mound Builders of America”:
It is a remarkable fact—its significance not recognized,—that the roughly sketched diameter within the circle, found wherever boys congregate, is an ancient mystic sign[1] signifying the male and female, or the double-sexed deity. It is the union of all numbers, the one within the zero mark comprising ten, and as part of the ancient mysteries signifying God, the creative power, and eternal life; it was an emblem of The All…
Jehovah signifies not alone the masculine and the feminine principles but also the spirit or vivifying intelligence. It is a compound word indicative of the three divine principles.[2] Holy Ghost, although in Hebrew a noun of either gender, masculine, feminine, neuter, is invariably rendered masculine by Christian translators of the Bible.[3] In the Greek, from whence we obtain the New Testament, spirit is of the feminine gender, although invariably translated masculine.
The double-sexed word, Jehovah, too sacred to be spoken by the Jews, signified the masculine-feminine God.[4] The proof of the double meaning of Jehovah, the masculine and feminine signification, Father-Mother, is undeniable. Lanci, one of the great orientalists, says:Jehovah should be read from left to right, and pronounced Ho-Hi; that is to say He-She (Hi pronounced He,) Ho in Hebrew being the masculine pronoun and Hi the feminine. Ho-Hi therefore denotes the male and female principles, the vis genatrix.[5]
…The Hebrew word ‘El Shaddai,’ translated, ‘The Almighty’ is still more distinctively feminine than Iah, as it means ‘The Breasted God,’ and is made use of in the Old Testament whenever the especially feminine characteristics of God are meant to be indicated.[6]
It is interesting to what conclusions one comes when one’s goal is solely to read postgendersism (by any other name) into any and everything.
Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote that “In the Greek” of “the New Testament, spirit is of the feminine gender” and yet, that very texts tells us that “a spirit hath not flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39) and since a spirit, by definition, does not have a body it is not male or female.
It was also stated that “Jehovah should be read from left to right, and pronounced Ho-Hi…He-She…the male and female principles” and yet, she conveniently left out that “Jehovah” is, after all, the tetragrammaton, the four letters, which Yod Heh Vav Heh so that Lanci may be one of the great orientalists but can only conclude that Yod Heh Vav Heh is Ho-Hi/He-She by ignoring two of the four letters.
As for The Breasted God, it appears to be another case of reading gender when such is not necessarily the case as elucidated by Blue Letter Bible:
Another word much like Shaddai, and from which many believe it derived, is shad meaning “breast” in Hebrew (some other scholars believe that the name is derived from an Akkadian word Šadu, meaning “mountain,” suggesting strength and power).
The Song of Solomon provides various instances of breasts being likened to something else as is the case with mountain and thus, strength and powder in 4:5 and 7:3, 7-8:
Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies…Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins. This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples.
In chap. II, Celibacy, Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote:
While the inferior and secondary position of woman early became an integral portion of Christianity, its fullest efforts are seen in Church teachings regarding marriage. Inasmuch as it was a cardinal doctrine that the fall of Adam took place through his temptation into marriage by Eve, this relation was regarded with holy horror as a continuance of the evil which first brought sin into the world, depriving man of his immortality.
Gage footnotes this statement thusly, “It was a favorite doctrine of the Christian fathers that concupiscence or the sensual passion was the original sin of human nature. Lecky.— Hist. European Morals.”
A strong qualifying statement is required here as it may be that case that the “Church” (whatever she means by that) at some point viewed women as “inferior” but the Bible affirms that, both, males and females were both created in YHVH’s image.
Also, it is somewhat unclear what is meant by Adam’s “temptation into marriage by Eve” as they were married, as it were, before the fall into sin. As noted within the section Serpent Seed of Satan section, that “concupiscence or the sensual passion was the original sin of human nature” appears to be late dated at best.
Within another footnote Gage claims, “According to Christianity woman is the unclean one, the seducer who brought sin into the world and caused the fall of man. Consequently all apostles and fathers of the church have regarded marriage as an inevitable evil just as prostitution is regarded to-day. August Bebel.—Woman in the Past, Present and Future.” Again, she quotes an author, in this case a German socialist politician, but not the Bible.
Yes, biblically Eve was beguiled into sinning and Adam followed her lead. However, Gage claims that “According to Christianity woman” actually the one woman Eve, “brought sin into the world and caused the fall of man” however, the Bible actually states, “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12) and “ by man came death…For as in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22) however, Gage does not complain that according to Christianity man is the unclean one, etc.
Also, the claim about all (mind you) apostles and all fathers viewed marriage as such. The fact is that, just as Jesus reiterated it from Genesis, “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?” (Matthew 19:4-5).
Marriage is YVHV ordained and only Paul can be called to question in this regard even though all he states is that he would prefer people to remain unmarried and celibate for the specific purposes of being able to be itinerate preachers. However, if someone cannot handle it, does not have the gift of celibacy, then they should get married (see 1 Corinthians 7 for example).
For more details on related issues see:
Biblical Women
Matilda Joslyn Gage continues directly from the statement quoted above with:
The androgynous theory of primal man found many supporters, the separation into two beings having been brought about by sensual desire. Jacob Bœhme and earlier mystics of that class recognized the double sexuality of God in whose image man was made…
The more mystical among priests taught that before woman was separated from man, the Elementals were accepted by man as his children and endowed by him with immortality, but at the separation of the androgynous body into the two beings Adam and Eve, the woman through accident was also endowed with immortality which theretofore had solely inhered in the masculine portion of the double-sexed being.
At the term “the Elementals” Gage’s footnote shows that her perspective is derived not from a reading of the bible but from occultism as she quotes Kabbalists and Theosophists, “Lowest in the scale of being are those invisible creatures called by Kabbalists the “elementary.” * * The second class is composed of the invisible antitypes of the men to be born. Isis Unveiled, I, 310.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Matilda Joslyn Gage’s footnotes:
[1] The phallus and lingum (or lingum and yoni), the point within the circle or diameter within the circle.—Volney’s Ruins.
[2] Observe that I. H. U. is Jod, male, father; “He” is female, Binah, and U is male, Van, Son.—Sepher Yetzirah.
[3] The Perfect Way.—Kingsford.
[4] I. A. H. according to the Kabbalists, is I. (Father) and A. H. (Mother); composed of I. the male, and H. the mother. Nork.— Bibl. Mythol. I, 164-65 (note to Sod 166, 2, 354.)
[5] Nork says the “Women clothed with the sign of the Sun and the Moon is the bi-sexed or male-female deity; hence her name is Iah, composed of the masculine I and the feminine Ah. Sod.—Appendix 123.
[6] That name of Deity, which occurring in the Old Testament is translated the Almighty, namely El Shaddai, signified the Breasted God, and is used when the mode of the divine nature implied is of a feminine character. Kingsford.— The Perfect Way, p. 68.
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