*as always, heavily fore-warned UPG is coming*
Before I get back into the meat of this series (which is the gods themselves), a bit more for introduction into why I think challenging the gender norms in our religious structures is so vital.
The gods bring new revelations, open new doors of understanding, when our perspective broadens and changes, and so I think it's time to let them speak beyond the essentialism of our old gender constructs, so that these bodies which do not obey or adhere existing within the gender binary might find spiritual acceptance, emotional release, and feel the divine love the that gods pour out for their followers.
Since gender is self defined I feel like the gods most certainly do self define in regards to their appearance to us as humans. I tend to gravitate in my thoughts more the idea that the gods are not necessarily bound to any one form, but chose more often to appear to us as human/animal/energy/light, etc in order to more effectively communicate with us, and so, just as we have that right to self definition, the gods in this manner ultimately do too.
In modern western culture, we have bought way too heavily into the idea that there was only two ways of moving about within our bodies, and so the old associations have stuck with the iconography and descriptions of deities which have moved down the ages through books and artwork to land at our spiritual door steps today. In my experience, only thinking of a god in one way imprisons the range of experience we can have with the gods and the spirits. (i.e. gentle mother Goddess Ge as a descriptor could pre-clude their role as a destroyer and monster rearer if we only ever use one set of modifiers in our thoughts and approaches to them).
Goddesses such as Artemis and Athena were defined as virgins in ancient Greece. I must preface that I am still a student of ancient greek religion and culture and thus cannot claim that I speak with any authority on this issue, but from what I have read in Sorita D'este's Artemis: Virgin Goddess of the Sun and Moon, virginity was a status of childhood and a definer for a female who was not married, and fell under Artemis' protection. Once a female was passed on in marriage, she fell into Hera's domain. These two categories ultimately limited a woman's freedom and agency (let me emphasize the categories as social constructs are restrictive, not the goddesses themselves). From what I understand, there was no agency granted for women throughout most of their lives, though I think I have read Sparta might be the exception to this. Ultimately the ideal only applied to wealthy women, which the in the minds of people at that time the images of the goddesses definitely fall under the territory of the ideal.
I have taken you down this discussion of social ideologies in regards to gender and religion to point out that as a modern student of the Theoi and the spirits, I have had to take the concept of virginity, wad it up in a nice tight ball, and place it in my gender blender so that I understand what the hell all of this paraphrasing is getting at: in the ancient greek mindset, asking Zeus to let you remain a virgin (marriage free) was the only way to get agency and power for oneself. And obviously, such a privilege could only be granted to his daughters. And so the goddesses in modern times I now know are just as wild, unbreakable, unchained as they ever were. I think now we are the better for understanding this, for we are learning new ways to take apart gender norms, and know these goddesses would have damn well taken it for themselves had almighty Zeus said no. I think that is why they still resonate with us so strongly as goddesses of empowerment.
But to circle back to the original point, gender norms and social constructs regarding them affect how we view the gods and so it is important to give deities a spiritual mindset and a place that allows them to speak for themselves, while allowing those of us do not fit in a nice cookie cutter either/or dichotomy, to worship, thrive, and feel just as loved as everyone else.. But I have often found, that when you do let the gods speak for themselves to you through prayer and journey work, they often completely destroy everything you thought you knew about them, while reinforcing their core spirit (i.e. Hera's value of loyalty) more than ever before.
And so before we begin with the first god I would like to discuss in how they have helped me feel safe in my genderqueer body, I want to take a minute to shout out how excited I am at the idea of reading (hopefully soon, when I get the money set aside) P. Sufenas Virius Lupus' book on the transgender and gender variant gods e has come to know (from what I have been reading on eirs blog, these gods are only a few years old <3). All-Soul, All-Body, All-Power: A Trans Mythology is available for sale at create space. I am very excited at the idea of the landscape of polytheism broadening as trans people and people outside the gender binary discuss how their worship and relationship with the gods works.
I know for me personally, when you break down the language around you and how it codifies you in a gender not of your choosing, freedom becomes so sweet, and after hearing my friends call me "they" and Ecco repeatedly, I know that I am now clean to come to the gods in my true, whole self (I am still broken from dysphoria, but I am certain in my own identity). I think that is why the publication of books on transgender and gender variant deities like the Tetrad are so valuable.
I hope the non-binary pagans can come out of the wood works with rapacity and intensity as the century goes on.
Our gods are here, they are often queer, and we are not fucking going anywhere.
And I actually do promise, the next round in this series will actually cover Hera. I finally made it through the bulk of notes on gender identity and how identity politics in religion can cause problems, so now that the foundation is set, the gods may be honored on the altars which rest upon it.
Thank you, as always, for taking the time to read,
Ecco
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