A question I have often been asked is why I give the Creator the masculine gender, that of the Father.
In First Nations spirituality the Creator, Great Spirit, is recognized by his works, the Creation. He is masculine because he is non-material, invisible, like the sky with which he is sometimes associated because of these attributes. Not having a physical presence, but being the Primordial Intelligence that underlies all things, we attribute to his presence the same function as that of the father, that is to say, the energy that fecundates, but which we do not see. The woman carries the child which is visible, physical. We know that the father’s seed is present, but it is invisible. Mother earth is thus associated with Great Mother Goddess as She is physical, material, visible and produces life when She is impregnated by the Celestial Father. We see the stars and the sun and we know that their action produces life by fertilizing mother earth and bringing forth all the plants and trees which in turn nourish all life. These celestial bodies inhabit the sky which is immaterial vastness that has no color, smell, texture or shape.
In Cherokee culture we also attribute to the divine manifestation a ternary, trinitarian aspect: man, the will to be, mother, compassionate love, and child, the creative intelligence. Here the Divine is in turn masculine, feminine and neutral, the fruit of the union of the two polarities.
Anastasia too, who for me is the most evolved and purest person on the planet, and who communicates directly with Great Spirit, which is very very very rare, speaks of our Divine Father, the Intelligence who created us and who loves us as his beloved children. The female counterpart of this energy for Anastasia is called love. It is the woman who best embodies these energies and allows the manifestation of all life on earth.
As far as I know, all religions on earth have a similar symbolism. The great mother goddess, who manifests herself in the oceans, in Mother Earth, in Grandmother Moon, in female goddesses such as the White Buffalo Calf Woman, Canone Bosatsu, Kuan Yin, the Virgin Mary, Aphrodite and the innumerable incarnations of the Great Goddess, is present in all spiritualties of the world. The two polarities are present in all things and it is their interaction and sharing that produces life. One is not more important than the other, both polarities are essential and necessary to life.
One of my teachers, a woman of incredible power, a warrior shaman of the Teneh (Apache) people, often says: “It’s time for God the Father to take a holiday, now the time for the Great Mother Goddess!” Indeed, it is time for women to assert their power and their will to purify the earth and humanity. If tomorrow all women refused to bear the children of those who work for the system, destruction and war, wars would quickly cease all over the planet. That is why among my greatest teachers are three women. We are at a time when women must take over the leadership of governments and institutions, as in the matriarchal societies of the First Nations of the Americas.
We could also be inspired by the Iroquois way of managing governance responsibilities. Grandmothers of the Iroquoian nations choose the chiefs. They watch the children, choose and train the ones they see have a greater sense of compassion and justice. These boys as adults became the leaders, the facilitators of the community councils. If they became corrupt, if power went to their heads, the Grandmothers have the power to remove them from office without further formality.
In short, there are two polarities in this world and from their union all life is created. As such they are equal and complementary. There is no need to feel aggrieved if certain divine forces and influences are given the masculine or feminine gender in the language we use to try to define and understand them.