A New Pronoun for God

By Eric Orion

While writing my book, Quantum Qabala (Booksurge Publishing), I found myself confronted with the impossible task of describing God. As a student of the Kabbalah/Qabalah for nearly two decades, I have based my beliefs on these teachings, yet that was all that I had – my beliefs. I cannot count my perception of divinity as any more accurate than anyone else, but I feel with every fiber of my being that it is right for me. Still, I know that the truth is far beyond what I feel.

Joseph Campbell said that God was a metaphor for a mystery that transcends all human understanding. The author of the Gospel of Judas wrote that there is a Great Spirit that no heart can comprehend, that no angel has ever seen, one that has not been known by any name. This last part is important because to name something is to define something and to define it is to limit it. One perception that is common to many forms of mysticism is that God is infinite, yet they still insist in limiting God with human sex characteristics.

The most common limitation used in talking of God is the pronoun. For thousands of years, many cultures have used masculine descriptions of God, naming God as a Father, a He, a Him. Other cultures, including perhaps the majority of prehistoric cultures, likely named God as Mother, a She, a Her. Whatever the case, all cultures have attempted to limit the infinite to fit their own understanding of the world and their own ideals for it. Suffering has ensued because of this.

The last 2000 years has seen the suppression of women due to the prevalent belief in a male deity. The dominance of half of the population is strongest in certain Middle-Eastern countries far away, but it is still present even in a progressive nation such as our own. The right to vote, for instance, was accidentally given to both men and women when our country was born, along with equal property qualifications. When this ‘mistake’ was discovered twenty years later, however, these rights for women were rescinded. The United States Constitution held that women did not have the right to vote, to decide the fate of their own country until an amendment was passed in 1920, almost 150 years after its creation. The fight for women’s suffrage was a long one and sometimes even dangerous. In 1913, a suffragist march in Washington, D.C. degenerated into violence as a hostile crowd of opponents attacked the marchers, sending more than 100 women to the hospital.

Women finally achieved what should have been theirs all along, but there is still much more work to do. For example, there is no legal holiday celebrating the achievements of a specific woman like there is for Martin Luther King, Jr. or Christopher Columbus. Has no woman done anything to merit such recognition? Of course, there are many who have yet they remain ignored.

The source of this problem lies in the inequality originating from placing limitations of sex on the infinite. The name “God” seems to have evolved from a masculine deity to an eternal and infinite force in recent times. It has transcended religious boundaries to find common grounds in Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity and other faiths. However, that masculine pronoun remains, and for as long as it does, one half of our population will be deemed as the lesser of the other.

So, what is the solution to this? Perhaps someone could invent a new word to be used as a pronoun for God, but it is likely that this word would be opposed by those who think that another word would serve better. One person might like the word “Esh” because it contains the letters of both “he” and “she.” Another might think that “Sieth” be used because it also encompasses the word “it.” Just as there are infinite ideas of God, so might there be no end to the words that are used to replace that name, and everyone may think that their idea is best.

Maybe a new pronoun is not the answer, then. Maybe the divine creator is so great, so deserved of our recognition that this power should only be spoken of in the proper form. Surely, it can be repetitious saying something like, “God sits in God’s holy temple” or “Brahmin awakens from Brahmin’s sleep” or, “The Goddess loves the Goddess’ children,” but is it so bad repeating the name of your higher power? I wouldn’t think it would be, but then again, the name of my higher power is my favorite word of all, and I can chant or say it all day long.

Eric Orion runs a professional astrology service, Orion Astrology, is a long-time student of the Kabbalah, and the author of Quantum Qabala. Contact Eric at ericorion@quantumqabala.com