How To Worship Our Mother In Heaven Without Getting Excommunicated

[Lamanite]

â??Logic and reason would certainly suggest that if we have a Father

in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. That doctrine rests well with

me.â?1. President Hinckley see full footnote below

Although it seems the existence of a Mother in Heaven has been taught by Church leaders both past and present, apart from acknowledging her existence, I'm not sure what to do with that information.

It has long been the battle cry for feminists and liberals among the Church that we do not properly worship Her. I just want to ask, what you want the Church to do?

In some aspects of my Religion I can say I have more liberal attitudes. But in this case I do not. Not long ago, and on two separate occasions I stood with my Branch President to give two single sisters a blessing. In each case he shared what their "Mother in Heaven wants [them] to know...". I was uncomfortable.

I'm just not sure what we are to do with the fact of Her existence.

Although Kevins essay stretches a little bit in the establishment of a Divine Mother in the Old Testament, he does wrap up with the most poignant and reasonable conclusion.

"In short, I can think of no finer, more profound way to worship our

Mother in Heaven than to participate in temple worship. And I have

never known a bishop or stake president to excommunicate anyone for

spending too much time serving in the temple""

Open to suggestions regarding the limitation of discussion on this topic; or the expansion of Her role in our theology and how.

Big UP!

Lamanite

1. Gordon B. Hinckley, â??Daughters of God,â? Ensign, November 1991,

100. The 1909 statement reads: â??. . . even as the infant son of an earthly father

and mother is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped

offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and

aeons, of evolving into a God.â? The 1995 statement reads: â??Each is a beloved

spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents . . .â? For the history of the idea in its

Mormon context, see Linda R. Wilcox, â??The Mormon Concept of a Mother

in Heaven,â? in Sisters in Spirit: MormonWomen in Historical and Cultural Perspective,

edited by Maureen Ursenbach Beecher and Lavina Fielding Anderson

(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 64â??77.

[Buckeye]

I have read the Barney piece. I thought it quite thought provoking. In fact, it provoked my recent post Would you name your daughter "Asherah"?

I don't think you can really separate Barney's suggestions of how to worship Heavenly Mother from his discussion of Israel's pre-exilic worship of Asherah. It seems that he bases his suggestions for modern worship on the ancient forms. Even "going to the temple" is based on his understanding that ancient Israel (particularly women) worshipped Asherah by sewing veils and other fabrics for use in the temple.

I find myself torn on the issue. While I rejoice in the restored knowledge of a Heavenly Mother, I haven't been given any constructive use for that knowledge. I would like to look to ancient sources, and, indeed, I am intrigued by the Asherah references in the Old Testament and potential references to her in the BOM, such as:

O how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with his people; yea, and how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she should rule over them!

Mosiah 8:20

But it is far from clear whether the ancient Asherah worship was sanctioned by God. For now, I think we must be content with the light and knowledge we have and patiently wait for the proper worship (if any) to be revealed. It should not be surprising that an understanding of Heavenly Mother should be delayed until after an understanding of Heavenly Father. Eve's creation came after Adam's.

But it equally natural that we would hunger after such a knowledge. If the man is not complete without the woman, then our knowledge of the Father is not complete without a knowledge of the Mother. Perhaps (as I believe was the case with blacks and the priesthood) this is a matter of God waiting until his people are prepared (read: actively desire) for the revelation to come. God gives unto his people according to their desires. So far, I haven't seen an overwhelming desire to learn more of Heavenly Mother. Perhaps this is changing!

[Bat-Man]

To me, at least, worship is all about emulation... sincerely trying to become the actual object(s) of our worship AND/OR to become one with our object(s) of worship.

That is what it means to "worship" someone or something, to me.

With that understood, the best way I can see to worship our Mother in heaven would be to sincerely try to become the actual object(s) of our worship AND/OR to become one with our object(s) of worship.

... with a Man trying to become one with our Mother in heaven, rather than an actual Mother in heaven, of course, and with a Woman trying to become an actual Mother in heaven as well as to become one with Her (and Her Husband).

In the end, it's all about becoming one really big Family in heaven with each of us fulfilling our roles to the best of our abilities, either being a Mother in heaven, or a Father in heaven, or simply one of their children without ever fully growing up to be perfectly one with Them and doing all that They are doing.

[annewandering]

i was told that we know so little about our Mother in heaven was because God wasnt that thrilled that Her name would be drug through the dirt the way His and Jesus' was. dont know if there is doctrine on it but it is not that hard to understand that motive.

[Billy]

i was told that we know so little about our Mother in heaven was because God wasnt that thrilled that Her name would be drug through the dirt the way His and Jesus' was. dont know if there is doctrine on it but it is not that hard to understand that motive.

Or the other possibility---that a mother in heaven is false doctrine.

[David Waltz]

Personally, I have never been impressed by the recent attempts to identify/locate a Mother Goddess within the confines of the LDS Quad. IMHO, all attempts to-date are flawed. And further, the use of archeology by less than â??neutralâ?? scholars to define the religion of ancient Israel has its own, unique set of problems.

I just discovered today that one of the best books on Israelâ??s ancient religion, (Patrick Millersâ??s, The Religion of Ancient Israel) is now available online via Google Books (â??limited previewâ?):

http://books.google.com/books?id=JBhY9BQ7h...+Miller#PPR7,M1

The entire first chapter is a must read (IMHO), but will fully understand if many jump to â??The Feminine Dimension and the Question of the Goddessâ?â?¦

Looking forward to comments by those who take the time to read the information firsthand.

Grace and peace,

David

[Doctor Steuss]

Or the other possibility---that a mother in heaven is false doctrine.

Or we don't all have the same one.

[talisyn]

Or we don't all have the same one.

hehe I love when that little idea comes out.

Speaking as a mother, I ask why would our Heavenly Mother even want to be worshipped? I bet she has a lot more stuff to do than we might think and would probably not welcome the distraction. Our time here on earth is considered a school, a test. When my daughter and nephews are at school that's time for me to clean house, run errands, take a shower and catch up on my studies. There will be more than enough time to spend with Her after we pass this test and come back home with a bright red A+ on our report cards.

[Doctor Steuss]

[...]Patrick Miller[...]

I was meaning to pick up his book after reading his review of Dever in RBL, but the thought became buried amongst other "I really should"'s. Thank you for the reminder.

[Olavarria]

Barney's paper was interesting.

Here is what I have problems with:

1) Is HM's hebrew name Asherah?

Its possible that true prophets acknowledged her using the name Asherah, i cant discount that entirly. But it is also possible that ''asherah" is an improper name. Could it be that the pre-exilic Asherah is a syncrenization of the true HM and a canaanite goddess? Is Asherah the corrupted version of what was revealed from previous dispensations? Is the ancient Isarealite worship of Asherah a case in mistaken identity? I don't know.

2) Praying to HM.

Jesus is the perfect example in how to be a mormon, IMHO.

True, not every aspect of the Lord's life is recorded in scripture(possible marriages, ordinances,miracles, teachings); but those we do have all show Him praying to the Father. Jesus prayed to the Father and so should we.

The main thing I agree with:

The knowledge of Heavenly Mother's existance is not unimportant and vestigal.

Here is my take on how a man can "worship our Mother In Heaven without getting excommunicated".

Matt 25:40

Jesus said: "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have adone it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

If Heavenly Mother were to reveal herself and have a revelation recorded, I wouldn't be surprised if it would say:

"And the Queen shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my daughters, ye have done it unto me."

We should treat every woman as if she were a potential Heavenly Mother, cuz she is. Also, motherhood is divine etc.

[The Nehor]

Or we don't all have the same one.

How do you know we all have the same Father?

[Bat-Man]

hehe I love when that little idea comes out.

Speaking as a mother, I ask why would our Heavenly Mother even want to be worshipped? I bet she has a lot more stuff to do than we might think and would probably not welcome the distraction. Our time here on earth is considered a school, a test. When my daughter and nephews are at school that's time for me to clean house, run errands, take a shower and catch up on my studies. There will be more than enough time to spend with Her after we pass this test and come back home with a bright red A+ on our report cards.

I sometimes wonder if more people would pray more if they understood that they could actually talk with their Mother in heaven, rather than as it is now where we pray only with our Father in heaven, but, as you say, we have work to do here and I'm pretty sure that our Mother agrees that we should really be talking with our Father in heaven, including hearing from Him, while we are here.

[The Nehor]

I just ask Dad to pass on my messages.

[Bat-Man]

I just ask Dad to pass on my messages.

You mean, something like:

Tell Mom I love her, too.

I like that idea.

[Garden Girl]

For now, I think we must be content with the light and knowledge we have and patiently wait for the proper worship (if any) to be revealed.

I agree. IMO, if we were to have more information about our Heavenly Mother, we would undoubtedly have received it through revelation at the time Joseph was receiving other knowledge, particularly in regard to temple ordinances, eternal marriage and families, etc. The Family Proclamation confirms the concept that we have "Heavenly Parents"... that is what we have been given for now... Obviously Heavenly Father has deemed that to be sufficient at this time... and until we are given more knowledge in this regard, I think it inappropriate to be including reference to a Heavenly Mother in priesthood blessings, prayers in meetings, etc etc.

Any further consideration is speculative... interesting, but speculative.

Garden Girl

[Olavarria]

Father, Son and Holy Ghost

These are the 3 Gods we worship for our 75-100 year probation.

As for Heavenly Mother(s), I still think that loving women is the best way to love Her.

An interesting thing, in Ugaritic, El had more that one wife. I wonder if brother Barney believes the same thing about Heavenly Father? Interesting stuff.

[Bat-Man]

I agree. IMO, if we were to have more information about our Heavenly Mother, we would undoubtedly have received it through revelation at the time Joseph was receiving other knowledge, particularly in regard to temple ordinances, eternal marriage and families, etc. The Family Proclamation confirms the concept that we have "Heavenly Parents"... that is what we have been given for now... Obviously Heavenly Father has deemed that to be sufficient at this time... and until we are given more knowledge in this regard, I think it inappropriate to be including reference to a Heavenly Mother in priesthood blessings, prayers in meetings, etc etc.

Any further consideration is speculative... interesting, but speculative.

Garden Girl

Are you suggesting that we should simply dismiss any thoughts in our own minds about our Mother in heaven?

I'm pretty sure She wouldn't like that.

... but I do agree that it's good to keep our knowledge of Her sacred.

[talisyn]

Barney's paper was interesting.

Here is what I have problems with:

1) Is HM's hebrew name Asherah?

Its possible that true prophets acknowledged her using the name Asherah, i cant discount that entirly. But it is also possible that ''asherah" is an improper name. Could it be that the pre-exilic Asherah is a syncrenization of the true HM and a canaanite goddess? Is Asherah the corrupted version of what was revealed from previous dispensations? Is the ancient Isarealite worship of Asherah a case in mistaken identity? I don't know.

2) Praying to HM.

Jesus is the perfect example in how to be a mormon, IMHO.

True, not every aspect of the Lord's life is recorded in scripture(possible marriages, ordinances,miracles, teachings); but those we do have all show Him praying to the Father. Jesus prayed to the Father and so should we.

The main thing I agree with:

The knowledge of Heavenly Mother's existance is not unimportant and vestigal.

Here is my take on how a man can "worship our Mother In Heaven without getting excommunicated".

Matt 25:40

Jesus said: "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have adone it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

If Heavenly Mother were to reveal herself and have a revelation recorded, I wouldn't be surprised if it would say:

"And the Queen shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my daughters, ye have done it unto me."

We should treat every woman as if she were a potential Heavenly Mother, cuz she is. Also, motherhood is divine etc.

Your last 2 sentences brought tears to my eyes, thank you. I do believe we have a Heavenly Mother, and if she's as wonderful as my own mom I think we'll all be very happy in the next world.

[LeSellers]

i was told that we know so little about our Mother in heaven was because God wasnt that thrilled that Her name would be drug through the dirt the way His and Jesus' was. dont know if there is doctrine on it but it is not that hard to understand that motive.

I haven't finished this theory, so there are a lot of loose ends, and it is extremely broad.

It starts with Abraham.

God promised (covenanted with) Abraham that He would give him and his posterity the land of Canaan, but that this transfer would not happen for four hundred years because the iniquity of the Canaanites was not yet full. (This was even though Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for their wickedness. What that "full iniquity" must have entailed is mind boggling, given the fire and brimstone rained down on two of their cities.)

It is my theory that the Canaanites were the original covenant people. They are in the right place, they have the right king (Melchizedek/Shem?), and they have many facets of the true religion of the true God. They are, however, apostate.

One thing we do know is that Canaanite religion incorporated "sympathetic sex", specifically, the use of "sacred" (or temple) prostitutes whose services had two purposes. First, by coupling, the customers and the prostitutes were showing Ba`al what to do to bring fertility (probably rain) to the land, since the coupling of the gods was what the Canaanites believed caused the seasons leading to the harvests. Second, the price of the prostitute was dedicated to the gods' temples and their priests.

I believe that this "sexual worship" was a direct descendant of the original knowledge of a Father and Mother in Heaven, a male God and a female God with all that implies.

So, the degenerate religion of the Canaanites did precisely what our leaders have hypothesized in regards to our Mother: they took Her Person and went 'way over the edge, dishonoring Her in their worship of to the extent that She became a prostitute. Father loves Her, and will not allow that to happen again. So He has sheltered her from the wanton eyes of the people who might just repeat what happened earlier.

Lehi

[typicaldude]

Of all the Mormon doctrines the Heavenly Mother must be the toughest to reconcile. On the one hand if you have a literal Heavenly Mother then she is most certainly deserving of worship. But on the other to openly acknowledge and worship a Heavenly Mother puts Mormonism very far from orthodox Christianity to the point where it's almost completely unrecognizable as a Christian faith.

How do Mormons handle this topic? Do you just put the idea of a Heavenly Mother out of your mind? Eventually someones going to have to seriously tackle the connundrum.

[cjcampbell]

We have a Mother in Heaven. That is all we know about Her. We do not even know if we all the same Mother in Heaven.

I am convinced that Father has kept Mother hidden from us for very good reasons. We are commanded to pray to Father in the name of the Son. We are commanded to pray to no one else -- to hold no other gods (or goddesses) before the Father.

I think some members' obsession with mysteries and their attempts to use these mysteries to further their own political or social causes can do nothing but damage to their relationship with their Father in Heaven.

[Bat-Man]

I haven't finished this theory, so there are a lot of loose ends, and it is extremely broad.

I like your theory, and maybe, just maybe, I can contribute a thought that you might like.

It starts with Abraham.

Actually, it started with Adam and those who received the priesthood through his hands.

... actually, it started even before Adam... er, uh, no, actually, it never started.

... anyway, I hope you can see my point.

Abraham simply sought for the blessings that were given to the Fathers before him.

It simply continued through Abraham. It didn't really start there.

... but, yes, from Noah the fulness of the priesthood of God was passed on to Canaan.

Anyway, that's all I have to add, at this point.

I like the rest of your theory, and I will now make it my own theory until I can come up with something better... if that is at all possible.

[Lightbearer]

Of all the Mormon doctrines the Heavenly Mother must be the toughest to reconcile. On the one hand if you have a literal Heavenly Mother then she is most certainly deserving of worship. But on the other to openly acknowledge and worship a Heavenly Mother puts Mormonism very far from orthodox Christianity to the point where it's almost completely unrecognizable as a Christian faith.

How do Mormons handle this topic? Do you just put the idea of a Heavenly Mother out of your mind? Eventually someones going to have to seriously tackle the connundrum.

Actually it is the most easy to reconcile if you believe in mankind being created in the image and likeness of God. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, male and female created He them. Now we believe that the Father and the Son are two separate individuals, likewise our heavenly mother is a separate individual also. Yet they are "one" God. Just as Adam and Eve became "one" meaning they are sealed together so also God the Eternal Father is sealed to His eternal companion(s) so therefore she would not be worshipped as a separate "goddess" apart from the Godhead. Just as Jesus and the Father are in perfect unity and are not worshipped separately, so also our mother is not to be singled out and worshipped apart from God the Father. He presides and therefore He is our God of Gods and Lord of Lords. Jesus inherits His heavenly parents Godhood just as we may if we qualify through the atonement of God the second or the Son of God. No ambiguity for me it is rather plain and simple there can be no Father without a Mother worlds without end. That is the divine pattern notwithstanding all the philosophers and scholars and other "wise men" who have tried to remove the key of knowledge through the apostate creeds of christendom.

[talisyn]

Of all the Mormon doctrines the Heavenly Mother must be the toughest to reconcile. On the one hand if you have a literal Heavenly Mother then she is most certainly deserving of worship. But on the other to openly acknowledge and worship a Heavenly Mother puts Mormonism very far from orthodox Christianity to the point where it's almost completely unrecognizable as a Christian faith.

How do Mormons handle this topic? Do you just put the idea of a Heavenly Mother out of your mind? Eventually someones going to have to seriously tackle the connundrum.

Well, there is always the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church. I hesitate to call them far from orthodox Christianity.

[typicaldude]

Actually it is the most easy to reconcile if you believe in mankind being created in the image and likeness of God. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, male and female created He them. Now we believe that the Father and the Son are two separate individuals, likewise our heavenly mother is a separate individual also. Yet they are "one" God. Just as Adam and Eve became "one" meaning they are sealed together so also God the Eternal Father is sealed to His eternal companion(s) so therefore she would not be worshipped as a separate "goddess" apart from the Godhead. Just as Jesus and the Father are in perfect unity and are not worshipped separately, so also our mother is not to be singled out and worshipped apart from God the Father. He presides and therefore He is our God of Gods and Lord of Lords. Jesus inherits His heavenly parents Godhood just as we may if we qualify through the atonement of God the second or the Son of God. No ambiguity for me it is rather plain and simple there can be no Father without a Mother worlds without end. That is the divine pattern notwithstanding all the philosophers and scholars and other "wise men" who have tried to remove the key of knowledge through the apostate creeds of christendom.

So you do worship the Heavenly Mother but through God the Father then?

Well, there is always the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church. I hesitate to call them far from orthodox Christianity.

Mary is considered Mother of God or Theotikos by all Apostolic Churches not just Catholicism I believe. But that's a complete seperate issue from what's being discussed here.