The Lady Of The Temple: Examining The Divine Feminine In The Judeo-Christian Tradition (Conference)

[CV75]

During the final panel Q&A, someone submitted a written question suggesting that the typical temple plan (perhaps Solomonic) could reinforce the notion mentioned by a speaker that the Holy of Holies was considered to be the womb of the Lady of the Temple (Hebrew rehem "womb"; rahamim "compassion") -- the question suggested that the temple structure was analogous to female sex organs. Margaret Barker replied that Melchizedek is begotten from the womb/Holy of Holies, and that the metaphor can be taken much further.

 

Similarly, in 1987, Val Larsen (then an instructor in the English Department at Virginia Tech) applied Freudian literary criticism to the Book of Mormon in order to elicit parallels between King Noah and King Benjamin in the book of Mosiah.  Among the numerous similarities and contrasts listed by Larsen (as by Gordon Thomasson before him), he also took note of possible sexual imagery, the towers (and Gideon's sword) being phallic, the tents (with slitted doors and families inside) representing the female genitalia and womb -- into which Benjamin's word (cf. Alma 32 "word"/"seed") is implanted -- the people falling to the earth and rising reborn (spiritually begotten) and renamed in the midst of symbols designed by Mormon (as editor) to honor the highest form of physical love and intimacy (procreative and selfless), characterized by Benjamin, and set by Mormon over against the lowest form of love (promiscuous, sterile, dominating, and selfish), characterized by Noah.  I don't know whether Larsen published that or similar literary analyses  -- showing the Book of Mormon to be pregnant with meaning -- but one can hope.

See Val Larsen, "The Benjamin/Noah Nexus: The Little Appreciated Literary Devices the Nephites Used to Communicate Their Messages," paper delivered at the Sunstone East Symposium, May 16, 1987, in Bethesda, Maryland.

I've often thought that such symbolism is throughout the account of the Jaredites crossing the ocean in ships that were "tight like unto a dish," especially with this phrase emphasized so often. The dish is an ancient symbol of the womb across many cultures.

[Calm]

There might be a few pregnant pauses. Conceptually speaking.

 

[Stone holm]

Now that could make for a very interesting Sunday School class...especially for the youth Gospel Doctrine.

Yeah trying to imagine that in our Ward with the Bishop's wife going ballistic...would be the Fourth of July in October.

[Senator]

I've often thought that such symbolism is throughout the account of the Jaredites crossing the ocean in ships that were "tight like unto a dish," especially with this phrase emphasized so often. The dish is an ancient symbol of the womb across many cultures.

 

Oh My.....!

[Calm]

I am! I'm just hoping the name-dropping wasn't in an ironic tone.

 

Thanks for the paper, V - on the list it goes! 

If you ever wonder if you are appreciated, you should go compare your post count with your rep count.  I don't think I've seen another that is more than 100 posts that is so close in count (if my math is decent, over 90%).  Give yourself a pat on the back, people think you have something important to say practically everytime you open your mouth...I get this image of an old fairy tale where pearls dropped from her lips whenever the fair woman spoke...you are the male scholar version.

[CV75]

Oh My.....!

That's right! See how Moses 6:59-60 fits right in with the symbolic elements of the journey, and all these are encased in the dish? Dish (ship); Spirit (light from the stones); Blood (human cargo); Water (ocean); Birth and rebirth (entering lands of promise). Of course all these have to do with the covenants, God carying the people of the covenants, and the fulfillment of the covenants only with the union of Spirit (eternal experieince), blood (mortal experience) and water (death/burial/resurfacing/change) under God's watchful care and His Son's Atoning power.

[JeremyOrbe-Smith]

If you ever wonder if you are appreciated, you should go compare your post count with your rep count.  I don't think I've seen another that is more than 100 posts that is so close in count (if my math is decent, over 90%).  Give yourself a pat on the back, people think you have something important to say practically everytime you open your mouth...I get this image of an old fairy tale where pearls dropped from her lips whenever the fair woman spoke...you are the male scholar version.

 

Aw, shucks.