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The reality of a Divine Couple remains unsettling in the West.

On the one hand, if the Absolute is One and unique, how can it be two? On the other hand, Universal Consciousness, as the supreme energy beyond gender, offers the advantage that the so-called stronger sex is no longer at risk of dominating the so-called weaker sex, nor of reigning as a solitary God the Father.

But how then can we not lose sight of the notion of a personal Divine being who is "someone," rather than an impersonal energy?

Few of our contemporaries know that Yahweh, the one God of the Old Testament, was not always "alone." At his side in the Temple of Solomon (in Jerusalem between 930 and 587 BC), stood Asherah, his beloved Goddess. Biblical passages mention that Asherah was also known as Elat, the feminine equivalent of Yahweh, the God of Israel (2 Kings 23:6). Archaeological research has corroborated that she stood near Him in Solomon’s Temple.

Any student of comparative religions will undoubtedly notice an unavoidable connection to the Divine Couple venerated in Hinduism. Lakshmi-Vishnu, Parvati-Shiva, and the earthly incarnation of Radha-Krishna are the best-known variations of the Divine Couple. In the modern era, across India, Radha-Krishna has become more popular than ever.

In Taoist China, the Yin-Yang couple represents the essence of the absolute circle, with the masculine-feminine polarities highlighted within the circle as two droplets swirling towards one another. In his book, *Allah au féminin* (Albin Michel, 2020), Eric Geoffroy, a French Islamic scholar and writer, speaks of an essential reality of Islam, always hidden yet inherent in the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. “The Feminine is the divine light, which is not a creature but a creator.” In Egypt, Isis is the quintessential Goddess. She embodies the universal nurturing mother in whom all women are united. With her husband Osiris, their story was the first tragic love story in Egypt. 

For Christians today of the Divine Couple of Solomon? Since Asherah and Yahweh are no longer venerated in any of the patriarchal churches for centuries, one can easily observe a masculine over-representation of the Divine. Could this be the result of a perpetual masculine desire to assert its dominance over the feminine? This tendency would not be new in history. More surprising is the passivity of modern Christian believers, who seem largely unconcerned by the absence of a Companion alongside the Heavenly Father. Certainly, the advent of Christ changed the game regarding the solitary God. It would be useful here to mention the concept of "Lila," the Divine Play, central to Hinduism and implicit in other religions. Divine play would resolve a number of enigmas.

Benefiting from a vast entourage of archangels at his service, our Christian God sends the Angel Gabriel, with his message of annunciation to Mary, a mere mortal. To bless her above all women, God conceived her immaculate and exalted her as the Mother of God’s only Son. It was through her and the Holy Spirit, that Jesus was conceived and, according to the Holy Trinity, was called God the Son. “A woman can hardly do better than to be raised to the status of Mother of God,” noted Charles-Raphael Payeur, Bishop of the Catholic Church of Quebec, during a recent seminar on the Marian conception in Lourdes.Yet Mary has never been considered on an equal footing with God, as a Goddess would be. Certainly, a divine desire to elevate a woman "to the threshold of the Divine" is in itself unprecedented. Unheard of! The Roman Catholic Church has also distinguished itself from other Christian institutions by blessing a Virgin Mary among all women. It is pointless to consult Protestant churches, which have always remained opposed to their faithful praying to the Virgin Mary, since prayers are to be addressed only to the Father and the Son. As for the nature of the love that unites the heavenly Father and the earthly mother of Jesus, no Christian church has ever addressed it. Some theologians have preferred to sidestep the question by suggesting that God is beyond all gender considerations ; questions of gender are considered to be solely human. According to these theologians, while the concept of "God the Father" may seem eminently masculine, it is in fact merely a figure of speech intended to make the concept accessible to us. Just like the phrase "God made man in his own image," which many have chosen to interpret as a metaphor. In this case, there is no need to answer questions like "In whose image would woman be made?" In a more literal sense, however, "God the Father" poses a problem. Where can we find a Mother Goddess who, before being Mother, is Eternal Companion?This may seem complicated, but is it really? Not if we insist that the God of Love is the first among all beings to experience a loving union with his feminine counterpart. Should they not share the conjugal love of which they are the origin?This is unacceptable to the defenders of the Divine Couple, in whose image the human couple is made. For them, it is time that "In His image" became "in THEIR image," because what man is in the image of God, woman is... in the image of the Goddess. Of course! Faced with the absence of sacred texts recounting the love of Yahweh and Asherah, just as there is no mention of the Taoist Yin-Yang in its symbolic dance, let us turn for a moment to the Hindu Divine Couple. In the Vedic conception, God and Goddess love each other tenderly, even passionately. For if we humans are endowed with such a sweet privilege, how could our Source not be? “On earth as in heaven!” Is this logic dangerous, like the carefree intrusion of a child into their parents’ bedroom during an intimate moment, with the risk of interpreting their lovemaking as a fight? Or is it the legitimate and reassuring instinct of the innocent child to desire to feel the reciprocal love that unites their parents? In the Vaishnava tradition in India, the intimacy of Radha and Krishna is described in poetry. These texts are coded and remain reserved for initiated sages. The custom is for the faithful to rejoice at the idea that God and his Goddess love each other “madly.” It must be possible for every man and woman throughout the world to feel the spiritual connection between their experience of physical love and their experience of their Divine Source.