I was well aware of the Heavenly Mother before now, which is sadly an under-represented figure in Mormon theology and practice which seems like an afterthought and accessory to the Father rather than an independent figure. As someone who has always been interested in elevating the feminine aspects of divinity, I wish that she were granted her own attributes. The idea of God being polyamorous is not inherently objectionable, but that he is in the old sense of essentially owning women like cattle is not very palatable to me, and the idea of Mary becoming one of his wives upon the assumption is a little sickening.
Asherah is another figure that's fascinated me, in terms of the broader movement towards a more unified patriarchy in classical antiquity. I wish that it were clearer how her worship was phased out or disrupted, and what led to the extreme Biblical scorn for feminine divinity. The rhetorical ties between idolatry and sexual looseness described in that article and well-established elsewhere in the Bible, including the bits of Ezekiel 23 that all the cool kids love to snicker at out of context, always intrigue me in that they seem to illustrate heathen beliefs as a raw passion of the body, which is how I personally experience religious ecstasy, and irresistible, as though the true path is antithetical to the power of the human spirit. Naturally, for me there is also a strong intersection of sexuality and religion, and I feel that each can be harnessed for purposes of the other, but such is not the case for all faiths.
Poll
