How can I write God with a more feminine aspect and introduce it into my culture's mythology?
I want to write a religion similar to Christianity but with God represented as feminine. It is meant to highlight the differences between the sexes and emphasise traits associated with women over men. This goes beyond changing pronouns, as there are many parts to a religion, including rituals, sacraments, etc. These are often based on logic, even though the original reason may have been lost. How can I make a religion like this fit smoothly and naturally into the background of the setting without it sounding forced? How should I approach writing my story to bring out this background smoothly?
This is the premise. The universe exists in a cosmic egg known as the womb of creation. Our plane was create when God spilled her essence into reality, birthing the world and all its inhabitants (people, plants, animals, etc). Women were made in God's image, as the bearers of life and creators of the next generation. The pain of labor is meant to reflect the pain of God when she created our world, which gives them a unique understanding and close connection with God.
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I find myself giving versions of the same advice over and over, but it's applicable to so many situations. I call it the Sturgeon/Delany rule.
Work out every last detail and implication of your new religion, for yourself. But then, only include in the actual story whatever details are immediately relevant to the characters at any given moment. That will make your world and its religion feel three-dimensional and real, yet avoid info-dumps that fail to serve the plot and characters.
There is a lot of world-building that adds significant value to stories, particularly speculative fiction, but you never want to put it all on the page --that's just self-indulgent.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31709. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Well, you are going to have to start asking yourself questions and provide answers.
Why do men exist? In your premise there is absolutely zero role for a male, and if God created women in her own image, why do women need men to conceive a child?
In Christianity, God takes a rib from Adam to give him a mate and helper. Why did your God deny women the ability to just have another daughter? Or did she take that away from them for some reason? Why did your God create man?
How did that happen? Did the first woman just give birth to both genders, and they grew up to mate with their siblings?
A religion similar to Christianity needs female heroes throughout. Cain kills his brother Abel, Does Christine kill her sister Abby? Noah hears God and builds an Ark, does Nora hear God and build an Ark?
But once again: Why does God make ALL animals in both male and female form, why do we need TWO of everything?
You will need a female savior: Christine, I guess. Is she going to recruit her apostles to be fishers of women? Is the Queen going to have her nailed to the cross?
Will the Biblical society be changed so that women are in charge and men the property of women, bought and sold as slaves, performing sexual acts on demand?
How do you deal with Harems of many wives? In biblical times patriarchs could have hundreds of children they then controlled, but no queen can have more than about a dozen children in her lifetime.
These are questions you have to ask, and flesh out your Christinean religion with some details, that will lead into your current society, almost undoubtedly matriarchal.
And then, how does it clash with existing patriarchal societies, like China?
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