what is the holy ghost

I haven't read all of the linked essay, but the feminine reading of the Holy Spirit is probably similar to (or borrows from) the feminine reading of the Shekhina (radiance of God) in ancient Judaism.

''We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.''

My lady priest mate says
''We believe in the Holy Spirit, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son she is worshiped and glorified.
SHe has spoken through the Prophets.''

Horses for theological courses

When I were a lad, the holy spirit was never explicitly gendered; we were told that it was the inspiration of God; it enables the word to be spread and fired the light of the lord in man's heart etc

Bach = Father
Beethoven = Son
Mozart = Holy Ghost

Homer = Father
Shakespeare = Son
Dante = Holy Ghost

And he will not obey me.

George Bush = Father
George W. Bush = Son
Dick Cheney = Holy Ghost

Accurate if your holy scriptures include "The da Vinci Code."

She's been effectively written out of all the gospels too. Are there earlier editions where Mary figures more prominently?

And remember, the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary's birth and her putative subsequent sinlessness, not of Jesus's birth. That's a real stretch based on anything in the current edition of the bible. As is almost all of the deificiation of Mary that has occurred over the last 12-1500 years.

Yeah, take the female out of the godhead and what do you get back? A milk sop virgin-mother, ( eh?) notable mainly for being able to suffer in silence, remain chaste and perma-free from all sin. Take that ladies, that'll empower you no end. And if you go off-track/be sexual/break rules/complain, we'll probably burn you as a witch . So shut it.

Bit different from the unmarried pregnant refugee mother form shithole Nazareth in the gospels who gives J.C a bollocking for serving the best wine last at the wedding of Cana (and also carpets the boy J.D for going awol in Jeruslem to hang around showing off his wisdom in the Temple instead of staying with his family).

Creation = the Father
Sustainment = the Mother
Inspiration = the Holy Ghost
Action = the Son

(and you say that like it's a bad thing, wtf?)

Amen. I mean, OTM. polytheistic DEATH cults.
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There are (at least) a couple of disparate arguments going on here:

1. The trinity/godhead/deity ought to have a more expicitly feminine manifestation. Well, maybe, maybe not, but this is revising or even creating a new religion, which you're entitled to do. It isn't on, necessarily, to say Christianity should be this way, and therefore that's what they really meant to say before the evil patriarchy erased everything, so let's tart it up to correspond to current thinking.

2. The thinking about the Holy Spirit/Mary/the trinity/etc. in the primitive church vs. the medieval catholic church vs. the various modern denominations. This is an interesting field, but we're being influeced by the da vinci code crew and the nu-templars and such. I personally suspect there's a lot of fabrication going on. I don't think we necessarily know or can know what the early church thought.

3. If you're a protestant, you GENERALLY feel that the bible is ones initial, primary, and final authority on doctrine and practice. If you're a Catholic/Orthodox-type, you feel, generally, that church hierarchy, i.e., the pope and all prior popes, has an almost equal authority. CF, veneration of saints, cult of Mary, infallibility of the pope, etc. Which is why Tep's "depends on which denom. you are" is so OTM.

But the polytheism thing is really, really lazy and pointlessly misleading. There are close to 2000 years' worth of responses to that, and to the death cult label: Catholicism, in a very real and relevant sense, has defined itself and evolved in such a way as to counter accusations of death-cultism and polytheism, and glossing over that -- conflating Catholic monotheism with polytheism -- misses the point.

holy spirit

mystery, undying life

'the supernatural'

will of god, spirit/cause of change in history

the presence of god

power

love

Sure, and the development of the celibacy requirement is one of the areas where we have a fair amount of material (ironically, if John's scene is in response to Paul? the early miracle in the Synoptics is Jesus's healing of Peter's mother-in-law, which also attests -- somewhat less strongly -- to Jesus's assumed approval of marriage). But that doesn't constitute a celibacy cult. There were Christian and quasi-Christian factions that believed no one should have sex, priest or not; even if the Church's eventual stance on celibacy is erroneous, even damaging, it still has to be treated separately from that extreme (particularly since the theology and motivation of each is different).

This is true. But his mixing of facts with stupidity is annoying. "Leonardo's 'Last Supper' depicts no "supper"!!! There is no food! Therefore John=Mary Magdalene!" oh, please.

And yet, what is interesting is the general ignorance among christians of the cult of Mithras and the much described Isis cult. The paradigm of birth/death/rebirth is frequent in other religions. There's a fantastic church in Rome built on top of a medieval church, built on top of a Roman church, built on top of a Mithras shrine--four levels--it's totally creepy and cool, but affords a very graphic metaphor of how these religions fed on each other, and of how much we've forgotten.

Very good point. And one could argue, I suppose, didn't necessarily advocate a new religion.

(To be fair, I haven't finished reading DVC yet, but I'm familiar enough with his source material.)

There's also a recent (I think; it might be a recent reprint) theory about many of the Jesus stories being influenced by Horus legends -- I don't credit it much, not in the way the author wants to, in part because he only uses obscure 19th century sources for his theoretical background, and that's especially sketchy when you want to talk about Egypt. But it's interesting to look at the parallels even if you don't think they're directly related.

(We're like three tangents away from the Holy Ghost at this point, but so it goes.)

didnt paul talk about celibacy being the apex of human experience?
and christ did preach in temple, from 12 onward.

and christ did preach in temple, from 12 onward Depends on how you define preach. He did argue/debate in the temple for starting at 12, but he didn't live in Jerusalem, so it couldn't have been on a regular basis. The public ministry didn't start until 30 something, but we're not told what else he was up to before that.

the holy ghost really is a feeling

http://www.marvelfamily.com/images/whoswho/son-o

I believe The Holy Spirit is a title of the Archangel Gabriel