Re-imagining Power

Abstract

In a world where individuals other than Goddess/God really exist, the power of Goddess/God can never be “power over,” but always and everywhere is “power with.” Power over is domination. Power with is cooperation, partnership, and mutuality.¹ Goddess/God is the eternal Thou, fully and appropriately related to every individual in the universe. Goddess/God is the one for whom no individual in the universe ever becomes merely an “it.”² The power of Goddess/God is to influence and be influenced by, to persuade and be persuaded. The power of Goddess/God is to suffer with and to enjoy all of life. The power of Goddess/God is to encourage all individuals to use their freedom and creativity to increase the beauty and harmony of the world. The power of Goddess/God is like that of a “mother, influencing, but sympathetic to and hence influenced by, her child and delighting in its growing creativity and freedom.”³ Creation is always co-creation. What happens in the world is never the result of any single will, not even that of Goddess/God. A multiplicity of wills has combined with chance to create the world as we know it. Because the world is co-created, everything that happens does not happen according to divine will. Because the world is co-created, everything that happens does not have a purpose in a divine plan.