Reverend Elaine Power (she/they), speaking on the CHI Talk interfaith ministry YouTube channel, recently explored what it means to approach the divine feminine beyond the gender binary. Their reflections struck a deep chord with me and raised a question that continues to guide my spiritual inquiry: what is the divine feminine really about?
At first glance, much of what is popularly described as the “divine feminine movement” seems to revolve around womb-centric spirituality. The imagery is familiar: predominantly white, privileged women in flowing gowns, moving ecstatically in trance-like states of bliss. I found myself unsettled by this stereotype. Was I part of it? Had I inadvertently exchanged one system of indoctrination for another—shifting from the patriarchal cultural illusions I had spent years disentangling myself from, into a different form of privilege disguised as liberation?
These questions arose only weeks after my initiation into the priestess sisterhood. That ceremony was an intensely powerful and blissful experience. In Glastonbury, I felt as though I had finally returned to my people. The land, the atmosphere, and the community embraced me in a way that felt like a long-awaited homecoming. For someone who had lived much of life on the margins—as a woman, and as a disabled woman with a malfunctioning nervous system and hormonal imbalance—this embrace was profoundly healing.
Yet, I could not ignore that my life had been far from privileged. I lived in a terraced house in the most deprived part of town, raising two boys who were drawn into substance misuse after being failed by the very institutions meant to support them. Much of my life, and theirs, had been overshadowed by trauma and danger. I recall one morning when I arrived at my childminder’s home with my sons, only to sense something was terribly wrong. The curtains were closed; the usual welcoming smile was absent. While I tried to shield my children with a comforting story, the truth was devastating: their childminder had been shot dead by her son. In that moment, their young lives were pierced by the brutal realities of poverty, addiction, violence, and survival.
This was not the life of the “privileged white woman” blissfully dancing in spiritual ecstasy. And so, walking through a nearby park, reflecting on questions of privilege and belonging, I asked myself with renewed clarity: what am I really doing here, as a Mary Magdalene priestess? What does the divine feminine truly mean to me?
For me, the answer lies in Mary herself. For centuries, patriarchal Christianity has suppressed her role, reducing her to a silent figure beside Jesus during the most significant moments of his life. Yet apocryphal texts such as The Gospel of Mary reveal a different truth: she was deeply loved by Jesus, entrusted with spiritual authority, and guided the disciples after his death. Mary embodies the divine feminine—not as subordinate, but as an equal partner to the masculine, representing balance, wisdom, and harmony.
My own awakening deepened in 2020, during a spontaneous kundalini rising. In yogic philosophy, kundalini is often described as a form of divine feminine energy, coiled at the base of the spine, that rises through the chakras to awaken higher states of consciousness. This energy clears the blockages of the ego and culminates at the crown chakra, where divine awareness unfolds. For me, this experience revealed that enlightenment is not external but arises from within. It is a process of transcending the physical and ego-bound self to reconnect with divine unity. Masculine and feminine energies together make this journey possible—neither is complete without the other.
Elaine Power is therefore right to insist that the divine cannot be confined to gender labels. Gender identity and sexuality are crucial for navigating our social and human realities, but divine energy transcends such categories. The divine feminine is not about biological sex or social roles. It is about tapping into intuition, creativity, nurturing, and connection—the qualities that help us return to ourselves when we are lost. By contrast, the divine masculine is often associated with action, structure, and direction. Both are necessary, not as rigid gendered identities, but as complementary forces in the universe.
The problem arises when the divine feminine is equated with exclusivity or privilege, reducing it to a narrow cultural performance. In truth, divine feminine energy is radically inclusive. It calls us to reclaim suppressed stories: those of women, of the marginalised, of non-binary people, and of anyone whose voices have been silenced. It calls us to creativity, autonomy, and reconnection with the living Earth. It reminds us that the divine is not a dualistic hierarchy but a boundless oneness, where masculine and feminine energies interweave to restore harmony.
To reclaim the divine feminine, then, is not to form another exclusive club or aesthetic trend. It is to restore balance and inclusivity at the deepest spiritual level. It is to acknowledge that divine love transcends gender, race, privilege, and class. It is to embody the synchronicity of masculine and feminine energies and to affirm that we are all spiritual beings sharing a human experience.
The divine feminine is not the missing piece of a privileged puzzle. It is the missing heartbeat of humanity—calling us all home, together, into unity.
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