Judith P. Pando
Metaphysical Bible I
The Song of Solomon
Finding the Divine Feminine in the Hebrew Bible

According to Ernest Holmes, Divine Companionship is defined as: “Man’s re-enacts the Divine Nature, and makes use of the same Laws that God uses. We find in man the same androgynous nature that we find in God. This nature we call his objective and subjective faculties. His objective mentality impregnates his subjective with ideas; and in turn the subjective, gathering force and energy, projects these ideas into forms.”
The name Solomon is related to the Hebrew ‘shalom’ meaning ‘peace’. Shalom means the kind of peace that comes from being in harmony with God and with all of humankind. Shalom implies wholeness. Solomon was King David’s son and successor. In a dream, he prayed to God for wisdom; “Give thy servant therefore an understanding mind to govern thy people that I may discern between good and evil…” And God was pleased with this request and granted it; “Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.” So the story goes that Solomon was wise, and accomplished many great deeds. He built the Temple and placed the Arc of the Covenant inside. The Arc of the Covenant, according to Fillmore represents “The sum total of man’s conscious understanding of Truth, combined with faith affirmations and loyalty within and without to the principles of Truth.” And two cherubim spread their wings over the place of the arc and covered it. This according to our beloved instructor represented the joining together of the male and female principle guarding and birthing the Truth principle. It is an embrace, also representing the joining together of the love of God and Israel.
I see in Solomon that androgynous nature that Dr. Holmes speaks of. He uses his intuition to ask God for that quality, wisdom, so that he can serve from a place of desiring the highest good for himself and all the people of his kingdom. He did not ask for power or strength or for all his enemies to be destroyed, but for wisdom. He surrounded himself with women. He loved women and integrated the symbols of the goddess in much of what he created. It was said that Solomon had 1000 wives and concubines. These wives were from different lands and had different ideas about God. The introduction of the different ways of being influenced Solomon. This caused the people of Israel to believe that Solomon had turned away from the Lord God of Israel; a breaking of the covenant. One wonders, however, whether the inclusion of the different ways of thinking may have actually increased Solomon’s wisdom, it represents inclusion, which is contrary to the thinking of the time which was tribal.
The Song of Solomon poetically tells a love story between a man and a woman. Shulamite is the Hebrew form of Solomon. They both mean wholeness and wholeness is a result of knowing both our masculine and feminine sides. Solomon and Shulamite can be thought of as two aspects of the same person. In this Song, love and emotions are very important; it speaks to the heart. The imagery in the Song is archetypal; the man and the woman to join together to form completeness. Yet, Solomon and Shulamite is one person finding completeness within him/her by marrying the outer, masculine to the inner feminine aspect. The Song can also be seen as a metaphor for our relationship with the Divine. Once we awaken to the Divine Love that is already there within us, we can become a vehicle for Love to come through us. Love transcends all flaws in the beloved. This is the way God Loves, unconditionally, flaws and all.
Ernest Holmes describes the masculine principle as “The Assertive Principle of Being; the Self-Conscious, Self-Propelling Power of Spirit.” The Feminine Principle is the Universal Soul; the Womb of Nature and the Holy Mother. Both of these divine elements are within each and every person. Both of are represented in the myths and legends of the Hebrew Bible. We are complete within ourselves when these two powers are well integrated. Having said that, I agree with my classmates that, if one reads the Hebrew Bible literally is overwhelmingly male orientated. One must dig and study to find the female principle.
Oppressive interpretations of the Bible do kill, literally. You’ll find no denial of that here. Massive injustice has been and continues to be done in the name of the Bible . . . . Meanwhile the Bible is also about the beauty and goodness of creation itself; about the ancient human struggle for freedom and liberation; about frustration with violence and injustice throughout the generations; and about experiences of exultation, expectation, and inspiration that can sustain the human quest for wisdom, justice, and peace.
—JOHN A. BUEHRENS, Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics,
Seekers, and Religious Liberals

To understand why the Bible is written in this manner would involve looking into the historical context, as well as gathering anthropological information among other modalities of study, which is beyond the scope of this class. Sharon Coggan, PhD who is teaching the World Religion class this quarter suggests that God manifests Itself in ways that humankind can understand and relate to at the level of their development. In the case of the desert pastoral nomads, they needed a Warrior God to protect them and to defeat their enemies. This may be one of the reasons why the text seems so violent and unattractive to us today. We need a loving God who will protect us from ourselves.