the Sacred Feminine

[Sophia the Thunder Mistress]

Tar Ancalime I thought this was a wonderfully interesting idea:

I'm going out on a Legendarium limb here, not having read HoME, but could it be that the very classification of the Vala into genders (like referring to the Sun as "she", as Ka pointed out) can be thought of as a storytelling device employed by the Elves?

although, I think that I would alter it slightly to say that the Valar employed it themselves as a device to make themselves more knowable.

So it’s not that women demonstrate Pity and are thus divine, but that the feminine trait of Pity (be it demonstrated by men or women) is divine.

As Fordim points out, the point of identifying the "Sacred Feminine" is not (or at least should not be) to attribute some divinity to femininity, as though it would otherwise be lacking, but rather to point out what has been culturally considered Feminine and its exemplification in the divinity (or pseudo divinity in the case of Galadriel) in the setting of Middle Earth.

As per the actual thread content:

Even though Tolkien pointed out Galadriel as his Mary-figure, I've always seen an element of her in Elwing. I've always been reminded of Mary by her self-sacrifice to bring the Silmaril to Earendil which resulted in the Valar's eventual arrival and the permanent defeat of Melkor. Perhaps she shares a bit in the Sacred Feminine of Middle-Earth?

Sophia