Intersexed and Androgynous Deities in Religion or Mythology

[Ryles]

Does Shai count?

As a concept, with no particular reason for associating with one gender over another, Shai was sometimes considered female, rather than the more usual understanding of being male, in which circumstance Shai was referred to as Shait (simply the feminine form of the name). His name reflects his function, as it means (that which is) ordained.

[Gwydion]

This is a nice impressive list! The divine androgyne was (and is) a spiritual ideal representing balance, fusion and perfection of many major cultures around the world. As a mythology buff, I highly approve.

Couldn't find any reference to Pteh bein[url][/url]g hermaphrodite... If you find any reference referring Pteh as hermaphrodite or genderless or something, I will add him as well.

Tatenen, the primal earth god of Egypt is often seen as hermaphroditic. He (most ancient androgynous gods were referred to in the masculine) was sometimes fused with Ptah into Ptah-Tatenen, and in some legends, Ptah fashioned the world on his own, and therefore would be androgynous in nature.

Ah. Now I don't feel nearly as stupid. I must have been using a text or texts with the fused version.

[Kendall]

Added some more of those mentioned and some details. Thanks for the suggestions.

I am also looking for any more references of cultures barely mentioned or not mentioned yet, godly non-binary god(s)(esses).

So any references of these less appreciated would greatly be appreciated.

[ATG]

Quickly, I just found WIG through this thread/topic (via a Google search for something vaguely related), just registered, and I want to thank all of you. I intend to first read through this thread more thoroughly, then the rest of this wonderful board and get to know more of you all. What a wonderful community this already looks to be! This topic especially speaks to my heart.

-ATG

[Kendall]

Quickly, I just found WIG through this thread/topic (via a Google search for something vaguely related), just registered, and I want to thank all of you. I intend to first read through this thread more thoroughly, then the rest of this wonderful board and get to know more of you all. What a wonderful community this already looks to be! This topic especially speaks to my heart.

-ATG

Welcome ATG.
I hope the boards at WIG continue to find a place in your heart.

As to this topic, the initial interest came to me when I was looking around at some various religions (myself being Agnostic Zen exploring what was out there). Seeing many non-binary androgynous deities in a myriad of beliefs (or past beliefs in the case of mythology).

And wanting to present this, minus christianity (because so much has already been accomplished trying to explain the non-binarism of christianity) to show how such important creators, beings of worship, and gods of influence exist, were (and many times still are) import, and play a part in the history of the world, and are in (or have been) the thoughts and feelings of some people all around the world in many cultures (possibly most cultures).

That is to say god(s) have believed to have a gender, and one that can be non-binary aspects.

The list is far from complete though I think now contains the most prominant dieties, many with pictures thanks to some web surfing and imbedding from other sites.

Feel free to comment or add more in addition.

[Kendall]

Thanks Stephe (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... d=66747276)(Androgyne Online creator among other things) for suggesting to add the Zuni kachina named Ko'lhamana in a IM.

Also added a pic of ancient stone carving of Galla Demons.

Added Titles showing relative location of such beliefs.

[jwr_4_7]

Hello Kendall,

Thank you for the impressive list of myths and religions for intersexed and androgynous deities.

I have been searching for some more information to androgynous deities and symbolism.
Androgynous religion is very old and the most aged sculpture of androgynous deity seems to be 22.000 years old.
I guess all ancient religions started from androgynous religion, but most of these lost the female elements.
Still most androgynous symbolism is traceable in sculptures, in ancient texts and etymology.
I traced androgynous symbolism in:

- numerous ancient 2- and 4-headed sculptures
- the characters I and H respectively V of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH)
- God's orders in using the colouring codes red (female), blue (male) and purple (androgynous, divine) in the Book Exodus and 2. Chronicles
- God's orders in using twining-technology ("Byssos") in the Book Exodus and 2. Chronicles as a symbol for androgyny
- the colouring codes red (female), blue (male) in a number of banners (e.g. in Netherlands, French, British and US-banners)
- the pronouns You (female), I (male) and We (androgynous), which are religious symbols, being used for "generating the Deity's name" ( U and I are the androgynous core in Jupiter's name: IU-piter ).

A great number of other deities seems to be androgynous, e.g. Brahma, Tuisco, Janus, Hermes, Svetovid/Zbruch, Hermes of Roquepertuse...

Virtually all religions abandoned their androgynous roots and exchanged these for male symbolism. Eliminating the female component from religious concepts causes a number of problems in all parts of the world.

If you are interessted in details, please visit:

The blog "Spelling Thee, U and I", which describes the great, ancient androgynous deities creating an androgynous "Adam" at:
http://androgynousreligions.blogspot.com/

and/or the Google Group:
http://groups.google.de/group/androgynous-religion

Regards

Hans

[Kendall]

Interesting research on christianity and androgynous symbolism for those interested. I read a bit of your site.

[Kendall]

I updated some of the pics, removed some dead ones, added new ones. This post is getting some good hits either from within or from outside the site, so I figured I should do some housecleaning on it. I noticed that this post came up frequently when I was looking for new pics, using the search engine.

[jwr_4_7]

Hello Kendall,

I did some further research on the topic and I found out the possible source for the colours red and blue in the US-banner. These colours seem to have been derived from the Bible, but the symbolism can only be understood if the creation legend is to be interpreted as an androgynous creation legend.

There is some evidence the colours red, white and blue have been chosen by Templars and Freemasons in a great number of countries, namely Holland, France, England, Scotland and the USA. At the time of defining a banner the leading intelligentsia in most of these countries are known to have been influenced by Templar or Freemason symbolism. A great number of US-presidents are known to have been highly educated and motivated Freemasons: Washington, Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Garfield, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman and Ford. As freemasons they certainly were aware of the Biblic sources for the fundamental border colours red and blue of the rainbow - even if they were unaware of the androgynous symbolism. I documented the relevant details in my blog at:
http://androgynousreligions.blogspot.com/2009/03/colours-red-and-blue-in-banners.html

Regards,

Hans

[vampyre_smiles]

Tsukiyomi, the Shinto Deity of the Moon, is alternately said to be male and female. There is no consenses on which it is.

[Kendall]

Tsukiyomi, the Shinto Deity of the Moon, is alternately said to be male and female. There is no consenses on which it is.

Ok will look it up. I own a Kojiki and see what it says, if it's in there.

Kendall

[jwr_4_7]

In Caldragh Cemetery on Boa Island, Lower lough Erne stand two unique stone carvings. The larger of these is a Janus figure , two figures back to back with pear shaped heads and interlacing between the heads representing hair. The East face pictured left is carved with a phallus and is the male side of the figure, and the west face pictured below, is the female side. The left eye of male figure may have been blinded and probably refers to Odin, who is known to be the main northern androgynous deity and is said to be blind on the left eye. The female figure reveals a protruded tongue, which is a divine attribute, comparable to the Greek Gorgones and she may refer to Odin's female side.

See the beautiful photographs and other documentation at:
http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/zCaldragh.htm
http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/fermanagh.htm


According to Blavatsky any deities, who derived their names from the androgynous core letters I and U, representing the male, respectively the female elements, must be considered as androgynous names for gods, e.g.:

IU-piter (Roman), Zeus (Greek), Tuisco (German), Sius (Hittite), IHVH (Hebrew), Dieu (French) and many others.
Generally these names have been derived from the common Indo-European sky-god Dyaus pitar.

[Kendall]

Tsukiyomi, the Shinto Deity of the Moon, is alternately said to be male and female. There is no consenses on which it is.

It appears that Tsukiyomi is only assumed male. And only appears 3 times. 2 different ways of birth (different in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki) and one story of slaying the God of Food. Very little is mentioned for the sibling of the great Amaterasu. Even mentioned less than Susano-O. That would be neat if Amaterasu is female, Susano-o is male, and Tsukiyomi is non-binary.

There is one shrine to Tsukiyomi in Ise near the shrine to Amaterasu.

I cannot find any pics of Tsukiyomi, only the painting of Amaterasu unless one of the figures is Tsukiyomi.


Here are the parents Izanagi and Izanami


Very interesting. Thanks

[koitsuki]

This is all extremely beautiful, but yet, somehow ironic.

[jwr_4_7]

The most detailed overview of androgynous deities I ever found has been documented by Gerald Massey (1828 - 1907, an English poet and self-taught Egyptologist) in his study "The natural Genesis" as documented in section 8 at http://www.masseiana.org/ngbk0.htm

I extracted the details for the androgynous deities in a blog-page at:
http://androgynousreligions.blogspot.co ... ities.html

Summary for the overview of these androgynous deities:

* Anu
* Aphrodite
* Astarte
* Aten
* Baal
* Brahm
* Deuce
* Dido and Anna
* Ishtar
* Horus and Mithras, Messiah
* Osiris, Isis, Horus
* Har-Iu, Iao, Iu-su, Iasus, Iesus, Jesus Christ,
* Ia, IE, IUIE, AΩ, Bacchus and Priapus
* Au or Iu, AO, AIO, Ie, AI
* Iao, Vishnu
* Iao, Jah, Ihoh, Iaeo, Tetragrammaton
* Jehovah
* Iah, Pekh, the witches' Sabbath
* Merodach
* Scrat or Old Scratch
* Semiramis
* Sher-Apis
* Shu and Ma or Shu and Tefnut
* Venus
* Zeus, Jove, Jupiter and Juno, Ericapaeus
* Zikar or Zikarat

[Ryles]

* Aphrodite
* Jesus Christ,
* Venus
* Zeus, Jove, Jupiter and Juno,

Okay, now, I'm not an expert- but I don't know any of these to be androgynous.

[Shadow Dragon]

If he hasn't been mentioned yet, you could add Loki to the list. He switched back and forth between male and female quite a bit. He even mothered a child.

[Kendall]

If he hasn't been mentioned yet, you could add Loki to the list. He switched back and forth between male and female quite a bit. He even mothered a child.

Loki is there near the bottom of the first post, though a couple pics seem to be gone now.

[ewd]

Not really a deity, but there was a fashion for women saints in early (say 5th century) Christianity who sprouted beards so they could avoid marriage to men.

Most famous was wilgefortis who occurred in many different forms in different countries (and under different names):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilgefortis

Similarly according to some stories St. Agnes sprouted a coat of fur and hair covering her face before she was martyred.

Just thought it might be of interest....I like the idea of having a beard and breasts, or otherwise mixing up secondary sex characteristics.