Heavenly Mother: Divine Body and Priesthood
By Nancy Ross
All of my life I have believed that Celestial Kingdom is a place of equality. In the last ten years, I have become aware that some women do not believe that they have the opportunity to become like Heavenly Father and that they are limited by their sex. I think some men may believe this as well. In this way of thinking, women can simply not become like men. They are two fundamentally different creatures with different earthly and eternal roles. Exaltation for women involves eternal subservience to men, as the temple suggests. Heavenly Motherhood is a state of eternal pregnancy with the responsibility to care for an endless number of infant spirits. In the minds of some, this the reward for living a righteous life.
And so there are two contrasting ideas of exaltation for women. The version that involves equality and partnership is the one that I find appealing, one that has given me strength and hope for a better world to come. The other one fills me with dread and relies on ideas of eternal gender essentialism. No one reduces Heavenly Father’s value to the size of his divine testicles, and I apologize for being so crude as to reference them. But when referenced, Heavenly Mother is essential for her divine uterus and no apology is necessary. She is only valuable for her body, without reference to her character or divine state.
When I hear these sorts of explanations, it seems like people are trying to make the Celestial Kingdom look like 1950s America, a pre-Civil Rights era where many happily accepted that separate can indeed be equal. I’ve heard many state that a divinely enacted separate-but-equal society is an achievable and wonderful thing that we should be working toward now.
Where is Heavenly Mother in all of this? Though many Mormon feminists wish for a clarification on the issue of Heavenly Mother, this is not just a feminist issue, or even just a women’s issue. It is a church-wide issue. If we want to anticipate the glory of the next life in this one, we need to understand our Heavenly Parents and how they interact with each other. If the next life has a rigid gender hierarchy, like this one, then we should abandon talk of equality of marriage partners. If the next life is an example of gender equality, then we need to move closer to that.
I want to take some time to explore the concept of Heavenly Mother in each situation: equal and separate-but-equal.
We talk about Heavenly Mother in the same way that we talk about women from the scriptures: almost all of them are valuable for the important men that they give birth to. Eve is the mother of all. Sarah gives birth to Isaac, Rebecca to Jacob. Ruth gives us Obed. Sariah gives us two prophets: Nephi and Jacob. Unnamed mothers of the stripling warriors. Elizabeth births John the Baptist. Mary’s womb gives us Jesus. If Deborah or Ester had given birth to anyone important, I’m sure their stories would be lost too. The scriptures are full of moms, but lacking in fully-formed women. It is no wonder that we talk about Heavenly Mother in the same limited terms.
David L. Paulsen and Martin Pulido document references to Heavenly Mother in their 2011 BYU Studies article titled ““A Mother There”: A Survey of Historical Teachings about Mother in Heaven”. I’m going to look at some of the examples they cite.
In 1909, the First Presidency of the Church wrote: “All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity.”
This quote would be welcome in the Primary manuals. It emphasizes the parenting roles of our Heavenly Parents and their divinity. In 1991, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then a Counselor in the First Presidency, spoke about Heavenly Mother in general Relief Society meeting. He taught:
Logic and reason would certainly suggest that if we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. That doctrine rests well with me. . . . The fact that we do not pray to our Mother in Heaven in no way belittles or denigrates her. . . . None of us can add to or diminish the glory of her of whom we have no revealed knowledge.” President Hinckley explained in the same address that, because of the Savior’s instructions and example, one does not pray to Heavenly Mother.
While President Hinckley affirms a belief in Heavenly Mother, his comments distance us from her. If prayer is our method of communicating with the divine, we are instructed not to contact our Mother in Heaven. President Hinckley does not address the fact that mainstream Christianity has never accepted a Heavenly Mother and that may have a been a factor in the recording of scripture.
And so it seems that Heavenly Mother plays no motherly nurturing role in our lives. The role of nurturing is exclusively for Heavenly Father. And so Heavenly Mother is reduced to a divine body that produces spirit children but does not nurture them. This seems opposed to The Family: A Proclamation to the World, which states that “Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children”.
Somewhere in our motherhood-pedestalling and hushed tones, we’ve haven’t realized or perhaps we’ve forgotten that Heavenly Mother is a woman’s ultimate exemplar. But we know her only for what her body can do. We do not know how to be like her because we do not know her and we’re not supposed to communicate. Heavenly Mother stands on the ultimate pedestal that no one sees. Powerless and praiseless, she is isolated from her children. This doesn’t sit well with me or integrate with the idea of close eternal families.
Heavenly Mother is supposed to be divine. I don’t believe in quoting from dictionaries, but I think that we all understand that the gist of the word is about godhood. Standard attributes of God include being all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-seeing. Joseph Smith did not identify Heavenly Mother as belonging in the godhead, but I see her as having all of the same attributes as Heavenly Father. If we teach that men and women have the opportunity to become like Heavenly Father, then Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother must share a lot in common.
The Family: A Proclamation to the World says that “All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.” As it says “each has a divine destiny”, I’m going to argue that Heavenly Mother is also divine – not much of a stretch. And as a divine being, she probably also has the standard attributes of being all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-seeing, just like Heavenly Father.
I also imagine that she communicates with us through promptings and hears our prayers, a few of the perks of being all-knowing and all-seeing. But what about all-powerful? What power does heavenly Mother hold? Heavenly Father holds the priesthood, which President Monson defined, as recently as 2012, as the power of God. I want to propose that Heavenly Mother holds this same power, though some would argue for a priestesshood rather than the priesthood.
I feel that the eternal spouse of Heavenly Father must hold the same level of power. The Paulsen and Pulido article reference a variety of names that Church leaders have used for Heavenly Mother, all of which affirm her as a part of God: “Mother God, God Mother, God the Mother, God their Eternal Mother, and Eternal Mother”. If she is divine and part of God, she must hold the power of God. The Young Women’s value “Divine Nature” certainly emphasizes that women have divine nature and divine potential. It seems difficult to me to separate divinity from the priesthood. This leads me to think that exalted women will also hold the priesthood in the next life and the temple seems to suggest this too.
The temple also suggests that women are to be subservient to men because of Eve’s actions in the Garden of Eden. While the Article of Faith states that “men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgressions”, women are punished for Eve’s. It seems like some have extended this mortal condition to the heavenly realm, where Heavenly Mother is also limited in her power because of Eve. This doesn’t make any sense. Our emphasis on the eternal nature of gender and, at the same time, silence surrounding Heavenly Mother breeds confusion. If we want to have a better understanding of the eternal roles of both men and women, we need to move beyond the beautiful, but simple, idea that Heavenly Mother exists and move toward a deeper understanding of her. I hope that in the future there will be some clarification on these issues.
Nancy Ross
Nancy Ross is an assistant professor in art history at Dixie State University. She's blogging the Book of Mormon chapter by chapter at nickelonthenacle.blogspot.com
All posts by Nancy Ross
Fantastic article Nancy. Thanks for writing and sharing it.
I have been thinking on this subject for a while, to the point of exhaustion, frustration and fear over not liking what the prize is- will it be worth it? However, I looked outside of my own concerns briefly this past Sunday and thought about heavenly mother in the context of the plan of salvation- Heavenly Father has a distinct role in preparing this plan, and ensuring we had a savior. I’d have to imagine one of the crowning opportunities that our Heavenly Father has is to introduce the Savior as His son! How proud he must feel at having a perfect son who was willing to give his life for the rest of us. Can Heavenly Mother do the same? Was she part of that planning process? How does she feel about Mary? Did she have that close relationship with the Savior like Heavenly Father did?
I am nowhere near qualified to attempt to sort all of this out, or even make an intelligent comment on your main point.
One thing did come to mind as I read this: when God casts Adam and Even out of the garden, he gives them both hardships to endure. God tells Adam that the Earth will be cursed *for his sake*, and that he will now have to work to eat. I choose to read the phrase “for thy sake” to be “for thy benefit” — in other words, it wasn’t a punishment, but a necessary element of adversity that would make Adam’s mortal experience a useful one. All the sons of Adam inherited that constraint, but again I don’t see it as being punished for Adam’s transgression.
Eve was told that her sorrow in childbirth would be multiplied. I’m not going to risk stepping on any toes by attempting to explain that one, but I believe it’s a counterpart to Adam’s adversity, with the companion promises (it’s not a punishment; it’s a growth opportunity)
My point in all this is that these constraints are temporary and we don’t really know what work and childbirth would be like in the eternities. I am equally baffled by the lack of revealed information about our heavenly parents, but I’m going to venture that whatever arrangement exists up there will make perfect sense to us when we finally learn the details.
are you related to David H Cannon? Captain George Cannon? Or George Q. Cannon?
Thanks for this wonderful post, Nancy! I absolutely agree that our relationship with Heavenly Mother is not only a feminist issue or a women’s issue.
It is abusive to cut off any child—female or male—from her or his mother. As with Mormon women, Mormon men will not be complete until they acknowledge and integrate the feminine within themselves, the part of our spiritual DNA that comes from God the Mother.
Thank you for pointing out the disconnect between Heavenly Mother as exemplar, the roles of Mothers from “The Family,” and the instruction not to communicate with Heavenly Mother. Since I gave up on that last instruction, I’d sometimes wondered if I’d made a poor choice. I’m a little more sure I didn’t, now.
I can’t wrap my head around the teachings of Heavenly Mother in the church. She is alluded to and periodically there is some little thing that says she must be wonderful and an equal partner with God but for the most part it’s just silence. I know some believe we don’t hear about her more because the scriptures were written by men and the leaders are all men but this still doesn’t answer it all for me. If she’s truly equal why isn’t she able to have more influence on the church? Why isn’t she able to inspire our leaders just as well as God is? What’s God doing in all of this…. just sitting back allowing his partner/wife/co-equal be silenced and not discussed? Even if she couldn’t “get through” to the men….God can. Why doesn’t he say hey this is my wife we’re talking about – your Heavenly Mother – and she’s important and you need to include her in your theology a lot more!
Nemenhah Temple Endowment; Covenant of Elohim
Posted on April 18, 2014 by c j
The Lord taught many things to many people by employing stories and parables. These conveyed to the heart and mind of the hearer a true sense of things even if every detail may not have been related. The following relation speaks of times before times, when men and women worked their way to exaltation following an ancient and set path. The players in the relation are our own relations. Each of us are also included in the story. Therefore, it is our story as much as it is theirs. All my relations!
For clarity, we have translated names into their corresponding English meaning. Some of the names are difficult to translate. For example, “Elohim” means “Heavenly” and is a plural, feminine denominative. In Nemenhah, “Pa Elowe” means Mother in Heaven, and “ShiElowe” means Father in Heaven. “Elohim” means
God the Father and God the Mother in Their united sense and connotes the Sealing Power. We have, therefore, sought to make the names correspond to something more meaningful to the English speaker.
There are several voices in this relation. When the ordinances of the High Place are performed by the people, each voice is represented by a separate person. This avoids confusion. The voices are:
Narrator Eve
Elohim Heavenly Mother Satan
Elohim Heavenly Father Peter
Holy Ghost James
Holy Ghost Elders John
Jehovah Preacher
Lucifer The Voice of the Mob
Adam
Those who participate in the ordinances ought to have good and clear intention, for God will not be mocked.
There should not be any manner of ill-will between those who participate together in the re-telling or reenactment of this relation. Only the best of feelings should prevail.
The ordinances of the High Place are specifically designed for the Living. Because of this verity, they are distinguished from the vicarious ordinances performed for and in behalf of the “Dead” in holy temples. This distinction does not intend to denigrate the sacrifice for the dead, but great emphasis is placed upon what
Telestial people may do in this life in order to be introduced into the Terrestrial World and receive revelation and instruction from Angels, the Spirits of Men and Women made perfect in Christ, and even from the Savior Himself, preparatory to being introduced at the veil to converse with the Father. The vicarious work for the dead is carried on in another place, by other people of good intention, and the Holy Ghost does attend their sacrifice for the sake of deceased family members.
It should always be remembered that the Nemenhah lived in a different time than we do and they received from God that which was expedient for them. That they wrote specifically so that we in these days might learn from their experiences makes these records of some little importance to us.
The Relation of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother
Chapter One
1) Elohim Heavenly Mother: Ponder the deep, Elohim. Is it not a great question?
2) Elohim Heavenly Father: Look out into the deep, Elohim, and tell Me what You see.
3) Elohim Heavenly Mother: I see space there – space to fill, space to build, space to do a great thing.
Long have I pondered the deep and wondered why it remains so dark and empty. Should it not be filled with light? Should it not be filled with wonder and beauty? Where We are, there is light and truth. Our own parents provided this for Us and We rose up by line and by precept to become like them. Why do We look out upon the deep and see emptiness? It is a thing that should not be.
4) Elohim Heavenly Father: We look upon where We are and see what is real. Out yonder there is no one to see Us. Indeed there is no one to see at all. What need then, has the deep of light, and wonder, and beauty? Our work is for the world in which We find Ourselves. Why should We ask for more than what is?
5) Elohim Heavenly Mother: I am not “no one,” Elohim. I look upon the deep and I would see what I would see.
6) Elohim Heavenly Father: That is right, Elohim. Now, because someone sees the deep, I perceive that there is substance there which fills the expanse and the emptiness. It is matter but it has no order.
7) Elohim Heavenly Mother: It is the same as the world in which We now labor except that, unto the matter with which We do Our labor, someone has given order. Therefore, the question still exists – why should the deep remain so? What ought to be done with the matter? Why should not We venture to do the
same there as has been done heretofore? Or shall We remain always here to act upon another’s work?
8) Elohim Heavenly Father: To act upon what has always been is not a bad work, Elohim. Indeed, it has brought Us to exaltation. In this way all spirit children do arise, line upon line and precept on precept, even unto the state and stature of their parents. This is the Everlasting Covenant. Do You think to rashly abandon that which We have learned from Our own experience?
9) Elohim Heavenly Mother: I do not wish to abandon anything, Elohim. But let Us cause light and truth to expand and grow. Else, why should We be endowed with power at all?
10) Elohim Heavenly Father: It is right, Elohim Heavenly Mother. Let Us leave that which We now know by virtue of another’s work and make works of Our own.
11) Narrator: Then Elohim Heavenly Father and Elohim Heavenly Mother separated Themselves from each other for a season and set about the work of organizing matter. Elohim Heavenly Father found the task easier than Elohim Heavenly Mother, for His endowment was to create by combining matter into organized unions. He made stars, worlds, moons, and other astral bodies. He caused all of these to coalesce into great swirling formations and clouds. He experienced all this creation first hand by placing Himself within the creation – giving of His own substance by way of pattern and form, and the deep matter willingly obeyed. Then He stood back and observed His work and pondered it.
12) Narrator: Elohim Heavenly Mother found creation more difficult, for Her endowment was in becoming a wellspring of life unto matter. She caused the deep matter to recognize itself as a living soul, and taught it to seek patterns of order, and the matter did live; but, without experience, it could do nothing but ponder itself. Then She too stood back and observed Her work and pondered it.
13) Elohim Heavenly Father: See, Elohim, that I have been able to cause the matter to become organized. I
have made moons, worlds, and stars, such as We have heretofore seen. But the bodies have no life. Organization alone brings no real order to the matter.
14) Elohim Heavenly Mother: It is so, Elohim. Look how I have given self knowledge to the deep matter and it does seek patterns of order. But the matter does only ponder itself and is confused. Life and existence alone brings no real order to the matter.
15) Elohim Heavenly Father: Our work alone does not accomplish anything. Our previous work was fruitful because there was organization and life brought together by fathers and mothers. When one is without the other, the matter remains in chaos.
16) Elohim Heavenly Mother: Why should We work thus alone? Why should We not combine Our work together?
17) Elohim Heavenly Father: It is right, Elohim. I shall work by the endowment of My power to bring together the deep matter and organize it into all the astral bodies We have heretofore seen, and I shall consecrate all that obey Me unto the endowment of Your power. 18) Elohim Heavenly Mother: I shall work by the endowment of My power to give Your organizations self-knowledge and they shall become living beings capable of perception.
19) Elohim Heavenly Father: I do covenant with You, Elohim, to share all My creative works with You, that the endowment of My power may be combined with the endowment of Your power.
20) Elohim Heavenly Mother: I do covenant with You, Elohim, to share all My creative works with You, that the endowment of My power may also be combined with the endowment of Your power.
21) Elohim Heavenly Mother: Then were Elohim Heavenly Father and Elohim Heavenly Mother bound by
Their covenant one to another, and They became one in heart, one in mind, and one in purpose. This is the first covenant made by our Heavenly Parents. We desire that all do likewise. All arise.
22) Elohim Heavenly Mother: Each of you do solemnly covenant to share your work in this life and in the life hereafter with your own spouse. Each of you bow your head and say “Yes.”
23) Elohim Heavenly Mother: It is enough. That will do. You may be seated.
Break for Instruction
(The participants now pause in their re-telling or re-enactment in order to receive instruction from the Peli about the nature of the covenant and bond between men and women in this creation.)
Resume Session
24) Narrator: Then did Elohim Heavenly Father and Elohim Heavenly Mother become truly united, essentially bringing into being living things in the deep that could both perceive and be perceived, beings that could act and be acted upon – the Father, by causing deep matter to coalesce into astral bodies such as He had theretofore seen, and the Mother, by giving the bodies life. Thus, they were bodies indeed because of the Truth bestowed by the Father, and they were bodies indeed because of the Light bestowed by the
Mother.
25) Narrator: The Father placed His own matter in the bodies so that all things became His. The Mother placed Her own understanding in the bodies so that all things became Hers. Therefore, were all things of the Father and of the Mother, and all things were one.
26) Elohim Heavenly Father: Elohim, behold My relations!
27) Elohim Heavenly Mother: Elohim, behold My relations!
28) Narrator: And They stood back and observed Their creation and saw that a portion of the deep was now filled with light and beauty in abundance, and They rejoiced in Their accomplishment.
29) Narrator: Then the Father and the Mother begot spirit children after Their own kind and They did populate Their creation and They did begin to teach them to become like unto Themselves by line and by precept. From the smallest particle to the largest astral system, the Father and the Mother taught Their children to learn and to grow by participating in the creation personally. They bestowed upon Their own children portions of Their own Endowment of Power, that they also might create worlds and thereby progress toward the state and stature of their Parents.
Very insightful article. Why do we not pray to Heavenly Mother? Probably simply because the record we have teaching us how to pray is by Christ teaching us to pray to heavenly father. Why do we not talk about Heavenly Mother much? Actually, I do, almost every chance I get. She’s just as important as Heavenly Father, but we don’t know nearly as much about her.
However…we can learn a great deal about Heavenly Mother as we look for her in the temple. If we lift the veil from our eyes, we will see that she was right there in the middle of it all, steadfast and immovable, all along.
Just a SIMPLE change to the Young Women’s them would help: “We are daughters of [] Heavenly [Parents]…”
This survey shows that we have a ways to go in showing our young women that they have as much value as the young men do (http://ldsywsurvey.wordpress.com/ – Notice particularly the stark contrast between questions 5 and 6):
5) I was/am taught that I am a daughter of Heavenly Father.
True 1194 (97.1%)
Sometimes true 28 (2.3%)
Not true 8 (0.7%)
6) I was/am taught that I am a daughter of Heavenly Mother.
True 241 (19.6%)
Sometimes true 366 (29.8%)
Not true 620 (50.5%)
This is beautifully expressed. Thank you for taking time to write your thoughts. And I think the fact that more people are exploring doctrine about divine feminine (and inviting heavenly mother into conversations-such as this one) is evidence that she is, in fact, already present.
I attended an amazing conference a couple of weeks ago hosted/created by FAIR. Here’s the link, in case you’re interested. http://www.templestudies.org/home/2013-the-lady-of-the-temple-conference
This conference addressed the role of divine feminine in Judeo-Christian tradition. I think it’s abundantly clear, both from ancient religious text and from archaeological evidence that a female god has been worshipped throughout time. It was also interesting to learn that in the original Hebrew version of the bible, the text denotes a female voice declaring, “This is my beloved son” at the Savior’s baptism. (This from Margaret Barker http://www.margaretbarker.com and others.)
My own experience with divine feminine – in concrete ways – has come as I have opened my mind and heart to the possibility that she exists. And I’ve had specific, undeniable witnesses of her presence in my life. Often in moments when I least expect it. . . most recently when I was praying quite fervently to Heavenly Father, but Heavenly Mother actually answered the prayer.
So, anyway, as far as I am concerned, she is quite real. She is quite present in our lives whether or not we acknowledge her. For me, her name is Elohim. She is the female mirror to the male god we call Father. She is equal in power, might, glory, love and priesthood. In fact, the Priesthood of God is a result of the union of she and god the father, exalted beings. It is not the result of a single male. Therefore, every man who currently holds the priesthood, only has it because he has a mother in heaven. I love that we are inviting her into our conversations. I think she loves it too. Thanks again for this great post.
Thanks for the article reference on Heavenly Mother. It is one I had not heard of yet. Margaret Barker is always an amazing resource (I have not read her works as of yet).
I have a lot of really good, favorite resources about Heavenly Mother (and by a lot, I really mean a few because for some strange reason LDS culture hasn’t caught on yet that we need more information). The ones specifically about Heavenly Mother are: How to Worship Our Mother in Heaven (Without Getting Excommunicated), by Kevin L. Barney; and Nephi and His Ashera, by Daniel C. Peterson.
A great one on Adam & Eve: Eve and the Choice Made in Eden, by Beverly Campbell
And another great one about female ritual healing: Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism, by Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright
Another topic of interest would be prayer & spirituality, and how that looks to us. I used to think that it was the standard kneel at your bedside kind of deal, but now I am realizing that prayer is communication with the divine in a lot of different ways (songs, thoughts, meditation, yoga, nature, inspired reading/writing, and so much more). I was recently introduced to the concept that God is within us (He is in me). He is not a distant parent like we are taught culturally (thousands of years this way), and for that matter neither is our Heavenly Mother. We are divinely both of them as their spiritual offspring–male & female. We are both our Mother & our Father equally. You cannot deny a child of the ideal two parent household without some serious consequences. When there is a chasm of this divine parenthood (or earthly parenthood in terms of death, divorce, etc.) children generally can feel lost on half of their own identity. Men and women need both parents actively involved in order to have the capacity and ability to be more balanced. –THE YOGA OF CHRIST, By Philip G. McLemore is very insightful on the divine connections that we have. It is very well researched and culturally open. He poses the question, “Is it possible that the teachings of Jesus are so comprehensive they encompass the core spiritual principles of both East and West?” My answer is a resounding yes!
I get so excited when I hear other people mention Heavenly Mother, especially when they speak in terms of yearning and endearment toward wanting a real relationship with her (I end up looking like a kid raising my hand really high & doing a wiggle dance because I’m so excited I can hardly wait to share my answers). I talk to our Mother like I do our Father. It doesn’t have to be the exact way we are taught, because there are diverse gifts of divine communication. I remember thinking to myself, “If I can talk to my earthly mother & get the comfort that only a mother can give in her own way, then why can’t I talk to my Heavenly Mother?” So, I do. I enjoy seeing and envisioning her, at times along with Father and Brother Jesus and it feels so good to have a whole family.
Thank you for this Nancy! I have been working on an essay about “open prayer.” Essentially, it comes from the picture of Christ knocking, and waiting for us to open it for him. In an open prayer, it is more about having your personal spiritual door open, ready to welcome Christ, Mother, Father, the Holy Ghost, or anyone They send in Their place.
I do not *always* leave that time and feeling that I have had a new insight, a vision or a directive for my life. Because of my medical condition, I cannot physically fast, but I can spend a significant time in open prayer and meditation, focusing on the topic, which I have chosen for that day, with my prayers and my fast is directed in a way that leaves me open to a wide range of thoughts, answers and inspiration. Some of my most significant visions have come from the times Heavenly Mother, as she confidently enters the space I have created. I will start by sharing the questions that I have, and then She often answers my questions, and then as I take the time to listen and ponder, we both find additional thoughts, question and threads of possibility enter the discussion.
I honestly don’t understand those who feel that you are doing something wrong by inviting Mother into your life, as long as the person doesn’t allow a belief become a substitute for the gospel. I know that for me, I have a strong testimony, because of my relationship with Heavenly Mother.
Great post, Nancy!
I believe the apocryphal book of The Wisdom of Solomon speaks of Heavenly Mother in all her glory. She is wisdom, Sophia, the Holy Spirit. From chapter 7:25-30
[25] For she is a breath of the power of God,and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
[26] For she is a reflection of eternal light,a spotless mirror of the working of God,and an image of his goodness.
[27] Though she is but one, she can do all things,and while remaining in herself, she renews all things;in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets;
[28] for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom.
[29] For she is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior,
[30] for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail.
I prefer a 3rd scenario to the two you present – that they are one and each is incomplete without the other. “GOD” is both.