There have been many cultures that use the term Shekina but the most common is the Jewish-Kabbalistic version of Shakti; the idea was that God could not be complete, or whole, until he was united with her (like the yin and yang). The Kabbalists believed that it was God’s loss of his Shekina half or the seperation of the I AM to EGO which brought about evil. From the Hebrew Shekina means “dwelling place,” giving the concept that God had no “home” or possibly lost it’s way without her. Like her Tantric counterpart Shakti, the Sh’kina was the source of all “soul” in the universe. The Gnostic Christians of the fourth century spoke of Sh’kinaas a “spirit of glory” or divine presense, in who Beings of Light lived, as children in their mother’s body or home. Mani referred to the Aeons of sh’kinas or female spirits of the sacred year.
The Kabbalists taught that it was essential to bring the male and female cosmic principles together once more since they are one and the same within each soul and are always searching to bring about a union, which could possibly be achieved through sexual magic, signifying the union of the sun (man) and the moon (woman), which was graphically expressed by the hexagram. Philosophically the Kabbalists were saying “the supernal mother Shekina is manifested in the earthly mother, with whom her husband should lie on the Sabbath (Sunday)”, because “all the six days of the week derive their blessing” from this coupling. Rabbi Eliahu di Vidas said, “Who has not experienced the force of passionate love for a woman will never attain to the love of God.”
Jewish mystics claimed the “outer garment” of the Shekina is the Torah, “Holy Law.” Man becomes a Bridegroom of the Torah by study, symbolized in erotic imagery. He has to court her as he would a beautiful maiden. “She begins from behind a curtain or veil to speak words in keeping with his understanding, until very slowly insight comes to him like the slow writhings of a dance reaching a furvour of excitement and enlightenment.” The Shekina as the “Indwelling One” might be compared to the Latin I-dea, or Goddess Within. “She opens the door of her hidden chamber ever so little, and for a moment reveals her face to her lover, but hides it again to be repeated time and time again. He alone sees it and is drawn to her with his heart and soul and his whole being.”
As man requires his Shekina for his enlightenment, so God requires his Shekina for his wisdom and creativity. This is a crucial tenet of Kabbalism. A.G.H.
