In Her Image Podcast

Welcome back to our new season of In Her Image. Today we will review scriptures about Heavenly Mother in the Old Testament and other historical Hebrew texts. We will also say goodby to Kate as she is leaving the podcast for maternity leave and getting to know Meg Rittmanic as a new podcast host.

These Translations are taken from The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature: Selections Annotated & Explained (SkyLight Illuminations)

https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Feminine-Biblical-Wisdom-Literature/dp/1594731098

Natalie of Natalie Jeanne Art gives us today's installment in our month of meditation. This guided meditation invites you to let something that has been burdening you die in order to make room for new birth and new life... your new life. We hope this series of meditations on divine femininity has been rejouvenating for you.

Mechelle Wingle, our guest from episode 67 titled The Mother Hunger with Mechelle Wingle, sent us this beautiful meditation to share with you on the podcast. It is the second meditation in a series of four being releasing this month. Enjoy!

This summer we're switching things up for a few weeks and offering you a series of meditations. Each week will feature a different meditation that relates to the Divine Mother, whether through symbol or guided experience. We hope that each meditation will bring you closer to Her and closer to peace and harmony within yourself. We kick off our "summer of meditations" with a Moon Meditation by Meg Rittmanic.

Ashli Carnicelli and Trina Caudle, curators of the newest book Cherish: The Joy of our Heavenly Mother, join me for a discussion on what inspired the book and the process and joy of compiling it.

This book was created with LDS women and men in mind, to help us all put our love into action and demonstrate the broad and holy relationship we can have with our Heavenly Mother.

You can order the book now on Amazon here. And follow/ share on instagram @cherisheddoctrine

Melissa Tshikamba, an illustrator and figurative artist, joins Jess for a conversation about artwork, divinity, and diversity. Melissa's art reflects sacred imagery, the divine feminine, history, African symbols, mythology, cosmology, Mother Nature, and her ancestral heritage.

Tshikamba was raised in a mixed race, religious family, which instilled in her a love for the Divine. As a visual and kinesthetic learner, she noticed early on there weren’t any images that looked like her, or her siblings. Many religions claim that we are all sons and daughters of a Creator, yet their artwork lacks truth and diversity. This fueled her mission and passion to help shift that narrative and create images that are a better reflection of our human family. (Taken from Melissa's website, https://tshikamba.com/)

See the website for inquiries, prints, and commissions, and browse Melissa's instagram https://www.instagram.com/tshikamba/?hl=en for some truly inspiring art!

*Book Discount Code Below!*

Daneen Akers is a writer, producer, and teacher who believes deeply in the power of stories. She grew up in the Seventh Day Adventist faith tradition and along her deconstruction journey heard one verse of a hymn that was flipped to female divine pronouns. She had no idea how powerful it would be in her life to begin to understand the feminine face of God. She is the mother of two children who have been primary motivators for her writing about a faith that works for the common good.

We discuss her most recent publication, a children's book titled Dear Mama God. She shares how her children inspired the book, parenting when your faith has shifted, and why it's important to her to recognize the divinity in femaleness and connect with a Mother Creator.

Daneen has graciously provided a 25% off discount for our listeners! Go to dearmamagod.com at Checkout enter IHI25 (for In Her Image).

AND right now enjoy FREE shipping in the US!

You can also look for her other book Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints

And watch her documentary Seventh Gay Adventists for free online.

You can follow her work on Instagram at @daneenakers and @dearmamagod

Carol Lynn Pearson graces us on the podcast for the second week in a row to read a section from her book The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy: Haunting the Hearts and Heaven of Mormon Women and Men. She shares chapter 8, titled "Our Mothers Who Art in Heaven".

After reading the book The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy this year we knew we needed to address this topic and how it relates to the erasure of a Heavenly Mother in the LDS discourse. We were so pleased and lucky to be able to discuss it with the author herself and get her stories and background. We encourage everyone to read this book for themselves either to understand the pain of others or to feel validation for their own experiences and release the ghost from their psyches.

We hope to someday eradicate the common response that "maybe we don't talk about Heavenly Mother because there are so many of them!"

To find this book as well as Carol Lynn's newest book The Love Map you can go to carollynnpearson.com or Amazon.com