*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

Jess talks about some of her own journey, putting into words some of the most difficult parts to describe as she articulates the journey of seeking Heavenly Mother to someone from the outside looking in. She shares her experience with faith, her evolving relationship with Deity, the pain she's experienced, and the joy. She relates why seeking Heavenly Mother has become important for so many.

A beautiful story of redemption through her Heavenly Team by listener and artist Meg Rittmanic.

One of Meg's favorite resources about finding Mother in Scripture The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature

Watch for more art from Meg on Instagram @sacred.journey.art

In this episode, award-winning writer and English teacher Tyler Chadwick discusses the power of language and the open canon around Heavenly Mother. Walking through his journey of conceptualizing and connecting with The Mother, he describes how he has found Her in poetry. As co-editor of the poetry anthology Dove Song: Heavenly Mother in Mormon Poetry (Peculiar Pages, 2018), with Dayna Patterson and Martin Pulido, he’s felt Her presence in the poetic witness of Mormon poets from the early restoration to today. And as a poet himself, he shares his own witness of the Goddess through delightful poems that appear in his most recent book, Litany with Wings (BCC Press, 2022). Tyler's vision that the seed of the Mother Tree can be planted in our hearts through the word is hope-filled and inspiring.

Visit https://tyler-chadwick.com to find Tyler's books, poetry, and essays.

Jill Opdahl shares her experience of overcoming a 20 year battle with depression that involved understanding her true nature through Heavenly Mother. She is currently studying to become a mental health therapist and shares her insights on Mother God through instagram at @thefeminine.divine

Partly because the current cannon of scriptures are comprised of the testimonies of men, about a male God, to an audience of men; Jill is currently working on a project to collect the experiences and testimonies of Heavenly Mother. Our stories and faith in Mother God can and do strengthen one another and this compilation will someday be a treasure on your bookshelf! If you'd like to contribute or share your experience and testimony in writing, see the linktree on Jill's Instagram page or email her at [email protected]

J Kirk Richards is a LDS artist working in oil paints. He has painted over 2,300 works of art in 23 years and his work engages with themes of antiquity, religion, spirituality, equality, and love. His art is featured at Deseret book as well as found in the Girls' and Boys' guides to Heavenly Mother books. Since the beginning of his career as an artist, the feminine divine has been a popular theme for him. Kirk shares with us his beliefs about Heavenly Mother, how he connects with Her and how God works through him as he paints. We discuss the attributes he feels he has gained from both the women in his life and from our Mother God, particularly that of listening with empathy, yearning and working for equality and loving without judgement.

There are many ways to follow Kirk's work including his instagram page @jkirkrichards. You can visit his art galleries and various shows throughout the year, as well as his art academy with both in person and virtual options.

Crystal Schultz shares her journey of finding the Mother through meditation, and discusses how she continues to deepen that relationship through her daily practice. She shares that a focus on freeing the soul to be open to truth allows for self-authorship and yoga- or union with God.  Find her on Instagram @crystalmeditates