The doctrine of the Heavenly Mother is attributed to Joseph Smith, Jr, who soon before his death in 1844 outlined a revolutionary and controversial view of God that differed dramatically from traditional post-Nicene Christianity. See King Follett Discourse, April 7, 1844, published in Times and Seasons 5 (Aug. 15, 1844): 612-17, and reprinted in the History of the Church of jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, edited by B.H. Roberts, 2d ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, (1976-1980), 6:302-17; see also "The Christian Godhead--Plurality of Gods", History of the Church, 6: 473-79. Smith's new doctrine included the belief that men and women have the opportunity to become gods and goddesses in the afterlife, an idea that logically implied the existence of a Heavenly Mother.
Although there are no contemporary sources that show unequivocably that Smith referred explicitly to a Heavenly Mother, several of Smith's contemporaries attributed the doctrine to him either directly, or as a consequence of his new theological doctrine. An editorial footnote of History of the Church, 5:254, presumably quotes Joseph Smith as saying: "Come to me; here's the mysteries man hath not seen, Here's our Father in heaven, and Mother, the Queen." In addition, a second-hand account states that in 1839, Joseph Smith had told Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young, one of Smith's plural wives, after the death of her mother, that "not only would she know her mother again on the other side, but 'more than that, you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven'." (Quoted in Linda P. Wilcox, "The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven", Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective, edited by Maureen Ursenbach Beecher and Lavina Fielding Anderson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 65.)
In addition, members of the Anointed Quorum, a highly select spiritual organization in the early Church that was privy to Smith's teachings, also acknowledged the existence of a Heavenly Mother. See Wilcox, "The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven" at 65-67; see also Orson Pratt, Nov. 12, 1876, Journal of Discourses, 18:292; Wilford Woodruff, June 27, 1875, Journal of Discourses, 18:31-32. Also, the Times and Seasons 6 (May 1, 1845): 892, published a letter to the editor from a person named "Joseph's Specked Bird", (possibly a wife of Joseph Smith), in which the author stated that in the pre-Earth life, the spirit "was a child with his father and mother in heaven".
In 1845, after the assassination of Joseph Smith, the poet Eliza Roxcy Snow, one of Smith's plural wives, published a poem entitled "My Father in Heaven", (later titled "Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother", now the popular Latter-day Saint hymn "O My Father"), describing the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother. See Eliza R. Snow, "My Father in Heaven", Times and Seasons 6 (15 Nov. 1845); see also Jill Mulvay Derr, "The Significance of 'O My Father' in the Personal Journey of Eliza R. Snow", BYU Studies 36, no. 1 (1996-97): 84-126. This hymn contained the following language:
Origin
Some early Mormons considered Eliza Snow to be a "prophetess", and Latter-day Saint President Wilford Woodruff (a member of the Anointed Quorum, believed that Snow had obtained this understanding though her own revelation. Later, however, President Joseph F. Smith explained his own belief that "God revealed that principle that we have a mother as well as a father in heaven to Joseph Smith; Joseph Smith revealed it to Eliza Snow Smith, his wife; and Eliza Snow was inspired, being a poet, to put it into verse." (Wilcox at 65.)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not formally acknowledge the existence of a Heavenly Mother until in 1909, in a doctrinal statement by the First Presidency in reaction to the Theory of Evolution, where the doctrine was stated obliquely. See "The Origin of Man", Improvement Era (November 1909): 80. The Church also later acknowledged the doctrine in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, where the Church stated that each person is a "spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents". Other references to the Heavenly Mother doctrine can be found in Latter-day Saint speeches and literature. See, e.g., [[Gordon B. Hinckley, "Daughters of God", Ensign, November 1991: 97-100 (encouraging Latter-day Saint women not to pray to our Heavenly Mother).
In general, Latter-day Saints and some other Mormons today believe that God the Father and Heavenly Mother once were mortals, and that sometime in the past they became our immortal, spiritual parents.
In general, the Heavenly Mother doctrine "is a shadowy and elusive one floating around the edges of Mormon consciousness". (Wilcox at 64.) Though widely held by Mormons, the doctrine is not advertised by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some Mormon apologetics, however, have attempted to elaborate on the doctrine, in party, by borrowing from early Hebrew theology, which arguably included a Hebrew goddess, the consort of Yahweh, variously named Asherah, Shekinah, the Queen of Heaven, or Sophia. See, e.g., an article by Barry R. Bickmore at " class="external">http://www.fairlds.org/pubs/conf/1999BicB.html#en112.
Some Mormons identify the Heavenly Mother as being the Holy Ghost, sometimes citing Gnostic documents referring to the "Trinity of the Father, Mother, and Son", and the Apocryphal Gospel of the Hebrews, where Jesus Christ is reported to say, "My mother, the Holy Spirit took me just now by one of my hairs and carried me off to the great mount Tabor." (Origen, Commentary on John 2:6, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 10 vols. (Buffalo: The Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885-1896) 10:329-330). However, official statements by the LDS Church concerning the Holy Ghost do not appear compatible with the idea that the Holy Ghost is the Heavenly Mother. The Church has continuted to maintain that the Holy Ghost is male and that little has been revealed on the subject, therefore anything other than acknolewgdement of a Heavenly Mother is speculative.
In the Unification Church, some members have been known to address God as "Heavenly Mother," emphasizing the Divine Attribute of femininity rather than indicating a distinct personage. Unificationists consider God a unified being of masculine and feminine characteristics, but they nearly always refer to Him as "Father"—as in Father, please forgive my sins or "Heavenly Father."Acknowledgement of the Doctrine by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Elaborations on the Heavenly Mother Doctrine
External References
See also
Other faiths