by Marjorie D. Grevious, Evangelist for Spiritual Healing
Shakti, Shekinah, Sophia, and Seshet name strands of the Divine Feminine woven through human belief—creative energy, indwelling presence, wisdom, and divine order. As we move from Black History Month into Women’s History Month, and toward Lent and spring’s renewal, these archetypes invite us to notice how the sacred feminine shapes resilience, guidance, and new life.
In my February sermon I lifted four Black women often erased from American narratives—women who stood behind celebrated men yet carried essential generative power. Their stories mirror the often-unseen work of the Divine Feminine: balancing and humanizing grand, masculine images of God, making the transcendent immanent.
In Hinduism, Shakti is the primordial energy that activates creation—dynamic, generative, and transformative. Jewish mysticism’s Shekinah names God’s compassionate presence dwelling with humanity, a tender companion in exile and return. Ancient Egypt’s Seshet, goddess of writing and measurement, brings the precision and structure through which cosmic order is inscribed. Sophia in Gnostic and Christian reflection personifies divine Wisdom, the bridge between spirit and world. Together they describe a force that comforts, guides, and animates daily life, making the Divine near, relational, and practical.
As an evangelist of spiritual healing and a lifelong yogi, I have found each of these presences at work in my life—Shakti’s movement in creative practice, Shekinah’s waiting and listening in prayer, Seshet’s exacting inspiration when I write, and Sophia’s counsel toward right action. This theological stance does not mean belief in multiple gods; rather, it honors how the one infinite Creator expresses intimate presence in many forms that draw us toward meaning, purpose, and moral life. If God is transcendent, there must also be something with us, in us, and around us that comforts, guides, and motivates. The Divine Feminine is that relational thread.
Miriam, sister of Moses and Aaron, stands as a biblical embodiment of these feminine qualities. As the eldest sibling in a family confronting Pharaoh’s brutality, she exercised intuition, courage, and creative strategy—placing her brother in a basket, watching over him, and later leading Israelite women in song and dance after the sea was parted. Miriam’s leadership is both prophetic and domestic: she shapes communal memory, ritual, and hope. Her voice and vigilance are acts of Shakti-like creativity, Shekinah-like presence, Seshet-like ordering, and Sophia-like wisdom. Remembering Miriam helps reclaim feminine divinity in scripture and in life, reminding us that renewal, guidance, and salvation often arrive through the quiet, powerful labor of women who name, hold, and bring forth new futures.