Assuming you grew up in a Western nation and you belong to an Abrahamic faith, you might presume that God is male. If you were to ask a goddess worshipper about the Divine’s gender, you may hear “female.” Pose the same question to polytheists and they will likely ask, “Which one?” These responses reflect the diversity in how humans conceive of both spirituality and gender. It could be tempting to believe that these are only recent developments from feminist, queer and transgender activism, but legends of gender-bending deities from the past tell a slightly different tale.
Mohini: Vishnu as Enchantress
Rama and Krishna are probably the most well-known avatars of Vishnu, a Hindu protector deity often associated with the preservation of good and universal order. However, Vishnu also appears as the trickster goddess Mohini in several Hindu texts. Depending on which one you read, she’s either a form temporarily assumed by Vishnu or an avatar in her own right. In many cases, she uses her feminine wiles to enchant other beings, conning her victims into parting with valuables such as immortality potions, their chastity or their lives.
Interestingly, conflicting tales exist about this divine enchantress. A few describe her specifically as an alternate form of Krishna, insisting that the flute-playing flirt and not the dedicated dharma-keeper assumed her form. As Mohini, Krishna successfully tricked a demon into marrying him so that he could deplete the demon’s powers and kill him. Simultaneously, many texts from southern India relate several love affairs between Mohini and Shiva. While her worship is not common among most Hindus, a 2016 India Times article describes how she is revered by some transgender communities during the annual Koovagam festival.
Loki: A God Who Gave Birth
You may recognize the mischievous and sometimes malevolent Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he appeared in Norse poems and stories long before Tom Hiddleston donned the role’s legendary leathers. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes him as a shapeshifter capable of changing his form and gender, and one famous tale shows him transforming into a mare, becoming pregnant and birthing Odin’s eight-legged steed. Meanwhile, psychologist and blogger Mark Carlson-Ghost discusses other writings claiming that Loki also gave birth to an ogre and an entire brood of witches.
Androgynous Deities in West Africa
The northern coast of Africa’s Gulf of Guinea was home to the vibrant Dahomey civilization. Along with the Yoruba and other peoples, the region was fertile ground in which rich spiritual beliefs grew. While some of these made their way into Afro-Caribbean faiths such as Vodou and Santería, others remain in stories of powerful androgynous deities. One, Mawu-Lisa, is a two-spirited divine being created when the sun goddess Mawu merged with the moon god Lisa. Vice writer Ana Cecilia Alvarez reveals that their progenitor, Nana Buluku, is an androgynous creator who birthed all the gods in the Yoruba pantheon. Seen as containing male and female characteristics, Nana is deemed responsible for bringing our universe into being.
Gender Fluidity and Spirituality
Many raised in one of the three Abrahamic faiths tend to regard the Divine as a singular male entity, but even Jewish rabbinic literature includes a divine feminine aspect known as the Shekinah. At the same time, devotees from many other traditions revere deities and spiritual beings possessing a wide range of gender expressions. Since different cultures each draw from a variety of sources to define and categorize gender, these concepts can diverge drastically from the sociologically constructed binary often taken for granted in the West. These unique visions manifest in the stories they tell about their deities, so it’s no surprise that figures like Mohini, Loki, Mawu-Lisa and Nana Buluku move fluidly between genders or outright defy this binary.