The Holy Ghost Herself

“Suddenly she was there, the Holy Ghost herself, looking less like a soft breath than anything I have ever seen: a lightning flash of living love, she leaped straight to the center where she lit and spun in flaming red. Tall, with red hair and red shoes, a red and blue gown, every slim inch of her outlined in flame, I knew she had leapt straight from the heart of the sun, from God Himself, to pirouette before me. Every move was pure ecstasy.”

— Elsie Landstrom, 1972
Quaker writer and poet

Today’s Invitation

Pray to Spirit, imagining her as a lightning flash of living love.

This Week’s Query

How does patriarchy within the Bible and traditional Christianity affect your relationship to the Divine?

Share your response!

Banner image: Rebecca Hoenig
Source: “A Lightning Flash of Living Love,” Inward Light, Spring, 1972, pp. 27ff.

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Author

  • Elsie Landstrom (1923-2015) was a Quaker writer, editor, poet, and artist. She was an active member of Wellesley Meeting, where she supported young men refusing the draft during the Vietnam War and joined with other Quakers in peaceful protest. She spent her childhood living in China before moving to the US, and helped to foster good relationships between people of both countries.

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