Do the Valar have gender and why? In The Silmarillion, the Valar — the spirits of Ilúvatar through whom the visible world was made — are male and female. But how can spirits have gender?
Each Vala chose a bodily form, male or female, according to the “difference of temper they had even from their beginning.”
“But when they desire to clothe themselves, the Valar take upon themselves forms, some as of male and some as of female. For that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby.”
Since the Valar are described as “the offspring of Ilúvatar’s thought,” does this mean that divine thoughts possess an innate gender?
This seems to align well with the curious fact that, in many languages, words have grammatical gender. In Russian, for example, every noun has grammatical gender, and adjectives and past-tense verbs agree with it. A table (стол) is always masculine. A cat (кошка) is always feminine. And so on.
Even in languages that lack grammatical gender for nouns, such as English, gender is often implied. A ship, for example, is traditionally referred to as “she.” The sun is a “he.”
According to Tolkien, the Valar chose their “raiment” based on what had already been in them from the beginning. Their gender was bodied forth by their particular choice — not made by it. Gender seems to be an innate characteristic of God’s thought.
Divine thoughts are not neutral. They possess innate gender polarity — a potential for bearing fruit. It is this gender polarity, inherent in every thought, that engenders the current of life. The Valar’s gender corresponds to the kind of energy each of them brings into the world.
What is gender polarity? Gender polarity is a mode of God’s self-revelation in the world. God reveals Himself as the Trinity — One in Many, Unity in Multiplicity. He is not just Unity, and He is not just Multiplicity. He is a constant tension between oneness and otherness.
The Trinity is a never-ending dance between One and Many, Likeness and Otherness. The Persons of the Trinity are One and yet totally Other. When God brings Eve out of Adam, He creates the perfect Other. By becoming Adam’s “other,” she is like him and yet totally distinct from him.
The result is life-engendering polarity — a perfect reflection of the dynamic within the Trinity itself. Adam and Eve were to engender life just like the Trinity engenders life within itself. The Trinity engenders life as a tension between Oneness and Otherness.
Each Person of the Trinity exalts and glorifies the Other. Each makes the Other as distinct as possible. Yet the more distinct they become, the more deeply united they are. And the more perfectly one they are, the more fully they reveal their otherness. Life springs from this paradoxical union of oneness and otherness.
Oneness without otherness is sameness. Sameness is sterile. Only polarity between oneness and otherness is fruitful. Life is engendered wherever likeness and difference meet. To engender life, I need someone who is like me, yet not me.
Each thought of God is “gendered” — that’s why each divine thought/breath is fruitful. Each bears within itself a unique potential, a particular form of oneness and otherness. Heaven and earth are one, yet utterly other. Their union engenders life.
Even as I write these words, my own thoughts are “gendered” as well. If they are to give birth to meaning, I must catch how the seemingly disparate thoughts intertwine into one beautiful pattern. I must discover likeness within otherness, oneness in otherness, as I weave a tapestry of words from a palette of diverse impressions.
Gender is the mystery of divine fruitfulness. God is the Sower. He sows thoughts. And His thoughts are “gendered.” His thoughts are either seeds or wombs. Some are from heaven, some from the earth. Some carry male energy, some female.
Like the Valar in The Silmarillion, they enter the world to shape it and prepare it for the coming of the Firstborn. And so their great labors begin. The Valar saw that…
“…the Great Music had been but the growth and flowering of thought in the Timeless Halls, and the Vision only a foreshowing; but now they had entered in at the beginning of Time, and the Valar perceived that the World had been but foreshadowed and foresung, and they must achieve it. So began their great labours…”
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