The Red Sea as Goddess, 1 Nephi 2:5-16
((I know this post is only 2 months old so it's not totally classic but I love it so I wanted to re-post it since I haven't posted any Mor-gan stuff in a few weeks))
In this section of the Book of Mormon we find that Nephi is telling us the story of his father and how his father lead the family away from wickedness and into the wilderness - away from the city and into wild nature.
They made camp by the side of a river and built an altar of stones by the river and made offerings "unto the Lord and gave thanks unto the Lord our God." 1 Nephi 2: 7 (which I believe denotes the fact that the Book of Mormon points to ancestor worship as well as a pagan notion of many "Gods", God's of rivers, cities, the wildreness, etc)
Nephi's father Lehi then goes on to name the river they have camped by. He calls it Laman after his reluctant son who "murmurs" against him.
Now before I go on I need to stop and make an important point that the river we are talking about "emptied into the fountain of the Red Sea" 1 Nephi 2:9
According to Judy Grahn scholar and author of Blood, Bread and Roses; How Menstruation Created the World;
"As "bitter waters," Tiamat describes the salty nature of menstrual blood carried to its greatest earthly denominator, the sea. She is the Red Sea; the Arab name for the eastern shore of the Red Sea is Tihamat. She has been called "Ocean of Blood." Tiamat is menstruation externalized, a complex metaphor about the nature of the earth and other elements. In Egypt, she was Temu or Te Mut, oldest of deities. In Greek, her name is "Goddess Mother," in Latin dia mater. She is measurement/mother/originator by means of dia, two; that is to say, she is creation through separation. Her name is Diameter, horizon, the line that separates heaven and earth, sky and ocean (Grahn 14)."
So we see that this particular river that Lehi lead his family to, that he camped by, that he build an altar by and made offerings to his God by, emptied into the Red Sea, an ancient metaphor for the Goddess, for female energy, for the Earth Mother.
Lehi then says to his son Laman, "O that thou mightest be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness!" (1 Nephi 2:9)
This happens early on in the Book of Mormon, we are at this point only but a few scant pages in. This sets us up to see "righteousness" as equated with the giving of oneself into the Red Sea. Pouring all of one's energy and resources to the Red Sea.
Righteousness is that which flows toward water, menstruation, Earth, and Goddess.
This sets up an entire structure around the way we view the much talked about "righteousness" within the scriptures and within Mormon theaology (with an "a" for Thea - Goddess).
Choose the Right indeed!
