Many of us grew up in religions or cultures that call the Supreme Source, Divine Creative Essence by the word, God.
But is God really God’s name? Does God even have a name?
The actual word God came into Old English from Germanic roots. According to Rabbi Marcia Prager, the word once meant, “the invoked.” Which is more of an adjective or description than a name. In her book, The Path of Blessing, Rabbi Prager refers to the term, God, as more of a job description than anything else.
Indeed the word God in our culture has come to mean or at least imply a stern old white man — of course! — with his flowing white beard sitting on a heavenly throne, looking down on us from on high.
We can probably thank Michelangelo for this iconic image since he so artfully painted it on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Though it may well have existed in imaginations and art well before then.
Many of us, I among them, have a vastly different concept of God, but still often use that name anyway. Either solely or among other more metaphysical descriptors like I did up top. Or we use names from other faith traditions like Buddha and Allah.
Photo by Marek Okon on Unsplash
Is God’s name Uh-Oh?
Dr. Wayne Dyer, the late author~speaker, often spoke of the spirituality of sounds. In particular, the ah sound and the om sound. These are holy he taught. The ah being a sound of creation, and the om being a sound of peace. He taught the practice of chanting ah and om to enhance both manifestation in our lives as well as inner peace.