My speculations on how it would come about were here and here on the Toscano thread. In a nutshell: It seems to me a revelation in some fashion by, of, or from Heavenly Mother would supply the needed mythos or narrative or whatever, in the same way the First Vision narratives helped Joseph in the wake of the Kirtland apostasy and (I gather by osmosis) to consolidate notions of authority around the turn of the century. But since big revelation only comes when sought, and is not likely on anyone’s radar screens, such an event could only result from considerable internal or external pressure putting it on the radar screen of a prophet who’s sufficiently open.

I understand what you’re saying, though, and I agree with you–but I still don’t think that’s an adequate description of what emerges. From the Proclamation, perhaps, but not from the temple. (And again, this is not to reject the temple or its teachings–in fact, the possibility that there is indeed a hierarchy of the genders must be a live possibility for the believer.) (Also, I appreciate and fully understand–and share!–the impulse to interpret the endowment as you do.) I’ll take your raincheck on that celestial discussion! (Although I’m hoping that then it won’t be necessary.)

It’s sort of too bad that we can’t discuss these things more openly; there’s nobody in my ward who would ever want to talk about this with me.

We may have to consign further discussion to a future life or some celestial room somewhere.

But I’ve never bought the idea that motherhood equals equality. While I don’t long for, or even want the priesthood, or even other women to have it, I’m equal, even superior, arrogantly so, because I just am. But I don’t know why. And I don’t know why that bothers men more than women.

As for the temple: I love the temple, I am richly fed the liminal experience it offers, I’m thrilled by its ancient roots, I attend whenever I can (still not often enough). But I simply must strongly disagree that the priesthood order described therein “organizes horizontally rather than the vertical space in feminism critiques of male power.” It’s wonderful that women and men are both there, and the ways in which the genders interact is highly significant. But it is not horizontal.

I agree on the need for what you call a “female priesthood myth,” if there is ever to be a female priesthood: my point is that we don’t have such a thing within the Restoration tradition. I also share your distaste for option (2)–which, apart from its blandness, would be very, very costly in social terms. (Incidentally, I’ve always imagined that if there were a female priesthood, it would operate in separate quorums, thus allowing for a continued gender-identification which I think is important and desirable. Not that I’m advocating this (my standard disclaimer.))

For me that category is the “order of the priesthood,” a category that includes both men and women, and is deeply implicated in our temple ceremonies. Men and women both have place in the order of the priesthood. They occupy a different space within the order. The order organizes horizontally rather than the vertical space in feminism critiques of male power.

Rosalynde: “Finally, we may need to consider the possibility that occasionally our own theology does not provide the mythic resources necessary for forward movement.”

Do you find any cosmic signficicance in the correlation of priesthood and Relief Society manuals beginning with the Brigham Young manual? I think the change may show there are mythic resources available for “mobilizing women’s capacities in productive ways,” as you say. The manual change may be read as a knock against women–as another instance where women’s own voice is removed or marginalized. In another sense, though, the change empowers women, allowing them access to priesthood, drawing them further into the priesthood order, putting them squarely in position to teach their priesthood-bearing husbands as they study the lessons together—in short, to influence priesthood. I don’t want to read too far into this, but I think the mythos is more flexible than we might imagine, starting with the temple as the seedbed of possibility.