The blog series on the Divine / Sacred Feminine started three weeks ago; this week’s blog post wraps up the topic by exploring how the Divine / Sacred Feminine has been suppressed, the results of her suppression, and ways to bring back her energy to work with the Divine Masculine as an equal partner for everyone's best life.
How has the suppression of the Divine / Sacred Feminine then place and what’s the effect on all of us? Not recognizing, not honoring the Divine Feminine has affected our concept of time: “The Sacred Feminine In the worldview of the Sacred Feminine, time is not linear – it exists as a spiral, with never-ending cycles of birth, death and rebirth. We see this all around us in the endless cycles of nature. Our ancestors once aligned their rhythms closely with these natural rhythms, honoring the pivotal points of the changing seasons with celebrations. There is also evidence to suggest that they viewed their own lives in the same way, with death not being seen as some sort of final resting place, but simply one part of a ceaseless cycle of life before rebirth occurs. If both time and life continue in a never-ending spiral, then many of the most common and troubling traits of our modern culture no longer make sense. For example, war isn’t a particularly effective tool for control, because life that has ended in death will simply return. This could be one reason why there is less evidence of warfare among early humans. Consuming more than one needs also makes no sense, because if the cycles of human life are never-ending, then the ecosystem that supports human life also needs to be healthy to perpetuate the cycle” (https://braidedway.org/when-god-was-a-woman-an-introduction-to-the-wisdom-of-the-sacred-feminine/ ).
Without the Divine Feminine, our world is out of balance and needs to be righted to honor both the Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine. Educator and researcher on the Divine / Sacred Feminine, Liz Childs Kelly, shares, “Virtually all of our climate scientists and experts tell us we are quickly running out of time to preserve life as we know it on this planet. In fact, the 6th mass extinction has already begun, with species being lost at a rate faster than any time in our Earth’s history for the last million years. Human overconsumption has also greatly depleted our natural resources and created a hierarchy of extreme inequality, and all projections point toward worsening conditions in immediate decades ahead.
In short, our entire planet is suffering, and we are suffering along with Her. A spiritual presence that honors and acknowledges that all of life is sacred, beginning with our own lives and the human, animal and plant lives right outside of our windows, could be tremendously helpful in restoring balance and acknowledging our interconnectedness in this delicate web of life.
If we are seeking balance, we also need to acknowledge what is true and right underneath our noses. Just as a female version of God has been mostly absent from our world for many thousands of years, female-identified bodies, along with attributes, emotions and experiences that have traditionally been labeled as ‘feminine,’ have also been repeatedly and historically viewed as less important and less relevant than male bodies, attributes, and experiences. We cannot restore balance and find wholeness, in ourselves or in society at large, without addressing these realities. In the end, it is not about creating some kind of new, Goddess-centric religion, or even about placing women in positions of power. Religions rely on hierarchy, as do our current power structures. The Sacred Feminine calls for something different. Hers is a call for deep respect and reverence for all planetary life. It’s also a call to elevate the marginalized and suppressed voices in our society while simultaneously remembering our collective place in the natural order – as no lesser or greater than any other living thing.
This may seem like a tall order, but I believe it’s possible. Our ancestors knew how to walk closely to the Earth, and how to align themselves with Her rhythms. Their DNA lives on in us, which means that somewhere within us, we know how to do this, too” (qtd. in https://braidedway.org/when-god-was-a-woman-an-introduction-to-the-wisdom-of-the-sacred-feminine/ ).
The symbol of exclusive patriarchy is the mark of an incomplete social and spiritual construct. “Worship of the female/feminine/femininity has a place in most any religious tradition. Buddhism specifically has relied on the worship of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas identified as female and vested with important attributes, notably transcendent wisdom and longevity. In some Buddhist traditions, such as the Vajrayana as developed in India, the female becomes central to both worldly practice and ritual, in addition to conceptions of the sacred. While central to Buddhist practices that championed what were perceived as feminine traits, the female as the focal point of eschatological rites appears to run counter to the celebration of the female or womanhood. Earlier scholarship sought both to critique androcentric biases in gendered representations, and to argue for representations of the feminine divine as a source of empowerment for female viewers. While not denying the importance of women’s search for the sacred ‘in her own image,’ nor the mark of patriarchy on the representation of the female divine, [the authors seek] to question these premises and explore different frameworks. Within the symbolism of the deity as mother, for example, what is the role of the biological mother? Can motherhood be conceptualized as transcending gender categories? How might non-essentialist notions of gender be applied to representations of the goddess or female deity?
These differences in the ways in which gendered representation is emphasized thus depend on the ritual or meditation context to which visual representations of female divinities relate. As such, portrayals of the divine woman depict a spectrum of qualities, the female being auspicious, sexual, lively, violent, grotesque, or even putrefying. Fundamentally, the contradicting negative and positive portrayals of the female body in text and image alike reject the applicability of a straightforward or universal understanding of gender in the Buddhist world. Are these female or feminized personas constructed from male or female viewpoints, or both? How might the sacred female in visual representations confirm or challenge the presence of misogynistic attitudes as interpreted by scholars of doctrine? How do gendered qualities reflect the worldly realities and divine aspirations of those who developed and represented visually these personas?”
What are some ways we can include & connect to the Divine / Sacred Feminine?:
We can chart a new direction for finding a truly egalitarian vision of God and human relations through a feminist-ecological spirituality. We can recognize and honor the connection feminine energy and the Divine Feminine have with all of nature. We can see the Divine Feminine is the creator of life.
See these 21 ways to connect to the Divine Feminine: https://thespiritecho.com/divine-feminine-spirituality/
Focus on the qualities of the Divine Feminine: “love, nurturing, compassion, creativity, softness [but, not weakness!], flow, intuition, collaborative, sensual, present, receptive, healing, wise, [just]” (https://www.wherewonderwaits.com/the-divine-feminine/).
Keep in mind that ‘feminine’ is not necessarily gendered; it is the ‘yin’ energy to the masculine ‘yang’ energy.
Read these 5 ways to empower your feminine energies: https://www.goddesswomenapp.com/blog/3-divine-femininity-practices/
Learn about or review your knowledge of Divine Feminine Archetypes; the website many be helpful: https://www.wherewonderwaits.com/the-divine-feminine/
Practice ‘Being’ over ‘Doing’: “While the masculine teaches us how to take action, the feminine is all about going with the flow. The Divine Feminine invites us to just be and to surrender to the present moment. Careful, however: the concept of surrendering does not mean complete passivity or even submission to abusive behavior. Always make sure you are in a safe space. Practicing this involves: accepting what you cannot change, releasing the need of controlling everything, detaching yourself from the expectation of a certain outcome, embracing vulnerability, being guided by intuition over rationality” (https://www.wherewonderwaits.com/the-divine-feminine/).
Deconstruct social, familial, cultural, religious, gender conventions and indoctrinations that suppress, ignore, dishonor, punish the Divine Feminine.
When we pray and / or meditate, call on the Divine Feminine, the Goddess, the Sacred Mother / Creator rather than calling on just the masculine energy God.
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