The Divine Feminine

Satisfiction · #1 09-10-2008, 09:41 AM

There is an increasing movement within spirituality to embrace the divine feminine - but what does that really mean? I myself take part in a woman's moon tobacco, and other feminine empowering things, but is this all heading in the right direction?

Brief Characteristics
Masculine: Competition, power, rationale, individual/separation, Intellect
Feminine: Compassion, peace, connection to all things, feeling/emotions

On one hand, it is personally empowering to embrace these feminine ways... Lord knows the world could use a little more compassion. However embracing the feminine in this way actually continues to polarise the sexes, and therefore reinforces patriarchy ideals, as the feminine characteristics take root in what was most valued in patriarchy - sexuality and mothering.

Therefore, how do we move beyond this duality of masculine and feminine and into a brave new world of the divine?

Satisfiction · #2 09-10-2008, 09:44 AM

Article that informed the above question

Quote:

The Divine Feminine Unveiled
Abridged from “The Divine Feminine Unveiled” by Elizabeth Debold, in What is Enlightenment? Magazine

“There is a need to move beyond a patriarchy and I see it as critical to our individual and collective evolution (or even survival). The question I want to address is: How do we create a postpatriarchal culture? And how does that relate to the Divine Feminine?”

In this article Debold talks about where our models of masculinity and femininity stem from, arguing that a dramatic obsession with “opposites” divides and frames our thinking today. Generally the “masculine” is related to agency, assertion, and intense directed focus and consciousness, whereas the feminine is related to receptivity, containment and an encompassing depth of being.

The Victorian era, like no time before or since, asserted that gender and sexuality were the core of who we are. They theorised that our experience of being in a male or female body has shaped our psyches and our culture. The Victorian world was divided into separate spheres of activity for women and men and this social dichotomy was justified by the insistence that the two sexes were natural opposites. If men were strong enough to attend to the messy corrupt world of business and politics, then women were too fragile, too morally chaste and pure to be anywhere but home. Men were seen to be active and full of sexual desire, so therefore woman must be passive and have no desire.

The insistence on the opposition between masculine and feminine, male and female, is therefore an expression of patriarchy. Celebrating these feminine archetypes as divine only upholds the inner and outer separation and division that our so-called masculine culture is based on. As these archetypes are influenced from the patriarchy from the past, any new culture must move beyond them.

The question is, how?

The current feminine ideal is to be good, beautiful, sexy, all-compassionate, giving and loving. The pallid Victorian ideal casts a shadow across out psyches, so we often see out liberation in terms of reclaiming and celebrating our sexuality, our emotions, and our biology based roles that keep us in sync with nature. It’s uncanny how the latest incarnation of the Divine Feminine brings together the aspects of woman that are most valued within patriarchy – sexuality and mothering.

Until we recognise the whole of what we are made out of, we will continue to project darkness on to men and thereby keep intact the polarizing division that hold patriarchy in place. We can’t replace one extreme with the other... it just reinforces the old-world divide.

We woman can move culture forward and create a future beyond patriarchy. But it will not be easy, nor will it necessarily feel ‘natural’ , especially if we cling to the old-world psyche. There is a need to go beyond our (albeit divine) capacity to reproduce and catch up on the kind of creative thought that the privileged males in our species have developed through trial and error over the past several millennia.

The new goal should be to develop a consciousness that both includes our biological and cultural inheritance and also transcends it, so that a new free space of relationship is created in culture that would catalyze a new partnership between men and women. This would be the new expression of feminine, and given how essential it is for transforming out world, such an endeavour is nothing less than sacred.

“Man can go no further in the pursuit of consciousness until woman catches up with him” – Castillejo

Dabbs · #3 09-10-2008, 09:54 AM

Wow.... ummm... how do we get beyond? I'm clueless on this one..

I'm just thinking out loud....so don't jump all over me..

If we embrace our femininity, we lose the masculinity... Which really, there is neither, or should be neither...

If we embrace the masculinity, we lose the femininity....

So, what we need to do is find a happy medium so that both exists in each of us... male or female...

Women are already capable of Competition, power, rationale, individual/separation, Intellect.... the same as men.. and to the same extent as men..

Are men capable of Compassion, peace, connection to all things, feeling/emotions? I'm not a man.. I can't answer that one..

So, in my possibly (probably) flawed thinking; Men are the problem?

justin · #4 09-10-2008, 10:04 AM

I've seen those masculine and feminine characteristics in both men and women, niether more than the other, so I don't think this way looking at it resonates with me too much. Those aspects translate across the board. I know a lot of very compassionate men and I know a lot of competetive women, so this seems a bit flawed to me. We have already integrated the two.

Dabbs · #5 09-10-2008, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justin

I've seen those masculine and feminine characteristics in both men and women, niether more than the other, so I don't think this way looking at it resonates with me too much. Those aspects translate across the board. I know a lot of very compassionate men and I know a lot of competetive women, so this seems a bit flawed to me. We have already integrated the two.

Justin, are you in touch with the feminine side of you as well?

Naterade · #6 09-10-2008, 10:23 AM

...

FlamingArrow · #7 09-10-2008, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satisfiction

There is an increasing movement within spirituality to embrace the divine feminine - but what does that really mean? I myself take part in a woman's moon tobacco, and other feminine empowering things, but is this all heading in the right direction?

Brief Characteristics
Masculine: Competition, power, rationale, individual/separation, Intellect
Feminine: Compassion, peace, connection to all things, feeling/emotions

On one hand, it is personally empowering to embrace these feminine ways... Lord knows the world could use a little more compassion. However embracing the feminine in this way actually continues to polarise the sexes, and therefore reinforces patriarchy ideals, as the feminine characteristics take root in what was most valued in patriarchy - sexuality and mothering.

Therefore, how do we move beyond this duality of masculine and feminine and into a brave new world of the divine?

Why is there a separation in qualities here, I've seen all qualities in both genders...

We get beyond it by trying to be the best PERSONS we can be, and not focusing on gender as a dividing line. If a man isn't compassionate, it doesn't mean he has to embrace feminism, it means he just has to learn compassion.

Edit: I probably should of read the responses first lol.

Protonexus · #8 09-10-2008, 11:24 AM

Through acceptance of these two polarities of the third brain, symbiosis occurs. The intellect "impregnates" the creative sexuality to birth a divine soul.

Stating that one polarity doesn't "get it" or is the problem is a statement of one's own imbalanced perspective.

justin · #9 09-10-2008, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dabbs

Justin, are you in touch with the feminine side of you as well?

That depends on your definition of feminism, I guess. I have all the traits listed above, but that has nothing to do with being feminine in my opinion. Being compassionate or having feelings or being connected to all things has nothing to do with being feminine. Likewise, masculinity has nothing to do with power or competition or rationale. A balanced individual would possess qualities from both sides. I'm very much an alpha male. I like sports and fist fights and looking at naked chicks, but that doesn't mean I don't have compassion or feelings. As far as that goes, all human beings have feelings. Even hatred is an emotion. So, I guess it depends on how you view the meaning of the concept. I don't cry when I watch walt disney movies if that's what you mean.

FlamingArrow · #10 09-10-2008, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justin

That depends on your definition of feminism, I guess. I have all the traits listed above, but that has nothing to do with being feminine in my opinion. Being compassionate or having feelings or being connected to all things has nothing to do with being feminine. Likewise, masculinity has nothing to do with power or competition or rationale. A balanced individual would possess qualities from both sides. I'm very much an alpha male. I like sports and fist fights and looking at naked chicks, but that doesn't mean I don't have compassion or feelings. As far as that goes, all human beings have feelings. Even hatred is an emotion. So, I guess it depends on how you view the meaning of the concept. I don't cry when I watch walt disney movies if that's what you mean.

Lol.

Dabbs · #11 09-10-2008, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justin

That depends on your definition of feminism, I guess. I have all the traits listed above, but that has nothing to do with being feminine in my opinion. Being compassionate or having feelings or being connected to all things has nothing to do with being feminine. Likewise, masculinity has nothing to do with power or competition or rationale. A balanced individual would possess qualities from both sides. I'm very much an alpha male. I like sports and fist fights and looking at naked chicks, but that doesn't mean I don't have compassion or feelings. As far as that goes, all human beings have feelings. Even hatred is an emotion. So, I guess it depends on how you view the meaning of the concept. I don't cry when I watch walt disney movies if that's what you mean.

lol... I love it!
Now that I have a male view... I can honestly say that men do have Compassion, peace, connection to all things, feeling/emotions.... therefore:

I guess Indigo's don't have a problem with the gender things.... is it the rest of the world? If that's the case, then we're all doomed and have a lot of work to do!

FlamingArrow · #12 09-10-2008, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dabbs

lol... I love it!
Now that I have a male view... I can honestly say that men do have Compassion, peace, connection to all things, feeling/emotions.... therefore:

I guess Indigo's don't have a problem with the gender things.... is it the rest of the world? If that's the case, then we're all doomed and have a lot of work to do!

lol yes it isn't our fault Dabbs!

Dabbs · #13 09-10-2008, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlamingArrow

lol yes it isn't our fault Dabbs!

Sorry guys! You've gotta remember, I'm surrounded by men... I'm terribly out numbered here at home and I need an outlet every once in a while... Or a punching bag.... either works to get rid of all the testosterone residual here...

MiamiSound · #14 09-10-2008, 01:54 PM

I believe by learning to appreciate women more we begin to embrace the divine feminine and it begins to bloom inside of us. I think we must first encounter someone who radiates divine femininity so that we have a solid idea of what it really means. Maybe if you call for one, one will appear.

This reminds me of the Anima. It can be identified as the totality of the unconscious feminine psychological qualities that a male possesses

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