The essence of the Divine Feminine is the spark of life that everything grows from. The same energy that grows a plant grows us. The divine feminine is the innate body, heart, gut, and wisdom that all human beings have within them. It is our ability to sense, feel and intuit our highest options.”
Unfortunately, we have lost touch with this natural ability in western civilization. Religions have exhorted allegiance to what might be called supernatural love, union with the transcendent Logos as the incontrovertible spiritual ideal. For the most part, we are not taught to think or feel for ourselves, but to simply believe what we are told.
Lost, even buried, in this one-sidedness has been the warmth and substantiality of natural love, the immanent presence of Eros at the heart of each cell in creation. Other names for the universal recognition of this dynamic benevolence are Qwan Yin, in the Chinese Tradition, The Great Mother of Aboriginal Renown, The Great Goddess of Western Paganism and The Blessed Mother of Christianity. In each instance, a personally recognizable expression of the Divine Feminine is active in our lives. These aspects of the divine feminine stress the values of caring, acceptance, intimacy, empathy, compassion, and love.
The worldwide emergence of women (normally thought of as the carrier of feminine energy) as the undeniable determining force in our social equation is becoming common knowledge. From the pioneering Women’s Consciousness Movement in the United States, to women’s ongoing, and increasingly visible struggle for civil and religious freedom throughout the world, the planetary social order is progressively and rapidly being shaped and influenced by women, and their unique feminine consciousness.
Along with the awakening of the divine feminine, we have seen the less-than-divine or un-awakened feminine. We see plenty of movies and television filled with catty, sarcastic, insecure, envious, jealous, bitter and resentful women…and men. But how else can we understand the value of bringing forth the divine feminine in ourselves unless we see the opposite?
In the same way, the feminine is waking up to her divine qualities and offering these gifts to the world, so the masculine is awakening to a new (actually old) way of being with the feminine. Anthropologists such as Riane Eisler recognize that partnership societies in which the feminine and masculine were equally honored were the norm until approximately 3,300 years ago.
The awakened masculine aspect of us, which is our ability to acknowledge what we know from our own experience, rather than from what we are told, understands the importance and value of the feminine aspects. As the divine feminine’s protector and champion, the awakened masculine is willing to explore emotional availability, compassion, receptivity and erotic innocence and expression. He is in service to the awakening divine feminine. The awakening masculine supports the feminine aspect in visionary women and men, so they can bring their gifts into the world. He values and cherishes sexual energy, and uses it consciously. He invites sex, and takes both yes and no for an answer—rather than uses superior strength and force to dominate.
The un-awakened masculine aspect has a vague idea of his purpose, but cannot really speak it. He lives in fear, but cannot identify the source. He is subject to the influences of the mainstream media where his ideas of reality are reinforced. He is one who is caught in what he’s been told all his life, and has never re-evaluated his belief systems. He is in a survival or autopilot mode much of the time. Happiness comes in bursts, but he may have difficulty expressing it. When he is unhappy, he looks outside himself for the cause. He is intimidated by what he doesn’t understand, and may criticize it freely. His belief systems are mostly fixed. His sexual appetites drive him, but they never really nourish him. He relies on sources outside himself to define his reality. The un-awakened masculine aspect is always trying to control everyone, and passes judgment on all those who think differently. They shun or even kill the ones who have different beliefs.
A cosmic game, it seems, is afoot. The long-dormant energies of the Divine Feminine are awakening, and beginning to permeate all aspects of our lives. This sacred feminine consciousness teaches us the more refined arts of sexual love, and reveals the healing and wholeness that await us as we reclaim our passion and inner authority as evolved women and men. Thus, the essential link is remembered as the “God-ness” within. It comes forth and transforms the mundane into the sacred. As we learn to surrender to this energy, we receive the inner guidance we have been looking for, which enables us to awaken to sustainable, everlasting love and passion in our lives.
