What does “the sacred feminine” really mean? An Invitation to all Women Part II in a series
For every woman who can be named
There are a hundred who speak.
For every hundred who speak
There are a thousand who know.
For every thousand who know
There are ten thousand who do not yet know,
Because their truth lies still deeper
than all those who speak and know and can be named.
And every one of us is needed now.
- Elizabeth Debold
The feminine holds the mystery of creation. This simple and primordial truth is often overlooked, but at this time of global crisis, which also carries the seeds of a global transformation, we need to reawaken to the spiritual power and potential of the feminine. Feminine qualities belong to both men and women and they draw us into the depths within us, into the mysteries of the soul whose wisdom is sometimes called Sophia.
Without the feminine nothing new can be born, nothing new can come into existence – we will remain caught in the materialistic images of life that are polluting our planet and desecrating our souls. We need to return to the core of our being, to where the sacred comes into existence. And the mystical feminine holds the key to this work of redemption and transformation. (Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee)
With the “Dawn of A New Time” upon us we look to guidance as to how we are to be. Where is this guidance going to come from? The term Sacred Feminine seems to be unprecedented in our time. We don’t really have a road map to it. We’ve been told by the patriarchal system how women are supposed to act. You know what I mean….sweetness and light…always!
Banishing God to the heavens, we’ve lost touch with the sacredness of the earth and its many forms of life. We are slowly becoming conscious of this imbalance and the danger caused by the rejection of the Goddess. We see how our whole planet is suffering from the abuses of masculine technology. At the same time, many patterns of the repression of the feminine have surfaced. Women have had to confront both individual and collective experiences of abuse. The masculine power principle has been recognized as responsible for tremendous feminine suffering to the individual and to the ecosystem. In response to this deep and dangerous imbalance, the feminine aspect of the divinity, the Goddess, has begun to be reinstated. Reinstating the Goddess means restoring the sacredness of a nurturing, all embracing divinity. God’s masculine omnipotence and transcendence need to be balanced by the feminine aspects of care and nearness.
Care and nearness involve deep feelings. The Sacred Feminine gets involved with life, all aspects of it. She cares deeply about every situation in which she finds herself. Often time, this brings up deep powerful feelings like sorrow or joy and she is free to experience and express them. The key is to embrace all situations and be one with them. The Sacred Feminine understands this and she does not shove anything under the carpet. All things and people are important to her. She sees every opportunity as one of transformation. She holds the space for miracles to happen.
Reinstating the feminine, all embracing Goddess should not mean denying our instinctual awe for ‘His’ omnipotence. Nor should the feminine’s fear of repression and abuse result in rejecting His majesty. The Great Spirit is our father, but the Earth is our mother. She nourishes us; that which we put into the ground she returns to us, and healing plants she gives us. Can we look to her for guidance in how to be? I think so.
Like the Native American, the mystic is familiar with the caring, all-embracing aspect of the divine, the feminine. Experiences of oneness, which are so central to the mystical path, include every atom of creation; every leaf of every tree is experienced as sacred. One of the first mystical experiences is often a sense of divine presence, and the knowledge of the Beloved’s tenderness and closeness grows with devotion and practice. The mystic seeks and finds the Beloved’s name in everything and everyone. The practice of the presence of God is essential work for the feminine now, who shares every activity with her Beloved. Cooking, we stir the pot with Him; walking, we feel Him accompanying and protecting us. In difficulty we talk to Him. In delight we praise Him. Repeating the mantra we constantly remember the Beloved’s name with love. We bring Him who we love into every corner of our life.
In our meditation and our daily life we come to know what our culture has forgotten. We hear the sacred song of divine presence in the market and in our hearts. But we also feel the sorrow of a society that is dominated by a collective sense of divine absence. We overlook nothing.
Women have the magical substance in their being that has to do with the real mystery of creation in which light takes on form and takes on human consciousness and yet remains true to it essential nature. The spirit of our mother sets this mystery into action in every aspect of nature that she nurtures and in which she tenderly exemplifies her essence. The Sacred Feminine sees the divine essence in everything and everyone even if they do not. She reminds them of the truth of their being just by the way she treats them; just by the way she nourishes them and reminds them.
Our guidance comes clearly from our Mother Earth. Her Spirit reigns true in everything that we see, hear and touch.
She is our guidance. She is our roadmap. Getting close to her reminds us and opens our memory to the sacred feminine within us. She is awesome. We are awesome. Let’s remember this together! Just in doing so we are creating something new.
When we see the divine essence deep within all things and people, we cannot destroy, we attempt to transform, to resolve. We do not blame, we understand. We do not hate, we empathize. It’s simple really. Not allot of complicated things to do. Just recognize the truth. All of life is divine. This is the Secret of the Sacred Feminine. Get close to your Mother. She will help you remember.
Dr. Aureiah Juditn Long is a renowned counselor and author, a lifelong intuitive helping people worldwide. She is a teacher and mentor in Drunvalo Melchizedek’s School of Remembering” and also joyfully serves on the ATIH council.
In the fall, Dr. Long will be holding a 10-lesson internet course on “Woman Awareness”. If this interests you write to her. She will respond and keep you posted on dates and times and other details. drjudith@drjudithlong.com